joene's garden » gardening in Connecticut

A hosta habitat, but so much more

joenesgarden — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:00:00 +0000

As anticipated, the visit to O'Brien Nurseryman in Granby, CT was wonderful, awe inspiring, informative, fun, and a feast for the eyes. In addition to multiple – 1600 to 2000 varieties of hosta – you find hundreds of daylilies, conifers, maples, and multiple other shade-loving plants. Just browse the mind-boggling list at www.obrienhosta.com for an idea of their extensive plant list.

Some of the many highlights of O'Brien's Nursery include the sunny display borders.

Hosta for a sunny spot.

Show-stopping evergreens, such as Abies koreana 'Silvershow' and a close-up of its needles.

The lovely Daphne x burkwoodii 'Briggs Moonlight'.

Its cousin - a Daphne sport and O'Brien find - with more green variegation. (See more about O'Brien's daphne's and the nursery visit at Gardening Asylum)

A surprisingly low growing maple, Acer palmatum 'Yatsubusa Kiyohime'. It tops out at about a foot to 18 inches tall – yes, it remains at that height – and spreads to six to eight feet wide. Rumor has it that Debbie at A Garden of Possibilities walked out with one for her garden. … we'll watch for her future report. (see Debbie's post on O'Brien's daylilies)

Tucked here and there, interesting ferns like Dryopteris filix-mas 'Christata Martindale'.

But O'Brien mostly boasts hosta, and lovers of these foliage fashionistas will not be disappointed at the borders, and edges, and corners, and paths, and slopes filled with every type, size, and color hosta one could imagine.

In addition, visitors' minds fill with ideas for placing and combining hosta with other hosta, and other types of greenery. Plus, a walk-through offers a peek at the future – what I like to call O'Brien's nursery within a nursery. Owner, propagator, and hosta aficionado John nurses along hundreds of plants for next year and beyond.

The visit to O'Brien Nursery is worth the trip, particularly on a hot summer day. The nursery has many Garden Days, open from 10am to 5 pm, remaining from now through mid-October. Don't pass up the opportunity to enjoy this treasure.

I hope to find a spot in a future garden for a crinkly-leaf hosta 'Deep Blue Sea'. If you really push me to choose just one favorite of all I saw, this is it … but you really have to push hard.

For more photos from the O'Brien visit head to Scott's Blue Heron Landscapes blog.

Categories: Garden Centers/Seed Suppliers, Gardening, Perennials & Annuals, Sites to see.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, hosta, O'Brien Nursery.

A Connecticut garden in bloom

joenesgarden — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:42:08 +0000

Mid-month snuck up on me, but a quick stroll with the camera through the gardens this morning produced some interesting sites to share on this July 2010 Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Connecticut has had August weather – hazy, hot, and humid – in July.

These potted Alaska Mix nasturtiums seem to love it, and it's good for stemming tomato late blight (only one confirmed case in CT so far).

Phlox petals, however, began to curl in the 90+ degree heat as soon as they opened. Yesterday's much needed rain gave these phlox paniculata 'David's Lavender' a boost.

Supertunias Pretty Much Picasso don't seem to mind the heat as long as their potted roots receive daily water, and Veronica spicata 'Blue Bouquet' is just starting to bloom.

Oriental lilies like the heat too.

I'm pretty happy with the back borders right now and as soon as we finish reconstructing our deck we'll be able to look down on these borders during outdoor meals.

When temperatures are hot, it's nice to rest my eyes on the cooling grays surrounding this budding hydrangea paniculata … the lavender flowers have passed but ageratum blossoms will soon add more cooling blues to this bed.

Want to see more beautiful blooms from other gardens? Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens, the brain behind Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

Here's a quick link to more of my Bloom Day posts. Happy gardening … and don't forget to stop and enjoy the season.

Categories: Bloom Day, Gardening, General.
Tags: cooling grays, Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, gardening in Connecticut, nasturtium, Oriental lily, phlox, Pretty Much Picasso petunias.

Fruits and Frustration

joenesgarden — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:50:00 +0000

NOTE: this is a repost from July 7. The original mysteriously disappeared from my blog.

Yesterday was a pretty good day in the garden in spite of record heat – 85 degrees in the shade at 9:30 am and 98 degrees in the same shade at noon. Copious amounts of water have kept vegetables producing.

Harvested: a quart of red raspberries, about the same amount of snow peas, a couple of heads of lettuce, and some dill and cilantro. I can't remember snow peas producing this late in the season but who's complaining.
Fruiting and/or flowering: sweet and hot peppers, multiple bush beans, multiple tomatoes, eggplant, ever-bearing strawberries, raspberries, and summer squash.
Growing and looking healthy: later planted pole beans, pumpkins, basil, zucchini, cucumbers, kale, dill, more basil, rosemary, sage, marjoram, more lettuce.

On this morning's early walk through the perennials beds inter-planted with eggplant, sweet peppers, bush beans, tomatoes, basil, and lettuce I found once healthy and heavily producing Sequoia bush beans – purple flowers and beans – looking like this. The droopy and dehydrated leaves enticed further investigation. My nemesis – voles – had a nice meal of bean roots sometime last night while I dreamed of fresh picked beans for a summer meal.

I just don't think these vines will be producing anything. Nor will the two sweet frying pepper plants with no more roots or the three small eggplants pulled into freshly tunneled holes. The also grabbed a couple of tiny basil transplants and a coleus.

