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Contents |
PDN Newsletter ArchivesMay 31, 2008Dear PDN'ers:Greetings from Plant Delights, we hope your spring has been as beautiful as ours ... realizing, of course, that some of you in the colder climates are just starting the spring season. We have had wonderful rains and no temperatures in the 90's yet ... unlike the folks in Phoenix who have already seen 109 degrees F ... geez. It's been a short week because of the Memorial Day holiday, but despite overdoing it in the garden last weekend, I'm ready to start again. It's only Friday, but I can already feel a weekend of binge planting coming on ... how about you? New crops and sold out items are continually becoming ready. For the latest additions just added to the website, click here. Remember some are only available in limited quantities, so if you see something that strikes your fancy, don't hesitate too long. Many gardeners are still dealing with the drought of last summer and hostas are some of the plants most affected. We've had many folks asking why their hostas are so much smaller than in previous years, and the answer is probably drought. While hostas are very tolerant of short-term droughts, long-term droughts are another matter. As the hosta clumps age, the center of the clump begins to die out. This, combined with the umbrella-shape of many hostas, causes them to naturally shed water. The only remaining living parts are new buds which break on the outer edges of the clump. These newly formed plants become naturally smaller and smaller. When water is scarce, this problem is further exacerbated. The solution is to dig up hostas that have gone backward and choose 3-5 healthy divisions. Bareroot these removing dead root pieces, and replant them into a new hole. The unviable parts of the original clump can be discarded. It is always helpful to add more compost when replanting the new divisions and if possible, find a spot that holds more moisture. We have hostas thriving in a bog with pitcher plants, so anything short of growing them as an aquatic in the winter is fine.
At our Spring Open House, visitors were dazzled by our 2-year old clumps of
Paeonia 'Bartzella', which were in full-flower with 11 huge bright yellow
flowers. If you haven't tried this yet, put one on your wish list. There are
a couple of nurseries selling smaller tissue-cultured plants, which are
probably many years from flowering, but these are an option if you can't
afford our huge flowering-sized plants. P. 'Bartzella' is but one of a
series of intersectional peonies (herbaceous peonies crossed with tree
peonies). Keep watching as more and more of these gems become available.
Another of the plant groups we have really enjoyed are the hardy orchids.
If you're just getting started, bletillas are a great place to begin.
Although they prefer moist to boggy soils, they are thoroughly drought
tolerant. If you feel comfortable with bletillas, the next genera to try
is calanthe. These early spring-blooming orchids are quite easy to grow and
very tolerant of low-light situations. Once you master calanthes,
cypripediums are next on the list. Cypripediums or lady slippers are easy
when grown in the right situation: moist, well-drained soils and cool
climates. When we started trialing these, everyone told us they would not
tolerate our hot humid summers. After several years of trialing them, we
have had very good success.
The summer-flowering salvias are just starting to strut their stuff. These include the wonderful but underappreciated US native Salvia farinacea, which flowers non-stop from now until fall and is obscenely drought tolerant. Another favorite of mine is Salvia gregii from Texas and across the border in Mexico. Last year, we introduced the Stampede series, but as we mentioned in the catalog, the breeder was unwilling to share the parentage so we could adequately predict hardiness. Salvia gregii has a huge range and an accompanying difference in winter hardiness. This unwillingness to share plant background information is unfortunately common with annual breeders, who really don't give a damn if a plant is winter hardy or not. From further south in Argentina, the blue-flowering Salvia guaranitica makes a stunning sage with flowers that start now in NC and continue through fall. Salvia guaranitica produces swollen water storage organs on their roots which aid in survival during dry periods. Keep in mind that most cultivars of Salvia guaranitica develop into a large spreading clump when grown in anything resembling ideal conditions. Of the hybrid salvias, my favorite for this time of year is Salvia 'Silke's Dream'. This robust grower (S. darcyi x microphylla) makes a 5' wide x 2' tall clump, topped from now until fall with spikes of peachy-red. We also offer a similar cross called S. 'Scarlet Spires', which strangely failed to overwinter when planted side by side with S. 'Silke's Dream'. The two should have identical in hardiness, so I'm not sure what is amiss, but we'd love to hear your results.
In the aroid world, many of the amorphophallus flowers are still popping through the ground. Amorphophallus dunnii, when planted in mass is simply superb in flower and without the odor usually associated with the genus. Flowering now is the macabre Amorphophallus henryi with its shiny purple flower and over-endowed spadix. We are well past the early arisaema season, but the later species are in full glory. This includes A. fargesii with its cobra-like flower heads and huge tropical-looking foliage; the small A. saxatile with the lemon-scented white flowers; the mid-season forms of Arisaema consanguineum with their elegant long drip-tip foliage; A. tortuosum with its flower perched atop 4' tall cobra-skin stalks; and the elegant Arisaema candidissimum in both pink and white-flowered forms.
There is one arisaema relative that boasts continuous flowering and it is the genus pinellia. While we love all of the pinellias, they do spread from seed, and some, such as P. ternata, spread obscenely fast by bulbils which form on the stem. The plant we can unquestionably recommend for any garden is the hybrid, Pinellia 'Polly Spout', discovered by plantsman Dick Weaver. This sterile hybrid starts flowering in May and continues non-stop through September. This is a delightful and easy-to-grow plant that should become a mainstay in all woodland gardens. Another plant great for woodland gardens are the woodland Martagon lilies. These lilies are hybrids using one or more of five woodland species including L. martagon (Europe) , L. hansonii (Asia), L. tsingtauense (Asia), L. medeoloides (Asia), and L. distichum (Asia). The results are early-emerging whorled-leaf lilies that flower now (NC) with pendent flowers whose range includes white, yellow, pink, orange, and red. Martagon lilies are never going to be widely available or as cheap as Asiatic lilies, due to their much slower rate of growth and propagation. From scales or tissue culture, it takes us 4-5 years to produce a flowering-sized plant. When we started experimenting with Martagon lilies, most folks told us they would not survive due to our summers, but thankfully, we never shared this information with our lilies. We are very pleased to be able to add more and more of these special lilies to our offerings. One final plant before I end that I think deserves much more recognition than it gets is Pennisetum orientale 'Karley Rose'. I like the species itself, but this selection from our friends at Sunny Border Nursery in Connecticut is simply superb every single year. P. 'Karley Rose' makes a nice tidy clump and has never offered us a single seedling in the garden. The elegant purple-tinted plumes begin to arise now and can be enjoyed through most of the summer. If I were to design a grass, I would be hard-pressed to improve on this plant. We're sold out now, but hope to have another crop ready soon. Our biggest snafu of the year is with Colocasia gigantea 'Thailand Giant'. Since these grow so fast in containers, we schedule staggered late winter shipments from the tissue culture lab that produces these for us. This winter, the colocasia crashed (died) in the lab and had to be restarted. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until it was too late to do anything but wait, which took longer than expected. Production is back on track and we should have plants ready to ship within the next 4 weeks. We will ship all backorders for this plant, unless we hear differently. We take full responsibility for the screw-up and cannot apologize enough. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding. People news in the gardening world is headlined by the move of Bill Cullina from the New England Wildflower Society to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Bill has written a number of truly fabulous and informational gardening books and has become one of the stars on the horticultural lecture circuit. If you are a fan or would like to be, you can find out more at http://williamcullina.com Also in plant-people news, we regretfully report the May 14 passing of Geoffrey Charlesworth at age 87. Geoffrey was preceeded in death by his partner of nearly 60 years, Norman Singer. Geoffrey arrived in the US from England where he had a career teaching math at Hofstra University. In 1968, Norman and Geoffrey purchased a 5-acre property in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, which would become home to their amazing garden. I was fortunate to visit them in 1999 and was thrilled to find what I feel was one of the finest private garden/plant collections in the country. Geoffrey also wrote two highly renown gardening books, The Opinionated Gardener in 1987 (rated by Horticulture Magazine in 2004 as #3 on its top 100 gardening books) and A Gardener Obsessed in 1994. The latter referred to Geoffrey's obsession of sowing at least 1,000 new rare plants every year from seed. A celebration of his life will be planned within a few months. Donations in Geoffrey's memory may be made to the Berkshire Botanical Garden, PO Box 826, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (details provided by Pamela Johnson). We also regretfully report that Dr. Dave Beattie, Professor of Ornamental Horticulture at Penn State University, has passed away after an extended illness. Beattie was widely known for his extensive work with the genus astilbe. In addition to his teaching and writing, Dave was very active in the Perennial Plant Association and in 2000 he founded the Penn State Center for Green Roof Research. http://www.greenroofs.org/boston/index.php?page=beattiewin We reported earlier about the passing of Mike and Bonnie Dirr's daughter Susy, and at this time, the Dirrs are in the process of relocating back to Athens, GA. Mike and Bonnie are advertising Suzy's Chapel Hill, NC home for sale, so if you are looking for a home in that area, let me know and I'll forward your note. The home is a cottage style with 1700 square feet including three bedrooms, two full baths, a 2-car garage, a 200-square foot screened and winterized porch, and according to Mike, "a half-acre lot with the best garden in Governor's Village." I'll bet with Mike as the landscaper, it's pretty cool. This spring has been busy on many fronts, as we were fortunate to have been able to purchase a 3.6 acre tract adjoining the nursery from the family of our late neighbor, Eddie Souto. Eddie was a wonderful man who immigrated as a child from Portugal and went on to become a successful local businessman. Eddie, 57, passed away last October after a 10-year battle with cancer. He is survived by his sons David, of Raleigh, and Todd, of Illinois. Part of the land will be used for field production and research on non-economic crops while the rest will be made into The Eddie Souto Memorial Garden, which will be open to the public even when the gardens around the house are closed. In the news since we last talked, I completely forgot to mention World Naked Gardening Day, which we all missed on May 3. I'm sure you'll all want to bookmark the page so you can celebrate next year. I wonder if you are allowed to wear chaps if you garden with agaves and cactus? http://www.wngd.org Several years ago, we mentioned the artistic work of Clark Sorensen, but he has expanded his line and is certainly worth a second mention. If you've got a male gardener in your household who is hard to buy for, there is nothing quite like Clark's art. Check it out at http://www.clarkmade.com Have you had trouble with voles, moles, or other subterranean varmits? If so, and you don't like to use chemicals, then we've got the solution for you. Yes, it's the Rodenator to the rescue! http://www.rodenator.com If you enjoyed the movies Caddyshack or The Terminator, then you've got to watch the testosterone-filled video on the website. http://www.rodenator.com/videos.htm Warning: This should not be viewed by squeamish children or members of PETA ... enjoy!
