Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s Gardens at Elm Bank sit on 36-acres within the Elm Bank Reservation. Watching visitors come and go, I was struck that nothing said “welcome” or “you are in special place”.

Earlier this month a small group of trustees, overseers, and volunteers pondered the question of how to improve the entrance to be more inviting to our guests. Now, Mass Hort trustee and landscape designer Paul Miskovsky has stepped up to the plate with an offer of a new entrance garden, Miskovsky style.

Paul’s landscape designs have wowed audiences at the Boston Flower and Garden Show, the New England Spring Flower Show of the past, and more recently, the Newport Flower Show. Confident in Paul’s design and understanding the importance of “welcome,” we are eager for his garden installation, which will take place early in July. The installation will be a learning event itself, with Master Gardeners and other volunteers helping the master designer bring his plan to life. Stop by and volunteer or just watch as the garden evolves! (Check out our web site for exact dates.)

I have been fortunate in my first six months to have overseen the completion of two new vegetable gardens, the Chef’s Garden and the Pantry Garden. Watching the process, from the design and building of the gardens to the planting of crops, has been great. These vegetable gardens are visually and horticulturally rich creations that elevate the ‘vegetable’ garden to a new, higher plane. The Chef’s Garden is intended as a teaching garden and, over the course of the summer, it will be the focal point for sessions on nutrition and diet as well as fine cooking.

The Welcome Garden will be a lush garden with multiple elevations and make extensive use of stone as well as unusual plantings. It will be exactly what the name implies, and will invite you to enter and enjoy our beautiful Gardens at Elm Bank. The garden is Paul Miskovsky’s gift to Mass Hort, and we are most appreciative of his generosity.

I hope you will take the time to visit Elm Bank while the garden is under construction. There’s a lot to learn from watching experts at work.

Katherine Macdonald

On July 13, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is pleased to host internationally renowned plantsman Adrian Bloom for two events at Elm Bank. Adrian needs little introduction; the names 'Blooms Nurseries Ltd.' and 'Blooms of Bressingham' speak volumes. His 'Foggy Bottom' garden in Norfolk, England is one of the most acclaimed gardens in Europe. The 45,000 square-foot Bressingham Garden at Elm Bank is his creation.

We've put together two events for the day that will give you an opportunity to hear and meet this remarkable horticulturalist:

A Garden Walk and Design Tutorial

Please join us beginning at 8:30 a.m. for a continental breakfast in the James Crockett Memorial Garden. At 9 a.m., we'll step into the Bressingham Garden for a hands-on look at the garden, led by its designer. Adrian will talk about the garden's underlying design principles and the choice of specific materials, including 'hardscape' items. He'll discuss his choices of color and texture. Now that the garden is entering its fourth season, he'll also talk about changes to the garden and how the New England climate comes into play. All of this will be interspersed with a commentary on how all of this relates to an urban or suburban homeowner's desire to create a memorable garden. Questions are encouraged.

Please plan for at least one hour for this event, which will be held rain or shine. It is limited to 40 participants and pre-registration is a must. The cost, including continental breakfast, is $45. Preference will be given to Mass Hort members, but if space remains after July 11, the cost for non-members will be $55. Register here.

From Bressingham Gardens to the Bressingham Garden at Elm Bank

Beginning in 2002, Adrian Bloom began planting demonstration gardens in America, both to illustrate his design principles and promote his plants. In August 2007, he accepted an invitation to install a garden at Elm Bank. To that time, his largest American garden was about 4,000 square feet in size. Originally planned to be considerably smaller, the Elm Bank garden quickly grew to just over an acre in size, yet was largely built in a weekend by several hundred volunteers.

Adrian will talk about his original vision for the garden and how he adjusted that vision to meet American - and New England - sensibilities and realities. He'll talk about what he has learned in four years and where he sees this particular garden going. He'll also share his experiences about plants that work well in our climate and planting combinations. After a break for refreshments, he'll field questions from the audience.

This talk begins at 7 p.m. and will be held in the Hunnewell Building. Seating is limited to 200 and pre-registration is suggested. The cost for members is $20; non-members are $25. Iced tea and lemonade will be served. Register here.

One of life's pleasures is gaining new knowledge, and there's no finer way of learning than doing from experts who both know their subject and convey it with enthusiasm. The icing on the cake is learning in the company of like minded people who are there because they find the subject as interesting as you do. Throw in an early evening walk through beautiful gardens and it just might describe heaven.

At her presentation in June, Suzanne Mahler used both photos and plants to make her point.

