Each Little World

On again, off again

It rained most of last Sunday (4/16), eventually turning into snow. It was so wet and miserable I decided not to go out and cover any plants — despite the fact that the overnight low was going to be quite low. All week the forecast kept going down.

When we got up Monday mooring it was 27°F and snow covered the garden. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. for Mark's first cataract surgery. Got home around 10 a.m. which is when I took the snowy photos. All the gravel and stones melt the snow quickly.

But the plants were still well covered. Hellebore 'Jade Tiger'

Fritillaria 'Raddeana' on Monday morning.

F. 'Raddeana' at 10 am Tuesday morning. The snow is mostly gone but these flowers are only standing up by virtue of their cages. 

Just about complete recovery by 6 p.m.

That's pretty much the case with the plants I was most worried about — like Paeonia 'Nosegay' pictured in the a.m. and p.m. yesterday.

This very early blooming Peony is a second generation cross between P. mlokowitschii and P. tenufolia. I adore it. A 2014 purchase from the late, great Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery. 

I'm hoping everyone stands up straight again and that their buds haven't been fatally frozen. I went back in my records to 2018 and discovered that I'd covered plants to protect them from April frosts a good 4 or 5 times in four out of the five years. With climate change it seems our weather is more unpredictable than ever. I am thus moving toward an attitude where the plants have to survive without me. 

As I write this it's 39°F (3.88°C) but feels like 33 °F. (0.55°C) Rain is forecast for 6 out of the next 10 days. I'm good with that; less happy about the overnight lows that are forecast for this coming weekend. 

Sad news from Song Sparrow

When I look back on the year 2020, it won't be the pandemic that I will remember most — as crazy as that sounds. It will be the loss of the two nurseries that have been my go-to sources for plants since I started gardening. First Flower Factory closed its doors in September with the retirement of its owners, Nancy and David Nedveck.

Now comes the news that Song Sparrow Nursery will close at the end of this year. I always refer to the nursery as Klehm's Song Sparrow because it was still owned by the Klehm family when I first discovered it. In recent years, the staff took over the business. 

Members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society taking advantage of a few hours of special on-site shopping at the Song Sparrow nursery on a chilly day in May, 2013 (above).

 

I've been shopping at Khelm's for so long that my memories and list of plants from them are both endless. I still have one of the first catalogs I ever got from them — 1995 — when they were still located in Illinois, before they moved to Wisconsin. The catalog was for mail-order plant purchases and remains the most beautiful garden catalog I've ever seen. It was a square format (9" x 9") with thick, high quality paper. There were limited color photos on glossy paper, grouped in three sections: Peonies, Daylilies and Perennials.

The rest of the book (it was 109 pages!) was detailed with beautiful watercolor illustrations, like the one on the cover (below) by Marcella J. Spanogle. The design quality, time and attention to detail that went into the creation of the catalog suggested to me that any plants I ordered from this lovely book would be of equal quality. And that has proven true, right up to my most recent order.

When I had a sunny garden in the early 1990s, Klehm was my go-to source for unusual daylilies, including those with small flowers like 'Cricket' that suited my small garden at the time. When I moved to a larger garden, Klehm provided me with Hemerocallis 'Tetrina's Daughter,' a daylily with four foot high stems that bloomed at the end of the day with a extreme lemony fragrance.

How many of us are still growing Paeonia 'Soft Salmon Joy', the Peony plant that Roy Klehm gave to every member of the WHPS at the October, 2001 meeting where he spoke to the group? Mine is still going strong (below, after a spring rain storm), even after having been moved during a construction project. 

Perhaps my most notable memory of Klhem's is the year I ordered three Martagon lilies from them. They were expensive enough that it took me a while to decide to take the plunge. When my plants arrived I was stunned to find three narrow boxes, each at least three feet tall. I assumed I was getting bulbs but, instead, I received three plants that were fully budded with stems as tall as the boxes they were housed within.

The boxes opened like a closet door to easily remove the plants without damaging them. In fact, not a bud had come off in the time those lilies left Klehm's and arrived at my house. At that moment I fully understood the cost of shipping and I've never complained about that expense again. (Martagons in bud in my garden).

It is heartbreaking to know that I will never again get a catalog or a package of plants from such a rare and historic nursery as Klehm's Song Sparrow. Best wishes and a healthy and safe future to all the wonderful people who made Song Sparrow such a trusted and treasured name among gardeners.

Ginkgo color variation

Among the four Ginkgo biloba trees that are in the garden are two dwarf varieties. That's G. biloba 'Spring Grove' on the left in the picture below. 'Mariken' is still so green it's barely visible in the background to the right. 

