May 2012

Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield 

May 2012 

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NEXT MEETING – PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL DATE, TIME AND LOCATION Monday May 14, 6:00 pm – Tony Sanders house @ 281 Garden Street, Wethersfield This year the club will be selling leftovers from the plant sale at the Wethersfield Farmers Market at the Solomon Wells House on Thursday May 17 from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. At this meeting we will prepare the plants for that sale and make final plans for delivery to the market, sales force at the market, etc. Hot dogs, beer & soda will be available.

Today 

Donate some perennials from your personal collection to the Plant Sale Plants should be split and potted ASAP to look good for the sale. Please label all plants. Contact Fred Odell (860.529.6064) for official pots, potting soil, and plant labels.

Plant Sale Saturday May 12th (Rain Date May 19th) 

7:00 - 8:00 Set Up Deliver homegrowns, unload plants, price plants, set up tables
8:00 - 1:00 Sell Help customers, total up sales, answer questions
1:00 - 2:00 Close Clean up, break down tables, pack up leftover plants
Volunteer! Contribute your own “homegrowns”
Call Tom Gibson @ 1-860-208-5195

Weston Rose Garden 

Weekly maintenance will be done on Saturdays this year – beginning Saturday May 19 - 8:00 to 9:30. (If rain postpones the Plant Sale to 5/19 then maintenance will begin on 5/26) BYO tools. Your help is needed – this is our club’s major community service project. Questions - Call Anthony Moir @ amoir@studyhotels.com

Historic Tree Amble - Part of Connecticut Trails Day 

Saturday June 2, 9:30-10:20 a.m., Broad Street Green at Garden Street. Led by John Lepper. Learn about Old Wethersfield’s notable trees and the floodplain forests. Minimum suggested donation $3.00. RSVP to Eleanor Buck Wolf Nature Center: (860) 529-3075, E-mail naturecenter@wethersfieldct.com

Compostable Matter 

By Jim Meehan 

We discovered a tree in our yard the other day.

 First – a disclaimer. The shrubbery along the southern border of our homestead – aka the Demilitarized Zone – is 90% the creation of one of the previous owners. When we took it over it was a tangle of unidentified bushes and trees living in a pocket of deep shade caused by an American elm and an adjacent oak at its north end. On the south side was a two-trunked pine tree, which was slightly taller than my 6 and ? feet at the time of our purchase but grew to 10 time that height by this annum. Until now I had removed but one tree – another pine that grew in the middle of the area whose branches were crowding out it neighbors – and added some hosta and groundcover where the pre-existing flora allowed. Then, in the past twelve months, a combination of disease, unusual storms, and a request from my north side neighbor caused us to do some major, shade-reducing changes.

Three years ago the elm developed Dutch elm disease and had to be euthanized. Then a tornado – yes in Wethersfield – and a late October snowstorm that occurred when the leaves still were up took down two of the oak’s three upper trunks. The remaining one hung menacingly out over the street. At our request the town of Wethersfield, on whose property the tree actually resided (it’s a long story), took it down. Then, inspired by the radical swaying motion of the two-masted pine and its potential to land on (a) our neighbor to the south, (b) our neighbor to the east, or (c) us, we had our favorite arborist remove that one also. At the same time neighbor (a) asked me to cut back some arborvitae in the DMZ that were growing out onto his property.

Suddenly the land of darkness has turned into an outdoor solarium.

Our plan for this spring is to see what grows there now. So, as part of that stratagem, I was meandering through the underbrush looking to remove dead brush and/or bully limbs that had entwined themselves around their weaker brethren. In doing that I came upon the mother of all grape vines. These woody ramblers have popped up over the years throughout the DMZ. I have never seen nor have I sought the main source. I normally just cut up what I need to in order to untwine whatever dead branch I was trying to remove and left the grape holders to fend for themselves. But this time the vine appeared to be strangling itself, so I went at it a little more seriously. So seriously that I did not notice the three branches of blossoming pink apple blossoms that brushed against my head as I struggled with the thick, clinging plant.

I prefer to believe that this is evidence of my ability to focus like a laser on the task at hand. Others might say it indicates my general obliviousness to my surroundings. Either way I became aware of the flowering crab before I did it any damage. It is about four feet tall, and more than a hand grip in girth. It is not at all symmetrical.

