Tag Archives: Flowers

Color Combinations in the Garden

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Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ & Azaleas in bloom in the garden of the Artist, Mary Ahern

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ & Azaleas in bloom

I am an Artist so color, texture, scale, focal points and other factors drive much of my garden design. My son gave this Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’ to me many years ago. Not knowing the eventual size of the tree I placed it right by the deck where I would be able to enjoy the delicate filigreed leaves all summer.

For a few short weeks in May this wonderful, almost stage setting display of cool pink azaleas blooms as a backdrop to set off the wine colored purple leaves of the maple. The azaleas were already on the property in this location when I bought the property in 1989 though they have certainly grown and expanded.

Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’ or commonly known as Creeping Jenny with dandelion in the garden of the Artist, Mary Ahern.

Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’ or commonly known as Creeping Jenny with dandelion

As a ground cover underneath the mounding maple, I planted Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, commonly known as Creeping Jenny. The bright, almost chartreuse yellow offsets and lightens the ground underneath the purple leaves of the maple lightening an otherwise potentially dark corner. Happily, both the maple and the nummularia retain their vibrant colors the entire summer.

I would like to take credit for the whimsical placement of the dandelions in front of the maple but alas, that was the creative idea of Mother Nature.

Rethinking My Garden

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For the past 25 years I’ve cultivated my woodland gardens. For the first decade I cleared the tangled woods, studied the indigenous plants, planned paths and materials. I worked on creating a natural looking shade garden focusing on the large oak trees and Kalmia that inhabited this spot of land before I showed up.

A lot of thinking and sweat went into this garden. I selected what shrub trees, like the untold numbers of small cherries, that needed to be removed. Purged, or shall I say, paid someone to purge the thick growths of poison ivy. Fought and pulled, yanked and grunted bales and bales of ivy from the trees and ground in a continuing war for dominance.

When the bones were clear I began to plant. The lists of shade tolerant shrubs and perennials read like a who’s who of my garden. Mistakes were made. Shade is not shade. Lessons learned. Successes were savored. Learning that gardening in shade reduces the need for weeding, plus you perspire less. Perfect!

Oak tree lost in battle with Hurricane Sandy

Oak tree lost in battle with Hurricane Sandy

But Sandy decided she knew better and redesigned my garden. She blew in and knocked down three large oak trees and a beech thereby instantly transforming my beloved woodland shade garden into a sun-splashed mecca. Thousands of weeds instantly rejoiced by dancing in the new sunshine, prancing in the beds and mulched walkways. Ivy rebounded with a vengeance of superiority, eyeing triumph. Scores of broken and battered kalmia, enkianthus, leucothoe, rhodi’s, azaleas, viburnum, hammemelis,  and andromeda wept.

And now?? Lessons begin again.

Looking for low-maintenance in the sunshine? Remembering our club trip to the Highline designed by Piet Oudorf, my Dutch hero, I’m creating new plant lists with sunshine in mind to cover the time for my new gingko to grow and spread. Shade my grandson will perhaps enjoy in case I miss it.

Amsonia, salvia, achillea, aster, coreopsis, Echinacea, eremurus, liriope, persicaria, rudbeckia, sedum, helianthus, and grasses, yes many textures and heights of grasses. I’m excited now that my period of mourning has passed. Excited by all the new possibilities in the sunshine.

 

Hellebore Botany – Which Stage is Acceptable For Flower Show Judging

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The question was posed as to why some Hellebore’s can be entered into Flower Show judging and others are rejected. Here’s the long answer.

Understanding the botany of the Hellebore will help explain the answer to the Flower Show suitability.

The attraction and colors of the Hellebore, Figure #1, are not supplied by petals but rather sepals. Petals are usually lost after a flower is fertilized but sepals and bracts don’t suffer the same fate and are persistent

Botany of a Hellebore

Fig. 1. Diagram of the botanical parts of a Hellebore flower. Photo courtesy of Monica Tehomolic.

Sepals (A) normally form outside of petals as a protection and support of the bud and flower. There are usually 5 sepals, two outer, two inner and one both. A group of sepals is called a calyx.

The stamens (B) are the male part of the flower and are made up of 2 parts, the long white filament and the anther that sits on top holding the pollen. There can be up to 150 stamens per flower.

The stamens surround the female part of the flower, the carpel (C). Fertilization of the carpels can be by insects, bees or wind.

