Peonies Have Personality

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Already almost 11:30 AM here on the hill but I'm knocking things off today's list one at a time and it looks like I'll be back to my favorite sport, income tax preparation, right after lunch. It's a quiet morning here with few ice fisherman heading for the pond and little traffic since the town plow took 2 inches of fluff off the road at about 5:30. Gail and Alex are geting ready to head for Burlington so Karl the wonder dog and I should have some "wonderful" silence in an hour or so.



With three feet of snow on the ground, more in the woods, freezing rain coming Tuesday and more snow from the west by Thursday night, it's probably difficult for some to think about peonies. I know I am not alone in thinking peony thoughts because another customer wrote yesterday asking if we had three more Top Brass to finish along his stone wall garden in Lyndonville.

We grow peonies and Gail and I continue to have two-person peony wars. I want to move all our peonies to our new site and she doesn't want to see a plant growing there that we don't have available for ready sale. Ever see Danny Divito's 1989 movie TheWar of the Roses with Kathleen Turner? I hope this peony thing does not get that far along!

Peonies have long been a favorite with me. I can't recall why. I remember them as a kid at the old Townsend Farm down the hill from where we lived in Woodstock. I also recall half a dozen varieties that customers gave to my father when he was a house painter. I know as a kid I also tried to figure out the absurd ant-peony relationship which continues today as an exercise in misinformation. Just the same I don't remember where exactly my love for these flowers began.


Spring in Vermont is a ways away but being able to see peonies push through the ground and jump skyward will be a welcome sight. These are Vermont hardy plants which need consideration when they are planted. I've written about them many times before and planting information is readily available on the web if you have forgotten my words. The American Peony Society just did their website over and it's a great place to start looking for information. The


site officers some international links and includes some members who operate retail and wholesale with many doing mail order too. Rick Rogers of Brothers Herbs and Peonies in Sherwood, Oregon has some special peonies for sale, with tree peonies being his favorite. With Alan Rogers (wrote Peonies, by Timber Press 1995, 1996, 1998) his father, you can understand where the genetics of understanding good peonies derived.

Don Hollingsworth grows more-than-great peonies! He has a website and a newsletter catalog with peonies you might not find easily. Reaths Nursery located in Vulcan, Michigan comes to mind too but there are others if you ask around. Here in Vermont we had the luxury of being able to visit one of the world's (that's right!) largest peony collections. Countryman Peonies located in Roxbury, Vermont just south of Northfield was the collection of Bill Countryman. He passed away three summers ago this coming peony season and his family continued the business as of last year. I didn't get a chance to visit so I can't say what the plans are for this summer. They do not have a website.

Over the years Gail buys 2-3-4 new varieties about every year. These are supposed to be a gift to me until she decides they are "hers" or perhaps they should be sold to someone she can't say "no" to. I wanted to move the entire collection to the new location so visitors could see what is out there. Our little peony nursery here at the house is down in the lower field and to get there you have to go through the hosta garden. When they are in bloom it's not the handiest place to get to so many visitors never get to see them. Anyway, The War of the Peonies continues but with peonies such as Peppermint or Crusader (pictured immediately below) you can see why I enjoy them. These flowers have great personality and despite 4 or 5 weeks of bloom, they almost bring tears when the final petals drop on the last one.





If you have a minute today, start with the American Peony Society site and go from there. Our Vermont Flower Farm site has a page about peonies too. With a little bit of reading and a few pictures, you might be hooked like me!



From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the trout must have stopped biting as the early morning fishermen are exiting.


Winter gardening wishes,

George Africa
The Peony Warrior


http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Vermont Gardens Another Blog

My Friends, Hemerocallis

Saturday, January 19, 2008

A cold, clear morning here on the hill. It was one below when I got up at 5 and it's only moved up to three degrees above zero here at 7:30 AM. The sky above Peacham Pond is red suggesting the two fronts which are moving this way. Tonight is supposed to be 15-20 below zero. B-r-r-r-r!

Karl the wonder dog has already been out for a quick walk and now he is barking at a roving dog. He is very territorial and if he thinks he is being intruded upon, he lets the world know. It's nice to see that he is returning to his old self although I can't say I am enamored by early barking.

I want to finish up some thoughts on daylilies, one of our favorite flowers, by mentioning a few more and then talking about resources. As I have said, you don't have to spend a lot of money putting together a nice daylily garden. They work well with most perennials and don't require a lot of work. This one is Posh Design. It's not more than a couple feet tall but the 5 inch peach-rose blooms have lots of potential to combine in various settings.

Ruffled Valentine is now a thirty year old plant, first released by Gilbert Wild in 1977. The velvety red with a small yellow throat confirm many garden possibilities and it's inexpensive, multiplies well and just plain looks nice. Alex included this one in his collection many years ago and Gail and I can see why he chose it.

