Category: Outdoors

Quiet the first year, spectacular the second

Biennials are some of the least planted flowers we can grow. Why? The year they are planted by seed, they generally do not flower. They only have a clump of low-growing leaves. The second year, they send up a flower spike, bloom, and then die. That’s right. They have done their job of producing seeds, and then die. Gardeners prefer quick-blooming annuals, or long-lived perennials. Biennials are the least favored puppies of the litter.

On the other hand, some are worth the effort, or the wait. I love purple foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea). In the past, I was able to buy first-year plants in six-packs at a nursery, and planted them two years in a row. After they were finished blooming, I cut down the tall stems and shook out tiny black seeds over a flower bed that had been weeded, loosened and raked smooth. I patted down the seeds but did not cover them with soil. The tiny seeds just fell into crevices and waited for spring, when they started the growing cycle again.

It is important to know what the leaves of a first-year biennial look like so that seedlings do not get weeded out before getting established. I do that by trying to remember the color, texture or shape of the leaves. Often, color is my cue. So, for example, the biennial rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) has a distinctive gray leaf. I recognize the first-year plants, often growing in a cluster, and dig up some to divide and plant where I want them the following year, and to give them more space to grow.

Rose campion flowers are deep magenta, a truly spectacular color. The blossoms are an inch wide and are very profusely produced. Well worth planting if you can find plants for sale, or buy some seeds and wait for second-year blossoms.

Often biennial flowers are in the same genus as perennial plants. Closely related plants are grouped in the same genus (equivalent to your last name). The second name is the species (equivalent to your first name). So Lychnis is like “Jones” and coronaria is like “Susan.”

So for example, our common purple and pink foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) has relatives in the Digitalis genus. I grow two kinds, D. grandiflora and D. lutea. Both are yellow and both often start new plants by seed, so I have plenty. The latter one has smaller blossoms than the former one.

A biennial wildflower I just love is Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). As the species name, carota, implies, it is in the carrot family. The tap roots are not as big as carrots, but the fragrance is about the same. But the root is white, while most carrots we eat are orange, though white, yellow, purple and red varieties are available. Anyhow, Queen Anne’s lace stands up tall (to 3 feet) and has an umbel or flat-topped cluster of tiny white blossoms, with purple ones in the center. It is a great cut flower in a vase. Young second-year plants are occasionally sold in six-packs in garden centers, and some of those are pink or even dark purple. Lovely.

Another way to get Queen Anne’s lace is to dig up first-year plants and transplant them on your property. They are commonly seen along the roadside and are free for the taking on rural roads. Mature Queen Anne’s lace has a tap root and is difficult to transplant.

Please note that poison hemlock is a related carrot-family plant. But unlike Queen Anne’s lace, it has smooth stems, not fuzzy ones, and has no purple center to the flower. It has purple blotches on the stems. The sap of hemlock can cause rashes when exposed to sunlight.

Perhaps my favorite biennial is angelica. Again there are biennial and perennial forms, but the biennial is the best. Its scientific name is Angelica gigas. It has huge purple or burgundy globes of small flowers, each globe 4 to 8 inches across. The plant stands up 4 to 6 feet tall with strong stems and big leaves.

The best thing about the plant is this: It is an absolute gem of a pollinator plant. When I last grew it, it often had three or more bees on it at once. Unfortunately, it is hard to find in plant nurseries, and when I have found it, it was a big second-year plant in a 2-gallon pot that cost me at least $15. Yikes. I tried planting seeds after blooming, but did not save any for spring planting. I got no plants from my meager efforts, but I will buy seeds now and try starting some plants next spring.

Most plant books list hollyhocks (Alcea rosea) as biennials, though some consider them half-hardy perennials. One plantsman told me that the plants with leaves the shape of fig leaves are more perennial than others. This is a tall plant, sometimes 6 to 8 feet tall, that has open-throated 2- to 3-inch blossoms that come in a variety of colors from white to pink, red, yellow and nearly black, often with a yellow center.

Hollyhocks do best in rich, moist soil in full sun. But they will also grow in part shade. They open their buds in sequence up the stem over a period of four to six weeks. When they’re done blooming, cut them to the ground immediately. I believe that makes them wonder if they have produced seeds, and come back the next year to finish the job. They do show up uninvited in the garden, and I always welcome them.

