Snippets

I'm enjoying a fleeting moment between the perennial tasks  of the past month and the  annual tasks, soon to begin.  Without the pressure of adding compost, weeding, dividing, edging, bunny-protecting and settling in my items from Bluestone Perennials,  I had the pleasure today of just walking around the garden, making observations and tending to small details,  finding little surprises here and there.

My clump of Virginia bluebells is having its first really spectacular year after two or three slow years of adjusting to living in my garden.  It DOES like its best friend, the bleeding heart.    My tiarella is forming its early small plumes of white and pink.  The lily of the valley is just beginning to open up and release its aroma.  I love when my favorite colors get together for a photo op. 

Don't hurt your eyes looking for the anemone (hint: center).  At the end of last season I took one stalk of anemone, sank it in a new spot, left the old stalk in for a marker and noted it on my garden map.  I don't think a day has gone by since the ground thawed that I haven't looked for it.  Each day....bare ground. But I just KNEW it would come.  See what I found today!  It was a rough winter for the tall, white, "Whirlwind" Japanese Anemone.  Even the healthy clumps were late to emerge and seemed to be a fraction of their former size.  But I loved seeing this tiny little reassurance that good things are happening below the surface of the earth (and this is why I never mulch until mid-June).

I have had several columbine in this garden, most do not survive more than a season or two, but this is the rampant re-seeder.  It's everywhere.  It lacks the elegant spurs of its more impressive cousins, but it does have a sweetness of its own.  Reluctantly, I'm adding columbine to the list of things I will not swipe my card for again.

  

The sweet pea flowers had a great germination percentage this year, but they need a little coaxing to reach last year's string.  I snipped some old branches of Russian Sage and stuck them in  to guide the sweet peas in the right direction.  Hope they reach out and latch on.

I looked for it three days ago and decided it was gone, but surprise, Jack is back!  

He plays Hide n' Seek every year.

My Niobe clematis is in its fourth year and gains a little bit in height each year.  This year one tendril may actually reach the top crossbar of the trellis.  I urge it on each morning, saying, "You can do it, it's the last rung!"   Once the blossoms open, the reaching stops.

Undeterred by smelly sprays rabbits are my biggest challenge.  Hank helps me to construct  protectors for all the plants the bunnies like the most.  They will not get the platycodon in the background.  But they have snipped away at a new catanache in the foreground.   I read a "helpful hint" in today's Fine Gardening.  Purchase wire baskets (as in trash baskets) at the dollar store.  Invert over a plant and secure with a couple of U-stakes.  While it won't work for my tall bunny food like Baptista, it will be perfect for low growers like zing rose dianthus.  Much easier than chicken wire construction.  Off to the dollar store....

I'm going to close this post with the most cheerful plant in my spring garden, Snowdrop Anemone "Sylvestris." It just brings a smile to my face.

A Second Chance for Daffies

Inspired by the gardens I saw in the last few days at Longwood Gardens and at Winterthur, it was easy to dream big and jump right into a challenging task today.  The year 2016 seems to be the year that most of my daffodils simply petered out.  Clump after clump was all foliage, no blossoms, such as the one pictured here in the foreground:

 DISCOURAGING!!  But just as I was lamenting my problem, the Albany Times Union garden columnist, Nancy O'Donnell addressed the very issue.  And so, buoyed with coffee, tools in hand, determination in my heart, I set out to follow her advice.

First I dug to a depth below the clump and raised the clump from the ground, being ever so careful not to sever any bulbs.  This was not easy going, as I had put these in along the edge where the lawn meet the woods, where roots have made the soil almost impenetrable.  I discovered that the bulbs had sunk quite deeply into their original nesting spot over the years, which contributed to their failure to bloom.





Once the clump had been removed, I extracted and separated the bulbs. Beginning to feel like I was performing an autopsy, I discovered another reason that the daffodils were tired.  I always plant five bulbs per hole.  The number of bulbs in the planting site had quadrupled, but the size of the bulb had shrunk considerably.  The next task was, of course, to dig three additional holes per clump, to accommodate all.

