March Chores Have Started

Still cold, still too much snow on the ground to walk around much, but March chores have started.

It has been in the 40s but sunny and still, so I could do some cutting back and cleaning up and pruning and it was really comfortable.

But the wet ground means I really should stay off the yard and out of the garden. Nevertheless I puttered around:

I pruned the rest of the hollies on the berm. They don't look much different but I took a ton of branches off and sheared for shape.

I pruned the viburnum on the west walk, trying to get a nicer branching pattern and keep the biggest branches away from the walk.

The grasses will go. I'll do that this week. They are so unkempt now, and this spring they will not only be cut back, but will be taken out to free up space around the air conditioning units. It will be a much different look along the walk then.

I cut down the amsonias in back, and the Hubrichtii amsonia in front. I tidied up the front walk where I could work in the sunshine along the walk without getting into the soggy yard.

The Kent Beauty oregano in pots on the porch is sprouting. Not sure the plumbagos made it, nothing to show in their pots yet.

I pruned the spicebush shrubs along the back of the berm, and brought the pruned stems in to force.

Jim and I watched two crows harass two hawks right over our heads in the front yard. It was quite a dive bombing battle, full of noisy caws and shrieks. The crows did drive the annoyed hawks away.

Not my picture. This is from NowPublic Photos

Oh, and I started seeds earlier this week. I have a station set up with lights in the basement this year. So far I started just the butterfly weed, which takes 20 days to come up. I'll start the others soon.

And Daylight Saving Time started today. The clocks are now an hour ahead, the late afternoon and evenings will be lighter now. It's started . . .   spring will be here soon.

Philadelphia

I spent three days this week in Philadelphia at the Flower Show with Jane. We took Amtrak down, and stayed in a quirky B&B in the Society Hill area. The brick row house had been built in 1811 and was an eclectic mix of modern furnishings, centuries-old structure, and shabby chic upkeep.

We liked it, and it was comfortable, but definitely not luxurious. We could walk to the convention center a little over a mile away. Our hostess was a pleasant older woman, a gardener. Breakfasts were very good.

Snow threatened the whole time, but didn't really arrive until we got home, and now, March 8, we are in the middle of a wet winter snowstorm.

Last March at this time we were headed into a warm week in the 70s!

The flower show was a disappointment to me. Yes, it was huge and the exhibits were over the top and bright. There were high end vendors. And it really is about floral displays, not gardens.

But the theme of "Brilliant" and "British" led most exhibitors to do something vaguely related to English pop culture, and so we got a yellow submarine, Jane Austen cottage garden displays, gardens with thrones and the queen's crown as motifs. Umbrellas in the garden. Sherlock Holmes, lots of hackneyed British references, unrelated to anything to do with plants. A giant Big Ben in the middle.

There were gardens too, a Hidcote facsimile, a Scottish golf course, several layered and complex designs that were interesting enough, although plant material was almost exclusively bulbs, and azaleas.

The one exhibit I really did like was a student display showing the early seed trade between Bartram and Collinson, with accurate depictions of what the shipping containers were like and how a planted nursery might have looked.  There's a good post about it here at Hortitopia, describing it fully.

Photo and article about the exhibit from Hortitopia

I know a flower show is not like touring a botanical garden, but I did want to get design inspiration and some ideas I could implement. But there were few.

I do want to grow some big purple clematis twining up the Austrian pines out back. There was a lush clematis display that was over the top but actually inspiring. I could easily grow a couple of these gorgeous vines up through the pines.

And as we try to bring the Birch Garden closer to the three paper birch trees by widening the gardens themselves and reducing the grass between, the idea of using scattered stone steppers set in the grass to define a path is nice. It still needs to be mowed, but it ties together separate beds.

Jane and I both thought the show was too tacky, too much an entertainment extravaganza and too little about gardens or plants. But it was a great experience and a nice little getaway.

Now, back at home, we are getting buried. Snow all last night, all this morning, and it is still going on.

