Each Little World

Mood reversal

I clearly posted too early yesterday as it turned out to be a lovely day. It was cool, cloudy and rainy for much of the day. We got .52" which was enough to make the garden sparkle. The rain, coupled with the recent hot days, has the garden on overdrive. I walked around a number of times just marveling at the beauty. 

As much as I like flowers, nothing beats the greens of spring. Up or down there was something lush and fresh to enjoy.

And, yes, there are lots of plants in full bloom like this unknown Peony. Last year I noticed a small stem on a mature species Peony whose leaves were clearly different from the main plant. I separated it and decided to watch it. This spring it shot up with a big bud that is opening into what looks like a gorgeous flower.

In the morning I got together with my garden gal pals to brainstorm some trees and shrubs that one of the members of our little group could add to her garden for winter interest as well as screening views of her neighbor's property. All that garden chat is always a boost.

When I got back home treats had arrived in the mail: The 30th anniversary edition of Gardens Illustrated magazine. 

I've been reading this mag since it hit the newsstands. I used to have the first 50 issues. I still have plenty of back issues, but now I only keep the ones that I really want to look at again — and again. This one is the second issue published. Also in the mail. was a box of plants from Odyssey Perennials. Mostly different Primula varieties.

This is Aquilegia viridiflora var. atropurpurea, one of the mail order plants. This is the nursery website photo as the plant is quite small. I'm going to put it with a group of Geranium phaeum whose flowers are deep violet and whose leaves have splashes of the same color. Despite my cranky start to the day, it turned out to be pretty perfect. 

Mark's in Madison Magazine

Doug Moe, a well-regarded local journalist and former co-worker of mine, wrote a nice piece about Mark in Madison Magazine. It details his ten years since retirement taking photos.

These days he's so involved with his own photo work that It's rare that I can get him into the garden to take pictures. When we first started the garden he was the main photographer of it for many years. 

The above photo is one of his earlier ones and is not in the exhibit; but it's always been one of my favorites.

Gardening hipster

I have been a reader of the UK magazine "Gardens Illustrated" since it was first published. My garden girlfriends all read "Fine Gardening," so I subscribed to it and have been very pleased with the content and photos. Garden legend Dan Hinkley was recommending 9 lesser-known shade plants we should all grow in the latest issue.

Imagine my surprise when I realized I've been growing five of them for years. Made me feel really cool. Of course, when I double checked my plant id notes, I discovered that I'm not growing exactly the ones he mentions, but close-enough relatives that I'm giving myself a pat on the back.

Here's the five cousins in my garden:

Begonia grandis 'Heron's Pirouette' is Dan's choice, but I planted my Begonia grandis (above) long before his own variety reached the market. This is a great plant to put in an area where you have spring ephemerals that leave a gaping hole come summer as it comes up late. You can't tell from this photo, but the reverse of the leaves is red and creates a stunning foliage effect when hit by the western sun. 'Heron's Pirouette' has redder stems than the variety I'm growing but that seems the only difference.

Delavay's mayapple (Podophyllum delavayi) is another great foliage plant. It has been a very slow grower for me but last summer it put out a baby leaf. I am looking forward to see what it does this summer. I think it wants more moisture than it may currently get but I am nervous about moving it.

Anemonopsis macrophylla is a late summer beauty whose downward facing flowers are difficult to photograph. But it's swirling stems and delicate flowers are a contrast to so many big bright summer flowers that I wouldn't want to be without it. I mention that because I moved it in late summer 2021 and never saw it last year. If I don't see it this summer I will have to buy another one. 

Hinkley suggests Cypripedium formosanum as an easy lady slipper Orchid to start with. I'm growing two different varieties; one planted in 2008 and the other in 2011. They barely hung on until I decided to move them. That was the charm; I found the spots they wanted and they've done beautifully with no help from me ever since.

I planted two others in recent years and both died almost instantly. So I planted another last autumn and we'll see if that one even makes it through the winter. I am probably going to look for the one Hinkley suggests as it has pleated foliage. That means it wouldn't even have to flower to be a great plant. (Cypripedium 'Hank Small', above)

I am growing a wide variety of Hepaticas but not the one Hinkley suggests, H. transilvanica. I will be searching it out as it is stoloniferous rather than clumping; meaning it would form an impressive display much more quickly than almost every one I am growing. I've opted for Hepaticas with attractive foliage rather than paying attention to growth habit. 

