Daffodil Days

Thursday, April 29, 2011

A dark morning here on the mountain, 62° and a steady 5 mph wind bringing another rain storm that crossed Lake Champlain 3 hours ago. I estimate we'll see rain here in about an hour, perhaps a little less. A year ago yesterday we awoke to 18" of heavy wet snow after a start to April that no one could complain about. The weather certainly keeps all farmers busy!

Before I head to the nursery I want to recommend a garden visit for this Saturday or Sunday. Our friends Harold and Leila at Crossview Gardens, 1801 Lower Elmore Mountain Road, Morrisville are hosting their first daffodil open house. The Crosses are well known for an incredible selection of flowers but few know of Harold's interest in daffodils. I can't tell you how many varieties he has now but the total bulb count reaches well into the thousands so if you haven't seen 2-3-4000 bulbs, (my guess, maybe more), you should pack up the car and head out this weekend. Many growers have thousands of bulbs and I'll never criticize someone with such an offering. But when you can walk these gardens and see labeled varieties, some of which you have never even seen in a catalog, it's quite an event.

Leila has directions on their website and once you get to their place you'll get an incredible view of Vermont too. Give it a try--you'll be happy you found another great Vermont garden! And tell them George sent you!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where sprinkles just started.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

And remember: At Vermont Flower Farm we'll help you GROW your GREEN THUMB!

Spring Bulbs

Thursday, August 26, 2010

57° here on the mountain. Foggy and wet from a brief shower some time last night. Quiet here on a very important day. Today is my son Alex's 18th birthday. He was born at 8:30 AM by C section under tenuous circumstances and some of his first day on earth will be with him forever. Later this morning we'll head for Hanover and West Lebanon, NH for shopping at the stores he enjoys and then we'll have lunch at a fish house he feels comfortable at. This has become a monthly ritual of sorts and it gives me a chance to complete garden related errands at the same time. Every day I learn something new about the autism spectrum.

Yesterday I cleaned up daylilies all day. A couple customers walked into the field to see me work and they explained that dividing daylilies is difficult for them. They said they thought other gardeners would enjoy a picture summary of how it's done so I'll try to get some pictures soon. One time I found a video on the Internet but it began with the author holding a lilium bulb and it seemed to confuse the issue of what is really being divided. Seems to me there are too many videos out there made by people who want a couple bucks but aren't necessarily experienced gardeners. At Vermont Flower Farm we try to give out good information all the time and if we don't know the correct answers, we say so, look for correct responses, and then get back with the answer.

August may not seem like the time to be thinking about spring bulbs but it is. Late August is a good time to plant bulbs. Gail ordered two bushels of daffodils for delivery next week. We want to plant some in the front gardens at the nursery and pot some up for spring sales. Spring bulbs have become a big business as more and more new varieties are released to the market. Take a look at Bright Smiling Faces that I wrote back in April on this same blog and you'll see some of the opportunities that exist. Even crab spiders, pictured below, like daffodils. Daffodils are a great investment and they return for many years.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Karl the Wonder Dog is anxious to go out for another walk. I like this time of year too as the opportunities to see big sized wildlife prevail. Moose anyone?

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

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
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm & Gardens
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

Lilium Concerns

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Evening comes too early for me now. Gail and Karl the Wonder Dog joined me in a quick walk out back after I returned from work today. I had been sitting too long and needed some fresh air and a little of the stuff that makes me love living in Vermont. We returned too quickly but the light was fading and I had a few things to finish up before dinner. The smell of acorn squash baking with maple syrup challenged my need to finish this blog on lilies.

Fall is the time many folks finally decide to plant some spring bulbs for the first time. I encourage such plantings as they make the dreary days of the last snows and snowbanks melt into great colors that beckon warmth and spring. Daffodils have always been high on our list because they are about impervious to animals, big and small. Neither deer nor voles will eat them and even in poor soil they reproduce and present more flowers for each year to come.

Besides daffodils and probably excepting the tiny crocus and muscari that are seen by the hundreds, tulips are probably the most popular spring bulb. They are less likely to succeed over time and are on about every animal menu somewhere near the top. I tell people if you can get three years out of tulips in Vermont, you're lucky. The species tulips do much better but most that we see in the stores are hybrids and susceptible to "munching". Here are some daffs pictured up top and three tulip bulbs just below.

