Still Spring

June 13 2014 (3)As I am writing this, the temperature outside is 54 degrees.  This morning, I woke up to 49 degrees. Why do I think this is news fit to print? A 54 degree daytime temperature is a spring temperature.  Should you be thinking that summer has arrived in Michigan, I would ask you to think differently.  In my opinion, we are still in the spring season. Opinion aside, there is plenty to suggest that each of the four seasons lasts just about three months.  I rarely see any deviation from a spring season that spans late March and April, May, and most of June.  The temperature today reminds me that we are in the late stage of spring.  The beginning of summer, the summer solstice, arrives on June 21, still a week away. I have other signs that spring is still holding forth.  This April planting of mixed colors of nicotiana and violas at the entrance to our driveway is just about peaking.  It is astonishingly beautiful and lush.

June 13 2014 (6)Spring annual planted  in April grow and peak the middle of June.  I wonder what these early planted nicotiana will do, come summer.  How could they be any better?  It used to be that no one planted summer annuals before Memorial Day.  I see many people planting out annuals Mother’s Day weekend.  I do not plant any summer annuals on May 10.  Better that all of those tropical annuals have the shelter, sun and heat of a greenhouse in May.  Annual plants in my zone like warm soil, warm days, and warm nights.  Michigan weather is rarely able to deliver those conditions until the beginning of July.

June 13 2014 (9)My spring window boxes look great right now. Lovely and lush.  Pansies and violas like cool weather-spring weather.  Once the heat of our summer comes on, the pansies and violas will fade.  As of today, June 14, they are still getting the weather they need.

June 13 2014 (10) The sweet peas are coming into full bloom.  The plants themselves are prety wild, but the flowers are beautiful and fragrant.  Having never grown them before, I am happy for the cool weather that suits them.

June 13 2014 (12)If you did not plant your pots for spring, so be it.  Every gardener has a schedule and a mission all their own.  I would only point out, on this 55 degree day in June, that the summer season is yet to come.  I did get a few of my own pots planted.  I hope to have them done by June 21. I know they will take right off, given warm temperatures and warm soil.

June 13 2014 (15)The cool weather plant club is a big one, and includes rhubarb, pansies and parsley.

June 13 2014 (17)nasturtiums and bellis

June 13 2014 (7)We did plant the front of Detroit Garden Works for summer a few days ago.. No doubt we are anticipating the summer. We cut the dinner plate dahlias back by half.  It will take them the summer to get going.  They will be at their best in September and October.  I have not planted the roof boxes yet-it is still to cold for what I have in mind.

June June 9 n2014 (25)The early summer cannot hold a candle to the peak of the spring season.  Think of it.  The start of a season is the start.  The conclusion of the season can be glorious.  I call that the super nova stage.   This spring container designed and planted by Rob-exquisite today. The  spring gardening season lasts every bit of three months.  Into late June.  Just saying.

 

 

At A Glance: Lots Of Spring Pots

spring-pots-2014.jpgTo follow are too many pictures of the spring pots we have planted up at the shop.  But too many pictures of plants growing and blooming is just what I need right now.  On this 18 foot antique Scottish railway bench, a collection of little mixed spring pots.  Ever since the day years ago that I had a 14 year old boy put a ten dollar bill in my hand, and ask me what I would recommend for his gardening Mom for Mother’s Day, I make sure I have an answer.

spring-pots.jpgThe loss of the section of boxwood in front of the store is a loss I cannot really explain.  Those plants had their roots entwined with a vision for a garden shop imagined 19 years ago. I would have been happy to have those plants there, always.  But always is not an adjective one can routinely pair with the work and unexpected trouble that it is to sustain a landscape.  Sometimes changes must be made.  Though the end of this winter is not what I would have chosen, I have plenty of options to express the beginning of a new gardening season that are charged with life, vigor, and color.

spring-pots.jpgA container planted for spring is all about a new season.  Fresh ideas that grow out of old ones.  A splash of color so welcome after an interminable winter. Spring is a season which is different every year.  Ours so far is wet and cold.  But these container plants revel in those transitory conditions.  I admire their verve and robust habits.  Bring on the spring plants.

spring-pots.jpgParsley, dwarf marguerites, pansies and violas

spring-pots.jpgStock, lobelia, alyssum and pansies

Spring-pots.jpgLemon cypress, white cabbage, variegated lavender, green sagina, white alyssum and dwarf marguerites

little-spring-pots.jpgLittle spring container plantings in fiber pots

spring-pots.jpgvariegated lavender and violas

spring-pots.jpgspring vegetables in containers

pansy-pots.jpgpair of pansy and viola pots

lettuce-in-rows.jpgbasalt tray planted with lettuce and citron alyssum

pansy-pot.jpgred, yellow and orange pansies in a mossed basket

lettuce-pots.jpglettuce bowls

galvanized-pot-with-chard.jpglemon grass, chard, osteospermum, alyssum, and dwarf marguerites

red-and-yellow-for-spring.jpgpansies and violas in jewel tones

moss-basket.jpgwire basket full of violas

chard-pots.jpgchard and orange pansies in fiber bulb pans

pansies-and-lettuce.jpgParsley, lettuce and pansies are a sure sign of spring.

 

 

Moss It

DSC_9020The signs of spring in my area are still few and far between.  I do have a few crocus just coming into bloom now – in April, for pete’s sake. My garden cannot be cleaned up yet, as a layer of ice still covers most of it.  I have winter pots still so frozen in place I cannot take them apart.  But I have other options for spring.  As in planting pots for spring.  We are in the process of planting lots of them for the shop.  Shortly we will be planting spring pots for clients.  I do have a love for mossed containers.  Nature represented in both the top and the bottom is a very good look. Lining moss baskets has always been about the art of patching.  Florist’s moss comes packed in cases of pieces.  Some moss pieces are big and thick.  Rob calls these moss hides.  Some pieces are thin and small.  A wirework basket may need a number of pieces of moss, stitched together via a puzzle of overlapping pieces.  Any natural material comes in all manner of natural shapes, sizes and thicknesses.

