Hens and chicks and chicks and chicks

On Wednesday my friend Kim called me with a hot tip. A local nursery had pots with Sempervivum (Hen's and Chicks) just exploding out of them. Needless to say I got in my car immediately and headed over there.

They only had three varieties to choose from, a red named 'Pilioseum', a heavily webbed varieties named 'Cobweb' and a green variety that I didn't purchase. Kim was right, the pots were literally exploding with hens and chicks. The price on these pots were $9.99, if you wanted to spend a bit more you could get even larger pots for $11.99.

One tip I have for you if you are purchasing Sempervivum, look to see if any are blooming. You see the long stem coming up? That is going to be a bloom stem. Many people don't realize that Semps bloom. After a sempervivum blooms, it dies. Now if you have lots and lots of chicks like here, it won't matter. But, if you choose a pot with lots of bloom and not many chicks, you might not have any babies to carry you through the next year. Still, if you are looking for one year of interest, you might want the pot that was full of upcoming blooms.

Getting them out of their pots wasn't the easiest thing. Once I slid them free I removed the soil from the bottom half. Sempervivums don't have huge root systems and don't mind being disturbed like this.

It was easy to break apart the clumps just by using my hands, no need to damage the fleshy rosettes with a sharp tool.

Isn't this a pretty little division? I really like the cobweb variety although my daughter who was taking the photos wasn't as enthralled as me.

The red 'Pilioseum' was even more crowded in the pot but it also broke apart quite easily.

When working with Hens and Chicks, I like to have a tray underneath me to catch any babies. Here I'm using an old wine box.

You can split them down to single pieces with one "hen" and her "chicks" but I had enough plants to be able to leave a few divisions larger.


Next step was putting them in the troughs I just bought. These troughs will be for sale on June 12th and 13th at the Kissam House in Huntington Village. I hope they'll sell!

Too big for their britches

Oh woe is me, too many plants trying to grow in one spot. This happens every year, either something seeds itself into a spot where it doesn't belong or I just make a mistake and plant things too close.

In this case the two Sedums were planned. A tiny little Sedum (possibly nevii) and the larger Sedum 'Vera Jameson' were encouraged to grow in this spot but the big Digitalis (fox glove) moved in. I guess I have to get in there and remove the foxglove but boy is that going to hurt.

The Hosta on the left is 'American Sweetheart', it was planted there last year. The tag said it would get 18" tall and 36" wide. Uh huh, it's already taller than 18" and I seriously doubt it's going to stop at 36" wide. I searched the web last night but everything has the same measurements. Anybody else grow this beauty? I'm thinking it will need to be moved pretty soon if I don't want them to hit the leaves when they mow the lawn.

Off the top of my head I can think of two more places where there's a serious crowding spot. In one location a lovely Ligularia seeded itself just an inch or two from a large Hosta. In another spot a Dicentra Spectabilis (Bleeding Heart) seeded next to Hosta 'Striptease'. In both cases the Hosta were late emergers and now have to fight the lush foliage of their overabundent neighbors.

Last night I typed out this same post and though I hit the send key but this morning there was nothing waiting for me in cyber space. If two of these posts suddenly appear here you'll know what happened.

Garden Talk

The title for my other blog, Melanie's Perennials, was the same as this one but the idea behind it is different. On the other blog I wrote about websites I thought my garden visitors would find helpful . Now though I'm writing about some of the things I learned this weekend.

One of the best things about having garden visitors every weekend is getting to hear what they like and don't like. Here's some of this weekend's favorites:

The opening shot is a Geranium phaeum, also known as the mourning widow geranium. It wasn't Lisa's favorite plant in the garden but she and I looked at too many for me to begin to remember which one was ;-)


The yellow variegated Sedum seiboldii variegatum is a favorite every weekend! I wish I had dozens of pots of this beauty. I do have some extra ones and did promise to pot up a few, Liz was really crazy about this plant.


Newcomers to the garden, George and Joan, were on the hunt for Hosta 'June'. While I have a nice large clump of 'June', I'm not planning on cutting it up just yet. I'll be on the lookout for more 'June' in the near future.


Carol was in such a rush that I never got the chance to show her the Iris from Old Westbury that has started to bloom. Hope you're looking Carol!

Almost everybody has to stop and admire the variegated Kousa dogwood in bloom right now. How could you not just love this beauty?

Bonnie was on a mini Hosta kick this weekend but she had to stop and visit the succulants too. How sweet is this tiny Sempervivum?

Anita brought her delightful son Craig and they hit the ferns and mini Hosta too. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to take a decent photo of a fern.

Gloria came for ferns but had to stop and admire the Hosta 'Spritzer' sitting so pretty behind this clump of Heuchera 'Caramel'.

As for the number one, most popular plant this weekend? The Heuchera 'Caramel' you see in this last photo. If I had 100 of them, I would have sold all 100 of them over the past month. Unfortunately, I only have the three I planted in my garden last year...Lucky me!

What's your favorite?

Melanie

Potager

When I typed the word "Potager" in google, I found a number of definitions, all of them basically the same. A potager is a French styled, country- kitchen garden. In other words, a vegetable garden. What makes it different than any basic vegetable garden is that the plants are not simply planted in rows.

