Garden In The Burrow

Here in The Burrow, it is all sunshine all the time.( Just to be clear I am referring to the garden, not the gardener lol).  There are very few shady spaces and that makes it easy to have waves of flowers season long in a brilliant blooming succession until a hard frost ends it all. The only issue I have found when planting in the sun is the dearth of great ground cover plants. So very many of my favorite ground covers are only happy in the shady parts of the garden and fry in my sun. I use many low growing sedums, dianthus, moss phlox  and some of the smaller campanula varieties here and there , but it wasn’t until I discovered verbena ‘Annie!’  that I was truly impressed.

Most of you are familiar with the annual verbenas that come on the market here in in May used either in hanging baskets or a the trailing plants in containers. I love them and use them repeatedly, but they are gone at seasons end. This verbena introduction was a cutting taken from a woman’s  garden ( the “Annie” in  verbena ‘Annie!’) in Minnesota ( which is darn cold ) where it had been surviving the winters and blooming like a fool . High Country Gardens is the place to get it, and do so fast, it often sells out.

I planted 3 a few years ago , and now have an impressive spread.

Verbena ‘Annie!’ has deeply cut foliage and sweet lavender-purple blooms that appear in late April and will continue non-stop until a hard frost in late October. No, don’t check your glasses, I really said late April to late October non-stop. As it trails along the ground it roots where it touches the soil , thus creating a happy mass of ground hugging flowers  or giving you new plants to spread  around the garden if you dig them up. I transplanted a few last week that had trailed down into a walkway where they did not belong. They were in full bloom, and never missed a beat in the move. As if you could ask for more, it is also lightly fragrant, sort of reminiscent of the scent of summer sweet , and when planted en masse the fragrance will  perfume the air . If you have just  a few you may need to get down near the ground to smell it, which is one of the very few pleasures of weeding I guess.

The only problem I have ever had is that it will suffer from powdery mildew as  the summer goes on in places that get a lot of overhead  irrigation (in the drier areas  it is fine). Although some of the foliage may look a little spotty you hardly notice as your attention is taken  by  all the flowers.

This plant certainly deserves not only the exclamation point that was given to it in its name, but also to be planted more frequently.

It is always a race here to see which clematis will bloom first, and this year it was like the Kentucky Derby. Several early blooming large flowered hybrids shot up quickly and budded out, but in the home stretch it has been ‘Elsa Spaeth’ and ‘Omoshiro’ that have been neck and neck with no way to tell who would open first, until today the winner revealed itself…Omoshiro.

Omoshiro is a stunning , maybe even breathtaking clematis. It is one of those clematis that reminds me why I became so enamoured with this genus of plants a decade ago . The flowers can be up to 7 inches across and are sort of a pale gray and pink with much darker margins and reverse . The anthers are dark pink at the tips, white along the rest, and the overall effect is spectacular.  Last year was the first full season Omoshiro was in my garden so it bloomed sporadically , but each flower was worth the wait. this year it has had time to assimilate and it is vigorously growing and loaded with buds.

I have heard differing accounts of the meaning of the name. Some say fascinating, some say amusing, all say the two words “omo” and” shiro “mean ” surface” or” face” and “white” when translated from Japanese (where this clematis was bred by Hiroshi Hayakawa) . I like fascinating , it fits perfectly.

I bought mine from Brushwood nursery  www.gardenvines.com  in case you are interested in adding this one to your own collection.

If you truly love nature , you will find beauty everywhere

                                                               Vincent van Gough

..but mostly in a garden

                           Cheryl Monroe

Busy work week but I managed to go out in the garden in the middle of a sunny breezy day, or in other words, the worst possible conditions for photography, and snap some shots for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol at maydreamsgardenscom. They will remain unlabeled for now  because I have to prepare for a class , but the lilacs are ‘Charles Joly’ and ‘Sensation’ for the curious.

Hard to believe that we are back in the swing of things so quickly around here. Lazy snow bound days are gone , replaced by full 8 or more hour days cleaning, cutting back, weeding, edging , mulching, dividing, planting, sowing, shopping…are there any  - INGS that I missed?  I hope not because my plate already feels pretty full thank you very much.

Let’s talk about clematis, how they should look, what you should expect and what to do if there are problems.

First , the emergence thing. Around here we have had some delightfully warm weather so any clematis that are group 2 ( which I won’t even come near with clippers untl after the first flush of blooms) are all leafing out and I even have two , Elsa Spath and Omishoro , covered in ready to open buds.

If you have group two clematis growing in your New England yard , you should be seeing lots of signs of life . If  you see stems that are definitly dead or broken off the mama plant, by all means prune them. otherwise WALK AWAY and wait to enjoy the show. Pruning now, no matter how tempting, will cause loss flowers and that is a sad thing indeed.

