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Early May

Our bitterly cold and record breaking April gave way to an early May that has been too warm, too windy, too rainy and very stormy. Of course it has. Every plant that hunkered down in April was shoved into bloom and leaf by unseasonable heat. This is anything but a cool and slowly evolving spring. This isn’t springtime.  It is boom and bust time. Daffodils began to wilt with the heat at the moment they came in to bloom. The magnolia petals were falling as the flowers opened. Even the grape hyacinths looked unhappy. This is the natural course of events-nature ruling over all in a rather capricious even cruel way. That rule is not especially friendly and certainly not fair. The only thing to do is to pay attention. The Secretariat of all springs is zooming by and already heading into the home stretch. Yesterday and today the temps are hovering around 45, and are accompanied by torrential rains. Every gardener is blinking, just like me. Are we up or down?

This does not mean that the experience of the beauty of the garden and landscape waking up is lost. It is just fleeting. In a spring like this, it takes effort and concentration to capture the moment. Not a one of my hellebores bloomed until the very end of April. Snow and ice buried them until quite late. It was an event when they finally sallied forth. This green flowered hellebore is a cultivar from Pine Knot Farms, and it was well worth waiting for.

May visits every property equally. The coming of the growing happens everywhere. Even those places where there may not be a gardener on staff. The new growth on the weeds is just as beautiful as the new growth on delphiniums. Truly. A patch of daylilies fresh out of the ground is my favorite time for them. The flowers on the maples are the most exquisite shade of chartreuse. There are a few spring days when even the roadway is green. The violets may not be welcome in some lawns, but I love them. I would have them everywhere, in every color, in the spring.

Seasonal spring plants have the same vibrant aura as the spring landscape. The color is clear and brilliant. Spring rains wash all of the dust and pollen out of the air. Spring sunlight is like no other light. Everything grows for broke. What a delight to be a part of that! This window box has pansies, strawberries, annual phlox, bidens, osteospermum, parsley and alyssum.  Seasonal flowers have the ability to handle unusual cold and heat better than the ephemeral spring wildflowers, spring flowering bulbs, shrubs and trees. Anyone who has ever known the pleasure of a stand of double bloodroot understands keeping a close eye on the approaching bloom. A day away from the garden means you might miss it altogether. This window box will prosper steadily, even in the warmer weather to come.

There is nothing particularly extraordinary about creeping jenny, but a mass of it under planting white daffodils is a May moment worth savoring. Later in the summer, that chartreuse will harden, and take on an orange cast unless it has afternoon shade. Right now it looks good enough to eat.

Forsythia is an ordinary spring flowering shrub, but the late day May light makes the color glow. This gardener had the good sense to just let it grow. A shrub in full spring bloom, a wheelbarrow, and an sidewalk-this is the stuff of which great spring days are made.

My old clumps of Royal Heritage hellebores all feature downward facing flowers. This means I need to get down on the ground and look up into their faces. Any perennial that can make this 68 year old gardener do that has something going for it. Oh yes, the hellebores are a feature of the spring season, no matter the weather.

This PJM rhododendron came with the house I bought 24 years ago.  It has had its ups and downs, but I can count on those dazzling flowers in May. This year’s display began to fade in the heat, but my memory of this moment, given my experience of it for more than 2 decades, is a forever memory. I have had 48 springs as a gardener. Each one is different.  But the sum total of all of my Mays is worth my attention.

I do not travel much outside my route to and from work, this time of year. So much of my experience of May is in my own neighborhood, driving by. This Bradford pear, branched to the ground and in full bloom, is an experience of spring that delights my eye.

A single shoot of variegated lily of the valley, after 3 years in my garden, has decided to branch out. I could not be more delighted. May has a way of surprising even the most veteran gardener. I cannot really explain how this plant settling down and spreading has been such an important part of my spring. Yes, I was paying attention.

The Princeton Gold maples in my back yard are leafing out. Those giant chartreuse leaves say spring in no uncertain terms. This year’s spring green may be fleeting, but a beautiful moment is a moment to be treasured.

The tulips at the shop are not their usual size, given our freezing April.  But they are blooming. I admire their effort.

My pansies have taken the worst of the cold and the heat, as they always do. This spring is not the best we have ever had, but any spring is a moment worth cherishing.

I have had this picture on my computer for ages. It is spring photograph, featuring spring blooming trees, in Japan.  Astonishing, this. Although my spring does not look like this, it feels like this.

 

 

 

Posted on: May 12, 2018 11 Comments
Filed Under: Deborah Silver and Co Inc, Color, Spring

Some Good Reasons To Plant Pots For Spring

Our spring has been an exasperatingly wintry sort of gray and cold. April has been a last of the winter month. But today April 30th, we have blue skies. That blue is a giant step towards spring. Every gardener in my zone is on that plane that promises to leave our wretched April weather behind. The sun drenching my landscape with warmth and promise-that promise could not be more welcome. Was this worst April of my gardening lifetime? Yes.

