The Seeds of Summer

I am being buried in seed catalogs. I love it. Last year, I dabbled in the Dried Flower Bed at Rutgers Gardens. It was assigned to me at the last minute, so I had to settle for planting leftovers from the greenhouse. Needless to say, it was not a success. This year, I will be able to grow flowers ahead of time in the greenhouse specifically for the Dried Flower Bed. I’ve found a lot of interesting flowers but need to narrow down my list. It’s a small bed. There’s just not enough room for everything that I want to grow.

The bed is surrounded on two sides by a fence. I plan on growing small decorative gourds on the fence. Yes, I know that they aren’t flowers but neither are the decorative grasses that are already in the bed. I’m such a rebel!

Being a long time volunteer (6 years!) has its privileges. I’ve decided to branch out and try growing veggies. There is a waiting list for veggie beds, but the Volunteer Coordinator allowed me to jump to the head of the list and grab a bed that was being relinquished by another gardener. I will be growing stuff that I cook with such as parsley, carrots, onions, garlic and herbs. I have to have a few flowers so I will be growing edible flowers such as nasturtiums, marigolds and calendulas.

I think I will declare this the Year of the Zinnia. I saw lots of interesting varieties of zinnias in the catalogs that would be perfect for my gardens at home.

This is my favorite time of year when I can dream about my gardens. In my dreams, they always look lovely and never have weeds.

Saturdays in the Greenhouse

The Flower House

The Vegetable House

The Cold Frame

The two new greenhouses at Rutgers Gardens went into production this year. Gone are the days of not enough room to work, not enough room on the mist table, not enough room for all the plants. The old, small greenhouse is now used to house tropicals being overwintered while the new, larger greenhouses are used to raise plants for sale or for use in the various beds around the Gardens.

With more space available, we are able to grow more plants. This year’s Spring Flower Fair will be our biggest plant sale ever.

Photos taken with my Blackberry Storm

I came, I Saw, I Bought

I skipped my annual tradition this year of buying something at the NJ flower show that had nothing to do with gardening. I did this for two reasons. First, because I was eager to get home and watch the Olympics, I had very little time to spend in the vendor area. More importantly, I had fallen in love with the African violet with the variegated foliage and I knew that there is always a vendor at the Philly show who sells African violets.

A and I were too exhausted after touring the Philly show to tour the entire vendor area, so we confined ourselves to seeking out that African violet vendor and A’s favorite seed source, Landreth Seeds.

I am deeply ignorant when it comes to African violets and so had no idea that there were several kinds with variegated foliage. A helped me choose one. When it grows up, it will have white flowers with yellow around the center. So much prettier than the plain purple one I saw at the NJ flower show.

Feast

It’s going to be a hard winter. I’ve got proof.

(There is a photo that is supposed to go here, but it seems to be lost amongst the thousands on my hard drive.  I'll post it when I find it.)

Folklore has it that oak trees produce an over-abundance of acorns ahead of a bad winter and fewer acorns when the following winter will be mild. This past fall, deceptively warm, was marked by a veritable monsoon of acorns courtesy of my neighbor’s oak tree.

Walking on my driveway and lawn was like walking on marbles. The sound of acorns crashing onto my car had me constantly checking for dents. I even checked my head for dents after being hit more than once.

Good did come of all of this mayhem. Normally, I have to harvest the seed pods from the Blackberry Lilies long before they ripen because the squirrels consider them a delicacy. This year, I must have missed one. And so did the squirrels. They had apparently gorged themselves on acorns and weren’t looking for anything else to eat so a lone pod was able to ripen and then open, showing the shiny black seeds that make the characteristic autumnal display.

Sole Survivor

I had this great idea last year as the much-anticipated Pinetree Gardens catalog arrived. Instead of just ordering their luscious red zinnias to be planted in the hummingbird part of my “Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden”, I would also order zinnias in orange, yellow and white.