DSC_9021One of our suppliers had the brilliant idea of attaching moss to a biodegradable backing.  Don’t ask me how they do this-I have no clue.  But I do know that mossing a wire basket just got a whole lot easier.  For a round wirework container, Rob rolls the container in a natural arc across the moss mat.  He marks that radius with a nursery marking pen.  The marks describing the top of the container, and the bottom.  That pair of lines create an arc.  He cuts that arc big and wide- oversized.

DSC_9025That arc derived from the top and bottom of the container means that the moss mat fits smoothly inside the basket.   Of course there is a lot of fussing.  Anything in the garden that means much to a gardener requires the work of a pair of hands.  A pair of hands on a shovel, or a hose, or a rake.  As for my gardening efforts today, I am putting my hands to planting containers for spring.

DSC_9026Not that I do as good a job as Rob does.  He has infinite patience.  He eases the moss mat into place.

DSC_9028The bottom of this wirework container is filled with drainage material. By a third.  Container plantings require more drainage material than soil.  Waterlogged plants never prosper, unless you plan to pot up bog plants.  A seasonal pot planting does well with bark as drainage material. Making sure that water can drain from a container is essential.

DSC_9031After the bark, the container is filled with soil.  We use a soil mix that is custom blended for us.  Lots of compost.  A big dash of sand.  And soil.  We do not use peat based growers mix in our pots.  Soilless mixes are perfect for professional growers who can manage the fertility levels and water to a tee.  For gardeners, we recommend a soil based mix. We like dirt.

DSC_9033The upper side of the moss mat gets folded over. A rolled moss edge looks generously finished.  That thickness contrasts beautifully with the thin wire that describes the shape of the container.   That roll also helps to keep the soil right where it belongs-inside.

DSC_9034Once the wirework container is moss lined, it is time to plant the plants.  For this pot, white tulips, white English daisies, and white variegated ivy.

DSC_9038Planting a pot no doubt involves design.  Color, texture, mass-and a vision about the mature shape of the planting.  But planting a pot is also about that magical moment.  An idea. The plants. The dirt.  The act of planting.

DSC_9043This mossed wirework basket-an expression of spring.  An expression of spring?  I expect both nature and every gardener to be making news, soon.

Potting Up

hellebores.jpgOur winter is stuck on repeat like a CD playing with a giant gouge-is it not?  If only nature would choose to bring this song to a close. If only the channel would change.  OK, I realize the timing of the change of the channel is out of my control.  The only thing keeping me on an even keel-a greenhouse full of hellebores.  I am on the verge of being afraid for spring.  The sun and slightly warmer temperatures today meant melted snow was streaming into the shop under the front door. What other disasters does this brutal winter have to visit upon our spring?  I don’t have any answers, just a lot of theories that are most likely off target or irrelevant.   March?  lion-like, so far. And no relief in sight.  But any gardener has the option of creating a little spring indoors.  I am beginning to see pots of spring flowering bulbs available at nurseries.

spring-flowering-bulbs.jpgThis pot of muscari came in a plastic pot.  No gardener should be dismayed by the nursery presentation.  What they do well is bring a plant on.  Representing the magic of spring is not their thing.  They grow.  What they grow is available at a very reasonable cost.  That bulb that has shot forth leaves and flowers is a miracle of nature.  Spring flowering bulbs have flowers and leaves stored in in those juicy orbs we call bulbs.  Given the proper temperature signs, those bulbs break dormancy and grow.

potting-spring-bulbs.jpgNot so much is required of a gardener to bring a spring flowering bulb into bloom.  Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths,and a whole host of small flowering bulbs will represent in the spring, if you can just manage to get them below ground before the ground freezes so hard it cannot be worked.  I am embarrassed to say that I have had to ditch plenty too many bulbs in my gardening life, as I did not make the deadline.  Happily, the fall planting deadlines need not apply, should you pot up.  Pots of bulbs wintered over in the garage will come on and bloom with as much vigor as bulbs planted on time in the fall.

muscari.jpgShould you have no pots of spring flowering bulbs waiting for spring in your garage, shop your favorite garden store.  Rob spent the day transplanting muscari and cyclamen into containers.  How he transforms a nursery grown plastic pot loaded with muscari into a strong statement about spring might interest you.

finishing-touches.jpgThe first time I saw him wash the soil off of the upper half of a spring flowering bulb, I worried.  Would a bulb exposed to view mean disaster?  That has never happened.  As he says, the bulb from which all that life springs is beautiful.  A statement about spring should surely include a view of that bulb that is part of the experience of spring.

cyclamen.jpgHe has repotted cyclamen, taking great care to select a container of a proper scale.  I greatly admire how he subtly pairs plants with appropriate containers.

spring-pots.jpgThe only spring going on in my neighborhood is a direct result of the intervening hand of a passionate gardener.  In  our shop, those hands belong to Rob.  As anxious as I am about the length of this long and very hard winter, I appreciate his gestures towards the turn of the season.

crocus-pots.jpgWe had customers in today taking the results of his potting up home.  Not near Detroit Garden Works?  Visit your local nursery, and bring home a few pots of spring flowering bulbs.  Then do what you can to make those pots a personal expression of spring.

spring-pots.jpgStuck in a zone  with no spring?

spring-pots.jpgCreate your own version of spring.  Add a few touches from the forest floor.  Take some pictures. Enjoy the process.