9-11

2001 Memories

Just in from walking Karl the Wonder Dog. My first morning walk with him since returning with Gail and Alex from a vacation in Maine. Karl was pleased with the walk and the smells which result from falling temperatures and the critters of the fields and woods. As we walked, we could hear a local logger loading trucks that will head out shortly for mills in Maine. Vermont mills are limited now and I guess better prices come from hauling the logs out of state. We also heard the call of an owl. I do not know the call for sure as it was a single, quick whoo-o-o-o which might be the seldom used call of the barred owl.

911 is a memory that returns to me all the time. I know that not a week goes by but what I think about the events and everything that has transpired since. I left that day to go to Maine to buy some plants for the nursery. It probably seems odd to be buying plants at the end of a growing season but come Labor Day when things slow at the nursery, I find a need for a brief rest after working seven days a week since spring. It might seem more odd that on a day off I would be on the road before 4 AM but I had an appointment at 9:30 outside of Belfast and that's a haul from Vermont. I knew I had school buses to contend with and some unknown roads so that was my rationale for heading out so early.

My first visit was with a hosta grower who I had never met. He had a great reputation among my friends and I knew I would enjoy meeting him. As I arrived and shook his hand, there was something very strange about the welcome, something missing, almost as if it was not real. When I go on trips or vacations, I enjoy peace, and quiet is important to me so I avoid listening to the radio in the truck and avoid newspapers and any form of media. I had no idea what was happening in the world. The man introduced me to where things were located and he went back into the house as I meandered around, puzzled by his behavior, his cold salutation, his quick departure.

I got hung up looking at various gingers that I liked and spent some time with a variety of hepaticas and other wildflowers and then started picking hostas and other plants to purchase. The man's wife joined me in one of the shade houses and mentioned how terrible the events were. It was not until then that I understood what was happening. Their daughter worked at the Pentagon and there was no answer on her cell phone or work phone. The gravity of the situation had a different emotion to it and I shared my concern. My mind raced with thoughts of what happened and I felt a strange burden I could not explain. I continued on with my buying for another hour and by the time I had reached my limit, my host came back and explained the situation and said with obvious relief that he had just heard from his daughter and she was safe. I was greatly relieved too.

I headed cross country with a set of directions that was guaranteed to get me to my next destination on time. I was looking for a daylily grower in a tiny town away from the coast. By the time I arrived it was after three and I had kept an ear to the radio for a few hours. The grower's season was ending that day and his eagerness to close was even more intense due to a desire to get home to the latest news. I wished to spend more time but it was obvious that my purchases were less than important than the events of the world. I paid up, expressed thanks and hopes for safety, and I headed south to a hotel reservation.

That day was a long time ago but the memories have been repeated often and their intensity has grown. Yes, I am a gardener and I take great pride in what I do and the products that I sell. But I think often about our world and how it has changed since my earlier days. Much of what has transpired is confusing and although I continue to seek answers, I sometimes find a greater abundance of questions. Often I return to a quote attributed to Minnie Aumonier. "When the world wearies and ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden." Often we ask "why?" but there is no answer. The garden is a place to think and wait for answers.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the air is damp, the sky still lit with a slice of moon and a number of stars. The stars will extinguish soon but my thoughts of the past will continue.

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 at the nursery where we always offer to help you grow your green thumb!

Wild Flower, or Wildflower or Native Species?

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Past evening news time here on the mountain. Four snowmobiles just went racing by the lower drive in careless formation as if chased by the unknown from an H.P. Lovecraft novel. The road is mostly ice all the way to the pond but it did not seem to slow the riders. Normally there would be a slice of moonlight tonight but it is absent as clouds cover the moon and a light snow falls. At 27 degrees, it is one of the warmest nights in weeks.

