Hi Gardeners
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| 2020 perennial of the year Aralia 'Sun King' in my garden |
I am always talking about the weather it seems,
weather is important to gardeners. We escaped last weekends predicted nasty ice
storm with just some crusty light snow.
Now we have to wait and see what tomorrow and this weekend will bring in
winter weather.
This year’s winter weather has been weird to say the
least, with its rounds of warm and cold weather. I am walking around garden beds looking for
bulbs and plants that have been heaved from the ground by alternating frosts
and thaws. They can be saved if promptly replanted. The weather forecasters are
predicting a change in weather patterns next week, with a return to more normal
winter weather. We shall see, I guess. It’s 40 degrees here today.
Inside I do have things blooming. My red amaryllis is blooming, and the gerbera
daisy has rebounded well from it’s seeming demise and now has a big red flower
too. Hibiscus are in bloom and holiday cacti.
A large coleus I brought inside this fall is blooming like crazy,
although it’s blooms aren’t that showy.
I have been watching birds at the feeder this week. When
we moved to the farm 25 years ago or so there were lots of English sparrows
around. Now you rarely see them. What seems to have taken their place is the
House finch, a sparrow sized bird with raspberry colored heads and streaked
breasts. Huge flocks of them monopolize the feeders. Goldfinches also seem to
be less abundant than last year, maybe chased off by the house finches. Are you seeing more house finches at your house?
I’ve continued to look at catalogs for interesting
plants and I’m sharing some things below and I am also adding new listings to my
garden catalog list on my blog. I’m also writing about the plants chosen as “plants
of the year” for 2020 this week.
The internet has allowed plant sellers to reach wide
audiences and new companies pop up all the time. People seeking plants have never had an
easier time finding them. I encourage you
to explore on- line sites and read the catalogs. Look for places you have never heard of
before. It’s fascinating and helps beat
the winter blues.
Focus on the Gas Plant Dictamnus albus
var.purpureus
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| Gas plant Photo Select Seed |
My grandmother grew this pretty plant. She told me that on a summer evening you
could light the gas that the plant gave off.
That prompted several secretive attempts by my brother and me to light
that gas with matches or a lighter, all to no avail. While this plant, with the common name of gas
plant, can in some situations produce a volatile gas, the conditions must be just
right to actually light it.
The methane gas is given off by older dying flowers
and the star shaped seed pods on still hot evenings. Some people have been successful
in lighting it for a brief burst of harmless flame. Because it is native to Biblical
regions it is thought this may be the burning bush of bible stories, which
gives it another common name, burning bush. Other common names are dittany and fraxinella. It is also native to southern Europe and northern
Africa.
The gas plant is more than just a novelty though and
it deserves more use in American gardens. It has long been considered an old-fashioned
cottage garden perennial, but it would also be an excellent plant for butterfly
gardens and “natural” landscapes. It
would be a good plant to mix with grasses for contrast and color. No, it’s not
a native plant but lends itself well to low maintenance, “wild”
landscapes. It’s not invasive.
The gas plant is a long lived, semi-woody perennial
plant. It forms a clump of long strong stems 3’-4’ x 3’ when mature. The leaves
are glossy, odd pinnate and light green. They give off a lemony scent when
brushed. Gas plants are attractive even
when not in bloom. The plant is slow growing, generally taking three years from
seed to bloom. Gas plants have large tap roots.
In summer clusters of pretty and fragrant 5 petaled, star shaped flowers form on the ends of the stems. In Dictamnus albus the
flowers are white, in the variety purpureus the flowers are a pale mauve
pink with darker purple lines. It’s the
variety most often sold today. The flowers are attractive to butterflies and
bees. The flowers can be used as cut flowers.
Gas plant flowers turn into attractive star shaped
seed pods, which can be left in the garden for interest or used in dried
arrangements. As mentioned, the flowers
and seed pods do give off a gas which under the right circumstances, can be lit
for a brief flame. However, the plants
are not a fire hazard.
The sap from plant parts can provoke allergic reactions
in some people and may cause a rash if the sap gets on the skin and then is
exposed to light. Wash the skin after
exposure to gas plant sap. Plants and flowers are mildly toxic if ingested, but the
taste is very bad, and most people and animals would not eat enough to harm
themselves. This makes the gas plant unattractive to deer and rabbits, a plus
in the garden.
Cultural directions
The gas plant is hardy in planting zones 3-8. It actually likes cold winters. In the south
it will tolerate light shade, but in the north, it should be in full sun. It’s
not fussy about soil types, except the planting site must be well drained. It
needs regular watering until well established, after which it can tolerate
drought well.
Gardeners should start with small plants if they can
find them because seed starting can be difficult and germination can take 6
months. Plant the gas plant where it
will not be disturbed again as the plants do not transplant well. They are slow
to establish, and it may be a year or more before new plants produce blooms.
Because they have a strong tap root gas plants cannot be divided, and care
should be taken not to disturb the plants roots. Mature plants get large so site them
carefully when they are first planted as moves are rarely successful.
