Tips for picking and arranging flowers

For me, July has started off wet: rains, heavy at times, three days a week and going on for weeks. Although I like not having to water my new plantings in the vegetable garden and flower beds, some plants are having a tough time- they need sunshine!

 

It’s fortunate that I make raised beds in my vegetable garden which is near our stream. Hoeing up the earth from the pathways and adding compost has helped me considerably. Even though the beds are only six inches above the walkways, it helps to drain soggy soil. Of course it’s too late to do that if you have already planted on the flat of the garden – but remember for next year, as we may see these conditions again.

 

If you haven’t thinned your carrots, beets and other root crops yet, now is the time to do so. I try to get that done by July 4^th, but later is okay. You can thin to one inch if you want to thin them again to two inches in a few weeks, or you can just thin to two inch spacing now. The advantage to thinning twice is that your carrots will be big enough to eat when you thin them the second time.

 

Carrots are heavy feeders, so you may want to side-dress the rows with a little slow-release organic fertilizer like Pro-Gro or Espoma Garden Tone. Just sprinkle a thin line of fertilizer alongside the carrots, and then use a hand tool to work it in a little.

 

I recently finished mulching my pathways and around bigger plants like tomatoes. I put down a layer of newspaper – four sheets or more – and cover it with straw. This does a good job of keeping down the weeds. Hay is cheaper, of course, but has seeds which can grow.

 

For onions, carrots and other things planted close together in straight rows I tear strips of newspapers and cover them with grass clippings or, better still, chopped leaves from last fall. FYI: newspapers rip well from top to bottom, but not across the page.

 

I did lots of staking of peonies in June, as many of them have such heavy blossoms that they bend over and land on the ground, particularly after a rain. Tall fall asters and goldenrod and even phlox will fall over later on as they get too tall to stand up to rains and wind.

 

I have lots of 4-foot and 5-foot quarter-inch diameter iron rods I had custom-made for me for holding up these fall beauties. The iron rods go deep into the soil more easily than thin bamboo stakes, and are stronger. To avoid getting poked in the eye when bending over, I put a wine cork on the top of each one. I drill a quarter inch hole into the cork and slide it on. They are a good excuse to buy a nice bottle or French red from time to time with a real cork!

 

It’s getting late in the season to cut back tall flowers to keep them shorter, but you might try cutting back some phlox or asters now if they haven’t start making flower buds yet. Traditionally this is called the “Chelsea Chop” and is named after the Chelsea Flower Show in London, which occurs in late May each year. After the Chelsea show English gardeners prune back big tall plants. They bloom later, are shorter, and often have many more blossoms. Good candidates for hard pruning include asters, Boltonia, purple cone flower, Joe Pye weed, sneezeweed (Helenium), bee balm, Russian sage, phlox, obedient plant, Rudbeckias of all sorts and Culver’s root.

 

Not all flowers respond well to the Chelsea Chop. Do not do this with lady’s mantle, columbine, goats beard, astillbe, delphinium, gas plant (Dictamus), fox glove, geraniums, daylilies, hostas, iris, lupines or oriental poppies, among others. You can find lists of which to cut and which to leave alone in Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s fine book, “The Well-Tended Perennial Garden”s. Everyone should have a copy of it.

 

Weeding flower beds is loved by a few gardeners, but avoided by many. I am so lucky that both my wife Cindy and I like to weed. Cindy is a formidable weeder, even better than me – and she has much more endurance than I do. If you don’t enjoy weeding, set a goal: work for half an hour. Work until this small bed is weed free. Weed every morning or evening for 15 minutes. Small efforts done every day really make a huge difference.

 

My advice? Get a good weeding tool that you like, one that will get under the roots so that you can lift from below and pull from above. For us, that is the CobraHead weeder (www.CobraHead.com). It’s made like a curved finger with just a single tine. I can tease out roots that, if broken, would re-sprout. It’s important to get the entire root system out so you don’t have to pull the same weed over and over.

 

We use ground fall leaves in the flower beds, or lacking enough, we buy double-ground bark mulch. But be careful: if you use too much, you can starve your plants of water from light rains. An inch and a half is what I strive for. Anything less than an inch looks good, but won’t do much to deter weeds. And if there are roots from things like goutweed or Japanese knotweed, no amount of mulch will deter those culprits.

