Matt Mattus, Author at Growing With Plants https://gardern.co.za/author/12304130532778622628/ Horticulturist Matt Mattus shares gardening expertise, research and science from his home garden and greenhouse. Mon, 09 Aug 2021 17:54:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 181507568 Site Re-design Underway! https://gardern.co.za/2020/08/site-re-design-underway/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/08/site-re-design-underway/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2020 13:56:26 +0000 http://gardern.co.za/?p=12844 I’m finally updating my site and blog. Hopefully it will be a better experience for you as well as for me! All I ask...

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I’m finally updating my site and blog. Hopefully it will be a better experience for you as well as for me! All I ask is for a bit of patience as I figure things out (as I am migrating 15 years of content and trying a few designs out during the month of August. My goal is to have the site up and running with both a new design a loads of reorganized and new content by Sept 1st, but as I am building it myself, this may even take more time. Im sure it will look fine for most visitors, but expect glitches and errors for a bit until I sort things out. 15 years of content needed to be re-edited, pictures resized (not all, just some) and search words entered. Hopefully it will all go smoothly and we’ll all end up with a much better site that is searchable and be more useful.

Until then, be safe, stay safe and have a super summer!

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Summer Lilies and, Yes – Time to Think About Ordering Bulbs https://gardern.co.za/2020/07/summer-lilies-and-yes-time-to-think/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/07/summer-lilies-and-yes-time-to-think/#comments Sat, 25 Jul 2020 23:46:00 +0000 ‘Bell Tower’ is an appropraite name for this ‘Downward Facing” Orienpet lily. This young bulb will grow into a giant in just a few...

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‘Bell Tower’ is an appropraite name for this ‘Downward Facing” Orienpet lily. This young bulb will grow into a giant in just a few more years, towering over 6 feet tall. The large flowers are very pendant, hanging nearly vertically down.
While I’ve always appreciated lilies in the garden for much of my 45+ years of gardening life, I only recently -in the past 10 years or so,, began seriously investing in lilies as a statement plant. What I mean is, now I buy a dozen or more bulbs every summer (as this is the time to order lilies from the few specialty lily nurseries in North America)  and plant them in the late autumn once they are dug and delivered.
I am attracted to downward facing lilies (rather than upward facing), and Asiatic lilies like this come in all three ways: Downward facing, outward facing and upward facing. ‘Ariadne’ is a downward facing one, and it looks like Japanese lanterns in the evening garden.
A vase of trumpets and Orienpets on our windowsill – yes, the fragrance is almost too strong to take but I tolerate it for as long as possible as I do love that Noxema-Toothpasty scent. It reminds me of hot and humid summer nights.
Lilies add immense value to a garden especially if they are massed together in a bed or as a large clump. I think most of us start by adding a bulb or three to a flower border, which is fine but the truly spectacular show comes when one plants a dozen or more in a space. Then the show becomes more like an incrediblly beautiful shrub. Thinking of lilies in this way, makes them even more useful. 
I like to plant taller, mid and late season varieties amongst the hydrangeas where they seem to thrive with their feet shady and cool, but their tall stems tower up 6-8 feet tall. Not all lilies are tall of course, but I tend to favor tall mid to late season trumpets, Orientals and Orientpets (crosses between the two divisions).
A couple of newer orienpets a year old just begining to grow into larger plants in my new border. 
While the dreaded Red Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) plagues many of us with lilies in the northeastern US, it has yet to cross the entire country (an import from the UK), it looks like a lovely lady bug, but is devastating to nearly all lilies especially early in the season. Here in central Massachusetts, some of us are noticing a decline in Lily Beetle, but I’;ve been assured that some neighbors still suffer with it. Picking them off like Japanese Beetles and placing them in a jar of soapy water seems to be the only trick to keep them at bay, but I am hedging my bets that our low population recently might have something to do with parasitic wasps being tested by researchers from the University of Rhode Island.
Martagon lilies are different than most other garden lilies in that they have thick, waxy petals and foliage that appears in whorls around the stem like stacked umbrellas. It’s a bit more fussy in that it demands excellent drainage yet moisture, and grows best where nights are cool. In our garden it seems to be a favorite of the Red Lily Beetle, but with some prudent hand-picking in spring, we seem to be holding our ground. 
So many gardeners romance about their earliest memories of lilies –  those we often called ‘tiger lilies’. While many use the name ‘tiger lily’ for the tall, black spotted orange blossoms with petals that curl backwards, some use the same common name for the common, orange roadside daylilly (Hemerocallis fulva), also an Asiatic import that has run rampant across much of temperate North America. Technically (or, botanically speaking) the true ‘tiger lily’ is Lilium lancifolium (once L. tigrinum), although just to confust things a bit more – there are plenty of orange lilies with black spots both native and non- native to North America in our gardens and woodlands. Generally speaks, it’s Lilium lancifolium though that we all should be referring to as ‘Tiger Lilies’. They are easy to identify from others as they form small, shiny black bulbils on each leaf (tiny bulbs), that  help the plant form large colonies.
‘Fusion’ is a newer introduction – a cross between two species: The common easter lily L. longiflorum and the much more challenging California native L. pardalinum.  I planted 8 bulbs 2 years ago and some are just beginning to emerge with more than a single bud per stem. It takes time for these, I think, to get established but it didnt help that our contractor trampled them while pruning the hedges.
Lilies fill a gap in the border. That time in mid-July until early August when the Dahlias and late summer bloomers take over. This also happens to be the best time to order lilies as they are shipped in late autumn. LIke all good things, the best ones sell out early so check often to see if new varieties are posted and order imediately. Martagons and Trumpets seem to go first, while the newer Orienpets also sell out quickly.
I often forget to order lilies until it is too late, which for the varieties most in demand can be as early as August, but generally speaking most lily nurseries have great varieties available right up until planting time. It’s hard to point out a ‘bad’ lily however, for they add such value to any garden. Some growers post weekly specials near the end of the season, I like to look out for giant grower’s bulbs (bulbs that are too large to offer at the regular price), as these can produce instant results like an 7 foot stalk with a couple of dozen flowers. These get posted late in the season sometime once bulbs are dug. I hate sharing my secrets, but there – I did. You’re welcome.

A row of Orienpets at our local Lily Show at Tower Hill Botanic Garden a couple of years ago. Bring a notebook or photograph the variety name with your phone to make a wish-list, as a lily show is the best place to see the latest varieties or the most outstanding classics.

The Asiatic lilies (not to be confused with the Oriental lilies) are generally earlier blooming, hve upright flowers and typically have spots and a warmer color palette like brilliant orange, yellow, white and pink. They also tend to multiply more quickly than other lilies like Oriental, Trumpets or Orienpets which generally just have a bulb that gets bigger with each season, without division. A clump of orange Asiatics (with some varieties) can form a large statement clump in just a few years while a 5-8 year old trumpet or Orienpet that may have just a pair of blossoms on it the first season, may mature to an 6-8 foot stem not unlike a tree with 30 or more flowers on it.

If you can afford it (lilies are not that expensive) order a dozen or more bulbs of each variety. This is how one can create a great show in the garden and a larger clump is less likely to get trampled in spring. Also, a few may not survive so it’s like an insurance plant to plant more.
A large specimen-sized bulb with two spikes emerging. This arrived last November and just in time, as our soil froze solid a week after planting.
A large clump of ‘African Queen’ strain, a strain of orange trumpet lilies similar to the antique strains once available that were planted last year just starting to mature. It will take a few years for these to reach full size, but once they do, each stem could be an inch in diameter and every plant could carry 20 or more blossoms. This is when lilies become real standouts in a garden.
These non-dividing bulbs I like to invest in and plant a dozen or two or three to make a spectacular statement in a border. Bulbs are often inexpensive (4-6 dollars each) so the investment isn’t as bad as one may think. A dozen bulbs of these long-lived lilies can cost about the same price as a nice hydrangea from the nursery, but put on a show that few could ever imagine.

In the US and North America there are just a few specialty nurseries that only grow lilies or at least, focus on them. Most also breed lilies and I highly recommend starting with these sources as you’ll get the newest varieties and often, the best. I should mention that while the term ‘lily’ is often used for many plants, “true lilies’ are within the genus Lilium (while daylilies are not lilies at all, but are Hemerocallis – and there are plenty of specialty nurseries who breed and sell daylilies, I highly recommend supporting them too). The two live well together, and they both bloom around the same time of year.

For true lilies, the list is short in North America. The Lily Garden and B&D Lilies both in Washington state, The Lily Nook in Canada are my go-to sources for interesting lilies bred by breeders that are generally not available anywhere else or commercially. The way the bulb business works is much like the commercial perennial business, a few varieties are chosen that can propagate quickly and can ship well, as well as perform in the garden, and it is these varieties that eventually make it to Holland or other countries where they are multiplied (either through tissue culture or another method) to produce millions of bulbs either for the cut flower businesses or for distribution via the big Dutch growers. These are the few varieties that we find at most mail-order businesses and at nurseries, as well as at Home Depot or Lowes. The varieties arent bad, but they do tend to be more common, and older varieties.
A note on Tiger Lilies (L. lancifolium) , perhaps the easiest lily to grow as it multiplies quickly and can almost become invasive – for nostalgia’s sake along, I grow a plot but keep it separate from my other lilies because there they can spread and not become a nuisance. Many people also call the “wild” orange daylily that often grown naturalized along roadsides in New England the Tiger lily, but again, it’s a Hemerocallis species. Also, rather invasive and hard to get rid of if introduced into a garden setting.

I suggest learning as much about lilies (true lilies) as you can (I describe each of the divisions or different types of lilies) in my new book Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening (link on the right!), but it’s not hard to learn the differences yourself. Joining a local Lily Society will help tremendously as well, or better yet – find a lily show in your area and go see (and smell!) all of the varieties, just don’t forget to bring a note pad or your smart phone

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Bill Noble’s Spirit of Place Paints a Grand yet Personal Portrait https://gardern.co.za/2020/06/bill-nobles-spirit-of-place-paints/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/06/bill-nobles-spirit-of-place-paints/#respond Tue, 30 Jun 2020 01:08:00 +0000 Spirit of Place is the ideal book for any plant lover or even, the serious plantsperson.  While 2020 is turning out to be, at...

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Spirit of Place is the ideal book for any plant lover or even, the serious plantsperson. 



While 2020 is turning out to be, at the very least, a rather stressful year for nearly everybody on our planet, at least it does seem to be offering us some very good escape mechanisms – mainly, gardening books. The most recent one to end up on my nightstand is “Spirit of Place’ by Bill Noble (Timber Press, 2020). While Timber Press wrote and asked me if I would review this book, I should say that it is a book that I would buy anyway for it checks off most of the boxes I look for in finding a book to get lost is. 

  1. It’s a bio-book, or a diary book about a New England garden. What I mean is, this book is about real people and their garden triumphs and failures. Love that.
  2. It’s readable – loaded with relatable challenges and solutions, many of which are inspirational (so expect dog-earing and pencil notes – I always do that).
  3. It’s beautifully designed and illustrated with stunning photos. As a graphic and visual designer myself, some books are that are poorly designed can be distracting. Also, the cover and paper stock are of high quality. Sort-of rare today, in a world of cost-savings and shortcuts. I appreciate that too.
  4. The author is someone I want to know. (Frankly, I should as he is practically a neighbor and we probably know many of the same people and shop at the same nurseries). I have no idea how he had slipped under my radar – unless, if he is like me, sometimes another career can keep one equally as busy?
  5. This is written by a true plantsperson. I can imagine some publishers saying, “Let’s try to keep this book more mainstream and thus, relatable to our audience, many of which are beginner gardeners…”. Not here. Bill fits into the same category as a Dan Hinkley or Ken Druse – rare plants, hard-to-find Himalayan plants, alpines, primula- it’s all here, and they should be. After-all, do cookbooks or other special interest books shy away from rare or hard-to-find spices or products? Today, rarely do they. Serious plantspeople often journey through all of these passions. Yet, even the novice gardener will enjoy (and learn) from this book.

Spirit of Place should delight most any gardener or those who dream of being. It paints a portrait of a garden that was essentially created to become or grow into a destination, or better yet, a home. After all, isn’t that what a garden should be? Gardens are personal portraits of life. They are added to, or subtracted from often for decades (at least the good and interesting ones are). They are lived in, tweaked, edited, and improved over a lifetime, thus growing more impressive every year. Gardens are about visioning, reality, dreams, reality, collecting, curating, displaying, and often failures that only begged to be challenged once again until one masters it. 

Bill has let plants lead many of his designs. From borders with Himalaya plants to grand landscape expressions that complement a massive view. He seems to have created a very special and personal place in the mountains of Vermont, and I am pretty sure that he is not done just yet.

Bill Noble’s garden is in Vermont – my favorite state, so there is much in here that makes me envious and maybe even hope that someday I will move there (although it is getting late!). His approach to an old farmhouse on a hill is not only a great story (he and his partner trying to fit odd yet relatable criteria into what house would be perfect – in this case, a grand piano needed to fit.) But what appeals to me most is the overall narrative for it’s one so many of us plant-people have journeyed on and often still are on. 

Spirit of Place is just that. Loving where you live, and making it better with plants, friends, and shared life. It follows in the literary footsteps of some of my favorite and influential gardening books – A year at North Hill by Wayne Winterrowd and Joe Eck, or any of the Thalassa Cruso books. If you often read those, then this book is for you.

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Springing Forth Against All Odds: Rare Annuals, and A Garden Update https://gardern.co.za/2020/05/springing-forth-against-all-odds-rare/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/05/springing-forth-against-all-odds-rare/#comments Wed, 20 May 2020 08:39:00 +0000 My new border garden is about 60% complete, but like all good garden designs, development takes time. This urn is temporary until I find...

