Snow Ice To See You

The record breaking snow storms of 2010 have left many area gardeners in anguish after reviewing the damage inflicted. 48-inches of heavy snow (120 cm) from two storms in a one week period slammed our area that averages 16-inches of snow (40 cm) in an entire winter. Everyone has relayed stories of broken tree limbs, buried gardens, and ice-sheared shrubs, and this gardener does, too.

My front display garden damage cannot be observed at this point under the white blanket. Hollies are fine, but the mountain laurel with its weak limbs succumbed to the snow load in the first storm.

My rear yard is another matter. The queen of the back yard, the Dr. Merrill Star Magnolia came away with not a scratch due to its muscular stems and trunk. The 15-foot tall (4 m) Photinia turned into a weeping photinia. The branches eased back to vertical after some snow melt, but are not as tight and upright as before. There is hope for the spring.

The ligustrum had a few lower branches broken from the weight of snow. Later snow melt will reveal the extent of damage, however the plants will survive. Their trained tree-shape may be the casualty. The dogwood lost a lower branch, but otherwise appears well.

The most damage that can be observed, or rather not observed occurred on the 8-foot tall (2.5 m) rhododendrons. These are nowhere to be seen from the house windows. It is feared they are completely flattened to the ground and buried under snow.

Pearly Whites Just In Time

Trying to extend the growing season by bringing it indoors, and being inspired by the Indoor Garden(er), a companion to the Paper Whites was planted just before Thanksgiving. Pearly white Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) bulbs were set in water, topped with green tumbled ocean glass, chilled, and brought out to be forced into an indoor winter bloom.

Now, I have never grown these type of hyacinths in the past because I never liked their form. They are too rigid and artificial looking for my taste - like little plastic toilet brushes. They never seem natural in the landscape. However, they were on sale at the local store late in the season, so a small packet was purchased to save them from the Christmas decorations muscling in on their shelf space. All but three bulbs were planted in the front garden.

The Paper Whites came and went, while the three Hyacinths took their sweet time. They began blooming last week, 2-1/2 months later. I found the indoor results different than the outdoor results will undoubtedly be:

1. The flowers appear natural - not formal and rigidly-formed
    as their outdoor brethren. I like that.
2. The flowers are blooming a few at a time. This will
    extend the blooming time.
3. The leaves are stunted - small so the blossoms are
    more visible.

All the effort is worth it for the fragrance. It hits you upon entering the house. And the best part - they are blooming now: right after our record-setting 25-inch (65 cm) snowstorm, and at a time when winter seems to drag on. One needs a reminder of spring in February.

I Like Lichen

I took a trip down to nearby Huntley Meadows Park. This is the largest county park in Fairfax County, with 1,425 acres of "majestic forests, wildflower-speckled meadows and vast wetlands for some of the best wildlife watching in the Washington metropolitan area." I wanted to review the winners of the center's annual Photography Contest, including a photo of Kingbirds entered by a bird-watcher good friend.

A walk through the wooded trails and along the wetlands boardwalk yielded a surprising amount of interesting wildlife for a drab Saturday afternoon in winter. A King Rail was spotted munching in the cattails, with its tiger-stripe orange back and zebra striped belly. Others loafing around included abundant Canada geese, mallards, gulls, cardinals, chickadees, nuthatch, and crows. The more interesting included the downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, and rare (in this area) red-headed woodpecker. My favorite sighting was the Eastern bluebird, standing out in a background without color.

With my tiny Canon Power Shot in hand, a few interesting photogenic features were found growing in the wood trails: lichen and fungus. The colorful lichen were growing in their symbiotic relationship with with algae and moss, as usual. However, there were a few areas where fungus instead seemed to be its mate. Lichen usually rely on the sugars produced by green algae, so with no algae or moss, I don't know what these little beasties were up to.

The same lichen on trees appeared to be two different colors - pale green and a pale greenish-blue. I wasn't sure if this was the same lichen in a different stage of growth, or a slightly different species. The lichen was so pervasive that the trees looked like a paintball game just finished.

The interesting fungi that were found resembled clamshells with the horizontal stripes, popcorn on the log, and bite-sized caramels on the fallen branch. I believe I was hungry that day, affecting the way I saw things. At least the birds didn't look like chocolate-covered marshmallow peeps.