Gas plants are slow to leaf out in the spring so don’t
prune off stems until you are sure they are dead. The only pruning needed is to
remove any dead stems in early summer. The plants rarely have disease or insect
problems. Fertilize lightly if at all. Plants are not invasive in the garden, only
rarely appearing from dropped seed and they do not spread by rhizomes.
The gas plant is a low maintenance, long lived
perennial plant that deserves much more use in gardens. It has attractive
foliage, pretty flowers that bees and butterflies like and deer don’t like
it. What more can you ask of a plant?
Here’s a place you can buy gas plants
2020 Award winning plants
AAS Winners
-Every year the All American Selections are awarded by a committee of members
who vote on plants with desirable characteristics that have been proven to be
great plants by being grown in trial gardens across the country. Some of these
plants have been around a few years and others are fairly new. I’m going to
list the ones chosen for excellence across the country. AAS also picks regional winners.
AAS winners will be available in a variety of places
including local nurseries.
Echinacea Sombrero® Baja Burgundy 2020
AAS Herbaceous Perennial Winner- this echinacea has bold
violet burgundy flowers. The judges say
it has a strong branching habit, abundant blooms and is reliably hardy. I have a yellow Sombrero variety that I love
so I may add this one too.
Nasturtium Tip Top Rose 2020 AAS Flower
Winner- this nasturtium has a nice mounded habit and
beautiful, unusual rosy pink flowers. It
attracts bees and butterflies and you can eat the flowers too! Annual plant.
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| Nasturtium 'Tip Top Rose' |
Rudbeckia x American Gold Rush 2020 AAS
Herbaceous Perennial Winner- this is a black-eyed
Susan for those with smaller gardens.
The compact rounded plants are loaded with sunny yellow flowers. It’s a
hardy perennial and has good resistance to Septoria leaf spot.
Cucumber Green Light F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- this is a mini cuke, full of small,
smooth, sweet cukes. Because it’s an all-female strain production is very good
and fruits are seedless.
Pumpkin Blue Prince F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- this plant produces 7-9 pound flattened
pumpkins with a pretty pastel blue color. Besides being ornamental the pumpkins
also taste good, with sweet orange flesh and are great for baking and other
culinary uses. It’s an early and
abundant producer.
Watermelon Mambo F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- here’s an early watermelon that will grow
even in cool cloudy conditions. The fruits are round, about 11 pounds with a
deep green rind and deep red, sweet flesh.
They hold well on the vine too, for a great home garden watermelon.
Tomato Apple Yellow F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- this plant produces abundant yellow,
uniquely apple shaped fruits. The fruits
are small but larger than cherry tomatoes. They are non- splitting and judges
said they had a balanced sweet and acidic flavor with a hint of citrus.
Tomato Buffalosun F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- this is a hybrid of two heirloom tomatoes
with better disease resistance and vigor than the parents. It is a medium sized
orange-red tomato with flame like markings. The flesh is marbled and sweet yet
firm, with old fashioned tomato flavor.
Tomato Celano F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- this tomato is a bush type but some
support is needed. It has red, oblong grape
tomato size fruit in clusters. Very
abundant producer of delicious fruit.
Tomato Chef’s Choice Bicolor F1 2020 AAS
Edible-Vegetable Winner- this tomato is a flattened beefsteak
type with large fruits. The fruits are
streaked with pink and yellow, as is the flesh inside. Sweet and flavorful as
any heirloom, but more disease resistant.
Tomato Crokini F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- you are supposed to pronounce the name as
“Rockini”. It’s a cherry type tomato
that’s a very sweet, low acid variety. The plants are compact, yield is good
and plants are disease resistant.
Tomato Early Resilience F1 2020 AAS
Edible-Vegetable Winner- this one is a variety good for
canning and cooking, with deep red, meaty Roma type fruits. It’s resistant to blossom
end rot and other tomato diseases and an abundant producer on stocky
plants. It’s a determinant variety,
producing most of its fruit at one time.
Tomato Galahad F1 2020 AAS Edible –
Vegetable Winner- a highly disease resistant tomato that
also resists cracking. It has large red, meaty tomatoes and is very productive.
Perennial Plant Association 2020 Winner
This year the perennial plant association has chosen 2020
Aralia cordata 'Sun King' as the perennial of the year. If you have ever needed a larger dose of
foliage color in a shady spot, then Aralia may be for you. This particular
variety has a very good golden shade. I
have this aralia in my garden and love it.
It’s also known as Japanese Spikenard.
‘Sun King’ begins spring with bright golden foliage
on reddish stems. Mature plants are
about 4 feet x 3 feet. If the plant gets
dappled sun or a few hours of sun it will remain golden all summer, otherwise
it becomes chartreuse but still attractive. It really doesn’t appreciate full sun,
however. Its hardy in zones 3-9 but dies to the ground in zone 3-5, coming back
quickly in spring. They do have spikes
of white flowers in late summer, but they aren’t grown for the flowers.
See a picture of Sun King in my garden at the top of the blog.
