Winter? In January?

Jan5

It was a ridiculously warm start to 2025 here in NE Pennsylvania, and at one point I was outside working in just short sleeves… and pants of course, plus shoes… the snow is gone again, the lakes are thawed but that’s all about to change over the next few weeks. We have been threatened with ‘dangerous and hazardous weather’ and some ‘unusually low temperatures not seen since last January’ and I for one feel as if people’s attention span has become so short they’ve forgotten that this happens every year, during the same few months, and we used to just call it winter. Whatever. I for one am excited and relieved. Excited because I love a snowy day, and relieved because if this cold holds as predicted, the earliest of spring bloomers will sit quietly and wait, and then be right on time to explode into growth when the lengthening days bring real spring to this garden. Trust me though, if three weeks of this weather rolls in for mid March I will be far less pleased.

‘Potter’s Prelude’ was well protected under a blanket of snow when the last round of winter gave us a 0F (-18C) low. He should handle the next few weeks just as well, although I might cover the clump if lows veer towards the single digits again.

In the meantime with frozen soil outside, this gardener turns to the relative warmth of the winter garden inside. Cuttings have been repotted, more cuttings have been taken, bulbs have been planted, and a few seeds sown. It always starts out like this, so innocently, until it’s not and I’m looking around in a panic wondering what happened and where the hundreds of pots have come from. For now though we are still happily in the ‘better safe than sorry’ stage of indoor plant care, and ignorance is truly bliss 😉

Seeds have been cleaned and sent off to seed exchanges, but now it’s time to get a couple dozen labels and pots together for some winter sowing of all the new seeds which mysteriously show up.

It’s chilly today with some beautiful sunshine streaming in through the windows but that may not always be the case. The next few weeks are typically the coldest of the year and as a way of navigating through this I’m going to suggest you join in for the Ten Days of Plantness which begins January 12th! Long story short it’s a fake holiday which runs for ten days and involves new plant things and cake and an excuse to ignore the cold outside. It’s like an anti-Lent without the parades and Fat Tuesday and I’m already planning plant-hunting trips with my crew so that will be fun.

Have a great week, stay warm, and for those in the path of real winter storms all the best.

Winter Solstice ’24

Dec21

Somehow it’s already the Winter Solstice and when you’re focused on making it through the busy weeks before Christmas these things can sneak up on you. Not that the timing changes much from year to year, but with all eyes focused on food and gifts and vacation plans, this celestial switch from shortening days to lengthening ones can slip by. Winter has a timer running now, and although here we are plunging into a few days of cold again, on this longest night of the year we start climbing back out of this winter darkness.

Just a few days ago ‘Faringdon Double’ was just beginning to nose up. A couple days of warm weather later and he’s been tricked into bloom. We will see how he holds up to the cold.

On the plus side the warm weather thawed the soil and allowed me to plant the last couple hundred tulips which have been sitting in the garage. The garlic should have also gone in as well, but maybe eating it isn’t the worst solution along with a year off from garlic growing and buying a few new cloves for planting next fall. Who says that just because you can, you must?

The arriving cold brought more snow than expected which should act as a decent cover for all the autumn/winter snowdrops already in growth. This is ‘Potter’s Prelude’ in case your ID skills are iffy 😉

Actually I use the ‘because I can’ logic all the time, so maybe during our likely January thaw they will still get planted… or not… since there’s always plenty of other things which need doing around here, like things which flood the basement with water and need unplugging and cleaning up, which fortunately didn’t happen on Christmas Eve but there’s still time.

Also, since this blog rarely offers useful or timely information I guess now might be a good chance to point out that there’s still time to blow on an ember or throw gasoline on the flames of obsession, if those flames are for snowdrops. One of the first, and one of the longest running purveyors of named snowdrops in the US, Mr Hitch Lyman, should be sending out his list during the first days of the new year. You can’t request it online and you can’t dilly dally since once the list goes out it sells out, so dust off that stationary and get a note off to him asap if you want your own copy.

Mr Hitch Lyman, Box 591, Trumansburg NY 14886. Years ago I believe $2 or $3 was added to cover the cost, but I’d play it safe with $5 these days, and in my opinion the art and the read are worth it even if you don’t fall for the drops. I may be biased of course.

The front porch is ready for the longest night. A few more inches of snow have fallen since and it looks absolutely seasonal now.

I apologize for again drifting into snowdrops but another timely note is that the date for this year’s Galanthus Gala has been set. Snowdroppers from near and far will be descending upon Downingtown Pa Saturday, March 1st for a day of lectures, sales, and camaraderie. There will still be ups and downs this winter, but the date will be here before we know it, and what better promise on this longest night than the promise of a new season and a Gala. Of course I’ll mention it again once tickets go on sale. I’m sure you would expect no less from someone who does tend to go on far too long about those little white flowers.

Enjoy. If it’s cold where you are, I hope for warmth, and if you’re ramping up for celebrations I wish you a blessed holiday season.

**Hopefully no one is too upset that the longest night was actually the Friday night before the solstice, but I started the post yesterday and just didn’t feel like changing everything today 😉

Go Winter!

