Hardy Rhododendrons

Several things this week. The first is that the cold of this past week isn’t going to hurt perennials and bulbs. They’re dormant and underground now, covered by a good bit of snow. So you can relax on that score. The second thing to understand is that broadleaf plants such as Rhododendrons are not going to be very happy with cold weather but they’re not too badly upset by cold and cloudy/stormy weather.

What really kills them is the really cold and sunny weather. Read more

Even Birds Have It Tough

Even Birds Have it Tough

It turns out that researchers out in Colorado found that female songbirds pick their mates based on a variety of characteristics. Song, feather coloring and placement and possibly even beak size. (no comments on “size matters” please)

But rather than stay the same from year to year, the females changed their mind every year. One year it was feather placement and color, the next song. I’m told that Lark Bunting females had a thing for beak size in 1999 but switched to body feather color in 2003.

So, what’s the point?

Turns out that even male birds can’t get a break when it comes to females being consistent.

And because of this selection process, male Lark Buntings are a completely mixed up group of birds with different feather coloring and placement not to mention beak size differences.

So what’s a poor guy supposed to ?

Confessions of a Garden Reader

OK, I read a ton of stuff every day. In fact, I read about 75 blogs almost every day (that’s down from 100 a month or so ago) and it is only the determined and high quality blogs that stay in my reader (or the so-different that there is no alternative) And I said at one point that I’d share some of those with you.

One blog that I read (and have for some time now) is that of George Ball. Yes, “that” George Ball - vilified in the blogosphere as the ultimate Darth Gardener for his company’s purchase and subsequent moving of Heronswood Nursery.

But hold on for just a second.

Understand several things. The first is that I spent over 20 years in the trenches running my own specialist nursery and 3 years travelling the U.S. east coast as the Territory Sales Manager for Canada’s largest perennial nursery. This qualifies me to have opinions about the nursery trade. Well, I guess any gardener/blogger can have opinions but I have some experience behind mine.

And George Ball has opinions based on his experiences in the nursery trade.

Now George and I have never met. He wrote the introduction to one of my books (Burpee Book of Bulbs) and given that he owns Burpee, this is his right. That’s as close as we’ve come to talking. Heck, he never even asked me to sign his copy (assuming he has one)

The deal is simple. This man is in the trenches. He runs one of the largest gardening operations in the US. And regarding the blogosphere, there are always two sides to every issue. I don’t want nor do I intend to enter that debate nor will I be approving comments that want to open it here.

All I want to say is that love him or hate him - you have to read him.

Updated Free Perennial Ebook

I have a free ebook on the Perennial Plants of the Year and I’ve just finished updating it. If you want a free copy, simply click here to go and download it.

Do let me know what you think about it.

Garden Benches

I rather like garden benches and all my gardens have had places to sit. As regular readers will know, I believe if there isn’t a bench or seat in the garden the only time you’ll go in there is if you want to work.

In any case, here’s a video featuring some fine garden benches I’ve seen in the last two years.

Garden Forum ???

It has been suggested to me more than once that I should start a Garden Forum. I’m open to doing this if there’s enough interest. But I don’t want to waste my time or yours if there’s not enough interest in having one or helping out. There are few things worse than having a forum and nobody showing up - that’s a lonely thing.

So I’m asking readers/friends/acquaintances/gardeners/stumbleuponers/or just about anybody else who’s interested to take a short survey and let me know what they think.

Click Here to take survey

I’ll tabulate the results next week and let you know what’s happening then.

Thanks for telling me what you think.

And please think about helping out if you can. (and tell me that too)

Youtube channel

I’m not sure there’s anybody on the Net who hasn’t heard of youtube.com I’ve been using them to host some of my videos and have just finished creating Doug’s Youtube Channel

What I’d like to ask you to do is take a few minutes, check out a video (or three) and rate them for me. I really like seeing the stars beside the video and they help in promoting the channel and videos to other gardeners.

I do appreciate your help on this. Plus you get to see all the videos in one spot.

Echinacea or Coneflower

I rather like Echinacea or Coneflower and given that I have way too many varieties of this plant in my garden, this is probably a very good thing. I just made a short video on growing them. You can find it here.

Color in the Garden

I’m starting a series of color in the garden with this short video of Cantigny Gardens (a public garden outside of Chicago, Illinois). These folks do a tremendous job on designing for bold and brassy color (as well as relaxed formal designs) and for showing off plants to their best effect.

Check out this short video as a first step in exploring great garden color combinations.