 

Henry is a lifelong organic gardener and the author of 4 gardening books. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Do you remember your Grammy’s favorite rose? If you do, you probably remember how fragrant it was. For me, one of my grandmother’s favorite plants was the peony named ‘Festiva Maxima’. It is a double white with a drop of red in the middle. It’s in bloom now, with a fragrance so pleasant it almost makes me swoon. And even though she passed away in 1953, her peony has been divided and shared, and I have a piece of it, which I treasure.

 

My friend Nelia Sargent of Claremont, NH is an excellent gardener, growing trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. She specializes in plants with fragrant flowers because she has been blind since she lost her sight while in college decades ago. I called her recently to see what flowers please her the most in spring, summer and fall. Let’s take a look.

 

Spring: Early each spring one of Nelia’s first bloomers is a witchhazel named ‘Arnold’s Promise’. Even though it is a Zone 5 plant (hardy to minus 20 degrees) and we are in a Zone 4 area, her home is within a mile of the Connecticut River, which tempers winters a bit. Arnold’s Promise blooms for her in April and, she said, one stem will fill a room with fragrance for up to two weeks in a vase.

 

Another favorite of hers is February daphne (Daphne mezereum), which blooms here in late march into April. It is a small shrub that is relatively slow-growing and short lived. She says they are good for 10 years, but I’ve had one for 20. It is very fragrant and has lovely lavender flowers. All daphnes are fragrant and she also like Daphne burkwoodii, which blooms in May.

 

Viburnums are also fragrant shrubs grown by Nelia. She particularly like Viburnum judii and V. carlessii. The first, also called Judd’s viburnum, has semi-snowball bloom clusters that are pink in bud and white when open. It grows in full sun or part shade, as does Korean spice viburnum (V. carlessiii). Both prefer well drained rich soil in sun and stay a tidy 6- to 8- foot height and width. I grow the second and have had mixed luck with it: it is not always very generous with its blossoms, and does develop dead branches at maturity.

 

Summer: This is the season that has the most kinds of fragrant blossoms. Nelia has developed such a keen sense of smell that she was once invited to “smell test” and rate the lilacs at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard.

 

Nelia told me that there are about 20 different fragrances from lilacs, each distinct. Her favorite lilacs are called ‘Sister Justina’, ‘Gertrude Lesley’, and ‘Miss Kim’. Miss Kim is often sold as a miniature, but it is really just slow-growing. Mine, now 25 years old, is about 12 feet tall and wide. The fragrance is lovely – I can smell it from 20 feet away, and on a sunny day it is loaded with butterflies and bees.

 

Then there are peonies. Properly planted, peonies last forever. And, as Nelia said, ”You can plant peonies for your heirs, but they yield immediately.” Purchase your peonies now, while in bloom at the garden center so you can see if they are fragrant –not all are – and see what they look like. Just don’t plant them so deep that their nibs or growing points are covered with more than an inch of soil, or they will not bloom in the future.

 

Nelia’s favorite peonies are Dawn Glow, Madame Deveronvale, Edulalis Superba (a very early deep pink), Festiva Maxima, Duchess De Nemours, and Carnation Bouquet (spicy, with a “carnation appearance”).

 

Mock orange (Philadelphus spp.) is a group of shrubs composed of about 20 species that are very fragrant. But they are a bit unruly and not suited for prime real estate in the garden. Nelia suggest planting them a bit away from the house, and letting them naturalize. I’ve never grown it myself due to its spreading behavior.

 

Late Summer and Fall: Many fall flowers are big, tall, bright – but not very fragrant. Here are few she likes.

 

Clethra: A nice shrub that likes moist places. She particularly likes ‘Ruby Spice’, which is a reddish one.

 

Cohosh (formerly Cimicifuga spp., now included in the genus Actea): This plant has tall flower spikes that display drooping bottlebrush flowers. Bees absolutely love it. There is a black-leafed species that is quite distinctive called Hillside Black Beauty.

 

Seven Sons-Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides) starts blooming in September and may continue into October unless there is a bad frost. The blossoms are small and white, and delicately fragrant. I grow it for the bark as well, which is exfoliating and interesting all winter.

 

So, if you like fragrant flowers, try some of Nelia Sargent’s favorites. All are wonderful.

