Daylily 

Ruby Throat 

THE COLOR RED

Morning on the mountain. Working in the woods makes me sleep well and until the snow begins and gets deep, that's where Alex and I will be part of every day. It's 25.3° right now, windless, quiet. I just looked at the storms coming east over the next couple weeks but there's still enough debate that I am not getting excited. We need a foot of snow to fill in the ruts in the roads. They are all a mess. Last week our town guys spread three loads of stay mat/crushed granite down our road and then graded it but it was raining so everything turned to mud, vehicles of all sizes went through and now its 8-10" ruts frozen solid. That's Vermont!

I have written before about Fine Gardening Magazine which I have read since the 70s. My only complaint is that it doesn't cover enough gardens and plants in the northern northeast and it doesn't always get the temperate zones to reflect that some of what they feature will actually grow here.

Here's the latest garden and this one is about red. I wrote previously that I read an article one time that said of 500,000 daylilies growing in our world, 90,000 are red. Some gardeners say they love shades of red and others are like those talking about oranges and yellows---"No more for me!" I'm not like that . I like them all. That's why I have contemplated making a garden that contains every red in a group, every yellow, every orange, every white, every purple, every pink, etc., etc. I have the space to do this but ever since Mother Nature teamed up with climate change, my daily schedules have been reworked and new gardens aren't on the horizon.

https://www.finegardening.com/article/red-in-the-garden?

Abbot's Old Fashioned

Cabot, Vermont

Unregistered

 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

BEAVERS & GARDENERS

If you live and garden anyplace in Vermont and you have a nearby stream, river, pond or lake, you are probably already aware, that like it or not, beavers are your neighbors. This large rodent has an increasing population and with the loss of trappers who used to keep the numbers lower, they are populating closer and closer to human populations. They are in no way an endangered species so Fish and Wildlife with its very limited resources can offer no more than advice on dealing with beavers, their dams and related flooding. 

Bev Soychak  from Monkton Vermont wrote the following piece for VtDigger today. It's a worthy read, especially if you have been plagued by beavers in your neighborhood.

https://vtdigger.org/2022/10/25/bev-soychak-state-wont-endorse-a-renowned-beaver-specialist-who-lives-in-vermont

Over the past several years I have had an opportunity to watch beaver numbers grow along the Lanesboro Road here in Marshfield. The roadbed is left from the days of the Montpelier to Wells River RR and on either side of it, some portions involve swampland and beaver habitat. Included is Marshfield Pond, a.k.a Turtlehead Pond. The pond encompasses about 64 acres of water and a bit of surrounding swampland. It's a kettle pond left from glacial days so it is shallow with most places less than 20 feet deep. Water flows into the pond from adjacent streams as well as from springs on the pond floor.

When beavers got serious about damming up the exit sluiceway, a device which is probably the one created by Skip Lisle and described above was installed. I noticed a little extra time was spent adjusting the components to the flow as well as the beaver activity but it appears to have worked very well. Here are some pictures I have taken of the area and the flow device. I visited there two days ago and noticed that beavers have gone below the exit and the flow device and have started a new dam there. For now it is not large enough to reach the adjacent road but in time it probably will. Another place I have been watching is a short distance from the junction of Route 232 and Route 302 in Groton. There is a nice little waterfall there and beavers have created two dams and so far have raised the water about four feet over the entire area. As that water closes in on the roads, one of Lisle's water flow devices might be an option.

If beavers approach your property remember that they can be destructive to trees and shrubs as they seek food sources and dam materials. Walking outside and finding that your 20 year old sugar maple is now missing is not a good sight which is why I recommend keeping track of your property if you have any water flows across it. There are options. Although live trapping is an option and Fish and Wildlife might offer the name of a trapper, this may need some rethinking. I have a friend who used to live trap nuisance beavers and one day he received a call and said he's come check out the space. The pond that the beavers had created so far was over five acres in size. My friend turned down that job because of the time and hardware needed to take it on. Again, pay attention to the problem and don't let the beavers thinking get ahead of yours.

 Karol Emmerich, owner of Springwood Gardens in Minnesota recently posted this to Facebook and the Discovering Daylilies page. It is worth the read. See my follow up comments below. 

"Shallow-rooted trees growing anywhere near your daylilies are not your friend. They will soak up almost all the water and nutrients in the area, and drastically reduce a daylily’s bud count, height, etc. This link provides an excellent description of common shallow-rooted trees: www.treemusketeers.net/trees-with-shallow-roots/ It notes, for example, that “Cottonwood is genetically programmed to produce shallow roots. It grows naturally in flood plains where waterlogged soils are the norm. The tree’s roots typically grow no deeper than six feet, but they can extend up to 100 feet from the trunk.” The pictures in this post illustrate what can happen even if you were careful when initially constructing your garden beds. No cottonwood or other trees were apparent in picture 1 when these flower beds were created and planted with seedlings about 18 years ago - just some shrubby looking plants in the background - so we assumed all was OK. Picture 2 is what this same area looked like in the summer of 2022. As you can see in picture 3, shallow-rooted trees like these cottonwoods (which self-seed here in the wild) are clearly incompatible with the nearby underground water pipes for the sprinkler system and with growing healthy daylilies. Roots from the same tree 50 feet from its trunk are shown in picture 4, and picture 5 depicts its roots 100 feet away! Maple trees, although extraordinarily beautiful, will create the same issues. Their shallow roots can spread 60 feet from the trunk and dramatically change a daylily’s height and bud count."

