Epimediums and Hellebores

Friday, February 25, 2011

Just past noon and the snow is really coming down now. I finished lunch and went out to get the mail and was surprised how covered I got in that short a trip. The noontime weather report has not changed at all from this morning or last night for that matter. This is a good storm that's bringing more snow to the mountains and keeping our ski industry in high gear. Since our state of $175 million in the red, every ski ticket counts.

One of the important things about managing a business in today's economy is keeping informed about what your industry and your competitors are doing. I think Gail and I do a very good job of this although we often hear each other comment about how much time we spend reading. That is a fact as we read perhaps 9 trade magazines and half a dozen private publications as well as the reading we doing via plant, tree and shrub listservs and the Internet in general.

This winter I have noticed an increased interest in hellebores and also epimediums. Catalogs are promoting specials for both these plants and picture displays and articles encourage gardeners to the fact that these are easy to grow and worth trying. We concur!

Google up epimediums or hellebores and you'll be surprised how many varieties are on the market. Today I am featuring a few epimediums so check out Darrell' Probst's The Epimedium Page for a better over view of what's available. Worldwide more new natives are being discovered and more hybridizers are working their magic.


Spring is still a couple months off here but epimedium are early to bloom and I guarantee you will be happy with them. Continue to scout for sources and if all else fails, stop by and see what Gail has available this year. For me, the only thing difficult about epimediums is describing what the flower shape looks like. Tell me what you think!

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I'm thinking I should probably sweep off the satellite dish before too long.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm

False Hellebore

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Already 8:30 AM and things seem to be moving slowly in contrast to how long today's list is. Very cold weather is approaching and there are certain things I want to get out of the way. It's up to 9.1° now and windless, as light snowflakes float through a slow-to-rise sun. The feeders are packed with about 50 American Goldfinches sporting dull winter feathers but flying in wavy, up-down patterns and cleaning out the thistle and other fine seeds from the feeders. Later on in winter the males begin to change to bright yellow, hence the name by some of "Wild Canary".

I have been working on our website again and am spending a lot of time on images. For several years I prepared annual picture tours I called Virtual Tours and people loved them. When I began the move to the new nursery location, a number of things took a back burner. Here it is 2011 and the last Virtual Tour is from 2008. I have been reminded that the "new nursery" isn't "new" anymore and the virtual tour is outdated. I don't receive these comments as criticism but as "encouragement" to please our readers.

Along the way this morning I opened a folder I had labeled as "skunk". As I clicked on it I thought maybe I had filed pictures of the skunks that plagued me last June until they were flattened on Route 2. For some reason a Mr and and Mrs Skunk dug into the bank along Route 2 and had a family of four. They seemed enamored with Japanese beetle grubs in the lower field and spent time digging and eating with no respect for when customers arrived. It's really difficult to sell flowers when you remind people to "walk the gardens, enjoy the flowers and watch for the skunks".

The folder did not contain any animal skunks but instead pictures of what I grew up calling "skunk cabbage" which it wasn't. Various adults taught me the name when in fact I was looking at False Hellebore. It was only in recent years that I learned that Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus
foetidus, is not that easy to find in Vermont and grows in observable numbers right behind our old apartment in Shelburne along Lewis Creek not 300 yards from Lake Champlain. One of the stories I had learned about the real skunk cabbage was that it was the first "green" that bears ate in the spring when coming out of hibernation and needing to purge their systems. Part of that annual chronology is misleading as bears exit hibernation before lots of things are turning green. The important point is that if bears ate False Hellebore instead, they would probably be real sick or dead because it's seriously poisonous. Here is a Wiki link to explain.

Aside from right plant, wrong plant, dead skunk or live bear, false hellebore is a neat plant to photograph and observe. It grows quickly and by August has whithered and is gone until the following spring. I planted a bunch around a little bog garden I made at the house and for the period of time it was prime, people always wanted to purchase some. For me it has become another plant I would place with care, especially if there are kids around. In the meantime, maybe you have learned another lesson.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where poets would enjoy writing about what they see from my window.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Social Networking Works!
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm