Darned If I Remember

This is the time of the year when I look at my beds and think:

A. It looks like some of my tulips have stopped blooming.

B. Boy, I sure wish I had planted more Spring flowering bulbs last Fall.

C. I'm sure I'll remember this Fall to fill that space with some bulbs.

In the Fall, I look at my beds and think:

A. Now where were those tulips that have stopped blooming?

B. Darn I hate planting bulbs when it's already turned so cold.

C. I have no idea where it was I wanted those bulbs planted.

I can state the above because I've done this routine almost every year I've gardened. BUT, this year I have a new plan.

After I've put down my newest layer of mulch, I'm taking a can of yellow spray paint and making a circle of where I want bulbs. It's not like there will be thousands but too often all the remains of a summer's worth of flowers hides any traces of where I might plant.

I don't want to dig up good bulbs or put in places that don't show well in the Spring. I figure yellow won't be too noticeable through the Summer and Fall foliage yet will still mark the spots.

I've noticed several of my tulip patches aren't producing or have slowed. Tulips are considered a short lived perennial and this is to be expected. I've tried digging and replanting and fertilizing but eventually they just stop putting on flowers.

Have you ever noticed buying 100 daffodils in the Summer sounds reasonable but in the Fall you seriously think you've lost your mind?

Painful Roots

The four little pansy starts are examples of different root systems in pre-started nursery sets.

The left one has pretty good root condition. The middle set has more roots. The third from the left is root bound (little soil and almost totally roots). The one on the right has the roots torn down the middle (by me) on both sides.

The reason to tear the roots down both sides is so they will start growing out and not continue in the circle or current mass. If they continue in the circle, they will not get the nutrients from the new soil and eventually will be stunted or die.

Pulling the roots loose is a good idea with any set. With root bound sets is is a necessity.

Although some growing directions tell you to use potting soil around a plant set, the current thought is either amend all the soil in the bed or don't amend anything. The plant needs to start off growing in the kind of soil it will eventually live within. (The exception is vegetables sets that seldom send out long roots. I make the hole big enough to hold every eventual root.)

A plant that has potting soil in the hole and the rest of the area is not amended will want to live in the potting soil and the roots may simply grow in a circle instead of venturing out in the real world.

This doesn't mean plants should not be fertilized and it does not mean the entire bed or pot should not be amended to improve the nutrients. It does apply to spot digging and no till.

If the plant set is root bound, as in the picture above, it is necessary to cut through them and they will send out new roots from the cut ones. If you do this, you should also prune the green or top portion by cutting off flowers if it's a low growing plant and if it is a tall plant, cut the stalk down to about 6 inches for large plants, two for small ones. Be sure there are leaves still on the plant as these absorb nutrients from the sun.

Annuals should establish new root and start new growth in a few weeks. Perennials may take the entire growing season to put down a good set of roots. This means the first summer you plant the pernnial, it may not be that perfect beauty you want. Still-if you are in it for the long hall-it's giving that plant the best start. If your familiar with Biblical scripture compare to building a house on sand or on a firm foundation. You will be building a strong plant on solid roots.

If the plant is not root bound, but the roots are circling the soil ball, gently coax them out before planting. If they don't coax, cut down two sides with a clean knife.

With all these to-do and to-don'ts, the top picture is a pansy that came up from a discarded seed head (when I was deadheading last year) without the benefit of it knowing it was an annual and not suppose to overwinter nor grow among stone.

Have I ever mentioned "Nature bats last"?

Of course I have and it always proves true.

Old Gardens

Walden-Bluff’s Edge Bridge, Lake Forest, Ill.

Photo by Robin Karson.

Another site for those who like the "different" on-line gardening experience, check out http://www.lalh.org/

This is the Library of American Landscape History. I know it may sound boring, but, it's a beautiful site, full of the history and pictures of many old gardens. Their newsletters are only every few months and never becomes cumbersome.

There is information about many public landscapes throughout the world and many restored to the previous beauty. The site has information about the history of the gardens, the designer, and often the original owners. Much is devoted to the process of restoration and preservation.

