The Garden Buzz

Tiarella: A Wee Bit O' The Green Poking Through the Snow

2010-03-10T09:47:03-08:00

Ah! Spring in Minnesota; black snow, playing pothole slalom and the smell of hot asphalt in the air. It's a little early this year. I'm betting on one more blizzard, about April. Meanwhile, those of you in more southerly latitudes are posting and tweeting; the crocuses are blooming! the robins are singing! yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah.

Me? I'm excited because I just saw a smidgen of green at my door, just in time for St. Patrick's Day. A leaf! Maybe more. The snow is melting, even the sedimentary layers on my deck that tell the story of early storms in October through bigger and better by December, until now. Other than soggy pine straw and anemic patches of lawn this is the first hopeful happening in my garden so far.

When I planted the 7 Tiarellas (Foam Flower) at the back-but-really-front door, it was a troublesome site, backed by a stone wall, probably 10 inches deep and 8 feet long, and not only narrow but a north-facing exposure. The variegated grasses had done a pathetic backwards stair step in height due to the increasing lack of light as you reach the door. Bare mulch or some kind of rock was the non-plant solution, but I thought I'd give it another try.

In spite of their cutesy name, "Sugar and Spice", the tiarellas called out to me in the nursery towards the end of the season. I love the dramatic leaf shape, deeply cut and bright green with a wine-red blotch for more interest. Even better the pink and white frothy blooms of this native cultivar attract butterflies, while giving some height to the ground-hugging clumps of foliage. Their shade tolerance helped with the difficult place they were planted. Supposedly distasteful to rabbits, squirrels and deer, I think I'm going to like this perennial more and more.

I harrumphed when I read that the foliage is evergreen. I thought, yeah, and how does that work? But there it is peeking out of the snow, among the gelatinous mess of mulch and rotted plant matter, ready to roll. To think they have been sitting there all winter long, hidden.

But that isn't the only thing showing from under the snow. A few ghosts of holidays past, long buried by the Christmas Eve blizzard, have revealed themselves in recent days.

Remember the blue pumpkin from my Halloween posts?

One of the carolers that sat on the front porch by the Spruce Tips Arrangement the had disappeared in the storm.

For more signs of spring, read my "other" blog on the Star Tribune...

Top Ten Butterfly Plants: This List Might Surprise You

2010-03-06T10:05:28-08:00

Turns out the best plants for attracting butterflies to your garden are actually trees. I know! Who would have thought?

Frosty pines in my front yard The Garden Buzz

File it under the "Well, how about that" category; it just proves that when you think you know it all, you really don't. After attending the Wild Ones native plant conference this past weekend, I've gained a much better understanding of plant/wildlife relationships, and while there was no wild behavior to report, I'm anxious to share some of the more astonishing aspects with everyone as you all plan your butterfly gardens this spring.

It's not that I didn't know that many trees are larval host plants necessary for butterfly survival, I just didn't know how big the numbers lean toward trees. Yet you've seen them, usually noted at the bottom of plant lists heavy at the top with bright candy-colored annual flowers touted as butterfly magnets, the trees sometimes asterisk-ed as afterthoughts.

Yellow sulphur on zinnia The Garden Buzz

You can't blame us, because after all, it's right there on those flowers that we see the butterflies in our gardens. And we have the best intentions, wanting to provide nectar to the fragile and ephemeral creatures that light up our outdoor lives.

Keynote speaker, University of Delaware entomologist, Doug Tallamy, gave a thought-provoking talk about the food value of native landscapes to insects. While many people might think they want a bug-free yard, he explains, they still desire the presence of songbirds. You can't have one without the other. Put up all the bird feeders you like, insects make up a majority of bird diets, especially for raising young. And then there are all the other animals that depend indirectly upon them as well, like frogs, rabbits, foxes, humans and on and on. That whole circle of life stuff.

The crux of his talk focused on food webs and plant communities and how they relate to suburban backyards. Insects that evolved "eating local" for eons don't often recognize non-native species introduced from other continents. (Yes, some like Japanese beetles can adapt, in a big way) Most of the vast lawns and many of the specimen trees growing in our yards are truly alien to insects and might as well be plastic yard ornaments. How's that for an eye-opener?