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My new border garden is about 60% complete, but like all good garden designs, development takes time. This urn is temporary until I find the right (and affordable) object to center the design, and the walks still need to be set in (gravel, peastone and cobblestones) but even incomplete, it’s already looking nice.
In the kitchen garden, straw lines paths as onion seedlings interplanted with plugs of mesclun start the season off with quick growing greens reducing trips to the supermarket.
Mesclun washed, and chilled is crispy and tender when it is fresh and home-grown. I’ve been sowing one plug tray every week, setting out the plugs 8 inches apart after three weeks which allows just a pinch of seed to mature with enough space and light.
This time of year while it is still cold at night and cool during the day, tropical plants that will become large specimen plants outdoors in the summer are being potted up. I like to mix unusual plants with more common ones, always planting single species in each pot rather than mixed containers which have become so popular. This Iochroma is a nightshade shrub with brilliant violet tubular trumpets in clusters from mid-summer through autumn. A cutting planted now will grow quickly.
This is a typical discovery in the greenhouse this time of year – black walnut seedlings that squirrels sneak into pots every autumn. It’s amazing to see how well they hide them! I found this one in a begonia while I was pinching back all of the red snapdragons.
If you look back in the blog about ten years, you’ll see my obsession with an obscure bulb (corm) from South Africa called Rhodohypoxis. I traded many cultivars and crosses with friends years ago, but then lost all of my collection to mice one winter while they were dormant. A few months ago while shopping for some new varieties I came across this one named ‘Matt’s White’ sold at Far Reaches Farm. Apparently a friend shared a number of my selections with them years ago, and this while one was chosen for it’s short growth. It may be a named cultivar but since that provenance is questionable, they named it for me! (for now). Maybe someone will be able to ID it soon.

My new book Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening was published in March, and while my speaking tour has been cancelled or postponed indefinately, you may find it useful for some of your flower gardening projects. This chapter on annual poppies, for example, is one that seems to be popular and useful for those interested in alternative ways to raise the pretty and tender annual poppies.

You may remember my experiments with sowing the annual poppy P. somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’, which is so popular with many serious gardeners but impossible to find at garden centers, and truly a species best sown direct in late winter. I wanted to test alternative ways to raise these often challenging poppies. My early discoveries reinforced that the seed germinates best at 70° F, in a greenhouse or under bright lights, but then what does one do? Here are my results.

Now, three months later my single-sown seedlings that were once so tiny in their 4 inch pots, have grown into lush rosettes. Slower than a few friends of mine who were growing them as well in Vermont, I was able to alleviate their growth rate by raising the nighttime temperatures from 40° F  to 65° F. In two weeks in late April, they doubled in size. In early May I relocated to to a cold frame outdoors to harden off.

Annual poppy seedling being hardened off in one of my cold-frames. Here you can see  P. somniferum, P. rhoeas (Shirley Poppy), Viscaria, salpiglossis and in the back, about 30 Cerinthe major ‘Kiwi Blue’ – the Blue Honeywort.

My basal stem cuttings taken from early-emerging delphinium in March are now rooted and able to be potted-up. Still in the greenhouse, the root now are growing quickly. This method, rather old-fashioned, I discovered in an old gardening book from England. Cut from established clumps just as they are emerging, the cuttings (cut deep underground) are set into sand or perlite, in a clay pot set in a tray of water.
My snapdragon seedlings are always a special project as I adore healthy, strong, tall and bushy snapdragons, and finding well grown or properly grown snaps at a garden center is difficult today as most are either treated with growth regulators or are sold in-bloom. These seedlings takes time, and I can fuss with them more at home. Seedlings are set into 4 inch long-tom pots, pinched and their fertility adjusted (with Cal-Mag or high potassium) food which they appreciate. Pinched twice (at least) these will be set in large groups out into the borders for a spectacular summer show.

These are pinched tips from another set of snapdragons. I used to not pinch snaps, as I wanted to tall, florist-style snapdragons, but those are impractical outdoors as they will tumble without netting and one ends up with bent stems. Yet, if one pinches early and frequently (at the second pair of leaf stage) a sturdy enough plant can be achieved that will still produce relatively long stems.
Cerinthe major var. purpurescens ‘Kiwi Blue’ is a secret fav of many garden designers. Also rarely found at garden centers, the large seeds are not only easy to sow, they grow quickly (sometimes too quickly). I usually sow mine too early (I never learn), but again, with pinching, the plants branch and by the end of May, a plant in a 4 inch pot is already an impressive size. Set out into the border in great numbers (as all annuals should be planted – in groups of 20 or 30) the show is nothing but sensational.
New for me this year is this: Silene pendula ‘Sibella Carmine’, a new introduction from Fleroselect that promises to produce a cloud of magenta flowers. It’s reccomended for hanging baskets, but I am going to try bedding it out. I am very excited by they dense growing habit already.

By far a favorite annual last year in my garden is this: Phacelia campanularia. These are just beginning to bloom in a pot but last June they put on a sensational show out in the border. A Californian native wildflower, these are certainly something you will need to grow from seed early indoors, but I think that they are so worth the effort. I’ll let you know how they do in a container, but I also set out about 25 plants in the border and a few in a clients garden.
Im not growing as many sweet peas this year as in past, but I do have three areas where am growing them, each one demonstrating three different methods. This structure shows my cordon method – the traditional and fussy way exhibitors grow their sweet peas for the sweet pea shows in England. Pinched plants are them restricted to a single stem, which is tied to a single bamboo cane which results in very long stems and flowers that are almost double the size of traditionally grown sweet peas.
In the background here you can see one of my tee pee’s. Constructed on a base on 8 foot bamboo poles, branches and twigs are then tied onto the structure. Sweet pea seedlings that were started early in deep trays were set in around the base, pinched back to produce the stronger stems and by July this structure will be covered with flowers. These will be a mix of dark purple, violet and blue colors.
The last method is new for me – the 1910 dwarf variety ‘Cupid Pink’, from seed raised in the UK as most American strains are considered to be inferior to the original heirloom – I tried these last year along with some ‘Knee Hi’ varieties from the 1970’s in pots for a wedding in Vermont, and they were a hit. So I am dedicating one of my windowboxes to them just to see what happens.
I terrible iPhone shot, I know, but this angle does show how I am setting out these cool-weather annuals out in the border – between the tulps. Upper left are some salpiglossis, lower right a few Phacelia and in the center-right, Viscaria occulata.
I thought i would share a photo of one of my clients gardens last year in suburban Boston using a selection of hard-to-find annuals raised from seed. 
It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the US which in my growing zone (5b) is traditionally the time one would plant out tomatoes and basil. It’s been too cold this year, as it was last year, as night temps are still in the 40° s so no need to rush. My basil seedlings are just forming their first pair of leaves – the time to transplant into larger pots (I’m reusing some 6 packs from pansies). Im growing a number of varieties of Basil including the traditional variety used for Pesto (Genovese) but it will succumb to BPM Basil Powery Mildew by high summer – a new disease introduced 10 years ago.So I am also growing a few of the newer disease resistant varieties like Prospero. Im curious to see if I can taste the difference as these new resistant varieties are crossed with other basil varieties like the Asian basils or Cinnamon basil’s. The flavor profiles are very close though, to the true Genovese, but stay tuned.
Aside from unusual annuals and vegetables, the plant geek in me can’t help but grow some true rarities or uncommon plants. These pots are from seeds acquired from the NARGS (North American ROCK GARDEN SOCIETY) annual seed exchange. Some Asian delphinium species and other alpine gems – I’m thrilled that the germination is so good this year. these have been outdoors and snowed on since late February.

The entrance to my house shows a display of pansies and violas. I prefer to pot three plants to a pot and not to jam in many plants which is so common today. Three plants pinched, and tended to daily to remove spent blossoms and seed pods will fill out a pot in just a few weeks. You’ll be shocked at how large they will get, and I prefer the look of a single variety per pot or basket – a more horticultural look, and the effect is more ‘Great Dixter’ than  ‘spiller, thriller and filler’. I’m kind of over that look.

 I just had to share this lilac that I planted two years ago. I lost the tag so I don’t know what variety it is, but it’s magnificent, with a color so intense.

Baby chicks are hatching every week. These guys are all from the green eggs laid by the Aricana hens, but clearly our black Australop rooster has been busy with the hens. They are so cute!

A friend of ours gave us 6 eggs from their Royal Palm turkeys, but we had doubts about them hatching in our incubater, so Joe ordered 15 rare breed turkeys that will arrive in June. Of course, all 6 hatched and are healthy, and growing quickly. I found two of them escaped and perched on the kitchen counter a few days ago. No paper towels, so we are re-purposing emails for their bedding!
Lastly, I never announced it but I was honored to have been asked to feature our garden on a Garden Conservancy Open Days tour (you know how I freak out about tours! but this was a big deal). I was also offering a Digging Deeper program on June 6h but sadly the tour and program has been cancelled or postponed until next June. It does give us time to get things in order around here (hey – it’s a mess!) but I promise that it will be even better next year!

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Book Giveaway – Jennifer Jewell’s ‘The Earth is in Her Hands’ https://gardern.co.za/2020/05/book-giveaway-jenniferjewells-earth-is/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/05/book-giveaway-jenniferjewells-earth-is/#comments Wed, 06 May 2020 00:01:00 +0000 Jennifer Jewell’s ‘The Earth is in Her Hands’ offers readers insight into the backstories and inspiration behind 75 of the most extraordinary women in...

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Jennifer Jewell

Jennifer Jewell’s ‘The Earth is in Her Hands’ offers readers insight into the backstories and inspiration behind 75 of the most extraordinary women in the world of plants today. You can find it wherever books are sold online or order it at your favorite independent book seller. Also, leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for a book giveaway here on Mother’s Day (see below for details).

With Mother’s Day fast approaching, books remain an easy-to-order and welcome gift for any mom, grandmother, sister or aunt who loves plants. Oh, by the way, it’s a great gift for any guy, too. 

 Jennifer Jewell is well known and valued as an award-winning public radio host. Her weekly program and podcast reach many of us in our cars and kitchens, where we listen to her calming voice as she interviews a remarkably diverse range of influential and always interesting plant people from around the world. 
 Many of us have been impatiently waiting for this book  ‘The Earth In Her Hands – 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants’ (2020, Timber Press), as there is no book that I know of that covers such a subject – unless they focus on the classic, early writers usually from the UK.
Such compendiums often focus on the ‘classic’ garden writers we know and love already – the Gertrude’s, the Vita’s and the Chatto’s, (and they’re in here too, but often listed as ‘influencers’ to these contemporary women who are cultivating or nurturing our plant world.). 
You will recognize some of the women featured in the book lke Erin Benzakein of Floret Farm, but many may be new to you.

What makes this book unique is just that – they are contemporary women. Young or experienced, and best of all – not all of them are gardeners or garden writers. These women are from all aspects of the plant world. They are the seed collectors, the landscape architects, the botanists, and explorers. They are the botanical artists, nursery owners or designers we all should know if we don’t already.  I can’t think of a book like this.  It’s a valuable addition to anyone’s plant library or to keep on the bedside table as each bio is about three pages long.
Timber Press has done a remarkable job with the design and quality of the book, from the artful cover to the page layouts. No surprise that Jennifer’s writing is as thoughtful as her language is on her radio/podcast – would we expect anything less? Each of the 75 profiles deep-dives into the lives, passions, and influences that led to each woman owning a part of the plant world. Anyone interested in a career with plants will enjoy it, as well indeed anyone already in such a career or life passion.
Francis Palmer, a talented potter and gardener is featured as well. So fun to read the back-story and vision for such icons from our modern gardening world.

Why women in plants, you ask? (It’s OK, I asked the same thing, guys). Look, it’s crazy even to think that some people react this way today, but it’s a strange world that we currently live in. But, yes – I’ll be honest, I too had some second thoughts about getting this book (I bought my copy last week because I am friends with Jennifer, but—I did wonder if this book was really written for me? 
Short Answer: Yes, this book is written for any plant person regardless of one’s gender. It’s a book about entrepreneurial confidence, creativity, life-passions, over-coming irrational fears and expressing one’s talent with joy. Each will take away something different from it.
BOOK GIVEAWAY
Full disclosure, Timber Press is currently sending me a comp book to review, so I will offer that up as a giveaway here – just leave a comment below and kindly subscribe to my Instagram account @matt_mattus and I’ll use a randomizer to choose a winner on Mother’s Day – contest closes at 6 PM EST.
But if you are wondering still if this book is for you, (and if you are a man) then think about this:
All horticultural societies were virtually all-male clubs until around 1900. 
Some didn’t allow women until much later. I’m not preaching; these are just facts we sometimes never think about – careers in science, botany – even an education beyond high school was predominantly a male opportunity. Women were relegated to flower gardens and maybe a kitchen garden, yet throughout history, it was women who tended the fields in tribal cultures, men just hunted and then watched TV.
And how about this…pre-20th century most plant species were named after men (thank you Carl Linnaeus), and most of these guys were elite, wealthy white guys. The only plants named after women were basically some ‘varietal names’ like Mrs. Willmotts Ghost, Valerie Finnis this or that or Beth Chatto’s poppy.  I could go on, but you get the picture.
I appreciated that some featured plantswomen are global.

Granted, it was a different time, but from a woman’s perspective, while we ‘guys’ just moved on from all of this — women and girls, especially minorities or people of color have had few north stars to look up to for guidance or inspiration. In fact, all they had were those paintings of white plantsmen – you know – guys with beards posing with donkeys on an expedition or painted while seated in chair looking pensive. I know this because I sit on the board of a 275-year-old botanical society and botanic garden, where there were rooms full of these white guys with beards on the wall – (we moved them all down to the cellar to make a point for a while.). I think a book about contemporary women and their many contributions to the world of plants has been a long time coming.
As Jennifer states in her intro, “Compiling this list [of 75] has felt akin to mapping mycelia pathways between collaborating organisms in the soil of a forest.” Yes. Precisely. That’s a thread in this book that connects so many life stories. Each feature profiles a plant person by describing her work, her plant (favorite plant), her plant journey (life story), and then what I find most interesting, ‘other inspiring women’.  It’s like a 300-page interview with someone interesting.
One feature I liked was called ‘Her Plant Journey’, so if you’ve been wondering what drives people like Debra Prinzing and her Fast Flower movement, this is the book to get.

