flowers | Deborah Silver & Co.

Early Spring Planting

Planting containers for early spring has its pleasures and its pitfalls. The overriding concern is always the cold. We planted containers for a client in downtown Detroit Thursday and Friday of last week-a dicey move, considering the overnight temperatures were very cold. One night-22 degrees. How to best avoid cold damage in early spring is to be sure you are using plants that have had the opportunity to become accustomed to, or the inclination to tolerate the cold.

Very few plants thrive in cold weather. That does not mean that they will not adapt and tolerate it. This project was planted solely with plants that had been sown and grown to a good size last fall, prior to being wintered in a cold but not freezing house. The pansies had had months to become accustomed to cooler conditions. Placing them outdoors in cold April weather did not send them into shock.

Gardeners who start their own vegetables from seed indoors know that those seedlings need to be hardened off before placement in the garden. Hardening off is a process of exposing seedlings to the reality of seasonal weather, a little bit at a time. A few hours a day in a shady place, then the day outdoors in the sun. Then a planting in the garden. Early vegetables that are sown directly in the garden do not experience transplant shock. Pea seeds can be sown when the soil is workable, and the soil temperature is 45. However, peas that that has been germinated or grown in a warm greenhouse will react poorly to a drastic change in environment. Easy does it.

The same would be true for spring flowering perennials. Some growers winter their plants in tunnel houses with no heat, so they are subject to the same cold conditions as perennials already planted in the garden. Other growers pot up bare root perennials in early spring, and bring them on in a warm greenhouse. A hothouse grown perennial may react poorly to being put outside without a hardening off period. Forced pots of hyacinths need some limited exposure to the elements before they are placed in a spring container.

Lime leaved heucheras do not have much tolerance for cold. The leaves will bleach, and go limp. However the heuchera Creme Brulee seems to shrug off the cold. I have had angelina survive the winter in a small pot I had forgotten to get in the ground. But moved outdoors from a warm greenhouse to a cold garden will cause the needles to color up orange and red. This not so spring like look results from the plant’s inability to absorb potassium from the soil, due to cold. If your zonal geraniums have red tinged leaves, they are out in the garden too early.

There are plenty of plants that can handle the transitional season known as spring. And having good success with them becomes easier if the plants have been properly hardened off. The hellebores we had in our greenhouse in March were kept at just below 50 degrees overnight. Once the season moderated, we moved them outdoors on carts for the warmest part of the day. When we moved them outdoors for good, we placed them underneath our benches, in the shade. Even a sunny greenhouse is not near the light intensity of a full sun location outdoors. Plants exposed to the sun too abruptly can be scorched by sun and wind.

Any plant that is already outside at a nursery is good to go for a spring container. Small spring flowering shrubs are great in containers, and provide some scale. Twigs and dry or preserved materials can add some heft and presence. Perennials that look good in spring containers include hens and chicks, lady’s mantle, brunnera, columbines, coral bells, angelina, lavender and hellebores. Spring vegetables and herbs such as peas, lettuce, cabbages and kales, bok choy and chard, rosemary and parsley, look great in pots. Pansies, violas, ivy, sweet peas, alyssum, and fuchsia can provide so much color and fragrance. If in doubt, harden off.

My summer pots usually go on long into the fall. They have the opportunity to get accustomed to the coming of the cold over a long period of time. Petunias, verbenas, million bells, creeping jenny will look great until frost, having been planted in late May. If you want to plant them in the spring, give them some time to adjust to the outdoors before planting. Some gardeners cover their spring plantings for a week or so with floating row cover.

A quick introduction to weather that is too cold can set some plants back such that their growth is stunted. Some never recover. Much better to celebrate each season, in season.

Posted on: April 20, 2014 7 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, container planting, Spring Tagged With: cold tolerant annuals, spring planting, cold tolerant plants, spring container planting

Seeding Sweet Peas

Could there be any fragrance more enchantingly reminiscent of spring than from the flowers of the sweet pea? “High Scent” is a cultivar of sweet pea known for its fresh and sweet scent. Sweet peas, indeed. The creamy white flowers are edged in pale lavender. Divine. Like edible peas, the plants are vining, and grow to 6 feet tall. They want the same cool conditions that all peas want. They will continue to grow and bloom as long as the nights are cool, and the days not too hot. Mulching helps to keep the root runs cool. Once the heat of the summer arrives, the edible and ornamental peas wane, and quit producing. Sweet peas is just one of many things that come to mind when I think of English gardens. The climate in England means the run of the annual sweet peas is a long run. Sweet peas are are difficult to grow in my area, unless we have a long cool spring. I usually buy them as cut flowers when they are in season. I have never tried to grow them. All the literature suggests that sweet pea failure in my zone would be predictable. Both this vase of high scent sweet peas, and the fabulous photograph is from The Gardener’s Workshop Flower Farm in Newport News, Virginia. If they can be grown in Virginia, might I not be able to grow them?

