Melanie and Ray Poudrier

Gardens are planned, grow and develop over time as dependably as any single plant. Ray and Melanie Poudrier’s garden could be said to have begun when Ray’s father bought land in Hawley in 1942.

Ray’s father joined his mother and their brood of thirteen children on Hawley summer weekends to see the latest developments. The family grew a vegetable garden, had an orchard and a blueberry patch. They even rented a cow for the summer to have milk for all those children. What they did not have was electricity or running water.

They didn’t have a car during the week either, which meant when a few extra supplies were needed, Ray’s mother would leave a note for the mail carrier to give  Avery’s General Store, and the next day necessities would be delivered along with the mail and a bill. “We weren’t the only ones depending on the mail and Avery’s either,” Ray said when I visited for a tour of the gardens. “I often saw other bags of groceries in the back of the mail car.”

Happily, when Ray met Melanie and they prepared to marry, she was as up for Hawley adventures as Ray. As newly weds they began building their vacation house. “It was always exciting,” Melanie said as she recounted stories of bathing in a frigid spring fed pond after a day’s work.

Ray explained that because Melanie is so slim and petite, she is the one who could fit into tight spaces, like a well, or next to the house foundation to apply tar before the land was graded. That vacation house became their permanent home in 1981.

Heaths, heathers, stone and shed

The house was snuggled into the woods which they both loved, but when they decided to put up solar panels in the mid-1980s trees had to come down. “That opened up a whole new world,” Melanie said. Vegetable and flower gardens were shifted around and now the sunny land in front of the house is filled with extensive ornamental beds that can be admired from the house in every season.

The gardens include a whole array of perennials, but once they discovered the heaths and heathers they fell in love. Heaths and heathers both belong to the Ericaceae family, but they each have there own genus, Erica and Calluna. They are similar in that they are both evergreen shrubs, some very low, some growing to a height of three feet, some are upright, and some are very spready. The Poudrier’s sunny garden has the kind of poor acid soil that all that heaths and heathers enjoy.

“There is so much variation in the texture and color of the foliage,” Ray said. As we walked through the garden this was clear as we saw gray-green foliage, golden foliage that was bright even on that showery day, dark green and light green foliage and even foliage that was an autumnal shade of red all year long.

Calluna 'Allegro'

Heaths and heathers also produce flowers at different times of the year depending on the cultivar, but bloom begins very early in the spring and continues through the summer. Many bloom in various shades of pink and lavender, but there are also white varieties. “During its bloom season a plant can be a beautiful cloud of color,” Melanie said. Melanie added that some nurseries will tell you to shear back the plants in the fall to remove spent flowers and keep the plants neat, but she never did that. “The flowers just disappear,” she said.

Melanie does not mulch the plants either, because she said the voles were a worse problem than weeds. Mulch provides good nesting spaces for the voles who love to eat the heaths, although they don’t bother the heathers.

All their plants have been bought locally and they have found a good range of varieties. Many people don’t pay much attention to the color of or season of the flowers, but concentrate on the form and color of the foliage that provides interest in the winter garden. “You get a lot of bang for your buck,” Melanie said talking about the pleasure they enjoy all year long.

The Poudriers have included other plants whose foliage contrasts with the heaths and heathers. There are alliums with tall thin oniony foliage, European ginger with its low shiny leathery round leaves, and creeping savory, a perennial, which resembles the evergreens and produces white flowers.

Hawley Crowsfoot Schist

As varied as they are, the heaths and heathers are only half the beauty of the garden beds. The other half is provided by the magnificent stones that Ray has moved into place to provide a framework and structure for the plants. He is especially proud of a large slab of Hawley’s unique crow’s foot schist he has placed among the heathers.

Ray has worked with stones from the site for many years, building stone walls that mark the cultivated domestic landscape, an artistically arranged stoneworks around an ornamental pool, and a rock garden that includes not a single plant. Ray smiled when he said he wanted to build a garden for Melanie that would never need weeding.

Perhaps the best of all worlds they have found is stones with heaths and heathers.