The Paper White Files

It must be time to talk about the indoor garden plants. My first Paper White Narcissus (Tazetta narcissus) were planted the day after coming home from Thanksgiving vacation last year. The bulbs were snug in their paper bags just behind the milk and soda in the refrigerator for about two weeks prior to planting. They grew slowly at first, and then just after Christmas, the blooms began. They were stunning for my New Years Open House. What timing!

Since I don't like the concept of disposable plants, the bulbs were watered throughout the winter, spindly leaves and all, and planted outdoors in the spring. The hope was that they would grow strong bulbs with the sunlight and garden soil, go dormant like good bulbs should, and be harvested for planting indoors next year.

This process really confused the plants. Outdoors, the leaves flopped around worse than in the house and began turning yellow. After about a week of dormancy, (or of deciding what season it is and what the appropriate response should be), the plants began shooting up new vigorous leaf growth. This continued for at least two months. Now I was the one confused.

Not knowing what to make it this, and months after the spring blooming bulbs had disappeared, I stopped watering the paper whites. I dug one up to take a peek at what was hopefully a bulb. There was no such thing. The largest hints of bulbs were small marble-sized balls.

This year, new paper whites were planted a week earlier - just before Thanksgiving, but they still bloomed at the same time - right after Christmas and in time for my New Years Open House again. Guests noticed the fragrance after walking through the door. I know that paper whites don't come from the stork, so I need to research more on how to cultivate them to bloom again. I discovered they will die from the cold that our normal daffodils get in the winter. One piece of advice I always find - throw them away and buy new ones.

Fall Color For Gray Winter

It's the middle of winter, and there is not much to record in the way of gardening. In looking at some past photos that were not posted to the blog, a few noteworthy autumn items for the journal were found. First, there is the gooseneck loosestrife (lysimachia clethroides).

The leaves this year turned a vibrant golden yellow in the fall. The color stayed around for about two weeks before fading into brown. I believe the memory has been fading too, since I do not remember this color on the loosestrife in the past two years of growing it [22.6.2008]. I can think of three reasons:

1. In previous years, the plants were rather sparse, so maybe the increased density this year created a more solid blob of color that simply got noticed.
2. This fall had the right conditions to create the color, much like the conditions affect the leaf color in the trees from year to year.
3. The plants were healthier during the year, since I was trying to get them to fill in and spread (which they did.)

The color was a welcome surprise.

There is a small oak leaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) planted in the spring that did not grow much during the summer. The few leaves it had rivaled the maples in fall color. Since this was its first year in the garden, it is not known how prevalent this red color will be next autumn, but I am hopeful. Researching online indicates that the plant is known for its intense red fall colors.

Frank's Yearn to Urn

In September, a four day convention in Chicago yielded a few side trips as a tourist. A visit to Oak Park where Frank Lloyd Wright built his first house and opened his studio on his own was the first stop. A second trip downtown to the Art Institute and nearby Millenium Park was an eye-opener.
Although architecture and art were the primary targets for the trips, gardens and greenery were also experienced. Since this is a garden blog, I will concentrate on the botany in my trips.

These urns were outside the entrance to the Wright Studio. Potato vines and ornamental grasses (or is it millet) lend grace and life, and easily blend with Wright's more organic architecture.

Frank Llyod Wright was an architect that was noted for his 'prairie style' of architecture, building on low, horizontal, modern forms. The neighborhood around his home includes a handful of his earlier residential work, and really brings home how radical he was. His houses were built in the same era as the neighborhood's stately turn-of-the-century Victorian ladies, providing a contrast and context to the times he began his practice.

In Frankie's original sketches and drawings, one always seems to find large decorative urns and planters overflowing with greenery and vines. These were very popular at that time with Victorians so they were probably requested by some clients. They also suited Wright's architecture by bringing some 'decorative' softness to what some considered at the time to be stark modern architecture.

The bigger the urns, the more difficult it is to find the types plants to fulfill Wright's sketches. I was happy to see the homes at the end of the season when the vines and arching plants in the urns were at the height of their beauty and fullness - overflowing like Wright had imagined them. What was also a pleasure to see were the shady large leaf plantings of the Victorians front yards.