You can buy ‘Sun King’ in many places including
Bluestone Perennials
Rose of the year 2020
The floribunda rose ‘Sweet Honey’ otherwise
known as 'Kormecaso' was named as the 2020 Rose of the Year. It has clusters of tea rose shaped blooms in
a golden apricot color. It repeat blooms throughout the summer. There is a light fruity scent to the blooms.
Plants have deep green glossy foliage and become about 3 feet x 3 feet in size.
‘Sweet Honey’ is grown on its own roots. Its hardy and vigorous with good disease
resistance. I have noticed this rose is a bit hard to find here in the US and
sells out early.
Right now it’s for sale at Heirloom Roses and
possibly other places.
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| Photo Heirloom Roses |
Hosta of the year 2020
The American Hosta Growers Association gets together
every year to nominate a hosta of the year for the next year. They want the hosta they choose to be easily
grown in most areas of the country, widely available and relatively inexpensive
with some outstanding decorative features.
This years chosen hosta is 'Dancing Queen'. It’s a hosta with golden spring foliage that
fades to pale green in deeper shade as summer progresses but maintains good
color in light shade or sun. This hosta does pretty well in sunnier locations,
especially after the first 2 years. It’s
a large hosta 18 inches by 36 inches.
The leaf edges of Dancing Queen are ruffled and there
is heavy veining and some corrugation to the leaves. Flowers are produced in late summer and are
lavender. It is hardy in zones 3-8.
Buy this plant at many locations, including local
nurseries and you can find it at :
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| 'Dancing Queen' hosta Photo Bluestone Perennials |
Herb of the year 2020
It’s the International Herb Association that picks
the herb of the year and they have chosen a plant family, Rubus spp.
this year. This family includes
blackberries and raspberries. These plants are edible as fruits of course but
this family also has lots of herbal uses.
You can find many varieties of blackberries and
raspberries in nursery catalogs.
Cruising through the catalogs part 2
Edibles
Parsley Pea- do
you like early peas and salad greens?
Then you’ll appreciate this pea. The short vines produce abundant
tendrils that look like parsley leaves. These can be clipped off and tossed
into salads, where they will taste like new peas instead of parsley. You can
let the pods mature on the plant as you harvest the tendrils and get peas too!
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| Parsley Pea Photo Swallowtail seeds |
Patio Baby Eggplant- here’s
a cute compact eggplant that’s excellent for container growing. It has lots of small, 2-3-inch round purple fruits
that are ornamental as well as delicious. Its stems are thorn less and the
fruit is mild and non-bitter. It thrives
in all areas of the country too.
Sold by Swallowtail seeds
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| 'Patio Baby' eggplant Photo by Swallowtail Seeds |
Flowers
Everlasting Pea 'Red Pearl'- Lathyrus
latifolius – let this rosy red flowered sweet pea
relative scramble through grasses or wildflower patches for a pop of color, or
train it to climb a fence or trellis.
It’s a perennial in zones 5-9 and blooms all summer. All parts are poisonous.
Buy it from Select seed
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| Everlasting Pea |
Buddleia ‘Wisteria Lane’
Here’s a new buddleia with deep purple blooms that droop
in long clusters and look very much like wisteria blooms. Its compact too, at
about 24 inches high, and would look very interesting in a container. It’s a
seedless variety for those of you who fear buddleias invasiveness. Hardy in
zones 5-9.
You can buy it at Roots and Rhizomes
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| Buddleai 'Wisteria Lane' Photo Roots and Rhizomes |
Petunia ‘Midnight Gold’- is
a stunning petunia you may want to search for this spring or start from seed.
It is a double flowered petunia of deep burgundy purple with a gold edge. Vigorous
with good branching habit. Great for baskets or containers.
Buy this from Burpees
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| Petunia 'Midnight Gold' Photo by Burpee |
Houseplants and container tropicals
Banana ‘Truly Tiny’
(Musa hybrid)
If you like banana plants but think they get too tall
and wide, you may want to try this one.
It has typical banana leaves, splashed with red markings but the leaves
are smaller than most bananas and plants only get 2-4 feet tall. It’s a plant for the house or outside container
in the summer. In the south where it can
be left longer outside it may produce tiny edible bananas. Not hardy except
zone 11 and above.
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| Banana 'Truly Tiny' Logees |
Dancing Bones Cactus (Rhipsalis
salicornioides)
Succulents are all the rage, and this is a
succulent. It has odd jointed upright
stems that remind one of the way bones look at the joints. If treated like the holiday cacti and given a
cool winter rest with natural day lengths it will bloom. The blooms are deep yellow and produced at
the ends of the stems in early spring.
It’s not hardy, but makes an excellent and unusual houseplant.
Buy this from Logee’s
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| 'Dancing Bones' Wikipedia |
"When the ice of winter holds the
house in its rigid grip, when curtains are drawn against that vast frozen waste
of landscape, almost like a hibernating hedgehog I relish the security of being
withdrawn from all that summer ferment that is long since past. Then is
the time for reappraisal: to spread out, limp and receptive, and let garden
thoughts rise to the surface. They emerge from some deep source of
stillness which the very fact of winter has released."
- Mirabel Osler
- Mirabel Osler
Kim Willis
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And So On….
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