Window boxes

Most of my friends know of my great admiration of the Europeans and their great zeal for gardening.  I am the president of a college garden club and in our meetings I feel like I am always making references to one of two things:  a.) hydrangeas, or b.) Europeans!  Thankfully I have a good deal of English and Dutch blood so my green thumb is more like a green hand!

For several years I wanted to become a residential architect.  I believe that my keen eye (and appreciation!) for aesthetics is derived from years and years of cultivating flowers.  Well let me just say that those Europeans know how to make a house look good!  Their windows, doors, trimwork, and their gardens are generally a bit more "refined" than the average American residence.  Even the smallest, dinkiest Euro cottage is likely to be significantly more attractive (one might say "charming") than the smallest, dinkiest American shack.  I think I know one of their secrets....

Enter my appreciation for window boxes.  I love the things.  So do those Old Worlders across the pond.

Exquisite.

Not only are they nice to look at and can they "soften" the facade of a house, but they are a cool way to maximize one's effective gardening space (which is certainly the primary reason why they are generally more prevalent in urban gardens in Paris, Rome, Berlin, others).  A few American cities are particularly noteworthy for beautiful window boxes, especially Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood (probably my favorite urban district in this country) and essentially anywhere in Charleston and Savannah, two of our most gorgeous American cities.

While we do not have bona-fide window boxes (i.e. underneath, well, windows) we do have window boxes along the railing of our backyard deck.  For a space such as a deck, it is a great idea to use plants that attract butterflies or hummingbirds.  Dinner is always fun when there's some entertainment, right?

One of the things that fascinates me most about container gardening (e.g. pots, boxes) is the infinite number of beautiful "recipes" as they are called.  Equally fascinating is the equally infinite number of bad ones.  If you have window boxes, what do you like to grow in them?  I try new combinations each year so please share any ideas or suggestions that you may have!  In the meantime, please enjoy the pictures below--they provide a snippet of the endless opportunities for window box gardening!

from 10 Best.com
(Acorn Street in Beacon Hill, possibly the most beautiful street in the US)

from This Old House

from TravelPod
(those Europeans strike again!)

Nothing shy of perfection!  This might be my favorite window box picture ever.

Extra stunning because of its simplicity!

from Lakeshore Images
(Nantucket)

  

The Arrival of Spring!

Our never-ending November has abruptly come to a close and I am happy to say that, in every sense of the word, spring is here.  As a gardener, the arrival of spring brings with it a mix of emotions and responsibilities.  The surge of excitement associated with flowering trees and bulbs is accompanied by things like weeding, mulching, amending, cleaning, pruning, and assessing any winter damages to shrubs and perennials.  Gleefully, I can say that my garden apparently suffered only one fatality over the past winter:  a small, young Stachys byzantia (lamb's ear) which honestly didn't look so hot last fall.  She can be replaced easily...

Like I mentioned before, spring brings gardeners a mix of emotions.  Well, this spring is 10x more emotional than any one before.  Never in my life have I seen lilacs blooming in March--nor do I want to ever again in my life.  Never before have I seen daffodil blooms killed by heat.  Never before have I witnessed all species of flowering trees blooming simultaneously--let alone in the last week of March.  While stunningly beautiful beyond compare, this early spring has me concerned for the months ahead.  So many plants are breaking-bud weeks earlier than they should and thus assume a good deal of risk for damage from April or May frosts, which believe me, are just as possible as the 86 degree weather of last week.  I am keeping my frost-shy Hydrangea macrophylla shrubs covered up for at least another week or two (I generally uncover between April 1 and April 15).  Heck, just the other day I cut my daylilies back to the ground because they were already as tall as they should be in mid-May!  Talk about a mix of emotions there!

