Smellavision

 Can we all just take a moment to appreciate Gurney's current favorite advertising photo that keeps popping up all over my internet travels.  I can almost smell it.

Gurney's

Mail Order Plants

 This post is a little premature.  I don't have all of the photos I would like to have to do a true expose' on mail ordering live plants.  But this is the time of year when I am thinking a lot about it.  So this is a place marker and a promise to do a more informative post.  

Yes, I mail order live plants.  And yes, it works out well.  I'm not talking about bulbs or corms or tubers or other bare root applications but actual green, growing annuals and perennials.  In this day and age when you can see examples of all of these beautiful plants on line it can be frustrating when you can't find the exact plant you have researched.  

Case in point, my Petticoats Peach Geum.  Naturally, I fell in love with a photo.  I really love peachy pink flowers.  Not pink.  Not yellow.  Peach.  I wanted peach Geums for a few years.  I searched high and low.  I could find a few Geums locally, but they were usually red or possibly tangerine and I don't love red flowers and I have plenty of orange.  I like them.  But I love peach colored flowers.  And the color palette around the house is much too soft for red flowers.  I've made that mistake before.

Below is the new garden bed we put in the summer 2020.  I put in divisions from my day lilies and Clematis bush so it would be cohesive with the bed next to it.  I planted some Carex grass for texture and put in a lot of different types of spring bulbs.  But I wanted something new that I don't already have anywhere else, and one of those things is Geum.

I ordered four peach Geum from Bluestone Perennials.  They came in the fall which is a good time for relocating or adding perennials.  They were just little guys in 3.5" pots.  That is the one thing you sort of have to get used to when mail ordering live plants.  You will be paying a higher price for a smaller pot and usually a trimmed down plant.  You would not normally go to a local store and pay $18 for a little pot.  You would probably be buying a gallon pot at that price.  But be patient for a few months.  You aren't buying for today. You are paying for convenience.  You are paying for relative rarity.  You are paying for growing potential.

Geum when first planted fall 2020

And this is what they became.

July 2021

Geum Petticoats Peach is supposed to grow 10"-12" tall and wide.  They are a compact plant with leaves similar to Geranium.  The flowers are about an inch in diameter and hover above the plant mound on delicate stems.  They spread outwards and can be divided every few years.

If you really have your heart set on something you can only get mail order, take a chance.  I've had good luck with Bluestone, Garden Crossings and Proven Winners.  I do not rely heavily on mail ordering live plants, but I tend to treat myself every year to something or other.  I have more hard to find items on order and next time I get a shipment I will take photos of the packaging so you can see how its done.  Before I tried it I couldn't imagine how a tender plant could be safely transported.  And of course now and then you might be unfortunate in weather or shipping delays.  Lord knows I would have preferred not to receive the Chilly Pear Tree a week before a May snow storm,  But for the most part its a viable option.  I am looking forward to seeing my Geum imerge for the snow bank

A little sparkle

 

Yesterday's Ice meets today's Sunshine

Heart Shaped Objects

 Hearts have always been one of my favorite shapes.  It started in grade school when I learned how to cut a perfect one from a folded piece of paper.  Its also a very flexible shape.  They can be fat or skinny or fancy or plain.  They can be edged in lace or made of smooth metal.  I look forward to this time of year when I round up all of my heart shaped objects and come up with some sort of happy vignette.

Tin hearts have become one of my favorite collectibles, whether they are Jell-O molds, ice cream molds or cookie cutters.  Especially if they are baking tins.  There is something about all of the years of bakers pouring love into these tools to make goodies for their Valentines that gives them a special aura.  

The latest addition to my collection is the 1920's Kreamer tart tin.  I've been wanting one for awhile and they only come up once a year or so.  When you see one you can't linger too long over the decision because no matter the price, someone will buy it.  When it arrived in the mail and I opened the packaged I fell in love with it.  It is so cleverly made.  Each one of the heart shapes is individually stamped into its own circle and then set into the larger flat tin.  It is a work of art and it makes my heart happy.

My large spring form pan is also a clever design.  The bottom fits into a very narrow lip and the tip has a slide which pulls off to release the sides.  It would take more than one cake mix to fill this baby!

I've come across several more smaller sized cake pans.  These three are my first finds.  I put them on this shelf back in 2019 and liked them so much they've been there ever since.  I added the swans last year.

As winter wears on these homey touches keep my heart warm.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Peter Rabbit Boots

 I tend to not enjoy wearing funny colored shoes/boots as much as shopping for them, so I won't be buying these.  But how stinkin' cute!  These special editions tend to sell out super quick, so if you love them don't think about it too long.

