The Zoo

Dear Mom,

Today we went on a class trip to the Bronx Zoo.

We saw Lions...

and ladybugs...
and bears...

oh my!

What a wonderful, glorious day I spent as a chaperone for our high school anthropology class as we visited the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

The lion was regal.

The ladybugs were photographed in the Butterfly house.

The polar bear exhibit struck me as surreal with the fake ice flows and a live flow of Forsythia cascading down the cliff face

And finally, the huge stand of Mayapples had me green with envy and made me wish I could sneak a few home in my camera bag :-)

Back to gardening tomorrow,
Melanie

Time to Divide!

This morning I only have a few minutes to put up a post. We are having our first perennial division work shop of the season here at 10:30.

I haven't decided yet what we are going to divide, for sure we will do one clump of daylilies as I have about 100 of them that need division. Besides the daylilies I will choose a few other perennials that people a growing around here. Hardy Geraniums like you see at the right in this photo will be a good choice. The Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' (Golden Hakone Grass) is also due for division although I'm a bit nervous about this one myself. I'm only nervous because I love it so much I'm not willing to take a chance on losing it.

In the front beds I have Symphytum (pink comfrey in the bottom left) that could be divided, Coreposis (on the right) that definitely needs dividing and a very tall Thalictrum (seen against the pole) that desperately needs to be moved to a better location.

Actually the Thalictrum you see here is placed perfectly, I have another clump of it out in the middle of a border and it get's hammered by the wind when it's blooming. I want to move that one to a spot like this where it gets a little protection from a nearby structure.

Yesterday I divided the red daylily you see in this photo, it's name is 'Lana Ishee'. Today I think we'll divide the gold daylily with the red eye, 'Always A Pleasure'. The two of them make a perfect pair so if people buy one, I'd like to see them have the other availble too.

If you want to see what we use to make magic around here, take a minute and pop over to Melanie's Perennials. We've got a machine that makes gold!

Off to get ready, we're expecting perfect gardening weather for the next few days. Hooray!!!

Seating areas

One of my most favorite photos taken in a garden is this opening shot. It shows my daughter Lauren (now 19) quite a few years ago. We were touring the horticultural learning gardens at the New York State University at Farmingdale and Lauren was totally engrossed in one of the earliest Harry Potter books. Farmingdale has magnificent tropical gardens and I'll be touring them again in a few weeks with my garden club.

What you see here is the perfect setting for seating in a garden. Surrounded by lush plant material, it's a little oasis, a place to sit and relax while still being a part of nature.

My mom bought us this swing a number of years ago. It took a few tries before I had it located the way I wanted. Now, it is the crown jewel in my herb garden. I have spent many a lunch time sitting in this swing.

It's a perfect place to sit in early spring because the sun shines on you and warms you while you are sitting there. In the summer, you can only sit there with breakfast in hand or in the late afternoon when the roof shades you. It also is the perfect spot to take photos and we've had many people pose here exactly for that purpose.


The most used seating area in our yard is this one, by the swimming pool. For some reason visitors just gravitate to this spot. I think it's the subconscious thought that it's "OK" to relax when you are by a swimming pool.

Now I have to add that none of these seating areas are the new super deluxe, break the bank, kind of furniture sets. In fact, this white vinyl set was bought second hand at least 10 years ago and still does it's purpose. While those fancy sets are fine, they don't really impress me. I don't need my garden to look like the inside of my house, shabby chic works fine when outdoors.


This is not a good photo but it's my gazebo out front and it's the one seating area that I rarely find people sitting in (and that includes myself). I know what's missing from here but I just haven't gotten around to getting it right. This area needs to be part of a setting, it needs to send out an invitation that says "come sit here and your worries will fade away". I guess I can look at it as another challenge in the garden.

Today's challenge though will be to get a few hours of work done without freezing or getting soaked. Maybe in the summer we will be longing for these cold wet days but somehow I don't think so.

It's spring, so think green!
Melanie

It's Here!

I think it must be great to work for UPS or one of the major delivery services. People must always be so happy to get packages. I almost hugged the UPS lady today when she came down my driveway as I knew from the long box she held in her arms that my sign had arrived!

My daughter Emily helped me tie it to the bed frame out front. Every time I looked at it there was another car slowing down to read what it said.

This photo was shot after sunset. My husband Don went out there and fixed the sign with plastic ties so it stretched flat and was easier to read. You can also see how the bed is set in the front of our property, near the road. Yes, that is a chain holding the bed to the tree, we've lost too many things in front of our house to trust that bed to stay there. One day soon I will be planting that bed, can't wait to play with that!

