Starting Wildflowers from Seed

I recently visited Bedrock Garden in Lee, NH and came away feeling refreshed and enlightened. This 37-acre public garden was created on the premises of a 1700’s farm that was purchased in 1980 by artist and garden designer Jill Nooney and her husband, Bob Munger.

 

Jill Nooney is a talented designer, who has won many awards at the Boston Flower Show. She is a welder who uses her skills to create metal sculptures from small to mammoth, as well as working with other media. Bob is a natural builder and fix-it guy who has enabled Jill to install her art in the landscape, along with water features, walls, paths and much more. They are a couple who really bring out the best in each other.

 

When I toured the gardens I was lucky to have had Jill as one of my guides. Also touring the gardens with me was John Forti, Executive Director and Horticulturist of the non-profit that manages the gardens. We spent nearly three hours together looking at the gardens and I learned about many plants I had never seen before.

 

Bedrock Garden is full of surprises that delight, enlighten and inspire visitors. I came away wishing I had a bigger garden space for my own efforts, and an appreciation for how much Jill and Bob have packed into their gardens.

 

For years Bedrock Garden was open a few weekends each summer, but five years ago Jill and Bob decided that since they were approaching what some call “retirement age”, that they needed to look seriously at the future of the gardens. They created a non-profit, hired John Forti as the director, and figured out how to separate the public and private spaces.

 

During the pandemic they created a parking lot and visitors center that are accessed away from their home, the old farm house they have lived in for over 40 years. They have created a space that is family-friendly that delights children as much as their parents.

 

Near the parking lot is a gnome house kids can enter made from a huge hollow sycamore log that Jill capped with a steel roof reminiscent of mushroom cap. She saw the wonderful hollow log alongside the road and hit her brakes immediately to ask for it. Luckily, she was the first to ask, and got it. (Five others stopped and asked for it that day, she told me, but she was the first).

 

I consider myself well exposed to the palette of plants available to gardeners in New Hampshire. Bedrock Garden is in Zone 5b, meaning that most years it does not get colder than minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit. But Jill has installed and grown many plants that I have never seen before, including many woody plants normally found in Japan or China.

 

Jill Nooney has used plants in ways that surprised me. So for example, she used ‘Bulls Blood’ heritage beets in a flower bed for their deep purple leaves. An annual effort, but very striking. When a hollow tree was cut down, she had Bob cut it in two-foot sections and stack the sections between two trees so viewers walking by could see through it like binoculars. One can see where branches had been swallowed by its growth. They call it “Log Jam.”

 

Jill has used decorative grasses well throughout the garden. Fountain grass (Miscanthus spp.) is a genus of grass that gets to be more than six feet tall and very bushy in full sun, where she grows it in an “allee” arrangement that is gorgeous. But she also uses it in shade. “It’s wispy in the shade”, she said,” I like that.”

 

Metal sculpture is a key element throughout the garden. Early in our tour I admired a space made by forming ¾-inch steel rebar into a series of 11 arches 13-feet tall and spaced 7 feet apart. “I’m using the sky,” she said. She consciously mimicked the lines of a Gothic cathedral, bending each steel frame to a gracefully pointed Gothic arch. And she is growing European fastigate beeches to clothe the metal frame as part of the installation: one on each side of the archways and tied to the steel. They will eventually reach the sky – the apex of the arch.

 

Also in the garden are two iron “Chiwaras” modeled after antelope masks made by the Bambara people of Mali. Many years ago I had told Jill the legend of the antelope in Mali, where I had worked with the Peace Corps. The Bambara people credit the antelope for teaching them to plant millet, their primary grain. The antelope pawed the ground, and dropped a little manure into the soil containing seeds. So they honored the antelope with their stylized masks, which Jill captured beautifully.

 

So plan a visit to Bedrock Garden if you can. There is a guided tour each day, and two on weekend days. Or just wander around and study the design elements – see how Jill has used plants that awe and inspire, and how she has added whimsy and art that delights and amuses. This is a garden worth visiting even if you don’t have a big space or the energy to develop it the way Jill and Bob have. Bring a lunch and plan on spending the day. You’ll be glad you did. And if you have children in your life, think about attending the Fairy Hobbit House Festival October 9 to 11. Learn more at www.bedrockgardens.org.

 

You may write Henry at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746, or e-mail him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. Please include a SASE if you want a response by mail.

