Community plant sales and swaps are a highlight of the gardening season at this time of year. These events are ideal places for new gardeners to hook up with seasoned veterans and for surplus plants to find new homes.
Perennials that spread readily and those that need frequent dividing make up the core offerings at these events. Vigorous creepers, such as like beebalm (Monarda), yarrow (Achillea), lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria), obedient plant (Physostegia), and common yellow sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) can easily take over the garden if allowed to grow unchecked. Digging up the colony and replanting part of the population every couple of years keeps each in its allotted space.
Some perennials grow in dense or ever-expanding clumps that eventually stop blooming or simply die in the middle. These include tall phlox (Phlox paniculata), Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum), blanket flower (Gaillardia grandiflora), tickseed (Coreopsis), Siberian iris (Iris siberica) and lamb's ear (Stachys byzantina). Dividing the clump into smaller pieces rejuvenates the original plant and gives you lots of new plants to share with others or to put in other parts of your own garden.
 This clump of monarda is ready to be divided. |
Dividing and replanting perennials also gives you a good opportunity to replenish the soil. Whenever I move or replace a plant that I've divided, I add a shovelful of compost and a handful of slow-release, granular, organic fertilizer to the backfill.
Early spring is the best time to divide summer-blooming perennials—ideally when they are still dormant or just as they emerge from soil. I try to complete the job before the stems get more than a couple of inches tall. As plants leaf out, it gets trickier to divide them because their soft new growth is susceptible to drying out, wilting, and breaking. That said, there's always a long list of chores for early spring and it's often mid-May before I've divided and moved all the perennials that need it. As long as you make the moves on an overcast day and keep the plants well watered for a couple weeks, most of them will be fine.
Using forks, it's easy to get the clump out. Take a healthy piece for replanting and use the remaining divisions elsewhere—or share them with other gardeners. |
I usually start by digging out the entire clump with a garden fork or spade and putting the plant on a tarp to contain the soil and debris. Some plants are easy to pull apart by hand (beebalm), but others take some serious muscle (tall phlox) and the prying action of a couple of garden forks placed back to back. A few are so tough (Siberian iris), that it's tempting to resort to a machete or hand saw to get them apart. Regardless of the plant’s tenacity, I make sure that each division has plenty of roots and several vigorous shoots. A few of the largest divisions go back—into the garden with a thorough watering and the rest get potted up and labeled for the garden club’s plant sale in May.
For lists of perennials that need frequent dividing and more details on how to do it, visit these web sites:
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
This planter features rose-blotch pansies, pink hyacinths and blue muscari. |
There are a few weeks (or maybe a month) in spring when it's too cold for annuals, but nice enough for something. Usually, that means pansies —especially up here in Vermont, where we usually have to wait until Memorial Day to feel safe about putting out annuals. However, you can make a container planting that will thrive despite the changeable conditions of spring.
While looking for planters at the garden center, I noticed a beautiful display of forced bulbs—probably late risers that didn't put on a show in time for Easter. What's more, they were 50 percent off. I selected some pink hyacinths and a few tiny pots of muscari (grape hyacinths) to mix with a six-pack of rose-colored pansies. The result was instantly satisfying. Next year, I might even plan ahead and force my own bulbs.
Don't get me wrong, pansies are great. All by itself, a planter of pansies is lovely—especially with the array of colors and forms that are available these days. But, it's exciting to have more options that look great and perform well during cool spring weather.
I've been enjoying this instant container planting so much that I've decided to use this urn to display a changing selection of plants throughout the season. When the springtime show has passed its prime, I'm thinking about osteospermums (African daisy)... or maybe argyranthemum (cobbity daisy)?
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
Perennials in Piet Oudolph's nursery in Hummelo, Netherlands. |
Garden travel is one of my passions and, over the past 25 years of travel to gardens in Europe and North America, I’ve witnessed a shift in design and planting emphasis toward more naturalistic, low-maintenance landscapes. The new designs are based on sweeps of structure, texture, and color that change with the seasons and gardens' maturity. Plants are chosen for their durability and adaptation to the site as well as their contribution to the larger design.