On the way back up the driveway I noticed that my Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) are starting to bloom. These are the sweetest little things. They don't increase for me, I don't think I have the perfect environment for them but still, I just adore them. I also love those little pink tips popping up all over from the Polygonatum. Don't you?

Almost Famous...

Well, my 15 minutes of fame has come and gone. Ppffffftttt...there it was and there it went. Unfortunately I don't think it even lasted 15 minutes, sigh...

Yesterday while I was busily dividing a Lysimachia infested clump of daylilies (more on that in the future), my neighbor called me. She told me that the local paper,The Long Islander, had been delivered and there was a "very nice" article about me in the paper.

Hooray! I dropped those daylily pieces right on the spot, got in the car (mud and all) and drove to the nearest Deli to buy two copies of the paper.

At first, while reading the article I had a big smile on my face. To be honest though, that smile went through a few changes and ticks. The reporter absolutely tried her best. I can't imagine how hard it is to write about a topic that you know nothing about. In fact, right at the beginning of our interview, the reporter told me that she "could kill a plastic plant". The warning bells should have gone on at that point.

Most of the article is correct and well written. Unfortunately, we seemed to have gotten our wires crossed on a few issues. I find it hard to believe that I recommended Black Iris for the shady Long Island gardens. Black Iris? I've never grown a Black Iris. I don't think that I ever even said the words "Black Iris" before I read this article.

My memory was talking about Hydrangeas for shaded gardens. To be fair, it must have been brutal to interview me. Those gardening words we are so familiar with such as Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Native Plants, Hydrangeas, Hosta, Daylilies, and so on just trip off our tongue but to a non gardener, they must sound like a foreign language. As a typical New Yorker, I speak fast and furious, so often I sound like somebody opened the top of my head and everything started spilling out.

All this would have been fine, the bulk of the material in the article was quite accurate and I could have simply posted a correction here since the article ended with this blog address.

Oops, just one problem, it was the wrong address. I'm going to take the blame for that one myself since it's a mistake I always make. My e-mail address ends with .net and the blog address ends with .com. I'm forever switching the two and apparently, I did that again.

Just in case you are reading here and want to know about the Iris I do grow and recommend, the first photo is of Iris cristata which is a small Iris that does grow well in the shade. The second photo is of Iris Siberica (Siberian Iris) which is one of the easiest Iris to grow and will also take some shade. Sadly, neither of them are black.

So now the poor gardener-wanna-bes of Huntington New York are wandering around, lost in cyberspace, in search of that shade loving Black Iris. And me? Well my 15 minutes of fame didn't feel quite as good as I anticipated.

Melanie

Hole-y Hosta

How are your Hosta? Are they hole-y?

Although this is Easter weekend, this is not a religious post. While many people certainly feel that Hosta have been heaven sent, I'm writing about the Holes in them.

Hosta are amazing plants. If they grow in your area, you should never garden without them. There is such a huge selection of foliage patterns, colors and sizes, I don't even consider the blooms but they can be lovely too.

It's no wonder that Hosta tours are generally in early June around here. The foliage has fully flushed out by then but it's still clean and pristine.

A wonderful thing about Hosta is that they are still beautiful months later. There's only one thing, they usually have some holes in the foliage by then.

At the very right side of this photo you'll see the plain green foliage of a Hosta. I have quite a bit of this variety. It was given to me by a woman in my garden club. Stuck in the middle of the three huge clumps she gave me were tags from the nursery she had bought them from. While I could read the name of the nursery, the name of the Hosta was obliterated.

See the holes in the leaves? Most people would blame those holes on slugs. Ewwww, slugs! I hate slugs, in fact, I'm a slugaphobic. But as much as I'd like to blame those slimy creatures, I have to confess that these holes were probably not caused by them. First of all, I have few slugs here. Secondly, this location is out by the street, around my mailbox. The soil there is gritty from the sand the town spreads during winter snow. It's also very dry out there, the worst conditions for slugs. So why the holes? Well, little twigs falling from the trees above will cause those holes.

I do have some Hosta in the garden that seem to beckon and call the slugs to come and dine. Those leaves look like swiss-cheese by late summer. I couldn't find a photo of one of those today but will keep looking.

In this photo though you see one or two larger holes. Again, this type of hole is more likely caused by twigs falling from the trees above. If your Hosta are planted under trees as so many of them are, then you will just have to live with those holes.

Of course there are also the holes caused by Calie-the-wonder-doodle chasing chipmunks through the Hosta bed. I decided to spare you from those photos as there's very little Hosta left to see.

Still, aren't they beautiful?

