Peak of Spring in Flowers

Native redbuds and plums paint the landscape of Powell Gardens expressing that our spirit of place is at the peak of spring. This composition of our native Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) and Wildgoose Plum (Prunus munsoniana -- one of 5 species of local wild plums) welcomes visitors to Powell Gardens just before the gatehouse. Often times we gardeners embrace exotics at the expense of those that originally decorated this land in a new term I am seeing called "contempt for the familiar." The splashes of raspberry sherbet pink-flowering redbuds and fragrant sparkling white-flowering wild plums coloring our landscape make this my hands down favorite time of year. In the Heartland Harvest Garden's edible landscape the gorgeous flowering fruit trees have advanced to the pears taking center stage. We have the biggest variety of pears in public display anywhere around. Kikisui Asian Pear, shown above, has the most beautiful flowers of them all this spring. The ornamental callery (Bradford, Aristocrat, Chanticleer, etc...) pears (Pyrus calleryana) are popular in local landscapes but Powell Gardens has none because they are becoming the next invasive exotic to damage our wild lands. Consider the beautiful Asian edible pears (Pyrus pyrifolia) as an alternate and feed yourself instead of the starlings with the bounty of crisp, juicy pears following their bloom. Pears are known for their upright form and here's a mug shot of Honsui Asian Pear in bloom. You do need two varieties of Asian pears to set fruit and their narrow crowns do not take up much air space and offer unique uses in edible landscape where space is limited. Some of our varieties like this '20th Century' Asian Pear have coppery leaves while they bloom adding a color echo to the centers of the flowers and thus adding to the ornamental appeal of the plant. I am busy trying to keep track of all these details on our premier collection of fruit trees because edible landscaping implies you know the ornamental beauty of a edible plant along with its productivity and garden performance. The Daisui Li Asian Pear may have the most coppery leaves of them all at bloom time. I only had time at mid-day to capture the image so it looks better to the eye than the camera in the now August-like mid-day sun of April. Heartland Harvest Garden Horticulturist Matt Bunch ranked 'New Century' Asian Pear as the best for productivity, flavor and right size fruit in our collection; but noted that for the most part they all were good! This heirloom purple-leaf plum (Prunus unknown hybrid) is a pass along plant from near Liberty, MO and has delicious plums according to Matt Bunch. Its tiny pinkish-white flowers cover every stem and twig making it a bit dazzling looking and a great color with the redbuds on the edge of the Vineyard seen in the background. Remember redbud flowers and young pea pods are edible and a nice addition to a spring salad. I had to include a picture of the arbor at the center of the Heartland Harvest Garden 'Quilt' Gardens because the Clove Currants (Ribes odoratum) continue to grab attention with their phenomenal scent and the Akebia vines (Akebia spp.) growing up the arbors are beginning to bloom. Make sure to take a closer look and the unique flowers of the akebias varying in color from white to purple. (My close up lens is still not fixed so I can't share that with you -- you'll have to see it in person!) The Flowering-Quinces (Chaenomeles spp.) are in full bloom around the gardens and they are not the trash collecting shrubs they were once thought of anymore. New varieties have flowers in double petals and colors from white to blush pink to almost orange and vivid reds. This is the peachy 'Cameo' Flowering-Quince along the dogwood walk. Remember to grow quinces for their fruit as well (if you have at least 2 varieties to pollinate) which make delicious spicy preserves or natural air fresheners if you are not into the culinary experience. The double white 'O Yashima' Flowering Quince that buds greenish and whitens as it opens may be my favorite and look for it near the entrance to the Heartland Harvest Garden. New varieties for the spring plant sale have flowers almost as large as camellias! The late season daffodils are now at peak but other unique bulbs can be observed around the gardens. The interesting Guinea Hen Flower or Checkered Lily (Fritillaria meleagris) blooming in the Rock & Waterfall Garden is a great bulb that does best in a site that is wet in spring.

The ground flora of the Rock & Waterfall Garden is really kicking into bloom with gorgeous Summer Snowflakes (Leucojum aestivum), various Epimediums (Epimedium rubrum shown) and the hat-like new leaves of native Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) interspersed. Now through early May is the peak color of the Rock & Waterfall Garden but it will be another week or so before the azaleas are in full bloom -- and they are looking great for a superior display this year.

The sunny weekend forecast sounds marvelous for a springtime visit to Powell Gardens with temperatures in the low 60's on Saturday and 70F for Sunday. If you've never been here in spring before, you are in for a real floral treat!

