Bright Smiling Faces

Monday, April 19, 2010

The sun is trying hard to get through the clouds this morning as a 3 mph wind chases water drops from all the flowers. Not much of a weekend for being outside but a good one for catching up on paperwork. I'm heading out in a minute to drop off my truck alternator for a rebuild at the Wild Auto Electric Shop in Barre. The shop has been there for a long time and if you need an alternator or generator rebuilt, this is the only place to go. My truck has 118,000 miles on it and I guess it's time to be better prepared for things to fall apart.

Saturday night, friends Harold and Leila Cross from Morrisville arrived for dinner. We are all crazy about flowers and both operate nurseries. Prior to their arrival, Gail was heading out to pick some daffodils for the table but I suggested she forget the decorative gesture and wait for Harold to bring her some. I decided I knew Harold better than Gail did as she headed out anyway to fill a vase for the table.

Along came Harold and Leila, right on time, and as I expected, Harold had a large bouquet of mixed daffodils. He has been collecting different varieties for a couple-three years now and he has a very nice collection started. Gail laughed when she accepted the gift and of course shared the story of my earlier recommendation. More laughs!

Forever people ask about the difference between daffodils and narcissus and a simple read for Narcissus on Wikipedia tells us that "daffodils" is the common name that we most often follow. I don't have a clue how many varieties are now available but as Harold's collection attests, there is plenty of color available to gardeners in their spring gardens.


Every plant has a plant society and daffodils are well represented by the American Daffodil Society. If you are interested in this bulb plant, take a look. Planting and growing instructions, bulb sources and a listserv are just some of the benefits of a membership.

I haven't mentally recorded the names of any of these daffodils although Harold remembers them very well. I don't even know how many varieties are recorded but I have seen hundreds available in different catalogs. If you're interested in a nice spring display like Harold and Leila have, do your research now and be sure to have your orders placed by late August for fall planting. Neither Harold and Leila nor Vermont Flower Farm sell the bulbs but we all have an interest in seeing bright smiling flower faces each April. Bet you will too! Here are a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the weatherman says 40 degrees and windy is about the best we'll do today.


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm: Taking web and phone orders for late May shipping
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Earth Day Thoughts 2010

The significance of Earth Day is something that everyone should be reminded of. A month or so back, Jan from the garden blog Thanks for Today sent out a request for Earth Day commentary from garden bloggers. She was offering a nice prize as incentive to participants. I mentioned the competition on this blog and fully intended to compete myself but getting our nursery ready is a challenge of sorts and until today I just couldn't get organized. The offer is closed now to afford time to review the submissions and render a decision but I can't forget the significance of Earth Day.

Late is sometime better than not at all so this morning I refreshed myself about Earth Day's origins. Here is a site with some background information dating from the days of President Kennedy. It's an interesting journey worth reading.

And here are some thoughts from yours truly, thinking and writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond. The pond's shoreline has concentrations of mercury as all Vermont ponds and lakes do. In contrast, peregrine falcons, once almost extinct due to DDT contamination, have returned to fly the skies here. A recent bald eagle restoration program is showing success and Vermont will no longer be the only continental US state without a resident eagle population. These are great gains for which we are proud. Here are my thoughts.

Earth Day 2010

I was standing in a line at a store the other day and two college students were horsing around. One called the other “Retard” and I cringed at the sound. These were above average young men attending a very good state university and yet some place along the line their parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends, religious leaders, teachers, and professors had never taught them respect. Having spent my entire career of over forty years in human services work and being a parent who wakes up every day to be greeted by a son on the autism spectrum, I am very sensitive to inappropriate language. We need to understand who we share our planet with and how very important we are to each other.

As I look back to grammar school days, autism is something that I just cannot remember. I know it existed but I cannot think of a single classmate who displayed any of the characteristics that are so clear to me now. Over my lifetime, the birth ratios of babies born with a diagnosis of autism have risen from 1 in 10,000 children to 1 in 100 or less. As more research is completed, the ratios become more frightening.

Autism has no known cause or cure but some of the current thinking involves environmental influence to women as they carry their unborn. This has not been confirmed but there are myriad examples of possible interactions that deserve consideration. Many of the food and beverages we use every day come packaged in plastics that are now known to impact on human endocrine systems. Water which we drink is purified by our state of art water processing plants but still contains chemicals that affect us. As example, purified waste water from many Vermont communities flows into rivers and eventually into Lake Champlain. The water is then retrieved, reprocessed and sent on to surrounding communities as drinking water. Measureable, significant quantities of antibiotics, mercury, poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and even caffeine are common in the reprocessed water and as yet cannot be removed.