Between the Rows  October 8, 2011

Erica - Heath

Yesterday, in the rain, I visted the gardens of Melanie and Ray Poudrier and paid special attention to their collection of heaths and heathers. These two evergreen shrubby plants are often mentioned together in the same breath, but I never really knew how to tell them apart until Melanie made me look at the foliage closely. Heaths and heathers are both members of the Ericaceae family, but heath of the genus Erica has needle-like foliage.

Calluna - heather

The foliage of genus Calluna or heather is quite different with scale leaves that remind me of cedar foliage.  Heath and heather foliage comes in a range of colors from deep to bright green, grayed green, golden or even red. You will be hearing more about this garden soon.

Azalea

These azaleas are as sunny as our June days. The tornadoes that went through Springfield and beyond on Wednesday didn’t do any damage up our way.

Osteospernum

Azaleas have their own season, but the annual osteospernums will bloom all summer long.  That is what makes annuals so valuable in any planting.

Baptisia

Blue is always lovely with yellow.

Rhodendron

Everyone knows I am a sucker for pinks and reds.  This is one of my favorite rhododendrons.

Weigela

Weigela is another one of the striking spring blooming shrubs on the Bridge of Flowers.  I can’t wait to see what will come next.

Bridge of Flowers entry

The Bridge of Flowers is blooming and blooming, ready for admiration, but you can see that greens are important too.

Azaleas are just beginning to blossom, and Solomon’s seal is still blooming.

Iris season is just beginning.  That’s a dramatic combo with a yellow iris and orange  azalea.

The Bridge of Flowers loves azaleas.

Bleeding Heart

Surely it is clear by now that the Bridge of Flowers does not depend on a single type of flower.

Double impatiens

The bulb season is about done. No more daffs or tulips. Perennials and flowering shrubs take center stage, but annuals have their place too, promising bloom all summer long.

It is always a pleasure to run errands on both sides of the Bridge and take a few minutes to enjoy an ever-changing panorama.

Bullitt Homestead - Fall 2010

The Bullitt Homestead in Ashfield is beginning to offer programs and I am happy to pass on information about workshops.

Putting Down Roots–May 28-29th from 8am-5pm Explore a different type of garden. We will install a native landscape at Bullitt featuring a variety of annuals and perennial plants, including edibles and plants that encourage wildlife. This will be a hands on experience planting trees, shrubs, flowers and more. The weekend will consist of two days of planting, running from . Just let us know what day(s) you want to attend. Lunch will be provided.

Workshops are hands-on, so bring work clothes, gloves and appropriate shoes. Both also have limited space, so please call to register and for weather-related updates. Contact us at 413 628 4485 or email Layla at lhazen@ttor.org

If you are a seasoned gardener, these workshops can help you to “garden with your whole yard,” and explore resilient diversity in your garden. So come join us and be part of a remarkable change! Our workshops are hands-on, family friendly and free.

Our weather just seems so unpredictable with blooms varying by as much as two weeks, a week on either side of a standard date. For the past two weeks we’ve had cool temperatures and rain. All bloom slowed down.

This is what my wisteria flowers looked like last year on May 23.

See what the buds look  like this year on May 24.  Calculating bloom times for tours and such is getting very difficult.   Grrrrrr.

Is your garden ‘off schedule’ this year?

Ice Wings daffodil?

There are lots of daffodils in bloom right now. I must have at least eight varieties in various shades of yellow and white, but I will let this one stand in for all the rest. I think it is Ice Wings and it is the most unusual of my collection. If it is Ice Wings it is a tazetta. The daffodils grow in the lawn and you can see the hawkweeds budding up.

Primroses

I love the yellow primroses that has been blooming in this weedy spot under the trees near our blueberry patch for probably 20 years, ever since I stuck the pot that I bought at the supermarket in the ground.

Cherry blossoms

We planted this sour cherry tree years ago.  I love cherry pie.  But we never get the berries, the birds do.

There are thickets of wild cherry trees around the hen house. When I look from a distance they are not impressive, and when I look up close they are just beautiful.

Cotoneaster

Last year for the first time the cotoneaster bloomed.  Or at least I noticed it for the first time. The blossoms are quite quince-like.

Muscari

Three blooms in one photo.  Muscari or grape hyacinths growing in the lawn, as well as dandelions, of course, and if you look very carefully in the top left corner, a yellow daffodil.

