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

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.

More On Light

Yesterday’s post featured a photo that I took at the EARTH Center when I attended the annual Master Gardener picnic. I took a number of photos that day and despite the fact that it was late afternoon, they came out rather well. I don’t normally like afternoon light but I think because it was autumn and the sun was weaker and lower in the sky, the light was less harsh than usual.

A wildflower meadow was planted earlier this year for birds.

Paths were mowed through the meadow to encourage visitors to explore the meadow.


Even this late in the year, when most of the flowers have finished blooming, it was beautiful.


You can see all of the photos that I took at the EARTH Center on Flickr.

Plants For Shade

Hush! Don’t tell my boss, but while I spent six nights at work with no lights and no heat, I kept myself awake by writing about plants that grow in the shade. I published the results on Hub Pages.

Hageman Farm

I was invited to participate in an apple pie contest today (more on that in my next post) at the Hageman Farm, a nineteenth century farmhouse preserved by The Meadows Foundation as part of their first annual Fall Festival. While waiting for the judging to begin, I wandered around the site taking photographs.

I could go on and on about the wonderful restoration work that has been done on the farmhouse and is going on in the cow barn, but instead I found myself drawn towards the structures and parts of structures that hadn’t been restored. The hand-hewn beams, stone foundations, old tools and ironwork called out to me as if begging to tell their stories of the people who had built this place and used these buildings and tools.

Those stories weren’t all recorded well today. I am still struggling with my new camera. Each shoot shows more of what it can do and what I need to learn to get more out of it. One story did come out well resulting in the Photo of the Day:

Here are a few more of my favorite shots from today.

This shot would have been in the running for Photo of the Day if it had been straight. At first I was disappointed by the intrusion of the tree branches but after further consideration decided that they added rather than detracted from the picture. I love the geometric patterns and the wonderful blue of the sky. It is a blue that you only see in the autumn.

I’m going to have to start carrying around a cheat sheet of settings for various lighting situations. I know that there is a way to have photographed this with more light in the room and the ugly scenery in the window blurred. I’ve lightened this up a little in Photoshop. It was a gorgeous setting.

Fellow Straw-hatter, “A”, pointed out this grasshopper to me. Too bad that the flower he was resting on wasn’t more attractive. The zinnias in the borders along the walk were incredible. I hope that the caretaker of the property will tell me what mix he uses.

You can see all of my photos of Hageman Farm on Flickr.

September in The Gardens

Look up the word blowzy in the dictionary and you’ll find a picture of the Display Gardens at Rutgers Gardens in September. Still colorful, the formerly neat beds overflow onto the lawn. Once straight stalks are now bent under the weight of a summer’s worth of flowers. There is color everywhere. It’s as if the entire garden is desperately trying to hold off the inexorable march of the season towards the killing frosts of fall.

I brought my camera with me today to try and capture the glory of the gardens in September. After I had done some much needed work on my plot, of course. The cleome, now gone to seed, was removed and the cosmos, calendula and marigolds deadheaded to prolong their flowering for as long as possible. Then it was off to enjoy and record the late season beauty.

First, I give you the Photo of the Day:

Lion's Tail

I love the strong verticals set off by the horizontal leaves. The flowers haven’t opened yet so their vivid orange is just a splash of color amongst the bright green of the foliage.

Backgrounds are a big problem for me at home where my yard is enclosed by an ugly chainlink fence. Because my property is so small, it’s virtually impossible to take photos without the fence making an unwelcome appearance in the rear. When I am shooting in a garden other than my own, I have a bad habit of overlooking the background when concentrating on a particular plant. Today, I made a point of experimenting with various backgrounds.

Not bad, but the background is too busy. Let’s try another angle.

Nope, that looks lopsided. Too busy on one side.

Okay, that’s better although I’ve lost the emphasis on the grass. I do like that background.

Another assignment that I gave myself was to avoid photos like this:

I caught that one in time to be able to take another one without the offending branch:

I missed this one:

But caught this one:

Last week, I checked out a wonderful book on digital photography from my local library, The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography. I’ll do a full review of it when my own copy arrives from Amazon.com. While I’m waiting for it, I tried some of the techniques I read about.

Turn around. The author recommends when shooting, turning around to see what’s behind you. In this case, I always shoot this arbor looking in towards the Log Cabin. Today, I tried shooting it looking out from the Log Cabin.

My first photos included the branch as a framing device, another recommendation. I wasn’t happy with the result, so I moved forward to eliminate the branch.

My subsequent photos used the path to draw the viewer into the scene as suggested in the chapters on composition.

On my way in to The Gardens, I saw stands of golden rod along the entry road. On my way out, I spent some time photographing them using different apertures, focal lengths and shutter speeds.

You can see all of the pictures I took today on Flickr.

Blooming in My Garden

Bronze Fennel
I finally got the shot I wanted, correctly focused.

Impatiens
My porch is very shady so I like to grow brightly colored impatiens in long flower boxes to brighten it up. This year it's purples and pinks, solids and stripes.

Rudbeckia
The Black Eyed Susans glow in the autumnal light.

Miniature Green Rose
This is a better photo than the last one. It shows off the green color nicely.

Echinacea 'White Swan'
Coneflowers are one of my favorites. They have that daisy shape that I love. They are easy to grow and readily reseed themselves. And I feel like I get two seasons out of them. The summer, their normal bloom time and then the fall as they go to seed. Their cones become more pronounced producing a different look to them. The "look" is completed when the goldfinches arrive to feast on the seeds, perching on the cones like bright yellow ornaments in the fading borders.

Zinnia 'Envy'
Another attempt at a different camera angle.

Unidentified Wildflower
I love the unique shape of this flower. I haven't seen it before because I am normally better about weeding. The plants have never lasted long enough in my gardens to flower until this year.

Aster

Cosmos
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I saw photos on Flickr of flowers taken from behind and decided to try it. It was much more difficult than I anticipated. I had to kneel down in the bed and kind of hang my head and camera upside down behind the flowers. Here's a helpful hint: never, ever do this while wearing a white skirt.

Cosmos, front view