Some of our homes are constructed with lumber, sheet rock and insulating materials that were manufactured with contaminated products including arsenic. Landfills have become repositories for all forms of waste including forbidden chemicals. Some landfills lack suitable protective liners and older landfills, long since buried, leach waste back into our environment.

Earth Day has to be “every day”. We need to retrain ourselves to take the extra step to properly handle all waste, conserve better, and always think of the implication of “out of sight, out of mind.” In my lifetime I’d like to see autism prevented. It’s possible. But we have to work at it every day. Start today by making Earth Day every day!

Berry Nice Thoughts

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Vermont holds springtime challenges and this morning is one of those days. It's 31 degrees and slight additional snow fell last night. The light wind makes it feel raw and quite the contrast to shorts and t-shirts of a week back. Even Karl the Wonder Dog, recovered from spring diet misfortunes, showed little interest in the walk I had in mind. Gail is out cleaning off the car and freeing the frozen wipers for a trip north to Jericho with Alex. I have plenty to do today but the fire in the Hearthstone sure feels good.

As the world begins to use the word "sustainability" more, gardeners begin to see the merit of interplanting their gardens and landscapes with fruits and vegetables. Naturally, berries are on the list. I got into this concept perhaps twenty years ago when it was first introduced and I try to spread the word each year. People often respond with weird looks when I mention picking blueberries from a bush inside a flower bed but some are accepting and many are coming around. We love all varieties of berries here on the mountain but feel the need for cautionary comments for the new breed of impatient gardeners.

Berries are a great food crop to integrate with existing gardens. Those that grow from larger canes or branches are the better way to begin because the plants are obvious by their size and gardeners get a quicker response to their efforts. This is where the cautionary part comes in.

Blueberries and gooseberries are usually available as potted plants although wholesalers often offer special deals in quantities of 25 or more. Cane types like raspberries and blackberries come potted or bare root and as bare root the purchase quantity is often either 10 or 25. Bare root means just that, the roots have no soil attached, are not potted and must be planted soon after their purchase. Once in a while wholesalers will offer mature blueberries as freshly dug balled and burlaped instead of planted. They do this when the plant is large as it makes handling and planting easier. But here's the catch. Berries take 2-7 years to become established enough to reward you with sufficient berries to do something with. And over that time, management of the plant is required.

Up top is an image of some canes of a purple raspberry at my friend Mike's house. This is a great raspberry with strong canes and heavy fruit production. The plants came from Elmore Roots Nursery, in Elmore, Vt three years ago. If you look carefully at the first image you'll notice some of the canes are different colors. The lighter canes are the older ones that are shedding some bark. Some pruning may be required but care is important and you must know the variety of berry before you start to prune. Some berries produce fruit on new growth and some on old growth so pruning old growth on the wrong variety will mean lots of new growth but no fruit. Be sure to ask your nurseryman to identify what varieties he is recommending so you get it right.

Blueberries do best in full sun and planted in an acid soil. Potted blueberries are often in the 15"-22" range which means they will require another couple years to begin producing and really about 5 years to provide a generous amount of fruit. Here in Vermont where winter snows can pile high in late November through December and then melt down during January thaws, I think it's best to stake new plants while they get established. By year five some pruning is needed.


If you look at the image just below here you see the difference between new and old growth. You'll get the best berries from old growth but you need a pruning sequence so all the branches don't age out at the same time. Just like an apple tree, I recommend a three year plan to get started meaning that each year you prune out the largest, oldest branches. The Internet has plenty of good reading on this and homesteading books abound with advice.

Once you get an established group of plants, you'll find your self picking berries and freezing them for year round use. Here's a picture of Mike's patch of mature blueberries. They produce well and are just approaching the point of needing some minor pruning.



Here in Vermont the University's Plant and Soil Science Division sponsors a Vegetable and Berry Grower page. It has plenty of links to about everything you need to know to take the first step towards berry production. Think berries and give them a try!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where thoughts of spring have turned to reminders of winter as snow pours from the sky and all berry bushes just sit still.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Wild Leeks: Spring Favorite

Thursday, April 15, 2010

A bright morning here on the mountain. Last night's temperature only dropped to 30 and already this morning we are at 52 degrees. Rain is predicted for the next three days so I have to get clicking. There is plenty to do, especially when the sun shines and a warm morning such as this one melts away arthritis pain.