On to the depth problem.  More meticulous than willy-nilly this time, I laid a stick across the top of the hole, put enough soil in the bottom to place the bulb no more than four inches below the surface, using a ruler rather than my skewed guesswork.  Four inches is a reasonable distance to expect a daffodil bulb to send food up to the surface without becoming exhausted.

Next was to tend to the nutritional needs that would hopefully help them to grow into bigger, more productive bulbs.  As I back-filled I sprinkled bone meal into soil, an application I may repeat in October.  They look a bit scraggly, but the green foliage needs to stay until it browns and can be pulled out gently. It is their food for the next growing season.

I marked each new hole with a tag so that next year I will be able to tell if my efforts were rewarded.  Time will tell.

I love surprises when I garden.  When I crouched low to take a picture, my eye spied  brilliant crimson in the woods, a few feet away.  A trillium - the first I've seen on our little plot of land.




While I worked I was gently scolded by the bluebird who has a nearby nest.  I have waited a long time for bluebirds to start a family  here. I hope he and the Mrs. will forgive me for the disturbance today.

Longwood Gardens and Winterthur

I was able to reduce my wish list by two very special destinations this week - Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, and Winterthur, just a few miles further in Delaware.  Pierre S. du Pont was an American entrepreneur, businessman, philanthropist and member of the prominent du Pont family.  His engineering background and love of horticulture led him to design the first gardens at Longwood in 1907. He continued to create, create, create for nearly fifty years.  Thanks to his dedication, considerable wealth, and desire to share his gardens with everyone, today Longwood is a public garden with over 1000 acres devoted to magnificent floral displays, fountains and an expansive conservatory.

 

We were there at  the peak of tulip season. Soon the acres and acres of tulips will be dug up to make room for the next blooms of the summer.

Even though most daffodils were past their peak, this variety was still going strong, and with the orange tulips, well they were just showing off, weren't they?

This is one of many "patchwork quilts of tulips.

In the conservatory flowers hung from above wherever I looked.....

HOLY HANGING HYDRANGEA!!!!!

Throughout the conservatory were artistic "en masse" combinations of texture, height, color

And individual blossoms to delight.......

Corridors of flowers, inside and out.

We spent our second day at Winterthur.  

Another du Pont, Henry Francis was a horticulturist and collector. Such a collector, in fact, that this mansion has 175 rooms housing his collections of nineteenth and twentieth century art and antiques.

But because this is a gardening blog after all, I'll stick to the subject.  What is so beautiful about the gardens surrounding Winterthur is the peace, tranquility and natural look.  There are no annuals.  Trails meander through woods, along brooks, under a canopy of trees and over gently rolling hills.  Bulbs, wildflowers, perennials, flowering shrubs and trees were carefully planned, but one can believe that it was God alone who placed them there.

A clump of trillium amongst  anemone.......

And one trillium that found its own special spot to grow.

Children love to run around the open spaces, until they find the enchanted woods, and then they, too, are spellbound.

Resting spots were invitations to take a rest, see the beauty, have a little thinking time.

This is longer than my usual blog, and off the beaten path, but it was so hard NOT to share after such a memorable trip.  It is going to be difficult to go back to posting pictures of MY humble and oft-struggling little garden, but stay tuned...

A PETUNIA TO RECOMMEND

Presenting.......AZTEC petunia, a favorite find of Gardening Season 2015.  This drew my attention while wandering through one of MANY nurseries in June.  Even though it sported only a dozen or so blossoms at the time, it had the whole spectrum of lemon, peach, orange, tangerine, mango.   The very name brought to mind my Mexican ancestors. And so, onto my cart it went.  I knew exactly how I wanted to present it to its new flower friends along the patio wall.  It would be contained  in my old........

 MILKING MACHINE  

In the 50's, before assembly line milking became the standard for efficiency, my father had two milking machines that would work their way down the line of Guernsey cows.  This vessel was hung on a harness or strap that girded the cow's middle.  There was a metal cap to cover the opening of the vessel, and on the cap were four suction cups to attach to the udder to do the work.  I re-potted my plant in a 7" pot which fit perfectly into the opening.  While I expected the usual straggle effect that my petunias tend to give me, this one surprised me.  A bit of pinching now and then, some regular doses of fertilizer, and it filled it out quite nicely.  Shades of pink, lavender, purple and white tend to dominate my Spring and Summer gardens.   But as Summer advances, the Autumn colors begin to emerge thanks to daylilies, sienna sunset coreopsis, helenium, nasturtium and marigold.  And so, as this plant gets bigger it begins to feel more at home.