There are six more sessions of 'Wednesday Evenings at Elm Bank, and they're dandies. On July 6, Warren Leach, co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will come to talk about, 'Beyond Blooms: Creative Design with Color, Structure and Senescence." Everyone loves flowers, but New England is blessed with a climate that supports a wide range of plant material that looks terrific even when it isn't in bloom. Plus, we have this thing called 'autumn' when nature runs riot. Warren is a landscape horticulturalist - a plantsman who not only knows his cultivars, but knows how to use them to great effect in a garden. He'll show you how to design with and for color.

On July 13, 'Wednesday Evening' will have as its special guest Adrian Bloom. You can read more about his talk elsewhere in the Leaflet.

July 20 bring Landscape Architect Susan Reed to speak about 'Energy-Wise Landscape Design'. Sue's talk goes to the heart of design as an integral part of being environmentally aware. You spend thousands of dollars each year to heat and cool your home. Environmentally conscious landscaping can lower that expense significantly. Sue will offer practical ways you can save money, time and effort while making your landscape more environmentally healthy and energy efficient.

On July 27, we've invited Landscape Designer Rita Bond to talk on 'Finding the Bones of Your Garden'. Every garden design starts with a set of anchoring elements. They may be man-made or naturally occurring. Once you identify them, designing the rest of your garden becomes much easier, because you have the 'bones' from which the garden will flow. Rita designs beautiful gardens and she'll show you examples that will give you the perspective to assess your own property.

We will have two talks in August before taking a break. Those piles of dirt you see at the entrance to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society gardens will, before the end of July, be transformed into an 800-square-foot garden. On August 3,the man who designed and is building it, Paul Miskovsky, will take you on an inaugural visit through his creation, telling you not only what he did, but why he made specific design decisions. It's a terrific way to get to know a brand new garden and to get ideas for building your own.

Finally, on August 10, we'll host expert Mary Arnberg to talk about all things hosta. 'Hosta La Vista, Baby' will be an evening filled with dozens of hosta examples, planting tips, advice about care and propagation, and enough hosta humor to take you safely past Labor Day.

All "Wednesday Evenings" talks begin at 7 p.m. and are held in the Education Building at Elm Bank. They end when the last question is answered, usually around 8:30.

The cost to Mass Hort members is $10 per talk or $50 for the series of ten (pricing for the Adrian Bloom talk is understandably a little higher). The charge for Non-Mass Hort members is $15 per talk. Refreshments and beverages are served at all talks. Reservations are not required.

Stories in the gardens. Making banana smoothies to attract moths. Nature walks that educate even as they entertain.

Welcome to summer at Elm Bank, where children come to learn about nature and the environment, all in one of the most beautiful settings around.

Gina Poole - Miss Gina - leads a nature walk through the butterfly garden in Weezie's Garden as part of Story Hour.

Every Friday at 10 a.m., Gina Poole, better known as 'Miss Gina', hosts the Summer Story Hour in the Stone Circle in Weezie's Garden. Gina, a Master Gardener whose background is in elementary education, draws from a broad sweep of children's literature to find stories that have both a horticultural component and are fun to listen to.

After the story there are songs and, after the singing, there is a walk through the garden. The walk may be a quest to spot butterflies, to identify the kinds of birds that inhabit the garden or to name the flowers. No two sessions are ever the same.

There is no set age group for Summer Story Hour. Adults are asked to accompany the children in their care. A donation of five dollars per child is requested to defray the expense of the program.

Summer Story Hour runs weekly through September 2.

Weezie's Garden is also an educational venue in its own right. Designed by the renowned landscape architect Julie Moir Messervy and dedicated in 2003, the garden is designed as a series of small spiraling entitles, each with its own theme and different ways of engaging children's senses, from the whimsical twig furniture and structures to bird and butterfly nesting habitats.

Each smaller spiral gives visitors the opportunity to plant, water or interact in some way with the garden's elements, and reversing direction offers surprises (for example, seeing in Twig Tower Hill the undulating hosta caterpillar with spiraea head and liatris antennae).

The garden is beautifully maintained and is designed to have no 'peak' season; there is always something in bloom and many of the plantings are of unusual varietals found in few homes.

Because of the child-centric nature of the garden, we ask that no dogs, including ones on leashes, enter Weezie's Garden.

Beatrix Farrand (1872 - 1959) was a very unlikely pioneer. Gardening was considered to be a very ladylike activity at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of twentieth but designing landscapes and supervising their construction most definitely was not. I say she was unlikely as in every other way she adhered quite rigidly to the conventions of her time. Beatrix Farrand abhorred the outré, the bohemian or any sort of personal untidiness.