No one is happy looking at empty pots. It has been too cold to plant anything except the most cold tolerant plants. Can you hear me sighing?  Not that my memory of past Aprils mean much. I know that the weather cycles in years vastly bigger than my time on this earth. The theys who keep records say this is the coldest April we have had for 134 years. We’ve all been living that scene. Sitting out a few nights ago after work made me wish I had a coat like Milo’s. Today we are slated to hit 80 degrees.

Today we will plant the last of our spring container plantings. Do I plan to post pictures of what we have planted this spring? No. It will take weeks for what we have planted to grow on and look like something. Spring container plantings are at their most beautiful the first of June. Perfect timing, in my estimation. My spring pots coming in to their own later in May prevents me from rushing to plant too early for summer. Nature, and gardeners, abhor a vacuum. The sight of bare dirt is instantly followed by the urge to plant. The urge to plant this year is especially strong. To follow are pictures of some of my favorite spring container plantings. Most of them were taken in late May.

pansies and violas

variegated lavender

orange osteos, heuchera, and orange pansies

curly pussy willow and sweet peas

spring pots featuring pansies, violas, dill, and fan willow

Marguerites, pansies, violas and cream alyssum in a basket

Bok Choy, osteospermum, mini marguerites and alyssum

White osteospermum, chrysanthemum paludosum “Snowland”, yellow petunias and blue salvia

daffodils

carexviolas and angelina

lettuce and alyssum in a basalt pan

Variegated lavender, cream alyssum and strawberries in mid AprilThat mid April at the end of May-striking.

Posted on: May 1, 2018 8 Comments
Filed Under: Deborah Silver and Co Inc, Color, container planting, Spring

Planting Containers For Spring

Our local newspaper recently confirmed what all of the gardeners in my area already knew. One would have to go back 134 years to find an April as cold as the one we have just lived through. Who knows what gardeners did in 1887 given their blisteringly cold April. I am cautiously optimistic that better weather is on the way,  even though it is barely 50 degrees today. I have had clients tell me that we won’t have any spring. That summer is just about here. Don’t believe it. We always have a spring. The March and April of it has just been exceptionally cold. May is a spring month as well, despite those who insist on planting summer annuals and vegetables before the soil is warm enough for them.  Anyone who treats May as a summer month is bound for some disappointment. We have been planting spring containers for a few weeks now. We have relied quite a bit on pansies and violas, as we have a grower who starts them the previous summer, and winters them in a cold greenhouse.We have planted some annual phlox, and I took a chance on some dwarf white fuchsia, rosemary, lavender and lettuce. These plants have been hothouse grown, so placing them outdoors abruptly can result in leaf damage. What it has been too chilly for is a long list.

The buds on the trees are swelling, but we are still leafless. The landscape looks groggy. Off color. My magnolia stellata has flower buds barely breaking and showing white. I am sure many of those buds will never open.The hellebores are thinking about it. Not a peep out of much else, but for the early flowering spring bulbs. The only perennial plant in my garden who has dared to venture forth is Alchemilla-lady’s mantle. Those new leaves are hugging the ground. As they should! But this daffodil mix pansy is as bright and cheery as can be. Though they are diminutive in size, pansies can provide a vivid preview of the color to come. Plant a few, or plant a truckload, the effect is the same. A little or a lot of color can energize  gardener. Daffodils are just beginning to bloom, and the tulips will be a good while yet. This means the timing for an appearance from pansies and violas is just right.

It is a lot to ask of a plant, to be ready to grow and bloom ahead of time. Our pansies have been fine with temperatures as low as 22 degrees.  For this project we loaded up and left them in the truck, which was parked in our landscape building, for 3 days. That protected them from our recent our ice and sleet storm. But I can report that those plants that endured that nasty weather outdoors look just fine today. How I welcome their forbearance. I am always amused to hear a plant described as shade loving. They are in fact shade tolerant. Lots of seasonal plants can tolerate chilly temperatures, but few persevere in really cold weather like the pansies.

Fresh cut pussy willow is a mainstay of our spring pots. The catkins are a glossy and furry gray. Once they are cut, they will hold that moment  as they dry. Pussy willow stems indoors, in water, will produce pollen, and many stems eventually leaf out. Their behavior in this regard is a great example of how routine and powerful the will to live can be. I especially enjoy how effortlessly they adapt to a second life in a container.

The pansies are small and short in April. A another month, they will be overflowing these boxes. But for now, a tall centerpiece of preserved eucalyptus and faux stems provide them a forum from which to speak up. There are those transitional times in the year when a gardener has the option to represent the sentiment of the season generously.  In a very short time, there will be breaking news from all of the plants in the landscape. Right now, spring containers have no competition.

Color plays a big part in any seasonal planting.  Colors placed side by side that are closely related make for a subtle expression.  Colors that strongly contrast in both hue and value make for more drama.

I do like color mixes that are not entirely predictable. No gardener needs a computer generated plan of action. I like that odd color out. I like color mixes that are imperfect. I like efforts in the garden that are unpredictable. The best voice is one’s own garden is one’s own voice. Trust that. Whatever I do in my garden, landscape, or containers, I always like when I can see that my choices are based on a relationship between my hands and the materials.