A show of spring-flowering trees in my neighborhood:  L to R, Callery pear (white), magnolia (magenta), Callery pear (white), weeping cherry (white, center, behind pear tree), magnolia (magenta), and Callery pear at far right

Don't get me wrong, I love spring and I love summer even more so I relished in the 80 degree March weather.  Relished with a capital R.  I also relished the opportunity to get loads of yard work completed that I was unable to finish last fall due to time-constraints (read:  laziness).  A wise gardener once told me that the telltale sign of a "true" garden is one which is constantly changing, day to day, season to season, year to year.  Much in that same spirit, I spent many hours moving plants around my yard.  Honestly, most of my perennials and even a couple of my shrubs have been relocated once:  some twice, and some even three or four times.  Spring is generally an exceptional time to move plants around because rainfall + temperature + all of that winter-stored energy gives plants plenty of energy to "heal" from any over-stimulated shovels or spades.

While I normally do not do a whole lot of planting in March, this year was an exception since garden centers decided to open a few weeks early.  Early spring is also bare-root rose season which is always fun!  I was able to find several great deals, and make several great additions to my gardens over the past two week including:

• $0.38 daffodil and tulip bulbs at the Miamisburg Walmart store (I bought five daffies and four tulips:  two red-and-whites and two yellows)
• $2.50 bare-root roses at the Miamisburg Big Lots store (I snatched 'Blue Girl', a strongly fragrant, lavender-purple hybrid tea rose)
• $20 for well-budded, 3'-tall Magnolia x 'Jane' bushes at the Miamisburg Lowe's store (I bought two since magnolias are sentimental favorites of mine.  Also, magnolia bush flowers seem to withstand wind and rain better than those on magnolia trees).
• $9 for Grade #1 Knock Out roses at the Springboro Walmart store.  I've been shopping for plants all of my life and just like how some people can see the perfect shirt or pair-of-shoes from a mile away, I  have a sixth-sense for plants at garden nurseries.  Without knowing what I was doing, I RAN over to a bunch of roses and SCORE!  A 'Sunny Knock Out' (yellow)!  Just throw it in the bag...
• $6 for a 12" tall, healthy, very fragrant boxwood at the Miamisburg Lowe's store.  The aroma of boxwood is, pardon the pun, a perennial favorite.
• $10 for oversized pots from the West Carrollton Meijer store on Springboro Pike (steal of the century considering these things usually cost three or four times that amount).  These will become home to some new hydrangea shrubs to be purchased in a month or two....
• My favorite find:  $5 "florist" hydrangeas at the Miami Township Aldi store near the Dayton Mall.  Yes, you just read Aldi.  Florist hydrangeas are perfectly fine hydrangeas that have been "forced" to flower at a young age to be sold for Easter, Mother's Day, etc.  They require some extra TLC after being "forced", but will mature to become beautiful, garden shrubs like any other hydrangea.  I was ecstatic to find two very desirable varieties:  Hydrangea macrophlla 'Leuchtfeuer' (a pinkish red mophead) and macrophylla 'Blaumeise' (one of the choicest blue lacecap hydrangeas out there).  

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Blaumeise' bringing a taste of summer to my college dorm

In closing, I hope some of you were able to get out and do some gardening-related activities recently, whether in your own yard or maybe at a community garden or park.  It's garden time, people.

Daffodil blooms

Weeping cherry 'Snow Fountain'

Tulips and cherry blossoms

My new red-and-white tulips

My new yellow tulips

New daffodils in the sidewalk garden, cultivar:  'Tete-a-Tete', an old classic.  Other members of this bed:  Miscanthus sinensis 'Variegatus', purple barberry, Echinacea purpurea 'Pink Double Delight' and 'Tiki Torch'

Weeping cherry 'Snow Fountain'

Our toy poodle, Coral, modeling one of the two new 'Jane' magnolia bushes.  This one is planted next to our driveway and looks a little crooked because it's on a hill.

Hydrangeas: Cape Cod and the Islands

I have been meaning to write this for a few weeks so I am glad I am finally doing it!  A few months ago I learned about what will most-definitely become my new favorite book, Hydrangeas:  Cape Cod and the Islands.  For a hydrangea lover, and a Cape and Islands lover, this book is, as I told my mother:  "THE book that I would write if I were to ever become a writer."  Thankfully I am not pursuing a writing career or I would be toast at the age of 20 years old.