I'm not interested in a couple of the other plants Hinkley suggests; one due to its color and the other its size. But his last two favorites have caught my eye; this spring I will see if anyone is selling them locally. 

The 100 plants list

Every year a different gardener/horticulturalist lists their top 100 plants for Gardens Illustrated magazine. This is my favorite gardening mag and I always look forward to this issue. I like to see what they like and compare their lists with what I'm growing. Of course, being a UK publication these gardeners often grow a lot of plants that are not hardy where I live.

This year Sarah Price picked her "100 Beautiful and Useful Plants." I wrote about Price not long ago as I admired the garden she designed with a limited plant palette. Price divided her list in the magazine into categories: annuals, bulbs, climbers, ferns, grasses and restios, half-hardy perennials, perennials, shrubs and trees, and lastly, wildflowers.

Unlike the past lists that the magazine has published, I am clearly not on the same wavelength as Price judging by her list. I like a lot of her garden designs and the plants she's used in them, but it turns out that I am barely growing a dozen of the same things as Price and those are mostly bulbs and ferns. Five bulbs, three out of her five ferns and a few perennials. But my perennials at least are some of the slightly more unusual ones like Kirengeshoma palmata and Paeonia mascula.

A fun list to read about and enjoy all the flowery images, but not one with many plants that will find their way into my garden. On the other hand, stories like this are one of the things keeping me going while I wait to get out into my own garden this spring.

Price's bulb list included straight species Lilium martagon. I'm growing the variety L. martagon 'Mrs. R. O. Backhouse' (pictured) and the sensitive fern aka Onocleasensibilis, the large fern pictured directly above. In the lower left corner is another fern on Price's list, Asplenium scolopendrium (hart's tongue fern). 

Tulip trivia

These days I only subscribe to one print garden magazine, Gardens Illustrated, which is published in the UK. I love its large format and variety of gardens and information. Besides, I am an Anglophile from way back.

One of the most intriguing articles in the last issue I got (the U.S. is always a bit behind the current issue with home delivery) was titled "Cracking the Code." It was a short piece about genomic experts unlocking the common tulip's (Tulipa gesneriana) genetic code in hopes of being able to improve breeding. The Dutch consortium which sequenced the tulip's genome notes it has about 34 giga base pairs.

Guess what? That is "almost 11 times bigger than that of humans." Apparently the "entire human genome fits into one tulip chromosome." Who knew?! Maybe that's why humans have always been so fascinated by tulips. On some level we knew there was more going on behind the scenes than we could possibily imagine. 

Never too late

Last year ! finally subscribed to Gardens Illustrated, a UK garden magazine that I could sometimes find at my local Barnes and Noble bookstore. But it was always a hit or miss experience trying to get the current issue before it sold out. European magazines arrive here on a different schedule and it always drove me crazy hearing about the latest issue when I could not find it to buy. Individual issues now cost $9.99 so a subscription offers a better price though it's still not cheap. But I usually feel it's well worth the price.

The articles are interesting, informative and more quirky than American gardening publications. The photos are always superb and the large size of the magazine is another plus. I had a subscription to the latest iteration of Garden Design magazine which is certainly a beautiful and well-written publication. But the proportion of articles about very large, professionally designed garden or about plants I could not grow in my climate was a deal breaker when it was time to renew.

Even though Gardens Illustrated certainly features many things I can't grow, there are more stories about hands-on gardeners who garden in a wide array of styles and different size spaces. It all seems geared to readers who are also hands-on. The only real downside to the magazine is it comes a month late. Thus my February issue arrived on March 8. I am always counting the days till it hits my mailbox. But no matter when it arrives, it's never to late to excite me. 

The March issue is the annual one that features a famed gardener offering their top 100 plants. This time it's Rosemary Alexander with "100 Plants for an English Country Garden." Last year I wrote a long rant about this issue of the magazine and the whole concept of plant lists. I'm in favor of them as they really make you think about what you grow in your own garden and why. As for Alexander's favorites, I'm growing 13 of the exact plants she likes and serendipitously have another 3 on order.

