Tenacious Tips Tuesday - The Curmudgeon's Season

Author's note: Sorry this is late, folks! Been on vacation!


Nothing drives me crazier than finding a plant I love at a price I can’t afford. It’s not that I necessarily think the growers or nursery people are overcharging, either. No, growers have my complete sympathy. Introducing a new plant to the public is the result of years, literally, of work. Making the crosses, growing the seedlings and discarding the majority of them for one flaw or another, propagating enough to sell and then hoping the public agrees with your choices. Given all that, it’s a wonder anyone bothers!

For me, though, what is comes down to is I am a cheapskate at heart. I have heart palpitations at the thought of paying more than $10 for a plant. A seed pack priced at $3.50 sends me fleeing in panic. My husband says I pinch a penny so hard, Abe Lincoln is eating wheat toast (if you’re too young to remember wheat pennies, my apologies).  So what’s a curmudgeon to do?

There are, of course, a million ways to save money on plants; I’ll discuss others in future Tips. For today, let’s talk about my absolute favorite, end of season sales. Yes, yes, I know; most places are picked over or the good stuff isn’t put on sale or the plants are in hideous shape or etc. All of that is true. However, there are still some factors that make these sales worth checking out.

First, it’s shopping, for pity’s sake, for garden plants. Isn’t that enough?? At any time of year? What else is your patio for except to hold a pot ghetto? Good grief, people, I shouldn’t have to spell this one out!

Second, if you like odd stuff, really odd stuff, you’re likely to find it at a steep discount at this time of year. Certain plants may not have sold in the main season because they were too weird for the general public, whose tastes run toward marigolds and geraniums. (Are these people really gardeners, by the way? I like those plants, too, but give me some quirky sedums, fall-blooming heleniums or at the very least a few gazanias! Don’t people get bored with the same old bedding plants year after year?)



Helenium 'Double Trouble'



Helenium 'Rubinzwerg'



Low Maintenance Plants

Plant Name: Baptisia australis

Overall Low Maintenance Rating:                            5 Stars

Overview

My preference is for plants a little out of the ordinary, ones that not everybody may have seen, and one of my favorites is baptisia (Baptisia australis), also known as false indigo. Baptisia forms a huge mound of blue-green foliage topped with blue spires of pea-like flowers in the spring, looking a bit like a gigantic lupine. It can get 3 to 4 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide and is quite hardy in our area. Full sun is must as it can get sort of floppy in the shade.

While the common variety is blue, other selections have different flower colors. ‘Carolina Moonlight’ is a lovely pale yellow while another species, Baptisia alba, has white flowers. There is even one named ‘Screaming Yellow’ and the name is entirely apt! I added one this year called ‘Solar Flare Prairieblues’ which has bright yellow flowers that fade to orange. The Prairieblues line also includes some different shades of blue including a rich midnight blue named, appropriately, ‘Midnight Prairieblues’. I have not yet seen this one in person, but I’m told it looks like a large, bushy delphinium.

Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight' with Iris 'Sultan's Palace'

There is also a dwarf form (Baptisia australis var. minor) which is a bit harder to find, but well worth it if you have limited space, as it only gets around 2 to 3 feet tall and wide. I’ve only seen it available in 2 places, both online – Well Sweep Herb Farm in New Jersey and High Country Gardens in New Mexico. Both companies are ones I’ve ordered from in the past and been very happy with.

Baptisia australis var. minor

If I had to give baptisia any negative points it would have to be for permanence. The root system on baptisia is impressive. You’ve probably heard that they have a tap root (a single root reaching down anywhere from 2 feet to hell)? Well, these plants don’t have just one tap root, they have many that go to hell and part way back. And if you damage them, the plant will die. It makes them nearly impossible to transplant. Once it’s full grown, you’re pretty much stuck with it where you planted it so site it carefully.

Disease                                                                             5 Stars

I have never experienced or heard of a disease affecting baptisia.

Pests – Insects                                                                  5 Stars

Ditto

Pests – Animal                                                                  5 Stars

The only animal pests that have affected my baptisia have been voles and they don’t do any permanent damage. In the winter, the little varmints gnaw off the stems, sending the dried plant tumbling across the garden like a huge tumbleweed. I would have cut them off in the spring anyway and the plant always re-sprouts, so no harm is done.

Kind of weird seeing it roll across the snow in January, though.