I’ve always been a gardener. –or at least as far back as I can remember. More recently, say the last 20 years or so, I’ve been a plant collector. What does that mean? If I fall in love with a plant, I want to grow other plants related to it.

 

One of the most obsessive collectors I ever met was the late Bill Countryman of Northfield, Vermont. When I interviewed him in the late nineteen nineties he told me that his sister sent him a peony, and although he was in his seventies at the time and not a gardener, he planted it. It bloomed magnificently and Bill fell in love with peonies He decided to grow every type there is.

 

Bill Countryman bought a chain saw so he could clear his land to plant peonies. He bought a bulldozer to remove the stumps and went to work. When I met him, he had already planted some 300 kinds of peonies, though he continued on, getting more varieties – perhaps as many as 600. He sold them, but mostly he just enjoyed them. He was quite the collector.

 

I’m not nearly so obsessive. What do I collect? Well peonies, I suppose. But Cindy and I have only 44 peonies. Primroses. Burnets. Persicarias. Wildlflowers. Willows. I have dozens of colors of daylilies, but don’t consider myself a collector of them – they are just nice, reliable plants, but I don’t need one of every kind. Thank goodness for that- there are many hundred.  

 

The burnets are quite a diverse group in the scientific group or genus, Sanguisorba. First I got the one native to New England, Sanguisorba canadensis. It loves wetlands, so I planted it in a weedy, marshy place in part sun/part shade. It thrived, sending flower spikes with bottlebrush flowers 6-feet tall or more. It blooms in late summer or fall, and can still be pretty in late October.

 

My absolute favorite of these flowers is one called Sanguisorba hakusenensis ‘Lilac Squirrel’. I saw it on-line, and asked all my local garden centers to no avail, so I finally ordered it from Digging Dog Nursery in California. I planted five small plants last year, they wintered over, and are blooming now. The flowers are like pink squirrel tails hanging down from 18-inch flower stems. They make me smile, especially with a name like that.

 

The littlest of the burnets I grow is one called S. officinalis ‘Little Angel’. It makes a tidy clump of diminutive green leaves edged in white. Each leaf is just half on inch long. The deep red catkin-like flowers are on 6-inch stems that lean or fall over. Now, five years since I bought it, the clump is about a foot across and just 3 inches tall.

 

Little Angel’s bigger cousin in the same genus is one called ‘Tanna’. This is called a miniature, but that is only relative to some of the bigger ones that get 4- to 6-feet tall. It has very tidy 18-inch leaf stems, each with 13 to 17 leaflets in dark green. It makes a tidy mound and has the same dark-red smallish flowers.

 

Of the large ones that are garden worthy, I have two: probably S. obtusa and S. tenuifolia. The literature, even on-line, is sketchy about identifying these plants and I lost the plant tags long ago. The first, which has reddish-pink tidy small catkin-like flowers needs to be tied up early in July. If not tied up, the flower stems, which get to be over 4-feet long and have 20 or so blossoms per stem, flop over. The other is standing tall and proud right now, but the flowers have not yet opened – and I haven’t staked them.

 

Why do I collect burnets? I just like them. They can be picked for flower arrangements, but I rarely do. I like seeing them in the garden.

 

Willows, of course, are more of a problem to collect because of their size, but I do grow at least half a dozen. My favorite is the Salix integra ‘Hakuro nishiki’. It has variegated foliage early in the summer – green and white, and then with pink mixed in for a few weeks. It is colorful and fast growing. Like all willows, it appreciates moist soils but will grow in ordinary garden soil.

 

‘Hakuro nishiki’ is not a large willow. It seems to top out at about 20 feet in 10 years. I planted three some 20 years ago, ten feet apart, and they created a dense grove. I was able to prune out branches growing into the center, creating a small room where I placed Adirondack chairs. It makes a cool space near my brook to eat lunch on a hot day.

 

The rosemary willow ( Salix eleagnos) is another favorite of mine. It is a small willow, only getting to be about 10 feet tall and wide in 10 years. I love that its leaves look somewhat like leaves of the herb rosemary: narrow and pointy leaves. They are dark green on the top side, gray or silvery on the bottom side. I’ve almost been able to fool people visiting my garden into believing it was really a rosemary plant on steroids– but for the lack of smell. Neither the rosemary or Hakuro nishiki produce any noticeable flowers.

 

So I encourage you to look for – and collect – plants related to the ones you love. Not every variety will tickle your fancy, but if you discover a few that do, they will make you happy for years to come.

