It's hard to believe mid-fall is upon us! Senior Gardener Jennifer Comer (right) and Gardener Ginger Johnson (left) pose in front of the Perennial Garden's most flowerful perennials: Parkfreund Mallow (Malva 'Parkfreund'). This German selection has proven to bloom summer into fall for three years now.
A closeup of Parkfreund Mallow's flowers show a pleasant lavender pink hue. This tall perennial has flower power and we have it scheduled for sale at our annual Spring Plant Sale which will be the first weekend in May 2009. (Mark your calendars now!) Jennifer has picked 4 dozen of our best perennials to be at the sale.
There is still much color in mid-fall flowers in the Perennial Garden. This is Raydon's Favorite Aster (Aster oblongifolius 'Raydon's Favorite') a selection of the locally native Aromatic Aster. It is just starting to bloom and becomes a billowing mass of light purple flowers with an accompanying hoard of late season insects and butterflies.
This new Hardy Geranium 'Rainbow' (Geranium wallichianum 'Rainbow') was new on the market this year and available at our Spring Plant Sale. It has bloomed from May until October! The flowers are hauntingly beautiful and glowing with a blend of subtle colors. This geranium is low and creeping in form and the flowers are about 2" across.
The Home Run Rose (Rosa 'Home Run') is still blooming and holding vivid, self-cleaning crimson-red flowers. This rose has not had the popularity of Knock Out Rose but its flowers remain truer red even into fall. It has been very disease resistant for us.
Knock Out Rose's ( Rosa 'Knock Out') flowers are more cherry-pink than cherry-red in the lower light levels of mid to late Fall. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your design and color desires. Knock Out Rose has been our most disease resistant rose bar none. Unfortunately we are getting tired of its use in landscapes everywhere.
The magnificent Variegated Giant Reed (Arundo donax 'Variegata') is certainly the largest perennial we grow! They have formed their beautiful flower plumes (inflorescences) that will turn sugary white soon -- some have topped out near 20 feet in height. Yes this is the plant from which reeds for wind instruments like clarinets come from. Giant Reed is a horrible invasive plant in some parts of the country but is kept in check by our harsher winters. We have never seen a seedling here. Yes, these grasses must be cut down in early spring and that is quite a job but worth it for such a magnificent plant.
The rare Whorled Sunflower (Helianthus verticillatus) is also a magnificent perennial with 10 foot stems of stunning gold flowers now. This very rare perennial is endemic to the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area.
The Common (fall-blooming) Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is starting to sport some of its spidery autumnal flowers. The plants we have in the Perennial Garden are our first to bloom while the oldest plant (a small tree) in the Rock & Waterfall Garden usually is not at peak bloom until Thanksgiving.
In mid fall, colorful fruit and fall foliage begin to steal the show from the remaining flowers. The luscious, lipstick red fruit of the Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) are currently ripe. Only female shrubs have the gorgeous, glossy red fruit which are a great source of energy for migrating birds. Their timing to fuel bird migration also insures the dispersal of this plant's seeds. If the fruit are not eaten by birds they will drop and rot -- too rich in fats to hold on the plant and show for winter color. This wonderful, shade-loving native shrub can be seen in the Shade Native and Woodland sections of the Perennial Garden. This is an essential plant for a bird garden!
The vivacious purple fruit on the Asian Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma) are a stunning sight in the core of the Perennial Garden.
Be sure to see the unique White Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma 'Albofructis') to the left of the mass of purple beautyberries. It is a stunning color echo to the Variegated Giant Reed. Both the purple and white beautyberries' fruit holds colorful for many weeks through fall but do discolor and drop by winter.
The China Girl Holly (Ilex cornuta x I. aquifolium) is fruiting more heavily than ever this year. The fruits are just now turning red and unlike the spicebush will be colorful well into winter. In winter this is also a good bird attracting plant as a circus of Eastern Bluebirds, Cedar Waxwings, and Northern Mockingbirds slowly consume every berry.