Ginkgos are famed for dropping their beautiful leaves all at once in the autumn. But I've found they are quite variable in when they color up and how quickly they drop their leaves. My oldest and biggest one typically loses its leaves in two or three days rather than overnight. 'Spring Grove' is way ahead of its neighboring dwarf Ginkgo as well as the big one in turning color. 

These two little Ginkgoes are twelve years old which means they are a significant size. I've caged them every winter to protect them. I don't know if the rabbits would munch on them but I've always been too nervous to take a chance. 'Spring Grove' is fairly narrow so caging is not a big problem. But  'Mariken' (below) is a widely spreading little gem and caging it is always a chore I dislike as it is an awkward and frustrating job. Still I will probably continue to cage these two as it would not take a much damage to be noticeable on dwarf specimens. 

I snapped the above photos and wrote that section of this post last Friday. Saturday we had high winds, snow flurries and cold temperatures. This is what I saw when I looked out the window Sunday morning. Those lovely yellow leaves on the 'Spring Beauty' were all on the ground.

Alas G. 'Mariken' and our big Ginkgo also lost their leaves — though they had not remotely begun to turn yellow. But clearly it was an overnight sensation — just like the tree books say!

This is the second year in a row that the Ginkgoes have lost their leaves while still green. Last year it happened a week later, but it was still October. We'll see if more deciduous trees drop their leaves again this year without coloring up.

The Ginkgo leaves are so thick on the ground that you have to look closely to see the stepping stones in the foreground.

 

A perfect weekend: Part 1

Yesterday Mark and I were on the road by 9 a.m. in order to be among the early birds on the 12th Annual Mt. Horeb Arts Association annual spring art tour. It was a perfect day and our first stop was as enjoyable as we anticipated. The tour continues today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Details and directions are here. The group has a good website and we found directional signs all along the route.

We began at  Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith's Blanchardville farm, a spot that would be reason enough for a drive in the country. An old farmhouse with barns and outbuilding used as studios are surrounded by flowers, lots of spots to sit and enjoy their art and garden objects. 

This piece is called "The Bat" and is made of copper. 

This garden was the first place we ever saw art made out of bowling balls; in particular a pair of huge pyramids composed entirely of bowling balls. If you leave them out in the elements to weather they lose their shine and many of them develop lichens like this ball perched on a fence post.

Chuck and Chuck always had inspiring bouquets of flowers from their gardens at their shop on State St. in Madison. I was introduced to many a flower via those arrangements. Yesterday at the farm, I spent quite a lot of time walking around and sticking my nose in massive rose bushes covered with blooms and clumps of big old Peonies drooping under the weight of the fat flowers. This is one of Roy Klehm's famed coral peonies, a color break through he developed. Even more stunning in person that this picture conveys, but alas it does not have any fragrance to match its dramatic coloring.

Since we own an oil painting by Chuck Bauer and a watercolor done by his late mother, he sent us a message in advance of the weekend's tour with pictures of what he'd be selling. That was enough for us to make the trip and to bring a checkbook. We came home with another painting — a different seasonal view of the same part of their garden as the painting we already own. Mark succumbed to a little house made out of lead that he's long admired. He put it out in our garden this morning. We hung the painting yesterday as soon as we got home. 

. . .

We spent the afternoon with a fellow garden blogger, her husband and daughter. Cindy Goodson blogs at enclos*ure take refuge and Mark and I had met her and her husband, Don, on prior visits to Madison to see their daughter. This time they were on their way back to the U.S. after three years in Stuttgart, Germany. Don is a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service so they've lived in many countries.

It's always lovely to spend time with them and talk gardens, politics, food and travel. If you haven't been to Cindy's blog, do take a look. She writes about gardens wherever she is, but she also focuses on historic and ethnic gardens here, there and everywhere. I never know what I am going to find when I visit her blog, but I always know it will capture my interest and attention.

New Peony blooms

Paeonia 'Nosegary' bloomed for the first time last Thursday. This plant is an AP Saunders introduction from Klehm's Song Sparrow nursery. Klehm described it as a "second generation cross between P. mlokosewitschi and P. tenufolia."

You can see Molly the Witch's parentage in the petal size and shape and the tenufolia parentage in the deeply cut foliage. If you look at the close-up photo, it is a great demonstration of the parts of a peony: the stamens are yellow and the carpels are pink. The flower petals are the softest silvery pink. 

So sad the rain has quickly pounded it to pieces.