The original owners were often the wealthy who owned mansions on thousands of acres, brought in the most famous of landscape designers and architects and the land has now been bequeathed or sold to form the parks of today.

They also feature historical cemeteries and their landscapes.

For those who like to visit gardens during vacations, it's a good resource. For those of us who like to borrow ideas or simply look at beautiful gardens, this site will help.

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Side Note

This site has the guarantee "Safesubscribe". I mention this because we must be cautious about subscribing to e-mails to make sure you're not tied into a site that won't allow you to drop membership, breach your PC's security or sell your address. It has many contractual rules the web site must agree before being authorized as Safesubcribe. I've learned not to subscribe or give information to any site that does not use Safesubscribe.

Cone Heads

Picture of Coneflower seed heads in the winter.

Hybrid Coneflower in bloom.

The native Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower is the slightly faded pink seen along Midwest roadsides in late summer. It's in the same family as the daisy.

Coneflowers like those dry, hot, sun baked areas and only need water until established. This makes them perfect for water conservation efforts. It will probably die if it sits in water-clogged clay soil.

Other wildflower cone flowers are:

Pale Purple, Green-Headed Coneflower, Gray-Headed Coneflower (both actually have yellow rays (petals) but the button (middle where the seeds will be) are these colors. The gray has extremely reflexed rays which makes them look like they've been in a wind machine as they are pushed down. Thin-Leaved, Orange, Sweet, and Showy are similar to the Black-eyed Susan with some small variations.

The new hybrids have sensational color (magenta, lime green, orange, cream, gold, red, coral and shades in between. Some are fragrant.

The new shapes are quite varied. Some look like zinnias, others have a flower on top of another flower, others the center is more pronounced than the petals. Heights range from 12 inches to 5 feet.

Hummingbirds, bees and butterflies are all over Coneflowers and each little spike on the center button is a source of nectar.

Coneflowers have a long vase life.

They may self seed but will not become invasive. I leave them standing during the winter to provide garden structure and interesting photographs. Birds may eat the seeds in late winter.

The Coneflowers are happy little flowers - meaning they make you smile when in bloom. They are a good companion plant with daylilies and other sun loving plants.

Try to buy only a healthy substantial plant as the survival rate is much better than the small little starts.

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Side Note

Has anyone noticed the price of nursery grown perennials and annuals have increased dramatically this year? On a recent trip to a nursery, smaller tubs were from $9 to $13 each. 4-pack small flats were almost $25. Yikes, that could make the cost of planting a good sized pot over $50. My daughter said her local big-box store prices have increased, also. Not saying their expenses haven't necessitated the price increase, but, I'm guessing it will cut down on sales.

For The Love Of Gardening?

My mother had no interest in plants other than the necessity of “putting up” produce from our huge vegetable garden. My father, a depression era farmer, thought anything on the land that didn’t make a profit or food was “nonsense.”

How on earth did I get the love of all things gardening? I had this love from the time I was a small child, picking violets and dandelions for bouquets and making hollyhock dolls.

As I got older I was given the chore of mowing with a big difficult-to-maneuver piece of machinery. I was always sure it was my punishment for dawdling away my time over the flowers. In truth, my older brother was expected to help with farm work and I was “it” by default.

We lived in a big old barn of a farmhouse and some prior owner had planted beautiful perennials. There were two large round beds out front that held what my mom called “French iris”. I’ve never found that variety but it had tiny royal blue flowers.

Another beautiful attraction for me was the row of pink, rose and white peonies that ran beside the clothes line. The fragrance from a vase full would perfume an entire room.

The climbing rose bush was situated out by the garage (actually it was placed to strategically hide the outhouse.) The rose was a single yellow and had a strong sweet fragrance. I never let a season go by without picking those little roses to float in a bowl of water.

The yard had many large trees. As all Indiana farmsteads did, it had a large catalpa grove out in one of the pastures. We would spend many an afternoon among the trees playing cowboys and Indians.