Replacing the petal in the case of Hellebores are small nectaries (D) that sit at the base of the sepals and provide food for pollinators. They don’t last very long and are shed at the same time as the stamens when the carpels swell with what will become seeds.

Fertilized Hellebores can seem attractive for quite a long time since the sepals are persistent and the swollen carpels (E) are distinctive. The sepals will tend to loose their color vibrancy over time however.

Because the Hellebore in Figure #2 is a fertilized flower, even though the sepals still appear fresh, this is not the stage when it is an acceptable specimen in a formal Flower Show submission.

So, the short answer to the question of whether the Hellebore in Figure #2 is acceptable for Flower Show judging is: No, since the center is a fertilized seed pod.

Hellebore botany

Fig. 2. Fertilized Hellebore. Photo courtesy of Monica Tehomolic

Losing my Patience with Impatiens

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Photos courtesy of Margery Daughtrey of Cornell Cooperative Ext of Suffolk County NY.

Early symptoms of leaf chlorosis and curling.
Photos courtesy of Margery Daughtrey of Cornell Cooperative Ext of Suffolk County NY.

The backbone of the shade gardener’s summer display has been Impatiens for as long as I’ve been gardening (which is longer than I’ll post in a public forum.  But that long starring role has come to an abrupt halt this year (2012) due to the infamous, Downy mildew fungal like disease caused by the pathogen, Plasmopara obducens. The symptoms caused millions of gardeners to drag out their hoses in attempts to combat the disease, which mimicked the appearance of water starved plants.

 

Leaf drop symptoms on Impatiens walleriana caused by Plasmopara obducens or Downy Mildew. Photo courtesy of Margery Daughtrey of Cornell Cooperative Ext of Suffolk County NY

Leaf drop symptoms on Impatiens walleriana caused by Plasmopara obducens or Downy Mildew. Photo courtesy of Margery Daughtrey of Cornell Cooperative Ext of Suffolk County N

This tremendous shake-up in the Horticultural industry has growers, breeders and chemists scrambling for solutions and workarounds. It isaffecting this billion dollar industry in big and small ways at a time when our economy is struggling. The gardener goes to the nursery to place part of their closely budgeted money to bring a season of color and happiness to their home.  The nursery is in a seasonally based business & feels the pressure of cultivating new customers into the Art of gardening as well as taking care of their established base of avid buyers.

 

Under competitive pressure these nurseries offer their customers plant warranties. It boggles the mind how a seasonal small business would be able to sustain themselves when a calamity like the collapse of the stalwart impatiens plants would affect their bottom line once the warranties start rolling in.

One of the largest growers and breeders of Impatiens is right here on Long Island.  Ivy Acres, located in Baiting Hollow, supplies a customer base not only on Long Island but also in New Jersey, Westchester County & Southwestern CT. They are the suppliers to the wholesale nurseries, so the chain of businesses affected continues up the chain of distribution.

What does that mean for us, the local gardener? What that means is that there is immense pressure to bring to market disease resistant replacements for the annual market geared to shade tolerant plants. For the next few years we will be seeing a tremendous array of new opportunities and options as replacement plants are introduced into the Horticultural market stream.

According to Mark Viette on his Sunday morning WOR radio show some suggested replacements for our dearly departed Impatiens walleriana at the moment are:

  • New Guinea Impatiens
  • Coleus
  • Begonias
  • Torenia
  • Browalia
  • Lobelia
  • Scavola

The Joys of Gardening in the Shade

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So now, after an unusually warm & snow-free winter, the weather has already skimmed the high ’80’s during the month of May. As I sit on my deck exhausted from the heat, wondering how I’m ever going to be able to do all my planting after I’ve indulged at our plant sale & exchanged plant trophies with my gardening girlfriends.

The good news is that I’m a shade gardener. (That’s not to be confused with a shady gardener.) If I play my cards right I never have to bow down in the bright sun, slather myself in sunblock, or supply myself with a straw hat. The sun, which in my youth was my friend, now entices me only from sheltered nooks.

I garden in full shade, dappled shade, high shade, mostly shade & some minimal shade. Because shade is an elusive distinction, my garden is a type of laboratory. Often I’ll divide a plant in order to test the shade tolerances of specific species or cultivars. I document my garden with extensive photos & data as part of my enjoyment of the Art of gardening.