Dec17

Winter is giving it a try this December and I’m proud of her! There have been chilly nights, brisk winds, snow and ice, and more forced time indoors than I’m used to. Could it be that we are headed for a real winter this year?

The fall blooming snowdrops have been slowed by autumn’s drought and this cold jump into winter. This is Galanthus elwesii hiemalis ssp monostictus ex Montrose and that’s not what the label says since I planted something else in this perfect spot which bloomed a few weeks earlier 🙂

Everyone seems to think it’s brilliantly cold out and will only get colder, snowblowers are revving and snowmobiles are going in for tuneups while the ice fishermen are talking bait and planning their best spots. This weekend we nearly dipped into the single digits (-12C) and it feels like it’s been a while since we saw that in December.

More fall blooming snowdrops, these in a cold pocket which wilts them down but usually they recover… unless it’s ‘Mrs Macnamara’ who does not recover yet still grows quite well in spite of the beating.

This winter seems off to an Arctic start but I’m still not biting my nails worried about the new crape myrtles and camellias which have somehow snuck into the garden. Granted, it was a shock going from the warmest November on record to a little snow and ice, but overall for our little corner of Pennsylvania we’re only averaging about 3 degrees below(!) average… for once… and I’m pretty sure 2024 is still headed towards going down as the hottest year on record globally, which might embarrass 2023 since last year we all thought that heat record was un-toppable.

‘Faringdon Double’ is carefree and reliable in this garden and here it is nosing up and aiming for a January show. What a hopeful sign to see during a a frigid spell of December weather.

Against everyone else I’m hoping that things stay somewhat cold, even if it means being inside more than I’d like, and being bored on nearly every trip outside when the soil is frozen and there’s little to do on the to-do list. The gardener’s plus to a cold winter is that everything goes dormant and stays there. The hellebores won’t be trying to bloom in January only to freeze into mush in February, which is what happens when a fake-spring rolls into Pa in the middle of our winter and forces new growth on things. I’ll take some bleakness for a couple weeks if it means buds are saved for a beautiful March.

Bleakness and a threat? The brutally sharp thorns of the hardy orange (Citrus trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’) in all their winter starkness. It’s a plant no one will ever snuggle up to.

So it’s cold, and as a result the winter garden is getting more attention that it’s used to and is overflowing with color from coleus, geraniums, and the odd orchid. Poor things don’t know what’s in store for them the minute a thaw rolls in and the gardener is lost again outside, poking around for more snowdrop shoots and other signs of spring. Hopefully before that happens I can share a few of the indoor highlights.

Hope you have a great week!

A Little Push

Nov24

It looks like our tediously warm and dry autumn has finally made a turn towards wet, cold, and winter. Warm and dry isn’t the worst thing, but when the days stretch into weeks and the autumn foliage is more a giving up on life it gets old. The garden I enjoy is full of life and surprises and when it’s day after day of plants giving up I lose interest, and when interest is lost motivation follows. I looked at the racks of tulips waiting to be planted. I looked at the dry, baked-hard, beds where they were to be planted. I turned around and went back inside.

But now things have made a complete turnaround, with a day of steady rain followed by a night of snow which continued into the next day. In all it might be two inches of rain and as the snow melts into the ground I think the garden has finally received the soaking it needed and the gardener might have to get back on board. While the snow is melting the bored gardener has gone into the archives to see if he can find some tulip planting motivation, and even if he’s not exactly bubbling over with enthusiasm to go out and dig, at least he’s been shamed into taking a little better care of the unplanted bulbs.

Tulips in the front border this previous spring. Fortunately these seem happy enough coming back on their own each year with little effort on my part, although it’s well past time a few bunches were dug and divided.

I’ve been digging and dividing the tulips in the back garden for a few years now, trying to get ahead of the tulip fire (a type of fungal botrytis blight) which has infected the soil back there. The digging, replanting, and mulching had helped but then this spring, right as the tulips were coming into growth and blooming, a string of cool, rainy weather hit and the problem went from ok to all over the place with each rain shower. April showers may bring May flowers, but when May is also full of cool and damp weather it just brings botrytis to the tulips and that’s not fun.

The purple of Lunaria annua (honesty or money plant) mixes and contrasts well with the yellows and pinks of the tulips. Unlike AI suggests, this plant is a biennial so don’t be fooled by the scientific name.

Although the botrytis is not fun, the worser part is the smaller bulbs I dug as a result of their infected foliage. Digging big healthy bulbs is one of the June joys of the garden and when you’re just finding medium or stunted bulbs… again, not fun. It also didn’t help that June went from cool and damp to hot and dry all of a sudden, triggering the bulbs into an early dormancy, so add that to the list of reasons the gardener has not been feeling the tulip-love this summer.

Tulips in the potager beds, the worst areas for botrytis and the area where all the tulips are dug each summer.

The tulip love is back though, and after seeing the reminder of what it looked like last spring it makes me wonder how I ever even considered thinking poorly about one of my favorite plants. Surely it’s the lazy side of me searching for excuses to pass on the planting and find alternate homes for the bulbs. It’s like a flashback to the year I found rot in the bulb trays and with great disgust tossed everything onto the compost pile, only to have tulips coming up beautifully all over it the next spring, and have compost laced with bulbs the next summer.

