Perennial flowers have become the darlings of the gardening world.
This week we visit a nursery in Litchfield Connecticut, in the
Northwest corner of the state. It has demonstration gardens that
feature a wide range of plants that are hardy and loads of
Tropicals. Charlie loves to visit nurseries, he likes to see the
new plants, get new ideas, look at eye popping plants and learn
about plants ideal for problem areas.
Lynn Baker introduces us to the area. She is the innkeeper at the
Litchfield Inn located in the hills of Connecticut. The Litchfield
Inn is a 32 room country inn in the beautiful town of Litchfield.
Litchfield is a unique town full of history and ambiance with
something for everyone. They have beautiful antique shops,
gardens, garden centers, art galleries, boutiques, many talented
crafts people and many historical homes. Many of the fine homes
and mansions date back to the 1700's and 1800's. The first law
school in the country, Tapping Reeve, is located here. Litchfield
is a beautiful, interesting place that dates back to colonist days.
Today we'll concentrate on beautiful gardens and first visit with
Renee Beaulieu a horticulturist with White Flower Farm. This
nursery began in 1950, but the home here was built in 1930. It was
then a private home belonging to William Harris and Jane Grant who
were New York editors and wanted a place in the country. They
wanted to get away from it all and after moving here were bitten
by the gardening bug. They were self taught and became master
gardeners. They thought - let's start a nursery, thus acquired
about 90 acres of land, then hired several men from England
trained in horticulture. Thus it was a very traditional, English
operation. Everything today is grown in the fields with the
exception of several greenhouses used to start some plants.
Anything that had to be over wintered was and is over wintered in
the fields. The business was modest until the 70's when
gardeners discovered perennials. People may know about the company
and their mail order business and catalog but few know they have a
retail outlet and 5 acres of beautiful demonstration gardens that
are open to the public from April to October. This border garden
that was first planted in 2000, meaning this is its' fourth full
season. It was designed by the head gardener for Christopher
Lloyd, one of the premier garden designers in England. He has a
fabulous garden called Great Dixter. The idea is that this is a
mix of plants, it's not just perennials. Perennials have a
pretty short season of interest, they're fabulous when in bloom
but often boring other times. This garden is a combination of
trees, shrubs, annuals and perennials, as well as tender plants
like Cannas and lots of bulbs. In April the Daffodils start. Then
in May, big swaths of Tulips are the show. Then those are
dug up and Cannas are put in, because that's the right time to
put them in. You have Perennials in June. The annuals really
start to take over then as well. So there is something here from
April till frost which here is sometime in October. This garden has
things low growing, middle growing and high growing and it's blooming
all the time. It features lots of big things and it has a changing color theme
every few weeks. In early June it's very purple. That's when the
Globemaster Alliums (Allium giganteum) are in full bloom as are
the Nepetas and the Salvias. Three weeks later there is a lot of
yellow punctuation. There are some new plants, for example
Mullein (Verbascum). Many perennials grow to about bushel basket
size but Mulleins are like skyrockets the way they grow up.
They have a combination of Mulleins with some *Yarrows
(Achillea millefolium) and the Nicotiana that are just starting to come
into bloom. The white flower with a pretty pink eye is a Verbascum
'Chaixii Album' and is a biennial. It blooms relatively early in the season,
especially for something so big. However, the Yarrow will keep
reblooming. Just dead head it and it will rebloom through August
sometimes into September. The Nicotianas look fabulous now through
October. Purple Lamb's Quarter (Chenopodium album) is considered
an ornamental plant, it is easy to recognize because of its
color. If you don't dead head it, it will seed around. Just
leave the ones you like and you'll *wind up with a tapestry
effect. There are also nice tropical plants in this bed. The
Cannas have fabulous foliage. One plant is Canna Grande which
looks like a banana with enormous leaves. Its flowers are
insignificant, you grow it because it looks like a banana. Some
Cannas have darker foliage, really dark red and some have a more
gallous leaf. Drumstick Allium (Allium sphaerocephalon) is the
latest Allium to bloom. It has wonderful purple flowers heads on
stems that look like wires. The stem is so thin the flower kind
of hovers over the plants. They're tiny, the size of your
thumbnail, so you plant dozens of them in a spot and they
skyrocket up.
This is a huge Perennial border, by this time of year a lot of
things have gone through their first bloom and if you dead head
them they'll bloom again later in the season. Renee first shows us
a Catmint (Nepeta), which was a complete cloud of blue in June
but now it's starting to show some dead growth. Even though the
Calix is still looking good but starting to fade you want to cut
it back to encourage new foliage. If this were in Renee's garden,
since she doesn't have a lot of time, she would just whack the
whole thing back, right to the ground, she would leave a couple of
inches of stem and they come back. But because this is a display
garden and they don't want a bare spot for 2 weeks here she will
cut more selectively. She shows us where the new stems are
starting to come up at the base, Renee would cut just above those.