I've seen some beautiful vegetable gardens, the only one that would officially fit the description of a Potager is at Stonecrop which is in Cold Spring New York.

Our garden club went there to see their alpine and trough collections. I had no idea they had a potager there and was totally blown away when we stepped into this area.




Visiting Chanticleer in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania area, I saw some beautiful vegetable gardens but I wouldn't classify them as a "potager". This row of Asparagus sure was beautiful but I don't have a crew of gardeners to help me maitain something like this.

As I went through my photos for this post I was surprised that I didn't have more that showed pretty vegetable gardens. In fact, I had no more photos of vegetables at all!

Here in my own garden I have an area that has undergone a few changes. It started as a seedling bed when I was hybridizing daylilies. The daylily seedlings were grown in straight rows and other than during daylily bloom season it was very blah.

In 2006 we were a tour garden for the National convention of the American Hemerocallis Society (that's daylilies) and I totally changed this area. It became an herb garden that also incorporated spider-style daylilies.

Over the past two years I've been moving the daylilies out of this area. Just over the fence is a grouping of Black Walnut trees (Juglans nigra) and they emit a toxic product (jugulone) from their roots and my daylilies just don't grow well near them. Other plants though seem to grow just fine there, it's a trial and error kind of thing.

On Wednesday we had two yards of aged horse manure dropped off here. This weekend we'll be moving loads of it to this spot in our garden. I'll be moving out and potting up those spider daylilies for sale and we'll back fill the garden with the old manure.

Guess what I'll be planting?

Did you guess vegetables?

This just might be the year that I finally have a potager!

Melanie

Potting Troughs - Part Two

I'm going crazy!

Ok, I admit it, I have a problem... I can't help it, I just can't stop playing with these amazing little succulents! Now that I've found a great source for hypertufa troughs, I just know it's going to get worse.


Not all the plant material I bought for the troughs are succulents, there's one or two other things I couldn't resist such as this dwarf Cotoneaster 'Strieb's Findling'.


There's also the Fiber optic grass (Isolepsis) that I can never resist even though it's not hardy here in my zone 6b garden.


Sedum nevii is another plant that I think I've bought before but I just had to try again.

One of my favorite (ok, that's silly, they're all my favorites) is this little Sempervivum 'Baronesse', just look at the webs!!!

Here's the first planted trough, isn't it sweet?

Here's another planted trough. This one looks a bit skimpy next to the first one but I've learned from past experience to leave some space for the semps to fill in.

This trough was planted up on Friday. I'm not sure yet about the Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knock-out' in the center of the trough. I hope they beef up quickly.

Under construction as I write this is a large shade trough. It's got a Hosta 'Pixie Power' slated for the center, and a teeny weeny Hosta 'Baby Tears' for the upper corner. I'm not sure about the rest of it though, I did get my hands on some amazing colored Ajuga's that might be perfect.

Sometimes it's the container that inspires me, other times it's the plant material. This combination of Cotula squalida 'Platt's Black' and Sempervivum 'Icicle' had me in rapture.


I didn't want to add a color that would take away from the two of them so I decided to go with some added textures. The Sedum nevii and the Fiber optic grass fill that slot nicely.

It's not planted yet, I'm not 100% sure on the fifth sempervivum. I have a bronze colored semp that I need to look for and try in this spot too. By the end of the day today though it will be decided and planted up.

The crazy thing? I spent all this money on these containers and plants and justified my purchase on the idea that I would sell them and make a profit. Now though I can't possibly imagine how I could let these go.

What do you think? Sell them? Make more of them? Cover my whole property with wonderfully delicious succulents?

I'll have to think this over, maybe if I walk around a few nurseries today I'll find some more...I mean I'll clear my mind and make a decision :-)

Going crazy,
Melanie

Potting Troughs

Today at Old Country Gardens we're going to have some fun!

This week I purchased a number of beautiful hypertufa troughs. Hypertufa is a mix of cement, peat moss and sand. They look and feel like concrete but they are just light enough that I can lift them.

There's two different sized rectangular ones here, I've already potted up the smaller one and it's just darling (photos to follow). This larger one will be a bit of a challenge, I don't want to fill it all the way, I'd like the plant material to fill in over the season.

The round container is getting me very excited. I think I'd like to mound the soil in the center and find a cool stone to use as an "outcropping" in the planting.

I've purchased all kinds of cool plant material and also dug many different things from my garden so I have no idea yet what will get planted.

If you are in the area you are welcome to come by and watch me work.


Of course we'll also be open for sales. This week I dug some of the plants that customers have been asking for such as Convallaria (Lily of the Valley) and a few small pots of Asarum europeaum (European ginger).

Best of all, we have lots and lots of pots filled with glorious ferns. The japanese painted ferns came from my own garden, the huge pots filled with other ferns are from Fox Hollow Farms.

Then there's the mini hosta, but that will have to be a post on its own!

Off to play in the fog and mist,
Melanie

Invasive Plants

What is an invasive plant? For that matter, what is a weed? Is it just a plant that grows in a spot you don't want it to grow in?