Up at the top of the page is Red Ribbons which was released in 1964. It's in the four foot tall range. The combination yellow-green throat on an 8"-9" flower makes it a stand out. Pricing has gone up instead of down over the years but this is a worthy addition to your garden. It's an evergreen type so late season frosts and early spring freeze-thaw cycles might make you wonder if you'll ever see it again but it actually does very well here.

Since there are thousands of daylilies, there are hundreds upon hundreds of growers and websites. We belong to three daylily listservs although many others exist. Basically there is only so much you can read and there's little sense belonging to a group if all you do is push "delete" all the time. Lately I have been doing a lot of deleting and less reading as it's income tax time and I have to get that responsibility out of the way.

There are two listservs from Yahoo Groups that I recommend. One is the daylily-spider list and the other is the daylily image list. If you sign up for a Yahoo account, you can go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daylily-spider or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DL_Images and sign up.

There is a list on the ICORS listserv that is maintained for hemerocallis growers and members of the American Hemerocallis Society. Just go to the ICORS list and scroll down to Daylilies and enroll from there.

There are many websites available which recommend other daylily grower sites. My favorite is Charlotte's Daylily Diary 2008. Charlotte lives in Quebec but just over the Vermont border so I am partial to good neighbors to start with. Her site is a treasure, is regularly updated, and has a Garden of the Week section which is very good.

Not nearly enough folks want to take the step from being interested in a specific plant to actually joining the national or international society which studies and promotes it. I wish that was not true. We belong to a dozen societies and can't say enough about the benefits. The American Hemerocallis Society is about $20 a year and includes quarterly journals such as this one from 2004. This particular issue featured Ruby Spider and I was interested in learning more about a plant that gardeners want to buy faster than I have been growing it.


Time is flying this morning and Karl has reminded me it's time to go get the paper. Hope you'll give daylilies a thought and of course, take a look at our outdated, soon-to-be updated site Vermont Flower Farm and see what we grow.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where I just missed a great picture of a red squirrel and a hairy woodpecker on the feeder at the same time.

Saturday greetings,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Taxing Snowfalls

Friday, January 18, 2008

A snowy morning here on the mountain. The temperature has been a constant 26 since about 5:30 AM and the snow has fallen in and out of misty fine snow that almost looks like fog varying to thick, heavy flakes. At some point the storm is supposed to pass and by late afternoon the sun will appear. Then the temperatures will begin dropping until a projected minus 20 degrees come Sunday night. The birds are just appearing at the feeder. I thought their delay might be weather related until a sonic hawk shot past the window after a mourning dove. I'm glad I didn't witness the conclusion.

It's been quite a week here at the flowerless farm. Karl the wonder dog is usually a strong, Superman-like being with great auditory attention to man or beast of any number of legs or wings. Unfortunately, just like Superman's susceptibility to kryptonite, Karl the wonder dog can fall sick to the perils of inappropriate consumptory behavior. That translates to eating something he shouldn't have.

Karl, in his canine opinion, is "this" man's best friend. No matter how late I return home from work at night, he shoots like a gazelle running on ball bearings to the back door to greet me. Monday night's greeting was different. His ears and tail were drooping and his speed was reduced to an obviously painful "drag-the-body" movement. Gail said he was sick and she was concerned.

We had supper and kept an eye on Karl but he seemed to be heading to a land we didn't like to think about. His breathing varied and his nose was Sahara-like. By almost 9 Gail said enough is enough and she called our vet.

We've always treated our animals as ourselves and excepting the fact they aren't on our CIGNA health plan, they get the very best. Trouble was our super vet had been replaced for the evening by an associate on call and this meant we had to travel down past McIndoe Falls, Vermont, in a snow storm, some 38 miles south of here. We ended up at almost 10 PM at the Ryegate Small Animal Hospital where Jill had all the lights on and was ready for one sick dog.

The details since then are less important than the fact that Karl is slowly regaining some of his "wonderful" traits and probably in another week he will have remastered his unpopularity with me. Right now I continue to love him a lot and still feel very sorry for his courtship with death.

Having animals is a tremendous responsibility and we can't forget that. Kind of like making the decision to manage a business. Vermont Flower Farm is another of our pets and right now I am well into the annual IRS/tax shuffle. I promised to write something about taxes at our other site Vermont Gardens and I have to get on with that. In the meantime I want to continue with thoughts of daylilies.

Daylilies are flowers that do well in Vermont and they are low maintenance if planted correctly. They come in many colors and bloom time, so much so as to make gardeners smile. They also work so well in combination with other perennials and annuals that you can paint a garden picture with a shovel and a few bucks.

I have said before that Gail likes older daylilies but really she likes most any daylily excepting those with the fatter edges that some associate with the term "chicken fat". That's about as good a description as you can get but it needs a little work in today's marketing world.