 

Henry lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. He is the author of 4 gardening books. His e-mail is henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Mulch is commonly used to help suppress weeds and to hold in soil moisture in dry times. There are many different kinds of mulch and it is important to get the right kind, and to apply it properly if you wish to get the benefits of mulch.

 

The most commonly used type in flower and shrub borders is sold as bark mulch. It is sold in bags, or by the scoop at garden centers to people who have access to pickup trucks. Bulk mulch is less expensive than bagged mulch if you have a truck, or can borrow one from you brother-in-law.

 

I’m an organic gardener, so I avoid the orange and black mulches. Read the bag before you buy any to see what is in it. According to a report from the University of Massachusetts, the dyes themselves are probably not toxic, but the wood is usually recycled wood from pallets, old decks and scrap. Those sources are dry and accept dye more easily than fresh bark or chipped branches. Recycled pressure treated wood, if older stuff, may contain arsenic; pallets may have been exposed to spilled toxins.

 

I often see deep layers of mulch to keep weeds down. However, a layer 4 inches deep will also keep a short rain shower from getting to the soil and your plants. I use an inch or two of mulch, maximum. Yes, some aggressive weeds will poke through a thin layer of mulch, so I try to do a good weeding first.

 

Chopped leaves are wonderful mulch. Last fall we raked up our leaves and stored them outdoors in a pile. This summer we ran that pile through a chipper/shredder and turned it into a fine product we use as mulch. You can also use your mower to chop fall leaves before raking them. I have friends who store the chopped leaves in bags in the barn until needed. Chopped leaves rarely blow away after they have been rained on.

 

In addition to weed suppression, a layer of mulch keeps soils from drying out quickly in the hot summer sun. Essentially, it shades the soil, keeping it moist and cool. In the spring I do not mulch my vegetable garden until after soil temperatures have reached their summer level – say 60 degrees or more.

 

In May, I want the sun to heat up the soil as my plants need warm soil to grow in, and seeds need warm soil to germinate. And yes, that means weed seeds will germinate, too. But weeding or hoeing the early weeds is not bad and goes quickly – just be sure to get the weeds before they get too big.

 

Mulch gets broken down over time by soil microbes. That is a good thing – wood chips or leaves that break down add organic matter to your soil and encourage earthworms to aerate the soil and add their castings to the soil, and they are rich in minerals –

 

Some gardeners tell me that they worry about soil microbes using up nitrogen in the soil as they breakdown mulch. A nitrogen-starved plant has yellowish leaves, not dark green leaves. But I doubt that you‘ve seen that occur, even in flower beds with plenty of mulch. If it has been a problem, or you worry it will occur, apply some slow-release organic fertilizer on the soil surface before mulching.

 

In the vegetable garden I mulch with straw or hay. Straw is sold as seed-free and is often grown and cut before seeds are formed. Nonetheless, straw often does have seeds, much to the dismay of gardeners who have paid a premium price for it. Buy it from a source you trust!

 

 Hay is just grass grown for animal feed that has gotten wet after cutting. Those pampered cows or horses won’t eat it, so it is sold as mulch for a few bucks a bale.

 

I always lay down two to four layers of newspaper on the ground before applying hay or straw. This accomplishes two things: it keeps light away from any weeds that germinate even with a layer of hay, and it slowly breaks down and adds more organic matter to the soil.

 

In the old days newspapers used dyes with heavy metals, including lead. But now inks are made with soy products and are said to be non-toxic, or at least free of heavy metals. The newspaper itself is made from cellulose derived from trees, though some chemicals are used in producing the paper.

 

Black plastic will keep weeds from germinating, but it breaks down and goes into the landfill. It’s also ugly, and I avoid it. There are various “landscape fabrics” to put under mulch that do help, though pernicious weeds can grow through some kinds. The woven kind is more susceptible to that.

 

What about papers that have been through a shredder? I don’t find them easy to use or aesthetically pleasing. What about coffee grounds? These are quite acidic, and if you collect them at your local coffee shop, use them only for acid-loving plants like blueberries, hollies or azaleas.

 

I use no mulch in my mature flower beds. By letting perennials mature and spread, they will choke out almost any weeds, except perhaps in early spring. But by now, they shade out all but the most difficult of weeds.

 

Henry lives in Cornish Flat, NH and can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.  He is the author of 4 gardening books.