But back to the list, the mind-blowing (for me at least) list. It shows the quantity of Lepidoptera (butterfly)species supported by each tree, shrub and perennial. These native trees used for shelter, overwintering, egg-laying, larval food and nectar source support 100-500. While most perennials averaged 30-40, with many of those butterfly magnets in the single digits.

Most Valuable Woody Plants for Butterflies

Oak (534)
Black Cherry (456)
Willow (455)
Birch (413)
Poplar (368)
Crabapple (311)
Blueberry (288)
Maple (265)
Elm (213)
Pine (203)

River birch dangling his "toes" in our pond The Garden Buzz

Fritillary butterfly on swamp milkweed The Garden Buzz

However don't think the perennials and annuals don't have value. There are many butterflies that depend upon one, and only one plant for survival. I think that's material for another post. This one has gotten a little long.

Note that the list is for the Mid-Atlantic region, but every region save for some arid desert areas has the rough equivalent of these native trees, some translation might be required. To learn more, I highly recommend his book, Bringing Nature Home.

Well, what are you waiting for....go plant a tree!

The Oscar-Worthy Garden of It's Complicated: I'd Like to Thank Meryl...

2010-02-28T17:17:41-08:00

It was Christmas time, not the time one's attention turns to garden blogs. On a lark, I thought to blog about the fabulous kitchen garden in the new movie, It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep. Who would know it would become the most popular post for my little seedling of a garden blog?

I can't help but wonder how many readers found The Garden Buzz simply by seeking out information about the pretty potager where Meryl picked produce for her already ridiculously beautiful kitchen (did it really need remodeling?).

I find myself with mixed emotions about this phenomenon. I'm grateful to Meryl (hey, I'm a big fan) for starring in such a funny, touching, contemporary movie, but more grateful to the writers and set designers who decided she needed such a gorgeous garden. Wouldn't that be a great job; making gardens for movies?

At the same time I'm glad I had the smarts and intuition to know that if that garden interested me, it would interest other gardeners when I was in dire need of driving traffic to my fledgling blog. I just had no idea how big a chord it would strike with so many. But who could resist those tuteured-tomatoes, and the cabbages color-coordinated with spires of sky-blue delphiniums?

To think a middle-aged woman in a crumpled gardening hat could look so cool! I have that hat, the chambray shirt too. But for the aquiline nose, regal cheekbones and perfectly expressive lips, that's me.

Now if they only had a garden category at The Oscars. Until then, I'm routing for you, Meryl.

Forcing Branches to Bloom: A Little Gentle Persuasion

2010-02-26T10:30:54-08:00

There's nothing like a few sprigs of apple blossoms or forsythia flowers to chase away the last of the winter blues. It's easy to do and does wonders for your spirits. I had been eying the crabapple in our cul-de-sac. I just hadn't figured out how to scale the ice-crusted snow wall coming between us without breaking something. Like me.

I'll confess I purchased these pre-forced peach branches at the grocery store. I went in for a jar of mayo and they called out to me from clear across the deli. That's often how nice things happen, when you aren't seeking them out.

I think they make an interesting counterpoint to the icicles outside, don't you?

Although it does require sharp tools, forcing sounds violent, I prefer to think of it as persuading. Here are a few other candidates for this treatment.

Honeysuckle
Vernal Witch Hazel
Dogwood
Quince
Almond
Cherry
Spirea

Prune budded branches carefully. Bring inside and trim to fit your container. Split the end about 4 inches, and then place under water to trim another inch. This keeps the branch from sealing, which reduces water uptake.

Place branches in warm water and indirect light, hopefully away from heat vents. It can take one to eight weeks to see flowers. Occasionally it fails, but you'll still get leaves at least. But at this point we can't be too picky.

"Only" 22 days until spring, hang in there!

What Does Snowboarding Have in Common with the Burpee Garden Catalog?

2010-02-24T13:10:35-08:00

Absolutely nothing. But I was looking at them simultaneously yesterday, and I thought you'd appreciate the contrast. These mogul-hopping, mop-haired daredevils were braving the brutal arctic breezes, while juicy red tomatoes and gaudy striped petunias were leaping off the page at me. I wasn't watching the Olympics in my living room but sitting below a "mountain" in Minnesota, leafing through a garden catalog I found in the car, while my husband was kicking the tires on a rust-riddled '88 Beemer.

Now at this point someone might be tempted to say "Long story short".

But as anyone with southern roots might ask, "Now, why would you want to do that?" Besides, what if bloggers always kept their long stories short? Where's the fun in that?

You see, my husband races cars as a hobby. No, not Nascar. He races old Porsches. Not vintage, just old. And with his globe-trotting job and all, you'd think that would keep him busy. But now he has discovered some "fun" race where you and a team of four, endurance-drive a car worth $500 or less. With this race there is a strong emphasis on frivolity and believe me, on that alone, he's already won the race.

So that brings us to Taylors Falls, MN on a Tuesday night, to the bottom of the ski hill where the car's most recent owner works. As we drove up Hwy 8, I was just tickled to see that every town we went through had a Swedish sister-city, and I loved how Lindstrom had an umlaut over its "o", almost as much as I loved its blue and white, teapot-shaped water tower. I half-listened as my husband assured me that there was only a 30% chance I would have to follow him the 90 minutes back home with this car. Yeah, sure.

Unusual offerings of African impatiens in the 2010 Burpee Catalog

But back to the Burpee catalog...

In my mind I'm already planning the containers for the garden tour in July. Last summer I did a lot with flowers and foliage in orange, coral, yellows and lime greens; and I liked it so much I 'm going to do it again. So I'm looking for new and exciting as well as old and reliable annuals in these same citrus shades for this upcoming event. However finding these sunset colors in shade tolerant plants is somewhat of a challenge.

Citrus colors in sunny containers from last year....The Garden Buzz

I do a lot of seeds usually, but to take out some of the guesswork and anxiety, I''ll work with nursery plants that are good-to-go.

With all the good garden centers in the greater Minneapolis area, why would I need mail-order plants? Well, sometimes when I have needed a large number or specific varieties at a certain time, I have found Burpee to be a source of exceptional quality plants. (BTW, that plug is unsolicited). That said, I am definitely ordering the following plants, and thought maybe you might want to consider them too.

African impatiens "Blondie": Looking like little yellow orchids with just a touch of red, this a fairly new offering. It's a super-charged version of the jewel weed or wild impatiens I allow to take over the back garden here in late summer. Growing to 24", it should light up the shady spots.
African impatiens "Fusion Peach Frost": Another interesting impatiens with shell-shaped blooms in variations of creamsicle peachy/orange. The kicker is the variegated leaf just touched with white on the edges.
Begonia "NonStop Fire": If this grows half as well as Begonia "Bonfire", I'll be happy. Large ruffled flowers in coral/pink tinged with yellow, with triangular foliage on reddish stems.

Begonia "Bonfire" on fire next to "Tomaccio" cherry tomatoes

But my most fervent wish is for the local Home Depot to mistakenly stock a plant called Thyrallis glauca again. This zone 9 plant was labeled perennial and I'm sure it is....in Florida. With a shrub-like habit and pretty sprays of yellow blossoms on red stems, it was the serendipitous star of my front porch pots last summer.

.........As for the rest of the story, well, it's sitting in the driveway.

Am I Wrong About Amsonia: Great Native Plant or Perennial Flop?

2010-02-21T15:57:54-08:00

The other day a popular garden blogger was lamenting not being able to grow amsonia in her garden, mentioning that it was to be the 2011 Perennial Plant of the Year (from now on known as POTY). All I could remember was how liberated I felt the day I took a shovel to the amsonia growing all over the garden I had just acquired with our new house. So I jumped on that comment box, asking, "Am I the only one who hates amsonia?" Apparently so.

In my little mini-rant, I went on about amsonia's insignificant flowers of creepy blue and its floppy foliage. In minutes, impassioned gardeners were defending amsonia's honor and credentials as a worthy perennial and valuable native plant; citing its adaptability and drought-tolerance but mostly the gorgeous fall color that marks the season finale of this plant.

So I dug a little deeper so to speak. And then I felt a little silly. As an extension master gardener I am always preaching, "right plant for the right place". Could it be the amsonias in my garden were simply in the wrong place? Well, probably yes.

We bought this house with a foot of snow in the yard. But the brochure said, "Award-winning perennial garden". After buying houses (gardens) from people who planted silk flowers in the yard, and after selling houses (gardens) to people who didn't know a daisy from a dahlia; that was all I needed to hear. What they didn't tell me was that the award was probably given 20 years ago! When the landscape thawed I was literally up to my ears in Joe-Pye Weed (don't get me wrong, I love Joe, but enough is enough), while whatever perennials left were overshadowed by this overgrown plant I had never encountered. It turned out to be amsonia.