As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. April 2008April brings the start of my two favorite seasons... baseball and gardening. With both, there is the fading of bad memories from the preceding season and a childish optimism about the upcoming year. All in all, we had a relatively mild winter with no snow and a low temperature of 14.7 degrees F. This spring has been relatively cool, which has kept plant emergence far behind 2007, and has allowed us to better weather the late spring frosts which are inevitable every year.For the first time since last spring, all of the public reservoirs around Raleigh are finally full and watering restrictions have been relaxed. Gardeners not only here, but in other areas hit with the drought in 2007 can finally begin replanting plants lost last year. Some parts of the country have had too much water, but I guess we will never be able to spread the water around more evenly. We made an interesting, but disappointing discovery this winter when we found Agave parryi 'Cream Spike' isn't nearly as hardy as we had thought and hoped. Although we originally received our plants as A. parryi, we now believe them to actually be a less-hardy species, A. applanata. Whatever they are, they make great container plants, but are no good as a garden specimen in cold climates, since ours were killed at 15 degrees F. We listed it as hardy to Zone 7b, so if you purchased one thinking it was going to be hardy in Zone 7b, please contact us for a refund or credit. We are very sorry for the error. There's so much blooming in the garden now, it's hard to know where to start. One of the overlooked woodland plants I wouldn't garden without are Solomon's seals. Solomon's seals include the genera Disporum, Disporopsis, Polygonatum, Smilacina, and Uvularia. Some polygonatums can reach 6'+ tall, while most disporopsis and disporums range from 6" to 18" tall. While none of these members of the lily family have overly flashy flowers, they have a wonderful presence in the woodland garden... especially now. Solomon's seals grow from thick underground rhizomes, which serve as a storage structures allowing them to withstand drought conditions such as we experienced last summer. All of the Solomon's seal genera, except for disporopsis, can be found native in both the US and Asia. As was the case with many other woodland genera (asarum and arisaema), the US only kept a small fraction of the species, while most took the trip to Asia. We're glad to help reunite these long-separated siblings. On a side note, one of our wonderful customers shared a variegated Uvulaia perfoliata with us a few years ago, and we forgot who you are, so if you are the one, thanks, and please let us hear from you. Another favorite group for spring is phlox. Most of these are US natives that have either been selected or hybridized for great garden potential. The phlox season begins with Phlox subulata, P. nivalis, and P. bifida for sunny sites and P. stolonifera and P. divaricata for shadier sites, all groundcover phlox for us are still in full bloom. The upright phlox such as P. maculata doesn't start for another month, with the exception of the wonderful P. maculata hybrid, P. 'Minnie Pearl', whose first flowers are starting to open now. This amazing find from Mississippi is drawing rave reviews from gardeners and nurserymen around the world. Two other little-known native phlox are the tight-clumping P. latifolia, which opens in the next few weeks and the wide-spreading P. pilosa that opens around the same time. These small growers are happy in either full to part sun. As a rule, phlox are very drought tolerant, while able to withstand moist years as well. We hope you will explore this amazing genus of plants. Visitors often ask if we have a problem with deer and the answer is no. The answer is no because we use Benner Deer Fence. We also planted a holly hedge around the perimeter when we first purchased the property, but in the areas that weren't hedged, a row of the 7.5' tall black plastic netting did just the trick. There are plenty of deer tracks on one side of the fence, but not the other. We use metal stakes, driven in the ground every 8' to support the netting which is attached by tie wire. Current prices are between $1.40 and $1.60 per linear foot. You can find out more at the Benner's Gardens website. I hate to pass along more sad news, but the co-founder of Goodness Grows Nursery in Georgia Marc Richardson, passed away on February 3, 2008 at age 52 of lung cancer. Mark is survived by his partner of 31 years, Rick Berry, who will continue to run the nursery operations. Goodness Grows, a retail/wholesale perennial grower just outside Athens, is best known for its introduction, Veronica 'Goodness Grows'. In good news, best retirement wishes go out to Margaret Roach, who is retiring from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she has worked for 15 years. For much of her time there she was Editor of Martha Stewart Living magazine and later was Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO). Margaret is looking forward to spending more time in her wonderful garden, writing her new gardening blog, and working on a series of other projects. Like Freddy Krueger, House and Garden has been killed once again. The magazine, which started in 1901, closed from 1993-1996, before re-opening, has once again gone to the recycle bin in the sky. Most gardening magazine editors tell me this is a tough time to make money in the magazine publishing business. In another move that shocked long-time subscribers and staff, Horticulture magazine is moving their operations from Boston, where it has been since its inception in 1904, to Kansas City, the home of its owner since 2002, F&W publications. As of this writing, it is uncertain if any staff members other than editor Meghan Lynch will remain with the publication. If you haven't seen the May 2008 issue, Dr. Bobby Ward wrote a nice piece about our berm gardening here at PDN. With all the magazines going out of business, it's quite unusual to find a new magazine hitting the newsstands, but such is the case with the Charleston, SC based, Garden and Gun magazine. I admit the name sounds a bit strange and conjures up images of articles about plants to draw deer into your garden, but instead Garden and Gun is a southern upscale version of Town and Country magazine. Their stable of authors includes well-known southern favorites such as Pat Conroy (The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, My Losing Season), Daniel Wallace (Big Fish), and Winston Groom (Forrest Gump). If you're looking for a good literary gardening publication, check it out and you'll see an upcoming feature on Plant Delights. Perhaps we'll hang a few back issues from our deer fence to really antagonize the critters. In March, we were fortunate to have Swedish plantsman Peter Korn speak to our local chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society. Everyone in attendance was blown away by Peter's amazing garden. I didn't have any plans to visit Sweden until I saw Peter's talk, now Sweden has moved up quite high on my travel plans. You can see more at Peter's website I just got notice for the upcoming Conifer Symposium to be held in Watkinsville, Georgia from May 22-25, 2008. The CANR Conifer Conference features tours of Conifer Gardens and 13 well-known speakers including Carol Reese, Rita Randolph, Don Howse, David Creech, Richard Bitner, and many more. If you like conifers, this should be one heck of a symposium. While you have your calender in hand, the Garden Conservancy Open Days once again includes the Raleigh area. The tour features six private gardens to visit on Saturday, September 20 (9 am to 5 pm) and Sunday, September 21 (12 pm to 5 pm). A portion of the proceeds from the weekend will benefit the JC Raulston Arboretum. Discount tickets may be purchased in advance or entrance to the gardens can be 'pay as you go' with a fee of just $5.00 per garden, collected at each garden entrance. Call 1-888-842-2442 or visit www.opendaysprogram.org for more information. For local ticket information, please contact Autumn Keck at the JC Raulston Arboretum at autumn_keck@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-3826. Your $5 admission fee per garden supports the expansion of the Open Days Program around the country and helps build awareness of the Garden Conservancy's work of preserving exceptional American gardens such as Montrose in Hillsborough, the Elizabeth Lawrence garden in Charlotte, North Carolina and Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California. I was recently at the US National Arboretum in Washington DC to speak for the Lahr Native Plant Symposium, which was the first time in over a year I've been able to visit. From my first visit in the mid-1970's, the US National Arboretum has been one of my very favorite botanical gardens. From the world class herb garden to the bonsai pavilions, from the Gotelli conifer collection to the native plant collections, the Arboretum is an amazing place. I'll have to admit my favorite has always been the Asian Valley and the later addition, China Valley, which despite dozens of visits still yields surprising treasures around each corner. There was always so much to see, I could never finish by the time the gates closed at 5 pm, so in the summer months, I would spend hours after the gates closed dodging security personnel as I continued exploring every nook and cranny of the gardens. The Arboretum was probably the first public garden to feature the 'New American Garden' landscape trend that swept the nation back in the early 1980's, and their legendary woody plant breeding work includes industry stalwarts such as the disease resistant, cold hardy Lagerostroemia fauriei crape myrtle hybrids. The 446-acre site on the west side of Washington DC makes it a true jewel in the Nation's crown. Because the Arboretum is housed under the US Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, its budget is subject to both political whims and departmental trends. Other area gardens are under different parent institutions and often not subject to the same fate. For example, the US Botanic Garden comes under the auspices of the Architect of the Capitol and many of the gardens in downtown DC fall under the Smithsonian Institution. This year's proposed budget takes funding for the US National Arboretum from $5 million to $2 million. You can imagine the devastating effect on the Arboretum, if it can even remain open. While I'm a big advocate of fiscal responsibility on the part of our Federal lawmakers, not funding the US National Arboretum simply doesn't make sense. Not only does the Arboretum represent our Nation's gardening efforts to visitors from around the world, but it does the same to residents of our country, who support it with their tax dollars. The Arboretum needs those of you who care about its success to write letters of support to your congresspersons to try and restore their funding. You can also find a list of key lawmakers involved in budget processes at the Friends of the National Arboretum website Thanks for taking time to engage our political leaders about this important issue. We hope you will be able to visit us for our Spring Open House, May 2-4 and 9-11 (8 am -5 pm Friday, Saturday, and 1-5 pm on Sunday). I'm afraid many folks may need to replace plants that didn't survive our stressful 2007 summer and of course, if you're looking for a worthy recipient of your economic stimulus check from Uncle Sam, we're here for you. Since we're all thinking and hearing about recycling these days, Plant Delights is glad to help you clean up by recycling any pots that come from here, so if you are heading this way, throw those old pots in the car and we'll take them off your hands. Please, do not bring odd-sized pots from other vendors since these will not fit our production standards. Our Spring Open House will also be your last chance to say goodbye to departing Garden Curator Adrienne Roethling, who will be leaving us after 8+ years in that position. Adrienne has been an important part of our operation as she oversaw the development and growth of the garden during this time. Adrienne and her husband Jon are moving to Kernersville, NC where she will assume a similar position at the developing Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden. Taking over for Adrienne is Todd Wiegardt, who has served as Adrienne's assistant for the last year. I hope you will take time to thank her for her contributions and to welcome Todd. It's been a good spring for the growth of most nursery plants, and to that end, we have more new and returning items we have just added to the website. Remember some are only available in limited quantities, so if you see something that strikes your fancy, don't hesitate too long. You can find the new items listed here. If you've submitted your ballot for our Top 25 contest, visit our best sellers's list for the current standings. There was some minor shuffling in the top 25 with the big mover for the month being Agave ovatifolia which leapt up to 14. May is when we begin to see more dramatic shifts in peoples' ordering habits. Don't get discouraged if your selections don't appear on the list yet, as it changes dramatically as the season progresses. As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. March 2008Spring is well on its way here at Plant Delights as many of the spring ephemerals are in full flower. We're hoping some of the early plants will slow down a bit to avoid a devastating April freeze like we endured in 2007. All in all, it's been a good winter, although we could have done without the early March freeze (24 degrees F) that took out the flowers on the early magnolias, including M. denudata, M. 'Galaxy', and Michellia maudiae.