Some plants reseed easily such as the charming Viola 'Bowles Black' and the unusual yellow blooming Sedum aizoon 'Lemon Snowflakes'. Does the fact that they self sow make them invasive? At one time I thought I had too much 'Lemon Snowflakes' but now I have hardly any of them here at all.

What about all the little creeping Sedums such as Sedum acre? They creep into little cracks and crevices and I just adore them all.


The dark purple plant in this photo is Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate'. It is a total thug. It is also absolutely beautiful. What do you do with this plant? In my garden I have only myself to blame as I begged a friend for multiple pieces.

I refuse to pull it all out as I do so love the foliage color but I've learned to never let it get as dense as you see in this photo. Once it establishes itself like this it has a root system that you need a pick ax to get through. I let single pieces of it emerge in spots though and then try the year after to remove a few of the runners so there's only bits and pieces around here.

My poor mom was given the job of attacking a massive patch of this plant. One thing in it's favor, it will grow in full sun and also grow in dense shade.

There's quite a few plants growing in my garden that people might consider "invasive". The Lysimachia clethroides (Gooseneck loosestrife) seen in the backdrop here is one of them. I have had this plant contained in a spot of the garden for many years but this year I see it has finally broke free of it's underground prison.

Yesterday I pulled up some of the stray runners, they come up easily and so I decided to leave a few behind.

When it comes to potting these plants up for sale, I don't know what to do. Many times people tell me that they have a tough spot where they can't get anything to grow. I have some excellent, beautiful perennials that would fit the bill but I still hesitate to share the wealth.

What do you think? Do you grow plants like these and do you share pieces of them?

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Every year I get to spend mother's day with my mom. She is amazing, she helps me in the garden, cooks, cleans, shops and does so much more. I'm always a lunatic at this time of year and never have a card and a beautiful gift for her. But my mom never complains, today she spent the day with us in the garden, backbreaking work as usual.

We took a two minute break to snap a few photos in my glider (that of course mom happened to buy for us). We have no make-up on and our dirty garden clothes but that's how it is.

If you look closer you'll see my muddy knees, thankfully you can't see my dirty fingernails too. Does anybody have a magic remedy for those fingers? Last week I had to shake 128 hands at an award ceremony and I was mortified at the thought that somebody would see the dirt I can't get out of my hands.

Happy Mother's Day all, especially to my wonderful mother!

Melanie
(Hope you like your card, I made it myself :-))

Ferns

Ferns! Just came home with a car load of ferns, some for me, some to sell.

I must get out there and play with them, I can't wait to figure out where they are going to go.


Happy Mother's Day to all!

Melanie

Camassia

It's funny, I grow very few bulbs in my garden. So what is it about Camassia that makes me think of it as a perennial instead of a bulb? Maybe it's because a gardening friend dug a hunk out of the ground and I came home and planted it without realizing there were bulbs in that lump of soil?

All I know is that when the Camassia starts to bloom I get very excited! Today the first flower opened. I didn't take a photo (couldn't really as the weather has been horrendous for over a week now) but these are photos taken in the last year or two.

Not one single photo does this lovely plant any justice.

The digital cameras don't seem to capture the color blue correctly, I always had the same problem when I used to shoot slides or film.

One thing I can tell you about this plant is that it is extremely easy to grow. If you do get your hands on some, I promise that visitors will stop in their tracks and ask you what it is and could you possibly share a piece.

My Camassia seems to have stayed at the same size for the last year or two so I think it's time for me to divide it up and place it in a few different spots. The friend who shared a piece with me dug it just as it finished blooming. The foliage dies back quickly after it blooms so you really do need to move fast or you'll forget exactly where it is.

One last note, another name for this plant is Quamash. It was a food staple for the American Indians. It must have tasted delicious because who would have the heart to dig this lovely plant out it if tasted foul?

Tomorrow we begin our big Mother's Day weekend plant sale, if you are in the vicinity, stop by after 1:00 pm and say "Hi"!

Have a lovely weekend, I don't know if I'll be back to blog tomorrow. There's always some more gardening posts to read at my other blog Melanie's Perennials. I just posted about evening primroses there.

Melanie

Sweet, sweet woodruff

Galium odoratum doesn't sound half as nice as the nickname Sweet woodruff. This darling little woodland plant winds its way between stem and leaf with a charming habit.

For some reason though I haven't quite figured it out. I have sweet woodruff planted in my front garden (the one featured in the last post) and some years it looks wonderful there and other years it almost dies out.

Two parts of my back yard shade garden have nice stands of sweet woodruff. In fact, one area has so much of it that I've been taking pieces out and potting them up. I just adore this little darling and was surprised to see a 4 inch pot of it for sale yesterday for a whopping $6.49.

Yet another part of the back shade bed, only 50 feet or so away I have a stand of sweet woodruff that just limps along.

Right now my guess is that it needs soil that is rich with compost and doesn't tolerate dryness in the summer. Could that be right? The spots it thrives in are spots that the sprinklers reach and the spots it struggles in are dry locations.

Do you grow sweet woodruff? What's your experience with it?