A Few Good Plants

It has been a busy spring and I haven't made time to post. I do have a lot of new design and planting projects looking fresh and not quite blog worthy yet! But here are a few good plants from my own small garden. This time of year you have to love those plants that just do their thing- without any fuss, like the illustrious Lady Bird Poppy (Papaver commutatum 'Ladybird'). I brought one small seed packet home from England, spread the seeds in fall (or spring?) and year after year they come back in the same spot. I amend the soil, dig, weed, etc. and still they return, uncomplicated and undemanding, looking lovelier and lovelier with each season. They require absolutely nothing from me- except adoration of course. It is good against the red house and with the blooming Rhododendron sucker I brought home from a job five years ago.

This is another great self sower- and another great experiment- Poached Egg or Limnanthes douglasii. This packet of seeds I sowed in spring in the greenhouse and then planted out. It looked pretty sad that first year- a very small plant with a spindly flower that immediately went to seed. I thought nothing of it until it showed itself again the following year in the same spot- this time the plants were four times the size, creating a lovely carpeting ground cover with these extremely cheery flowers in mid spring. The plant looks a bit ragged now- it must be slightly short lived, but I will let it sow itself again for next year.

 

Here is a bulb I bought on a whim and planted quickly, (somewhere, anywhere!) this fall, Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus. I have never grown Glads before, but thought a wintering over species looked pretty good! I had no idea what it was as it came out of the ground- its leaves looking a bit like Crocosmia- until it bloomed. I love that I unknowingly planted it with that hot red-pink Dianthus deltoides 'Maiden Pink.' So hot, so pink!

A quick shot of one area in a late spring sunset. This area is a dense mat of ground covers, but with the bronze fronds of Dryopteris erythrosora poking up through.

Seen here with a purple Camasia and a healthy looking weed!

Wave Hill

 Friends and I visited Wave Hill last weekend and were given the grand, back door tour by three great gardeners who work or worked there for years. I first heard about Wave Hill from the great head gardener himself, Marco Polo Stefano, now retired, but who worked for 34 years creating the world renown garden- both in terms of design and plants. I have heard Marco Polo Stefano speak one other time since and what comes through in his talks is his love of plants, but more importantly, is his love of using them well, interestingly, and in combination with other plants. Even for the devout plantsman, a garden is not just a collection; it is about being creative with plant material, manipulating and combining them with other great plants.  There is a wonderful tension, a balance between, imitating and manipulating nature. Marco Polo Stefano used the term 'Hand of Man' to describe techniques in pruning and controlling plants, while simultaneously working to mimic the natural tendencies of plants to combine, intermingle, and scramble through each other.

The sculptural aspects of plants was one of Marco Polo's founding ideas- shape and texture often preceded color. His use of conifers, trees and shrubs was paramount in building a garden. I was happy to see the garden in March when the bones were most visible. Wave Hill is one of the best gardens I have ever seen in winter, especially up in the Wild Garden. In the above photo, the beautiful renovated glass house stands against an artful canopy- full of wild and unusual shapes.

The Wild Garden, the highest point in the garden, looks across the Hudson River to those glorious cliff faces of the Palisades. It was a strange sensation to be in the Bronx, but looking out to an unobstructed view of nature.

Crocus vernus 'Pickwick,' a stout and elegantly stripped, large flowering crocus.

These sumac were here when Marco Polo started gardening this site- these common scrubby plants are beautifully incorporated- pruned to show off their floppy trunks and under planted with treasures.

Iris reticulata coming out of a Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger.' The grass roots must be delicate enough to not out compete the iris.

Lace Bark Pink (Pinus bungeana)

This one was badly marred by people carving their names in the bark. This sounds dramatic, but I don't know if I ever saw such scars from weeping. The sap made long lines running down the trunk. Don't carve into trees!

We were all immediately sold on this Cotoneaster drammeri 'Coral Beauty.' It has a beautiful burgundy color to its leaves, prolific berries, and nice lateral growth.

Inside the conservatory was one of the best container displays I have ever seen.

Thunbergia mysorensis, with its lovely hanging clusters.

Bulb Show: Smith College Conservatory

Here is a quick look at the bulb show at Smith College Conservatory. This is a great place to get really excited about spring. Fragrance, moisture, warm air, color, flowers, green growth offer a feast for the senses. (I love how they matched the colors of these bulbs with the curtains!)

Splashes of pink Loropetalum, nodding checkered bells of Fritillaria meleagris, and bright orange globes of citrus

Red to yellow Lachenalia aliodes with deep blue Muscari

Sweet Ipheion uniflorum with the coppery sculpture mimicking its form

Freesia- this is my favorite fragrance on earth

I love this hot colored craziness!

