Spring | Deborah Silver & Co.

Spring Fete

Jenny did get a chance to take a few pictures at the beginning of our 2012 preview party last night. Perhaps some of them will at least give a feeling for what the shop looks like the first day of the gardening season. I hate for anyone who couldn’t be here to miss out on the feeling of it all. There is nothing quite like spring. The time for plans, new ideas, getting back outdoors-and that lime green color that says spring so eloquently.

Our winter has been anything but. I do not believe the ground ever froze. I have lots of friends and colleagues in the nursery business-none of us know what to make of this. Or what it means for the spring. March ordinarily is a winter month for us. It usually is milder than February, and much milder than January-but winter nonetheless. I not only have forced bulbs in full bloom, my tulips are out of the ground. The espaliers in the garage are breaking bud. Today, 38 degrees and snow showers. Tomorrow night, some say 12 degrees, others say 17. We jut decided to go ahead with a little spring all of our own invention. Yes, we had the heat on.

Rob’s trip to France in September resulted in a late January ship date. A relatively easy trip through customs meant our first container arrived while he was in Italy. In 1`6 years, this was the first time he was not here for an unloading. My landscape crew has worked steadily this winter, as the weather permitted such. They played an unprecedented, but substantial role in transforming the shop from last season, to this season for the simple reason that it was possible to work.

Weather of a markedly different sort is not that unusual, if you look back long enough. I am sure there are those gardeners who lived out long and comfortingly average gardening years without so much as a blip. My apprehension about a strikingly atypical winter is is fairly well matched by my interest and curiousity about the unknown. So we are celebrating our usual March 1 reopening with an emphasis on spring-as that spring seems to be lurking about.

Rob sourced some great hellebore plants-we potted them up in plain clay pots, and set them in saucers-old fashioned, this treatment. These spring blooming helleborus orientalis cultivars can be planted out, and enjoyed for years to come, in April. But this moment, hellebores blooming March 1st is an enchanting promise of spring. Lots of them went home Thursday night.

The French glazed containers, antiques, and vintage garden ornament looked so good to my eye-and my gardening heart. So many years ago we brought over containers of French pots from a number of regional poteries. This newest group brings back so many memories of our early years. They also are so strikingly different than the containers from years ago. Every reference to the history of French pot making is intact, but each poterie has a contemporary interpretation of that history all their own. These cream white glazed French pots are offered with a new option of a square base. How I love that Rob saw fit to include these glazed bases. How these footed urns sit now-graceful and solid.

Today we had lots of company-there are many other gardeners anticipating spring just as much as we are. A vintage French wood sink on legs stuffed with hellebores-does it get any better than this? Sure it does-but for March 1st, this will better than do.

We did pot up and force bulbs in containers. How I managed to get color showing March 1-I have no tips to offer other than to say our unheated garage was warmer than usual. My potting schedule and treatment was the usual.

We added bits of forsythia branches, moss and lichens to some of the bulb plantings in baskets. A spring scene that might help fend off the worst of this season with no name. On the table, bunches of faux tulips to be added at that later date when the real ones have run their course. Why not?

The corgis are back on duty now, after a long hiatus. They like having visitors, just like we do. We have coffee and sweet bites, if you have a mind to get out of the cold, and warm up to the our idea of spring.

Posted on: March 3, 2012 7 Comments

Filed Under: Spring, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: Detroit Garden Works

Emerging

Do not under any circumstances miss this part. The emerging. Those of us who live in climates where the seasons change-that period of transition can be as brief as it is astonishingly beautiful. The weather during this time period can be unsettled, even violent. Plants dormant during our long winter sprout-given the spring. They emerge; they break ground. Breaking ground-the phrase suggests a new beginning, a new project. Vernissage-the French word for opening. My season is opening. The winter season is fading-spring is emerging. Some change is slow-some change is quick and startling.

Plants unerringly know when spring is due. Dormant buds swell, and show green. My Thelypteris decursive pinnata-my Japanese beech ferns-I see them today. Yesterday nothing. Today-a lot of substantial somethings. The hellebore flower stems raise their heads. and grow towards the light. The tulips out of the ground-2 to 3 weeks until they bloom. My daffodils moved from short green buds to tall stalks with flowers in just 2 days.

