Gardening

Garden destination B&Bs

Written on April 16, 2012 at 4:10 pm , by Denny Schrock

Those who know me well know that I like to travel. And whenever I travel, I search out gardens to visit. BedandBreakfast.com has managed to fuel my wanderlust by announcing their Top Ten B&B Outdoor Spaces. Four of the ten winners are international; the other six are stateside (although one of those is in Hawaii.) I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting any of these inns yet, but I’ll certainly put them on my bucket list of places to visit during my upcoming travels. The winning outdoor spaces range from stunning borrowed views (such as mountains or waterfront vistas), to formal gardens and working farms.

I always manage to pick up a few ideas for my own garden when I visit outstanding gardens such as these, and bring back gorgeous photos and memories. Do you have favorite destinations that combine gardens and lodging?

Here is a sneak peak at the domestic winners (All photos courtesy of BedandBreakfast.com):

frosted

Written on April 12, 2012 at 12:20 pm , by Denny Schrock

It isn’t pretty. Three successive nights of freezing temperatures in my yard have taken their toll on a landscape far advanced beyond its normal stage of growth for this time of year due to an unseasonably warm March. At first glance things don’t look too bad. The creeping phloxes are still blooming their hearts out; the Bloomerang lilac sports its fragrant blossoms next to the deck; and the overall effect is one of a lush, green landscape. But look a little closer, and you can see the damage.

I expected some injury to plants. With several thousand different perennials, trees and shrubs in my half-acre yard, I simply couldn’t protect them all. With the exception of tender annuals and tropicals that I covered with floating row covers, moved into the garage or crowded onto the front porch and deck, everything else had to fend for itself through the freezing weather. I’m unsure of the exact low temperatures the past three nights. However, a nearby weather station reported 28 degrees F the first night, and it was supposedly a few degrees colder the second night. This morning the yard was covered in white once again.

Some of the plants showing frost damage were predictable. Saucer magnolias often get nipped by late frosts here in the Midwest. True to form, ‘Jane’ magnolia was injured in this freeze cycle. But because she was already done blooming, it was her leaves that turned brown and limp rather than her gorgeous pink blooms. Leaves of butterfly bushes and caryopteris often curl with the first frost of fall; they did so this spring too.

Other injured plants were more surprising. Chrysanthemums withstand fall frosts with ease, blooming through early autumn cold snaps. But their tender new shoots in spring are quite sensitive to the cold. In some instances, damage may be due to microclimates in the yard. My ‘Miss Canada’ Preston lilac was totally trashed (see photo below), while all other lilacs escaped unscathed. Of the dozen or so daylilies in the yard only one showed injury. ‘Strawberry Candy’ developed bleached leaves where frost settled on top of the plant.

I conducted an inventory of damaged plants, dividing them into “severely damaged” and “lightly damaged” categories. Severely damaged plants showed extensive wilting, browning and/or dieback. Lightly damaged plants included those that had a few wilted shoots, nipped leaf tips or slight discoloration. Of course, these are somewhat arbitrary divisions, but I’m including the lists here for you to compare damage in your yard or to help you know which plants are most sensitive, and need protection the next time freezes arrive.

Severely Damaged:
‘Jane’ magnolia – sweetbay magnolia was OK
Blue mist spirea (Caryopteris) – all varieties in the yard
Deutzia – ‘Chardonnay Pearls’ and ‘Pink’, virtually all foliage blackened
‘Miss Canada’ Preston lilac (Syringa) – all other lilacs undamaged
Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)
Butterfly bush (Buddleja) – all varieties
Endless Summer hydrangea – other mopheads also affected; paniculata types except Little Lime unaffected
Astilbe – all varieties
Hardy kiwi (Actinidia)
Chrysanthemum – half a dozen varieties burned back
Kamtschatka sedum (Sedum kamtschaticum) – a dozen other sedum species and varieties mostly unaffected
Japanese anemone – all leaves blackened
Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus)
Strawberry – open blossoms blackened; foliage unscathed
Purple flamegrass (Miscanthus purpurascens) – almost all new shoots browned
Russian sage (Perovskia) – all shoots wilted and drooping

