INVASIVE INSECT ALERT!

Climate change has brought a number of new insects to Vermont. Read about the latest which is attacking the few elm trees that remain here. In the past ten years we have had to deal with the Emerald Ash Borer, the Pine Borer originally from Montana, the Eastern Tamarack Beetle, and now the Spotted Lantern Fly is in southern New Hampshire so probably here in Vermont too. Things are not looking good for our forests.

Read on.

https://vtdigger.org/2023/08/15/invasive-insect-found-zigzagging-on-vermont-elm-trees\

 

GARDENING UNDER WATER

If you have been watching the news you might well have seen what has happened in your favorite Vermont during the past couple weeks. The rain turned on and never turned off and as a result the worst flooding since the 1920's has devasted many places in Vermont. We have been through the 2011 floods--two in May of that year that brought +10 feet of water over our propagation fields, display lilacs and hydrangeas, and over our entire hosta display garden. Then in August of the same year, Tropical Storm Irene did it to us all over again. That was nothing like what we have just been through.

Take a look at this link from VTdigger, one of Vermont's premier news resources. Check out our Facebook pages too. Not pretty, but we are rebuilding where necessary. All our potted plants grown for retail and wholesale escaped the flood which increased the height of the Winooski River by 20 feet. We are entering daylily season with +500 varieties side by side with +400 varieties of hostas, and exciting examples of astilbes, shade plants, pollinator plants--over 10,000 pots ready to move from our nursery to your gardens. Come visit!

https://vtdigger.org/2023-july-flooding/

 

PEONIES

I just finished updating the Peony page on our website https://vermontflowerfarm.com. Peonies are available for sale at the farm as potted plants in 12-quart peony pots. Each root is planted at the correct level so you can take pots home and replant them at the same depth they  are currently growing. Planting depth is very important to your success so please be sure never to plant the roots deeper than 1.5" to 2" deep. Plant deeper and the peony will live well but as for blooms--it probably will not happen.

Peonies are only available at the farm--no mail order is offered. They are available until they sell out and it's first come, first sold. We do not reserve pots in advance but feel free to call us at 802-426-3506 after April 15 to check availability. There are four peonies that are noted as being in short supply but the balance of varieties will begin the season with 20 pots or more.

Here's the peony page with pictures and descriptions. Herbaceous peonies are $32. Most Itoh peonies are $65. 

https://vermontflowerfarm.com/category/d-peonies/

 TICKS

April 2, 2023. 7:30 AM. 24.4° The wind is swirling snowflakes in big circles as small birds such as nuthatches and chickadees have trouble landing at the feeders. The temperature is dropping because of the wind but also in front of another weather pattern that made us smile yesterday with 62° in the afternoon but frown now. Spring is fickle and what we want is not what we always see. There is +2 feet of snow here on the mountain above Peacham Pond but a walk in the woods requires snowshoes as the snow depth exceeds 3 feet. It will be a while before the snow is gone but in the meantime, maple sugaring is doing well and with cooler forest floor temperatures sap should continue in better quality and quantity longer. "Should" is the operative because one weather front from the southwest and things can look different in a day or so. 

Here's the latest from one of the organizations that keeps me informed about ticks. Because of climate change Vermont has declared that there is no "season" but instead ticks should be considered a problem year-round. In case you have gotten lazy over the winter on tick control, get with the program right now. 20 miles to our west are towns such as Montpelier and Barre and many properties have no snow left. Yesterday I saw people working in their yards and if you are outside now, ticks have to be a concern. I have permethrin spray bottles by the back door here at the house, in the cars and truck, and at the flower farm. Don't wait until it's too late, take command now. Keep reading sites and newsletters and check yourself, and your family members including your pets. Becoming infected is just not good.

https://lymediseaseassociation.org/news/newsletter/

Vermont Flower Farm

https://www.facebook.com/george.africa

https://www.facebook.com/VFFG20/

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

Each year we try to do more to encourage monarch butterflies at our flower farm. We are doing a better job every year but there are many, many natural forces involved that make things more difficult. In 2021, there were consecutive weeks when any day you could walk into the fields and easily count 25 monarchs at any time. In 2022, the best consecutive total was 17 but most days 10 would have been an exceptional count.

