Diggin' It
Sha6ron Nelson-Vaux of Altoona, Iowa, sells plants and shares a lifetime of gardening advice at her 6-acre farm and the Des Moines Farmers' Market. Her favorite daylily is named Bitsy. (Courtesy of Craig Summers Black)
A gardener shares her extensive plant knowledge
Her name is Sha6ron – the numeral is silent. She, however, is anything but.
If you linger over one of her plants at her weekly stall at the Des Moines [Iowa] Farmers' Market, she will tell you how tall that particular variety gets. And how wide. Then how much water it needs -- depending if it’s in part shade or part sun. And you know what looks good with that plant?
That’s the kind of gardener Sha6ron Nelson-Vaux is. She has learned a great deal in her 40 years of gardening, and she doesn’t want you to have to wait 40 years to know plants the way she does.
“When I first started gardening in 1970, I didn’t have anyone to ask questions,” she says. “And I never found that person. I had to become that person. And now I am the person I always wanted to meet.”
Ha! Good one, Sha6ron!
A way to break the ice
Her humor is sly but infectious. Take the numeric name, f’rinstance.
“I have something like dyslexia,” she says. “Reading and ciphering – math – are hard for me. So, OK, here’s a little challenge for you. [The name with the number in it is] a little bit of silliness that gives people something to ask me about. Some people don’t have the skills to ask me questions. This is a way to start a conversation.”
At an open garden at her 6-acre home and nursery in semi-rural Altoona, 80 or so friends and fans converged to see more of her quirky plants, the metal sculptures she crafts and her impressive field of daylilies.
Countless daylilies
How many kinds of daylilies does she have?
“Just a drop in the bucket of the 60,000 registered varieties,” she says. She pauses. “I think when people collect things, if they have more than 50 they are kind of a sick puppy.” And? “I have more than 50.”
Her favorite: “Bitsy, a small yellow one that blooms in the spring, the first one. But I’m extremely fickle.”
And it does sound as though each and every plant someone brings to the register is her favorite. The variegated burnet, the viburnum with veined leaves, the cherry-pink clover, the angular ornamental grass … they all go out the door with advice, enthusiasm, and congratulations.
“Now they can all play show and tell,” she says. “ ‘Look, look, look: I got a real big one!’ Or ‘I got a real little one.’ If I’m interested in it, I think other people might be. And sometimes I’m right.”
What else I’m into this week: Weeding. Watering. Waiting … and whatever.
-----
Craig Summers Black, the Transplanted Gardener, is an award-winning garden writer and photographer who blogs regularly at Diggin' it. You can read more of what he's written by clicking here. You may also follow Craig’s further adventures in gardening, music, and rural life on Twitter.
The flower buds on this dogwood develop over the summer and if you prune the tree in later summer or fall, you cut off the buds and the tree won't flower next spring. That's the main reason reason that the best time to prune spring-flowering trees and shrubs is just after they finish blooming. (Courtesy of Donna Williamson)
Pruning advice for fall
This is my best advice on fall pruning for homeowners who finally have time to prune in August and September: Stop.
Don’t get carried away with late-summer and fall pruning.
Reasons not to prune in fall
One reason is that spring-flowering shrubs have already set their flower buds for next spring. If you prune those shrubs now, you cut off next spring's flower buds, which means you won't have any flowers.
So, avoid heavy pruning of forsythia, quince, heirloom and New Dawn roses, mophead and oak-leaf hydrangeas, witch hazel, dogwood, cherries and other ornamental and fruit trees, pieris, azalea and rhododendron, corylopsis, mahonia, magnolia, silverbell, fringe tree, lilac, bridal veil and other early blooming spirea varieties, early viburnum species, redbud, early clematis (especially montana varieties), kolkwitzia, and kerria.
Another reason not to prune in later summer or early fall is that heavy pruning can stimulate lush regrowth if the weather is warm. When that regrowth occurs near a killing frost, the new growth is killed, having not had time to harden off before cold weather.
This is costly to the plant. Better to wait until the plant is fully dormant, when the weather has turned cold, to prune trees and shrubs.
Pruning of evergreens can easily and safely be done around the December holidays to provide greens for decorating. Two birds, one stone.
When pruning roses, cut only long canes or stems that can whip around in hurricane or winter winds. Don’t cut them down below about two feet high.
