Garden In The Burrow

This spring ,because of our unsolved bunny troubles, much of the plant list here in the Burrow is getting a serious look at to see what is worth protecting , what will be left to fend for itself, and what will be added to fill out the places where the damage is not only daily but devastating.

I am letting self seeders like ‘Husker Red’ penstemon and amaranth go crazy as they are filling many holes left by the critters, and to date remain untouched. In the fall I added lots of peony,iris, and fuzzy or  gray foliage plants,which also are ignored.

But , the new golden children  of the garden are the alliums. These easy to grow members of the onion family have the most interesting flowers on tall sticks raised high above the foliage. I planted ‘Purple sensation’ an early bloomer in many spaces and it has thrown out  cool purple flowers that are like small fireworks displays. I also grow a swirly  curly leaved variety , allium senescens , that blooms later .

Chives, also an allium, have been growing in the rock garden for 10 + years, adding a texture contrast to the iris, and never even get a nibble.

My newest trick, and one I am kind of proud of for its ingenuity , is to plant chives circling the new clematis plants. So far, so good. Up until now I have been placing plastic grow tubes over every vine, and removing them later on in some areas of the garden and leaving them all season long in the parts of the yard that border the rabbit entry areas. Plants in these few areas will get eaten constantly and to the ground .In one place after trying a great variety of things I have just decided to settle for mulch and garden art instead of plants as nothing is safe. (They have even taken to gnawing on large shrubs, biting off branches and leaing what they don’t finish on the ground.) But the chives and allium they leave alone. I am gald for now that the allium family has stepped up to help me out and hope it continues, these voracious eaters have challenged many a move  I made, eating lavender and other herbs, sprirea bushes to the ground, and even daylillies.

The  gallery that follow is all the rest of plants that are strutting their stuff on Garden Blooggers Bloom Day  hosted by May Dreams Gardens. The  list includes, lily of the valley, geums, alliums, jacobs ladder, various azeleas, the groundcover mosiacs out front with ajuga , moss phlox and dianthus spcs,cranberry bush viburnum, columbines , armeria, mossy rockfoil, catmint,Bloomerang and species lilac, verbena, honeysuckle ‘Major Wheeler’, the start of the bridal wreath spirea,and by the end of the week there will be many iris in full bloom too. Pictures are labeled (lazily) if you hover over them.

Being easily amused as I am, the sun-tolerance of some plants (or lack-thereof) and their willingness to completely abandon their reputation as garden bad guys in the face of it cracks me up. Like a bully brought to his knees by a cane wielding grandma,my garden thugs are kept in line  by the sunny- sunshine.

Here in the Burrow we are all about the sun-sun-sun. Trees are allowed if they are on the small side and are  pruned  yearly to maintain sunny borders full of happy sun loving plants. If you come to visit, lather on the sunblock and wear a hat.But that does not stop me from introducing the odd shade plant or two.

The first shade lover to go in was ivy, yes hedera helix. I like it for flower arranging, pressing and as a ground cover. (Before I forget, let me tell you this …..it can infiltrate woodlands via seed carried by birds. The trick is to let it only grow on the ground, once it gets growing  vertical it will fruit, so in my garden it gets whacked back off the fence any time it gets the smart idea to climb.) Tough a plant as Ivy is to manage , it is much easier when it is growing in what amounts to less than 10 square feet of shade bordered  by blazing sun. Like a vampire, the ivy stays hidden back from the light lest it incinerate and after 15 years has yet to creep out of it’s allotted space.

Ditto the lily of the valley. When I was deconstructing my Grandmother’s side yard a few years ago for a driveway to go in, I took little bits everything she was growing to have here in my gardens. The lily of the valley had run rampant over her whole side yard,  barely  held in check from world domination by the very prominent and drying roots of a massive old pine tree.  It was brutal to dig out even a few pips, but I did ,and relocated them to the very small shaded spot under a juniper in my back garden, where they remain 10 years later. Like the ivy they dare not tread out into the sunlight, and happliy exist and flower in their little copse, with no designs to take over the back 40 at all.

