Were those snowdrops all just a dream?

Apr19

It’s hard to believe that just over a week ago this gardener was completely consumed by snowdrops. Today the grass is green and people are nursing sunburns but just seven days ago we braved the usual snow squalls and windchills to pay Trumansburg NY and Hitch Lyman’s Temple Nursery a visit.

The garden’s namesake reflected in the overflowing waters of the garden’s pond. There had been plenty of rain in the days previous… good for melting the last of the snow.

This was our third visit to the gardens and for a snowdrop lover it’s always a treat. Mr. Lyman opens his garden through the Garden Conservancy, an organization committed to opening gates and preserving gardens across North America, and although this one’s early spring drabness might not appeal to everyone, it’s a treasure chest for those interested in seeing what is likely North America’s most diverse collection of galanthus (snowdrop) cultivars. But perhaps your interests lie in the warmer seasons and silly things such as sunshine and butterflies. If so check out the other garden open days listings, and you may be surprised at what’s open in your neck of the woods!

Snowdrops along the woodland path of Hitch Lyman’s Temple Gardens.

Since most of the rest of the world is well beyond snowdrop season I’ll try to keep this quick. Interest in little white flowers dims quickly once the tulips start to open and I want to list this year’s favorites so I have something to look back on next January when the fever starts up again.

You can’t go wrong with the clean and simple. This is an old classic, galanthus “Mrs. Backhouse #12”.

Since I’ll be the first to admit that nearly all small white snowdrops look remarkably identical I’ll try to focus on a few that stand out. The ‘greens’ caught my eye this year, and galanthus ‘Greenish’ was looking perfectly different this spring and really makes a nice clump among the whites.

Galanthus “Greenish”

Green is different, but a green ‘spikey’ is even more different. I’m not sure if this tiny burst of flower is to everyone’s taste but it is definitely what I’d call ‘interesting’….

Galanthus “Boyd’s double”

Yellow is also different, but on a flower like “Spindlestone Surprise” it looks just great. This was one of several nice clumps of yellow drops.

Galanthus “Spindlestone Surprise”

Ok, so one more picture of an interesting green.

Galanthus “Green Arrow”

I hear that when temperatures rise enough above 40F (5C) the flowers in this garden will actually open wide and show off their inner markings. I have yet to experience that since we always seem to be at the garden the day before the sun comes out and the air temperatures rise. This year was par for the course since the Sunday forecast called for a calm and sunny 60F.

Even when still closed, the puckered petals and grass green foliage of galanthus “Augustus” still make for a great show.

I hate to admit that over the years I’ve added quite a few snowdrops to my garden, and with each new one I somehow tell myself it’s exactly the drop to complete some final empty void in my collection. To publically admit I have a collection is a bad sign in itself, but to admit I NEED even species snowdrops is probably another bad omen. They’re all white and green, just like every other snowdrop, but each one is just so much more special than the last 🙂

Galanthus koenenianus. How can you not love those fat grey leaves? This was just one of several interesting little species snowdrops Mr. Lyman grows.

Now that we’re getting into special little things which make your fulfilling life seem just a tiny bit lacking lets look at this early blooming scilla relative which goes by the name of puschkinia. This strain is supposed to have more rounded heads with darker lines of color and since I don’t grow it (yet) I’ll take their word for it.

Puschkinia scilloides ‘Aragats Gem’

…and what gardener goes on a garden visit without adding something to the wishlist? These last two will surely remain on the list for a while since even I can’t justify the pricetags which usually accompany them.

Galanthus “Phillip Andre Meyer”. I think of these as pagoda shaped although they’re usually referred to as inverse poculiforms (ipocs, or inpocs if you fear the wrath of Apple’s trademark police). The flowers are reversed (inverted) with the green inner petals on the outside, and all six petals nearly similar in length.

“A. E. Bowles” will not likely visit my garden anytime soon but I’m going to put it as number one on the wishlist. How exciting (for me at least) to be able to see it in bloom, and what a great way to commemorate such a talented plantsman and author. Actually the snowdrop “Augustus” is another drop which is named after him, as well as dozens of other cultivars of plants. Not a bad legacy in my opinion.

Galanthus “E.A.Bowles”

Of course it’s not all about pedigreed names and high pricetags. There were plenty of clumps who’s names were known only to Mr. Lyman yet were still fantastic first signs of spring.

No obvious label on this one, but its fat, rounded blooms made me happy to see it. Nice foliage as well.

After a long visit we were finally on the road again and made a quick pit stop at Ithaca’s Cornell Plantation. The plantation is part of Cornell University and we wanted to stop in quickly for a look at their gardens, in particular their winter garden.

Cornell Plantation’s winter garden. Bright conifers, colorful bark, and a few winter bloomers all just recently released from underneath a cold blanket of snow.

The winter garden was a nice stop but since our fingers were still tingling from the cold we didn’t exactly linger much. I don’t think I’d mind coming back in another few weeks when things really explode, but on this particular day the conifers and bare twigs, for as colorful as they were, just couldn’t keep us away from the heated car seats.

More gardens at Ithaca’s Cornell University. The arboretum and other parts called but we wanted to get home before dark!

In spite of the weather we always end up enjoying our visit up to Trumansburg, Ithaca, and the Temple Gardens and are grateful that Mr. Lyman opens them up each spring. In case you’re unaware Mr. Lyman also sells snowdrops so if you’re interested the process is to send three or four dollars to the following address: Temple Nursery (H Lyman) Box 591 Trumansburg, NY 14886. Catalogs go out in January and the drops are usually sold out within a few weeks so you need to be quick!

Enjoy spring and your very own garden visits 🙂

When the going gets tough….

Mar27

The tough go elsewhere….. like south a hardiness zone or two!

Leaving the below freezing temperatures behind for a couple hours doesn’t make me a quitter, right? It was only a day, and when a friend and I worked out the details some cold, snowy, January night, the idea sounded like a great one. It was, and the adventure started off with a two hour drive south to her place.

An early hellebore (didn’t get the name) highlighting the early blooming snowdrops (flore pleno) and darker leaved hellebore sprouts.