I am a professional designer. I do take pains to discuss with my clients about what they would like to see.  There is a relationship that needs to be honored. I do not expect them to direct me. I encourage them to express to me what is important to them in style, shape and color and affect. I try to interpret that.

This client chose a sunny and contrasting color palette for her spring planting. I admire that gesture. She is as tired of our long winter as I am.

Sooner or later she will see the lettuce at the center of these boxes. The spring garden is full of surprises, is it not?

Posted on: April 26, 2018 10 Comments
Filed Under: Deborah Silver and Co Inc, Color, Spring Tagged With: , ,

A Pruning Strategy

The best time to prune deciduous shrubs is whenever you have the time available to prune. But no doubt some pruning dates are better than others. Late March is the perfect time time in my zone, provided the ground is dry enough be walked on. The bare branches make it easy to spot what is dead or weak. Or which cuts would result in a better looking or more graceful shape. In general, the shag haircut theory of pruning promotes good shrub health. Big at the bottom, and narrower at the top. Pruning such that no two branches are the same height or forced to  occupy the same space helps to insure that every bud ready to leaf out will have its own light and air space. A place to grow without interference is an ideal place for a branch to be. I like to leave the branches near the ground long, and the branches on the top shorter. Visualizing what has to be cut back on the top so the lower branches get the light they need will result in a shrub that is green and growing from top to bottom. If you think the Limelight hydrangeas above do not look like I took my own advice, you are right.

There is a story behind these leggy Limelights.  Planted as a 5 plant by 5 plant block of 25 some 12 years ago, they had overgrown their space. The lesson here? A shrub that will grow 6 feet tall by 6 feet wide probably will top out at 8′ by 8′ left to its own devices. Keeping a plant smaller than its genetically determined size is, over time, a losing battle. My 25 plants had become a single organism. Removing any of them from the mix would expose a not so lovely look at a dark and bare interior. It was time to take out the outer front and side rows. Once I reduced the size of the block to a four plant by 4 plant block, I could see what I had left over was a mass of hydrangeas on 3′ tall bare stalks. As in, a block of multi-trunked hydrangeas on standard.

Of course these hydrangeas had gotten leggy in the interior. I am sure no light reached the ground during the summer. The outside rows has been pruned to facilitate growth from top to bottom. The interior shrubs has been pruned to encourage growth on the tops. All very predictable, this. Last spring I planted Little Lime hydrangeas in from of those Limelight legs, thinking this shorter version would create a coverup.

That strategy left more that a little to be desired. Little Lime is by no means a smaller growing version of Limelight. The flowers are a different shape and color. I was not crazy about the two plants side by side. Hydrangea Bobo might have been a better choice. That said, I knew my only real option with the limelights was to take a renovation strategy. Hard pruning old hydrangeas hard is only shocking if you do not take into account how fast and much they grow between April and the late July bloom time. A single branch may grow 3 or 4 feet in one season.

This is a radical and grim look, but I suspect they will be full of flowers by the beginning of August. How so? The renovation plan calls for a second pruning in June. I am not interested in long single branches with few and hugely ungainly flowers. Cutting back a long branch midway to the bloom time will result in side branching at the cut. This may result in a delayed flowering, but there will be flowers nonetheless. Next year they will regain their fulsome look.

Hydrangeas respond much more quickly to renovation pruning than other less vigorous shrubs. It won’t be long before they start growing out of this.

Knowing the best time to prune doesn’t necessarily result in action. I should have pruned these hydrangeas harder last spring, when the extra rows of plants came out. If you are like me, what I need to do in the garden routinely gets away from me. How indulgent hydrangeas are of less than stellar care is just one of the reasons to like them. Pruning times depend on whether they bloom on new or old wood. Since the Limelights bloom on new, or the current season’s growth, no matter how much or how little you prune, you are not removing flower buds. Just buds which will become leaves. So prune away.

 Pruning is a paradox. We sometimes prune back shrubs to limit their size, not realizing that a pruning cut, from a shrub’s point of view, is a call to grow. To branch out. A single pruning cut on a large sized branch results in lots of buds breaking in every direction below that cut. This late winter photograph of a hedge in my neighborhood tells the story. A hedge of substantial size was cut back for a number of years-at the height this gardener could reach. The result was lots of branching at the top, which eventually shaded out the branches at the bottom. Once the hedge became too tall to prune without a good sized ladder, the pruning stopped. The result is a rather interesting mix of bare sticks at the bottom,  dense branching at the mid level, and long unbranched growth at the top. Add to that mix, some weed trees that got a foothold in the hedge, and have grown to a large size. In this location, a very tall vase shaped hedge is probably a good idea. The traffic on both sides can come in and out the driveways under the umbrella shaped part of the hedge. I will be interested to see the summer look.To prune or not to prune-now is a good time to decide.

Posted on: March 27, 2018 22 Comments
Filed Under: Spring, Deborah Silver and Co Inc, Woody Plants Tagged With: , , ,