In case I was not clear , I will further emphasize the FULL sun part of the full sun garden here. It is not part shade, no dappling, or even shadows. Sunflowers grow tall straight and true. No plant leans over to catch some rays, or fails  to bloom in the darkness. I think in any part sun scenario, I would ,like so many other gardeners I know, be cursing the day I ever brought the lily of the valley home ( even if it is the cutest little thing and sweetly scented too) and gnashing my teeth and wailing over the ivy that ate the yard.

In the last few weeks I have been asked repeatedly if I know how to get rid of lily of the valley by poor gardeners who are inundated with the stuff. Well, sun is the answer. Not my kind of sun as as that may be excessive for those of you who own large trees, but solarization, which is covering the plants( after you cut them back as low as you can )with clear  plastic cloth in the heat of the summer when the sun is at its strongest to essentially cook whatever is underneath. If  you think the sun is not strong enough where they are planted then cut them back and cover with black plastic cloth ,and then mulch or dirt on top of the cloth  until they die from not being able to photosynthesize. Too much sun,or the  complete lack of it , either will do the trick, time consuming but effective.

In the tiny areas here that are part sun/part shade I grow much more well behaved specimens of solomons seal, hostas, heuchera, epimediums, bleeding hearts and ferns.Last fall I resumed my shade experimentation with a few plants of corydalis, another shade plant known for its aggressive tendancies.Time will tell if it stays politely in the area I gave it, or bravely starts to go where no sane shade loving plant dares to venture.

With all the flowers, shrubs and trees I grow, it is a natural feeling to want to bring them indoors  for an up close and personal encounter. I try to have things out in the garden I can cut year round, even if in the dead of winter it is just interesting evergreen foliage and brightly colored branches. But come April, the long procession of flowers begins, and going out to stroll around and pick interesting subjects to arrange becomes a wonderful aside to my hobbies  of gardening and collecting junk.

For years a few friends of mine and I have been yard saling- thrift shop -free side of the road stuff junkies. We all have our own likes and styles, and generally don’t argue over finds, although a few times I have felt quite envious of their scores. Mostly what I pick up ends up working in the garden, decorating the garden, or holding flowers from the garden. One of our most oft-repeated lines as we scout junk is “well, you can aways use it as a planter!” ….and I do…..lots!  I have a growing collection of flower frogs I use to hold the stems in my containers

( BTW:did you know how toxic floral foam is? It contains two known carcinogens , formaldehyde and black carbon, and is not biodegradable which seems to fly in the face of those of us who are so careful to be good stewards of the ground we grow on) , and a vast collection of vases , pitchers,and  containers of all shapes and sizes that has oozed into every storage area in not only my house but the garage and the shed as well. They are placed decoratively on open shelves in the dining room, and out of sight in the hutch as well. They claim space on the storage shelves over the washer/dryer, have their own little red shelf in the mud room, line the wire shelves in the garage, and take up lots of space in the new shed. Some of the larger ones hide out in the cellar utility room .

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In late winter and spring, I use a lot of woody material in arrangements. Colored dogwood twigs, curly willow, crab apple and apple branches, flowering cherries, and plum trees, spirea, nine bark, lilacs, and viburnum all make it in to many vases. When I am cutting woody stems for arrangements I always use this trick….. take a vegetable peeler and peel off the bottom  few inches of bark from the stem the branch will take up water much better and have a MUCH longer life expectancy in the vase.

This cool sideways vase my mother gave me holds just two varieties of crabapple blossoms and stems on honeysuckle ( a variegated cultivar called Harlequin)..cool huh?

I have really expanded my stash of teeny tiny vases , for so many wonderful spring bloomers are petite and not only beautiful, but fragrant, which we so often miss because they grow so low to the ground.Old bottles are perfect for this, as are cruets, tea cups and small pitchers. Here they hold a single viburnum twig that has a heavenly fragrance, squill (scilla siberica) and pansies with euphorbias..

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.This last one I made to bring as a hostess gift .The green pail was 99 cents at Goodwill Store and holds emerging spirea foliage, ninebark branches, fothergilla (the little bottle brushes), tulips, and crab apple blossoms.  When you head out in your garden, bring a bucket and your clippers, and bring some happiness inside!

