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Flowers Fit for a Much Loved Dog

Posted on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 · Leave a Comment 

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Daphne mezereum was the registered name of my corgi, Daffy, who passed away on August 25 of this year. Born in 2006, Daffy was my constant companion who was always ready for an adventure – or especially, a meal or snack. When her back legs gave out, she figured out ways to propel herself forward with glee – ignoring the inconvenience, and trying to overcome the pain. Finally, when the pain was nearly constant, and we reluctantly called the vet.

 

We buried Daffy alongside her cat friend, Winnie, who passed naturally at age 23 in June of this year. And Abby and Stanley and Emily, all good dogs who have passed on and been buried in a quiet shady place on our property. Each had their graves decorated with flowers from the garden. Let’s take a look at some of the plants I grow, and that I used to commemorate Daffy and celebrate her life.

 

Of course I cut branches of her namesake, Daphne mezereum or February Daphne. It is a fabulous shrub that blooms in May here in Cornish Flat, displaying pinky-purple fragrant flowers in abundance. It is slow-growing, so easy to maintain. No need to do much pruning – other than stems I cut to force in a vase each year in April.

 

And I put in her grave a couple of stems from a Harry Lauder’s walking stick shrub. A walking stick seems fitting for a dog that had trouble walking. It’s a curly hazelnut that would not really be good as a walking stick – there are no straight bits. Mine is a variety called ‘Red Majestic’ of the European filbert

(Corylus avellana).

 

In the spring the leaves are a deep red-purple but develop a greenish tinge as the summer progresses. I have mine in a flower bed, and have been able to keep it to a 6-foot wide and tall tree by annual pruning.

 

And I sent Daffy off with diamonds. ‘Pink Diamond’, that is. It’s a lovely variety of Hydrangea paniculata. I bought one that is a “standard”, meaning that it came with a straight trunk that had branches grafted on at the 4-foot high level. So it started out as a shrub with some height, and never suffered from the awkwardness common to many hydrangeas that start as multi-stemmed shrubs.

 

At the bottom of Daffy’s grave I placed boughs from a Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). This is a native evergreen tree that grows well in sun or shade. In 1972 I dug up several growing wild in a field nearby and planted them as a hedge. They are now 50 feet tall or so. My late sister, Ruth Anne, lived in Canada and loved Daffy fiercely, calling her “the dog of joy”. So these boughs commemorated them both. I no longer promote planting hemlocks because an insect pest, the wooly adelgid, is decimating them – though thankfully not in my area, as yet.

 

Of the woody plants, the last I placed in Daffy’s grave was a stem from my Bartlett pear. Daffy, always hungry, would gorge on the pears that fell on the ground beneath this tree, so it seemed fitting to put a branch in. 

 

Snowdrops bloom in March and always delight me when they do

I cut fresh perennial flowers for Daphne’s grave, too. Phlox have been gorgeous this year, disease-free and fragrant. Daffy is the only dog I’ve had who noticed flowers. I have a picture of her checking out a vase of tulips. But phlox is in all its glory in sunny beds, so I cut some.

 

Daffy had a sunny disposition, even at the end when she was in pain, so I included a sunflower. Like Daphne, it was a short one, perhaps ‘Teddy Bear’. There are so many great sunflowers out there, many short and with multiple flowers branching off the main stem. They are easily started from seed. Chipmunks love them when they are just starting, so I grow them in 6-packs until they are tall enough to ignore the rodents. Deer love sunflowers, too, however, when they get bigger.

 

And roses went in the grave, too. My favorites are the ‘Knockout’ roses. Perhaps because they are not fragrant, they don’t seem to be attractive to the Japanese beetles that can plague old fashioned roses. They are fast-growing, and can reach a height of 4 feet in a couple of months even if all above-ground stems died over the winter. The one I selected for Daffy has had 25 blossoms most of the time this summer.

 

This tithonia blossom is about 2 inches wide on a 6 foot tall plant with many blossoms

Then we added some Shasta daisies, those wonderful, cheerful flowers with white petals around a central yellow button. My patch of those gets a bit bigger each year in full sun. And Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia), a 6-foot tall orange annual in the daisy or sunflower family. We start lots of these by seed each year, and I am always delighted by the results.

 

I suppose there were other flowers we picked for Daphne’s last day, though it’s all a bit of a blur. I do know that flowers always lift my spirits, and certainly they needed some lifting that day. But I’m doing better now, and being in the garden has helped. Later this fall I will plant bulbs on her grave – snowdrops. They are the first flowers to bloom in spring, and always bring me joy. And after all, she was the Dog of Joy.