My comments:

I have shared comments and pictures from Karol Emmerich before as I find her to be one of the leading daylily hybridizers in the US. This post is significant because it points out a common question here in Vermont---can I plant under trees? This becomes a more common question with gardeners in Vermont's urban locations where lot size is smaller and neighbors may well have trees too. I find the question even more common with those interested in growing hostas and other shade tolerant plants because they often plant first and then come asking about issues a couple years later, sometimes after the surrounding trees have grown even taller. Lilacs and hydrangeas both have shallow root systems that extend well beyond what you think but trees that grow larger such as Vermont's admired sugar maples grow tons of roots. I once planted 30 hostas in individual 20-gallon nursery pots sunk to almost ground level with a 1-inch lip left above ground to slow down voles and other problem critters. It was a lot of work and expense but now twenty years later some that I left are still there from when we moved our flower farm. The pots allow you to control water, fertilizers or other additives. If you are thinking about planting around trees, consider all these points and at very least be prepared to take a shovel and annually cut the roots that are encroaching upon every plant you have placed within the root system.

Farm for Sale

 Stuck In Vermont

A video about Vermont Flower Farm created by Eva Sollberger

https://mailchi.mp/sevendaysvt/the-couple-behind-vermont-flower-farm?e=f32eaa2160

PEST MANAGEMENT 

We only grow flowers at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens but many in New England grow vegetables as their main crop. The Xerces Society just posted this very interesting article on Winter Street Farm (https://www.winterstreetfarm.com) in Claremont, NH. Can you imagine vacuuming up cucumber bugs as a pest control effort? Interesting!!

https://xerces.org/blog/pollinator-friendly-pest-management-solutions-at-winter-street-farm

Farm For Sale

 

We just had a new drone video made with help from local producer Seth O'brien, owner of Green Mountain Drone (https://facebook.com greenmtndrone). We hope the video will help us find the right buyer for our business....someone who will keep the land in agriculture and carry on our philosophy about protecting our environment while producing and selling Vermont hardy plants that come from people who know plants and communicate how to be good gardeners. Please take a look and pass it on to anyone who might be interested in flower farming in the great state of Vermont.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEXMQcujH2Y

NEAR  WHITE  DAYLILIES 

Remember the far distant cartoon show named Rocky and Bullwinkle? It was located in a fictional Minnesota town named Frostbite Falls. My friend Don Church hybridized a very nice daylily and he named it Frostbite Falls. Here's the picture and the registration information. I'm growing it here in Marshfield and will have a couple plants I can sell this fall. One of the parents is Early Snow which is one of our favorites here at the farm. It's pictured here below our picture of Frostbite Falls. #vermontflowerfarmforsale; #vermontrealestate; #buylocal; 

Frostbite Falls (Church, 2009) Height 38 inches (96 cm), bloom 6.5 inches (17 cm), season M, Dormant, Tetraploid, 25 buds, 3 branches,  Near white self. (Early Snow × Chablis Blanc)

PEONIES  FROM  SEEDS

 

It may seem a while back to June 9th when I took this picture of peonies setting nice buds. Now two months later it's a different time and the peonies have set seed and soon the pods will be cracking open. The peonies pictured have been raised from seed and if you are patient you can do the same thing. As the seed pods begin to crack, pick off the seeds. Wait a day too long and they will be spread all over the ground so keep an eye on them. Then prepare a bed in your garden and plant the seeds right away. Plant them a couple inches deep and mark the rows or the places you plant them. Although a few may germinate the first full year, most need the following year after stratification. The first year above ground they will be a couple inches tall and after that they will take off. Peonies from seed are like winning the lottery. You never know the result until your number is called. In this batch of plants which came from my friend Mary B., there are a couple beautiful little plants now still bushel basket sized with small 2.5-3" single petals, white blooms with golden stamens. What a beautiful plant to place along walkways or front of gardens or as borders. The others of the first 60 Mary gave me are mostly large singles, a few doubles and one Itoh. A couple of them have the highest producing scapes I have ever seen. They are all very nice cut flower plants and a couple are very fragrant and would make any gardener smile. Give the seeds a try!  #vermontflowerfarm; #farmforsale; #peonies; #cutflowers; #hostas; #600daylilies; #buylocal; #vermontrealestate; #oregon; #california;

 DAYLILY SEASON 

We are about 18-19 days away from excellent daylily bloom at Vermont Flower. Farm. Even a little rain will get things going faster but it's been a dry spring and the scapes have just begun to get going this week. Days like today when it will reach the high 80's slow the growth just a bit  but tonight's predicted quarter inch of rain, although skimpy compared to what we would like to see, will be enough to get more scapes growing.

These pictures are from a year back on July 19th so you can get an idea what you will see at our farm. We encourage people to walk the gardens and enjoy the color. We have thousands of potted daylilies ready to move from our gardens to yours and one thing you will most always find here is #600/6 quart pots of daylilies with several large fans that once planted will give the appearance that the plants have been there for some time. Come visit and see what we offer. Can't visit? Try our website https://vermontflowerfarm.com and place an order. We ship Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday bu US Postal Service.

Phenology

 Pollinators

The Rocky Mountain Biological Lab may be a long way from Vermont but the research there is critical to our eastern pollinators. Scan this brief article and share your thoughts and observations on weather changes you have noticed in Vermont.

https://www.vaildaily.com/opinion/chase-shaw-what-happens-when-the-birds-and-bees-cant-pollinate

 Northern Vermont Hardy Plant Club

Just a reminder that one of Vermont's greatest collections of serious gardeners belong to this group. Gail and I joined the Northern Vermont Hardy Plant Club when we lived in Burlington and the group has grown in membership and talent each year since. Name the plant and you can find someone who knows something about it. It's fascinating to take the various garden tours offered each year, attend the programs and special events. If you are even thinking about  flower gardening, the $10 a year annual membership is more than a great investment. Just meeting so many special gardeners is something you'll never forget.  Read on here and then consider joing!   https://hardyplantclubvt.blogspot.com