Karl the Wonder Dog was sick all night, apparently the result of winter leftovers during private spring walks. Dogs have bad habits in spring and what smells good to them is not always good for their constitution. We always worry about Karl when he gets like this as there have been a couple bouts that came closer than we wanted to end-of-life than start-of-spring. I hope I have found the last place to clean up from last night but do think he's looking better. His trip outside was momentary this morning and back to bed he went. My walk was solo.

This week I have seen two bears, one out back of the house and one down the road a mile or so. Neither was a bruiser but both may have had companions I didn't see. Food is scarce for bears in spring and I have been told that they look for green vegetables such as wild leeks and false hellebores to purge their digestive system and gain some sustenance. I grow both of these plants in my lower hosta garden, more for critters than for us.

Wild leeks are some different than the farm bought, cultivated version pictured up top here. To me, there's nothing like a pot of potato-leek soup made with fresh chicken stock and farm fresh cream and for most, that is the way to go. Some collectors, perhaps those who still carry a copy of Euell Gibbons twenty year old Stalking the Wild Asparagus in their back pocket, prefer wild leeks.

Here in Marshfield, Vermont wild leeks are prevalent along the Winooski River, actually named Onion River by aboriginal Vermonters. Almost any walk along the banks of the river kicks off ones olfactory system as unnoticed crushed leaves quickly offer an intense onion smell and cause the "what did I step on?" alarm to go off. The riverbanks contain more than just wild leeks and a really good read about the river is In The Land Of the Wild Onion, by Dummerston, Vermont native, Charles Fish.

Wild leeks are easy to spot this time of year as they occupy matted colonies that are obvious standouts on the forest floor. Gail and friend Diana passed through Northfield Gulf last week and the colonies were obvious. I was at Shelburne Pond a week ago and not only around the pond but all along Pond and also Falls Roads I found giant patches.

Wild leeks are strong in aroma and flavor and even when they are sliced and dehydrated for later use, they retain such strength. They don't get a lot bigger than what you see pictured here but they colonize so well that digging them is easy.

The roots are quite shallow and the plants do best where the rich woods soil retains moisture. By August the tops are gone and the seed scapes are all that remain above ground. Tiny black seeds drop to the ground over winter and expand the colony.

If you're out and about, use care this time of year as the forests are fragile and even a few footsteps can muddy waters and kill special plants. Often people do damage without knowing it which is why trails are closed this time of year. That's not to forbid spring walks but instead a reminder to show respect.

I better show respect for the clock and get going here. We have a delivery arriving at nine and it's getting close.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where pulmonarias are showing nice color, bleeding hearts are 6" tall and two partridge are drumming. Their brief thunder is a mysterious joy to the ears of spring. Come listen!


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm Our retail, wholesale, mail order business now accepting orders for May deliveries
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Where I Get Eggs

Monday, April 12, 2010

An on-again, off-again day here in Marshfield today. The morning started out cold and held that way for some time. I had plans to be at the nursery early for garden work but 30 degrees and a slight wind suggested an additional hour on the computer and phone and then an hour in the woods cutting out the old woods road that was littered with trees and branches from this winter. By the time I returned to the house it was good to smell fresh coffee and hear the wood stove crackling.

I stopped down by neighbor Mike's to get some pictures of his raspberries and blueberries for a blog piece I had in mind. But then I got hung up with the chickens as I often do and before I knew it, another hour had come and passed. I don't know where you get your eggs but as long as these girls at Mike's keep laying, this is the place I'm going.

Each spring when farm stores get in boxes full of chicks, I get this notion that I need a chicken house again and a bunch of chickens. And then I do a quick cost analysis and after figuring out all the things I need but don't have and the time I would spend, I always come back to a different way to come up with fresh eggs. But I never like the conclusion because there is something about chickens and eggs and the color of a couple yolks in a fry pan or the taste of the cooked product. There's something special about a favorite hen pecking at your shoe lace or looking for a private handout. This year I have come the closest to building a chicken coop and it's not over yet. I weaken every time I look at Mike's girls.

Mike reminds me of many people around here with a dozen or so chickens of mixed breeds. I'm not sure how Mike put this collection together but they are a good mix and they produce well. Each has a name and although I wouldn't know a Frieda from a Helen, they all seem nice to me. When you go to the store to buy chicks, you have a choice of sexed and unsexed. This has to be the job of all times--checking the sex on chicks so customers don't get a box of 24 chicks, 15 of which grow up to be roosters. I'm glad I am leaving the world of work so I don't have to consider chicken sexing as a life long profession.