As part of my lecture series, I do a workshop involving pressed flowers/foliage . …..ALOT of pressed flowers /foliage. To meet the demands of  the many workshops, I  press non-stop from early spring right through summer and fall. I always  leave a pile of heavy books and paper right on the chest in the dining room in plain sight, so I can snip a few things whenever I am out in the garden and press them when I come back in the house.

Whatever goes in between the papers and books gets shuffled around , in and out of the stack  ,until I am sure they are flat and very dry. Moisture is enemy #1 to pressed flora and I let the papers alternately get pressed and air dried until I am 100 percent positive  they are dry enough to get moved to the large presses downstairs. Any wet plant material can cause mold which will ruin the flowers for print making….like the geranium below

In our utility room I have several large pieces of plywood and old shelving that get “pressed” into service (tee-hee) to keep the accumulated material flat and dry. They are all stacked together and either weighted down or pulled together with ratcheting bungee cords until the stuff is needed.

In the interest of helping both past and future workshop participants, I am going to try to keep a log of what I am pressing as the season goes by. We will see how that goes, but here is the start of the season anyway….

For the first time this year I pressed squill (scilla siberica) , which I discovered upon picking has the most delightful scent. I have shoved it under everyone’s nose in my household trying to get an accurate description of what it smells like, to no avail. Let me just tell you it is wonderful and sweet, and if I had not picked it to press I would have gone my whole life without knowing ….for shame. Anyway , here is what it looks like

I let artemesia (both silver king and lemon lime) run rampant through my perennial borders. they are very shallow rooted and it is easy to pull what you don’t want, and both varieties make a great foil for lots of flowering plants. Anything  with silver foliage looks super pressed, so at this time when I am pulling stray artemesia willy-nilly, I put it in the stack of books where it presses easily and without worry of extra moisture.

Pansies ( and other viola spcs)are a no-brainer, almost everyone I talk to tells me of a faded pansy arrangement in a frame from their grandma or mom. I love the jonnny jump ups, they look very sweet pressed and arranged in little rows like soldiers. The newer ruffly varieties, although beautiful, press pretty wavy and I am not such a big fan.

Crab apple trees offer tons of pretty blooms and colorful young foliage as well.

Heuchera is one of my favorite things to press, and at this time I am cutting the older larger leaves off the ones that persisted through the winter and pressing them in their winter color phase. ( many are bronzy in late fall and winter and various shades of green on the growing season.)

Rounding out the list for early spring are geum, emerging yarrow foliage, and the plant I press year round ….scented geraniums I grow in the house that flower off and on and generously donate all their lovely blooms to my zealous pressing.

In the coming weeks I will start to look for foliage of all kinds as everything starts to grow. Lots of plants have brightly colored emerging leaves (spirea, jacobs ladder, just about any shrub you can think of, and maple trees) and they are well suited to my purposes when they are smaller as well.

and so it begins………

Spring is in full bloom at the Garden in the Burrow………

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Although there is lots blooming outside right now, my attention has been completely stolen by one teeny little plant…. tulipa clusiana ‘Lady Jane’. Lady Jane is a species tulip, often referred to as the candy stripe tulip because when the flower is closed its petals have  a delicate pink edge that when open reveal beautiful a recurved creamy white bloom. Only one of the 50 I planted is open today , the others are just showing their pink backsides.It  is only about 10 inches high and it would be very easy to walk on buy with your eyes glued to the tall and showy hybrid tulips or the drifts of daffodils…but I have been patiently waiting for this one.

You see, I planted Lady Jane last fall right after the passing of my Gram whose given name was Genowefa (Polish) which  was “americanized” to Jane when she was little. I have written about her here before, indeed she was one very special lady.