This week I am volunteering at Chanticleer. It is definitely spring here- snowdrops, crocus, witch hazels, cyclamen, eranthis are popping out of the ground everywhere. Stay tuned for posts about the exciting spring work and the nearby garden visits...

The Orchard Meadow

The Orchard Meadow is the most stunning meadow planting at Dixter. It is larger than the Topiary and front entrance meadows, but I think that its rolling downward slope that gradually gives way to the surrounding fields is what makes it so beautiful. Also it is packed to the brim with numerous Narcissus and these days they are at their peak performance. This is the place to sit at the end of the day and take it all in.  

Corylopsis spicata flowering in time with the daffodils. Reminds me of a similar combination at Gravetye Manor with the yellow azalea backed by a field of yellow daffodils. 

You can really see the shapes and sweeps of plantings

Looking up at the Long Border. The Primula 'Crescendo Bright Red' and the bronze red of the spirea really help set off the yellow.

Evaluating Spring Bulbs

I apologize for not posting much this week, but we all have been very busy working to get the garden ready for opening day, tomorrow, April 1st. Since all the students volunteered last weekend, today is the first day off in 12 days! It has been an amazing week, long, hot, sun burned days, full of planting, weeding, sweeping, pruning. However, it has not been all work and no play. On Wednesday after lunch Fergus took the students and some staff around the garden to evaluate the spring bulbs. Everyone had their notebooks out and we all scribbled names and notes about the various things we were seeing. The pot displays are packed full of new bulbs; not only do they look beautiful arranged all together, but it is a great way to study and evaluate them for their potential garden worthiness. Things to consider: length of flowering (evidenced by buds and old flowers at the same time), how high the flowers sat above the foliage, the foliage (leaves too fat, too long, too floppy), consistency of the plant (color variation, shape or size variation), proportion of plant, color (flowers, buds, foliage), and then of course, the overall affect. Fergus really wanted to know what we all thought- which plants we thought were the best and if we liked something he didn't, he wanted to know why. It was so inquisitive and since then I have looked at every plant with a more critical eye. That is how we should be looking at everything we do.

The above Narcissus 'Spellbinder' was one Fergus said looked like it had been to the gym, it was proud and bold. Anecdotal comments like this make a plant stick in your mind. This large flowering, "good" plant could make a great display in a border garden. Fergus was always standing back and talking about what sort of impact a bulb would make out in the garden.

Narcissus 'Jenny' remains one of my favorites at the end of the day.  It is small flowered, well proportioned, and has a dynamic shape with its long, slender trumpet and reflexed petals. I like its subtle color variation, with a pale yellow trumpet and a spring green on the backside of its petals.

'Jenny'

Another favorite, Narcissus 'Cragford,' is tall and stately, with a rich orange center and multiple blooms on each stem; this one is capable of making a statement from far away.

Muscari 'Valerie Finnis'

This plant set Fergus off on a story about Valerie Finnis, the great plantswoman, gardener and photographer- apparently she was a bit of a prankster! Anna Pavrod wrote her obituary and you can read it here. The last quote in the article is rather poignant and lines up well with recent conversations I have had with students. Here everyone loves their work so very much that it is hard to strike a balance between work and the people you love. "For years plants used to be more important than people to me. But really it's only people that matter." -Valerie Finnis

Muscari 'Blue Magic'

This one is a more vibrant color than the photo shows, it has a squirrely habit, a long bloom time, and slender leaves. Fergus says this one is his favorite..

 

Narcicssus 'Jet Fire'

A really good, all around favorite. Well proportioned, good shape and color, and it makes a strong impact.  This one blooms early and lasts for quite a while.

These last few photographs are bulbs planted out in the beds. This Fritillaria verticillata stands tall and spindly in the walled garden. It has tendrils like sweet peas and it flowers hang like bells all along its stems.

Tulipa praestans 'Fusilier' is one of the best!

Tulips saxatilis seen flowering on the ledge. Stay tuned for more bulbs!

Woodland Plants

The weather has been amazing and it is kicking everything into high gear. On Sunday afternoon a group of us went down into a patch of Dixter's woods and saw mass plantings of the native Anemone nemerosa with scatterings of early bluebells (hyacinthiodes non-scripta).

A carpet of anemone in the woods

Fritillaria meleagris in a small meadow behind the topiary garden

Erythronium dens-canis in the same meadow

Scilla bithynica with Arum italicum as seen in the Barn Garden