Bluets

We’ve been planting our windbreak and saw the first clump of bluets just starting to bloom.  These must be a wildflower, surely.

Viburnam

The vibrunams growing in our woods where they can get a few rays of sun have started blooming.  Can I call this plant a wildflower, too?  They seem to grow wild in the local woods.

There are other plants blooming, white and purple violets in the lawn as well as ground ivy, johnny jump-ups, sweet violets (not the lawn kind)-  and the lilacs have fat buds, but no bloom yet.

Thank you Carol for inventing this wonderful way for us all to keep a good bloom record of our gardens, and for making it possible to visit the blooms in gardens across the country. Click here to visit Bloom Day at May Dreams Gardens.

The Thomas Affleck rose in front of the house is leafing out, too. But look what is budding up  . . .

alliums – I don’t remember which one.

Lilacs. These are the old white variety here when we bought our house.

Troillus.  I know there will be troillus at the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on Saturday.

Soon the Sargent crabapple will be a cloud of bloom. Spring always keeps her promises.

Snowdrops

The snowdrops that are still blooming at the End of the Road give you some hint of the weather here. Temperatures did get over 70 the other day, but this morning we are back to frost.

"Diane" witch hazel

This is not an impressive photo and neither is the plant, but I am just thrilled that it survived the arid Summer of 2010. I chose this particular witch hazel because I love the color of the twirly blossoms and because my oldest daughter is named Diane.

Daffodils in Whately

Nasami Farm, the nursery for the New England Wildflower Society opened yesterday and I drove down to be there for the opening bell. Nearly there I was stunned to see this bank of daffodils! And on the way home I suddenly saw daffodils in bloom everywhere. Even the Mystery Daffodils along Route 2 planted by the Secret Midnight Gardener have started to bloom. Obviously my mind was not on the roadsides as I drove along.

Van Sion daffodils

This morning I walked over the frosty lawn and saw that the Van Sion daffodils growing into the Buckland rose are just starting to bloom.  I suspect those Whately daffs might be Van Sion, too, but I didn’t get close enough to check.

We can all check the virtual garden party over at May Dreams Garden. Thank you, Carol, for hosting this wonderful event. I just looked back at April 2010 and the garden was further along, but with the first daffodils in bloom now I feel spring has safely arrived.

Addendum:  I always walk around and take photos for Bloom Day on the 14th so the record was accurate as of 8 am. However, look what blooms the sun brought out this afternoon.

Glory of the Snow

Years ago I put in a few Glory of the Snow bulbs, and scilla bulbs in the grass at the end of the Rose Walk. They have increased substantially. I never realized they came into bloom so rapidly.

Scillas

I love scilla blue.  Now my own record for what is in bloom is complete.

Nasami Farm in Whately

Nasami Farm in Whately, the nursery of the New England Wildflower Society, will open for the season tomorrow, Thursday, April 14.  Hours are 10 am to 5 pm from Thursday through Sunday every week.The Nursery offers about 400 nursery propagated native wildflowers and shrubs.

Barren Strawberry on May 11, 2010

I go every year to buy groundcovers like barren strawberry and shrubs like Rosa setigera.

Rosa setigera

What will you need from Nasami this spring?

Two Texans and me

I got to Houston just in time for the Garden Conservancy‘s Open Garden Days.  My daughter Kate (R),  Melissa the Houston Garden Girl (center) and I set off to see many beautiful gardens surrounding beautiful houses in some of the historic neighborhoods in the city. I can’t show you all 500 photos I took, but I want to give you just a taste of what we saw.  More will show up over time.

It is azalea season in Houston and there are magnificent azalea hedges and other sorts of azalea plantings everywhere!

But you know what kind of flower is my favorite.  Roses!

Golden climber

This beautiful rose which I cannot identify was in the most magnificent garden we saw. On the other side of the wall was one of the things I most admired.

Hornbeam bosque

The owner of the garden told us that this space is patterned after a garden in Paris.  Note the meticulously clipped hedges (which abound in this garden), another French element. The monkey grass greenery is separated by paths of stone dust. The day was very warm and it is easy to see how treasured shade is in Houston. Or anywhere.