Why on earth am I thinking about sweet peas? This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting and spending an hour with Fergus Garrett, head gardener and designer at Great Dixter in England. He was in town for the Spring Symposium arranged and given by the Master Gardeners of St Clair County. One of his hosts brought him by the shop. His favorite thing of all was an old perennial spade of mine that I have had for years that he found in the tool closet in the garage. Figures! I am thinking I should send that old spade to him. He also talked with Rob about English hurdles and hurdle makers. Malcolm Seal is a close personal friend of his, and anyone who goes to the gardening school at Great Dixter learns how to make sweet chestnut sheep’s hurdles. The hurdle talk, and the company of one of England’s most celebrated gardeners got me to thinking about sweet peas.

Another pea reason-the state of our wintery spring. Marlene Uhlianuk who owns Uhlianuk Farms in Armada stopped by for our hellebore festival. She said the ice on Lake Huron near her was 3 feet thick in places. Too deep for ice fishermen to augur through. Her theory is that it will take a very long time for all that ice to melt. She wonders if the ice cover on the great lakes will cool air passing over, and influence our summer weather. As in a chilly summer. I am thinking about the possibility that a cold summer may follow a very cold winter. Well, if the summer will be cold, maybe I’ll be able to grow sweet peas. This is the optimist in me. The one seed in the above picture that did not swell-I pitched it. I doubt it will germinate.

A third reason? It was 12 degrees here again today. Meaning that the we are still ice bound and snowed under. Any gardening would have to be conducted indoors. It only took a moment for me to forget about the winter, and concentrate on sowing my seeds. Seeds with hard seed coats benefit from a process called scarification. The hard coating can be abraded with a piece of sandpaper, so water can penetrate. Or you can soak the seeds. I soaked for 24 hours, and then set the seeds about an inch below the surface. I made sure that the soiless mix in my flats was thoroughly wet. This part takes a while. It may look wet on the top, and be bone dry in the middle. Once a seed has begun to germinate, it cannot dry out. Too dry conditions for even a short time can kill a developing seedling.

Sweet peas can take 1 to 2 weeks to germinate. As I am sowing them rather late, I’ll keep the seed flats in a warmish place until they germinate. Then I’ll move them into the shop greenhouse-a cool place. Marlene thinks it unlikely that I will get flowers as I am starting seeds so late, but if the summer stays cool, who knows what could happen. At the worst, I will have entertained my winter weary self with a garden narrative.

Now all there is to do is wait. Sweet peas are very slow to germinate. I have the time. The time it takes for these seeds to germinate will be vastly less than the time we have taken enduring the winter.

“White Elegance” is beautiful. It is not particularly fragrant. It is a day-neutral plant, meaning that it will bud and bloom regardless of the length of the day. I have a flat of these seeds sowed. “High Scent” is a long day flowering sweet pea, meaning the daylight hours need to be longer than the night time hours for flowering to be initiated. The seeds of this sweet pea, soaked and sown.

My third packet of seeds-the rambling and vining perennial sweet pea. Lathyrus Latifolius. Perennial sweet peas grow over on the property at the Branch studio. Who knows how they got there. I have seen them scrambling down wild embankments along the highways in Michigan. Blooming in shades of white pink and red, they are a cottage garden favorite where they have room to grow. This gorgeous illustration is from the website of Van Meuven. Who wouldn’t want to grow this plant? If I get any to grow lustily from my seed sowing, I may plant them on the fence at the Branch Studio. Any plant that represents in spite of the tough and unpredictable Michigan gardening conditions is worth a look. I planted some seeds today, in hopes of having a garden again soon.