The purple daylily pictured above is Grape Velvet. This is an example of what Gail likes: a good grower in a scape range of 26"-28" with a decent bud count and an ease of matching with other colors. Some would say "no great shakes" but the number of gardeners who want to buy one always keeps us thinking about production levels. It's very popular!

The golden daylily pictured next is Golden Whistle, It's a Gilbert Wild daylily from 1983. It blooms a well substanced, fragrant flower on a 34"-36" scape. I put it in the category of those 5"-6" diameter flowers that do well planted in a border distant from the house where you maintain an evening vantage point that needs some eye catchers.

Ethel Barfield Smith is described as "peach banded rose" which is fitting for this 30" tall flower that's been around for over 30 years. I picked it out of a gathering of potted daylilies at a northern Vermont nursery a couple years ago as a present for Gail. She really doesn't like it but I know that Winnie and Michelle who work with us have both commented positively on it. Maybe I'll fix Gail's goose and give each of them a piece of it this spring!

Way at the top where I started all this rambling is El Desperado, another great daylily. I like this one because the dark stamens stand out so well against the two tones. Some don't care for the dark mustard color but to me the purple-wine throat enhances this later blooming flower.

If you get a chance, take a look at the American Hemerocallis Society site. You'll find lots of resources and plenty of ideas to get you excited about trying this plant. Oh yes, and if you are traveling through Vermont along the Connecticut River and you need a great vet, give Jill a call at the Ryegate Small Animal Hospital, 54 Moore Lane, Ryegate, Vt 05042 802-633-3660. Our usual vet is Stan Pekala, Danville Animal Hospital, Danville, Vt 802-684-2284


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where large snowflakes add to the snow that blankets our dayilies, and spoiled blue jays share cracked corn and bird stories at breakfast.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm Our business site
Vermont Gardens Another blog

Diamond Dusted Balsams

Friday, January 11, 2008

An interesting early morning here at the missing-flower-farm where the landscape remains white and our flowers are buried deep in snow. Sleet is pounding the side of the house and rain is dripping down the windows. It's dark like a pocket outside and the sun will surely be slow to want to wake up Marshfield this morning. Even Karl the wonder dog doesn't want to go out even though it's past his time. I've already been out to check the ice on the truck doors and wipers and I have that warming up for this morning's ride to Newport. Life in Vermont offers driving challenges and it's always best to be prepared.

Gail and I are busy at planning our spring activities. We met with a neighbor two nights ago and it looks like he will help construct our building at our new location. I had given this a lot of thought and was almost set on buying a prefab building that could come in on a flatbed and be open for business within half a day. Trouble was that the more I thought about the timing, the less convinced I was that I could get all the site work finished and the building unloaded without getting the tractor trailer stuck in the wet spring clay.

On one side I didn't want to spend a couple weeks working all kinds of hours doing construction and on the other side, the thought of saving some money and avoiding a big headache seemed more appealing. My neighbor will work up a materials list and I'll do some pricing and scouting for exterior ship lap and we'll go from there.

This morning's darkness needs some color and the thought of daylilies is one way to brighten things. We like daylilies and have hundreds of names to choose from. Gail likes the older varieties and I am partial to tall ones. Our daylily journals have had recent communication about a rebirth in interest in tall varieties. This is exactly where I want some hybridizing to go in a few more years when I have more time. In the world of daylilies, this has already gone full cycle more than once. For the past ten years the emphasis has been on edges and stem count and bud count on reasonably sized plants probably in the 26-28 inch range. Now people are showing interest in "tall" and that makes me happy.

At the top of the page is Arctic Snow. This is another one of the earlier attempts at a pure white daylily. This is a very dependable daylily which catches your eye and mixes well with all plants. It has good stem count and doesn't seem to get nailed by earwigs like some of the lighter ones do. It is average size and not tall.

Just below is Along The Way. This is a favorite of mine because it has thick stems that are high wind/rain strong, has lots of buds and blooms for a long time. 34" tall would not be uncommon. The petals have good substance and the throat color combination and height catch your attention.

There are hundreds and hundreds of reds out there but Baja is a good one for many purposes. The petal and throat contrast nicely and draw your attention from afar. Baja has good genes and is in many hybridizer collections. I like any daylily that gardeners can afford and be happy with and this is one.

When I mention tall I often think about Autumn Prince (below). This is an old daylily as daylilies go. It dates to 1941 but it will never be forgotten. It's 42 inches or taller (ours are +5 feet now), late blooming as in Labor Day and later, and the flowers are very fragrant. The flower count on three or four year old plants is very good and to have attention getting plants after we have probably had a frost or two here is another positive. There's something likable about walking around your garden at the end of the season when you're tired and being able to avoid bending to see and smell nice blooms. This isn't a fancy flower but it deserves a look-see.