This book could have easily been ten times as long if she included every woman from the world of plants! But the web, the ecosystem that exists shows through, and should assure each of us that anything to do with plants offers endless career and life opportunities, many not even invented yet.
This book then is for everyone. 
The dreamer, the plantsperson, the philanthropist, the plantsman and plantswoman, the inventor. Jennifer has collected ( and clearly had to carefully edit it down to 75) of the most interesting people that will inspire anyone to boldly grow – perhaps where no man has gone before?
Happy Mother’s Day

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CULTIVATING OPTIMISM AND RESILIENCE WITH A VICTORY GARDEN https://gardern.co.za/2020/03/cultivating-optimism-and-resilience/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/03/cultivating-optimism-and-resilience/#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2020 09:00:00 +0000 When I look at our storeroom in the cellar (cork-lined and full of canned goods that my mother who would have been 100 this...

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When I look at our storeroom in the cellar (cork-lined and full of canned goods that my mother who would have been 100 this year) I am reminded about all of the hard work and purposeful growing that happened around here in the 1940’s.  Will we need to do that again? I think not, but a productive vegetable garden this year (and maybe next year) might be a good idea to relieve the food pressures in our country and for our own health. With a cellar still full of potatoes and winter squash, I feel a little more secure.

Our grandparents had their Victory Gardens, our parents may have had their Oil Crisis Gardens in the 70’s. and us? Well. Clearly, we do want to limit how often we go to the market, and while any excuse to eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese or Spam for a while, the time will come when we start craving something fresh and even though that green Romaine lettuce at the weekly market trip may look appealing, I don’t know about you, but it’s not like Romaine has a good track record for carrying diseases lately! Good news is that now in most northern climates, one can start a garden and grow your own.

Historically preserving food raised at home or picked at local farms wasn’t unusual at all. It served a real purpose. I’m pretty sure that this woman wasn’t accused of hoarding or even became upset when her local market ran short of strawberries or frozen peas. Her larder is well stocked. 

I live in Zone 5b in central Massachusetts, and while our frost-free date is closer towards the end of May, I know that there are many cold-tolerant crops can be started now like lettuce, mesclun mixes and some root crops (but not broccoli or cabbage, more on that later). Here are some crops I am planting now, and others that are in the wings waiting for the weather to comply. Most of you know your local climates better and can adjust planting schedules to meet your own needs.

Spring is regional, but aside from deep winter, something can be started no matter where you live and garden. In the Southern Hemisphere you could be planting fall crops and in mild-winter climates, winter crops. If you live in an apartment or don’t have land, a fire escape or wide, bright window sill can let you grow mesclun, greens or some green onions, a rooftop terrace and you have lots of opportunities. A deck or a balcony too can hold pots – especially nice for miniature vegetables or a few tomato plants and herbs.

For the purpose of this post though, I am focusing on back yard gardens, whether it be a new one that you are digging up and planting in a few weeks or an expansion of an existing one. I think it’s safe to assume that most of us are re-evaluating what we are growing over the next year, so I wanted to share some of my thoughts on what you might think about growing, and why.

It seems every generation that faced a challenge had it’s version of a victory garden, it’s now time for us to define what our generation will do.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE NEW VICTORY GARDEN 
FOR TIMES LIKE THIS WHEN A TRIP TO THE MARKET GIVES ONE ANXIETY

1. Choose the most productive crops given your square footage. 
Make every square foot earn its way. This means crops like spinach or peas that you shell may not make the most sense if you have only a few raised beds. Instead plant crops that you can pick quickly, and provide enough food for at least a few meals, and think about space over the long-term. For example, an 8-10 bed of spinach is wasteful when it comes to space use. It will produce as much spinach as that found in a $5.00 box found at a store (if it is harvested as baby spinach).

WWII Victory Gardens were large wth 30 – 60 foot long rows – the intention was to fill the storeroom with food that could save money and feed the family. While every war-time generation had their version of what a Victory garden was, today’s world is different and while we may not need to live completely off of our gardens, in times like these we may need it to serve a greater purpose than just providing us with fresh heirloom tomatoes and cut flowers.

However, if it is planted with the old-fashioned larger growing spinach that we rarely see in stores anymore – the ‘Bloomsdale’ types (those with crinkled leaves and crunchy stems) space will go a bit further, but again, know that one raise bed may only produce two or three meals (one meal, at our house). Think of spinach as a 100 sq foot crop (10′ x 10′) or a 30-foot long row. Let it mature, be sure to lime the soil well when you sow it, and yes, you can sow it now. Some crops are fun to grow when a weekly trip to the supermarket is the norm, but this year, thing is different and it might make more sense to focus on crops that are worth growing that fill the fridge, the storeroom or ones plate and not just a fun project. As such, artichokes are out for me for 6 buds per bed isn’t worth space.

Elevated beds, or even raised beds allow one to plant crops out in a grid. Often called Square Foot Gardening or French Intensive Method, it works well as it allows one to maximize space and harvest. Lettuce like these growing in a cedar raised bed means that 12 heads can fit into a space no larger than a laundry basket.
Using space wisely isn’t a bad practice right now. When these cabbage plants mature the swiss chard has been harvested. Rows of cabbage were planted along with all of the lettuce and cabbage as it could be harvested in 28 days.

2. Plan like you would shop – Crop Succession is key as in interplanting. No one needs 12 heads of lettuce at one time so conserve how much seed you sow, and save some for later with those crops that mature quickly. SA dozen or sow lettuce seeds of a few varieties also will give you a variety to choose from. Be sure to order seed now of a number of varieties for those quick-maturing crops like lettuce, white and purple-top turnips, cilantro and kohlrabi that you can sow now, and then sow again every few weeks to ensure a constant supply into early summer.

Baby lettuce and cabbage grown together with little stress on this grid matrix planting. The lettuce gets pulled out every day providing salad greens in the kitchen and not interfering with this cabbage which is a fast-growing early type. Late cabbage or storage cabbage goes in later, in late June.

3. Plant smart – This is the time to rely less on myths and more on facts. Make every square inch valuable because you are growing food to live on so skip the marigolds and companion plantings (it’s proven not to work anyway) and grow crops that maximize space and harvest. Use the space between cabbage for productive crops that mature before other crops do — like dill, radishes, or onion sets and cilantro. This past weekend I planted rows of snap peas that are 36 inches apart, but between those, I plant three rows – one with cilantro, another wth Swiss Chard that I will harvest as baby chard, and the other with spinach which I to will harvest early.

White Tokyo turnips are a quick crop for both very early spring, or even better in late summer for harvest in October and November in our garden. 
4. Order seeds now for the whole summer. and autumn. Many seed companies are overloaded right now. I can’t order from Baker Creek until 4:00 PM Monday because their website has been down for 4 days. So plan and order now. I am also avoiding many so-called heirloom varieties opting for newer strains or f1 hybrids. Right now, it’s all about vigor and disease resistance. This is generalizing, but for crops that are notoriously susceptible to diseases like tomatoes and cabbage, I am taking no chances because I need reliable crops. I love Romana Costata summer squash but it is a space hog and produces just a few squashes at a time. Instead, I am planting a new hybrid probably from Johnny’s Seeds. I need to be overloaded.

Obviously, support your local nursery or garden centers, but who knows what our situation will look like a month from now? It’s easy (and frankly, better) to start your own brassica seedlings at home, outdoors in full sun but in cells or individual pots. Sow later than you think you should (biggest amateur mistake s to think of these as ‘cool weather’ crop. They aren’t. Cabbage and all relatives germinate best at 85° and grow best if set out after the first spring flight of the Cabbage Root Maggot Fly which for us is around May 1. Full sun outdoors also ensures stocky plants.

5. Start lots of Summer Crops in Pots Outside – Science has proven that the best light for all seedlings is the direct sun, and any seedling that you start under lights indoors will be inferior to those you start out on a deck or porch in direct sun. Even tomatoes sown the first week of June outdoors will outperform those you started in April under lights. This is especially true with brassicas. First, you can get stronger, healthier seedlings of cabbage, broccoli and brussels sprouts if you start them the first week of June in cells set out on your deck or terrace, but also you can avoid the worst effects of the Cabbage Root Maggot Fly, which has it’s largest flight (hatch) usually in late April – late May, depending where you live). Just keep an eye out for cabbage butterfly larvae.

Many crops can and should be started in reusable pots on your deck or outside anywhere in late May or June. Germination is quicker than in soil, and you can keep an eye on their progress. Just be sure to sow one or two seeds per pot and to not disturb the root ball when transplanting. Try this with melon, cucumbers and squashes. I great way to get a few weeks jump on lima beans and pole beans too.
Early cabbage is very useful, and perhaps the most flavorful of all cabbage – what’s interesting about it is that early cabbage is rarely found at supermarkets and most people haven’t even tasted it before. It’s one of the best veggies for early crops. COne headed varieties are classic like ‘Caraflex’ which is quick maturing, super sweet and as crispy as iceberg lettuce. Try it raw or in stirfries. It’s also a space saver and is out of the garden by the Fourth of July so you can plant beans or summer squash.

Kale is always better as a late summer and fall crop, but in these troubled times early sowing in pots then set outdoors will give you a smaller yet welcome harvest by June. Buy enough seed for late summer sowing too.

Peas are great but only grow them if you have the room to plant 30-60 foot lon rows of them. Otherwise, they can be a waste of space and effort. Buy seed by the pound like our grandparents did, and remember that you have to shell and process all of those pods! I always forget that!

7. Green Peas – We all love the flavor of garden-fresh peas, but only grow them if you have the room to plant lots and lots of them. I mean – the peas that you shell, not snap peas or snow peas – those two are worth growing. Three 30 foot rows may only get you three buckets of peas that you will have to then shell, often not worth the effort and space, (if it’s supposed to keep you out of the frozen food aisle at the supermarket). Save peas as a luxury item for non-viral years. Instead, plant more productive crops like edible-podded peas (snap peas or snow peas) which sown now, will produce in June and are very productive.

That said, if you have the room (and the labor -i.e.: kids) then do plant long rows of shelling peas!

If you have the room, do plant long rows of peas now – in late March, for there is nothing like the flavor of fresh peas. Just note that the crop is easy to grow but harvesting and shelling can take it’s toll if you are growing enough to both feed a family and to freeze. As kids we used to dread pea harvest day for it meant back-breaking work picking for a day and an entire night of shelling peas – only to get one half of a bucket bowl full of shelled peas (or 7 bags from the freezer section).

This is not the time to casually play with growing food. It is a great time to teach children about good planning, agriculture and our food systems. A dozen pea plants are useless if you are planning to live off of your garden. Grow smart. Gardening isn’t a craft project, it’s science and food. Sow seriously and sow smart. So smart.

Snap or snow peas or any edible-podded pea provides more band for the buck than shell peas. Older varieties can grow very tall though so note the overall height first to make sure you have the room or supports. The foliage on these peas (the entire new shoot) is deliciously stir-fried – so much so that most of the peas we grow in our garden are harvested at 10 inches tall for spring greens.

8. Pea Greens – Peas also are good for pea greens, which may be the first crop you can pick in three or four weeks if you sow now. Snow peas seem to produce the largest leaves. So in thick bands (8″ wide) and as long as you want. Cut when greens produce open leaves and are about 6-10″ high. Stir-fried in oil with garlic, or a few tablespoons of chicken stock with a 1/4 tsp of corn or tapioca starch, and you could have a quick and delicious fresh green that tastes just like green peas. It’s a favorite around here. Just be sure not to order pea varieties touted as good for tendrils. Those are rather useless, in my opinion.

True cold-weather crops like Broad Bean or Fava Beans can be started under lights, or like these that I started in my greenhouse. They too can be sown directly in the ground and are a great project for kids as the seeds are large, and like many kids, being a part of how they grow will make it more likely that they will eat them too.

9. Broad Beans or Fava Beans are surprisingly productive if you have the room. Again, if you have raised beds, perhaps skip them, but if you have a more conventional veg garden, like a 30′ by 12-foot plot, broad beans planted out in a few rows will mature by June and each pod produces a handful of large beans that once cooked, rival that of green sweet peas. Last year, four short 8 foot rows gave us enough bean to both eat two or three times fresh, and 8 bags to freeze.

Broad beans or fava beans are less known in America but pod for pod they produce more edible bits that English peas.

Mesclun or baby lettuce can be raised most anywhere, even on a deck or a fire escape in window boxes. These I sowed in rows in an old wooden flat which does sit in the greenhouse but can be moved outdoors on days when temps are above freezing. A quick crop, one can harvest most mesclun mixes in just 30-40 days.

10. Grow Mesclun Everywhere – Order larger packets of all greens to make a jar of your own mesclun mix. This will save money and allow you to sow successive crops every week and a half. I mix myself using larger packets of many lettuces, mustards, cress and arugula that I keep in a jar. The larger packets you purchase of individual seed, the greater the cost savings. Buy seed in bulk.

If you live in an appt order various brassicas (broccoli, red cabbage, cress, kohlrabi and arugula( which you can mix all together in a jar) and then start a square foot or two in a seed tray or even on a plate of et paper towels for microgreens. This mix along with a mesclun mix like above can also be sown in window boxes, or in any recyclable container that you can put out on a ledge. It’s still cold out but I am starting mesclun mix in all of my pots out on the deck that I have topped-off with a few inches of fresh potting soil.

11. Early Beans are Purple and more cold tolerant – t’s true, purple string beans are more cold tollerant than yellow or green. Plant a tower or three in a few weeks, depending on where you live. Start early in 6 packs or three seeds in a 4 inch pot indoors to get a jump.