Winter weather routinely damages rosebushes, and in the spring you will need to reprune heavily to get rid of dead wood and get them off to a good start. If you prune heavily in the fall, there will be no wiggle room to prune off winter-killed material.
Late fall and winter are wonderful times to prune. With the leaves gone, you can easily see structural problems. Remove broken and damaged branches. Branches that rub against one another should be examined. Usually only one needs removal or shortening.
Avoid tree topping
Don’t let anyone talk you into topping your trees. No reputable arborist would do the kind of pruning that causes excessive, weakly attached new growth at the cut ends. You'll end up with more of a problem than you started with.
If you think your tree needs "topping," responsible arborists can thin trees to reduce their overall volume and remove weak, diseased or damaged branches. That's good for the tree.
Before you pick up those hand pruners, loppers, saws, and other tools, get some good information on how to make good pruning cuts and how to cut limbs from trees. This is crucial information and has changed a lot in the past few years. Conventional wisdom about this is often incorrect and ends up damaging your tree. Techniques have been improved and are updated in good books.
Trees and shrubs are important living investments in your landscape. Do it right and save yourself a lot of work.
-----
Donna Williamson blogs regularly at Diggin' It. She's a master gardener, garden designer, and garden coach. She has taught gardening and design classes at the State Arboretum of Virginia, Oatlands in Leesburg, and Shenandoah University. She’s also the founder and editor of Grandiflora Mid-Atlantic Gardening magazine, and the author of “The Virginia Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Low Maintenance Gardening in Virginia.” She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. To read more by Donna here at Diggin' It, click here.
The U Can watering can includes a compartment for fertilizer and another that holds a long, sturdy spoon to measure the fertilizer into the water. (Courtesy of UCAN Brand)
A watering can with added benefits
By the end of August, anyone who has plants growing in outdoor containers has logged plenty of hours with his or her watering can.
I'm picky about watering cans. What makes a good one? In my opinion:
- First of all, it needs to pour without dribbling or leaking. (It's surprising the number that don't pass this basic test.)
- I also prefer a lightweight can (which generally means plastic) because it will get heavy enough once a couple of gallons of water are added.
- And yes, I prefer outdoor cans that hold two gallons rather than one; less walking back and forth to faucet that way.
- It should be well-balanced -- which means that it's easy to carry and easy to pour.
- I realize that appearance is a personal matter, but if I'm going to spend a great deal of time with a piece of garden equipment, I want it to look good. And if it's a bright color (so I don't accidentally put it down and have to hunt all over for it), so much the better.
All of those are reasons that the watering cans found at my house are usually Dramm 7-liter watering cans. I was initially attracted to them by the bright colors -- yellow, orange, and purple, among others. But what has kept me using them for years is their high quality and the fact that they meet all my criteria for a good watering can.
Dramm watering cans aren't inexpensive, but they do have a lifetime guarantee. (Which I've never had to avail myself of, and I'm really hard on watering cans.)
But when I moved from Massachusetts to the Carolinas last summer, I gave away my Dramm cans to friends who were also the recipients of some of my plants. I figured that I'd earned a couple of new ones.
In search of a new watering can
Then I couldn't find any locally, and I kept putting off ordering by mail. In the meantime, I remembered another watering can that had been sent to me to test, but somehow didn't get moved with us. So I bought one online.
It's called the U Can, and incorporates several nifty features that other watering cans don't. It has a built-in container for fertilizer (dry or liquid), with the lid surrounded by a dial that has the days of the month on it so you can mark the last time you fertilized, or the next time it's due.
The U Can also has a large, sturdy spoon to measure out the fertilizer. Don't think in terms of those free measuring spoons that come free with a box of fertilizer -- this is heavy-duty but attractive in an unfussy Scandinavian sort of way.
The clear vial that the spoon fits into can also double as a cup for measuring fertilizer or other liquids.
I was sure in the beginning that water would get into the fertilizer chamber (I've tested it using a dry plant food as well as a liquid) -- but it never has. This is a well-made can.
Not just garden variety
Two bonuses are that it's made in the United States of recycled plastic.
I didn't realize it until I looked up the U Can's website, but this watering can also has a handy little spot on the front for you to stick your gardening gloves. [See the second photo above; click on the arrow at the base of the first photo.]
Nearby, there's an outcropping on which to store the "rose" (that's the correct name for a watering can's sprinkler head), which I do use all the time.
The U Can's well-designed features have worked well and made my watering chores easier this summer. Admittedly, it's not bright purple. (I bought a green one. As you can see from the photos here, it also comes in blue.)
