Annuals Redux

At the beginning of the summer I wrote about the merits of annuals. Pleased with myself, I set out to wait for the French marigolds that I had planted to take off. They were to become a lush carpet of color and fragrance. Then it rained.... and rained. In July, I thought, "These things are never going to grow." And to make matters even worse, the marigolds were being eaten by pests. Those fragrant flowers that are meant to ward off pests! I never caught the culprit, and a number of plants bit the dust.

However, August has come and passed, and at last, the marigolds are just what I wanted them to be, Full and luxurious. The nicotiana filled out too, but have not reached the 18" height, more like 8 - 12" tall. The parsley is out of control. Elsewhere, some of the zinnias have taken hold. The red and pink ones seemed to fare better than the orange and white, which have been consumed by grasshoppers.

A few timely purchases of pots of coleus perked up my perennial bed this month. And the planters full of coleus, sweet potato vine and creeping jenny, surrounding  my water lilies look quite stunning. Best of all, The eggplants are arriving. If September remains balmy, I should have a good harvest. Besides, how many eggplants can one person eat? They are the perfect vegetable for a lazy gardener. Spare me the zucchini.

I am going to make a small change next year. Instead of purchasing Single Late tulips, I am getting the Giant Darwin Hybrids. I have chosen "Holland's Glory" and "Daydream"; "brilliant scarlet-orange with poppy-red edges and a muted yellow base," and "varying shades of soft apricot, warm orange and yellow with a rosy glow." And fragrant too. Sounds like a thrilling pair. Best of all they bloom mid April to May, giving the annuals an extra week or two in the ground in late spring. I also am returning to the Peony Flowering tulips, "Orange Princess" this time. They are classified as as "Early". We shall see.

I also decided to venture a little further afield and ordered:

• Leucojum aestivum "Gravetye Giant" ( Little white green-tipped bells)
• Species Tulip "Heart's Delight" ( Small light and dark pink)
• Crocus vernus "Twilight" (Deep blue)
• Allium azureum (Small blue puffs)
• Scilla siberica "Spring Beauty" (Blue squill)

All are small early spring blooming bulbs good for naturalizing. All total, 375 bulbs to add to the 300 tulips I am already planting. This October I am sure to be worn out digging.

Click on the first picture to start the slide show.

Coleus on the left, zinnias in the center

Water lily tub and planters

Nicotiana

Marigolds and eggplant

More marigolds

!!!!

Coleus filling in for the rhubarb which is past. Note the sorry orange zinnia.

Odorous

Did some creature die in my yard? Last weekend when I was taking a midafternoon break on my patio, I caught that faint, fetid odor. It was there, then it wasn't. Friends who came over for a Friday cocktail didn't smell anything. Even Esme, the dog with the great nose, seemed unconcerned. She can normally track down a dead animal at thirty paces. Maybe I was delusional. No, I smelled it again.

It took me until midweek to think of looking up, and there was the culprit. The hawthorn tree, grown from a little twig. Until this year it had never bloomed. Oh dear, an "odorous" plant in my midst. Having read enough plant descriptions from nurseries over the years, I recognize that "odorous"is code for "stinky." So let us sing a song to the stinky plant. I have had many through the years.

Actaea racemosa, a lovely perennial, commonly known as bugbane or cohosh, has a wonderful perfume...sometimes. Unfortunately, I purchased the plant with green leaves, not the black colored one. Those beautiful little white pearl blossoms at the end of that snake-like spire....stinky. I still have three of the plants, but they are planted far away from the house, where they can be seen and not smelled.

Once I was given a flat of wooly creeping thyme, left over from a landscaping job. I planted it at the edge of the stone wall near the entrance to my house. Later I discovered that when it bloomed it gave off the odor of stinky feet! That would have been bad enough, but its bloom time paralleled that of my dwarf Korean lilac, one of the most sweet smelling of shrubs. The combination of sweet and stinky was sickening. Still, a gift is free, and when you need a plant, you need a plant. Fortunately after five years, the thyme bit the dust. It took another three years to erase the memory of that smell, when I could once again enjoy my lilac.