Victorians liked welcoming front porches. Get a load of this one. My house could fit on this porch. And those mega-urns? In order to properly scale the walk to the front door for such a massive entry, the approach sidewalk is about 20-feet wide (6m) with a small planted median down its center.

But the biggest urns of all were found at the front entrance to the Art Institute in downtown Chicago. These mamas were larger than a hot tub. A few bags of potting soil would not do. I had to include the people in the photo to show scale, since the lions were super-sized, too.

Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: Mexican zinnia, calendula, nicotiana, pink cosmos   • Harvested 8 tomatoes, 9 bell peppers before frost

Inconsistent Princess

The Nasturtium seeds were purchased from Home Depot for the new side yard garden on the slope. Nasturtiums were tried about a decade ago, and were not a success story, but I was willing to try again this year. Princess of India (Tropaeolum majus) sounded like a good variety to try. Almost all germinated to my surprise, so some were planted at the side, and the extras were placed out in the back yard vegetable garden.

At first, the side yard plants did very well in the spring, and began producing flowers quickly. Leaves were dark green, and the plants grew into small mounds. One item that disappointed me was the small number of flowers on each plant, and the tendency for them to bloom down inside the leaf mound, making them difficult to see. Those photos all over the internet show a profusion of blossoms above the leaves. (Same for the seed packet.) Do the gardeners get credit for these, or Photoshop experts?

Also, one plant was a lighter shade of green than the others, so I planted it to the side. It turned out to trail along the ground more and produced red-orange flowers in contrast to the red flowers of the others. This was a rogue - definitely not a princess.

During the summer, the plants essentially stopped growing and flowering. They did, however, retain their compact shape and attractive leaves, and were not bothered by pests. Last month as the weather began cooling, the plants took off again. Shedding the compact mounded habits, they are now found crawling along the ground like drunken sailors. The blossoms are more visible now between the leaves, being more spread along the vines, and are also more numerous.

The backyard plants never got going. They remained small throughout the spring and summer, but are just now beginning to grow. They even surprised me with a few blossoms this month. I guess a Princess of India prefers to bask in the sunny locations.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil with gypsum & organic amendments   • Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink cosmos, canna, nasturtium, mexican zinnia   • Harvested: 1 pepper, 1 tomato

Squash That Bug

The cleome was tall, spindly, and dying at the end of summer. This is normal for many plants, and never having grown cleome before, thought it was normal. Upon cutting the plants down to tidy up the garden, hundreds of black and yellow beetle-like bugs were found covering the stems and some leaves. Most were thrown out with the plants.

Two weeks later, as I was tending to zinnias adjacent to the cleome bed, the same bugs were found on the zinnias. The cooperative extension was called, but was not much help over the phone. I went to the Bug Guide online to visually identify them as friend or foe. Nothing matched. I registered, posted my photo of the rascals, and someone responded. It turns out that they were on the bug site, but I was looking in the wrong place.

These are harlequin bugs, in the family of stink bugs, found in the southern US as far north as Pennsylvania and Colorado. They can be nasty critters that suck juices out of the plants. When I learned of this, I went out to the zinnias to commit bugicide, but found they had all flown the coop. I guess they got wind that I was onto them, and decided to feast elsewhere, for fear of the gardener's wrath.

The bug info page says they overwinter, so I will be watching for them in March. They can be picked off by hand, but with hundreds, there are faster ways of population control. Fortunately, I did not find any eggs.

For The Record:   • Found on zinnia and cleome Garden Calendar:   • Blooming:canna, zinnia, nasturtium, castor, aster, pink cosmos   • Harvested: 1 pepper

Purple Passion

While in Atlanta last fall, I was impressed by the 7-feet (2 m) tall, purple-leaf plants growing in the corner of the botanical garden outdoor cafe. A sign indicated they were Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus). Once back home, I described them to my landscape architect friends who told me they never grow 7-feet tall in this climate, unless they overwinter in a greenhouse, a most likely scenario.

This year, I bought one and have been impressed by its growth over the summer. Although not getting to the height of the Atlanta plants, the Strobilanthes dyerianus produced its intense iridescent purple leaves. This tropical beauty from southeast Asia loves a dark, hot, humid environment. They were very popular in the Victorian era, but are new to most gardeners now.