We've completed another great winter open house, but still have some superb
selected flowering hellebores we're adding to the web. These are available
in limited quantities, so don't delay. We also added a total of 56 new or
returning plants you may wish to peruse.
The first waves of epimediums are just opening including E. stellatum, E.
acuminatum, E. epsteinii, E. sempervirens, E. davidii, E. franchetii, and
the early flowering E. grandiflorum 'Yubae'. The rest of the species and
hybrids will be following over the next month. Every year we become more
enamored with this fun group of fairy wings, but beware, epimedium collecting
is addictive. We've also been raising quite a few of our own seedlings and
have some really special plants that we've been watching for several years.
We should be making some final selections this year and look forward to
getting them propagated for sale.
Another of our favorite early spring woodland plants is Sanguinaria
canadensis (bloodroot). This delightful native wildflower (named for the
red sap that emerges from the crushed roots) is one of the first rites of
spring and a sign that spring is finally here. The single flowered forms
open first, followed several weeks later by the splendid double flowered
Sanguinaria canadensis 'Multiplex'. If you grow sanguinaria, be sure to
divide your clumps every 3-4 years. If not, sanguinaria suffers from a
strange malady that causes the entire clump to dry rot if not divided.
Several of the early flowering iris are also gracing the garden now including
the winter growing Iris unguicularis and the early spring-flowering Iris
japonica 'Eco Easter'. This has been a superb year for Iris unguicularis,
which has been flowering on and off for several months. Iris 'Eco Easter'
is a superb form of Iris japonica and is one of the only forms of this
species to flower in our climate, which is typically too cold for the
developing flower buds. This is a widely spreading species, so be sure to
allow enough room for it to spread.
Also in flower now is the wonderful Cyclamen coum with its pink flowers
held just above the silver and green patterned leaves. Accompanying the
cyclamen are the perennial primulas including a number of Primula vulgaris
cultivars. We are very thrilled to have discovered quite a few primulas
which survive as perennials in our hot, humid, anti-primula climate.
The Boraginaceae family provides several great early spring bloomers
including pulmonarias (lungwort) and Trachystemon orientalis. Most of
our pulmonarias have just begun to flower, most opening blue and changing
to pink. Two of our top performers are Pulmonaria 'Trevi Fountain' and
P. 'Samourai'. The closely related trachystemon forms a large basal
rosette of large fuzzy dark green leaves that emerge just as the 8" tall
flower spikes of small blue dodecatheon-like flowers fade. Trachystemon
is an incredibly tough woodland groundcover that is amazingly drought tolerant.
Last month, I mentioned the yellow-flowering Nothoscordum sellowianum as
one of my favorite winter flowering bulbous plants, and while it is still
in full flower, it has now been joined by another favorite, Fritillaria
thunbergii. I got my first start of this unusual summer dormant gem from
plantsman John Elsley and planted it into our woodland, where it has
thrived for us for more than a decade. The narrow leaves with hooked ends
adorn the upright stalks that are now topped with bizarre flowers that seem
oblivious to subfreezing temperatures.
A few other plants that dare to flower at the end of the winter season
include Euphorbias with E. characias in their parentage. This includes
not only the species itself, but the wonderful hybrid E. 'Nothowlee'.
Although it's not usually thought of for winter flowers, rosemary is
simply stunning in the winter garden. We have a giant clump of Rosmarinus
'Arp', growing just outside our front door so we not only enjoy the dark
blue winter flowers but also the evergreen foliage that makes a wonderful
addition to Michelle's rosemary chicken.
We've finally had enough rain that all of the local reservoirs are full or nearly so ... including the poorly managed Falls Lake Reservoir (now 2.7' below full) that feeds Raleigh and surrounding cities. City leaders have such a lack of respect for the Green Industry that they banned all hose watering, while allowing car washes to remain in operation as long as they use no more than 55 gallons per car, or no more than 3 gallons per minute for self-serve washes. It's pretty clear by their logic, clean cars are far more important than live plants. For those who have visited Plant Delights, there is a good chance you have dined at the nearby landmark, Stephenson's Nursery and Barbeque. It is with sadness that I report the death of its founder, Paul Stephenson, 79, of nearby McGee's Crossroads. Mr. Paul, as he was known, played semi-pro baseball before starting the Barbeque in 1958, followed by the nursery in 1979. The nursery and barbeque will continue operating under the direction of Paul's children.
I mentioned in an earlier E-newsletter that the Pike Nursery chain,
based in Atlanta had declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, but was to continue
in operation. The latest in the unfortunate saga is that the assets of
Pike have now been auctioned off.
We're glad to report a segment shot last summer on our gardens here at
Juniper Level, will air on Martha Stewart's television show on Wednesday
March 19. I'll also be on the show live the same day. If you're really
bored that day, you can find out the time and channel in your area by
going to Martha's website, look for the local channel schedule and enter
your zip code.
If you've submitted your ballot for our Top 25 contest, click here for the current standings. For us, the shock is the huge interest in agaves, with 6 of our top 11 best sellers belonging to that genus. The 2nd most popular genus in the Top 25 is colocasia with 3 entries. Don't get discouraged if your selections don't appear on the list yet, as it changes dramatically as the season progresses. As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. February 8, 2008Dear PDN'ers:Greetings from Plant Delights and we hope you're having a good winter season wherever you garden. Here in Raleigh, we've had several nights in the mid-teens, with a low at the nursery of 14.7 degrees F, which equates to a consistent cold (until last week), with fairly mild minimum temperatures. We have actually had good rains since fall and the winter garden looks great. Helleborus niger has been superb this year, especially our long-lived clumps of the heat-tolerant H. niger var. macranthus. If you like hellebores for color in the winter garden, don't miss our Winter Open House on Friday/Saturday Feb. 22, 23 and Feb. 29, March 1. We should have over 1000 double hellebores in full flower for sale ... a site you're not likely to find anywhere else. To find out more about attending the winter open house, follow the link www.plantdelights.com/About/visiting.html Many folks still ask us about the name Juniper Level Botanic Gardens, and as we have mentioned in the past, we are adjacent to the Juniper Level Baptist Church. You can read more about the church and the history of the area at www.juniperlevelmbc.org. I don't think we appreciate the array of cool plants that strut their stuff in the late winter months. One of my favorite bulbs is Nothoscordum sellowianum. This amazing rock garden bulb has already begun to flower with small yellow ground-hugging flowers that will continue for the next few months. The yellow flowers contrast nicely with the blue-lavender flowers of the winter-blooming Iris unguicularis that is also in full flower now. You don't normally think of trilliums as winter plants, but that's only because few gardeners are familiar with the southern US species. Both Trillium underwoodii and T. maculatum are in full leaf and in bud now, surviving temperature drops into the mid-teens with no problem. They are closely followed by Trillium foetidissimum which has just popped through the ground. These winter trilliums have developed a survival mechanism similar to rhododendrons, whose leaves become flaccid and curled on cold mornings, only to recover as the day warms. If you grow these species, the pile of limp foliage on a cold morning would cause you to give up on the plant, only to find it looking fine again by late afternoon. There's plenty more cool winter interest plants that you'll see when you visit the winter open house. Now that we're in February, let me remind you our shipping season begins in a few more weeks... for those of you in the southern zones. Also remember the deadline of February 15 is drawing near to enter our 2008 Pick the Top 25 Sellers Contest. Okay, it's not the Powerball Lottery, but you've got nothing to lose and the chance to win a $250 PDN gift certificate. For rules and an entry blank, visit our website at www.plantdelights.com/New/contest.html. There's lot of news from the gardening community this month, so I'll start with the bad news first. Our condolences go out to woody plant guru Mike Dirr and his wife Bonnie, whose 31-year old daughter Suzy passed away on January 24, after a lifetime bout with Cystic Fibrosis, including two lung transplants. You can read the heartwarming story of Suzy's battle at www.uga.edu/gm/604/FeatDirr.html Condolences also go to Horticulture Magazine Science editor Roger Swain, whose wife Elisabeth passed away on February 7, after a battle with liver cancer. I had the pleasure of dining at Roger and Elisabeth's home several years ago... both were very sweet people and it is a memory I will always treasure. Our thoughts are with both the Dirr and Swain family during this difficult time. Plantsman and designer Doug Ruhren has departed North Carolina to take over as head horticulturist for the American Camellia Society at the 150 acre Massee Lane Garden in Fort Valley, Georgia. For those who have never met Doug, he first put his stamp on the Watkins Rose Garden, then Montrose Gardens, followed by the JC Raulston Arboretum, and most recently the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. We hate to lose Doug from our state, but look forward to watching him transform the Massee Lane Gardens. In Charlotte, NC The Wing Haven Foundation has agree to purchase and preserve the Elizabeth Lawrence garden (NC's most famous garden writer), located just near Winghaven from its current owner Lindie Wilson. The next step is to set up a $50,000 stewardship fund with the Garden Conservancy to insure the 'perpetual monitoring of the property.' You can find out more about how to help preserve the garden by visiting the Lawrence Garden website at www.elizabethlawrence.org/friends.html Other cool events around the country include The Lone Star Regional Native Plant Conference, held May 28-31 in Texas. This conference which is held every other year features an incredible array of native plant speakers and habitat tours. To find out more, go to http://pnpc.sfasu.edu. Back in the Raleigh area, City leaders have made an unfortunate and less than intelligent decision to ban hand watering of plants due to the current water shortage. Below, is a letter I have sent to both the Raleigh City Council and the local media outlets. Please feel free to share this with any interested party and if you live in the effected area, you may want to contact the City Council and express your displeasure with their recent actions.