But for anyone who waters plants in window boxes, hanging baskets, or other containers, it's a gem.
-----
Judy Lowe is a long-time garden writer, the editor of the Monitor's Diggin' It blog, and the author of 11 books. Her latest book shows how to create dozens of interesting herb theme gardens, from herbs mentioned in the Bible and by Shakespeare to a nighttime herb garden to herbs that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
The famous Bowl Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles was designed by Robert Irwin. (Courtesy of Mary-Kate Mackey)
Three water garden design ideas from the Getty Center
Recently, I gathered three great water design ideas while on a short walk. In Los Angeles I joined a docent-led tour down the hillside in the Central Garden at the Getty Center.
I had seen photos of the famous Bowl Garden [see first photo above], the round pool designed by Robert Irwin, where clipped azaleas appear to float in a complicated pattern on the water. (They’re in planter boxes separate from the pool.)
But what I really wanted to experience was the stream that leads down to the Bowl Garden. Here’s what I discovered:
Tip No. 1 – Zigzag the pathway
Streams are usually designed with pathways next to the water for close-up enjoyment. But the Getty’s steep hillside had to accommodate visitors, some of whom use wheelchairs, so the museum’s pathway had to have a gentle incline.
The solution to that design problem is elegant. The water flows straight down the hill in a narrow canal lined with square cobbles of rock. [See second photo above; click on arrow at right base of first photo.] The concrete path zigzags back and forth across the hill, continually crossing the rushing water in the center by a series of bridges.
What a wonderful idea. It’s visually exciting to keep turning toward the splashing rill and then walking away from it. The sound of the stream fades away as you leave it and then returns as you reach another crossing.
In a home garden setting, would it be possible to create a path that zigzags back and forth? Especially on steep slopes, a little engineering could be added for both comfort and pleasure.
Design Tip No. 2 -- Change the rock size as the journey progresses
At the beginning of the stream, the first rocks are as big as children’s playhouses. They’re so big that they jam the cobbled bed so that you can’t even see the moving water. But you can hear it. The splashes echo like a cave, once again reminding you to listen and enjoy.
At each bridge more of the stream is revealed as the rocks get progressively smaller. On the next crossing, the rocks are wheelbarrow size. You can glimpse the water rushing around them.
The sound changes as the boulder size is reduced. [See photo at left.] Under the last bridge, the stream flows freely [see second photo at left] and almost silently over a bed of small stone rectangles, the surface barely rippling.
Even on a much smaller scale in a backyard, you could use this idea of ever-changing rock size. Under the right circumstances, it might be brilliant. These are the same elements that make up any artificial stream, but you’re ordering them in a more conscious way.
Tip No. 3 -- Divide the waters
Right before the Bowl Garden, a final bridge [see third photo above] with arching metal side rails hides a change worthy of a magician’s trick. It appears that the water flows under the bridge and then pours down a large spillway to the round azalea pool below. [See third photo at left.] It doesn’t.
According to Lorrie Levin, a museum docent, the water in the rill is treated with algaecides to keep it clear and the rocks clean. Those chemicals would never do in the azalea pool. So under that last bridge, a pump pushes the rill water back up the hill, while another pump brings pool water up and over the spillway to create the dramatic waterfall. The bridge allows the illusion of a continuous flow.
This kind of division could be very useful in a home situation. Natural streams could appear to flow down to treated water in swimming pools or hot tubs. Or, as at the Getty, the stream could be kept free of algae, whereas the pond below would be safe for plants and fish without the addition of chemicals. Biological filters and other equipment can also be hidden under bridges. Creating an illusion of joined water opens up many possibilities.
Editor's note: If you didn't look at the photos as you read the blog post, enjoy them as a slide show of the Getty water gardens. There are three at the top of the page and three at left.
-----
Mary-Kate Mackey blogs regularly about water in the garden for Diggin' It. She is co-author of “Sunset’s Secret Gardens — 153 Design Tips from the Pros” and contributor to the 'Sunset Western Garden Book,' writes a monthly column for the Hartley Greenhouse webpage and numerous articles for Fine Gardening, Sunset, and other magazines. She teaches at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism & Communication. To read more by Mary-Kate, click here.