I shall plant… soon I hope. It depends on when the snow melts, and how cold it gets for Thanksgiving. And when I dig the cannas and dahlias and plant the garlic, since that’s also on the to-do list since little in the way of planting or digging has been done while the ground has been so dry. Even the fall-blooming snowdrops have looked depressed and droopy, although not a single bloom was lost to slugs this year…

Galanthus ‘Barnes’. One of the earliest for me with only this one late group still in flower. The rest were less photogenic as they wilted and dried out far too quickly in the sun.

There has been one ultra-positive thing which has turned up this autumn, and that’s the bags of leaves which friends have given me and the row of filled bags which greeted me one evening as I pulled in after work. My nephew came through with a collection from one of his lawn jobs and I’m proud to say they’re already all spread about and settling down to feed the garden underneath the snow.

A driveway filled with bags of nicely mulched leaves. A gardener’s delight!

Forgive me for not sharing any snow pictures. The total for our town was in the 7 inch range and it looked beautiful from the inside looking out, but one day later and the higher elevations are still digging out, repairing powerlines, and removing downed trees, as it was a very heavy snow and their totals were almost twice what we received. For hours the interstate was closed. I’ve sat for hours on a closed interstate on a snowy mountain pass in the middle of nowhere and I can vouch it’s no fun.

Fingers crossed that my next post has a ‘tulips planted’ comment, and it’s not something which involved chipping through ice during the Christmas holidays. We will see, in any case I hope it’s a fun time.

Fully Autumnal

Oct28

Fall is in full force here in Northeastern Pa. In the mountains it’s already past prime but as the cooler nights have spread into the valleys there’s no escaping the season for too long. The cool weather is a relief. This weekend was fantastic fall gardening weather, with plenty of sun to bask in when the mood hit, and plenty of cool breezes to keep the gardener from breaking a sweat when the motivation to work hit. I did some cleanup and finished a few non-gardening projects and may have even gotten a touch of sunburn due to the nice weather and perhaps a bit too much pastiness from sitting inside more than I’d like.

A spot on top of the berm has become a favorite resting spot… even when the rest isn’t earned… and if you look away to the side away from the industrial park the autumn view is wonderful.

There’s fall color everywhere, somewhat dull for the drought and heat, but also somewhat bright due to the recent stretch of cooler nights, so I guess that evens out to average? The maples are brilliant as usual and there’s also a few other interesting things around to make this slow decent into death and dormancy a little more bearable.

For a couple days the bigleaf magnolia (M. macrophylla) goes all buttery yellow before full brown, and even then the curious gray underside makes for an interesting (and still huge) leaf.

The fall and winter interest here seems to make a decent amount of progress each year and the focus lately has been on evergreens, berries, and the latest (or earliest?) bloomers possible.

Maybe not an autumn berry, but the blueberry bushes are always an October show.

After years of talk, a winterberry (Ilex verticillata) has finally been purchased, and I hope it won’t mind a real late planting since throughout those years the gardener didn’t bother to settle on a location for it. They’re fairly common around here in the boggier parts of the woods, so I expect it will do just fine, and I’m already imagining a mound of bright red color next year on this native deciduous holly.

Not the native version, but the asian beautyberry (Callicarpa ‘Pearl Glam’) has similar purple berries which are interesting but maybe not as showy or long lasting as I’d like. Perhaps it’s the location, it’s terrible soil, and probably much drier than the beautybush would prefer.

The new winterberry will have to rely on the local population of male hollies for pollination, and I hope there are some within range during its bloom since I’d rather not devote more space to a non-berrying version if I don’t have to. As with almost any gardener, my ambition is always larger than the space I have.

I am feeling chrysanthemum deprived this autumn. The mildest winters ever were somehow the cause of death for a few of my favorites and I miss them, so maybe I can get a few seeds from this one growing for next year.

Besides berries it’s just chrysanthemums and asters rounding out the bloom category. I’d like to add some more chrysanthemums but it’s so hard to convince yourself in May that $10 for what’s likely a rooted cutting is a good deal for something which sells in perfect bloom for $5.99 all over the place in October. Most people know the answer to that and just pick up the $5.99, but some silly gardeners think that the $10 mum cutting might be so so so much cooler. Bluestone perennials has some extremely tempting options. Maybe it’s time I bite the bullet and bring a few favorites back to this garden, because honestly the little round dollops of mum do little for me while the lanky, too big blooms, too tall stems version with crazy flower forms are a much better way to enjoy October.

Lingering roses can be awesome. This one was developed with scent in mind and I love the fragrance of roses wafting in the October breeze, pulling you in for a closer sniff. Brindabella ‘Purple Prince’ has also been a good grower with healthy foliage, and who could complain about that?

Did someone ask about the pumpkin patch? Not that I heard, but here’s the summary anyway. The early July plantings ripened just in time although there was still a touch of green on a few of the larger ones. More September rains would have helped I’m sure, but considering how little effort I put into their care, and how entertaining they were to watch grow, I suspect there will be a pumpkin patch again next year as well as a hopefully more diverse gourd planting 🙂

The pumpkin patch harvest accidentally spilled and people raved about the display. The pumpkins were moved to decorate the porch and the review was lukewarm… -sorry, but I needed the wheelbarrow for other things!