It's good to get a mix as the chickens mature at different times and they lay for different lengths of time and some start laying sooner than others. Often they don't start laying before some would-be home chicken farmers want to give up and pursue something else. Patience is a virtue will chickens and good deals can be had for those who have patience and a couple bucks to buy out those who lack chicken patience. I am reading the classifieds every day now and expect I might hit it big before Memorial Day.


Before I knew it I was cooking up some fresh cod for dinner and the chicken experience was far behind me. It turned out to be a busy afternoon after the great chicken visits and the sun finally warmed the air enough that I could take off a layer of clothes and not feel chilled. I did get some pictures of raspberries and blueberries and I'll get back to that blog tomorrow. In the meantime, think of flowers you might need this year from Vermont Flower Farm and ask yourself where your eggs come from. If you don't know the answer to the egg question, I suggest you might find your own neighbor. If you need flowers, come see Gail.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun is long gone and the temperature is dropping. Peas and lettuce aren't up yet--maybe next week.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
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Supply Chain Helpers

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Quiet here on the mountain after heavy rains last night. Temperature fluctuation has kept me from putting out the rain gauge but it all started about 8:30 when Alex and I returned from a meeting of the Marshfield Historical Society last night At midnight it was still going strong which explains why the birds and animals haven't started moving about.

Retirement is going well. I am working harder than I did a week ago but I am enjoying every bit of it. Gail isn't used to me being around and Alex isn't sure he likes additional assignments and little "hey, can you help me on this?" requests. In time it will work out. Karl the Wonder Dog seems to enjoy me more than anyone but dogs are that way. He receives more trips in the truck, places to go, things to bark at. It's fun!

Yesterday the truck arrived from Montpelier with our potting mix. Although we won't start potting perennials for another couple weeks, our nursery is laid out in a way that certain deliveries have to be accepted and placed just so. We have to be able to get the trucks backed right to where we want to use different products to minimize labor and speed up the planting process for me and Gail and our helpers. So far it is working well.

This year I switched to a different brand mix. These mixes are all a high percentage of peat that is saturated with a wetting agent to hold water in the mix. Then there's perlite and some minor fertilizers. We mix the commercial mix with straight garden soil and then some of the Fafard mix I showed earlier. This is not the mix I would like to make for myself but lacking space for staging all the materials and the labor of mixing everything with the tractor, this is a fine way for a small business to go.

Yesterday we received 100 3.6 cubic foot bales. The driver only had a hand truck and without a pallet jack to lift 24 bales at a time, the job wasn't what I expected--but the price was still right! I had unloaded about 6 bales when my friend Mike appeared, munching on a breakfast sandwich and appearing like a knight, save for overalls and a Jack Russell sidekick named Rusty. Mike is the kind of neighbor who does not need an invitation to work. Two bites of his sandwich and the jacket came off and the bales started moving. That's just how Mike is and I know it will always be like that. We unloaded the truck, I paid the driver and the morning kicked off in high gear.

Mike's dog, Rusty is the best trained Jack Russell I have ever seen. The dog shakes with excitement when he appears at the nursery, a place he visits at least once a week. Jack Russell's are hunters and Rusty is no exception. He hunts for red voles and mice among the pots and he loves his title of Chief of Woodchuck Eradication. This time of year it takes him a little longer to get cranked up in the morning because the woodchucks and other critters have new holes, new entrances and Rusty has to reprogram himself for a morning tour. I often feel guilty seeing a pristine, freshly washed dog come out of hole with a mouth full of dirt and earth tone hair but that's the nature of the breed. This one is a joy he watch although I have to admit that for me it's more fun watching him bounce a ball or balloon in the air or race through a crowd of chickens pushing his ball with his nose.

Rusty is a very obedient dog and as our work finished. Mike called Rusty and put him up on a stack of potting mix. He loved the attention and had a good day. All businesses should be as lucky to have such a well behavior dog as Rusty.


Gail has another pot of coffee ready and it's time to pack up for a day at the nursery. I have tons of chores to do but like an early start on the spring days when the temperature is already 45 degrees. If you are out and about, stop by the nursery and interrupt me for a while. I need to be able to stop and stretch and chat once in a while.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the loons are talking over breakfast dives for small fish.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Lily Thoughts

Monday, April 5, 2010

Gray sky and 32 degrees this morning here on the mountain. Some different than yesterdays 60 degree start and 73 degree finish. Gail and I were rolling up plastic just after noon and the wind gusts were so strong that the two of us could hardly control the 60 foot pieces. Today is a different day and it will be colder as the next three days have promised some rain.