Featured photo: Purple Foxgloves bloom from bottom of the stem to the top. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Think ahead and don’t buy on impulse

First, August is not the best time for planting trees. Most experts suggest spring or fall when it is cooler and rain more regular. But let’s face it, I’m a gardener, and if I see a nice tree for sale, especially one in bloom or one I’ve been looking for, I am going to get it, no matter what the experts say. And I bet many of you do the same.

I confess to acquiring four trees in late July. I bought three that I had been looking for, and I got a nice one as a gift. And since I have these new trees, I am not going to keep them in their pots until fall. I will plant them, and water them daily, if needed, through the heat of summer. They will do better in the ground than in a pot where roots can easily dry out on hot days. I have planted a few trees and shrubs in my garden this summer, and all are doing fine.

If you are planning on buying trees, allow me to give you some advice. First, NO IMPULSE BUYING! Learn everything you can about the particular tree you are considering well before you buy it. There are books and websites by universities or botanic gardens that provide excellent information. I suggest avoiding websites of companies selling trees. Talk to knowledgeable friends. Ask questions.

Of the tree books on my shelves, I depend most commonly on books written by Michael Dirr. A retired professor, he has been learning about trees and testing trees and talking to growers for more than 50 years. All his books are readable, dependable — and opinionated. His classic is Manual of Woody Landscape Trees: Their Identification, Culture, Propagation and Uses.

At nearly 1,200 pages, his Manual really does cover every tree I have ever wanted to learn about. It’s not flashy: there are no glossy photos to drool over. Just line drawings of the leaves for most species, and lots of good info. If you want a copy, it lists for $81.80 for the most recent (sixth) paperback edition from Stipes Publishing. Or get your library to order one. Secondhand copies are probably available, too.

So start by seeing what the hardiness of a tree is. No point in buying a tree you remember from your time living in North Carolina unless it is hardy in your zone, too, which it might well be. Then look at what he calls culture: soil, pH and sun/shade requirements.

Read what Dr. Dirr says about size. He generally tells you how big a tree will get in the garden, how fast it grows, and the biggest size known. Let that be a guide. It is so easy to buy a small tree and plant it without really thinking what it will be like in 50 years. I remember a little evergreen growing in front of our house when I was growing up. When we bought the` house in 1954, we decorated it with Christmas lights. Then in later years we used a stepladder to put more lights on. By the time I left for college, it was nearly as tall as the two-story house — and blocking the view from some windows.

So before buying a new tree, try to see what a mature specimen looks like in your town or state. Go to a public park or arboretum (a zoo, of sorts, for trees). Pay attention to the width of the tree, not just the height.

Looking in a forest to see how close trees grow together is not the answer. Trees are wonderful, and many people have done research on how trees communicate with each other (see The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How the Communicate, a New York Times bestseller in 2016 by Peter Wohlleben), but they aren’t very smart (by our standards, at least). And they don’t plan very well. Where a seed lands, it will try to grow — even if it is right next to another tree, or in a shady place where it will not thrive.

Some years ago I planted a spicebush (Lindera benzoin). This is a native shrub that thrives in the shade, even in dry shade. It has fragrant, spicy leaves, twigs and berries. I used to chew on the twigs when I was a boy in lieu of chewing gum, which was prohibited by my parents. Dr. Dirr says it grows 6 to 12 feet high “with a similar spread.” Mine now is 6 to 8 feet high with an 8-foot spread. My new specimens are in two-gallon pots, just 24 inches tall. I was about to plant them 3 or 4 feet apart, but stopped myself. If a mature tree is 8 feet wide, it is 4 feet from the center of the tree to the outside. So a pair of them should be about 8 feet apart, or at least 6.

In the past two years I’ve been working to develop a private arboretum on what was a 5-acre lawn, now a meadow. Last summer we planted about 100 native trees and shrubs of many species, including a dozen oaks of various kinds and sizes. It’s a five-year project.

A mature oak can be 75 feet tall with a spread of 50 feet or more. But I did not plant them 50 feet apart. I want the roots to interact, sharing nutrients and knowledge. And in a storm, intertwined roots can help prevent trees from toppling over. So I planted most about 30 feet apart. I’ve seen oaks in a meadow like the one I’ve been planting: the branches between trees touched but did not intrude on their neighbors. On the sides facing the meadow, the branches were longer. Yes, somehow they communicate.