My friend admits to being a galanthophile and since I might also be drifting in that direction I suppose it’s only fair I warn you ahead of time. There will be plenty of snowdrop pictures.

Snowdrops with a touch of green on the bloom are always a little different. Galanthus ‘green arrow’ looks nice enough, but I of course am still in my big-and-fat-is-better stage.

I tried to resist hinting too much that I wouldn’t mind one of nearly all of them!

Here is a snowdrop with a green blush, which is how I like my greens best. A good guess on the name would be galanthus ‘cowhouse green’.

What can I say about a fantastic clump of yellow?

Galanthus ‘Primrose Warburg”. Wow!

This was a long garden tour. We talked about the different varieties, where they were growing well, what seemed to be doing best, and what we still dreamed of getting our dirty little fingers on! It was a great visit, and it’s not that often I can mention snowdrops in every sentence and not get some kind of sideways glance or a poorly concealed eye roll.

We came to the conclusion that the common double snowdrop, galanthus ‘flore plena’, is among the best drops for making a nice display in your garden beds.

Of course one cannot live on galanthus alone, so the supporting trees and shrubs also called out for attention. Here’s one which caught my eye and caused a little bit of inner conflict at the same time. It’s the willow-leaf spicebush, and after a bright show of autumn color the leaves hang on throughout the winter. I thought I despised trees and shrubs which play the trick of holding on to their dead leaves (fancy term for this being marcesence), and would never have considered adding it as contrast and winter interest, but I found it oddly appealing and might have hinted towards a few seeds or a cutting or two someday. What do you think of it?

Not the best picture, but it shows lindera glauca’s smooth khaki winter foliage. According to my host it will all drop off (making a mess?) once the buds break. Hardiness is zones 5-7 according to what I found, so it should be ok in my frigid garden.

How can you resist a late winter carpet of blooms with crocus studding the lawn?

I loved this old cherry tree underplanted with a carpet of late winter bulbs and snow crocus naturalized in the lawn. A perfect view for right outside a window.

The garden tour (and lunch of course!) were only the start of our adventure. We jumped into the car next and set off to a nearby abandoned farmstead to check out the naturalized drops there. Clearly a different setting than my friend’s garden!

Your standard abandoned Pennsylvania farmhouse, all grown up and over with invasives like locust, bittersweet, and multiflora roses. General decay all over but I was impressed by how well the chimney brickwork was holding up.

Back in the day I’m sure this was a completely different place, and while investigating the property my friend found she actually knew one of the former occupants. It was a different place back then, one where children were being raised, lives were being led, and someone planted a garden. A garden which likely contained a small patch of snowdrops at the doorstep, a patch which during the years of abandonment has spread.

Filling in between the house and street, naturalized snowdrops between the weed trees and vinca. They look cold because they were, and even with warmer air temperatures the ground was still frozen solid.

Naturalized snowdrops spreading over the years look even better when paired with a few decades worth of winter aconite (eranthis hyemalis). Throw a few cyclamen in and you’d think you were at one of the great estates!

Galanthus and winter aconite

There was little variation amongst the plants (all galanthus nivalis), but how can you beat the pure white flowers and fresh healthy clumps. Special or not I admit I “liberated” a bunch found growing in a rubble pile next to the foundation. Maybe they’ll start their own sheet of white at my own house, and live on after these drops are likely erased in some future redevelopment plan.

Galanthus nivalis filling in and doing its thing before the oriental bittersweet leafs out again and refreshes its chokehold on this woodland.

Abandoned house=spooky, and no matter how blue the sky or how nice the sun was coming out it still wasn’t a place we wanted to open the picnic basket at, so we wrapped things up, jumped back in the car, and headed on to our next spot.

I sure didn’t want to enter the building even if the walls still look solid… but even if I was feeling brave, those dark, empty windows still give me the creeps.

We are such slow, lingering adventurers that by the time we made it to our final stop the light was already at that low springtime evening angle which gives everything a nice glow. Perfect for a real photographer, but even my point and shoot method gave me a few decent pictures.

Galanthus ‘Sam Arnott’. Seeing this makes me forget all the snow and ice back home.

When we first pulled into our friend’s driveway I just let out a hushed wow. I’ve never been anywhere that has clumps of special snowdrops lining the driveway, and to tell the truth I was so distracted I forgot to take pictures.

This clump of galanthus ‘diggory’ makes me understand why it’s such a coveted snowdrop. Those fat little pantaloons of white would look great in any garden and I’m excited to think I might have one lined up for this summer 🙂

We spent the rest of the day here of course, talking, exploring, and just plain old soaking up the time with snowdrop friends. Of course there were other plants too but I think all involved were just a little obsessed with one plant group right now 😉

Yellow adonis amurensis ‘fukujukai?’ with what else but a snowdrop.

This friend likes to bulk the clumps up before putting them out in the open garden. This was another wow moment looking at the drops which I only knew by name until today.

Along the back are a few ‘Trym’ types with their green outer patches and the lovely ‘Mrs Thompson’ is in the front. This is the kind of planting which makes me glad I wasn’t left alone with only my conscience to guide me.

There were plenty of things for the wishlist on this trip, but gardeners if anything are sometimes generous to a fault. I couldn’t believe the haul which filled my trunk on the way home, a mix of purchased plants which my friend had picked up for me on an earlier trip, plus some other goodies which she knew I wanted. I felt guilty as we walked from spot to spot with a shovel, but to look at them now just makes me even more excited about spring.

This tub of galanthus and eranthis could be its own garden.

Spring has got to be close now, and the fact that it rained today made me realize just how long it’s been since something non-frozen has fallen from the sky. I wasn’t thrilled to be out there, but it was perfect weather for planting new snowdrops from our trip, plus two new ones which I found in the mailbox today from Carolyn’s Shade Gardens! Bring it on I say 🙂

Trudging through Winter

Jan11

I really can’t say I dislike winter. I have a few objections but overall it’s autumn I dislike, with its end of the season, everything dying, days so short, vibe. So if it’s excuses I’m looking for to explain my blogging absence, the only one I can find is that I have nothing to say. Snow and cold are here and nothing much has changed since November.