If you have stopped by to visit and had the misfortune to ask daylily questions of me, (Gail is the authority here!) I have probably asked my standard question about where you intend to plant and what colors you have in mind. I always try to find out if gardeners enjoy their gardens late afternoon and evenings and if they can see them from inside the house, a patio, walkway, or recreation area. There is a reason to my madness because certain flowers draw attention to your entire garden. I encourage people to plant some big yellows or golds that stand out as the sun fades. Such plants catch a visitors eye and bring reoccurring "atta boys" and "atta girls" to the actual planter. The golds of the Chicago series and plants such as this Jersey Spider do what I am suggesting you consider.



There is a group of gardeners who are interested in whatever is the latest daylily registration. These folks are "have to have" gardeners and they have the dollars to spend on those new releases. Gail and I are farmers so we know what poor means but we also know that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have nice flowers. We encourage most people to develop a color scheme they like and then work in the more expensive looking varieties as they can. "Expensive looking" doesn't have to be expensive.

About five years ago now I gave Alex a Gilbert H Wild catalog and told him to pick 20 daylilies he liked. I didn't put any restriction on price. Every one that he picked has turned out to be a very good seller including Catherine Neal pictured below. Give this some thought and you'll understand my message.



Well, things are lightening up outside as the sleet is turning to rain. I have to get out of here as I still don't know what the main roads will be like. The top half of all the fir balsam trees is diamond dusted with ice which has brought beauty to a not-so-nice day.


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where three red squirrels are cleaning up sunflowers that a picky blue jay is kicking off the platform feeder. I don't like birds with bad manners!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Vermont Flower Farm
Vermont Gardens Another Blog

Alabaster Trollius

Sunday, January 6, 2008

I have always been interested in meteorology but the closest I'll ever come to an honorary degree is an annual visit to the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St Johnsbury. They have a great weather program called Eye on the Sky and give some very good lectures on weather. It's a museum to visit if you're in the area. A learned weather person would describe this morning as "overcast'" but I describe it as "the sky is heavy". The sun is absent and the gray cloud cover looks fuzzy and thick and the feeling outside is that some weather change is in process. The temperature has not budged from 29.7 when I got up at 5:30 and lacking a barometer I don't know how quickly the change is closing in. Eye On the Sky suggests things will warm up later and limited precipitation will fall.

Karl the wonder dog wanted to go out as soon as I got up so we got that out of the way early on. He kept pulling down the road towards Kim's house and then decided his feet were cold and he B-lined for the house. I am not particularly amused but being pulled around so early in the morning but I do like this dog although I regularly profess not to.

Gardeners that live in the same house are an interesting combination and they often talk in flower-speak that is confusing to everyone, themselves included. It's often a language that misses verbs and nouns and adverbs and similar things but it seems to be marginally understood so that life can go on. As the size of the gardener's gardens and gardening knowledge grows, so does the incidence of this type of communication.

Last night Gail and I were going to watch a movie that she has been looking for all year. Then we got into the start of the New Hampshire debates on ABC. The movie never made it out of the DVD case and I knew as soon as the Republican debate had finished that we were in for the duration.

This time of year Gail is always reading flower magazines or rechecking her orders. Somewhere along the way she mumbled "Got Alabaster." I later was reminded that she tried to say "Got Alabaster from Walters" but I never heard the last half. The debate had just finished up with a news clip of a man who woke up one day and said "I'm running for president" ABC showed him walking around Manchester NH speaking with people and I was immediately rewinding my short term memory to determine if his name was Alabaster.

What Gail was trying to say was that she had been trying to locate a trollius plant named 'Alabaster' for several years and until this year she hadn't been successful. This year Walters Gardens, a top-of-the-line wholesaler from Zeeland, Michigan, was offering the plant and Gail had received confirmation that what she ordered would be delivered. I obviously do not have a picture of this plant yet but if you go to Google Images and plug in Trollius 'Alabaster' you'll see what the mysterious plant looks like. (Some of the pictures are incorrectly labeled but the real 'Alabaster' should stand out).

I was happy to get through the conversation and will enjoy 'Alabaster'. So will all the customers who have been asking for it for years. It will probably sell out in a couple weeks and then we'll have to wait until we can either buy some more in or divide up those I line out this Spring. ......By the way, I still don't remember the name of the man who wanted to be president.

Trollius are a great plant. They are known as globe flower (also globeflower) and are Ranunculaceae if you travel that path. Wild buttercups that line rural roadways are part of the heritage. They are poisonous if eaten so go someplace else for supper or snacks. They grow well in heavy clay soils and can handle water. The perimeter of a bog garden or along a stream are good placements but they will grow well in full sun as they are planted here. They make excellent cut flowers and they will rebloom most years if you deadhead them as soon as the first flowers fade.