The cover has me salivating.....

The book is set to be released to the public (in other words, published) on April 28, 2012.  Written and photographed by Joan Harrison, the President of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society (we have been in communication with each other for awhile now about all sorts of hydrangea stuff), this book will feature over 300 pictures of hydrangeas in myriad settings throughout the Cape Cod-Nantucket-Martha's Vineyard region:  in private gardens, public gardens, tucked-away corners, roadsides, waterfronts, and even in some Cape and Island weddings.

For the uninitiated, hydrangeas are essentially the unofficial flower of these Massachusetts coastal retreats.  For the arm, the boomerang, and the grapes--the hydrangea is akin to how maple trees or dandelions are to the rest of America; ingrained and integral to the landscape, almost as much as the dunes and lighthouses themselves.  Come July, these storybook coastal locales are literally bursting at the seams with beautiful hydrangea flowers at every sidewalk, patio, traffic light, golf course, bank, ferry terminal, and anywhere else with a spare patch of dirt.

The jaw-dropping "Hydrangea Walk" cottage on Shore Road in Chatham, perched at the Cape's elbow.
Memories on Clover Lane

I am most excited about having some of my very own handiwork featured in this book, including a project or two I worked with on The Faraway Island this past summer.

Needless to say, I eagerly await the opportunity to have so many memories spanning several summers rekindled on the pages of this very exciting, very unique book.  I am particularly enthused to see a multitude of photographs featuring the new CCHS-sponsored hydrangea collection at Heritage Gardens in Sandwich on the Upper Cape and, of course, the one-and-only Hydrangea Farm Nursery on Nantucket.

For those of you interested, the book is available via pre-order from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, etc.

The famous Knock Out roses

If you have ever walked into a plant nursery or the greenhouse section of Home Depot or Lowe's, you probably know about the famous Knock Out rose.  Released in the 1990s by the Conard-Pyle Co. and bred by renowned rose hybridizer William Radler, the Knock Out series of roses is, by a long mile, the most-commercially successful line of flowering plants in the history of the United States horticulture industry.  Millions of Knock Out roses are sold, planted, and admired each year.

Yours truly is one of the millions of gardeners who has come to appreciate the merits of the Knock Out roses.  For one, Knock Out roses are exceptional in their abilities to flower from May until Thanksgiving, essentially without interruption.  For an instant, high-impact dose of color that will return each year, Knock Outs are a hard lot to beat.  Unlike most other roses, Knock Outs are prized for their "iron-clad" disease resistance, relative drought tolerance, cold hardiness, and manageable size of approximately 4' x 4' at maturity.  If they have one fault, it is that they generally are lightly fragrant.  They also do not make great cut flowers since the blooms are, for the most part, smaller and less showy than your typical tea roses such as 'Chicago Peace' or 'John F. Kennedy'.

'The Original' Knock Out rose

Since the debut of the classic, red 'Original' Knock Out rose, the series has grown to encompass six other cultivars which give gardeners choices in terms of color and also, in certain cases, single vs. double blooms.  All cultivars exhibit the great flower power, excellent disease resistance, vigor, and cold hardiness found in 'The Original' red:

The 'Pink' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co.

The 'Sunny' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co.

The 'Double' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co.

The 'Blushing' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co.

The 'Rainbow' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co.

A beautiful shot of the 'Pink Double' Knock Out rose; image from Conard-Pyle Co. 

So are Knock Out roses worth the hype?  From my experiences, yes absolutely they are.  Over time, they are becoming increasingly affordable too, thanks to the sheer volume of plants produced each year.  I currently grow 'The Original' and 'Pink' Knock Out cultivars.  This year, I am hoping to add, at minimum, 'Rainbow' since it is considered the most floriferous of the bunch, which is saying a lot since they all flower very well!  I also will likely be adding a few more 'Pink' KOs, and may try out a Double too.