After calling Mars out to witness my discovery, and with her guidance, I carefully removed all competition with any proximity to our new floral treasure. It is the best chance that we can give it.

 Like this year’s feel-good sports story, pro basketballer Jeremy Lin, a lifelong understudy who got thrust into the starring role – anybody who has managed to survive for that long, in that little light, with that little room to grow, probably doesn’t really need that much help to flourish – or possibly to take over everything.

Time will tell.

Gardening with Native Plants 

http://www.ct-botanical-society.org 

Many American gardeners have started to discover the benefits of gardening with natives. Native plants are by definition well-adapted to the climate, and they are generally low-maintenance. Connecticut has an abundance of beautiful native plants. Growing them helps preserve part of our natural heritage.

 Listed here are some native plants that perform particularly well in the garden. Terms and symbols that describe garden conditions are explained below.

Don't take plants from the wild!

Nursery-propagated plants are available for every species listed on this page. There is no reason to despoil wild areas by removing plants.

Perennials

Wild red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) full sun part shade average to moist soil zones 3-9 It's hard to think of a more graceful plant than the wild columbine, with its spurred red-and-yellow flowers nodding on slender stems. These, like many red flowers, attract hummingbirds. The delicately scalloped leaves form a neat mound of foliage. Wild red columbine, like most columbines, tends to seed itself in the garden (though not such much as to be a nuisance). In the wild, this plant prefers growing in the alkaline soil of limestone rocks, but in the garden it will grow in anything except very strongly acidic soil. 1-2' tall.

Bearberry, kinnickinick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) full sun part shade dry to average soil zones 2-6 Bearberry is a useful ground cover that is handsome year-round. The leaves are glossy and evergreen. Small pink or white flowers in late spring are followed by bright red berries, popular with ground-dwelling birds. In winter, the stems become red and the leaves take on a dark red tint. Bearberry grows well in exposed, rocky or sandy sites; it also tolerates acid soil and the salt spray of seaside locations. 4" tall. More photos and information from UConn.

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) part shade full shade dry to moist soil zones 3-8 An easy, tolerant plant that makes a good ground cover. Its bold, heart-shaped leaves create a pleasing texture in the garden. The roots smell very much like ginger, though this plant is not related to culinary ginger. Wild ginger has interesting triangular flowers in spring, but finding them requires getting down on hands and knees -- they bloom just above the ground. (Click on the photo to the left to see an image of wild ginger in bloom.) 6" tall.

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) full sun dry to average soil zones 3-9 True to its name, butterfly weed is a marvelous for attracting butterflies. The "weed" label, however, is entirely undeserved; it's not weedy in its looks or habits. The handsome, dark green foliage is topped with bright orange flowers in July and August. Butterfly weed has a long tap root that makes the plant highly drought-resistant, but also makes mature plants tricky to transplant. Container-grown plants, however, transplant easily. Butterfly weed is considered a "Great Plant for American Gardens" by the American Horticultural Society. 2-3' tall.

White wood aster (Eurybia divaricata, syn. Aster divaricatus) part shade full shade dry to average soil zones 4-8 A good ground cover for tough situations. White wood aster thrives in dry shade, so it can be planted beneath shallow-rooted trees such as maples and elms. The flowers are not especially showy, but they are long-lasting, and an individual plant may be in bloom for two months. Foliage grows 6" high; flower stalks 18-24".

New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, syn. Aster novae-angliae) full sunpart shade average to wet soil zones 3-9 There are hundreds of species of asters, but one of the best for gardens is our New England aster. (The American Horticultural Society lists it as a "Great Plant for American Gardens".) New England aster lights up the fall garden with its cheerful flowers, resembling purple daisies. This is a tall plant, good for the back of the garden. Frankly, its lower leaves can look tatty by fall, so keep it behind other plants. 3-5' tall.

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) full sun part shade moist to wet soil or water up to four inches deep zones 2-7 In the wild, marsh marigold grows in shallow water or marshy soil, but it doesn't need a marsh -- it will grow in moist garden soil. In mid-spring, its glossy, bright yellow flowers really grab one's attention. The plant goes dormant by mid-summer, so it makes a good companion for late-emerging plants, such as ferns. 1' tall.

Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) part shade full shade moist soil, preferably acidic zones 3-9 This charming woodland plant has soft lavender flowers in spring. Even when wild geranium is not in bloom, the distinctive, deeply cut leaves provide a decorative effect. If it is planted in a moist woodland spot, wild geranium may spread slowly by seed. 1-2' tall.

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) full sun part shade moist soil in part shade, or wet soil in full sun zones 3-9 In the wild, cardinal flower grows mostly in sunny swamps, but it will grow in moist garden soil if given part shade. Cardinal flower blooms in mid- to late summer; the brilliant red flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds. It is considered a "Great Plant for American Gardens" by the American Horticultural Society. 3' tall.

Solomon's plume (Maianthemum racemosum, syn. Smilacina racemosa) part shade full shade dry to moist soil zones 4-8 This is a graceful plant for the woodland garden. In spring, clusters of starry white flowers are borne at the ends of arching stalks. Solomon's plume is easy to grow, and it spreads fast -- give it lots of room or be prepared to weed out excess. Its cousin starry Solomon's plume (Maianthemum stellatum) is another worthwhile garden plant, more restrained in its habits. Both plants have interesting berries; red-spotted in Solomon's plume, and striped like a beach ball in starry Solomon's plume. 1-2.5 feet tall.

Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) part shade full shade average to moist soil; prefers acidic soil zones 3-9 Partridgeberry is a member of that essential garden category, the shade-loving evergreen ground covers. It is one of the best choices for dark shade. Partridgeberry spreads across the ground by vining stems, growing only two inches high. Its leaves are small and dark green, often with light-colored veins. Partridgeberry has white flowers in early summer; in fall and winter it is ornamented by bright red fruits. 2 inches tall.

Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) part shade full shade average to moist soil zones 3-8 Lightly fragrant clusters of lilac-colored flowers grace this woodland plant in spring. The flowers reward close inspection -- each petal is shallowly notched at the tip, and appears to have been pinched where it joins the center of the flower. Wild blue phlox is considered a "Great Plant for American Gardens" by the American Horticultural Society. 1 foot tall.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) part shade full shade average to moist soil zones 3-8 Bloodroot is one of the earliest wildflowers of spring. In March, the delicate white flowers appear, each with a broad leaf wrapped protectively around its stalk. Bloodroot goes dormant around mid-summer. Ferns make good companions, as they tend to emerge late in spring. By the time bloodroot goes dormant, ferns can fill in the gap. 6 inches tall.

Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) part shade full shade average to moist soil zones 3-8 Foamflower's charms have just recently begun to be appreciated by gardeners and plants breeders. Foamflower has spikes of fluffy white flowers that rise above a carpet of soft green leaves. It blooms strongly in late spring, and, if it has consistently moist soil, it will continue to produce the occasional flower spike until frost. Foamflower spreads by stolons, so it can be used as a ground cover. The leaves will stay green through mild winters. 8-12 inches tall.

Barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragariodes) full sun part shade full shade dry to moist soil zones 4-9 Barren strawberry looks similar to strawberry plants, but with showy yellow flowers (and no edible fruit). Like strawberries, barren strawberry will spread quickly by runners, making it a good ground cover. The leaves are evergreen, at least during Connecticut's milder winters. Yellow flowers in spring and summer. 4-8 inches tall.

Horti-Culture Corner 

"The unmulched garden looks to me like some naked thing which for one reason or another would be better off with a few clothes on.”
- Ruth Stout

Garden Q&A 

Good Herbs to Tend in Pots 

By STEPHEN ORR – NY Times 

Q. I want to grow herbs in pots this summer. Which ones should do well?

A. Good idea, but first let’s discuss what you mean by “herbs.” Horticulturally speaking, this group of plants is hard to define. The Herb Society of America describes it on its Web site (herbsociety.org) as plants that “are valued for their flavor, fragrance, medicinal and healthful qualities, economic and industrial uses, pesticidal properties, and coloring materials (dyes).”

That covers a lot of plants. But because I imagine that you want to use your herbs for cooking, we’ll concentrate on the culinary variety.

All cooking herbs like regular water and good sun, and most don’t need any fertilizer. Too rich a soil, in fact, can yield leaves that lack the all-important flavor of their essential oils.

