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A Letter from the Executive Director |
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Dear Friends,
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Kathy Macdonald Executive Director of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Photo by Andy Caulfield
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It's March. In like a lion, out like a lamb? While this saying seems be to more of a cliché than a true weather predictor, it is a good description of the level of activity at Mass Hort. Committees made up of volunteers, staff, overseers, and board members are working hard to make 2012 a terrific year for you.
With Paragon's Boston Flower and Garden Show less than two weeks away, Mass Hort is full of activity as we put the final touches on our exhibits and get ready for Blooms! I am truly grateful for the contributions of our show chair, Neal Sanders, our staff, and the many volunteers who help make Blooms! at the show a success.
Mass Hort's garden display at the show, At Home with Horticulture, will help to inspire you with plant and garden ideas. At our garden, you will also find QR codes to scan with your smartphone, to learn more about each plant or cultivar. Our children's corner will give you some ideas on how to engage your children in the wonderful natural world of plants and horticulture.
Don't miss the amateur horticulture, Design Division I and Division II, photography, and miniature gardens at the show. Our exhibitors have worked very hard and are very proud of their entries into these competitions!
At Mass Hort's Elm Bank location in Dover you can come, learn, and grow. Whether you are a new or experienced gardener, young or old, there is a lecture or workshop to help you learn more about plants, design, and gardens. Our Thursday Night at the Hort lecture series will feature a variety of topics and experts that will help you excel in your pursuit of this pleasurable pastime. Watch for the education schedule on our web site.
Our children's activities are also gearing up for 2012. The Plantmobile (our travelling horticulture education van) will be delivering horticultural education to schools. If you know of a school that would like a Plantmobile visit, please send your recommendations along. Weezie's Caterpillar Club and Story Hour are also ramping up for the summer to bring the excitement of gardening to the youngest children. Check the schedule for days and times.
On May 4th, our Garden to Table Gala "Flavors of Spring" is sure to be a festive evening and a great program. It will be a fundraiser for The Garden to Table program which helps people of all ages and all levels of gardening experience learn to grow, cook, preserve, and enjoy healthy local food. Our gala committee is busy planning the evening, which will feature a live auction, four catering stations, Bully Boy Distillers, Cono Sur Wines, craft beers and Dueling Pianos by Howl at the Moon. Save the date!
Please stop by Mass Hort's booth at the show and say hello. Thanks for your continued support.
Warm regards,
Katherine K. Macdonald
President/Executive Director |
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Last year, it was the Winter That Wouldn't End. This year, it's the Winter That Never Arrived. But it has still been four months of brown and gray. Are you ready for some color in your life? Then get ready for March 14 and the opening of the Boston Flower & Garden Show at the Seaport World Trade Center.
One of the great benefits of your membership to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is your flower show tickets, so make sure your membership is up to date! Only those with memberships current to March 5 will receive tickets. (learn more about memberships here)
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Paul Miskovsky checks the candling of an evergreen destined for the Mass Hort garden.
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It promises to be a terrific show. The Paragon Group, which produces the event, has assembled landscape gardens from the region's most talented and innovative organizations. You'll also be able to wander aisles of gardening-specific vendors offering everything from orchids to organic potting mix. In addition, you'll see great speakers on two stages to keep you entertained and educated.
This year's show theme is "First Impressions". Gardens convey an immediate sense of a home, and you'll see landscape vignettes that show you what you can do with both big budgets and modest ones. A number of gardens will incorporate structures, the better to give you landscaping and planting ideas you can try on your own property. You're sure to go home with hundreds of ideas of how to make this year one that will be brighter than ever.
Mass Hort plays a major role in the show. Blooms! at the 2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show encompasses ten facets of the event. Here's what you can look for:
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In a greenhouse at Elm Bank Paul Cook works on the two-story townhouse that will rise at the flower show.
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Mass Hort's garden exhibit: "At Home with Horticulture" . Flower shows are about beauty and inspiration, and we've created one that we hope you'll think is a knock-out. But it's more than that: you'll discover an inviting display that is both educational full of design and planting ideas for the home gardener. In fact, it's three gardens in one. There's a 400 square-foot townhouse entry garden that's as large as Mass Hort's entire landscape exhibit space in 2011. Next to it is a backyard vegetable garden that proves some produce is too pretty to eat (though everything is edible). It's a sample of what Mass Hort has created in its new Chef's Garden at Elm Bank.
