Summer Sale

Ruthie checking out the sale items

Welcome to our sale, it's time again to load up on our great perennials and herbs. You too can have gardens galore with everything you have wanted that we have and save money.  Thinking of trying something new, this is the time.   Visit now while the selection is at it's best.  Once they are gone, they are gone.

Sale dates: July 31st to August 8th, 10 am to 6 pm all week

Cutting Back and the Garden in Transition

Achillea Apricot Delight

My garden at the front of the nursery is heavy on spring bloomers because that is our busy season and it makes sense to have it that way. At least it does in the spring, because, well, it’s the second week of June and so much needs to be cut back that it’s a dilemma. The dilemma: I don’t want the garden to look like a bomb went off in the middle. Now at the moment there is a beautiful golden Tansy and yarrow ‘Apricot Delight’ next to each other, they make a stunning combination. The only problem is that they are next to so many plants that need to be cut back. First there’s the veronica ‘Georgia Blue,’ and then there’s the Dendranthema (cold hardy mum) we discovered (I call ‘Raspberry Thursday’ because it has raspberry colored flowers and I found it on a Thursday). Next, Catmint ‘Joanna Reed’, Penstemon ‘Huskers Red’, salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna.’ I decided to cut back a few and leave a few to cut back later. Not too harsh, it’s working out well.
 
With some plants, cutting back isn’t enough. I took out and moved two very big baptisias because in the three years they had been in, they have gotten way too big for the space. So there are more holes in the garden to be filled, more decisions to be made. I am waiting for inspiration to strike as to what to put in those spaces, and how much to cut back. For now the space holders are a few of my mixed container pots. I kind of like that, mixing the pots in the garden, but I need to plan it a little better than filling large dirt spaces with pots because that’s what it looks like, and it’s not very memorable.

So what do I put in there? These are good summer bloomers to help my one season garden:

1.Phlox paniculata: I have had this in my first garden next to the old retail area. Years ago I put in my favorites ‘Nicky’, ‘David’, ‘Laura’ I tried to choose mildew resistant cultivars, and over time they crossed with happy abandon. The few that showed the most promise (mildew resistance, good color) I dug up and moved to one of the empty spots in the new garden.

2.Cone flowers (echinacea): Now, I love the new colors and have used them in the garden but I have noticed that echinacea magnus and ‘Ruby Star’, and all the old varieties attract so many more butterflies and bees. It has to be a pollen thing. The new varieties were bred for beauty not helping nature; eye candy I guess you would say. Which is fine just be aware of the difference.

I have also learned that both of these plants do much better with some space around them. I have put some of the newer varieties of echinacea like ‘Sun Down’ and ‘Harvest Moon’ crowed together with everything else in my garden and they disappeared after a year or so. George has some in his garden which are not crowded and they are beautiful three years later. I have found it is the same with phlox, which are prone to powdery mildew, when planted too close. Choose cultivars that are mildew resistant and give them some space. Consistent water also makes all the difference in how they look and perform. I am also using annuals, which I do every year, to help the garden transition from one season to the next. OK that’s it for now…time to water again.

Smelling the Garden

I walk outside and I smell honeysuckle. I come out of the grocery store with no apparent honeysuckle and I smell it. It is in the air everywhere. It’s one of the first things I remember about moving east: spring honeysuckle. Taking walks in the evening and being overwhelmed with the smell. Yes, I know it is a terrible invasive, but at least it smells good. I love plants that smell good. Few new plants seem to have fragrance these days, not high on anyone's preference list. It seems people are more inte.rested in the color of the flowers and the bloom time then if it has a fragrance.

We still have a few, Clove Pinks or Dianthus, lots of the phlox family are native and otherwise are good smellers. Some cone flowers are very sweet smelling, Moonflowers on a summer evening... yum. Nicotinia. Some of the old roses. Heliotrope with it’s baby powder fresh scent, even catmint: not quite what I would call sweet but still pleasant brushing up against it. Me and the bees think it smells grand. The blue Wave petunia smells great, too (no other color that I have found). Angles trumpet...well OK so I could go on and on. All of the herbs, of course...

How many smellers do you have in your garden? Not what we think of when we go to the local nursery these fragrant plants. Anyone ever asked the sales person “what do you have that will make everyone remember my garden because it smells nice?” I for one have never said that. But when I pay attention to fragrance it makes the garden so much more interesting and memorable, even something I enjoy working in more. It's not just something to appreciate with my eyes. In fact, if I close my eyes I can still smell the garden. It’s like a fresh cut lawn in summer, something we remember forever. If I take care to add plants with fragrance, the garden is more memorable for me. Just like smelling that old invasive honeysuckle: sweet spring. Next time we'll talk about herbs that smell... hmm . They all smell. How about my favorite scented herbs? Until then, night all.