For some reason I began to think of spring flowers even though it is a long time until spring. Back in the 50s as a young gardener, new to my parents gardening endeavors and new-to-me Vermont, I recalled the eagerness with which the farmers next door approached spring. Town Meeting Day was a spring event when folks spent the day at their town hall or a local church meeting room or school and discussed important issues like potholes in the roads and nuclear bombs, a new road grader, erecting street lamps, electing the first and second constables, the cemetery sexton, fence viewers, inspector of lumber, shingles and wood, and the weigher of coal. Town Meeting Day was "the" day everyone traditionally started their tomatoes and peppers from seed in the house on windowsills. It was always too early as the plants became too leggy before first possible planting in June. Just the same, if you lived here, you started plants the first Tuesday of March and that was the way it was.

Wild flowers in my youth seemed always to be written as one word but it was rarely spoken as most people called each flower by name. I have never heard anyone explain how or why we went from one word "wildflower" to two words "wild flower" but do know how the
New England Wild Flower Society prefers it. I also know that wildflowers rarely come into bloom around here until just before Memorial Day towards the end of May. Gail's favorite wildflowers are the hepaticas but I can enjoy all of them.

By mid June the False Solomon Seal are beginning to bloom and of all the flowers in our garden, they probably represent the native flower the fewest people can identify. When you explain the name there often seems to be a disbelief as the correlation between the hybridized Solomon Seal and the native are quite different. As we made gardens at our Peacham Pond Road property in


the old days we left the False Solomon Seal wherever it resprouted. The foliage is nice, the flowers are like sparks of creamy white and when the flowers begin to form seeds, they provide a silvery-gold accent to early autumn gardens. Their height is sufficient to intersect lines of hosta plantings and contrast with a sharpness that enhances the garden.


Some folks call wild flowers "natives" or native species and what are native species to some are trouble to others. An iris that is found all over New England is Iris pseudocarpus, a +3 foot tall yellow iris that seems native to me because it has been here long before the 50's when I was transplanted from New York. It has an affinity for bountiful seed production and as a result it can often be found along stream beds, in swamps or growing on little hummocks. Most always there are large clumps keeping company with other nearby clumps.





Spring has beautiful wild flowers and I'll spotlight several as we get closer to spring. For today I was just thinking about how nice it is to see the snow melt and the ground begin to change color. It's still a ways off. Unless you have a greenhouse, don't plant anything yet. As the length of the days increases, there will be plenty of time for soil to warm and seeds to grow.

Writing from the mountain where it's quiet tonight. The Vermont Gardener is tired but the picture of a yellow iris or a lavender hepatica brings a peacefulness that all gardeners can understand. As you're skimming through catalogs or gardening books, think about adding some wildflowers to your gardens this spring. You will be happy you did!


George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Now on Facebook as George Africa and as a fan page, Vermont Flower Farm & Gardens.
And yes, George uses Twitter as vtflowerfarm with great gardeners from just about everywhere!

Sunny Spring Morn'

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Almost 7 am and I have to get going here. Old joints are slow to loosen this time of year and I have rubbed emu oil on both knees and Bag Balm on both hands in preparation for another day of planting. Today there are several hundred daylilies to get lined out and several crates of new plants to get potted up. Gail has four or five people lined up to plant this morning but I will be on my hands and knees doing garden planting. We are planning an official nursery opening next weekend but we'll need good weather and good planters to meet the goal.

One of Gail's favorite wild flowers is pictured above. Hepaticas don't flower all that long as they are negatively influenced by high spring temps and strong winds. Just the same, one look at a nice little group seems to get Gail through spring. There is some good hybridizing going on with these flowers but I haven't tracked down the new product to sneak some larger plants into the garden. The same is true with the trout lilies which have become real garden standouts in spring.

I'm heading down to the nursery in a few minutes but want to run the tractor tiller over the potato piece one more time. The potatoes are about ready for planting but the weed crop from last year got started early so one quick till and today's sun will fry those weeds and ready the area for planting.

Try to get out today and visit a few nurseries and garden centers. Next weekend is Mother's Day and it's not too early to make a decision on what might make that gardening mom smile. Don't forget!

