A classical beauty

Ann and I celebrated Mother’s Day by taking advantage of the rare opening of the Mt. Sharon garden to the public.  Adrian Higgins’ article in the Post this week prompted us to be among the first in line to see this central Virginia estate on a day of sun, high clouds and just enough breeze to keep you going.

Signage directed us around the enormous, hundred-year-old boxwoods to the first garden room, a knot garden composed of boxwood and barberry (‘Crimson Pygmy’).I could no more maintain a garden like this than fly to the moon, but I can certainly admire it.

Beyond the knot garden was the spring garden, featuring gorgeous peoniesand white foxgloves.There must be a photographer’s trick to taking pictures of white flowers that don’t wash out.  Here’s a closer look at them.   Click through to see how beautiful the blossoms are.Continuing on we came to a sunny border that mixed lupines in with the foxgloves.  How does she do it in the heat and humidity of Virginia?

Soon we came to one of the many vistas that reminded me of English gardens – or, I guess, any formal gardens you can name.  The “borrowed landscape” here undoubtedly belongs to the owners of Mt. Sharon, and for formality and expansive views it rivals any vistas I’ve seen at English gardens like Hidcote.  Sorry for the blur, but you can appreciate the fountain and the ranks of cypresses.

Beyond this sculpture are the rolling hills of Central Virginia.

Annie looks pleased to see the vista.

Besides the vistas, there are statues, which Higgins explains “play a vital role in setting the mood and defining spaces.”  Eros, installed in honor of the owners’ 40th anniversary, is centered in the exedra, named “after gardens where the Ancients positioned statues of their worthies for contemplation and discussion.”Here are the shadows of the alliums against the column.More perfectly placed statuary includes this beauty in front of the New Dawn roses on the pergola,and Mercury tucked into the hedge.This urn draws the eye to yet another vista, but I liked this sideways glimpse at the nearby hillside and its architectural trees.I don’t know who this grape-eater might be, but he is charming,as is this little boy carrying a basket of flowers.

Speaking of flowers, I was pleased to see many that I grow myself – baptisia, foxgloves, catmint, perovskia, hydrangeas – yet somehow, they look very different in this setting.    And the roses!  Here is one in the perennial border,

and here is ‘New Dawn’ on the pergola.  The rose gardens were amazing.  Here’s just one more picture.  You can see what a beautiful day it is!

After all this color and scent, a small shade garden came as a welcome contrast.  This river of hostas not only shows off their gorgeous leaves but gives you a view of the dry stone wall construction that we saw in several places.And I haven’t even shown you the swimming pool beyond the wisteria pergola, or the hot tub nestled in the trees, or the many more garden rooms that make up the whole.

So, any tips for the home gardener?  That is, besides looking for property with views of the Blue Ridge?  Well, I’m always interested in edging.  They use this metal edging in the borders

as well as in the expansive vegetable garden.  I’ve seen it in catalogs and  been intrigued.This is probably the best solution, but I seem to be committed to stone for now.

Searching for more about the garden, I discovered that their working plans are now housed at the Smithsonian, which makes me wonder if they might eventually leave the estate to a conservation trust one day.  You can find out more about how they created the garden through this link to the Garden Week tour when the garden was last opened publicly (the writing is a bit amateurish but you can discover what they tore out and built in to create what we saw today).

And though the owner is quoted as saying that maintaining this garden is full-time with no days off, it’s clear that you can’t do it without staff.  Well, if you have loads of lovely money, good taste, and a love of gardening, why not?  Their generosity allowed us to enjoy a perfect garden day.

But, wait – it’s not over until the picnic and the arm!  On the way home we stopped at Ellwood, where I remembered that Stonewall Jackson’s arm was buried (to my father’s amusement).  Sure enough, we walked through the grounds to the little cemetery and there it was.  It’s the only grave that’s marked.We enjoyed our chickpea salad, crackers and cheese, oranges and chocolate just outside the fence, while a light breeze made the late spring heat bearable.  A delightful excursion!

First flowers and onion snow

Catching up to the fastest spring I’ve ever seen -  temps in the 70′s and 80′s for days at a stretch in February, followed by a few days that plunged into the 30′s.  Spring is usually changeable, but this year it was late winter that gave us screwy weather.  Everything seems to be blooming at once.

February brings the early bulbs, in my case the sea of winter aconite (thanks, Mom) and snowdrops under the oak tree.

Lots of tommie crocuses under the maple this year, and I’m growing to love them.  These cream-colored crocuses are another delight.  This warm, chalky light yellow is one of my favorites and seems to blend with everything in the garden.

Finally, success with crested iris!  I think these were a bonus sent with my McClure and Zimmerman order.  They don’t last long, but they are beautiful.  Need more.

The hellebores have been magnificent this year.  Here are a few.

I seem not to have kept good records on the varieties, so not sure what this is.  Sometimes the white ones are my favorites…

Other times it’s the purple ones.