Shade gardens are about subtleties. Textures of leaves, the size & scale of those leaves, the shiny leaves versus those with indumentation, rough to the touch or smooth as suede. Color in the shade is not blinded out by the harsh sunshine. One can appreciate the varieties of green, the blue-greens, the lime-greens, the purple-greens & how about green-green. The color of an emerging stem or bud versus that in its maturity is quite an event to observe in the shade garden.

My shade garden is zen-like for me. It’s about savoring the space, the sounds of the birds singing for their supper, the smell of the soil on moist mornings, the wandering on my woodland walks.

Oh, and one final thing, because of the shade there is very little weeding to be done. Sweet!

Woodland walkways with Ginkgo bench the inspiration for the artist, Mary Ahern.

Woodland walkways with Ginkgo bench in the distance.

Winter Interest

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My garden doesn’t go into the winter season all tidy & neat. I enjoy seeing seed heads popping through the snow. The visual treat of shadows cast about by the wind, dancing along the walls seen from the windows of my warm home.

From my dining room window, the seed heads of tall grasses are seen swaying in the breeze with the floodlight of the pure winter sun behind them.

From the kitchen window the afternoon sun gleams through the slivers of peeling bark of the Acer griseum, wisely named Paperbark Maple. Tissue thin decorations provided by nature.

What a joy to watch teensy birds land on the seed stalks of last summer’s Echinacea, barely bending them. My winter garden provides them a smorgasbord of treats so they keep coming back for more. We have an agreement.

The evergreen stalwarts of my woodland garden, the hellebores & Polystichum acrostichoides (what a fabulous name for a Christmas fern), help to delineate the pathways once the snow has fallen. They’re markers keeping me on the right track. I need that help quite often.

The hellebores serve another important service. They are the harbingers of spring. As I enjoy the subtle visual treats of winter I can’t help but poke underneath their large leaves seeking hungrily the buds signaling the beginnings of a new season of visual excitement.

Chasmanthium latifolium. Northern Sea Oats gracing my winter garden

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Planning For Next Year’s Fall Garden

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One of the ways I plan for next year’s garden is to take a look around, make notes & gather ideas from other gardens. This is particularly helpful in planning the fall garden.

I look for what plants have continued to hold their own & still look beautiful into this time of year. I avoid looking for suggestions at the nurseries & gardening centers because those plants have been coddled, fed, trained, trimmed & produced specifically to entice you to buy them as your own garden fades.

Instead, I look at the gardens of my friends. Which plants are in bloom & in which colors? Which have stood the ravages of a long season of pests, fungus & weather to still look stunning? Which plants have resisted the need for staking & other high maintenance gardening chores?

Here are a few of the choices you’ll find in the fall garden:

Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips'

Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips'

Chelone lyonii ‘Hot Lips’

Turtlehead

This cultivar is a bit shorter than the Chelone oblique & the pink color a bit brighter. It needs no staking & reliably blooms for weeks on end. The dried heads look stunning in the winter sun as they’re popping up through the snow.

Angelica gigas

Angelica is a sturdy biennial, which reseeds conservatively in the mixed border.

This chest high specimen blooms on tall stalks with purple broccoli like flowers adorning them for weeks on end. Just be careful not to lose them by being to earnest in your springtime weeding or you’ll miss out on this fall wonder.

Kirengeshoma palmata

Kirengeshoma palmata

Kirengeshoma palmata

This 4’ tall and 4’ wide no maintenance fall blooming plant sports pearl like buds of yellow flowers in the shade garden. No staking, no pruning, no pests. Just sturdy, reliable performance.

Call your friends. Visit your neighbors. See what’s blooming in their gardens as you plan for next year’s fall extravaganza.

Propagating Plectranthus

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Plectranthus and other members of the Lamiaceae family, like Coleus, are easy to propagate. These tender perennials are not hardy in my Zone 6 garden so before frost I bring in a few of my favorite plants as stock plants. If the plants are small enough I overwinter them in a pot with soil and towards the end of winter I begin propagation. If the plants are too big outside in the fall I proceed to take cuttings and begin propagation at that time.

An apical cutting of Plectranthus
An apical cutting of Plectranthus ciliatus ‘Zulu Wonder’

Whether I begin this process in the fall or late winter, this  is how I propagate my square stemmed plectranthus and coleus. I prefer to begin the process later rather than sooner since it makes the house less cluttered.