The loss of the beans – though frustrating – is not as bad as the loss of my peppers. I can replant beans and still get a good crop. Plus I have multiple other plantings of beans in other areas. The peppers are another story. As soon as I complete this post I'm heading out into still hot, hot, hot weather (78 degrees at 7:30 am and very humid) to dig up the remaining pepper plants, put them in pots, water well, and sink them back in the ground in the same spot. I've nursed these pepper plants from seed and don't plan to let the %#*&@!^%&#@$%^&(^$#@!(*&^(%$!!!!!!!!!!!!!! voles get every last one.

I'm at a loss as to what to do to deter these voracious varmints. Any ideas - outside of get a cat or use poison bait - are welcome.

This experience points out the wisdom of planting vegetables in multiple areas. I planted peppers, tomatoes, beans, and peas in three different beds and have planted most other edibles in multiple locations including pots (tomatoes, beans, summer squash, eggplant, basil).

It may not be pretty but it's the only way I know of to hedge my harvests against multiple attackers.

Categories: Creatures, Edibles, Gardening.
Tags: gardening in Connecticut, voles.

Late Blight – The Sequel

joenesgarden — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:01:16 +0000

It's baaack … Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES)recently issued the following:

-Alert for Late Blight of Tomato and Potato-

Late blight was identified on tomato plants from New Haven County on Thursday, 17 June 2010. If you think you have seen late blight in your greenhouse, garden, or on volunteer potato plants, please contact The Plant Disease Information Office (203.974.8601). You can also send or bring in samples for diagnosis.

Here's a quick synopsis of the CAES late blight fact sheet:

This year tomatoes and potatoes are at high risk for Phytophthora infestans (phyto is Greek for plant and phthora means destroyer), aka late blight, because of 2009's widespread outbreak throughout Connecticut and the northeast. P. infestans overwinters in potato tubers. Heavy rains, overhead watering, and soil disruption transports the pathogen to new plants. Infection becomes visible in 3 to 5 days and continues to grow at an alarming rate. Each individual lesion produces from 100,000 to 300,000 sporangia per day and each of these tiny buggers can go on to infect anew. Late blight can also infect other Solanaceae plants (eggplant and peppers for example) and ornamental hybrid petunias. Wind-blown sporangia can travel many, many miles.

CT's Ag Station says the pathogen does not survive in soil, plant debris, or in tomato seeds. But when I listened in on a 2009 late blight teleconference by Cornell scientists they said late blight can survive in soils for as long as 8 years. Either way, this is one plant destroya that lives up to its name – late blight is not to be messed with. Stopping/controlling it requires daily plant inspections and immediate removal and destruction (in sealed plastic bags) of all plant material. DO NOT COMPOST infected plants or fruit. I have not yet found a clear answer as to whether it is ok to burn infected plants in an outdoor fire pit. Please respond here if you know the answer.

Olive brown lesions on plant stems, 1/2 to 3/4 inch olive brown lesions – some with yellow margins - on leaves, and dark brown, rapidly expanding lesions on fruit are all signs of late blight. Similar fungal diseases on tomatoes include Septoria lycopersici leaf spot, usually on lower leaves which then turn yellow and drop off, (I have leaf spot every year) and early blight, Alternaria solani, which causes dark brown/black 1/2 inch dead spots that enlarge to concentric rings (a bull's eye). Follow this link for photos of tomatoes infected with late blight, Septoria, and early blight, and to read the entire tomato blight fact sheet.

More late blight info:

Don't think you are safe because you missed last year's outbreak and grew your plants from seed. An alert from CT NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) confirms late blight in a backyard garden with no previous late blight problems and in tomatoes home-grown from seed. After a quick check in my gardens I can breath a brief sigh of relief – my tomatoes, so far, look healthy. Cherry tomatoes are beginning to fruit, and Pruden's Purple, Roma, and Manyel plants are all in flower. But you can be sure I will check them daily for signs of late blight.

Categories: Edibles, Gardening, Newsy Items, Techniques.
Tags: Connecticut Agrigultural Experiment Station, CT NOFA, gardening in Connecticut, late blight, tomatoes.

Historic Seed Company to Sprout Again

joenesgarden — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:30:57 +0000

This morning when I visited the Comstock, Ferre & Co. website I was greeted with the message below:

Comstock is undergoing reorganization.

Note: Image from http://www.comstockferre.com/.

Next week the retail and seed operation that closed its doors back in August 2009 will reopen. Comstock, Ferre & Co., which operated for 189 years, has been purchased by the owners of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, according to today's article in The Hartford Courant. Good news for the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut … and for all who enjoyed Comstock, Ferre & Co. seeds.

The owners, the article notes, plan to operate the seed store as if time stood still – employees in period dress, creaky wooden floors, no computers in sight, and eventual historic reenactments and educational events. The retail store will open with older Comstock, Ferre merchandise but will soon stock Baker Creek seeds. They will add Comstock, Ferre seeds once the line is re-established.

I have no experience with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Based in Mansfield, Missouri, they operate an historic village in Bakersville, Missouri. Sounds like they hope to run a similar operation in Wethersfield. They also plan to continue the line of Red Wethersfield Onions which I planted for the first time this year (found them at Pinetree Garden Seeds) – so far we love the mild, fresh flavor of the few small onions picked for salads. Last year the company also opened the California Seed Bank in Petaluma.

I'd love to hear the experience of anyone familiar with Baker Creek … reading their press release about their plans for Comstock, Ferre & Co., it sounds like they could become an interesting presence in Connecticut.

Interested in a visit? Hit this Google link for a street and an aerial view of Comstock, Ferre & Co. Click Historic Wethersfield for additional info on what else you could do during a visit.

Categories: Garden Centers/Seed Suppliers, Newsy Items.
Tags: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Comstock, CT, Ferre & Co., gardening in Connecticut, Pinetree Garden Seeds, The Hartford Courant, Wethersfield.