"Odorous" is in the nose of the smeller, I guess. Not long ago I had a client who told me, "Please don't plant any more lilacs. I already have one and I can hardly bear to be around it when it is blooming... so strong!" I promptly went through the proposed plant list and pulled all flowering shrubs noted for their fragrance. I have to admit that I have the same reaction to viburnum carlesii. Too close to the house and it is overwhelming. A little goes a long way.

A few days ago when I finally got around to weeding the north side of my house, I was caressed by the most wonderful fragrance floating in the air. Ah yes, the tree lilac is in bloom. For years I used to wander around my neighborhood looking for the source of that delightful smell. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was coming from a small tree at the edge of my property. A tree I didn't even know I had. If you need a little flowering tree, Syringa reticulata "Ivory Silk" is a nice choice. It is easy to find at most nurseries. The bark is attractive, the flowers beautiful, the shape just right, and some June, you will wander around asking where in that wonderful fragrance coming from? Nothing "odorous" here.

Tree lilac from my window

A Case for Annuals

If your tulips are finished blooming, might as well get rid of them. I know this is hard advice for frugal sentimental plant lovers to take, but your tulips will never look as good as they did last week. There are a few, some of the Giant Darwin hybrids, that will come back fairly well for a few years, but you have to put up with them looking really crappy until way into July. By then summer is half over.

My choice is to dedicate a garden bed or two to "tulips followed by annuals". The lowly annual has had a hard time in our post modern age. People weary of impatiens have been lured by the siren song of perennials, with their large blossoms and promise of longevity and economy, returning year after year. The back story that no one ever tells you, is the fact that perennials are far from "maintenance free." Have you ever questioned why your gardening friends are so eager to fob off divisions of their perennials? Could it be that they have grown out of bounds, and your friends don't know how to get the monster under control? Sure, just give them to some unsuspecting soul and have a partner in misery.

Perennials need to be deadheaded and divided when they get too big. Otherwise, as in the case of most irises, they will just quit blooming altogether. Or in the case of phlox, if you forget to deadhead, all of your beautiful hybrid colors will revert to the pale lavender of the species. Then of course, there is weeding. Don't even get me started. The peskiest weeds like to mingle their roots with those of their favorite perennials. Daylilies and witch grass are congenial companions, and even if you dig up the daylily, spray wash all of the dirt out of the roots and, by hand, pick out all of the witch grass, some will remain to say "hello" next year.

So, time to reconsider the lowly annual. You have the luxury of choosing variety from year to year. Last year I planted zinnias, cosmos, and snapdragons, and enjoyed the myriad butterflies who came to visit all season long. You can even intersperse vegetables in an annual bed. This year I chose to plant six eggplants and surround them with the elegant colors of French marigolds - red, orange, gold and yellow. The marigolds have an added gift for keeping pests at bay because of their fragrance. In my other bed, I have planted ivory nicotiana and parsley. The nicotiana has a delicate color and fragrance, and should grow to 18" by summer's end.

It is a good idea to change your annuals from year to year. This keeps pests that may have found you from setting up housekeeping the next year. One year I built a temporary trellis out of twigs and planted pole beans. They fix the nitrogen in the soil, and will make next year's flowers even more beautiful. I have made a permanent border of evergreen boxwood along one of my annual beds (The other is bounded by a nice stone wall.) This gives everything form while I wait for the little seedlings to fill out.

For the budget conscious, just get some seed packets early in the season and scatter them on your freshly weeded bed. Incredible flowers for just a few dollars. If you pick the flowers throughout the summer, you will have more! In the fall, after the first frost has killed all your annuals, just pull them out and take them to the compost pile. Then plant your new collection of tulips, (get them from a wholesale dealer in bulk for savings) and dream of spring, when it will be time to do it all again.

The hardest thing about keeping an annual bed going, is that the real estate is so tempting. I can't tell you how many times, I have thought, "Oh maybe I'll plant these wiegielia shrubs I got on sale at the garden center," or, "I'll just put my divided overgrown daylilies here till I figure out what to do with them." I always manage to come to my senses before it is too late.