Good spring wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Gardens
Vermotn Flower Farm A site to visit and tour even if you're not in the mood to buy plants

Wild Flowers Among Snow Banks

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

A bright morning at Vermont Flower Farm. 23 degrees out which will make the maple sugar producers happy as it brings on a forceful sap flow today. Karl the wonder dog enjoyed his morning walk to the point of irritating me with his unidirectional move towards Peacham Pond when I wanted an about face and another cup of coffee. While I was coaxing and he was tugging he encountered an early morning coyote track and that scared him into redirection and home.

The snowbanks along the road are still three feet high but the snow in the fields in approaching a foot. In the woods the snow depth is another story, but Spring is on the way. Yesterday I saw some more killdeer eating bugs in the grass at our new nursery and flocks of geese headed north by following the Winooski River. Last night I heard the barred owls calling for a mate at about 4:30. That is typical for them now. They were a good half mile off but I am relieved to hear their voices again as I know they had a difficult winter.

April has been good to us this year. The snow plow sits half buried in mud now but it hasn't moved at all this month and that is nice. Last year this time we were fighting 50 mph winds, power losses, downed trees and 3 feet of new snow. There was a dose of depression mixed in there too. This year is different and although the snow is deep, today's 68 degrees will warm us mentally and physically.

It will be some time before our wild flowers are even visible but along the Champlain Valley growth is visible and flowers will be out in another week where the sun has warmed the ground.

This is the time when one of Gail's favorites begins to rise from the leaves. Hepaticas. Her real favorite! They push slowly upward and seem to take some time to form buds. They show impatience that urges daily visits to check their progress and then they burst open about the time hard rains fall and their beauty is dampened by rain drops and maybe a few brown spots from fungus. For that all too brief period of time, they are brilliant!

Hepaticas are easy to grow and they reproduce easily. They also form seed pods without trouble but as with many wild flowers it takes a while from seed. If you do some searches you

will find some variety available. I cannot recommend suppliers but I'm confident you can. The New England Wild Flower Society is an excellent resource and they have an annual sale that will knock your socks off.

Spring is a time when the days are longer but not long enough for us. I'm heading to Newport in a few minutes and that is on Vermont's NE Canadian border. It's 75 miles away. I wish I was heading into the gardens.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where greedy blue jays toss sunflowers to the ground, looking for perfect seeds and a good breakfast.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Morning Walks

May 2, 2007

The second of May and a beautiful day here on the mountain. I've been out for a walk already and Karl the wonder dog is reflecting dismay that he was left in the house, snoozing and snoring as I exited without him. Sometimes I need a little peace too! I'll be on the road all day today in southern Vermont so the calmness of the morning will be the best part of the day.

Yesterday was May Day in America. It was not a day that's necessarily celebrated with fanfare as it is in other parts of the world. To me it signals having made it through another Vermont winter. The day is a jump start for a summer that once started, just flies by. Operating a nursery, working a full time job, looking out for a couple 89 and 90 year olds, and continuing to learn about autism at home is enough on my plate.

This moring's walk was pleasat as the sun rose quickly. The spring turkey hunting season started yesterday and once again my hunting will be no more than this morning's walk. I take along my assortment fo turkey calls and try to see how good I am at bringing in the big toms. They are magnificent to see and their competitive antics are interesting. I bought three decoys last year and they remian in the original box in the cellar. I had hoped to use them just to call in some big birds and watch them. Big toms do not like competition for their hens.

The wild flowers are coming out now and this weeks warmer weather after a couple good rains will bring on lots of flowers. The hepaticas are looking nice and today I want to try to get some pictures in central Vermont of bloodroot and marsh marigold. Our Trillium grandiflorum are doing well and the flower buds are swelling but it will be another week before they first bloom. I am pleased with the way I have reseeded them each year and the numbers are expanding.