Iberis sempervirens - Candytuft

Well, today I planned on writing about seating areas in the garden but all that went out of my head. It's all because of those darn weather forecasters. Being a gardener, the only person I can blame for this crazy weather is a weather forecaster.

Today's feature is a perennial named Iberis sempervirens, it's nickname is Candytuft. Why am I writing about it? Because it's white and looks like snow. Snow? Did you say snow? It's snowing outside!!! What's going on here? The first time it started snowing this morning I called my husband who is in an office only 4 miles from here. It was not snowing outside his office. Are the weather gods only mad at me?

Now it's started snowing again. I came inside, checked the local forecast for our exact zipcode. According to the national weather channel website it's 42 degrees and cloudy outside. There's a 20% chance of precipitation. Don't they look out the window? Don't they even scroll down and look at the rader just inches below which show almost all of Long Island under a green band of precipiation? Duh?

So, back to Iberis. I have Iberis in my garden. I know it's easy to propigate but I just haven't had the right luck with it yet. I haven't figured out if I should take cuttings before it blooms, after it blooms, layer the long pieces on the ground or if there's something better.

One thing I can say about Iberis is that it's beautiful when it blooms here in late April. I'm lucky that it's in a spot where the biennial Lunaria has selfsown. Don't they make a wonderful combination!

Ok, the snow has stopped for now. Back out to attack the garden, brrrrr

If you have any tips on dividing Iberis, please leave me a comment!

The "To-Do" list

Do you keep "To-Do" lists? Sometimes I need to write list after list and other times I just don't bother. Right now I've got a list of things "to-do" that's a mile long.

Much as I'd like to accompany this post with some inspirational new photos, I'm stuck with the old photos. Once again it's raining cats and dogs out there. At this rate I'd better learn how to build an ark.

Yesterday we worked from sun up to sun down out in the garden. We made great strides in cleaning out the shade beds, setting up the potting area, putting out the birdhouses and so much more. Unfortunately, today all I can do is dream up more things to add to my to-do list.

While not on this weeks list, the stairs shown above have been decimated by chipmunks. Right now there's no plants charmingly spilling out, just lots of displaced dirt. It's something that will have to be addressed later this month for sure.

This weeks' to-do list has:
Divide, divide, divide
Finish setting up potting area
Start shredding last years leaves for mulch
Sift compost
Finish cleaning out the shade beds
Attack the early spring weeds that are just beginning to pop
Buy some pansies and get them planted
Create vignette in the garden that makes me smile! (more on this in a future post)

Well, ok, I'll leave it at this as there's only so many hours in a day.

What's on your to-do list?

Radio-Flyer-ectomy

Yesterday I spent all day outside but just felt like I didn't accomplish very much. The weather hasn't been very cooperative and all too often my fingers were so chilled that I had to come in and run them under warm water.

Today we are expecting perfect gardening weather, sunny with a high temperature of 61 (16 celsius). My first chore of the day will be to perform surgery on my radio flyer wagon. It's been filled with Sedum since the spring of 2005 and last year I noticed that they were a bit cramped.

When I first planted this wagon it also had several types of Sempervivum (Hens and Chicks) in it but they were quickly overrun by the two varieties of Sedum (Sedum 'Angelina' and Sedum
John Creech').
Here you can see what it looked like when it was first planted. Obviously the two Sedums listed above were the big winners in the "crowd-em-out" contest.

I look forward to starting all over again and will take a photo when I'm finished.

Then it's off to divide the hardy Geraniums and spend an hour in the compost area. For some reason, I just can't make myself spend more than an hour working on compost.

Hopefully I'll get to take some new photos also.

Plants in Pots

Thanks to the rain we are getting, my morning plans have been cancelled. Today was to be the first perennial division workshop in my garden. My guinea pigs would have been the fellow members in my Nathan Hale Garden club.

So now I find myself with time on my hands but not the best weather for gardening. Do I still slip on that slicker and get out there?

As I sit here and stall, I find myself looking through past photos and find myself lusting over plants in pots. The opening photo here shows some plants I had potted up for last years flower sale.

This photo (darn it, it's sideways!) shows lots of the fun little sempervivum I had potted up last spring. I've already potted up several dozen this year but they need another week or two before they begin to plump up.

Newly divided daylilies taking a nice soak in my most useful garden tool, a kiddie pool! I'm not kidding you, this kiddie pool was well under $10 and has been home to hundreds of potted plants that need to take a nice relaxing soak. This year I will definitely buy another one.

Tip, don't buy the largest sized kiddie pool unless you want to wade in it to reach the plants in the middle.