 

Henry can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.

 

 

 

Filed under Article · Tagged with daphne mazerium, phlox, snow drops, tithonia

Early Spring Chores in the Garden

Posted on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 · Leave a Comment 

With sunny warm days upon us, we all want to start gardening. But beware: if you leave footprints in the soil, or feel it go squish, it’s not time to be doing anything. Plants get their oxygen from their roots, not their leaves. If you compact the soil, you can seriously harm your plants by damaging soil texture and tilth.

 

This 5 foot pole pruner will cut and grab

Even your lawn is susceptible to compaction. If you must go across it, don’t hurry across it and keep your feet flat, to maximize the surface area of your shoes. And don’t follow the same path each time you cross the lawn. Game trails in the forest can be created by animals as small as house cats if they follow the same path each time they go visit the neighbors. Compaction kills plants.

 

Raking the lawn seems like a good activity now, but again, depending on where you live, your lawn might not be ready for you. Wait until the lawn has “greened up”. If you rake a dormant lawn vigorously, it is easy to pull up plants, roots and all.

 

The plow guys dump a lot of sand and gravel on my lawn. I can clean it up now because I can stand in the road and rake it towards me without compacting the soil. I like to use a lawn rake with bamboo or plastic tines for that job, to be gentler on the lawn. Metal lawn rakes are great, but not at this time of year.

 

If your lawn feels fairly dry and you don’t leave foot prints, perhaps you can get to your flower beds to do a little spring cleanup. I don’t generally rake leaves out of my flower beds in the fall, as I like the extra protection against erosion and cold temperatures they provide. But that means that bulb plants are covered now, and the ground is insulated from the spring sun. I want the soil to warm up.

 

So I try to clean up places where I know there are spring bulbs as early as possible. If the daffodils are poking through, I use my fingers to pull back the leaves. I fear that a rake will damage the tender stems and flower buds. In other places where bulbs are not up yet, I use a rake and gently rake off the leaves. Sometimes I will bring along a scrap of plywood or a 6-inch plank to stand on as I work, minimizing compaction.

 

What else can you do? I’ve been cutting branches from early spring-blooming shrubs. This is one of my favorite spring tasks. I’ve had forsythia blooming in the house for over a week now. As an early bloomer, it doesn’t take long in a vase to get blossoms. Select stems that have fat buds and put them in a sunny window until they open. Then move them to a cooler place to prolong the show.

 

Daphne is not blooming outdoors yet this year

Another spring favorite of mine is called February Daphne (Daphne mezereum). I suppose it blooms somewhere in February – Virginia, perhaps. Here it generally blooms for me in late April, but in 2012 it bloomed in late March. The blossoms are bright pink-magenta, and are fragrant. I like it so much that I named my corgi after this shrub.

 

I’ve had my February Daphne for 15 years or more and is still a nice compact shrub about 4 feet tall and wide. It is originally from Japan, and I watched it closely when I first got it, as I was worried it might be invasive. I had seen it growing wild on the roadside, so worried it might take over the understory. Nope. I have never seen a single offspring elsewhere on my land.

 

Forsythia forces easily indoors now

Pussy willows are opening in the swamps, and I shall go out with my “cut-and-hold” pole pruner to get some soon. This pruner cuts through a stem, and grabs it at the same time. That is particularly nice when gathering branches in a swamp. The one I have is made by the Wildflower Seed and Tool Company of Napa Valley (https://wildflower-seed.com/). It is telescoping and has a pistol grip that I can work with one hand, while directing the pole with the other.

 

If you don’t have any pussy willows, you should –especially if you have an area that stays wet or damp most of the year. They are very easy to propagate, particularly in the spring before they leaf out. Just cut 12-inch long stems and push most of each stem into the soil. It will send out roots in the ground and leaves above ground.

 

If the pussy willows you cut are for display in a vase, you don’t need to add water to the vase. They will stay “frozen in time” seemingly forever. If they haven’t fully opened, put them in water until they are cute and fuzzy, then drain the water.

 

I recently picked a stem of hobble bush, a native viburnum (V. lantanoides), and put it in a vase where it is blooming beautifully. All viburnums would probably force well. Lilacs are early, but I’ve never found them as dramatic when forced as when I let them develop on the bush.

 

Last spring chore? Clean out your garden shed or barn. Throw away garden gloves with holes in them. Get some steel wool and light sewing machine oil or WD-40, and get the rust off your tools. Sharpen shovels and pruners. Summer will be along soon enough. Enjoy the spring before the bugs come along.