I would create waves of color. The red zinnias, as usual, would surround the hummingbird feeder. Next to them on either side would be the orange zinnias, followed by the yellow zinnias and ending with the white ones. Very Gertrude Jekyll.

I should know by now that any time I have one of my “great ideas”, it should be duly noted but never, ever put into practice.

Two rabbits moved into my backyard this year. Initially I wasn’t alarmed, having already dealt with a cotton-tail attack years ago. A truce of sorts was eventually reached. They stopped digging up and eating my tulip bulbs and I stopped planting tulip bulbs.

Tulips are a waste anyways. They look great the first spring and then are never seen again. I concentrate on bulbs that not only return every year, but also multiply, spreading color everywhere. Snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, grape hyacinths. Can’t beat ‘em.

So when a couple of Peter Rabbit’s relatives showed up this spring, I allowed myself to think “how cute!”. For about 30 seconds. Which is how long it took me to discover that all of the tiny annual seedlings interspersed among the perennials were really a Bunny Buffet.

I start all of my annuals from seed. I fill in the gaps between the perennials with them, creating little spots of color. This year, I had only gaps. The seedlings never made it past their first set of true leaves.

Those waves of color in the Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden? Never happened. I planted the zinnia seeds, was happy to see most of them germinate and thrilled when the seedlings made it to their first set of true leaves. Then I never saw them again.

Literally overnight, every single plant but one disappeared, victims of the voracious rabbits. Perhaps mocking me, they allowed one zinnia to grow. Appropriately it is white, the color of mourning in most Asian cultures.

Spring Surprise

I started out my wintersowing with a lot of containers, a lot of seeds and a lot of good intentions. But life has a way of happening and I always seemed to be too busy to plant containers. I finally threw in the towel during the last week in February. I had planted a grand total of “only” 56 containers.

March came in like a lion and we had snow last week. This week has been much warmer but still too early for anything to have sprouted. Or so I thought. Just for fun, I peeked into the containers. And saw green! I got out my spreadsheet (no one is surprised that I have a spreadsheet, right?) to see what was coming up:

Tall Fernleaf Fiddleneck

Heirloom Poppy

Valerian

German Chamomile

Verbena bonariensis

Wallflower

Stock

Pinetree Garden Seeds

Pinetree Garden Seeds is rapidly becoming my favorite seed catalog. Not only do they carry the flowers that I want to grow, but their prices can’t be beat! While most companies are pricing their seeds in the range $2 to $3, Pinetree Garden Seeds sells almost all of its seeds for less than $2. Their seed count and germination rate is excellent. I find myself ordering more and more from them every year.

New to my garden this year are:

Castor Beans (Ricinus communis) I first saw these at Rutgers Gardens. I didn’t fall in love with them until last year when I began to see them in different places and various settings. They really stand out among more ordinary flowers. I’m hoping that they will help camouflage the Ugly Green Fence.

Dahlias I’ve long resisted growing anything that I have to dig up every fall and replant every spring. I lost my resistance to dahlias last year at Chanticleer. After that trip, I seemingly saw them everywhere and when I found that I could grow them from seed rather than expensive tubers, I decided to give them a try.

Lemon Mint (Monarda citriodora) I fell in love with a picture in a catalog. Along with the claim that it “was a real eye catcher in our trials.” It’s also supposed to be an excellent bee plant so I’m sure that I can find room for it.

Chinese Foxglove (Rehmannia elata) I’ve actually grown this once before. Only one plant bloomed, but it was striking enough (and likes shade) that I want to try it again. It blooms all summer, something I lack in the border along the back of my house which is filled with spring flowers.

Burpee

Burpee used to have a separate catalog for their heirlooms in addition to their regular catalog. And I used to place huge orders with them from both books. But the heirloom catalog got folded into their regular catalog and their seed counts went down as their prices went up and my annual orders have shrunk accordingly.

This year was no exception. I ordered my favorite nasturtium, cornflowers, Johnny-Jump-Ups and my new favorite marigolds.