So that’s an autumn update. Fall color and it’s dry, and the best thing about that is no slugs to decimate the first of this winter’s snowdrops! Yes, the fall-blooming snowdrops are waking up and of course I’m excited.

The first to appear this fall is ‘Tilebarn Jamie’, a Galanthus reginae-olgae hybrid which still looks a little awkward and unsure but at least not slug-nibbled. Please ignore the greasy look of the soil and the blackened birch and nearby blackened foliage. The lanternflies are still out peeing on everything and fertilizing the black mold, even if it lands on such a treasure as the first snowdrop.

Have a great week. The cool weather has me thinking about tulips and daffodils, and as of now I’m unmotivated to replant, so perhaps I’ll talk tulips next to get in the mood… and give the snowdrops a little time to sprout 😉

Leave the Leaves?

Oct20

Autumn has its moments but without a few rainy days and minus the cooler temperatures I’m at a loss. We could use some rain. The lingering annuals and a bunch of perennials, and even some shrubs, are wilting now and between you and me I’m almost hoping for a strong frost to come along and put things out of their misery rather than spend the next few weeks hoping for some last-minute miracle to come along and renew the decaying garden. I was also warm yesterday when I was out doing something in the sun, and flirted with breaking a sweat… which is totally inappropriate for this season of briskness and cozy jackets.

A form of the native aromatic aster, I think this one is ‘Raydon’s Favorite’, should be in every garden. It outblooms most chrysanthemums and is a late season pollinator magnet. Here a final bloom of the rose ‘Rosarium Uetersen’ adds a nice dash of coral pink.

Fair warning that this gardener rarely has a kind word to share about the autumn season, so don’t worry that my disgust and lack of interest in the yard means I’m struggling with some kind of seasonal trauma that I’m barely surviving, because that’s not the case. I’ve been busy and motivated, just not in the garden. Garage cleanouts, painting, puttering, and life in general are moving along nicely and I don’t really mind that the daily garden tour has turned into a ten minute walk of ‘meh’.

October colors in the front border. Okay, but kinda boring to be honest.

It’s been somewhat warm and the forecast promises warmer for the next few days, but I did notice a few things have been touched by frost. Coleus mostly. Cuttings were saved a few weeks ago and are doing fine, as well as all the other tender goodies which were dragged inside before the cold, and for some reason this year it didn’t seem like nearly as much work as other years. Many things are in the new basement area and apparently having enough space for your plants goes a long, long way in making the indoor migration less painful. As a way of celebrating I stopped by a greenhouse clearance sale last week and bought four new plants and that of course is not a problem at all since I stayed under fifteen dollars and I’m sure many people have purchased just one single orchid and then stopped.

I love euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’ and hope it can survive the winter in this pot. Normally they are borderline hardy here, but maybe if I drag the pot under the protection of the front porch it will stand a chance.

So upon review it sounds like I’m just waiting for winter to come and wipe the outside garden’s slate clean and that might be a fairly accurate assessment. Year round gardening works for some people but I like a nice winter break, a season and a time to reflect, and maybe a pause in the battle to regroup. Some things look messy now and I like that I can tidy them up once at this time of year and have it stay that way rather than face a new field of weeds the week after I pull them all.

The potager two days before frost singed the awesomeness of the banana. Bringing other things in was a breeze, but digging and lugging this beast in?… remains to be seen.

A clean slate in autumn and ‘leave the leaves’ doesn’t necessarily play well together since my impression of the ‘leave the leaves’ movement is that one should leave all the decay of autumn in place until June or whenever of next year just in case a bee or lightning bug chooses to overwinter in that twig or under that leaf. It’s not a bad reminder that a tornado of leafblowers and a lawn crew which trundles off every last bit of fallen foliage is only leaving a barren wasteland of exposed soil, but it shouldn’t shame you into staring at a drift of leaves against your back door and a depressing flowerbed full of scarecrow twigs all winter. Do what you want. It’s your garden and as a gardener you’ve probably already thought about how your garden fits in with the natural world and how happy you’ve been to find it swarming with birds and insects and wildlife in general. Shame should be reserved for the desolate weed-free lawns of a golf course or the monotonous mono-plantings of some dull homeowner association. If you needed it I give you permission to trim back the dead things which offend you and remove the leaves which have become too much. Your garden will still be a refuge.

The last blooms of clematis ‘venosa violacea’ are as pretty as the first and are probably more numerous since I gave the vine a little trim after its first flush of flowers. A friend said trim it back completely in July, but I wasn’t that brave.

So that’s a lot of tough talk from someone who is likely to never have an immaculate garden to begin with. Other homeowners are complaining about a few leaves blowing into their yard and sullying their pristine turf while I’m usually wishing for a windy day to dump everything here. Most will stay where they fall but at some point a mower bag full of their chopped brothers will be spread on top. It’s a rare day when a twig or stem ends up in the trash and these days there’s not even much going to the compost pile since I tend to tuck pulled weeds and such into the depths of the borders. It may not be ideal from the perspective of the every leaf is sacred crowd, but even after a run through the mower for the sake of neatness and then a toss back onto the beds these processed leftovers still serve plenty of good.