If you are interested in fragrance, you will want to seek out 'Sunny' for its good-quality, citrus-like fragrance which nicely matches its color and "sunny" disposition.  'The Original' is probably second best for its rather mild yet spicy-sweet scent.  From my experiences, all of the cultivars have some degree of scent but 'Sunny' and 'The Original' are the only ones that seem readily apparent.  As is the case with essentially all roses, the fragrance is strongest right before the petals fully open, just as they are transitioning from their more-columnar shapes to their wide, unfurled mature state.  

So if you are looking for a low-maintenance, high-impact landscape plant that may live longer than you do, head to the nursery this spring and pick up any one of the seven Knock Out roses:  you won't be disappointed!

Color in the Landscape

Good garden design necessitates good use of color.  Just think for a moment of a beautiful yard or garden.  It might be your own or someone else's.  Maybe it's a house you pass on the way to school or work.  What do you like most about it?  If you are anything like me, color is what really grabs your initial attention--and also what fills your memory.

Certain color combinations create certain moods or convey a certain theme.  Red, orange, and yellow are best for conveying energy, vibrancy, speed, and excitement.  They also make a garden seem smaller and hotter.

Very thrilling, right?

Pink, blue, and purple, au contraire, are more relaxing, cooling, and peaceful.  These colors definitely make a garden feel larger.  Purple especially is a distance/depth workhorse.

Totally different effect...

Greens, whites, and grays are best-used to compliment the main colors or to soften transitions between them.  I think it is also important to note that the importance of green in the garden can easily go under-appreciated.  Green is essential for giving a garden its structure, connections, and some visual relief.

So which colors do I prefer to work with?  Depends on the specific spot.  In my front yard, I tend to work more with pink-white-blue-purple plants.  The western side yard is very much an orange-yellow-white (plus occasional purple) scheme.  The backyard is very polychromatic with certain areas following one half of the color wheel, and another area following another half.  I also have one bed in the back that is strictly yellow with just two, lonely purple plants for sexiness.  One corner of the backyard is white-pink-blue.  The main backyard planting area however is dominated by reds, oranges, whites, and purples.  And finally, the eastern side of the house is white and purple.  I think ALL gardeners should grow a multitude of plants and follow the color scheme(s) that works for them, their house, and their taste.  Some of the most beautiful gardens are monochromatic (all-white and all-red landscapes are particularly stunning).  Yet the overwhelming majority of high-quality garden designs use all of the main colors--and many shades/tints within them.

If I was up against a firing squad however, I would tell you that I prefer pink-white-blue-purple gardens the best.  For me, gardening is about peace.  These colors convey that...for me.

Along those lines, the Dallas Arboretum has created a wonderful bed of flowers as you can see below.  They have used the classic blue annual, ageratum, with the equally classic pink/white/purple "summer snapdragon", the angelonia.  Unfortunately, angelonia is not a very "popular" annual for beginning gardeners, for which I have no explanation!  It is an excellent plant that loves hot sunshine.  I was already working on a very similar design when I stumbled across this great picture online.  T'was VERY nice to see that my brain does a good job of conceptualizing:

I am currently working on ways to adapt this concept in my own landscape.  This spring, we are going to be repainting the shutters, door, fence, etc from "harvest red" to a rich, dark ocean blue.  A lot of my current landscape sketches are revolving around increased use of the kinds of refreshing colors you see above:  white especially.  I think that the soft pink and glowing blue will look awesome with our macrophylla hydrangea bushes and the dark green foliage of things like lilac, oakleaf hydrangea, arborvitae, daisy, shrub roses, and echinacea.  

2012 Wishlist

2012.....!?

