The Catalogs are here!

One bright spot for January doldrums is exploring catalogs for spring plant and seed selections. My favorites are Bluestone Perennials, High country Gardens, Park Seeds, Thompson & Morgan, and White Flower Farm. There are many more good seed companies sending out catalogs, but I’ve had great luck with my purchases from these companies.

Bluestone Perennials in Madison, Ohio, offers a wide selection not only of perennials but species and cultivars of their perennial selections along with herbs, grasses and shrubs. Whenever I’m looking for a particular plant, Bluestone Perennials usually has it for a very reasonable price.

I love High Country Garden, which is a nursery in New Mexico specializing in plants for the West. While I generally try to purchase plants from nurseries closer to my growing zone and climate, High Country specializes in drought tolerant plants and groundcovers, many of which are well known perennials hardy in my area. (I avoid those plants with the cowboy hat designation — they usually prefer an alkaline soil.) Since their specialties are my gardening goals, and my sandy soil if fast enough draining for even desert plants, I buy from High Country.

Catalogs -- garden thoughts in January

Park Seeds is another great nursery. The have myriad plants and seeds for both the flower garden and vegetable garden. The also have wonderful new introductions. I also get their newsletter. Just look at these SunPatiens®. They promise “that even if you live in a hot climate, SunPatiens® will grow in full sun! The perfect solution for gardens that wind through both sunny and shady spots, it blooms from spring through summer and into fall, with big 2- to 3-inch flowers on bushy, well-branched plants. There’s no other Impatiens like it in the world!” Parks also carries Stevia, an herb that replaces sugar. I’ve decided to try it this year.

I’ve purchases plants from White Flower Farm in Connecticut for… hmmm… at least twenty years. I do have to be careful about hardiness, as the plants I select are inevitably for zone 5 or 6. WFF has always stood behind its plants. The one time I had a shrub die, they replaced it. I appreciated that, and the replacement grew just the way I imagined it would. Their catalog is in a class of its own, the pictures way too enticing and the commentary often quirky and entertaining.

Most of these nurseries have web pages. How great is that! I can look and explore all year-round. They usually have web specials and often opportunities to receive a newsletter via email, just to keep you up to date.

Missed the New Year’s Eve Blue Moon

Every time there is going to be something to see in the sky, Northern Lights, Blue Moons, and other special events, our sky is overcast. Last night was no different. Lake effect snows blotted out blue moon. (Sigh.) Just a glimpse would have been nice.

Instead, I stayed warm inside and wrote down some goals for 2010. I’d like to expand my thyme garden, try more xeric plants, grow some new plants from seed, and try growing lettuce under lights. My blue and white shade garden needs something — it’s a very hard spot to grow anything. I’d like to get my telescope set up correctly so I could take photos. I also have writing and art goals. My only resolution is to try and be more understanding of others and less judgmental. Good luck. Some people need some judgment. Oops! Did I already break a resolution?

Make It, Bake It, Grow It Christmas

My large family decided years ago rather than spend tons of money on everyone or draw names, we would do a make it, bake it, or grow it Christmas gift. This is my this year’s effort (and my Santa’s helper, who sanded and primed the gourds, and the cut holes). My sister Jewel grew the gourds. I painted them. They haven’t the final coat of polyurethane on yet, but I thought they turned out pretty good. Hopefully wrens will like them for homes this coming summer. Outdoors I think they should last one or two seasons. By then, Jewel will have grown more gourds (season is too short were I am), they’ll have cured long enough to shed their outer skin and I can then make more birdhouses! Hope everyone liked them as much as I liked painting them.

Birdhouse Gourds

Christmas Cactus, Joyeux Noël

There are few sights more welcome in Northern Homes at this time of year than a plant blooming its ever-loving heart out.

Christmas Cactus are selling at this time of year, but these store denizens are puny plants compared to the specimens gardeners have lovingly kept for years. Those might have hundreds of blossoms. Schlumbergera hybrids are considered Christmas Cactus, or Thanksgiving Cactus. Usually they bloom in late November through December. Hybridizers aren’t crazy, they have been breeding these plants for decades now, and have achieved some remarkable results. Which is one reason to look over the store plants — they often have some of the newer hybrids.