Fortunately others haven’t been so idle. I’ve been enjoying the posts from both milder and colder climates and since I’m starting to feel a little guilty about not contributing, I guess I should do a little catch-up. Don’t worry, this won’t take long!

Meet ‘Bun-Bun’ the newest member of our household.

Our little lop bunny with the oh so original name of ‘Bun-Bun’ has been sharing the kitchen since November. He’s messy, hungry, bouncy and just about the cutest thing in our house. BunBun was supposed to live in a hutch on the back porch but softer hearts prevailed and he’s been indoors since joining us.

Garden-wise, the annual trip to Longwood Gardens went off (almost) without a hitch this year and we enjoyed the always beautiful indoor and outdoor gardens.

I can’t even begin to imagine having a winter garden like this at my doorstep. Coffee here in the morning and then off to work in the greenhouses!

The kids still enjoy the trip in spite of other play options and the long drive, so I’ll drag them with me for as long as I can. During this trip the boy got it in his head to use my phone and photograph everything. Who ever suspected a phone could hold so many pictures?

Inside the conservatory at Longwood Gardens. This year’s theme was birds, and there were plenty of feather inspired displays.

We got there around three in the afternoon to see the gardens during the day and then stayed for the lights at night. The crowds weren’t as bad as in previous years but it was still packed, and I think unless we can get there on an ‘off’ day next year we might skip.

Longwood gardens decorated for Christmas greenhouses at night

Inside the conservatories of Longwood Gardens at night. Sparkly and magical, just perfect for the holidays.

After dark we toured the gardens again and then walked through the greenhouses one more time. Inside the greenhouses there’s a children’s garden which involves several kid friendly fountains and tunnels and hidey-holes which they love playing around in. Unfortunately this is also where the girl wandered off and got a little confused as to where the play area was, so after a little frantic looking around we ended the day with a teary reunion.

Just a part of the outdoor Christmas light display at Longwood Gardens.

Back at home the only signs of gardening are the bookmarked seed catalogs on the kitchen table and the crowded shop lights out in the garage. This year’s indoor garden is an odd mix of overwintering tropical cuttings and winter blooming hardy perennials.

houseplants growing under the shop light

Out in the garage cuttings are still doing well under the shoplights. This begonia is actually happy enough to throw out a few blooms, while some creeping houseplant is making a play at smothering a potful of cyclamen seedlings.

Normally the “winter garden” under the shoplights is reserved for a few cyclamen and forced snowdrops, but this year the tropicals are still out there sharing spare. The plan was to set up a spot indoors for another shoplight setup and move the warm weather plants in there for the winter, but as usual things are slow in coming together.

pelargoniums, cyclamen, and snowdrops growing indoors under lights

A slightly non-traditional indoor garden jammed full of scented geraniums, houseplant cuttings, hardy cyclamen coum, and a few potted snowdrops.

It’s this little garden under fluorescent shoplights which will keep me going while the snow flies outside. It’s maybe 6 square feet of grow space, and won’t be nearly enough when seed starting begins, but right now while the cyclamen coum come into bloom it reminds me that things won’t be frozen forever.

Happy new year!

Refueled and ready to go

Oct8

I got a good dose of the tropics last Saturday. The Mid Atlantic group of the Hardy Plant Society organized a tour of the Michael Bowell garden down near Philadelphia. Michael is the owner of Create-a-Scene, a florist/indoor-outdoor landscaping/container planting/nursery owning/seasonal decorating service which is well known around the country, and in addition to the business Michael is both a long-time Philadelphia Flower Show fixture and an in-demand speaker on all sorts of plant topics. My intro may be somewhat lacking and vague but hopefully the garden pictures tell a better story.

Not your average porch plantings, this one comes with a ton of tropicals, fancy pottery, and random art. The hanging baskets are filled with what I think are those odd tropical pitchers (nepanthes) which end each leaf with a bug-unfriendly pitcher trap.

The focus of the visit was Michael’s extensive (addictive maybe?) collection of tropical plants which are arranged throughout the gardens. All of them out for the summer and then in for the winter, and even with Michael’s four greenhouses the task seems overwhelming. Plus on top of that it’s not just a handful of coleus and a potted mandevilla, it’s all kinds of species and families and rare cultivars….

The sheltered side garden of Michael Bowell’s garden. Art, ponds, fountains, arbors, pergolas, and plants… lots of plants. I think most of this garden around the house is mobile and the plants will soon be trimmed and the pots moved back under shelter.

This autumn garden visit by the HPS seems to be an annual tradition and is the setting for an informal cutting swap of whatever members bring along. The icing on the cake however was Michael’s generosity with his own cuttings. As long as care was taken, members were allowed to take cuttings of any particularly irresistible plants they came across along the way. I tried to show restraint but then as soon as the formal tour ended I had to run around one last time to snip a few begonia, geranium, and coleus cuttings. I’ll let you know how I make out 🙂

I felt like it was a garden that almost required entertaining. Seating areas and enclosed spaces really defined the different parts of the garden.

For as interesting as I found the garden, it took me a few minutes to work through my anger issues before I could really enjoy the garden visit. I was a little irritated with that the powers that be for sending rain showers on the one morning I wanted to do an outdoor tour. Nearly three months without any serious rain and there we were driving an hour and a half through steady rainfall and then later dodging puddles and soggy lawn. Luckily we only dealt with one brief shower during the tour and then clear skies thereafter (of course my own garden received nothing more than a light drizzle all day).

I think I should finally get myself a lacebark pine (pinus bungeana). My garden is short on evergreens and I love this bark. It’s a clumsy looking tree though and might need quite a bit of pruning and training….

My pictures really don’t do the garden justice and the recent downpour had plenty of autumn leaves falling down on everything, but I hope you can get a good impression of the plants and plantings. My impression of it all has inspired me to evict the sunflowers and bring the tropical garden back to its full gaudy lushness next year!

I resisted taking any flowering maple (abutilon) cuttings since I have no faith in my ability to overwinter them…. but this tall, red veined flower was delicious and when it showed up in front of a purple ornamental grass I knew I’d need something similar next year!