I use my fingers rather than scissors to snip off the leaves because the give me more control
I use my fingers rather than scissors to pinch off the leaves because that gives me more control over how close I can get to the stem

I cut sections off the host plant making sure that I have at about 5-7 leaf nodes. Then I pinch off most of the remaining leaves right to the stem taking care not to tear stips. Since the leave nodes are opposite, I leave only 2-4 nodes depending on the spacing between them on the stem.

Once I cleanly remove the excess leaves I discard them
Once I cleanly remove the excess leaves I discard them

I take off so many leaves since I want the energy of the plant to got towards root production rather than transpiration. I cut the stem to a length of 4-6 inches, making sure that I cut the stem just below my final node.

I like keeping the glass on my windowsill in the kitchen so I can enjoy watching the roots grow
I like keeping the glass on my windowsill in the kitchen so I can enjoy watching the roots grow

I leave the stems in a glass of water on my windowsill in the kitchen for a few weeks making sure to keep the water clean and the glass full. Once there are a sizable number of white roots and root hairs visible I plant each of the stems into a pot using fresh pro-mix potting soil. I place a bit of soil at the bottom of the pot, sprinkle in a bit of timed release fertilizer and then top it off with more soil to within about a half inch toward the top of the pot.

I try to keep the water clean and high enough on the nodes to develop more and healthier roots
I try to keep the water clean and high enough on the nodes to develop more and healthier roots

I make sure as I’m sprinkling the soil around the roots that they are evenly spaced and not cramped. I continue to water them without letting them dry out in their pots.

Wherever there is a leaf node submerged in water the roots will develop
Wherever there is a leaf node submerged in water the roots will develop

This propagation process always gives me a great feeling that spring is in the air even when there’s still snow on the ground.

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First Flowers of the Decade

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I know I’m suffering from a pretty awful case of cabin fever. So last Friday, January 22 my Hogging buddy, Elisabeth and I spent a wonderful day at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, NY.

Snowdrops are put on this planet to bring a smile to your face in winter
Snowdrops are put on this planet to bring a smile to your face in winter

Galanthus elwesii in bloom in the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden, NYBG
Galanthus elwesii in bloom in the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden, NYBG

Walking through the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Gardens on the way to the Conservatory, what do we see but the heralding of spring. The Galanthus elwesii and Helleborus niger were in bloom. Right out there, smack in the cold misery of January.

If you need a boost to get you through the next few weeks, seeing these in bloom is just the ticket.

Hellebore niger were in bloom as were the less showy Hellebore foetidus
Hellebore niger were in bloom as were the less showy Hellebore foetidus

In my own garden I have many cultivars of Hellebore but no Christmas roses
In my own garden I have many cultivars of Hellebore but no Christmas roses

Check your own gardens for what buds are beginning to swell and whether your daffodils are starting to push through the mulch.  When I came home from the NYBG I did just that and found a whole host of growth going on right outside my windows.

Yippee!

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Here’s the Reason you need at least two Brugmansias

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The previous photos of my Pink Brugmansia were taken on August 22, 2008, which you can see on my last posting. The photos shown here were taken 7 days later on August 29th. 
Pink Brugmansia blooms one week old

Pink Brugmansia blooms one week old

What a sad denouement if I had not been so happy to see and smell the arrival of the Yellow Brugmansia. They take complementary sentinel positions opposite the French doors on my deck.
Brugmansia Sentinels

Brugmansia Sentinels

Although Brugmansia’s bloom with many blossoms at one time you can get lulled into thinking that you’ll always have flowers to enjoy. My experience here in my non-tropical Long Island NY weather zone is that these plants flower in waves. Each plant will put out many blooms at once and then rest for a few weeks before pouring out another batch.

Single Brugmansia Bloom

Single Brugmansia Bloom

In order to keep the rhythm going, I like to have a few different cultivars so that at any one time I’m either on my way with incoming buds or enjoying the actual huge flowers themselves. I’ve learned to enjoy the incoming bud stage since the one week of bloom time is too fleeting.

Actually, now that I think about it so were my 40’s and for that matter my 50’s as well.

First White Then Becoming a Pink Brugmansia

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Brugmansia suoveolens “Pink Beauty” in full bloom.

Here is my Brugmansia suoveolens “Pink Beauty” in full bloom. So how did that white one slip in? In the morning the flowers are white but as the day moves on they turn pink. Very Cool!