As much as we like tulips, those who like tulips and lilium have to use care. Tulips are notorious for Tulip Breaking Virus and tulips planted in close proximity to lilies are a gardener's guarantee that in a year, two at most, both the tulips and the lilies will be gone. Aphids are usually the vectors in the case and they do their work around May here but I'm sure they keep spreading the virus into the summer according to their life cycles. I have written before about Gail and Alex planting some nice red tulips close to the walkway garden for their enjoyment. The process resulted in me losing some of the original Journey's End oriental lilies that I had cherished for years. Long and short of it is consider where you plant tulips if you like lilies. Gentle, seemingly insignificant winds might well carry virus laden aphids downwind to your lilies and after that there is no cure.

While I am at it, here's one other caution for fall planting. Stores often carry what many gardeners call "tiger lilies". I'm not sure I can think of another common name ascribed by so many gardeners as representative of the wrong plant. In this case the tiger lily people are mentioning is pictured just below. This is Lilium lancifolium, originally Lilium tigrinum, first named in 1810 and used like potatoes as food in Asia. I never got this figured out because tigers have stripes and tiger lilies have spots and sometimes people call daylilies tiger lilies. This is how I get more confused by what customers really want to by.

Tiger lilies often carry viruses but do not display any symptoms. When other lilies are planted in proximity, aphids, wind, roving animals spread the virus and both varieties die off in a year. Since the tiger lilies reproduce by tiny bulbils generated in leaf axils, there is always ample supply to regenerate another colony. These are nice lilies, very common in most every old time New England garden, but just beware of this caution when planting in your garden. That way you'll protect the beauty of other lilies you have already planted.

Here are a few more from our collection that we enjoy. Until late spring of each year, we have no idea what we still have growing.

Lilium regale

Oriental Rosy Dawn

Siberia


Smokey Mountain Autumn

Uchida

Lancifolium ??? can't remember

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where tonight's temperature will fall into the teens but rebound to the high forties tomorrow. Still time to plant bulbs!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Happy Mothers Day

Mothers Day

May 13, 2007

Good morning mothers, good morning gardeners! It's a beautiful day at Vermont Flower Farm even though the wind is strong and the 56 degrees on the thermometer in the sun is misleading. Karl the wonder dog and I went for a morning walk while the rest of the house lay quiet with sleepiness. It's Mothers Day and although there's a lot to do, Gail can sleep as long as she wants. Yesterday she and the crew planted over 700 pots and ended the day with sore hands but a sense that the end of planting is near. She deserves a little extra snoozing.

Karl and I walked out back. The turkeys were off the roost earlier than I expected and three hens were scuffing the new piles of leaves I spread across the back field. The soil is very poor there so I gather spring and fall debris and spread it out and allow sheet composting to take place. It works well and gives the turkeys a place to feed. Try as I might, I could not get a tom turkey to talk to me again this morning. The season is on and perhaps hunters are disturbing their daily patterns.

Two male ruby throated hummingbirds are already fighting over the feeders but to date, no females have arrived. The males arrive first but usually by now we see at least one female. Perhaps later today as it is Mothers Day.

Good gardeners develop their eyesight so they can be watchful for insects and plant diseases. I have always been a detail person and although my eyesight isn't as strong as it used to be, I know how to notice things which are out of the ordinary. This morning a yellow crab spider was obvious to me on one of the daffodils planted outside my office window. There are many crab spiders and this one is a female golden rod spider. The two brownish colored bars on her abdomen tell her gender. This spider enjoys anything white or yellow to hide against while eating.

I have read that these spiders lie and wait for a meal and don't spin a web. Whenever I see one I visually check this out and always thought it to be true until this morning. I noticed that Mrs. S. was raising and lowering her right leg and I could see a tiny web across the daffodil.


Daffodils are a great bulb and make springtime in Vermont a lot brighter for us. I am always amazed how many people stop this time of year and want to buy some and actually ask for "daffodil plants", not knowing that they are bulbs. We don't sell bulbs, even in the fall, as by that time we are busy enough with cleaning things up and getting our own bulbs planted. We have thousands in the garden now and daffodils are a favorite.

Gail and Alex enjoy tulips but they have a short life in Vermont and for me, I like to plant things once and have more than just a memory in future years. There's plenty of time to give this some thought between now and fall but if you don't have any daffodils yet, plan to go to your garden store or online and buy several varieties. They are often sold in 10's and clumps of 5 or ten in your garden will bring enjoyment and welcome comments from your visitors, neighbors and other gardeners. Bulbs usually appear in stores by the first of September. And don't forget, there's also a chance that next year you'll see a golden rod spider.

As I head for the kitchen to begin making my Mothers Day chores, I wish all mothers a happy day. Everyone loves flowers and today is a great day to enjoy your flowers or get out and see what others grow or sell.

Happy gardening, Mothers and others!

George Africa
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com