Annual climbing vines add an important dimension to any garden. We have trees reaching for the sky and flowers and vegetables covering the ground. Climbing vines as simple as scarlet runner beans or morning glories and as elegant as clematis add something very special to our gardens. I have a friend who made a small arbor for herself in the middle of her garden, where she put a chair to give herself someplace to rest between bouts…
T is for Troillius europeaneus, or Globeflower on the A to Z Challenge. I bought my Trollius at the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale a few years ago. It is the sunniest, happiest flower I know. Bloom season is the end of May into June. I did not move it to the new garden in Greenfield, but I just looked up its requirements, and while it prefers a neutral soil, it also doesn't mind wet or heavy soil.…
S is for Snowdrop and Snowflake. The snowdrop is a tiny delicate flower, one of the first of the little bulbs to bloom in the spring, often rising through the snow in February or March. One of the most common snowdrops in the catalogs in the Giant or Elwes Snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii, but it just a slightly more robust version of Galanthus nivalis, the 5 or 6 inch tall common snowdrop. G. nivalis has been gracing the early…
Q is for Quiet in the garden. The older I get the more I look to the garden for green serenity. Of course the quiet of the garden contains the whisper of breezes, ecstatic birdsong, the patter of falling rain, and perhaps a burbling fountain. Water is considered to be one of the essential elements in a garden This is a section of the quiet and serene Japanese Garden is located behind the Buffalo and Erie County…
P is for Peonies. Peonies are fabulous! Peonies are glamorous! Peonies will bloom for generations. Peonies are easy care. In the olden days you had to plant peony roots in the fall, but nowadays you can buy potted plants in the spring - and possibly even get a bloom your first season. I have bought and planted many peonies, but most of the names have been lost. The Peony Border in Heath had about two dozen varieties. I…
O is for Orchid. I have never kept an orchid alive long enough to bloom again, but giving it another try is on my To Do List. I know it can be done because my daughter Betsy does it all the time. When her work mates get gift orchids they always give them to Betsy after they finish blooming. She keeps them and brings them back into bloom again and again. Last year I went to the Orchid…
It doesn’t seem so very long ago that no one gave a thought to pollinators. People were afraid of bees and stings, but they never thought about the hundreds of bee species that kept vegetable and fruit farms producing. Perhaps that was because so much of our food came from far off places like California where we were never aware of what farms, farmers and crops needed. Nowadays, with people we are more sensible of the benefits of…
N is for Nasami Farm, the propagating arm of the New England Wildflower Society which was founded in 1900 and is oldest plant conservation society in the U.S. I have shopped for many plants at Nasami Farm, last year purchasing several water tolerant if not water loving plants. I planted Buttonbush in the wettest part of our new garden because it can often be growing in a river, not just on its bank. I also bought winterberries, viburnams,…
M is for Mirrors in the garden. A tour of Buffalo gardens a few years ago were filled with ideas that were new to me. This mirror was one of several mirrors in the garden with lush plantings that were carefully pruned to keep the mirror mysteriously visible. I was particularly taken with the function of this mirror in the garden, set as it was in back of a tiki lamp, acting to reflect firelight at an evening…
L is for Literature. In the A to Z Challenge I am referring specifically to Garden Literature which covers a lot of ground. I cannot garden or do much of anything without books. There are general garden books and specific garden books. I’ll mention just a few of my favorites with links to earlier columns that will have more information about each of them. One of my oldest and most useful vegetable garden books is How to…