It was a wet winter in eastern Massachusetts with near-record snowfall totals; March was cooler than normal. As a result, the Elm Bank gardens are coming back later this year, though the deep snow pack means it is likely that perennials were better protected from the freeze/thaw cycle that weakens or kills them.
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| Cornus 'Midwinter Fire' in the Bressingham Garden, late March 2011. |
Early April is wonderful time to see the 'bones' of a garden as well as to appreciate some of the hidden surprises that landscape designers tuck into their creations. While each of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's gardens can be appreciated at this time of year, the Bressingham Garden is especially instructive for the visitor.
By 'bones', landscape designers mean the architectural elements that define the garden's structure. The 'bones' can be man-made, like an arbor or pergola; or natural, such as rocks or specific plants. In the Bressingham Garden, the 'bones' are natural. Evergreens are placed strategically throughout the garden to provide visual anchors for the perennials that will dominate in season. Large boulders were brought in and placed at specific sites to frame plantings. Seeing these elements now, and then re-visiting the garden in mid-May, provides the opportunity to better see the garden through the designer's - in this case, Adrian Bloom's - trained eye.
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| Witch Hazel and Heuchera 'Caramel' at end of March 2011. |
There are also early spring treats in the garden. There are half a dozen specimens of Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire', an appealing red twig dogwood that fairly defines 'winter interest' with its stunning, orange-yellow stems with bright red tips. In late April, those stems will disappear, first under tiny white flowers and then, in May, give way to mid-green leaves and, in summer, clusters of dark purple berries.
The witch hazel ( Hamamelidaceae virginiana) began blooming in early March and is still going strong. The shrubs now have some company in the form of nearby emerging Heuchera 'Caramel', which show a beautiful orange-yellow leaf with great texture and variegation.
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| Sedum 'Angelina' and Erica 'Kramer's Rote' at end of March 2011. |
Finally, the large patch of Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', a stonecrop traditionally grown in poor soil with strong sun, has burst out with new green foliage that highlights the amber color that dominates in the winter (when it isn't under snow). Behind it is Erica 'Kramer's Rote', a hybrid heath that has compact form and an upright, bushy habit. 'Kramer's Rote's' small, bell-shaped flowers are reddish purple and are arranged along stems held at varying angles, which creates textural interest. It will be in bloom through the end of April.
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| In the hoop greenhouse, more than a thousand impatiens in a rainbow of colors grow for summer beauty. |
In the greenhouses, thousands of plant 'plugs' are thriving. Some are destined for the trial gardens, some for the Italianate Garden, and some for upcoming plant sales. For now, they're enjoying filtered sun and humid, 80-degree temperatures. In the hoop greenhouse, for example, more than a thousand impatiens await their mid-May date to grace the Italianate Garden. Behind them are the banana trees that will adorn Weezie's Garden this summer and the acacias that will frame the Goddess garden. |
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Blooms! 2011 - A Last Look |
Its length was only five days. It came and went in a week that saw the weather whipsaw between Spring-like warmth and body-numbing cold and wet. It gave tens of thousands of New Englander a reminder that winter passes eventually.
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| The Mass Hort vegetable garden was both fun and educational. |
If we have seemingly devoted the last several issues of the Leaflet to extolling the praises of the Boston Flower & Garden Show and of Blooms!, our part in that show, there is good reason. The succinct mission of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is to encourage "the science and practice of horticulture and developing the public's enjoyment, appreciation, and understanding of plants and the environment."
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| Design Division II |
Blooms! represents our best single opportunity to engage both our membership and the broader public. No other regional venue brings so many people to one place for the express purpose of appreciating 'plants and the environment'. The Boston Flower & Garden Show lures you in with the promise of a full day of Spring in the form of wonderful landscape vignettes, garden-themed talks and vendors selling everything from anemones to install-it-yourself waterfalls.
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| Begonia Society Plant Room |
When you reach the Blooms! part of the show, the entertainment merges seamlessly with education. For example (and to single out just one of the six groups who exhibited), the Buxton Branch of the Begonia Society created a display room of rare and unusual specimens. Not only were the displays of Begoniaceae refreshed daily, but knowledgeable and outgoing members of the Society were there to interpret the display. In the amateur horticulture section, hundreds of plants were on view and each entry had been examined by experts. The judges' comments were typed on cards for all to see and docents were on hand to respond to questions.