Exotic annuals and non hardy tropical are making a comeback these days. So if you grandmother's garden annuals just don't seem exciting enough, check out you local garden center. The humble coleus is now available with foliage of amazing colors and shapes. Annual grasses a lot easier to deal with that their perennial cousins.

I hope that I have made the case. If not, check out the following photos of my annual bed last year and the nascent bed of this year. Click on the first picture, and the whole thing will come up in slide show mode.

last year's zinnias



Peony flowering tulips

Peony flowering tulips, soon to become a nicotiana bed

Tulips in the spring

Marigolds and eggplants newly planted two weeks ago

Progress Report

A strange spring weather-wise, In the last week of May we went from freezing cold to 90 degree weather. Still, the yard has looked beautiful, the flowering crabapples and magnolias were the best they have been in years. My yard is bearing the fruit of previous hard work. All of my plants are happy and filling out. The beds look full for the first time in years. I thought I would show you some progress pictures. If you click on the first picture, I think you can see them all full screen.

 

LATE APRIL

first purchases of the season



best year for magnolias



boxwood in April

EARLY MAY: Tulips are up, this year a bold mixture. The crabapples lasted for a week with a lovely fragrance, and the blossoms of Cornus florida "Appalachian Blush" has taken the place of the magnolias. These dogwoods are susceptible to a blight, but I am taking my chances in the belief that there are no others like it for miles.

 

 

 

Redbud blooming and boxwood are on a growing tear.

 

 

 

LATE MAY: The tulips are going, still beautiful in their decay. I bought some Hick's yews from the Job Lot, and have them in temporary pots on either side of the gliding bench. Kind of like the look. the Heuchera (coral bells) planted in April are blooming. New annuals are ready to go in the beds and pots, and the flower beds, so puny in April are full and lush now.

 

 

Annuals take the place of tulips

these are the tiny nymph flowers of the kousa dogwood.
They will double in size over a few weeks and turn pink.

the viburnum are blooming

Oops, some things have been neglected since fall

 

 

the lilac bush next to the stairs is a Korean lilac, meyerii palibin,
superb fragrance, a beautiful shape and bronze fall color.

 So hope that your spring and summer plants bring you beauty and joy this year. I will report back on the peonies that should be blooming by the end of the week.

 

 

Keep it Simple

photo by Jane Billings

Last week a friend and I took a day trip to Lenox MA to visit "The Mount". http://www.edithwharton.org/index.php?catId=8&subCatId=21 This summer home and the surrounding gardens were designed and built back in 1901by Edith Wharton, the author of The House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence. She also wrote books on the design of houses and gardens.

The whole estate is extremely simple. The rooms in the house are light and airy and well ordered. First looking at the map of the gardens, I thought they resembled a barbell with a long path connecting squares at both ends. However, strolling through the real garden reminded me of the power of simplicity. It's very easy to make something complicated, but to create something simple and elegant takes a great deal of thought and effort.

The walled "Italian" garden is my favorite area. The Italians have distilled the garden form to its essence. (See my page, "Favorite Gardens".) They make use of a few repeated elements, and a limited plant palette to great effect. The geometric box parterres in front of the villas consist of three colors, green clipped hedges, brown mulch, and gray stone dust paths. The more extensive gardens out back are usually a series of allees of similar clipped trees (Cypress or hornbeam) with a statue at the end as focal point drawing one down the garden path. Add a fountain or two, and there you are, the best of the Renaissance!

At "The Mount" The walled garden is slightly sunken with stone walls on three sides. The path that leads to the garden goes down a series of terraces with chamecyparis hedges and pointy clipped arborvitae. The shape itself is a simple square with a stone fountain in the center. There are cruciform paths and a square path flanked by perennial borders around the perimeter. The white astilbe in the inside border must have been stunning earlier in the summer, but by the time I visited, it was the outside border of Hosta "Royal Standard" that took the spotlight. You may say, "One kind of hosta! how boring!" Oh no! anything but boring! Serene, refreshing, incredibly fragrant, those are the descriptors I would use.