Alexander also likes a few plants that I've grown and discarded over the years and I'm growing a number of plants in the same family as ones she recommends just not the exact variety she likes. For example, No. 99 on her list is Trillium chloropetalum. She points out that Trilliums are "a fairly new obsession" of hers. They are a long time obsession of mine, however. I've thought about growing her T. chloropetalum but it's a Zone 6 plant and I haven't wanted to chance it as a Z5 gardener. 

But I am growing many other Trillium varieties as you can see here. My sessile Trilliums (2nd photo from the top) are so happy in my garden that they increase almost like a weed. The Great White Trillium (T. grandiflorum) was in the garden when we bought the house in 1994 and I've no idea of its age. Last year I added T. Albidum (above, Wiki photo) and the year before I planted the double flowered T. grandiflorum flore pleno. All in all I think my choices stack up rather well against Alexander's. Maybe next year the magazine will want to feature 100 plants for an American urban garden! I'll be happy to give them my list.

In a vase on Monday: Inspiration from 2003

Even in this digital age I am still an inveterate clipper of newspaper and magazine articles. I have a whole stack of images of bouquets and various kinds of horticultural arrangements. A while ago I decided that I would cull the pile for the best ideas and images and then pop them in a binder so I could find them when I needed inspiration. As I was wandering around the garden looking to see what I might use for today's bouquet, I remembered there was a photo of an arrangement in one of the vases I used not long ago.

Sure enough there was my chartreuse vase with a great black and chartreuse bouquet in it, courtesy of Country Gardens magazine from Spring, 2003. I made a mental note that the concept just used two colors and I did not worry about using (or not using) any of the same plants. Though my vase looks similar to the one in the photo above, they are both really less yellow leaning more toward yellow-green: Chartreuse.  

My arrangement includes Spirea 'Goldflame' and 'Magic Carpet' (though the bronze new growth has pretty much faded), leaves from assorted dark Heucheras, one leaf of Hosta 'Whirlwind' (left) and H. 'Shade Fanfare' (right), a stem of Trillium leuteum dead center. Dark flowers include Geranium phaeum 'Springtime' and Aquilegia 'Black Barlow'.

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this meme.

Who ya gonna listen to?

I've always been interested in English history, needlework and culture. Nowhere do they intersect more perfectly — at least to my mind — than in gardening. Gardening is a long and storied part of the larger cultural landscape in the United Kingdom. That's why I love Gardens Illustrated (GI) magazine: it covers the very old and the very new in the world of gardening. There are profiles of plants people and articles looking deeply at one plant in all its permutations. The magazine looks at every type and size of garden in every corner of the world. GI also covers low budget gardens and eccentric gardeners, the kind of topics that got short shrift in most American garden magazines at the time I began gardening. 

I subscribed to Horticulture and Garden Design magazines for years. But these days GI is the only one I'm still following. When it began publishing in the spring of 1993 it was a magazine like nothing I'd ever seen: large format, luscious photos and layout, intelligent and opinionated text. I've still got stacks of back issues including the first 30 issues. Originally GI was published every other month and they didn't start numbering them until No. 6.

Maybe because I am so familiar with GI and its foibles I didn't get excited when Garden in a City blog took exception to the cover story of issue No.231: "Tom Stuart-Smith's 100 Plants Every Gardener Should Grow." I, on the other hand, went searching for that very issue as soon as I knew about it. A number of years ago Anna Pavord, another well-known English gardener/author, offered her list of 100 plants that she would never want to be without. When those of us who garden in the Midwest are getting ready to plant, these kind of lists seem like a topic worth considering rather than consigning to the compost pile.

"How do you judge an iris against an oak tree?" Pavord asked, noting that compiling a list like this makes you "ask yourself why you respond to some plants much more warmly than others." As Pavord said, it's an exercise that really makes you think. It got me wondering what would be on my list — so I composed one. As in Pavord's case, it consisted only of things I'd grown. Unlike Pavord, I limited my list to a baker's dozen. Somehow 100 plants suggested nothing was left off her list — either that or she had a very large garden. When I read over my list again all these years later, I saw that every thing on it was still growing in my garden and was a plant I would put on my list again.