Beets are productive both for the roots and for their greens.

12. Plant Onion sets – Forget about what I said before because we arent growing onion sets for onions, we are growing them for their greens. It’s true, sets are  useless for onions, but great for quick green onions. The same goes for those sprouting onions in your onion basket on the counter – I never encourage this in normal years, but if you want greens in a few weeks, plant them.  Mom was rght about these.

13. But….Sow Green Onion Seed NOW  for the best green onions ever. (It will just take time ), but do it. I have found that green onion seed is one of the most economical crops to grow – especially if you are like me and buy green onions every week at the supermarket. They make sense to grow because one sowing in early spring will produce all summer. Plus, the quality is superior to any green onions one will find at a supermarket. Crispier, better varieties and more flavorful. The downside is that it is a slow grower – still, sow it now. Sow green onions in rich soil (it cant have enough nitrogen! I use composted manure but don’t be afraid to use the blue, water-soluble fertilizer as right now – we are all desperate and need food of the highest quality.).

Potatoes are a long-season crop that can and should be sown now. They make good use of space, but can also be planted in places perhaps where you don’t garden – like along a fence or even in a garbage can (Google it!). Potatoes are one of the most productive crops and aside for having plenty of uses, are good to store,  not to mention that they taste so much better straight from the garden like tomatoes do. You can even sneak a few out early if you are lucky!

14 Don’t forget about Long-Season Dependable Crops – Outdoors, in your raised beds try sowing crops that can stay in the ground a bit longer such as onion sets, cabbage, kale, and mustard greens won’t need to be sown as often. If you have mesclun mixes sown, try using a trowel to select out a few mustard plants and plant them in a row or grid elsewhere so that they can grow larger. Mixes that are cress and arugula-heavy or sown too thickly will bloom faster, but mustards (both frilly and large red or green-leaved varieties) can be transplanted elsewhere and will grow into large, productive plants in a few more weeks.

Winter storage squashes are one of the most productive crops any of us can grow. If it wasnt for storage squashes, many in the north wouldnt have survived the winter. This Blue Hubbard can produce dozens of dishes, roasted squash, soups and in pies.

Aside from herbs, for those of you who have rhubarb, isn’t it amazing how once we don’t have (or trust) fresh fruit from the store, how welcome fresh rhubarb suddenly is? I’m not exactly comfortable buying strawberries or blueberries right now, unless I am cooking them (one sneeze!). But rhubarb from my garden in late April is so welcome! I now know how early Americans felt when they would get this first ‘fruit’ out of the garden.

15. Fruit? If you arent that trustful about fresh strawberries or apples at the market, remind yourself about an old favorite – Rhubarb. In crisps and pies, rhubarb is just going to seem so amazing in a few weeks! I can’t wait, and now I can understand why it was so valued by northern gardeners a century or more ago when their storage fruit like mealy apples were running short. In a time before air travel and even trains, rhubarb did indeed bring us the first fruit of the season. I get it now.

Can you taste it?
My own parsley seedlings are at the perfect size for late March. Parsley must be set out at a small size if you dont want it to bolt. It must also never be exposed to cold or near freezing temperatures if it is any larger than this, or it too will bolt – the key reason why so many parsley plants that we find at garden centers that sat out with the pansies eventually bolt by July.

16. Plant Herbs that you buy fresh every week –  Think about herbs that provide health benefits like parsley and add fresh flavors to dishes like dill and cilantro. Remember that parsley seed or very, tiny plants of parsley will be your best choice as larger plants (with more than 4 pairs of leaves) will bolt by early summer. Parsley will bloom too early if plants are exposed to cold weather (above 45 deg) as it will think that it has passed through a winter. This exposure won’t hard true seedlings if they are young enough, but most commercial sources of plants sell parsley that was started in autumn or winter. Also, never buy cilantro plants, you can grow a crop quickly in three weeks from seed.

As for cilantro that is growing in a pot at the nursery it just going to bloom and go to seed in a few weeks, and isn’t worth the price if you are going to use it in a few weeks. So cilantro now (it prefers cool weather and will go to seed and get too soapy if the weather turns hot). Also, sow it every 2 weeks in 30″ bands, or in pots set out on your deck. It’s like a mesclun mix – an in-and-out crop that can be ready to harvest within a month.

Basil can wait, as it truly needs warmth (here in Zone 5 I sow seed indoors in Mid April, and plant out in early June. If you are in California or the south, go for it!

TO RE-CAP

PRODUCTIVE CROPS THAT MAKE GOOD USE OF SPACE

Pea greens
Broad Beans
Spring Turnips
Mustard Greens
Swiss Chard
Snap Peas and Snow Peas
Spinach
Lettuce
Mesclun
Onion Sets

CROPS FOR Late Spring/ Early Summer

Purple String Beans
Early Cabbage
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Tuscan Kale
Mustard Greens

Long Season Warm-Weather Crops to Mature later and are highly productive (storage too)


Potatoes (Plant now!) Do not lime soil, as they prefer acidic soil. Plant as many as you can.
Root Crops like Carrots and Parsnips sow now
Late root crops like Rutabaga, sow later in July for late fall storage.
Winter Squashes – any and all, from acorn to Blue Hubbard and perhaps the most economical – the Butternut types. Believe me, you will want to stock up on storage squash next fall and winter if they don’t find a cure until next spring. Our great grandparents knew about the value of storage squash and potatoes. It may be time to rediscover their immense value.

Summer Standbys to ORDER SEED FOR NOW (To Freeze, eat fresh, pickle or preserve)


String Beans
Tomatoes
Peppers and Chili’s
Summer Squash
Potatoes

Productive herbs
Longer-season (plant once)
Parsley
Rosemary plants or cuttings
Sage

Sow bi-weekly
Cilantro

Sow Monthly
Dill for greens
Dill for seedheads (for pickles)

ORDER SEED NOW FOR  AUTUMN CROPS that are Productive (in late July/early-mid August)


Napa Cabbage
All turnips
All Asian radishes like Daikon
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cilantro
Arugula/mesclue
Lettuces
Kale

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Just Out: My New Flower Book https://gardern.co.za/2020/03/learning-more-about-growing-annual/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/03/learning-more-about-growing-annual/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2020 04:13:00 +0000 Annual poppies are not easy to grow, at least not for most people. Oriental poppies? Much easier, as they are a long lived perenial....

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Annual poppies are not easy to grow, at least not for most people. Oriental poppies? Much easier, as they are a long lived perenial.  notoriously fussy about root disturbance, and like many wildflowers, they will always grow best if direct seeded exactly where they are to grow, and then thinned to leave a good amount of distance between plants (a foot is best). If you can keep root disturbance to a minimum, that checks off the first box. Beyond that, temperature and light will need to be controlled. Clearly these are not easy plants to grow to perfection, but if you care and want gorgeous poppies in your garden (and who doesn’t?) it might be worth it to try a few methods.


In this post I am only addressing cultural techniques for two species of poppies: The Shirley Poppy (Papaver rheas) and the Bread Seed Poppy (P. somniferum).  The genus Papaveraceae includes hundreds of species, many of which require special treatment which may add to the confusion out there, but for these two species which should be more commonly grown in our gardens, the methods often found on-line and in literature seems to be unnecessarily complex and incorrect.


You may be saying to yourself “What’s all the fuss about? I just sprinkle seed on the snow in spring and have wonderful poppies every year.”. To that specific statement, I respond with “great for you!” The truth is, that method just doesn’t work for me many years, and, when it does, it often doesn’t produce the best plants.  


Here is what I wanted to know. 


• Where did that ‘sowing on snow’ advice come from?



• Does poppy seed need light to germinate like everyone says?



• Does poppy seed need a cold period to ‘stratify’?



•What is the ideal germination temperature for both Shirley Poppies and Breadseed/Opium Poppies?



• Can one start these poppy seeds indoors instead of direct seeding?



The answers I found were staggering in that it was the polar opposite of what I have found most everywhere on-line, in consumer-facing gardening books and on most blogs and social media posts. I’m not nailing anyone here – even I have gotten this wrong in the past, and even in my new book where I started to share some of my personal methods that are different, I get a few things wrong.


Many of use research on-line today, and hey – you can do it yourself too. Just Google “how to sow annual poppies” and see what you will find. Most sources advise that one first chill the seed for varying lengths of time, sometimes first mixing the seed with peat moss, damp sand or soil then chilling in the fridge, then sow direct (usually sprinkling on a late snow) and then thinning the seedlings.’


If you are in a hurry, here is what I discovered:


• Where did that ‘sowing on snow’ advice come from? It started in the late 1900’s in England but the assumption is that wintered-over poppy seeds could fall on snow and still sow. It’s not necessary for germination and doesn’t offer any special treatment other than helping seed distribute.

• Does poppy seed need light to germinate like everyone says?

Not necessarily. Some species do, yet most prefer to germinate just under the surface of soil and this includes both P. rhoeas the Shirley Poppy and P. somniferum, which germinates better with a thin layer of soil or medium covering the seed. Many poppy species do require light, however.

• Does poppy seed need a cold period to ‘stratify’?

No. Most studies indicate that especially with P. somniferum, both of these species germinate best using seed that was stored dry and germinated at 70° F.



•What is the ideal germination temperature for both Shirley Poppies and Breadseed/Opium Poppies? 70° F.


• Can one start these poppy seeds indoors instead of direct seeding? Yes,  if one can provide the high light intensity and if they use individual pots with one plant in each (thinning to one plant). Transplant with great care not to disturb roots while plant is still small.



Here are the details….

These P. somniferum poppies in my garden last year were transplanted from plants started early in a cool greenhouse.



I referenced my ‘go-to’ seed starting source, an out of print book titled ‘Seed Germination Theory and Practice’ one often shared amongst plant geeks as a photocopied document that was first published in the 1990s (and sold often at North American Rock Garden Society auctions and book sales). I think since the book is rather heavy on data points and science, with no photos that it seemed unmarketable to the masses (as in: no one in the public cares about the stratification requirements of an Anemonopsis species). Still – it is a useful book. IF YOU WANT IT, it can often be found on Amazon as in here.) And maybe on Ebay? The author Norman C. Deno tested many challenging genera and species, and what he discovered about Papaver somniferum is nearly exact to what I found in a couple of journal articles outlining studies in germination. 


All conclude that P. somniferum germinates highest at 70°F That’s right, 70°.


No snow.
No cold.
No surface sowing.
No ‘Light needed to germinate’

What remains the same is that both poppies resent being transplanted and that both prefer poor soil (so no fertilizer).


Yet, they can be transplanted if one is able to slide a root ball out of a pot and set it into the ground without breaking it. I should add that seedlings like these are best raised in a greenhouse, or outdoors like on a deck or on a porch in the brightest of light – so not everyone is going to be able to grow individual plants from seed in pots. A light unit indoors most likely wont produce light bright enough.




Yet, if you have a sunny porch, or want to try starting a few trays of individual pots outdoors in April or May if you live in the North, it’s worth a try.


Some flower farmers have discovered this already as they often sow P. somniferum in plug trays along with P. rhoeas and carefully transplant plugs into growing beds with a minimum of root damage. It’s kind of a secret few home growers know about. Of course, this does require a greenhouse and some heating mats, but the idea – the idea can be hacked to work on a glassed in porch, or in a garage with some artificial lights. Natural bright sunlight is best as poppies will stretch out, but it does mean that you could grow wonderful poppy plants by sowing individual seeds in =plug trays, keeping them at 70 and then moving them outdoors as soon as possible.


What about sowing outdoors on snow or direct on soil in March or April?


This method works to, in fact, it still may be the ideal method, but it does have a few problems. Sowing on snow works where you want a more natural look, but it won’t work if you use mulch and it is challenging to do in areas where you are growing other plants – such as in a perennial border. It works much better if you have a place dedicated to just poppies, which makes it easier to see the tiny seedlings that you will need to thin so that plants are about 8 inches apart from each other, and so you can weed effectively. I still grow poppies this was in a few places, and direct sowing works well when I sow a row or band in the vegetable garden as it’s easy to see the seedlings.

As early 20th century seed catalog like this Sutton’s one from 1910 often featured Shirley Poppies. Few flowers are as old-fashioned as these poppies are. Methods such as ‘sowing on snow’ began appearing around 1900 in garden texts, and quickly caught on as an approved method mostly in northern Europe, but also in North America – the truth is, there is little to no scientific data to back-up this method. Does it work? Sure, for some, but sowing a bit later in soil will work just as well.





Do know though that there is no benefit that comes from the cold, or from the snow. Seeds sown direct outdoors still won’t germinate until day time temps tip near 70 degrees (although seedlings are cold-tolerant can handle very light frosts) my point here is that the seeds don’t need a cold period. The texts all state that in particular P. somniferum, 70° is the ideal germination temperature when using seed that was in dry storage at room temperature. 


The Shirley Poppy is more variable but seed still germinated in much the same way but the length of time is slightly longer. Even in my home greenhouse, the seed germinated – covered or not covered at 15 days without bottom heat with night temps at 45° F but seed on heat mats (70° F) both covered (1/8″) or not germinated at 4 days nearly at 90%. Light doesn’t affect germination.


 In areas where hot, summer temperatures arrive in late June along with high humidity, direct sowing early is still the best way to grow poppies, it’s often not practical to wait until a 70° Day to sow, the seeds sown early are just fine waiting.



Papaver somniferum in my garden that was started from seed in individual pots then set out once the weather became mild in late May.  These were still three feet tall and covered with bees.

Some books have it right, and I started with the classics like Christopher Grey-Wilson’s book ‘Poppies – The Poppy Family in the Wild and in Cultivation’ (1993, Timber Press), now out of print, but you can find it at online booksellers. A useful book even though some species may have been reclassified.  Grey-Wilson’s book is nearly a monograph with excellent details about the natural history and botany of most plants in Papaveraceae, but shorter bits about specific poppies, particularly only a few pages on P. rhoeas. Readers should factor in that this book was written in the United Kingdom so the cultural bit lean more towards what works in a mild-winter climate (sow in late summer or autumn) a method that won’t work where the ground freezes deep and solid such as in a Zone 5 garden, or where spring freezes are variable. 