Available at:

• Hunter
• Anthropologie
• Terrain

Preparing for Seeds

 It is still winter and the anticipation of spring is both exciting and ominous.  All of these plans we make actually have to be carried out.  And you can't make greenhouse style plans if you have no greenhouse.  I have to make sure that I am prepared to start things when they need to be started in the conditions they need to survive.  Otherwise the seed purchases and summer dreams will be all for naught.

This starts with a calendar and some facts.  Seeds don't all want the same thing.  For starters, some need light to germinate and others need dark to germinate.  It helps me to make a chart.  Nasturtium are the only thing I am starting that require darkness.  Those will be started in the basement.  They also require either soaking or scarification (breaking the shell).  Everything else can be started in the cold frame.

Did you notice in my chart that these seeds require 75 degree soil?  That won't be accomplished in the cold frame the first week of April without a heat mat.  I have two tray size heat mats that I have used for years in my basement set up for tomatoes and other veggies.  I plan to order a large heat mat (20" x 48") that will fit four trays at a time.  My old ones are not adjustable and they typically keep the soil five to ten degrees warmer than ambient temperature which works well for the basement.  This one has a temperature sensor which can be set at 75 and it will regulate itself to maintain the desired temperature.

Another thing I need to have is enough seed starting mix.  I usually use potting mix in the cold frame.  There are two caveats with that.  #1, reused potting mix is no longer sterile and you can get damping off problems.  #2, potting mix is a little coarse for seedlings and it helps to run it through a sifter to remove larger elements.  You can sift your potting mix and sterilize it with boiling water or some time in the oven.  Working with soil in April can be a bit of a hassle.  This year I am just going to buy a couple bags of seed starter.  You know, its the little luxuries in life that make us happy.

This year I am going to grow some Ranunculus.  This is sort of exciting.  I've seen them on the internet and they are beautiful.  To be successful, it is recommended that you soak the corms and set them in potting soil for ten to fourteen days to pre-sprout them before you plant them out.  I am going to use regular (non-draining) plant trays to do this.  This will begin March first.  I will need to make sure I have unfrozen soil to use.  We are supposed to get a 45 degree day coming up.  I will probably still need some warm water to thaw the iceberg, but it will be a good day to go out to the dirt locker and work on that project.

Something else that can benefit from pre-sprouting is Dahlia tubers.  Again, you fill a tray with soil and place the tubers in the soil and put them in the sun.  This is sort of like chitting potatoes.  You want to wake them up without risking planting them out in the ground too early.  If they are in trays you can move them to the warmest, sunniest spot and bring them in at night.  I have these bus tubs (for restaurant use) that will be the right size.  Again, I'm going to need soil but the Dahlia sprouting won't begin until May 1st so hopefully things will be more thawed out by then!

Speaking of soil.  I need more.  Every year I buy about a dozen large 50 quart bags .  The first priority for new soil is my container tomatoes.  They always get new soil because I want it to be free of disease and high in nutrients.  In the fall I save all of my good potting mix for the next year.  I have the 73 gallon dirt locker and I also have four heavy 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes.  Anything leftover that doesn't fit into this storage is either dumped in the raised beds or into the compost pile.  This starts me out with 145 gallons of potting mix.  Its still not enough.  I will need another dozen bags or so to fill my expectations.  

And this list only includes my set plans.  It won't cover me deciding to plant up leftover marigolds in small decorative pots to place here and there in bare spots.  It won't cover any perennials I want to dig into the creek beds because those each require fiber pots of soil.  I will be able to stretch the potting mix quite a bit by adding about 25% of my finished compost to each container.  Suddenly 145 gallons of saved potting mix doesn't seem like a lot.  But a simple decision like not planting sweet potatoes can change the scenery quite a bit. These are the things I need to know and take into consideration.  If I DO end up buying fourteen bags of new potting mix to plant everything my heart desires I will be faced with a storage problem in the fall.  Its a system of checks and balances.  I make my plans and consider the consequences.

Parting Shot:  Some spare Strawberry Blonde Marigolds spontaneously using up some of that valuable potting mix.

Planning a Container Planting

 This is the time of year when we plan for the season ahead.  I have often said that the month the garden gets totally out of control isn't August.  It's January.  That's when we are tempted to wreck perfectly sensible plans that we made last summer when we were thinking clearer.  As we get more experienced, we are less likely to do that.  We realize that months of cold isolation, lack of growing things and the bad influence of mail order catalogs (and now internet examples) can make us susceptible to flights of fancy and grandiose ideas.

Here is something I've been thinking about for awhile.  My whiskey barrel planters along the river bed.  They turned out really beautiful last year.  I didn't even mind deadheading the Petunias.  Traditional Petunias is something I succumb to every now and then but they take a lot of maintenance.