Pay attention now. The emerging phase is so short, you may need to cancel plans and stay home, and watch. The boston ivy on my walls show signs of life. Why these shoots are a brilliant red-I do not know. But I do know that this part of the life cycle of Boston ivy is of great interest to me.

The earliest of magnolias-I have one unknown variety in bloom right now. I inherited this tree. It has quadrupled in size, the past 15 years. I do not know its name-I only know it is the first plant to make a substantial move in my garden, in spring. These flowers-a good three weeks later than usual. This makes the emerging phase all the more precious. High winds and rain will make this blooming moment a short one.

Time in a garden is never made up. A very late to come spring means a very short spring. Pay attention-watch like a hawk. This spring will surely be very short. Don’t miss it. The miracle that is nature-I could write about it all day long for many days. My writing would matter next to nothing-compared to the experience of spring. My European ginger emerged and got leafy in the blink of an eye. This green could not be more welcome.

My advice? Experience your spring. Get down on the ground, and look at what is emerging. This sky blue grape hyacinth-like nothing else I have in my garden. Clean up. Walk your garden, once the winter has drained away. Assess. Plan. Most of all-enjoy. Look to the sky-most trees bloom. Don’t miss the blooming of the shade trees.

Species tulips have none of the height of hybrid tulips. But they do have this going for them. They are early, and quite persistent. By this I mean, really perennial. This species tulip, Oratorio, has remarkable foliage. An upper green leaf stained purple. Aubergine and green veination-spectacular.

No one admires box elders-they are junk trees. No gardener plants them. I do however admire them though, for their willingness to colonize very difficult urban sites. They have no problem living in a precipitous crack in a sidewalk. The will to live-I admire this. And their spring blooming is an extraordinary affair. Not at all ordinary, or noxious.

This box of lettuce emerging-delicious to my eye. Spring to my mind-so loaded with possibility. My advice? Should you be a gardener, expand your horizons. Become a naturalist. Observe at ground level. Look up. See the shade trees blooming. Observe, all around. Any experience of nature will make you a better gardener-I promise.

Posted on: April 27, 2011 6 Comments

Filed Under: Spring, Garden Design

Speechless

Sunday we had high winds-giant concrete pots planted for spring out front got blown over and dashed to the ground. We had four inches of snow today. I would be lying if I said I took this in stride-I did not. I was speechless. The latest great snowfall recorded in my gardening journal was April 16, 1982. 6 inches. April 18th this year-four inches of snow.

This April 18th, the tulip leaves, which have been so slow to break ground, were buried in snow. Discouraging to me-no kidding. Every day I hope for a clear sign that nature has put the winter behind her. A clear sign-not yet. At this time last year, we were basking in our best spring ever. This looks much more like the longest winter ever.

As much as I plan for spring, the arrival of spring is not really my call. I have a great love for nature, and all things natural, but the weather today is exasperating. I would have wanted spring to appear a month ago. The greenhouse space in the shop is loaded with plants that cannot go outdoors yet.

I do not need to worry much. A late spring snowfall harms nothing already acclimatized and used to cold weather. The spring flowering bulbs have been underground and cold for months. They handle this late snow with aplomb. Snow this late bothers my heart, not my tulips. The crocus this year-not much to see there. The cold temperatures and winds took the flowers out within a matter of a few days.

These pansies with their frosting of snow will suffer no real damage. They will pop back quickly from the insult. My hellebores are steadily making progress towards bloom week, and my European ginger is making an appearance. This is all the news from my home garden.

This Italian planter-the planting looks forlorn. The temperatures were just below freezing; today’s snow will not stay on the ground for long. I am still wearing my winter jacket and boots.

All of the pots I planted with spring bulbs were buried in snow today. They will be fine-they will bloom soon, as scheduled. A spring snow-do not worry about it. Night temperatures below 25 degrees-worry. We have on occasion had no spring. Winter can stay forever, until one day there temps go to 80, and stay there. I am hoping for a more gentle scenario