When the kiddie pool is full, I'll use just about any container that holds water. Here are newly divided Epimediums taking a lovely bath. It's my experience that newly divided plants resent dry soil. By keeping them in a container with a few inches of water in the bottom, they seem to settle in and root much quicker.

Of course there's also the excitement of new pots of plants to replace the divisions I've dug out of the ground :-) These new arrivals were waiting on my breezeway last spring. I take photos of each pot with it's corresponding tag so I can keep a record of the perennials that I bring in to my garden.

Look closely and you'll see that Calie-the-wonderdoodle has snuck in the photo. She thinks I don't see her there. For a 70 pound dog she's done a good job of hiding here! As I work in the garden she will sneak up on me and steal tools that are in my back pocket or simply lay down as near as possible to me as I work in one area.

Ok, now after a quick post on Melanie's Perennials I'll get bundled up and go out there and get muddy.

Geranium cantabrigiense varieties

Well, since the hardy Geraniums are such unsung heroes, I thought I would continue and list a few more.

The first time I ever heard of a hardy Geranium was when I visited a local garden. The garden owner, Judy, was one of those gardeners who just had to grab a shovel and dig you a piece of anything you admired.

When Judy found out that I had never heard of hardy Geraniums, she insisted on my taking home a piece of Geranium cantabrigiense 'Biokova' which you can see at the top of this photo (very pale pink, almost white). I don't know why I couldn't find a photo of the bloom close up on this variety.

Judy had another interesting trait. She would only grow plants if she could label them with their full botanical name. I had a black Columbine that she lusted over for years but refused to take home because we didn't know it's name. Unfortunately, Judy died way too early in life from breast cancer but her plants still live on in my garden.


One day while nursery hopping, I found a plant with the label Geranium cantabrigiense 'Karmina'. Since I knew 'Biokova' did so well for me, I of course had to try 'Karmina' too. Well, just like her sister, she grew like gangbusters (but not at all invasive) and bloomed like crazy.

Personally, I prefer the color of 'Biokova' a bit more which is unusual for me as I don't usually lean towards pale colored flowers.

Another cantabrigiense type of Geranium in my garden is 'Cambridge' which you can see here. It has almost the same color flower as 'Karmina' but I find a difference in foliage. It seems to have been a slower grower but it could just be because of it's slightly shadier and dryer location.

What's really nice about the cantabrigiense family of hardy Geraniums is that they have evergreen foliage. That is, unless there's ice or snow on the ground. In the fall they exhibit some really nice red highlights too.

I mean really, how could you go wrong with fall foliage like this?

Last year I did a post on dividing these types of Geraniums. I tried something new and they divided so well that I couldn't believe it. If you want to read about it, scroll down and look for the label on the side that says "Plant Propagation". You'll have to scroll past the post on Sedum cuttings and then you'll see how I propagated my hardy Geraniums.

No time to play in the garden today but tomorrow looks hopeful!

Melanie

Geranium 'Bevans Variety'

A number of years ago we had a garden center right up the road from us. It was part of a chain, the name was Franks Nursery and Crafts. Many of the plants carried by Franks were of the basic variety but if you looked carefully you would often find a true treasure.

I learned quickly that hardy Geraniums do quite well in my zone 6b garden here on Long Island. There are so many different types, some that prefer sun and others that need more shade.

One of the first varieties I bought was this one, Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety'.

(Side note, this tag is at least 6 or 7 years old and still in perfect condition!)

Here you can see this plant growing in the garden. This bed is not at all typical of my garden. You can still see the soil!

This area has a huge problem, it is at the base of a Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) tree that sucks the life from everything around it. Hardly anything grows here because the ground is chock full of roots and always dry. And yet, you can see how well this charming Geranium does here.


This week I hope to carefully pry this plant out of the ground and divide it into at least a half dozen pieces. In the past when I first planted it, I didn't use the internet to research proper growing conditions. Today I googled Geranium macrorrhizum and found a wealth of information at Mobot's wonderful site. Apparently I got lucky when I planted it in this horrible site as this Geranium is quite tolerant of dry conditions.

The new divisions I get will be spread around the garden in a few locations plus I might have 2 or three potted up for sale. I will try the new pieces in areas with better soil and a bit more sun to see how well this baby can shine.

Don't you love it!

Melanie

Black Gold

One simple photo, so many thoughts!

This photo shows a young Hellebore in my back shade bed. It has a bud about to unfurl.

Looking at this photo my first thought is that I need to get the leaves off the plants in this garden. But wait, there's also a second strong though. Look at all that black gold!

Black gold is what some gardeners like to call compost. These leaves haven't composted enough to be black and crumbly but they are still valuable. I will be careful when cleaning these beds and all these nicely broken down leaves will be added to the compost heap.

