Cool Hostas, Warm Climates

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Almost 10 am here on the mountain and everyone seems to making progress on the day but me. It was a cold start at 7 degrees and Karl and I had a tough time wanting to head out for a walk and then down to the village for a newspaper. Mike, a neighbor down the road a bit, was feeding a friend's beef cattle so we stopped to talk. He was pounding away at the watering trough helping the aerator/heater open up so the cows could drink. Mike is one of those local guys who will help anyone, anytime. Vermont still has a number of those people and it's sure nice to know there's someone close by when you need three hands but only have two.

I got home and filled the bird feeders early as there's a big storm coming and all wildlife know it. In anticipation, they are eating as if they'll be too busy tomorrow dodging sleet and freezing rain. This morning I was again reminded of the pecking order at the feeders. The blue jays are top dog until a flock of grosbeaks come and then they are intimidated. A large red squirrel will scare the grosbeaks but not the blue jays and a shrike, just a nasty robin-sized bird that reminds me of a mini harrier jet will scare all birds and small critters away.

Last Saturday I wrote about "Hosta Vision" and described the planning process for what will be a large shade garden at out new nursery. Susan Tomlinson, author of the blog, The Bicycle Garden commented that hostas do not grow in Texas where she lives. The comment made me think about a web order we received for hostas last year from San Diego, California. As soon as I saw the order come through I wrote the person and said that I like orders but I also like people to be happy with what we send. Basically I was doubting the purchase but I guess I said I'd do whatever the customer wanted. In short order I learned that this gardener had been studying hostas that can accept a warmer climate and he had several long term successes. He referred me to an article I'll share with you in hopes that maybe "Cool Hostas, Warm Climates" will work for you too.

Tony Avent owns and operates Plant Delights Nursery, Inc. in Raleigh, NC. He has a super nursery and a fine offering that will keep you going back again and again. He's also a great author and published one of my favorite reference books, So You Want To Start A Nursery, published by Timber Press. A couple years back Tony wrote an article entitled Hostas For Warm Climates which is available on his site at

http://plantdelights.com/Tony/warmhosta.php

If you question whether you can grow hostas where you live, read Tony's article and go from there. In the meantime, think about how nice a hosta garden can look and let us know if you have any questions.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I was just reminded there are things that have to be done today.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm

Turkey Irony

Saturday, November 29, 2008

For some reason, sleep left me an hour ago and I am wide awake and ready for a new day even though the balance of the house is deep in slumber. Aging has a way of changing clocks and mine feels like its still flickering after a brief power outage. Maybe one more cup of coffee will reset things and prepare me for the day's events.

It's still clean up time here on the mountain. Austin is home from the University of Vermont for the weekend and he came up yesterday to help with some clean up. Gail is immensely relieved because he has committed to working for us again this summer which means she has her same crew back again. For Gail, that's monumental relief. It is for me too as people who can show up for work on time, handle customers and wear a smile are invaluable. They give me the opportunity to move along with my projects and come closer to the goals I have set for the new nursery.

Michelle will be back with us too. In the other work world, she is a super teacher and directs some education programs for some very special people in this county. She is one of those people you can trust with everything you own and not have to give a thought about the outcome. It's always timely and correct. I'm foggy this morning but I think this is year five that she will be working with us.

Besides these two, we have dependable part time, fill-in, come-when-we-call, spring planters--that kind of mix of interested gardeners who have been with us for years. Managing a business with a good crew makes tiring days shorter and smiles frequent! Austin will be back this morning and we'll try to get a few more things ticked off the list before the sun sets.

Thanksgiving is now two days past and the turkey in the fridge has almost been reduced to bones and pieces for soup. Yesterday morning as I was sitting here, Gail advised me to look out the window under the bird feeder. I was engrossed in Dreamweaver and a new website I am working on but under the feeder were five wild turkeys pecking corn the ungrateful blue jays had scattered about. There was an old hen and four kids from this spring. It certainly was ironic that they had absented themselves from the fields for a week and now that Thanksgiving is over, they're back.

The big hen reminded me of a show on public radio on Wednesday. Every year they have a call-in show where people with less than a clue about certain culinary processes call and ask things like "Why can't I get the stuffing in?" "What's that package I found in the bird?" "Why is my mother's gravy good and mine would be better to hang wall paper with?" "How can I cook everything in an oven that's too small?"