If you're looking for the big chair, it's not at this year's show. But Mass Hort has created another kind of space, just as welcoming, where we hope you'll stop to take a family portrait. We invite you to come see for yourself.
And, there's a children's corner where you can get directions for a scavenger hunt, see worms composting, and perhaps take away a plant to grow at home.
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These pansies being grown for the Mass Hort garden..
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Above all, the exhibit demonstrates that education is the core mission of Mass Hort. You can learn how to use Hortycodes - QR codes you snap a picture of with your cell phone to download all the information you need to grow the plants you see in Mass Hort's exhibit. You can also take away a copy of our 'Thursdays at the Hort' schedule of talks and demonstrations, as well as handouts on creating your own raised-bed vegetable garden. In all, it's 1100 square feet of beauty, education and fun. We hope you'll stop by!
Floral Design Divisions I and II are held in the ConferenceCenter ballroom. Division I is held under the auspices of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Division II is sponsored by Mass Hort. With two entry days, the two divisions will show a total of 112 design entries.
Ikebana . Held in the ConferenceCenter's ballroom pre-function area and under the aegis of Ikebana International, there will be a full complement of 14 graceful examples of the art of Japanese flower arranging this year, representing the Sogetsu, Ikenobo and Ohara schools.
Amateur Horticulture individual entries can be found in the ConferenceCenter's Beacon Hill Suites. We hope to have upwards of 500 entries this year.
Photography . You'll find the photography competition in the beautiful rotunda area of the ConferenceCenter. Last year's inaugural exhibition was one of the hits of the show, and this year's entries are just as beautiful. Just as nice, the setting for the exhibit is a beautiful, carpeted oasis of quiet in the midst of a bustling flower show, the better to relax and take in these glorious photographs.
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These azalea and rhododendro will be in full bloom when you see them at the show..
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Structures. Look for nine special exhibits of amateur horticulture housed in special structures ranging from bay windows to entire rooms. It's located across from Mass Hort's display garden on the exhibition floor. You'll see displays from garden clubs and plant societies, showcasing devotion to growing things well.
Mini-gardens. It was new last year and it's back for 2012. You'll find four perfect gardens in miniature - landscape vignettes portrayed using carefully selected plant material that beautifully replicates their full-size cousins. You'll find the miniature gardens adjacent to the Mass Hort garden.
Bookstore . Mass Hort will again operate a bookstore adjacent to the lecture hall. It will be stocked with books on gardening and horticulture, including those books written by the speakers you'll hear in the lecture hall and on the demo stage.
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Joan Butler staging chair for Division 1 with husband Brian cover a pedestal that will be used in the flower show.
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Special floral designs . One of the first things you'll see when you enter the Boston Flower & Garden Show is an impressive, round display featuring two very special floral designs, an Ikebana display, and a blue-ribbon-winning piece of amateur horticulture. This 'Taste of Blooms' is to remind you to venture back into the ConferenceCenter to see all of the show.
Speakers . We're pleased that all speaker programming for Thursday, March 15, on both the demo stage and lecture hall has been programmed by Mass Hort. A total of 17 speakers will talk on subjects ranging from garden photography to floral design. In previous years, the stages went dark after 4 p.m. but, this year, three talks and demonstrations presented after 5 p.m. will be devoted to 'city gardening'. They will include two container gardening demonstrations aimed at apartment dwellers and a special talk on landscaping in the city. |
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Special Photography Clinic at the Boston Flower & Garden Show |
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On March 15, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and Hunt's Photo & Video will sponsor a horticultural photography clinic at the Boston Flower & Garden Show. Led by photographer Barbara J. Ellison of Canon USA, the clinic will focus on floral and garden photography techniques and composition.
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A Parrot Tulip captured at it moment of perfection..
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Barbara will start with a critique of the entries in the flower show's Photography competition: why specific photos, subjects and manipulations are representative of an artistic eye. She'll spend the second half of the clinic on the floor of the show, talking about how to photograph horticulture and gardens, using the garden exhibits as a case study. The clinic will run from 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. and be limited to 25 participants. Attendees are encouraged to also attend Ms. Ellison's photography lecture, which runs from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the lecture hall at the Boston Flower & Garden Show. The fee is $25 per person with all proceeds benefiting the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Registration may be done here or by calling 617-933-4963.
 Barbara Ellison has been fortunate to be able to combine five loves - photography, art, gardening, travel and teaching- into her work. As a ProMarket representative for Canon USA since 1989, she has traveled throughout the US, lecturing and instructing on various photographic topics such as botanical and macro photography, printing and alternative processes. An avid gardener, she is always looking for new ways to create floral portraits. Her husband Michael operated a species orchid business for years, where she experimented with creating orchid art pieces from their own collection. Her work has been published in various books and magazines and has been the subject of gallery shows. |
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Consider the Preview Party! |
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 Would you like to see the Boston Flower & Garden Show without the crowds? Are you willing to pay a little extra to help out a very worthy cause?
Then consider going to the Preview Party on Tuesday, March 13. Tickets are $125 and can be ordered here. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Proceeds from the Preview Party will help restore Boston Parks Department's greenhouses, where plants are propagated for the Public Garden, Boston Common, and dozens of neighborhood parks. Special guests, entertainment, delightful food and beverage and a silent auction make this an exclusive and enjoyable opportunity to view the show's gardens and exhibits before the show opens to the general public the following day.
The Preview Party gives you an exclusive viewing of the Flower Show's gardens and the chance to meet the designers. There's also an open bar and complimentary hors d'oeuvres reception with live music.
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Thursdays at the Hort Starts March 22 |
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Stretch your mind, let your imagination wander, get away from the computer screen or the television. Every Thursday evening (with a few exceptions) from March 22 through late November, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society will present great speakers on interesting topics across the horticultural spectrum.
You'll hear topics ranging from apple growing and beekeeping to vegetable gardening and weed control. Presentations are geared to the season, starting with a March 22 presentation by Master Gardener Gretel Anspach on starting seeds indoors. On March 29, Weston Nurseries' Henry Patt will discuss garden tool selection and care. On April 5, Bartlett Tree Experts' Jack Kelly will speak on pruning outdoor trees and shrubs.
As spring gets into full swing, topics will shift to the design of vegetable and perennial gardens, herb gardening and rose care. Hostas, daylilies, and clematis will each get their own evening's program, led by experts in the field.
See the full schedule of talks here. Each session will begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Programs will be held in the Education Building at Elm Bank in Wellesley; a few will incorporate outdoor walks through various Elm Bank gardens.
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Flower Show tickets make a special gift |
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The gift of a membership in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is a year-long invitation to discover, save and to appreciate. It's a gift that won't soon be forgotten.
 In March, you'll be sending them to the 2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show for free. Next month they can enjoy an Amaryllis or a pot of paperwhites for indoor forcing with a $25 Gift Certificate from White Flower Farm. Through the winter they'll receive Organic Gardening and Garden Design magazines to let them plan for spring. Next spring they can explore Elm Bank's many gardens and even its extensive library.
In addition to these tangible things, there's an underlying gift that goes beyond anything that can be tied with a bow: the knowledge that they're supporting horticultural education. They're helping children's programs in Weezie's Garden and amateur horticulture at the flower show. And, they're helping to preserve and maintain Elm Bank, one of the great educational 'teaching gardens'.
Mass Hort's Special Gift Membership Offer
Membership is a terrific gift. And, if the recipient has never been a Mass Hort member before, it's an even more attractively priced one.
To introduce new people to the Society, we'll take $15 from the price of an individual or a family membership. That makes the gift of an individual membership just $35; a family membership just $70.
By using our online Gift Membership order form, you can personalize your gift by including a special message to your recipient. For more information, visit our Gift Membership section. |
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In Memoriam: Susan Beth Emery Dumaine |
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A Tribute to Susan Dumaine: 1934 -2012
by Janet Hunkel
 Susan Beth Emery Dumaine, 77, passed away Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at her home in Kentucky. Susan's death is a tremendous loss for the horticultural community in which we are all connected. Massachusetts Horticultural Society's flower shows would never have excelled if it were not for her vast knowledge, congeniality, and endless commitment to promoting horticulture.