Don't bag up and give away your black gold!

Melanie

I've just birthed a baby!

My oh my am I tired. I've just birthed a baby!

Ok, maybe I'm not as tired as all that. Still, if you want to see what's got me so excited, you will have to visit my new blog, Melanie's Perennials.

So why a new blog? Well, I'm going to bite the bullet and start that little gardening business I've been dreaming about. I've been tip-toeing around the whole subject for years now, it's time to get down to business.

Tomorrow morning I need to be out there as soon as I've got enough light so that's why I'm posting tonight instead of in the morning.

Don't worry, I won't be giving up this blog. Melanie's Perennials will be geared towards the business end of gardening. How to hire me for lectures (I've been doing them for years and years), when my garden is open for tour and what plants will be for sale (and when).

Can you tell that I'm excited!

Melanie

Sunday morning stroll

It's a misty, foggy morning here on Long Island. Perfect weather to play in the garden, that is if you like to get muddy :-) I've got my muck shoes and slicker waiting for me in the breezeway, as soon as I put this post up I'll be out there having fun.

Walking around with my camera shielded by my bright red slicker I saw many things that need to be tended to. The clumps of Sedum are already pushing forward their lovely rosettes, I have many that still have last year's dead growth on them. Must cut them back!


The crocus are about finished with their bloom. Some clumps have grown quite large and cramped. I have never read about dividing crocus but I think they need it. I'm going to try to break this clump up into three or four pieces and place them in new locations.


The primroses have started to bloom. Here's another plant that looks to me like it could be divided. I've only divided them once before, many years ago and must have done something wrong because I lost both divisions. This year I'm going to try to divide them gently now, before we get too much warm weather.


Oh no! What is it about spring with the wait, wait...Hurry Up cycle? The last gardens that I clean are the shade beds in the back of my property but the Hellebores are coming up and starting to bloom and I'd better get out there some time this week.


Ugh! There's nothing pretty about this mess in my potting area. Can't pot up new babies without fixing this spot. One of these days I'm going to have to address a ground cover as the area turns to instant mud when ever there is a rain. It's too shady for grass, a concrete is too expensive. This year it might have to be a few loads of wood chips. I sure wish we could have those darn toothpick Hemlocks removed as they are almost dead (some already are) and they just take up space.
Last shot for today. Here's a little bit of what I worked on yesterday. Found lots of pots with growth in them, they are on the bottom layer. The top of the bench has Sempervivum (hens and chicks) that I started potting up. I think working with them is my most favorite task in the garden.

Off to make some mud,
Melanie

Florida Wetlands

Florida is the most fascinating place. I've only seen small parts of it but I've loved every thing I've seen so far. What grabs my attention the most are the wetlands that I've visited with my mom. Some day I'd like to go kayaking or on a small boat through the swamps.

I think people tend to think of beaches and skyscrapers like what they show on CSI Miami but there is so much more to Florida than that. We are surrounded with lovely beaches here on Long Island so I guess they don't call to me as much as they do with other tourists.

My mom and I could walk for hours so these nature centers are the perfect spot for us to visit.


The two nature preserves I've seen are built on the same concept. They have long boardwalks built just above the swamp. Native plant life is encourage to grow to help support the multitude of birds and creatures in the area. Parts of the boardwalks cross large open areas like you see above.

At times, the boardwalks cut through groves of trees.

Every now and then you will come across a shelter built on a small side path. What a wonderful place to sit and take a rest or as in our case, shelter from a sudden rain squall.

The plant material is thick and luscious. I don't have botanical names for these but I can guess that this plant is in the iris family.

Here's another beauty we saw in the water. Mom and I wondered if the bud opened on sunny days or if this is what it looks like in full bloom.

More plant material. I couldn't find a reference of this plant anywhere but it sure looked like a Canna lily to me.

The flowers that we saw weren't huge and in your face as is the case so often with species plants versus hybrids. Still, the simplicity alone was stunning.

Of course a walk through the wetlands wouldn't be complete without a good viewing of an alligator. We also spied out quite a few babies that were swishing through the water.

Ha Xuan, when we were walking there I thought about you and wondered if this was similar to Vietnam. I also thought about how incredibly difficult it must have been for those early explorers to make their way though this wild but beautiful land.

The last few days were insane here as I wrapped up my commitments to help run our high school fashion show. Finally, today I can get out in to my own garden. Yesterday we had balmy temperatures in the 60's but I didn't get to peek at a single plant. Today is cooler and damp but I can't wait to get out there and decide what chore I will begin now. I'm just dying to start dividing and planting.

Planning on getting nice and muddy,
Melanie