Individual flowers are placed in small glass bottles that are inserted in a metal carrier. It's a simple flower arrangement for using summer flowers. Flea markets often sell inexpensive items that are perfect for displaying flowers. (Courtesy of Helen Yoest)
Flower arranging made simple with flea market finds
Summertime is the time of year to enjoy the garden you’ve so lovingly nurtured. Sitting on the back porch, sipping tea, watching the wildlife skip from flower to flower is your just reward.
But do you bring your rewards indoors? With a few snips in your garden, you can build a simple and beautiful flower arrangement that is also a conversation piece for visiting friends.
An idea from the past
When touring Elizabeth Lawrence’s garden in Charlotte, N.C., I learned that she kept an array of little glass bottles on her dining room table and filled each one with a single blossom of what was in flower that day. She did so when guests were coming to provide a tabletop centerpiece, one that invariable became the topic of conversation.
It was so charming, I decided to carry on Miss Lawrence’s tradition in my own home.
A great place to shop for little bottles is a quick visit to the flea market or a trip to the thrift store. For very little money, little bottles can line your table to be filled with summer’s bounty.
Be creative; it’s really an anything-goes kind of design. The bottles can be clustered in groups or lined up the length of the table, mixed or matched, it’s really up to you.
Creativity and simplicity are keys
I’ve even experimented with a single flower of the same species, creating a smashing display.
So sit back and keep summer simple. Fill your table with flowers and welcome the conversation.
Editor's Note: To see two more ideas using inexpensive flea-market finds to display summer flowers, click on the arrow at the right base of the first photo. That will take you to the second and third pictures.
-----
Helen Yoest lives in North Carolina and writes about Gardening With Confidence. She's a garden writer, speaker, and garden coach. She's also a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazines and serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum. You can follow Helen on Twitter and Facebook. To read more by Helen here at Diggin' It, click here.
Does this colorful garden bench in the vegetable garden of Chanticleer Garden in Pennsylvania remind you of 'Alice in Wonderland'? (Courtesy of Denise Schreiber)
Decorative garden chairs and benches
It’s almost the end of August. Summer is almost gone. I spent my summer running between weddings, graduations, anniversaries, and assorted other functions.
For gardeners, first, there was the nonstop rain of spring and early summer, then there was the record-breaking heat in much of the country that made it unbearable to be outside until after midnight.
The joy of sitting outdoors
One of my favorite things to do is to sit either in the garden or on the deck and just be quiet:
Watching butterflies land on my zinnias, listening to the catbird’s mewing call because I was outside or, best of all, sitting in the darkness, watching lightning bugs, enjoying the sound of crickets, and the occasional owl hooting from his invisible perch.
I grew up in an old house that had a front and back porch with old-fashioned gliders on them. I would sit there for hours as a child, going back and forth as fast as I could go.Swinging was for my swing on the old cherry tree, which, miraculously enough, still stands at 100+ years old.
So, for me, sitting in the garden is a perfectly natural thing to do on a summer’s night.
Creative chairs and benches
I had forgotten many of these pleasures until I attended the annual symposium of the Garden Writers of America a few years ago. One of the evenings was spent at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Pa.
A friend and I had wandered the estate all afternoon, photographing everything we could about this magical garden when we came upon what is known as the Ruin. Built to resemble ruins -- complete with a water table of black granite -- it makes you feel as though you have stumbled into a fairy hideaway.
Just beyond the Ruin is furniture. Not what you are expecting -- wood with cushions -- but rather Wissahickon schist and granite. There is a sofa and a chair complete with a remote control. Although the furniture was made of cold, hard stone, it actually was quite comfortable to sit on.
There is a smoothness of the stone that makes it seem welcoming. We sat there for a while, taking in the beauty of the garden valley below us. I’m convinced that the remote control is set for the different seasons and you can sit there for an eternity watching the ever-changing scenery.
Whimsical chairs in pairs were all over the garden. Some were bright colors, while others have designs on them.
A vegetable garden bench [first photo above] is, of course, in the vegetable garden. Images of pumpkin and beets form the back of the bench with arms of celery and legs of carrots. It's like something right out of "Alice in Wonderland," which is the way I feel when I am there.
We continued to wander the grounds as evening fell and found ourselves sitting in an enclosed arbor with a glider. It was quiet, and in front of us at the end of the garden were the steps up to the house, lit with tiny flickering votive candles on each step, lighting the way but reminding us that we in our own magical little world.