Enough!

March Bluster

Cold and windy and partly cloudy. The temperatures were in the 30s today and the wind was gusting. Not a day to go outside, but I finally had to.

I think we have decided not to move the a/c units.  If we leave them where they are, the grasses have to be removed. They block air circulation and caused us problems last summer.

So they will come out. These are Panicum 'North Wind' and they were great screens last summer, but really were too crowded, and not looking very upright this winter. Out. Out.

And then we will see the units along the walk, but, well, so what.

The three soldiers at the back of Meadow's Edge, also Panicum 'North Wind', look upright and wonderful lined up in a row. Those are keepers.

Surprisingly, the big miscanthus by the garage door also looks good after a winter of snow and wind.

In the cold blustery wind, I did some pruning, but it was hard maneuvering in the snow. Not that it's deep, but it is just hard to get your footing.

I pruned the blue hollies for shape.  I did two of the four today. Here they are, with the clippings still strewn about.  I like to keep them pyramidical.

They look stiff now, but as spring comes and they loosen up a bit, it's a good look.

I also pruned the Viburnum prunifolium. That sharply angled branch bothered me, and I really do want to take off the lower branches to keep this a small tree.

An improvement? Not sure. The angled trunk had some interest. But this will give it a more vase shape, sort of.

I took off another branch above on the right too. It is such a dense twiggy viburnum, that come summer I may never notice that any branches came off, but I do hope it gives it a more elegant, open shape.

I need to prune the one by the side of the house too. At least the lower branch on the left has to come off.  What to do about some of the upper branches? Keep the curving one on the left or remove it? Take out the strong upright in the middle to open it up?

It was too cold and windy to stay out much longer today, so any more late winter pruning will have to wait.

Closing out February

The month is almost over. It is ending with gray, drippy, cold wet rain. A day to stay indoors.

As March arrives, I feel like I have run out of time!  Although I did get all the Inventory posts updated over the winter, and I did some clean up in Aperture.

I did get seeds ordered, and my basement station for seed starting is ready to go.

I did order all the plants and annuals I want to put in containers and in the gardens this year.

I did organize the trees I want to plant.  I have dithered and dithered about putting in a Bracken's Brown magnolia. The fact that I am waffling on it means I probably should not plant one. Too southern, not the right fit for the more woodsy look I am going for here, even though I really love the tree and would like to have one.  Just not sure where to put it.

What I do know is that I want sweet birches, a hophormbeam, blue beeches, all out in the meadow, and they are either on order from Forestfarm or I will get them from Broken Arrow. And I will get a parrotia Vanessa and a styrax to add to the yard, also from Broken Arrow.

I've contacted Bartlett to put in another black gum to pair with the other in the front yard. A big, specimen tree.

Now it's going to get busy in March.

On the 2nd I have a Hort Society all day symposium. Then from March 5 - 7 Jane and I will be at the Philadelphia Flower Show. That should be a real treat, I'm looking forward to the trip and the experience.

Then I need to start some of the seeds.

I will need to contact Broken Arrow to order the plants I want to get -- I can pick them up by appointment or wait until April 1 when they open.

At some point in March we'll start to get warmer weather. The cedar storage shed needs to be assembled, the arch and gate for the kiwi vine does too. The garage needs cleaning and organizing.

Too soon I'll be running out of time!

Bobcats in the Yard

Click the link to see my post about a visit from two bobcats a couple days ago. Jim got great photos.

Bobcats in the yard February 22, 2013

Bright Bursts of Light

Very cold, in the teens, and we have had blustery winds for a couple days now.

A few days ago there was a meteor that crashed into a lake in Siberia and the sonic boom broke windows and injured hundreds in a city near the impact. It streaked across the sky in a burst of light, trailing a white plume. Incredible.

This morning the first thing I saw as my eyes opened, was a streaking plume of light in the dawn sky.