Christmas is long since gone and it's the middle of winter.  Spring will (hopefully) be here soon!  So what's my brain to do except start thinking about my yard!  We moved to our current house in the summer of 2007 and have been busy expanding and improving the landscape ever since.  When we moved in, the front yard was barren:  a large, flat, treeless expanse of green lawn punctuated by three peony plants near the front door, and a rogue hosta plant tucked into a corner.  That was IT!  The backyard was not a Garden of Eden by any measure but had its strengths:  great dappled shade provided by a handful of mature trees (two sugar maples and one beautiful black walnut), decent privacy, some sunny patches along the edges of the yard, and the best part:  a rather generous 200-square foot deck with ideal shade/sun exposure and a good planting arrangement around its perimeter consisting of a 25 foot long bed of beautiful, ruffled, yellow-orange daylilies and a row of several hostas on the western side.  It is next to impossible for me to remember the yard when we bought the house because, I honestly think, we started digging and planting on "day one!"  We haven't looked back since.

Generally, I am immensely pleased with our present landscape.  Others share those sentiments:  our property won a civic beautification award in the summer of 2009.  As the gardener sometimes says, "boy you should come see it now!"  With each passing season, the garden acquires more and more of that priceless patina of age--something that simply cannot be rushed (think:  purchased) in a landscape.  There is something to be said about having to move this there, move that here, fill in this space, get rid of that plant.....a garden is never supposed to be finished nor is it supposed to be rigid and finite.  A garden is forever.  A farmer's day of work is never quite done, right?

So what is on the agenda for 2012?  Hopefully not as much as 2011!  Kidding aside, I am really excited for a a number of "improvements" that I think will be quite meaningful.

• Last fall, I began working towards a spectacular, seven-shrub hydrangea edge along the main face of the backyard deck (replacing the former daylily border, which I think means I have finally "touched" every piece of the original landscape besides the mature trees).  I am using five, white Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' in the middle, flanked by two blue/purple/pink Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer' at each end.  The best part is that all seven of these plants are at-least four years old and thus will be at ~70% maturity this summer....so no waiting around for things to grow!!!  The filtered shade environment will be perfect for these plants.  I am really looking forward to this beautiful, low-maintenance hydrangea garden.  It will likely become the single "strongest" component of my growing hydrangea collection.

• Last May my family and I built a little footbridge for a new garden area we were installing.  I think it's straight out of the American Dream:  a little arch bridge spanning through a riot of flowers.  My mom has dreamed of one since she was little so I am happy we finally built it!  Much of my focus last year was with this "bridge garden" area and I want to expand the edges a bit this spring so we can grow more plants.  I am specifically thinking of Knock Out roses and a bunch of annuals.  I think a cottage-style footbridge must pass-by some roses, don't you?

Footbridge

• In the far corner of our backyard we have a typical storage shed.  I created a good-sized flower bed near it last fall and filled it with a number of daylilies (deck-edge transplants), a peach-colored oriental lily, a purple New England aster, several solidago, some columbine, two yellow coreopsis, some rudbeckia, a pink shurb rose, a dwarf white daisy, a purple butterfly bush, and a "bird's nest" dwarf pine.  It frames one side of the approach to the shed entrance.  Following the same theme, I want to add a similarly-sized bed on the other side of the approach so that one experiences a semi-enclosed "gateway" effect.  There is just something stunning about walking and being surrounded by flowers on both sides.  So, I am thinking about one or two ornamental grasses (probably 'Gold Bar' or 'Zebrinus' because I think the variegation would resonate nicely with the butter-colored shed), a bunch of marigolds, maybe some red roses, some daisies, and whatever other divisions I can get this spring.

• A couple of my baby hydrangeas--which were previously in containers--will be going in the ground this spring:  macrophyllas 'Peppermint', 'Malarth', and  the oakleaf 'Alice'.  Macrophyllas 'Nanstrosa' and 'Mathilda Gutges' will be going in the two large chocolate-colored pots out front underneath our living room bay window.  My favorite plant, four-year old macrophylla 'Nachtigall' will also be moving into a larger pot (she has consistently been my fastest-growing hydrangea).  'Nachtigall', which in English means nightingale, is a powerhouse of a hydrangea.  Very sturdy stems, healthy foliage, and stunning blue lacecap flowers.  Highly recommended for anyone in Zones 7/8/9.  You will need to grow her in a pot in Zones 4/5/6 since she is a bit winter shy.  I keep her, and my other potted hydrangeas, in the garage over the winter.  