If you have group 1 clematis , like montana or alpina, they should also be ready to put on their spring show. I struggle with these vines here becuase they bloom only on old wood and almost every year no matter what I do the varmints cut them off for me in the winter.  Some day  a solution will occur in my little brain, but for now they are foliage plants. grrr and ugh.

If you have group 3 clematis that bloom later on in the season , many of these are just slowly starting to stretch and yawn and greet the day ( sweet autumn, any of the viticella or texensis hybrids, and the late blooming large flowered hybrids ) .If you have not already, cut your group 3 clematis down to about a foot tall so they will throw out lots of new growth which is where their blooms  will be, Leaving them unpruned will result in long vines with flowers only at the tops. Boring! Go get the clippers please.

Herbaceous clematis , the ones that die back to the ground and have no climbing mechanism, should also be showing new growth by now ( c. recta, integrefolia, and heracliefolia).  Clean away any old stems and leaves just like you would with any other herbaceous perennial.

Then there are those whose liveliness is in question,   I have a few here every year that are way behind their peers in  emerging and I always get a little antsy. But then I remember someone telling me when my kids were little and I was stressed when they were not on par with others their age in milestones ( especially the  dreaded potty training) that all kids developed at their own pace and as long as they were out of diapers by the time they went to school I should not fret so much. Point taken, there are no absolutes in any aspect of life, so a little  leeway is in order.

Carefully look around the base of the plant in question , do you see any sign of shoots coming from the soil? You can prod  little in the soil and look closer, but do do very gently. I give my lackluster growers a little diluted fertilizer . Patience is also helpful.

Case in point, I had given up on my c. trinternata rubrimarginata for this year.  Two years ago  we had an episode where the irrigation system was missing a whole chunk of garden and many plants there were lost. The rubrimarinata was alive, but barely clinging to life , and this year repeated checks showed no growth. I ordered a replacement, and of course when I dug down deep enough to excavate, there was the crown of the old plant happily starting to shoot out new growth. A little swearing may have ensued, but I carried on and took out the struggling plant, put in the new one, and move the stressed one to a happy compost filled location where it will be babied until it is thriving again.

As for any clematis you have that overwintered in containers or that are growing in shady locations,  don’t even bother poking around just yet. They are the last of the bunch to re-emerge , but just wait, don’t touch and don’t worry.

It is also safe here to plant any new clematis you bought now. Make sure to follow my planting instructions ( crown set 2-3 inches below soil line before mulching) , and water them if rainfall is not abundant.

Last but not least my indoor clematis, c.florida is entering week 18 of flowering. I had to trim some of it today to free up some of the houseplants it was engulfing so they could get repotted for their summer vacation outsoors. Truthfully, I had to wash the window it was covering too so we could see outside . When it ever winds dowm I will cut it back and repot it like the other plants to spend the summer  season on the porch.

I think the reasons we garden are as numerous as the people who garden. Everyone has their own reason to start cultivating their little piece of the world , but it is what happens after we start that determines whether we go one. Nothing succeeds  like success and each victory, from the first bloom on a tricky clematis vine, to the satisfaction of cooking dinner with the veggies from your own veggie plot pushes onward to the next challenge .

Lately, my challenges have not been positive ones like trying  new plants with zone pushing limits, or growing 6 months of fresh lettuce, but instead negative ones like how to end up having ANY plants at all given the bunny population and how to not give in to the deep desire to throw in the trowel and pave the whole thing instead.

Two things have been stopping me from an acre of black asphalt., the first is my new wealth of feathered friends. It may take a lot of imagination to those of you who live where many have lived before, but here in The Burrow, the entire 100 acres around us had no houses, no farms, heck no grass, no trees, no wildlife at all ( not even ants) for the eons since the last ice age. Once the houses were put in it became my goal to one day be standing in my yard listening to birdsong which you never realize you miss until you actually live where silence of the really silent kind abounds. My gardens were planned with that in mind so we have lots of  evergreen shrub cover , a few brush piles, food aplenty and water to make the perfect habitat. Slowly ,over the 16 years we have been here ,the birds have arrived, starting with the usual suspects of blue jays and cardinals and expanding until we are now hosting well over 30 species of birds including the arrival last year of redwinged blackbirds and this year of pine siskins. Now it gets crazy loud around here, and sometimes I rue the day I invited them here, but there is always some fascinating thing to learn  that makes me forget I am now awake every day at 4:30 am.

Last week I was rudely jarred from sleep by what were clearly three redwinged blackbirds in the willows surrounded by a flock of what turned out to be the female of the species. I did a little research and found  out  the males attract a harem of up to 12 females and as any of you who have spent time at a home dem party or a garden club meeting, that many females together= lots of cackling. Given my experience with cardinals and mourning doves who have just the one significant other, frankly I was astounded to discover the whole menage a douze thing.