Nature's Symphony

Peonies

When I walked up to the house this evening the cacophony of sound was unbelievable. Are there birds that sing in the evening?? And the peepers have migrated all over the yard I hear them from every corner (either that or there is a weird echo thing going on). I never remember hearing anything like it. The plants are feeling the same; they are going gangbusters. I am so excited about all the different kinds of Peonies we have this year. Watching the buds swell and the color start to show is just so darn much fun.
Everyday I thumb them to see a little more of their color. They are my flower children. 
 
This evening along with nature's symphony I loved seeing the shadows our weeping willow branches make as I pass under. We have so many different kinds of willows on the property and for sale I can’t keep up but George knows them all. I do know the Rosemary willow I put in my first garden so long ago. It now shades my tree peonies and blows gloriously in the wind, just as I intended. With willows it doesn’t take a life time to become mature and beautiful and that’s a good thing because I hate to wait too long for anything in my garden. Joyous spring everyone.

Spring

This evening the old spring ritual of potting up perennials in the gloaming began. Garrison Kellier on the radio and potting mix under my nails, a time honored ritual. George swears he heard spring peepers at the pond the other day but I think he is dreaming on that one, although in one of the many puddles in the rain garden I did see big fat pollywogs. 

Looking at all of the green shoots emerging out of the pots in the greenhouses makes my soul sing. The miracle of barren roots turning into healthy plants and then sighing into flower gives new meaning to the phrase "love what you do" (plants do seem to love what they do, too). Our dear friends Hilda and Clara, who come every spring to pot up our plants have come and filled up a greenhouse with George's seedlings and cuttings. 

We have so much great stuff now! I can’t wait for the show to begin. Here is a small list...four different carexes with names like Red Rooster, Prairie Fire, Indian Summer, and Toffee Twist...bronze and copper and brass. Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’ which I love, love, love because of it’s pendulous pink to green hanging flowers; everyone notices this one in bloom. We will have Achillea ‘Saucy Seduction’ and Eupatorium ‘Chocolate” with names like that they have to be great. We will have strawberries and rhubarb this year and oh so much more. And you know with the advent of warmer weather this week maybe we will hear the peepers. Come on spring, we're ready.

Christmas 2009

Stone Fox

I took the two younger girl dogs out for a walk this evening. It was almost dark, but that didn't stop them from romping and snow-stomping, barking and carrying on. I saw what I thought would be a great picture: my stone fox leaning over in the snow with his head and one shoulder exposed. The day was fading fast and by next light the rain will have washed that picture away. I snapped one in the dusk.
 
The garden looks so beautiful with its brown and white color scheme today. I never got around to cutting anything down after the season and I am glad now. It doesn’t always pay to be neat and tidy. 

The winter solstice has come and gone and that means the days are getting longer (they are! My insisting the days get longer always works at this time of year. You can count on me, like clockwork). It must have been some big deal to our ancestors who farmed the land for a living. I wonder with no TV or computer to get them through the winter months how many farmers of yore watched the moon travel across the sky, and watched the lengthening days with hope, knowing the soil would warm again and accept the gift of seeds and seedlings to feed a family.

Butterflies

Chrysalis

I am overwhelmed by the butterflies, caterpillars, and bumble bees in the garden now. Two monarch caterpillars have started their journey toward their new life in front of my eyes, but I've missed the final act. I had no idea it happened so quickly. First, I saw one attached to the underside of a leaf. It slowly started to curl up. I thought I would come back down in a few hours and see what had happened. When I came back two hours later, it was a done deal! I couldn’t believe it. How could that have happen so quickly? It has to be so hard to turn from a caterpillar into a chrysalis. Doesn't it?

Two days later I happened on another caterpillar on the underside of a Salvia Indigo Spires. He was just starting the process: green, black, and white; striped, fat, and very zen.  "Ah ha!" I thought, I will come back in one hour and see how far she has progressed.  One hour later, I came into the garden and presto, all done, the green gem was already formed.

If I am so lucky to find another this year I am not leaving. I'm not even going to blink. There's some magic in this everyday miracle of nature. When you have gardens as big as we do, miracles of one type or another are an ongoing thing. This very large garden started from things so small, seeds or cuttings. Every time, they grow into just what they are programed to be.  The seeds that come from my phlox never turn into surprise frogs in the garden. Some great new colors of  phlox seedling yes, but no frogs.

Some new things we have at the moment: Epimedium ‘Orange Queen’ are great for dry shade. I love these plants, I have to admit I took one for myself. Hypericum ‘Chocolate Lion’ and ‘Pink Lion’: I am also keeping a few those beautiies for my garden. The fruit of these plants in flower arrangements is to die for. Plus those bright yellow flowers in summer are perfect. The fall blooming anemones ‘Prince Henry’ and ‘Party Dress’ both double pink spreading shade plants. These need some room to spread.

Well I have wiled away a few minutes of your time telling you about the happenings here at the moment. Always good to keep in touch. Come visit us and see the garden. We always love to have visitors!