This will encourage new growth and it will actually start
flowering providing another season of blooms. If some of the stems
still have flowers use them as cut flowers. Catmint in the house
might cause a problem if you have a cat, the cat might just start
flopping on the table.
With so many different plants in this border, with the different
colors and forms Renee still has some favorites. There are some
old fashioned plants like Variegated Iris (Iris pallida
'Variegata') and some new varieties like Gaillardia which has
much bigger flowers than the typical wildflower and stays low and
is very long blooming. Her favorite though is the new Geranium
'Rozanne' which is truly a long blooming perennial. It blooms
from June through October. Geranium 'Lavender Blue' *becomes true
blue in the colder months. *Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum),
another favorite, even when not in flower looks unusual, very
sculptural. Another sculptural plant is the Sea Holly (Eryngium
bourgatii). The Sea Holly has a little more color than the
Teasel, it's a wonderful steel blue unlike any other flower.
We next try some staking, because this garden has tall plants.
Tall plants add verticality to the garden, but they only stay tall
until a thunderstorm hits. They need staking if for no other
reason to keep them out of the mud. Dahlias definitely need
staking because their flowers are enormous and bend easily. Plan
for this ahead of time. For staking there are lots of
possibilities. You can use bamboo and string or you could use
multi-purpose stakes. This metal stake is ideal for a single stem
and is nice because it is adjustable, allowing it to be moved up
or down. Wrap it around the flower, then hook it in and you're
done. There are taller versions that work with Lilies, Hollyhocks
or some Verbascums, if they're in a windy spot. When staking be
careful not to be too close to the stem because you don't want to
pierce the tuber that it grows from. The ideal time to stake
Delphiniums and Dahlias is before they get to the flower bud stage.
We next view a wonderful collection of Begonias from England.
These are kept in a greenhouse because you wouldn't want rain to
fall on them. Cheryl Karpeichik, the head gardener tends to these
fabulous plants. They are so beautiful and colorful that they look
artificial but are very real. This greenhouse is filled with
tuberous Begonias. This is a collection of Blackmore and Langdon
Tuberous Begonias. They're bred in England and come in 2 different
types. There is an upright type which is on the shelving and
cascading varieties which are hanging throughout. The colors are
vivid. Each day Cheryl's favorites change but one she really likes
is an Allen Langdon (Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Allan Langdon').
There are different categories or colors within tuberous Begonias.
One is red with a little rosy pink, it makes a color not often
seen. Different flowers have different characteristics, some are
fluffy, some are ruffly. Some of the orange varieties have a lot
of petals that look ruffly, other flowers have a smooth edge on
the flower. Venus (Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Venus') has a rounded
petal edge. Some have different colors on the edge, they are
called Picatee, meaning the edge of the petal is lined with a
color different than the rest of the petal. There are several
different color combinations. One is orangy with a red edge and is
called Party Dress (Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Party Girl'). These
flowers are very different than other flowers. They are all
tropical plants grown from a tuber. We look at a tuber. It looks
like a dried up potato. The tuber has little eyes similar to a
potato, they are the buds that you look for when potting up the
tuber in spring. That is usually done in March when the growth
starts on the tuber. First place the plant in a 4 inch pot, put
the soil in the bottom and the top of the tuber should be about 1
inch below the soil surface. Don't plant too deeply because there
is a danger you can over water and rot the tuber. Before it starts
to grow out of the pot the plant is bumped into a 10 inch pot,
their final size. All the growth is one year, you start with a
tuber and all of a sudden they start to produce flowers. Once they
start producing flowers they will produce flowers all summer long.
We look at Cheryl's favorite of the day, it is pink and called
Nectar (Begonia x tuberhybrida 'Nectar'). Many Begonias are a
deep vibrant color, Nectar is light in color. There is a series of
cascading Begonias out of California called the Scentiment Series.
They have a scent. One is called Scentiment Blush (Begonia x
tuberhybrida 'Scentiment Blush'). Most of the upright Begonias
don't have fragrance but they are beautiful. Cheryl shows us how
to debud a Begonia. Upright varieties are debudded because you
want to encourage the flowers to become large. On one bud stem of
an upright there is a large center bud flanked by 2 smaller buds.