Piet Oudolf, Dutch plantsman and landscape designer, has been one of the people at the forefront of these changes. His work, beginning in the 1980s, revolutionized European garden design with its emphasis on grasses and tough, hardy perennials and bulbs. In his early years, he felt constrained by meticulously kept perennial borders that required constant deadheading, staking, dividing, and pest control to remain presentable.
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Oudolf is first and foremost a plantsman; he grows and studies the plants that he uses in his designs so he intimately understands how they look in all life stages and seasons of the year. His knowledge led him to use more grasses and complementary perennials in his plantings and to hybridize his own new varieties. He and his wife operate a plant nursery at their home in Hummelo, Netherlands, where he experiments with new varieties. His plant introductions include Aconitum ‘Stainless Steel’, Sedum ‘Red Cauli’, Malva ‘Sweet Sixteen’, Geum ‘Flames of Passion’, Echinacea ‘Jade’ and E. ‘Fatal Attraction, and many more.
His award-winning designs carried him across the Atlantic to New York City and Chicago, where he worked on the master plan for the Gardens of Remembrance and the Battery Bosque in Manhattan and the Millennium garden in downtown Chicago. He’s currently part of the team that’s working on the High Line project in New York City. This unusual project is transforming a 1.5-mile-long elevated train platform into a public park.
When planning my garden-related trips, I usually don’t consider major cities as destinations, but I see visits to Manhattan and Chicago in my future. Short of a trip to England, Holland, Germany, or Sweden, it’s the closest I can get to the work of this groundbreaking designer.
To read more about Piet Oudolf’s public and private gardens, visit the following blog sites and articles at these links:
-Ann Whitman, Staff Horticulturist
“Petals are a romantic shade of warm pink with a creamy reverse. The perfume is a heady blend of traditional rose fragrance and the aroma of fruit” That’s how the catalog describes the new rose variety called Falling in Love. The dormant shrub—newly arrived on my doorstep—reveals none of this potential. It’s difficult to imagine that the bare roots and leafless canes in the plastic bag will ever deliver on the catalog’s promises.
Planting a dormant, bareroot rose requires a leap of faith from novice gardeners. Experienced gardeners know that the thick roots will anchor themselves firmly and leafy buds will burst from the waxy green canes within weeks. With proper planting and care, this shrub will bloom for many years.
How bareroot roses look before planting. This one is Maria Stern, an especially hardy variety. |
Site selection, soil preparation, and planting technique are the initial secrets to success. The ideal garden site gets at least 6 hours of direct sun a day and is open to allow summer breezes to pass through. The rich, fertile soil drains quickly, but holds moisture.
It’s critical to keep the rose plant hydrated until its roots can take up water on their own. Prompt planting hastens the process. I’ll get my Falling in Love rose into the soil within a day or two or spritz it with water and keep it cool and wrapped in its plastic bag. Before planting, I’ll soak the roots in a bucket of tepid water for a couple of hours. If the rose is dehydrated, experts recommend soaking the entire plant—canes and all—for up to eight hours. It’s best to trim broken roots back to healthy tissue and prune the canes so that each one has three to five buds. This step encourages strong growth and branching.
I expect this rose to live in my garden for years, so now’s the time to prepare the soil. My planting hole is two times wider than the root spread and 15” to 18” deep. To increase the fertility, I add 1 part compost or composted manure to every 3 or 4 parts of the removed soil plus a handful of bone meal and 5 cups each of alfalfa and soybean meals.
The roots and canes join at the knobby graft union. The planting depth depends on your growing zone. |
After mixing, I make a cone of soil in the hole using the enriched backfill and set the roots over it. I adjust the height of the cone so that the graft union (see illustration) is 2-3" below the surface to protect it from freezing. In Zones 6 and warmer, the graft can be placed just above the soil surface. Hold the rose at the proper height while backfilling the hole. Press the soil lightly around the roots, and then water thoroughly to settle the soil. Adding more backfill to level the soil.
To prevent the rose from drying out during the first few weeks after planting, I make a raised ring of soil around the outside of the planting hole to retain water. In addition, I’ll pile 6-8" of soil around the base of the plant covering the graft union and lower canes to keep the canes moist and encourage bud break. After three to four weeks, I’ll gently wash the mound away and level the soil ring as the buds begin to grow.
