The Garden Buzz

The Oscar-Worthy Garden of It's Complicated: I'd Like to Thank Meryl...

It was Christmas time, not the time one's attention turns to garden blogs. On a lark, I thought to blog about the fabulous kitchen garden in the new movie, It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep. Who would know it would become the  most popular post for my little seedling of a garden blog? 

I can't help but wonder how many readers found The Garden Buzz simply by seeking out information about the pretty potager where Meryl picked produce for her already ridiculously beautiful kitchen (did it really need remodeling?).

I find myself with mixed emotions about this phenomenon. I'm grateful to Meryl (hey, I'm a big fan) for starring in such a funny, touching, contemporary movie, but more grateful to the writers and set designers who decided she needed such a gorgeous garden. Wouldn't that be a great job; making gardens for movies?

At the same time I'm glad I had the smarts and intuition to know that if that garden interested me, it would interest other gardeners when I was in dire need of driving traffic to my fledgling blog. I just had no idea how big a chord it would strike with so many. But who could resist those tuteured-tomatoes, and the cabbages color-coordinated with spires of sky-blue delphiniums?

To think a middle-aged woman in a crumpled gardening hat could look so cool! I have that hat, the chambray shirt too. But for the aquiline nose, regal cheekbones and perfectly expressive lips, that's me.

Now if they only had a garden category at The Oscars. Until then, I'm routing for you, Meryl.

 

 

 

 

What Does Snowboarding Have in Common with the Burpee Garden Catalog?

Absolutely nothing. But I was looking at them simultaneously yesterday, and I thought you'd appreciate the contrast. These mogul-hopping, mop-haired daredevils were braving the brutal arctic breezes, while juicy red tomatoes and gaudy striped petunias were leaping off the page at me. I wasn't watching the Olympics in my living room but sitting below a "mountain" in Minnesota, leafing through a garden catalog I found in the car, while my husband was kicking the tires on a rust-riddled '88 Beemer.

Now at this point someone might be tempted to say "Long story short".

But as anyone with southern roots might ask, "Now, why would you want to do that?" Besides, what if bloggers always kept their long stories short?  Where's the fun in that?

You see, my husband races cars as a hobby. No, not Nascar. He races old Porsches. Not vintage, just old. And with his globe-trotting job and all, you'd think that would keep him busy. But now he has discovered some "fun" race where you and a team of four, endurance-drive a car worth $500 or less. With this race there is a strong emphasis on frivolity and believe me, on that alone, he's already won the race.

So that brings us to Taylors Falls, MN on a Tuesday night, to the bottom of the ski hill where the car's most recent owner works. As we drove up Hwy 8, I was just tickled to see that every town we went through had a Swedish sister-city, and I loved how Lindstrom had an umlaut over its "o", almost as much as I loved its blue and white, teapot-shaped water tower. I half-listened as my husband assured me that there was only a 30% chance I would have to follow him the 90 minutes back home with this car. Yeah, sure.

 
Unusual offerings of African impatiens in the 2010 Burpee Catalog 

But back to the Burpee catalog...

In my mind I'm already planning the containers for the garden tour in July. Last summer I did a lot with flowers and foliage in orange, coral, yellows and lime greens; and I liked it so much I 'm going to do it again.  So I'm looking for new and exciting as well as old and reliable annuals in these same citrus shades for this upcoming event. However finding these sunset colors in shade tolerant plants is somewhat of a challenge.

 
Citrus colors in sunny containers from last year....The Garden Buzz

I do a lot of seeds usually, but to take out some of the guesswork and anxiety, I''ll work with nursery plants that are good-to-go.

With all the good garden centers in the greater Minneapolis area, why would I need mail-order plants? Well, sometimes when I have needed a large number or specific varieties at a certain time, I have found Burpee to be a source of exceptional quality plants. (BTW, that plug is unsolicited). That said, I am definitely ordering the following plants, and thought maybe you might want to consider them too.

