June Bouquets July 4, 2009

 

Two recent picks to add to the portfolio.   Above is a “Happy Home” arrangement I put together for a delievery to a lovely couple who had just moved into a new apartment.  The container was a low brown pottery bowl with a tape grid.  Flowers included snap dragons, delphiniums, echinacea, dill, sweet williams, and yarrow.   I also tucked in a lovely bar of floral soap and a nice note. 

 

 

Next up was a quick hand-tied bunch that really struck me once I had it together.  The reds and golds of the sweet wiliams, snap dragons and dill are very dramatic together.  I think this would be a stunning wedding bouquet if the stems were wrapped in a sumptious satin ribbon with long tails.

June Wrap Up July 4, 2009

 

The garden is growing gold these days, trucking along at full speed.  I’m very nervous to be leaving it for the next two weeks as I tour English gardens and visit with some impressive horticulturists and designers in the U.K.    Seeing as how my packing is yet to be done, I’ll jump right into the details of what was blooming and producing in the garden this past week.    Notice above how the zinnias are starting to pop up at the front and the Metasequoias on the far right are getting very bushy.  I’m thinking about pruning them, though I love their texture and fresh green growth so much that I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it.

 

 

The succulent container is absolutely stunning as all the plants have become very well established and are taking on their more intense color now that they are in the sun and the weather is quite hot.  The reds and blues make me smile every time I walk by, as do the tiny off-sets the thimble cacti have started to produce.    I’m relieved the 21 days (!) of rain we had in June didn’t swamp the entire container and leave me with a bunch of rotted out plants.

 

 

Speaking of beautiful containers, my main focal container is continuing to look spectacular.  The hydrangeas are holding up like real champs, despite being in full sun and crammed in with loads of other plants.   The coleus is shooting up through the middle and adding yet another layer of texture and some yellow-green highlights to match those of the creeping jenny below.  I have been fertilizing my container with a cocktail of compost tea and fish emulsion once a week.    Same goes for the varigated lime sitting below the big container.  It has been growing like a weed and adding a nice accent to my container collection.

 

 

New to bloom in my ornamental beds this past week were the punchy Allium ‘Drumstick’ and clear blue Platycodon grandiflorus (ballon flower).  Last year the ballon flowers were very short so I was unable to use any in cut flower arrangements.  Now that these perennials have gotten established, they’ve stretched to a lovely height of three feet with straight strong stems.  I promptly cut the two you see above and am currently testing their vase life – three days and counting. 

 

 

Another new bloom in the garden is the patch of nigella.  This is a pleasant surprise.  I had direct seeded nearly six feet of a row in the very early spring only to have very slow germination and spotty with what did sprout.  The seedlings failed to put on any growth for nearly 3 months.    Since these are a spring cut, I pretty much gave up on them and was just thinking the other week that I should rip them out and put in more zinnias and cosmos.  Well, ta-da!  They’ve burst into bloom and are the most stunning cut I’ve grown to date, adding to the bunches of sweet williams, snap dragons, and dill flowers I’ve been harvesting by the armfuls.   What I love best about the nigella is that I can harvest a stem that has a bloom or two open on it but several others that aren’t and the stem will continue to bloom in the vase, adding an element of surprise as it fills out the arrangment with additional fresh flowers. 

 

 

Just look at that bucket of flowers!  I’m still in awe every time I harvest a big bunch… it’s really that easy to grow amazing flowers like this to have tucked into vases around the house!  My clients are really loving them too.   I made a delivery the other day and couldn’t help getting a big smile across myself as I saw how much delight they invoked.   Another gratifying harvest as of late has been the tea herbs; lots of yarrow, anise hyssop, chamomile and lavender still being pumped out of my tea garden bed. 

 

Good Fellas June 30, 2009

 

When summer hits its stride, so do the garden pests.   I’ve had a few grand battles with some particularly pesky pests in the past.  However, I wasn’t always the most proactive player in the pest management game.  I really only took notice after these “rat bastards” – as I so kindly refer to them  – did some serious damage to one plant or another.    I recently had a chance to work with the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) division at Longwood and quickly became hyper-aware of all insect activity thanks to daily scouting trips around the gardens and routine research on the topic.  

 

 
Lo and behold, once my eyes were opened, my garden quickly reveled myriad insects, many of which are good guys!  I never knew I had so many beneficial insects fighting my war against pests for me.    As I noted earlier, the lady bugs were feasting on black aphids in my flower beds in late May and early June.   And the bees of course have been doing their very important business of pollinating since the first colorful flower emerged in spring. 

 

 
I couldn’t really capture the  itty bitty parasitic wasps laying their eggs inside the eggs of an asparagus beetle’s, but trust me, that was super cool!   I actually saved the leaf the eggs were on in a small vile and hatched them out in safety.  I released the new generation on my stand of mustards and beans as these little wasps reportedly do big time damage to Mexican bean beetle, my arch nemesis. 

 

 
But the real hero in my garden this year is without a doubt the army of assassin bugs (a.k.a. wheel bugs).  Early this spring I noticed a clutch of eggs on one of my wooden poles that I was tempted to squash since I didn’t know what they were.  Boy, am I glad I didn’t!  Out hatched hundreds of bright red and black assassin bugs, all of which quickly disappeared.  I was forlorn as I knew they are a great predatory insect.  Well, thankfully they just were hiding for a bit while they went through a couple nymphal stages (I’ve found lots of empty skins they shed on the underside of many of my ornamental plants). 