A pine tree that was as tall as our two story house held my brother’s tree fort and my swing. I found this old swing when we were sorting things for my dad’s estate sale.

A large arborvitae had a tall rock beside it and it was always “base” on those nights when the children of family and friends would play hide and seek. A large willow tree swayed in the summer breeze and caused my mother endless chagrin when the branches continuously dropped.

My folks, my grandparents and my great-grandparents homes were all destroyed in the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado that tore through Indiana. In addition to the lives, livestock and buildings lost, it pretty much wiped away all significant yard landscaping.

At the time, we mourned much more than the loss of flowers. My aunt had been killed as had hundreds of others. At my father’s age, it eventually proved too difficult and costly to start over with new farm equipment, livestock and buildings.

Almost everything in their home and outbuildings had been destroyed. Even though we celebrated that they and the rest of our families had survived, it was not a time when even the smallest thought centered on pretty.

All these years later I realize I am drawn to little royal blue iris, old fashioned peonies and an heirloom yellow rose bush. I have pines, a willow, and a couple of catalpas.

I’m not trying to hold on to or recreate the past. Heirloom plants from my past bring a bit of comfort from childhood memories. They’re an affirmation that these good things shaped a lifelong love of the soil. Perhaps, it’s for the love of gardening.

Spring Skies

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/

Spring sky - 04-06-2010.

We had just left Hanna City, after enjoying a day of watching our youngest grandson, when we saw this beautiful and rather scary sky. It is a reminder how Spring in the Midwest can turn quickly.

Our little guy's father had told us how a tornado had been spotted near Decatur yesterday and they had all gone to a shelter. Decatur, headquarters for my company, holds a couple of tornado memories for me.

The first: I had three people in the car with me, we had just left a meeting and were heading back home. We had left early because of weather predictions for bad storms. On a country road, rain and wind hit hard and at one point the car was sliding sideways from the force of the wind. I barely saw a driveway, turned in, we jumped out and banged on the door until a kindly farmer let us join him in his basement. Later, we learned we were in the middle of a tornado.

Another time, I had stopped at a friends home to see their new baby before heading home from Decatur. The little girl slept the entire time and I was heading out the door when she woke crying. As I picked her up, the town's tornado alert went off and we went to their basement. It stormed a bit, I loved up the sweet baby, and headed home. As I got to the spot where I would have been had I not stopped to love up baby, a tornado had done significant damage. I call her "my little life saver!"

According to the Farmers Almanac (doesn't every Midwesterner read this?), "The coming of April could mean potentially severe weather in the Midwest and East, with tornado activity across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and western Kentucky." Not to diminish the FA predictions, but, that is a pretty fair description of any Spring in the Midwest.

Spring frost map.

The Farmers' Almanac has a good map of the "average or typical" last day of Spring frosts that you might want to check out if you are setting out plants. It is a gardener's frailty to want to get out in the yard and plant gardens and flowers as soon as the first warm weather arrives. Unless you enjoy endless covering and uncovering (plus, loosing some plants), I'd advise a little patience. If you do buy plant sets, place pots in a sunny location during the warm days and take back in during the nights.

May all your Spring storms be gentle, may all your rain be just enough, may the sun warm your back but not burn your nose, and may you take the time to simply enjoy the many Blessings of this grand land!

Sunday Drive

Easter Sunday was Henry County's first Tornado Watch of the year. Fortunately, none materialized but it's a good reminder we do live in one of the "tornado allies". For more Spring weather information, check out my article
"Spring Weather" number 11, published on 04-24-09.

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"The Evening Thyme Garden Club's 12th Annual Garden Fair"

Clark County Fairgrounds in Marshall IL

9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For sale: bulbs, bedding plants, yard ornaments & garden decor.

Demos, raffles, and food available. Free admission.

217-889-2280

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"The Third Annual May Plant Sale"

Red Bud, IL

8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For sale: 20" herb bowls & 10" hanging baskets.

618-282-6233 or http://www.humanservicegroup.com/