Posted on: March 27, 2014 13 Comments

Filed Under: Spring, flowers, Color, Plants Tagged With: perennial sweet peas, lathyrus latifolius, high scent sweet pea, annual sweet peas

A Sunny Window Sill

I was shocked to see that a post I wrote just about this time last year featured the same dirty snow and cold temperatures we are having right now. It’s easy to forget that as a winter month, March can be only slightly more moderate than February. As a spring month, it is stingy with both the sun and moderating temperatures. March can go either way, and neither way is particularly wonderful. This year, I still have my nose pressed to the glass, looking from the inside out. It was 12 degrees this morning, and barely better by 3pm. But we have had more sun the past few weeks than all of January and February. We have a little warm and sunny weather streaming through the windows.

Our helleborus festivalis held over the past 3 days drew lots of gardeners looking for some sign of spring. Many commented that the greenhouse smelled like life. My observation? I could hear gardeners exhaling their dry winter air. The shop smelled fresh. Sun was streaming in every window. Lot’s of hellebores went home to good gardening families.

I have never been a fan of plants in the house. In my opinion, plants belong outside. Whether in the ground or in pots, plants need fresh air, the sun and rain from the sky. A plant stuck indoors is a plant longing for another time and situation. But this very cold and still snowy late March is a situation few plants could endure outdoors. Indoors, they make the lack of a garden for me to tend a little easier to endure. Handling garden plants indoors is different than handling tropical plants indoors.

My house is hot, dry, and dark, by plant standards. The heated house air has just about no humidity. The light inside my house largely is courtesy of the miracle of electricity. That light is miraculous for people, but not so swell for plants. I might be able to get some tropical plants with a very low light requirement to live. But tropical plants don’t so much interest me. I am ready to garden. Can garden plants live indoors long enough for me to take them, and me, outside? I do have some sunny window sills. Given my need for some signs of green life, there are plants that will oblige.

I would not say that any plant loves to be grown indoors. I would say that a fair number plants tolerate life indoors. Some low light tropical plants have the ability to adapt to interior conditions for years. The successful culture of tropical plants indoors is not my expertise. My interest in plants inside the house is confined to living through the madness I call March. Some garden plants will tolerate a short stint inside on a sunny window sill, providing certain cultural conditions are met. Spring flowering bulbs, once their requirement for cold has been met, will send forth leaves and bloom stalks in a low light too warm interior environment. Don’t expect them to love the house for long. Luckily, lots of nurseries carry pots of forced bulbs. Buy lots, and stock your sunny window sills. Restock when you need to.

Lemon cypress is not hardy in our zone. Hardiness zones refer to the hardiness of the roots of a plant-not the tops. Lemon cypress can actually tolerate a good bit of cold. Should you see a lemon cypress now that you have a mind to grow on this summer, chances are you can bring it along on that sunny window sill until the night temperatures are warm enough to move it outdoors.

Helleborus orientalis, and its hybrids, are incredibly cold tolerant. They stir in late March. They send up flowering stalks in April. They are glorious in bloom, in late April. In May, and in to June, the green tepels still look great. Can you hold them indoors until the ground is ready to be worked? Sure. Give them the sunniest window sill you have. Enjoy those gorgeous flowers. Go easy on the water. Garden plants do not transpire or grow so much indoors. If they are not growing so much, they don’t need so much water. Though they appreciate some sun, they would not appreciate the cooking heat from a radiator or heat duct.

I have kept ivy topiaries in the house over the winter plenty of times. I err on the side of dry. I give them the best sun I have. A sunny window sill indoors is but a small shadow of a sunny place outdoors. For plants lacking sun, dial back the water. Plants in full sun outdoors transpire a lot, and need a regular drink.

Myrtus communis is an evergreen shrub in zone 8. They like full sun, but will tolerate some shade. What they will not tolerate is getting too dry. As they are willing to be trained and pruned into topiary forms, they are a popular garden plant for indoors for the winter season. Garden plants that are being grown indoors are not so much growing on. They are holding on until they can get back outdoors. This makes growing myrtle topiaries indoors dicey. They need just enough water, not too little and not too much. They are much easier to kill than grow. As for the table in the above picture, do not try this at home! Myrtle topiaries may look great on your dining room table or mantle, but they cannot be grown in the dark.

