r u l y

For the record, alive and well . . . the black cohosh!

It was reported recently on this blog that I “never grew” or, alternatively that I produced “one small leaf or shoot . . . not memorable enough to photograph.”

I am here to correct this vicious attack on my character.  As you can see, I am most certainly alive.

As are two of my fellow cohoshes.

We find it very interesting that someone who cares so little for our needs, including water and fertilizer, would be so quick to criticize us for failing to perform to expectations.  With a little research, you would know that we are “slow-growing perennials.”

We are most certainly here and with a little patience and time perhaps one day we will produce “fairy candle” flowers for you.

In the meantime, please be careful of jumping to conclusions on our behalf as your record in this regard is sincerely in question.

Sincerely,

The Black Cohoshes of Your Garden

 **My apologies to the black cohoshes.  I don’t want to participate in the bullying of anyone via my blog, including members of the plant kingdom.  You are treasured members of my garden.

The Clethra last summer in its glory at the nursery.

Know any funny stories about gardening? No? I didn’t either until this weekend. Gardening seems a sort of meditative, serious type of practice but I have found there is a lot of humor in it too.

Take for example, my recent experience with the Ruby Spice Clethra, (which just happens to be a native plant to the eastern U.S.) and is supposed to be a great plant for attracting butterflies.

Last year, I bought one on discount in the middle of summer to fill a spot near my front door. It had a few blooms as I recall and then didn’t do much. Early this spring, I looked at it and it was just a bunch of brown sticks.

“Oh great! I killed it.”

I dragged it off into the woods near our home to compost. I ended up ordering some more Ruby Spice Clethra online this year to put in my garden.

Imagine my surprise when I opened a package from one of the plant growers and found this:

The "stick" Clethra

It looked like a stick in a pot. Now, I have learned not to be surprised at what plants look like when you order by mail. Just the other day, I received this to plant (and yes, it did grow!):

Forget-Me-Not roots

So, after a while of sitting near the window in my kitchen waiting to go outside, suddenly leaves appeared on the “sticks”!

Sprouting sticks!

This development for some reason triggered memories of my Clethra hauled to the woods. Just for fun, I thought I would go check to see if it was still there.

Sure enough, there it was (with the plastic plant tag still on it).

Clethra abandoned in the woods

It was still potbound and stood up on its own. Would you believe it was sprouting leaves?

Rescued Clethra

So, of course, I had to put this survivor back in the garden!

Clethra survivor in its new home.

Around here, we like our plants practically iron clad!

During this whole incident, I could only remember the famous Monty Python “Bring Out Your Dead” sketch with the classic line: “I’m not dead yet!”

I know of at least one other plant with a Monty Python problem.

In the parking area of our local shopping center earlier this spring, there were all of these odd and pathetic-looking stumps.  Someone really pruned them back hard to just twigs sticking out of the ground.

“What happened to those trees?

Those have been pruned so hard

they are surely dead.”

I predicted.

Yet, in another Lazarus moment, a few weeks ago they were sprouting leaves!

"I'm not dead!" The resilient shopping center tree.

While I am still an authority on killing plants, I apparently have lost my privileges as a plant coroner.

Know a resilient plant? Have a humorous gardening tale? Please share in the comments.

Virginia Native Plants starting to get established in my garden: bleeding heart and Christmas fern.

This month I am out in the garden pulling weeds, planting, mulching, watering and trying to take a high level view on how my efforts are going so far.

Almost two years ago, I gave an overview of the Virginia native plants I was trying to grow. My hope was that they would be easier to grow in our poor, clay soil, good for enhancing the local environment and perhaps deer tolerant. Native plants are surprisingly hard to find! They typically aren’t available at most nurseries and big box stores. I have had to order all of mine online. Native plants also typically come in “bare root” form, which means when you open the shipping box to plant them, all you have is just a bunch of stems to plant underground. While you spend hours doing it, after all that planting effort the average viewer will see absolutely no difference in your garden at all. Kind of depressing.