A little strip of it was planted in a long narrow bed by the back door, that is really the front door, in a northern exposure. This amsonia failed to bloom and flopped to the ground mid-summer, long before the foliage could turn any color. But the bulk of it in the backyard had bullied the astilbes and astrantias into submission and was threatening to take on the lawn. This area sees only slivers of sun at varying times as the light falls behind the woods in back and then the cottonwoods to the west.

As with many gardens, as they age, shade encroaches, change is inevitable. I am sure the original owners did indeed have an award-winning perennial garden. Shame on the last owners for neglecting it. Shame on me for bad-mouthing amsonia.

Amsonia does grow in partial shade, but it grows best in full sunlight. And therein was the problem. Not only does it bloom more bountifully, but the unusual shade of blue shows better in bright light. And when positioned just right, the sun illuminates the fall foliage until it glows golden.

In addition, the POTY Amsonia hubrichtii is a variety called "Arkansas Blue Star", selected for soft blue flowers and bottle-brush bright green foliage that turns into a rich golden yellow as fall approaches. Check out "Blue Ice" as well.

Since I had, in a feverish frenzy, dug up and disposed of all the amsonias in my garden, I had to borrow a few photos. How embarrassing.

So I stand corrected, too bad my amsonias are long-gone to the municipal compost heap. But meanwhile, repeat after me...Right Plant for the Right Place.

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Passalong Plants

2010-02-19T12:12:15-08:00

Secretive deals involving "plant material" often end up badly. And no gardener wants to go to jail, even if they do have a really good horticulture therapy program. The courts show no mercy to us gardeners, maybe it's something about our propensity for digging.

Heck, I remember the time I asked to be excused from jury duty because it was spring. They were not sympathetic or understanding. In fact, I could feel the clerk's eyes rolling, over the phone.

There's a better way to exchange plants without all the risks.( Although I used to know of an underground network pushing that banned perennial, purple loosestrife)

Passalong plants are a win-win proposition, and mostly legal. Passalong plants are traded over back fences between neighbors, tossed at curbs for the quick and the observant, no money necessary. Other times they are traded and sold at garden club plant sales. These specimens can be common as clay soil or rare heirlooms tucked in a babushka and tranported from the motherland. Sometimes the story is actually better than the plant.

Having moved an average of every 2.3 years during my peripatetic life, I've had to leave behind many plants, but the hardest to part with are the passalong plants, the ones with a memory of a person or place. I have managed to maintain a few succulents through the moving; a pussy-toes from my fellow-Californian friend Jody, who now lives in NY, a starfish cactus and a jade plant from propagation class during my first year as a Master Gardener in Kansas, and an unusual stapelia (the latin for that same cactus) from Steph, a new Master Gardener friend. They are some of the plants that I hold dearest.

Stapelia (does anyone know the variety?) The Garden Buzz

Do keep in mind that not every passalong plant is a good thing. A plant described as vigorous may be invasive instead; I'm sure the new owner of my previous garden would like to talk to me about Artemisia "Limelight" and ask me just what I was thinking the day I planted that first sprig. It's not always a bad thing when you say good-bye to a passalong plant. But for the most part they are plants with a proven track record, otherwise they wouldn't be so plentiful for passing along.

(You can read more about all this in Passalong Plants by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing; two garden writers who are equally entertaining and knowledgeable.)

Passalong plants by the window The Garden Buzz

2010-02-16T07:16:09-08:00

Someone just translated a couple posts of The Garden Buzz into Croatian, how cool is that? But I don't think I translate well, sigh.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day: February 15, 2010

2010-02-15T10:32:58-08:00

Kalanchoe "Petero" The Garden Buzz

Although I am only growing snow, I decided to participate for the first time in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, garden bloggers around the world post pictures of what's blooming in their gardens. It seems like the neighborly thing to do, now that I feel like a full-fledged garden blogger. Plus, there's the alliteration, and you might have noticed, I'm all over that.

I had to find something blooming inside this time. My indoor collection has grown this year; normally not fond of houseplants, I've allowed a few ivies and a feather fern to live with us, and beyond that I have to say the terrariums are terribly fun.