The story of Jack, of Bean Stalk fame, appealed to me as a boy, and still does. I love climbing vines and grow many including those that are perennial or annual flowers, and some vegetables. Vines are a great way to save space and to get blossoms up and visible.

 

In the vegetable garden I have had great luck growing cucumbers on trellises. I made a simple frame to support my cukes, and you can, too. You can use 4 six-foot long 2-by-2 pieces of lumber for the framework. Attach them in pairs with simple gate hinges from the hardware store. Then space them five-feet apart with pieces of strapping at the top and bottom, and attach chicken wire for the vines to grab onto.

 

I used a cordless drill and short sheet rock screws to put it all together. I made it sturdier by cutting short pieces of strapping to go from the front legs to the back legs. To ensure it doesn’t blow over, I drove in a hardwood grade stake into the ground on each end, and screwed it to that strapping. Once the vines are long enough, lift them up onto the chicken wire, and they will quickly attach to it and grow up.

 

Other vines will grow up on trellises, too, including squashes and gourds of all sorts. For heavier fruits you may want to build your trellis with two-by-fours, and perhaps to use stronger wire mesh or the stuff used to reinforce concrete that comes in 4-foot by 8-foot pieces.

 

If you have only grown bush beans, you should also try pole beans. As the name implies, these will encircle a pole and grow up 8-feet or more. The great thing about them is that if you keep on picking them, they will produce beans all summer. Bush beans produce just one load of beans over a 3-week period, and then they are done.

 

Beans fix nitrogen, taking it from the air and storing it in useable form in nodes in the roots, but only if the soil has a certain bacteria to work with your beans. You can buy ‘inoculant’ to make sure your beans do fix nitrogen, and can add some to the soil and water it in, even now.

 

Climbing hydrangea is a perennial woody vine that looks good all year. It is slow to get started, but once established (after a few years) it grows quickly. It does well on the shady north side of a building, a place often difficult for flowers. It will attach to brick or stone, but needs to be attached to a wood building, either with a trellis or individual ties. It blooms in June, but the large white panicles look good long after, even into winter.

 

There are many types of clematis but all have wonderful blossoms, some 6-inches wide or more, others small but profuse. Most will grow 6 to 10-feet tall; some die back to the ground each year, others have woody vines that send out new shoots and flowers each year. The key to success is to give the vines plenty of sunshine, but to protect the roots with shade from other plants to keep them cool. There are spring, summer and fall bloomers. Some are fragrant, others not.

 

If you have lived in a warmer part of the country you may long for wisteria, a woody vine that blooms profusely with blue or purple flowers, and occasionally in shades of pink and white. Each blossom is actually a cluster of blossoms that hang down like a cluster of grapes. Although most wisteria varieties will survive our winters, most bloom on “old wood” and the flower buds get killed in winter.

 

I grow two varieties that do bloom in Zone 4 because they bloom on “new wood”, or this year’s growth. One is called ‘Blue Moon’, a hybrid developed in Minnesota. The other is ‘Amethyst Falls’, a native variety with smaller leaves and blossoms. Both bloom for me in late June or early July, and re-bloom lightly throughout the summer.

 

Annual vines are vigorous and delightful, too. We generally grow morning glories from seed. These come in many colors: reds, pinks, blue, purple and white. My favorite is called Grampa Ott. It is a deep purple, and can grow up to 15 feet in a season. It was one of two heritage plants that inspired the creation of the Seed Saver organization and seed company. They grow quickly so it’s not too late to plant some by seed.

 

Two decorative flowering beans that I like are purple hyacinth bean and scarlet runner bean. The purple hyacinth bean is a beautiful plant: the leaves are purple, along with the flowers and seed pods. It is slow to germinate and get up a pole or trellis, so it is best started in pots indoors before it can be planted outdoors. The young beans are edible raw or cooked, but the mature pods has seeds better used as dry beans.

 

Scarlet runner beans, like the hyacinth bean, can climb up a support and grow 10-feet in a season. They are quicker to grow than hyacinth beans, and I often start them in the soil near my hexagon cedar shade structure where I also grow wisteria. The bean has bright orange flowers and standard bean leaves. Plant 4 to 6 seeds around a pole and watch them grow- just like Jack, the bean stalk kid.  

 

Henry is a long time UNH Master Gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. His web site is www.gardening-guy.com. Reach him at henry.homeyter@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

Mid-summer is often a quiet time for flowers – many gardens have fewer dramatic blossoms than in the spring. I have made an effort to have plenty blooming now. It’s true that my Japanese primroses, peonies and Siberian iris have gone by. But I have many others, both old favorites and lesser-known beauties.

