Hi gardeners
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| Allium |
It’s June, the half-way point of
the year. It’s hard to think that the longest day of the year is just a few weeks
away. I am having a hard time believing it’s June, the weather is so cool and
wet. On Sunday night we got down to 38 degrees here. We had a whole dry, sunny day yesterday, with
a high of 65. It’s warm now, but showers
are predicted later today.
I used the cool weather to make a
trip to the greenhouse yesterday. It’s nicer to walk around in a greenhouse
when it’ s cool. I would say it is my last trip of the spring/summer season and
I think it should be- but I won’t lie, another trip to some greenhouse somewhere
might pop up. And boy did I load up on
plants, things were really calling calling out to me. But now they need planting, if it doesn’t
rain too much I’ll be in the garden much of tomorrow.
I bought some beautiful begonias –
angel wings and tuberous- I intended to make hanging baskets with them to replace my
baskets of pansies I have up now. The
pansies are growing beautifully this cool wet spring, but they do fade in warm
weather. I made up the baskets using
compost mixed with potting medium. Then
I tried to hang them. The soil is so wet
and the baskets so heavy that my shepherd’s hooks tilt over with them. So that’s a problem to solve.
I used some of the begonias in
another project. Last year I bought some
stacking pots at a garage sale, 6 pots for a $1. They look like 3 six-inch pots joined
together in a shamrock shape. I made two
stacks of three pots. They take a lot of
soil to fill but I guess that keeps them from tipping over. I’ve got one planted, tuberous begonias on
top, new guinea impatiens on the second level and wax begonias on the
bottom. I’m still deciding on what to
fill the second with.
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| My bargain stacking pots |
Blooming in my mid thumb of
Michigan garden right now are bearded iris, dames rocket, alliums, lilacs, lily
of the valley, wild geraniums, bleeding heart, forget me nots, and mayapples. The autumn olive is blooming out in the
wilder parts of the property and you can smell the sweet scent wafting on the
wind. The bees are very happy and covering the plants. The red osier dogwood is also blooming. The ninebark and bristly locust are just
starting to bloom.
My “special” plant Mary Helen got
a little sister last week who I named Marcella.
I hope to get these two outside in a locked area soon, it needs to get a
bit warmer. I don’t know what will
happen, but it’s been an experience growing them.
My wisteria story
I have an interesting wisteria in
bloom. Well it has one bloom that I can
see anyway. This wisteria has a backstory. About ten years ago I was teaching a master
gardener class and a woman in the class brought a seedpod for me to identify. I
recognized it as a wisteria seed pod.
The woman had picked it from a vine in the display gardens of MSU, which
she probably should not have done.
After I identified it, she sat the
seedpod down on the desk in front of her and class began. All of a sudden there was a loud pop, and
everyone jumped. The seed pod had exploded, some seeds embedded themselves in
the ceiling tiles above us. There was
nervous laughter. One seed landed near
me and I picked it up and put it aside. Later,
back in my office I found it among some papers and on a whim, I stuck it in an African
violet pot on my desk.
A few weeks later I realized a
baby wisteria was growing in the pot and when it was warm outside, I took it
home to plant. I planted it in a raised
bed in front of a little chicken coop I later turned into a little unheated
greenhouse.
As wisteria tend to do, it grew
rapidly. It twined up and over the
greenhouse onto the barn roof. I had my
husband put a beam between the greenhouse and a post for the garden fence and
we trained it over that. It forms a
leafy arbor that hides the path to the compost pile. It sneaks its tentacles into the barn by going
under the eaves and a large piece snakes across the dimly lit loft of the barn. Its aggressive.
However, for the last 10 years it
has not bloomed. I have some native
wisteria out on the far lawn that blooms in late spring. It’s interwoven with another native, trumpet vine. That’s another story.
As I mentioned earlier, I spotted
a bloom yesterday on my seed grown plant.
About time that monster bloomed, I thought. It’s a lovely pale lavender, almost white
with a darker purple “keel” petal, unlike any wisteria I’ve seen. An internet search however, did turn up some
pictures that looked like it, but never really identified as to whether it’s a
particular cultivar.