Nurturing new rose bushes for the first month or two is well worth the effort. By mid- to late-summer, I expect these leafless canes to be filled with ruffled petals, intoxicating fragrance, and dark green foliage that fulfill the catalog’s promise.
For more on growing roses, read Success With Roses. And, if you'd like to plant some bareroot roses of your own, check out the full lineup of roses from Dutch Gardens.
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
Nelumbo nucifera 'Alba Striata' bloomed the first season. |
The lotus is definitely one of the most dramatic blooms in my garden. The distinctive bloom—held high on its stem—is one of those things you really can call "startlingly beautiful." Its form is striking, yes. But look inside, and you'll be amazed by the bright-yellow seed capsule, surrounded by golden filaments that support the anthers. Another one of its startlingly qualities is the fragrance. To my nose, neither good nor bad, but like no other.
The bud, about a week before blooming. |
The lotus is easily grown in a tub or barrel. You don't need to have a pond. (What's more, overwintering lotuses is simple, too.) I order my lotuses by mail at this time of year. There's a short window of time (only in the spring) when the rhizomes can be dug and shipped as bareroot plants. This year, I'm going to try two new varieties: Baby Doll, a miniature from Perry's Water Gardens and Daintiest, another small variety from Lilypons Water Gardens.
When the rhizomes arrive, you plant them in a plastic bucket of heavy garden soil that can be amended with well-aged manure. I use a 8"-deep (12" dia.), plastic buckets that I get at a home goods store. Once the rhizome is seated in the mud, I lower the bucket into my water garden, which is a glazed ceramic pot. The key is to get the soil surface 4-6" below the water surface. If the planting pot is too low, raise it with some flat stones or bricks.
Alba Striata at the end of the summer, showing its distinctive foliage. |
Give the plant as much sun as possible. The first leaves to emerge are the floaters, which sit on the surface of the water—just like waterlilies. After that, you'll get some of the dramatic parasol leaves, which rise above the surface of the water. If you're lucky, you'll get a bloom or two. But even if it doesn't bloom, the leaves are gorgeous and tropical. Water beads on the surface of the leaves in a magical way.
Lotuses don't come cheap. You can expect to pay about $30-40 for a mail-order plant. To me, it's worth it because the plants are simple and spectacular. If it doesn't bloom the first year, hold the tuber over the winter, bring it out in spring. And get ready. You won't be disappointed.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
Potatoes give me more garden satisfaction per square foot and time invested than any other vegetable I grow. A few years ago I planted six different potato varieties and kept records on how many pounds I harvested from each. The project made a good County Fair exhibit and won a blue ribbon, which paid for my much of my investment in seed potatoes. The crop also kept my family in potatoes for most of the winter. Every pound of seed potatoes I planted yielded about 12 pounds of harvest. In other words, we dug up nearly four bushels or 200 pounds of spuds from just 18 pounds of “seed”.
The term “seed potato” is a bit of a misnomer. Although you can grow potatoes from actual seeds, that’s best left to the plant breeders. All commercial and home garden potato crops are grown from eyes or sprouts on the edible tubers. I plant either whole, small tubers or cut up larger potatoes into two-eye pieces.
Compared to the limited selection in the grocery store, the variety of gourmet, heirloom, and specialty potatoes available to home gardeners is huge. Some are best for boiled new potatoes in summer; others are good keepers for winter storage. Skins and flesh colors include red, yellow, white, pink and blue. Those with moist or waxy flesh hold together in soups and salads. Dry-fleshed russet potatoes are suited to baking, mashing and frying.
Our all-around favorite varieties were Carola and Rose Gold. Carola has yellow skin and flesh with a smooth, creamy texture for potato salads and stews. Rose Gold is a beautiful pink-skinned variety with drier gold flesh for home fries, creamy soups and fluffy mashed and baked spuds. Both stored well into winter.
My kids were intrigued with the size and shapes of the fingerling potatoes. Instead of big round or oblong potatoes, Russian Banana, Rose Finn, and Ruby Crescent fingerlings grow long, narrow and even curved. Digging these heirloom “small potatoes” was the highlight of our gardening season.