Frost asters galore in the weedier parts of the garden. These have a decent winter structure so will stay even after death…

Mid October. Meh. If the weather were different and I cared more there would be a cleanup in progress but this year I’m not there yet and the mess is fine. You look at your own mess though and feel free to clean up whatever you want and know that I’ll have your back, and in the meantime have a great week!

The Colchicum Report ’24

Sep25

Some people say less is more, and I can see their point in just about everything… except for plants. ‘More is more’ is what I say, and even if it gets to the point of ‘too much’ that’s still ok because at that point you’re doing it for the people who don’t grow too many plants, and I’m sure that’s what they would want you to do. Please don’t try to follow this logic too closely because I’m sure there are quite a few holes in the argument, but long story short: I still don’t have too many colchicums and even if I did that’s still good because I’m more likely to share a few without risking a cold sweat as they leave my greedy little fist.

Colchicum x byzantinum has grown here for years and it always puts on a lengthy, floriferous show.

So in case I’m being too subtle: this post will contain too many colchicums

Colchicum ‘Nancy Lindsay’ looking more violet than normal in the evening light.

Before I go off the deep end let me take a minute to provide some slightly useful colchicum information for those who aren’t familiar with the plants (yet). Generally they’re a bulb -more accurately corm- which puts up lush foliage in the spring, dies down by the summer, and then sends up crocus-like flowers in the fall. Naked ladies or autumn crocus are two common names and they’re a nice fresh surprise of color when the garden is tending towards tired. Decent soil, decent drainage, and some full-sun for the leaves in spring and they’re fairly easy to grow… unless they aren’t… which is sometimes the case, and if it happens to you it’s not you, it’s the plant. Sometimes they’re jerks.

More ‘Nancy Lindsay’. They’re tucked here and there in a blue fescue border and I like the look.

I have a few colchicums which have been jerks, but some like ‘Nancy Lindsay’ have multiplied from single corms to hundreds and that’s an excellent thing. I will just enjoy that they like my garden and not dwell on the ones which have faded away, and I suggest you do the same if it happens.

Maybe Colchicum speciosum bornmuelleri group. I say maybe because a reference book I reference states the “real” thing has brown pollen and these do not, but I’m not quite ready to throw out the name on this one.

Other than the occasional form which insists on dying, the other thing with colchicum is their actual ID. For some reason colchicum are a little muddled in the bulb trade and even from a decent source there’s a good chance some bulbs are going under the wrong name. Not a big deal, because most are nice, but if you’re at the point where you already have a bunch of ‘nice’ ones then the confusion can be a little irritating and the quest to get the “real” this or that can turn into a lengthy pursuit.

More maybe bornmuelleri group. These came from Brent and Becky’s and their description is accurate and the plant is a beauty even if the latest authority describes the form differently.

Only a real nut would take up the mis-labeled challenge and start ordering second and third bulbs from different sources just to see if one looks more “real” than the other, but that’s getting a little too deep so I shall move on without making any guilty confessions.

A nice vigorous (and somewhat floppy) Colchicum speciosum which looks very much like ‘Giant’ but is probably not. Just so you don’t do the same let me point out this clump was about three times the size until the winter when construction runoff kept this spot too wet. Avoid that.

Other more interesting observations on colchicum are that they will flower even if not planted. I showed a bag of stored bulbs coming into bloom in the last post, but a more intentional look would be a bulb or two in a bowl on a windowsill. It might possibly stress the bulb but not that much, so if you have a couple extra give it a try. Or if you want, try a few picked blooms in a vase, and oddly enough maybe even try a few in a vase without water. Fresh flowers will last several days without water, the reason for which I have no idea, but they will and if you’re the type who is a little unsettled by zombie flowers well then put some water in of course.

The box of blooming corms has been planted and seems none the worse for wear. I dug them from this spot in June but couldn’t come up with a better spot so back they went and now I’ll be stuck mowing around them since this became part of the lawn in the meantime.

The final thing about colchicums is where to plant them. They flower at a time of year when just about everything else is floppy and overgrown and it’s hard to spot a low flowering bulb which should be showing off front and center. Some gardeners have nicely mulched beds under shrubs where they show off well, but that’s in short supply here (and might already be dedicated to snowdrops) so into the front edges of the beds they go. Lawns too, although it takes until early June for the foliage to die back and not everyone can turn a blind eye to unmown lawn for that long.

The meadow has become more shaded than I’d like as the aspens continue to grow, but the colchicums are still doing ok even if the bloom is beginning to thin and the individual flowers look like they’re stretching.

It’s a struggle to leave big empty spots in the borders here, so either by design or chance the colchicums are forced to share. To be honest most of it is by chance… I am absolutely the kind of gardener who often wanders around with a small pot in had, wondering where it could possibly fit in, and in July when the colchicum foliage is missing and the spot looks available… in goes a new plant!

Some of the better colchicum companions are creeping sedums and thyme. Colchicum x aggripinum is very accommodating anyway with his low, dwarf foliage, and much easier to work with compared to the leafy mounds of some of his colchicum cousins.