Open Letter to the City of RaleighI continue to await an article that correctly shows who is responsible for the current water shortage, but alas, no luck. Let's look at the facts. Raleigh was 7.24" (17%) below normal for its annual rainfall in 2007. In 2006, Raleigh was 10.64" (25%) above normal in rainfall. For a two-year period, that put us well above average. Is this the first time we've had well below normal annual rainfall? Of course not. 2005, was nearly as dry as we ended that year 5.5" below normal. What did city officials do after that dry year? They continued to encourage growth, sell more water, and did nothing to increase future water supply. If you look at area lake levels, you will notice Gaston Lake and Kerr Lake are full. Jordan Lake is only down 8", while Falls Lake is 8.4' below normal and Lake Michie is 7.3' below normal. Why are the differences so dramatic... poor planning! Being a Raleigh native, I remember in 1981 when Falls and Jordan Lakes were completed and City officials assured us Raleigh and surrounding towns would never again face a water shortage or water restrictions. Fast forward 27+ years and residents are now being blamed for the current water shortage, and are being asked to change their lifestyle because City leaders didn't properly do their job. Raleigh officials have oversold their supply of water while encouraging growth beyond their ability to supply water. Planning based on average rainfall forgets to take into account that averages are just that... averages of two extremes... below normal years and above normal years. Imagine a business the size of Raleigh or Durham making such an egregious error in planning. Such a lack of foresight and poor management would most certainly result in immediate dismissal of officers and board members, as it should. As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. December 29, 2007Dear PDN'ers:There's no need to get up from the couch or turn off the bowl game ... it's just your friends at Plant Delights wishing you a Happy Holiday season! We hope you're all having a Merry Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate at this wonderful time of year. All of us at PDN would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for a wonderful 2007 ... the best year in the history of our business. I know the year has been tough on everyone who gardens and runs a gardening business in a less than ideal climate, and we cannot thank you enough for your continued support and patronage. As the year comes to a close, the weather patterns have finally shifted as we sent that pesky high pressure system on vacation allowing gulf moisture to finally move in to the parched southern states. Let's hope that the reservoirs will be full or at least well on their way to being replenished by spring. If you are considering digging a well or adding a new one, I'd like to share a fascinating experience from 2002, when one of several wells that we use to irrigate the nursery and gardens collapsed. As you can imagine, losing a main well creates a critical situation for a nursery. Most of our wells had originally been located by 'water witching', which had been a hit or miss proposition, and at $10/foot for drilling, I was looking for something more reliable. The year earlier, I had met a hydrologist from Georgia named Dan Harman, who was in the business of locating well sites using scientific techniques developed in the oil and gas industry. In spring 2002, we hired Dan to help us find new well sites on our property with adequate water supplies. I can't say enough good things about Dan's work in not only locating a new well, but in showing us a small band where we could re-tap into the vein that fed our former well. I wish you could have seen the look on the face of the well drillers when we told them how much water they would find and at what depth before they began drilling. One of the few constraints that Dan mentioned is that good water doesn't exist on all properties ... especially the small ones and if it isn't there, he can't find it. I don't get any kickbacks from Dan and haven't spoken with him in 5 years, but his website is www.groundwaternrock.com, his services might be helpful to gardeners in the dry southeast. Weatherwise, we've already had a couple of cold spells for December with a low of 17.6 degrees F. Most things still look fine, but a few test plants have already headed for the big compost pile in the sky. At least the consistent early cold means plants are well on their way to getting their winter chill requirement met and those that enjoy the cold such as Isopyron biternatum and Helleborus niger are already in flower. The 2008 Plant Delights catalogs went 'postal' on Friday Dec. 28, so if your mail delivery person isn't a gardener, your catalog should start arriving within a few days. Please remember that there are over 1,000 additional plants on line at our updated website. These are plants that won't sell in large enough volume to be economical to include in the print catalog, or in some cases are new plants that we only have in very small numbers. If you happen to find some plants that you can't live without, our ordering system allows for orders to be processed on a first-ordered, first-paid, first-reserved basis. When you order your plants, they are reserved for you, even if you don't want your order shipped for several months. Once your order is confirmed, the only way that you will not get what was confirmed is if the plants that we have reserved for you die or decline to the point that they do not meet our quality standards. We take a semi-annual inventory (June and October) to assure that our inventory numbers remain accurate and up-to-date. We're very excited about our 2008 offerings, but then, the plants wouldn't be included in the catalog if we weren't excited about them. One of the plants that we haven't included in the print or on-line catalog are our Plant Delights hybrid hellebores. For the last decade, we have been purchasing special forms of Helleborus x hybrids from some of the world's top breeders. We subsequently planted the best forms with similar characteristics and colors together in the garden and saved the seed. This has resulted in a high percentage of similar and improved plants to the parents that are simply stunning. This will be the first year that we will have good numbers of flowering size plants to release. By our best count, we could have as many as 5,000 flowering plants (both 1 and 2 quart size) from our own seedlings to offer this spring. The first chance to get these will be at our Winter Open House on Friday/Saturday Feb. 22,23 and Feb. 29, March 1. While we have a huge selection of special hellebores in the catalog and on the website, these are not included. If we have any of our own hybrids left after our winter open house, we'll add them to the website at that time. Click here to find out more about attending the winter open house. I'm just back from a visit to Yucca Do Nursery in Texas, which along with the adjacent Peckerwood Garden was one of the inspirations for our foray into Agaves and other woody lilies. I first visited Peckerwood Garden back in the early 1990's and have enjoyed watching as the gardens matured into the magnificent site that it is today. If you'd like to visit or help with its preservation for future generations, click on the link above to find out more. Yucca Do Nursery was formerly a part of Peckerwood Garden that split off many years ago and established itself on the property adjoining Peckerwood. The nursery is preparing to move to a new location nearer to Austin, Texas and has put the 20 acres beside Peckerwood up for sale. Not only are the nursery buildings architecturally fascinating, but the garden specimens are simply incredible. If you'd like the opportunity to purchase this amazing property, either for yourself, or to donate it to Peckerwood, send an email to info@yuccado.com. We'd like to mention a few staff changes at PDN for the upcoming season. Many of you have interacted with Julie Picolla as our Administrative Assistant for Horticulture, but Julie has left that position to take over as our Stocking Coordinator. Changing places with Julie is Melanie Blandford, our former Stocking Coordinator, who will assume Julie's duties. Melanie just joined us this summer from Pennsylvania's Scott Arboretum. Todd Rounsaville, also from the Scott Arboretum, who has coordinated our trial and field production since last spring has moved into our position of Plant Records Coordinator. To fill that void, we'd like to welcome Frank Mandarino, a recent NCSU Botany graduate who will take Todd's former position. We are truly lucky to have such a great and knowledgeable staff. If you live near Plant Delights, we often are looking for housing (short and long-term) for interns or new employees moving into the area. If you have any interest in this type of arrangement, please drop a note to our Business Manager, Heather Brameyer at heather@plantdelights.com. Some folks swap room and board for house and garden help, while others may choose to negotiate a financial rent. The folks that have participated in this program have found it quite rewarding, with some arrangements becoming quite long-term. We look forward to hearing from you if this is of interest and will add your name to the file when the need arises. We'd like to congratulate our 2007 winner of the Top 25 Contest, Jacob Toth of Brandon Manitoba Canada. Brandon led with a score of 1,704 points, which was over 400 points ahead of our second place finisher. Brandon will receive a $250 Plant Delights Nursery gift certificate for his good work in predicting our Top 25 best sellers for 2007. If you would like to participate for 2008, just click this link to enter. As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. November 2007When we last talked, we were discussing drought, which is still an issue in many states, particularly in the southeast US. In our part of NC, we have been blessed with two major rains, a 3.5" storm in mid-September and a 4" rain in mid-October. Mind you, we're still in need of much more, but at least the trees are in better shape going into fall.The drought has already had a huge effect on nurseries in the region. In NC, the drought took out Messenbrink's Nursery, and the owners are in the process of liquidating their assets. Mark and Louisa's retail booth has been a popular anchor at the NC Farmers Market in Raleigh, while their wholesale division supplied garden centers throughout the region. Just south of us, Georgia-based Pike Family Nurseries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the severe drought severely impacted their business. Pike Nurseries is probably the largest independently-owned garden center chain in the US with 22 stores in the southeast and, at one time, over 700 employees. Pike's have secured enough funding to continue operations for now, and we wish them the best as they deal with the continuing drought.
Here at PDN, we're winding up our 2007 shipping season with only two weeks
left before we suspend shipments on November 30, until mid-February. That
being said, we will do our best to accommodate any legitimate gardening
emergencies during this down period... weather permitting. While plant
shipping ends, the busy season for gift certificates is just cranking up.
If you have trouble finding gifts for the gardener in your family, consider
a PDN gift certificate. You can order on line at
It's always interesting to see what looks good in the garden in the fall,
so I've just returned from a stroll around the gardens here at Juniper Level.
We're at the tail end of Cyclamen hederifolium season... a time where the
winter-growing foliage has just emerged while the flowers are still in bloom.
If you still haven't grown cyclamen in your garden, you have missed one of
the truly great garden plants for the late summer and fall season.
Cyclamen hederifolium is best planted at the base of trees and shrubs so
that they will stay dry in the summer months while they are dormant.