But some kitchen herbs have different requirements, so it’s helpful to divide them into groups: annual, hardy perennial and tender perennial.

Annual herbs, like basil, cilantro (a k a coriander) and dill, are among the easiest to grow but live only one season before flowering and going to seed. Even though they love the sun, most bloom more quickly as the weather becomes hot, so it is good to plant them early and to snip the flowers to prolong leaf production.

Unlike perennial plants with woody stems, annual herbs tend to need more water. Put them in a pot at least 18 inches in diameter — the larger mass ensures that you won’t have to irrigate as much.

For something more unexpected, try chervil, a French favorite with a subtle taste blending the best notes of French tarragon and parsley (two hardy perennials). Or scatter a few seeds of dark-leaved perilla — the Japanese call it shiso — which is as decorative as a coleus and has a flavor similar to that of basil.

Once these annuals bloom, they scatter seeds with abandon. Next year you may get a bumper crop in and out of your pots, so be prepared for early spring weeding.

Hardy perennial herbs (as well as some shorter-lived biennials, which last only a couple of seasons) are more forgiving when it comes to water. Most of them come through the winter in the New York area reliably, depending on the severity of the season. Mint, parsley, English thyme, rosemary, sage, chive, French tarragon, winter savory, salad burnet, oregano and its near twin, marjoram, all grow well in smaller to medium pots.

 If you have larger pots, you might also try a striking species like fennel, which produces an anise scent, or the statuesque lovage or angelica, both of which grow four to six feet tall before blooming.

And don’t forget a pot of fragrant lavender — added sparingly, it can flavor baked goods.

Certain valuable perennial herbs are too tender for cold winters but can be brought indoors as houseplants and placed outside in spring. A small pot of bay laurel, for example, is worth the effort: fresh bay leaves have a superior taste to those bought dried in the store.

Tea lovers may enjoy other tender perennials, like pineapple sage, rose geranium and lemon verbena, which not only flower beautifully but also grow large in one summer.

Q. I’m finally getting around to tackling my overgrown backyard. I want to get rid of the ivy and put in a more interesting ground cover. Any ideas?

A. It’s a common problem: a ground cover like English ivy, which must have seemed an easy planting solution to someone decades ago, now threatens to overtake an entire property.

Cayleb Long, a plant curator at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, had just such a situation behind his house in Brooklyn. He wanted to break up the space visually, add a greater variety of plants and, most of all, make the area more family-friendly with a small lawn.

“The ivy was a real monoculture, covering about 20 feet by 70 feet,” he said. “I cut the entire thing at its base with electric hedge trimmers, rolled it up like a huge carpet and hauled it off.”

 After yanking up the roots, Mr. Long was left with a bare patch of soil. He wanted a species that would fill in rapidly without becoming invasive — always something of a horticultural balancing act. It’s important to do your research because species act differently from region to region. What behaves demurely in one part of the country might run rampant in another.

Mr. Long chose a variation on the venerable but aggressive Asian pachysandra, the well-behaved native Allegheny spurge, or Pachysandra procumbens, $15 for a 3.5-inch pot from Asiatica, (717) 938-8677 or asiaticanursery.com. The leaves of this recumbent species come in a lighter shade than those of its Asian cousin and have a mottled, silvery mosaic pattern.

In the Northeast, another option is May apple, or Podophyllum peltatum, $4.49 to $7.29 a plant, based on how many are ordered, from Prairie Nursery, (800) 476-9453 or prairienursery.com. A native that spreads by rhizomes in shade, it has umbrella-like leaves and white flowers followed by golf-ball-size fruit. If you have curious pets or young children, be aware that the unripe fruit and the leaves are poisonous.

For those who love ornamental grasses, Carex laxiculmis (Bunny Blue), above, $8.95 for a quart pot from Avant Gardens, (508) 998-8819 or avantgardensne.com, has dainty silvery-blue blades and does well in sun or shade. Mr. Long also suggested Hakonechloa macra (Albo Striata) from Japan, $8.50 each at Digging Dog Nursery, (707) 937-1130 or diggingdog.com, which has white and green variegation and is good in between lower ground covers.

For dry shade, he recommended Epimedium grandiflorum (Lilafee), $8.50 each from Digging Dog, which has bronze-tinged spring leaves and large violet-purple flowers, and E. x perralchicum (Frohnleiten), $11.95 for a 4- to 5-inch pot from Heronswood, (877) 674-4714 or heronswood.com, which has bright yellow flowers that dangle between its reddish leaves.

