A couple of years ago I had an exhausting spring planting season. I started everything from pansies to parsley from seed, and for weeks all I did was run from one windowsill to another with a watering can.I worried constantly about damping off disease. After I put the seedlings outside to harden off, I brought them back in again on stormy nights. Finally, when the last little peat pot was safely stowed in the ground, I resolved never to buy another seed packet again.
It’s always dangerous to say “never.”
At this moment my porch is adorned with four large size seed trays holding innumerable tiny pansies, cosmos, swamp milkweeds, sweet peas, California poppies and nasturtiums. Two nights ago it got so cold that I brought them all in. The next morning I took them all out again. I water them when it doesn’t rain, dump the excess water out when it rains too much, and wonder if the seedlings and I will hold out until April 15, when I will begin planting.
What makes this year different from the endurance contest that was my life two years ago? For one thing, small amounts of moderation and common sense have taken hold. Since I have limited time, space and patience, this year I started my seeds in batches. I have room for one large plastic tray in the cellar under a plant light, and space for two large plastic trays in my pantry on top of the microwave. About a month ago I planted seeds that needed an early start—6-8 weeks before the last local frost date. By the time that first batch was mature enough for hardening off, the weather was turning warmer by fits and starts. The trays could go out in the daytime and even remain there some nights.
When my first crop of infants was mostly up and out, I planted things such as cosmos and poppies that don’t need much of a head start. These are now in the process of maturing, and should be able to go outside, weather permitting, within the week. When they go out, I will start more trays.
The advantage to seed starting is that the seeds can germinate under highly favorable conditions, with enough warmth and light to give them a fighting chance. You can also select from a far wider range of cultivars and colors than you can if you wait and buy transplants at the local garden center. The price differential is substantial. A flat of annuals costs between $9 and $12 at peak planting time. A pack of seeds, which can produce enough plants to fill at least a couple of flats, rarely costs more than $2.00.
I also feel the need to confess that I start seeds in cell packs because I am notoriously bad when it comes to sowing annuals directly in the ground. When I was a novice gardener I frequently forgot to water the spots where I had planted my seeds. I felt that it was inhumane to thin them to the recommended density, so I didn’t do it. When my plants did not succeed as I wished, I moaned and groaned so much that nobody could stand to be around me. My family now agrees that starting seeds in trays in the house is better for all concerned.
Even if you don’t have a conveniently placed microwave oven under a sunny window, you can start a few seedlings of your own. First, find a container that will fit on your windowsill. Then figure out what you want to grow, and buy the seeds. Don’t forget to pick up some potting mix. Make sure that your container has drainage holes and fits into some kind of waterproof tray, so that you can water your seedlings from the bottom. An egg carton, with holes punched through the bottom of the individual pockets makes a great seed starting vessel, especially if you detach the top, line it with plastic wrap, then set the bottom in it. The great advantage, besides the fact that the egg carton costs you almost nothing, is that it fits on a standard windowsill very nicely.
Even with only one windowsill, you can use my system of starting early seeds, putting them outside, then using the same windowsill space for seedlings that need less time to get to transplanting size. Without benefit of grow lights and greenhouses you can raise a respectable crop of annuals to brighten up your summer beds. This system also works for starting begonias, one of the most useful plants for brightening up gloomy garden spaces.
Now that I have learned how to pace myself, and conserve time, effort and resources, I can have the joy of white cosmos and antique snapdragons and just about anything else that my heart desires. And I will never swear off seed starting again.
The best thing about early spring is seeing something new daily in the garden. Of course, the pundits would say that if you have done your garden properly, you should see something new every day of the gardening season, but that is another issue. In spring the pace of growth accelerates, and the plants almost seem to be in a competition to see who sends up the first shoots. Last week I couldn’t find a trace of any of my many hostas. Today, when I took my daily inspection tour, I found that most of them were at least an inch out of the ground.
As the daffodils gradually fade, I am encouraged by the sight of the first ferny leaves of the thread leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) in my front border. I divided these extremely hardy plants last year, and it appears that all of the divisions “took”. With their small pale yellow flowers and ground covering ways, the coreopsis will step up and provide much-needed camouflage as the daffodil and tulip foliage turns ugly. From the looks of things elsewhere in front, I will have more daisies of various kinds than I know what to do with. This is a good thing, because I have already promised divisions of those daisies to a gardening friend.
If you have hydrangeas, check them. They should be showing signs of new growth along the stems. I have a “peegee” hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora) that has done a good imitation of a dead plant since last fall. Just as I had resolved to get out the spade and consign it to the compost heap, I noticed signs of buds along some of the stems. Another near-corpse of a hydrangea that I was enticed into buying while on a trip to a far-off garden center, last summer seems to have at least a few green shoots. It’s enough to restore my faith in optimism and laziness, those special qualities that have made me the gardener that I am today.
Self-sown seedlings abound, sometimes in unlikely places. No one can stop forget-me-nots, and they have seeded themselves with wild abandon in my beds and lawn. And since forget-me-nots recognize no manmade boundaries, my neighbor has been similarly blessed. The area around my front porch is pleasantly sprinkled with self-sown “johnny jump-ups” (Viola). In my front border, I can see the deeply dissected foliage of California poppy seedlings. I planted the original ‘White Linen’ California poppies two years ago, and I have not had to plant any since. This year’s crop of seedlings looks very healthy. I have also noticed numerous tiny larkspurs in the backyard, not to mention bleeding heart seedlings that are sprouting bravely from between the cracks in the stone steps.
If you have had any plants in the past with a tendency to self-seed, look around you. Their descendants are probably lurking on your premises. As a rule of thumb in the early spring, I pull out only those things that I know are weeds. Everything else gets the benefit of the doubt for the few more weeks that it will take for true identities to be revealed.
I have also been on the lookout for plants that have defied conventional garden wisdom and overwintered successfully. Here and there in my beds are snapdragons that are up to three years old. All are healthy, happy, and bursting forth, having withstood the minor rigors of the past winter. My daughter’s gladiolas, in defiance of USDA hardiness zone information and my personal distaste for gladiolas, are beginning to send up leaves. Last year a long-forgotten caladium, tucked in near the house, did the same thing.
I am pleased to see that one of my hardy geraniums is preparing to go on a rampage through the bed where I first installed it several years ago. Before the rampage begins in earnest, I will divide it and plant the divisions in places where such voracious tendencies will come in handy. I am hoping to do the same thing this year with some pink oenothera that my predecessor planted in the strip between the sidewalk and the street. Every year the oenothera astounds the neighbors with its beauty and vigor, and every year it manages to increase, despite the fact that it grows in nearly barren soil and receives no help from me. I am banking on the fact that it will grow like gangbusters in more congenial conditions.
Of course, amidst all this optimism comes the fact that nothing increases faster than chickweed, onion grass, and common dandelions. Chickweed has surged across my property like a malignant tide, all but screaming the words “resistance is futile”. Onion grass is even more egregious because it is relatively tall and extremely obvious. I combine the pleasant task of looking for desirable self-sown plants with eradicating all the chickweed, dandelion, and onion grass that I can get my home or my hands on. Because I am an optimist, I try to look at the bright side of things. My self-sown violas are among the prettiest things around, and if I ever get really hungry, I can make a salad out of the onion grass and dandelion greens. If only I could turn a profit by selling the chickweed.
Why is it important to learn how garden flowers are grouped or classified?
For one, it will make it easier for you to order plants and flowers. You also will better understand terms you see in books and catalogs. And you’ll learn about some cultural or growth factors to consider when selecting flowers for your garden.
To begin with, flowers and plants can be classified or grouped many different ways, depending on your perspective. Botanists may be most interested in flower structure and plant family relationships. Horticulturists, such as myself, are more interested in the correct names for flowers, their growth cycles, and their cultural requirements.
So, let’s take plant names first. You probably know that plants have common and scientific names. The latter is based on Latin and consists of two main parts—the genus and the species name. This “binomial” system of nomenclature (plant names), as it is called, was first developed by the Swedish botanist Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778).
The species have many other subdivisions, just as on the other end genera are grouped into families (usually with similar flower characteristics). The main subdivisions gardeners are interested in are the species breakdowns into either varieties or cultivars. The word “cultivar” is confusing to some, but it just refers to a cultivated variety–one arising out of human cultivation. Cultivars usually only differ in one main characteristic, such as growth habit, flower color, height, or similar.
Common names often are easier to understand and pronounce, so most people use them. But when I refer to Spurge, am I talking about Euphorbia or Pachysandra? This potential confusion, even among different common names in different regions and countries, is why scientific names are needed as well.
The second way flowers can be grouped or classified is by growth cycle. In other words, how long does it take them to complete one cycle from seed to flower. If the cycle is finished in one year, then they are called “annuals.” If completed in two years, often flowering in the second, they’re “biennials.” And if they just keep coming back and blooming each year (provided they’re hardy of course!), they’re “perennials.”
Then there are the bulbs, corms, and tubers—those perennial flowers (some hardy, some tender) arising from specialized roots. Of course, perennials can be divided further into many specific groups, either by growth habit, such as ornamental grasses, or growth environment, such as aquatic plants.
The third method of classification, and the one most important for gardeners, is by growth habit and cultural preference. Factors included here, and ones you should consider when both choosing perennials and placing them in your garden, include:
size–both height and width or spread
growth rate–slow, moderate, fast
type of foliage, including color
flower type (spike, flat, or other), season of bloom, and color
hardiness, not only to your zone but in your particular “microclimate” or exposure on your property
soil type
light–sun or shade, or in between
landscape use–either for themes such as wildlife gardening, functions such as screening, or uses such as edible flowers
So when choosing your next garden flowers, consider type (how many years of bloom); plant name (look for those cultivars with particular traits); and growth and cultural characteristics, to make sure each cultivar will succeed in your garden and reward you with blooms, foliage, or other specific uses.