The tour doesn’t end with the garden, Michael is also an expert on orchids and has a couple greenhouses set up to entertain this passion. Oh and did I mention the two story high greenhouse which abuts the house?

How cool is an outdoor deck enclosed by the greenhouse? A dinner out on the deck in January amongst the tree ferns and palms sounds like a good antidote to snow.

The garden is a treasure chest of ideas and creativity. To me it seems like someone came up with an idea and then ran with it, whether that meant carving out a new garden, training a new plant, or scaling a 60 foot tree to hang a little sculpture. Most of the sculpture is metal and neon art by Simple and it’s hung throughout the gardens. I bet it gives off an awesome atmosphere at night when all lit up.

I think this is my first garden tour where an invite was extended to go out through a window onto the roof (future enclosed sunporch) in order to get a nice overview of the gardens. An in-training weeping katsura (Cercidiphyllum) dominates and encloses the far end of the garden.

Oh and dogs, fish, parrots, and poultry also share the garden. What better construction to place at the end of the vegetable garden than a poultry house?

A real beauty or plain ugly? Regardless of your opinion I’m sure this display would melt the heart of any turkey hen.

The majority of my photos were out of focus, overexposed poo-poo, so I’ve got nothing on the vegetable and fruit gardens, but let me slip in one last picture which shows some of the main tropical beds. These included several areas of full and lush plantings, stuffed with all sorts of exotic goodies… I thought they were perfect 🙂

I need to give my own variegated miscanthus more room next year to develop, and definitely put it close to some dark leaved cannas and elephant ears. Cool.

All this tropical inspiration gives me plenty of ideas for next year. I think it’s time again to pack a bed full of completely unreasonable, inappropriate, overblown leaves and flowers. I’ll ignore the amount of work it takes until it’s too late and see what happens.

These are the dreams which will keep me going until we finally get some nice rains and good planting weather. I’m sick of this dry, dusty crust that passes for soil and it’s a shame to be thinking next summer when I should be excited about tulip planting and perennial dividing. I’m sure it will come soon enough though!

Back to the Temple

Apr12

Last Saturday some friends and I made the trip up to Trumansburg, NY for what I hope will become an annual tradition; the open day at Hitch Lyman’s Temple Garden Nursery. As was the case in 2013, winter still had a firm grip on the weather so a thick coat was essential (and gloves and hat and scarf), but at least there was more mud than ice this year. That’s a start….

First garden tour of the year!

For those who don’t know, Mr. Lyman is (among other things of course) a lover of snowdrops, and his Temple Nursery catalog is the most specialized retail source for snowdrops in the US. There are other great sources out there now, but Hitch has been dealing snowdrops since before they became cool (am I the only one who considers them cool?), and his collection is considered to be the largest in this country with around 400 varieties planted throughout the property.

Snowdrops all over, patches big and small, named/unnamed…. heaven for the galanthophile (snowdrop lover)

The bank along the driveway is the first planting you see, and here’s my first favorite, galanthus “Wasp”, with its long wispy blooms. Not that I’m stalking Mr. Lyman’s snowdrops, but I just want to say it looks so much better this year upright and not all flat and frozen. 8 blooms this year (up from 4 the year before -in case you’re wondering). I took a lot of pictures last year too 🙂

Galanthus “Wasp” with “Dodo Norton” in the back

I could go on and on about my visit but I’ll try to keep this somewhat short. I referred to Hitch as a dealer of snowdrops, and I think that’s an appropriate term for someone who sells something so addictive…. here’s galanthus “Naughton” (also just 4 blooms last year) Hope it bulks up quick enough to make it into the catalog soon!

Galanthus “Naughton”. Maybe it’s a little droopy, but the flowers are so big, and I love the little curl to the pedicle(?) just above the bloom.

Doubles are starting to grow on me. Even the smaller blooms that normally bore me. “Cornwall Gem” has small sideways blooms that are held further out from the stem.

Galanthus “Cornwood Gem”

“Mordred” has a nice fat look that I liked. It’s hard to say for sure though if this fat look stays, since it could change completely as the flowers expand and open (if the weather ever improves). Odd that for this one the sun came out, with a name like Mordred I would have expected even more dark grey ‘Lord of the Rings’ weather to rain down.

Galanthus “Mordred”, a nice recurved fat double with green tips.

Once up the driveway we were invited in to the house for signing in and paying the $5 admission fee. We had only been out of doors for 20 minutes at most, and the break from the cold was already a welcome relief!

One of the most welcoming sign-ins ever! It’s hard to see, but some of those cut snowdrops were huge, and the cookies and muffins were a nice touch.

Out again and into the snowdrops. There’s a more formal part of the garden out back beyond the garden’s namesake temple. My traveling company spent most of their visit inside the temple, next to the warm fire. Fortunately they weren’t offered wine or else I suspect we never would have gotten them out of there!

Hitch Lyman’s backyard temple. Even though the pond was unfrozen this year, the fireplace inside was still a welcomed retreat from the cold.

From what I could see, the formal garden promised an explosion of lilacs , hellebores, and peonies as well as the small bulbs which were scattered throughout. In past years I’ve seen reports on the summer garden, but I don’t believe he’s opened it in the last few years. Maybe someday I’ll be able to see this in person when it’s green.

A small part of the formal garden. Apples trained to goblet shapes, beds filled with perennials, lilacs and tree peonies everywhere, and buds of hellebores and herbaceous peonies sprouting all over.

Close ups of the beds showed plenty of signs of spring, snowdrops and winter aconite (eranthis) plus many other goodies on their way.

Winter aconite waiting for the sun to open up, snowdrops scattered throughout.

Personally I was fine poking around in the still dormant beds looking at goodies, but the bulk of Mr. Lyman’s snowdrops are in the back of the property and it’s there we rushed off to next. To keep things moving along, here are more favorites, such as “Ballerina” a very neatly arranged double.

Galanthus “Ballerina”

….and “Flocon De Neige”, a wish list snowdrop. Easily on my top 10 or even top 5. It’s hard to say since I don’t actually dare put a wish list together.

Galanthus “Flocon de Neige”. Six outers with a doubled inner, very pure looking.

