Suddenly Symphyotrichum

Also the Anemone x hybrida, Solidago, etc.  Everything’s blooming early here in the Mid-Atlantic.


"Fall-Blooming Anemone." Not.

I teach an herbaceous plant i.d. and use course each fall and spring. By looking back at my plant lists, I can tell what was blooming when.  I usually teach the asters at the end of September.

That’s going to be tough this year, since they are all BLOOMING RIGHT NOW dammit.   This will be a great experiment in "does deadheading = rebloom" for many of the asters.  Things like garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) are dependable post-deadheading rebloomers, but I can’t say I’ve ever  needed to deadhead Asters to get another flush of blooms, since they bloom right before frost for us, then pffftttt anyway.


Great Fanny’s Aster, this is too early! (Sympyotrichum oblongifolium ‘Fanny’)

My source for perennial maintenance advice is Tracy DiSabato-Aust’s marvelous "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden."  I’ve utilized her strategies for cutting back to both delay blooms and create a more compact plant.  If I’d been thinking ahead (ha, ha!), a good whacking on some of these things might have fended off blooms for another month or so; or at least had something to look at when class starts at the end of August. But alas. At this point the best I can hope for is a sporadic bloom or two.  At least I have lots of photos for lecture…

Grow Something Rude and Smelly!

Tired of
Tradescantia? Sick of Stachys? Exhausted from Echinacea?
Stick THIS in your border!



Dracunculus vulgaris
  at the Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech. Hardy to USDA Zone 5b.

Closely related (as one might imagine) to
Amorphophallus. Lovely silver-splashed foliage, velvety crimson spathe, and big honkin’ spadix in early summer.


Easy to grow; part shade and good drainage seem to work well. After a few years, you’ll have several offsets to share with your dearest friends/worst enemies.

At the peak of bloom, the fragrance is reminiscent of lily or tuberose (if they were arranged on a patty of rotting hamburger).



Garden Interns Brittaney and Anna think it’s JUST FABULOUS!

Available from that purveyor of all plants phallic, 
Plant Delights.
(They have lots of other stuff, too.)

Of Football and Forests

 Howdy all – I’ve been on vacation and then inundated by all that accumulates whilst on said holiday. Here’s a whopper of a belated post. What follows is an account of events you may find interesting (or amusing, or frustrating).

Here’s a portion of a recent press release from the media office at Virginia Tech, regarding our making the "Green Honor Roll."

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 25, 2012 – For the third consecutive year, Virginia Tech ranks among the most environmentally responsible colleges in the United States and Canada, according to the Princeton Review, receiving the highest possible score given by the organization.

The Princeton Review’s Guide to 322 Green Colleges: 2012 Edition, released April 17, profiles institutions of higher education that demonstrate a notable commitment to sustainability in their academic offerings, campus infrastructure, activities, and career preparation. The Princeton Review, in collaboration with the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council, evaluates colleges and universities and assigns a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99. 

Virginia Tech received a score of 99, earning the distinction as one of 16 colleges to be named to the Princeton Review’s 2012 Green Rating Honor Roll

“Virginia Tech continues to be totally committed to campus sustainability," said Denny Cochrane, Virginia Tech’s sustainability program manager. "Our inclusion on the Green Rating Honor Roll shows how wide spread the commitment is among out students, faculty, staff, alumni, and university leadership."

********

The story of “Stadium Woods” is interesting and complex.  Virginia Tech Athletics announced the construction of an indoor practice facility for football on part of an 11-acre wooded site, behind Lane Stadium and abutting the current practice field (hence “stadium woods”).  The campus Landscape Architect brought it up at a meeting with the campus Arboretum Committee, who were not thrilled. Virginia Tech has followed a plan of very concentrated/intense land use to keep everything within walking/running distance for the students, and this was one of the few wooded areas left.

The committee proposed an alternative site a few hundred yards away, with the new facility replacing some tennis courts and a roller-hockey rink. 

This suggestion was not met with great enthusiasm by the Athletics department.

Two possible sites for indoor practice facility, adjacent to practice field where 200-300 year old trees are, or along Washington Street on top of some tennis courts (also possibly 200 years old).