Invasiveness                                                                     5 Stars

Baptisia is not invasive, but it can get large. Treat it as you would a medium sized shrub.

General Maintenance – Water                                       5 Stars

Baptisia has an extremely long and deep root system, allowing it to search near and far for water if none is forthcoming from the skies or the gardener.

The usual caveat applies to newly planted baptisias. All baby plants require extra care till they are established.

General Maintenance – Fertilizing                                  5 Stars

Another plant I would be afraid of fertilizing; baptisia does just fine on its own!

General Maintenance – Pruning/Cleaning                     5 Stars

Baptisias are actually better if you don’t mess with them. The flowers are self-cleaning, meaning the dead ones fall off without any help, and the seed pods it forms are quite attractive and last the rest of the season.

Tenacious Tip Tuesday - Weeding

Well, yesterday's laziness met up with Monday's busy-ness and I'm afraid this is going to be a short Tip. Since tonight's busy-ness involved weeding, let me make a few points on that activity.

First, while stubborness is a wonderful trait in gardeners, patience is also a virtue. If you have a large weeding project, wait for a soaking rain to begin it. The rain we were blessed with over the weekend ensured that the offending weeds popped right out, with the exception of some really stubborn ones (I'm looking at you, dandelions!). The ground gets nice and soft and the plants don't break off right at ground level the second you touch them.

I usually sit on the ground and dig at obnoxious weeds with my bare hands until it occurs to me that several weapons of weed destruction are sitting in a bucket not 10 feet away. I'm blond, what can I say? Which leads to my second point - use the right tools! There are 2 that I particularly like. The first is the CobraHead weeder. The thing is billed as being a large, steel fingernail and that is as good a description as any. Since they increased the handle length, you can get a really good swing behind it, increasing your destructive power. The spade shaped head is small enough to get onto tight spots and sharp enough to cut through tough roots.

The second weapon of choice is a garden cultivator I found at one of the big box hardware stores ages ago and never discovered an adequate name for. The link to Amazon calls it a Flexrake, hubby and I alternate between calling it an adze and garden whacker. It is a 2 sided hand tool; one side is a 3-pronged digging tool and the other side is like a hoe.

You cannot beat this tool for versatility and toughness. We beat the crap out of the 2 we have and not just in the garden. We took them with us to the Herkimer Diamond Mines and used them to pry apart boulders. (Great place, by the way. If you're out in the Herkimer area, check it out.) That trip we managed to bend a prong on one of them; nothing else has made a dent.

Lastly, and I've mentioned this before, alternate your technique. If you're like me, you enjoy bending over and pulling out weeds by the handful. It is easier to move around, you have more leverage and it's probably a habit. Unfortunately, it is a bad habit and can lead to back problems, especially if your enthusiastic in your tugging. Do yourself a favor and alternate standing with sitting.

I plonk right down on my butt and scoot along the ground when I'm too lazy to trot over to the garage and fetch my Scoot-n-Do. After that position becomes uncomfortable, I stand up, take a water break, then start again from a standing position. Your back will last much longer this way, though your pants might not!

OK, enough for now. Take care of yourself when you're out there!

Lazy Sunday

So here I sit, staring out at the garden, a million things to do and no ambition to do any of it. With the rain yesterday, the weeds would pop out like magic, but I’m content to leave them for the moment. I can see half a dozen plants that need to be moved and this overcast, damp day would be perfect to do it and I just can't bring myself to care.

We’ve all had days like this, where our brain decides to stop and have a “me day”. Unfortunately, it usually chooses a day when you really have things to do! Sunday is laundry and bill paying day, garbage and cat box cleaning day. I still have to write my Tenacious Tip for Tuesday! I don’t have time to take a “me day”!

Since I can’t seem to be bothered to do any real work today, here are some photos of the garden from this morning. First, a few daylilies:



Final Touch



Scatterbrain



Watermelon Moon, still loaded with buds

Next, an overview of the garden:

The new patio is finished!

And some generic garden stuff:

Pond Monster

 

Gladiolus 'Celebration'



Scabiosa 'Fama'



Thanks for looking!

Author's Note - I did actually do some work today. Really.