 

Henry is the author of 4 gardening books and a gardening consultant. He lives and gardens in Cornish Flat, NH. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

All gardeners have to contend with a variety of insects and other small pests in the garden – those that attack our plants and those that bite us. Mosquitoes? I can live with them. But ticks? That is another story.

 

I’ve tried every kind of spray to repel ticks and prevent bites. I haven’t found any that are 100% effective. There are lots of “all natural” ones out there, but it is hard to tell how effective they are. I don’t like sprays with Deet in them, but believe they probably are better at repelling ticks than the herbal applications. But I don’t rely just on repellents.

 

When I am working in brushy areas I wear long pants: lightweight quick-dry nylon. Then I either tuck the pants into my socks or wear some special tick gaiters. The ones I use are called Lymeez. According to their advertising, they are a mesh treated with EPA-registered micro-encapsulated permethrin tick repellent and closed with Velcro. LL Bean and other suppliers also sell clothing treated with permethrin to kill or repel ticks, mosquitoes and other insects.

 

From what I have read, permethrin not only repels ticks, it kills them. I have read about “tick tubes” treated with permethrin to kill the ticks on mice – a vector for Lyme. These little tubes contain treated cotton balls that mice bring to their nests, where the permethrin kills the ticks. I plan to get some for my woodpile.

 

Slugs and shell-covered small snails are always a problem in my garden. I usually keep a jar of soapy water in the garden near my lettuce, which is the preferred treat for these nasty critters. Pick and drown works.

 

Another garden pest is the Colorado potato beetle. This striped beetle can decimate the leaves of potatoes if you don’t control them early, even killing the plant or reducing your crop. The beetles are yellowish with black stripes, the larvae are beige to red with rows of black dots. The eggs are orange and generally found on the underneath side of the leaves. It is important to pick these pests early as they mature quickly and each female lays many eggs – multiplying their impact quickly if not controlled.

 

If you have too many potato plants to hand pick them all, there is a biological control called Bt. It is a bacterium that is diluted in water and sprayed on the plants. It is not a contact poison, it needs to be consumed by the larvae when they are young. They sicken, stop eating and die. But you may need to use it for a few years to really solve the problem. There are several different Bt formulas, so be sure you get one labeled for potatoes.

 

Striped cucumber beetles look a bit like potato beetles, but they are smaller and fast moving. They can strip all the leaves off your vine crops in a single night if they are present in the soil when your cukes or squash-family plants first germinate. You can cover the crops with row covers to keep them away, but they may already be present in the soil. Me? I start my vine crops indoors and only plant them when they have at least a six-inch long vine and can’t be killed by the beetles.

 

My least favorite pest is the tomato hornworm. Big, up to four inches long, they are aggressive when you pick them up. There is a natural predator, a parasitic wasp that lays eggs in them. So if you see what looks like grains of rice on them, just remove them to a faraway part of the garden. Those “grains of rice” are larvae that will suck them dry and keep them from reproducing. You can make or buy houses for these wasps and other good wasps and hang it on your shed. These are simply a collection of hollow bamboo pieces they can use to for shelter.

 

A good reason NOT to use insecticides is that they will inadvertently kill good bugs like lady beetles, spiders, praying mantises and more. You’ve probably never seen an assassin bug, but they are relentless killers of bad bugs, sucking them dry.

 

Many of us grew up thinking that most bugs, beetles, moths and other insects are harmful. For a long time my first inclination on seeing an insect in the garden was to squish it. Not anymore. Mother Nature tries to create a balance that keeps pests from taking over. Unless you know an insect is a pest – think Japanese beetle, rose chafer, striped cucumber beetle – leave it be. It might be the critter that controls others from decimating your garden.

 

If you want to learn about the bugs you see, you might want to pick up a copy of a nice small paperback called, “Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who’s Who, What They Do, and How to Manage Them Organically” by Jessica Walliser. It is well illustrated and also tells you how you can attract good ones– or even purchase them.

 

 Being an organic gardener means you have to pay attention. Watch for problem pests and try to control them before they can ruin your flowers or veggies. And never use a chemical pesticide as it will throw everything out of balance.

 

Henry is a lifelong organic gardener, and a 20-year veteran of the UNH Master Gardener program. He is the author of 4 gardening books and a gardening consultant. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

Once, a long time ago, I was sitting on a porch overlooking a landscape with an acquaintance. I commented that if she removed or thinned a line of tall pine trees, she would have a lovely long view. “Great idea! I’ll have them moved,” she said. Even though she was a woman of means, I explained that it wouldn’t be possible to move 60-foot white pines. She should either live with them or cut some down.