Lightly Damaged:
Lemon balm – a few brown leaves
St. Johnswort (Hypericum) – shrubby kinds OK; herbaceous types show some wilting
Jupiter’s beard (Centranthus) – a few damaged leaves
Boxwood (Buxus) – only one variety out of four had wilted stem tips
Weigela – only one variety affected the fist night; several more damaged the second night
Mukdenia – outer leaves browned
Lungwort (Pulmonaria) – some damaged leaves
Calamint (Calamintha) – half of shoots affected
Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia) – only a few new shoots damaged
Lily (Lilium) – one or two varieties of the dozen in the yard showed watersoaked leaves
Rose (Rosa) – Pink Double Knock Out and Deja Blue had wilted new shoots; more than a dozen other types OK
‘Purple Pygmy’ agastache – half a dozen other agastaches had no damage
Itoh peony – a few bronzed and wilted leaves
Beautyberry (Callicarpa) – a few new shoot nipped
Japanese painted fern (Athyrium) – some browned leaves
‘Sarastro’ campanula – half a dozen other campanulas were fine; this one was wilted
Dwarf goatsbeard (Aruncus) – browned foliage
Japanese toad lily (Tricyrtis) – watersoaked foliage
Leadwort (Ceratostigma) – some browned foliage
Lavender (Lavandula) – one variety with wilted tips; half a dozen others OK
‘Rozanne’ geranium – a few wilted stems
‘Strawberry Candy’ daylily (Hemerocallis) – bleached foliage
Winterberry holly (Ilex) – new growth browned; also some damage to blue holly
Chinese cabbage – some bleached leaves; they had been transplanted outdoors just a week earlier

 

first salad

Written on April 5, 2012 at 11:33 am , by Denny Schrock

Salad season has arrived. I devoured the first salad from the garden last night for dinner. This first batch of salad greens came from various lettuces, spinach, and corn salad that overwintered in the garden with no protection, a first-time occurrence in my Des Moines garden.

I could have harvested them earlier, but I’ve been traveling so much lately that I’ve not had the opportunity to do so. The outlook for more springtime salads from the garden looks rosy. The early-March planting of lettuce and spinach is almost ready to reap as well. I should thin them and use the rejects as gourmet baby greens.

Radishes from the garden are also ready to pick. These first red orbs are sweet and mild because they have matured quickly in the pleasant spring weather. Now if my tomatoes would just ripen in the next two weeks…….!

springtime in the Ozarks

Written on March 30, 2012 at 10:51 am , by Denny Schrock

Spring break for me this year was a week-long road trip through the Ozarks. In addition to visits with family and friends at Long Creek Herbs in southern Missouri, friends in Fayetteville, AR, and a side trip to the Clinton Library in Little Rock, public gardens were part of my must-see agenda. The timing was perfect. An unseasonably warm spring had coaxed redbuds and flowering dogwoods, into bloom, covering the hillsides with splashes of color. In town, lilacs, spireas, and spring bulbs were displaying their finery.

Eureka Springs, AR is a unique historical town with winding streets perched on hillsides. Nearly a dozen springs bubble up from the rocky outcroppings, and the town has turned the areas around each into pocket parks. The display of violas and painted twigs below, was at one of these mini-parks located, appropriately enough, on Spring Street.

Compton Gardens in Bentonville, AR features native plants of the Ozarks. This is the former estate of Dr. Neil Compton, who was instrumental in saving the Buffalo River as part of the National Park Service. Walkways through the grounds guide visitors to displays of groomed native plants. The trail system also connects to Crystal Bridges, the fantastic new museum of American art.

The Botanical Garden of the Ozarks is a relatively new public garden, but it has a lot to offer including a children’s garden, butterfly house, rock garden, water garden, native garden, sensory garden, vegetable garden, and Japanese garden. Despite constant rain during my visit, I was able to snap a few photos, including a planted concrete chair, obviously not intended for seating.

 

Flowers for Kate

Written on March 28, 2012 at 2:24 pm , by James A. Baggett

My undownable friend Kate’s birthday was last week and I was at a loss as to how to celebrate until I came across this rusty little child’s watering can at a cool antiques shop here in Des Moines called Found Things. It certainly didn’t take long to fill it with the current bounty from my front-yard garden: daffodils, tulips, a few forsythia branches, and some stems of red-twig dogwood. It made Kate smile. And I hope it makes you smile, too.

Irresistible Irises

Written on March 16, 2012 at 2:58 pm , by James A. Baggett

I’d almost forgotten the handful of leftover Iris reticulata bulbs I stuck in one of the windowboxes that line my driveway last fall. The windowboxes are changed out seasonally and serve as a sort of botanical display case. So it was with true surprise that I did a double-take yesterday. Where the previous day there were nothing but white Cool Wave pansies pushing their teddy-bear faces up toward the sun, here were dainty purple trumpets singing their heads off well above the pansies and well ahead of schedule. Who’d have thought I’d be looking at this cool combination in mid-March in Zone 5 Central Iowa?