Well…one of the many things I like about my Brugmansia is that when the bloom first opens it is white and during the day the color gradually floods into this sensuous pink. Over time, as the blooms ripen they darken before they dissolve and drop. So what you have is the wonderful serenade of color chords which change over the hours and days.

This plant commands attention when in bloom.

These flowers start to give off their musky fragrance in late afternoon in the garden of the Artist, Mary Ahern.

These flowers start to give off their musky fragrance in the late afternoon.

I’ve overwintered this tree for many years now in my zone 6 home. Just before frost, I cut the tall stalks back to just one or two central leaders of about 4 foot in height removing all the side branches and all the foliage. I put the pots in an unassuming corner of the house and place them behind tall tropical ferns to hide them in their dormancy.

Beginning in February I begin to offer them small sips of water and by April I begin to put them out on the deck on warmer days to acclimate them to the weather. I find that they will endure more chill in the air than any of my other tropicals so this is a plus in a rather crowded home without a greenhouse for overwintering.

I tried my unheated garage one year and lost all my specimens so I won’t be trying that again soon! I don’t let them develop any leaves indoors since I find them prone to whiteflies and scale so I keep them as a summer treat.

What a treat! In the late afternoon, the musky odor of these amazing blooms wafts through the air and sneaks in the screens filling our home with summer. Although I do know that some people liken the smell to that of some floozy with overbearing cheap perfume flouncing her way dominantly into their senses.

Depends on your associations I guess.

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Five Plants I Would Save In My Garden

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Kansas Peonies Artwork made from the original gift from my son Chris. By the Artist, Mary Ahern.

“Kansas Peonies” Art inspired from my Mother’s Day present.

Four O’Clocks were my first introduction to growing plants from seed. Uncle Teddy took me by the hand at his home in Schenectady and introduced me, the kid from Brooklyn, to gardening. I can still smell the soil as we dropped the seeds of Four O’Clocks into the ground he taught me to prepare. Four O’Clocks weren’t the only things growing in his garden, so was I.

The Kansas Peonies I grow in my garden was a Mother’s Day present from my son Chris. I have so many gifts he’s given to me over our many years together but I still cherish the bright pink of these robust plants each year as they bloom for me right in season. They return each Mother’s Day, expanding and adding to their beauty, as does he.

Japanese Maple in the garden of the Artist, Mary Ahern.

Japanese Maple a birthday gift.

One year for my September birthday, my son, Michael came swooping in proudly bestowing upon me a stripling of a Japanese Maple. Still dangling was the $9.99 tag placed on it from Home Depot. Now, this mature specimen holds court as a central focal point in my front garden.

A bouquet of Zinnias comes into my hands each year when my husband Dave buys them from the gardener with a stand up the street from us. The grin on his boyish face as he hands them to me with love is matched only by the riotous colors of the single and double flowers grouped tightly in his hands.

On Mother’s Day this year my grandson C.J. bounced up to greet me with a pot full of poppies. He shares my garden with me and helps to bring my attention to all the wonderful colors and shapes he finds there for fear I might miss them. These poppies are pink he told me and reminded me that we need to photograph everything so we’ll remember how they looked.

I’ll remember.

Six Years and One Month Later in My Garden Design

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Garden Entry April 2002 of the Artist, Mary Ahern.

Garden Entry April 2002

I’ve been working on my garden for a long time. When I had the driveway widened, I had bluestone gravel put down since I like the crunching sound of homecoming when I drive off the paved street into the driveway.

I took the stones, which come up every time I sink a shovel into the garden, and used them to create the edging with the slight curves that welcome you onto the property and foreshadow the style which will be followed throughout the garden. Though I had professionals widen the driveway and initially place the stones I supplied, I moved them and moved them for quite awhile until I got the actual curves visually right.

I moved the stone edging 6 times before I was satisfied with the curves. I did this instead of joining a gym.

Garden Entry May 2008 of the Artist, Mary Ahern.

Garden Entry May 2008

I planted spring bulbs and flowers, in order to give an early season, welcome to the folks driving by and the ones who walk by on their daily exercise circuit. I am pleased how the area filled in since my initial planting in 2001. In fact, it has filled in so fully that I’m able to divide and share the wealth with some other eager gardeners.

I like the way the stones seem to have settled into their niches and look as though they’ve always lived where they are. The soil has slid through the gaps and the ground covers have leaped over the tops, naturalizing their display.