Wednesday I was impressed with the lady who called to report a neighbor had given her family a 42 pound turkey he had raised. It was so big she didn't have a pan or an oven to cook it in and her husband was on the verge of breaking out the chain saw to cut it down to size. The turkey pro said she was on the right path and since turkey parts---legs, breast, stuffing-- all cook at different times, it would be best to break the bird down into pieces and go from there. One suggestion I am quite uncertain about was his recommendation to try cooking it outside on the BBQ. I guess there are those people in the world that like to give and accept challenges and perhaps someone will give that a shot although my BBQ wouldn't hold that big a bird either. Our turkey was 17 pounds and just the right size.

I just heard Karl the Wonder Dog hit the hardwood floor. That means that in a minute he'll be bringing in a wagging tail and a plea for a morning walk. It's 28 degrees this morning and overcast as we have a big storm coming in for tomorrow. I always enjoy morning walks with Karl but have to say I miss the enjoyment of July wildflowers such as the Lilium canadense (top) or seeing ducks and geese raising new families on nearby Marshfield Pond. Those things are on hold until spring but the memories always stay here. Try to get out for a walk today and enjoy the balance of the fall season.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I do hope your amaryllis bulbs are doing better than mine. For me, no more of those prepotted or kit affairs. I'm going back to the wholesalers who sell big bulbs that only cost a couple bucks more and bloom strong and big!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm

Hosta Vision

Saturday, November 22, 2008

A dark, blustery morning here on the mountain. A sliver of moon struggles through the snow squalls to let us know it's up there. The ground is white from last night's snow and Karl the Wonder Dog makes it clear that this is not a morning to be sniffing around. I concur even though all I do is hold the leash.

The confines of the house with a cup of coffee and a screen full of summer pictures provides reminder to what kind of summer it was. I have been reviewing pictures of our hosta gardens here at the house in preparation for mapping out the new shade garden I pictured Tuesday as I wrote "Floating Snow Flakes". It's difficult for some folks to construct something this big in their mind or even on paper but for me it's a matter of how I want people to flow through the garden .........and from there everything falls into place.

When I planted the foundation garden here on Peacham Pond Road, I was learning about hostas. I had patience, and frankly in 2001, there were few big hosta gardens in Vermont and almost no place that was publicized to go see 200-300-400 different hostas at one location. The interest has grown rapidly since but back then it required quite a bit of salesmanship to convince people there were more than the 6-8 hostas they had grown accustomed to seeing at nurseries and garden centers.

As I started planting, I had yet to develop a sense of the mature size of the hostas I was planting. This small-medium-large thing was confusing at best and I had not learned that some hostas are slower than death to grow while others delight the gardener with good growth. The old barn foundation I was planting literally had tons of rocks to plant around but lacking the vision of true size, I over-planted most areas so that after a couple years the rocks were completely covered over by June.

Granite is in abundance in this part of Vermont and within a garden it becomes soft as its uneven edges break the complexity of masses of hosta leaves. Stone requires some mechanical assistance to move in quantity but once in place, it changes the landscape so quickly that you're immediately gratified regardless of the price.

Here's a comparative example. Last September we laid out the stones for what is to become our daylily display garden. We will follow this same lesson plan on the hosta/shade garden. Our friend Brien Ducharme took the cherry picker on his logging truck and placed stones to form the skeleton of a fine garden. All last winter people drove by asking themselves who would bring in stones in a part of Vermont already covered with more than its share. The land looked just as you see it in this picture of a year ago because the building hadn't been started. We knew it would become a great garden but some doubted our sanity--actually at that point, few knew whose sanity they were questioning because they didn't know we were moving.


We prepared the land with an herbicide, rototilled several times and then began planting. Slowly we incorporated trees and shurbs and a couple hundred daylilies. Today the garden is only half planted, maybe a little less, but it represents the same plan we'll follow on the new shade garden.



The ground is frozen hard now and nothing but planning can take place over the winter. That's fine as we need time for mental work and some relaxation from the heavy stuff. If you have a new garden in mind, follow suit and you'll be pleased with the eventual outcome. Keep an eye on our gardens and share your questions and comments. Good gardeners grow with each others ideas and cares!


Writing fromthe mountain above Peacham Pond where the morning temperature is down to nine degrees and the young blue jays are noticeably less fluffed up with protective feathers than their parents, aunts and uncles.