 

On the other hand, I move shrubs and perennial flowers regularly. Done right, a plant barely knows it’s been moved. I have a number of reasons for moving a plant.

 

First, if the plant is not growing well. Perhaps the tag on it said, “Sun or Part shade.” Well, what is part shade? I define full sun as 5 or 6 hours of afternoon sun. Morning sun is less hot, and a sun-lover might want some afternoon sun in addition to the morning sun.

 

Why else move a plant? We all change our minds. Or plants grow and start to crowd out their neighbors. We get new plants and decide to plant one where something else is already growing. Moving plants is a normal part of gardening.

 

I have a lovely shrub called Carolina sweetshrub or Calycanthyus floridus. My reference book by Michael Dirr, “Manual of Woody Landscape Plants” suggests planting it in sun or shade in deep moist loam. I planted it in full sun in deep, moist loam and the leaves burned that first summer. I assumed it had been grown in a shady place at the nursery, so figured it would be fine in Year 2. It was not. Its leaves burned again. So that fall I moved it to a shady spot.

 

For the next three years or more my sweetshrub did not burn up in summer, but neither did it flower much. I wanted those deep burgundy wine-colored blossoms, each more than an inch across. So I finally moved it again – this time under a pear tree that allowed filtered sunshine. Perfect! It has bloomed magnificently ever since.

 

My technique for moving a shrub is simple. I decide where it should go, and get the area ready by removing grass or plants and loosening the top layers of soil. Then I go to the plant if question with a drain spade that has a blade 16 inches long and only 5 inches wide. I slide it under the shrub on all four sides by thrusting the blade into the soil at a 45 degree angle. On each side I give the spade a gently downward push to lift and loosen the shrub a little. By the fourth thrust, it should be ready to lift out by sliding my two hands under the root ball.

 

I move the shrub into a waiting wheelbarrow and bring it to its new home. I measure the depth of the rootball and dig out a hole deep enough so that it will sit at the same depth it was originally. I dig a wide hole so that the area around the shrub will be nicely loosened and ready for roots to grow in it once I back fill the hole. I water well that day, and regularly all summer.

 

When I water a plant I have moved, I add something to the water: a capful (half a teaspoon) of something called “Superthrive” in a watering can of water. It was developed some 70 years ago and uses seaweed extracts and plant hormones to lessen transplant shock. I find it really helps. A small blurt of Neptune’s Harvest Fish and Seaweed fertilizer in the water adds some quick nutrition. I use both liquids on all my vegetables as I plant them, too.

 

Any plant that you planted this year can be moved now without damaging it. It takes several weeks before roots move far from their rootball. I don’t bother with a spade when moving new things. I use my CobraHead weeder which is shaped like a long curved finger. It gets under the rootball easily, and by wiggling it around I can loosen the plant and gently lift it out, pulling from below with my CobraHead.  

 

When I am moving an established perennial, I am more careful. Over the years – both from experience and readings – I have learned much about the root systems of common perennials. You probably have, too. Some have roots near the surface while others are more like tubers that go deep.

 

Peony roots go deep, and are not easy to move without breaking their fleshy tubers. Peony experts say to move them in the fall, when they are going dormant. But I once moved a hedge of peonies in June with about 50 plants, and not one showed ill-effects.

 

It is best to move established perennials in the early evening, or on a cool or drizzly day. Some plants go into shock if disturbed in the heat of the day, so avoid doing so if you can. Others, like daylilies, don’t care at all about being moved on a hot dry day.

 

I recently was planting my front walkway garden and noticed a Rudbeckia called ‘Prairie Sun’ that was too close to another plant, so I moved it at 11am on a hot day. After lunch the leaves were limp and it was in distress. My solution? I gave it another drink of Superthrive and placed an umbrella over it to provide shade. By the next morning it looked like it had never been moved!

 

So go ahead, move plants. Other than big trees, there are very few you can’t move.

 

Henry is the author of 4 gardening books. He is a gardening consultant and speaker for garden clubs and library groups. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net.