In case you are not familiar with  him, Tom Stuart-Smith has won multiple medals at the Chelsea Flower show. He's also the first living gardener with an exhibition of work at the Garden Museum in London in 2011. As for his list of 100 plants? He's a terrific designer and I wanted to see what plants he likes enough to recommend — especially since my favorite gardens by him are mainly green (see below). I was also curious to see what he specifically said about his plant choices. Since Gardens Illustrated is a UK publication, I knew from the start the list would have things I can't grow in my Zone 4 American garden. Worse, there would be many wonderful plants that I could grow if only someone was selling them over here. Since Jason at Garden in a City added up the plants on Tom's list where he's growing the exact same plant as well as those where he's growing a different variety in the same family, I decided to do the same. To my surprise I am growing ten of the same things but I am growing another 26 plants that are the same genus. Yet my garden could hardly look more different than Tom's own garden or his creations.

I know from following Jason's blog that he was having a bit of fun here. But I think there is also a serious point to be made. I don't believe even a novice gardener is going to go out and try to buy all 100 of Stuart-Smith's recommended plants, as some of Jason's commenters feared. But I do know that beginning gardeners will kill a lot of plants before they figure it all out, because we've all done it. Learning from our mistakes is the best way to learn. Listening to those in the know like Stuart-Smith is another way to learn. I spent last Saturday — along with more than a hundred other gardeners — at a daylong garden symposium put on by the Allen Centennial Garden on the UW-Madison campus. Every speaker enthused about plants we should grow. And they all have written  books which will let us learn about their philosophy and their favorite plants in more detail. 

A Tom Stuart-Smith garden in London. 

I expected Saturday's event to send me home overloaded with new ideas — and it did. But garden information and inspiration can also come when you least expect it and where you least expect to find it, even in the pages of English magazines. I've come to the conclusion that specific plants — whether they're from Stuart-Smith's list, are common cultivars or cool ones from a specialty nursery — matter much less to my level of enjoyment in the garden than I like to think. The most important thing I've learned over the years is that gardening is about the doing: the digging and weeding and watering. I may plan and plot and dream but when it comes right down to it, I garden to garden.

A Tom Stuart-Smith garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Dressed for gardening . . .

I love European magazines and have stacks of old issues cluttering my house, mostly World of Interiors and Gardens Illustrated. But now and then, I grab a Tattler or the British edition of Vogue when the issue contains a bit of fashion fantasy. These poetic pictures are from a fashion layout from the December 1984 Vogue, styled by the great Grace Coddington and photographed by Bruce Weber.

Coddington was a notable model back in the day, but I think her true talent lies in her editorial work. This week Coddington announced she's stepping down from her role at American Vogue to freelance. The photos below are from one of my favorite Coddington creations.

The spread was titled "In an English garden: A style that could grow on you." 

The introductory paragraph of text goes on to say: "Englishwomen are best at this — a look where pieces have been pruned but the whole is wreathed with imagination. Here the tradition branches out into charm and charade, tweeds are tweeds, but mackintoshes and especially hats go further into the landscape . . . "

One reason these images grabbed me so forcefully is certainly the garden theme. But they remind me of the time my roommate Mary and I adorned ourselves in 1950s evening gowns, long gloves and corsages made of vegetables; radishes for me and banana peppers for her. Thus attired, we made a late entrance at a housewarming party for a recently divorced male friend and brought down the house.

In her autobiography, Coddington described these clothes and the photo shoot as "ravishingly romantic." Though Mary and I were clad in outfits and bouquets that were not quite as romantic as these, I think they were equally memorable.

Attack of the bunnies

The one good thing about winter has been the scarcity of rabbits that I've seen in our snowy garden. We set a trap right next to the spot where we think they are burrowed in: under our deck. Alas we've caught two squirrels who managed to chew through the wood making the wood and wire trap more or less useless.

Mark was supposed to use this handmade trap as a model to build his own, since this is the one that works best according to those in the know. It's also apparently most effective in the winter. At the rate I am ordering plants on-line I am nervous about the potential size of our rabbit population come Spring. Since the trap is visible from the chair where I sit reading or iPadding, I perhaps think about rabbits more than you.

Thus I was more than a bit disconcerted to find this full page ad for a hot new Hunt Slonem wallpaper design as I was reading the latest issue of Elle Decor. Rest assured, you won't be finding this in my house, no matter how charming and harmless Slonem's bunnies may be. But really, who knew you could have a career drawing rabbits?