• African impatiens "Blondie": Looking like little yellow orchids with just a touch of red, this a fairly new offering. It's a super-charged version of the jewel weed or wild impatiens I allow to take over the back garden here in late summer. Growing to 24", it should light up the shady spots.
• African impatiens "Fusion Peach Frost": Another interesting impatiens with shell-shaped blooms in variations of creamsicle peachy/orange. The kicker is the variegated leaf just touched with white on the edges.
• Begonia "NonStop Fire": If this grows half as well as Begonia "Bonfire", I'll be happy. Large ruffled flowers in coral/pink tinged with yellow, with triangular foliage on reddish stems.

Begonia "Bonfire" on fire next to "Tomaccio" cherry tomatoes

But my most fervent wish is for the local Home Depot to mistakenly stock a plant called Thyrallis glauca again. This zone 9 plant was labeled perennial and I'm sure it is....in Florida. With a shrub-like habit and pretty sprays of yellow blossoms on red stems, it was the serendipitous star of my front porch pots last summer.

.........As for the rest of the story, well, it's sitting in the driveway.

Am I Wrong About Amsonia: Great Native Plant or Perennial Flop?

The other day a popular garden blogger was lamenting not being able to grow amsonia in her garden, mentioning that it was to be the 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year (from now on known as POTY). All I could  remember was how liberated I felt the day I took a shovel to the amsonia growing all over the garden I had just acquired with our new house. So I jumped on that comment box, asking, "Am I the only one who hates amsonia?" Apparently so.

In my little mini-rant, I went on about amsonia's insignificant flowers of creepy blue and its floppy foliage. In minutes, impassioned gardeners were defending amsonia's honor and credentials as a worthy perennial and valuable native plant; citing its adaptability and drought-tolerance but mostly the gorgeous fall color that marks the season finale of this plant.

So I dug a little deeper so to speak. And then I felt a little silly. As an extension master gardener I am always preaching, "right plant for the right place". Could it be the amsonias in my garden were simply in the wrong place? Well, probably yes.

We bought this house with a foot of snow in the yard. But the brochure said, "Award-winning perennial garden". After buying houses (gardens) from people who planted silk flowers in the yard, and after selling houses (gardens) to people who didn't know a daisy from a dahlia; that was all I needed to hear. What they didn't tell me was that the award was probably given 20 years ago! When the landscape thawed I was literally up to my ears in Joe-Pye Weed (don't get me wrong, I love Joe, but enough is enough), while whatever perennials left were overshadowed by this overgrown plant I had never encountered. It turned out to be amsonia.

A little strip of it was planted in a long narrow bed by the back door, that is really the front door, in a northern exposure. This amsonia failed to bloom and flopped to the ground mid-summer, long before the foliage could turn any color. But the bulk of it in the backyard had bullied the astilbes and astrantias into submission and was threatening to take on the lawn. This area sees only slivers of sun at varying times as the light falls behind the woods in back and then the cottonwoods to the west.

As with many gardens, as they age, shade encroaches, change is inevitable. I am sure the original owners did indeed have an award-winning perennial garden. Shame on the last owners for neglecting it. Shame on me for bad-mouthing amsonia.

Amsonia does grow in partial shade, but it grows best in full sunlight. And therein was the problem. Not only does it bloom more bountifully, but the unusual shade of blue shows better in bright light. And when positioned just right, the sun illuminates the fall foliage until it glows golden.

 

In addition, the POTY Amsonia hubrichtii is a variety called "Arkansas Blue Star", selected for soft blue flowers and bottle-brush bright green foliage that turns into a rich golden yellow as fall approaches. Check out "Blue Ice" as well.

Since I had, in a feverish frenzy, dug up and disposed of all the amsonias in my garden, I had to borrow a few photos. How embarrassing.

So I stand corrected, too bad my amsonias are long-gone to the municipal compost heap. But meanwhile, repeat after me...Right Plant for the Right Place.

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Garden Trends: Seeing Double

Oh no, Mama's having one of her spells. It might be a migraine, very possibly that pesky vertigo, but always annoying; Yet I usually live through them to plant and pontificate another day. However, what a great lead-in to a subject I've been thinking about lately. All the dizziness has me thinking about double flowers.

Double Hollyhock (martha stewart)

When plant breeders aren't trying to conjure up square watermelons or blue roses, their fall back position is to just make something double. Snapdragon "Twinny Peach" is one of the latest to come out. Yet double flowers aren't twice the flower, they just have more petals than usual. Ironically, double flowers are often far short of something else. Nectar and pollen.