One of the best ways to learn how to create a lovely garden is to see others. Visit good gardens of neighbors, great gardens near and far. I recently visited three great gardens and, as always when viewing other gardens, they gave me much to consider. The gardens I visited were Bed Rock Gardens in Lee, NH, Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA and Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA.

 

All these gardens had significant areas of lawn or meadow. I realize that lawns are not in favor, generally, among the pro-pollinator and bird crowd. But if you provide plenty of plants that support pollinators, I do not see lawns as bad. Each of these gardens has plenty of flowering trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals. Something is always in bloom, including both native plants and exotic ones.

 

So what does lawn accomplish? It provides contrast – a simple green palette – to show off the plants. Expanses of green are soothing to the eye. I can only focus on so many amazing plants before I get visually fatigued – much as I do when I visit an art museum.

 

Lawn also allows you to stand back to see the landscape from a distance. For trees, that is important. In a forested area, and all three of these gardens have them, individual trees are sometimes hard to see. They blend in with the others. But I need to stand back to look at a majestic beech or oak that towers 100 feet above me.

 

Bedrock Garden only recently was deeded over from the original owners, Jill Nooney and Bob Munger, to the non-profit that manages the property. Jill is an amazing sculptor who for over 30 years has created art to surprise and delight visitors to this 20 acre garden. Much of her art is painted welded steel that will delight visitors for the century ahead. She is the modern Alexander Calder of gardens.

 

Although I am not an artist, I do purchase and create art and whimsy for my own gardens, and you can, too. Look around at what you can use: a brass headboard from an abandoned bed; the rim of an old wagon wheel, a collection of stacked stones or a single tall standing stone buried in the ground. Stone always enhances a garden. Walls are expensive, but almost worth their weight in gold.

 

Pathways are important to a great garden, too. They lead the visitor from one area to another. Placing art or even a bench at a distance pulls viewers forward, luring them to see what is ahead. Chanticleer has wonderful pathways through the woods that appear to be wood chips embedded in rubber. Very soothing to knees and feet.

 

My late sister, Ruth Anne Mitchell, taught me long ago when viewing art or gardens that, “If you see a place to sit down, sit down.” So I do, and I find it enhances the experience of the garden. Not only am I less tired, often gardens surprise us with something special near a resting point. Perhaps you can design a special feature near a bench: rare and dainty plants or a small water feature.

 

All three of the gardens I visited made much use of water in the landscape. I am lucky enough to have a small stream that runs by my gardens. I built a bench near it, so I can listen to the burble of the water. And you can tune your brook: Place stones that hold back water, allowing it to cascade over them. Different drops create different sounds.

 

Years ago, for NY Times article, I interviewed by phone the designer of the gardens at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Robert Irwin. He created a recirculating stream that crossed a path through a woodland area seven times. He told me he tuned it so that at each little bridge visitors would hear a different aquatic tune. Think of that if you have a stream on your property.

 

Color is very important in designing good or great gardens. I only got the 8-color box of crayons as a boy; my sister Ruth Anne got the 64-crayon box. But I have learned to appreciate all the nuances of color and how they go together. The best explanation of how colors go together – or don’t – is a book by garden writer Sydney Eddison: “The Gardener’s Palette: Creating Color in the Garden” (Contemporary Books, 2003, $30 in hardback). Get it if you can find a copy.

 

Great gardens like those at Longwood, an old DuPont family residence originally, recognize that color is important all year. But most shrubs and perennials only bloom for a few weeks. So they choose trees and shrubs that are not only sculptural in form, but have also have nuanced colors in their leaves. Green is not one color, but many. Choose wisely.

 

Lastly, another way to present color all spring, summer and fall is to use annual flowers liberally. Many of these will keep on blooming in an effort to create seeds. Pots of annual flowers are used frequently in these great gardens. Pots place flowers closer to the viewer’s eye and can also be replaced with other pots if the flowers finish their displays or look a bit bedraggled.

 

So do visit other gardens this summer – whether at a local garden club tour or one of the fine gardens I mentioned here today.

 

Henry is a garden consultant and the author of 4 gardening books. He speaks often to garden clubs and library groups. Reach him at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or PO Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

For me tomatoes are the best tasting, most important vegetable I grow. I eat them raw in salads and sandwiches or cooked in soups and stews. I dehydrate some, I freeze many whole, and I make some sauce for quick dinners in winter. But they are not grown without difficulties – and sometimes heartbreak.