 

Beebalm ( Monarda didyma) has started early this year for me. Contrary to what most gardening books say, beebalm does not need full sun. In fact, full sun makes it dry out and go by more quickly. It does well in moist, rich soil but will grow anywhere. This year I planted some wild beebalm, a native prairie plant. Its scientific name is Monarda fistulosa, and some better garden centers are selling it now- even though it is not as flashy as its domesticated cousin. It’s a light lavender in color, and shorter than the standard varieties. It is terrific for butterflies and bees.

 

Just finishing up for me is one of the bellflowers, clustered bellflower or Campanula glomerata. It stands about 24 inches tall with purplish-blue globes of small blossoms. It is a fast spreader, but pulls easily if it gets out of its place. A relative, peach-leaved bellflower ( C. persicifolia) is preferred by some, as it is better behaved. It has flowers growing up its tall stems, and comes in blue or white. Both species are good cut flowers.

 

Feverfew ( Tanacetum parthenium) has been used traditionally to cure many things, but I like it as a white cut flower with a yellow center. Each blossom is small – say half an inch – but there can be hundreds on a big plant. It is rambunctious. It sows seeds and shows up around my garden, but it is easily pulled. It keeps well in an arrangement.

 

Betony (Stachys officinalis) is in bloom now, too. It is in the same genus as lamb’s ears, but has green, not silvery leaves, and sends up lovely purplish flowers on stiff stalks that look great in a vase. The best variety is one called ‘Hummelo’, named after the Dutch hometown of Piet Oudolf, designer of the High Line Gardens in NYC. But Hummel means bumblebee in German, which is appropriate – it attracts bees over its long bloom time. Small flowers appear all along its tall stems.

 

An uncommon flower in bloom for me now is called false hydrangea (Deinanthe caerulea) because the leaves are similar to those of the PeeGee hydrangea, although the flowers are totally different. This gem grows in full to part shade in moist, rich soil. It has small bluish-lavender cup-shaped flowers.

 

There is another false hydrangea, Deinanthe bifida, which has white flowers. Both are rated as hardy to Zone 5. I am in Zone 4 and have lost some plants, but others have survived.

 

A huge, dramatic plant is giant fleece flower (Persicaria polymorpha ). The blooms of this giant are a bit like astillbe flowers on steroids. The hollow stems stand up to 8 feet tall, and flower panicles are sometimes 18 inches from top to bottom. It does not spread by root, but each year the clump gets larger. I just cut back a good portion of mine, as the plant was shading out nearby plants. It would take a pickax and a strong back to dig it up – which I have, on one occasion. It likes moist soil and full sun,

 

Moist soil is also good for Japanese iris (Iris ensata). In fact, it is often grown in shallow water. I have one clump which has just begun blooming – after all the others. Its foliage is similar to Siberian iris, but the “falls” or petals lie back flat, looking up. It does not like the competition of weeds, I have learned, as we weeded it well early on, and it is going to bloom dramatically this year.

 

Great masterwort ( Astrantia major ) has small domed blossoms in white or pinky-purple that look like pins stuck in a small pincushion, surrounded by delicate bracts (petal-like structures). Deer won’t eat it, and it blooms for weeks, preferably in moist, sunny locations. Each year my clumps get bigger and more wonderful.

 

At the front of a prominent flower bed I have installed lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis ), a tidy plant with lacy clusters of chartreuse flowers, a color that accents others nicely in a vase, or in the garden. It is probably best known for its tidy foliage which traps rain drops or dew and shows them off. It works as a ground cover, spreading a bit each year and providing dense foliage that helps reduce weeds. It will grow in full sun or light shade, but does not thrive in hot, dry soil.

 

In addition to perennials, each year I grow some annuals. Last year we started many dahlia tubers for their big, colorful blossoms, and saved the tubers indoors to reuse this year, and to share with others.

 

This year we bought some canna lilies for their interesting foliage – one variety has deep purple leaves – and bright orange or yellow flowers. They stand from two to six feet tall, and have been blooming consistently for a month so far.

 

If your garden is a bit short of flowers just now, try some of those mentioned above. There is always space for a few more flowers.

 

You may reach Henry at PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746 or by e-mail at henry.homeyer@comcast.net. He is the author of 4 gardening books.