Garden Flower Botany Primer–Classification
By Dr. Leonard Perry and Lisa Halvorsen n Extension Nursery and Greenhouse Crops Specialist University of Vermont
Just because you have a sandy Florida yard, it doesn’t mean you can’t grow food.
Last week at the Palafox Market, a couple told me they were struggling to garden in their “terrible sand” near the ocean. It can be tough, for sure, as it eats compost and drains quickly, becoming hot, and dry, and Sahara-like just days after a rain.
Yet you can garden quite well in Florida sand. Jim Hawkins writes:
When I lived in Niceville FL, mid 1980s. I went to the local fisherman’s Co-Op and sometimes to Destin harbor to meet the returning boats, got plenty of fish bones and guts for my garden. I took all my neighbors live oak leaves I could find (at least 100 bags each year) and put them into foot deep trenches mixed with the fish residues. Covered with about 6 inches of the 99% pure sand and planted my garden. No rotten fish smell!! The first year was so-so as far as crops, but next three years, I was the talk of the town. The city Administrator even came to see my garden. Based on my results, the Twin Cities, of Niceville and Valparaiso, launched a compositing center and offered back free composted mulch to residents at no charge, saving the towns tens of thousands of dollars each year in landfill fees.
Oak leaves = carbon; fish guts = nitrogen, plus all the great nutrients from the ocean.
This reminds me of an experiment we did a couple of years ago when we were renting our previous house.
There we found a pile of construction sand that had been dumped some years previously at the leading edge of the backyard. It was almost pure masonry sand, with a bit of red sub-soil sand mixed in, spread across the ground near an oak.
I borrowed a tractor and spread it out, then dug a few trenches in it and laid down rows of cow pies, which I then buried under mounded beds.
On top of these mounds, I planted cassava cuttings.
Much to my delight, we grew some of the best-looking cassava in that terrible sand.
Don’t underestimate the power of organic matter to improve sand! It’s also very easy to dig root vegetables from Florida sand, which is an added benefit.
We’ve also planted lasagna gardens on top of sand, and made melon pits, and watered the sand with Dave’s Fetid Swamp Water. All of these practices we tried and tested across multiple homesteads, and our results culminated in my book Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting.
Jim figured it out even before we did. And so have many others. Don’t let the sand defeat you.
It can be as simple as digging a hole or a trench, burying some various organic materials, then planting on top.
You can grow plenty more than you think, even if you have nothing but construction sand.
When we talk about designing a luxury home, we tend to think of sprawling mansions, bespoke architecture, and state-of-the-art features. While this is all great when it comes to daydreaming, most of us don’t have the ability to turn those dreams into a reality in our own living spaces.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t add wow factor to your home. Incorporating even one luxury feature can take your home from ordinary to extraordinary.
Let’s take a look at some ultra-cool amenities that have the power to transform a property into a truly luxurious home.
Multisensory rooms
A multisensory room can change its vibe to match your mood. For example, one minute, you’re in a rainforest; the next, you’re staring at the Northern Lights. These multisensory rooms allow you to create a versatile space that shifts to suit the user. Whether you want a zen room for de-stressing, or a funky space for the kids to play, you’ve got it at the touch of a button.
Luxury kitchen
If your family adores food, how about a space where cooking isn’t just cooking, it’s an experience? A luxury kitchen allows you to take your cooking and baking to the next level, with ample space for prep, gadgets, and storage. A well-designed kitchen can also take the strain off other areas of the house when it comes to storage and entertaining.
Home cinema
Turn movie nights into blockbuster events with Clarke Infinity home theatres. These aren’t your typical home cinemas; we’re talking jaw-dropping sound, crystal-clear screens, and seats so comfy you’ll never want to watch a movie anywhere else. It’s like having your own personal premiere every night.
Wellness complex
Why book a spa day when you can live one? Imagine a part of your house dedicated to your well-being – it could be a personal retreat for yoga, a swim, or just some quiet time.
Library
For bookworms and the curious minds, how about a dedicated library? Think purpose-built shelving, task lighting, space to display favourite books, and comfortable reading nooks for cosy relaxation.
Eco-luxury
Being fancy doesn’t mean you can’t be kind to the planet. Eco-luxury could involve solar panels, ground source heat pumps, sustainable materials, smart technology, a green roof, or simply a kitchen garden where you can grown your own food. Prioritising eco-friendly options will help to reduce your home’s carbon footprint without compromising on grandeur.
Garden luxury
Why stop indoors when it comes to a luxury makeover? Your garden can be transformed into a chic retreat with things like a hot tub, an outdoor movie screen, an outdoor kitchen, or a stunning patio for entertaining. Revamping your outdoor space is an easy way to make your home feel bigger and blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors.
So, whether you’re into the high-tech wonders of a multisensory room, or the down-to-earth charm of an organic garden, there are lots of ways to dial up the luxury in your family home. It’s all about making your space a reflection of what you love, enjoy, and value.
Cherry Ong has shared these photos of a container she created for her garden in Richmond, British Columbia, last summer. She used a big container, about 32 inches in diameter, from her favorite source, Pot Inc., and planted it up with all kinds of beautiful plants, with a heavy emphasis on great foliage and flowers playing a supporting role.
Here is the container newly planted up. It includes Fuchsia ‘Hawkhead’ (Zones 7–10), Fuchsia ‘Gartenmeister Bonstedt’ (Zones 9–10), Fuchsia ‘Autumnale’ (Zones 10–11), Aeonium ‘Velour’ (Zones 10–11), Aeoniumarboretum (Zones 10–11), Aeonium ‘Mardi Gras’ (Zones 10–11), Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ (Zones 10–11), Salviaofficinalis ‘Icterina’ (Zones 4–10), Euphorbia ‘Diamond Snow’ (Zones 10–11), Seneciomandraliscae (blue chalksticks, Zones 9–11), Sedum nussbaumerianum (coppertone stonecrop, Zones 9–11), Kalanchoetomentosa ‘Chocolate Soldier’ (Zones 10–11), and Lantana ‘Royale Pina Colada’ (Zones 8–11).
In the same newly planted container, dark-foliaged succulents and fuchsias contrast with their lighter and gold-variegated counterparts.
And from the other side, the variegated sage really looks amazing.
Here’s what the combo looked like after it had matured at the end of the summer!
The fuchsias really got huge over the summer, and they look so good with all the succulents.
This was definitely a successful planting design!
Did you have any containers you were particularly proud of last summer? Send in photos! It is a great time to share some inspiration as we all plan what we’re going to do for this summer.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
We are longtime admirers of English writer, cook, and gardener Sarah Raven, so we were super-excited to learn that her newest book, A Year Full of Pots, is now in bookstores. In this how-to guide on all things container gardening (the third installment her series that includes A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg), she gives detailed instructions for planning and planting in pots for each month of the year, along with color groupings, tips for what to plant where and when, and detailed plant lists with stunning photos of her own pot-filled garden at Perch Hill.
Above: An overhead view of the Oast Garden, teeming with potted plants, at Perch Hill in spring.
Raven makes it easy for neophytes and experts alike to create a beautiful container garden, no matter the size. Here are six tips from her book on how to capture ebullience and beauty in a pot.
Above: Raven planning her garden with pencil and paper.
Pot planning goes old school. While there are plenty of fancy online garden planners, there is a wonderful satisfaction that comes with pencil and paper. Raven recommends sketching out the bones of your garden, the spaces, hardscapes and major plants and then overlaying tracing paper (or even baking parchment) and then cutting circles to represent your pots and arranging them where you think you’d like the pots and plants to go. Pro tip: She recommends cutting out photos of the plants you’re considering to make sure you can visualize the best you can what the garden will look like in real life.
2. Plan for a Bride, Bridesmaid, and Gate-crasher.
Above: This pot features tulips ‘Muriel’ as the Bride, ‘Nightrider’ as the Bridesmaid, and ‘Orange Favorite’ as the all-important color-contrasting Gatecrasher. Photo by Jonathan Buckley.
Raven breaks down one of the more complicated challenges in deciding what plants go into the pot in regards to choosing a color combination. Think about the colors as the Bride, Bridesmaid and Gatechrasher, she says. The Bride is the center of attention, the one that gets all the focus. The Bridesmaid plays a supporting role in the pot, as one would play in real life—same color as the bride but not as showy. Finally the Gatecrasher adds a bit of drama with contrast. Pro tip: Get some paint chips and play around with them to see what color combinations work together.
above: An example of some of the Boiled Sweet color palette.
For those who need a bit more guidance, Raven even provides specific color palettes to try: Dark & Rich, Boiled Sweet Brilliant, Warm and Soft, and Soft and Cool. Included are extensive photos for each palette for easy reference.
3. And don’t forget the Thriller, Filler, Spiller, and Pillar.
Above: Dahlia ‘Totally Tangerine’ with Salvia ‘Amistad’ and Panicum elegans ‘Frosted Explosion’ syn. Agrostis ‘Fibre Optics’ syn. Panicum capillare ‘Sparkling Fountain’ in a metal container. Erigeron karvinskianus grows in the terracotta pot.
I could make a list of the reasons to grow daylilies that would be a mile long.
They’re fast growing, they live a long time, they bloom for ages in super fun colors, they’re edible, and they’re tough and adaptable. Just to name a few reasons.
Whether you’re moving and want to take some with you, or they’ve outgrown their existing spot, there might come a time when you need to transplant your daylilies.