Much has been written about her growing up in an old New York family and her apprenticeship to Charles Sprague Sargent, inspired director of the Arnold Arboretum. Beatrix (Jones) Farrand's aunt was Edith (Jones) Wharton. It was because of her family's standing in society that she was able to approach Sargent and get him to agree to give her the training which would allow her to become a professional landscape gardener.

Judith Tankard has written a very handsome, beautifully illustrated book about Mrs. Farrand, her life and career. The garden which has given Farrand lasting fame is the estate at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC.

During the heyday of her career she worked principally in the East and Midwest, though she did have one important commission in England. Dartington Hall in Devonshire was a very progressive modern boarding school. Employing a renowned American landscape architect was one more expression of its founders' vision. This limitation on her activities would not be surprising except for the fact that some years after she married the distinguished historian Max Farrand at the age of 41 in 1913, they moved to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Dr. Farrand was appointed the director of the library and they lived there for 14 years, yet she received very few commissions on the west coast. The main exceptions were the grounds of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Occidental College in Los Angeles and the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. Her nemesis was Huntington's own gardener and all-around man of affairs, William Hertrich. These two could not stand each other but his standing in the local horticultural world meant that he dominated the situation and froze her out. He made every effort to prevent her from even picking up a "dead leaf in "his" grounds and she in her turn referred bitingly to "that rigid German".

The Farrands finally left San Marino in 1941 and settled in Reef Point, Maine. Mrs. Farrand insisted on being known simply as "Beatrix Farrand" professionally, without any honorific. She regarded this as her trademark. Maybe because of her somewhat patrician upbringing or simply because of her desire to maintain a strictly professional demeanor, many people found her chilly in the extreme.

Her garden style was very restrained, depending on good hardscape, clear contours and discreet use of plants. The plants had to have some architectural qualities too. She seldom used brightly colored flowers alone. Farrand worked on Dumbarton Oaks for many years, starting in 1921, blending French, Italian and English themes. The owners, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bliss, were friends of her aunt's, Edith Wharton. They were away much of the time and she had an almost free hand.

Once the Farrands settled in Reef Point Mrs. Farrand spent her time and energy creating a fine garden as well as putting all her papers in order. Ironically the papers ended up in California, at the University of California at Berkeley.

The end of Farrand's life was somewhat distressing. Her finances failed and she had to move to a much smaller property but even there she showed her skill at making the garden handsome. Reef Point has been renovated and is a National Trust garden.

Judith Tankard chronicles all this in a meticulous manner, giving a very fresh portrait of a remarkable woman.

 

Perennial Upkeep. Deadheading perennials not only keeps the garden more attractive, but also can lead to repeat blooms on many plants such as salvia, geraniums and even delphiniums. While you're at it, clean up any dead or diseased leaves to prevent spreading the problem. Finally, trim back any perennials or annuals that are getting too vigorous and taking over their neighbor's space.

It was a wet June so, planning ahead, you may want to fight mildew before it appears on plants such as monarda and phlox. A solution of one tablespoon of baking soda in a gallon of water is a safe treatment which slows down this annual nuisance.

Annuals, particularly those in containers, need additional fertilizer throughout the summer. If you are using a slow-release fertilizer, check the container to see how long it should last - usually three to six month. If you planted in early May with a three month fertilizer, you will need to add more by late July. Some gardeners prefer to apply a diluted liquid fertilizer to containers in order to ensure that the heavy feeders get all they need without overdosing the plants that like a leaner diet.

If the blooms are slowing down, or the plants are getting scraggly, give them a hard shearing to encourage new growth and new flowers. A shearing just before you leave on vacation should mean you come home to lush new growth - if you have a faithful waterer tending the pots.

Container gardens like these will need to be re-fertilized in July to keep blooming.

Lawns. If you haven't already, move the blade on your mower up to 3". The higher grass will shade its own roots, making them less water hungry while shading out new weeds. Consider replacing the grass in hard-to-grow areas (shade for one) with perennials or shrubs that are happier in shade and require less maintenance.

Vegetable Gardens. It's too early for tomatoes yet, but you should be harvesting green beans, lettuce, peas, beets, chard and onions among others. Plant a new row of lettuce, carrots, beets and chard to extend the season for those. Replant zucchini and green beans when the first batch blooms, keeping the new plants under floating row covers to exclude squash borers and bean beetles. Though row cover looks opaque, they allows over 90% of the sunlight and water into the plants,

Spinosad, a biological control, can be sprayed on plants up to eight days before harvest. Once it dries it affects only those insects that weaken plants by chewing on leaves. It has no effect on pollinators like bees and butterflies.