The first daffodils are these by the shed door, no idea what kind.

And then we had an onion snow on February 12th, one of the few snows we had this season.  I read somewhere that we had only 1/10 of an inch all winter!Pretty while it lasted, but it was gone by noon.

Philadelphia Flower Show

The last time I was here, I must have been ten years old. Mom and Mrs. Heller, her best friend, would go every year and take us children with them, at least sometimes.  Resolved not to keep putting off experiences, I booked my ticket and an Amtrak trip, and here I am.

What I remember most about those long-ago visits is the overpowering smell of damp earth and flowers.  When I mentioned this to our tour guide, she told me that back then the show was in a different place, where you took an escalator down to the main floor, inhaling the scent of banks of blooming hyacinths as you descended.  That must have been it.  This show didn’t have the same scents, but it certainly had the flowers.

The theme was Hawaii, about as far from Philadelphia as you can get. You enter through a wavy canopy ringed with white orchids and other tropical flowers, with computer-generated images of waves swooping and swirling around to make you feel as though you’re underwater.  Next up is a thirty-foot high waterfall ringed with tropicals, mostly orchids, and illuminated with lights in every vivid tropical color you can imagine.  Adjacent is a huge screen with Hawaiian images projected on it, and a stage in front of it where hula dancers appear several times each day.  There’s an arbor with Hawaiian flowers threaded through it, and an elegant display of white orchids illuminated by blue lights at either end.

The most over-the-top display must have been this one, a three-part display that involved bamboo, sparkling lights, dangling sparkling things, and dyed flowers.  YES!  We happened to run into the designer during our behind the scenes
tour, and he told us there is a new technique for dying that mimics what you can do with hydrangeas: adding chemicals to the soil rather than actually dying the flowers.  Here’s the result with some orchids:  definitely wild but more subtly colored than you might expect.  Not to my taste, but worthy of admiration.

Anthuriums were everywhere.  Mom and I always agreed that they weren’t quite nice, not to say icky, but when you see them used right they can actually be attractive.  Or, at least, interesting.  I’m still not convinced.  The greenish ones are less intrusive than the more common red ones.

This poolside garden exhibit appealed mightily to me.  Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the kind of gardener who could sustain the gorgeous simplicity of this row of geometric pot fountains.  But I can certainly admire it from afar.

The simple pool was enhanced by the reflection of an enormous tropical leaf from the plantings nearby.

The plant collector in me noted the following interesting possibilities.

Nephrolepsis Exaltata ‘Rita’s Gold’ looks like a golden fern and turns out to be the plain old Boston fern, only gold.

Aloe ‘Christmas Carol’ is so pretty that I bought one!

Monanthes polyphylla had a fascinating texture.

Lavandula stoechas had interesting flowers.
If you are visiting Hawaii, you have to expect volcanoes.  Here’s a response by designers that included “lava rocks,” “fire,” and “smoke.”  All done with mirrors of course, that is, with lighting and plenty of red flowers.  One of the designers is English and has exhibited at Chelsea.  I wonder if she’s ever done something like this in England!  This exhibit won best of show.

After all this abundance and color, it’s refreshing to see the Garden of the Gods, emphasizing succulents, cactus, and other native plants that display a muted palate and thrive on little water. This installation was very effective, and who
would ever have guessed that the lava rocks were really made of Styrofoam?

Once you’re over the dazzling colors of the tropicals, you start to notice the beautiful array of leaf colors and textures. Here is a simple but effective display of colocasias.

Someone civic – I forgot who – installed a miniature cityscape showing the benefits of plantings in an urban setting, including roof plantings.  Sedums made up the bulk of these plantings, and they were adorable.

Although the focus is on the installations – one a typical Hawaiian fruit stand complete with hidden pool, another a display of Pennsylvania natives that echo the colors of Hawaii – I was drawn to the individual entries in a million different categories, from miniature succulents, to forced bulbs, to house plants. The begonias particularly caught my eye, and here are a few that I now long for.  Note to self: find a good book on begonias.

Begonia ‘Bethlehem Star’ and

Begonia ‘A Little Night Music’

Who says gardeners don’t have a sense of humor?  Check out this inventive mailbox planting.

This display showed the results of an earthquake on outdoor dining.

Then there was the display of succulents formed into the bodice of a dress.  Wonderful!

Among the bulbs, I kept coming back to the Topolino narcissus, which would make a good addition to the cut flower garden.

One of my favorite exhibits was from the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, which mounted a mixed vegetable and flower garden display that knocked my socks off.  First there is the WALL of lettuce, with a one-way mirror inserted.  Love the quote.

You see how beautiful rows of lettuce can look.  Inside it was funky and countrified, with rows of canned fruits and vegetables and found objects turned into garden features.  Aren’t these lamps great?