Listing Susan Dumanine's contributions to the Massachusetts Horticulture Society and horticulture in New England would engage the reader in a historic novelette spanning half a century, covering flower show developments-Susan's introduction of the nomenclature was but one contribution-and numerous horticultural inspirations. All would be an enlightening read, but at the expense of over-filling the Leaflet's pages. Suffice to say she was awarded the Gold Medal in 1991 for not just her eminent horticultural accomplishments, but also her merits of outstanding service to the Society. She framed the medal and proudly hung it in her office, first in Weston, and then in Kentucky where she had retired, if one could ever label her creative mind and constant activity as retiring.
Susan learned by doing. Confronted with a scrappy, rocky hillside for a back yard in Weston she literally dug in and transformed it into an acclaimed, naturalistic garden. Her garden was truly amazing, as she started each plant from clippings or seed. She, however, referred to herself as a 'gardener'. Gardening, as Susan experienced it, was a common denominator amongst all people, and her world included the vast diversity of people who bonded through gardening. Susan thoughtfully listened to gardeners' stories, and graciously shared her knowledge and enthusiasm with them.
When I first became a trustee, in 1984, I was assigned the chairmanship of the Community Garden and Urban Landscape Award Committee, which Susan had previously chaired. I had no idea as to the humungous size of the proverbial shoes that I was expected to fill. Simply impossible, except that Susan gently nudged me, mentored me and eventually became a beloved friend. Together we judged hundreds of gardens and landscapes, venturing into the depths of Dorchester, then across the State to view every Heritage Park, as well as inmate's gardens in several prisons. Nothing escaped her critical, but fair, eye--not the maintenance, nor the plant selection and compatibility, nor the design or sustainability.
One time, but only once, the legendary plant expert was stumped over a furry fruit: it was a Chaenomeles lagenaria that was a volunteer in a community garden.
There will be a memorial for Susan in New England in the near future, to be announced. |
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Mark Your Calendars: March thru May |
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There are two exciting and enteraining events coming up in March and April. We will have a beautiful garden exhibit at the Mall at Chestnut Hill and will kick of the installations with a Preview Party.
In April, we will be offering a spring concert at the Gardens at Elm Bank.
Be sure to mark your's so you won't miss these upcoming events!
'Step into Spring' Spring Garden & Flower Show! Preview Party
Friday, March 30 2012, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
To Benefit the Plantmobile- Mass Hort’s traveling horticulture education program for school children.
Spring will bloom early this year at the Mall at Chestnut Hill! We will be hosting our Fourth Annual 'Step into Spring' Spring Garden & Flower Show!
Starting March 31st through May 15th, award winning landscape artists, horticulturists, master gardeners and floral designers will share exquisite examples of richly planted gardens, stone sculptures and floral arrangements in common areas throughout the mall! See native floral & fauna and also some of the most rare and unusual varieties. Examples of textures and blooming colors of the natural outdoors will be on view throughout both levels of the mall! Mark your calendars for both upcoming events:
"A Taste of Spring" Preview VIP Party
Friday, March 30th
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Price: $35 per person
 Tickets for this VIP event benefit the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Plantmobile program and may be purchased online, by calling 617-933-4995 or at the door.
Spring Concert at the Gardens at Elm Bank
Sunday, April 29 2012, 3:00pm - 4:15pm
 Come join us for an afternoon of music celebrating spring and featuring the compositions of Claude Debussy.
The Music
The concert will offer Claude Debussy's World; An Afternoon of the Faun, Printemps (Springtime), The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, Clair de Lune, and music from the Preludes.
The Performers
Morton Hyams
keyboards; music director, organist
 Morton's background includes a performance with the Boston Pops, Klezmer music in Kiev, the Ukraine, a piece based on "I Have a Dream" (two years) at the Wang Center, and this past summer he played for the Royal Festival Ballet in Providence, RI. He performs as a pianist for major ballet companies and schools. He has also been a music director in Cohasset, Concord, Marblehead, and Sharon.
Kimberly Moller
soprano; MET audtions award winner, BU graduate voice student
 Kimberly is an up-and-coming young soprano in the Boston area. A recent graduate of Boston University's Master of Music program in Vocal Performance, she is now a candidate for a Performance Diploma in Voice at Boston University. Recently, Kimberly was the soprano soloist for Handel's Messiah with All Saint's Parish in Brookline, she appeared in The MetroWest Opera production of Cendrillon as La Fee, and Concord Orchestra's Opera and Broadway Showstoppers including selections from The Phantom of the Opera, South Pacific and The Mikado.
