Winter is Here

We had a new snowfall of three or four inches yesterday and last night so now everything is white and looks Christmas-like.  We dug about a dozen 1 to 2 inch caliper trees with a tree spade which was the first time I had actually been involved with that process.  I learned how to tie them into the baskets correctly.  We just finished potting up about 15 types of native spring ephemerals: 4 different kinds of Trillium, Cimicifuga, Mertensia, Pachysandra, Polygonatum, Arisaema, 2 Claytonias, Hepatica, some Carex, Iris, etc.

From now till when we start tapping the maples or working on the line, cows and calves may be my main focus.  The chain and paddle system has been malfunctioning every morning for the past three days.

After a year and a quarter, I now have hot water in my house.

Johnny-jump-ups still blooming

At this time of year between late fall and real winter with beautiful snow, my all-purple Johnny jump-ups are in full bloom. They are seeding here and there which is what they do. I believe these are the descendents of ones I got from Nina Klinck- I keep rouging out the ones with yellow in them which my more politically correct family dislike.  They seem to consider it something Hitler would have done.

I started back working at the farm where I live for the winter.  I like some early morning excersize(sp?) and I like cows- I draw a few every day after I scrape and shovel manure and bed the cattle.

Winter Interest

My morale was greatly elevated by an invitation to talk to the Lyme Gardeners last night about plants for winter beauty.  

Winter fruit:
   My favorite has been Ilex verticilata which has many many new cultivars such as 'Berry Heavy' and 'Berry Nice'.Unfortunately, this year birds got all the fruit in November.

Viburnum trilobum fruit stay red all winter.

Japanese barberry hold up well but are too invasive for my taste. Korean Barberry have pretty fruit, good fall color and don't seem to come up everywhere as weeds.

Sumac is attractive all winter.

The viburnums have a nice winter aspect even though they are brown.

Red-twig dogwoods are a good plant to brighten up the winter.  I've had the best results with varieties of our native Cornus sericea (formerly C. stolonifera): forrma baileyi and 'Cardinal'.  The European species (C.sanguinea) has many newer cultivars such as 'Midwinter Fire', 'Winter Flame' and 'Arctic Sun'- these are a little shorter growing and I have found them a little tempermental around here  but fine farther south. Kevin thinks there are fine here and Michelle agrees with me.  There is also the oriental spesies Cornus alba.

Red twig willows are quite stunning: Salix alba 'Flame'.  Also dwarf arctic and dapples willows have attractive purple osiers in the winter

Grasses are good in the winter. My favorite are Molinia 'Skyracer', Calamogrostis brachytricha and various Miscanthus.

Silphiums are pretty in the winter: their leathery curled leaves.  I like S. terebinthinacium and S. laciniate for this reason.

Horticulture at Smith College

My daughter, Kady, decided to take a course in Horticulture at college this semester and is learning quite alot.   As soon as she decided to take such a course or when she told me about it, instead of being negative which is always possible for me(I could have focused on how much I am paying for something I could have taught her for free),  it made me so happy that one of my children was interested in my passion and career.  She got a part time job at the nursery where I work, she worked for me, and she was open to my pedantic side.  The day after Thanksgiving, we walked around looking at woody plants: she knew oaks, maples, cherries, white pines, Rosa multiflora, bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, poison ivy. m Ishowed her various other species and explained somewhat how to identify them in the winter which is not as easy as when they have leaves.

On the way back from North Stonington, CT where my wife's sister and her husband live and run Wytchwood Farm (turkeys), I stopped at the Conservatory at Smith in Northampton, Mass.  They still have their annual Chysanthemum show so I looked at some of those amazing, huge greenhouse Chrysanthemums, cascading ones and the rest of the greenhouses.  I had a long chat with the volunteer on duty at the conservatory, Dan Fitzgerald,  mostly about black currants which are a passion of mine.

Gardening for a Lifetime-How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older by Sydney Eddison

Gardening for a Lifetime is so good (and so apropos(sp?) for me) that I finished it in 2 evenings.  Sydney Eddison's basic thrust is to help people figure out how to cut down on the size of their gardens- this is a book for plantaholics.  As I remember it , and I read it a couple or three days ago: get rid of alot of different perennials- especially ones that aren't pretty for 3 seasons.  Get more shrubs.   Keep Sedum 'Autumn Joy', Siberian Iris, old fashioned German Iris, Peonies, Nepeta, grasses, Amsonia.  Accept imperfections such as slightly messy edges, slightly shaggier plants, meadows rather than gardens.  Get help.  When you can't manage your garden, get rid of it (accept defeat). Accept change- particularly that as the trees all get bigger, there will be less sun but shade gardens are less weedy.

In any case, her writing is delightful even though the subject is a little sad.

Lilac Pruning

Three things happened to me or more correctly I noticed over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I read a fairly new book by Sydney Eddison about downsizing large gardens as one gets older and I spent time showing my daughter all the trees and shrubs growing in North Stonington, CT which was to help her with her course in horticulture at Smith College (I was quite impressed as she seemed to recognize everything except Fraxinus and Sassafrass).

The third thing was I noticed how vigorous and healthy the lilacs at the Vermont Welcome Center on Rt. 91 in Guilford were. All the plants there get heavily pruned--way more than I would ever do it even if I had plenty of time to prune and/or money to hire people to help me do it.  The lilacs are doing very well and are particularly well budded for next May.  Suckers have either been removed or there just aren't very many- the plants look like a dark purple one -perhaps 'Monge' which doesn't sucker prolifically anyway.  The main "trunks" which are about one inch in diameter are cut off at about 4 to 6 feet--there about 6 per plant. There are many many very prime looking flowering shoots coming off each one of those trunks- I predict excellent blossoms nest spring.

putting things away for the Winter

We are covering all the potted plants at the nursery these days.  First we have to tip the pots on their sides so water doesn't accumulate in them which can rot them over winter.  Then we put insulating blankets over them and finally white plastic over top of that which we weigh down with gravel and tires so it won't blow off during the winter.  We still have some planting to do-- there is no problem installing trees and shrubs but plants in little pots tend to be frozen solid so it can be hard to get the pots off the plants.  We've been cutting plants down so we don't have to do that in the spring when the ground is very wet and squishy.  Sometimes we leave things for "winter interest" but as I get older I cut more things down in the fall when I'm not so busy.  We have also been mulching- it can be easier now when the ground is frozen.