This weekend was beautiful but the hot weather warmed the soil quicker than I thought and I have already received reports of the first hatch of the lily leaf beetle. If you like lilium you have to get control of this beetle early in the season. Even then they might fly in and start a new generation of trouble.




I have written about the beetle on this blog and also on my disbanded Vermont Gardens. In the search bar in the upper left of the main blog pages just type in lily leaf beetle and you will get all the scoop. You can also Google lily leaf beetle for plenty of results. Many other gardeners are writing too and I do hope someone will come up with an organic solution that helps us out. Please, oh, please try to avoid Imidachloprid--we are already having enough trouble with loss of honey bees.







Hope these pictures help with your identification. The pictures of the beetle as an adult and as larva almost ready to bury in. They are difficult to confuse with other insects. Hand picking is not easy as they drop to the ground at the sight of an approaching hand and in nano seconds become invisible. Good luck!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun is getting stronger like the voices of the tom turkeys.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Vermont Sunday Morn!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

A bright morning here on the hill. An Easter Sunday morning for some. The wind is coming up in companionship with the rising sun and the already 60 degree temperature is a surprise. Things may be different by nightfall as rain is predicted.

Karl the Wonder Dog was up at 3 barking at an unknown and Gail took him out after putting on her night time courage. The bears are active now looking for a nice meal and although Gail has no fear of bears, Karl could probably cause an unneeded confrontation if any bears were close by the house. The long and short of this is when it was time for our morning walk, Karl was deep in sleep. He opened one eye enough to confirm he had no interest in walking with me but I am sure that will change about the time I load the truck and head out.

I walked through the red pines this morning. The ground is now littered with freshly dropped cones. Gail has already been into the forest for big spruce cones and we'll gather up some crates and go pick up some of these. People have a habit of thinking about cones a month or so before Christmas but if you want easy picking of nice, clean cones, springtime is the right time. The leftovers from last year make great fire starters for the wood stove and the big Norway spruce cones, rolled in peanut butter and then bird seed make instant bird feeders to hang around outside the house as a magnet to chickadees and nut hatches. Probably seems strange that I speak of a season that is just passing but this is the time to gather cones.

Snow drops are a nice spring flowers. The are easy to plant, multiply well and kids like to pick little bouquets to give to grandmothers and the lady next door. These are growing near the compost pile where they probably dropped after a spring clean up. If you decide to plant any next fall, buy at least a hundred little bulbs and plant them in groups of 10-12. The reward will make you smile.
The image up top is one you have seen before. It was an Easter Lily bulb I bought at the store. It came complete with a red ant. The Easter lilies as we know them are not the lilies of the Bible but they are a beautiful flower. Growers start them almost 90 days in advance of the holiday sales period, control light and spray with growth regulators to try to match a holiday that changes celebratory dates each year. If you plant your spent bulb in the garden, it might well bloom next year but not at Easter. These bulbs typically bloom in August here but once they rejuvenate, they will bloom again. Try it!


Writing from the mountain where male turkeys and partridges are performing rites of spring and providing free entertainment for morning hikers.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens

Spring Clean Up

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Another beautiful morning here on the mountain. 43 degrees and windless as the sun climbs above Peacham Pond. Karl the Wonder Dog and I just returned from our morning walk which was uneventful compared to yesterday's greeting by a young bull moose--a moose absent of a GPS for direction and running full tilt and perfectly lined up to run straight through the fence by the hosta garden. Karl's protective barking and my coarse expletives did the trick.

I'm heading back to the nursery in a few minutes. 70 degree weather is nice and I can get a lot more accomplished when I'm not freezing but fact is that snow could still return and the warmness I will enjoy again today could be gone by tomorrow as rain sets in again and perhaps even some snow above 1500 feet. Just the same, today will be great!

Deliveries are arriving and this pile of Fafard brand No 52 mix is just one of the piles of material necessary to make a nursery work. This is the best mix I have ever found for planting hostas and daylilies. It is a coarse mix that provides excellent oxygen at root level and hostas really excel.

We have purchased three shade houses over the years including a 20 X 30, a 20 X 60 and a 30 X 60. We really need another 30 X 60--maybe next year. All were purchased from
Rimol Greenhouse Systems in Hooksett, NH. If you live in the east, I can recommend no other company. Here's what they look like before we install the shade cloth on top. That's a job I usually do myself in May with a couple ladders and a lot of "ups-and-downs".