Yes, you can do this at home
I’ve kept that night in my memory, re-creating it at my home. Tiki torches and votive candles are strewn throughout the beds. There is an old garden bench under the magnolia tree and her dense shade; a concrete bench at the bottom of the yard, hidden behind a large hydrangea; and comfy chairs on the deck.
At night I sit and watch and listen. You can do the same with any chair you like. Remember to enjoy just sitting.
Editor's note: Four photographs of unusual garden seats at Chanticleer Garden accompany this post, two at the top and two at the left. To access the extra photos, click on the arrow at the base of the first photos.
-----
Denise Schreiber is the Mrs. Know It All of “The Organic Gardeners” on KDKA Radio and “Ask the Expert” for Pennsylvania Gardener magazine. Her new book is "Eat Your Roses." Click here to read her previous articles at Diggin' It.
When solarizing a lawn, extend the plastic sheet beyond the lawn -- edges stay cooler than the center -- and anchor the length of the sheet of clear plastic with bamboo, wood, or brick. (Courtesy of Nan Sterman)
Soil solarization: A chemical-free way to get rid of weeds and unwanted grass
We use the sun’s rays to power our houses, heat water, and even run cars. How about using the sun to kill our lawns, too?
The process, which is called solarization, uses the heat of the sun’s rays to literally cook plants, weed seeds, nematodes, insects, and soil pathogens (the “bad guy” fungi, bacteria, etc. that bring diseases to plants) in the uppermost layers of soil.It also makes nutrients more available to plants later grown in solarized soil.
This is an excellent way of getting rid of grass where you would like to plant something else.
Summer is the best time of year to solarize. The air is warm, but more importantly, this is when the sun has its greatest heating potential. After six weeks or so, your lawn will be gone with a minimum investment of time, energy, money, and, best of all – no herbicides!
Solarization comes to us from the clever folks in Israel where resources are limited but demand is great.
How to solarize soil
- Cut your lawn very, very short. Make the surface as smooth and even as possible.
- Irrigate to saturate the soil one to two feet deep.
- Cover the lawn with 2 to 4 mil clear plastic (see note below) sheeting (available in the paint section of the hardware store. This is the most environmentally "unfriendly" part). Spread the plastic so it is in contact with the soil surface, and leave as little air space as possible
- Extend the plastic six to eight inches beyond the edges of the grass. The edges don’t heat as well as the center so extending the plastic ensures even heating throughout.
- If the area is large enough to need several sheets of plastic, overlap the seams.
- Anchor around the edges of the plastic with rocks, bricks, wood planks, mounds of soil, etc.
- Turn automatic irrigation off. (Imagine what would happen if the water went on with plastic covering sprinkler heads!)
- Wait six to eight weeks.
- Remove the plastic carefully. If the plastic doesn’t have UV inhibitor (nice but not necessary), it will likely fall apart by the time the lawn is dead.
To make the process even more effective, spread a second layer of plastic over the first. Use planks of wood or bricks to create a few inches of air gap between them. Research shows that the second plastic layer raises soil temperature another 2 to 10 degrees.
After solarization
Since the plastic is clear, you can watch the lawn turn from green to yellow, then to straw brown. Once that happens, let the plastic sit another week or two, just to be sure.
When the lawn is dead, you have a few options. Clear away dead grass where you plan to put walkways or otherwise need an even surface. Where the lawn is to become planting bed, just treat the dead stuff as compost. Plant into or mound soil atop it. Eventually, it will disintegrate either way.
Since solarization works best in the upper foot or so of soil, don’t rototill the soil after you are done. (Actually, it's best not to rototill ever. Rototilling, or turning the soil deeply, brings seeds and pathogens to the surface where they will proliferate.)
Questions answered
Why irrigate first? Wet soil heats more quickly than dry soil.
Why clear plastic is a must: I’m often asked if black plastic works as well as clear. The answer is a definite “NO!” It’s a matter of physics, but rather than give you a complex explanation, here’s an example from our everyday experiences that demonstrates the concept.
Imagine you park your car in a sunny parking lot, in the middle of the day. Roll the windows up, close the doors, and leave it for several hours. When you return, open the door. What’s your first thought? “Boy its hot in there!” We all know that the air inside a closed up car heats up more than the outside air.
Now, have your car windows tinted. Repeat the process and compare the air inside the car to the air outside. What happens? Even though the surface of the car heats up the same both times, the inside of the car gets far hotter when its windows are clear (similar to clear plastic) than when they are tinted (similar to black plastic).