The Tapestry Hedge in the Perennial Garden continues to grow and fill in. The glowing chartreuse tips to the 'Bergman's Golden' Chinese Arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) really shows at this time of year. It reminds me of vivid moss. The bluish 'Glauca' and deep green 'Emerald Sentinel' selections of our native Redcedars (Juniperus virginiana) make a good contrast.
The Powell Gardens Perennial Garden still has a good array of mid-fall blooming perennials but luckily is a garden of strong "bones." In other words, the perennials have a good backdrop of shrubs, evergreens and trees to create the wonderful spaces of the garden and extend the season of ornamental character through the entire year. Pay it a visit at every season!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Early October in the Perennial Garden
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A Powell Gardens' Skyline?
Volunteer Mary Biber waters plantings in the future Potager or Menu Garden at the Heartland Harvest Garden's entrance while a crane assembles the top portion of the garden's silo in the background (nearly a quarter mile away!). The crane can be seen from US HWY 50 and from anywhere in the gardens. No we are not building a skyscraper! The silo, which is attached to the new Heartland Harvest Garden's barn visitor center, will act as an observation tower. From atop the silo you will see the quilt inspired patterns of the new garden. You will also get a bird's eye view out over the treetops.
The seat wall in the foreground is for the future Author's Garden. An information shelter is yet to be installed here where you can learn about the author's designs in the garden. The green "grass" in the mid ground is a cover crop of annual rye and hairy vetch for this garden to be installed next spring. The rye and vetch will be turned into the soil as a "green manure" to improve its fertility. The barn visitor center and silo loom in the background.
A closer look at the silo construction shows the rectangular top of the elevator shaft behind the cylindrical silo: the square open to blue sky beyond is where the door from the elevator to the observation deck will be. There are still several rings of concrete to be added to reach that height. An open, structural dome will complete the silo.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Losing an Oak Tree Friend
I was saddened to see the old Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor) tree at the end of the walk to the Chapel has passed. We were hoping the tree would resprout from its hollow shell but it continued its slow decline. Oaks like this can grow for 100 years, live for 100 years, decline for 100 years and die over another 100 years.
Looking out the front doors of the chapel, past the Fay Jones fountain, this classic oak with its unique cavities of age was always a thing of beauty--the type that comes from experience, age and imperfections.
Senior Gardener Janet Heter (depicted) said: "It's like losing an old friend." I recall the writings of America's great conservationist, Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac; especially his phrase another "funeral of our flora" as original native plants are lost. Did this tree experience the buggling of Elk? A stampede of Bison? The rush of wind beneath a massive flock of Passenger Pigeons? (all creatures long gone)
I also recalled Robert Hillier's poem A Pastoral with the orchard man declaring "this empty shell must go;" but we've always defied this showy "veteran's" removal. We will have to remove most of the tree's trunk for visitor safety reasons but we will save as much of the trunk as possible. Look for a new Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) planted in the tree's cavity and a young Swamp White Oak planted nearby to continue its kind.
We have 6-foot seedling Swamp White Oaks in our nursery grown from acorns of our wild trees. One or more of these will be transplanted beneath the old oak's trunk.
Swamp White Oaks are the dominant native tree at Powell Gardens; a few trees are older than settlement (at least 150 years old). This image of its leaf shows the unique lighter underside. The botanical name is "bicolor" because the leaves are dark green above and whitish beneath, creating "two colors." The fact that Swamp White Oaks are the king of trees here at Powell Gardens is very unique: it describes our very poorly drained clay soils. In most areas of the Midwest where this tree grows, it is found in floodplains and swamps (here it grows on the hills!). It is also interesting we are less than 10 miles from the western edge of its native range, the tree is absent in the wild west of Lone Jack.
Oaks are the most important wildlife tree throughout their range. Their nutritious acorns are a staple of many birds, deer, bear, etc. Even our young oaks in the nursery are already producing acorns. Swamp White Oak acorns are always on a characteristic stem. They share this trait with their first cousin on the other side of the Earth: the English Oak (Quercus robur). Oaks are considered the tree that enabled us to create our civilized society: to learn more read Oak, The Frame of Civilization. They are the official tree of the United States of America.
Remember to plant and replant oaks wherever you can. From tiny acorns, mighty oaks grow!