Tickets for this concert are $8 for members and $10 for non-members. They may be ordered online, or purchased at the door the day of the concert.
If you have questions, please call 617-933-4963 or email
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Book Review: How to Prune |
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How to Prune : an Illustrated Guide to Easy Pruning for Every Plant and Every Season
John Cushnie (Reader's Digest, 2011)
Review by Maureen Horn
In gardening, there are arts and there are sciences. Selecting the right plant for the right location is an art. Pruning, on the other hand, is a science: learn to do it properly and you'll succeed every time. Why, then, do so many gardeners either do it so poorly or else treat it as a mysterious, unknowable skill?
John Cushnie's intent is to dispel the mystery of pruning, and he accomplishes his goal exceptionally well by assigning a time for each task during the pruning year, and suggesting when the task should be applied to a variety of plants.
How to Prune is an excellent companion to readers who have a large variety of plants in their garden. Cushnie includes a lengthy list of specific plants with directions about pruning those plants. Well-illustrated, the book is easy to read and the instructions are clear.
Cushnie seems to have heard all the usual questions about plants that have been damaged by natural means, and he goes further by cautioning against damage that is gardener-caused. Most of the danger comes in the form of a gardener wielding the wrong tools in the wrong way. To prevent such mishaps, Cushnie provides a list of tools and their use.
There's a lot of horticultural common sense embedded in the book. Healthy habits are essential while using tools, so there are rules to follow: always inspect the plant for signs for of disease before commencing pruning; watch the small cuts because disease may enter through a wound; clean your tools often because disease can be transmitted from one plant to another; and most of all, don't attempt tree surgery (leave that to experts). Don't assume, though, that tools are the enemy. The real thugs are rampant border plants, such as Rubus cockburnianus that will crowd out and make life miserable for the plants you want.
In truth, tools are the gardener's best friend. Cushnie counsels never to stroll in the garden without a tool in your hand because pruning is therapeutic - if for no other reason than to ward off the specter of a faded garden, so discouraging to the spirits. Strolling in the garden is also the time to imagine what a plant should look like, and the pictures of the lush results of pruning in this book will inspire you. He provides illustrations of different approaches to pruning and its result; for example, the sight of a rose bush blooming at the top.
After this mild winter, many gardeners are eager to get started, so they should start with shrubs, like Buddlea davidii (butterfly bush), which respond well to pruning in the spring. Forsythia should be pruned immediately after blooming. The late winter and early spring is also the time to practice coppicing, the act of cutting trees close to the ground to produce firewood. Ash, hazel and alder are excellent trees for coppicing, but if you find that a sharp ax isn't getting the job done easily, it may be a good idea to call in a professional.
Don't judge a gardening book by its cover. Instead, go to a bookstore and look at the interior. How to Prune contains long lists of specific plants and their pruning instructions plus clear illustrations. This book should be purchased for long-term use as one of the indispensable tools to start the gardening day. |
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Volunteer Profile: Dwight James |
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Volunteers drive the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. You see them everywhere, but especially in the gardens. They're the reason the gardens have kept their impeccably maintained look through the year and, as the number of gardens expand, so does the corps of (and need for) volunteers. Each month, the Leaflet will profile someone who contributes their time and skills to Mass Hort.
by Vivien Bouffard
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Dwight James
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Volunteer and entrepreneur Dwight James joined Mass Hort as soon as he landed in Massachusetts - his latest stop on a long journey from St. Kitts via St. Croix, New York City, Rochester, and other exotic locales.
When did you start volunteering with Mass Hort?
As soon as I moved here from Rochester, New York, in 2005. I started helping with the heavy work at the New England Spring Flower Show and have been involved with both the 2010 and 2011 Boston Flower & Garden Show. I'm looking forward to helping the Mass Hort crew build Blooms! again, from the ground up. I'm hoping to get involved with the Elm Bank gardens this year, also. Besides volunteering for Mass Hort, I do pro bono work for seniors and nonprofits during the landscaping season.
You're interested in horticulture professionally as well as personally, aren't you?