It is important to remember that while called cactus, these are epiphytic plants (like orchid cactus) that grow in tropical rainforests. They need well-draining soil as the pockets of debris they grow in do not retain moisture. Their roots are adapted to grab moisture quickly. If the roots are kept wet, they develop rot. On the other hand, they need watering more frequently than true cactus.

Schlumbergera can be a problem to bring back into bloom. I take mine out in summer and keep them in a shady location. They are left outdoors until the temperature is steadily below 45 degrees. This almost guarantees bloom, for the two methods of bringing them into bloom are short day (more hours of darkness than light) treatment, or cold treatment. Here they get both naturally, and are often showing flower buds when I bring them in. In St. Charles, Missouri, it wasn’t always that easy. Isn’t it great to consider with all the snow and cold with which we have to put up, there is a rainforest plant perfect for our Northern windows?

Okay with the Snow

It’s my job to shovel snow. I volunteered last year because I thought it would get me out of the house, give me some exercise, and help relieve my winter blues by absorbing even some weak ultraviolet rays that would pull me out of my certainty that the next ice age wasn’t really upon us. I was, of course, unaware of just how much snow there was going to be last winter. So this year I was happy snow had held off so long. Then the snow came Wednesday night. Thursday I shoveled, and it was the heaviest snow I’ve encountered. That gave me an extra hard workout. I’ve had the driveway plowed twice in the last three days and I’ve shoveled four times. Already, alright. I’m ready for spring.

First Snow

Thanksgiving Day we received our first snow, just under an inch that shortly melted. We had a scattering of snow today, too. It has melted, but more is on the way. Last year by this time, the drive had already been plowed three times, and we only plow when the snow is over six inches! Pansies are still blooming in the planters. I LOVE pansies.

Gray Days

All this week will look like this.

It’s hard for me to be cheerful when everyday looks like this! However, it isn’t snowing, so perhaps maybe I should be happy about that, and believe me, I am! The prediction is for a mild winter as far as snow, but very cold temperatures. That I am not happy about. (Sometimes I feel like I can never be glad about anything.) My garden is zone 5B sliding to 4A at times, which means many of my perennials survive here because they have the insulation of a deep layer of snow. The snow protects them from the harshest of sub-zero temperatures.

Poppies in Autumn

Mid to late summer my poppies die back. After a spectacular spectacle of color, they wither and brown until I’m tired of seeing their ugly stalks and cut them to the ground. Any stalks with seed pods are carefully cut, the pods emptied out over a dish, and the empty pods saved for dried flower arrangements. The pods are not very pretty unless spray painted, but have very interesting shapes. The seeds from Papaver oriental (perennial) are saved for more plants, those from Papaver somniferum (annual) are saved for use on baked goods, plus a few a hopefully spread around the garden for next year’s poppies.

Since the plants are quite large, they leave gaping holes in the garden’s symmetry. Luckily other plants can be grown close to them to fill the space, but there are still a few weeks of transition where the view isn’t so pleasing. In September the dormant roots send up new leaves that form small mounds until hit by several really hard frosts. Their green is welcome at this time of year, and a good sign that the poppies will bloom next summer.

Poppy leaves in fall

Frost on Veronica

Veronica pectinata

Wednesday when I left the house, frost remained on the ground and plants. One plant remained green and apparently unaffected by the cold even with frost coating its leaves. This attractive 2″ tall ground cover is Veronica pectinata, or Blue Woolly Speedwell, a native of the East Balkans in Turkey. I bought it from High Country Gardens three years ago in my search for xeric plants for my garden. My ultimate goal is to have the major portion of my garden water self-sufficient, and this veronica has become a huge asset. In spring it is covered with small blue flowers, and look at how long it retains its beautiful green color! I bought three plants as a trial to see how well they survived under 30″ or more of snow each winter, and planted them in a sunny location. Needless to say in my sand pile, they receive the well-drained soil they prefer. All three are hale and healthy and each has spread very well in its allotted place. Another big plus: deer and rabbits won’t eat them.

Wall Hanging

Roger at the library sent me a photo of my wall hanging design today, so I’m posting that, too.

The design uses dried gourds, artemisia, lavender, dried seed heads and feathers attached to a round basket tray. The nice thing about anything dried is that is will last all winter long; however, I usually take them down when I put up Christmas decorations. In January and February I much prefer to see blooming plants like Cliva, Christmas cactus and Amaryllis.

Gourd Wall Hanging