Dialing in the Weather

Friday, April 22, 2011

A bright morning here on the mountain. 30° in the sun but 24.9° on the shady side of the house. A beautiful day is on the way so we have to work hard and quick as rain returns by late afternoon and continues all day tomorrow.The woodpeckers are the noisiest they have been so far and and as I walked Karl out the door I noticed fresh-from-last-night moose tracks exiting the woods and leading up the little valley to our neighbors. Deer and moose are very mobile now and they are visible as they search for fresh food.

Gail and I are heading to the nursery in an hour to begin preparing for planting. After two years of better understanding the weather at the nursery, Gail is exchanging the miniature and small hostas and the astilbes for places that better accommodate their sunshine needs. The shade cloth we cover the houses with is 80% which some question or criticize but as the warm, direct suns of July and August come straight down, it's important to have good cover. In their new locations the astilbes will receive a little more sun and the hostas a little less. They should all smile nicely.

The little sundial in the yard, pictured above, reflects the time of about 7 AM and the crystals of snow that fell last night. I guess it is a weather dial too. It does not tell how much work gardeners expend in the spring to get their gardens ready but it reminds Vermonters that spring takes a while to work its way through and then summer leaps forward, beautiful but too short. Get out and enjoy at least part of today.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where juncos are abundant under the unfilled bird feeders. Two doves search for the last pieces of cracked corn and a tom turkey calls loudly from the field asking his girlfriends to join him for breakfast.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
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Good gardeners always remember that we are here to help you GROW your GREEN THUMB!

Trillium On Mothers Day

Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mothers Day

A long but successful day at the nursery. The weather was cold and it rained off and on but a fairly steady flow of customers brought on plenty of conversation, some good laughs and some good sales. I was as pleased with the volume of visitors as I was with those who parted with some cash because it was so encouraging to see people find us and also comment on how much they liked the revised website.

I do wish I could get out and take some wildflower pictures. Time is short and when you miss a good display as I did with the bloodroot, it's gone until the following year. The trillium are looking great right now. The grandiflorum are so nice and fresh and they always bring on lots of comments.


Even the assasin bug enjoys them! People often want to purchase a pot or two but they aren't that keen on the price even if I tell them seven years from seed to flower is the norm. Die hards spring for the purchase and I know they'll do a good job of planting and will follow my directions for harvesting seed pods before insects do so as to encourage better production on into the future.


Trillium erectum are in good supply in our gardens as I have worked hard to propagate them too. I need to find someone with good experience with trillium as some of the hybrids are especially tall and strong and I'd like some feedback on these. Last year the deer ate all the seed pods the night before I intended to harvest them so my production cycle was interrupted.

Before I know it Memorial Day will be here and the very popular orchids will be blooming. In the meantime I'll keep plugging away at the nursery. Today it was phlox and tomorrow it will be astilbes. If you get a chance, stop by and say hello.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where supper is about ready and early sleep will be most welcomed.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm A website that shares the plants we grow with those who cannot make the trip. Take a look!

Astilbes in Vermont

Thursday, December 6, 2007

The thermometer reads minus 3.4 degrees right now as the sun pulls itself ever so slowly above the sugar maples and shouts good morning to us. I just came in from feeding the birds and the feeders went from motionless to full-of-activity in the turn of the bucket. If birds could smile, the lone mourning dove would have smiled as I added a heaping pile of cracked corn to the platform feeder. I see dozens of these most every day down the road a quarter of a mile. They are usually in the road eating sand or sitting on the power lines but they never make it here in quantities larger than five or six.

Karl the wonder dog is confused this morning as Gail went out the door at 6:30 for an autism conference in Burlington and I haven't left for work yet. He likes it best on weekends when he knows I'm staying home because he is almost always guaranteed a ride in the truck. Winter is good for him because there is snow to plow and he likes to ride along.

