Flowers blooming in Northampton, Mass

My winter vacation just started- this morning was the last day shoveling manure for almost a week and after our trip to the Philadelphia vicinity, I will call my boss and maybe start soon after.  In any case, at the Smith College campus Hamemelis are blooming as is Chimonanthus praecox and both are quite fragrant.  In the herbaceous perennial department, Galanthus (snow drops), early snow Crocus, Eranthus (winter aconite), and Adonis are all in bloom and some daffodils are showing buds.  Back in Vermont, we have a foot of snow but I believe it got above freezing so maybe maple sap ran.  I hope so, we tapped 4000 trees.

Spring is (almost) here

Three weeks ago Johnny-jump-ups were still blooming from last fall, snowdrops were coming up and Helleborus niger was in bloom but the blossoms were still bent down and not yet all the way expanded.  Since then we've had more -20F temperatures with no snow cover and more snow and ice. I don't know what things are like under the snow.

The reason it feels like spring is that we have done the bulk of the tapping of the sugar bush at Maple Grove Farm (where I live), boiled a little and are waiting for sap to flow.  Once we do the tapping it feels like spring no matter how cold it still is.

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.