Have no fear, moving these plants is as easy as growing them!
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Technically, you can move your plants any time the ground can be worked. But this process tends to be the most successful if you do it in the spring or fall.
In the spring, wait for the shoots to just start emerging. That way you can see where the plant is, but it hasn’t grown so large at that point that it’s going to be difficult to work with.
In the fall, wait until the plants stop blooming. If you have a type that blooms until the first frost, you’ll just need to trim off the blossoms.
Before you transplant, cut the foliage down by about half or wait until the leaves have died back on their own.
If you opt to move a plant in the summer, just be aware that it might not bloom that year.
Ideally, wait for a cool, overcast day to do the work. This reduces the amount of transplant shock that the daylilies will experience.
Avoid working when the soil is soggy and wet because this increases compaction.
Prepare
Preparation is key anytime you move a plant. I always dig the new hole first so the daylily doesn’t have to spend too much time hanging out with its roots exposed.
Dig a large hole that is at least half as deep as your plants grow tall, or at least a foot deep as a minimum. Make it a bit wider than the width of the plant.
Work some well-rotted compost into the soil you removed from the hole. This is a good way to add some nutrients and loosen up clay or add texture to sand.
While you’re at it, remove any rocks or weeds that you come across.
Then, if you’re working with a daylily that has mature growth, prune it down but cut by no more than half. Remove any flowering stems.
Start Digging
Use a shovel to dig up the entire daylily, roots and all. You most likely won’t be able to dig up all the roots, but so long as you dig up a majority, the specimen should be fine.
Make sure to take up all the stolons or rhizomes if your goal is to completely relocate the plant and eradicate it from the existing area.
It’s okay to leave some of the fibrous roots behind, but if any of the rhizomatous roots remain, a new plant will likely emerge in that spot.
If you have a big patch that you’re working with, you might need a wheelbarrow, wagon, or a tarp that you can drag along the ground for easy transport.
Replant
Add some soil to the bottom of the hole so that the depth is roughly equal to the size of the roots.
Lower the removed plant into place in its new home. You might need to adjust the amount of soil in the hole to ensure that the plant sits at the same height that it was initially.
Fill in around the roots and firm it back up. Add some water to plump those roots back up and settle any air pockets. As the soil settles, you might need to add some more soil.
It’s Moving Day… Lilies!
Pack those suitcases and hand over the keys, because it’s moving day! Oh, wait. Never mind, wrong kind of move. Grab that shovel and garden gloves, because it’s moving day!
Daylilies are one of the easiest plants to move, in my experience. They don’t suffer terribly from shock and they reestablish themselves readily.
I’ll let you in on a little secret…
A friend was changing up her garden and offered me a bunch of adorable daylilies. I dug them up, drove them to my house, and unpacked them onto my driveway in the afternoon sun.
Then, I got distracted and totally forgot about them. For a week.
They weren’t looking too happy, but I planted them anyway. They took the rest of the year to recover, but by the next year, they were as happy as ever.
Don’t test the limits of your daylilies like I did, just know that they can bounce back from abuse.
Why are you moving your daylilies? Taking some from a friend? Maybe you’re selling Grandma’s home and want to keep one of her favorite flowers, or just remodeling your garden area? Let us know what your plans are in the comments section below.
Yesterday we visited the beach after Mass. On the way, I came across a very nice mulberry tree by the highway, absolutely loaded with fruit. I’ll post a video on that tree soon. But at the beach itself, we first found a very thorny nightshade growing on the dunes.
At first I thought it might be a tropical soda apple, but with some searching it turned out to be a useful and edible species known colloquially as the “litchi tomato.”
Of course, the first place I turn for information on wild plant finds is Green Deane’s Eat The Weeds website.
A native of South America, particularly Paraguay, it’s a hardy nightshade that reseeds itself and gets along quite nicely without man’s attention. So even though you may cultivate it, the wandering botanical often strikes out on its own.
In North America its distribution is rather unconventional. Going around the rim states of the US it is found from Oregon south and east to West Virginia excluding New Mexico. Then it goes to the mid-Atlantic states skipping Maryland. It is also recorded in Massachusetts and Ontario. You will have to look at specific state maps to identify the counties the Litchi Tomato has been found it. A tough member of a fragile family it can take a light frost even temperatures down to 25F. In warmer climes it overwinters (and gets more spiny!) A bushy indeterminate, it does, however, need more than one plant to cross pollinated.
In its native South America the Litchi Tomato has been used in local dishes since before written records. And most unusual for this genus it has spines yet is still edible. Usually plants in this genus with spines are very toxic if not deadly.
It’s a beautiful and wild-looking plant.
On the way back to the car, I came across a second nightshade, this one without thorns.
It always astounds me how plants can manage to survive in harsh maritime conditions. The sand whips around, the sun beats down, and salt is everywhere – yet here’s a pretty little nightshade, half-buried in the bright white Pensacola sand.
The blooms were what tipped my off to it being a nightshade. They look very much like other groundcherries I have seen, as well as the blooms of the cultivated tomatillo.
Another ground cherry I’ve found tasty is the Coastal Ground Cherry (Physalis angustifolia) that I have found on the west coast of Florida.
The fruit is edible raw or cooked, as in pies or preserves. The fruit can fall from the plant before it is ripe. That usually takes a week or two or more until the husk has dried and the fruit a golden yellow to orange. Each fruit is wrapped in a husk that is NOT edible. The fruit will store several weeks if left in the husk. Unripe fruit — light green — is toxic. Ripe fruits are light to golden yellow. If any ripe fruit has a bitter aftertaste should be cooked first. If it is still bitter after cooking, don’t eat it.
He further notes:
A wild species that takes to home gardening very well is Physalis angulata, the Cutleaf Ground Cherry. It’s tall and prolific under cultivation.
Which is cool, because a friend gave me a cutleaf ground cherry which is sitting in a pot in my greenhouse instead of living in the ground where it should be. I need to go grab it and plant it!
Though you may see just “weeds” as an inexperienced forager, over time you’ll start to recognize useful and edible species. Later, you’ll be able to recognize plant families, as we did with these nightshades.
Much to our satisfaction, both are edible. If we get a chance, we’ll go back soon and see if we can propagate both of them to bring home to our food forest.
A cut flower garden is one of the most rewarding spaces you can grow. I mean, who doesn’t love flowers?! Whether you plan to grow them to enjoy yourself, to give to friends and family, or even to sell and make a profit from, here’s how to start a cut flower garden from scratch.
Sometimes, I can’t believe that I exist in a world where flowers grow. The fact that these beautiful-looking and even more gorgeous-smelling things exist naturally in nature is nothing short of a miracle.
While I don’t grow many cut flowers in my garden, I admire everyone who does. Flowers are one of the most in-demand crops and one of the more maintenance-intensive ones. But we can’t deny just how rewarding it is to harvest their blooms!
Today, I’m featuring one of the best cut flower gardening experts, Lisa Mason Ziegler. She owns The Gardener’s Workshop and has been growing flowers commercially since 1998.
Before you get started with any physical preparations, it’s a good idea to think about what kind of plants you want to include in your cut flower garden.
Make a list of your dream flowers based on what you want to grow and what can realistically grow in your zone.
In her book, Lisa describes both warm-season and cool-season annuals. Both complete their lifecycle in a year, but they require different growing conditions.
“Warm-season tender annuals thrive when planted and grown in warm to hot conditions,” says Lisa. They include flowers such as amaranth, celosia, cosmos, hibiscus, marigold, sunflowers, zinnia, and more.
“Cool-season hardy annuals thrive when planted and grown in cool to cold conditions,” says Lisa. They include the likes of baby’s breath, bachelor buttons, carnations, feverfew, foxglove, larkspur, poppy, snapdragon, statice, sweet peas, yarrow, and much more.
Limit how many different types of flowers you grow in your first year or so. Plant only a few types, but plant them in abundance. Really nail down the conditions, timing, and care before you expand. Otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed.
Yarrow comes in many colours and is very drought-tolerant.
When to Plant Cut Flowers
It’s important to know whether or not you’re dealing with warm or cool-season annuals so you can plant them at the right time.
“Planting outside the recommended seasonal weather conditions can result in seeds and transplants that are shocked and stressed, which delays the sprouting and growing process,” says Lisa.
When you plant seeds too early, you either waste seeds that never sprout or end up with mediocre plants susceptible to disease and pests.
“Cool-season annuals have varying planting times, depending on the garden’s low winter temperatures,” says Lisa. “Finding the best planting times for your conditions may take a little time and practice, but it is worth it.”
Don’t skip out on this extra time just because these flowers may not be as straightforward. Some are planted in fall, others in winter, and some in early spring. They can get you some of the year’s earliest flowers.
As for warm-season annuals, you’ll want to pay attention to frost dates and temperatures. Lisa notes, “The weather signal I wait for to begin transplanting outdoors is the moment when nighttime air temperatures reach 60°F (15.5°C) or above with soil temperature at a minimum of 60°F (15.5°C).”
Nigella are great cut as a flower but also have aesthetic dried seed pods for arrangements.
Succession Planting
I’ve always been a big proponent of succession planting. I use it for many of my annuals, including vegetables. But it’s also one of the best tools to use for a cut flower garden.
Succession planting is when you stagger planting seeds. So rather than start all your zinnia seeds at once, you start some now, sow more a couple of weeks later, and another batch two weeks after that.
If you plant everything all at once, they’ll bloom all at the same time. Succession planting allows you to stagger the harvest and make it much more manageable. It will also prevent some of your flowers from going to waste.