This is the “greenhouse effect.” Clear glass and clear plastic trap the heating power of the sun’s rays. That's why soil beneath clear plastic heats up more than soil beneath black plastic. Adding an air gap and a second layer of plastic heats the soil even more.
Can I solarize other areas of my yard, too? Certainly! Raised beds, perennial beds, weed-infested fields, even slopes can be solarized to kill weeds, pests, and pathogens. As long as you can make the surface flat enough for the plastic to lie tight against the soil, you can solarize. But remember that solarization will kill all plants beneath the plastic. First remove any plants that you don't want to die.
-----
Nan Sterman is a popular writer and speaker about gardening and is a garden coach and garden designer. She also hosts the TV show "A Growing Passion" in San Diego and is the author of "Water-Wise Plants for the Southwest" and "California Gardener's Guide, Vol. II." Her website is Plant Soup. Read more of what she has written at the Monitor by clicking here.
Frans Hals daylily features lemon- and cinnamon-colored petals. A long-time favorite dating to the early 1950s, its flowers are 5 inches wide. (Courtesy of Karan Davis Cutler)
Daylilies: The nearly perfect perennial
After having fun with the some of the wacky names people give daylilies — see my “Daylilies Are Wonderful Flowers, But, Oh, Their Names,” — I confess that I am a card-carrying member of the Daylily Admiration Society.
Here in Vermont — and nearly everywhere else in North America — there is no perennial that is so easy and rewarding to grow.
Daylilies have many assets
Assets? Daylilies are tolerant and undemanding. They are immune to nearly all pests and diseases. They like sun, fertile soil that drains well, and adequate moisture, but can thrive in much less than ideal conditions. Good neighbors in the garden, they spread easily but not aggressively, and are easy to divide.
More assets? Breeders, beginning in the 1930s with the patron saint of daylilies, Dr. A.B. Stout, have kept busy creating new flower colors, forms, and sizes, as well as better heat- and cold-tolerance.
By increasing the number of chromosome sets in plant cells, hybridizers are giving us sturdier and more vigorous plants with more flowers with more intense colors. With close to 70,000 named cultivars, there are more than enough to choose from unless you’re gardening on a colossal scale.
The daylily’s genus name — Hemerocallis, which means “beauty for a day” in Greek — warns of one liability of this perennial: Each blossom lasts only one day.
Flower scapes, or stems, however, are loaded with buds, so plants normally bloom for a month -- some longer -- and there are extra early, early, mid- and late-blooming cultivars, when means the daylily season can last three months and longer.
To compensate for that one-day characteristic, breeders have created a truckload of reblooming daylilies, cultivars that flower, take a quick breather, and flower again, albeit less generously the second or third time.
They’re also known as everblooming, repeat flowering, recurrrent blooming, continuous blooming, and, wrongly, extended daylilies.
Extended daylilies, such as ‘Strawberry Candy’ [see second photo above; click on arrow at right base of first photo], are cultivars that remain open more than one day, at least 16 hours.
There also are nocturnal daylilies, cultivars that open in the afternoon and close in the morning. ‘Olallie Sandra’, ‘Black-Eyed Stella’, and ‘White Temptation’ are three, making them ideal for moonlight gardeners.
Historically, another mark against daylilies as a group is that they had no fragrance. But savvy breeders also have been at work on this flaw, and now there are a sizable number of fragrant cultivars, including ‘Pretty in Pink’, ‘Betty Davis Eyes’, which is also an extended bloomer, and ‘Bonanza’.
Be warned, though, that old-time favorites like ‘Frans Hals’ [see first photo above] do not smell as good as they look.
Last, there are no pure blue or pure white daylilies. But there are gorgeous reds, purples, pinks, oranges, yellows, golds, creams, and pastels, as well as bicolors galore. Only the most picky colorist — which I am not — would complain.
Good time to plant new daylilies
Why write about daylilies just as most have stopped flowering? As long as they have time to establish their roots before the ground freezes, daylilies are happy to be planted in late summer and fall. And this is the time that plants at local nurseries — and at some nursery websites — go on sale.
You’ll have to travel to a local daylily specialist or go online to find more that the “usual suspects” such as Stella De Oro (often sold as Stella d’Oro), which almost everyone agrees is overplanted.
There are scores of daylily nurseries throughout the country, from California Daylilies to Plum Hill Farm Daylilies in Wisconsin to Tranquil Lake Nursery in Massachusetts to Joiner Daylily Gardens in Georgia and Sample Gardens in Florida.