At that point, an immense hoo-ha began that would stretch over a year.  I’m going to leave out the ensuing committee/administrator/athletics blow-by-blow, but in a nutshell, some of the Forestry faculty determined this was not just “woods” but a rare stand of old-growth forest, and the Athletics folks were insistent “this is absolutely the best place for the facility!”   Football is huge at Virginia Tech, thus anything described as giving an edge in recruiting gets maximum priority.  In the event of a thunderstorm, having the student-athletes run an additional 150 yards from the practice field to the alternative indoor facility location was just not acceptable. Other issues included digging up a ton of infrastructure (steam lines, electric, etc.) that runs along the road, plus the height of the proposed building does not conform to the campus Master Plan (since it’s for football, it has to be be tall enough to kick a field goal in. We really do need a lot of practice at that.) Guesstimates are around $1million increase to account for the infrastructure issue (added to the $15 million estimate for construction).

A community group “Save Stadium Woods” was formed, complete with a (very nice) website and a letter-writing campaign to the local newspaper. There were petitions, resolutions from everybody and their mother, and more.  The local coverage was intense plus there was a letter to the editor in nearly every newspaper issue for the past three months. CNN even covered the story, which was great, as no campus shootings were involved for the first time in a
620
while.  One of the 300+ year old white oaks was named “Stephen Colbert” in an effort to raise awareness (?!?).  

An ad-hoc committee of university administrators, both Athletics and non-, plus interested parties from both the faculty and the community was charged by the President to come up with a solution. 

And of course, a third-party consultant was brought in, because we apparently don’t have enough smart people here on campus.

Yes, quite the head-scratcher… place the building and site footprint on top of 3 acres of steeply-sloped, old-growth forest? Or remove some aging and underused tennis courts, which could be relocated to the intramural athletics area on the fringe of campus. Yet Athletics continued to argue, and University administration was silent.

The committee weighed in a week ago, coming to the logical conclusion of protecting the woods and utilizing the tennis court site.  I guess the weirdest part of this is that something so no-brainer-ish was allowed to drag on and on, giving our beloved Virginia Tech and so-called “Green University” (complete with TreeCampus USA designation) a black eye. 
<p

Foiled again!

A while back I was talking smack with Sandy G. in the comment section of some post – about how I was going to have a ripe tomato before the end of May.  I’ve been coddling a plant of ‘Orange Blossom’  since about March – it’s been planted and dug up twice, spending frosty snaps in the greenhouse. But 90% of its life has been in the soil on the South side of our house – so I think this is a legit garden tomato.

I’ve been cheering along the top tomato – it turned yellow two weeks ago and it was just flushing orange – close enough for government work.  The hot dry weekend really helped things along.

Then, tragedy struck.


Blurry, due to hands shaking with rage.

Apparently, it was also ripe enough for a hen with an appetite for destruction.


Perp.

So. Close.

Truth in advertising, finally.

*drum roll*

Ladies and gentlemen, the latest effort in pinto bean breeding from Seminis Vegetable Seeds:

"beans, beans, good for your heart..."

‘Windbreaker’

Windbreaker is an upright, short-vine pinto bean that has produced consistently good yields, especially for the Red River Valley production area. Windbreaker ripens quickly and uniformly with reduced seed weathering. Try Windbreaker in narrow rows for direct harvest.
Relative Days to Maturity: 94-98
Plant Type: Indeterminate, short vine
Color: Brown flecks on buff
Seeds/LB: 1,076
Disease Resistance: BCMV, R (R)

Are you a “before” or an “after” mulcher?

Planting annual displays is not (at all) my
favorite gardening pastime, but we do some "color" around our events
building and along the garden entrance to make the area pop during our busy
season.

Those of you who install institutional or commercial color beds are familiar with the process  – yank out last season’s annuals/tulips/whatever, smooth out the bed, plant new annuals, then mulch. Or…do you mulch first, then plant?

If the order of events is plant, then mulch, care must be taken not to get it all over the plants. Some over-enthusiastic students practically buried an entire display bed full of stuff last spring (more…is not always better).  We spent a great deal of time unearthing the plants, having to pull the mulch away from the crown. Alternatively, if a bed is smoothed and mulched, you have a lovely blank slate to work with, but inevitably end up with the heartbreak of surface dirt chunks and some loss of mulch.

I’m not referring to planting and mulching perennial/mixed borders, veg gardens, or anything like that.  Strictly annual displays.  But I’d like hear from those experienced with this particular facet of horticulture: before, or after?


Hello, Longwood? Hello Kitty called and wants some of her pink stuff back.
(Seriously, no one does quality color like Longwood Gardens. Except Disney.) 