“To practice growing a three-season cutting garden, whether a small bed or an acre, you must remember that, to keep this garden producing and as weed-free as possible, plantings should be pulled once they begin to decline to make way for the next planting,” says Lisa.
Dahlia and other bulb flowers can also be great for cutting gardens.
Choosing a Bed Location
Realtors and cut flower gardens have one thing in common…they’re always screaming location, location, location!
If you’re building a bed for your cut flower garden layout, you’ll want to make sure you’re choosing the right spot on your property.
Almost all cutting flowers require full sunlight. You’ll need plenty of sun to get as many blooms as possible, and to keep any disease from thriving in moisty, shady locations.
It’s also important to make sure your bed is accessible. Cut flowers are not low-maintenance, so you’ll need to make sure you can access them from all sides. Avoid placing your bed next to any structures, as this will make it difficult to access and block valuable sunlight.
Also, ensure your water source is nearby. You don’t want to have to lug around a hose every time you want to water your flowers or create a tripping hazard thanks to a drip irrigation trail.
Delphinium comes in all kinds of beautiful jewel-toned colours.
A Note on Bed Size
You don’t need much space to have a productive cut flower garden. In fact, when it’s smaller, you pay more attention to it and remember to harvest the flowers often. This results in more productive plants.
For a beginner cut flower gardener who is growing flowers at home, Lisa recommends having two beds, with each being 3 x 10 ft. (0.9 x 3 m).
“Narrower beds are easier to reach into the center of and are low where the harvest cut is made, helping prevent us from stepping on the bed during harvesting,” says Lisa. “A 36-inch (90 cm) wide bed works well, with my beds getting narrower as I age to reduce the reaching and bending distance.”
Calendula is very easy-to-grow cut flower, as well as a skincare herb.
Preparing Your Cut Flower Garden Bed
Most cut flower gardeners grow their flowers in raised beds. “I grow in raised beds because it is easier to improve drainage and soil quality,” says Lisa. “Beds can have either framed sides made with lumber or just mounded soil with no framed sides.”
The next most important aspect of a cut flower garden is soil quality. Poor soil conditions can affect output. Flowers require soil with plenty of nutrients, good drainage, and the ability to retain moisture.
Keeping up soil quality is an ongoing process. Add natural soil amendments and compost, as well as fertilizer, if necessary, to keep up the soil conditions.
Mulch is also great for feeding the soil, preventing weeds, and retaining moisture. When you disturb the soil, you bring weed seeds to the surface and allow them to sprout. Always apply a layer of mulch afterward to prevent these weed seeds from popping up.
It’s also a good idea to set up irrigation. While the flowers should be able to tolerate some drought, a watering system will be necessary. Rather than hose everything daily, it’s best to set up irrigation.
“Low pressure irrigation systems like driplines and T-tape are long lasting, easy to install, and use little water,” says Lisa.
Small urban gardens can have a flower stand, like this one by my friend Holly.
FAQ About Cut Flower Garden Layouts
How much space do you need for a cut flower garden?
The recommended bed size for home gardens is 3 x 10 ft. (0.9 x 3 m). Go smaller, but don’t go larger. Anything larger will be difficult to access and maintain. You want to be able to reach all the flowers to allow you to harvest them easily.
Can you do a cut flower garden in pots?
If you plan to grow flowers to sell or for any commercial reason, it will be difficult to grow enough flowers in pots. But as a home gardener, you can grow many of these flowers in pots and cut them to bring inside. Just make sure the pot is deep enough, has quality potting soil, and has drainage holes.
How do you prepare a bed for cut flowers?
The more fertile your soil is, the better. Adding in organic amendments such as compost, manure, dried leaves, and green manure will help to increase the soil quality. They increase nutrient levels, retain moisture well, and provide good drainage.
It’s also recommended to add a layer of mulch. This will prevent weeds from growing and help retain moisture. Landscaping fabric acts in the same way.
And that’s everything about setting up a cut flower garden layout! The next steps are to actually start your seeds and care for them. For a complete guide on how to design a cut flower garden and for more resources on specific flowers, be sure to check out Lisa’s The Cut Flower Handbook.
Learning maths is different from learning a natural language or most other subjects. Topics are often mutually exclusive, especially as you advance in your learning. In addition, the abstract concepts, formulas, and problem-solving you have to deal with can sometimes be a challenge. But thanks to the internet and online learning resources, it’s easier than ever to excel in maths.
Online learning allows students to ditch the physical classroom for private tutors. Whether you’re a parent with a child who is overwhelmed by a frustrating maths topic, or an adult giving maths a second shot, learning maths online can provide a flexible and tailored approach to your studies.
In this article, we’ll cover five tips for making the most of online maths study. With the help of these five techniques and a decent online math tutor for kids, you or your child will be on the road to becoming a more confident mathematician.
Establish a study routine
Flexibility is the first benefit of online learning. Not having to spend time getting ready for school and commuting allows you to work more efficiently and independently. It can also improve your self-confidence, increase your resilience in the face of challenges, and cultivate a more growth mindset.
Having said that, it’s still a good idea to develop a regular study routine. Consider switching from the occasional online maths lesson to more regular online classes. You could also allocate more regimented time to watching video lessons, working out practice problems, and recapping notes as if you’re in a regular maths class.
Doing all this will help to keep the learning on-track, and allow you to reinforce your knowledge. Regular study provides the chance to practice what you’ve learned again and again. You’ll also be able go a step further with what you know each time, as opposed to forgetting it between infrequent sessions.
Effective note-taking and continuous practice
Online learning should include engaging in note-taking, which is an old-fashioned but successful practice. While watching video instructions or reading explanations, it’s important to write down the formulas and problem examples, so you can use them to explain and apply the concepts in the future.
Additionally, mathematics is a subject that perfectly suits the saying “practice makes perfect”, because it requires active application of concepts. More than merely watching videos or reading, rewriting what you’ve learned in your own words deepens your understanding. Afterwards, you can work on problems using the concepts and formulas you have learned.
Use simulations and illustrations to explain the data further
One of online maths learning’s top advantages is the availability of interactive programs. Many of these programs have visualisation features that make the teaching more cutting-edge. These tools can transfer hypothetical mathematical constructs to concrete embodiments, which, in turn, positively impact the student’s understanding of the subject.
For instance, graphing calculators and interactive graphing tools can help students visualise and interpret data. Likewise, virtual manipulatives such as pie charts and number lines can help students understand mathematical concepts.
Making use of extra resources and staying motivated
One great aspect of online education is that you have an abundance of supplementary material, in the form of online videos, tutorials, forums, and discussions. You don’t have to stick with the first explanation or the approach you are familiar with; there are plenty of opportunities to try new methods.
Learning maths online has many benefits, but that doesn’t change the fact that it can be challenging. Setting goals and celebrating achievements will help to keep you motivated and committed to long-term study. Progress trackers and small rewards can be valuable tools to keep you on track.
Engage in online assessments and communities
Many online maths resources offer tests, practice assessments, and quizzes that enable you to test your skills and recognise any problem areas.
It’s well worth making use of these assessment tools on a regular basis. You can use the results to revise your study tactics and focus your efforts on areas you find difficult.
Also, taking maths classes online doesn’t mean that you’ll be alone. Many internet platforms provide forums, discussion groups, and virtual study clubs where you can meet fellow learners and share your ideas, pose questions, and solve problems together. Being active in these online communities will help you find support and inspiration.
For students, the prospect of learning maths online has many benefits. By discovering the most appropriate online resources, sticking to a consistent study plan, reinforcing learning through practice assessments, and making use of online communities, you can get the most out of your online study and become a more confident mathematician.
We are Roger and Linda. We live in Pompano Beach, Florida. We have built this little paradise, which is our pride and joy. We cherish every moment that we sit and relax daily in our garden.
Now this is a garden that takes full advantage of the Florida climate, with the dramatic columns of palm rising out of a lush jungle of tropical foliage. Strings of lights make the garden enjoyable into the evenings.
This dramatic flower is called a walking iris (Neomaricaregina, Zones 8–11). The striking blooms show this plant’s relationship to irises, and the “walking” part of the name refers to the way that some species produce new plantlets at the tops of the flower stalks and then bend down to the ground, rooting as they go and “walking” through the garden.
So many plants usually familiar to northern gardeners as houseplants thrive outside, here surrounding a statue of the Buddha.
A huge golden elephant’s ear (Alocasiamacrorrhiza ‘Lutea’, Zones 10–11) dominates this part of the garden with enormous leaves that have golden-yellow petioles.
Bromeliads bring a huge amount of color and interest to a warm-climate garden. As they get close to blooming, the leaves flush bright colors to help attract pollinators. That strategy works to attract gardeners as well!
Roger and Linda are posing with a silk handkerchief tree (Cynometralenticellata, Zones 10–12), which has showy bracts around the ripening seeds.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
Seen through the critical lens of weeds, dandelions are perhaps the most familiar nuisance plant of all. Seen through the appreciative lens of food, they are a welcome and fresh spring ingredient. You don’t have to be a forager to recognize the new, lion-toothed leaves (dent-de-lion is the French etymology) emerging from their overwintering crowns in spring. A few weeks later, dandelions’ bright flowers, rayed like miniature suns, set fields, lawns, and path edges ablaze. Soon, their silky parachute-seeds drift off—the threat (or promise) of more.
Instead of reaching for the Roundup, let’s rewind, rewild, and re-set our dandelion clocks to appreciate this useful plant.