Although I grew my prize-winning potatoes in rows in a traditional garden, I’ve since learned how to grow them in less space and with less work. Raised beds and Potato Bags are now the way to grow! Potato plants are actually attractive in the landscape, especially when they’re blooming, so I put the planted bags where we can appreciate them.
For more information, read this PDF on growing and planting potatoes. For a list of links to seed potato catalogs and other information sources, visit visit this page at Washington State University.
-Ann Whitman, Staff Horticulturist
Proven Winners has introduced so many fabulous container plants over the past few years. Some favorites that I now consider “must haves” include Diamond Frost euphorbia, Sedona coleus, Vanilla Butterfly argyranthemum, Toffee Twist carex, Rubrum pennisetum and Angelina sedum.
They’ve done it again for 2008, and here are a few of the new varieties I’ll be looking for when I hit my local nursery this spring:
Angelonia ‘Angel Face Dark Violet’: in the photographs I’ve seen, the color of these flowers looks more burgundy than violet. If that’s a fact, I’ll be sure to give it a try.
Calibrachoa ‘Dreamsicle’ and ‘Scarlet’: The first is a terrific bright orange and the second a bright red. These clear, hot colors are difficult to find and so valuable for creating flashy color combinations.
Lantana ‘Luscious Lemonade’: Hot colors are fun, but I’m not a fan of bright yellow. This new lantana is a pale shade of buttery yellow.
Coleus: There are two new varieties that caught my eye. Lemon Sunsation has narrow, chartreuse leaves with lacy edges that have a whisper of burgundy along the edge. Lancelot Velvet Mocha also has finely-cut leaves but is a sultry bronze-burgundy. Both are on the tall side (2 to 3 feet), which will make them good for anchoring the back of a container. There are not that many good “thriller” plants for containers, and these two sound like good candidates.
Pennisetum ‘Prince’: I’m already a huge fan of Rubrum, so I’ll be taking a close look at this new variety, which is supposed to be even deeper in color, with foliage that looks more black/purple than burgundy.
Acalypha ‘Sizzle Scissors': With such an unfriendly Latin name, this plant’s common name will probably be the one that sticks: copperleaf plant. It looks like it could be a good filler with raggedy, jaggedy foliage in mottled tones of cream and bronze. 24” H.
Proven Winners is also introducing a bunch of interesting echeverias and agaves, but unfortunately, these heat-lovers rarely appear in our northern New England garden centers. If you live in a warmer part of the country, keep your eyes open for some of these terrific new succulents.
Happy shopping!
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
The seed catalogs start piling up in January. |
We speak with tens of thousands of gardeners over the course of a year, and one of the questions we’re often asked—especially by new gardeners and people who have relocated—is "Where should I purchase my flower and vegetable seeds?"
If it’s a gardener from New England, the task is easy. We tend to recommend regional companies such as Johnny’s Selected Seeds (in Maine) or Select Seeds (in Connecticut). These regional seed providers select varieties that are well-suited to our unique growing conditions.
For other regions of the country, we don’t have the advantage of personal experience, so we’re asking for your advice! Please leave a comment below and let us know which seed companies you turn to—especially for region-specific crops such as tomatoes and peppers. We’ll compile a list of regional sources, and with that in hand, will feel confident about making good recommendations to anyone who asks.
Sunflowers are now available in a wide range of colors and sizes—from little ones that get no more than 1-foot tall to 12-foot giants. |
If I could plant just one seed this spring (!) I think it would be a sunflower seed. Sunflowers deliver a whole lotta flower power in one summer. They require almost no attention at all, are fun to watch grow, and have an irresistibly happy personality.
A sunflower is also a one-stop backyard habitat station. All summer long, bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects of every kind are drawn to their pollen-rich centers. Bees pack their little leg pouches with yellow pollen until they can barely fly. Then, as fall approaches and seeds form, your garden will be filled with the happy munching of goldfinches, chickadees and sparrows.
Sunflowers belong to the genus helianthus, which is a North American native plant. There are dozens of helianthus species that have acclimatized to all kinds of growing conditions, from swamps and woodland edges to prairies and arid canyons. Fortunately for gardeners, plant breeders have had lots of fun playing with helianthus and the result is a fabulous array of growth habits and flower forms to choose from. The 2008 Johnny’s Selected Seeds catalog lists 42 varieties!