Redwinged blackbird habitat is usually marshes or ponds where they can be found perched on cattails when they  wake up the neighbors up at 4 . I am still very unsure what has lured them here, although there is a small pond nearby. If you are ever curious about birds and their habitats, calls and migration, birdnote.org is a great place to start learning

The second thing that is keeping me gardening are a few marginal success stories in the bunny/critter department. I am using  commercial growers tubes around the clematis to protect the bunny accessible parts , and they work remarkably well, and after waking one morning last spring to half my tulip bulbs freshly dug out I installed this wire fencing around the garden in the pool area. This spring I got to fully enjoy my “flaming purisima’ tulips without worry. Everything else in that garden including  the asters ( leaving them the only asters remaining here in the ground) was also protected.( Pause for applause and back-patting). I still miss the old pre-bunny days, until I remember that they were also the pre-bird days and the  tree-with -skin- instead-of-bark days too.

Just in case you were wondering, the owl in the photo does SQUAT ( see post here ) to deter anything , it just scares my dog and I kind of got used to it sitting there so I never removed it.

..or more accuratley a shrub profile…It is not often that I pick out one plant from my garden and give it it’s own special post ( unless it is a clematis of course) ,but  after a busy week speaking including two lectures that were all about shrubs added to the fact that the forsythia is in bloom here there end EVERYWHERE I though this one deserved a calling out.

The shrub is Lindera benzoin, or spicebush as it is commonly called ,and it is a real winner in the border. It’s attributes are many, starting with the fact that it is native to the east coast and thus not on any invasive plant list

- it is perfectly happy in light shade( at the edge of a woodland garden for instance)

-it is perfectly happy in the full sun  ( my garden for instance)  where it will grow dense and rounded and have the best fall color

-and perfectly happy in the full shade although there  it may grow with a more  open spreading habit .

-it grows to about 6-10 feet and rarely requires pruning

As if that were not enough, it has vibrant yellow-green flowers that emerge before it leafs out and approximately the same time as that ubiquitous harbinger of spring  ,forsythia, but the shrub itself is far more attractive in form and thankfully I have yet to witness any ridiculous pruning to it as  the poor maligned forsythia is subjected to. Some say the name comes from the spicy aroma released when the stems are bruised, some say the smell is from crushed leaves. I struggle to find a scent strong enough from either to warrant the name, but no matter, it has so much else going for it.

Wait, there is more!  The leaves are a lovely bright shade of green  all season long , then turn a buttery yellow color in the fall.

As if that were not enough, if planted in pairs ( a male and a female as spicebush is  dioecious) the female will produce red berries in the fall

and last but not least, my favorite part, the Spicebush is an important  food source for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. For the uninitiated, the  aforementioned caterpillar is one of the great surprises in the garden . Open any curled leaf on a lindera in the summer and you are likely to see “staring ” back at you the back end of a very cool caterpillar disguised with two large “eyes” to fend off predators.

So much fun to show off to garden visitors of all ages! Followed promptly by, what else?  Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies!

For some reason this shrub has found it difficult to get promoted in commerce, but it is worth seeking out. I have noticed it in a few smaller nurseries as of late that are carrying a line of plants called American Beauties Natives, but any large nursery will probably carry it as well.

P.s. did you hear me say ” a harbinger of spring”  given our lackthereof in these parts , I  that deserves repeating dontcha think?

Here in Massachusetts an horror story is unfolding that is not only frightening, but achingly sad. Starting with disenfranchised young people who feel the only recourse they have in this world is horrific violence and ending with that very thing by way of bombs, guns ,death and mayhem, the whole story is heartbreaking. I am heavy hearted for those who lost loved ones in a senseless tragedy, I am deeply concerned for all the law enforcement personnel  who remain in harms way, I am unbearably sad for a world where any event like this could unfold.

Yet, there is always good in the world. I was reminded of this over and over again as I saw those who ran to help the victims, those who have rallied to support the families affected, and those who are working to catch the killers. Good people, there are always good people.

I was headed out to speak this morning, and feeling like a garden lecture was exactly what no one wanted to hear as the news of more shooting and death was hitting the airwaves.  While struggling with how to present something so frivolous as garden design  is such a serious moment I realized that  had a technical glitch and the show may not, in fact ,go on. In the next few minutes I was reminded as I was offered help above and beyond what I imagined that there are so very very many good people in this world and I count myself lucky to get to meet them every time I step out the door.  Small beans compared to those who are suffering the consequences of the last week, but a bright light to me all the same.

This small act of kindness made me realize that these people and many more like them  are the ones  who will step up in the coming weeks to offer help to those in the Boston bombings, because it is who they are and how they roll.  The kind of people who honestly care, who  will go the extra mile to help those in need, and will put others before themselves. They far outnumber the few who place their own personal agenda over the lives of others and they restore our faith in  goodness , compassion, and  humanity.

and that, my friends, is a super nova of brightness on a very dark day.