Dandelions are one of the bitter herbs of Passover, and in Gaza today, dandelions, along with other hardy “weeds” like common mallow, feed the hungry. An edible plant valued at least since the Ancients ate them as a tonic, dandelions are associated with a solid repertoire of traditional recipes. Dive into cookbooks and websites from countries ranged around the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and you will find them on plates of wilted greens annointed with olive oil and caramelized onions, in yeasted pies and meaty stews, and in reassuringly simple salads.
Above: Early-blooming dandelions give bees a boost.
A bee-friendly PSA: While dandelions are good to eat if you are human, their flowers are also a boon to bees. Their bloom time varies according to regional seasonal differences, so consider not mowing your lawn (and lobby your local municipality or park not to mow either) when they bloom in your area.
Above: Dandelion crowns include the base of the plant, leaves, buds, and flowers.
Above: Early spring’s dandelion crowns wilting in a hot pan with oil.
Early spring’s dandelion crowns are the whole basal rosette of the plant, sliced just above the root. Harvested before the more uncompromising bitterness of the mature leaves has developed, the crowns are a crunchy and mild vegetable, and succulent treat.
While the crowns can be eaten raw in salads, they are also easy to wilt entire in a pan of warm oil. My favorite spring snack is a quick cicchetti-like bite of sautéed dandelions atop good bread, with some field garlic to add a pungent bite. They can also be added whole to familiar dishes from almost any culinary genre: East Asian noodle bowls, Southeast Asian-style curries, Italian-inspired spaghetti (with bottarga), Senegalese maafe, South African bredies. Willing, and wilted, the dandelions add an additional layer of flavor to any of these meals, along with a healthy dose of minerals and antioxidants.
Above: Wilted dandelion crowns tossed into pad thai. Above: Tender dandelion leaves.
Basil is a delightful herb grown for its aromatic and delicious foliage.
Knowing how and when to fertilize your basil can be the difference between harvesting luscious leaves with sublime flavor or small ones with a bland, mediocre taste!
These easy-care annuals grow happily when provided with warm temperatures, full sun, and a good drink of water. And they develop many new sets of leaves when pinched and harvested regularly.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
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If you need a refresher on how to cultivate these tasty herbs, check out our basil growing guide.
Basil will do fine with just a sprinkle of slow release fertilizer granules in spring.
But slow release granules are, as the name suggests, slow and they don’t always release nutrients at the times when they’re most needed – such as when a herb like basil has had its growing tips pinched to promote branching.
What’s needed to encourage speedy new growth for a steady crop of lush, large leaves are frequent feeds with a liquid or water soluble fertilizer, which releases nutrients immediately.
However, it’s important not to feed them too often or with full-strength fertilizer.
Too much fertilizer can dilute and weaken the essential oils that give these herbs their glorious taste and scent.
On the other hand, a lack of nutrients can result in small, stingy leaves and slower, impatience-provoking growth.
The key to premium flavor, fast growth, and large leaves is to apply the right dosage at the right time.
So if your flavor buds are tingling for that sweet, spicy flavor, let’s jump into how and when to fertilize basil for tasty, luscious leaves!
Here’s a quick look at what’s covered ahead:
How to Fertilize Basil Plants
Organic Materials
To give your basil the best possible start, direct sow seed or transplant seedlings into soil that’s been enriched with generous amounts of organic materials.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Before planting, work one or two inches of finished compost, worm castings, or well-rotted manure into the top six to 12 inches of soil.
For strong, healthy roots, you can also work in a tablespoon of bone meal for each plant.
And for prolific leaf production, a high-nitrogen fertilizer such as blood meal or cottonseed meal can be added at planting time as well.
Into the top three inches of soil, work in one teaspoon of blood meal (12-0-0 NPK) or cottonseed meal (6-2-2 NPK) per plant.
If you start your basil off in nutrient-rich soil and harvest leaves only occasionally, they’ll do fine without the addition of any extra fertilizer.
But if you’re more hardcore in your harvesting habits and diligent about pinching out stem tips, you’ll want to encourage rapid growth with the judicious application of extra feed.
Slow Release vs. Water Soluble
Applying slow release granules to your basil once or twice during the growing season is fine if you’re not inclined to feed your plants more often.
If you harvest aggressively by pinching back stems or collecting a lot of leaves, faster growth is appreciated – which is achieved easily from the quick release of nourishing minerals in liquid or water soluble feeds.
Liquid feeds such as compost tea, drainage leachate from vermiculture bins, fish or seaweed emulsion, or water soluble commercial fertilizers are all suitable.
But they need to be applied lightly to avoid diluting the flavor of the foliage and frequently enough to encourage rapid leaf growth.
Let’s look at the specifics.
Dosage and Timing
To produce ample oils for optimal flavor and fragrance, herbs like basil thrive in a hot, dry climate in nutrient rich, moist, and well-draining soil.
For a continuous supply of fresh foliage, these herbs require regular applications of liquid fertilizer – this is the best way to encourage fast growth.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
But feeding basil requires a light touch. Overfeeding produces big, lush plants but the quality of the essential oils such as linalool, estragole, and eugenol that give the leaves their flavor can be compromised and weakened.
To avoid sapping the distinctive taste and aroma, a restrained hand is needed when dishing out the quantity of the frequent feedings.
For the best of both worlds – oil production and fast growth – feed basil grown in outdoor beds with a half-strength dose of liquid or water soluble fertilizer every two to three weeks.
The feeding frequency of two or three weeks is what promotes fast growth for new foliage – which is what’s needed after pinching out the growing tips or snipping leaves.
And the half-strength dosage is equally important so that oil production isn’t compromised and flavors and fragrance remain full and intense.
An all-purpose fertilizer with a higher ratio of nitrogen, such as an NPK of 12-4-8 is ideal for producing healthy plants with big leaves. Or a balanced feed with an equal NPK ratio like 5-5-5 is fine as well.
For optimal nutrient absorption, water plants gently before feeding. Liquid nutrients are taken up faster and distributed more evenly when the roots and soil are already moist.
Remember to mix liquid feeds to half-strength before applying.
Burpee offersan organic, Leafy Green and Herb Food with an NPK of 5-3-3 that’s ideal for promoting ample foliage.
Container Plants
During the growing season, container-grown basil can receive the same half-strength dosage, but the frequency changes a bit.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Container herbs grown in hot, direct sunshine quickly use up nutrients and should be fed every two weeks, using the same liquid or water soluble selections as above.
However, the soil in pots and planters dries out quickly in full sun, and dry soil inhibits the uptake of nutrients.
For your frequent feedings to be the most effective, in hot weather ensure the soil is kept lightly moist, allowing only the top one inch to dry out between waterings.
Potted herbs grown indoors typically don’t grow as fast or with the same vigor as outdoor ones. Reduce the feeding schedule to every four to six weeks, using an all-purpose liquid feed.
As with in-ground basil, indoor and outdoor container crops should be served liquid nutrients at half strength.
Feeding for Flowers
Basil plants are grown primarily for their flavorful leaves, but they also offer beautiful spires of small, fragrant flowers in lovely shades of mauve, pink, purple, and white.
Allowing a few of your plants to flower is an excellent way to attract pollinators into the garden because bees and other friendly fliers adore the nectar- and pollen-rich blooms.
To grow this herb for flowers and seed collection, select a few plants for the task and don’t pinch out the growing tips.
This is contrary to the common wisdom of pinching the tips to force branching and new leaves, but if you do, you’re pinching out nascent flowers. You can still pluck leaves but leave the stem tips intact.
And be sure to use plants from an early crop for seed gathering – late season sowings may not have time to produce flowers and set seed before they are killed off by cold temperatures.
For optimal flower production apply a liquid or water soluble fertilizer every three or four weeks to garden plants and every two weeks for containers, using a formula with slightly higher phosphorus levels.
This Flower-Tone Organic Food from Epsoma has an NPK of 3-4-5 for ample leaves and flowers as well. It’s available at Nature Hills Nursery.
Fast Growth, Delicious Taste
For fast growing herbs with a delicious taste and fabulous fragrance, use a liquid fertilizer for the quick uptake of nutrients.
Photo by Lorna Kring.
Apply your feed at frequent intervals of two to three weeks for garden plants and every two weeks for outdoor container herbs.
But be sure to feed them with a half-strength dosage to keep the essential oils in the leaves strong and flavorful.
And remember to water your plants before feeding so they can quickly utilize the nutrients for large, lush leaves.
Now that you know how and when to fertilize your basil, will you be increasing or reducing your feeding schedule? Let us know in the comments section below.
As a regular reader, you may already be familiar with Perfect Earth Project, as Gardenista has partnered with them on an ongoing series about nature-based, toxic-free gardening. But you may not know much about the group’s tour-de-force founder, Edwina von Gal. The venerable landscape designer-turned-sustainable gardening advocate has been calling for less lawn, more wildlife for decades, via both her projects for clients and her nonprofit. She is currently on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, and an honorary trustee of the Native Plant Trust.
Edwina, who resides in Springs, NY, recently responded to our Quick Takes questionnaire from her retreat, Cocoloche, in Panama: “I built it with minimal resources to explore just that. How could I keep my footprint light and—with good design and the materials at hand—make a place that would engage and awe people?” It’s her philosophy to garden design as well.
Read on to learn Edwina’s favorite hardscaping material (hint: it’s not hard), her go-to work pants (we want them now, too), and why she thinks it’s imperative for designers to push back on client’s misguided requests.
Above: Edwina counts Cindy Sherman, Calvin Klein, and Ina Garten among her clients. Photograph courtesy of Perfect Earth Project.
Your first garden memory:
The patch of silver dollar plant (Lunaria annua) that always returned in a spot by our swing set. I looked for it every year, and would open it and spread the seeds without realizing I was its dispersal agent.