Of course it was the contrail of an airplane, and I knew it, but I awoke with a shock, a little panicked after seeing the repeated news videos of that meteor blazing across the early morning Russian sky.

Usually when I wake up, I lie in bed watching the contrails meet the morning sun. I get quite a view of the sky from our large bedroom windows, and early morning is a busy time for air traffic here. If the sun is just rising and it is a clear day, there are six or seven pink tinted plumes crossing each other all over the sky, headed every which way. Local air traffic lumbers by, small aircraft zipping past the window, with the backlit plumy vapor trails behind them.

What a way to greet the day.

Then, I open the bedroom door to the living room and see the glorious burst of yellow light from the still blooming forsythia branches that I brought in to force back on January 31.  It's been 20 days now, and all the other branches I cut have opened, bloomed, entertained me and scented the room for a while and are now gone.

The forsythia blooms on. Not a single little blossom has shriveled, no yellow petal has been lost. It goes on and on.

It's pretty exciting around here at dawn on a winter morning.

Annuals for 2013

Here are the annuals I ordered:

Dichondra Silver Falls
For the urn container in the front walk. Ordered from Avant Gardens. I like the cool dusty blue with the red brick and the deep red container.

Nicotiana alata
I had these before and they were beautiful. Tried the green and pink ones and they succumbed to some kind of wilt. The white alata had no problems. Around the Patio or in the gravel garden.

Whiteflower Farm Nicotiana alata

Salvia guaranitica
I always like Black & Blue sage. Possibly in a container, or somewhere in the gravel garden. Ordered from Avant Gardens.

Alternanthera ficoides Red Threads
I like this in the big bowl on the deck with herbs or lettuce. I got it last year at Warner's.
This year I ordered one from Avant Gardens.

Plectranthus Mona Lavender
In a container somewhere in shade, either on the deck or in Meadow's Edge? Last year I looked all over for it, this year I ordered one from Avant Gardens.

Avant Gardens Plectranthus Mona Lavender

Cosmos Chocomocha
In any one of the sunny gardens? I got this from Avant Gardens.

Avant Gardens Cosmos Chocomocha

(Here's what they say about it:
A flower the color of rich cocoa and a scent to match.
Will flower, but not in great abundance at first. Save the enlarged tubers for future seasons, for an increasing display in years to come.)

Angelonia Archangel Purple
I love angelonias, and got some purple ones from Whiteflower Farm. They will go in the front of the Birch Garden and match nicely with the bright purple Nicky phlox. I'll add others in different colors if I find them at the nurseries this spring. They bloom on and on for me all summer.

From Whiteflower Farm

Along with the annual seeds I'll be starting, there should be plenty of bloom and color for containers or for odd spots in the garden this year.

Seeds for 2013

Here are the seeds I am planting this year:

From Select Seeds
California poppies Golden West
(Eschscholzia Californica) along the gravel garden border. I saw the orange ones in a raised stone wall at North Hill in Vermont, and they glowed!

Sow directly (they won't transplant well). 14 - 28 days germinate / 10 weeks seed to bloom.

Shear after they set seed, and they will rebloom.

Nasturtium Variegated Queen
(Tropaeoleum majus) to climb the twig towers. These trail to 6 feet.

I really wanted the pale yellow ones 'Moonlight' that I grew last year, but they were not as trailing as I wanted, really mounders, and most of the seed catalogs did not describe them as trailing nasturtiums.

These might be a tad bright, especially with the cream and white foliage. But you can't go wrong with any nasturtiums.  Sow directly.

Salvia Hummingbird
(Salvia coccinea) to put beneath the hummingbird feeder. I had loved the big stand of Lady in Red that grew there in 2011.

I really have little room there any more, with the comptonia now below the feeder and the clematis grown in.

But these only get 1.5 feet tall, which seems smaller than the Lady in Reds were.  Start indoors.



I laso got a packet of Butterfly Weed - Asclepias tuberosa to add to the spot where I had tried to transplant the one from Meadow's Edge at the end of the gravel garden border.