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has really sprung at Powell Gardens and the gardens are giddy with flowering flora. The sights and scents of the flowers are especially captivating after a winter without them in the landscape.

We had a freeze Wednesday morning (29F) and I thought our magnolias would be toast but they were just tight enough in bud to endure and burst forth now with glorious flowers. This is the Galaxy Magnolia (Magnolia liliiflora 'Nigra' x M. sprengeri 'Diva'). The scents of this and some other magnolias are somewhat musky but remind me of my experience-rich childhood and the neighborhood saucer magnolia.

The path by the Trigg Building is now a tunnel of softly sweet-scented Star Magnolias (Magnolia stellata). The star magnolia flowers are a bit disheveled on close inspection but overall wonderful -- they endured hot winds (Sunday), cold winds (Monday), hail and torrential rain!

Magnolia 'Butterflies' (Magnolia acuminata x M. denudata 'Sawada's Cream') is one of the best yellow-flowering magnolias with small waterlily-esque, delightful and musky scented flowers. This magnolia always draws attention at the Visitor Center trolley stop and should be in full bloom this weekend.

The burgundy goblets of Magnolia 'March till Frost' is a complex hybrid ((Magnolia liliiflora x cylindrica) x Magnolia 'Ruby') that does repeat flower a bit all season. It did survive the vagaries of this spring and is gaining rank on my list of Magnolia favorites.

This unassuming shrub in the Heartland Harvest Garden grabbed my attention as I walked by with its phenomenal and alluring aroma. The small yellow flowers of Clove Currant (Ribes odoratum) are a sweet and rich with a clove-like scent. I also remember this shrub from childhood when it bloomed in older neighborhoods of my hometown as I walked home from school. It lost favor from gardeners for many years but now is back in popularity as it produces edible black currants great for preserves and pies (and fresh eating too)!

The plum trees are also in bloom in the Heartland Harvest Garden and just starting to open in the natural areas of the grounds. The HHG has a superb collection of plums ( Plum 'Burbank Red Ace' shown) and their flowers are wonderfully fragrant. I must admit the plum blossom scents took me back to my childhood visiting my Grandpa and Grandma on the farm in Iowa. They grew on the fencerows perfuming the air in spring and Grandma always made a memorable preserve out of the plums and mixed it with apple.

Two plums in particular stand out in our collection: The Shiro Plum shown here grows on the south side of the Learning Shed and has a beautiful spreading crown. Its plums are yellow when ripe and a favorite of Horticulturist Matt Bunch.

Our other favorite is the Toka Plum shown here just south of the corn crib. It is sometimes called the bubblegum plum because its sweet plums have a remarkable bubblegum-like flavor which Matt described and then read that was another name for this plum! This is the plum whose ripening plums are depicted on our set of note cards available to Friends members. If you have room for just two plums, plant Toka and Shiro and they do pollinate each other. We do have many more varieties, each with their own merit and I captured their images for documentation and future reference (but I don't want to put you to sleep looking at them all here).

The Perennial Garden's beds are filled with Daffodils and spring has burst forth throughout Powell Gardens. The weekend sounds like it will be warm and mild and that predicted rains will happen at night! Come explore the fabulous flora now in bloom and may its sights and scents bring back fond memories or create new ones to reflect upon. Springtime is my favorite season with renewal of life in a burst of beautiful optimism for all to enjoy.

Harvest Garden Promises a Productive Season

The season of color and full foliage is upon us! The Heartland Harvest Garden shows promise with flowers, foliage and fruit galore. Here Purple-leaved 'Grandpa Gourley's' heirloom peach sets off blue-flowering Walker's Low Catmint at the top of the water stairs where the Insectaries Garden begins. The blue container of edible flowers and foliage deliniates the Millstone Entrance Plaza to the Heartland Harvest Garden.

The Menu Garden is the appetizer for the Heartland Harvest Garden (pun intended as our Director would say) and shows an abundance of edible flowers from pansies to calendula, many greens and peas on their way.

The Apple Celebration Court is cloaked in blooming chives -- their strong aroma permeates this sunny day. The chives are doing their job too: attracting loads of honeybees, butterflies and other pollinators as well as deterring the apple tree borers to perfection. Chives are apple tree companion plantings -- learn more by a visit and read our interpretive signs.

Chives are quite a beautiful sight in full bloom and vary in color between various plants. The flowers are edible as well as the chopped leaves so well known in "sour cream and chives." We will have to deadhead our entire mass so that we prevent billions of seedlings. Thank you volunteers!