Above: Edwina visiting one of her projects. Photograph by Allan Pollok-Morris.
Experimental. Exuberant. Engaging.
Plant that makes you swoon:
Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboretum). It blooms late in the summer and then follows the show with brilliant fall color. It is relatively small, so it won’t outgrow its space or out-compete the plants beneath it. Since it is a southern plant, it is a bit of assisted migration for me, providing familiar blooms for wildlife that are moving north to escape the heat.
Plant that makes you want to run the other way:
Crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia). It’s overused and under-useful for biodiversity. One good thing about it, though, is that in the conventional landscapes where it is so popular, it doesn’t need to be sprayed with pesticides.
Favorite go-to plant:
Above: Edwina can’t get enough of spotted beebalm (Monarda punctata). Photograph by Edwina von Gal.
Monarda punctata. It tends to be short lived—it might act like an annual—but I am willing to replant it as I never tire of its odd combination of wacky complicated bloom and understated presence. Not to mention how many pollinators love it, too.
Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:
When to stop.
Unpopular gardening opinion:
Designs that are harmful, but the designer does it anyway, because it is “what the client wants.” We are hired for our expertise. But how can we, the ones who are expected to know, allow even one more garden to be harmful to the environment and the people who enjoy them?
Gardening or design trend that needs to go:
Monocultures: large swaths of one plant.
Every garden needs a…
Above: A place for thirsty wildlife in Edwina’s own garden in Springs, NY. Photograph by Edwina von Gal.
Hailing from Cuba, Mojito mint, M. x villosa, has large leaves with a mild flavor and citrusy notes that make it an excellent choice for hot and cold beverages as well as dipping sauces, marinades, and salad dressings.
A citrusy delight, M. x piperita f. citrata ‘Orange’ has soft, rounded leaves with a lively, refreshing combination of orange and menthol notes that give bright, clean flavors to desserts, dressings, fruit or grain salads, herbal teas, iced drinks, and jelly – or anything chocolate!
Plants grow up to 24 inches tall and wide and produce lovely spires of mauve to pink flowers for attracting pollinators. Cultivate in planters and pots to curtail their vigorous growth. Hardy in Zones 5 to 9.
Once widely used in traditional folk medicine, pennyroyal, M. pulegium, has small, narrow leaves and is now mostly grown as an ornamental for its strong scent and pretty tufts of mauve flowers. Note that these plants can be toxic if ingested in large doses.
One of the best known mint varieties, peppermint (M. × piperita) is popular in the garden for its dark green foliage with a strong, crisp aroma that adds delicious, sweet flavor to hot or cold beverages, fruit dishes, pesto, sauces, salads, and chilled soups.
Plants grow 24 to 36 inches tall and spread up to 24 inches, producing gorgeous spires of mauve to purple flowers in summer.
Grown for both culinary and ornamental purposes, pineapple mint, M. suaveolens ‘Variegata,’ is one of the most attractive varieties.
The soft, wooly leaves of jade green with cream or yellow edging have a sweet, tropical fragrance and make a tasty addition to cocktails, desserts, fruit salads, and punch.
Pineapple mint plants grow in clumps of 24 to 36 inches tall and wide and are slower growing than other varieties, making them suitable for beds or containers. Hardy in Zones 5 to 9.
Prized for its bright, refreshing flavor, spearmint, M. spicata, has narrow, lance-shaped leaves popularly used in cold and hot beverages, candies, desserts, dressings, salads, and sauces.
Plants grow 12 to 24 inches tall and wide and develop multiple spikes of soft mauve flowers in late summer.
A water lover that grows mainly in wetlands, watermint or water mint, M. aquatica, has dark green, fragrant leaves that are used in baked goods, herbal teas, iced drinks, and salads.
Even though it’s spring, many of us have been experiencing unseasonably cold and downright wintry weather this week. Good thing Remodelista put the spotlight on colorful, bright, and light interiors. Plus: By Reader Request: Three Direct-to-Consumer Sofa Companies Kitchen of the Week: Studio Maclean Creates a Bespoke Harlequin Design for Queen of Pattern Lulu Guinness […]
I CONFESS to something of a weakness for Japanese maples, and I suspect I’m not alone. Now, thanks to breeding work by experts like today’s guests, there are more and more varieties being made available that are suited to a widening range of climate zones and garden conditions, meaning the circle of maple lovers can keep on growing.
Brothers Matt and Tim Nichols are the forces behind MrMaple dot com, a North Carolina-based retail mail-order nursery with a staggering collection of about 1,500 different Japanese maple varieties to offer. They ship 100 trees a day year-round, as many as 700-plus a day in peak season. As if that were not enough, last fall, the Nichols Brothers acquired an esteemed wholesale nursery in Oregon, Buchholz & Buchholz. Now, they’re selling to garden centers, too.
I welcomed them to the podcast to talk about these irresistibly collectible trees, including ones like ‘Purple Ghost,’ pictured above.
Read along as you listen to the April 8, 2024 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
japanese maples, with the nichols brothers
Margaret Roach: Hi, Tim [above, left]. Hi, Matt [right]. How are you?
Matt Nichols: Hey, thanks so much for having us. Man, if I ever I’m having a bad day, I’m going to go back and listen to that. I feel pretty cool. [Laughter.]
Tim Nichols: Margaret, thanks so much for having us. It’s a pleasure to be on your podcast.
Margaret: Oh, well, we just did a “New York Times” garden column together after I learned about your expansion and purchase of Buchholz & Buchholz. But I was first introduced to you years ago by our mutual friend, Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, who’s a big fan of yours, so I think we should do a shout-out to Tony to thank him for introducing us originally.
Matt: Oh, big shout out to Tony. He’s a huge mentor of ours and just a huge influence on us.
Tim: He has really taken us under his wing when we were very small and really helped us on the business side of things. It was always fun because we would go to his nursery, talk about plants at Plant Delights Nursery, and then we’d go out to dinner and we’d do nothing but talk business. And so, it’s always been a fun friendship and mentorship with Tony Avent for sure.
Margaret: He’s taught me a lot, too, and he continues to always have great suggestions, introduce me to people. I mean, I’m just completely grateful. So shout-out, Tony.
So maples: The origin story of what’s now MrMaple is kind of a fun one, and you grew up with maples being a thing on both sides of your family, and your father had a hobby business with Japanese maples. It was like you were destined to become a pair of MrMaples, huh [laughter]? Tell us sort of the brief version of that.
Tim: Our grandmother started growing Japanese maples in the 1950s. She was sort of one of the people, a pioneer, who grew Japanese maples, never meant to sell them, and then people would come and started asking her, “Hey, can I buy these?” because she had them lined out in rows. They started getting tighter and she said, “Sure,” and she tagged everyone in between and started selling Japanese maples in the 1950s.
My Dad officially started Nichols Nursery from the other side of the family about 50 years ago, and that was what morphed into MrMaple today. And so, we actually got it from both sides of our family, our mother’s side with our grandmother growing Japanese maples and our dad’s side who started growing Japanese maples before he ever met my mother.
Margaret: That’s crazy kind of, isn’t it?
Matt: It’s wild. We’ve done this our whole lives. Tim and I grew up going to flea markets. They weren’t even called tailgate markets back then or farmer’s markets, that hadn’t really hit the South yet. We just called them flea markets. We would go to high-end flea markets and sell Japanese maples, balled and burlapped, and things like that growing up, and it’s just something we always did.
If you’d asked me when I was 12, if I’d be doing this for a living, I’d have laughed at you, because this was my busy work with Dad, getting out and potting up all the rootstock. Our father taught himself to graft and just became a little bit of an aficionado for maples for himself just as a hobby. He worked at a factory and this was his way to get out and forget about the day-to-day work and enjoy himself.
Around 2008, Tim and I started taking it a little bit more seriously and Dad said, “Well, you guys are going to take all the fun out of it and make it work.” [Laughter.] I guess we made it more of a career rather than a fun hobby that we were pursuing.
Margaret: Oh, my goodness.
Tim: The crazy thing is now MrMaple has really been blessed and we really grew so much that now we recently purchased Buchholz Nursery, and he purchased the grounds from J.D. Vertrees’ family. J.D. Vertrees wrote the book on Japanese maples. And so, here we are from this real small family nursery to now purchasing this historic nursery at Buchholz Nursery, and it seems like everything’s just came full circle.
Margaret: No, legacy; it’s great, the hand-me-down. And I love that about gardening in general: the provenance of things and the pass-along, and it’s just the generations.
Let’s talk about the plants. There’s such an incredible diversity of tree shapes and habits of the trees, the sizes of trees in Japanese maples, leaf color, oh my goodness, texture, scale of leaves, and on and on and on to choose from. When we did the “Times” column, you told me that, however, despite all that potential diversity, there’s sort of two archetypal versions that gardeners mostly buy [laughter]. What are those?
Matt: People typically get introduced to Japanese maples through a laceleaf, a red laceleaf, weeping form, or red upright. That’s typically the gateway entry into Japanese maple collecting. They get a red upright, and then they start to explore all the many differences and nuances, and they’ve got to have more. [Above, ‘Orangeola,’ a weeping red laceleaf.]
Tim: That’s one of the things about Japanese maples. They’re kind of like potato chips, you can’t have just one. Whenever you get one, you get addicted to how beautiful they are, and you start thinking, “I’ve got all these other spaces in my garden. What else can I put in these spaces?” when they realize there’s so much diversity in Japanese maples. There’s a Japanese maple for nearly every spot in the garden.