I have never been to the gardens at
MSU when the wisteria are in bloom so I don’t know what color the flowers
are. I don’t even know what species of
wisteria they are. I am assuming this is
a native species, possibly American wisteria,
Wisteria
frutescens, because it bloomed after it leafed out. The
leaves are right for that species. Most
Japanese and Chinese wisteria bloom before they leaf out. But I have never seen a native species
colored like this.
I may make a phone call to MSU Horticultural Garden staff
to see if they can tell me what type of wisteria they are growing and what color
the blooms are. Since this grew from
seed and not a cutting it’s possible it’s just a weird color mutation. I am hoping it will have more blooms next
year – or maybe even a bit later this year.
So here’s a picture of my wisteria.
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| Mysterious wisteria |
Those old garden “sayings”
“First year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they
leap.” This is a
common garden quote referring to perennial plants. But is this quote accurate?
Personally, I think it’s accurate for most perennials. There are some exceptions of course, some
because of the nature of the plant species and sometimes because of unusual
circumstances, that make perennial plants grow faster or slower than the
saying. (I’m talking about herbaceous perennials; woody plants are a whole
other ball game.)
The saying doesn’t refer to the
age of the plant but the length of time from when you plant it to when it has
fully adjusted to your garden. When you plant a perennial, even a large potted
one, it tends to take a year to adjust to its new surroundings. The larger,
more mature plants may add some new foliage and even bloom. But in general,
they won’t be as large or as full of blooms as they will be in years to
come.
If you buy small seedling
perennials growth may seem very slow.
Many seedling perennials won’t bloom the first year. And it will take at least 3 years for them to
look mature and have a good bloom count.
I like to buy perennials that are
midway between seedling and mature stage, in their second or third year. This
is usually a quart or gallon sized pot, depending on species. You get a decent display from them and they
seem to adjust to their new conditions better than larger plants. It’s a common stage people buy perennials in
because while they look nice, the cost is easier on the bank account than
larger, more mature plants. But even at this stage it will take several years
for these plants to reach their full potential.
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| 1st year |
All perennials will not reach
their full potential by the third year. But I do think the third year after you
plant most perennials is when you look at them and think about how beautiful
they look. Or you look at them and say –
“Oh my goodness why did I plant them so close together?” Some perennials will continue to get better
every year after that, hosta are a good example. But unfortunately, some will begin to
decline.
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| 3rd year |
Perennial doesn’t mean a plant
lives forever. All plant species have a
normal lifespan. Some are considered short lived perennials, meaning they may
make that “third year they leap stage” and then fade away. Some may live 10 years; some may live 50.
And some people don’t realize that
many garden stores sell biennial plants as perennials. Some Agastache, campanulas,
columbines, coreopsis, delphiniums, dianthus, hollyhocks, violas and many
native plants have biennial life cycles.
Biennials tend to die after they bloom, generally in their second year. If
you bought them with blooms, it’s the second year and they probably aren’t
coming back next year.
There may be perennial species in
those families and breeders are always working to make longer lived hybrids but
there may not be a “leap” year for some of these. You did nothing wrong if they don’t reappear
the year after you plant one in bloom, which is usually the plants second year,
they just completed their life cycle.
Some biennial plants reseed
freely, and you’ll often have plants for many years, but it won’t be the same
plant. That’s often why people think a
plant has “moved”, it’s a seed grown plant.
The first year it came up it may have been hidden beneath other plants,
but the second year it becomes more noticeable when it blooms.
Some plants, bearded iris, for
instance, need to be divided every 3 or so years for them to continue to bloom
and do well. But be aware some plants
don’t need division and will resent you cutting into them, peonies and
cimicifuga are good examples. If you are continually dividing plants, you may
never see the glory of a large mature plant or clump of plants. You set that
clock back to the sleep or creep year each time you divide.
I know some people like to share
plants and others divide so they can populate other parts of the garden, but
many people divide their perennials far more often than they should. Their gardens never have that full lush
mature look because the leap year is missing.
“Always plant in threes or fives or odd multiples.” This is another garden saying and
often refers to perennials. And it’s
nonsense if you ask me. This can be
quite daunting to new gardeners who barely have money for one perennial, much
less three of the same. And it’s
definitely not necessary to have at least 3 of each plant species to have a
nice-looking garden.