I cant live without Shirley Poppies, but every year is different. I’ve found that direct-sowing seed works best with these smaller poppies, but I keep trying new methods of started early under glass, now trying plug trays. 



General advice seems to be similar everywhere  (just Google it, and see for yourself). That ‘sprinkle seeds on the snow’ advice, or ‘sprinkle seeds in late winter or early spring and thin-out seedlings.’. Not bad advice, as it works – but not always (just in case you have tried these methods and have failed). You are not alone.



Sowing in a greenhouse or under bright lights is possible if one sows seed individually into plug trays or single pots.

While there are some unconventional methods that you might want to try – sowing annual poppies in cells under glass, using individual seeds in a 4-inch pot, or setting out pots of thinly sown seed on a porch or deck, or under lights and then setting the entire rootball early out into the garden – these methods also work, but again, only if you are careful with light, watering and with thinning out all but one plant per pot (never transplanting the thinnings as they will fail). All are tricky to master, but if one can master a pre-start method, the results are extraordinary.

The wild version of P. rhoeas is all red with black spots, but selections that first appeared in the 1880’s changed how one viewed this common weed of European wheat and cornfields. Selections like this one named ‘Mother of Pearl’ have mostly pastel shades, and while many are advised to cull-out the red ones to keep the strain pure, how could one not want this?





In a search to find out more, I began trying all methods last year, and some of my results are surprising me. I will add here that I still sow direct, but always sow a few in individual pots and cells just in case one method doesn’t work. No method is easy, and I think it’s safe to say that one isn’t any easier than the other unless you are having luck with direct sowing early (if you live in the north, or in autumn if you live in a mild climate).

Use a precisions seeder like this (it will take some practice to master! But it makes all the difference in the world with truly small seeds that you often cannot sprinkle especially in pots or plug trays.You can. find one here at Gardener’s Supply, or Google for other sources.

My Tests

As a test, for two years now I’ve been sowing seed outdoors. For the past 6 years, I usually sow both on snow and with direct-sowing methods on raked, drained and workable soil outside in March.

To back things up I also so seeds in deep cells under glass (individually sown seeds). These I’ve tried pre-treating a number of ways, chilling the seed packets, mixing seed with damp sand and then chilling for 2-4 weeks in the fridge, and then sowing dry seed straight from the seed packet in the greenhouse.  To keep this short, all of these methods have proven to be unreliable. Some flats I kept in a cold frame to expose them to freezing temperatures, others I just kept under glass.

These tiny poppy seedlngs (P. somniferum) emerged in just 4 days last week. They were set on a heat mat set to 70° F with a thermostat, and the seed was covered with 1/8″ soil. Surface sown seeds in another tray germinated four days later. Do notice that even in a glass greenhouse these seedlings are slightly stretched out compared to seedlings that emerge outdoors. I try to move these outdoors most every day once the weather begins to warm above freezing to keep them from etiolating.

This year, I began using heating mats set to 70° using both chilled seed, and seed straight from the packet as it came in the mail – and to my shock, I’d say 85% germination in about 4 days for the seed that was covered with a 1/8 inch of soil, and 6 days for seed surface sown. This has proven itself over and over with both P. somniferum and P. rhoeas with 8 flats of plug trays and four flats of 4-inch pots.

I thin the seedlings out to single plants just as they are forming their first true leaves, and will relocate them to a cold frame or set pots outdoors if daytime temperatures are over 40° to keep plants stocky and strong as my daytime temperatures in the greenhouse can get too hot with the spring sun – I like to keep air temps below 80° to slow down growth, as plants will need to be set outdoors in early May and plants need to be stocky enough with withstand wind and should still be in their rosette stage (not forming a stem and certainly not a flower bud).

Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape’ still in rosette form were individually sown and germinated warm, on heat mats, but grown cool near 55° are ready to be set out into the garden.

Last year my Greenhouse plug trays were split into two groups, one group that I kept under glass at 40° F and three other flats that I first kept outdoors in a cold frame. The Greenhouse flats germinated after a month, but irregularly, and about 1/3 survived. The flats in the cold frame never germinated, I suspect that the temperature differential was too much (hot days, freezing nights). Direct sown seeds grew well, but a few self-sown seeds from previous years were virtually gigantic. I did have one tray of seedlings that were individually sown into 4 inch pots that I acquired from my favorite source of hard-to-find annuals Bunker Farm Plants in Vermont, and her rosettes were nearly 5 inches across, grown from early sown seed in an unheated hoop house with seeds germinated on a heat mat.

Single, Breadseed poppies are beloved by many bees for their pollen, but not for nectar as they do not produce any.
Sowing in a greenhouse is possible, but a more mindful approach to sowing outdoors works even better. Dry sand will help you dilute your seed, and some chicken wire may help deter curious critters – like dogs (necessary in our garden!).

I had heard of some local flower farms raising poppies the same way, so I purchased a heating mat or a germination chamber mat from Johnny’s Seeds and found that even seed sown in March germinated. While there are a few plants that require low, then warm temperatures, most common flowers and vegetables will germinate best at 70°. Some, (even those often listed as being ‘cold-weather crops like cabbage, broccoli, and other brassicas) will germinate even better at higher temperatures, but much slower rates at lower temps. Then there are the real freaks like Gomphrenia which scientists have found will germinate best if exposed first to hot temps near 100° for a couple of days although 90° will often get good results.

Mix seed packet of either P rhoeas (Shirley Poppies) or P. somniferum (like ‘Lauren’s Grape) in a bowl, and mix well. This just helps disperse the seed so that you wont have as much waste. One of the biggest errors one can make is to not thin young plants (I get it – it’s hard to pull and toss a precious poppy) but know that if you leave 8 inches between each seedling your results will be much better.
Dig, till or pitchfork your soil to loosen it up and then rake to make it evener. Leaving some furrows will help the seed fall into nooks and crannies, which is OK as some coverage of the seed helps.



Sift the sand/seed mixture over the prepared area. Now, the ‘prepared area’ could be in the border where there is a bare spot, or in the veg garden – as where I often grow mine, which makes weeding and thinning easier. Never mulch, and remove old mulch as seed will need contact with the soil. Also, poppies enjoy low soil fertility so no fertilizer is needed.

This isnt neccessaryl but since we have ‘diggy’Irish terriers, I pin down a protective wire covering over the bed. It also helps remind me where I sowed the seed as a month or so may pass until the weather warms up enough for the seedlings to emerge, and often weeds will germinate first.
Last year it took 2 months for seedlings to emerge, but it was a very cold spring.
Look carefully after a few weeks for poppy seedlings (and keep watered if a dry spell arrives). This seedling will be very tiny so get your glasses on. Each cotyledon is about 1/8 inch long. These are too thickly sown, but I will wait to remove all but one plant every 8 inches to a foot apart later.
Both species will seem to grow slow at first, but will suddenly take off once the weather become warmer. This is a bed that I should have thinned but I didn’t. Shirley poppies can grow well closer together, but P. somniferum really does better with lost of room between plants. I’vd read in many old books to pinch plants back at this stage, but I have never done it myself, have you? I’ve read that some P. somniferum can become very bushy and tall if pinched back – I’ll try it this year.
My direct-sown Shirley Poppies always like the walk to my greenhouse where I plant them in some raised bed in the veg garden. They bloom in my Massachusetts garden between mid-June and the Fourth of July or just until the weather turns hot and humid. After that, they are pulled and vegetables are planted.
A double lavender-grey Shirley poppy from my garden a few years ago. 


Coral and White picotee forms are very pretty.
An all white strain called ‘The Bride’  seems less pretty in the garden.
These P. somniferum  ‘Lauren’s Grape’ were buzzing with bees in my garden last July. All were started early in individual pots and set out in mid-May.
P. somniferum like this white peony form can self-seed if you allow the seed to dry in the capsule. I’ve found that in my garden if I cut the seed to dry indoors and sprinkle in the garden in late fall or early spring, I get a better germination rate as a naturally dried seed that falls in late July or early August often germinates in late summer, and small poppy plants cannot survive out winters.





If you want to learn more, order my brand
 new book just published here on Amazon and where most books are sold!

Here are a few spreads to share with you! If you do order it, I would appreciate any revew you could write (or just rank it) on Amazon. It’s important data for us authors as it tells publishers that it’s worth offering another book deal.


















 









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Two Outstanding Gardening Books for those Long, Winter Nights https://gardern.co.za/2020/01/two-outstanding-gardening-books-for/ https://gardern.co.za/2020/01/two-outstanding-gardening-books-for/#comments Wed, 22 Jan 2020 02:36:00 +0000 Two rock stars of the gardening world have recently release significant works worthy of any gardeners bookshelf. Ken Druse’s ‘The Scentual Garden’ and Amy...

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Two rock stars of the gardening world have recently release significant works worthy of any gardeners bookshelf.
Ken Druse’s ‘The Scentual Garden’ and Amy Goldman’s The ‘Melon’ will inspire, inform and entertain you this winter as you plan your summer garden. I promise.

I just realized that these two books (The Melon by Amy Goldman and the Scentual Garden by Ken Druse) essentially deal with, well, sensuality. While one can certainly draw lines to why flowers are fragrant or why melons are luscious and desirable, the many metaphors aside, there should be no doubt that these books might be a good excuse to give a book as a gift for Valentine’s Day to your secret (or not so secret) admirer? Certainly, I approve if you just buy them for yourself to get lost in on these cold, winter nights.

I have high standards for the gardening books I invest in. They might be beautifully designed, well crafted and printed on quality paper or the subject matter may be unique, but above all, they must be useful. Usefulness can be defined in a few ways as I’m not necessarily looking for a textbook or an encyclopedia but ‘usefulness’ can certainly be all about learning something new, referenceable (accuracy, factual and not simple second-hand information gathered from Google searches) and even inspirational – as a book with just lovely photos of gardens can be a journey that leads to new ideas.
Here are three books that have recently come across my desk and seem to deliver all of this.

Amy Goldman’s newest book reads like a monography on the melon, but it is so much more. Artistic, scientific, botanically interesting and a cultural handbook. It’s so beautiful that you won’t want to put it on your bookshelf, and I promise that you’ll be making room for melons this year (or at least following the many recipes in the last chapter in your kitchen!).

THE MELON – by Amy Goldman (City Point Press, 2019)

I’ve been waiting for this for years, as I knew that Amy was working on a revision of her first book on Melons entitled: Melons for the Passionate Grower (2002, Artisan) – still a useful book, but this new one is at least twice as large physically and has nearly three times the page count, most every one featuring stunning photography by Victor Schrager (from those early Martha Stewart Living magazines that we all hoard secretly in our closets).

Many melon groups and varieties are broken out into detailed sections with historical facts and many corrections to legends and lore that often comes with heirloom varieties of vegetables.

I could go on and on about each of Amy’s books and about how useful and beautiful they are, but really – experience them for yourself.  Few, if any gardening books, in my opinion, offer such a wealth of accurate and well-researched information as do Amy’s. A long-time philanthropist with hands in many initiatives ranging from global issues concerning agriculture, food supplies, and nature, Amy is well known amongst most scientists involved in agricultural crop research (particularly Cucurbitaceae and tomatoes) and not surprising – to gardening geeks.

Amy’s experience, support, and involvement in other passion projects connect her to a wealth of information and resources few have access to. The best part is that this book is also written and illustrated in such a way that it’s like a documentary because it entertains, inspires and delights us. It’s easy to get the big picture regardless of how experienced you are. It’s organized by the key groups of melons which helps one understand their fundamental differences.  There are precise descriptions about each melon variety, with history and facts, information on how to get seed and how to grow them to perfection. 

In a nutshell, here is what makes Amy’s books so valuable. She is one of the very few authors who approaches her topics with expertise garnered not just from years of research but from first-hand from experience. I know this because Joe and I have been fortunate to visit her farm in upstate New York, we’ve toured through the fields of squashes, heirloom, and new ones, through acres of tomatoes, fields, and fields of peppers, and we’ve seen (and yes, tasted) many of here hundred of heirloom and new melons. I mean, even seed catalogs rarely grow everything that they sell.  her approach is old-school, 19th-century farm-style. Her fields are her laboratory and serve a bit like a museum of human agriculture.  One goes to the Museum of Natural History in New York City to see the floor with the skeletons of all the giant land sloths in one room, and one goes to Amy Goldman’s farm in September to see almost every variety of melon known to humankind all in one barn.

Melons on Amy Goldman’s farm are trialed often for years (some up to seven, others even longer) before she writes about them. Each is subjected to tests for sugar content, taste and in the kitchen.  Amy makes notes year after year in trials before writing about a melon, noting cultural quirks and performance in the field as well as noting failures and successes.  The information in this book in invaluable, but somehow, so readable, I can’t even think of a book that does all of this. Her farm is life the ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ for gardeners.

I won’t wax on, but know that beyond the research, artistic photography and beautiful book design thanks to Doyle and Partners, the written word is by far even more useful. Like any of Amy’s previous books there are fascinating stories behind every heirloom variety, clear descriptions about the merits of each variety, be they luscious, sweet-as-candy or ‘not-worth pig fodder’. I find the lists of synonyms most useful as many of us know, over centuries, varieties often get muddled.

Few, if any books can create spreads like those seen in this book. Photographer Victor Schrager actually creates a studio inside Amy Goldman’s barn as she hauls in melon after melon from her fields all summer long. Freshly picked, identified, labeled and photographed is only part of the story here. 