Margaret: I mean, some of them, as you were saying, are weeping, some are upright. There are different sizes, the colors of the foliage. I mean, gold and green and kind of dark red colors and pinkish colors and I mean, variegated and splashed and splotched and edged. There’s a lot of colors, and the fall color that you can get out of them is astonishing.
Matt: I understand it can be quite overwhelming for people getting into Japanese maples. There’s so much diversity going on there and so many interesting things. We try to make it easy sometimes by curating a collection a little bit of different types. Maybe we’ll list something that has one specific variegated pink and white type with a couple yellows and a few cool dwarfs. We’ll pick a few things from each category and curate it a little bit, because it can be a little overwhelming to get into a hobby and know there’s 1,500 different varieties of this one thing.
Some people are completionist, so they try to get all of them so that can be quite frustrating, too, I’m sure. But there’s so many interesting nuances to them from the color to the leaf shape, to the texture to the fall colors. You really can continue to just explore and find new ways to match them. Now, we tend to mass-garden with Japanese maples, so we’ll end up planting things near each other that are both maples, but we’ll use diversity of color, height, and then fall color. That way they change a little bit each season so maybe that yellow and that red are going to play off each other during one season, but then that orange and then a deeper red or a more crimson fall color will play off each other during a different season.
Margaret: Before I talked to you guys for the “New York Times” article, I didn’t even know, for instance—although I guess in my head if you had asked me, I would’ve said, “Yeah, that sounds right”—I didn’t even know until you told me that laceleaf types are usually weeping forms, but there are exceptions. But that’s a typical combination, laceleaf and weepers.
Tim: Yeah, that’s so true. Laceleaf and weepers are typically just that cascading umbrella habit that you get out in the landscape, and that’s what a lot of people start out with. There are exceptions, though, that have that palmate leaf and weeping habit. And then, there are some exceptions that have more an upright habit, like ‘Seiryu,’ a very, very popular tree that’s very vigorous and upright. But that’s pretty rare is getting a laceleaf upright. That’s something that you don’t see too frequently.
It’s the main thing with people whenever they’re starting out with a Japanese maple. One thing I just want to get out to everybody is figure out the tree for the right spot in the garden. With so much diversity, go and look and see what size you have. Think about your 10-year expectancy of height and width, and then find a tree that fits that space, because there’s so many amazing plants that can do that. If you’ve got good drainage and you’ve got that height and width thing figured out, you’re going to have a tree that will do really beautiful out in your landscape.
Margaret: Speaking of the rules and the exceptions and so forth, and looking at all that diversity, all the possibilities among the 1,500 that you have on your website or whatever, I mean, I know there are some sort of general inferences we can draw about what conditions certain varieties will or won’t tolerate based on their leaf color and so on. I thought maybe we could talk about some of those, because that was another thing that I kind of knew as a long time gardener—like gold-leaf plants tend to have a particular relationship where there’s too much sun at a certain point, not just maples, but other things, too, and understanding that. Or what about the pink- or white- variegated ones? Tell us a little bit about, again, some of those sort of inferences you can draw about different leaf colors and so forth.
There’s so many different sun exposures in different areas. We’re in the mountains of western North Carolina where our nursery’s at, so we get by with more things in full sun than people, say, in northern Florida or something like that. There can definitely be different heat-index tricks to that.
Now, Japanese maples, in general, are going to work in Zones 5, and then we say on the East Coast up to Zone 9, but zones are really rated by how cold, but it is a good generalization on the East Coast. And then, there’s a ton that can handle full sun. Now, ones that want to avoid sun, in general, are more pink and white Japanese maples. The more pink and the more white you have in your leaf, typically those are going to need some more late-day shade.
Again, there’s always exceptions to the rule. Yellow can kind of go into that category, too, where, in general, if it’s a very bright yellow leaf, you want to give that some more 12:00-on protection or 2:00-on protection, depending on the area. You’re getting those leaves to look their best even in the summer, protecting them to have the best fall color possible, and that’s a good generalization. But again, rules are always made to be broken with horticulture. There’s always some that kind of go outside the box and do a little bit different. [Above, ‘Summer Gold.’]
Margaret: Right. As I said in the introduction, you guys in collaboration, in some cases, with Mr. Buchholz, whose nursery you recently purchased, you guys have been working on stretching that a little bit, too, making some hybrids that can bring the color pink into slightly warmer zones or the color gold, haven’t you? Isn’t that sort of what people are working on, stretching the zones, or the versatility of some of these plants?
Tim: That’s for sure. With, for instance, Acer palmatum‘Geisha Gone Wild’[below] was developed at Buchholz Nursery, found as a sport on the cultivar ‘Geisha,’ it can handle more sun than most of your pink-on-red selections. An excellent tree in Zone 8, can handle a little bit more sun than many of your other pink and red variegated types.
And then, we’ve actually been working here at MrMaple on developing hybrids with Acer oliverianum, which part of our Heat Seeker Series that allow us to go even into much hotter zones. We’ve got some oliverianum hybrids that can handle full sun in Texas. And so, it’s one of those fun things where you start developing something and you start seeing that some of these species have “superpowers” that allow you to push the zones on Japanese maples.
Margaret: Right. Working toward your goal of making it possible for everyone in the United States to have a Japanese maple in their yard? [Laughter.]
Matt: For sure.
Margaret: What about the coral bark? There’s that famous one, ‘Sango Kaku,’ and there are others. What about the coral barks? Are there places they do and don’t like to be?
Matt: Yeah. We recommend this one typically to Zone 6. We’re 6B here in Western North Carolina, and most of your coral bark do have a little bit thinner cambium so Zone 5 can be stretching it, although I’ve seen some beautiful specimens in zone 5. Zone 5 can be a little too harsh in the extreme winters for the coral barks. They tend to work Zone 6 and up, and are just exceptional plants.
They do tend to be very receptive to warmer climates. Dryness is really the key there. They don’t want to be boggy or wet feet at all in any of the bark-interest types. Soggy during the winter can be one of their detriments. They kind of like warmer spaces that are a little dry. They can actually handle a good bit of sandy soil as well and be very resistant to that. The main thing is not wet and too cold.
Tim: We have seen some of our Acer pseudosieboldianum hybrids we’re working with starting to get some bark interest, like lighter yellow-green colors, and we’re hoping that one day that we can get some coral-bark selections of those Acer pseudosieboldianums to push it down into Zone 5 and maybe Zone 4 with the Acer pseudosieboldianum species [below]. We’re working not just on the heat-tolerance side, but also trying to expand things on the cold-tolerance side as well.
Margaret: Right. Well, the Acer pseudosieboldianum was probably my first “Japanese” maple—even though I believe it’s from Korea and China maybe a little bit, too, and maybe elsewhere, but it’s not technically Japanese in origin. But that was one of the first ones I ever grew in the ground. I was Zone 5, 5B, and now I’m a 6a or something, but whatever. Shifting world [laughter]. But I had a nurseryman, a very choice, wonderful woody plant expert near me, and he said, this is the one other than say the red upright ‘Bloodgood,’ for instance, that he really felt confident about was not going to get beat up in our climate, because we have ice storms and whatever; tough winters, or we used to.
And so, I had a big one in the ground for many, many, many, many years, and it finally croaked, and who knows why. Some soil-borne problem, I think. But that is an exceptionally hardy plant and the fall foliage is beyond, I mean, just absolutely extravagant, fiery, and wonderful. I’m so excited to hear that it’s becoming part of the sort of breeding formula for a new generation of maples. That’s great because it’s a great plant, and yet I didn’t know many people who knew it, even.
Matt: For sure. Talon Buchholz had started a whole program before we had actually taken over there. Before he knew we were even interested, he’d actually shared his whole series of seedlings with us. And so, I think there’s some groundbreaking ones there that have a lot of red to them as a pseudosieboldianum, some different color patterns, things that are going to be hybrids with palmatum likely to give them some more ornamental traits.
But the goal is that once they are tested, that pseudosieboldianum trait will allow them to go into Zone 4 and be even a little bit more climate-pushing for some of the colder zones, and just more all around cold-hardy, so that when we do get those crazy polar vortexes, you’re a little more protected.
Tim: Speaking of those polar vortexes, the Acer shirasawanum hybrids that Talon Buchholz actually developed and introduced through Buchholz Nursery have actually proven to be more cold-tolerant than many of the just straight palmatums during those polar vortexes. Many in Zone 5 talked about how their red Acer shirasawanum mix from Buchholz have done really well. For instance, ‘Shira Red,’ one that’s similar, ‘Red Dawn.’ There’s a number of Acer shirasawanum hybrids and people often said, “What’s so great about these?” And then, when the polar vortexes hit, they said, “Guys, these are amazing.”
Margaret: This is what’s good about them [laughter]. Because of the worry about the hardiness and so forth, and it isn’t even the hardiness, it was more that the damage that would be done by one of our northern winters, I think. It wouldn’t necessarily kill the thing, but it beat it up so bad in some of the cases.
Earlier on, when I started buying them years ago, and maybe I only have 10 or 12 or something, but they’re in pots, and I wheel them on hand cart into the garage every winter. It’s unheated, but it keeps them out of that sort of ice and wind mess. But now, of course, I understand that they probably would be fine outside. But again, nobody really knew way back when, decades ago, up here, it wasn’t really the common thing. ‘Bloodgood’ was around and a couple of weeping cutleaf types, laceleaf types, but you really didn’t see much diversity of choices. I bought mine mail-order or something and just put them in a pot and tried them.
That’s another way to grow them. I think they’re gorgeous as pot specimens, and they can live a really long time that way.
Tim: Oh, for sure.