Some plants do look better in
groups and for some reason odd numbers are frequently more pleasing to the
eye. If you are striving for a very
formal looking garden this “rule” should be considered more faithfully. Groups
of the same plant, often alternating with other groups of plants and repeated
through the space is a common formal design method. But for many species of
perennials and many gardens it isn’t necessary.
Plants that are narrow and small
may need to be grouped to have an impact in the garden. Two or four may do as well as three. Full, large plants often don’t need to be
grouped for impact. In a small garden
there may be room for only one or two plants of the same species. If you are
filling large open areas, then grouping similar plants may look better. Or one large spectacular plant of a certain
species may be your perfect focal point.
Each garden is different, and each gardener has a different idea of what
pleases them, and if it’s your garden then it should please you.
The rule of three doesn’t have to
mean 3 of the same variety of something either.
You don’t have to plant 3 broad leaved, blue foliaged hosta together,
you could plant one blue, one white variegated and one gold variety. Or plant three blue hosta if you like the
look. Mixing textures and sizes is a
generally pleasing look for an informal garden, plant one big blue broad leaved
hosta behind two smaller, narrow leaved golden hosta for instance. Or you may want to fill the space with one
hosta, one astilbe and one heuchera.
If you are new to gardening and
don’t have a natural eye for design, look at a lot of different gardens both in
person and in magazines and online until you get a feel for what you like. And then
just get started. You can usually change
things later if it doesn’t please you. After a while you’ll get a feel for what
plants need company of their own kind to look good and what plants look fine
alone. Most people are constantly tinkering with their garden design.
“You should have seen it last week” is a common garden quote too. It’s
very difficult to always have something in bloom through the garden season if
you only use perennials in the garden.
No matter how carefully you plan there is going to be a time, maybe a
brief time, maybe a longer time, when nothing is in bloom. If a group is coming
to tour your garden, it’s almost a given that nothing will be in bloom. That is
why you must plan so that even without blooms the garden looks attractive.
Plants with variegated foliage and
interesting contrasts of foliage textures and sizes will help, as does prompt
deadheading so things look tidy. Tasteful garden art helps. But annuals are
your friend in the garden. Planting some flowering annuals among your
perennials will keep things colorful and interesting when perennials are
between bloom cycles.
And that brings me to another
garden saying. “A garden is never finished.” If you are a gardener and not
just a landscaper, then you know this is true.
A landscaper throws in a few plants he knows are a good formula look for
the space and says, “I’m finished”. Even a landscaper can’t predict what nature
and time will do, however.
You won’t “finish” your
garden. You may stop devoting more space
to gardening (when you run out of space), but you will never finish a garden.
Gardens always change and you must work with the changes. If you have a very
simple garden with few plant species, you may have a few years when things will
look much the same but don’t hold your breath.
There will be changes. Even if
you work your butt off to keep the status quo, your garden will change.
There are years when everything
works out just right and my garden is so beautiful and so perfectly tuned that
I wish it could look like this every year.
But I know it won’t. Maybe it
will be even better next year, maybe it will be somewhat disappointing, but it
will be different. Weather happens,
plants die, and plants grow bigger. I add plants, I remove plants. Plants come up from seed. A tree gives more
shade or a tree falls. The septic tank
must be dug up or the roofer throws shingles down on the garden. There always
comes a time when I say – that’s it for this year- but until winter closes the
garden for the year changes will keep happening.
So, make your plans and take your
pictures. But know this, a garden is never finished.
Should you
dig up spring bulbs after flowering?
If your spring flowering bulbs
have finished blooming, it’s a big temptation to cut off the yellowing foliage. But please resist the urge if you want the
bulbs to bloom again next year. It also seems
to be a trend recently to dig up the spring flowering bulbs and store them over
summer. The only common bulbs that might
be helped by this tactic are tulips. Most
of the other common spring flowering bulbs don’t need to be dug up and stored
during the summer. You might lose some
of these bulbs over the summer, but it shouldn’t be many unless you destroy
them planting other things or you don’t allow them to die back naturally.