Oh, and this. As my friend Jess said one day over the Holiday when I was talking about this book: “who the Hell would buy a gardening book that is just all about melons?”
OK, well, I would, and I rarely grow melons, but I know that I can (I know this because every few years I do, and I never regret it because melons are one of the few fruits that you can rarely buy ripe and locally-grown. This means the few of us have ever truly experienced what made melons so popular centuries ago. I’m not kidding, melons are worth growing in much the same way that tomatoes are.

I appreciate any book that has step-by-step photos in it, especially when it if for something like how to pollinate or crossbreed cucurbits like melons or cucumbers. 

Amy’s book THE MELON has details about how to grow them well, how to sow them and start them early, and how to navigate around any problems. Even if you don’t plan on growing melons, this book is a great read, informative on many levels and useful if you are a home chef, professional chef or just an amateur foodie.  I should mention that Amy’s is a rather good cook herself, and has included many recipes in the back of the book with stunning photos so even armchair gardeners might find this book useful as a cookbook!

Ken Druse’s newest work THE SCENTUAL GARDEN  is much more than just. a book with photos, it’s a journal of discoveries, learnings, and inspiration that any gardener will appreciate.

THE SCENTUAL GARDEN – Exploring the World of Botanical Fragrance
by Ken Druse (Abrams, 2019)

ll disclosure – I learned about Ken’s new book a couple of years ago while I was setting up the national show of the American Primrose Society at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. A long fan of artist Ellen Hoverkamp who mentioned to me that she was working with Ken on a book idea he had about fragrant plants (Ellen created many of the montage photos in this book with here unique photo-scanner style that she has made so famous). She said that she was going to stay late at the garden to see if she could photograph some of the lemon trees for the citrus assemblage that she was working on, when I offered that if she wanted, she could stop by my garden on her way home to Connecticut to see if there were any fragrant plants there that she or Ken might want to use.

This book has both artistic photos and garden photos. This allows one to view all the similarities and differences with ‘like-plants’ such as these alliums, but also see how they might look like growing in the garden.

In the end, a few plants did make it into the book from my garden (a page on daphne species, some bulb plants, and citrus), but I almost forgot about this book until Ken had emailed me near the end of the editing process asking me for some descriptions about the unique fragrance of a few bulbs. If you own any of Ken’s books then you know about his approach, background, and expertise. Few garden authors today brings such a wealth of experience to a book. His years as one of New York’s premier photographers (back when photography was truly an art form with 8×10 transparencies and large format cameras). This means that Ken brings not only the eye for excellence and lighting with his photos, but he also brings knowledge that few today can combine which in my opinion makes him the ideal photo editor, garden writer and book designer. Believe me, I know what it takes to create a well-designed book in a digital world! I can only imagine what working with Ken might have been like from his publishers’ perspective, but I would imagine and hope that Abrams (very respectfully) appreciated his input and control.

When a plant lover and serious plantsperson creates a book about something like fragrance, no stone is left unturned. Fragrance can mean ‘stinky’ or alluring, but Ken Druse digs deeper into all sorts of adjacencies with plants and how or why they use fragrance and scent. It’s a fascinating read.

This book is stunning (no surprise, what Druse book isn’t) but while even I thought that maybe it was just a photo book discovered that moment that I opened it that it is much, much more. Ken writes about how the scent was appreciated (and sometimes, not) in ancient times to today. He taps into details about the complexities of the fragrance industry, examines the chemistry of flowers and the plants we both love the smell of and hate, and he then goes into greater detail about groups of plants and flowers that share similar scents, with descriptions worthy of a wine connoisseurs notebook or a cheese monger’s book of descriptions (hello: baryardy?). I’ve been keeping this book by my bedside at night then bring it downstairs on snowy days to read through near my plant window – just because it’s that good. It’s one of those few books that I have to resist enjoying it too quickly, just because I don’t want the experience to end.

Ellen Hoverkamp’s artwork using a laser scanner and plants from gardens that she has access to round out this book with beauty and celebration, capturing each season or even each week of bloom from real gardens. Anyone who grows plants will recognize these relationships in her images.

Both of these books are art. They are ‘work’s that will never be in that pile of books that gets earmarked for the trash bin or for donation (you know what I mean!). These books will bring you joy (over and over again). They are not one-read-wonders.

I also should preface this post with the fact that  I purchased Ken Druse’s book myself on Amazon and Amy Goldman’s I accepted gratis from her publicist as a review copy (of course, I was pre-ordering it anyway!). As always, my reviews and recommendations are my own and always come honestly after reading a book in its totality. I like books, what can I say? I also not afraid to advise when a book wasn’t right for me, or if it fails to deliver what was promised.

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Tulips, Alliums and thoughts about spring Bulbs https://gardern.co.za/2019/10/tulips-alliums-and-my-current-thoughts/ https://gardern.co.za/2019/10/tulips-alliums-and-my-current-thoughts/#comments Wed, 02 Oct 2019 01:44:00 +0000 Dare yourself to try tulips in colors you normally would not plant. A red tulip may be more complex in color than you might...

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Dare yourself to try tulips in colors you normally would not plant. A red tulip may be more complex in color than you might imagine it to be. Find yourself hating orange? What if it was a deep persimmon color flushed with purple, violet and magenta? Tulips offer all sorts of color options far beyond the slick, commerical studio photo may indicate.

It’s nearly too late to order bulbs, but there is still a bit of time (do it now!). I am high on bulb-ordering and planting right now, and thought that I might share some new insights and ideas I have about my bulb planting schemes, and some from others that I recently discovered.

Ordering bulbs is one of those things that sometimes overwhelms me. I am experienced enough to know that in July I must order the rarest of the rare which often must be imported from overseas – Latvia or Lithuania (and as such, the cut-off date for these smaller European nurseries is before Aug. 1st – not to mention that things sell out quickly). Not that I order all that much anymore from Ruksans or that Lithuanian crocus nursery, but sometimes I try to remember, and if lucky, I get a few treasures. 

Bulb planting and curating is indeed an art, and a craft that good gardeners keep perfecting over their lifetime. The good news is that bulbs are rather fool-proof, so there is no bad time to begin, and fear of messing it up is rarely a threat. Still, when it all comes together and you discover the ideal combination of bulbs in the garden, the effect can be extraordinary. Far too often, especially in the US, we plant bulbs as an afterthought. We pick up a few – a dozen of these, 24 of those, some crocus for along the walk, maynbe a frittilaria or three and feel that we are doing the right thing. Most of us learn by seeing, and it seems every year we are pushing oursleves to try something new. One neight has an amazing display of giant allium and soon others invest in a dozen or six, to flank their walk or set in the border. But what else could you do?

I say…let’s raise the bar much higher. Plant complex matrixes in our perennial borders. Push ourselves to try colors that we wouldnt dare buy or combine. Plant something you’ve never grown before. Break the rules and try combining two, three, eight colors that make you feel uncomfortable. Blow your budget by investing in 100 bulbs of just one type – like giant frittilaria imperialis or F. persica and see what happens.
Tulips combined with other spring bulbs and flower from my garden (in this rejected photo from my new book) show how surprisingly well they all combine together. Of course, such density doesnt happen in the garden, but notice how red and white striped tulips here and there play against other bulbs like the frittilaria.
After that, I seem to get lazy. Or, maybe just dazed and confused with all of the choices offered in the main-stream imported Dutch bulb catalogs. This shouldn’t stall me. I have been growing bulbs since I was very young begging my mom to let me buy bulbs at a local discount store (Spag’s in Shrewsbury, MA) at around the same time I would be asking my dad to buy me Matchbox cars. Im sure that at young age, I would choose colors that I probably would never buy today, as experimenting in a garden is a right of passage for most gardeners. Plant fearlessly and learn.
We may think that the harsh-coloring of tulips like this red and yellow parrot tulip are too extreme for us, but in a garden that is still mostly grey and brown, it stands out and acually feels very natural.
Don’t get me wrong, I love color, and after 30 years as a graphic and product designers – I love to experiment and play with palettes – but back then, I was probably more likely to be moved by a fancy striped ‘Rembrant’ tulip than being as strategic as creating a palette and an integrated garden design. The funny thing is, I’ve never walked away from those streaked and striped ‘Rembrant’-type tulips, in fact, I am even more interested in sourcing the correct ‘Rembrant’ types – those that actually have the virus that causes the window-paneing and streaks – but sadly, they are hard if not impossible to find easily in the US anymore (and the very great ones, while available in the UK, are always sold out by the time I remember to order some),
I am always pleased with this combination in very late winter or early spring. Maybe becasue it is like fire or ‘heat’? But it totally works in my garden.
This past weekend I had the incredible honor to be asked by the Massachusetts Master Gardeners annual Symposium. Joining three other speakers, I stayed for the entire day and learned much more than I thought I might. The topics were perfectly timed for the season, with noted bulb expert Jacqueline van der Kloet author of the new book ‘A Year in My Garden’  that will be available in the US next February on Amazon (it’s available in the UK sooner, however). 

Here in the states you may know of her work in planning the fantastic bulb palette at the Chicago Lurie garden, (or that blue allee of scillas and other blue minor bulbs at the Bedford, NY home of Martha Stewart). Jacqueline’s slide show was very inspirational for me, as not only do I enjoy seeing how others combine their bulbs, but it changed how I think about choosing and planting bulbs. You can visit her website to see how she combines bulbs and plants, but I’d say get her book as well. She layers a matrix across an entire garden or bed, often mixing bulbs within perennials and grasses as the Dutch tend to do to make gorgeous communities of plants.
I should mention that the other two speakers were Paul Zammit – the Director of Horticulture from the Toronto Botanical Gardens, and Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter. (I know, right? How could I forget that line up?). Fergus had many slides with bulbs, as did Paul who showed them mostly in containers, but still so inspirational. Seeing three accomplished gardeners share their ideas on what one can do with bulbs had me staying up all night ordering tulips. These seminars are dangerous.
Now, this year, I was a good boy and ordered many of my tulips and bulbs earlier (just a few weeks ago), starting with bulbs sell out quickly, a(mostly Madonna lilies) and galanthus varieties so with me, a deadline is always good, but for everything else, I keep stalling and making list after list, usually committing only once I start seeing my favorite varieties selling out. I hate that feeling. My problem is usually that I cant make up my mind.
In gardening, we are often taught to plant great numbers of one variety together, and while this works well with many plants, it can be boring. Imagine this bed of tulips with two more varieties of contrasting or similar colors, or smaller bulbs are perennials scattered throughout.
Jacqueline van der Kloet focused three points – the color palette, the transitions between the various bulb seasons -and how to integrate bulbs into borders or with other plants. So imagine a bed of perennials and interplanted bulbs through the entire spring season. It can begin with smaller bulbs, the early ones like snow drops and crocus, and then transition along with early emerging perennials into one stage of early to mid-season tulips and maybe narcissus in one color palette, and then how that same bed could move into a late-spring statement, maybe with giant alliums and the tallest tulips that were late-blooming. I think in this country, we forget to weave in a web of densly planted bulbs of many types within our perennial borders. Instead we either clump types together, or we place a few allium and call it a day.
Both Fergus and Jacquiline used similar varieties as well, which surprised me as maybe I was missing something. Sure there were muscari and scillas set out as a carpet – even forgetmenots, self seeded in pools of color usually over planted with a red or apricot Darwin or early tulip, but then tall and magestic late blooming tulips scattered throughout a bed with emerging perennials took over – and more than one color sprinkled around a border as if they too self seeded in amongst the perennials and other bulbs. Both used lily-flower tulips that bloom late, but are very tall – like brilliant orange ‘Ballerina’ tulips and ‘Merlot’, a deep wine colored one with vase -shaped buds. Two tulips I would never think of buying when I see them in catalogs. 
A mid of colored tulips works well, but while this formal English bedding scheme of nothing but tulips works here at Tower Hill; Botanic Garden, few of us have the time and dollars to pull out an entire Victorian bedding scheme once it is complete to install something else. I do plant a few rows like this around the garden, near the greenhouse or along a drive, but always remember that you can create your own mix of tulips and sprinkle them through a border of perennials.
Top back this up, ‘Merlot’ shows up frequently on top Euro garden designers ‘favortie plants’ lists. So I need to order some, as apparantly the color blends in well with other plants, and it is of a shade of purple that works well in the garden. I mean – let’s face it, some tulips in purple are too dark or just receded when viewed in the garden. Others are too lavender, or feel out of place in the natural setting. 
Now here’s the thing about tulips – something I learned early-on in my career when I used to help install spring flower show displays in the late 1970’s – There is hardly a bad combination of colors when it comes to tulips. So honestly, mixing up a bunch of similar or even different colors is often not a bad idea. Most colors work well, but if you are committed to a scheme or want to curate a particular palette, it’s not a bad idea to mix three different varieties of the same or similar color. A peachy pink, a dark pink and a magenta, for example. Many of us have learned this lesson with dahlias, but now let’s take it to tulips. I want to plant a bed of all the red tulip shades together to see if it will convince me that solid red tulips can be beautiful in the garden.
Tulip colors are often much more complex than we imagine that they are. A wine colored variety with an orange one may seem like it wouldnt work, but once you examine the colors in a petal, you can begin to see the variety of tones and layers in a blossom that might make you rethink how you combine colors. Solid or bi-colored pre-curated mixed sometimes feel sterile compared to a complex mix of bulbs.
We tend to make crazy rules about color, which I understand but not if you have never grown that particular plant and have seen it in flower in your garden. I’ve worked with a few clients this spring who had very strict rules about the colors they wanted with their tulips. And while I tried to convince them that in springtime, combinations like orange and purple are extraordinary once viewed in a spring garden (particularly one that is still mostly brown or grey, with lime green growth emerging) but I think many people just imagine a harsh Sunkist orange (as in a closeup of a tulip photo in a catalog) and seeing the entire picture – meaning, the low-angle setting spring sunshine which is so bright and direct, especially when it illuminates the petal from an angle, and the atmospheric tones of a spring garden – mostly every shade of greyish brown – essentially a canvas of earthy colors (more grey on overcast days, and more chocolate and cocoa on sunny days) all with speckles of lime green foliage on branch tips, or reddish emerging tips on perennials). 
Look at the colors on this parrot tulip. On an overcast day, it’s almost blue or violet – yet a photo in a catalog may look simply bright red. Light is everything when it comes to tulips and most bulbs, and the fact that this purple-blushy red tulip blooms when the garden is still mostly brown, granite and grey? Means that it looks outstanding in the landscape.
We really need to think like artists or painters and not interior designers when we choose our spring palettes with bulbs (or even annuals). I mean – you may not be interested in white flowers, but snowdrops? How precious are those in February or March? You never think about a color palette when planting those bulbs. They ‘fit’ perfectly with dried woodland leaves, composting branches and bits of the remaining show. 
‘Black tulips’ which are really dark violet, always seem like a good idea, but just be sure to site them well. They need distance behind them or light-green foliage somwhere to add contrast. If you do the often mimiced scheme of black and white together the effect can even be worse, as the white tulips will stand out and the dark ones will recede. Think first then plant.
So imagine tulips now. I’ve experienced great excitement with tulips that few might think are attractive in the garden – those bright yellow and red or maroon-streaked varieties like ‘Hellmar’, ‘Gavotta’ or brighter yet – ‘Keizerkroon’ or a favorite ‘Bright Parrot’ which to many with taste, may seem like a clown-pants inspired combo, but there is a reason why it is the one parrot that sells out first in most catalogs – when you see it in full bloom in the brown and grey garden of April? You instantly ‘get it’. It ‘works’ then, and only then. Even better when combined with the deep purple of Muscari or the blues of hyacinths – I mean – It’s spring 100%. And it’s a combo that would never work in June or even in high summer where it truly would be considered tasteless and eye-bleeding, but in April or May? It is completely acceptable and creates joy in much the same way Easter pastels do in March, but never in October.
Here dark tulips set against a light background work great. Even on an overcast day.
Speaking of pastels colors and Easter colors – in the garden, that palette can often be dull. You need to push it a bit into Sweet Tart bliss with the addition of other candy colors to really make it work. What I mean is, again – a palette that can work in the grey and brown canvas of early spring will rarely work any later once the foliage emerges in the garden. I often have to remind new flower gardeners that while planning a garden in winter is fun and important (the process of cutting out photos of flowers from seed catalogs or using screen-grabs to create an idea board), the reality is often very different once you get the plants out into the garden. 