So feel free to wait until the weather is cooler and rain more frequent to plant new trees. But if you must plant now, keep everything well-watered!

Featured photo: Spicebush is a great native shade shrub. Courtesy photo.

Don’t sunburn your fig leaves, and other advice

Just like kids on school vacation, your houseplants may want to go outside to play. And like your kids, don’t put them out in full sun all day without sunscreen. Well, there is no SPF 30 for houseplants, so you will have to make other accommodations.

If you haven’t brought out your houseplants, you may want to consider it now. Plants have widely differing needs for light, and many houseplants are popular because they can sit on a table in the living room without any direct light. These will do best on a covered porch for the summer, not on a sunny deck.

But even plants that thrive outdoors in full sun need to be introduced to the outdoors slowly. I have a potted fig tree that I bring into the house each winter. It drops its leaves and takes a snooze, so I keep it in a cold basement, which it seems to like. I water it once a month during the winter as the low humidity indoors would desiccate its roots if I didn’t give it a little water. Then in March I bring the fig upstairs into a cool, bright room. Soon its buds swell, and it produces leaves.

When all danger of frost is past, I bring our fig outside and put it on the deck we have on the north side of the house that just gets morning sun. After a couple of weeks of morning sun, I bring it down to the lower deck, which gets more sun, and it generally rewards me with a few tasty figs before frost. This year I put it into afternoon sun too early, and the leaves showed signs of sunburn. They yellowed, and a few got brown edges. It will recover, but it just reminds me how sensitive leaves are to strong sun. It may punish me with no figs this year.

If you are interested in growing figs, you should get a copy of Lee Reich’s book Growing Figs in Cold Climates. It covers cultivar selection, over-wintering and pruning techniques, even how to tell when your figs are ripe. It’s in paperback and is fully illustrated with nice photos. Lee lives in upper New York State and was an Associated Press garden writer until he recently retired. Check out his website and blog at www.leereich.com.

My potted banana tree has been outdoors on my north-facing deck for several weeks, and I keep edging it further out into the sun from time to time. It is a tropical plant and can take lots of sun, but once again, I am careful not to shock it with too much sun too early on. Unlike my fig tree, I bought it knowing that the banana is never going to produce fruit. But I love its big, wide leaves and that it brings up memories of my time in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer.

If you have your houseplants outdoors, be sure that they are not getting over-watered by Mother Nature. When we got an inch and a half of rain I went around to look at my houseplants that are sitting in saucers and drained off excess water. Water in a saucer will get soaked up into a pot by capillary action or even greedy roots that sneak out through holes in the bottom of a pot. Most houseplants don’t need as much water as garden plants, and continually wet roots tend to rot.

What about insects getting on your houseplants if you let them outdoors? Yes, you probably will get some aphids on them. But other insects like ladybugs will probably keep them in check all summer. You will need to give your plants a brisk shower with the hose at the end of the summer to wash off any remaining aphids and/or their eggs. Or you can spray them with a dilute soap solution that will kill the aphids. Things like “Safer” brand insect killing soap are safe and approved for organic gardeners. It dissolves the fats in their outer shell, and they dehydrate and die.

Scale insects are another pest your houseplants may encounter while enjoying their life outside, though you can get them inside, too. Scale insects are a group of some 8,000 species of insects that suck sap from your plants, and may excrete honeydew that attracts a black mold that you might notice first.

Most scale insects are small, under a quarter of an inch in size, and have a wax mono-shell that covers them as they suck the plant’s juices. The shell can be one of many different colors. But if you see them early on, you can get rid of them easily by wiping them with a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. I have only gotten them once.

Can you take your houseplants out of their pots and put them in the ground? You bet. But if you do, they will get bigger during the summer, and may not fit into their pots, come fall, or not so easily. But if you don’t mind potting up plants, and want your geraniums, for example, to really thrive, plant a few in the ground. Real soil and sun? It’s what houseplants dream of.

Featured photo: This fig leaf got sunburned and will never recover. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Thin out some crops, grab some garlic

Heat descended on us recently like opening the door to a roaring wood stove. The old adage about colonial India was, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.” I think that applies here, too. I, for one, have no desire to work in the garden when temperatures get to be in the 80s or more.