It’s a lot of work for little reason
to dig up and store bulbs and even digging tulips to store must be weighed
against the work you will do and the results you will get. And if you do this you must still wait until
the foliage has yellowed on the bulbs and died down naturally, which eliminates
making things look better as a reason for doing it.
Tulips may not reliably return
each year in gardens. That is because
they prefer to be dry over the summer and because they are eaten by many
animals. But even if you dig and store
your tulip bulbs after they bloom, it’s not guaranteed they will bloom as
nicely as they did the first year after you planted them. Tulips are grown for sale under the best
conditions possible and harvested at the ideal time. Then they are stored under
exacting conditions until they are shipped to you. Home gardeners rarely get these professional
growers results.
For the best results with tulips you
can choose tulip varieties that are marked as being “perennial” varieties or
choose the smaller flowered species tulips, which seem to handle our summers
better. Or you can simply plant more tulips
each year to make up for those that are lost.
How to care for bulbs after bloom
You can remove the flowers and
flower stems of all bulbs as they fade, unless you are trying to get seed. Producing seed takes energy away from the
bulb which needs to store reserves of food to produce next year’s flowers. Sometimes the seed heads of large alliums are
left for structural interest. The seeds
of alliums will drop off and readily start new bulbs, although it may take a
few years before they bloom. Some alliums
can become invasive. Crocus may
reproduce in the garden by seeding themselves, but few other bulbs will reliably
do so.
Try not to remove the foliage of any
bulbs until it has yellowed and died down on its own. The foliage is needed to produce food for the
bulb. After a bulb blooms its leaves
start producing food reserves for the bulb and next year’s flowers. If leaves are removed too soon next year’s
flower may be smaller, or the bulbs may not bloom at all. Even if you want to dig
and store the bulbs over summer they should be left in the ground until the
foliage has died back naturally.
Should you braid or cut back yellowing
bulb foliage? This may be slightly
better than removing it, but it can harm the plants ability to make a nice
flower for next year. Be patient and let
nature do things the right way.
Yellowing bulb foliage can be
hidden by emerging perennials or you can plant hardy annuals around the bulbs
to hide the foliage. This doesn’t seem to affect the bulbs ability to make next
year’s flower. In their natural habitat
bulb foliage is commonly covered by later emerging plants. It doesn’t hurt to plant annuals over and
around the bulbs going dormant if you don’t dig them up or cut into them. If you dig bulbs up accidentally, simply re-plant
them.
Daylilies make excellent perennial
covers for dying bulb foliage in sunny areas, hostas make good covers if the bulbs
are under deciduous trees (shady in summer). Many other perennials can also
provide camouflage for dying bulb foliage. In the fall you can tuck the bulbs you plant
under the foliage of these plants. That
way you won’t disturb the perennials root systems and you know the bulb foliage
will be hidden after the perennials emerge in spring.
If you naturalized bulbs in a lawn
this means you cannot mow until the bulb foliage has yellowed and
withered. This is difficult for some
people to tolerate, because they like a neat, mowed look to the lawn. That’s why naturalized bulbs work best when
planted in groundcovers or at the edges of lawns.
How long bulb foliage takes to die
back depends on the species of bulb and the weather, but most bulb foliage will
be gone by the end of June. After the
foliage is gone there is little you need to do for bulbs until next spring except
remember where they are, so you don’t disturb them planting other things.
After the bulb foliage has died
back you can dig the bulbs to divide them or move them if you need to. You can re-plant them immediately.
If you do want to store tulips or
other bulbs, dig them carefully, shake the dirt off, remove any dead foliage,
then spread them out on newspaper somewhere warm and dark for a few days to “cure”. Then pack them in wood shavings and store in
a cool dark place. Plant them in fall
after the soil has cooled down.
Lawn grass and flooding
If you can’t mow because the
lawn is under water, I understand. I
have areas underwater this year too. It
may save time when you can’t mow, but you may be worried about what is
happening to the grass.
Grass that is totally under
water for any period of time greater than 48 hours will probably die. Warm, sunny conditions while beginning to dry
the ground, will hasten grass death if water can’t be removed. Grass only partially submerged will last
longer but totally saturated soil leads to rotting of the grass roots and if
the condition lasts a week or so the lawn may die.