Iv’e had luck planting them amongst creeping thymes and sedums, low fescues, sundrops… anything which isn’t too tall or has overly dense roots… but eventually one reaches a point where one might have more colchicums than groundcovers to cover their feet. That’s when this gardener decided to go all in and just dedicate a whole bed to colchicums. There really was little other choice since clumps needed moving and dividing and one can only walk around for so long with a handful of bulbs before realizing the answer is right there in front of you. The lawn in the side yard is so unnecessary, and wouldn’t a four foot wide grass path be just as effective as a six foot wide path?

The colchicum bed one year on from planting. I’m hoping by next year the newest plantings will fill in some, and also that the gardener will resist the urge to sneak in too many other goodies.

The new colchicum bed is nice, but the soil is not. It’s dry and compacted, and probably doesn’t have all the organic goodness which it should, but a few of the new plantings seem very happy… and a few seem underwhelmed. I’ll give it a year and maybe then I need to consider a second bed? One with better soil would be nice but of course those spots are in high demand.

I think this is ‘Faberge’s Silver’ but without a label I’m second guessing myself, even if last year when it was planted I was absolutely sure I’d know it when it comes up. Maybe the gourd doesn’t fit in this bed, but I’ve never been able to deny a volunteer squash of any kind, they’re always fun to grow.

It’s typical that new ground has barely been planted and the gardener is already talking about more, but that’s about par for the course. This new bed could almost be called a collection. I am still insisting it’s not.

What an oddity, colchicum ‘Harlekijn’ has plenty of “interesting” to deserve a spot in this garden. Normally there’s a bit more pink, but maybe the drought and heat of this spot discourages more color.

Even if it’s not a collection, there are some newer finds which even a non-collector would be compelled to add. ‘Early Rose’ is into year two here and is again a favorite, with beautiful form and color, good vigor, and multiple flowers for a longer bloom season.

Colchicum ‘Early Rose’ first coming up and coloring up. It has a nice upright form.

‘Early Rose’ a week later, still upright and still looking great. There’s even a nice bit of checkering in the bloom, something I always like to see.

And here are some other beauties which are beginning to settle in and clump up.

‘Spartacus’ is a clear pink, dwarf form which is really pretty excellent. He’s got a long season and a color which stands out. I wouldn’t mind if he multiplied more quickly…

‘Glory of Heemstede’ has a nice strong color and puts on a nice show mid season. Also fairly vigorous with a longer season.

I didn’t buy it as such, but I’ve been told this is ‘Pink Star’ and she is putting on a nice show this year.

Not the best picture but the double white flowers of ‘alboplenum’ are another one of my favorites, even when I’m trying to pretend I’m too refined for double flowers. I still wouldn’t mind a bunch more of these even though there are already a few nice patches here and there.

And that’s probably enough colchicums for this year. You were spared photos of every last one thanks to my summer’s-end laziness and apathy and as you can see there were still probably more than enough. I hope for your sake the apathy rolls around again next year as well because my hope is they multiply and spread over the next year and there is even more to go on about next season 🙂

Oh, and I may have added a few new ones as well. PHS Daffodils put out a one time list longer than any I’ve seen in the States and I’d be a fool to pass on them, even if it means looking like I’m some kind of collector -which I’m not. Here is one last photo to prove there are still some other fall blooming things around.

The hardy cyclamen (C. hederifolium) are coming on strong as the summer fades. Soon this whole area will be covered by their foliage.

Enjoy your week and I hope September has brought plenty of nice things to your garden as well.

Somewhat Autumnal

Sep22

Second post. Must get done….

Actually it’s only been about a week and a half since this post was started, so I guess that’s an improvement. As usual I have no excuse, I’m just easily distracted -and a bit on the lazy side- so any structured use of time almost always falls to the wayside. Fortunately it’s not April and I can get away with letting things go a bit, and trust me I have.

This was the new tulip bed along the boxwood hedge, and once they came out it became home for all the excess coleus cuttings and unplanted canna tubers. I think it looks great for September.

The steady rains all August have kept the lawn from dying and made the tropicals very happy. Even though they were all planted kind of late, the gardener was fairly responsible about feeding them here and there and keeping the weeds at bay. One of the biggest successes was the banana which was still small enough to sit next to the light all last winter, and didn’t shrivel up to nearly nothing once the weather got warmer. Instead it came outside at a reasonable time, sank its roots down, and put out leaf after leaf, each bigger than the last. Laugh if you want (since I’ve seen much larger in other Pennsylvania gardens), but until I can overwinter a hardier sort in the ground for more than a winter or two, this is a plant that has made me proud and one which I greet personally on each and every garden walk.

The stem on this beast is at least six feet tall and the leaves rise another four or five. I shall try to dig and store it, but won’t get my hopes up just yet.

The kids keep asking when the bananas will be ripe, but I don’t have the heart to tell them maybe never. I think it’s actually an edible type but yeah, the chances it survives with any decent amount of vigor for the next growing season are pretty slim given my lack of a 15 foot high, heated greenhouse that isn’t already filled. Perhaps some advice from a friend can help. He gifted me a good sized offset this spring which had been overwintered in excellent shape, but under my care from March to April it grew smaller and smaller before it was finally planted outside again and began to recover. On a good note though, it now sports a healthy double stalk and being in a decent sized pot, it should be somewhat easy to drag inside and overwinter.