Best of all, when I look at this I am right back in the original barn of Misty Meadow Farm.  On summer nights it was a pretty big deal to stay in the barn past our usual bedtime.  If we made it to the end of milking, we knew it was very late indeed.  We listened to the gentle whoosh-whosh of the milking process.  We watched my dad pour the rich milk from the machine into the milk strainer. We braided the tail of an agreeable cow.  We stayed away from the hayloft which took on a spookiness at night.  We looked for the wild barn cats to scurry out from hiding when my dad put out a saucer of fresh milk.  And finally, our tired selves walked to the farmhouse in a chorus of crickets and katy-dids.

At $2.49 for the small pot, I would say the Aztec petunia has given me the most bangs for the buck of anything in my garden this year.

Never Stop Wanting More

When favorite gardening author Margaret Roach signed my book she wrote "Never stop wanting more."  Magic words for me!  I have to admit, that in Year Seven of my garden, I'm running out of space and have acquired most of the perennials that I want.  But every now and then a little space will open up when one of my plants goes off to the garden morgue, or becomes too invasive.  I captured two of my more recent acquisitions in one picture.  In the foreground is Lychnis "Angel Blush."  It's more well known sister, lychnis coronaria is more common, but it's popping magenta is a bit to popping for me.  I enjoyed this softer, gentler variety in my Pittsburgh garden, but it took me five years to find  it locally after we moved.  

In the background is another new discovery, Dianthus "Heart Attack."  It is tall, remains upright at about three feet, is the deepest, loveliest shade of red, and blooms forever.  I found this at the Falls Village Flower Farm (see link on sidebar) in my hometown.  I have said it before and I will say it again,  the FVFF has the healthiest potted perennials I have seen anywhere.  It is well worth the hour and forty-five minute drive.

Thank you again, Margaret, for your wise and generous words!  I took them to heart.

Good-bye Katie, Hello New Day

We had just returned from taking Katie to the airport for an early morning flight.  I was missing her and  resorted to my usual form of therapy - the garden walk.  Coffee mug in  hand, I spoke to each flower. I complimented many of them, welcomed a few first blooms, and questioned others as to why they were not doing well.  "Am I giving you too much shade, you little sweetheart?" "If I set out beer for the slugs tonight will you promise to recover?"  I swear they hear my every word.

Before Katie left I told her that when I looked at the porch I was going to miss her.  And I did.  Katie is our third daughter, and geographically the furthest away.  She is a guidance counselor in Phoenix, AZ. Her school calendar allows her some flexibiity in the summer for a well deserved flight of fancy.   After a long string of temperatures above the 115 degree mark, she needed a cooler escape and I'm glad she chose "home."  We had five days of good times with family, kayaking, the usual raucous meals on the porch, cycling and enjoying a memorable anniversary dinner at our favorite restaurant.  But all of Katie's "inbetween times"  were spent on the porch.  With her book, with her laptop, dozing, giggling on the phone with her boyfriend on the other side of the country.  She loved the porch moments - feeling the cool breeze, listening to the birds, looking out onto the garden, hearing the night noises of tree frogs.  It was truly her niche.

Last night at 10:00 we sat on the patio, wrapped up in blankets, and watched the light show that the lightning bugs gave us.  It was a breath-taking, twinkly wall in front of the woods.  I really think that when we retired, people expected that we would buy into a small, maintenance free, one level house where we could anticipate needs for the aging.  Feeling grateful that we were physically and mentally able to put in gardens and mow a lawn, we plunged right into a two story, four bedroom house with plenty of outdoor areas to absorb our energy.  In six years we have not regretted that decision for a milli-second. We are grateful that our kids and two grandkids love to come here. Filling the house and porch with family and friends is the joy of our life.