If you make it to our new location on Route 2 this summer, look around the large boulders in the daylily display garden that will parallel the road. You'll see some trollius there. They will be newly planted and small this year, probably only reaching 20" but next year they will represent mature plants and you'll really catch the reason we like them.

Time to get the newspapers. Be well and have a nice Sunday!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where Northern Woodlands Magazine reminds me that I shouldn't expect to see more than the single pair of red breasted nuthatches that have been visiting the feeders. They are territorial birds and a pair defends up to ten acres. Check out this neat little bird at the Cornell Ornithology site.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Vermont Gardens Another blog

Stone Cold Reading

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

It's a beautiful late afternoon winter day here at Vermont Flower Farm. The beauty I must admit, is best "viewed, when not bundled" .......kind of like when James Bond calls for a vodka martini, "shaken, not stirred." It is furiously cold this afternoon despite the bright sun and the only way you will get me back out there is if I bundled in layers. Tonight's low is predicted to reach minus 15 degrees. 'Nuf said.

The birds are feeding at all the feeders as if there is no tomorrow. As I watch them, I can feature Charles Schultz-like chickadees in tiny sweaters and nuthatches in little hats--that's how cold it feels with the wind.

Competition is fierce. Earlier I saw my first Northern Shrike of the New Year. They are the blue jay sized harrier jets that make quick meals of smaller birds. We have seen them here fall and winter of every year with increasing regularity and spring and summer in less frequency. It's easier to see them when the feeders are out; there's a chance they are always here but summer foliage makes spotting them more difficult.

Cold days make the wood stove and a good book or magazine feel all that much better. Gail just brought me a cup of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Gingerbread coffee to encourage me to write faster and get on with income tax preparation. It won't work. Tracy and Diana from Marshfield Inn brought the coffee on a recent visit and I have to say it's a very nice change for holiday time. A little gingerbread man to dunk would be very nice but those were devoured days ago.

Christmas was good to me in the book department and one nice gift from Gail and Alex was Dan Snow's In The Company Of Stone. Dan is a southern Vermont drywall stacker and an accomplished stone craftsman to say the least. This book gives a great pictorial review of his work but if you get a chance to hear him speak, be sure to go and listen. He crafts good travel stories twined with a picture show of his accomplishments. He's one of those presenters that you hope will not stop.

Stone has always been of interest to me. When I was a kid I started a rock collection and my grandmother, who liked to travel the US, sent me pieces from all corners. Our first house in Vermont had an old barn foundation upon which my father planted an American flag and declared it my mother's new rock garden. I helped her toil through that creation until times got rough and the bank felt their mortgage was more than overdue and we moved on. I can still remember the creeping phlox in the spring that slowed dirt road travelers, and the blue Campanula persicifolia that was a gift from one of my dad's customers.


Stone belongs in gardens, at least my gardens. I know that many spend years ridding their gardens of stone but I like the way the hardness works to soften the garden and brings new lines that draw focus to special plants in close proximity. Here at Vermont Flower Farm I have incorporated stone in many ways. Our website contains pages titled Building A Hosta Garden and Stone Steps: A Garden Journey These pages should give you an idea of my philosophy and how I go about moving stones.

Back in 2000, I dragged the "seven sisters" out of the back lot and "planted" them as the next picture shows. These are big, odd shaped pieces of granite around which I have begun a new hosta garden incorporated with a small collection of epimedium. There is a back drop of Hosta 'Tall Boy' and Lilium superbum with a mix of Lilium henryi and a row of Hosta 'Fragrant Bouquet' The picture shows the start of a really nice garden vignette.

I have placed pieces of green shiest at various locations. This is a native stone that I buy in from John Cleary's stone yard in Richmond. I took a couple pieces and "planted" them next to two pieces of native granite (next photo). This was three years ago. Various monardas have encroached on the left and daylilies, actea, lilium and hemerocallis have filled in on the right.

Gardens, as with people, age quicker than we hope for. This last picture shows Alex and his friend Mat in heavy snowball combat five years ago. Today both kids are 15 and about 5 feet 9 inches tall and still growing.



Although it's cold outside today, there couldn't be a better time to think about a new garden or restructuring one that you planted years ago. Some graph paper, a pencil and garden thoughts will be a fun project. If you get a chance, take a look at Dan Snow's book. The inspiration you'll find will jump start you even at below zero.


Writing from the mountain above frozen Peacham Pond where the sun has fallen, the birds have retreated and the temperature is minus 3.


Garden wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Vermont Gardens: Another Blog

Squirrelly, But Good Company, Good Holidays

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

We've been busy at Vermont Flower Farm and it's been a good kind of busy. My son Adam, his wife, Leah, and my grandson, Max arrived from Seattle to spend a few days with us. Despite some poor weather on either end of their journey, the visit was special. The odd hours, time change, and the activity of the holiday made us all a little squirrely, but that's not uncommon up here where red squirrels are as familiar as chickadees and blue jays.