The behind the scenes tour first thing Monday morning gave us a chance to visit the exhibits without crowds of people and was well worth it.  We heard a couple stories about putting the show together, including the minor disasters.  A sandy beach, imported with great difficulty, slid into the pool it was bordering, and the whole thing had to be drained and redone.  Tick tick tick, as they have two weeks to prepare and then they have to open, ready or not.

I also heard a couple lectures, one on Irish castles and gardens that had more about the Titanic than necessary (100th anniversary, it launched from Belfast) but offered some good hints about gardens worth visiting.  The other was by Amy Goldman, heirloom vegetable gardener, who had lots of luscious words to describe the squash, tomatoes and melons she grows by the acre in upstate New York.

The verdict?  You never can recapture the Flower Show of yore, but I enjoyed this one.  Next year, “Brilliant” – aka England – is the theme, and I might just have to come back.

Designing with Conifers

I picked this up because I’m considering some sort of evergreen to help anchor the sunny garden.  Maybe in place of the sprawling butterfly bush, perhaps in the corner of the L-shape, just something soft, green, interesting and not too too big.

Richard L. Bitner‘s book, subtitled “The Best Choices for Year-Round Interest in Your Garden,” should fit the bill, except it doesn’t, quite.  The arrangement is fresh – by color, shape, and then by site – prompting you to think of what effect you’re aiming for rather than just what looks good on the page.  However, the listings are inconsistent.  I want, for each item, the common and Latin names, height and width, zones, color, sun and drought tolerance, etc.  He offers most of this info, but not all of it for any one plant, which means that for anything you find interesting, you have to do further research.  Annoying.

I will say in his defense that the photographs are beautiful without being over the top, and that he does show each one in a landscape or garden so you get a good sense of how it might work.

I am intrigued with a Picea identified only as “a green spruce globe,” which might be orientalis ‘Nana’ and looks as though it would do well in a perennial border, about three feet tall.

The cryptomeria group (aka Japanese-cedar) is shade tolerant and has the combination of small size (some) and soft foliage that I like.  Maybe japonica ‘Little Champion?’ He lists these as tolerating southern summers.

There’s nothing else for it than a trip to a nursery to see what they’re really like.  I might also give the poor man a chance by trying his earlier book, “Conifers for Gardens,” which is apparently the encyclopedic reference book I wish this one was.

Armitage’s Vines and Climbers

Another library book that had been hanging around for too long.  In preparation for my seed order, I went all the way through it in search of advice and inspiration.  Another winner from Armitage, whose combination of practical advice and opinions makes him a delight to read and to follow.

Seeds – ordering, not starting

A couple years ago I did a big seed order and started lots of seeds indoors.  Truly, lots of work and not such a big jump on the season that it made a huge difference, in my estimation.  So this year I decided to, first, do an inventory of what I already had (brilliant plan), then, choose seeds that could mostly be sowed outdoors, and finally, that I actually had a spot for (brilliant plans  two and three).

Above is the array of seed catalogs and reference books I used to select what will again be too many seeds.  And yes, the selecting is at least as much fun as actually growing them.

Thompson & Morgan:  Lemon gem marigold and Italian white sunflower.  These can go hither and yon in the front, the sunflowers in the sunny bed.

Pinetree Garden: purple Trionfo Violetto bean and round black radish.  In the raised bed (radish) and on a teepee (beans).

Johnny’s: Ruby Moon hyacinth bean, Heavenly blue morning glory and lemon gem marigold (I got confused and ordered them twice, but no matter).  The two annual vines to wreath around the mailbox (MG) and to add a purple accent to the pink bed at the side of the house (HB).

Kitchen Garden Seeds: Yaya carrots, Genovese Basil and Shirley poppies, plus fingerling potatoes.  These will go in the raised bed along with the Tuscan kale I “imported” from Italy.  The potatoes will probably go in the potato bag again, but I’ll pay more attention to water this time.  I promise.

White Flower Farms:  because they are too hard to start from seed, three verbena bonariensis and one Bonfire begonia, both plants I had admired in Oxford.  Here’s the Bonfire begonia in the greenhouse at the Botanical Gardens in Oxford

and here’s the verbena at Darwin’s house

The begonia in a pot, and the verbena to twine amongst everything else in the sunny border.

New Year’s Day reading

My shelf of unread gardening books from the library is getting too big, so I plucked one at random and read through it this afternoon.  Schneider is clearly knowledgeable and very helpful, especially if you garden in Zone 5 (which I don’t).  But he does pay attention to how drought-proof roses are as well as other attributes that help you to choose the right rose.  I’ve made note of three:  Belle  Story, 4×4;

 

 

 

 

 

Mary Rose, a  four-foot drought-tolerant variety;

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Queen Mother, a container rose that tolerates partial shade (front steps?).

 

 

 

The idea is to place a small rose in the new front garden bed, but I also like the idea of putting the Queen Mother by the front door.  Will I follow through? Only time will tell…