Margaret: Now, I shouldn’t then take it out of the pot and expect it to do well planted in the ground after it’s been bonsai-ed, so to speak for so long [laughter]?
Matt: No. A lot of times they’ll take off.
Margaret: Oh, they will?
Matt: A lot of times you want to check them about, what we recommend is checking a tree about every five years, making sure that the roots haven’t grown into the drain holes, making sure it’s still got good drainage. I mean, I’ve seen some in some instances where the trees used up most of the nutrients, and so it can reduce the root ball a little bit during the right time of the year. Put it back in the same size pot or a bigger pot, but you’ll need to add some nutrients to it.
A lot of times, a lot of those trees that have been in a big container for quite a while, once they do get in the ground, they tend to leap. People will say, “Well, how long can a tree be in a container?” Sometimes I’ll show them some 20-year-old specimens here at the nursery and they’ve never been in the ground. They can be in a container for quite a while as long as you’ve got good drainage.
I tend to protect in Zone 5 when they’re outside. I think sometimes, especially where I’m at, people are overly protective and they’re better off leaving their tree outside in a Zone 6 for most winters, even in a container.
But my experience most of the time is they tend to leap [laughter] when they finally do get some room to spread out their roots in the ground. [Above, Acer palmatum ‘Raraflora’ in a container.]
Margaret: When you set them free.
Matt: Yeah. Like, “Thank goodness, we can the soil running.” [Laughter.]
Margaret: I mean I definitely have some that are close to 20 years old, but they’ve been moved up. I’ve stepped them up. Over their first few years, they got stepped up in pots: bigger, bigger biggest giant pots, but I don’t have any pots that are any bigger anymore to put them in.
Any other tips? One of you mentioned good drainage, and that’s a universal rule with Japanese maples is no swampy site. That’s one of the reasons I think you told me when we did the “Times” article that growing them in pots really does work, because it gives them that sharp drainage. Any other feeding, no feeding, watering things, when to prune, anything else that we need to know to be a good parent to one of these guys.
Tim: With Japanese maples, they’re really easy to take care of. They’re one of the easiest plants, and often those plants that people put on the landscape that’s got good drainage that’s going to thrive and do well. The main thing is, whenever you’re planting these, don’t bury the tree. Whenever you have the tree, you get a tree from a container or anywhere and you go to plant it in the landscape. Plant it level or slightly raised. If you raise it up a little bit, you’re going to ensure you’ve got good drainage, and you’re also not going to smother that root ball. Often, people will make that volcano of death and mulch too much around the base, which can smother the plant, and you really start to notice that during the summer months.
Matt: Now, fertilizing can be an interesting thing. J.D. Vertrees, who wrote the first book on Japanese maples, he tried to dummy-proof it. He said to everybody, “Don’t fertilize your Japanese maples. There’s no need to.” I guess he was just trying to make sure that people didn’t overdo it. I think really the key is moderation with fertilizers.
Now, we recommend low-nitrogen. You don’t want to over-push your tree, and we find that the relationship between fertilizer and winterization, especially in your area, is a big relationship. You don’t want to be over-pushing the tree, especially late.
A lot of our bag release mixes we use as gardeners will have 180-day release on some of those granulated fertilizers. And so, if we’re putting that out in August, we could be keeping our tree way too active for that cold snap that could be coming early actually in October. That late-fall cold snap can be detrimental, especially to new growth, so we don’t want to be over pushing our Japanese maples.
When they’re growing at a more moderate pace, they have a better cell wall, and they hold up better against the elements. They’re a happier, healthier plant because they’re not over-pushed. We recommend low-nitrogen. What we do here at our nursery, it really works well for North Carolina and it would work well for most of the East Coast for sure, is cutting off all of our fertilizer around May. If we’re putting on any more fertilizer, we tend to stop in May. When June hits we’re like, “No mas, that’s enough. No more fertilizers go out this season. Cut it off completely.”
That way, we know the tree’s shutting down in time for winter. If we get one of those early cold spells, we’re not setting it up for failure.
Margaret: Because it can not only screw up the fall color show, it can also mean that soft, tender growth is being pushed so late that’s then going to get blasted by winter.
Matt: Exactly. Exactly.
Margaret: That’s a double-whammy. One is just visual. The other actually could be damaging.
Matt: That’s a great point, too. You’ll have better fall colors if the tree is naturally shutting down. To your point, that’s the ideal.
Some people will say, “I didn’t have that great of fall color on my tree.” I was like, “Well, when were you fertilizing?” “I don’t think I fertilized them, but I did fertilize the other plants I had around my Japanese maples in August. You’re right.” And then, they’ll think, “I did give them a lot of liquids and I did give them a lot of fertilizers late, because I was fertilizing the other plants in that same bed.”
And so, you got to be conscious of that, because sometimes you’ll give them a little bit too much of a push at the wrong time of the year.
Margaret: I am just curious. I mean, you have 1,500 or so in your collection already. I think, when we’ve talked before, you’ve said there’s probably two and a half thousand or something different Japanese maples out there in the world, maybe, maybe more. Who knows? Is there a holy grail? Is there something that you and other experts like yourselves who are completely immersed in the world of Japanese maples, is there something else that you’re all looking for, or hoping to figure out? Is it this extended-hardiness thing—is that what it is, or is there something else?
Matt: There’s definitely a bit of that. We’re always, Tim, you used the term “superpowers.” When we’re going through and looking for trees, what we try to do whenever we name something is improve upon it. There’s a million orchids. There’s a million hostas. There’s a million maples. We don’t just need something new for the sake of new. A lot times some of our favorite trees have been around since the 1700s, so they’re tried and true and tested.
Now, what we do at our nursery is if we’re going to name something, we try to name the five closest things to it and say, is it better or worse than those things, and how? We have to be able to say, “It’s better than ‘Kuro hime,’” for these reasons.
And then, we want to watch it for seven years, put it in some different places—send one to Oregon, send one to New Jersey, send one to Florida—and see what’s going on with that tree over a longer period of time, grafted, so we can evaluate it to make sure we’re not just reintroducing. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel here. We’ve already got things that are great and we don’t really need another one unless it has a good reason to be.
We like that. But we also like to do cutting-edge stuff. Here at our nursery, we’re always looking for fun and interesting things, and we try to break the mold for what can be done. We like those rule-breakers. We like things that are other species that are interesting, like the oliverianum Tim was talking about.
One of the holy grails for a while for nurseryman has been a really nice redder form of ‘Mikawa Yatsubusa’ [above, a historic specimen at Buchholz Nursery]. We’ve recently came out with one that’s been our best. We’ve been through about 2,000 or so red Mikawa seedlings since around 2008. We start evaluating them and we just grade them. We’ll go through and grade, and go, best one, best one gets planted, and then the rest just get sold off for seedling sometimes. They can be great plants, but they don’t deserve cultivar status.
We’ve recently released one called ‘Red Panda’ that’s been a big hit for us. That’s kind of been a holy grail for a lot of people. I think the name’s fun, too. I was looking at a red panda with my kids at one of our local nature centers here. They have a native animals exhibit and they have this one animal, it’s the red panda. And so, my kids absolutely love the red panda here locally and said, “That’d be a perfect name for that red ‘Mikawa Yatsubusa’ we have.” People have been really crazy about that one. The hype’s been really high on that one [laughter]. It’s been one of our most recent holy grail types to release.
Margaret: Cool. Well, Matt and Tim, I’m so glad to speak to you as always, and it was fun doing the “Times” story together. I wish you the best with all the transition with Buchholz Nursery and all the other things you’re doing. I saw you on Instagram planting daylilies the other day, so I’m assuming MrDaylily dot com is next, because you’re so crazy [laughter]. But thank you so much for making time today.
Matt: Tim and I actually, I bought my first car and he bought the first family computer working at daylily farms, so I guess we’ve always been crazy hoarders of plant. We’ve always had the bug for something. I’m just so honored you had us on. Thank you so much, and for the article and just everything. We’re just humbled and honored whenever anybody wants to talk to us about plants, and we’re still shocked every time they do.
Margaret: Well, good. I’ll talk to all of you again soon.
(All photos from Buchholz Nursery and MrMaple.)
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MY WEEKLY public-radio show, rated a “top-5 garden podcast” by “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK, began its 15th year in March 2024. It’s produced at Robin Hood Radio, the smallest NPR station in the nation. Listen locally in the Hudson Valley (NY)-Berkshires (MA)-Litchfield Hills (CT) Mondays at 8:30 AM Eastern, rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. Or play the April 8, 2024 show using the player near the top of this transcript. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes/Apple Podcasts or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
In the same newly planted container, dark-foliaged succulents and fuchsias contrast with their lighter and gold-variegated counterparts.
And from the other side, the variegated sage really looks amazing.
Here’s what the combo looked like after it had matured at the end of the summer!
The fuchsias really got huge over the summer, and they look so good with all the succulents.
This was definitely a successful planting design!
This dramatic flower is called a walking iris (Neomarica regina, Zones 8–11). The striking blooms show this plant’s relationship to irises, and the “walking” part of the name refers to the way that some species produce new plantlets at the tops of the flower stalks and then bend down to the ground, rooting as they go and “walking” through the garden.
So many plants usually familiar to northern gardeners as houseplants thrive outside, here surrounding a statue of the Buddha.
A huge golden elephant’s ear (
Bromeliads bring a huge amount of color and interest to a warm-climate garden. As they get close to blooming, the leaves flush bright colors to help attract pollinators. That strategy works to attract gardeners as well!
Roger and Linda are posing with a silk handkerchief tree (Cynometra lenticellata, Zones 10–12), which has showy bracts around the ripening seeds.