I mentioned several of the late summer flowering mallows back in September, but three of them are still in full flower here in mid-November. While most commonly grown garden hibiscus are summer flowering types, the giant-growing Hibiscus mutabilis is a fall bloomer which is just getting started. Because of their late flowering, they aren't particularly useful north of Zone 7b, but south of here, they are highly prized... hence, the common name, Confederate rose... despite their Chinese heritage. This is also peak flowering season for abutilons, which are true stars of the fall garden. Visitors from the Atlanta Botanical Garden last week told us that many of their abutilons flowered all winter due to unseasonably mild winter temperatures last year. The last genera of mallows that are still in flower are the malvaviscus, which have been in full flower since early summer and continue unabated in fall ... even through a very light frost. A hard freeze will knock out the malvaviscus and hibiscus flowering, while most abutilons will continue down to at least 20 degrees F.
It's hard to imagine a better group of late season flowers than the fall-blooming salvias. The most spectacular has to be the 8' tall yellow-flowered Salvia madrensis. You'll need some room for this one, but darn it's showy. One step down in size to the 3-4' range is Salvia puberula (hot pink), the Salvia leucantha cultivars (lavender-purple), and the brilliant orange red flowered S. regla. If you're looking for something smaller in the 2' range, the Salvia greggii forms and hybrids are all in full flower now, as well as the blue flowered S. chamaedryoides. While we don't recommend planting marginally hardy salvias in the fall, just remember them when you shop in spring and also remember to give them good drainage when you're planting.
Other long-blooming perennials continue to strut their stuff including Geranium 'Rozanne', Alstroemerias 'Sweet Laura' and 'Freedom', the obscenely long-flowering Cestrum parqui and C. 'Orange Peel'. Lest I forget, one of the most striking plants is the brilliant red Bouvardia ternifolia. If you've tried the commercial bouvardias and they didn't survive the winter, you need to try our form which is from a colder area of Mexico.
One of my all-time fall favorites is a hardy gladiolus that we introduced several years ago as G. 'Halloweenie'. For us, it typically starts flowering on Halloween day and continues until a hard freeze. This fast multiplying glad produces enough stems for countless fall arrangements with colors of bright orange and yellow ... perfect for adding seasonal color. Another great geophyte (underground storage such as a bulb, tuber, or corm) for fall is the giant tree dahlia, D. imperialis. If we have an early fall, we miss the flowers, but this year, we have already enjoyed a few weeks of Dahlia 'Double or Nothing', which is the earliest of the D. imperialis cultivars to flower. From here south, they are truly superb. A couple of other great perennials that only strut their stuff in the fall include the many cultivars of Farfugium japonicum which are all topped with stunning spikes of bright yellow daisies right now. One plant that isn't as widely known as it should be is the Mexican Verbesina microptera. This garden giant tops out at 15' tall with huge leaves and is in full flower now with gigantic flower heads of yellow. Although we typically don't think of grasses as having flowers, their plumes just seem to fit the fall season. Some personal favorites that look great now include the giant Saccharum arundinaceum that doesn't open until mid-October, the re-flowering Miscanthus 'Andante', and the splendid Muhlenbergia capillaris ... especially the cultivar M. 'White Cloud' that simply must be seen to be believed.
Another great late fall and winter interest plant is the arum. These mostly Mediterranean natives are emerging now and will grow all winter before flowering in the spring, then go dormant in the summer months. Because of this reverse growing season, arums are amazingly drought tolerant. If you get serious about this group, be sure to pick up a copy of Peter Boyce's book, The Genus Arum.
We typically don't think of perennials for fall color other than flowers, but several of the amsonias, including A. hubrichtii and A. 'Georgia Pancake', have great fall foliage color, as does the popular solomon's seal, Polygonatum odoratum. Another plant that provides dramatic fall color sans flowers is the group of Ruscaceae that includes the genera danae and ruscus. These tough as nails evergreen perennials were born without the benefit of leaves, but with an amazing show of bright orange and red berries respectively in fall. Add another plant that you don't normally think of growing for fall fruit - the species peonies, P. japonica and P. obovata. Both of these produce amazing seedheads of bright red berries that look great now.
Have you got your 2008 calender handy? I briefly mentioned this in our last update, but here are more details. From September 25-27, 2008, the nearby J.C. Raulston Arboretum will hold a symposium titled, 'Surround Yourself with Shady Characters'. The don't-miss speaker list includes:
If you are looking for a job, Mississippi State University is looking for a director for the Crosby Arboretum. If you are interested, you can find out more about this and other exciting jobs in public horticulture at www.publicgardens.org/web/2006/06/careers_center_home.aspx. The great folks at the Birmingham Botanic Gardens asked if we would spread the word about The Central South Native Plant Conference on Oct. 17-18, 2008. The conference, held every 3-4 years, includes lectures, field trips, and tours. For more information, go to www.bbgardens.org (and click on "events"). If you find yourself indoors by your computer one evening, you might want to visit the JC Raulston Arboretum website, where all of J.C.'s slides (87,000+) have now been scanned and are viewable on line. This is an amazing account of J.C.'s wonderful life and extensive travels. www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum/photography/raulston_slides/raulston_slides.php We had several interesting moves in the late season Top 25 list. The biggest mover was Lycoris radiata, which zoomed from nowhere to reach #5 on the list, thanks in part to a big article in Southern Living magazine. The next biggest move was another lycoris, L. aurea that zoomed to #18 from off the list. Musa 'Siam Ruby' jumped to #21 and Eucomis 'Sparkling Burgundy' followed close behind at #22. So, how are your Top 25 predictions faring? Only a few more weeks remain before we award the $250 Plant Delights gift certificate to the person who came the closest to predicting the correct finishing order of sales. If you don't see your plants in the Top 25, you better get your friends busy ordering! As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. September 2007It's been quite a month since we last talked. August at the Raleigh-Durham airport was the hottest month here since records have been kept... some 60+ years. As part of our 3-week heat binge, our 105 degree F temperature also tied a record for hottest temperature. Our 101 degree F temperature on September 10 smashed our old record of 97 degrees F. We can usually ship orders if the temperatures remain around 90 degrees F, but this summer has been the first since we have been in business that we have missed 3 consecutive weeks of shipping because of high temperatures. Rain has either occurred in the form of deluges or has been virtually non-existent depending on where you live. I expect many of us are ready for the weather patterns to change... we can't even manage a decent tropical storm this year, despite the ominous hurricane predictions by the climate experts.We've got one open house weekend under our belt and one more to go. Despite the weather, the gardens look quite good, so come and see what has survived the brutal heat... we hope to see you here. In upcoming events, the Garden Conservancy is holding its open day tours in Raleigh on September 22 and 23. The Garden Conservancy is the Non-Profit National Organization dedicated to preserving America's Greatest Gardens for future generations. On the Conservancy's Annual Open Days, private gardeners around the country open their properties to visitors for a charge of $5 per person per garden (discount tickets are available on-line). Proceeds are split between a local garden (the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh) and the Conservancy's preservation program. You can find a list of gardens open near you on the Garden Conservacy website. Their website also has more information about the Garden Tours Program. If you live in the Raleigh area and would like to submit your garden as a tour subject for future years, contact chairman Helen Yost at helen@gardensgardens.com. If you live in an area that doesn.t yet participate in the Open Days Program, this is probably due to the lack of a coordinator in the region. If you would like to volunteer your services, contact the Garden Conservancy office at the link above. Following the Garden Conservancy Open Days is the Horticulture Magazine Symposium on October 20 in Raleigh. If you haven't signed up, there is still time to register at www.hortmag.com. We look forward to seeing you there. Do you have your 2008 calender yet? If so, hold the dates of September 25-27, 2008. The JC Raulston Arboretum Symposium will feature Bill Cullina, Larry Stanley, Sean Hogan, Thomas Bonnicksen, John Grimshaw, Richard Olsen, and Dave Demers. I don't know about you, but I can't wait! In sad news, former director of NY's Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Judy Zuk, 55, passed away after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Judy was an amazing woman who, during her 15 years at the helm of BBG, helped to re-energize this great old garden with her amazing enthusiasm and foresight. Judy was active in so many phases of horticulture from APGA (the American Public Gardens Association) to serving as the co-editor-in-chief of The American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. Her list of honors includes the prestigious Scott Medal, the Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America, and then being named as an APGA Honorary Life Member. When she retired from BBG due to declining health in 2005, she was honored with the naming of Magnolia 'Judy Zuk', a cultivar developed at BBG. Judy was very special person and a great friend of PDN. While she will be greatly missed, her legacy lives on at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In the "It's just interesting department," Google has begun to scan old catalogs and put them on line. Thanks for Larry Hatch of the New Ornamentals Society for alerting me that a 100-year old catalog from the famed Biltmore House Nursery is now available for viewing. I was fascinated to see that many of the plants that we consider relatively new to horticulture were actually available a century earlier. If you have a few minutes, you'll find this link fascinating. So, what's looking so great in the gardens in September, you ask? If you like bulbous plants in the Amaryllid family, there is no better month than September. Whether it's habranthus, zephyranthes, lycoris, crinum, or rhodophiala, these are great providers of fall color. The habranthus and zephyranthes (both called rain lilies) are dependent on rain to flower well. That being said, because they are bulbous, they can sit in seemingly suspended animation during the worst of drought conditions, only to be ready to flower 2-3 days after a rain shower. Lycoris flower the same time of year, regardless of rain, emerging overnight when the 'time is right' (sorry to sound like a Cialis commercial). Rhodophiala bifida is a heat lover that flowers much the same as lycoris, appearing overnight with bright red or carmine pink flowers. Crinums have a wide flowering season depending on the species involved in their parentage. C. bulbispermum is an early spring bloomer, while cultivars such as C. 'Stars and Stripes', and C. 'Summer Nocturne' flower in the fall. There are several cultivars such as C. 