Low Maintenance Plants

Plant Name: Hemerocallis hybrida

Overall Low Maintenance Rating:                            4.5 Stars

Overview

One low maintenance perennial I couldn’t manage without is the Hemerocallis, or daylily. When they think of daylilies, many people think only of the bright orange ditch lilies found along every roadside or the interminable gold-colored ‘Stella D’Oro’, usually surrounded by a sea of red mulch. I have to admit that if these were the only choices available, I would banish them without ceremony from my garden. In the first instance, ditch lilies can actually become an invasive nuisance as they spread enthusiastically by root and seed. In the second instance, well, red mulch really SHOULD be banned; ‘Stella’ is OK but much overused.

Daylilies actually come in almost every color except blue and true black, and in a variety of sizes, from delicate dwarfs to towering giants. They can go years without division and are untouched by disease or pests in most areas. Bloom starts in late June and usually runs through July and into the early part of August. When not in bloom, they do a wonderful impression of a decorative grass.

Disease                                                                                4.5 Stars

In the Northeast, daylilies are relatively unaffected by disease. As you move south, however, daylily rust becomes an issue. Rust is a disfiguring fungus that has only recently been reported in the US. If you live in zone 7 or warmer, you may want to check out the information available at the American Hemerocallis Society’s (AHS) website on prevention and control. Rust looks like raised, orange bumps on the undersides of leaves and can result in the death of the leaf. While it does not seem to kill the plant outright, rust could weaken the plant and leave it susceptible to other problems.

Spring sickness is a disorder I have seen in my garden and, while it is disconcerting, my plants have always outgrown it and take no lasting damage. When the plants first start sprouting in the spring, the leaves can twist and turn brown on the edges. It looks a bit like your plant is trying to fold itself into a ball! There is no known cause, though some theorize it may have to do with changing temperatures. The AHS website also shows pictures of this disorder.

Pests – Insects                                                                  4.5 Stars

Insects generally leave daylilies alone or at least don’t do lasting damage. There are, however, bugs which do cosmetic damage to the flowers. Thrips cause white splotches and streaks on daylily flowers. Good luck spotting them as they are all but microscopic. Dark colored daylily flowers, reds and purples, show the damage the worst. I don’t find the damage sufficient to resort to sprays, but I’m told they can be controlled by products containing spinosad. 



'Startle' showing thrip damage



'Startle' undamaged



There are other insects which can affect daylilies, but I cannot comment on them as I have not had problems with them (knock wood).

Pests – Animal                                                                  5 Stars

The only animal pests that have affected my daylilies have been voles. Horrible critters. Voles generally eat the roots of any garden plant you currently love. For some reason, though, they don’t like daylily roots. Instead, they undermine the plant and make little vole living rooms under them. The whole center of the plant will die since its roots are not touching soil. If you notice this happening, dig the plant up, destroy the tunnels and replant it, packing the dirt down firmly.

Also, get a cat. They help a lot.

I'm not as lazy as I look!

Invasiveness                                                                       5 Stars

Domesticated daylilies are not invasive. The clumps expand politely and usually only need division every 3 to 4 years. The wild orange ditch lilies (hemerocallis fulva), on the other hand, can become quite the nuisance. They seed readily and expand wildly.

General Maintenance – Water                                         5 Stars

I’m about as lazy as it gets about watering. Unless a plant is in a pot and gasping its last breath, I am not likely to break out the hose. The daylilies absolutely don’t care. During the 3 weeks without rain and temps in the 90s, they were about the only plants which shrugged it off. This was during peak bloom time, too.

Please note that does not include newly planted daylilies; or any other baby plants, for that matter. Newly planted greenery should always be treated with extra care which includes making sure they never dry out. Once they’re established, they’re on their own.

General Maintenance – Fertilizing                                  5 Stars

Not once in the years I’ve been growing daylilies have I fertilized them. In theory, they might do better if I did, but I can’t see how!

General Maintenance – Pruning/Cleaning                     4 Stars

Daylilies do require a little clean up on a regular basis to look their best, especially when they are flowering. Each flower only lasts one day and nothing is more disgusting than daylily flowers the day AFTER they flower. They turn to mush and then dry up and stick to the buds waiting to open. Picking the spent flowers off keeps it looking neat and the remains can be added to the compost heap. It’s not absolutely necessary, though, especially if you have lots of them!

Here are some of my favorites:

Armenian Haberdashery



Wild Horses



Frans Hall



Monterey Jack



Scatterbrain