Not fade away

Some plants are meant to stay in the background. Their size, shape or color are used to create a subtle stage for the prima donnas of the garden. Then there are the stars who demand adulation and attention. Currently enjoying a star turn in my garden is this new tree that I put in a pot to enjoy up close before I plant it out in the garden.

This is Carpinus betulus 'Columnar Nana,' a dwarf cultivar of Fastigiate Hornbeam that will get 6-8 feet tall. Small enough to easily fit into the garden but big enough from the get-go to make a statement. 

I won this Fagus sylvatica 'Aurea pendula' in a raffle at a garden writers conference in 2012. I was already growing a purple weeping beech and really wasn't interested in a second one, least of all yellow. But Klehm's Song Sparrow nursery, which had donated it, had the tree priced at $75.00 so I felt like I should find it a home. 

I hate to admit it, but I bet I've moved it at least three times in the garden trying to find a spot where it has some room and will work with the surrounding plants. I finally gave it a permanent location at the back edge of the driveway border. It is next to a golden-tipped Hemlock and a gold Dawn Redwood making this border a bright spring treat. 

Jinny Blom suggests

The first time I saw the picture below, I went searching for the designer's name and committed it to memory: Jinny Blom. I've seen lots of images of her garden designs since then, including award winners at Chelsea. 

Now — like all the big name interior and garden designers — she's come out with her own book: The Thoughtful Gardener.

I'm not in a big rush to run out and get it after reading an interview with her in the December 2016 issue of Gardens Illustrated magazine. There was a picture of Blom in her workspace with rows of art, vinyl records and books all lined up behind her. It looked like heaven to me.  

In the interview Bloom named ten titles she'd want to have if stuck on a desert island. I'm going to try to find some of those books before I go looking for her own. So far I've only found a couple of them but the first one I've read is well worth pursuing for any serious gardener: Perennial Garden Plants or The Modern Florilegium: A Concise Account of herbaceous plants, including bulbs, for general garden use by Graham Stuart Thomas.

I only knew Thomas from his rose books but his obituary in The Guardian newspaper in 2003 describes a career whose length and breadth few plants people in today's garden world will achieve. Here's a snippet from it: 

"Graham Stuart Thomas, who has died aged 94, was a deeply knowledgeable horticulturist whose understanding and use of plants shaped many well-known gardens. As a great rosarian, he brought old roses back from retirement, and his books are still studied avidly. He approached the layout and planting of gardens as an art form, and over seven working decades changed our perception of gardens and plants."

I'm reading the third edition of this particular book, published in 1990 by Timber Press. It's a thick, meaty tome and a total pleasure to read or even just to peruse, dipping in and out at will.

It's filled with Thomas own illustrations in color and black and white as well as photos. The first seven chapters are all about garden design, dealing with shade and moisture, practical tips and more. All of it backed by a lifetime of experience and a willingness to make his opinion known!

He actually met the great Gertrude Jekyll late in her life. On a visit to her garden she told Thomas to "pick a piece of anything you would like to talk about, come back and have some tea with me." Hard to even imagine such an experience. 

The book is divided into lists of perennial plants with separate sections devoted to grasses/sedges/rushes and one on ferns. With a book like this I like to look at what an author has to say about a few plants I grow and know well. With Thomas' book I looked at Geraniums and Peonies. He covers 24 species of Geraniums. I've grown 11 of the ones he mentioned and he's spot on in his descriptions and discussion (G. cantabriginese 'Biokovo', above).

I laughed out loud when I read at the end of the section on G. macrorrhizum, "There is an ugly variegated from." I've been growing that ugly one the last few years and it was already at the top of the list of plants that had to go before I read that. I feel quite vindicated in my dislike of it.  

As for Peonies, he lists 17 species and I am growing 7 of them. These are all early woodland Peonies (like my P. japonica, above) and it's not always easy to find reliable information on them. So I consider this a real find. In the Peony section Thomas also devotes space to famed Peony hybridizers like the Klehm family in Wisconsin (Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery).

If there is a downside to the book, it would be the fact that it was originally published in 1976 and last revised in 1990. That means that plants have come and gone in the years when it first appeared to say nothing of the almost 30 years since 1990.

And yet I found so much useful and helpful plant information. Above all I enjoyed Thomas' voice and experience and suggestions. He likes plants that don't need a lot of work or staking and are still here because they have pleased gardeners for generations. He's not against hybrids but he is definitely a fan of species plants, as am I. 

This is the kind of classic gardening book that was the standard for both gardeners and garden writers for many years. It's not the kind of flashy book that is in fashion these days but one that I think is still well-worth searching out. 