Besides the abundance of wildlife, Max got to ride a real tractor. His last experience was at a park in Seattle but this time he was in Vermont and only the real thing would do. While he was sitting with Adam, he located the control lever for the bucket and from then on it was up-down, up-down until it was time to quit. He looked and looked for a horn to beep but this is a commodity this tractor certainly doesn't have. Grandparents always think they have the greatest grand kids going but we've got a winner with this one! Here's a picture of a very happy Pappa!

In a few days I have three books Id like to mention. They are all by Vermont authors, and Vermont is part of what The Vermont Gardener is about. Bear with us as we work our way into New Years.............. And don't make like a squirrel and go running off. We'll be right back!

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where I've plowed three times in five days. Still have the machine shed left to shovel off as the snow deepens and I prepare for real winter temperatures.

White gardening wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
Vermont Gardens Blog

Christmas Ideas

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

4.1 degrees below zero this morning and the absence of the wind is nice. The nor'easter that hit Sunday dropped over two feet of snow here and being married to a shovel handle, a snow rake, and a snowplow for all of yesterday wasn't my idea of fun. In my high school days I plowed snow with a rag top Jeep for a local lady. It was her Jeep and I got to use it as long as I worked for her. Some memories are fun but youth has a way of covering up bad things. I know today that plowing snow for hours on end in a vehicle in which you could always see your breath was not good. There was a little electric fan blowing on the windshield to keep open a clear spot within the over-glaze of frost. It worked for me back then but now even plowing has become a chore.

A week from today is Christmas. Our tree has been up and decorated for a week, the house is accentuated with flowers and decorations, and a pot of citrus, cloves and cinnamon simmers on the wood stove lending a baseline fragrance we confuse with baking cookies and holidays foods. It is a pleasant time.

Each year I try to offer some thoughts about gifts. They are all simple gift ideas from a simple gardener but things that a gardener or anyone who enjoys New England might enjoy. I understand that this is the age of gift cards but giving just a little thought to a gift shows you care.

Magazines are like newspapers in many respects. They are being replaced one by one with
on-line productions which are much less expensive to produce and more environmentally responsive. I'm reminded of this at holiday time when the mailbox is full of catalogs. I still haven't gone to the "do-not-call" type website for the catalog world. You can actually ask to be taken off catalog mailing lists. According to the direct mail industry, 95% of all catalogs are not even opened before they are discarded and successful direct marketers are pleased if they receive orders from 1% of their mailings. Do the math on that one and you'll come up with a number representing a lot of trees that served no purpose at all.





Just the same, there are two magazines I really like. They are People, Places and Plants and Northern Woodlands, both New England magazines. Gail and I have met PPP's founder, Paul Tukey, here at Vermont Flower Farm when he came to prepare for an article on our business and discuss an article I helped write on growing hostas. He is a great person, knowledgeable of gardening, well traveled, a good father and a gardener with a perspective. In the past couple years he has founded SafeLawns.org, For a Healthier Planet, of which Shepherd Ogden from Cook's Garden days is the Executive Director. If you buy a subscription to PPP right now, they'll send you an accompanying gift subscription for a friend. This way you can give yourself and a friend a super present at the same time. If you look at the SafeLawns site you'll see where Paul has taken the subject of organic lawn care international. In a world that has yet come to understand chemical pollution, Paul's work on safer lawns is worthy of a thought at holiday time. He has written a book, The Organic Lawn Care Manual, describing his pursuits and it's available from Storey Publishing. So the PPP Magazine is a good start and although the book might produce thoughts of prior lawn chemical-spreading guilt, it will encourage a plan for the future. Between the magazine and the book you can either have chemical free lawns and nice gardens or no lawns at all and very, very nice gardens.

Northern Woodlands is like having a personal trainer. It doesn't come out nearly often enough but when it does I am amazed at what I can learn. It's great for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and would be great for a school teacher at about any level. Every issue has some mention of flowers from the wild that we should be watchful of, discover and protect. I especially enjoy the A Look At The Season's page which offers a week by week review of what to expect over the course of the next three months. You might have to adjust a week or so one way or the other depending on where you live but it's a close enough reminder to keep you on target in subsequent years.

Books are traditional and this is an area I leave to bookstores to help with. I could never get through even the new books I purchase every year. A couple I do like are little pocket sized books by Kate Carter. Her first was Wildflowers of Vermont and her more recent release,
Shrubs and Vines of Vermont. These are valuable little guides which slip easily into a pocket. They have a protective plastic cover too. Publisher and author info is available at http://www.wildflowersofvermont.com

Sometimes gifts can be no more than a super nice card, even a handmade card and some scribbled thoughts. I like to receive these because they stick with me as memories. Our friends Tracey and Diana pick out great cards every year. They are so special to me I keep them out year round. The picture at the far top of the page is from a painting by Cindy Gage Stotz at Studio C. http://www.studiocweb.com It is titled "Spruce Trees".