With regard to my own native plant efforts, I have both good news and bad news.

FAILURES

First, the bad news. These were the plants that never grew. I couldn’t tell you why. Perhaps the soil was too poor. Perhaps I didn’t water enough or the soil was too wet. Perhaps they succumbed to diseases. Perhaps wild animals found the roots delicious.

Teaberry/Creeping Wintergreen

Bare root plants, creeping wintergreen.

Initial fall planting of a row of creeping wintergreen. Never survived to grow the next spring.

This was one of those plants I was really hoping would work out. It’s a beautiful plant, has a wonderful scent and year-round appeal. It is also supposed to be a quick-spreading groundcover and an “easy care” plant. Unfortunately, none of that came to pass.

Black Cohosh/”Bugbane”

Black cohosh bare root plants. None survived to grow in spring.

This was another plant I hoped would work out. I was particularly interested in its insect-repelling properties. I planted some near the doomed teaberry plants and perhaps there was something wrong with the soil or water content in that location. My notes say that something came up the following spring.  Perhaps one small leaf or shoot but it apparently wasn’t memorable enough to photograph and hasn’t appeared since! Frustrating!

Jack in the Pulpit

These were tiny little bulbs that never produced any evidence of life. These bulbs are edible (even to humans when they are dried) so the chance that some forest animal ate them as a snack is probably pretty high. I’ll have to write these off as too delicious for my garden.

SUCCESSES

Turk’s Cap Lily

Turk's Cap Lily bulb

Turk's Cap Lily approximately 1 year later

This is probably the showstopper of Virginia native plants. It is a beautiful orange color and has a beautiful shape. I planted about 3 roots of these lilies. Only one has bloomed and I only got one bloom on a single long stem. I am hopeful that the one bloomer will come back this year and that the plant will eventually multiply into something more substantial.

Bleeding Heart

Bare roots of wild bleeding heart.

Bleeding Heart approximately 18 months old.

Bleeding hearts are supposed to be excellent plants for the shade garden. The leaves have a delicate appearance to them and the small, colorful flowers add a small but noticeable pop of color. I planted about 3 of these and as of this moment only 2 are surviving. One is a good, healthy, substantial plant with flowers and the other just a meek stem. The substantial plant was vigorous right from the start. I had leaves and flowers one month after planting in the fall!

Christmas Fern

Bare root (tendril) of a Christmas fern when first planted.	Christmas Fern approximately 18 months after first bare root planting.
Fern tendrils	Fern tendrils unfurl to make new leaves.

For one of the most shady spots of my front garden, I was hoping the Christmas fern would be the answer to my prayers. So far, it has done quite well! I planted about 5 or so of these. As of this moment I have about 3 that are growing quite well and 1 that is just one leaf but is still hanging on. The ferns are interesting to watch. They send up curly, fuzzy stems called “tedrils” that eventually unfurl and make leaves.

Spiderwort

The spidery root of spiderwort.

Spiderwort in bloom.

This is another beauty. It has a small bluish-purple flower that opens during the day and closes at night. The stems and leaves are kind of unremarkable and basic. So far, these have generally all grown well. All I have is a stem here and a stem there though, not a generous clump of flowers. This is another plant I hope will grow with time.

Bloodroot

The insect-like root of bloodroot.

Bloodroot flower in spring.

The distinctive leaf shape of bloodroot.

It’s an incredibly cool name and a “dangerous” plant to boot! This little plant is poisonous but so beautiful. It sends up a white daisy-like flower in spring and then has unusual butterfly-shaped leaves. This was a great plant to teach my daughter about the concept of poisonous plants. So far, I still only get about one flower per plant but they are spreading just a little bit. This year, I seem to have 3 leaves per plant instead of one.

Bottom line, my native plant success rate is about 62%. I do enjoy learning about the native plants and I am thrilled with the ones that have made it. There is a bit of disappointment though. Compared to buying larger plants at a garden center and getting the instant boost of color and perhaps more vigorous growth, these natives are just really, really subtle and slow-growing. It would take another native plant expert even to appreciate what I have done so far.

