Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Summer Bulbs: The Decorative and the Edible
Growing your own food is very rewarding work, but it is work. Here at Tangled Branches South I've been fussing over vegetable, herb, and flower seedlings since January and still haven't gotten everything planted out in the garden yet. I think I've mentioned before that one of the reasons we wanted to live in the country instead of the suburbs was to have the space and freedom to plant a kitchen garden. And we now have space and freedom. What we lack is time. So when the mailbox started to yield up the summer bulb catalogs I was vulnerable and very susceptible to their charms. Hey, look, I could have a bunch of big nice tropical looking flowers without fiddling with seeds.
While I have been spending most of my time on the kitchen garden, I still want flowers. For the last two years, I've planted a small area next to the front porch with coleus and other things, but mainly coleus that I raised from seed. I love coleus, but something about the look of the bed was not quite right. I think it was too many dark colored leaves and not enough variety of leaf shape. Again, the bulb catalog to the rescue. How about big white leaves? Light colored enough for ya? Yeah...Caladiums...that's what I want. And what about some of the those Callas? Even if they don't bloom they have fabulous foliage - large, upright and splashed with white spots.
Well, the Callas did bloom, but the Caladium foliage is still a bit small. I started them inside, but apparently not early enough. Even so, they look pretty good with the self-sown 'Bowles' Black' Violas that popped up everywhere.
I also bought Tigridia, Sparaxis, and Crocosmia, and those are all planted away from the house and near the vegetable garden. No blooms yet on any of those. Oops, except for the one Sparaxis flower I snapped off while weeding around it. It looked like it was going to a nice color - sort of a muted red with yellow throat. Do they send up more than one flower stalk per season? I've never grown them before.
But back to the vegetable garden. I just harvested some of our very favorite summer bulbs - garlic!
The variety is 'Red Toch'. The flavor is on the mild side, at least while fresh. I'll be curious to see if the flavor matures as the bulbs cure. I planted four varieties of garlic last fall - three of them new to me. 'Red Toch', 'Korean Red', and 'Silver Rose' are the new ones. 'German Hardneck', I grew in 2008 as well. Hoping that 'Silver Rose' is similar to 'Nootka Rose' which was the best keeper I've ever grown. Bulbs of 'Nootka Rose' were still sound and usable well into May. I wish I had replanted some of it last fall, but didn't know at that time how well it was going to keep. Now I know. I planted a few cloves of it this spring, but the plants are rather small and spindly.
Another new-to-me summer bulb from the vegetable garden is the potato onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum). I dug the first one over the weekend and liked the flavor, but still don't feel that I quite understand how to grow them. What I've been able to glean from internet research is that if you plant a large potato onion bulb in the fall, the following summer you will get a cluster of small bulbs from it. If you dig these up, cure them, and replant in the fall, you'll get large bulbs the next summer. In order to keep the variety going in your garden, you need to fall-plant some small bulbs which will make large bulbs for use in the kitchen and some large bulbs which will make small bulbs to replant to grow into large bulbs the second summer.
I also have 'Yellow Moon' Dutch Shallots, which may or may not be the same thing as potato onions. These were planted in the spring and are growing well. It is unclear to me whether/why spring planting is better or worse than fall planting, but I was only able to obtain these shallots in the spring.
And I have still more perennial onions - Egyptian Walking Onions and White Multiplier Onions, but I have more questions than answers about those and think I'll save them for a future post.
If anybody has experience with any kind of perennial onions, I'd love to hear about your methods for growing them.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Bloom Day: The Pictures
The sun reappeared yesterday! And now it's gone again. Should be back by tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some of the flowers blooming at Tangled Branches North this morning.
My favorite bulb this week is Chionodoxa sardensis. Such a bright clear blue. The flowers are small, as are so many good things.
Haven't made up my mind whether I like the intense yellow Narcissus obvallaris next to the coral bark Japanese maple.
A Pine Knot hellebore. Invisible from a distance, but look how pretty close up. Same flower, different angle.
As long as the Ruby Giant crocuses are blooming, I'll keep posting pictures.
I meant to show you how nice the Scilla siberica looks next to Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', but Angelina insisted it was all about her.
The flower parade is just beginning.
Friday, March 06, 2009
Snowy Bulbs
The snow earlier in the week was a blessing in a way. For one, it's been a bit dry here and we can use the moisture. But even better, I get to take pictures of spring bulbs flowering in the snow. I always used to fall for these pictures in catalogs, imagining that the flowers forced their way up through the snow. Only much later did I realize that those pictures are taken after late snowfalls on the already blooming plants, just like this.
Even though we received about 6 or 7 inches of snow and the temperatures have been very cold, the early March sun did its work and melted much of it. The crocuses reappeared yesterday from where we had shoveled snow on top of them. They just laughed it off.
Plant photos, top to bottom, are:
Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation'
Iris reticulata 'Gordon'
Crocus sieberi 'Firefly'
Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty'
Labels: bulbs, crocus, iris, narcissus, snow
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Crocus ancyrensis 'Golden Bunch'
Next in the lineup of spring bulbs, and just beginning to bloom yesterday, is Crocus ancyrensis 'Golden Bunch'. I'm probably repeating myself, but will say again, these flowers are small but powerful. The color, such a rich bright gold, makes up for the lack of size. And you could always plant a million or so if you want a larger impact. 