Asked which species to avoid, Mr. Long was reluctant to ban any ground covers outright. But after being reminded of the rogue’s gallery of houttuynia, vinca minor, liriope and even the beloved lily of the valley, he conceded that some plants can perhaps be too agreeable when it comes to colonizing. And he admitted that he’d like to be able to garden without taking out the power tools again.

How many gardeners does it take to change a bulb garden? 

Perhaps Just One: 

By Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune 

A troop of red tulips standing tall beside a regiment of yellow daffodils. A march of blue grape hyacinths. A platoon of hyacinths in a pot.

That's how gardeners traditionally plant spring bulbs: in solid masses of a single type for strong bursts of color that can lift hearts after a long, cold winter. There are downsides, though. Often such a mass leaves a gap in the garden when it is done blooming, with a clump of unruly foliage that can't be cut back until it yellows. And if the bulbs are hybrid tulips, most likely they have to be replanted every year.

But there is another way. Spring bulbs can relax, mix and mingle, dancing with the emerging green of perennials, in an ongoing rhythm that moves smoothly from early spring into summer. They can be chosen for hardiness and durability, so they will be there for years to come without replanting. Instead of a regiment, they can be a sprinkle and a sparkle, more like a patch of intermingled wildflowers that appears in a meadow or a woods after a long winter.

Jacqueline van der Kloet planted that way for years in her garden in the Netherlands before the style made her reputation as a bulb designer. Now she is bringing her ideas to the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park starting Sept. 24, when select volunteers turn out to add flowers for spring color to Piet Oudolf's grand sweep of perennials.

There, 77,000 carefully chosen tulips and crocuses, narcissus and chionodoxa, alliums, scilla, fritillaria and other perennial bulbs will be planted among the echinacea, salvia, rattlesnake master, Russian sage, prairie dropseed and more than 100 other plants that Oudolf has cunningly combined. Elsewhere in the park daffodils will grace the beds.

"I think bulbs have more qualities than only color," says Jacqueline van der Kloet, the Dutch designer who has worked with Oudolf to plan the bulb plantings. "They also can make a nice contrast to the growing leaves of perennials." She mixes bulbs with varying colors, shapes and bloom times and scatters them in casual clusters. The aim, she says, is to treat the bulbs and other plants "as if they are players in the same play, not first the bulbs and the perennials later."

"It's not the normal way most people who plant bulbs would do it in their own gardens," says Melanie Scott, a Lurie Garden volunteer who moved from a house in Homewood (with tulips and daffodils) to an apartment in the South Loop. But perhaps that's only because they haven't thought of it.

Like Oudolf's, van der Kloet's plantings are naturalistic -- meaning they evoke the feeling of nature, not copy it. Most of our bulbs hail originally from Central Asia, the Mediterranean and the Middle East, so a Midwestern garden that includes them is hardly natural. But it can have an echo of the ease and grace with which plants live together in the wild.

The bulb planters' aim is to bring color to the Lurie garden at the end of winter when "Chicagoans are just so desperate," according to Colleen Schuetz, the garden's head horticulturist. They are doing it in a way that honors Oudolf's design and keeps the maintenance low -- a prime goal for home gardeners too.

Lasagna Bulb-Planting Technique 

http://www.plantanswers.com 

One easy planting technique especially suited to container gardens is the "Lasagna" technique. The idea is similar to making a lasagna. Plant a layer of tall-growing bulbs such as narcissus, daffodils and snowflakes six inches deep in the container. Cover with two inches of soil, add a second layer of bulbs such as hyacinths and Dutch iris, cover with another two inches of soil, and add the final layer of small bulbs such as Ranunculus, anemones and grape hyacinths. Finally, add an inch of soil followed by an inch of mulch. Top off the Lasagna planting with a plant cover of annuals such as pansies, dianthus, bluebonnets plus mulch. Water well.

In spring, the results are stunning: a container of beautiful narcissus and Dutch iris above a lush multicolored carpet of flowers from smaller bulbs. You should remember to remove old blooms from one group of bulbs as other layers display their blooms to insure a neat, tidy container appearance. 6