'Olene' that flower in spring and continue through fall. Also flowering now are several great gesneriads. When I used to grow and sell house plants, I never dreamed that so many members of the African Violet (gesneriad) family would be winter hardy outdoors here in Zone 7b. It's hard to choose a favorite, but I hope that everyone has tried our introduction, Gloxinia 'Evita', by now. We have best luck growing this in a site that receives sun for a couple of hours in the afternoon. This amazing plant spreads from an underground rhizome and starts flowering in August and hits full stride by mid-September. Gloxinia 'Chic' is another great selection with narrow cherry-red flowers that grows under similar conditions. Fall is also a great time for many of the sinningias. These include the all-summer flowering S. sellovii and Sinningia conspicua. Both of these are incredibly drought tolerant with S. sellovii enjoying full-day sun. S. conspicua grows best in sites that receive 2-4 hours of full sun. For light shade to a couple of hours of sun, try Titanotrichum oldhammii. This amazing gesneriad begins flowering in early September with terminal racemes of simply stunning bright yellow flowers with cinnamon interiors. For light shade, try Eucodonia 'Adele'. This darling gesneriad begins flowering this month with lovely purple flowers that lay atop the quilted bronzy leaves. Another group of fall favorites are some members of the hibiscus (Malvaceae) family. Abutilons (flowering maple) are drought-tolerant members of the family that begin flowering in mid-summer with bell-shaped flowers that continue until frost with some of their most prolific flowering of the season in September. Another superb mallow is Malvaviscus drummondii. This drought tolerant US native is simply covered in bright orange-red flowers from summer through fall. If you have a moist site, then check out the sea-shore mallow, Kosteletzkya virginica. This native mallow is covered with flowers that resemble miniature hibiscus and is available in both pink and white. Another fall flowering mallow that can tolerate both boggy soils and extended drought is Hibiscus grandiflorus. In addition to the hairy grey leaves and bright pink flowers that top the plant in September, H. grandiflorus makes a stunning 6-7' tall clump. While most hibiscus are native to very moist sites, such is not the case with Hibiscus aculeatus, which can be found at home in dry sand. This native mallow is covered with light yellow flowers from summer through fall. There are so many other plants that are just looking great now from the fall-flowering sedums to the fall-blooming red hot poker, Kniphofia rooperi. I didn't even have time to mention Salvia, Anisacanthus, manettia, lobelia, and so much more. I hope you'll take some time and browse the on-line catalog for some great fall bloomers to add to your garden. To make it easy, just go to the catalog welcome page and type the word 'fall' into the search box and you're on your way! In the Top 25 this month there weren't many big moves. The largest movers include Canna 'Phaison', which moved from 13th to 8th, and Begonia 'Heron's Pirouette', which moved from 13th to 9th. So, how are your top 25 predictions faring? Only three more months remain before we award the $250 Plant Delights gift certificate to the person who came the closest to predicting the correct finishing order of sales. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. July 2007Greetings from Plant Delights and we hope the summer find you all well.We recently finished our 2007 Summer Open House and would like to thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to visit and take home a few special plants. For those who have never been to visit us in the summer, this is a great chance to see numerous summer flowering plants, many of which only make an appearance during the summer months. We really hope we can encourage more folks to visit during this exciting time of year in the garden. If you missed our open house, we're just over a week away from hosting the Summer Meeting of the Southeastern Palm Society. This is a great chance to talk with other palm and exotic plant growers from around the southeast, as well as pick up some of the latest new plants. If you would like to attend and are not a member of SPS (we hope you will join SPS at the meeting), just email our Administrative Assistant, Julie Picolla, so we can get a head count of how many to expect for lunch. You can download the meeting schedule at www.sepalms.org/SPS_Meetings_News.htm. The 2007 Fall Plant Delights Catalog is at the printers and will go in the mail next week. Thank goodness I can finally unchain myself from this computer and head back out into the garden where I belong. It'll take days to wipe the chlorophyll from my keyboard, so don't expect me to be back into the office anytime soon. I can tell that focusing on writing catalogs gets progressively more difficult as you age... either that or my ADHD is getting much worse. Regardless, the symptoms are the same. As with all fans of native plants, we mourn the passing of former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson. I hope everyone has had the opportunity to visit the wonderful center named in her honor in Austin, Texas. If not, put it on your list. You can find out more at www.wildflower.org. In other gardening news, Dr. David Creech, director of the SFA Mast Arboretum in Nacogdoches, Texas, will be retiring at the end of August and that opens a position in the horticulture program at Stephen F. Austin State University. If you've got your PhD and are passionate about plants, consider throwing your proverbial hat in the ring. SFASU is an exciting place, not just because most of the former Space Shuttle Challenger pieces landed there, but because Dr. Creech's boundless enthusiasm for plants has resulted in a truly amazing botanical collection. As a good friend of the late Dr. JC Raulston, he shared the same philosophy and vision.... It's all about the plants. If you've never seen the collections at SFASU, put this on your list to visit the next time you're in East Texas. Another change that came as a shock to most of us in the horticulture world was the spring departure of Doug Ruhren from the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. It was Doug's design skills and plant knowledge that took Daniel Stowe from a flat country field to a destination garden, setting it apart from the cookie-cutter gardens that are popping up around the country. It's a shame that something as silly as differing management philosophies over how to deal with problem staff were allowed to get in the way of keeping a horticulturist as brilliant as Doug at the garden. Far too often, garden management folks simply don't realize the importance and scarcity of top flight horticulture and subsequently lose the heart and soul of their gardens. Doug is still actively involved in garden design with both private and public projects. In other news, the famous Western Hills Nursery in Occidental, California has new owners. The property and nursery has been purchased by Robert Stansel and Joseph Gatta. For those who might be unfamiliar with Western Hills Nursery, it was opened in 1960 by famed California horticulturists Marshall Olbrich and Lester Hawkins, who bequeathed the nursery to one of their staff members, Maggie Wych. For much of its existence, Western Hills was considered the top nursery in the country to acquire new rare plants, and on more than one occasion the late Dr. JC Raulston raved about visiting Western Hills. Not only did the nursery offer great plants, but the 3-acre garden is a plantsman's masterpiece. After struggling with the nursery's financial health, Wych put the nursery up for sale in 2005. The nursery has now reopened, and you can find out more, including how to visit, by going to www.westernhillsnursery.com". In news that just delights me, The Garden Conservancy has adopted Pearl Fryar's topiary garden in Bishopville, SC, as one of its new conservation projects. I first met Pearl nearly a decade ago when we were both working on the same program, and I came away with a new appreciation of topiary and for the soul of a very special man. If you haven't read Pearl's heartwarming story, take time to read about him and hopefully visit his garden at www.fryarstopiaries.com. Horticulture magazine has announced a fall symposium in Raleigh on Saturday, October 20. The symposium includes a line-up of Lucy Hardiman, designer and author from Oregon; Scott Kunst of Old House Gardens; Landscape Architect Gordon Hayward of Vermont; Rosemary Alexander, founder of the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden; and Horticulture.s own Nan Sinton. We're hosting a special brunch on Friday morning at the nursery before the symposium, where you will be able to tour the gardens and... if the mood strikes you... shop until you drop. We hope to see you here. Details are available at www.hortmag.com. It's been quite the year for Amorphophallus titanum flowering. Just after the plant at UNC-Charlotte flowered, another at Cleveland's Clemet Zoo flowered. To learn more or to see the video, go to www.clemetzoo.com/animal_plant/horticulture/cronus.asp. Amorphophallus are one of our specialty research genera to determine which species might survive outdoors in our warm temperate climate. Amorphophallus are quite valuable for a lightly shaded garden since most don't emerge before late spring/early summer and add a valuable freshness when the woodland garden begins to tire as the spring ephemerals go dormant. Not all amorphophallus species have huge or incredibly smelly flowers, but all do possess the delightful form of a deciduous perennial palm tree. Additionally, the seed heads provide another great garden feature. A. henry produces club-like spikes of blue fruit, A. konjac delivers a giant stalk of orange berries, and A. kiusianus produces fruit that starts pink and gradually turns blue. Another interesting thing we've noticed is that most species grow better in partial sun and in some cases full sun for several hours. Dense shade tends to produce very weak plants that aren't particularly attractive. We're now up to 11 species that have been successful outdoors in the ground... see the list below. There are still many more species that we are yet to try, and we hope for a few more hardy species. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page7.html
For the first time in several years, we are working to catch up on Hosta registrations from our breeding program. While our hosta breeding has continued, we simply have not had the time to catch up on evaluations and subsequent registrations. After dedicating three consecutive days to the project, we have named 18 new hostas, most of which will be gradually introduced over the next few years. We are also changing the name of our Hosta 'Chickadee' to 'Dixie Chickadee' since research revealed that the late Dr. Herb Benedict introduced (but never registered) a plant by the same name. The name change will be reflected in our catalog as of January 2008. We feel this will be the easiest way to avoid possible confusion. There are so many great plants that look great in the summer that it often makes us wish that visitors could see them all, but the best we can do is to tell you about them and hope you will try them for yourselves. I'll start with some of the late-flowering daylilies. If you're like most folks, your normal daylilies have come and gone, but not if you grow some of the wonderful late-flowering varieties. While there are some modern day breeders working on late-flowering varieties, many of the most popular selections are still WWII era introductions. Two of my favorites which are in full flower now are H. 'Autumn Minaret' (yellow) and H. 'August Flame' (red). www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page47.html Other flowers similar in height include the perennial Alstroemerias, such as Mark Bridgen's great hybrids, A. 'Freedom' and A. 'Sweet Laura'... both great in the garden and for making summer flower arrangements. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page6.html Mid to late July is also when the first of the ginger (hedychium) hybrids start to flower. The first in what will be a summer sucession of flowers include H. densiflorum 'Stephen', H. 'Kanogie', H. 'Daniel Weeks', and H. coccineum 'Flaming Torch'. While the plants will survive amazing drought conditions, remember that moisture is the key to good hedychium flowering. Additionally, planting hedychiums on a slope is preferred, although certainly not necessary. One of the things that struck me in the wild is that hedychiums are always found growing on a slope. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page44.html There are a number of great summer bulbs including crocosmias. The new selections from David Tristam are exceptionally good flowering and a far cry from C. 'Lucifer', which essentially crowds itself out and stops flowering after only one season. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page29.html Other favorite summer-flowering bulbs include the many selections of crinum and lycoris. Crinums are winter dormant, while lycoris are dormant in spring and early summer. Both plants provide a great mid to late summer show, despite the vargaries of the weather. Many of the crinums and lycoris have also proven to be much more winter hardy than some gardening texts give them credit. Thanks to help from our bulb friends, we've been able to assemble one of the best offerings of both of these great bulb genera that you'll find. While both are great southern pass-along plants, you first need a friend to pass them along. In the meantime, we'll be your intermediary. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page28.html www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page71.html Lilies...yes, summer is the time for a great show of lilies. Many of the asiatic hybrids don't do much for me, but some of the species selections are phenomenal. Lilium formosanum is certainly hard to beat for a white lily, but the yellow-orange Lilium henryi provides a different effect with its arching stems of pendant flowers. If you haven't grown the recently discovered US native Lilium pyrophilum, then you've missed a truly great lily... find a moist spot and enjoy! Lest I end without mentioning Lilium lancifolium 'Flora Plena'. The amazing tiger lily is great in the garden, great as a cut flower, and also makes bulbils in the leaf axils that you can share with gardening friends. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page70.html If you like red hot pokers, how about some that bloom in the summer? One of my favorite summer flowering clones is Kniphofia 'Nancy's Red', which is in full flower as we speak. I couldn't stop without mentioning the wonderful eupatoriums. All it takes is a slightly moist location and you'll have a landing tower for butterflies, not to mention the wonderful bouffant purple flower heads. I could go on for hours, but I'm already two pages over what marketing consultants tell us that customers will actually bother to read... you know, short attention spans and all that garbage. www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page68.html www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/page40.html In other plant news, we like to let you know when we find a mix-up or when a plant doesn't perform as we have touted it. This is going back a few years, but we offered a Hosta 'Blue and Gold' in 2003, which was reportedly a sport of H. 'Hadspen Blue'. Now that our plant is mature, it is obviously H. 'Tokudama Flavocircinalis'... a great hosta, but not a sport of H. 'Hadspen Blue'. If you are one of the seven people who purchased these, change your tags. We have also been very disappointed at the overwintering performance of many of the new coreopsis hybrids. Part of the problem seems to be that one of the parents that imparts the cool colors to the hybrids is Coreopsis tinctoria, which is an annual species. While true winter hardiness is not the problem, we are finding that when planted in the ground and allowed to flower, they are not surviving even our last two mild winters of 15 degrees F. Reportedly, non-flowering plants installed in late fall will survive fine. A few folks tell me that if they are cut to the ground in the early fall, that this may help with winter survival, but we aren't betting on this. Researchers from NC State University think the problem is that the excessive flowering does not allow energy to go into developing enough basal growth for the plant to overwinter. We are pulling these from the market and hope the introducers of these will be willing to assist us with refunding money to customers (yeah, right!) who have not found them to be as winter hardy as promised. To get a credit or refund, just email our customer service department at office@plantdelights.com. As if we needed more pests, the following alert from the Florida Department of Agriculture may be of interest for those living in or vacationing to Florida. To quote information from officials in Florida, 'The redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus was first detected in the U.S. in a survey trap in Georgia in 2002. It now exists from Florida to South Carolina on redbay and sassafras. Not enough is known about this ambrosia beetle, but its behavior seems very similar to the Granulate (Asian) ambrosia beetle. This beetle also makes "toothpicks" and is thought to vector a wilt disease. Please report any wilting or bark beetle activity on redbay or sassafras so it can be checked." For more information, see the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Pest Alert at www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/x.glabratus.html. There's been some movement in the Top 25 this month, although most of the list has stayed relatively stable. Tiarella 'Pink Skyrocket' zoomed from off the list last month to 10th place overall, while Nierembergia 'Starry Eyes' also shot from 22nd to 14th place. In a couple of other big moves, the perennial hollyhock, Alcea rugosa, jumped from off the list to 19th place and Aloe polyphylla moved from 27th to 20th. So, how are your top 25 predictions faring? Only four more months remain before we award the $250 Plant Delights gift certificate to the person who came the closest to predicting the correct finishing order of sales. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. June 2007Dear PDN'ers:When we last talked, we had just been zapped by an April freeze, while customers in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest were busy building arks to escape the raging floods. One fellow in the Netherlands watched An Inconvenient Truth too many times and has subsequently built a replica of Noah's Ark so that he can be ready when Holland floods. click here to view After an extended dry spell in the Southeast US, Tropical Storm Barry brought needed rains from Florida up through the Carolinas... we got 1.5" from the remnants. Our gardens have been quite a bit warmer during the winter months since 1996, which has allowed us to grow many plants that were marginal back in the 1980's. Like us, I'm sure many of you are following the great global warming debate... yes, there is a debate, despite what some folks would like you to think. I'd like to direct you to two websites that help to frame the current warming cycle into the large picture of global climate change. The information and charts at the National Climatic Data Center show that the last century was indeed the warmest since we have been keeping records. click here to view To put that into perspective, check out the paleo temperature map at click here to view which illustrates the warming and cooling that Earth has experienced throughout its history. During the late Cretaceous and early-to-mid Tertiary Periods, the earth was 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) warmer that it is today... that was serious global warming. We have actually found over a ton of petrified wood (cypress and palm) from this period on our property. By talking only about smaller data samples, such as the last few decades or centuries, it's easy to lose a historical perspective. As you listen to and study the new research, I urge you to keep in mind the difference between sound science and an unproven hypothesis. Be sure to look and listen for terms such as 'think,' 'assume,' 'must be,' and 'no other explanation for.' These are emotional terms, not scientific ones. Back at home, we can pretty much assess damage now and have completely lost some Japanese maples as well as suffered severe damage on some elms and magnolias. It's now time to cut back those hydrangeas since it has become apparent that there aren't going to be any flowers on old wood this year. There is plenty of minor damage, but with other plants growing so fast, it's hard to notice it. We've made it through another hectic spring shipping season, as June has arrived and ordering has slowed. Does it seems to anyone else that the year passes faster each year? That must be part of getting older. All in all, spring shipping went extremely well with only a few minor hiccups. We thought we had eliminated the shipping snafues than can occur when people order in January for May and June shipment, but we didn't quite hit our target of 100% success. Our intent is for those who order first to get the best plants (assuming there is actually a difference, which is rare). This year showed us that we still need to make a minor adjustment to our system for the future, which has already been done for next year. As always, there are a few issues with crop growth that are unanticipated. Examples this year include several baptisia that simply never emerged from dormancy. We've got pots full of roots but, unfortunately, many with no tops. We thought we had this production problem figured out, but it looks like it's back to the chalkboard again. Amsonia 'Georgia Pancake' had similar problems... they looked great when they went dormant but have been painfully slow to re-emerge in spring. This is a new problem... hopefully a one-year issue that we haven't encountered before. We were hit very hard in our epimedium greenhouse, when a heater and backup alarm system failed one night during the winter. What we thought was minor cosmetic damage at the time resulted in several hundred plants still with no foliage, although the rhizomes seem alive. We will hold these in the hopes that they will eventually resprout. Then there is Podophyllum 'Kaleidoscope' ...nearly 300 plants... 300 very expensive plants which simply melted away during the winter. This is such a great plant, but one that has driven us completely crazy trying to produce it in a container. We're pretty stubborn, so we.re not giving up yet. Also, the plants that we sold as Arisaema album turned out to be A. consanguineum. We are extremely disappointed since these came from a normally reliable supplier. If you purchased one, please contact our Customer Service Department for a credit or refund. We'd particularly like to thank customers who have written and posted kind comments on the Garden Watchdog website. We are very pleased to be ranked by customers as one of the Top 30 Mail Order Nurseries in the country. If crop failures aren't enough to make our year, our friends at the US Postal Service just announced a 17% increase in the cost to mail our catalogs. This caught many folks by surprise, because instead of a straight rate increase, the dramatic rise came because of a reclassification of many types of mail, including catalogs. Depending on size and shape, some catalog mailers will see a cost increase of 33%. I thought the first class increase of 5.1% was a lot, but 17%..geez! Because of an industry backlash, the Postal Regulatory Commission has agreed to a temporary reduction in the amount of the increase. Obviously, these higher costs will have to be absorbed by you, the customer, unless you see fit to express your concern to The Postal Regulatory Commission at www.prc.gov. We have filmed many segments for NC Public Television over the last couple of decades, and our most recent ones are slated to run shortly. 'Rock Gardens' will air on Saturday, June 9 at noon and again on Sunday, June 10 at 11:30 a.m. 'Arisaemas' will run on Saturday, July 21 at noon and Sunday, July 22 at 11:30 a.m. If you are in NC, check them out on Public Television. As always, there is news on the horticultural front. In the mail order world, Donald and Glenda Hachenberger, former Re-Max realty executives, have recently disclosed their upcoming purchase of Jackson and Perkins Roses. The Hachenbergers also own controlling interest in Park Seed and Wayside Gardens. I can't imagine wanting to own the $74-million-dollar Jackson and Perkins after already seeing what mail order is like with Wayside and Park Seed, but as the old saying goes, there's one born every minute. We wish them the best of luck in improving their dismal customer satisfaction ratings for all three companies. For those who remember former NCSU PhD, Dr. Kim Tripp, who went on to become Director of the prestigious NY Botanic Garden in March 2005: We received news that she has suddenly resigned. Kim's mid-life career shift will start out with a four-year stint in medical school. Kim tells me that she is not sure where she will land once she finishes but hopes to find a medical tie-in to the plant world. We wish her the best of luck in her new endeavor but will miss seeing her at NYBG. For fans of the JC Raulston Arboretum, the university has at long last filled the Assistant Director position with the hiring of Mark Weatherington. Mark comes to the JCRA from the Norfolk Botanic Garden where he has worked since 1999 and is currently the Director of Horticulture. Mark is scheduled to begin his duties on July 23. Please be sure to welcome Mark and his family to Raleigh when you see them. Jane Connor, who has been the publisher at Timber Press is headed back to her native New Zealand after 5 years in the US. Taking over for Jane will be Neal Maillet, Timber's well thought of former editor, who spent the last three years working for John Wiley Publishers in San Francisco. Neal tells me that he's looking forward to gardening again in a temperate zone (Portland, Oregon). We're delighted to have Neal back in the garden book world! The horticultural world has lost two stalwarts this month with the death of nurseryman William Flemmer III and plantswoman Polly Hill. Flemmer, 85, was the head of the famous Princeton Nurseries in New Jersey, which was started by his grandfather. You can read more about his life at NJ.com. Polly Hill, 100, was an amazing plantswoman