 

The last Peonies

I have a number of different types of Peonies and they tend to bloom in a specific sequence:

• Woodland
• Species
• Tree
• Herbaceous 
• Intersectional

I've had Peonies blooming since the beginning of May — a full six weeks. Alas the temps are predicted to hit the 90s by the end of this week which will shorten the life of the gorgeous flowers of my last Peonies of the season.

In the photo below Mark focused on Aquileqia 'Nora Barlow,' who returned to the garden after a year's absence, but that's one of my Herbaceous Peonies in the background: P. 'Burnished Bronze'. It's a Roy Klehm introduction that I've been growing since 2005.

I've been growing this Itoh or intersectional hybrid, P. 'Border Charm,' the same number of years. It's under a Ginkgo tree and doesn't get as much light as it would prefer but I still get a goodly number of flowers. It is a nice compact plant, about 24 inches x 24 inches with bluish green foliage. And what's not to love about a soft yellow Peony?!

Something new from Stonewall

We bought a Picea omorika 'Bruns Pendula' (Weeping Serbian spruce) from Stonewall Nursery just outside of Madison in the fall of 2014. Here I am in the nursery in the midst of a group of these trees trying to decide which one I wanted for our garden. 

I'd been looking at this skinny evergreen on the Klehm Song Sparrow website but decided I wanted an immediate presence, rather than the small size they offered. At our ages, Mark and I are more willing to spend the money on statement trees and shrubs because we don't have twenty years to sit around waiting while tiny plants grow up.

This tree has everything I was looking for: a narrow footprint to fit a small space between the upper pool and a path; a quirky and asymmetrical shape, great pine cones and winter hardiness to Zone 4. It came through its first winter with no problems and produced a wealth of new pine cones. I've kept an eye on it all season, glad that we had plenty of rain so I didn't have to do much supplemental watering. 

This image shows the shape of the tree and also how the pine cones darken as they age. Another great find from Stonewall which has been the source of most of our unusual trees over the years.

Favorite small evergreen shrubs

I currently have 14 Boxwood 'Morris Midget' shrubs (Buxus microphylla var. japonica 'Morris Midget') scattered about my garden. The name should clue you in that this is a dwarf Boxwood that ultimately grows into a 12-inch x 12 inch mound. I bought ten of them in 2010 at $6.00 each and added more the next two years. The ones that were planted first — like the one on the right below — are about at that mature size after five years. But even as very tiny plants they have a charming presence.

I have a group of five of them planted in somewhat subdued light which does not seem to adversely affect them. The ones in sunnier spots — as well as the shadier locations — all came through the last two harsh winters with no ill effects. Lack of snow cover in very cold weather would be a problem, however. I also have not pruned them as they really don't need it. My biggest concern is that I haven't seen any to buy locally for the last couple of years and I definitely would like to add a few more! 

I only have three plants of this dwarf Japanese Hemlock 'Loowit' (Tsuga diversifolia 'Loowit') — and I love every one of them. The new spring growth is a stunning bright green as you can see from the photo below. Loowit is an American Indian name for Mount St. Helens. 

This is a definite slow grower that will ultimately get about 15-18 inches high and 2 feet wide in ten years. It has a fairly tight bun shape with short needles. 

The pictures above and the one directly below are all of the same plant at different times of the year. You can see how it visually holds its own against larger and bright plants.

If you look closely in the the bottom right corner of the picture below you will see another'Loowit' hiding under a fern, probably Dre's Dagger. These little shrubs can be plunked in anywhere and then the encroaching perennials can be cut back or removed as necessary. 

'Loowit' is visible on the right side of this path and his partner is opposite near the red Barberry. Adding shrubs like these, as well as larger ones, is one of the ways I am slowly trying to decrease maintenance in the garden. (Click on the photo to enlarge it).

Here's my third 'Loowit' in the lower right corner. Opposite it, on the other side of the group of Shooting Stars, is a 'Morris Midget' Boxwood.

Because of the tragic problems with Wooly Ageldids killing Canadian Hemlocks on the East Coast, I have refrained from adding any more to my garden in the last couple of years. Tsuga diversifolia, northern Japanese Hemlock, seems to be more resistant to this infestation and is being monitored and studied by a number of groups. So at this point, I will probably add a few more 'Loowits' as it is another little garden gem that has done well in my zone 5 Wisconsin garden. Rabbits have never bothered either the Hemlocks or Boxwoods, another point in favor of both plants. Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery sells 'Loowit" as does Far Reaches Farm.