Fanciful Stardust Moonlight Rose Mix Last year I ordered a collection of shade loving foliage plants for a container in front of my house. I was so pleased with the result that I am trying it again, but with a different collection of plants. This year I am trying impatiens, doubles and semidoubles in rose, pink and white.

Columbine, Lime Sorbet Select Seed may have reduced the number of varieties of columbine they carry, but other seed catalogs have increased them. I was fortunate to find the white columbine I wanted for my new white shade garden in the Burpee catalog of all places.



And in the category of “I didn’t know that you could grow that from seed!”, I ordered Kniphofia, Red Hot Poker Mix.

Park Seed

Normally, I only order a few things from Park Seed. They don’t carry many heirlooms and the modern varieties that they do carry aren’t all that attractive to me. This year, I don’t know if I just read the catalog more closely or that they had some rather unique seeds, but I really went overboard with my order.

Who knew that you could grow astilbe, coleus and Coral Bells from seed? Or hardy Cyclamen and daylilies? Ditto Stokes’ aster and Toad lilies.

And then there were the houseplants.

I have had astounding success with African violets so it was only natural that I ordered seeds for Fantasy Hybrids mix African Violets consisting of “doubles, semidoubles and singles in all colors, patterns and even speckled bicolors.”



And Ponytail Palm that Park assures its customers “grows in a flash from seed”.




Just for fun, I ordered Blue Himalayan Poppy (Meconopsis betonicfolia). Our New Jersey summers are probably too hot for them but they prefer partial shade and shade is something that I have in abundance.

The bonus pack of seed Park sent me left me scratching my head. I have never ordered anything but flower seeds from them and yet they chose to send me a packet of Sweet Banana pepper seeds. I’m not sure what exactly I will do with them.

Select Seeds

Select Seeds used to be my favorite catalog. The number and variety of heirloom flowers were second to none. It was the only catalog whose early arrival I didn’t mind. This year was a real disappointment. They have added so many “New Introductions” (not all of them heirloom) and (heirloom) bulbs that many of my favorites have fallen by the wayside. My favorite columbine, ‘Grandmother’s Garden’, is gone along with almost all of the rare and unusual columbine that they used to carry. Sweet Rocket can only be had as a mix. They used to sell the purple and white separately. I have purple in the Purple Garden and white in the semi-shady garden and wanted to add white to my new White Garden. Nevertheless, I did find some interesting new seeds to try.


Poppy ‘Heirloom’ (Papaver somniferum) Opium poppies were popular in Elizabethan times and came in a wide variety of colors and shapes. I thought that I would try these in my own Medieval-themed bed.


Foxglove ‘Spanish Peaks’ (Digitalis thapsii) I already have a perennial foxglove, yellow, to match the color scheme in my Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden. The color and unusual shape of this one should be a real stand out along the back of my (white) house.



Stock, ‘Sugar and Spice’ (Matthiola incana) Another flower popular during the Elizabethan era, it is known for its scent. Not surprisingly, it is destined for the same garden as the poppies.




Wallflower, ‘Fair Lady’ (Cheiranthus cheiri) This is a flower that I have wanted to grow for a long time but could never figure out where to put it. Over the winter, I was puzzling over what to plant along the front of my (white) shed which tends to be a bit shady. Wallflowers are colorful and like shade. A perfect match!

Select Seeds is offering a free packet of seed (their choice) with every order. I was curious what they would choose. What I received is neither in their catalog nor online.

Musk Mallow ‘Alba’ (Abelmoschus moschatus) It took a little Googling to get information on this. A perennial, it is listed as a wildflower in Connecticut and tolerates some shade. I will try it in a border that I have found difficult. Plants either love it there or hate it.