Often during workshops or lectures on design I will stress the well known adage that sometimes less is more. This is certainly true when as a gardener  you find yourself trying to squash 6 more plants in a space that is quite clearly full and WAS well designed , and now it will look all the worse for the additions that will mess up any sense of  flow or color or spacing and clearly indicate you are a plant collector who has been out on a binge buying plants that have no intended place in your garden.

Less is also more when I am teaching the art of making pressed flower designs, as the beauty is in the simplicity . Trying to jam in too many colors or textures results in a mess and often when participants are staring at their design wondering what went wrong and I speak the mantra of EDIT EDIT EDIT, they realize their original design thought process was everything they had hoped it would be, they just didn’t know when to stop adding flowers. Again, less is more.

Today however, on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, less is , well, less. So very many inches of snow this winter combined with cold spring days with little or no sun have left us with little or nothing to look at  in the garden . Snowdrops ( galanthus spcs) are blooming now, maybe they were before this week but the garden was inaccessible so who knew?

The Siberian squill has just exploded into bloom and is covering the Dogs Garden with its sweet little bluish colored flowers.

I have planted a few pansies tentatively ,knowing out temps will still plummet some nights and they may have to be replaced,

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.and the chionodoxa is just starting to show a smidgen of color promising to bloom soon.

That’s it. No more. The end.

There is hope though, as the weather forecast looks promising and fat buds are swelling on the magnolia, forsythia, lindera, amelanchier, cherries, lilacs ( the straight species) , daffodils, hyacinth, tulips and oh so many more plants out there. Then , gratefully, MORE will be more

Heading out tonight to speak on Easy Care Roses. Nothing is associated  with the cultivated garden more than a rose, and planting disease resistant own root hardy choices is the way to go for sustainable gardening. Roses that require no chemical  spraying, extra watering or pruning are also easy on your wallet and back, and a little forethought before planting just any ole rose will pay you back in flowers for years to come.

A few of the roses I recommend for here in New england are any in the Kordes Fairy Tale series  including this one clled Lion’s Fairy Tale….dreamy , no?

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.The double pink and yellow Knockouts from breeder William Radler ( bred from the dog rose) …both slightly fragrant and EXTREMELY  long blooming

and All the Rage from the breeder Ping Lim and the folks at Easy Elegance Roses, a true garden performer.Or any from the Griffith Buck “Carefree ” series like Carefree Spirit  . … oh I need to stop daydreaming about roses and get to work !

There is a little rhyme my Aunt Jeanne used to say to us when we were little and impatiently waiting and whining for Thanksgiving Dinner/Easter egg Hunt/Christmas to begin.

It went

Patience is a virtue

Virtue is   a grace

Put them all together and you get a happy face.

Because I am a smart- ass I used to rewrite it to say

Patience is a virtue

Virtue is a grace

put them all together and you DON”T GET CHERYL!

only also being a smart person I would sing song it to myself in my own head ( the smartness at play here) so as not to get punished for my mouthiness and miss the very thing I was aching for to begin with.

Well, now it is Spring, or more precisely spring weather, I am impatient for. According to the counter I posted here  we are already over a week into Spring, yet my yard looks like this with nary a daffodil in sight. Daffodil?? What am I thinking ! We have yet to see the first snowdrop or hellebore  whose common name is Lenten Rose and has thus  missed the boat . Lent has sailed on by, Easter is upon us.

The temps have moderated a little , but the snow is melting ever so slowly. I truly do  love the snow and the winter but prefer  everything in its own  time and place , so feet of snow on the gardens in late March is not appreciated .I have faith that once it gets going it will all but dissapear in minutes but for now it is trying my not so present patience.

In a move that stunned my daughters, I purchased, yep you read that right, purchased a pot of blooming  Daffodils. Despaerate times call for desperate measures.

Our Easter Sunday will be spent indoors , no rush to clean up the Dog’s Garden where we usually egg hunt as even if a miracle occurs and the snow is gone there will be mud….which is worse.

The very good thing about all of this as far as my lack of patience goes, is that the plants don’t have any either.Once that snow cover is gone the first warm day will bring an explosion of little green heads poking out of the ground quickly followed by flowers. Then it will be a virtual landslide of bloom until we get back on track  probably in May.

The very bad thing about this is the workload will be a virtual landslide too and I may all but disappear outside for days at a time trying to keep up.

Meanwhile I have been busy inside, I got  a new office space, re-painted the dining room and am at work on another large project ( which may or may not be my kitchen..I can’t say because it might jinx the spell I seem to have placed on the  ever reluctant to home improve Wil  ). I figure right with the going gets rough indoors with what is or is not a kitchen renovation  the garden will be screaming my name simultaneously, isn’t that always the way?

Happy Easter  and Springtime to you all!