Bronze Fennel

This is why I grow fennel

Wintersowing

The holiday season is always hectic. I never seem to be able to begin wintersowing on the Solstice. This year I made a conscious effort to get started as early as possible. I have a drawer full of seeds and over 80 gallon containers in the basement.

I like to try growing different plants every year and my wintersowing efforts are no different. This year, not knowing if it will work or not, I wintersowed hosta and clematis seeds, all of them harvested by me and dried in my kitchen.

The hosta were a last minute addition to my seedsaving efforts. At the end of the season last year, I noticed that thanks to sheer laziness on my part, the flower stalks on two plants that had never been pruned now carried seeds instead of flowers. I gathered them and dried them along with my other saved seeds. I was careful to keep them separate because one set was from my favorite purple-flowered passalong hosta while the other was from one of the hostas that I had purchased cheaply at my local grocery store. The gallon containers where they now reside are labeled [Giver’s name] Hosta and Pathmark Hosta.

The clematis comes from Rutgers Gardens. It grows on the fence along the back of the veggie plot of one of the volunteers. She told me the name, which I forgot almost immediately, along with the fact that it is one of those rare and expensive clematis. Another volunteer had given the plant to her. She lamented the fact that she had never been able to propagate it because she would like to grow it at home also. I pointed out that there were seeds on it and asked if I could harvest some of the seeds to take home and try germinating. I’m hoping that my wintersowing effort is successful so that I can give her some of the plants for her home garden.

Another passalong that I wintersowed today is salvia ‘Lady in Red’. I was given the seed at the Master Gardener picnic. The gardener said that it reseeds wildly every year in her garden. That sounds perfect for wintersowing and for my Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden.

The final passalong seed wintering in a container has origins that must remain in the dark. I did not have permission to harvest it but succumbed to peer pressure on a (public) garden tour. There was beautiful baptisia growing around the parking lot. Being gardeners it was only natural that we each pocketed some seed on our way back to our van.

One of my wintersown failures last year was seed that I gathered from my Madonna Lily. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong. The seed appeared to be mature. It seemed to dry properly. But it never germinated. Undaunted, I am trying again this year. I have some left over that I may try direct sowing in the garden also.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, the seed catalogs have begun to arrive . . .

The Last Gasp

One of the advantages of the long growing season in NJ (zone 6), now prolonged thanks to Global Warming, are the number of plants still in bloom in October. Not shocking, I know, to those of you in warmer climes but still a wonder to those of us who were raised in much colder areas of the country. I brought my camera with me today so that I could capture the beauty of the Display Gardens at Rutgers Gardens before the plants are removed and the beds raked next weekend in preparation for winter.

Photo of the Day

I love that the seedheads are all leaning to the side contrasting with the rigidly upright stems. The ornamental grasses in the perennial borders captivated me. I have a love/hate relationship with ornamental grasses. In the spring and summer, they repulse me. I wonder how anyone could possibly plant such ragged, weedy plants in their flowerbeds. But in the fall and especially the winter, when they come into their own, I am bowled over by their beauty. I am determined to add them to my landscape. I carefully choose spots where they will look best in my yard. And then, in the spring, the cycle repeats itself. I find myself at the nursery, staring at ragged, weedy plants in pots wondering how anyone could possibly plant such ugly things in their flowerbeds.

Look at the color! The patterns! Who could resist this?

Personally, I like this photo more. It looks like a child scribbled on it.

I’m still struggling with light. Since I was photographing in strong afternoon sunlight which I dislike, I tried getting around it by shooting shaded subjects like this:

That same harsh light, though, produces magical photos like this:

The Yellow Garden Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) in my plot is finally blooming and yellow:

The earliest flowers were white, but like the Seashells Cosmos which curled as the season grew later, these cosmos have become yellow at the end of the season. I like them so much that I think I will grow them at home next year.

Another flower that I would like to grow at home is lantana.

I haven’t figured out how to use it, but after seeing these berries and falling in love, I’m going to try harder to find a way to include it next year.

Just like in my own yard, insects were everywhere.

The sky was an incredible blue today, as you can see from the first photo in this post. While I was photographing the bee, I looked up and saw this:

Blooming in My Garden

Aster
Asters
Cosmos
Cosmos
Viola
Zinnia
Zinnia
Spider on Lavender

Garden Visitors

Normally I don’t like the harsh light of the afternoon. It washes out the colors of the flowers that I am trying to photograph. I much prefer the softer light of the morning. Today, I discovered that bright light works really well when photographing critters.

Whenever I do a large shoot, usually at a public garden, but occasionally at home like today when I took over 50 pictures, there is always one photo that really grabs me. It’s not usually the one that I think will be the best when I am shooting. Rather, it’s more likely to be one that I took quickly without thinking too much about it. And it’s not always just one. Sometimes I find two or three really good photos in the batch. I call them the Photo of the Day. And each year, of all those Photos of the Day, there’s always one that stands out. It becomes the iconic photo for that year.

This photo of a Delaware Skipper on my butterfly bush is definitely in the running for best of the best. When I took it, I didn’t think that it was going to be any good. He was near the top of the bush (which is taller than my shed), the light was bright, and the wind was blowing. I liked the way he looked silhouetted against the sky and took a quick shot. It wasn’t until I uploaded it to my computer and did a little cropping that I saw how great this shot is. Somehow I managed to get him with his proboscis fully extended, the light just right and minimal wind. Perfecto!

Here are some visitors to my Eupatorium:

Is that pollen or mites on him?

Too bad it was so breezy. This would have been a candidate for Photo of the Day if it had been in better focus.

This is the first time that I’ve been able to get a picture of a Silver Spotted Skipper with its wings unfolded.

A Dearth of Butterflies

Is it just me or are there almost no butterflies this year? My butterfly bush, which I have never pruned, is now taller than my shed and almost as wide. It should be stunning, covered with fluttering wings. Instead, I see one or two swallowtails, occasionally a monarch, desultorily fluttering around, sampling a few flowers and then moving on to unknown destinations.

And it’s not just in my yard. There is an almost complete absence of butterflies at Rutgers Gardens. Recently, instead of butterflies, I saw a hummingbird in the Butterfly Garden.

When I purchased my camera, I chose a package that included a longer lens so that I could take better pictures of butterflies. I especially wanted to capture images of the monarchs which are too shy for me to get very close. Sadly, I have not had any occasion to try it out.

The only photo of a butterfly that I have taken this year was yesterday at the Freylinghuysen Arboretum. I noticed a butterfly at eye level on a buddleia and took a few quick shots.

You can see all of my photos from my trip to the Freylinguysen Arboretum on Flickr.