They look almost triumphant here, surviving a late-winter nibble by some critter and lighting up their surroundings so early in the season.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
A Good Day in the Garden
Yesterday was one of those days I wish I could save up for later. I had the whole day to myself in the country.
It was mostly sunny with just a few clouds. It was just warm enough to be pleasant, but not too warm for working in the garden. I basked in the sun. Really I was weeding, but it felt like basking.
The frogs were singing. So were the birds, but the frogs were louder and more insistent.
I saw two butterflies - first of the season. They were busy and so was I, so I didn't go chasing them to see who they were. One was orange on top like a Painted Lady and the other was white like a Cabbage White. Probably was a Cabbage White.
The garlic is up and growing despite being trodden upon by the deer. The shallots, which I had almost given up on, are sprouting. Spinach, and a few lettuce plants, survived the entire winter under a floating row cover.
I chopped fresh herbs - parsley, garlic leaves, lemon thyme, and radish sprouts - and sprinkled them with abandon on my lunchtime soup.
While digging up a bed to plant radishes and salad greens, I found two potatoes from last year. In perfect condition. Except for the one I cut in half with the spade.
The newly planted (last December) crocuses are blooming. The tulips made it through the winter without being eaten. I wonder if they'll make it through the spring.
I took a lot of pictures in the morning, but haven't uploaded yet. Maybe later today. If you're looking for me, I'll be in the garden.
Labels: bulbs, butterflies, herbs, potager, potatoes, seasons
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Favorite Perennials
Jodi has posted some of her favorite perennials, and asked others to do likewise. Easy, I thought, whichever one is blooming at the moment.
Well, there aren't too many things blooming on this gray, drizzly morning, and I haven't been out to check on the Cyclamen hederifolium lately, but they were still blooming a week or so ago.
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| Cyclamen hederifolium |
Thinking a little harder, I came up with a few plants that I'd really miss if they were gone. A lot, maybe most, of these are filler-type plants. And you know, in music, I always like harmony more than the melody, so it must just be something strange about me.
I already talked up Calamintha nepetoides (aka C. nepeta), so I won't go on and on about it here, but that's close to the top of the list. Another frothy filler is Galium 'Victor Jones'. I wish I knew which species of Galium this is, but the name I give here is how it was sold to me. It sprawls quite a lot and weaves in and out among its sturdier neighbors. It sometimes blooms again, and I suspect that if it was cut back after blooming, the second bloom would be more reliable.
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| Galium 'Victor Jones' behind some Echinacea |
I'm totally addicted to Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Bath's Pink'. I love the thick semi-evergreen foliage and the flower fragrance is sweet and spicy at the same time.
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| Dianthus gratianopolitanus 'Bath's Pink' |
Here's a favorite that isn't a filler - Peony 'Karen Gray'. She's neighbors with Bath's Pink and usually they bloom about the same time.
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| Peony 'Karen Gray' and Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' |
Look at how much pink there is in these photos. I never thought of myself as a pink person, but the garden apparently knows more about me than I do. Let's get away from pink. Another characteristic of my favorite perennials is that many of them are bulbs. I like the Orienpet lilies a lot. 'Orania' in particular - very elegant.
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| Orienpet Lily 'Orania' |
I like daffodils in general because they're early and reliable, but the ones I like best have elegant shapes, and ummm, pink cups.
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| Narcissus, not sure of the variety |
And then there's a whole class of plants that might be my very favorites of all - the little blue spring flowers. Most are bulbs, but not all. I'm just going to link to an earlier post here, because I really can't choose between these. (That post is from the blog I used while Tangled Branches was homeless between web hosting companies, BTW.) OK, just one picture here - couldn't resist.
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| Chionodoxa sardensis |
Labels: bulbs, cyclamen, dianthus, galium, lilies, narcissus, peonies
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Bookends
September arrived on a cool breeze. Another sign of approaching autumn. While weeding last week, I saw the tiny white flowers of some type of cress - one of my earliest spring weeds - and thought how spring and fall are sometimes mirror images.
The aphids are thick in the spring, and now they're back.
One day in early spring, the crocus flowers bloom amidst a few thin leaves. One day in early autumn, the rain lilies bloom amidst a few thin leaves.
The birds move north in the spring, and now they're beginning to move south again.
In the spring, I search the leaf litter for the first snowdrop. In the autumn, the leaf litter surprises me with the first cyclamen flower.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Last Snow
These are positively the last pictures of snow I'm going to post until next winter. Even if it snows another two feet, which it won't, I will not take a picture.
While I was out photographing the narcissus in the snow, a red-bellied woodpecker started drumming on the neighbors' chimney cap. The robins were back today, and so was the pine warbler. The goldfinches are starting to wear their summer feathers. And it's finally going to warm up outside!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Snowdrop Watch
Starting the new year off right, I'm late to my own Snowdrop Watch. They were showing color on December 29, and by January 2 they were blooming. This is the same clump that bloomed last year around January 22, and in 2005, around January 13.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Whoosh!
What was that?!?!?
That thing that just went by?
That was December.
Join me in Janaury for Snowdrop Watch. The warm winter (so far) has them fooled. I have a very silly Scilla in bloom already.
Happy New Year to All!
(first thing I've been early for this year)