There are several things to consider when planning a container:

• Growing conditions (Sun Shade Heat)
• Color Palette
• Growth Habit (Shape)
• Cost
• Availability

I have addressed container combinations before.  It is something I put a lot of thought into but I am beginning to run out of ideas that excite me.  Proven Winners has a great site tool called Recipe Search where they put out all of their recommended combinations and give you the list of everything that goes into them.  Growers use these when putting together hanging baskets and combination planters.  You can also assemble them yourself.  The problem is that you can't always find all of the exact ingredients.  This has only added to my frustration.

There is a slight problem with these two planters. of mine  One is in full sun and the other is in part sun.  Can you see in the photo below how the petunias seem to be full and lush on the left (east) but there are no blooms on the lower right (west)?  This is because this planter only gets sun until 1:00 pm. About 5 hours.  Then it is in full shade for the rest of the afternoon.  Obviously not deep shade.  It is picking up a lot of surrounding light.  But the maple tree shadow hits it at 1:00 and the maple tree is only getting larger and thicker.

Having Petunias in these planters in the first place happened by accident.  We had them both in full sun locations elsewhere in the landscape, but they were in out of the way places and we needed something to fill in the wide strip of gravel along the river bed.  We wanted something colorful we could enjoy from the fire pit patio where we sit most afternoons.  One of these planters had been full of Daddy Mix Petunias a few years ago.  There is something they don't tell you about traditional Petunias.  They reseed.  At least half of my volunteer weeds are Petunias.  Violas are also a bit pesky this way.  Portulaca is a suprisingly reliable reseeder (because they are so closely related to that PITA Purslane).  Sadly and curiously I have never had a volunteer Marigold.  But I do deadhead my Marigolds pretty regularly.

Original Daddy® Mix Petunia 

Petunias are determined critters.  The next year after the Petunias I planted red Durango Outback Marigolds in that planter.  The Petunias came up anyway and pretty much took over.

Volunteer Daddy Mix coming through Durango Red Marigolds

When we moved the Whiskey Barrels in 2020 I hadn't planned for any annuals in them.  That was the first year of Covid so spending a lot of money on annuals seemed like it might be a little foolish.  Instead I had put my leftover sweet potato slips in them.  I also used fountain grass as a centerpiece. The Petunias came up anyway.

They actually looked kind of nice.  The other planter had only sweet potato and fountain grass, but the one with the Petunias looked like I had had a plan all along.

So in last year I planted Daddy Mix Petunias in both of them.

Over the years the whole annual flower thing has become a little tiring.  We've lost a few older nurseries in our area and the Big Box Stores are not dependable.  Finding what I want year after year has become more difficult.  It is frustrating to make a plan and then not be able to source the particular varieties I want.  For instance, last year I wanted to put Euphorbia in all of my planters.  That's usually easy to find.  Scaevola would have been nice too.  I had first tried that in 2021 and loved it.  Do you think I could find either one in May?  Nope.  I waited well into June.  I asked at my main nursery and the owner said his supplier kept telling him those plants would be on the next truck and they never were.  I gave up and planted lime green sweet potato vines instead and the darn things took over everything.

Instead of buying annuals I am leaning towards starting my own from seeds as I sometimes do, or just skipping them all together.  My budget for annuals is about $200 a year.  The Geraniums I plant along our driveway are taking up more and more of that. This year I am going to add Marigolds to my list of seed annuals (snapdragons, zinnias etc) just to save money, and I am also leaning towards tubers.  I already save my Dahlia tubers, why not add Begonias and Caladiums?  Tuberous Begonias might be great in that shady whiskey barrel.  

Begonia Hanging Golden Balcony

My color palette in and around the garden in hot colors (red orange yellow).  In the river bed I have some accents of blue but pinks are strictly around the house and purple I only put in the whiskey barrel one year because it was far removed from any other color planting and I could put whatever I wanted in it one year to the next.  So I have chosen the Golden Balcony hanging Begonias to try.  

Of course there is just one thing.  The shade container should coordinate with the sun container.  Good luck with that right?  I can't put Begonias in the full sun but I want a similar color.  What I would really love is some Peachy Keen Superbena.  Of course I cannot rely on finding that variety and I am not going to drive all over the county once a week searching for it.  I'll just have to splurge and mail order it.  If I am starting all of my Marigolds and other annuals from seed I'm saving money there and I can justify a splurge.  If I change my mind I can fill the planter with Marigolds or Dahlias or something else I have lots of.  But I think it would look really nice.

Superbena® Peachy Keen

Another sun/shade problem I have is the planter in front of the chicken coop.  This faces due east and gets full morning sun but come noon/1:00 it is shaded.  I've put a lot of different things in this spot over the years from sun lovers like Calibrachoa or hanging Geraniums, to shade lovers like Coleus.  All have done fine.  Out of pure lack of imagination last year I just put the sweet potato vine in.  There was also a geranium in there but it was totally overwhelmed.