My strategy is to go to bed earlier, and get up at 6 a.m., or even earlier if I can. In general I’m not a morning person. I like coffee, the newspaper in my hands, and a leisurely breakfast. But with the heat, I feel a need to see what plants need some water, and what veggies should be picked early in the day.

The most vulnerable plants are those that have just been transplanted or installed. I recently moved some small Swiss chard plants from a somewhat shady place to a raised bed in full sun. Gravity works on water, not just Newton’s apple. Raised beds tend to drain of water and dry out faster than beds in the ground. The soil is warmer, too. So those Swiss chard seem to need water every day now.

I can reduce my need to water that raised bed by mulching it well. I’ve mulched the rest of my vegetable garden with four to six pages of newspaper, covered with straw or hay. That is primarily for keeping the weeds down, but it also reduces the need for watering. But the raised bed was built later, and I haven’t mulched it yet. Gotta get on it!

I also regularly water a bed of zinnias that were only planted by seed in June. Anytime you plant seeds, you should water daily until they germinate to avoid drying out the seeds at a critical time. And when the plants are small, they need regular watering, too.

We have thinned all our root crops by now, which is important. If you haven’t, you should. Carrots, beets, parsnips, radishes and rutabagas need room to grow — an inch, at least, from their nearest neighbors. You can eat the small vegetables you pull. The leaves of beets are a tasty treat when steamed lightly and served with butter.

I’m harvesting garlic now, too. Not the entire crop as yet. I just pull one or two for cooking as needed. I’ll pull them all in August when the leaves start to brown up. When I pull the main harvest I leave the tops on and hang them in the cellar upside down to cure. I’ve read that the bulbs will absorb additional nutrients from the leaves and stem while they cure.

Fresh garlic is nearly impossible to peel. I just use a sharp paring knife to make two slices into a bulb — one on each side of a clove. When it pops out, I can peel off the outer layers and insert the clove into a press, or smash it with the wide blade of a French kitchen knife and then chop it finely.

I’m often asked if cutting off scapes, those curly tops of garlic, helps to grow bigger, better bulbs of garlic. I’ve been experimenting with that for years, and don’t see a significant difference. So I cut off scapes to use in stir-fries, salads or stews, but don’t bother to remove them all.

I picked a few ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes in mid-July this year, which is early, even for them. Although I started almost all my tomatoes by seed in April, I did buy a few bigger plants to get those early tomatoes. Next up will be my ‘Blue Beauty’ tomatoes, which I did start by seed indoors. They are a gorgeous deep purple, with green at the bottom. When the green turns red and they soften up, they will be ready to pick.

For once I have planted lettuce regularly all summer, so I have had enough to eat and to share. And I have lots of small plants to transplant and separate. I recommend that you plant some lettuce seeds directly in the ground now for early fall eating, and in a month, do it again. Mark your calendar! After all, some spaces will be opening up in the garden as you harvest radishes, peas, beets and more. Look for heat-resistant or hot-weather lettuce varieties like Adriana, Monte Carlo or Red Cross — all available from Johnny’s Seeds. Cool-weather lettuce quickly bolts in August heat.

I am picking heads of broccoli now. But the best is yet to come. I once made a little garden in the lawn for an elderly friend, and planted two broccoli plants there. Unfortunately, my friend pulled out the broccoli once they had yielded their first big heads. Little did she know that broccoli will send out side shoots, smaller spears of broccoli, for the rest of the summer and fall! Just keep on picking. And if the side shoots start to open with yellow blossoms, pick and eat them anyway. They will still be tasty.

I seem to be having a great year for potatoes (I have not seen a single potato bug), and should have plenty to eat and share. I planted 100 chunks of potato, and each plant should give me one to two pounds of spuds. I will start harvesting a few after they have blossomed. I like to slip my hand under a plant and “steal” a potato or two for dinner before I start the harvest. If you grow potatoes, be sure to let your children or grandkids help you when you harvest them. All kids are excited by the buried treasure!

So beat the heat: Get up early and go out to your garden. There is always something to do.

Featured photo: Raised beds need more water than plant in the ground. Photo by Henry Homeyer.