My 3-feet (1 m) high plant loves its digs. It was planted on the north side of a fence, in an area where moss grows because of the dampness, and our hot humid Washington summers are famous. Online research indicates it can be rooted easily from cuttings, and can be kept as a houseplant. The plan is to take a few snips soon and grow more during winter for next year. They will compliment the taller castor bean plants with their tinge of maroon/purple in the leaves.

For The Record:   • Somewhat clay soil with organics added   • Full shade   • No fertilizer   • Mulched to retain soil moisture Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: zinnia, nicotiana, asters, nasturtiums (again), cosmos, acidanthera, canna   • Harvested: 2 peppers

It's A Jungle, Finally

The deck that took a lifetime is finally done, well, with the latest construction still needing a good coat of wood finish. The actual deck off the back of the house was completed last fall along with some of the platform steps at the side yard. These platforms create a more gentle, relaxed way to descend the slope than a straight run stair does. A few additional platform steps not in the original plan were added this week to finish off the path.

The side yard hillside was nothing but clay around the platform steps. This spring, soil was amended with peat, sand, gypsum, and organic materials. Several plants were planted with a "Get something planted to fill up the space" Plan. Transplants, volunteers, seedlings, and plants from the plant swap were added, along with a tomato plant or two. In horror, I watched each heavy rain wash more things down the hill. I spent the spring and summer tending to the plants, getting them rooted and established. Now, the side yard has grown into what I envisioned, so I could attend to the "last steps" construction project.

The biggest surprise were the Castor Bean (ricinus communis) [11.9.2008] plants now at 8-feet tall (2.5m) and still growing. They loved this new location and filled in beyond expectations to form a full mini jungle. They create a living visual barrier that cuts down the view into the back yard from the front, providing privacy and framing the entrance to the back yard.

Other residents of the side yard:

• Mexican Zinnias
• Geranium
• Nasturtiums
• Spiderwort
• Canna
• Nicotianna
• Cosmos
• Coreopsis
• Amaranthus
• Bunny Tails

Along with creeping oregano, the zinnias spill over onto the platforms to create the informal semi-wild look. Check out the cool deck lights made by Kichler, and the cable rail that allows views to the back yard. Regular wood railings would be too bulky and block the view.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil   • Gypsum, humus, sand, peat soil amendments   • Full sun Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: nicotiana, cosmos, canna, castor, basil, cleome, zinnia, calendula   • Harvested: 1 pepper, 2 tomatoes, 2 cucumber

Bashful Sunflowers

It's time to report on this year's trial of dwarf sunflowers. Late in the spring, the rushing around left no time to order the dwarf sunflower seeds online, so a packet of Burpee's Sunflower Incredible (Helianthus annuus ) was picked up at the local Target.

This year, the results were not pleasing. Although the flowers were consistent and attractive, all the flower heads faced east, probably since the sun came up there, but never turned in other directions. This meant the flower heads were never visible from the street in the display garden. Not much to display here.

Second, the heights were all over the place, with some being 18-inches high (50 cm), and a plant immediately next to it 4-feet (1.2 m). Third and most disappointing, the flower heads do not stand up straight very long. After only a few days, they began to droop and in less than a week, all faced the ground like unhappy bashful children. Now, no one can enjoy them.

These would not be recommended in the future. In fact, this variety is not listed on Burpee's web site, although it was sold in stores. A listing of the dwarf sunflowers I have grown, in my preferential order:

    1. Sunny Smile - best for appearance
    2. Sunburst Lemon Aura
    3. Sunpspot - best for bird seed
    4. Incredible

For The Record:   • Loose, well-drained soil   • Full sun   • Small amount of organic fertilizer before budding Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: nicotiana, cosmos, canna, castor, basil, cleome, zinnia, spiderwort   • Harvested: 4 peppers, countless tomatoes, 1 cucumber

August 2009 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month

Blooming in addition to the photos:
Nasturtium, Nicotiana, Alyssum, Cosmos, Snapdragon, Canna, Spiderwort, Castor, Basil

Mexican Zinnia		Dwarf Sunflower Incredible

Cleome Lavender Sparkler		Zinnia Violet Queen