 

 

About two weeks ago, they all suddenly re-emerged on my Echniops, at least triple the size they had been when they hatched.  I immediately offered them a re-location package they couldn’t refused and carefully (they do bite!) dumped at least 20 on my ground cherries, eggplants, and tomatillos in the vegetable garden.  These plants were plagued with flea beetle and Colorado potato beetle.  I had my doubts that they’d do much good… assassin bugs are general predators so it wasn’t clear from my research if they’d be all that committed to cleaning up one pest in particular.  Well, folks, the proof is in the photo!    The Colorado potato beetle grubs were a hot ticket item on the menu and I am now grub free!  I also saw them piercing the flea beetle with their tenacious mouthparts, but when they weren’t encumbered by the weight of a big ol’ grub, the assassin bugs moved too quickly to take a clear photo of the feasting.   The flea beetle population has plummeted.   I can’t believe I’m saying this…but, I hope the Mexican bean beetle and harlequin bugs get here soon so my brigade of good fellas has something new to eat!

 

Box of Beauties June 20, 2009

 

June Blooms June 18, 2009

 

Flowers for cutting are finally starting to pick up steam in my garden.  Two bunches I cut in particular this week caught my eye.  The ‘Blue Celeste’ sweet peas are a stunning steel blue color and are as sweetly fragrant as the most expensive Parisian perfume.  They are so beautiful; I did not want to muddle either their color or their scent with any other flowers.  Tucked into an antique silver cup en masse, they are whimsical and gracious as no other arrangement can be.

 

 

In a completely different direction, the bunch above that I picked in the rain (and didn’t have much time to “arrange” before sending it to the farmers market) proved to be frothy and woodsy, combining the last of some pale blue delphinium spikes with yarrow heads kissed by various hues of pink and creamy yellow and the spikey green filaments of ‘Hair’ alliums.  A few pale violet penstamin blooms tucked around the edges reminded me of fairy caps, hinting at how this combination of flowers would work perfectly for a wood nymph’s wedding.

Succulent Propagation 101 June 18, 2009

 

In an effort to expand my succulent collection and possible someday propagate and sell unusual specimens, I’ve been teaching myself about taking cuttings from succulents and rooting them with the hopes of having regular success.  Generally speaking, this category of plants is pretty easy to get rooted, though somewhat slow to put on new growth initially.  Some genera are straightforward; they put out “offsets” or “pups” – essentially miniature forms of the more mature plant – that can swiftly be plucked off and rooted to grow a new plant.  In fact, several species practically kick off their young’uns themselves, as in the case of my thimble cactus (Mammillaria fragilis),  which makes these plants highly successful at spreading about in their native environments.   In other cases, such as the two Agave victoriae-reginae I bought recently, the plants really don’t want to let go of those offsets.  I used a flathead screwdriver to carefully wedge the offsets away from the mother plant.  Most of my A. victoriae-reginae offsets already had roots at their base so I was able to immediately pot them  up in a loose sandy media, all of which have rooted into their pots and are putting on noticeable growth today.

 

High Season June 15, 2009

 

The garden is really hitting its stride here as we round the corner of mid-June.  Many flowers have come into bloom, including the ox eye daisies, the coneflowers, and the lavender.  The yarrow is just about to break bud.  The large container I designed has taken on even richer coloring as the hydrangea has turned a deep shade of maroon in the sun.   I moved my large Aeonium ‘Black Rose’ out to sit beside my container planting as I think the near-black purple of its leaves are the perfect compliment to the overall design. 

 

 

 Sedum Hill is growing wild to the point of frustration – I spend far more time “weeding” it than I do on anything else in my ornamental beds.  Still, it’s a repeated favorite of anyone who strolls into my garden so it’s worth the effort.   Speaking of weeds, I’m surprised by how few I have this year.  I am guessing they have gotten choked out by the lush growth of my perennials.  I also make it a point to pull the weeds in the spring as soon as I see them, which no doubt stops them from multiplying and seeding in more.     I spotted a few great beneficial bugs too in my garden and beside it too this week.  Black aphids were densely populating on a few stems here and there and a herd of hungry lady bugs soon followed and knocked down the aphid population very quickly.   I love it when the good guys beat the bad guys!   And nearby was spotted the caterpillar of a monarch butterfly.  This is one beautiful baby!

 

 

Bugs aside, I planted out my zinnia transplants to get my “fence” in the front started again.   Another task that’s taken me quite awhile to complete was putting in three more posts around the perimeter of my ornamental beds so that my various vines can grow up them this summer.  Now I just have to find plenty of willow branches to weave another garland like I have hanging in the front and also to build some “cages” again like I had last year around my unruly salvia plants. 

 

 

A Desert Landscape in Miniature June 11, 2009

 

With my recent budding collection of succulents and cacti, I was inspired to combine a few of my specimens into a miniature desert landscape that could be set into my garden for the summer. Of course, right after putting it out, we have been blasted by daily summer storms which have saturated even this container’s well-drained media. I fear for my cacti’s longevity, but I also feel that if they can’t survive outside for the summer then perhaps they aren’t meant to be in my collection. I really am not a fan of “house plants” except in winter when only my most prized plants retreat inside from the cold. This container will make the cut if it can make it through the rain!

 

In this container are:  Agave victoriae-regina (Queen Victoria Agave), Mammillaria fragilis  (Thimble Cactus), Myrtillocactus geometrizans (Blue Candle Cactus), Kalanchoe luciae (Paddle Plant), Echeveria ‘Red Trump’ (Ruffled Echeveria), and Echeveria ‘Topsy Turvy’