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The graceful
floral art of Ikebana |
In the ballroom, a total of 112 outstanding floral designs were created and displayed over two entry days. Committee members came in at 5 a.m. and designers began their work at 5:30 in order to allow judging to begin at 8:30. All of this was so that you could see and understand the creativity that can be unleashed using flowers. Next door in Ikebana, two dozen displays of that graceful floral art also unfolded, representing multiple schools of the Japanese-born but now internationally practiced art.
Three activities made their debut at Blooms! this year. Miniature Gardens - which capture the sweep of an entire landscape inside a two-foot-by-three-foot box - generated crowds five and six deep jockeying for a peek. Entertaining? Certainly. But each display also listed the plants used as well as the specimens those miniatures represented, and signage explained how the displays were created. Photography was also new. The committee organizing the effort drew its 36 stunning entries from across the country. As with amateur horticulture and floral design, all judges' comments were there for you to read (and to encourage you to form your own opinions) and all plant material was clearly identified.
For those whose explorations through the show prompted a desire to learn more on a given subject, Mass Hort created the Book Store at the Flower Show, which offered an encyclopedic array of books botanical and horticultural.
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| The Miniature Gardens |
The Photography Division |
The book store at the Flower Show |
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The Big Blue Chair at
Mass Hort's Garden Exhibit |
Mass Hort's own garden merged entertainment with education. We brought back the big chair from Weezie's Garden and it seemed as though everyone at the show had their picture taken in it. But surrounding the chair was a garden - a vegetable garden small enough to fit in any city or suburban home - where we displayed a raised-bed system shown in its mid-May glory. A two-page handout explained how to create such a garden and Massachusetts Master Gardeners were on hand to answer questions - of which there were many.
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| Barbara Pierson of White Flower Farm drew a large audience for her talk on container gardening. |
Finally, for those who came to listen as well as to see, Mass Hort offered 14 engaging speakers. Among our offerings, we were pleased to present Roger Swain, who has probably drawn more people into gardening than any other person alive. Each speaker was chosen because of his or her combination of knowledge and personable presentation style.
Will Blooms! be back in 2012? Of course! We have a lot more to show and share with you. |
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Mass Hort Invites You to Learn |
"Prune Like a Pro" This Weekend
If you've made an inspection of your property in recent weeks, you know that the winter that just ended was a brutal one. Downed tree branches are everywhere and shrubs look like someone took a weed-whacker to them. Those dangling branches need to be pruned properly to prevent disease from shortening that tree or shrub's life. This Saturday, a professional arborist is ready to teach you his pruning techniques that you can use back home.
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Arborist Joe Biagioni leads an
outdoor class on pruning. |
On April 9 at 10 a.m., The Massachusetts Horticultural Society continues its spring 'Saturday Morning How-To' sessions as it presents 'Prune Like a Pro' with arborist Joe Biagioni. Biagioni, aided by Massachusetts Master Gardeners, will show you the right way to remove damaged branches to speed healing. After he shows you the 'how', you'll have the opportunity to try out what you've learned - under Master Gardener supervision - on shrubs at Mass Hort's Elm Bank headquarters.
You need not bring tools if you plan only to observe, but if you want to try out your new-found knowledge, please bring a pair of sharpened hand pruners or a pruning saw with you.
Mass Hort members pay $10 for the two-hour session. The cost to non-members is $15.
Two more Saturday Morning How-To sessions are planned for April. On April 16, a professional landscaper will teach you the fine points of " Planting and Moving Trees and Shrubs". You'll learn what to do with that tree or shrub that comes in a container, burlap ball or metal cage. You'll find out the best way to relocate a shrub that needs more light, has outgrown or no longer works at its current location. You'll come away more confident that what you buy at a nursery will grow and thrive. On April 23, as part of Mass Hort's observance of Earth Day, the subject will turn to composting.