This card (below) is titled "snowy spruce" and it's by Katharine Montstream of Montstream Cardworks in Burlington. Take a look at http://www.kmmstudio.com

My card has been sitting on the little CD player by the kitchen stove since last Christmas so the snowflakes have a little splattering of spaghetti sauce but it's the trees that count.



Another fun gift is membership to any of Vermont's fine, but too often overlooked museums. Fairbanks in St Johnsbury, ECHO in Burlington, Montshire in Norwich, North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, Vermont Institute of Natural Science...to name a few.

And if all else fails and the gift truly has to be"gardening" and you don't know where to go, give Gail a call at 802-426-3505. A handmade Vermont Flower Farm gift certificate with a picture from one of our gardens will certainly fill the void and solve the gift problem. Where else can you get Vermont hardy plants, garden advice, local chit chat and a sense that this is a place you have to return to time and again?

Karl the wonder dog just gave a whine that in dog speak says "Let's get going, it's time for our last call-of-the-night walk." Tonight it will be a nicer walk as it's 15 degrees out, with gently falling snowflakes and no wind. If you were here, you could walk with us.


Green garden wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com

Red In The Morning

Sunday, December 9, 2007

6:30 PM has already arrived and it seems like just minutes ago that I looked out the office window at 6:30 this morning and saw the sun screaming through the trees and turning the clouds red like the pine grosbeaks that visited the bird feeders a few days back. It was a powerful color, bumpy in places, and interrupted by gray-blue background skies.

Red at night, sailors delight, red in the morning, sailors take warning. As I write, it is 15 degrees, clear and calm. During the day here we had a few short lived squalls but the snow fluff that materialized accumulated very little.

Today I continued to teach myself Dreamweaver CS3. By the time spring arrives I'm hopeful that I'll have mastered enough to present a new website for gardeners to view and order from. Everyone learns differently and I'm a visual learner so the online tutorials and picture books are getting me where I need to be. I have to take breaks and refresh myself so Karl the wonder dog and I go for walks or rides when I get hung up. Tonight I will begin working on images and then when I tire, I'll look at background and text colors.

I'm open to advice on colors. I always listen to advice but don't always use it. When I did our site four years ago I used a cream papyrus font and a dark red background. I was cautioned not to. Today "fonts" are out, cascading style sheets are in and non-dithering colors are recommended. I thought I did well to build a site with just me and a book but now I am told that I have to test the site in a variety of browsers and be sure not to forget to go to Adobe's Device Central and check out the emulation on a variety of hand helds like Blackberries and mobile phones. Good advice but mind boggling to an aging gardener!

Today I helped Gail rearrange some furniture in anticipation of my grandson's arrival next week. He's a year and a half old and his middle name is "inquisitive". I'm told he's too strong at times for his own good so my office just inherited two 30" tall cast iron garden urns, one with a rosemary and the other with a lemon tree. Gail is convinced he might flatten himself pulling on one and I agreed. The Eucharis grandiflorum which is a nice plant and is just finishing this round of bloom was relocated onto a table in our bedroom. I really do believe my son and daughter in law feed this kid well but if he's hungry from the flight out or the ride down from Burlington, I don't want him chewing on a seriously deadly plant. I do hope I see a shopping list soon as Marshfield itself is quite limited.

Speaking of Gail, I hear her now. Supper is ready and Monday will be here soon. As time grows short between now and holiday time, give some thought to gifts for the gardener in your family. Don't hesitate too long because you might not be the only one with a good idea. Long ago Alex told me that smart people don't shop for Christmas the day before. I think he was five then. If you can't think of something or don't feel comfortable with a decision yourself, a gift certificate from Vermont Flower Farm is the way to go. Give Gail a call at 802-426-3505 and she'll help.

Gardening thoughts at holiday time,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
http://vermontflowerfarm.com

Astilbes in Vermont

Thursday, December 6, 2007

The thermometer reads minus 3.4 degrees right now as the sun pulls itself ever so slowly above the sugar maples and shouts good morning to us. I just came in from feeding the birds and the feeders went from motionless to full-of-activity in the turn of the bucket. If birds could smile, the lone mourning dove would have smiled as I added a heaping pile of cracked corn to the platform feeder. I see dozens of these most every day down the road a quarter of a mile. They are usually in the road eating sand or sitting on the power lines but they never make it here in quantities larger than five or six.