“Pricilla Bacon”, part of a healthy patch all with perfect large rounded flowers.

Galanthus “Pricilla Bacon”

The odd little “Alburg Claw”. Not a great picture, but There’s some kind of strange attractiveness to this one.

Galanthus “Alburg Claw”, a tiny plant which I hope to see thriving during next year’s visit.

The snowdrop plantings lined a taped off trail that meandered through the woods. You could tell quite some work had been done to get the gardens ready for this Garden Conservancy Open Day, brush was cleared, patches labeled, sprouts uncovered. All this must have been carried out in the last four days since our most recent snow storm!

Trail through the snowdrop woodland. Snowdrops extended deep into the trees, and I can only imagine all the additional treasure growing on in the distance.

I felt as if there were easily twice as many snowdrops as remembered from my last visit. Warmer weather and another year’s growth seemed to make all the difference, plus I recognized a few names which seemed to have been moved here from off the driveway bank. “Sophie North” was now in the woods, and this unidentified favorite from last year now has a name too. It’s galanthus “R.D. Nutt”(and was only two bulbs last year!)

Big Flowers, two blooms per bulb, nice wide plicate (folded on the edges) leaves, and olive colored ovaries make galanthus “R.D Nutt” another one of my favorites.

A few really stood out for having big blooms. This is “Grayswood” who’s blooms are easily an inch long. I don’t have small hands.

Not the best picture of galanthus “Grayswood”. It’s listed as having four outer petals, but I didn’t have enough sense to look. In my defense my hands were probably freezing at this moment.

“Imbolc” is another one I’d put in the short fat group (a good group to be in if you’re a snowdrop). Technically it’s out of the “Mighty Atom” group, a strain of stocky, large flowered drops, but until my snowdrop sophistication grows….

Galanthus “Imbolc”. I love this one, but have two related ones which are similar, so it’s closer to top 20, and not top 5.

“Major Pam”, a nice clump which was offered in Mr. Lyman’s catalog this year. Tight, neatly organized blooms with short inners, it’s part of my “I don’t like doubles” remission.

Galanthus “Major Pam”

You’re doing well if you made it this far. I’m almost done so here’s “Peardrop” showing two blooms per bulb, nice long blooms…. I’m not sure if the bulbs to the left are also pear related, but the one on the right looks to be a real nice drop.

Galanthus “Mrs. Thompson”. Almost always referred to as a ‘variable snowdrop’ because it can be all over the place with extra petals, twin flowers, Siamese twin flowers…. I think it really makes for a nice display, but I wonder what the real Mrs. Thompson thought of having such a fickle flower named after her?

Small blooms, big blooms, four petals, six petals; galanthus “Mrs. Thompson” looks good all the time (to me at least)

I included “Richard Ayres” because one of my hardier traveling companions told a nice story about meeting the real Mr. Ayres when this was spotted. I always love a good story, too bad the sun couldn’t come out to open him up a little.

Galanthus “Richard Ayres”

Finally a little hope for my ugly duckling of the snowdrop patch, galanthus “Blewbury Tart”. Grown well and in a bigger clump maybe someday mine can also have an attractive oddness to it, instead of just plain old oddness.

Galanthus “Blewbury Tart”, a ‘unique’ looking snowdrop that still needs some time to grow on me.

So thanks for sticking with me for way too much galanthus talk. We probably spent about three hours out in the cold and I believe it confirmed my and my friend’s suspicions that there’s something deeply wrong with my idea of fun. With frozen toes and fingers we returned to the house and headed around the side for one last look. Unless it was the hypothermia talking, there was still a point here when I actually may have skipped across the grass to look at another snowdrop. I’m that far gone.

A beautiful springtime sky in western New York. It almost makes you want to take a dip in the fountain 🙂

I have my fingers crossed for next year. Maybe the sun will come out and maybe I’ll even have the courage to talk to Mr. Lyman. Despite the cold and wind he was out and about in the gardens mingling, answering questions, and probably just plain enjoying the return of green (and white) things such as “Mrs. Wrightston’s Double”.

Galanthus “Mrs Wrightston’s Double”

So that’s it. It may seem odd to those of you in Europe to again be looking at snowdrops (you’re probably in bathing suits by now) but for us it’s only just turning in to warmer weather. I’m happy for that, and I’m happy to see green things returning here too.

Thanks again to Mr Lyman for another enjoyable visit and continuing to open his garden to visitors, and if you’re interested in receiving a snowdrop catalog, word on the street is to send three or four dollars to the following address: Temple Nursery (H Lyman) Box 591 Trumansburg, NY 14886. Catalogs go out in January and the drops are usually sold out within a few weeks.

Chanticleer (part 3 of 3)

Sep8

Finally! The last part of my Chanticleer visit. I suspect I might have gone on a little too long over my visit, but I really did enjoy the trip and the gardens are just the type of plantings I like to see at this time of year. Lush healthy tropical plants putting on their last big hurrah before the first frost cuts them down. Plus I like to use this blog as a photo record of the year, and I’m sure these images will come in handy during the icy days of winter.

Here’s the last big stop of the tour, the terrace gardens surrounding the main Chanticleer house. As usual it’s a dose of reality when I see plants from my own garden used to so much better effect. The Japanese maple, variegated Pagoda dogwood “Golden Shadows”, blue ageratum and “limelight” four o’clock near the path…. all look a lot nicer here!

I’m sure a terrace of bluestone pathways and stone steps would help my garden design immensely, but even the bronze fennel, dahlias, and verbena bonariensis look dreamier and fresher here. The blue of the spiky agave helps too…. hmmm I grow that as well. It’s sitting under the deck in a broken clay pot, wishing it were at Chanticleer.

The boxwood hedge which I’ve planted around my vegetable garden still needs several years before it reaches this immaculately trimmed state. I like a nice boxwood edging, I think it’s worth the extra work of frequent trimming, and adds a nice touch of control to a bed that might otherwise look to be on the verge of messy.