 

Henry can be reached at henry.homeyer@comcast.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746. Please include a SASE if asking for a reply my mail. Henry is the author of 4 gardening books.

 

Filed under Article · Tagged with daphne mazerium, forcing flowering shrubs, pole pruner

Shrubs with Fragrant Flowers

Some gardeners grow flowers for their beauty in the garden. Others for their magnificence in a vase. A few select species largely for their scent. My friend Nelia Sargent of Claremont is in this third category, largely because she is blind. I called her recently to see what flowering shrubs she likes best.

Nelia loves shrubs because they pack so many flowers in a small space. And, unlike most perennial flowers, they have their blossoms close to nose level. Who needs to bend over to sniff a peony if you have old fashioned shrub roses standing up 3 or 4 feet tall? Here are some of her favorites along with a few of mine –roughly in sequence of their blossoms.

Common witch hazel

First for her, in late March or early April, is a witchhazel hybrid (Hamamelis x intermedia) called ‘Arnold’s Promise’.  This flowers heavily with yellow strap-like petals an inch long originating at a reddish calyx cup. Although this bush can get large – up to 20 feet tall and wide, I have never seen one half that size, here in the North Country. I have our native witchhazel which blooms in late fall, but this hybrid is a great plant and one I should get. It’s very fragrant.

At the same time (or soon thereafter) is February Daphne, a tidy pink shrub that is very highly fragrant. I love this one so much I named my corgi after it. I’ve had mine for a dozen years and never had to prune it, which is a plus. I’ve seen it growing wild by the side of the road, which makes me wonder if it will be invasive sometime in the next 50 years. But since I’ve not gotten one seedling and it grows slowly, I’m not too worried.

Nelia Sargent then listed a number of viburnums that are fragrant and lovely. Three that she mentioned are Viburnum juddii, V. carlessii, and V. burkwoodii. Don’t be put off by the Latin names. Just pronounce the species names like juddii with an E-I sound at the end. All three species were named after horticulturists.

Buds of Viburnum Juddii

Viburnum juddii gets to be 6 to 8 feet tall tall, with blossoms about 3 inches across. V. carlessii, also called Koreanspice viburnum, gets to be 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, with 2 to 3 inch semi-snowball flowers. The Burkwood viburnum can get 8 to 10 feet tall with spread about 2/3’s its height; like the others, its flowers are pink in bud, opening to white and highly fragrant.

In recent years there has been an invasive beetle that has terrorized many viburnum owners. Cornell University has listed viburnums according to their susceptibility. Burkwood viburnum was listed as moderately susceptible to defoliation, but V. carlessiiand V. juddii were in the group least attractive to the beetle. You can see the entire list at http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/suscept.html. I have had a Judd viburnum 3 years and never seen one of the dreaded beetles.

After the viburnums bloom, and overlapping with them, are the lilacs. Nelia Sargent noted that there are early, mid-season and late lilacs, so one can have fragrant lilacs for at least 5 weeks. First for her comes one called Sister Justina, a white one that stays tidy and does not send up root suckers. ‘Gertrude Lesley’, a double white is also early and nicely fragrant. The common lilac,Syringa vulgaris, has 800 or 900 named varieties. Most are mid-season and nicely fragrant. These spread by root, sending up suckers that will create a hedge if you are not attentive.

Lilac

Fragrant late season lilacs include Miss Kim (a cultivar of Syringa patula), a slow-growing variety that is (mistakenly) sometimes called a miniature. Mine is now over 8 feet tall, definitely not a dwarf! Another late beauty is ‘Donald Wyman’ (Syringa x prestoniae ‘Donald Wyman’) which is hardy to Zone 2 (minus 50 Fahrenheit) and will thrive despite pollution and compaction in wet or dry soils! One tough plant.

The final shrub on Nelia’s list is mockorange (Philadelphus coronarius). Not related to oranges, this 10 to 12 foot shrub has white blossoms that are sweetly fragrant. That said, be advised that not all cultivars are fragrant, so buy one in bloom. It is an old fashioned flower and not particular to soil type.

Roses can be lovely and fragrant, but many of the modern hybrids have little or no scent. The Knockout roses are fabulous disease-resistant roses that bloom most of the summer, but I’ve only encountered one that was fragrant. On the other hand, rugosa roses are highly fragrant, as are many of the old fashioned roses. I recommend buying them when in bloom if fragrance is important.

I agree with Nelia Sargent: shrubs with fragrant blossoms are a good addition to the landscape. And they are often great for our native pollinators, too.

Read Henry’s garden blog at https://dailyuv.com/henryhomeyer. You can sign up for an email link to the blog every time Henry posts something.

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