Perennial Plant of the Year 2009

The Perennial Plant of the Year for 2009 has just been announced and it’s Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’. I’ve been growing this wonderful grass for some time now in both USDA 4 and 5 gardens and it has done well for me. Well…. in a tough year in Zone 4 it won’t be really happy.

Here’s the deal.

Full sun to part shade. The more sun you give this plant, the more “washed-out” the leaves will be. So for maximum gold color, grow it in the part shade.

If you have clay - forget it. This one likes a rich, loamy soil with no waterlogging but no drought either.

Propagation is by division and is easy in the spring. Just whack off a bit with a shovel.

I love this grass because it doesn’t spread quickly. It is a slow grower rather than some Attila of the Garden.

And at 12-24 inches tall, it makes a perfect plant for the edge of a border or next to smaller perennials.

If you want to know how to say the name and grow the plant, check out this video I just made.

Winter Flowers

Now, I know that Southern gardeners have more winter flowers than I do but hey, you guys don’t have “winter” like we do in Canada. So here’s how we adapt and look at our garden. I do note that white flowers are big this year. Big white fluffy ones.

My One Thing to Change

Happy New Gardening Year to all. I’m writing this just after a small snowfall has covered all the branches and made my yard look like a white fairyland. I even managed to drag myself outside at first light to take some pictures of the snow and glistening trees. Who would have thought that I could be so inspired as to go outside into the winter cold before my first morning coffee just to take pictures of snowflakes. What is this world coming to anyway? You know it had to be good to stir the creative soul of this housebound gardening guy. And it was. I’ll be posting some of them on my blog in the next week and announcing a garden picture contest so watch for it.

Of course, the reason I’ve come out of my gardening funk is that the seed catalogues have started arriving. I have my major herb catalogue (Richters) and my old favourite vegetable seed one (Stokes) on my desk as I write and the pictures and plants are once again tempting me to dream of next year’s garden. My partner is looking through her seed catalogues and planning our vegetable garden. Given that her seed sources are ten times more numerous than mine (I tend to grow a lot of hybrid flowers, she goes after the old vegetable gems) you can imagine what our dining room table looks like. It’s awash in dreams.

One of the interesting dreams this week is a contest just announced at YouTube. It seems there’s a rather large and important world conference happening at Davos, Switzerland in the next little while and YouTube has arranged to present Internet video to the world leaders attending this event. The theme of the conference and contest is “What one single thing should individuals, companies, and governments do in 2008” You have to admit is is a bit intriguing to try to consider exactly what one single thing we should all focus on. The answers and entries in the contest are already intriguing. And I’ve decided to enter a video. In fact, not only am I going to enter a video, I’m going to encourage you to do the same thing or join the dialogue. Again, I’ll be announcing something on my blog and in this column over the next few weeks to give you a spot to enter the conversation.

So, what’s my one single thing for 2008? I think the single most important thing is the survival of our species. I want my grandchildren to be able to worry about their lives in the ways that I do. I want my great-grandchildren to have the same luxury; without the worry of having to figure out how to physically survive amidst the wreck of a chemical-ravaged environment. All the rest of the problems can be solved (or not) after we’re sure we have clean air and water. So this means, a sea-change in our use of chemicals and a serious adjustment of our priorities in living within a plastic society.

So without going pie in the sky, I think I’d very much like to start with a complete and immediate ban on the use of chemicals that are used for cosmetic purposes. Not only on lawns and flowers but on cars to clean them, in hygiene products to make them “smell better”, in just about every household cleaning product you can buy on the shelf. But because this is a gardening column after all, I just want to rant about things in the garden.

The biggest offender is the lawn. I’ve written about this before but the lawn is the single biggest sucker of cosmetic chemicals polluting our ground water that we can individually change. Next spring, simply say “no” to chemical fertilizers and sprays. There are organic alternatives (contrary to the doom and gloom of the chemical lawn applicators) that will accomplish the same thing as chemical controls. Want a natural weed and feeding compound? Use corn gluten. Want to get rid of grubs? Use predator nematodes. Want to get rid of existing dandelions? Use a simple and inexpensive tool called a “spud” and get a half hour of exercise a week to eliminate the problem. I’ve written about all them here before and it isn’t a rocket science.

