Changing Names, Changing Seasons

It's quiet here at Vermont Flower Farm tonight. Gail is away for a while this evening. She is helping a distant, senior relative find a new place to live. She is a saint and everyone knows it! Alex is buried in a book on the history of rum. It is part of his self imposed desire to learn the history and makings of all forms of alcoholic beverages (???) and today he started with kill-devil, an early rum. He'll have a way to go before he reaches the part in history about our friend, Harold Cross, and his daylily wine concoction. Harold and Leila are coming for dinner Friday night and I'll have to poke Alex a little to get Harold going on his brew story.

It started out wet and foggy this morning but by late afternoon it was a typical fall day, except that it's not fall yet. Right now the setting sun has left a band of pink above the treeline and the leaves of the tall poplar trees flutter softly in the pink whispers of light. It will be gone before I can load the camera again but it is a nice memory.

Tonight was a fine time to take pictures. The air was dropping below 50 degrees and there was about 25 minutes when the light was perfect. That's the trouble with this time of year. The evenings go quickly from setting sun to darkness. At these times I want to keep heading back out the door to work the gardens but it's dark and I can't. I can't, but some do. Harold and Leila have headlamps they use to keep up with their fine collection of daylilies. I guess if I ever exceed a couple thousand varieties like they do, I'll consider a headlamp. Considerations are the same as "just thinking abouts" to me.

This time of year I really enjoy a couple plants. I like the cimicifugas and the ligularias. As far as I am concerned these two plants have succumbed to identity theft as the plant i.d. police have elected to change their names just when I can spell "l-i-g-u-l-a-r-i-a" and pronounce "cimicifuga". It's good for the botany nomenclature crew that they can correct the identification and change the name but for my being as a plantsman, it just complicates things. I can't even figure out if I should tell visitors and customers. Maybe it's better not to start trouble and wait to be corrected by that "one-out-of-ten-thousand" visitor who knows plants better than I ever will. I like that idea better.

The cimicifugas have been popular with gardeners this year. Gail offered six different varieties for sale and the supply is noticeably limited. Since they are just coming into bloom with their creamy white or pink bottle brush flowers, it's likely they will all sell out this year. I especially like the darker leaved varieties such as Hillside Black Beauty or Brunette or Pink Spike but I have to say that the 10 foot tall clump of atropurpurea is a sight that makes you gasp for air when you first see it.

Some of the ligularias have already flowered and gone to seed but Desdemona, Othello and Hessei are heavy with flower. I don't know what happened to Siberica this year but it's not looking all that healthy. My guess is the January thaw lasted too long and it suffered too much freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw as many plants did. The ligularia with the beautiful lemon spots finally passed on but that was a beauty while it lived. Maybe that was one that was renamed--can't remember, but since it was zoned at number 7, I don't feel badly that it only lasted three years here without any special handling.

If you don't have any cimicufugas or ligularias in your gardens yet, read up on them and see if they will fit into your gardens. Both lend a significant architectural quality and a strength that other gardeners will comment on. We like them both--no matter what their new names are.


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the quick darkness has even quieted the loons.

Gardening wishes,

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com