For a couple days now Gail has been going over her plant orders. I kept suggesting that she study the sales numbers on the astilbes and she finally succumbed to my boring repetitions and analyzed this summer's sales versus last year's. Surprise! The missing numbers mean astilbe sales set records and replenishment stock, new varieties and spring digging and splitting from large mother garden plants are all in order.


We have always liked astilbes but found them to be hard-sell plants during earlier years. When I planted a nice display for Gail about 4-5 years ago, things began to change. I dug up the old milk room part of the lower barn foundation garden and planted 30-something different astilbes which Gail really admires. As they matured, more and more people commented on lack of experience with them. Sales increased. During the past two years, the single line of about 60 different astilbes that I bordered one of our daylily nurseries with came to maturity. As clumps that measured 2-3-4-5 feet wide, the masses of bloom brought out fine comments and good purchases. Once again it pointed out that no matter how nice a one gallon potted plant is, if people aren't familiar with it, they're not going to purchase it. Here are examples of Vision in Pink, Moreheims Glory and Elizabeth.

Astilbes range in height from 8-10 inches to 5-6 feet tall. Here in Vermont that means there is good bloom from late June through mid to late September depending upon the varieties you plant, the location you choose and the care you provide. They are clearly zone 3 hardy so the cold is not their problem, severe drought is. We have them growing in full sun in places to show how well they do despite being billed as a shade plant. Their root mass should not be allowed to dry out so that implies planting in a soil mix that will retain moisture when rains are absent and you're too busy to drag out the hose.

If there is one difficult characteristic of astilbes, I'd have to say it's identifying them correctly. Basic colors are red, white, pink and purple and variations of these colors translate to hundreds of varieties. Proper identification takes me quite a while and I know I still makes mistakes when I'm in the garden and someone calls out from afar. We have a real good assortment here and on the website so if you're interested in a trying a good perennial, stop by or check out our site. If you get a chance to drive by our new nursery on Route 2 next year, we're developing a display garden that will parallel Route 2 and be visible from the highway. Most of our collection of astilbes will be represented there.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun has warmed the air to 9.8 degrees and a small flock of evening grosbeaks have arrived for breakfast.

Gardening wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com

Remember Astilbes!

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Almost 6 AM and the sun is finally crawling above Peacham Pond to light up a previously dull morning. Last night's temperature dropped to 28.9 but I notice that the water flowing over the lower road is still moving fast enough that it didn't freeze. There are still great patches of snow in the woods which keep the water flowing.

Busy day coming today. Gail is finishing up lunch for the planting crew which will begin arriving at 8. She and Alex are heading for Jericho for much of the day so I will be here mixing soil, barking directions, and doling out bags or buckets of plants that must get into pots. The crew is never the same but always interesting and the conversations can cover quite a spectrum.

Gail is usually in charge and about the only thing we do differently is lunch break. I'm big on a break around noon but Gail has this thing about grabbing a good five hours from people, having lunch around 1:30 and then saying "That's all folks!" Her management philosophy is that people who have had a good lunch don't bend as fast and she expects people to keep up with her non-stop performance. I'm getting too old for that but when she's the leader I have to follow suit, often in verbal, badger-like protest.

One of the flowers we'll be planting today is astilbe. I really like this plant and Gail must too as we have 60-70-I don't know how many different astilbes. I like to offer a self preservation comment about this plant every spring because you must be careful when cleaning up last years stems.

We leave all the previous season's flower scapes through the winter because they turn a rusty brown and they look very nice in contrast to the snow cover. What this does, however, is give them a chance to dehydrate over the winter and it turns the stems into upright pin cushions of thin needles which can easily--and I do mean easily--penetrate finger tips and any other unprotected skin.

Be wise about this and always wear a good pair of gloves any time you are cleaning up astilbes. The work goes quickly but again, it's better to put on a pair of safety glasses and gloves and move slowly.