The list of nurseries on The American Hemerocallis Society website is a good place to begin looking for a daylily source near you, or use Google and enter “daylily” and your state.
I’m fortunate to have great sources in Vermont, including The Vermont Flower Farm and Olallie Daylily Gardens, where they not only grow close to 3,000 different cultivars but also breed daylilies..
Specialist daylily nurseries are the best source of reliable information as well as large, healthy bare-root plants. (Word to the wise: You don’t need to buy potted plants!)
If your budget is limited, take a look at the at the website of that old faithful of peonies, daylilies, and hostas, Gilbert H. Wild & Son. A Missouri nursery begun in 1885, Wild doesn’t offer all the newest names but has great prices for several hundred first-rate daylilies. For example, ‘Happy Returns’, a canary yellow offspring of ‘Stella d’Oro’, is $2; it’s $9 or more at most of the specialist nurseries. ‘Chicago Apache’ is $2.50 at Wild’s, $15 at a daylily specialist. Wild’s has a sale going on right now.
-----
Karan Davis Cutler blogs regularly at Diggin’ It. To read more, click here. She's a former magazine editor and newspaper columnist and the author of scores of garden articles and more than a dozen books, including “Burpee - The Complete Flower Gardener” and “Herb Gardening for Dummies.” Karan now struggles to garden in the unyieldingly dense clay of Addison County, Vt., on the shore of Lake Champlain, where she is working on a book about gardening to attract birds and other wildlife.
Stuff fresh, sweet figs with sweetened mascarpone cheese and top with honey, fresh mint, and toasted walnuts for an elegant dessert. (Courtesy of Linda Weiss)
How to grow and prepare figs
It was only natural that I plant a fig tree when I moved to the South, says Anne, the gardener. What I didn’t know was I could have been growing a fruiting dwarf fig “up North” if I had planted it in a container and moved it indoors during the winter.
A dwarf black fig, Ficus 'Petite Negra,' is a fig bred just for containers. This fig grows to five feet tall and four feet wide. It has those bow-downs and bends in its branches that make it look old and charming.
Winter treatment
You can trim it back, if it won’t fit in your house when you take the container indoors for winter, but you will lose the first fruit set. Figs will set fruit on branch growth from the year before, called old wood. This is the first crop in the summer. It is also the crop most likely to be lost with a late freeze. A second, fall, crop develops on growth that occurs in the spring and summer, called new wood.
In hard-freeze areas, move the potted tree indoors after the first frost but before a hard freeze. The frost will send it into dormancy. Water it only occasionally through the winter. It will not need any fertilizer until late winter when new growth begins.
If you live in an area where the winter temperatures do not go below 20 degrees F. (7 C), you can leave this fig in the ground. Be sure to protect the roots from freezing with heavy mulch.
The fruit of fig trees is quite interesting. What we pick as fruit is swollen tree stem with flowers inside. The skin of the fruit on the dwarf black fig is green and turns purple/pink when it is ripe. The best ripeness test is a gentle squeeze. If the fig is soft, it's ready to eat. The flesh is deep pink and sweet.
Deer do not especially like figs but pocket gophers love the roots. To frustrate gophers, sink a wire basket into the planting hole or grow your figs in a container.
Beautiful mascarpone-stuffed figs
My grandfather introduced me to figs when I was about 2 years old, says Linda, the chef. He took me by the hand and we walked out to the giant fig tree in his backyard and ate ripe figs right from the tree.
I have had a love affair with figs ever since that day many years ago.
Some of my favorite fig preparations other than just off the tree are fig preserves and figs sautéed in sugar and lemon, served with honey yogurt, or as an elegant teatime dessert stuffed with sweetened mascarpone, mint, toasted walnuts, and drizzled with honey. Mmm, love.
You can use any kind of fig that you have available. Since figs ripen in different sizes, I have given estimates on how much mint, walnuts, and honey you might need. Add more or less as needed.
For an alternative to a cold dessert, there is the option of baking these beautiful figs for a warm dessert or even breakfast. Enjoy!
Mascarpone Stuffed Figs With Honey, Mint, and Walnuts
1 (8-ounce) container mascarpone cheese
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar, or to taste
Figs -- as many as the cheese will stuff (depends on size of figs)
1 teaspoon orange-blossom honey per fig
1 teaspoon toasted walnuts per fig (toast for 1 to 2 minutes on a plate in the microwave)
Mint, in a fine chiffonade to sprinkle over figs
Soften the mascarpone cheese enough to mix with the confectioners' sugar.