Here's a link to Mary Holland's Naturally Curious. Insight is always helpful and suggests more that we should do. Read on. Visit us this summer, walk the gardens, and talk with us about all pollinators.

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/2022-23-monarch-butterfly-winter-numbers-decreased/

Vermont Flower Farm

https://www.facebook.com/george.africa

https://www.facebook.com/VFFG20/

SPRING IS GETTING CLOSER

 

Just outside my home office window, I maintain two bird birders and several suet cages for winter entertainment while I am answering email and orders from the Vermont Flower Farm. Each morning either my son Alex or I fill the feeders and enjoy the birds arriving for breakfast. But this time of year, we are often surprised by other visitors that want breakfast too. Three days ago, when the field was clear, white with snow, and untouched, a raccoon began across and then was joined by another. They cleared the field and entered our machine shed and showed no sign of exiting there all day. The following morning the suet cages had been pulled down and were completely empty. Obviously, the raccoons visited for a guaranteed feed during a time when a couple feet of snow covered the ground and food was limited.

This morning, Alex fed the birds and it was quiet for a while. I got up for another cup of coffee and looked out only to see a woodchuck eating sunflower seeds under one of the feeders. I grabbed the camera and took this picture. Its hair was disheveled and wet in places but otherwise, he or she looked fine. The temperature was expected to rise to +40° and now as I write at 1:30 PM it's up to a surprising 48.4°. The rise in temperature --or was it the advent of daylight savings time gave suggestion that Spring was coming and it was time to wake up. We have a big storm arriving in about 24 hours and it's apparent the animals knew that and decided now was the time to find some food. In about a month most of the snow will be history and we'll be at the flower farm cleaning up for another season. And the crittters of the fields and forests will be with us too. Different companions but all part of living in rural Vermont. Be well!

Dividing Daylilies

 Dividing Daylilies

Saturday afternoon, January 14 at 2 PM. I am using up a little time online while waiting for the San Francisco 49ers playoff game at 4:30. Just noticed that there's no reason for me to prepare an instructional video on dividing daylilies when there are already a number of them on YouTube. Here's a video that Stuart Kendig prepared. Scroll back and you will see his name mentioned in a couple posts I just made. His daylily website featuring plants from his gardens in York, Pennsylvania is http://kendigdaylilies.com/ Here's the You Tube video. Dividing daylilies is not as difficult as many make it out to be. The hard part is usually when you get to the point of needing to remove the entire root ball from the soil.  Try this:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgw7IP91DuE

Here's a picture of our lower daylily propagation field. You can see from the size of the clumps that you can benefit from some help from a friend getting them out.

White Daylilies

 

Quite a day here on the mountain above Peacham Pond where we live. It started out cold but by 9 AM the light snow had changed to rain and you could actually see last night's 4 inches of fluffy snow shrink. I worked online for a couple more hours trying to figure out what happened to my personal George Africa Facebook page as well as our FB business page, Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens. Facebook, like many of the big boys, wants nothing to do with you after you get up and running unless you spend money. I have spent several years putting together 4-5000 friends but since January 4th, communication has been shut off. I have tried every approach I could find and all to no avail so I am returning to an old blog that I have always used seasonally named The Vermont Gardener. If you have a solution to my Facebook dilemma, please advise and if you liked my FB pages, join me here as I write about gardening in the northeast and using and growing Vermont hardy plants.

Yesterday I mentioned the color white and I'd like to pick up from there right now. We belong to the American Hemerocallis Society and part of the membership includes journals. I love them because as with any magazine, I can stop and start reading as time permits. Winter 2021 had a great article by Stuart Kendig who has been classifying white daylilies, both diploids and tetraploids, for several years now. He has been accompanied by half a dozen other AHS members and together they reviewed about 250 white daylilies. 