Every garden has room for at least one sunflower. There are 12-foot giants to amaze the kids, such as the old favorite Mammoth Russian and Kong, both available from Stokes Seeds, and Sunzilla from Renee's Garden. There are kid-size varieties, such as Music Box, and Big Smile and Teddy Bear that get no more than about 3 feet high. No time or space for a garden? Sunny Smile is bred to grow and flower in pots and stays just 15-20” tall. Multi-stem sunflowers are specially bred for cutting, with Valentine, Autumn Beauty and Sunbright being three of the best.
Sunflowers are now available in a wide range of colors, too. On one end of the spectrum is Italian White, followed by pale primrose yellow Pro Cut Lemon and Starburst Lemon Aura. For a classic golden yellow sunflower, you might want to choose Sonja. There are two-tone colors including Strawberry Blonde and Ring of Fire, and I’m also a fan of the deep burgundy and brown colors such as Claret, Velvet Queen, Moulin Rouge and Chocolate.
Teddy Bear sunflowers |
Though I don’t care for them myself, lots of people are mad about the pom-pom sunflowers, such as Teddy Bear and Tohoku Yae. For a totally new look, you might try Sparky, with narrow, quill-like petals around a dark chocolate center.
From this dazzling array of choices, I’ve picked just two for my 2008 garden. I’ll be growing Peach Passion and Chocolate Cherry. I hadn’t realized until I wrote them down here, that they sound like something from a dessert menu. All the better!
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
The overwintered salvia, with new growth emerging from the crown. |
Many years ago, I discovered salvias. It's one of those times when you think you're the only gardener who really knows about this new class of plants. The next thing you know, you're obsessed with a genus. And you find that you're the last gardener on the block to learn about these cool plants.
I'd discovered the true blue of Salvia patens and marveled at the inky black stems of S. guaranitica 'Black and Blue'. My friend Kathy taught me that it's OK to plant S. splendens —using the purple variety, not the classic, gas-station red.
I've come to love many varieties that are not quite hardy up here in the north. However, they're fairly easy to overwinter as houseplants. The best part is, they don't seem to be as susceptible to pest problems. Well, so far, so good.
To freshen up the overwintered plants, I take cuttings in midwinter. These cuttings grow into fine, vigorous plants—without the woody stems of my winter survivors. By the time it's warm enough to put heat in the greenhouse again, the little plants are just coming on, ready for more sunshine than I can provide indoors.
The whole procedure is pretty easy. I start by snipping 2-3" shoots from my overwintered plants in February. I strip off most of the leaves, leaving just a couple sets. Then, I fill an APS-40 with moistened perlite or vermiculite. The cuttings go right in the medium. I usually plant every other row. When the first plants are ready to graduate to potting soil, I take another set of cuttings and plant the empty rows in the APS. So easy!
Who knew the APS was good for more than seedstarting? It's like those salvias: I thought I was the first to know, but other gardeners have been doing it for a long time.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
One of last summer's salvias. |
As staff horticulturist, part of my job is to plant and maintain a display garden. I grow many of the newest perennials on the market and evaluate them here in zone 5. Improved varieties of some North American native plants were among the most outstanding plants in the garden during the 2007 growing season.
One of the most exciting groups of native perennials is heuchera (HUE-ker-ah), also known as coral bells. Low-growing rosettes of lobed leaves look great from early spring right through autumn. The wiry flower stalks hold dozens of sweet little pink, red, or white bell-shaped flowers. The new varieties come in a smörgåsbord of descriptive leaf colors, such as Caramel, Tiramisu, Ginger Ale, Peach Flambé, and Lime Rickey.They grow best in partly shady spots, but the fuzzy-leafed Heuchera villosa varieties also tolerate full sun in cool climates. For help getting started with these and other shade-loving plants, read Gardening in the Shade.