Most tulips pair well with each other, but I find that the pure or solid colors like solid pink or solid red are often the most difficult to use outdoors. Be open to using shaded tones, light orange to dark orange combined with purple, or many shades of orange (which in tulips often include bits of pink) combined with other colors.


We should all pay attention to the total atmosphere of space. Reflected light, the angle of light, what the plants will be set against, a dark hedge or a distant view, even a fence that is painted white. Remember that the real garden experience is often missed by planning merely on paper or on-screen. More often than not, we forget that a garden is mostly all green (or brown and tan in spring).
Similarly to the black-tulip -juxtaposition concept, lime green and burgundy foliage on perennials and shrubs in early spring can be used as a great effect with tulips. Notice the tulip foliage which often is a harsh, kelly green that does little to enhange the blooms, but the gold tradescantia and peony foliage add as much color to the canvas as the tulips do.
I like to encourage folks to first take notes and digital photos (scroll back on the pics you took the past few seasons – flag those that worked, or ones that revealed insights that surprised you, and also mark what didn’t work. I do both, and often my notes in a notebook are the most useful, then backed up with photos that are visual. In this way, my handwritten notes reminded me that all of those borders with purple, white and pink tulips I saw at posh suburban gardens were – well, yawwwwnnnn. While a few with the sparkle of Princes Irene orange tulips and violet tulips with an underplanting of Muscari were ‘wow’. 
Tulip ‘Princes Irene’ is a long-time favorite of mine. Many might think of it as simply an orange tulip, but depending on the light that particular day, it can look burginy feathered with a blush of lavender frost across the entire petal, or purple againse persimmon. It pairs perfectly with blue Muscari or scilla. It’s dark stems too make it a standout in a spring garden.
The combination made my heart race and it felt like spring. I also noted down why, because Princes Irene is a unique tulip – one that has a faint feathering on violet on the outside of the petals – over the ‘orange’ (and while I realize that orange is a polarizing color’ this ain’t no orange tulip – it’s a complex blend of colors (like most good tulips) that changes over time. Once you add the airbrushing of pale lavender blush over the deep persimmon of the bloom and the violet feathering, along with the dark stems and foliage – and the underplanting of deep violet muscari, and you can instantly see why this is a favorite of botanical garden planners, good garden designers, and again, why it sells out early. Also, it was featured on the cover of last years’ White Flower Farm catalog.

‘Broken’ or ‘Rembrant’ types are always a favorite with me.
WHAT I HAVE ORDERED FOR MY GARDEN
This year, I am ordering 100 each of the tall, lily flowered tulips – ‘Ballerina’ (orange) and ‘Merlot’. If both experts use them in their gardens, I must try – and it does make sense, at least in dense, community plantings which are essentially the borders I have here (a combo of grasses, small shrubs, perennials and self-sowing annuals). I need tall tulips to emerge through all of the growth and to float above the bright foliage -much of which is lime green or purple.
‘Gavotta’ is a dark wine colored tulip with custard colored edges, another favortie of mine as it fits nicely into the landscape, but it is harder to mix in with other tulips.
I also am designing an earlier matrix of multi-flowered narcissus, muscari, scilla to provide early color, and a secondary palette of Early Tulips, that is more traditional ‘spring’, if you will – Easter candy-colored blooms ranging from ‘Apricot Beauty’ tulips, to lavender, ones white brushed with red, and pale yellow brushed with white ‘Vancouver’. I love this combo which when combined with Muscari ‘Valerie Finnis’ reminds me of the old, spring flower shows that I used to go to as a kid at Horticultural Hall in my home town on Worcester, MA.
In the greenh
This winter I am forcing a collection of swarf iris -mostly Iris reticulata named selections, not just because they are easy, but because they are beautiful, and interesting when viewed as a collection with all of the varieties.
 They are also rather inexpensive.

Let’s not forget forcing bulbs. If you plant to do any forcing, these too are best to order first so that you can get them chilling. I’m planting my bulbs for forcing this week – as I need 16 weeks of vernal cooling. This year I am focusing on growing all of the dwarf iris I can get my hands on (so far 25 varieties of I. reticulata). They are easy (yes, I am lazy and impatient at times), and I can take them out from under then benches near the foundation where they chill near 38° F as early as New Years’ Day, to provide a boost of spring color both in the greenhouse and indoors briefly in mid-January. 
Iris reticulata bulbs are placed into plastic pots with a quick-draining potting mix, and kept outdoors until November or when hard-freezes threaten as I dont want the bulbs to freeze. They then are moved to a location which is dark and just above freezing until New Year’s Day or after. For me, that’s in the greenhouse on the floor under a bench but you might try an isulated beer cooler on your porch or in an unheated garage or shed that doesnt freeze.
Of course, paperwhites have been ordered – most of the various varieties because I love the scent of cat pee (really, they all smell good to me), and some smaller forcing narcissus – particularly the hoop miniatures, which have become very inexpensive this year for some reason (the ‘Julia Jane’ strain) which I pot up thickly in 4 inch pots. These too will add cheer in January and February.
I can already imagine what my plant windows will look like starting in late January with the forced bulbs, but it does take some planning -which is sometimes difficult in late summer and early autumn with other tasks calling you.
I am working of a bit of a mini-master plan of the garden, in an attempt to just be more mindful about what I plant. The new borders and walks where the putting green used to be, isn’t complete yet as I spent the summer working on my new book, but there are spots where I want to plant different combinations of things. One side path that leads to the old stone long walk has about 8 feet shaded by a tall Picea japonica ‘Skylands’. The soil here is perfectly loamy and well-draining, and I filled it with turks cap lilies (Asiatic pendant ones) last year, which did very well. I trialed a few Fritillaria pallidiflora here for the past two years, and they thrived so this year I am adding 40 more. A little excessive but I’ve learned that investing in a big show with some plants is much better than getting just 5, or 10. It’s an excellent habit to exercise with any plant in the garden. 
My TIp for you? Keep your tulip bulbs cool, and not indoors until you plant them. THe buds inside tulips can abort in room-temperature settings (like a hardware store).  Also avoid discount tulips if they have been mistreatred – a local supermarket keeps thier bulbs outside too late in the season and I know they have frozen many times before being sold. Ideally, good garden centers will keep them in a cool room, and not expose them to hot temperatures. When in doubt, mail order is often the best way to get bulbs at the right time for planting.
Of course, before investing in significant numbers of one plant, it’s always good to trial them. I have killed many fritillaria imperialis over the years, but I have one yellow one in a certain spot that has bloomed annually for over 20 years. In this spot, I want to plant a larger collection of them, but as they are costly to invest in, I will wait a year or two. This year I am still ordering a few smaller lots of other bulbs (tulips in various colors) and narcissus) to ‘trial’ as one really should observe them ‘in the garden’ on-site, to see how the colors really look in the unique light and colors of your garden. I sometimes just plant these smaller lots in the veg garden, because I can use them as cut flowers, moving them later if I love the combos into the borders.
Alliums were never really all that interesting to me, but lately, I’ve appreciated their value. I’m referring here to the large if not gigantic and tall alliums like ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Ambassador.’ While costly, (and always worth it if you can spare not eating for a month) when May arrives, one rarely regrets all of that ramen. To make things more afforable, I’ve learned to tier-out various large alliums, not buying as many of the super-sized ones, just a few. I plant 6-12 of each giant variety filling in with smaller ones. The reality ends up being about 25 per bed, but again, they are being mixed-together with other bulbs and perennials and together, put on a sensational show that doesn’t break the bank.
Cut-flower farms for tulips are becoming more commom like this one in Rhode Island, but notice how the rows of colors are rather uninteresting. These places are a great place to see lots of varieties together though, and if labeled, make notes of how you imagine certain colors being planted together.
Jacquiline showed how she mixes and planted large amounts of bulbs in the mixed borders. She has her team mix up a batch of bulbs in a wheelbarrow and then tosses then into a border so that they land irregularly spaced. On commissioned sites, she has the border mown, so that one can see the bulbs, and then a team goes in and moving from one end of a bed to the other, they get planted.
Jacquiline did share a tip – which she sometimes has to use, which is after they toss around all of the bulbs, she sets out apples where the allium might go, as these are bulbs that are sometimes shipped separately and you don’t want to shove a spade into an expensive fritillaria! While randomness is encouraged when spacing bulbs, there are placed were rows work (at least in my garden). I don’t mind a tidy row of something lined along a path if it is well-curated with tiers and interest.
There have been years when I tried mixed that were just ‘too expected’ or too pretty, if that could be a thing. This mix just wasnt for me as it felt a little too contrived or matchy matchy.
Mostly though, all of us agreed that mixed planting is the way to go, with a natural approach that is both modern and respectful of nature. Such garden is not only good pollinator communities but ecosystems, a point Fergus made when they had Great Dixter audited recently  (2017) to discover the biodiversity. I don’t have the details as I forgot my notebook, but his first response from the government authorities on such matters was more of a nod, as they expressed that a ‘garden’ that is cultivated may not be as diverse as natural woodland or meadow would be. The results were staggering in favor of a garden is more varied – discovering even rare bees and other animals that shocked the auditors.
 I think we get caught up in things like permaculture, so-called ‘bad invasives’ and native plants – all very important, of course, but we fail to recognize the complex plant communities of our own gardens. Great Dixter even established a Biodiversity Committee in 2012, a lesson that many American public gardens could learn from or introduce, as few of us think about biodiversity in the cultivated and curated garden. We know that pollinators appreciate a mixed community, but so do other species. Learning that these complex relationships exist in the artificial or curated space is proving to be just as important as those in wild sites. I really want to learn more about this in the future.
Don’t forget to plant plenty of bulbs for cut flowers too.  Often these choices are different than tulips I might choose for the borders. Darker colors are stylish now, and in a vase or indoors they can often be more effective than in the garden.
That does raise a point however, that I want to research more, after being prompted to consider writing about how spring bulbs are ‘good for pollinators’ by a gardening organization. As with most topics suggested to me, I started to dig a little deeper on the subject, always questioning and proof checking my sources to see, for example, if snowdrops are indeed an excellent source of pollen for early emerging bees. I quickly learned that no, they are not, as are not most spring-blooming bulbs. Sure, bees do visit these flowers, but often at risk. Honey bees may benefit the most (they are non-native, remember) but the native bees rarely visit these flowers, and aside from Bumblebees, few if any native pollinators visit imported plants this early in the spring. One study at Cornell even looked at how such plantings can harm native bees, acting like ‘ bird feeders’ in winter – where finches and migratory seed eaters begin to depend on a site and source, that only briefly appears off-season, thus luring them into an environment that won’t consistently deliver food and energy.
What I learned (briefly) was that native plants that bloom early are the best for native bees and pollinators. Pussy willows, for example, or Skunk cabbage. Shrubs that bloom early are ideal as well, as they last longer and thrive consistently when the weather is truly right where a snowdrop blooms when it is too cold, and while irresistible for pollinators, often attracts them to their death or crocus which will open for an hour if the sun is positioned to their liking and the temperature is just perfect, but will close as soon as a cloud passes over or when snow flurries strike.
It is bulb planting season but I cant start until next week. Still, keeping up with the orders as they come in is often a chore. My advice is to plant as they arrive, and don’t save them up for a bulb planting day, as the task could be too much to undertake in a single day.
For now, I need to go plant bulbs as the boxes are arriving.
I know. Most of us don’t have a team when it comes to planting bulbs. A task I always forget about until that time comes when on that gorgeous fall day, I have to commit to digging and planting a thousand bulbs by myself. Fergus had a slightly easier plan, and that was to set in one bulb at a time around existing perennials (which is what I will probably do). He
Lastly, you have permission to order all that you want now, as I just placed my orders today 🙂
One must protect one’s resources~!