I have a new appreciation for “Don’t pick wildflowers.” rules that you see at national parks and other places. After seeing how slowly some of these plants grow, you can understand why picking could set the plant back a year or more in growth.

We will keep going with native plants but I have decided not to focus exclusively on them. Native plants are sort of like doing calculus in your garden. It’s nice to take a break and do something more like simple arithmetic by planting the tried and true garden plants that are full and bushy right from the start. So, our garden, like our lives, will be a curious mix.

Do you have labor of love plants in your garden that only you can appreciate? Please share in the comments.

"Family Gardening," Photo by Derry, New Hampshire Public Library. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

This weekend we spent a lot of time in our garden. It was not exactly planned but the bare root plants I ordered last spring suddenly arrived and had to be put in the ground within 2 days. So, we reordered our plans and cleaned up the back garden. I wanted to share with you some of the experience.

Today’s post will have only a tenuous connection to this month’s theme of communications but an interesting one. Manual labor has a funny way of giving you time to think. As I was pulling weeds, scooping compost and planting, I was thinking about how a large number of the best gardeners in the world likely don’t use the Internet at all. Since gardening is part art and part science and rewards experience, many excellent gardeners are older and may have no interest learning the Internet. Other gardeners may be younger but due to the physical labor and literal dirt involved in their day-to-day activities, accessing a smart phone to check email, Facebook and Twitter on a regular basis is mostly impossible.

Many sources of gardening information typically offer a paper/mailed version in addition to electronic versions. Catalogs, magazines, newspapers and newsletters are still staples in the gardening world. There is a lot of fantastic gardening information on the Internet, however, and if you like to buy exotic plants, the Internet is a shopping goldmine. For my gardening project, I got a lot of great information from gardening websites and instructional YouTube videos.

Fall is the time to pay it forward in your yard and garden. If you want green grass in the spring, fall is the time to aerate, fertilize and overseed according to this article from Joel Lerner in The Washington Post.  Similarly, now is the time to plant bulbs and seeds for spring growth . . . or, in my case, bare root plants.

After reading/writing the Ruly posts this spring from Washington Gardener editor Kathy Jentz on zero lawn landscaping and James Wong’s Grow Your Own Drugs, I was inspired to seek out more native plants for my own garden. I joined the Virginia Native Plant Society to learn more about Virginia plants–most of which you will never see in a local garden center. (Interestingly, the Virginia Native Plant Society does all communications by postal mail, although they do have a website.)

After some research, I found an online seller of plants native to Virginia. Although it is a bit odd that my “native” plants come to me by way of Vermont, I understand that some native plants have a broad geographic range. The plants were only available in bare root form.

The roots arrived in the mail last weekend with few instructions or information. The roots were packed in little plastic sacks along with some shredded moistened newspaper. The Internet was a huge help here. I researched each plant and found great information about each one. I also found some information (but not a lot) about working with bare root plants.

One site recommended taking the roots out of the sacks and putting them in room temperature water for 2 hours before planting. This made a lot of sense to me since the plants had been in the mail for a week and were probably a bit parched.

While the roots soaked, we prepared the garden beds. Without constant attention, the natural woods take over our back garden. It was getting to be quite a jungle and I pulled out tons of weeds and pruned overgrown trees and bushes. We dug out “the vine that ate Fredericksburg” that literally was sending out 30-40 foot stems in every direction, was wrapping around my lawn furniture and generally taking over.

After clearing the beds, I started to dig a hole for the first set of roots and found the clay soil incredibly hard (as usual). With the number of plants we had to put in, I realized there was no way to chip out enough holes to finish in a day. The Internet to the rescue, I found a great video featuring a man tilling soil on his farm with a machine. “That’s what I need!” I thought. “Do they make one small enough for gardens?” After some more research, we learned the answer is yes! Small garden tillers are called “cultivators” and one of the most popular brands is Mantis.