Happy Friday

Oooof, what a week. End of the semester, quizzes, labs, hosting of faculty position candidate, Hort Club Plant Sale, and 2 graduate student defenses in 8 days (3 in 15 days – am up to my pits in theses 😉

Sorry to say, I’m not feeling particularly profound or informative (like that ever happens), but I do have gardening fever! We’re so close to our last-frost date I’m ready to barge ahead with putting out warm-season veg, tropicals and annuals.

Happy end-of-the-semester to my fellow GPs – hope you have time this weekend to dig in the dirt.

And to all our readers, thank you for sticking with us throughout this crazy spring despite slightly erratic postings.

Now get out there and GARDEN!

A great way to plant perennials “en masse”

North Creek Nurseries in Landenberg, PA is a marvelous, native-centric (but not exclusively native) nursery.  North Creek is a wholesale propagator (sells liners
to other nurseries for finishing).  But if you can meet the $300 minimum, they’d probably be happy to fill your order. 
They have, among the usual liner sizes, a very neat product – "Landscape Plugs." I’ve been wanting to try them for a while – our work with the backhoe this past summer cleared some nice large swathes of the cursed autumn olive, and made room for perennials.  I selected a number of locally-native species from North Creek’s extensive listings, with the plan to scatter them along the creek sides and sunny spots of our 4-acre field/meadow/thingy.

Primarily marketed for restoration and conservation projects, these"landscape plugs" are simply huge liners – great for anyone who wants a large number of a certain species without paying an arm and a leg.  Each 5" deep tray holds 32 plugs.  North Creek carries a wide array of Eastern N. American natives perennials, grasses, and ferns – mostly straight species with a few named cultivars.  I ordered eight different species for a total of 256 plants (and 256 holes to dig). The species I picked out ran from $1.08 to $1.40 per plug. They arrived within a few days via UPS, packed two trays per box, and all were intact and in good shape.  All were well-rooted, having been "stuck" the previous season and then overwintered/vernalized. I expect most will bloom this year. Will report back!

North Creek Nurseries landscape plug of Solidago shortii ‘Solar Cascade.’ Nice roots, no?

Bees bees bees!

With 60+ newbies in our local beginner beekeeping class, we can safely say that beekeeping is enjoying a surge of popularity.  The president of our area beekeeping association is bringing 150 packages of bees up from Georgia next Thursday; all are pre-sold to members.  That’s about 1.8 million honeybees (includes one queen per package).  An additional 50 packages will arrive the following week for close to 3 million bees. Wow.

I’ve planned to take the afternoon off (Beefest!) from work to pick my two packages up and promptly introduce them to their new homes.  The official term is to "install" a package but that sounds kind of clinical to me. One installs carpet and mufflers, not  honeybees. Anyhoo,  I’ll have six hives total!

I rarely remember to take my camera with me when working with the bees, but managed a couple of pics last week.

White tube socks serve a number of purposes. Pull them up over pant legs to keep wandering bees out (a very exciting situation indeed).  Also, white’s good – bees seem much less concerned with light colors than dark (a good guideline in beekeeping apparel: try to not look like a bear).  Bonus: they’re super sexy. 

 

"Where did you get that pollen?"  No, really, that’s what’s going on here.  Check out the "Waggle Dance" video (perfectly safe for work).
Other possibility:  "Does this pollen make my butt look big?"

Cute plant alert!

When my day/week/month is going to heck in a handbasket, when faced with yet another impending-doom deadline, when the pile of folders on my desk grows so tall I can barely see over it… when the going gets tough, a little bit of cute can go a loooong way. 

So here ’tis:

Thalictrum thalictroides ‘Pink Pearl’

Not many plants fall into the "cute as a kitten/puppy/baby duck OMG" category, but this is one of them.

Used to be Anemonella thalictroides, but recent molecular "fingerprinting" puts it into the (rather redundant) genus Thalictrum.  This April-blooming woodland native (eastern North America) usually has bright white flowers. ‘Pink Pearl’ is a marvelous pinky-lavender selection made by Dr. Jeanne Frett and the gang at the Mt. Cuba Center, Greenville, Delaware.

I took this photo at Mt. Cuba in 2008 and have waited impatiently for ‘Pink Pearl’  to appear in the trade ever since. If anyone has any info as to where to get one, do fill me in.