Once my own boxwoods turn into a neat hedge I might start to refer to the vegetable garden as a ‘potager’. Sounds so much more refined 🙂 . But I might opt out on planting the prickly ‘bed of nails plant’ (solanum quitoense) in the potager. Although it’s a near relative of eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and potatoes, the spiny leaves might be better suited for a focal spot out front (I love the poky plants!)

‘Black Pearl’ ornamental peppers also look great right up against the hedge, and these could easily fit into my future potager.

If you’re interested in reading a little more about these plants and some of the thoughts behind the plantings, check out this link at the Hardy Plant Society. Jonathan Wright, the horticulturalist in charge of this part of the garden, wrote a great article on this area and some of the practices used to keep it looking at its peak from March into November.

Still in the terrace garden was something new that I liked. An area formerly kept as a cut lawn had been turned over to a flowery meadow of fluffy little red amilias, red dahlias, and violet verbena boanariensis. I wonder if this section will hold over to next year, the grass was boring, but it did give a bit of a calm amidst all the overflowing beds.

The area around the house is absolutely crammed with treasures and accents. These huge baskets have more in them than most average gardens.

And of course there were plenty of seating areas surrounding the house. A great place to stop for a needed break.

With reds and purples and bronzes dominating some of the other gardens, here the terrace garden leans towards yellows and yellow foliage. I have a real weakness for this color lately and loved the mix. Too bad I had no idea what half the plants were! The best I can do is say the little vine here is probably canary creeper (Tropaeolum peregrinum) a relative of the nasturtiums. It’s supposed to be easy from seed so maybe……

Back to red and purple. The purplish upright dracaena is again one I have, and I will definitely copy this combo with the red leaved coleus.

I’m almost through my picture horde.

One more here for banana lovers. I believe this is the infamous ‘Ae Ae’ variegated banana. First found in Hawaii, it’s a little cranky to grow and therefore a little expensive to buy. Established pups (offshoots of the mother plant) typically run $200-$300 and fraud runs rampant. Don’t buy seeds and don’t buy from a shifty Georgia nursery is all I’ll say (not that I’ve ever considered it). The leaves are really cool looking though and to have it flanking both sides of the main doorway…..

I’ll stick to my yellows and chartreuse. Here’s a yellow leaved redbud, potted ‘mossy’ plants and a circle of raked gravel. Very calming.

And so on to the exit. No time to sit, but there was still ample color coordinated seating.

I bet someone has fun moving the seats about finding them the perfect spot, a good idea I think. I should keep it in mind next time I’m moving stuff to bring the lawn mower through… not that my dead grass ever needs mowing.

Out the front gate. It’s a beautiful locale and I wouldn’t mind living closer, but I have to question whether our housing budget can handle the zipcode. A quick real estate search of Wayne, Pa shows it to be a tad out of our budget. Even with the sale of our current house, just the down payment for properties running in the 1-5 million range would be an issue. I guess we could lower our expectations, but I want the hayfield too. 🙂

Thanks for looking!

Chanticleer (pt 2 of 3)

Sep6

It’s been longer than I planned, but here’s the continuation of my Chanticleer visit. Part 2 of the visit picks up at the tennis courts, a part of the gardens who’s former function should be obvious!

The flat area that used to function as the court has been turned into a group of five beds filled with all sorts of interesting plants. My favorite was this one which leans towards a yellow theme. A redbud with yellowish foliage anchors the bed and a nice clump of the tall variegated arundo donax grass is peeking out from behind. For a late season garden it still looks good.

There was plenty going on around the garden with cleanup and cutting back, I don’t know how it is on other weekdays but during my visit the place was buzzing with garden staff. Here’s another view with a nice banana, some of the annual purple perillia, and a couple of those dead looking brown sedges. Grasses and sedges seem well used around Chanticleer and they do add long season airiness and texture.

Beyond the courts is the cutting garden. The Chanticleer interpretation is more like a wild ocean of frothy flowers, some of which top out at over 10 feet! A cool garden to wander through since it comes in on you from all sides. You can just make out the asparagus hedge that closes in the right side here.

A little structure in this garden is given by the archways. I’m stealing this idea since it’s not tough to copy. A rebar arch forms the basis while vines and branches are twisted around…. since I already have the rebar arch set up, no problem-o on twisting some twigs around!

The tall orange sunflower-ish plants are the annual tithonia. It’s supposed to be easy from seed but I’ve never had much luck. It sure did well here though.

This path leads to a small fenced in vegetable garden, a nice little spot to take a breather on one of the vegetable themed benches. For as wild and bloomy as the cutting garden is, there were still a ton of late bloomers left to come, so I bet this garden comes to a peak in about another month…. in case you’re still considering a visit!

A relaxer next. A woodland section called Bell’s Woods is a streamside collection of North American plantings. Even though it probably peaks in the spring there were still plenty of cardinal flowers (lobelia cardinalis) in bloom. It’s a nice soft stroll since the “wood path” is actually a soft rubber mat that looks like wood chips…. or at least that’s what I read… even after being told, I still thought they looked like shredded bark!

Throughout the gardens are bits of functional art such as chairs, railings, and this metal “hollow log” bridge.

Even though Chanticleer is a relatively small garden and heavily planted, there are still plenty of restful areas, many of which have a nice seat and an excuse to linger.

And nearly all are somehow color coordinated!

Around the red chair you can see some clumps of prairie dropseed. It’s a native grass used as a kind of lawn replacement for many of the open areas beyond Bell’s Wood. It’s also probably my least favorite of the plantings here since I just can’t get past what Wikipedia refers to as a “vague scent of popcorn, cilantro, or sunflower seeds”. I just call it stink, and forgive me if we skip this and the ruins garden and head straight to the gravel garden.

The gravel garden is a very un-Pennsylvania bit of sloped, well-draining garden that is filled with plants better suited to a more Mediterranean type environment. It’s a bit of surprise to see hardy cacti, yuccas, and agaves this far north, but apparently they like the winter drainage.

The gravel garden tumbles down to the antithesis of good drainage, the pond garden.

I love a nice pond (unlike my pathetic leaky pre-formed) and this one is just surrounded with a nearly wild planting of moisture loving growth. Well fed Koi are always fun too.