Cut a cross in the top of each fig. Open them slightly so that you can stuff them with the cheese-sugar mixture using a pastry bag or spoon. After stuffing as many figs as you can use at the moment (see note below), drizzle each fig with honey, add toasted walnuts and sprinkle with the mint. Serve immediately.
Variation: If you would like these warm, leave off the mint and bake them in a preheated 350 degree F. oven until the figs are tender. The mascarpone melts into the softened, honey-sweetened figs and makes a wonderful, aromatic warm dessert or breakfast. Add mint after baking (optional).
Recipe note: The reason you stuff only as many figs as you will be using right away is that if you save them for another day, the figs become bitter.
Editor's Note: To read more of Anne and Linda's "how to grow and prepare" series, click here.
-----
Linda Weiss and Anne Moore met while Linda was the food editor and Anne was the garden editor for South Carolina Homes & Gardens magazine. They now write articles for the ETV GardenSMART television show website, where Anne is the horticulture editor, gardening consultant, and e-newsletter editor. Anne has written for magazines and newspapers. She is a member of and a recipient of a Silver Award for magazine writing from the Garden Writers Association. Linda is a personal chef. She attended Le Cordon Bleu of Paris’ catering program, has appeared as a guest chef on numerous television shows, has been a culinary educator for 10 years, and a food writer for a number of magazines. She is a professional member of The James Beard Foundation and the Southern Foodways Alliance. She has written a cookbook, "Memories From Home, Cooking with Family and Friends."
Downy skullcap: A tough and attractive native plant
Even in gardens that rely heavily upon native plants, I seldom see Scutellaria species. My favorite, Scutellaria incana, is an Indiana native and can stand up to the best of European or Asian perennials for shade gardens. None is finicky, and all are easily grown in open gardens.
In fact, they're tough as nails.
Great performance in dry conditions
In its native habitats, downy skullcap (sometimes called hoary skullcap) is usually found growing in dry soil at edge of the woods, or along roadsides. I have seen it blooming well within the interior of woodlands.
During July and August, when weather becomes hot and dry with high humidity, many plants to suffer. Not our downy skullcap. It was made for those conditions and keeps right on performing.
Of course, it also responds to a bit of loving care with a touch of decent soil and a modicum of moisture.
The downy skullcap reaches between 2-1/2 and three feet in height. The overall shape is a very stiffly upright open vase. I have not seen the stems fall over under the weight of the blooms when hit by wind and rain, though.
The square stems will become quite woody by season's end. I cut mine back after they have been hit by a hard frost so the stubble will be gone when the new growth begins the following spring.
Individual leaves are 4-1/2 to five inches in length by about two inches in width. The outside edge of the leaf is lined with rounded teeth. Leaves are a deep matte green.
The numerous blooms are held in racemes at both the top of the stems and in the upper axils. Flowers are of good size, lavender-blue, with each flower having two upper petals fused together to form a hood or cap, thus the common name.
Seedpods are shaped like two little saucers stacked one upon the other, with a lip around the edges. As they mature the pods turn tan with violet/purple lips.
Firsthand experience
My downy skullcap grows along a path at the top of my hillside garden in bright open shade under dogwoods. The soil there is decent, well drained, and near a limestone cliff edge. I have been growing this species of skullcap for at least eight years. During that time I have not seen insect damage, nor any sign of disease.
They bloomed the first year they were transplanted into the garden, and have bloomed reliably each year since, always putting on a good show no matter the weather.
Even though the plants set seed well each year, I have not found them to be weedy. This species is also hardy as an old rock, reaching north into Zone 5 and probably Zone 4.
For companion plants, you may want to consider any summer-blooming anemone, hardy begonias (Begonia grandis) with leaves that are red on the underside, and red lobelia, or cardinal flower, if where you are growing your skullcap is not too dry.
-----
Gene Bush, a nationally known garden writer, photographer, lecturer, and nursery owner, gardens on a shaded hillside in southern Indiana. His website is www.munchkinnursery.com. He also writes the Garden Clippin's Newsletter. To read more by Gene here at Diggin' It, click here.
Previous
Become part of the Monitor community
36K on Facebook | 12K on Twitter | 2,250 on YouTube