The white cloth in the pictures is an insulating blanket we found several years ago. It is about 3/8"s inch thick and the spun fiber composition keeps the plants warm. It allows us to mass the potted plants together in the fall, cover with the fabric and then cover it all with a sheet of construction grade black plastic and tires to hold everything in place. Yes, it is a lot of work but there is no mortality save from a few mice/vole losses.

As I finish cleaning up around the building this morning it's back to the daylily fields. After three years, I still pick stones moved forward by the frost movement. Also have to take out weeds and get ready for spring tilling. Today I will move along slowly as I begin to exercise old muscles. Gardening is good!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I heard my first of the season male partridge drumming this morning. I like the sound.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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Foamflowers and Spring Thoughts

Friday, April 2, 2010

Another beautiful day here on the mountain. 38 degrees, 98 % humidity and a sun rising above the fir balsams that stand between here and Peacham Pond. It will be another great day with a prediction of 80 degrees by early afternoon.

Today is the second day of my retirement from over 40 years of government work. I like it and apparently I am having no trouble hiding my enthusiasm for cutting the ties with old habits. My work ethic is strong so I will continue to rise early and get more accomplished by noon than many do in a day or two. That 's just the way it is. Yesterday I started things right and followed advice from my friend, Gail from Peacham. She advised to have fun every day, work deliberately if I must, but work slowly as there is plenty of time. I am following her advice. I told friends who stopped by the nursery that I had trouble on my first day picking the color of a shirt to wear and which boots would feel best in retirement. It wasn't really that extreme but I did sit for just a minute with a cup of coffee looking at two ducks on the trout pond and thinking that this will be fun for me and Gail and Alex.

I was in the middle of talking the plastic off the perennials when a visitor pulled into the drive at the nursery yesterday. Visitors are always nice in early season before we open as it breaks the chores and gives a chance to talk for a minute. The woman had just come down from the Lanesboro Road up above Depot Street. She had stopped to enjoy the rushing waters of Vermont's longest waterfall and had driven as far as Marshfield Pond. I have yet to make that trip this spring but she said the road wasn't too bad. She was driving an Audi so that suggested the pick-up truck will be fine. We talked for a bit about amphibian migration around that pond and then she left, promising to return when the flowers were up and we were open for business. It was a very nice conversation.

It's too early now but along that very road my visitor had travelled grow beautiful patches of foamflower which will begin to leaf out with today's warm weather. The patches of white flowers will become really obvious by mid May and will be a harbinger to tiny dwarf ginseng, trilliums, trout lilies, false Solomon seal and finally the various wild orchids that brighten the forests come the end of May.

I like the hybridizing work that has been done with tiarellas. I often refer to Dan Heim's valuable resource book, Heucheras and Heucherellas : Coral Bells and Foamy Bells as it offers a pictorial evolution from tiarellas to the myriad of colorful garden beauties we have today. Actually since that book was written there are dozens of new varieties of heuchera out there.

Years back Gail and I offered a nice little assortment of tiarellas which did so well in the lower shade garden perimeters. We have promised to work back into those now when our new shade garden is finished by the end of this season. Spring Symphony, pictured up above, is a great plant and I personally love to see it full of unopened scapes the day before they pop.

Iron Butterfly is very nice and Cygnet is another I like. Both names are kind of neat too!

The tiarellas, wild or hybridized, work well with all the heucheras but I add a caution here to keep the heucheras headed towards sun and keep their feet more dry than most descriptions might advise. The center core of these plants needs air to do best and the difference between planting in deep shade and on woodland perimeters is quickly obvious. Do not disappoint yourself as the heavy snows of Vermont winters slow the beauty of this plant when really just a little more spring sun leads to a jump start on a bigger plant and almost no losses at all.


I lined the rock walkway leading down to the lower garden with tiarellas, epimediums, pulmonarias, and the Solomon's seals including the little Polygonatum humile from Korea and Japan. Small and miniature hostas are added here and there and up top there are a few different painted ferns. Of all these flowers, the tiarellas in bloom really do make you pause.

Well, the sun is up, and fun beckons. I have a friend's birthday party today at 1:30. I'm liking retirement. I love gardening!


Writing from the mountain where I can hear tom turkey's in the lower field. Yesterday a flock of 11 scooted by. It may be a bigger flock today. Have to check!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
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In the garden at 2263 US Route 2 Marshfield as "retired me"