I loved the pond gardens. If I had more room a big waterlily pond would be near the top of the want list. Waterlilies are just so saturated with color, so waxy and lush, that they just draw you in. This one was nice and close to the pond edge.

My want list also got a new plant added. This yellow hollyhock looking plant is abelmoschus manihot, an annual that I eliminated from a seed order last winter and now wish I hadn’t. It’s sometimes referred to as sunset hibiscus, but it’s actually a close okra relative… that means nothing to a Yankee like myself, but southerners may weigh in on that!

I think I’m about to overdo the pictures here, but there was so much to see. The bottom pond was given over nearly entirely to sacred lotus. Lotus is so cool in the way the leaves stand up above the water, the oversize leaves and blooms, the water beading leaf surface, the shower head seed pods…. You know if I had the room I’d grow this one too!

Asian woods next. Restful and green…. too many pictures already so I’ll move on!

I was a little thirsty and just had to stop at this. Every little bit of this garden is thought out and then re-thought out and it shows up in all the little flourishes and details.

My last stop on the Chanticleer tour was a stroll around the terraces of the main house. If you thought this post was picture overkill there’s still more to come. The terraces contain all the stuff I really go for like bold colors, overplanted beds, fat container plantings, and tons of tropicals. Hang in there, it’s the last Chanticleer post!

Chanticleer 2013

Sep2

Last Thursday I made a trip down to Chanticleer Gardens, a “pleasure garden” located just West of Philadelphia PA. I’m glossing over much of the history, but basically it’s the 1913 former summer estate turned full time home of Adolph Rosengarten and his wife Christine. As family members passed away and moved on the Chanticleer Foundation was formed and the property became a public garden. This year marked the 100th anniversary for the property, but the public incarnation is still relatively young, having been formed in 1993. I don’t have many garden visits under my belt, but Chanticleer ranks as one of the best public gardens in the US and I could really see the reasons why.

Here we go! After a drive of just under two hours, please excuse me for making the restrooms my first stop.

Even the restrooms are a plant lover’s treat with unique varieties, creative uses and just plain artistic furniture and pottery. I had plenty of room for myself since the hot, muggy, overcast weekday didn’t really bring out a stampede of garden visitors. Good thing too, since I made the trip alone and my stupid grin and plant touching probably would have had me escorted out on a crowded day.

The first official garden was the ‘teacup’ garden. It fills the patio right off the house and I love all the gate and bench details leading into it.

The teacup garden is named for the central fountain. Each year this garden is redone with a totally different feel and this year seems to be leaning towards an orange theme.

There are so many special plants here, and orange never looked better. Many of these are tropicals and if you look closely you might notice the upright orange leaves producing a small pink pineapple near the front.

There’s so much texture and subtle color going on. One of the many plants I loved was this melianthus (honeybush). I feel a little foolish for letting my little 6 inch seed grown plant die outside last winter, had I seen the real thing first I probably would have found a winter home for it.

I don’t think I could have found a spot for this big pot of variegated New Zealand flax.

Few of the plants have labels in this ‘pleasure garden’, it really is meant to be enjoyed, but I did scare myself realizing how many things I recognized…. apparently I spend way too much time on the web looking at plants….

Check out the railing here -and the container plantings aren’t too shabby either. The banana growing up alongside the house is the (I think) surprisingly hardy musa basjoo which even I can even overwinter in my much colder zone. The tall white variegated grass (arundo donax) is also hardy. I have both in my own garden, of course they look nowhere near as well grown or well placed 🙂

Continuing around the house are beds just flooded with cool tropicals and hardy perennials. Here’s number two cool plant leaf that I want, it’s the rice paper plant (tetrapanax). Big leaves that start out fuzzy, what’s not to love?

More foliage along the path. I have no idea, but the yellow veins of it matched the ivy creeping along the ground. Fancy. You can also see some of the many seats scattered around the grounds. In my opinion gardens are always best viewed from a comfortable seat!

Here’s another nice seating area.

I believe the three dark green plants along the walk are samples of the infamous breadfruit tree. Maybe it’s just the result of a few too many childhood viewings of “Mutiny on the Bounty” (The 1962 Marlon Brando version) but I think this food staple of the Pacific is a fascinating plant. This plant was the reason Captain Bligh was commissioned to sail to Tahiti in the first place, and this is also the plant thrown overboard when the mutiny takes place. Besides Captain Bligh’s survival story, the story of the mutineers and their descendants on tiny Pitcairn island is also quite a tale. They still live on today as a British territory.

Less contentious is the yellow-green underplanting of variegated boston fern, hakonechloa grass, and others. I’ve heard people say you shouldn’t mix variegated plants, but here I think that theory expires.

Oh, and if all that’s not enough, the glass topped table is actually a terrarium 🙂

Ok, so that might be enough for today since WordPress has locked up twice and both times I had to redo what was lost. Next stop is the former tennis courts….. tennis has never looked so good.

More snowdrops from the Temple Nursery

Mar19

Here’s the second installment of photos from our visit to Hitch Lyman’s garden. These pictures are all taken on the bank of earth that lined the one side of the driveway leading up to the house. The drops (and a few other things such as cyclamen coum) seemed happy on the slope, even though there didn’t seem to be much in the way of soil improvement or mulching or any other tinkering with the planting area. But I don’t know that for sure, all I know is there were plenty of nice looking galanthus and even in the cold weather they were a hopeful sign of spring.

Cyclamen coum and Galanthus ‘Sickle’ looking somewhat chilly

Galanthus ‘Warham’

I’ve always been a big fan of snowdrops. When the first warm days of spring rolled around I’d always make a point of swinging by the yards and parks where I knew there were a couple growing. Although they were one of my favorite flowers, when I tried growing them in my parent’s garden they never really settled in. They just hung on.

The ones at the Temple Nursery seem to be doing much better. If you’re curious as to snowdrop names, a mouse hovering over the photo will hopefully show their identity. In this photo, the one on the right is galanthus “Sophie North” and it was one of my favorites. The blooms were big and fat and at this point when they’re still tucked in by the foliage I think they’re perfect.