I have to admit that it takes a lot more confidence than I posess to create a border of one perennial variety! So I set down the challenge: see if you can keep your plant choices limited to one variety somewhere in your garden. It may become your favorite space.

Late Summer Fragrance

After a very busy July and a frazzled first week in August, I finally got to the garden today. What joy! I bought three late blooming daylilies Sunday to keep the white phlox company in the front border. Davis Brook Farm http://davisbrookfarm.com/ is a wonderful place to visit. It is located just outside of Hancock village, one of the most picturesque towns in New Hampshire. "Preppy Pink" is in fact a mid-blooming variety, but is still going great guns in August. It is a petite plant with warm pink flowers with a green throat. I planted it amongst the red Coleus. "Bonanza", a fragrant soft yellow with burgundy eyezone went next to the phlox along with Perovskia "Little Spire" and Crocosmia "Lucifer", and an orange species daylily that hasn't yet begun to bloom.

The poor crocosmia spent its best blooming time in a pot in front of my stone wall, and now that the wonderful scarlet flowers have gone to seed, it finally is in the ground. That's just how it goes some times. I am only grateful that it didn't die while waiting around. I was on such a roll, that I  dug up the overgrown iris and moved more daylilies around, dividing the "Stella d'Oro", and filling in some holes. I relocated some coral bells into a nice chartreuse grouping and moved a hosta over by the peonies.

I became even more inspired, and divided some over grown "Frances Williams" hosta, and now have numerous little yellow and green-edged hostas taking root on the slope in front of my house. That is such a difficult spot. the mulch runs off in a cloudburst and ends up in my driveway. I am hoping that in a few years the hosta will be thick and ground-cover-ey and won't need mulching. at least it is better than when I first moved here and had to mow a six foot wide strip of grass on a terrace by the road.

I worked till I got staggering silly tired, and then spent the rest of the day in a lawn chair reading my latest mystery (one by Louise Penny http://www.louisepenny.com/) and dozing off. I thought I would let little Esme, my new cairn terrier mix, dig that hole she has been longing to dig, but thought better of it when she started barking in Chinese. I had to drag her away from the hole but she finally settled in under the chair.

Anyway... I have finally gotten to the point of today's blog title, "late summer fragrance". As I sat luxuriating in the recliner, the loveliest lemony fragrance wafted past my nose. The sun had warmed the lemon balm and a breeze was in the air. It made me glad that I hadn't pulled out that weedy spreading plant altogether.

On my walk earlier in the day, I got close to the Clethra a. "Ruby Spice", just the sweetest smelling shrub in bloom. I went over to the potted kumquat trees to check on their fruit, and took a sniff of the blossoms so much like an orange blossom. Then after having moved to the "at long last shady" patio, for my evening glass of wine, the gentlest of fragrances blew by. I don't know what it was, maybe a mixture of fresh dug earth and zinnias, but I felt blessed to have a late summer day in the garden.

Dog Days

Here in Peterborough this has been the week for heat and humidity. I commuted the sentences of  the crabgrass... at least for another week. Still I did venture out an hour yesterday during an unusually pleasant morning to cut back the perennial flowers that are past. What a difference, you can actually see the white phlox.

Now while waiting for the afternoon thunderstorm, I thought that I would post some new photos of one of my projects from my summer design course. This is a design of a public space from my imagination. I chose to make a model of a portion of a larger woodland garden. There is a path, a few different sized gathering places, and opportunities for views of the pond and what lies beyond. It is a natural style garden, but I would call it "hyper" natural; kind of like Spiderman. It contains many groupings of flowering trees and shrubs, some of which would not be found together in a New England woods unless they were planted.

I had a lot of fun searching through my garden for the different shapes and textures that I used to make the model. Among the plants are varieties of sedum, lilacs, thrift blossoms, dried lambs ear blossoms, dried parsley, spruce, heather, and some purple and white things from Michaels. They represent oaks, maples, birches, dogwoods, redbuds, viburnums, azaleas, hemlock and others unnamed. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Click the link below for a slideshow.

https://picasaweb.google.com/116823766269242621801/Design2Model#slideshow/5775264296238001794