The cultivator in action.

These machines basically have numerous spiked blades that cut through the soil and chop it up into little pieces. You can then mix in compost or soil conditioner and till it all together to make a nice light soil that is easy to dig. It took quite a few phone calls but we finally found a local store to rent a cultivator from for the day.

The cultivator was relatively lightweight and easy to operate but it did take quite a bit of body strength to maneuver. I did a little bit but then turned the task over to my husband. What a difference the cultivator made! Planting is actually pleasant when the soil is easy to dig! We both wondered why we had never thought of this before.

Planting was fun but not altogether easy. With bare root plants the big challenge for the novice gardener is “Which end is up?” Some of the roots came with greenery attached making this decision much easier but some were just roots. If it was too hard to tell up from down, the root went into the ground sideways.

What did I plant? Some really fun things! Native plants have some great stories to go along with them and are far more interesting than the standard garden center fare.

"Great Spangled Fritillary on Turk's Cap Lilly." Photo by homeredwardprice. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Bare root for Turk's Cap Lilly.

The Turk’s Cap Lilly, Lilium superbum, is a beautiful orange speckled flower that blooms in summer and is distinctive for petals that fold backwards into a turban-like shape. The bare root for this plant was a bit hard to decipher up from down so I put it in the ground sideways.

“Teaberry Plants.” Photo by Mullica. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Creeping Wintergreen "Bare Root."

Creeping wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, is another native plant. It gets bright red berries in summer and the leaves can be used to distill essential flavoring oils, similar to those used in chewing gum and medicines like Pepto Bismol.

“Cardinal Flower” Photo by kirybabe. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Cardinal Flower bare root plant.

Cardinal Flower, Lobelia cardinalis, apparently has such beautiful bright red blooms it is frequently picked and rare to find in the wild. These plants like to be constantly wet so I put them in a large container that we can drown with water whenever necessary.

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa). Photo by Wayne National Forest. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Black cohosh bare root.

Black Cohosh, Actaea racemosa, also known as “Bugbane” is supposedly a natural insect repellant–although many people have commented that bees like the flowers. It apparently has a strong smell that some people find unpleasant. I hope we don’t have to pull out a bunch of stinky plants next year but if it can reduce our insects by even a fraction the smell would be worth it! Black cohosh apparently has natural estrogen-like properties and was used by Native Americans in various healing remedies for women. Black cohosh tea is being investigated as a possible treatment for the symptoms of menopause.

“Zigzag spiderwort.” Photo by pellaea (Jason Hollinger). From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Spiderwort bare root.

Spiderwort, Tradescantia subaspera, is an interesting small purple flower that was once used to cure spider bites. Today, it is used as a natural environmental sensor. When exposed to severe pollutants or radiation, the flowers change color from blue to pink.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) at The Morton Arboretum. Photo by Jason Sturner. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

Root of Bloodroot, true to its name.

Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, is a fascinating and dangerous plant! It’s name comes from the red “blood-like” color of the root of the plant and some say that when you cut the plant it “bleeds.” It is one of the first flowers in the spring. It is also extremely poisonous! The plants contain sanguinarine which kills animal cells. Some natural healers make a potion called “black salve” from bloodroot which is supposed to burn off skin cancers or cure gangrene. Due to its poisonous nature, it is a deer-proof plant. Fortunately, I researched the poisonous nature of the plant before I handled it. I wore gloves and washed my hands after planting.

My drinking straw garden.

The downside of bare root gardening is that you don’t have much to show for your efforts afterward. Since I couldn’t even see where I had planted, I marked each root location with a plastic drinking straw (until I can think of something more appropriate). It makes it easier to ensure that I have watered each plant and will help me decipher whether something is a weed or growth from the root I planted.

I won’t know until spring whether the roots will take or if I will have just a graveyard of drinking straws to contend with. Until then, we are watering regularly and hoping for the best.

Are you working in your garden this month? What projects do you have planned? Please share in the comments.