Out With The Old

January 1, 2012

31.8° here on the mountain, windless and the only noise comes from deer, walking through the lower field and crunch, crunch, crunching through the wet snow. The sound of cars three miles below on Route 2 is absent today as people rest in preparation for the first day of 2012. There is a lazy fog hanging above the snow and no sense of urgency to jump into anything this morning.

Alex just turned off his lights and went to bed. He is 19 now but still and forever will be a member of the autism spectrum of life. He has had this thing for many New Years where he stays up well into the new day checking New Years events around the world and continuing his study of world and military history on his computer. I checked him at 1:30 and he smiled as only Alex can smile and he reminded how well 2012 was going. He also studies the actual history of alcohol as well as mixology and last night he ended 2011 with an Irish Whiskey Sour made with Bushmills, an Irish whiskey dating from 1608. I asked if he has chosen a drink to celebrate today with and he only replied "Contemplating".

I cannot recall the origin of "Out with the old" but it is an appropriate saying for the first day of a new year. As I finish writing this morning I will return the last of my garden books to the shelves of my newly painted, reorganized, freed-of-bushels-of-paper office. I never throw away a book but do recycle some here and there to where I know they will be appreciated. I also never throw away a plant even if I don't like it and that's what Gail and I have spent three years now doing with some of our daylilies at the nursery.

Daylilies are a fine perennial and appropriate for modern day gardeners who want color with almost no care needs. Gail has been taking rows of daylilies that no longer sell well and selling them each fall as bare root divisions to free up more garden space and get more people growing daylilies. I don't know the current count of registrations held with the American Hemerocallis Society but it is somewhere around 64-65,000 different registrations. Daylilies are the second most popular perennial, following hostas which have always held first place despite a contrasting registration count of under 7000 last I knew.

The very first daylily was registered in 1893. It was a cross between the species Flava and Middendorfii. It was named Apricot and here are some pictures. There are obvious characteristics that make this easier to identify but admittedly it took me years to get ours, an unnamed gift from friends, properly identified. That is understandable with so many to choose from.


So New Years has long been known as "Out with the old, in with the gold" but in the case of daylilies at Vermont Flower Farm, the "out" part only means that we reduce the number of each less popular daylily to a spot in a display garden where the name with remain as "gold" as the day it was first registered.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where my second walk of the morning with Karl the Wonder Dog spotted three sets of coyote tracks that weren't in the field two hours ago. Karl looks funny pushing his nose into the snow to get a good smell. When he identifies "coyote" his head raises quickly and he freezes momentarily before he scoots for home. Some dog!

Happy New Year!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Writing on Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also at George Africa
On Twitter at vtflowerfarm
Helping you grow your green thumb into 2012!

Where's George?

Saturday, August 22, 2009

5 AM on the mountain above Peacham Pond. Where's George? Last night's heavy rains have all the trees hanging low and the critters of the woods are out and about in numbers now that 10 hours of rain has stopped. Rutland and Chelsea, Vermont got hammered yesterday with inches in minutes as the rains of Summer 2009 continue.

Karl the Wonder Dog had to go out before five. His sniffer was in full gear and he half ran from here to there trying to pick up scent of big animals and small. The bears have been through here again and it drives Karl silly as he tries to figure out which way they went.

Daylily season is different today than it was back on the 8th when I last wrote but the bloom has been special and customers and visitors alike have kept us very busy. The early morning sunshine of June is long past and this morning's darkness reminds me how much I already miss early summer. Gail is already up trying to get ready to head to the nursery before 6 so we can split up all the daylilies we will be selling today as bare roots. When we have too many of one variety or something is not moving along or has lost popularity, we dig up most all and prepare them to sell 5 for $15.

I have tried to manage the new gardens at the nursery as if they were shelves at a supermarket. In those situations vendors pay for shelf space so items must sell or they are replaced. Same thing is happening at Vermont Flower Farm. We are often sad to see nice flowers go but part of selling flowers is an eye of the beholder thing and what's nice to me might bring harsh opinions from others. Up top is Apricot Sparkles which Gail bought in this year. We both think that by next year it will form nice clumps and be a great bloomer but for now it is an unpopular apricot which needs too much conversation to sell. It's on the table this morning, marked down enough not to make me happy but some gardeners should be all smiles come summer 2010.

Pastel Pink is a daylily that I really like. When it clumps up, it is a nice addition to the later garden here and it has a nice flower and a strong rib. I can never keep enough of it and this year's offering are a couple fans each even though summer rains were perpetual. Some things you cannot grow fast enough.

Double Yellow intrigues me as many of the doubles do. They are a little different from flower to flower but they bloom very well. This one is a late bloomer and brings forth dozens of buds that go on and on. I like it more than Double Gold with its habit of buds hanging on too long after they bloom. Mix in a couple blues or purples with Double Yellow and Apricot Sparkles and you'll catch folks attention in seconds. These two show that you don't have to spend lots of money on a nice late display. Late displays is what Gail continues to work on because she maintains gardeners need color until Columbus Day and it truly is possible, even in this part of Vermont.


Dominic is another mid to late addition we like. This picture is a bit duller than the color really presents. It's interesting and creates attention but this year for some reason it also drew in rose chafers, an insect we never had to deal with before.

There's plenty to do this morning so I must get going. I'm sure you have things to do today too but if you have a few minutes, stop by and look over the bare roots. Last night I dug some Fragrant Treasure, some large Bama Music, some fair clumps of Stella and there are a few Grand Masterpiece, Siloam Space Age, Butter Curls, Autumn Red and a Chicago I cannot remember right now. Good choices for a garden, along a drive or to cover a bank that you're tired of mowing. Come see!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where brown trout fishermen are heading to the pond and ravens are waking up everyone with harsh calls using words I do not understand.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Check out Vermont Flower Farm our website of pictures and good information. If you are trying to learn a little about autism, a non gardening topic for sure, try our autism page. Autism may not yet have touched a family you know, but the incidence suggests it will. Be thoguhtful, be supportive!