Hydrangea macrophylla ('Endless Summer' and 'Nachtigall' at center)

• I am thrilled to be in the planning stages for making an expansion to the main, front-yard flower bed.  Much of my gardening inspiration comes from the beautiful, colorful flower gardens of East Coast beach towns in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.  My hydrangea collection is a prime example.  Along my native Jersey Shore, crape myrtle trees (an exceptionally common tree in the Southern USA) are very popular and provide unbeatable mid-summer to early-fall color.  Some crapes can bloom for over 100 days which is just insane for a flowering tree.  So, okay, why don't I have one already?  Unfortunately they are not stem-hardy above north of Zone 7.  Occasionally I will glimpse some shrub-form crape myrtles in SW Ohio but they are rare.  It takes a serious gardener to try growing a shrub/tree outside of the plant's hardiness zone.  My success with growing several varieties of hydrangeas in large containers got me thinking:  "What if I select a smaller crape myrtle tree (maximum of 10 feet) and grow it in a pot!"  Great idea.  But wouldn't a 10-foot tree look a bit ungainly in a pot?  Yes it would.  Solution:  use a technique I learned at Hydrangea Farm Nursery on Nantucket....put the pot in the ground and then remove it later.  So that's the plan:  put the crape myrtle in a 15-gallon container, dig a nice hole for it, and then throw it in for May-November.  Cover the pot with soil and mulch so no one knows except me.  Then the tree magically vanishes after Halloween/Thanksgiving.  Magic!  I want Lagerstroemia indica 'Pink Velour' for its hot-pink flowers and deep green foliage.  It also stays small (8-12 feet).  I want to accentuate the watermelon-colored flowers of the crape by creating a surrounding garden home to some light pink shrub roses, bright-yellow Black-eyed Susans, and some pink annuals (I am thinking geraniums).  Curving in front will be a new flagstone footpath lined with white and pink begonias, some dwarf ornamental grasses, and maybe a small evergreen or two.  Talk about eye-candy.  I want this to look really sharp! 

Crape myrtle garden, conceptual rendering (I drew the crape myrtle a couple feet too small, oh well!)

Welcome to my blog, Who Plants a Seed...!  I am glad you are here and hope you find my pictures, tips, advice, and musings about gardening to be helpful, entertaining, and inspiring for your own at-home horticultural pursuits!

The name for my blog comes from a hand-carved wooden sign that has been in my grandparents' house for longer than I can remember.  It reads, "Who plants a seed beneath the sod and waits to see believes in God."  One of the most simple yet beautiful and true statements I have ever known.  Many of my "gardening genes" definitely come from my grandparents.  As a home gardening blog, Who Plants a Seed... could not have a better name.

I have been gardening for my entire life:  it's just that simple.  I cannot remember a spring, summer, or fall season in which I wasn't out in the yard digging, planting, watering, weeding, pruning, admiring, and enjoying.  After 20 years, it is simply a part of who am I--it is certainly my main hobby (and definitely the main drain on my wallet!) so I hope some of my experiences and opinions can be of help to you in one way, shape, or form.  I am primarily a flower gardener but allocate some good time to fruits and veggies also (can you say home-grown tomatoes, strawberries, and peppers; what would summer be without them?).  My family and I grow a great variety of flowers including several varieties of roses, purple coneflowers, daisies, lilies and daylilies, astilbe, hostas, a number of ornamental grasses, rudbeckia, peonies, daffodils, tulips, iris, columbine, goldenrod, liatris, spirea, monarda, viburnum, lilac, tradescantia, loosestrife, chrysanthemums, New England asters, a multitude of annuals (but especially marigolds, impatiens, geraniums, and petunias), liriope, cannas, and my personal pride and joy--over 30 hydrangea shrubs encompassing dozens of cultivars across four different species.  I plan to focus a good deal of this blog towards chronicling my ever-growing hydrangea collection.