Bluegrass, the most common
Midwestern lawn grass, has some tolerance to flooding while perennial and
annual rye is less tolerant. Bentgrass,
common on golf courses is pretty tolerant.
After you can get to the grass dig a small clump to check on it. If you see firm white roots and bases of the
leaf stems, (crowns) the grass may make it.
Black or brown mushy looking roots and crowns mean the grass is dead.
If silt and debris were
deposited on the lawn during the flooding the chances of lawn grass surviving
may be less. A small layer, less than an
inch, may not impact the lawn much unless it is heavily contaminated with
harmful substances such as salt, oil and gas, but a deep layer of mud or debris
will kill the grass. If it cannot be
removed with raking or shallow shoveling you will probably want to re-seed the
lawn.
If you suspect contamination
of the soil, seed a small area with annual rye grass, which will germinate
quickly and grow if the debris didn’t contaminate the soil. Then you can seed with more expensive lawn
grass. If the ryegrass doesn’t grow well
you may have to scrape off the contaminated soil down to the original soil,
removing the dead sod, before re-planting.
If your grass seemed to make
it through the flood it will benefit from fertilizing with nitrogen, especially
if it is looking yellow or pale green.
Use a lawn fertilizer without any weed killers or insecticides for
this. Follow the label directions or use
about 3 pounds per 1000 square feet.
Unless your soil has really dried out, don’t water the fertilizer into
the soil as is normally done, it should dissolve in contact with wet soil.
As long as the soil is wet,
limit traffic on the lawn so that the soil doesn’t get compacted or
rutted. You may even have to let it get
a little longer than usual before mowing. If you do, only take off a third of
the grass blade on the first mowing. If
it needs to be shortened further wait a few days, then mow again. Keep the grass blades about 3 ½ inches. Never use a weighted roller on the lawn when
it’s wet to “flatten” it. This will
cause serious soil compaction and limit the growth of grass roots.
June almanac
June is a wonderful
month in the northern hemisphere, the month when strawberries ripen, and roses
begin to bloom. Indeed, this month’s
full moon, (June 17th), is called the Full Strawberry moon in North America
and Full Rose moon in European countries.
We might have strawberries here by the full moon, if they don’t get
washed away. Moon perigee is the 7th
and moon apogee is the 23rd.
Meteorically summer
begins June 1. The astrological start of summer is summer solstice on June 21,
2019 at 11:54 a.m. EDT. At the time of the solstice the sun is at its highest
point and the point farthest north that it gets in the northern
hemisphere. Solstice comes from Latin,
roughly meaning sun stands still. At the
solstice the sun seems to pause for a few days, and then slowly reverses its
direction, moving back toward the south and lower in the sky. Sadly, it’s the longest day of the year and
the nights get longer after the solstice.
In ancient times
this event, the solstice, was always celebrated. It’s still a good day to have a campfire,
gaze at stars and wonder at the immensity of the universe and our place in it.
Back in May I talked
about May folklore and Chilly Saints Days which were the 11th, 12th,
and 13th. In 2019 they
certainly were chilly here, and wet. The first Ember Day, which is supposed to
predict the weather for June, was May 22nd and it was average in
temperature, but it rained all day. So according to folklore June is going to
be rainy but normal temperature wise. So
we shall see.
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| 'Harrison's Yellow' rose |
June’s birth flower
is, of course, the rose. There are 3
birthstones for June (thanks to greedy jewelers), the pearl, the moonstone and
the alexandrite. The month of June is named after the Roman goddess Juno, the
goddess of marriage, family and childbirth. To marry in June was said to make a
couple fertile and blessed with prosperity.
June is National
Rose, Dairy, and Fresh Fruit and Vegetables month. It’s Adopt a Cat month. It’s also Gay Pride
month and Fight the Filthy Fly month.
June 4th is Old Maids Day and the 5th
is World Environment day. Flag Day is June 14th and Father’s Day is
June 16th this year. The 17th
is Eat your Vegetables day. The 26th
is Forgiveness Day, what a wonderful day to celebrate.
And since all this loveliness cannot be
Heaven, I know in my heart it is June.
-
Abba Woolson
Kim Willis
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I write this because I
love to share with other gardeners some of the things I come across in my
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Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blog.....thanks for all you do....Marty O.