In May and June, Mass Hort shifts to ' Wednesday Evenings at Elm Bank' with an exciting mix of topics for the home gardener. " Ready, Set, Plant!" shows you how to design and plant a vegetable garden, including ground preparation and plant selection. Then, it's on to " Spring Annuals and Perennials" for a behind-the-scene look at what grows best in our area. We'll have a session on " Raised Bed Planters", " Container Gardening", " Easy Summer Perennials", and " Summer Color".
Ready to enjoy the bounty of your garden? This year Mass Hort introduces the 'Garden to Table Talks'. These are built around not just planting and maintaining your vegetable garden, but getting great nutrition and flavor from it. Mass Hort is lining up a series of contributors who will provide cooking demonstrations and advanced gardening techniques.
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Come Join Us for Earth Day at Elm Bank |
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Earth Day is a holiday, but we don't get off from school or work like Columbus Day. Earth Day is a holiday that doesn't get celebrated with parades or special foods like St. Patrick's Day. And there no presents are handed out on Earth Day. So what kind of holiday is it?
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| Asian bittersweet - one of the bad guys |
Earth Day is a chance for each of us to recognize what a special and precious thing our earth is. On Earth Day 2011, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society wants you to get down and dirty. You'll have a chance to learn about invasive plants: what are they, why are they the bad guys in the garden and environment. Then you can work with Mass Hort staff and Master Gardeners to remove them from the grounds at Elm Bank.
On Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23, Mass Hort wants you to give yourself, your family and the earth a present by learning to compost-putting what might otherwise be considered trash fit only for the landfill or garbage disposal to work making great soil and thereby reducing the amount of manmade fertilizers and even pesticides needed when you garden. They will be offering the Earth Machine composter, an enclosed black plastic bin that is perfect for the city or suburban backyard. Compact, it is still able to take care of the "compostables" from a family of five.
 Master Gardeners will be there to explain why compost is considered the black gold of gardening. They will teach you how to set up your compost bin and to easily make compost from kitchen and garden scraps. Best of all, Mass Hort is allowing you the chance to reserve your Earth Machine online by filling out the order form. The price, set by the state, is $40.
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It's Never Too Soon to Mark Your Calendar |
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White Flower Farm Presents Tomatomania at Elm Bank in May
 Quick: what's the difference between 'Sungold' and 'Black Cherry' cherry tomatoes? 'San Marzano' and 'Martino's Roma' paste tomatoes? 'Red Brandywine' and 'Mortgage Lifter' beefsteak varieties? And just exact what kind of tomato is 'Missouri Pink Love Apple', 'Orange Flesh Purple Smudge', and 'Pink Ping Pong'?
How many tomato varieties to choose from are too many? If White Flower Farm can be considered an authoritative source on the subject, the answer is somewhere north of 75. That's because "at least 75" is the number of different varieties the venerable Litchfield, Connecticut grower will be bringing to Elm Bank for Tomatomania on Sunday, May 22.
And, while we're asking questions, why wait until May 22 to buy tomatoes? That's an easy one: in eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, the last frost date is generally the end of May, and even a light frost will kill a tomato plant. A lot of big box stores sell tomato plants starting in mid-April. Unless you have a greenhouse handy, they're not doing you any favors.
White Flower Farm's presentation of Tomatomania will be a first-ever event for Mass Hort. Why tomatoes and why now? Because tomatoes come in a bewildering array of varieties and, presented with such a choice, too many people reach for the variety whose name they recognize without ever considering whether it's the best choice for them.
Tomatoes are not a 'one-size-fits-all' fruit. Do you need a slicing tomato or are you primarily concerned with flavor? Do you eat tomatoes straight from the vine or do you need one that still tastes fresh days after being picked? Are you interested in an heirloom variety or is yield a major factor because you lack room for a dozen plants?
That's the great thing about Tomatomania: it's an opportunity to get an education in tomatoes from experts, without the obligation to go home with a back seat full of plants. But if you do choose to fill up a wagon, you'll know you're getting plants grown under near-ideal conditions and that the varieties you've selected are ones you'll enjoy.
It's also an opportunity to get growing tips - what fertilizers to use, how best to stake a tomato and what kind of ties provide the best support without damaging the vine.