Agastache |
Black Adder agastache (a-guh-STA-key), another native, received lots of favorable comments from garden visitors, too. These sun-loving perennials bloom for months. The brushy, blue-violet flower spikes attract hummingbirds and flocks of butterflies. My favorite varieties are Black Adder, Blue Fortune, and kiwi-green Golden Jubilee. I bought potted plants, but seeds are available, too. Established plants sailed through our droughty summer with no watering and still looked great in September. As an added bonus, deer leave the anise-scented foliage alone.
-Ann Whitman, Staff Horticulturist
After pulling the begonia tubers in late October, I let them dry for several weeks. Then, I nestled them in moist vermiculite in a plastic bucket. When I checked in on the tubers in February, they'd already sprouted—even though the bucket had a lid on it! |
Mrs. B. called me late in October. The frost was coming and it would be the end of her begonias for sure. She was recovering from a fall and couldn't get to the garden, so I drove to her cottage during lunch and quickly uprooted the tubers—as big as potatoes. I'd never seen such big begonia tubers.
Last summer, Mrs. B. hired me to care for her garden because her husband could no longer garden. She was celebrating 90 years, so she needed a little help around the yard. For years, her husband had tended the magnificent garden that surrounded their cottage. The place overflowed with color from clusters of fiery salvias, rows of wax begonias and a row of three mature clematis vines that covered the gable end of the cottage.
The star of the show was a row of tuberous begonias, so big and healthy that they formed a low hedge beside the front door. Mrs. B's husband saved these every fall and started them anew in the spring. The huge, petal-packed blooms grew 4-6" across and were always enjoyed by everyone in the neighborhood.
The tubers were huge when they came out of the ground. At planting time, they'd hardly shriveled at all. |
Mrs. B. called me in November to check on the tubers. Had I gotten them out? She was glad to know I'd pulled them up in time. She also wanted to tell me that she would be moving out of her cottage and into an assisted living facility. And, she wanted me to have the tubers. I was honored.
When I packed the tubers in December, I worried that I would lose them to rot or decay. I worried that the legacy would end with me. But I checked them the other day, and one of the tubers had already sprouted—a cluster of stocky, 4" stems with tiny leaves. So, I drove to the garden center in a near-whiteout snowstorm to get some potting soil.
The tubers were as big as potatoes, but more flat. I recycled some 8" mum pots, which accommodated the tubers nicely. With some sunshine, they're sure to take off. By June, I should have some beautiful plants. And the legacy will continue, from one garden to another.
Thank you, Mrs. B.
-David Grist, Online Content Coordinator
P.S.: You can start a begonia tradition, too. Just check out this season's new offerings at Dutch Gardens.
 Bougainvilleas require lots of light when they're grown indoors. Mine are happy in the southeast corner of my dining room. This photo was taken during February—it was 20 degrees and snowing outside. |
I used to have dozens of houseplants, but over the years I've cut way back. Today, there are only three plants in the sunny, southeast corner of my dining room and all three are bougainvilleas. They are orchid-pink ‘Texas Dawn’, the deeper pink ‘Barbara Karst’ and sunny yellow ‘California Gold’.
These plants started out in little 2” pots that I got from one of my favorite wintertime escapes: Logee’s Greenhouse in Danielson, Ct.,(due west of Providence, R.I., just over the Connecticut line). Before I fade away completely in a daydream about the botanical wonders that live beneath Logee's ancient glass roofs, I’ll just tease you with the image of a 100-year old Ponderosa lemon tree that fills one entire greenhouse. If you can't visit in person, Logees has a great catalog and web site.
OK, back to my bougainvilleas. If you have a sunny indoor space, order yourself a couple plants. They are dead easy to grow. When I was in Mexico and Puerto Rico, I learned why, after all these years, mine are still alive. They grow like weeds along the sides of the road with very little water and very poor soil. It’s a lot like growing in my house!
Bougainvilleas actually respond well to abuse. Like many plants, they set flower after a rest period of reduced water and fertilizer. Mine bloom almost year-round and I think it’s partly because I always let them go completely dry between waterings. When I see the leaves are wilting, that's when I water.
Winter and early spring are the most difficult time for house-bound bougainvilleas. Some years all three of my plants get completely encrusted with whitefly and aphids. The plants are so big now that I can’t muscle them upstairs to the shower. So I have to wait until a warm early spring day, when I can drag them out onto the deck and hose them down.