Shelburne Pond south of Burlington probably has a great carpet of these trillium right now, decorating the limestone hills with white, accentuated by the yellow of dogtooth violets. If you have a chance, take a walk this week with a good wild flower guide and a bird guide if you have one. Your lists will be interesting as well as a good test of what you know and what you need to learn. I'm on the "need to learn" side of a lot of things but it's fun to learn more about what we share Vermont with.

Speaking of sharing, get those bird feeders down if you haven't yet. I've already heard two reports of hungry bears. In contrast, get your hummingbird feeders disinfected, thoroughly cleaned, filled and hung. Here at Vermont Flower Farm the ruby throats come like clockwork and they should be here soon.

Spring walking wishes from the mountain above Peacham Pond where loons brag about morning minnow breakfasts and a lost gray squirrel looks at our missing bird feeders wondering what to have for breakfast.

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

Rising temps, rising flowers

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Up to 45 degrees here on the hill, the light drizzle has stopped and a bit of sunlight is encouraging me to write faster and get outside. I really wanted breakfast to serve as a jump start today but Gail suggested a piece of freshly frosted carrot cake instead. She just finished making a beauty for the planting crew that will be here shortly.

Gail makes one of the best carrot cakes you'll ever eat--to me "the" best. If you want the recipe, let me know and I'll send you a copy. I like moist cakes with good flavor and this one fits the bill. But for this morning I was thinking about some eggs and toast and juice. I've been informed that I'm on my own, but that's not uncommon around here this time of year. Already Alex and I have found ourselves looking at each other at 9 PM asking "Did we have supper yet?"

Apologies from The Vermont Gardener for taking a leave of absence from this blog without having the courtesy to advise regular viewers we'd gone into hiding. It wasn't really like that, we were just plain busy. There's legislation in Montpelier related to autism and that's a subject that's dear to us. That meant a constant daily/nightly email campaign. Monday the House will get the bill out of the House Education Committee and we're hopeful on that. Two weeks ago we had Gail's mother's 90th b-day party and in between we have raked tons of leaves, planted a buckets of lily bulbs, put the cover on the greenhouse, and split two cords of wood for next winter. We've also compared aches and pains which prevail when out-of-shape +50 year olds come out of hibernation and find out how far it is to the ground all over again.


The forsythia is finally coming into bloom and the pulmonarias are already putting out flowers for the first hummingbirds to savor. If those tiny birds got a good travel agent this spring, they should be arriving here on time the end of next week, beginning of the following week. They are like clockwork in their arrival here unless there is a big storm someplace that delays them just like the big jets that can't get out for a few hours or a few days.

Gail's favorite, the hepaticas, began to bloom earlier this week and as always with her first look, shel begs me to plant her some more. This is one of those childhood loves that never fades. I agree they are a very nice wild flower and they help jump start our gardening enthusiasm for dirty hands and happy spirits.

I have raked off a third of the lower hosta garden pictured above. This is the garden built inside an old barn foundation. It's coming along nicely and with the rain this weekend, the first hostas will begin to grow. Montana aureomarginata is usually the first or second to break ground. It does this just in time to get nailed by a hard frost or two but it always comes back in all its glory. The lancifolias break through early and hold tight as they can handle temperature change better.

The hellebores are in bloom and for once the foliage looks great but the first flowers look a little weak. That will all change in a week or so. If you don't have any of these, stop by and take a look. We don't have any for sale this year but will next year when we move.

The first daffodils are in bloom over the bank here by my office. The tulips are up about 2 inches and growing fast. I raked off the hosta garden by the little frog pond and already the blue scilla are up two inches so bloom should be this week too. The list goes on and on.

If you're out and about, Peacham Pond Road is muddy in a couple places. Our place looks like a bomb hit as there are piles of tires stacked here and there and hundreds and hundreds of feet of rolled up plastic and folder insulating cloth. Place looks like a big recycling center but this is how it should look as we uncover the gardens and prepare for another season of growing good plants.

