The Mailbox

Despite my annoyance at yet another increase in the price of a stamp, I'm dressing the mailbox with a cheery flower garden again this summer.

I concetrate on perennials in my backyard garden, so I like to use the mailbox area to try different annuals and maybe go a little wild. Last year I went with a hot color scheme, orange being one of my favorite colors. I planted sunflowers in the back ('Lemon Queen' and 'Autumn Queen' proved particularly good).

Around the edges I planted marigolds, Tagetes patula 'China Cat Mix', which has gold, red, and gold-and-red-striped flowers and easily becomes a knee-high hedge. They flowered all summer through September. I started those from seed so I was particularly proud of them.

In the center I planted a red annual salvia called 'Spanish Dancer', which bloomed from late June through September, with tall stalks of bright red flowers. When the petals fell, the purple calyces that held them remained visually interesting. I had a blue salvia too, but it didn't do quite as well. It also looked a little out of place in my color scheme.

I also planted some "teddy bear" sunflowers (about two feet tall with thousands of tiny petals across the flower head giving it a furry look) in the middle, with ornamental peppers 'Black Pearl', which have purple leaves and fruit that turns from black to red. They were a little lost in the exuberance of the marigolds and salvia, but as they salvia died back they stepped up.

Here's a photo I took last August. Check back later this week—I'll fill you in on my plan for this summer. I just planted a whole different cast of characters over Memorial Day Weekend.

5/29/2007 4:48:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2] 

Witchy Wisteria

We just received an e-mail from a Horticulture reader about wisteria—another plant that will win you over with its beauty but may take over your life if you plant it. When I was at Long Hill the other day (see my May 8 post) my fellow tour-takers were very impressed by the wisteria climbing the rear of the house. It wasn't in leaf or bloom yet, but we all sighed imagining how pretty it must look later in the season. Our guide, the gardens' superintendent Dan Bouchard, agreed it is pretty but explained the lengths to which he must go to keep the vine from swallowing the house. My mother had the same experience with a wisteria at her father's house; it didn't seem so beautiful when she was hanging out the upstairs window trying to prune it, or when it ran under the sidewalk and attempted to scale a telephone pole.

Here's the message Jim Lewis, of Columbus, North Carolina, sent, along with a great picture of how he now grows wisteria:

"Wisteria is indeed one of the most beautiful vines and flowers imaginable. But down here in the south, it also is one of the most invasive of plants. I doubt you could find an extension agent south of the Mason-Dixon line who would recommend either Wisteria sinensis (the Chinese wisteria) or W. floribunda (Japanese wisteria) as a garden vine. It has taken over, twining high into trees where it is beautiful, but where it shades out other—perhaps native—species. It's not kudzu, but it's not nice, either.

"Wisteria can be grown, however. In pots. I grow mine in bonsai pots. And once I get them to bloom, I carefully cut away any seeds that form afterward and destroy them. It takes several years to get a wisteria bonsai to bloom, but once it does, the wait is worth it. I have attached a photograph of mine this spring."

Thanks for writing to us, Jim. Readers, to share your thoughts just click "Comments."

5/18/2007 10:22:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

Forget-Them-After-All?

I'm rethinking my forget-me-not seedlings after a comment left on my May 2 posting. (You might note I was hoping to plant them out that weekend...still hasn't happened.)

Doris noted that she's been pulling forget-me-nots ever since she planted some, because "they take over." I have a space it might be okay for them to take over—as long as I can keep them in that one area, which I'll have to think about before I plant them.

In the meantime, here's a plant I wish I hadn't planted last year: Canadian anenome (Anenome canadensis). It had pretty whitish flowers from spring into early summer, and the foliage looked good all summer. But this spring it has proven to be a vigorous spreader (a phrase some translate as invasive plant). I have removed it entirely from one section of my garden. I'm leaving it in another corner, which I sectioned off with brick edging. Any of it that shows up outside the bricks is getting pulled.

I'm looking into other anenomes that might not be so vigorous. There was a very pretty blue-flowered one at Long Hill. Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this particular species? Should I just pull it out altogether? Anything you wish you'd never planted? Leave a comment if you wish!

5/16/2007 4:17:45 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2] 

Long Hill

When I was growing up my father planned all our family vacations to include a visit to some historically significant site, usually a fort. Sometimes he threw in a tour of an estate for good measure. I generally viewed these “old places” as speed bumps on the way to the hotel pool, which, to me, was the main point of our journey.

Lately I’ve realized that somewhere along the way I picked up an interest in seeing “old places,” especially if they have a preserved or restored garden. This past weekend I visited Long Hill in Beverly, Massachusetts. Between 1916 and 1979 it was the summer home of Ellery Sedgwick, an editor and publisher of the Atlantic Monthly magazine (whose offices, coincidentally, used to sit right around the corner from Horticulture’s). Sedgwick’s first wife, Mabel Cabot Sedgwick, designed and planted beautiful gardens there. After her death, Sedgwick married Marjorie Russell, also a great gardener. She added her own touch to the gardens (including many unusual trees) while maintaining what Mabel had begun.

The gardens include formal elements, such as geometric terraces, a croquet lawn, and framed long views. At the same time, they fit wonderfully in their deciduous forest setting; they truly blend with nature. I don’t know how much I can blend my own garden with its surroundings, which includes a wooden fence and a chain link fence, too, but we’ll see what I come up with. Besides the inspiration to improve my design, I came away from the Sedgwick gardens with a list of plants to look up and maybe grow myself. I'll write more on those soon.

If you are making any changes in your garden this year, I recommend visiting a historic garden (Long Hill itself, if you are anywhere nearby!).

As for me, maybe it's time for a return to Fort Ticonderoga.

A couple photos I took at Long Hill, looking up at the house and down from it. Those huge flowering cherry trees are 75 years old.

Read Sara's blog

5/8/2007 5:00:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0] 

Doing Hard Time

The Johnny-jump-ups and forget-me-nots that I started from seed in March are about ready to be planted out. I moved the seedlings up from their starter pots into bigger pots a few weeks ago, but they are rapidly outgrowing those. (Especially since I didn’t have enough pots--or the heart to toss any of the seedlings--and ended up putting bunches in pots together.)

The weather is still cool here, but we’ve had some warm days too. These are two annuals that can take cool temps, anyway. If anything were to cause them a problem I think it would be too much moisture. I’m hoping we don’t have a May like last year’s, when there was record rainfall and flooding in my area over Mother’s Day weekend.

Last week I started hardening the seedlings off, or getting them used to being out in the fresh breezy air and bright sunlight. I put them out on the deck during the day and brought them back indoors at night. Everything I’ve read about hardening off says you should only put them out in the sun for an hour or two the first day, then a few more hours, and so on over a week. What’s a working plant-mom like me to do? I had to put them out at 7 a.m., and I wouldn’t be able to bring them in until evening.

This is the strategy I used: I put them in deep cardboard boxes the first couple days, so they would be sheltered from the wind. The sides of the boxes gave them some shade. The next couple days I put them under the eave, where they got only morning sun and a little breeze. Finally I put them against the deck rail. They receive mostly sun there, with a little shade and shelter from the posts of the railing.

I hope to plant them in the garden this weekend.

Read Sara's blog

5/2/2007 11:11:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]