Roses are an apple and grape companion plant as well and are really putting on a show now. This is 'Mary' a David Austin Rose that is currently in exquisite full bloom in the Vineyard. Don't miss the roses in the Vineyard and be sure and smell the Damask Roses; the commercial source of rose attar. FRAGRANT is an understatement.

The Vineyard Arbor is starting to get its Mediterranean design feel, the new Morning Light roses on either side have been more beautiful than expected and are a climbing rose developed by Knockout Rose breeder so sure are disease resistant. The other climbing roses are well budded but not yet in full bloom. Roses are the canary in the mineshaft when it comes to grapes.

Have you ever seen the beautiful blossom of a blackberry? This Apache Thornless Blackberry is in the vineyard --their stunning white flowers will be adorned with delicious berries later in the summer.

Most of our berry bushes in the Harvest Garden are very berry laden! Here 'Crandall' Clove Currant is straining under the weight of maturing currants. This is a selection of a native shrub and produces a delicious black currant in mid-summer.

The Blueberries are also bursting with berries: this Northland Blueberry shows the developing fruit that should start ripening in a month. The blueberry crop will be very good this year.

The apples have been thinned and are showing very promising fruit. This is the Stark Galaxy Gala Apple in the Apple Celebration Court. Barbara Fetchenhier has thinned the fruit so that each has six to eight inches of space on all sides.

The pears are full of fruit too: young 'Kieffer' pears appear to be aiming at the sun.

Fuzzy baby peaches are growing well on the trees whose flower buds shrugged off our long winter. This Contender Peach is living up to its name, flowering heavily this spring and showing an abundant crop of fruit in the Peach Court.

This glossy, red baby fruit is a Stark SunGlo Nectarine. Many of the nectarines are faring well too; good news for those who don't like peach fuzz. Nectarines are mixed with peaches in the Peach Court as they are just a variety of peach (Prunus persica var. nectarina).

Put Powell Gardens on your plans for this predicted warm sunny weekend. Roses, Peonies, Iris, Columbines and many other plants are currently in full bloom. Cool season flower displays are luxuriant and the Heartland Harvest Garden is bursting with Strawberries to sample at the Tasting Station (as well as all depicted above!).

Harvest Garden Skyline & Instant Apple Trees

Construction continues on our Heartland Harvest Garden, soon to be largest edible landscape in the United States. Below is a scan across its "skyline" from west to east; as taken from the long allee of bur oaks in front of the Visitor Center (January 23, 2009).

The exterior of the barn is nearly complete, the silo is still awaiting its wonderful interior spiral staircase and observatory dome -- the elevator (in the tall shaft) has actually been installed!

Scanning right (east), the arbors of the Missouri Star Orchard are complete at the garden's core: a soon to be backyard fruit production idea garden! Twenty varieties of hardy kiwis and espaliered apples, pears, peaches and cherry trees will shade these beautiful structures. The Missouri Star orchard will also have backyard fruit from groundcovers of strawberries and containers of citrus to blueberry bushes and trained rows of blackberries and raspberries; it should appeal to all tastes.


Scanning far to the east you see the "bones" of the new greenhouse which should be finished shortly. This greenhouse will be a portal to the garden where you can see germinating seeds and the tropical plants that provide food on your plate nearly everyday (bananas, oranges, coffee, tea, chocolate and vanilla!).


The "front yard" of the barn is getting some instant landscaping today--apple trees donated from the old Stephenson's Apple Orchard. Note the huge 90" tree spade from Colonial Nursery delivering the second of 11 apple trees to this space.


The second apple is set soundly in its new home; the first tree on the left was the first Stephenson's apple (Red Delicious), the second tree is a Golden Delicious apple.


Horticulturist Matt Bunch makes sure the tree is set properly in place. We are pleased to have these more mature trees in the landscape and are thankful for them to be donated by Stephenson's Orchard so a bit of our local orchard history may be preserved at the new garden.

Powell Staff led by Gardener Barbara Fetchenhier grew eighty varieties of apples in our nursery for display in the new Heartland Harvest Garden. This variety shall show the dazzling diversity of this most American of fruits (as American as apple pie!). From Lodi apples maturing in early summer and perfect for baking to Granny Smith apples ripening at the end of the season in late fall and perfect for storing for months, there will be an apple for every use and taste ripening through that whole season. Be sure and come out for a taste next season, opening day is scheduled for June 14, 2009.