Another tropical, the bulbs of tuberose are blooming now and fill the evening garden with scent. It’s a real treat, I love it.

It’s too early to mention taking things in for the winter so I’ll only do it once, but if we drift into a cooler spell of weather again I guess it will be time to get more serious. Coleus cuttings will be first as well as any lantana and geranium cuttings. They both seem to root better if taken from plants which haven’t yet experienced too many nippy nights.

The dichondra baskets have been neglected this summer and nearly dried out more times than I’ll admit, but they suffer through it quite well, and they will likely return next year. These will stay out for another month at least, they don’t mind some frost.

Besides the tropical parade, the rest of the late season annuals and lingering perennials are still trying to look fresh in spite of a turn to dry.

The potager is weedy and seedy but at least the rain has kept it green, if not full of flowers and fruit. The geranium pots have been great though, there’s a reason your grandparents grew them.

As any good gardener will be, I’m not happy enough to take the warm and sunny autumn on its own merits but instead I’m already beginning to wonder how the approaching winter will be. Our mildest winter ever was a strong El Nino winter, and going forward that’s over and we will see what a ‘normal’ winter is like these days. August was still the hottest August ever, but September? October? February? Time will tell.

A stray Begonia sutherlandii tubercle found a home here next to the porch foundation and has overwintered twice without any help from me. Returning a third year in a row might have me claiming it’s hardy-ish here.

Tropicals and semi-hardy perennials are a thing of course, but absolutely hardy things are a much less-work kind of thing. Colchicums are hardy things and it’s their season. Here’s the start of it and I think there will be more to come in the next post…. whenever that might be….

Sun? Shade? Dirt? Colchicum don’t care. The corms will begin to grow regardless of if they’re planted yet or not. I almost forgot I had this batch dug and stored in the garage, but fortunately discovered them just in time!

So hopefully this blog will feature a full batch of colchicums in the next post. They are at their absolute peak and in spite of this dry spell which keeps getting longer and longer, and this heat which seems uncomfortably out of season, the colchicum are a bright and fresh smear of color in a garden which is looking slightly tired.

One of the first to ring in the colchicum season, ‘Disraeli’ offers a rich color, large flowers, curious checkering, and a long season of bloom. It is an absolute favorite.

Last summer many of the colchicums were divided and moved to the beds alongside the house and it was a little concerning to see how many my ‘here a bulb there a bulb’ process has resulted in. Someone who likes to throw labels around wouldn’t be all that wrong if they referred to the bed as a collection but I’m going to hold off on that. I bravely stated this fall that I might give away a variety or two which aren’t my favorites, and that’s not the talk of a collector.

The pinkish flush on the freshly opened blooms of x byzantinum ‘Innocence’ fades quickly to pure white. This good doer is another beauty and also a long bloomer as fresh flowers continue to come up as the earliest fade.

Even though it’s not a collection, maybe I did relabel every clump in the last few days. I kept mixing up ‘Ordu’ and ‘Orla’ so with a bright new label that’s no longer a problem, and now there’s one less embarrassing moment as I lead tours through the plantings.

Hope your plantings are also doing well and have a great week.

Day After Day

Sep8

Greetings. It’s been a while and the last post here probably says the same if I could remember that far back, but it’s time to put an effort in and I guess we’ll start with baby steps. Step 1: It’s fall. Even back a week or two to when these photos were taken there was a tint of russet in the view.

Back in late August when things were looking decent but still a little tired from the heat. Fortunately we had enough rain to keep the Hydrangea paniculata looking awesome, and can you see that neat border of somewhat fresh mulch?

Step 2: This post has been sitting on my to-do list longer than I’d like to admit so I guess getting that guilty confession out is another step. No reason, I’ve just been enjoying other things and have sadly neglected both blog and blogging friends.

A late rebloom in the daylily farm. ‘Carved Gold’ which is quite nice in my opinion.

Step 3: Reassure anyone reading that even though it’s messy and may look neglected, things are still interesting to me and there are wonderful spots, and although I tend to the woe-is-me style of writing I don’t want to give the impression I’m fishing for any ego boosts here… although I’m always pleased to hear them!

You may notice the ‘Limelight’ planted in the potager has not yet moved and likely never will in spite of the fact I don’t always think this is a good spot. But it looks great here in August and if I get another post up in September you’ll see it doesn’t look too bad then either!

Step 4: Get through this and post. I’m not particularly busy so that’s not the reason, it’s just so nice out this morning I’d like to fill another cup of coffee and use that excuse to sit around longer 😉

The other side of the ‘Limelight’ (Hydrangea paniculata) border with the new annual plantings where the tulips grew this spring. There’s a boxwood hedge in there as well, but right now it’s all about the cannas and coleus!

Step 5: Tell you how excited I am about the pumpkin patch aka former waste area maybe still waste area in the back of the yard.

The pumpkin patch three weeks ago. Pumpkins were just starting to form and I can now safely say a few of the smaller ones should ripen in time.

Step 6: It was a really nice although hot summer. It flew by. I feel like it was my shortest summer ever, with many missed opportunities -and that’s nothing to be proud of, but there are always enough highlights which is great.