Yes, I started with a degree from the Finger LakesCommunity College in the SUNY system, continued my education in turf grass, and received a certificate in landscape design in 2008 from the Landscape Institute at the Arnold Arboretum. Right now, I'm building up my own small business on the NorthShore. Most of my current clients have commercial properties, but some homeowners hire me, too. Oh, I'm a deejay on the side, too.
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Dwight James helps put the Big Blue Chair in place at the 2011 show..
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What are the challenges of designing a landscape in a commercial space?
Plants have to be tough because people are always walking through them and the soil gets very compacted. The challenge is selecting plants that can thrive - or at least survive - under such abuse, without resorting to the same half-dozen trees, shrubs and annuals. Too much of the commercial landscaping put in is just plain boring; not to mention that landscapers do things like pile up mulch in "volcanoes" around tree trunks. I once actually got out of my car to tell some workers, using my little bit of Spanish, why they shouldn't be doing that. I think they thought I was crazy. The other thing some landscapers do is shear shrubs into balls - which looks terrible - instead of hand-pruning to make them look more natural.
What is your own garden like?
I have a cottage garden - lilacs, rhododendron, azaleas, heucheras, hostas, dicentra (bleeding hearts), lots of bulbs. I have good, old-fashioned plants that don't take too much maintenance time but make a beautiful, soft garden scene.
What advice would you give to gardeners just starting out?
Be realistic and honest with yourself about how much time you can commit to a garden. Plan how you're going to manage irrigation, and think about your budget before you even start.
If you'd like to join Dwight and the Mass Hort staff in any of the loading/unloading/building/taking down phases of the flower show, contact
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for information about signing up.
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March Horticultural Hints |
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 by Betty Sanders
Lifetime Master Gardener
It looks like we may get an early start on gardening this year. If the soil thaws out and it is dry enough to work, now is the perfect time to transplant trees and shrubs before they leaf out.
Ideally, last summer you should identified transplant candidates and cut the roots in a circle around the larger plants. That encourages the growth of lots of new roots close to the stem, giving the plant a head start when moved. No matter how you try, though, you will cut off the majority of the root mass of large plants when you transplant them.
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At a tree planting seminar at Elm Bank last March Weston Nurseries Larry Rohan showed how to dig a saucer.
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Prepare the hole for transplants or new plantings by digging a saucer: one that is twice as wide as the root ball and no deeper than the root ball is high. Set the plant at the same level in its new home as it was in the old one. The most important roots are those that grow laterally (to the side) so you need a wide hole which you will refill with a mixture of the old soil and compost. This provides an excellent start for the plant in its new home. Do not add fertilizer the first year. Water well as you fill the hole, and continue watering every week until the ground freezes next fall. For trees and large shrubs, continue watering into its second year.
Put a mulch of bark, wood chips or compost around any new planting, keeping it 2 to 3 inches away from the trunk and creating a lip a foot or more away from the trunk to hold water in the root area. Stake trees only if they are in windy areas or have trouble standing erect on their own. Remove all stakes within a year to promote strong trunks and strong roots.
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Golf tees as plant markers
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Looking out and seeing bulbs in bloom is one of the early pleasures of spring. If there aren't enough to make you happy in your yard, make note of where you can add more. Bulbs work well in perennial beds, where the yellowing foliage of summer disappears under the new growth of the perennials. They can live in shady areas under deciduous trees because they get the sunshine they need before the trees leaf out. One trick for remembering where to plant new bulbs is to place brightly colored golf tees now where you want to add bulbs next fall. They will disappear under other plants for the summer but reappear when frost kills those plants back to the ground - the perfect time for bulb planting.
If you haven't already prepared and sent in your seed order for your summer vegetable garden, time is running out. The later you wait, the more likely that uncommon seeds won't be available or your order will be slow getting to you. A warm spring means you can begin planting vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, peas, onions, carrots, beets and other cold-tolerant foods as early as the end of March. The earlier you plant, the earlier you get to start enjoying fresh, home grown meals. If you start warm-weather crops indoors, wait until the end of this month to begin. Even in a year like this one, we can't be certain we will be free of frost until the end of May. Check out the vegetable garden at the Mass Hort exhibit at the Boston Flower & Garden Show - if you can tear your eyes away from the flowers on either side of it!