Gardeners often ask for "the best white you have" but few can even name what might be acceptable to them. Stuart and his friends came up with five groups of white daylilies, separated into diploids and tetraploids. They established from the beginning that Group One would contain the whitest of all whites or as they described it "Very white and whiter than 'Gentle Shepherd' and all members of Group 2. The search for the best white had just begun so Group one remained empty. Those found in Group 2 are described as "Bright White, comparable to 'Gentle Shepherd' or 'Sagarmatha' ". Group 3 is described as "Comparitively White, but not as white as Group 2." Group 4  is "Near white but with an obvious color shade when viewed from near." And finally, Group 5 contains daylilies with "White blend that will appear white when viewed with a green background but presenting an obvious color tint."

With the group headings established, Stuart and his friends placed the first 250 daylilies in what they felt was the correct group. You need to see the entire list to get a feel for the work Stuart and friends accomplished but I placed white daylilies we grow either for sale or for display so you can get a start on the classification system. You'll have to find a copy of the original article "A Progress Report On White Daylilies" to coordinate your own classifications.

From my daylilies, Group 2 Diploids contains Gentle Shepherd. From Group 3, Diploids we grow include Joan Senior, Sunday Gloves and White Temptation. We grow one Group 3 Tetraploid named Lime Frost. In Group 4 we grow the Diploid Ice Carnival for display and Group 4 Tetraploids August Frost and Early Snow which always get a lot of attention. And finally, in Group 5 Diploids we have Vanilla Fluff and White Formal for display. Group 5 Tetraploids include Artic Snow,  Frostbite Falls and Wedding Band. When you know some of the daylilies, the categories begin to make a lot of sense. In the past couple years I have picked up Pointer Sisters, White Summer and White Bread from Don and Susan Church, Blue Hill, Maine.  (bluehilldaylilies.com). And from the Barth family, originally from Alna, Maine from Maine I have Sheepscot Valley Snow in both diploid, and tetraploid (I think!)

The world of daylilies is now shooting for 100,000 registrations so there are a number of white daylilies that could fit into Stuart Kendigs's Groups 2-5 and maybe even Group 1. If you get a chance, try to find the background of this project. And from me, a novice grower, many, many thanks to Stewart Kendig and friends for their much-appreciated work. Over the next couple days, I'll try to line up a few of my pictures. Be well!

Just White

 

January White

January 12, 2023. 7:30 PM. I couldn't wait any longer and I had to open the back door to see whether the weather was changing or not. Two days ago, it was below zero, this morning it started out at 16°, and now as I sit here online, it's an even 30°, up 2 degrees in an hour. Although snowflakes have been falling much of the day, the accumulation was negligible, and rain is predicted in the next hour. Climate change is upon us despite what some folks think. Ask anyone who loves to ski, snowboard or snowmobile and you will hear groans as snow hardly exists in the lowlands and is slim on the mountains except in ski areas that keep trying to manufacture snow. 

Yesterday morning I was in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, a small city of sorts that is kind of midway up and down the state. I decided on the way home to get off Interstate 89 in Sharon and head over the mountain to Strafford and then down into Tunbridge on Route 110. Even on the mountains in that area, snow was limited and whitetail deer could be seen in good numbers and that made me think it was April, not January. Life is different now and the weather is taking some getting used to.

I'm not sure why but as I was driving along enjoying Vermont's very rural nature, I thought of the color white, a color almost absent as I traveled. But then I thought of white flowers and how much their purity and perfection always impress me.  As the snow melts in April, the hellebores push through the snow and despite the cold they offer up a variety of colors but clearly some nice whites. And after the hellebores welcome us, galanthus/snowdrops arrive, joined by anenomes, and bloodroot, and white trillium, then clumps of white crocus and Narcissus Thalia, Chionodoxa/Glory of the Snow, hyacinths, Lily of the Valley, trailing arbutus and more. Yes, the snow melts away but the color white continues in living color. 

It may seem strange that I am thinking about white flowers but most gardeners enjoy incorporating them in all their gardens. If you don't use a garden journal yet or maybe even a notebook with ideas, pull out your smart phone and make lists of plants to purchase come spring. That way sixteen months from now the plants I just mentioned might be making their presence known in your gardens. None are expensive, all are Vermont hardy, and every one will make you smile. Guaranteed!!

White Trillium

7 years from seed to flower