Oh, and Tomatomania takes place on the same day as the venerable Society Row Plant Sale. You were probably planning to be at Elm Bank anyway. So, plan to add some tomatoes to your cart.
Read more about this exciting event here. |
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'Step into Spring' Preview Benefits the Plantmobile |
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A Vegetable Garden Grows at Elm Bank |
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| The layout design of the new Chef's Garden and Pantry Garden at Mass Hort's Gardens at Elm Bank. |
During April and May, you'll see something exciting going on just beyond the Cheney-Baltzell mansion. Our Garden to Table initiative is underway, and a new vegetable garden has been designed that features an innovative Chef's Garden and a Pantry Garden. The Chef's Garden will hold 22 beds of vegetables from many different ethnic cuisines to inspire new culinary combinations with fresh ingredients. The Pantry Garden will serve a local food pantry, and the garden beds will be planted according to the needs of the families the food pantry serves.
The new Garden to Table program's goal is to focus on local harvest, growing your own food, nutrition, and cooking and canning from your garden. It will include designing, planting, and maintaining a vegetable garden, lectures, and demonstration cooking from the garden.
We invite you to journey beyond the Bressingham and Italianate Gardens and watch this new garden take shape. We hope you will support this new program!
To learn more about the vegetable garden and how to apply it to your own garden design and build, click here. |
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One of Our Partners Has Grown a Branch! |
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| Weston Nurseries - Chelmsford |
Weston Nurseries, long a magnet for home gardeners in Boston's western suburbs and one of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Green Partners, has opened its first satellite facility in Chelmsford, the better to serve gardeners in the northern suburbs and southern New Hampshire.
The official grand opening of the branch is Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1, but the garden center, at 160 Pine Hill Road (at the junction of Hunt Road), is already open for business.
What's different about the Chelmsford facility versus the Hopkinton original? Manager Melissa Oothout says succinctly, "Nothing. We've done our best to replicate the service and the atmosphere customers expect in Hopkinton: outstanding plants, personalized sales help, landscaper design and installation, and the best horticultural advice available."
As at other Green Partners, your Massachusetts Horticultural Society membership card gets you a 10% discount. |
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Founding Gardeners (Book Review) |
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by Maureen Horn, Librarian
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
 Andrea Wulf. Founding Gardeners : the Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011)
During the British siege of Manhattan, then-General George Washington wrote his estate agent at Mount Vernon, instructing him on the planting of shrubs. It was not the act of an overzealous plantation owner but, rather, one of a patriot. Washington's orders to the estate agent were to plant only American natives, and especially none British. Washington had listened to Benjamin Franklin, his hero from the previous generation, who said that the country would prosper only if its people depended on their own land to sustain them.
In her delightful and meticulously researched new book Founding Gardeners, Andrea Wulf embraces the task of taking four of the best known men in American history and dropping them into their gardens to show how horticulture helped them shape the future of their beloved country. A Londoner, she has a fascination for the sight of controlled flower beds fading into the vast American woodlands. In addition to her riveting picture of Washington, she covers the gardening lives of three other founders: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison.
Wulf's premise is that Nature inspired the founding fathers to look for peaceful solutions in the political arena and in their own lives. She builds her case through exhaustive research. At 220 pages of text Founding Gardeners is not a very long book, but her narrative (including illustrations) is followed by 128 pages of notes and index, an unusual percentage for an historical book.
Her research yields multiple quotes on the theme of their yearning during the war years and in the post-Revolutionary period to be back in their gardens (although considering that all four went on to become president, doubt may creep in). But garden visitations were never far from these men's minds. When Jefferson, the Minister to France and Adams, the Minister to the Court of St. James's, met in London in 1786 to negotiate a trade agreement with the British, Jefferson, the Anglophobe and Adams, the Anglophile, strengthened their friendship by a tour of English gardens. The most useful to them was Stowe in Buckinghamshire. Created half a century earlier by Lord Cobham, Stowe celebrated Nature as it was, with trees left unclipped and paths wandering irregularly. Cobham wanted to show that he rejected tyranny by turning against rigid designs and geometrical patterns. The two friends took a lesson from Stowe, and used it in their own gardens later in life.