Seeds of Change

My first seed order arrived today. I love the large selection of herbs and native plants offered by Seeds of Change. They are a little pricey but their seed is 100% certified organic. Here are the new (to me) things from them that I am trying this year:




Orange Temple Bells (Celosia cristata). I fell in love with the different varieties of celosia at Rutgers Gardens. This is the cockscomb type. The color is what caught my eye. It will look perfect against the Ugly Green Fence.



Tall Fernleaf Fiddleneck (Bee Plant) Phacelia tanacetifolia. I’ve never seen this plant, either in person or in a catalog. I’m intrigued by its unique shape. It’s a California native and attractive to pollinators and beneficial insects. It also tolerates a little shade. Sold! The Purple Garden will have a new resident.



Yellow Echinacea (Echinacea paradoxa). I’m growing three different varieties of Echinacea already. Two purple, Echinacea purpurea (passalong) and Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (grown from seed) and the white, Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’ (also grown from seed). This year, I’m adding a yellow one to the Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden which has predominantly red, orange and yellow flowers in it.

I’ll be wintersowing all three of these along with Wild Purple Foxglove and Cardinal Flower (also in this order). The Cardinal Flower did not germinate for me last year and I think I know why. A closer reading of the catalog tells me that in addition to 60 days of cold stratification, the seeds should be surface sown. So noted on the spreadsheet.

Ordering Seeds OldRoses Style

One of my fondest wishes has been granted. Seed catalogs no longer start arriving in October. Instead, the first catalog, Pinetree Garden Seeds, one of my favorites, arrived in the middle of November, then there was a lull of several weeks before the rest of my favorites began to show up. After years of trial and error, I have narrowed down the catalogs that I consistently use to ones that offer seed that I want to grow and have good germination rates. And the winners are: Pinetree Garden Seeds (also the winner in the Most Attractive Packaging category), Select Seeds (which now carries a selection of heirloom bulbs), Seeds of Change (love their offerings of herbs and native plants), Park Seed and Burpee.

I always tell people that I may work in IT, but I’m not a geek. I prefer to think of myself as a gardener with computer skills. I have to admit that I am a little geeky when it comes to ordering seeds. After weeks of careful perusal, I write out my order from each catalog. This takes several days because of overlap between catalogs. I check each one for the best buy on the seeds that are offered by more than one company.

Next comes the geeky part, the spreadsheets. I create a workbook for each planting season, spring and fall, each year. Every workbook has a Master List, listing every seed (spring) or bulb (fall) ordered that season followed by worksheets for each catalog the seed/bulbs were ordered from, followed by worksheets for each garden bed. All of this effort tells me what I’ve ordered, from which catalog I’ve ordered it and where I’m going to plant it. It also helps me to see if I’ve forgotten to order something.

I know that this sounds like an awful lot of work, but I highly recommend it. I have workbooks going back to Fall 2005 and I’ve discovered some Fun Facts:

Fun Fact #1: Despite the fact that my seed orders vary in content each year, they are consistent in number. I ordered 68 types of flowers and herbs in 2006, 2007 and 2008. This year ended that streak. I ordered 70 kinds of flowers and herbs.

Fun Fact #2: Pinetree Garden Seeds has moved from last to first place. I ordered 5 packets of seed from them in 2006, 10 in 2007, 11 in 2008 and 23 in 2009. I increased the number of zinnia colors that I ordered from them this year not to mention their fabulous prices on my other favorites.

Fun Fact #3: Select Seed, my favorite source of heirloom flowers held the top spot in 2006, 2007 (24 packets each) and 2008 (27 packets) but fell to third place this year with 16 packets. They have begun to carry fewer of my antique favorites and more “New Introductions”.

Fun Fact #4: While the number of cosmos varietes has steadily declined over the years from 4 to 1, the number of zinnias has held steady at four.

Fun Fact #5: I only grew one marigold for years, the variety changing from year to year. That streak was broken last year when I grew two kinds of marigolds. I have ordered the same two varieties this year.

Starting last year, I added height and any special growing instructions. The growing instructions are helpful in pinpointing good candidates for wintersowing (“needs cold stratification”) or reasons for germination failure (“needs light to germinate”).