A sun loving Geranium just couldn't battle a sweet potato vine with no help from the sun.

For this year I have ordered Caladium tubers.  I've never grown Caladium before but I thing the bright white will stand out in this location and I can save the tubers for future.  There are a couple of other shady locations I could put these too.  I want something bold because I walk past it several times a day and it is visible from the driveway.  I need something eye catching there.

Caladium Fancy White Queen

That takes care of three of my planters.  The other four are close to our side door.  They will also have to be coordinated.  Last year I used Geraniums and they looked nice.  This year I plan to replace the salmon Geraniums with border height Dahlias.  I am replacing $100 worth of Geraniums with $60 of Dahlia tubers that I can save year after year.

That's what I've been thinking about lately.  I have all of my plans drown up, the seeds and tubers are ordered.  I've estimated how many gallons of potting mix I need and how much I have already.  I have my planting calendar filled out.  I know how many trays of how many pots of what kind of everything I have room for in the cold frame.  And now... we wait.

Got Snow?

 We Do

Snow Removal:  First you do the snow moval.  And then you do the snow re-moval.

But it never actually goes away.

Ten inches of heavy powder on top of our existing substantial snow cover.

Walking across the lawn it was knee deep.

Pest Management in Deep Winter

 Even with a foot of dense compacted snow on the ground there are gardening things that need to be attended to.  Right now the main problem is deer.  They're hungry!  This is the sort of winter that brings out the worst in deer.  It has been cold for weeks with night temps in the single digits and they need calories.  The snow cover has not let up and it is getting dense and hard to dig through.  We are expecting another foot or more tomorrow on top of this.  When we drove through town yesterday I noticed that people's rhododendrons are taking a real hit.  In a normal winter deer usually leave those alone.  In a hard winter they will strip one down to the trunk.

My particular problem is our landscape bed with the myrtle ground cover.  This isn't the only place we have myrtle, but it is the largest and lushest patch and every year the deer trim it down.  This isn't normally a worry because the myrtle is very vigorous and can take a trimming.  This bed started out full of perennials with just a clump of myrtle under the plow so I wouldn't have to crawl under there an weed.  My Dad literally gave me a shovel full.  Took a spade and dug a clump out of his garden, and I used a spade to take a chunk of ground out from under the plow and plopped it in there.

Over the years the myrtle has spread and I've had to remove the things I really wanted (the hostas, astilbes and veronica) or lose them forever.  There are still some day lilies and an iris in the back corner, and the wind flower persists in a scattered sort of way.  But everything else has gone.

And now it is a big wooly mound of myrtle.  

You can see why I don't mind the deer mowing it a bit.

Deer are low on good ol' common sense. With the deep snow they have gone beyond mowing and are now in the excavation phase.  I do not want the knuckleheads digging up deep mounds of mulch.  The myrtle store is closed for the season. We had some wire rings that we weren't using and I opened them up and lay them flat over the open areas of the bed.  The wire is woven in one inch squares so they are not at risk of getting their hooves or legs caught in it as they would with chicken wire or something similar.  This should stop them from destroying the bed any further.  I use this method throughout the summer to divert their paths.  I have squares of wire I move to areas they start walking through.  They don't like to be surprised by something springy under foot.  This barricade should at least slow the digging during this next blast of snow.

Time for a walkabout to check the other defenses.  We put rings around all of our evergreen shrubs.  Even those that are supposed to be deer resistant because a hungry deer will eat just about anything and everything.  Each night they walk through and check again.  Just in case....

Although they don't like stumbling through uneven footing, when they are really hungry they will walk up the creek beds.  Here one has stopped at each exposed butterfly bush and deemed it unpalatable.  But I see the deer on the left took a left turn at the top of the creek bed so I want to go up there and check my pear tree.

Luckily she turned here and headed out of the garden area.

But I sprayed the pear tree well with deer repellant anyway.  You can see I have a lot of trip hazards set up around here to divert their wandering.  But if they are really hungry that won't matter.  We've even seen them climb up and stand on deck railings to reach over wire rings.

While I can assure you there is plenty of rodent activity going on under the snow, sometimes you can see what they are up to on the surface.  This must be a fat little field mouse coming and going from the shelter of the lilac bush to the wooded area.

Sometimes the only help the tracks can give you is to figure out where you will have to trap or protect next year.  Sometimes the damage will only be revealed when the snow melts.  But you still have to check and see what can be done.  Sometimes you can catch  problem before it gets too bad.

Parting Shot:  Supertunias in the myrtle bed whiskey barrel 2017