My bougainvilleas are trained on a variety of different trellises. A nice thing about ‘Texas Dawn’ is that it stays very compact (for me, at least). It’s the shortest of the plants in the picture (at the back), yet requires little to no pruning to maintain this compact form. The other two varieties get cut back pretty severely every year or two. Most of the time, I just wind any wayward stems back into the plants to keep them from taking over the dining room.
As for fertilizer, I spread a couple cups of worm castings (which I make in my Worm Chalet) on the top of each pot about twice a year. When the plants aren’t resting, I also give them liquid fertilizer every time I water.
The only downside to growing bougainvilleas indoors is that they’re messy. All those clouds of papery flowers eventually drop to the floor. I’m not a fussy housekeeper, so this doesn’t really bother me. But if you keep your house as neat as a pin, bougainvilleas probably aren’t for you.
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
Autumn owes its bright colors to red, gold, and apricot maple leaves.
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The big old maple tree in my yard finally came down last summer after years of dropping twigs and branches. I loved its dappled shade and fiery autumn foliage, but not its huge size. I’m planning to replace it this year with a smaller maple variety that has good fall color and a finer texture. There are two new maples being introduced for 2008 that are both contenders for the empty spot in my side yard.
The foliage and shape of the native Big Tooth or Rocky Mountain Maple resemble those of its eastern Sugar Maple cousin, but at half the size. The new variety called Rocky Mountain Glow® Maple (Acer grandidentatum 'Schmidt') from J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. has intense red to apricot autumn leaves and grows only about 25’ tall and 15’ wide.
Another Schmidt introduction, Rugged Charm™ Maple (Acer tataricum ‘JFS-KW2’), is about the same size and has the added bonus of yellow flower clusters followed by bright red seed wings and yellow-orange to scarlet fall foliage. This one is hardy down to USDA Zone 3. Hot Wings™ Maple (Acer tataricum 'GarAnn' #PP 15,023) from Bailey Nurseries is similar.
If you'd like to add a maple tree to your yard, but don't have quite enough room for a 40 foot giant, take a look at these new varieties when you're at your local nursery this spring.
-Ann Whitman, Horticulturist
'New Millennium' Delphiniums are available from a handful of U.S. nurseries this spring. The photo above comes from Graceful Gardens, which is offering several different cultivars.
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I wish marigolds did it for me. Why is it that we always crave the flowers that are most difficult for us to grow?
In my garden the soil is heavy and shallow. Winters are cold (zone 4) and snow cover is pretty undependable. Summers can be warm and humid. The prevailing southerly winds are strong, and they funnel right up the valley into my perennial border. It's not a very good situation for delphiniums.
Of course this has not deterred me. I've been trying to grow delphiniums in my long perennial border for more than 20 years now. Sometimes a couple of plants manage to reappear for a second year, but they rarely do more than survive. So each spring I plant a few new delphinium plants in the back of the border, ever optimistic that they'll be something like the delphiniums I've seen in England and Scotland. Sometimes the odd plant takes hold and puts on a wonderful show. But it's nothing you can count on.
For Christmas this year, my friend Sue gave me a package of delphinium seeds that she ordered from New Zealand. I won't reveal the price, except to say that it was rather dear with the shipping and all. Her gift came with a condition that I grow out the seeds in my greenhouse and give her half the plants. (Only family and very good friends get by giving gifts like that!)
Sue had read about a new strain of delphiniums bred in New Zealand by Terry and Janice Dowdeswell. Called ‘New Millennium’ Delphiniums, they are reputed to be more sturdier of stem, more vigorous in habit, longer-lived and more floriferous. All good things.
This spring I’ve noticed that a couple nursery catalogs are starting to offer New Millenniums. Our sister company, Dutch Gardens, is offering the cultivar 'Purple Passion'. Graceful Gardens
in Mecklenburg, N.Y., has four varieties (and lots of other tempting delphiniums!).