If you are growing corn, it may need a supplemental feeding before the end of the month. Carefully scratch in a small amount of fertilizer around the roots, then water thoroughly if rain is not expected.

And speaking of water, most trees, shrubs, lawn and perennials do well during dry periods. Vegetables, on the other hand, need regular watering to produce well. Dry spells stunt the plants and reduce the size of the crop they produce.

Houseplants enjoy a summer outside, but if you don't want to deal with potential insect problems in the fall, keep them on a screened porch. Remember that their small pots need frequent watering if the houseplants are exposed to summer sun and wind.

Editor's note: We have a celebrity in our midst. On May 27, Betty Sanders was honored at the annual convention of National Garden Clubs, the parent organization of more than 6200 garden clubs with 200,000 members. Betty was recognized as 'Volunteer of the Year' for the New England region, one of eight people so honored nationally for their work beyond the garden club world. Her monthly 'Horticultural Hints' column for the Leaflet is just one of her activities that benefits Mass Hort.

Back in September 2009, I wrote about a phenomenon around our garden called 'The Rule of Three' which decreed that for every plant introduced onto the property, three holes needed to be dug. Today, I am able to report on a corollary observable fact which I call 'The Cascade Effect'. It works like this:

Last week, Betty was at the American Hosta Society convention. There, in an act of love and thoughtfulness, she bought for me a hosta called 'Sergeant Peppers'. The hosta itself is a delightfully variegated yellow plantain lily of considerable distinction, but its greater worth is in its name: the eponymous album is my favorite of all time. However, the hosta did not come with any tag indicating the two most important facts needed before it could be planted, namely, how large it will eventually get and how much sun it will tolerate.

We have a home library that has marvelous horticultural resources, but there are more than 3,000 registered varieties of hosta and Hostapedia, the definitive work on the subject, is not among our collection. An internet search was needed.

We had also recently been to our favorite garden center which was holding its annual 'customer appreciation event' in which ice cream and pizza are liberally dispensed (plus discounts on plants and garden equipment) and among the things we brought home a Pinus strobus 'Pygmaea', a small and unusually shaped, slow-growing pine that we agreed would add needed structure to the inner sidewalk bed.

And so we went looking for just the right spot for our new pygmy pine. As we walked the bed, the Cascade Effect began. Though it had nothing to do with finding an appropriate site for our new evergreen, the first thing Betty noticed was that some Solidago (goldenrod to the rest of us) had insinuated itself in among our Siberian iris. We removed it. That led to her noticing that the last of the peonies had passed, and so the stalks that had held the peonies needed to be trimmed down to better shape the plant for the summer. That was done. Removing the peony stalks revealed that a few Allium, long-since past bloom but still with attractive umbrels atop four-plus-foot stalks, had broken over. The ones with broken stalks were carefully culled.

The removal of the one set of stalks revealed spent bearded iris, which needed to be cut to the nearest leaf nodule and that action brought into sharp focus that several dozen native Columbine had formed seed heads that were about to populate the garden with unwanted progeny. And, speaking of progeny, the ferns were rapidly overwhelming our stand of Eupatorium 'Chocolate' and needed to be brought back into line. (Please keep in mind that all this activity is in one garden bed of less than 500 square feet.)

The Cascade Effect continued: spent salvia blooms were trimmed back severely and the height of later-blooming perennials were trimmed back to promote stronger growth. The list goes on.

Pinus strobus 'pygmaea', in its permanent home.

At last, the perfect spot was found for the pygmy pine. The location, of course, was already occupied by a long-blooming geranium which needed to be relocated to extend a 'river' that flows through the bed. The geranium was duly moved. Also, a nearby Stoke's aster, though not technically critical to the success of the new planting, was dug up and potted as a precaution. Compost and mulch were brought in and, a mere two hours after the search for a site began, Pinus strobus 'Pygmaea' found its permanent home.

What has still not found a home, at least as of this writing, is Hosta 'Sergeant Pepper'. It still resides in its pot, awaiting that internet search to determine where on the property it will be happiest.

Neal Sanders is a frequent contributor to the Leaflet. We encourage you to read his contributions to our In the Gardens Blog where he focuses on interesting cultivars that can found in the Elm Bank gardens. Neal's most recent mystery, The Garden Club Gang was published in March. You can learn more about it here. That book, plus his first mystery, Murder Imperfect, can be ordered through Amazon.com.