On any given day you would find her dressed to the nines; dress, stockings, pearls and lipstick, even to just run to the grocery store. She carried a compact with a mirror and powder , and used it for frequent touch ups . She was the epitome of class; polite, well mannered and demure. She was pious, but never judgemental, and always  ready to heap praise upon those whom she encountered . In her eyes everyone was beautiful, skinny, smart, helpful, and any other positive words she could come up with to compliment you. I have never ever heard anyone EVER say anything except that she was the sweetest most wonderful human being ( and it was only in her last years when she was very ill and very lonely that she was ever cross with anyone and even her few moments of impatience were immediately followed by apology after apology and more compliments). Her children(6) and grandchildren (14) idolized and adored her. From her I learned grace, patience, the power of a smile to change the world around you, and , most importantly for my gardening soul, the joy of flowers. This week  she would have celebrated  her 91st birthday….

So, how perfect to have  planted Lady Jane in her memory.

We certainly get our share of gardening challenges here in New England, and I was discussing that very fact today with a member of a garden club I was speaking to when we both came to the realization that there is  no “normal” year here. Early snowstorms, late snowstorms, untimely frosts, very hot summers,unusually wet/cold springs, too much snow, too little snow,  you name it, we get it.

The weather du jour that is causing us concern, is unusual in it’s timing. Although we are no stranger to it, it is usually in summer that we are subject to its effects, not early spring. The problem is ,…… it is dry,dry,dry.We have had 7 fewer inches of rain than is “normal”, and that, combined with heavy winds and the piles and piles of brush from the damaging October snowstorm we had,is making the risk of brush fires is extremely high. Brush fires are scary and the people who are currently dealing with acres of burning  land around here have my sympathy. Sigh.

Another unusual happening for this neck of the woods was the “record breaking” or as the local newspaper called them in an article today”record shattering“  string of temperatures occuring  over the last month. Did you just hear me laugh out loud?? Let’s see, the Earth has been around for what ,like  give or take 4 BILLION years ,and we humans have been keeping temperature records for about oh say, 160 of them, I fail to see the reasoning behind the hysteria. Call me crazy, but I am a moderate in all things, and although I can appreciate climate change and have read volumes and volumes on it , I do not think we have enough info to even comment, much less react yet. And frankly, since our food sources are adapted to growing at warmer temperatures, and are threatened by lower ones, I will take warming over an ice age any day. (yes, that is overly simplistic, please stop yelling , but our climate here on Earth has changed and changed and changed and changed, it did long before we got here, it will do so long after we are gone. )

Anyway , back to the dry……it is weird to have to worry about watering spring bulbs, yet today I am probably going to do just that. I have also started transplanting things, which spring is a perfect time for given the consistent rainfall, but not this year. So out will come the hoses and the grumbling. Sigh again.

On a happy note , there are oh-so-many things in bloom outside that I will be taking photos of and posting on later this week, and one wonderful happening inside, where in the living room , the lemon tree looks like this.….. causing me to erupt into giddy laughter every time  I walk by!

In a month I may have my first home grown martini garnish .Happy sighs for that!

Happy Spring! So how should we celebrate the vernal equinox here in The Burrow???? hmmmm, I know….Let’s plan for autumn!

All too often I hear  gardeners( and the general public too ) complain that late summer and fall  hold in store  a sad garden that is past its prime , brown and dull. Well that is just poor planning my friend. And when, do you ask ,is the right time to gear up for August and September? Why, it’s March of course!

Right now you should be assesing any downtime you may have had last fall and looking through nursery lists and of course shopping  for plants to fill the voids.

In late springtime , when the soil is drier and workable, it will be the time to plant out all the lovely perennials that will make your fall garden an absolute joy…and you need to be prepared!

Luecanthemum species, or mums as we call them are the obvious first choice, BUT most nurseries will only sell  them in the fall, when they are in bloom, and when they will likely not survive transplanting. They also sell varieties that are not winter hardy here in the North East  and are doomed to death at hard frost.

The trick, my gardening friends, is to order them direct from a grower or catalogue , and plant them now giving them time to establish before winter. The great thing is that almost all of them….though planted as teeny tiny starts….will grow and bloom within their first year, causing excited utterances upon viewing in September. Faribault Growers in Minnesota has quite a lovely selection, and extremely reasonable prices, and the plants arrive healthy and every single one of them I have ordered and planted in spring has bloomed that fall and overwintered just fine. An added  bonus is that Faribault  gives in their catalogue description the expected weeks of bloom for each plant so you can order several  varieties to have blooming over many weeks. How great is that?