Galanthus ‘Sophie North’ on the right and ‘Sentinel’ to the left

This was my first opportunity to see a lot of named snowdrops in the flesh, and it may have made a snowdrop snob out of me. I’m beginning to pick up on the variations and differences. Here’s “Spindlestone Surprise” which even an amateur like me can pick out as being different from the usual green-whiteness.

Galanthus ‘Spindlestone Surprise’

Yellow snowdrop

But I still can’t tell too many of them apart (and never with any certainty unless there’s a label stuck right next to it). Here’s another yellow, and although there was a “Wendy’s Gold” label nearby, I don’t see much of a difference between this and the other yellow.

I may be drifting into snowdrop-snobbery but I still think I’ll be fine with just a couple. Fyi they’re on order for shipment this spring.

Here are the last few pictures. “Lodestar” shows a little green even when closed, and the blooms splay out a bit instead of having the round drop shape.

Galanthus ‘Lodestar’

Wasp has a longer narrow bloom, looking a little sad in the cold.

The long wing-like petals of Galanthus ‘Wasp’

Galanthus ‘Naughton’

I think this is Naughton. I really like the fat blooms, no green showing, and the curled Pedicle (or at least I think that’s what you call the green thing over the bloom.

Not to leave things on a down note, but some snowdrops looked like they took a hit from the cold. Here’s “Lord Monosticus”, and it appears the blooms got more than their fair share of winter cold. I’ve had this happen in my garden with some of the earliest ones, and they recover fine for next season, but it’s sad to see. This one was actually on my short list for ordering. I’d like a real early one, but maybe it’s not worth the stress.

Galanthus ‘Lord Monostictus’ after a rough spring

So that’s it for the snowdrops, I guess they’re not everyone’s “thing” but I kinda like them. Also there’s not much else going on here as another 4 inches of snow comes down……

Snowdrops and snow

Mar17

First days of spring come and go but for me a major turning point is the first garden tour. Saturday was the day, and a friend and I headed up to Trumansburg NY to visit Hitch Lyman’s garden and his collection of snowdrops and other early bloomers. I won’t bore you with the details of the “should be a 2hr drive” but the clock put it at closer to 4 hours and I’m sure that was due in a large part to not having a map, not really paying attention to directions, and having a co-pilot with a lot of new stories to share. So we got there a bit later than planned, got to see a little more of the country side, and got to see a few more cities than we should have. At least we didn’t end up in Canada is all I’ll add.

A snowdrop visit to upstate New York in below freezing weather and amidst snow qualls isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Most of the garden is still asleep and when you pull up it’s more the house you notice, and less so the gardens.

The house at Temple Gardens

This open day was organized by the Garden Conservancy and according to their description the 1848 farmhouse was moved to the site in 1990. What a job that must have been, and I’m going to guess it needed a bit of restoration when it got here. On our side trip to reach Trumansburg, we came down rte 414 from Geneva Falls and experienced first-hand some other “in need of renovating” historical houses. Some fascinating buildings, almost kind of ghost-towny in spots, and I’m going to make another guess that the local economy can’t support the upkeep on these grand old houses. So they sit and slowly decay.

Back to the garden. As you can see from the house photo most of the front acreage is naturalized fields with a few specimen plantings here and there. The drive up to the house is also a mix of naturalized shrubs and trees, but along both sides are banks of earth spotted with all kinds of treasures.

A sloped bank of hardy cyclamen and various snowdrops

The snow and cold had many of them lying down but there was still plenty to see. We checked in for our visit and headed around the house. Plantings close to the building were pretty subdued and actually the direct opposite of what most gardeners do. I put all the little stuff right up around the house, but here the only plantings were a raised terrace with a planted fieldstone sitting area.

The terrace out back

I’ve seen springtime pictures from this vantage point, and the white wisteria and crabapples make for a much more lush view than the current frozen winter aconite among the paving.

Around back is the namesake temple for Mr. Lyman’s Temple Nursery…. snowdrops are the specialty in case you missed that.

Behind the temple you can make out the dark green of the yew and boxwood that surround the formal garden. I didn’t get any pictures inside the garden, but it’s a formal layout of geometric planting beds filled with lilac, peonies, colchicums, hellebores, and of course snowdrops and other spring bulbs.

The formal garden entrance

Deer seemed to be a problem outside the hedge and protective fence, with plenty of nibbled and buck rubbed shrubs, but once inside there were many signs of spring… in spite of my freezing fingers and cold toes.

Some early Lenten roses (Helleborus niger) in the formal garden beds

Galanthus ‘Jade’

Of course there were snowdrops(here’s “Jade”), but the bulk of the snowdrops were in the next (and last) section of the garden. The woodland garden was furthest from the house and consisted of a narrow path that wound its way through the secondary growth of trees and shrubs that lined the back field.

Here’s how the path looked.

The carefully marked woodland path, lined with snowdrops.

There were small clumps of drops everywhere and I was nervous to even use the outer edges of the trail since many clumps edged up to the path. For a snowdrop fan there was interest galore…. for a non-snowdrop person I suspect they would want someone to widen the path, throw down some mulch, and pick up a few of the fallen twigs.

An authentic snowdrop woodland peppered with clumps of named snowdrop varieties

Here are a few clump closeups from the woodland area.

Galanthus nivalis sandersii

Galanthus ‘Diggory’

Galanthus ‘Lapwing’

Galanthus ‘R D Nutt’

Unlabeled double snowdrop

I’ve got a few more pictures taken of the bank along the driveway but I think I’ll save them for another post. For now I’ll leave you with some interior shots of the temple (it’s not just for show!). After losing all sensation in my fingertips, we allowed ourselves a break inside by the temple fire.

Warming up in front of the fireplace at the Lyman garden.

I hope we weren’t crossing any poor-garden-conduct boundaries by going inside, but the door was slightly ajar and the fire was so inviting. Plus by then we were freezing, and a passing snow squall wasn’t helping matters much. As we were looking around and considering building our own garden temples, I saw this above the door and had the feeling we were just as welcome here as we had been in the rest of the garden.

Inside details of the temple

Thanks for having us Mr. Lyman.

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden

Category Archives: garden tours