The slightly scientific explanation is that double flowers occur when there is a genetic "misfire" that causes the sexual structures to mutate and  produce more petals. Plant breeders work to make that happen on purpose for showier flowers. The drawback is that completely double flowers are sterile.

Planting sterile double flowers has its advantages; with more vivid, longer-lasting floral displays. They are a literal lifesaver for those who are allergic to bees, but want to see some color in their backyard scenery. Many sterile flowers are also self-cleaning, just like an oven, meaning no dead heading chores.

Unfortunately with sterile flowers, you get a sterile landscape; no buzz in your garden.

I love the cleome variety "Senorita Rosalita", for its prolific flowers and huge, rounded habit, plus its salsa-rific name. It blooms and blooms and fails to get all rangy and mangy like its old-fashioned, open-pollinated cousin. But watch the butterflies stop to feed and then pass it by, their disappointment almost palpable. OK, I'm being silly, but they won't be thanking you for your hospitality and hanging around your garden.  

Imagine you see a splendid smorgasbord laid out with succulent dishes of food, but upon closer examination, it's all made of plastic; pretty but inedible. That's what mass plantings of double flowers, like Double Wave petunias, can seem like to your local wildlife. Does this mean all double flowers are the work of the devil? No.

Double Wave Petunias   (photo by ndgardengirl)

There is, as mentioned above, a time and a place for double flowers. Moreover, there are different degrees of double flowers, there are semi-double and flowers that have a combination of fertile and sterile inflorescence (that's a fancy name for flowers), hydrangeas being a good example.

Pee Gee Hydrangea has both fertile and sterile flower petals   The Garden Buzz

Many semi-double flowers have merely an extra layers of petals, just enough to make a little petticoat. Some are fairly flouncy, but the nectary is still apparent, in the form a pollen-laden yellow center. Without being a botanist, that is your best bet to noting the wildlife value of a particular plant.

Double Cosmos "BonBon" still offers nectar and pollen to butterflies and bees.  (The Garden Buzz)
 

Double flowers give you a lot of bang for your buck, so place them strategically and sporadically around the garden; maybe in containers or hanging baskets within an otherwisepollinator-friendly garden. Then maybe they can work like those resin replicas on the dessert tray that draw us in for the main entree and the promise of sweet things to come.

Note----It is my personal policy to use my own photos whenever possible, however I don't grow any completely double flowers at this time, and with 10 inches of snow falling, none were available anywhere! Please note that these photos have been credited with their source.

Garden Catalogs: Getting Behind the Birds, and Now the Bees

Hopefully by now you've accrued a pile of well-thumbed garden catalogs, some already marked with sticky tabs and yellow highlighter, or at least a couple turned-down pages. I'm still hoping for a little more quality time with my catalogs and some hot chocolate. Maybe you've just been glued to the computer screen, dazzled by the bright colors and earnest promises of the seed and plant companies.

You'll see some catalogs have widened their offerings to include more vegetable seeds after the explosion of interest in growing food this year. Seed companies were one of the few businesses to see growth (is that a pun?) after the economic downturn. And yet another trend has emerged and spread in scope; pollinators are finally getting their time in the spotlight.

Bee on Coneflower by The Garden Buzz

A few catalogs have always been kind enough to connote the attraction of certain plants for particular pollinators like hummingbirds and butterflies. But this year some catalogs have given a shout-out to the hardworking and humble bee. It's about time.

Like a horticultural Oscars ceremony, I wanted to give an award for the best catalogs in a pollinator-supporting role, and maybe a few honorable mentions. Please note there might be some that I missed, if so let me know, I'm always up for a good garden read. And as always, these plugs are totally unsolicited.

High Country Gardens comes in first with a bee on the cover and directly inside a moving message about bees as the "spark of life", responsible for every third bite of food we eat. High Country Gardens specializes in xeric and native plants, mostly for the western half of the US, however there are quite a few selections that are suitable for the rest of us. Plants for the western states are marked with a cowboy hat icon; I always get sad when I see the cowboy hat, so many cool plants I'll never grow again. But this year something that makes me smile with every page; joining the butterfly and hummingbird icons is a buzzing bumblebee to showcase bee-friendly plants. Kudos to High Country Gardens and its founder, David Salman.