Good Gardening Wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm

Floating Snow Flakes

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

A quiet morning here on the mountain. Last night's bright moon turned into this morning's cloud cover, as 19 degrees in temperature and floating snow flakes greeted us. The cold is supposed to continue for several days so anything involving the soil will soon end here.

Gail and I have worked very hard for the past couple years making the move to our new nursery. It is not easy for a couple people to quickly recreate what they spent 20 years building but we are making good progress. Being able to look back at where we were and where we are going is rewarding for sure.

These first three pictures (top down) start with the getting the land surveyed and then mapping out what will become a new shade garden and pond. We cleared the land and then began scraping off the top growth and rototilling it. From a mess of weeds and vines and alders we have the basis of a good shade garden.

You don't count hours when you make gardens like this. They are too big and take a long time. You strive for the vision you have and work until you come close to that. As we end our first full season, here are some pictures of what will become our new shade garden.

The soil is stone free, alluvial soil in need of organic matter but fundamentally good for hostas and the companions we will plant here with them. The vision includes clumps of every hosta we sell so once again visitors can get an accurate measure of the mature size of the hosta they think they are interested in. A series of paths will meander through the plain and swaths of 25's, 50's and 100's of certain hosta will create a depth. Our hope it that in time this garden will be visible from Route 2; and from the top of the main sales area it will lure folks down a set of wide stone steps to a place of tranquility. It's all workable, bearing time for the gardener, and for the plants to mature. Part of our vision is the entrance to our shade garden here on the mountain. There's nothing like the structure of hostas such as Elegans, On Stage, Ryan's Big One, Sunpower, Yellow River, August Moon, Jimmy Crack Corn, Tall Boy, Super Nova, Sea Fire, Revolution, and Birchwood Parky's Gold to motion a gardener down for a look-see. We bet it will work!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where today's chores include repairing the bear damaged platform feeder outside my window and getting it set up again. Bird feeding time here does not start until Thanksgiving Day, a day when we expect the bears have begun hibernation. "Expect" sometimes results in unexpected problems. We hope not!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm An old but good website from which to obtain good gardening ideas and information on purchasing a gift certificate for a gardener you know. Support agriculture this year and help us keep things green!

Looking Back

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

3:30 AM and Karl has gone back to bed but the rest of us are in various states of diminished slumber and are a bit grouchy. The moon is bright outside, the temperature 27 degrees and the wildlife is apparently in abundance, having a late dinner/early breakfast that is stirring adrenaline in Karl the Wonder Dog. In today's world it's nice to have a watch dog that really "watches" but it's also nice to be able to sleep. I've toured both sides of the house looking for large animals, deer, moose, coyotes or bear but all I see is the brightness of the moon.

November is well upon us and with it is the rain and snow we expect in Vermont. After a very cold start which put ice on every pond, the temperature rose for a week and good gardeners reveled in the opportunity to push the fall clean up a little further, plant a few more bulbs, transplant a few more perennials. For us that was a chance to continue on at the nursery, preparing more areas for next season.

Six new daylily beds have been prepared and two were planted in October. The remaining three have been well rototilled and spread with calcium sulphate to break down the clay. The new shade garden has been prepared as far as I can work it for this fall and now we're bringing in rocks to make another daylily display garden parallel to the parking area. We're also laying out the bones of a sedum garden close to the check out area where we can keep an eye on plants we're just learning about.

At the nursery all the pots have been lined up and are ready to be covered for the winter. If the weather holds today and Gail gets some help as expected, the day will end with the final project finished for the season.

Once the pots are lined up in rows ten feet wide and "however" long, we randomly lay out 2" PVC pipe cut to 2 foot lengths and filled with a cup of D-con mouse and vole control. We use the granular variety not the blocks so that the pieces don't get carried around and dropped where dogs or kids might find them come spring. Rodent control is a big importance in a nursery because one winter's damage can be devastating and very costly. Rodents always go after the most expensive, most difficult to propagate or obtain perennials. For some reason the red vole population is excessive this year and I may have to revisit the pipes mid-winter to better deal with a rodent that does not hibernate.

With the pipes in place, we roll out white insulated fabric as the first measure to protecting our potted plants. You have to remember that water and the freeze-thaw process we experience in January in Vermont are the two threats to potted plants. If you can keep the pots frozen and dry, they will defrost come spring and grow on in good health.