As I have said for many years, we grow hardy plants for hardy Vermonters and their friends. Be a gardening friend and keep us in mind for a visit this season. In the meantime, show compassion for my absence from this blog and give us a question or two to help your gardens grow better. We don't have all the answers but we know a lot of people who do.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where a tom turkey is calling his female friends and looking for a fight with competing males, while two docile mourning doves coo happy thoughts and act out plans for a new family.

Gardening wishes,

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

Thoughts of Wild Flowers

Friday March 9, 2007

A busy day here. While Gail was at the Vermont Flower Show, I labored away on a bathroom renovation. I'd rather be installing a new garden than a bathroom as I can get in less trouble moving rocks and soil than electrical wiring and pipes. We've been here 18 years and it's just one of those things that needs attention. Every year I try to update a few things in hopes they will last the next twenty years of my life or at least make it easier for whoever lives here.

Fred the plumber from Cabot was here to help this morning. We work well together and we got a lot done in about four hours. Tomorrow I'll strip out the rest of the sheetrock now that the room is bare and I'll go from there.

Monday Ed from Peacham will be here to replace a window and reframe a wall. Then new insulation and sheetrock follows. Ed's a very meticulous carpenter and the kind of guy I will wait years for because he is so good. The office I am sitting in is an example of the fine work he does.

When Gail returns home I'll be happy to hear about the show. It's tricky in Vermont trying to force flowers to get them ready for a show of this size. I heard from Dave in Stowe a few weeks back. He was forcing peonies. Now there's a tough job! Then there were the greenhouses at Claussens in Colchester where they were forcing hundreds of pots of bulbs. Trees were forced and wild flowers too to go along with the theme "A Walk on The Wild Side".

Even though there is 5 feet of show outside my window, I'm already thinking about spring and the beautiful wildflowers that we have in Vermont. The native hepaticas pictured above have become very popular now and many are hybridizing them for bigger, or smaller flowers, in pinks, blues, purples, stripes, and with and without variegation. These are one of Gail's favorites and they really are nice.

False Salomon Seal is an interesting plant with fist sized blooms in June which are like a million little firecrackers going off. They set seed and begin aging by the time July arrives and change colors on into fall when the berries change from silvery gold to red. This is a nice background plant, very hardy and easy to multiply.

Wild gingers are interesting and are usefull for their leaf foliage. Most people overlook their flowers which arrive early and sometimes are hidden by the fast unfurling leaves. See if you can find one in this picture. They work well when planted along with European Ginger, the domestic variety with the shiny green leaves. The sparkle versus the dull coating of the natives is an interesting match, especially noticed if planted in swaths.

Tiarellas are another nice plant which we know here as foamflowers. I like to ride the Lanesboro Road from the falls in Marshfield Village back around to the Owls Head turn in the spring. There are places along that route as you drive under maple canopies that are lined heavily with them.

I've written and included pictures of trilliums before on my Vermont Gardens site and I have to say they are a favorite. The picture at the start of this piece is Trillium erectum but the undulatum which bloom later and the showly white grandiflorum are plants to grow too. There's nothing like a garden walk where flowers like the ones I am mentioning burst with color and interrupt your journey with a short "look-see".

If you like flowers and especially if you like wildflowers, get to the flower show this weekend. I can't say if anyone forced any wild flowers for the show but Bill Cullina from the New England Wild Flower Society will be on hand for a great lecture. And if you want to know where to purchase some of these native beauties, that information will be available too.

Just thinking about what I missed today makes me wish Gail would hurry up and get home with the news. I asked her to buy me a couple bundles of pussy willows and I can't wait to see what colors she purchased.

Karl the wonder dog is whimpering. It's his signal that it's time for a walk. Guess I better get going.


From the moutain above Peacham Pond where the temperatures of the afternoon are cooling quickly. It's 16.2 right now but shouldn't get close to the -34 in Island Pond last night.

Be well!

George Africa

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