Want to do something positive? Cancel any automatic spraying contract you have with a lawn care company. Don’t spray just because you’ve always sprayed. Lawn care companies make money spraying; they have an investment to protect. I know that some folks won’t take this step. I know that some homeowners don’t believe that chemicals are harmful to us all and our environment; not only in the use but in the production and transport. I know that some homeowners say, “It’s only my lawn.” The reality is that when we add up all those “only my lawns” we come up with significant amounts of chemicals that are being dumped into our environment. The last statistic I saw was that homeowners are putting almost 4 times the amount of chemicals per acre than farmers are to control a few dandelions and pests. Don’t worry about farmers overspraying, worry about the old guy next door that insists its his right to nuke weeds and insects. And it is almost some guy rather than a woman that makes this decision I note to my chagrin.

Want to make a difference with one small thing? Go completely organic in the lawn and garden. It’s a small thing but when we all do it, these small things add up to a big change. Make the decision to protect yourself and your family and we’ll all benefit.

That’s my one small thing that I’d like to see happen in 08. What’s yours?

Two Kinds of Pruning Cuts

Here’s a link to a video I posted this morning - the two kinds of pruning cuts you need to know in order to control plant growth.

Check it out so your pruning this coming spring won’t be the unkindest cut of all.

Vegetable Orchestra

OK - just when you think you’ve seen it all. Here’s a vegetable orchestra. Yes, they play vegetables for musical instruments. The instruments are crafted from different veggies rather than just one.

But feel free to try it yourself.

Me? I do well to get a tune out of a bottle or a blade of grass.

Check out this video.

To quote my partner, a vegetable expert, “That is too cool.”

“I am Legend” Garden

Well, if you’ve seen the movie “I Am Legend” with Will Smith (if not, catch it on DVD) then you may have noticed that he grew his own veggies using a neat little gizmo. As the last man on earth fighting off “zombies” - he really needs his greens.

In case, you were intrigued with the system he used (or maybe you didn’t notice) I found the company website that produced the computerized gardening system and also discovered that they’re selling this system for far less than other online and tv retailers.

It’s a pretty interesting concept even if you aren’t the last person left standing.

Here’s a link to the Aerogarden used in the movie

Tropical Plant Beauties

Here’s another of my friends with her “guest blog” for you to enjoy. You might want to check out her ongoing stories here.

Honey, after seven Wisconsin winters, I thought I had seen every kind of weather the planet spews, from hurricanes to blizzards. But, two feet of snow and -15ºF nights followed by a 50-degree-day that spawned frozen fog thick enough to cut into blocks are testing my Southern serenity. I might as well be back in the bayous of Louisiana, where sulfur fog obscures oil refinery pollution and muffles crying nutrias. At least, I wouldn’t be chilled to the bone as I am now, despite my mink coat and endless cups of Earl Grey tea spiked with peach brandy.

My precious tropical beauties are keeping me from going totally mad, especially the 14-pound amorphophallus bulb in the sunroom. Its passion-pink bud tantalizes me, knowing that it will burst forth in a month or two with the smelliest flower on the planet. ‘Konjac’, the cultivar I’ve been growing in the garden during our brief summers for the last four years, is the little cousin of giant ‘Titan’, the one television news crews like to cover when it blooms for a sensational blurb for the 6 p.m. news. Mine will produce the same cheap-vinyl-car-seat-cover purple spathe (Tony Avent’s description, not mine) atop a snakeskin mottled-burgundy and chartreuse stem, followed by a three-foot-high violet spadix that unfurls for only 12 hours. It reeks like rotten fish to attract carrion flies, its normal pollinator. They usually feed off of dead ‘gators and cows mired in the swamp.

I can hardly wait for the bud to break dormancy. Any harbinger of spring, especially one of this enormity cannot come too soon. It’s snowing again!
Love,
M’Liz

Kitchen Gardeners Website

I invited a few garden writer friends to post some “guest blogs” this week. Here’s the first from Roger Dorion of Kitchen Gardeners.

Kitchen Gardeners of the World Unite!

The French say potager. In Italy, it’s called an orto. Anglophones use the term kitchen garden. Wherever soil can be found, you’ll find people getting their hands in it with visions of home-made feasts dancing in their heads. In the past few years, a new nonprofit organization called “Kitchen Gardeners International” (KGI) has taken root to unite and grow the global community of gardening gastronomes.

The organization was founded by Roger Doiron, an American who lived for 10 years in Europe, as a hopeful response to what he sees as a troubled food system. “We’re becoming increasing distant from our food, both literally and figuratively to the detriment of our health, environment and gastronomy,” says Doiron “. For Doiron, the kitchen garden offers both a means and a metaphor for people to reconnect with their sustenance.