Lest you think I am abandoning my  favorite plant, now is the time you should also be scooping up as many clematis plants as you can afford to add lots of color to the fall garden.Plant them to grow through lilacs,  forsythia, hydrangeas, once blooming roses, hollies……really just about any shrub for a much needed infusion of drama on your green blobs shrubs in August and September. Here is a partial list of who was blooming in my garden late last year…..

Comtesse de Bouchard

Elsa Spaeth

Pope John Paul II

sweet autumn (terniflora)

vitacella ‘Betty Corning’

texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty’

.                                                                     .                                                                                           ‘Dr. Ruppel’

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tanquitica’Bill McKenzie’ and two herbaceuos species, joiniana’Mrs Robert Brydon’ , and integrifolia ‘Rosea’ ( all with no photos , guess I got lazy)

Not bad for a dull fall garden huh?

Don’t forget roses either. Spring is the only time to order and plant bare root roses and last year I had  lots that carried the garden right into late October .The latest were the knockouts- double pink and red, the drift roses both’sweet’ and ‘pink’, the polyantha “The Fairy” and  the magic carpet roses

Ending right before them were the David Austin’Christopher Marlowe’, ‘Carefree Spirit’, Easy Elegance “Yellow Brick Road’, ”Seafoam’ and climbers “New Dawn’ and “Iceberg”…who says roses are only for June???

Other easy to grow plants for late summer/fall are caryopteris or blue mist shrub which has many new variegated and yellow leaved cultivars, the new cultivars of Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon) many of which are sterile  so no seeding issues, late season hydrangeas like h.paniculata ‘Limelight’ and it’s new dwarf cousin ‘Little Lime’ , turtle head or chelone galabra, tricyrtis or toad lillies, and Naked Ladies or lycoris squamigera.

One plant I pot up now and play the ” indoors-outdoors game”, ( which is when you lug pots inside the house when cold or frost threatens and leave them outside on sunny warm days, and is only fun for spying neighbors who get a kick out of your wackiness), is dahlias. This plant is waaaay underated for the long season of bloom it can give you. Started indoors and easier than any seed you will ever grow, the dahlia tubers sprout quickly and grow very fast and are blooming quite early on here and last until several frosts finally  kick them down. Wether or not you overwinter the tubers inside, they are still a bargain for the amount of blooms per plant per season and great for cutting and arranging.

Those are my faves….do you have any I need to add?

Let’s  get planning!  Spring is here!

It is so exciting to think we are on the cusp of a floral explosion around here. First the hammamelis (witch hazel) ,snowdrops  pussy willows and crocus, followed quickly by siberian squill,  daffodils and quince, next thing you know its early tulips ,hyacinth forsythia, spice bush (lindera)and flowering fruit trees.  Then the list expands rapidly….magnolia, azalea, euphorbias,moss phlox, violas ,iberis……..my goodness..it is all too much to think about because the garden is awake and calling loudly for its mother!!!!!!

I have lots and lots to do and have started with the myriad of lists that will grace my desk, the kitchen counter and table, and stuck via post-it-note to the cabinets. The bulkhead needs fixing and painting, we have three new  big projects in the works:

-a covered sitting area with fire pit and fountain in the pool area

-the inside of the shed ( including ,but not limited to, wall building, painting, shelving, and decorating)

-the front of the side yard will be lawn- free and tree- full hopefully by the end of spring

As for the screaming garden itself, I have yet to finish fall clean-up….which I know shocks you , and the bunnies are more than active given the warm weather so I have a lot of little cages to build to protect all that tastly new growth they love so much. There are layered shrubs to divide and replant, roses to transplant, and seeds to start.

As for the clematis, I have several more arriving for spring planting ( more on that later) and must cut back all the hard prune varieties including the sweet atumn (terniflora), tanguiticas, all the vitacellas ( Betty Corning Etoille Violette, Kermesina, Purpurea elegans), Comtesse de Bouchard, Gipsy Queen, Mrs. Robert Brydon, the texensis hybrids… eegads…I should make another list!