Astilbes work well in semi shade or fairly open settings in this part of Vermont. They'll do fine in full sun as long as moisture prevails and the soil has been amended to maintain moisture. Their thick, mat-like root mass maintains lots of water but if it dehydrates, it's difficult to rehydrate and keep the plant looking good.

So far this has been a dry spring in the gardens and the first leaves have just started to unfurl. If we don't receive any rain by Tuesday, we'll get the hoses going on the potted plants to bring them along. In the meantime, planting chores abound. If you haven't given astilbes a thought before, stop by later this summer and take a look. This is really a low maintenance plant that provides a different texture over a good period of time. Heights range from 10 inches to 5 feet.

Here are close ups of Montgomery and Bressingham Beauty.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the temperature is already 38 and a nice day is forecast. For bird watchers in the audience, yesterday at about 2 PM we have a visit from an absolutely superb specimen of male Osprey. Gail's distance vision is not good and she was in awe at this master of the air as he spent about twenty minutes here trying to figure out if our trout pond menu was to his liking.

I don't know if it was the mallards on the pond or our neighbor on his riding tractor but Mr. Osprey failed to complete the entertainment with a dive for a fat trout. This was an adult male and if you haven't seen how big this bird can get, keep an eye out if you visit Peacham Pond. Last year one showed up the same day the state fish trucks dumped 2500 brown trout into Peacham. My guess is this guy checked his calendar yesterday and headed over our way. His wingspan is etched in my mind--giant and masterful!

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com

Blue Jays and Spent Astilbes

Sunday, January 14, 2007

A quiet afternoon here at Vermont Flower Farm. This morning's snow has tapered to an occasional ball of fluff floating awkwardly to the white carpet below. The weather of late has given everyone a challenge as several fronts have merged with each storm and the outcomes have not always been as predicted.

I've always enjoyed watching weather and if I had things to do again I might even study it. Lyndon State College is about 30 miles from here and it has a very reputable meteorology program which meshes well with its Televisions Studies program. Learn to "read" the skies and then get a job on TV someplace. Not bad! There's also the possibility of working at a place like St Johnsbury's Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium that houses and sponsors The Eye On The Sky, a weather forecasting station and educational center. These are great resources and we are very fortunate to have them so close.

As I watch the weather, I also watch the birds, my very own weather predictors. As the snow stopped, the birds began to appear in large numbers. First the Juncos began leaving the comfort of the large forsythia bushes and then the Chickadees followed. Both were quickly chased away by 9 noisy Blue Jays who succumbed to "flock intimidation" by a group of about 20 Evening Grosbeaks. On goes the images I get to watch every day, supporting the notion that birds and animals feed heavily before a storm.

The clean white snow also accentuates the leftover plant stalks and seed heads left from autumn. Some folks are possessed to clean their gardens each fall and to a degree I follow that philosophy. Close to the house, however, I leave the spent flower stalks to stand out against the winter snow and give remembrance to the beautiful summer, just passed.


One of the seed heads I like comes from the various astilbes we grow. I'm not sure how many we have now but those for sale are worth a look on vermontflowerfarm.com. The flowers bloom here from the end of June on into September with heights from 10 inches to almost 6 feet. Although there are four basic colors, white, red, pink and lavender, there are many shades of each to choose from.


Astilbes prefer shade and moist soil conditions although they can handle sun if the soil is well amended with organic material. Pumilum, one of the smallest astilbes, grows into a tight mat of late blooming, pink flowers.I've used this plant as a rock garden accent and despite the arid conditions which prevail, it always looks quite nice.

As you walk your gardens on the next need for some fresh air, pay note to the leftover foliage and seed heads. If our selection of astilbes doesn't quite give what you're looking for, give Leo Blanchette's a try. Leo and his family live in Carlisle, Massachusetts and they know a great deal about astilbes. Try Blanchette Gardens


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where winter trout season has begun and where George, the anemometer-less weatherman sits and predicts on a quiet, wind-free afternoon.

Gardening thoughts and wishes,

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com