A Last Look Before I Go

I am leaving for England this evening for The Passionate Gardener Tour. I am very excited to return to see old favorites and a few new gardens. The main feature of my New Hampshire garden right now is the trio of Prunus 'Hally Jolivette' trees on the hill between the Blue Bench Terrace and the Woodland Garden. Some special spring ephemerals are also in flower. I hope to come back from England with new ideas and a garden on the cusp of June.

 Glaucidium palmatum, the Japanese wood poppy, has fleeting single lavender flowers. I am glad I didn't miss them this year.

The Himalayan mayapple, Podophyllum hexandrum, has pink flowers that last about as long as the flowers on Glaucidium palmatum. It has mottled leaves and a bright, shiny, red, egg-sized fruit in late summer. This mayapple has happily self-seeded around the parent plant. I have thrown the seeds throughout the garden and this spring I spotted new plants dotted throughout the Woodland Garden.

I got this plant, Lamium orvala 'Silva' or giant dead nettle, from Ed Bowen of Opus Plants. Speaking of Ed, I am pleased to report that he will have a 'Pop-up' nursery at my garden during the Monadnock Area Garden Conservancy Open Day on Saturday August 20, 2016. Gardens will also be open in Vermont the following day. As part of the new 'Digging Deeper' program, Page Dickey will be giving a talk on Friday, August 19th at Bass Hall in Peterborough called "Outstanding American Gardens". On Saturday, Tovah Martin and Roger Swain will be giving free talks in two of the gardens. See the Garden Conservancy website for details. It promises to be a great weekend!

 

Farewell Malus 'Red Jade'

I planted a weeping crabapple called 'Red Jade' in the Lower Garden in 1993 and I have been training its canopy ever since. It was barely a whip when I started and I have enjoyed watching it mature. In the springtime, the pendulous branches are covered with light pink apple blossoms and in the fall, a flock of cedar waxwings devour the persistent small red fruit in less than a day. However, this Malus doesn't always look its best in the summer when the leaves prematurely turn brown and fall off. It has also been getting too large for its location near the terrace. It is taking more and more light from the perennial border and as it grows to its mature size, 15 tall and nearly 20 feet wide, it is clear that it will be too big for the site.

I have been contemplating removing the tree for about a year. A very early spring with a sudden cold snap made my decision easier when all the buds froze and I realized that there would be no fruit this autumn. Last week, I removed the tree. It was sad, but also liberating. The scale of the plantings in the mixed border felt better immediately. As the Acer griseum x 'Gingerbread' on the opposite side of the terrace has gotten larger, the terrace has become too shady. Now I have spot on the terrace for all my sun-loving potted plants which I have been having an increasingly more difficult time making happy in the shade.

After I amended the soil with compost, I planted a small shrub called Leptodermis oblonga and two Persicaria 'S'cunnet Pink' in place of the crabapple. Leptodermis oblonga, also known as false lilac, grows to about 3 feet and  has small fragrant purple blooms that begin in spring and last all summer. Persicaria 'S'cunnet Pink' is a plant from Opus, Ed Bowen's nano-nursery in Little Compton, RI. Ed selected this plant for its "6+ inch tapers of pink flowers, each with a deeper pink eye, from still deeper calyces atop 3-5 foot stems midsummer to frost." Ed says it is a Zone 6 plant. I'm hoping the site, against a newly revealed stone wall with southern exposure, will be make this beauty happy.

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Opus at Sakonnet

Ed Bowen, owner of Opus, contemplating just the right plant for his customer

Connoisseur plants looking for a home

Ed's delightful wife, Ivy, is often on hand

When I am at a plant sale, like I was last weekend at the Sakonnet Symposium in RI, I have to suppress the urge to use my, admittedly quite large 6' 3", body to it fullest advantage to get at the plants I am most interested in. Long arms are always an asset but it is really bad form to knock over a little old lady to get to the Arundo donax 'Golden Chain' so I behave myself.

One of the nurseries with plants for sale last Saturday was Opus, Ed Bowen's self-descibed " deliberately small nano-nursery." I first met Ed about a decade ago when he worked at the now defunct Conway's Nursery in Tiverton, RI. It didn't take long to see that Ed is a true plantsman. He knows his plants and he knows how to make them happy. After Conway's closed, Ed opened his own nursery named Opus specializing in "under-cultivated, garden worthy and unusual perennials."

Ed is open by appointment only but it is probably easiest to see what plants he has to offer at one of the half a dozen symposiums or gardening events that he frequents each year. Ed is extremely knowledgable and he couldn't be a nicer guy. The plant I was most excited about was Centaurea benoistii. Centaurea benoistii has excellent silver grey folliage with knobby maroon colored flower heads. It likes well-drained soil and I am hoping it will be happy in my upper border. Check Ed's website for more details about where you can find him next and his very intriguing plant list.