Unique Fruits and Nuts Destined for the Heartland Harvest Garden

Matt Bunch, Barbara Fetchenhier and Caitlin Bailey have been busy continually transplanting trees and shrubs from our nurseries into the Heartland Harvest Garden. Of the nearly 1,000 more plants to be moved, Walnuts (Juglans spp.) are the most recent trees to be dug. You can clearly see the grow bags we grew the plants in: this has been a very worthwhile manner to move the trees all through the summer.


Some of our small 6-foot walnut trees already have nuts. This is a 'Thomas' Black Walnut (Juglans nigra).


The reason we have such early production is that we have many grafted varieties of nut trees. You can see clearly the graft union on this small walnut trunk. The seed grown understock (lower) has clearly more rough bark. Grafting ensures the exact clone of the variety you want and such trees usually bear fruit right away. Walnuts from around the world will be in the Heartland Harvest Garden's walnut orchard on the south edge of the new Garden. Walnuts exude juglone, which can inhibit the growth of many plants so all of them are planted off to the side of the gardens in a pastoral setting.


The nut of 'Kwik Crop' Black Walnut has a very unique oblong, shape. Walnuts are very nutritious as a great source for Omega 3 fatty acids. The nuts are 15% protein and 65% oils with no cholesterol or trans fat! Their lumber is also extremely valuable.


The dug walnuts got me into the nursery again to see others destined to be moved this fall. Here is the fruit of Colossal Chestnut (Castanea hybrid). I was surprised to see nuts on this seedling plant! We have both seedling and grafted Colossal Chestnuts. This chestnut is a hybrid between the disease resistant Chinese Chestnut (Castanea mollissima) and the European Spanish Chestnut (Castanea sativa). The Harvest Garden's Chestnut orchard will be off to the north of the Fountain Garden. The spiny husks of the nuts are difficult to work into a detailed landscape. Someday we will have chestnuts roasting on an open fire! All six of the world's species of chestnuts will have hybrids in the garden, including the famous American Chestnut and extremely rare Ozark Chinkapin.



Figs (Ficus carica) are ripening and we have many of the hardiest varieties in the nursery. The top of this stem was cut because we are rooting many for our Spring Plant Sale next May. Select varieties of figs are root hardy here and produce a fall crop of fruit.


Our hybrid Persimmons are starting to color and I am in total agreement that this fruit tree has very ornamental appeal. It is Nikita's Gift Persimmon: a hybrid between the native Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) and the Oriental Persimmon (Diospyros kaki). It has the hardiness and great flavor of the native persimmon married with the size and color of the Oriental persimmon. We cannot wait until they are ripe again! The trees have such beautifully glossy leaves through the season too.


This weird pear-shaped fruit is a new selection of Jujube (Zizyphus jujuba) from Northern China. It will have a brownish blush when ripe and tastes like a honey crisp pear. You never see them in local stores because they do not ship or keep at all. They are extremely popular in China and we have many cultivars for display in the Harvest Garden.


This odd fruit is that of the Medlar (Mespilus germanica) a relative of Missouri's state flower: the hawthorn. Medlars are odd in that you must blet them to be edible--that means let them "rot" and soften up. We have yet to try them but they allegedly taste like applesauce when fully "ripe." This one has a bud for a fall flower beneath it. Medlars often bloom again in the fall in our wild climate, but its fruit will not mature.


This is not an apple but a wonderfully fuzzy Quince (Cydonia oblonga). One best not bite into this like an apple but the hard, aromatic fruit allegedly make a wonderful preserves, jellies and sauces with a rich, spicy flavor. We have more than a dozen varieties!


Here are fruits of a Tanechka Flowering-Quince (Chaenomeles japonica) bred for fruit production. It has wonderfully aromatic fruit that are also good for preserves (our former gardener, Chris Conatser made some for us to try once). Yes this is a selection of the common flowering-quinces grown in landscapes throughout Kansas City. Consider using their fruit this season! If you are not a cook, they make great natural air fresheners.


The black berries of Aronia "Chokeberry" (Aronia melanocarpa) are not great to eat fresh but make an astoundingly good preserve. Barbara made some last year and it was absolutely delicious with a cherry-like flavor.


The brilliant red fruit of the Cherry-olive (Elaeagnus multiflora) are very fun to eat and very good for you as they are rich in Lycopene. This plant is so very similar to the invasive Autumn-olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) that we are carefully watching it to make sure it does not escape.

We can't wait to share all this produce with visitors next fall so be sure and visit next year when our Heartland Harvest Garden makes its debut. Tasting Stations will allow you to sample the fruits of this garden: sorry we will not be able to let visitors pick produce on their own. Trained staff and volunteers will pick produce at the appropriate time so there will always be something to taste on your visit.