They could have taken a lesson from General Washington, who, almost immediately after the Revolution, gathered plants from all four compass points of the new country, diverged from his traditional, static Colonial plots, and shaped the first truly American garden.
Wulf directly confronts the fact that the Virginia gardens, including Jefferson's Monticello and Madison's Montpelier, used slave labor to create them. There is a revealing contemporary portrait of Washington contemplating Mount Vernon surrounded by slaves who seem to be relaxing. Other illustrations show detailed, idyllic settings which easily explain why the founders wished to leave politics and get back to their fields and their elegant homes.
In 1787, Madison reluctantly abandoned Montpelier to ensure the stifling Philadelphia summer in order to lead the legislative debates at Constitutional Convention. He led in another way, also, by inviting the delegates to join him in exploring the magnificent estates outside the city. Here, they found respite from their wrangling and more easily made compromises when they returned to the Convention Hall. Madison, the youngest of our quartet, lived further into the nineteenth century and was able to witness the chopping down of trees to push the frontier farther west, and he was able to step out of nostalgia to value not just his own land but the heritage that people should think about leaving to their descendants.
The book ends on a note of hope that future American will benefit from their founders' love of gardens. Perhaps, unwittingly, the author has also suggested a new mission for horticultural societies with refreshing gardens: to become hosts to political meetings. |
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April Horticultural Hints |
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 by Betty Sanders
Lifetime Master Gardener
If you need to prune any spring bloomers either because of winter damage, or for better shape, do it now, but save the branches to force indoors. Finish cleaning up downed branches from winter storms, making certain to leave a clean cut behind. If the tree is too large for you to reach the damaged areas easily, call in an experienced arborist-ladders and chainsaws are a very dangerous combination.
Every vegetable gardener is anxious to get started. Sowing seeds of hot weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers and melons indoors is fine, but don't start planting outdoors until the garden has dried out from the spring rains and the soil (not the air) temperature has reached 40 degrees.
This spring, Mass Hort will be building and planting a series of garden beds based on national and regional cuisines. They are also planting a garden specifically to supply a local food bank. To go along with these new gardens, they will offer lectures and demonstrations to help the novice get started and showcase new plants and techniques for all gardeners so keep on eye on the Wednesday Evenings at Elm Bank series.
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Use a metal spring rake
on your lawn. |
Save yourself time and money and be kind to the environment by skipping the 'early spring green-up' lawn fertilizing recommended by fertilizer sellers and lawn companies. In New England, all you need at this time of year is a thorough raking with a metal spring rake Congratulations to those who used the dry days of March to rake off lawns and begin cleaning beds. If you are just getting started cleaning your lawn, remember that to preventing compacting the soil, you need to stay off the lawn until after it has dried from the most recent rain and snow. Compaction eliminates the tiny spaces where air and water flow through soil and makes it much more difficult for roots to grow.
When the temperature is above 40 degrees, and promised to stay there for a few hours, apply dormant oil spray to woody shrubs and trees affected by scale and other sucking insects, and to reduce the damage caused by winter moths. Keep in mind that dormant oil spray must be used before the leaves emerge.
The right time prune hydrangeas is a puzzle to many home owners. If the hydrangea bloomed in late summer last year, prune back all dead flowers and any dead or broken wood now. Because these hydrangeas bloom on new wood, renewing the bush by removing up to a third of the old stems before it starts its spring growth will increase its vigor.
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| Prune hrdrangeas that bloomed last summer. |
If the hydrangea bloomed in late spring or early summer , you need to wait until after it blooms to prune it or you will be removing this year's flowers because such hydrangeas bloom on old wood. If you notice fewer blooms this year, it could be the result of the extreme cold and harsh winds suffered during this past winter.
Finally, the newest hydrangeas are referred to as everblooming because they have the ability to bloom on both old and new wood. Removing up to a third of the branches (choosing those that are the oldest) will keep the shrub blooming at its best throughout the year.
You can explore more of Betty Sanders’ gardening thoughts at www.BettyonGardening.com. |
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by Neal Sanders