Although still a seedling, the organization would seem to have sprouted on fertile ground. “The response to our launch has been very encouraging,” says Doiron. “We now have over 4800 people from over 90 countries subscribed to our e-mail newsletter, from Alabama to Albania”. Through its newsletter and other activities, KGI offers gardeners and food lovers a portal to multicultural world of kitchen gardening and hand-made foods.

Its future plans include new activities for bringing kitchen gardeners together both literally and virtually. It will once again organize “International Kitchen Garden Day” which it dubs a “global celebration of the most local of foods”. This year’s event will take place on August 24th, 2008.

For more information, see the KGI website: www.kitchengardeners.org.

Winter Garden Photo Contest

OK. So it’s winter. This post was sparked by a few gardeners who’ve started a New Year’s Day flower count. Yup - counting flowers on that day and it was quite amazing how many of their outdoor plants were in bloom.

Me. I’m under a few feet of snow. So I went out and took pictures of that.

And I’m inviting you to do the same. Take some great pictures of your winter garden. Whimsical, deeply buried, whatever. But they have to be shot between now and Feb 15 of 2008. No fair entering pictures you took last year.

Entry Deadline - Feb 15, 2008
Number of entries - no more than 3 per person
Prize: 3 ebooks of your choice for first. Runners up get one ebook

The details are right here and you can upload at this url.

Happy New Year

And a Happy New Year to all of you.

I think we’re “supposed” to write about what happened, what’s going to happen and what we’d like to see happen in this post. What a commonplace way to organize a blog post. So - you want to know that I intend to (finally-really) drop the excess weight? That I’m not going to build a new flower garden (building the veg garden instead)? This is interesting?

Nah. It’ just more of the same. You’ll know all about it as it happens… or not.

I’m a guy. What’s fun are the toys of life.

Never mind plants, let’s talk “toys”.

07 saw me upgrade the cameras in my life. Went from my first “learning” digital to a Pentax 10D and I’m loving it. Naturally, I want more lenses for it (a macro and a telephoto) and both are justified in this garden writing world. Hey, you never know when you’re going to have to take a picture of a flower from across a chasm while on a nature hike. So this camera now justifies the size of my camera bag and tripod (both used to run my Nikon), looks like a camera, acts like a camera and takes great pics. You’re going to see more and more of my photography over the next year.

I also took the big plunge and decided that it was time to invest in video making equipment and I’m glad I did. I’m having way too much fun with this stuff. In fact, if I was starting out again, I think I’d rather be a film maker than a gardener. So this gives me the best of both worlds and now my toys are being applied to the garden world. I’m using a Sanyo Xacti and it’s everything a good guy-toy should be. It is so easy to use with a manual that doesn’t have to be read (always an indication of a great guy toy) and effective at capturing good enough video for me to use on my websites - I really like it dontcha know.

The biggest toy this year (note to Revenue Canada: these are all work related!) is my new laptop. My better-half “convinced” me that I was just spinning wheels trying to make video on a 5 year old system that was so outdated that no modern software would run on it. And the Linux lover in me ran right into the fact that Linux isn’t video friendly yet. The MacBook Pro that sits on my desk is so darn tiny but so wonderfully powerful that I’m simply loving it. I now have a pro-level editing suite and a very steep learning curve ahead of me. When it comes to toys, these are some of the best.

But luckily I’m also taking a course on how to do a ton of stuff like this so I have high hopes you’ll see these last three toys all merge into a great package for 2008. I think we’ll see a massive difference between the starting videos and the ones we’ll be looking at by Dec. While I hope you enjoy them, I confess that I’m really doing it because it’s fun.

Because we bought a new house and are going to be doing renovations on it, the garden designs are going to have to wait a few years. I’ll be working at finding and planting shrubs and trees instead of flowers as these can be put far enough away from the house the construction guys won’t destroy them. Expect to see videos of me planting shrubs and trimming trees. Naturally, if I can’t garden, I’m going to have to sail. Good thing the new house has a great dock and I expect to have several of my sailboats ready for the water this season. Anchors aweigh. And yes, I’ll take videos of that as well. New electronic toys meet old wood toys.

Toys! That’s what’s important to guy gardeners. Never mind the mamby-pamby stuff of “new plants” and “new tools” (hey, if I wanted a new gardening tool, I’d ask somebody to invent it) Never mind what designer doyen says is *the* color of the month. Never mind “indoor-outdoor garden spaces”. Never mind “communicating” with fellow gardeners. And for goodness sake, never mind how much weight we’re going to lose and how fit we’re going to be.

Tell me about your toys!