whose passion for plants led her to start the famed Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha's Vineyard. I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to visit and speak for the arboretum in 2004. You can read more about Polly at the Washington Post. May road trips took me back to Gainesville, Florida, for the UF Floriculture Field Day. I highly recommend two botanic gardens in the region... Kanapaha in Gainesville http://www.kanapaha.org and Harry P. Leu Botanic Garden in Orlando www.leugardens.org. Both are superb plantsmans gardens that are not to be missed. It is always great to see what thrives in Zone 9, including two surprises, Dahlia imperialis and Rubus pentalobus. Another highlight of the Florida trip was a chance to botanize around Gainesville with Dick Weaver (founder of We-Du) and Gainesville plantsman Mike McCaffery. It was great to see the native clematis reticulata as well as the dwarf pawpaw (Asimina angustifolia) in full flower. The highlight had to be finding native stands of Trillium maculatum... surely at the southern end of its range. The Florida fires that we have heard so much about are still burning, but fortunately the winds were blowing in the other direction while I was there. I recently heard from palm guru Kyle Brown of Lake City, who tells me the fires got within 10 miles of his home before they were brought under control. Back home, we were shocked last week to discover that one of our giant Agave americana var. protoamericana clumps is sending up a flower stalk. When we first noticed the stalk on May 17, it was already 10' tall. Since this is the first blessed event on this species, we aren't sure how tall the mature stalk will reach before it opens. In the wild, the large agaves often take 100 years to flower; hence, the name century plants. In cultivation, we can usually cut about 90 years off that total. Our flowering plants are 10 years from seed and 8 years from being planted in the garden. If you are in the area, the JC Raulston Arboretum has an A. salmiana flowering also! Work is beginning on our fall catalog, as propagation for both fall and next spring elevates to a fever pitch. Just walking though the greenhouses today, we saw that we still have some superb looking arisaemas. Especially nice are our Arisaema consanguineum... all extremely narrow-leaf forms, most in full flower. The A. concinnum, A. fargesii, A. sikokianum Silver Center, and A. candidissimum are also looking superb and still in good supply. Any arisaemas that are still unsold after the next couple of weeks go back in the ground until next year. They would much rather have a home in your garden... they told us so! We are anxiously anticipating the upcoming meeting of the International Magnolia Society. Co-Chairman Pat McCracken tells me to expect at least 110 attendees, which will make this one of the largest meetings in its history! If you can't make the magnolia meeting, be sure to mark our Summer Open House on your schedule... July 6-8 and 13-15. We'll see you then! Finally... regarding the Top 25 Sellers... there's been some movement this month. While the top 3 stayed the same, Gaillardia 'Fanfare' zoomed from 18th to 5th, Canna 'Phaison' crept into the top 10 from 13th, and Salvia chamaedryoides made the biggest leap from 30th to 9th. Several plants outside the April top 30 made gains with Dianthus 'Heart Attack' reaching 12th and Salvia 'Hot Lips' reaching 15th. Cuphea micropetala, Acanthus mollis 'Tasmanian Angel', and Verbena 'Snowflurry', all cracked the top 30 at 28-30th respectively. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. May 2007Dear PDN'ers:We made it through winter in great shape, but then early spring jumped up and bit us in the you know where. Gardeners in many parts of the country were hit with devastating cold in early April after spring temperatures had already fooled many plants into beginning to grow. Web ordering provides us with a fascinating glimpse into gardeners' real-time state of mind. Everyone was going crazy ordering during the warm first week of April, only to be shell-shocked days later when the cold weather returned. We can see folks just starting to recover enough to think positively about gardening again... perhaps we need an on-line gardening therapist to help with the recovery... where is Dr. Philadelphus when you need him? In Juniper Level, we had been in the 80's for two weeks, before encountering five consecutive nights below freezing with the worst night reaching 22 degrees F. A couple of days later, we got to enjoy a smashing hailstorm, followed by an entire day of 50+ mph winds. I know this is a typical spring day to many midwest residents, but in our neck of the woods, it's a big deal. Although we covered quite a few perennials in the garden and kept the damage to a minimum on those plants, the trees and shrubs were not as lucky. Magnolias, celtis, crape myrtles, and idesia were fried to a crisp. I read a laughable article in our local paper just a day before the freeze explaining how native plants would not be hurt and how they should be planted instead of plants from foreign lands. Guess what... native oaks, walnuts, fringe trees, redbuds, maples, and many more look like my darkened efforts to cook toast. I guess I should have let my native plants read the article. Now it's a matter of wait and see if the plants will recover. Many of these plants have dormant buds along the stem, which under normal circumstances would not develop. The plants must first get over the cold shock, then we will learn if the physiology of the plant will allow the dormant buds to develop without some additional stimulus such as an additional number of chilling hours. In many cases, the death of a terminal bud may be enough to change the hormonal balance that often keeps the dormant buds from growing. In any case, it will take 2-8 weeks of warm weather before we will know for sure what to expect from our plants. There will be some cases where the plants only sprout from the base and others where they may be completely dead. Not only is each plant different, but the physical state of each plant is another part of the equation. Plants on the north side of a building may have remained dormant and avoided damage, while the same clone in a warmer location may have been killed. Many nurserymen who had recently dug balled and burlapped crape myrtles actually saved their plants. The process of digging and root removal caused the plant not to begin growing as early. These dug plants are mostly fine. It seems that nursery growers in the wholesale production regions of Tennessee got hit the hardest, with several growers suffering losses in the 100,000's of plants as temperatures dropped into the mid-teens after many plants were in full leaf. Our thoughts go out to them during what will be a financially difficult time recovering and staying in business. I've been on the road quite a bit in April, and it's always a treat to see other gardens in peak season. This is the second year in a row that I've made it to Michigan in spring and as always, I try to stop by and visit our friends Bob and Brigitta Stewart of Arrowhead Alpines. www.arrowhead-alpines.com. Don't be fooled by the name, as alpines are only a small part of their extensive plant offerings. If you are passionate about cool plants, their nursery, which is about 1 hour northwest of Detroit, is a horticultural mecca. I always make the mistake of not taking enough empty luggage to haul plants home. The other gem that I discovered this year was Armstrong Atlantic State University Arboretum ( www.arboretum.armstrong.edu) in Savannah, GA. Never heard of it? It's not an arboretum in the conventional sense, as it is actually a 280+ acre campus-wide botanic garden, along the same lines as the fabulous Scott Arboretum on the Swarthmore PA campus. UGA graduate and Mike Dirr protégé, Philip Schretter, has turned the campus into one of the most amazing public gardens that I've ever visited, and I will admit to feeling a bit jaded. I don't know if it was the International Garden with sections devoted to each continent or the Banksia garden that was the most impressive, but I can't begin to tell you what a gem this is. For those that have been to Savannah, it's only a five minute drive from the famed Bamboo Experiment Station just south of town. We've just added quite a few new plants to our on-line catalog, many of which are in short supply. When we discover a new plant that we think may have good garden potential, we will often order several for trial. Many of the overseas wholesalers require a minimum order of 25 plants per variety, so after planting our trial plants, we often have 20 or so of each left. Several of the new plants on our list fall into this category... plants that we think will be future stars, but ones we aren't ready to put in the printed catalog without some on-site trials. If you enjoy having the newest plants first, this is a great opportunity, but only if you act fast. If these plants trial well for us, it may be 1-3 years before they hit the main catalog. You can find the new offerings at www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/web_only.html and click on April 2007 additions. They also appear in alphabetical order if you are going through the entire on-line catalog. We're gearing up for our Spring Open House, which begins a week from today and runs Friday-Sunday, May 4-6 and 11-13. The hours are 8-5 on Fridays and Saturdays and 1-5 on Sundays. Despite the freeze damage, the gardens really look quite superb, and the nursery is brimming with special treasures. We hope you will take time to drop by for a visit. If you are bringing a bus tour, just give us a call and we can assist with your arrangements. As I mentioned earlier in the month, this is our heaviest shipping season. Combined with open house, our shipping staff and facilities get maxed out for a few weeks. We cannot add any additional orders to be shipped out the week of April 30-May 4 but can still handle a few more for the week of May 7-11. If you are having a horticultural emergency, please don't wait to let us know. On a final but sad note, Bill Janssen of Collectors Nursery in Oregon passed away after an extended illness. Our condolences go out to Bill's wife, Diana Reeck, during this difficult time. The late April version of the top 25 list of the year hasn't seen too many changes. We expect the big shuffling to occur after open house next weekend. It's still quite amazing to have a hosta hanging in at #4 and two euphorbias still in the top 10. I hope your Top 25 Contest selections are making their way to the top! As always, we thank you for your continued support and patronage. Please direct all replies and questions to office@plantdelights.com. April 2007Dear PDN'ers:Greetings from Plant Delights, where after two weeks of late spring weather, we have once again plunged back into the grip of winter. For nurserymen, it is the month of April that results in the most premature grey hair accompanied by high blood pressure due to the worry about late spring frosts. After two weeks of temperatures in the 80's, a cold front has once again gripped our area, with predictions of five consecutive nights of freezing temperatures and lows of 24-26 degrees F, which will shatter our old low temperature records for most of those dates. Where's global warming when you really need it? Since we haven't uncovered the overwintering greenhouses yet, the containerized nursery plants are fine, other than causing some heating bills that we could have done without. Our primary concerns are for plants in the display garden, where some arisaemas are in full flower and early hostas are in full leaf. Our crew has spent over 24 man hours covering tender vegetation with spun-bound polyester frost fabric (I'm glad nursery folks never got the memo that polyester went out of fashion). Frost cloth is made for this purpose and can offer several degrees of protection for tender plants in just such a situation. The key to how much damage we will see is a combination of how cold the temperatures drop and how long they stay there. Typically, frost clothes can offer protection down to about 27 degrees F, but below that, cold injury could still occur. There is also the issue of trees and shrubs that have already developed spring growth. While these are virtually impossible to protect with frost cloth, they can be very sensitive to frost damage. Japanese maples are one of many trees that are particularly sensitive and can be killed outright by late spring freezes when they are at a susceptible stage of growth. In such cases, there are really only two options for protection. One is the application of irrigation, which, while the water is freezing actually releases heat that protects the plants. This technique is most commonly used on field grown crops such as strawberries. The downside is that water must be applied at the proper rate and the application must continue con |