If you’d like to have plenty of delphinium plants for your own garden (and extras for friends), you might want to try your hand at growing them from seed. You can purchase seed directly from the breeder, like we did. At the very least, take a tour of the Dowdeswell’s web site: Dowdewell Delphiniums, Ltd. If you have a minute, you can also read Terry Dowdeswell’s blog: Delphinium Down-Under
The seeds are in my refrigerator now. Since I’ll be away in early April, I’m not going to plant them until I return. I’ll be report back later in the season as to how they’re doing.
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
Once you've cultivated a taste for arugula, you'll probably want to eat it as often as possible, dressed very simply as the Italians do. |
Arugula (Eruca sativa) is a non-heading, peppery green, also known as rocket or roquette. Popular in Italian cuisine, it’s been cultivated since Greek and Roman times. Usually eaten raw in salads, it can also be made into pesto, sprinkled on a just-cooked pizza or be tossed into hot pasta.
The smell of arugula leaves can be a bit “skunky” (my kids feel the same way about arugula as they do about cilantro) but as I’ve come to love the taste of it, I have come to love its smell as well. Hot weather makes the leaves get spicier. It also makes the plants go to seed pretty quickly. When arugula does start to flower, the plant stops producing new leaves and it’s time for the compost pile.
Arugula leaves are very perishable—they bruise easily and get limp fast – so they’re a perfect crop for the home gardener.
There are many different varieties of arugula and the look, texture and taste of the leaves varies a lot. In my experience, the “wilder” strains are the spiciest. They have longer, thinner, darker green leaves that are deeply cut with sharply pointed ends. The paler, domesticated arugula has thinner, more paddle-like leaves. Apollo is a good example of the latter type. Its leaves are relatively mild and great for arugula-only salads with goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and pears. Last year I bought Apollo from Seed Savers Exchange, but I see it’s also available from Gourmet Seed International. Another arugula I've grown is Runway, which is deeper green and has more jagged leaves, but is still quite mild in taste.
It’s rare to see arugula plants for sale in a nursery. That's because it’s best to grow it from seed yourself. In early spring I sow arugula right in a garden bed, but I have also had good luck growing it in 4x6” fiberpots. Once the seedlings have two to four leaves, I transplant little clumps of three to five plants into the garden. This works especially well in late summer when soil in the garden beds can be too hot and dry for good germination. Cover the bed with shade cloth and water frequently until the plants get established.
I must admit that I often have trouble growing arugula in the spring. Our weather usually goes from cold to hot in the span of about three weeks, and before I have time to make a salad, the plants go to seed. It helps to choose a relatively cool part of the garden where the plants will get a little shade. As a fall crop, it can’t be beat. Last year I covered my arugula with Garden Quilt in mid-October and was still picking it for salads a month later!
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
When starting plants from seed, it's a good idea to experiment with different sorts of pots and trays. |
I like the fact that gardening is a leisure-time activity that doesn’t require buying a lot of stuff. Of course my basement, barn and garden shed tell quite a different story, but most of it isn’t anything I really NEED to be a successful gardener.
That said, I've found there are a few gardening activities in which gear does make a difference. One of those is seedstarting. It’s true that even a kindergartener can get a marigold seed to germinate in a recycled yogurt cup. But if I’m starting peppers, petunias or parsley from seed, or am trying to fill my cutting garden with the latest and greatest annuals, I want to use the best gear for the job.
In the lab at Gardener’s Supply, we’re currently testing a dozen or more different types of seedstarting pots, trays and specialized propagators. This year’s tests are still underway, but every year, try as we might, we can never get anything to germinate seeds faster and more dependably than the APS system.
APS is an acronym that stands for Accelerated Propagation System. Though it’s a mouthful, the name has proven to be an accurate one. The APS creates an ideal environment for germinating seeds. When you plant seeds in the growing cells, they seem to be overcome with an eagerness to sprout and flourish.
In this year’s tests we’re seeing good results from a couple of other systems, including the Deep-Root Seedstating System, but the APS is still winning, hands down. This doesn’t surprise us, as the APS has garnered more customer love letters than any other product we’ve ever sold (24 years running!). What does surprise us is how difficult it’s been to replicate its success.
If you’re an avid seed starter and would like to share your own results with the APS or any other seedstarting system, please leave us a comment on this post. Thanks!
-Kathy LaLiberte, Director of Gardening
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