Some of last years tulips in my garden combined with primroses and anemones show how well many colors do go together.

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It’s Just Art. Curating Botanic Harmony and Some Common Sense Gardening https://gardern.co.za/2019/08/its-just-art-curating-botanic-harmony/ https://gardern.co.za/2019/08/its-just-art-curating-botanic-harmony/#comments Mon, 19 Aug 2019 02:04:00 +0000 Just as an artist creates a composition, what we choose to grow and how we combine it with others in the garden is As...

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Just as an artist creates a composition, what we choose to grow and how we combine it with others in the garden is

As with the arts (music, fine art, or any human creative endeavor), horticulture combines many fascets of influences to get to a new creation. It also involves talent, learned skills., and then, of course, nature itself – which we have very little control over. Gardening is part science and part art, but not always is it an equal split. That depends on our approach to gardening.

I’m often asked about a particular gardening trend, what I support, and what I don’t do. While I’m honestly not trying to duck out of a direct answer, I feel that I do a little bit of all the trends combined.  Gardening for me is more about the plants themselves.  I understand and appreciate gardens and the gardeners who have created them regardless of their purpose. Yet while our garden isn’t as noble as let’s say a pollinator garden (comprised of just native plants)?  It is a product of and a reflection of the folks who created it. A bit of this and that. I imagine that most people who garden have a garden like that.

What I can say is that this garden is not a purists garden at all. In fact, it’s a messy, weedy collector garden (which is why I never have garden tours and rarely allow visitors as most people would be surprised by how messy it is. What you see here on the blog is carefully photographed to show only the nicer parts.

ORDERING IRIS AND BULBS
Yes, it’s that time again. In fact, it’s a little late to order some bulbs. I always seem to miss out on ordering the super rare crocus from Latvia or Lithuanian nurseries as the cut off date is Aug. 1, but I did just get a large order of Bearded Iris placed – something in the past I always missed out. Late summer is not only the best time to plant these rhizomes, but it’s the only time to really get the greatest varieties from iris nurseries, All of the iris you find at garden centers come through ‘the trade’, and are generally older if not ancient varieties that meet some sort of criteria such as they don’t mind growing in nursery pots, or they multiply well for the trade, or they are inexpensive to get because they are older varieties.

Most plant people will agree, while the commercial trade has plenty of extraordinary plants to offer today, even more are available from the actual plant breeders or specialty nurseries who carry hundreds of varieties that may never be selected for commercial propagation either because their color didn’t meet a buyers taste level, or the plant grows too tall for shelves, or it doesn’t bloom or grow well in a nursery container, or it doesn’t propagate easily or quickly – the list is long, but I can say this – the finest looking plants never make the final cut for one reason or another.

I imagine that your garden is producing as well as ours is right now. I mean – it’s mid-August, and tomoatoes abound along with cucumbers, peppers and herbs. I’ve found myself making seasonal favorites like gazpacho (because it is still so hot and humid) and Lithuanian chilled Beet Soup (with fresh buttermilk dill and hot, new potatoes set into the icy, bright pink broth. Classic summer fare around here when it is too hot to prepare anything in the afternoons. Any time of year other than August and these dishes would seem out of place.

The garden does dictate what we eat most of the time – whether we want it to or not. There are only so many days when I can eat yellow wax beans or sweet corn (well, nearly every day for the corn!). The rest needs to be ‘put-up’ which of course, always coincides with the hottest day of the year – just when you really want to be using a pressure cooker!

I’m not growing as many veggies this year as last, we don’t really have the room, but the few tomato plants we have are keeping us surprisingly at our tomato limit. I usually over-plant but maybe just a dozen plants or so is really enough for two guys?

Late crops – those planted now for autumn and early winter harvest are becoming my thing lately. This year I have planted some branching purple sprouting broccoli, late winter cabbage, and kale. I’ve found that younger plants set out in August produce quickly as soon as the weather turns cool (which is only a month away!). The broccoli is new for me this year, and I’m trying not to use floating row covers on it – tolerating any insect damage and butterfly larvae until harvest, which should be after a hard frost. We’ll see how that goes!

How many lilies are enough? I really don’t know yet! I’m kind of reaching my limit though on fragrance in the house!

I do try to curate parts of the garden, but mostly what is ‘curated’ are collector plants grown in pots that go back into the greenhouse in the winter (camellias, succulents, bonsai) and the rest are whatever we felt like adding at the moment while shopping at Logees or at a plant sale.

Part of the ‘collection’ is the annual standby’s – the old bay laurel topiary, a huge gardenia, about ten large tubs of citrus and agapanthus – all specimen plants that are hauled out of the greenhouse every spring, and dragged back in ever autumn. I sometimes call these the burdon plants, as, after ten years or so, you are just ‘taking care of them’, as they often lose their appeal, but they are too much of an investment in time and heat to let go of. This may be the year we do that, however, as not working anymore means that I should probably allow the greenhouse to freeze without heat for a few months. I know that I say that every year, but this time we may actually do it.

Another view of the deck planting this summer. A little bit of everything.

It may be good practice to learn to let go of some plants, especially those that can be replaced easily. Working as a horticulturist this spring and summer I’ve watched many nice homeowners in suburban Boston buy full-grown agapanthus and other container plants – wholesale, and in full bud to grow just as summer container specimens, and then allow them to freeze dead in the winter – treating them as annuals.

Somehow we are still living with our agapanthus collection as if we are on a big estate  – dragging them into the greenhouse every fall, fertilizing them and dividing them, and then bringing them out in spring. This was the old way of keeping many conservatory plants in the North (I know, you Californian and southern growers are thinking “what’s all this fuss about plain ol’ agapanthus?”, but they are a precious plant here in the North).

The Spencer sweet peas were very tall this year, and the flower stems longer than they have ever been. Most bloomed well into July but are just finishing up.

COMMON SENSE GARDENING

I get so many emails sent to me about all sorts of things, but soil management and fertilizing are the most common questions. Knowing what a plant needs is a good place to start, but that doesnt mean that you need to be a chemist and must adjust the iron or calcium in your soil. If you add plenty of organic plant material to your soil (i.e. composted leaves and maybe clean horse manure) all the nutrients a plant needs should be there. At least as far as vegetables goes.

Horse manure was certainly easy to come by a hundred years ago, but today that’s a whole different story.  I do use mostly manure in our garden, but it comes from our poultry coops. I will sometimes add lime as our soil is acidic, for ccertain crops that grow and access nurtients better in a slightly alkaline soil (like spinach, or with Christmas Cactus in pots, for example) but other than that, the only fertilizer I use is a chemical based one and only for plants growing in the greenhouse or in containers, as those are leeched out by heavy watering and are growing in a soilless mix.

I call this common sense gardenings, for most of the time plants tell you what they need. In our beds, the absolute finest treatment is a spread of compost and manure in the spring as a mulch, and then excellent irrigation through the summer. The annual flower beds I’ve planted this spring are taller than I am with this treatment.

I trialed some mini sweet peas this year, growing them in pots. I was very happy with the results. Hard to find, these came from the UK but I am on the hunt for more this coming year.

One of my favorite old-fashioned annuals (perennial, really, but an annual for most of us) is this white flowered Summer Gloxinia (Incarvillea sinensis). Very easy from seed, and just a terrific summer annual for containers, and one rarely seen.

Incarvillea sinensis, (summer gloxinia) is difficult to find at garden centers so you will need to raise it from seed, but that is easy once you find the seed! I bought mine from the British company Chiltern Seeds, and yes, they ship to the US. Start early underlights, and pinch them regularly. I planted about 9 plants in this 12-inch square slate pot, and it’s been putting on a show like this since about the middle of July, and doesnt seem to want to stop.

I adore marigolds. I love the smell of them. and the smell of them. I do. These are from some some heirloom seeds grown by my good friends at Bunker Farm in Vermont. Definately my go-to source for rare or unusual annuals. These are ‘Tangerine Gem and ‘Cinnabar’, both popular cut-flower farm varieties now but excellent for border that need height.

Scabiosa come into their own in the summer, and they last so long when cut for a vase. Sometimes longer than a week.

Another new favorire, and one I also got from Helen at Bunker Farm is this Rudbeckia triloba. I’m partial to wilder-looking rudbeckia more than the big, floppy hyrbids, and this one blends in so well in the garden, that I must plant lots of it next year. Easy enought from seed, I know that most likely it wont come back next year as most rudbeckia are semi-perennial, if not biennial in nature. It will always be safer to just plant lots of plants all toegher every year from seed started in mid-spring.

This is just one single plant, and look at it. Just a cloud of color, perfectly paired rusty tones with that chocolate button of an eye, and set against the agastache? I can only imagine what 24 plants together will be like. It’s tall, nearly 5 feet but it has flowers from stem to stern. Or top to bottom, all open at the same time. I am really enjoying the color palettes in this garden, setting cool violets against the lime yellow of goldenrod and then pops of hotter colors like this. Gardening IS art!

I’ve added some new gladiolus to the garden this year. These are from a Czech Republic breeder and come in incredible colors like rust, grey and this meat color. This one is gigantic as well.

Seedling trumpet lilies showing some interestig color patterns are still opening in the new border. The lilies in the new border are planted with all sorts of natives and near-natives (like selected named and sterile forms of Goldenrod). Its definately a weedier or more natural style of planting though as I experiment with self-seeders, grasses and more pollinator plants like agastache.

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Trumpet lilies just starting to end their show in the long border.

I’ve added a few new species lilies to the garden this summer. They provide the ‘look’ of native lilies, but our local L. canadense remains something that grows better in our woodland, but sadly most of them are lost due to a neighbor and his obsession with filling in a wetland behind our property.

‘Tiger Babies’ is a strain of L. lancifolium with pink tiget lily like blooms. I am a sucker for any turkscap-type lily or an Asiatic that is pendant. My first choice for all garden lilies. Another great lily for a more natural look.

When was the last time you saw this plant? I think of all the Amaranthus, this one A. tricolor is my favorite because it is so showy and uniquely so – just try fitting this into a color scheme or designer garden. Maybe a lakeside motel? That’s what the color palette reminds me of. Barkcloth from the 1950s or lithographs from the 1800s. Whatever – it’s totally old fashioned, vintage and rarely seen today – which means that it makes the cut in my garden.
Agapanthus blooming in the gravel garden. These are all in tubs and pots and are loaded with buds this year after transplanting 2 years ago. Some are 5 feet tall.

CONTAINER PLANTS

There are many potted plants here, which are easier to care for but which do take some time to water – daily. Their fertility needs to be adjusted through the summer, and many must be repotted as the soil acidity changes over a year in the same pot. Christmas cactus are repotted with a bit of lime, and in a loose mixture of compost and coir potting mix (professional potting mix), as they in particular do better and turn dark green when grown in fresh potting mix that isnt acidic.

Agapanthus are repotted or topdressed annually, but only divided every 4 or 5 years. They get a scoop of a slow-release Osmocote, (20-20-20) in the early summer, as do most of our plants. The citrus get a higher dose of iron, and an annual refresh of their soil with a new bag of ProMixBX. This keeps the flowering well and dark green with lots of fruit. Sometimes they get a booster of iron chelate but only if the soil is fresh.

What I do appreciate about out agapanthus is that they are varieties not commonly found in the trade. Most of the varieties found here in the North are commercially grown and forced into bloom early (really – most gardeners here think that they naturally bloom in early June becasue the plants that come in for mid-May sales are already well budded). Even the garden center sales people at the wholesale nurseries here tell me “oh, they’ll bloom all summer, don’t worry abour them being almost through flowering in late May.”) which is incorrect, of course. Our plants that were wintered over in the greenhouse bloom in Late July and August, and some of these varieties like ‘Storm Cloud’ are 5 feet tall. This is the way to grow agapanthus. Huge tubs with tall stalks and buds that emerge in mid-June.

Of course, flowers next year on agapanthus means that you need to care for your plants well this current summer by feeding them. for their embryonic flower buds are forming now for next year. This  means plenty of water, a balanced feed (10-10-10) and not allowing the crowns or roots of the plants to freeze. I’ll be sharing more info on how to get massive and gorgeous agapanthus plants in the North, in my new book ‘Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening’ that comes out next year, (sorry, it was time for a pitch!).

A few agapanthus taunting the hummingbirds this summer.

Gardenias are treated exactly the same way as the citrus, but the camellias get special care. Always top-dressed with new ProMix and then shredded bark wood mulch, and a sprinkle of Cottonseed meal on the surface of the soil (slow-release nitrogen), but also a liquid feed for acid-loving plants at half strength. Most of the camellias are growing in 12-inch pots and won’t be transplanted for many years. Their soil becomes depleted quickly.

Just have to share these begonias from our deck. Can anyone really have too many begonias in summer? Most look best near the end of August, even those that barely survived a winter indoors and lost all of their leaves. Repotted with fresh soil and summer shade and humidity – they do this.

 Begonias all go into fresh commercial potting mix in early summer. If they didn’t, they would just do practically nothing in their old mix. A bit of a slow release fertilizer in each pot (a teaspoon) and some additional compost keeps them growing strong and healthy.

In the borders little is done for fertilizer in the summer, as mostly the rain and compost is doing the trick. Some slow-release organic feeds that were applied when plants or bulbs were first planted are still doing their thing (kelp meal, bone meal, lime) but in the spring next year I may hit some beds with a sprinkle of superphosphate if I cant get a manure mulch from a horse farm.

A rejected cover shot from my new book ‘Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening’ due out next year.

The post It’s Just Art. Curating Botanic Harmony and Some Common Sense Gardening appeared first on Growing With Plants.

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