No talk, just pictures!
Beautiful, no?
October 6, 2012
July 28, 2012
Drought
Hot, hot, hot dry summer. Hard to keep up with the watering. The New York Times has an article addressing the extent of this summer’s extreme drought across the nation here http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/science/earth/severe-drought-expected-to-worsen-across-the-nation.html. More than half of the country is affected, the largest contiguous area in 60 years. This graphic shows the data since 1896.
via New York Times
Our own modus operandi is to water the things that really need it like the annual containers, the veggie garden (although not all of it), and the newer plantings that are not well-established yet. Not ‘well-established’ means plantings that are generally less than 1-2 years of age whose root systems do not reach deep enough to find water yet. We don’t water the water-hogging lawn grass. Yes, that means it goes browner, but it does not die and it will come back when the rains do come.
We have some clients that also take a laissez-faire approach to their new plantings, seemingly thinking that once they are planted, they don’t require any attention, let alone watering, whatsoever. This is frustrating because these same clients then wonder why their plants are dead or dying and want you to replace them because they were “defective!” Yet, they have no problem mega-watering their lawns until flash-fungus sets in.
We have been encouraging people to install microirrigation systems like Rainbird or Netafim for their new plantings and will design and install these systems for them. The beauty of these is that the water is delivered right to the plant through drip line emitters laid out under the mulch thus eliminating water wastage by spraying into the air. An automatic controller attached to the system means you can essentially ‘set it, and forget it’ although seasonal or rainy day adjustments may need to be made. We have even attached tiny drip lines with bubblers on the end to successfully water containers. And that is a definite time-saver for people who want lots of containers, but have no time to water them when they need to be watered!
Now, aren’t those better looking than old, brown, shriveled up flowers and veggies?
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June 2, 2012
Linwood Gardens
Another sister trip – this time to Linwood Gardens in Pavilion, New York to see the Tree Peony Festival of Flowers. We love going here, nice drive into the countryside, and you just feel calmed wandering around, seeing the gardens, and looking out over the vista. The Festival is open only when the tree peonies are in bloom, usually mid-May.
Linwood was built between 1901 and 1910 as the country home of William Henry Gratwick II from Buffalo. The original garden areas and portions of the Summer House were designed by architect Thomas Fox. William H. Gratwick III (W.G.) moved to Linwood in 1933 and started the Rare Plants Nursery. W.G. was an artist, a landscape architect, and a horticulturist, and much of the sculpture and new garden areas were his contributions.
W.G. worked for Dr. Arthur Saunders, the first significant breeder of peonies and tree peonies in America and who taught chemistry at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. Dr. Saunders made the cross between the rare yellow peony (Paeonia lutea) and the strong-stemmed Japanese varieties and obtained 70 new beautiful and vigorous hybrids. He was also responsible for 17,000 new cultivars of various types including these 70 tree peonies and 300 herbaceous peonies. Upon his death, his tree peonies passed to William Gratwick who continued his breeding work with a friend, Nassos Daphnis, at Linwood Gardens.
Tree peonies are known as the “King of Flowers,” held sacred in the ancient monasteries of Asia and grown as an exclusive treasure of the Imperial Palaces. In the 8th century, moutan (the Chinese tree peony) was brought to Japan by Buddhist monks. There it was improved with clearer coloring, elegant and more delicate flowers. The tree peony eventually appeared in England and America in the 19th century.
As compared to the herbaceous peony that many of us know and love, the tree peony develops rough-barked, woody stems that continue to grow until a shrub about four to six feet tall and wide is formed. It does not die back to the ground in winter. Additionally, the tree peony blooms about two weeks earlier with generally larger blooms. They are hardy in our area and long-lived, growing best in rich, well-drained soil and protection from strong afternoon sun.
There were so many beautiful tree peonies at Linwood Gardens and I’ve put more pictures of them and the grounds in a slideshow.
Does this inspire you to visit Linwood Gardens next year, or maybe find a spot for a tree peony in your own gardens?
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March 28, 2012
Blooming in March
We have had the craziest winter/spring so far. Temps have been hovering in the 50-60 range with occasional forays up into the low 70s. The lack of a decent snow cover and good length of cold weather have pushed the plants into an early bloom, up to a month or so early! This is quite worrisome as we will surely get some more frosts, possibly even snow, before it finally warms up for good, and this can mean trouble with a capital T.
Caution! Scientific stuff coming up! So, first of all, do you know your Hardiness Zone? You can find it here on the new USDA interactive zone map. In general, your Hardiness Zone number indicates the maximum cold it may get in your area and plants that grow well in your zone can withstand these temperatures in midwinter and survive. Based on this map, we might be considered 5b-6a around here, but looking solely at this winter, we fell in the zone 8 range! Why does this matter? As the temperatures fall in beginning of winter, plants become acclimated to the lower temps and develop more hardiness and resistance to plant death. When the temps start warming back up, the plants become de-acclimated to low temps, hardiness is reduced, and plant death or winter injury can occur if sudden drops in temperature are experienced. You can read more about this here if you are so inclined.
The bottom line is that the peach trees, in particular, that are blooming now, along with everything else, are particularly susceptible to frost injury and those low temps that are sure to come may destroy our little peach crop. Crossing my fingers! Other plants may be OK, but with a shortened blooming period. We shall see what happens.
On a related note, I’ve got a slideshow for you of some of the blooms in my garden now. Sorry, my camera croaked so these are from my cell phone and the quality is not very good.
What is blooming in your gardens now? Are you in danger of further frosts too?
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