The flowers actually are male and female. The female flowers have
a seed pod, the male flowers don't and have several more petals
forming. We debud the female flowers because they will be smaller,
just a single flower. For a showy tuberous Begonia you want to
encourage the double petaled or many petaled flowers to develop
and that happens to be the male flower. You pinch off the smaller
bud with your fingers. Do this at the stage where you can go in
without doing damage to the center bud and pinch them off at the
base. Cheryl checks once a week for buds in order to encourage
nice, fresh, larger flowers for their show.
Tina Puckett is a master weaver. She makes very creative baskets
in very unusual colors and shapes and forms. She sells these
baskets all over the world mainly through the internet, craft
shows, galleries and in her workshop in Connecticut. She is well
known for her work because it is unusual and her pieces are one of
a kind. Every piece is totally different, she uses a lot of colors
and different shapes. To start she goes into the woods and picks
American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens). Bittersweet is a
vine that grows in Connecticut, in the fall it has yellow and red
berries. The Bittersweet then is the frame from which she creates
a shape. Tina has a vision for the basket after working with the
Bittersweet. With the Bittersweet acting as the frame, she then
starts with the God's eye, once the God's eye is in place you use
the spokes for weaving. Weaving a basket reminds Tina of building
a house. With the framing in place (she considers the spokes the
frame) she then starts a basic weave. If woven properly you never
see where you began and where you end, the action is basically
over and under. Reeds are used for weaving. Reed grows like
Bamboo, but is solid on the inside and is cut like lumber. There
are different widths and roundness. You go from one end to another
until you meet in the middle, when that is done the basket is
complete. A basket like this usually takes about 6 hours. She has
been weaving baskets for 20 years and has enjoyed every single
year. There is something very calming and soothing when she weaves
and at the end you have a beautiful product. Basket weaving is a
lost art and Tina would like to see more people enjoying it. To
get involved, go to the internet and find a local artist who can
teach you how to weave a basket.
We rejoin Renee. She is grooming a different kind of Begonia, a
Dragon Wing Pink (Begonia x hybrida 'Dragon Wing Pink'). There
is also a Dragon Wing Red, a cross between the little Wax Begonias
and Angel Wing begonias, which are no good in the garden. This
new variety is the best of both worlds, has won awards in Georgia
because it tolerates heat, but it is great from Maine on South and
it blooms all summer.
Renee shows us another group of plants, dry shade plants. Dry
shade is always a problem for people, they just don't know what to
plant. Hosta is probably the easiest thing, there are some here 50
years old under Maple trees. Ferns are another plant that work in
this environment. One variety is a naturally occurring variety
from Connecticut called Branford Beauty (Athyrium 'Branford
Beauty'). It is a cross between the native Lady Fern (Athryium
filix-femina), which is very tough, and the Japanese Painted Fern
(Athryium niponicum pictum). It has a little bit of silver on
its leaves and is a tougher plant. Hellebors (Helleborus) are
the new darlings, they have leathery foliage are deer resistant,
take absolute full shade and bloom first thing in the Spring.
Another of Renees favorites is Brunnera , it has little
Forget-Me-Not flowers but one variety, Jack Frost (Brunnera
macrophylla 'Jack Frost'), has wonderful silver markings on the
foliage so it lights up a shady area. It takes absolute dense
shade and dry shade.
Renee shows us another group ideal for clay soil. For clay soil,
look for plants that are native plants. Native Asters (Aster
novae-angliae) do wonderfully and bloom late season. Sedums
aren't native but again bloom late season and attract butterflies.
Old fashioned Daylilies (Hemerocallis) are also good. There is
wonderful work being done with Daylilies. One is a spider form but
there are lots of different colors-pinks, purples, reds. Another
of Renee's favorites is Coneflower. There is a lot of selection
and breeding work being done with them. They're great tough plants
and butterfly magnets. One, 'Kim's Knee High' (Echinacea
purpurea 'Kim's Knee High'), is a typical color of Echinacea but
half the height. It's great at the front of the border and there
is hybridizing being done with varieties that are fragrant. One is
called Sunrise (Echinacea purpurea x paradoxa 'Sunrise') and is
a beautiful pale shade of yellow with fluted petals. Fragrant
Angel (Echinacea purpurea alba 'Fragrant Angel') is another
beauty; pure white and very scented.
Renee this has been wonderful. You have showed us different plants
and plants for problem areas, plants in your demonstration area
and beautiful Begonias. For more information on plants for problem
areas click on the links below. Thanks Renee this has been a
wonderful, educational experience. We've really enjoyed ourselves.
We thank everyone at White Flower Farm for their hospitality.
Links:
The Litchfield Inn
Litchfield Historical Society
White Flower Farm
Tina's Baskets, Tina Puckett
Plants for Clay Soil
Plants for Shade
Plants for Wet Areas
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