While I was speaking over the winter there was an emerging theme of  “Gardeners  who only have August Blooming Clematis” ( not a very catchy theme name but its early in the morning here). If you have clematis that bloom ONLY in August and they are not Sweet Autumn (terniflora or it’s new variety mandshirica) ,or  the groundcover c.joinana, chances are its is because you are pruning them when you shouldn’t be. There are many clematis that bloom early on  old wood, then again  in August or September on new woood. they are typically refered to as group 2.  I think many gardeners just always cut back their clematis routinely no matter what variety they are, and in doing so sacrifice what should be a long season of bloom.

Here in the Burrow, I cut back to about 8-12 inches ( leaving just a few leaf buds) all my Type 3 ( or hard prune) varieties and LEAVE THE REST ALONE! If you are really bothered by their appearance, trim them a little, taking away no more than 1/3 of their growth.  When I said this to  someone at a talk  I was giving, she expressed disbelief that the brown vine with shriveled up leaves she had could possibly turn into a viable plant and was inclined to ignore me. That makes me sad a.) because I hate to be ignored and b.) because that clematis will be beautiful in late May-early June if she just leaves it uncut.

Clematis are woody vines, not perennials. Think of those vines more like a lacecap hydrangea  who, unlike an annabelle hydrangea which can be mowed to the ground in the spring and flower later, will loose all its flower buds if you prune it in the spring.Put the pruners down, and walk away. Then email me to thank me in June when your lovely  Henryi, Elsa Spaeth, Crystal  Fountain, or whatever is putting on quite the show precisely at the time of your graduation party-first cookout-garden tour- or whatever else you have planned in late spring.

It is also Flower Show season, and although I have not been to the Boston one( which started yesterday) yet, I have been to Rhode Island and will be in Boston on Staurday and Sunday.

I am putting in the photos I took in RI, and here is my little mini review too…

I loved that most of the displays used spring flowers that would actually in real life be in bloom at around the same time. I get annoyed when I see displays that have summer blooming plants nestled next to the daffodils. Picky? Yes.

I love love love the window box with the clematis. YES you can plant them in containers and window boxes, there are so many available now in smaller sizes for just that reason. AND they will overwinter just fine if left there.

I got a kick out of the lawn speckled with dandelions. and that display ( even though I forgot to look at who did it) won hands down for me. In the pictures it is the one with the best looking forced  fothergilla I have ever seen ( it is loaded with bottle brushes!), the old lawn mower and the window boxes. It was all very real looking and do-able for any gardener and charming to say the least.

Happy Bloom Day! ( and thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens)

After a very warm, very snow free winter…we finally got a nice long two day 10 inch snowstorm.It started last night, here  the first few inches fall around the corgi topiary The  real dogs are in their glory, they love to romp around in the snow.The kids are ecstatic with the first snow day of 2012…..AND…..

The rabbits are  pretty happy too, shamelessly hopping around and eating my plants. Why can’t they feel my hatred for them  radiating through the walls and flee in fear???

I am happy for the garden,  and enjoying the beauty of clean white snow covering everything especially since although it is on the wet and heavy side it does not seem to be too much for the shrubs and trees to bear. Check out the girls “Gardening Guy” snowman here Pumpkin is checking him out….. Tig is not crazy about being outside when the snow is actually falling, he squints his eyes and makes funny doggie facesI used my  snow day to pot up  a few succelents  into a new pretty blue pot ( baby toes fenestraria aurantiaca , borros tail sedum morganianum and mimicry plant pleiospilos nelili) and mount a living teardrop basket/ wreath on a board( that I still need to add some paint detail to) for hanging on the new shed when the warm weather gets here. I did a little knitting on my second thistle mitten, and also took inventory of my seeds and made a mental list for what I still need to order and a contrived sort of a plan as to when I will begin my indoor seed starting.  I hope to still get around to making cuttings from the scented geranium in the background of this photo before days end. All in all a great snow day!

Hope you had a great day too, and if it involved snow, a warm fire, projects ,people and pets you love, all the better!