Then in a final burst of geekiness, I place my orders online and blog the experience.

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 . . .

First Catalog

The first seed catalog of the 2009 growing season landed in my mailbox today. It’s one of my favorites, Pinetree Garden Seeds. It is also the source of my favorite red zinnias and heirloom Crego asters, as well inexpensive books.

Already my order is taking shape. More red zinnias along with orange, yellow and white ones. I’m thinking of waves of colors. My favorite shaggy Crego asters have been reseeding themselves but I will continue to order them so that I can plant them in different beds each year. I love their colorful disheveled flowers. They look like they have bedhead. Don’t you just love flowers that make you laugh?

I’m ruminating on what to do about my hanging baskets. I’ve tried impatiens and trailing petunias. Pinetree Garden seeds carries two different varieties of climbing nasturtiums. Nasturtiums did very well for me in a strawberry pot under one of the baskets two years ago.

More books, of course. “Sweetness & Light” by Hattie Ellis: a history of the honey bee from the prehistoric era to present day. Originally published at $23.00, it has been reduced to $4.98. “A Blessing of Toads” by Sharon Lovejoy: essays on the creatures in her gardens. Originally published at $17.95, it has been reduced to $4.99. “Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbook on Garden Photography”, originally priced at $7.95, reduced to $1.95.

It's too early to place my order. More catalogs will be filling my mailbox in the coming weeks.

You Might Be a Gardening Geek If . . .

As evidenced by the above photo, I have two more items to add to Carol’s excellent meme, You might be a gardening geek if….

…you have turned one of the crisper drawers in your refrigerator into a seed storage bin.

…the seed storage bin in your refrigerator is nearly full and you haven’t even begun to order your seeds for next year.

It’s only October and my seed drawer already looks full. There are packets that never got planted last year, partially used packets and seed that I have harvested and dried from my garden, Rutgers Gardens and a few other places that I won’t admit to.

The Winter Solstice, when I can begin wintersowing, can’t arrive soon enough. I need to make room in my drawer for the seeds that I will order once the catalogs arrive in the mail as well as seeds that I will be trading for on my favorite seed trading site, the Garden Bloggers Seed Exchange.

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:

A Fresh Start

Although the calendar doesn’t reflect it, Labor Day is traditionally regarded as the official end of summer and beginning of fall. For me it is the day that I stop deadheading, allowing the plants to set seed instead. Seed that will either be sown by Mother Nature or collected by me to be wintersown, direct-sown, traded or donated.

There is not much to not-deadhead this year. I have done very little gardening. The company I work for has announced plans to move. I’ve been waiting for that news, specifically the new location, for years. When the real estate market picks up and I can more easily find a buyer for my house, I will be moving also.

Most people are appalled when I tell them that I am moving. They can’t understand how I can just leave my gardens behind. I won’t be leaving them entirely behind, of course. I will bring some of the plants with me. That’s something else I’ve been thinking about. Which ones will come with me? Which ones are so meaningful that I can’t bear to leave them behind?

Leaving my gardens is not that difficult. My family moved around a lot when I was growing up. At each new house, my mother planted new flower gardens. I never heard her express any regret about the gardens she had left behind. It seems normal to me to move to a new house and plant a new garden.

Instead of gardening this summer, I’ve been thinking about gardening. Thinking about all the lessons I’ve learned about gardening and heirlooms and natives and beneficials and soil. Thinking about how I will apply those lessons in a new garden.

A new garden! A fresh start. Until I have actually moved in and have an idea of the amount of sun and shade, the quality of the soil and the existing landscape, I can only think in generalities. What do I want to do differently? What do I want to do the same? How do I create a more wildlife friendly environment? How can I incorporate more natives? More herbs? Perhaps some veggies?

As I make my daily rounds of the garden, I'm thinking not just of what is, but also what was and what will be.