Along with some other succulents I'm overwintering in the laundry room with the lovely light, this kalanchoe has been recuperating. He's had a rough winter; during the holidays, he was sitting on a fern-stand in the bathroom, minding his own business, when my husband startled the dog, who likes to chew on our socks there in private. (I hope I got that punctuation right, if not, please note, the dog was the one chewing on socks) When all the commotion had ceased; the fern stand was in pieces, my favorite green pot in shards, and the kalanchoe up-ended with all his potting soil askew.

I had to trim off all the orange flowerlets and prune off the damaged leaves. Then I took him to the laundry room to let him regain his composure. So a month later, the blooms were a big surprise. Granted they are only on the lower lateral shoots, but still.

Kalanchoes are succulent plants native to Madagascar, discovered in the 1700's by some brave but anonymous plant explorer. More popular as a potted plant in Europe than America, I think they deserve more consideration. They come in yellow, orange, red and many shades of pink. I like that when the clusters of flowers are gone, the fleshy, scalloped leaves are still attractive. Being a succulent, they tolerate the desert-like dry conditions of our house in winter. And unless they are thrown to the ground, seem to thrive on benign neglect.

There are all sorts of convolutions necessary to get light sensitive plants, like Kalanchoe to re-bloom. It involves covering them at night with a dark cloth among other things. I mean, really? Instead, this summer I plan to place the Kalanchoe on the porch with all the other succulents. They thrive in the eastern exposure and afternoon shade. I find that this and/or bringing them back indoors in fall seems to trigger blooming in quite a few. As for the timing, heck, I like surprises.

Something Old, Something New for Valentine's Day: Bleeding Hearts

2010-02-12T10:29:20-08:00

I hate to disappoint anyone. I was going to title this post with some of the quaintly descriptive names of Dicentra spectabilis, otherwise known by the tragically romantic moniker, "Old-Fashioned Bleeding Hearts". But then I remembered the unsavory search words that appeared in my referrals when I did a blog about appreciating and harvesting rose hips. It seems some people that like Big Hips aren't seeking out gardening advice.

I guess we've all had it happen. You look up "juicy fruit" and get more than apple trees and gum. You fancy raising poultry and google "baby chicks" and get a different type of scantily-clad bird.

I can see the reason for names like "Chinese Pants". Nonetheless, I can't wait for my bleeding hearts to bloom again so I can check if you really see a "Lady-in-the-Bath" when you turn the purse-shaped flower upside-down and pinch the puffy part.

Bleeding Hearts is an herbaceous perennial, hardy to zone 3, a beloved garden flower that comes back again and again, blooming faithfully in late spring.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY from THE GARDEN BUZZ!!!

However in Kansas I only had a nodding acquaintance with them. Like dainty women of yesteryear, they get the vapors at the slightest hint of hot summer-heat, their fern-like foliage going dormant and doing a disappearing-act. There they bloomed in those few weeks they call spring,( you can tell by the tornadoes). Then it was "quick, get me a fainting couch" and they were done.

In my northern garden, they are a much more prolonged presence; I can see why they are recommended as a long-lasting cut flower. Their only downfall, the hollowish brittle stems that fail to stand up to the watering hose, my own heart breaking every time I turned to see another fatality. Note to self: Plant them further back in the border. Although the chains of locket-like blossoms did look adorable dangling over the path.

A native to Asia and certain parts of North America, Bleeding Hearts does well in moist, humusy but well-drained soil and partial shade, making it the perfect flower for lighting up woodland plantings and shady spots. Plan for its annual leave-taking by pairing it with later emerging hostas, ferns and geraniums.

Consider also Dicentra spectabilis "Alba", this white version is a little less vigorous but deserves a place in the garden. Beyond these basic varieties:

Candy Hearts, with longer flowering, stronger pink blooms
Burning Hearts, almost red with a white outline
Gold Heart, with lime/yellow foliage and reddish stems
Fringed Bleeding Hearts, white fringed blooms with gray-green lacy foliage
King of Hearts, prolific but sterile flowers

We sometimes pooh-pooh popular plants, thinking they are too easy. But sometimes easy is just what we need. And then there's the 1898 catalog description of Bleeding Hearts; "cheap, common but very charming". What will the search engine do with that?