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds is a close second with delightful drawings of birds and ladybugs, and now with golden bumblebees buzzing around the seed selections and tasty recipes on every page. In addition the back cover features a collection of collections for growing habitat gardens for butterflies, hummingbirds, songbirds and now, ta-da...bumblebees!

In third place, Select Seeds, whose specialty is antique flowers, so often preferred by pollinators, uses an icon to specify plants for hummingbirds and butterflies while also mentioning them in individual plant descriptions when appropriate. They sell habitat seed collections as well.

Thompson and Morgan gets an honorable mention for selling 'The Natural Garden", a grouping of traditional British wildflower seeds suitable for the US, for planting a wildlife habitat.

Beyond that Richter's, the herb catalog, Seed Savers Exchange, the heirloom seed source, and Blustem Perennials, along with White Flower Farm and Roots and Rhizomes give occasional mention of the pollinator attracting charactersistics of certain plants.

I'm sure there are more catalogs adding this crucial onformation to their products...let me know and I'll list them in an additional post. Please consider planting for pollinators this year. Climate change, habitat loss, invasive species and disease are some of the greatest threats facing these valuable creatures. Every little bit helps! 

  

Plant a Terrarium...It's Like a Blast from the Past, Man!

Along with daisy stickers, peasant blouses and macrame, terrariums bring out a certain nostalgia for aging flower children like myself. But with all the talk about sustainability these days, they are the perfect teaching tool about enclosed ecosystems, not to mention carefree mini-gardens for those of us with cabin fever. Whether it's your first terrarium or your first in years, I'd say it's time to give terrariums another try.

 
Completed terrarium by The Garden Buzz

Clear glass containers are best, I found a large cannister at TJ Maxx for $7; there are lots of inexpensive and interesting candidates out there. Use your imagination. In addition to plants, you'll need small pebbles for drainage. I used both decorative river rock and aquarium gravel I had on hand, either will do, but I wanted a layered look. Charcoal is necessary for odor control; find it next to the potting soils in most stores. Some sources will say sphagnum moss is the next layer, to keep soil and rock separated, however I decided against it, for aesthetic reasons; green plants won't show up well against it. Instead I pre-moistened my potting soil to keep it in place and easier to work with while planting.

 
 
The terrarium trend hasn't gone unnoticed by the garden centers, there are lots of tiny houseplants available right now. I chose a Rex begonia and baby's tears, for contrast in color, size and texture. In spite of being 3 and 4 inch pots, they ended up being to big for the container. After dividing the plants I had more than enough for another terrarium.

 
Dividing baby's tears moss  The Garden Buzz

Colorful foliage and varied leaf shapes like that of polka-dot plant, nerve plant, pepperomia, maidenhair ferns are just a few of the potential terrarium possibilities.

 
Layering the materials in order of size from large to small, finish with enough soil to anchor the plants. With narrow neck vessels it may be necessary to use funnels, and fashion wire tools to fill and plant the container. I chose a wide mouth jar shape to make it easy; I was in high school the last time I planted one of these. I also had a Boston Fern and a rooted sweet potato in my room; destined to be a plant geek.

 
I trimmed off some older and drooping leaves from the begonia to keep the size in proportion to the jar. As the plant grows additional trimming is needed from time to time. I'm tempted to take a few of the extra leaves for rooting other begonias.

 
Rex begonia by The Garden Buzz

I used my soil scoop to delicately top off the last bits of potting soil, then tamped it down with a wooden spoon. Spray the interior to wash off stray particles of soil and to initially water the planting. Be careful not to flood it. I added a little ceramic mushroom for a woodland look. Feel free to add ornaments but keep it from getting crowded.

 
While condensation is visible, the terrarium is sufficiently watered. It helps to occasionally lift the top to keep it from getting moldy. Spritz when condensation isn't present. Be sure to set the terrarium in indirect light, strong sunlight will cook it quickly.

 
With the remaining plants I used the same technique with a glass trifle bowl. With the open arrangement I'll have to be more diligent with watering, and wonder just how much the close sides will maintain humidity.