Karl the wonder dog is confused this morning as Gail went out the door at 6:30 for an autism conference in Burlington and I haven't left for work yet. He likes it best on weekends when he knows I'm staying home because he is almost always guaranteed a ride in the truck. Winter is good for him because there is snow to plow and he likes to ride along.

For a couple days now Gail has been going over her plant orders. I kept suggesting that she study the sales numbers on the astilbes and she finally succumbed to my boring repetitions and analyzed this summer's sales versus last year's. Surprise! The missing numbers mean astilbe sales set records and replenishment stock, new varieties and spring digging and splitting from large mother garden plants are all in order.


We have always liked astilbes but found them to be hard-sell plants during earlier years. When I planted a nice display for Gail about 4-5 years ago, things began to change. I dug up the old milk room part of the lower barn foundation garden and planted 30-something different astilbes which Gail really admires. As they matured, more and more people commented on lack of experience with them. Sales increased. During the past two years, the single line of about 60 different astilbes that I bordered one of our daylily nurseries with came to maturity. As clumps that measured 2-3-4-5 feet wide, the masses of bloom brought out fine comments and good purchases. Once again it pointed out that no matter how nice a one gallon potted plant is, if people aren't familiar with it, they're not going to purchase it. Here are examples of Vision in Pink, Moreheims Glory and Elizabeth.

Astilbes range in height from 8-10 inches to 5-6 feet tall. Here in Vermont that means there is good bloom from late June through mid to late September depending upon the varieties you plant, the location you choose and the care you provide. They are clearly zone 3 hardy so the cold is not their problem, severe drought is. We have them growing in full sun in places to show how well they do despite being billed as a shade plant. Their root mass should not be allowed to dry out so that implies planting in a soil mix that will retain moisture when rains are absent and you're too busy to drag out the hose.

If there is one difficult characteristic of astilbes, I'd have to say it's identifying them correctly. Basic colors are red, white, pink and purple and variations of these colors translate to hundreds of varieties. Proper identification takes me quite a while and I know I still makes mistakes when I'm in the garden and someone calls out from afar. We have a real good assortment here and on the website so if you're interested in a trying a good perennial, stop by or check out our site. If you get a chance to drive by our new nursery on Route 2 next year, we're developing a display garden that will parallel Route 2 and be visible from the highway. Most of our collection of astilbes will be represented there.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the sun has warmed the air to 9.8 degrees and a small flock of evening grosbeaks have arrived for breakfast.

Gardening wishes,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://vermontflowerfarm.com
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com

Snowstorm Sustenance

Monday, December 3, 2007

Just inside with Karl the wonder dog. Our first trip out was at a little before 5 this morning as he was awakened by someone with bald tires trying to get up the hill. It began snowing at about 2:30 this morning and the storm I have been waiting for since Wednesday's prediction looks like a good one. As soon as I clicked the snap on Karl's leash I went back outside to clean off the bird feeders and shovel the two sets of steps. My two helpers sleep soundly this morning but they'll be brought into action before the storm is over.

I saw a note yesterday from a lady in New Zealand commenting on the astilbes just starting to bloom there. Many folks get turned around when they try to figure out what season is occurring where in the world. I find that the various flower listservs I belong to are real good reminders to the question as well as leading me through the winter months in Vermont.

I had planned to write a little piece about astilbes as I think they are an underused plant. I'll probably do that tomorrow as I have a ton of things to do this morning and want to mention food instead. Several garden blogs speak of food and share favorite recipes. I've had two people mention that I should stick to gardening or they'll be booking from my blogs but gardeners need sustenance and sometimes that means food.

One of the sites that combines recipes with the gardening is Joey Randall's blog, The Village Voice. I added her work to my list because some of the recipes are alluring and her photography including frequent collages is very good. The recipes are often passed on from others but not without good screening and accrediting. I tried one yesterday and want you to know about it.

On November 20th, Joey offered a recipe for Stuffed French Toast with Cranberry Maple Sauce. It originated at the Ramsey Canyon Inn in Arizona. I admit that I modified the recipe a bit, left out the maple extract, used world famous Vermont maple syrup, and cooked the French toast a little in a fry pan on the stove top, added the cream cheese and then finished it off with a lid on the pan to meld the flavors and melt the cheese. I didn't wait overnight to get cooking and can't say there was anything but rave reviews. We finished the balance of the cranberry maple sauce on vanilla ice cream last night and that's to be recommended too.

As I look out at the bird feeders, the competition is high to get at the suet and sneak out some extra cracked corn. One blue jay just put twenty four pieces in his crop before leaving. No mother would be proud of that table top performance......except a blue jay mom!


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the snowflakes increase in size but remain silent as they bang against each other, then land safely on earth. If it's snowing at your place and your only work is snow shoveling or plowing, find time for a garden catalog or book.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
http://vermontgardens.blogspot.com
http://vermontflowerfarm.com