Category Archives: PASSION

It Ain’t Over (Don’t start Persephone’s Lament, just yet)

PASSION, PERTINENT, PRACTICE

by Ann McCulloh

This ecstatically blue and gold November day, with temperatures in the 70s and honeybees buzzing happily in the purple aster blossoms, gives ample support to my passionate assertion: “The season’s not over, everybody!”

allyssum and parsley

I resist with every fibre of my being the common idea that gardening in Cleveland begins on Memorial Day and whimpers to a close around Labor Day. End the calendar’s tyranny! Don’t go inside before the snow flies! Everywhere you look there’s evidence of abiding life. It’s in the late blooming asters, monkshood and mistflower. Witness the fresh blossoms of borage, calendula, allysum and roses that spring forth with new vigor now the nights are cooler and the rains more abundant.

allyssum and parsley

My zucchini and summer squash are putting out new fruits.

zucchini in november

Fresh rosettes of tasty foliage emerge at the base of all my herbs: parsley, mint, oregano and lemon balm – just in time for me to cut and dry for the onset of winter. One of my favorite salad greens, mache (aka corn salad, and Rapunzel salad) scattered its seeds in May, to lie dormant all summer. Look at it popping up through the straw everywhere!

corn salad

This is a tender little rosette like miniature Boston lettuce, which can be harvested from now through March from under a covering of straw and snow. Kale, collards, chard and tatsoi are other cold-hardy greens that won’t quit for just a few frosts.

tatsoi

All this and more tell me there’s always plenty going on both above and below ground (where the growing never really stops.) I may retreat indoors for a month or two. But come January there’s “winter sowing” of hardy perennials and cold-loving annuals (more on that in a future post), branches to cut and force indoors, and the flowers of witchhazel, Lenten rose and snowdrops to call me back outside.

Our Book Review Corner: “The Indestructible Houseplant,” by Tovah Martin

BEAUTY, PASSION, PRACTICE

9781604695014l

by Catherine Feldman

I just read Tovah Martin’s “The Indestructible Houseplant” and I am happy to announce that I have discovered a new outlet for my Plant Gluttony. She endorses full-green-immersion-indoors, and that sounds like a good goal to me!

I have always kept my houseplants to a minimum, because I like to leave my plants to do their thing without too much fussing on my part (Garden Sloth Method.) Most of my experiments with houseplants have not fared well due to that approach. Now, I have discovered (and I hope, you will, too) a host of houseplants that can take a fair amount of neglect, yet provide much pleasure to the eye and soul.  Winter is taking on a whole new cast! She encourages us and shows us how to have gardens, forests even, in the house. Inside could reflect the outside. Think of the beauty, clean air, and sense of relaxation! I can’t wait. Recommended.

Extra tip: Watch how she combines plants with containers. That’s the magic.

Never Plant This! — Akebia Quinata

BEAUTY, PASSION, PRACTICE

First in a series of plants we do NOT recommend

by Catherine Feldman

One day, early in my gardening years, I fell in love with a lovely five-leaved vine (akebia quinata) that was growing beautifully up a post in a Botanical Garden. It even had some other charming virtues, being edible for humans, distasteful to deer, shade tolerant. and drought resistant.

Akebia quinata

Above all, it was gorgeous; you can see why I had to have it.  Oh my,  though, what a misguided romance! I am stuck now and forever with this plant that pops up everywhere, especially where a current loved one is planted and struggling to maintain a relationship with me. No luxurious sloth allowed in this relationship, only remorseless vigilience, else I would have an Akebia garden. If it calls out to you, block it!

Plants We Like: Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

BEAUTY, PASSION, POLLINATION
by Ann McCulloh
 Blue Mistflowers (Conoclinium coelestinum) are that lovely shade of periwinkle which falls between lavender and powder blue…
A hardy (to zone 5) native  perennial, its late-season nectar attracts lots of butterflies. It really comes on beautifully in September, making a nice, fresh contrast to the prevalent yellows and whites of other fall wildflowers. The stems are a sort of dark cherry color, and at 24″ stand taller than the similar annual Ageratum often sold for springtime bedding. A bit further south this plant is considered a too competitive, but here in Northeastern Ohio it’s often a welcome addition to partly shady or damp gardens. In our current bone-dry season, my newly-planted  specimen required only occasional watering. Here it is on September 25, 2015.
Blue Mistflower

Margaret Ransohoff’s Late Summer Garden

PASSION, PRACTICE

The first in a series on intriguing gardens and their gardeners. 

Margaret’s late summer garden is a feast of exuberant color and form created with a mix of annuals and perennials: take a look at the flowers and foliage, and Margaret, herself, dressed as one of her favorite creatures, a butterfly.

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Most striking in the above photo are the giant castor bean plants, grown this year from seeds of last year’s planting.  See also, dahlias from tubers and cardoon at lower left.

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Cutting garden of dahlias from tubers and zinnias from seed.

Margaret’s container arrangements show an exceptional sense of color and form.

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Above container with canna, New Guinea impatiens, verbena and portulaca, surrounded by Gardenmeister fuchsia, petunias and annual blue lobelia.

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The pot on the pedastal has canna, verbena and calibrachoa. It is surrounded by darmera peltata, hydrangea, blue cardinal flower (lobelia siphilitica).

She defines space and creates structure in the late summer with annuals, canna and zinnias.

Cannas and zinnias

Watch for further posts on Margaret’s garden in other seasons.

Catalogue of Sins Summer Sloth Series

PASSION, PRACTICE, PUNCHY

Sloth Wears Pajamas

With regard to gardeners’ sins, I would like to put in a good word for Sloth.  In particular, I think that there is something to say for Pajama Gardening. Does everyone do it, or just the members of my extended family? I know that in England there is a Nude Gardening Day, but that is only one day per year. One can garden in some variation of pajamas almost any time of year,  especially in the summer, when morning and birdsong begin early. What could be more pleasurable than wearing one’s nightie, carrying a cup of coffee and plucking the spent daylily flowers?

coffee cup:column

 

Watch for future posts…we have a lot to say about Sloth.

Catalogue of a Gardener’s Sins: Plant Gluttony

PASSION, PUNCHY, ,

Gluttony

You know that feeling, deep in your belly, when you walk into a plant nursery?

It tingles and it commands action…quick and a lot of it. Right? 

Well, I’ve got it bad.

I have to have that little red Echinacea…it’s calling to me…really, three (3) or five (5) would be better….isn’t that the rule: odd numbers?…well, maybe seven (7.)

salsa redIf there really is no reason for another Echinacea, how about that Cimicifuga? Five (5) of those would fit. 

cimicifuga

And that adorable Sedum, just one of those. But, I’ll need  a small pot for it.

sedum plant gluttony

Luckily, I have found that there is a limit to my gluttony—that’s when my car is topped up with plants. The scent of the  flowers, leaves and bark, the moisture in the air, and the oxygen filling my lungs. That’s satisfaction…I hope you have it, too.

Plant Gluttony photo

–The Plant Glutton Has Spoken

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