From Summerhill

Dahlia Black Beauty
These are going in several containers to be placed all over.

I saw these in the annual garden beds at Elizabeth Park, all massed together. They were a rosier deep red, not so chocolate colored, but very rich.

Start indoors.

Zinnia Cherry and Ivory Swizzle
They grow only a foot tall, so they'll be easy to tuck into spots in each garden that need some color.

Start indoors.

Morning Glory Blue Picotee
(Ipomoea)
This vine should trail about 5 feet, and it is supposed to be good for hanging baskets.

I'll put it in the container on the iron stand that sits on the deck, and let it drape over.

Start indoors.

From Botanical Interests:

Marigold Signet Lemon / Tangerine Gems
(Tagetes tenuifolia)

These orange and yellow dwarf marigolds will go in the smaller pots I have, and I'll put them on the wall around the patio.

They are little and delicate (and edible!)  Sow them outside in the pots they'll grow in.

Lobelia Trailing Regatta Rose
(Lobelia erinus)
I thought I'd put these in containers around the gravel garden and let them drape over the sides.

The vivid sapphire color of the upright lobelia I had last year was great.  I'm not sure how this pink will look, or if it's even pink or magenta.

Sow indoors.

Poppies Lauren's Grape
(Papaver somniferum)

Not sure where to put these, maybe out in the front walk for spring bloom.

Sow outside, they won't transplant well.









I also got Zinnia Cut & Come Again, my old favorites, that I will plant in spots around the garden. I'll start these outdoors where they will grow.

Thinking . . part three: New Trees

Here are the new trees I am thinking of planting in spring 2013:


> A second black gum, Nyssa sylvatica, in the front yard behind the mailbox. A match to the one on the right in the front yard.

Symmetry, structure, fall color, clean look. Have Bartlett select and plant it.



> A parrotia, Parrotia persica 'Vanessa', at the back of the Drive By Garden for some screening of the neighbors house (well, a vertical accent, distracting the eye).

Narrow, beautiful, fall color, woodsy look. Small enough for that location. Broken Arrow has a 5 gallon.

> A hophornbeam, Ostrya virginiana, behind the spruce berm, at the left corner of the compost hedgerow. It's interesting, so I want to see it up close, but not in the yard.

Shade tree to hide the roofline of the house on Wadhams. Hop-like bracts are nice. Coarse tree, not great for the yard, may hold leaves in winter, gets large.  Forestfarm has this.

> A grove of three blue beeches, Carpinus caroliniana, out at the road cut where the other trees shade quite a bit.

Screening, a grove effect, fills that corner. Known as musclewood -- sinewy trunks, can be multi-stemmed.  Will grow in the shade there. Broken Arrow has 3 gallon plants.

> Three sweet birches, Betula lenta, scattered at the base of the back hill to fill gaps.

Adds nice yellow fall color in with the maples out there.  I lost all three that I planted in years past, but want to try again. Forestfarm has these.

       

I'm not so sure about the Bracken's Brown Beauty magnolia grandiflora. I love it, such a gorgeous tree, and narrow enough for a spot in one of the gardens.

But I am having a hard time picturing where to put it --

 --- thinking.

Negative Temps

It was minus 2 degrees this morning. That's the first time we have had sub zero temperatures for a long time, several years I think.

Any tender plants that are 3 feet tall or less are completely encased in snow, nice and cozy in these negative temps!

The sun came out and with all the snow covering everything, and no break in the whiteness from shrubs or features in the yard, it's just a sea of eye-blinding white.

The poor Japanese maple in front is buried!

It will be a while before this all goes away. Here's a view from last night, after the storm, looking across the cul de sac to Olmsted's mailbox:

Roads are getting cleared, but our street is still pretty impassable, although the plow did come through. Dynamic could not plow our driveway and had to have Peter from Bluestone come over with the pay loader and scoop the stuff out.  What a mess.