 
It's always great to get dirt under your fingernails in the dead of winter. For more inspiration I suggest Tovah Martin's book, The New Terrarium.

(Thanks to my daughter, Hannah, on her last day before returning to college for helping with some of the photography today...always a lovely and talented assistant.) 

For The Love of Gardening

A lot of folks will be hitting the gym this week, bursting with new resolve and brand new workout gear. But I'm already there. Determined to beat them to it, I started a new health regime in October, I could have waited until January, but it seemed a little cliche, not to mention, crowded. Not wanting to flaunt my flabby body in front of the masses, I figured that the end of October leading up to the holidays would be the slow time at the local spa/gym/wellness and what-have-you center.

Before we left city-living and started moving to all the rural outposts of my husband's career, I was a regular at the gym. I lifted weights, did curls and presses and pounced around in my teal and turquoise spandex. However workout places were few and far between back then in the wilds of western Illinois and central Iowa. I guess I could have gone to the Leisure Centre or the "swimming baths", while in England, but that seemed a waste of precious ex-pat time. Now every small town strip mall sports a Curves or something similar.

Anyway, I told myself, gardening was great exercise. And it is, but it can be irregular and erratic, and downright hard on your body. I have the aches and pains to prove it.

By the time we had moved back to a good-sized city, and there was the hope of some type of permanence, I took to the garden with a vengeance. Yes, I would make sure the kids were fed and clothed, but the garden became my refuge, laboratory, pantry and gym for the next 10 years. There were days when I overdid it beyond overdoing it, not seeking much outside help. On those days I hobbled into the house, muddied and sometimes bloodied by my passion; sore muscles and creaky bones screaming in agony. I guessed I was just getting older.

Fast forward another five years and here I am in middle-age, menopause and Minnesota. Trying to conjure up a pale resemblance to my former garden, my body rebels and refuses to cooperate. It's nice to hire help, but somehow feels like cheating, mostly myself from the fresh air and satisfaction of self-reliance.

So the fitness trainer (a Ph.D in health and wellness) asked me about my goals. I said, "I need to get stronger and fitter, so I can keep gardening. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it." I used to find it funny that people had to work out at a gym when they could just be shoveling compost. But now you can find me three days a week pressing the pounds and walking the walk. I always make sure to get the treadmill with the best view, looking out over the frozen wetlands. I can't garden right now, but I can contemplate the cattails and birch trees while watching for bunny tracks in the new-fallen snow.

So Long, Smith and Hawken

First it was Gourmet magazine and now, Smith and Hawken. Of course Gourmet had more history, more gravitas. But who will furnish our horticultural fantasies now?   Then I looked around my home and peeked out at the garden, looking for a piece of S&H merchandise, some remnant of their aspirational hard goods. And then I thought, "Oh, that's why they've gone broke". Did everyone do as I did; strolled, drooled, and hightailed it off to copy that "Tuscan Villa" look on the cheap? So we have no one but ourselves to blame when we crave a little hit of that garden crack.

Today, when I passed through, the scene was more garage sale than garden terrace. The clerks were still busy, but the vultures had started picking the bones cleaner; they wanted the shelves and brackets off the wall. No one seemed interested the Balinese planters stacked yay-high, but then the $399.00 price tag could have been the problem.

The remaining stock looked a little tatty, even tawdry, and sometimes just sad. The mossy garden gnomes were scuffed, the mourning dove candles were minus their tails, and the plethora of orchid pots sat listless and unwanted. Without the lush displays, the items taken out of context didn't inflame that same lust as before.

I don't think the dream has died, we gardeners will continue to decorate and accessorize our gardens, but with maybe a little more authenticity, the austerity only apparent in the price we pay, and not the exuberance and creativity that necessity inspires. Yet I don't think we will go back to re-purposing bathtubs.

I did remember that I bought this birdbath at S&H a while back, on sale. Still it looked more glamorous in the store surrounded by scented candles and heaped with artificial artichokes than it did a few weeks ago in this photo, filled with pine needles and dirty rain water. But at least I have a piece of the dream.

Smith and Hawken birdbath The Garden Buzz