The shade garden area. Plenty of the red spires of Lobelia cardinalis in this August photo, and a good amount is still in bloom today.

Step 7: Just wrap it up. Keep the babbling at a minimum so as not to tie up your visit, and one last photo from the summer garden.

A nice random vine for those of you who like random vines, Codonopsis lanceolata is a late summer treat which has edible and medicinal uses but isn’t going to overwhelm your garden tour visitors. Sometimes I even miss the blooms, but they are cool little things.

Step 8: Thanks for visiting and hope you have a great week. In my head I’m thinking ‘sure I’ll get another post up in a couple of days, colchicums are awesome, annuals are nice, fall feels good’, but my track record speaks otherwise. We will see!

Pineapple Season

Aug9

It’s pineapple season here at Sorta Suburbia, and that would be the bloom season of sorta-pineapples, aka pineapple lilies, aka Eucomis in case you were wondering. Eucomis are an easy to grow South African bulb which I’ve recently discovered are hardier than you’d think.

eucomis oakhurst sparkling burgundy seedling

‘Oakhurst’ is a form of Eucomis comosa which comes up with dark purple foliage and and stems. This seedling comes up dark but fades a bit in the heat and dry of July, but I suspect its named parent would do the same here.

The first bulbs which I risked leaving in the ground year round were a bunch of ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ seedlings which just came out of nowhere one year. Actually I sowed the seed two years before so it was entirely my fault they were here and I had more than I needed, but from my experiences they sprout easily from seed. Mine were sprinkled into a pot one January, covered with a thin layer of grit and thrown out onto the sidewalk next to the garage to sit until the freezing weather until spring when they sprouted. Simple enough, right? I’m sure you have your own methods but sometimes I feel people are too impressed when I say something was grown from seed, so let me just say don’t be. Plants do it all the time, and I find the biggest struggle is getting the gardener to actually get them in the dirt.

Seedlings of Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ planted in too much shade near the house foundation. They would likely be darker and less-floppy in more sun.

Once you have the plants going there’s not much else to do. Mine are in full sun to part shade, decent soil, ok drainage… they’re not difficult. Since this is not always a well-cared for garden I can say with authority they don’t particularly like really poor soil or a real hot and dry location, but a little attention to watering and feeding in your own garden would fix that.

Eucomis bicolor after its first winter in the ground. The speckling on this plant is a nice touch.

The first experimental plantings of the E. comosa seedlings is now pushing probably eight years with no fussing on my part and not a single plant has been lost. Our winters can dip below zero (-18C) as a winter low and the ground freezes deeper than the bulbs are, so I’d say they’re pretty hardy. Silly me to not think that any of their pineapple lily cousins would also be hardy, but it took a friend showing a photo of his plantings online for me to get that message. I left my E. bicolor bulbs out last winter and they were also fine. Our winter was extremely mild so I can’t personally say these are also exceptionally hardy, but word is they can be.

The flower details on the blooms of Eucomis bicolor are always cool. Maybe a few more seedlings and a bigger patch of this could be justified.

I’ve also been told there’s a really good chance my dearest pet of a Eucomis could also be perfectly hardy. ‘Freckles’ is smaller growing hybrid of E. vandermerwei that has been enjoying the potted life here for at least ten years. Pot goes out in the spring, pot goes into the garage in the fall, and sits in the dry dark for six months until the process repeats. It’s a no-brain process, but some would suggest I have too many plants in pots, so perhaps this will also break free of the potted life either this summer or next spring.

Eucomis ‘Freckles’ is a lower growing plant which shows the cool purple mottling of the species E. vandermerwei. It’s a late summer bloomer and is just starting to send up its little ‘pineapples’.

Two weeks ago the gardener here was looking for empty terra cotta pots and there was nothing to be found, so he decided he was bored with his last Eucomis, E. autumnalis, so he tossed it onto the compost pile. So much for that. After all these new thoughts on hardiness he has gone through the compost, found the roots, and given it a spot in one of the beds. Autumnalis looks a little worse for wear for its ‘adventure’ but in this garden that barely stands out.

Eucomis ‘Freckles’ from a prior year. Quite an adorable little thing in or out of bloom.

So that’s it for my pineapple lily sales pitch. One disclaimer is that the bloom stalks often flop after a couple weeks, but you’ll have to see for yourself if that bothers you or is worth staking for… and you can guess what my opinion on that is… and the final fun fact is that Eucomis can be somewhat easily propagated via leaf cuttings. If you’ve never done it give leaf cuttings a try, to me it’s one of those odd things which shouldn’t work but it does. Chop a leaf into two inch sections, stick them right side up into some potting soil and wait. Small roots and eventually bulbs will form and there you go. Snake plants (Sansevieria) will also work this way, so if you’re out of pineapple lilies try a snakeplant for now.

All the best for an excellent weekend. We are weathering the downpours of tropical storm Debby today which will be followed by cooler, dryer weather and I’m not sure how I feel about the cooler part. Low 80’s is entirely seasonal but after a stretch of 90’s it sounds almost chilly and makes me think of what lies in store. Hopefully a few days of sunshine which doesn’t make you melt can make up for that. Enjoy!

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