Myrtles grown indoors are great on an interior table for a party, or a weekend, but any longer that this in the dark will bring trouble. Plants need light to survive. Some gardeners buy myrtle topiaries in pairs. One sits on the kitchen counter while the other has a sunny cooler sill. Once every 3 or 4 days, the plants switch positions. Forced spring flowering bulbs are much easier to keep indoors than a myrtle topiary. Once they start to grow, they are programmed to bloom. They will do their destiny unless impossibly challenged.

English daisies are available now. Their small scale makes them a great choice for the average shallow window sill.

The idea is just to have a small sign of the garden inside the glass. Long enough for the season to turn.

My office has very deep window sills, and faces south. There is room on them to bring on some rare hellebores that were only available as very small plants. The windows are very tall, so the space is light. I have to look in on them over every day, watching the water, and turning the pots so every side gets some of that sun. What started out being a chore has become a ritual I am enjoying.

They are saying 50 degrees here next week.

Posted on: March 24, 2014 18 Comments

Filed Under: flowers, container planting, Plants, Detroit Garden Works, Spring Tagged With: growing garden plants indoors

Our Hellebore Festival

The Helleborus Festivalis starts at Detroit Garden Works at 9am tomorrow-sharp. What has taken months to put together is just about ready for the curtain to rise. Rob has done his usual incredible job, sourcing interesting hellebore cultivars of size and in bloom for our gardening clientele. The resident greenhouse frog approves of our case of baby tears. All of us feel, given his appearance, that our festival will be a good one. We had David and Mary Moore in today, owners of Stone Cottage Gardens in Gladwin Michigan. We had a young man in the area on a business trip choosing hellebores for his gardener girlfriend. He made this older gardener happy. Young gardeners, older gardeners-I welcome all of them. As for avid collectors of hellebores, we will ship when the weather moderates, to Rochester Minnesota, Cleveland, Ohio, and Flint Michigan. I like this.

We have lots of companion plants to the hellebores. Honeysuckle boxwood. Euonymus and myrtle topiaries. Silver pilea. baby tears. Hyacinths throwing bloom stalks. Every plant Rob chose is a celebration of the spring. A celebration of green. This first day of spring, we are ready for the chance to garden again. And ready for those other gardeners that grace our doors. Conversation about the garden over a boatload of well grown hellebores-a pleasure for everyone.

My garden at home still has lots of snow. But I can see the signs of spring. I hear the birds in the morning. The evergreens in my garden are emerald green, not that black shade of winter green. I put away my winter coat-I was so tired of it. We had sun today. The ice is melting. The hellebores in my garden are still under 3 feet of snow. Not my first choice of a garden situation. In the greenhouse at Detroit Garden Works, there is a different situation. Spring on our schedule. Though we know we have little influence over the state of the garden, we can create a spring of our own.

It was pure serendipity, deciding to do a March festival especially in honor of the hellebore. Both Rob and I are big fans of this particular perennial. The flowers of cultivars of Helleborus Orientalis – the Lenten Rose – are showstopping. The plants are vigorous, meaning they show up every spring without any handholding. The petals cure and hold on for 6 weeks or better. They seed generously. The foliage is almost evergreen. What’s not to love? An event given over to the spring flowering hellebores made us plant lots of spring flowering containers. This box of cyclamen, grape hyacinths and white bellis is a sure sign of what is to come. Spring-what could possibly be better?

We had no idea the winter would go on so long. As in, we still have winter here. Our spring hellebore celebration has a special meaning we never anticipated. Though nature has been amazingly uncooperative in making a change of seasons, our idea is to bring a celebration of spring of our own to bear. Gardeners make the garden. We hear their voices. If you are in our area, pay us a visit. We promise you will not be disappointed. Hellebores make great container plants that can tolerate being house bound until the garden is ready to be worked.

Our small greenhouse is stuffed with decent numbers of 28 cultivars of helleborus orientalis. Rob added pots of double primroses to the mix. These prikmroses are hardy to 30 below zero. Given our past winter, that root hardiness rating may be appealing. We have pots of primula obconica. There is more-auricula primroses just coming in to bloom.. Honeysuckle boxwood on standard. Bellis in bloom. Hyacinths and daffodils in pots. A celebration of spring in spite of a winter that will not let go.

How spring starved we all are makes all of Rob’s choices that much more to treasure. I have dirt and moss stains on my hands-how great is that? I have been planting spring pots. What a relief-what a treasure.

If you garden in our area, I would suggest that our helleborus festivalis might be just the jumpstart of spring that will bring a smile to your gardening heart.