This may become known as the winter that wasn't, and we may have a steep price to pay for not having to shovel. The only storm that brought any significant snow accumulation was in October. While we had occasional rain - which helped keep plants from drying out completely as the cold winds tormented us - we have not had snow cover to protect the roots of trees, shrubs and perennials.
A blanket of snow prevents plants from suffering through repeated freeze and thaw cycles. In the absence of snow, those wonderful warm days softened the soil. When the cold night temperatures refroze it, roots from small plants could have been pushed out of the ground. High winds buffeted our evergreens, pulling moisture from their leaves and needles. Buds have swelled on spring-flowering trees on warm days, making them susceptible to dying during the hard freezes that followed.
As a result, we could see fewer flowers in the spring. The deer, mice, moles and rabbits (to name a few varmints) haven't had to contend with snow cover, allowing them to find the food on the ground. Insects hiding in leaf litter or behind the bark of trees were not killed off. It could be a rough spring for gardeners. In short, it could be a rough year for gardeners.
You can explore more of Betty Sanders’ gardening thoughts at www.BettyonGardening.com.
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Seed Catalogs for the Rest of Us |
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 by Neal Sanders
Leaflet Contributor
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Some catalogs like this one from Territorial Seeds feature cute kids who happily eat their vegetables..
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The coffee table in our family room groans under the weight of seed catalogs just now. We get them by the dozens each year; not just the familiar Burpee's and Johnny's of Maine, but special ones chock full of heirloom varieties. Every catalog is a promise of a wonderful summer rife with perfect, lush vegetables. Some catalogs even feature photos of adorable children, some with ringlets in their hair, happily eating their veggies. Life is good.
Betty goes through these catalogs, marking likely candidates for our own garden and other gardens for which she is ordering seeds. She then compares characteristics of 'like' plants, looking for the tell-tale trade-offs among taste, yield, and days to maturity. In the end, she makes reasoned choices that ensure our garden will be planted with just the right seeds for our needs.
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Bean beetle.
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Why, then, do things go so terribly wrong in our garden every year? In 2011, it was an infestation of corn borers on top of an army of Mexican bean beetles. Voles ran amok and nematodes munched voraciously on the roots of our carrots.
And, it isn't that we stood idly by, watching this destruction. We keep deer out of our gardens with a vile-smelling spray that, based on its cost, includes gold dust as one of its ingredients. My fingers turned yellow mushing the egg sacs of various beetles on the bottoms of leaves. I gamely plucked tomato horn worms from vines; an act of selfless valor that should come with a medal for bravery.
I have a theory about why things go wrong in our gardens. I cannot prove it, but I suspect that there is a catalog company out there, marketing sheer, unadulterated pestilence. Its proprietors have a fleet of black trucks (with Jolly Roger flags on the side) that follow the mail man, watching mailboxes, looking for fat packages containing dozens of seed packets awaited by eager gardeners. These evil businessmen then slit open the packages from the 'good' seed companies and substitute their own product (making certain to bill your credit for absurdly high shipping and handling in the process).
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Squash borer
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Come May, you plant the seeds for bush beans, believing that you'll be harvesting plump, tasty pods into July. Instead, by some mysterious happenstance, bugs appear almost as soon as the cotyledons have given way to true leaves. As there are no jumbo jets being chartered from Colorado or Mexico, the eponymous beetles have made their way here via some other means of transport: packets from that sinister seed company.
I can only imagine what their own catalog looks like. Aphids and whitefly described with the same hyperbolic language used by the 'good' guys. "Brand New! Apocalyptic™ Aphids!" an entry would shout in boldface type. "Suck the life out of a row of celery in two days, guaranteed!" or "Calamitous® Cabbage Worm turns nearly-mature produce to slime before your eyes!!"
Of course, we hope for the best. We use 'best practices" to keep our gardens pest-free yet, somehow, the red spider mites find us. As for me, this year I'm going to keep an eye on the mailbox, just in case there's a black truck following it with a skull and crossbones on the side.
Neal Sanders is a frequent contributor to the Leaflet. Neal's newest mystery, A Murder in the Garden Club, has just been published and you can learn more about it here . That book, plus his three other mysteries, can be ordered through Amazon.com .
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