Years back before the insulating blankets were available, we placed all the pots on their sides and covered them with leaves, then construction grade 6 mil plastic. This worked well and is still an option if you cannot find the insulating blankets where you live or don't want to purchase a 100 foot roll. That's generally the minimum commercial size. This is a spun fiber blanket 3/8" thick and 12 feet wide. It has a life of five years but if you keep it modestly clean at the end of the season and roll it up, store it out of the sun, and cover it from the weather, it will probably last twice that long. It's artificial and probably some petroleum by-product, one step away from polar fleece. Once that's rolled out, we cover it with 6 mil plastic weighted down by old tires. As long as you tuck in the sides and corners so wind can't get in, you'll be successful in "wintering over" your plants.

Keep this freeze-thaw-water conversation in mind if you attempt to over winter any potted plants outside. If you have any large containers, especially decorative ones, be sure to cover them well so they don't freeze and split. Your loss could be bigger than the plants if you don't remember this. Gail has a couple large antique urns in her collection and we empty them completely each year as we have no trust at all for Mother Nature when dealing with something which cannot be replaced.

By now you're probably wondering why the picture at the top of hostas in a foggy garden setting when in fact the ground is covered with snow outside and I've already said the temperature is "cold". The picture is our hosta garden here at the house. It was taken in June when the hostas looked great just after a rain storm. I simply want to mention that this winter I want to explain a little more about hostas and give some examples of what I have done with them in our gardens at the house. Our other blog, Vermont Gardens, will parallel this writing with a presentation on the new shade garden we are creating. Lots going on, mentally and physically at Vermont Flower Farm!

As we look back on this summer, we can only admire the work we accomplished and the new friends we made. Right this minute, I'm looking back on slumber.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where it's quiet...that's nice!

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm

Winter and Winterberry

Sunday, November 2, 2008

A crisp morning here on the mountain. The crows are noisy and their message is confusing. I think perhaps they are calling friends to a breakfast at the compost pile. It is amazing how far into the woods I find food scraps that they drop. This morning's offering is a few egg shells and a bowl of apple parings from last night's Apple Crisp. That's a fall delight for sure and anything goes well with the "crisp" bite of the fall air.

There has been "sleeping trouble" here at Vermont Flower Farm of late and last night made three nights in a row that Karl the Wonder Dog sounded his animal security barks at a time when I really wanted to be dreaming. It wasn't the three bears this time. I woke at about 12:30 to the sound of deer hooves walking up or down the path from the drive to the house. At that time of night (morning), it sounded like the Budweiser Clydesdales on a paved road.

Eighteen years ago I built a wooden walkway of pressure treated decking boards and although it has lasted well, I'd never do it again. I had seen several configurations in garden magazines at the time and they looked very nice, landscaped right to the edge. A chop saw made cutting angles easy and articles suggested ways to add a serpentine look without too much carpentry skill. I thought there was some merit in the ease of construction and future care. The downside, I find, is that over time the walks develop a slippery coating of algae and moss that creates a challenge that aging ankles and legs don't need in the winter. Last year I took three headers, each time landing in either the lilac bush or the Alberta Spruce. Strange safety nets that worked!

The noise of the deer woke Karl from the front room and in nanoseconds he was at our bed shouting barks of "Go-Away, Go-Away" that took a while to register with the deer. By then we were wide awake again, hoping that slumber would return. There is a price for any good security system!

As fall weather brings it's first snow, I always make a ride to the same place where I have cultivated a nice stand of winterberry. If my timing is right and I haven't allowed too many 15 degree nights to get ahead of me, I pick a nice bucket full of winterberry for the house. This is the native variety found along Vermont streams, ponds or in bogs. It grows to 9 feet tall and in good years offers a profusion of berries. The key is to getting to them early. Successive cold nights eventually wear down the anti freeze in the berries and when you bring branches inside, the temperature change turns them mushy in a week. If you plan it right, you have a nice display through Thanksgiving. There are several hybrids on the market now and other than needing a companion variety to set berries, they are a nice addition. Color through the fall and another seed crop for birds and small creatures.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where a large flock of Canada Geese is moving overhead. The sky is clear, the air pressure high and the geese are at several thousand feet but there are so many, their voices are clear even here inside the house.


With kind fall wishes,

George Africa
The (sleepy) Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermont Flower Farm