Although spring has officially arrived, chilly temps prevail – 25 at our town house this morning. It snowed again in the upper country yesterday. Maybe it’s just as well it didn’t work out for us to de-winterize the farmhouse this week. Nevertheless spring is here: my daffodils are beginning to bloom, I see forsythia around my neighborhood, and our drought-tolerant perennials show signs of life.
The first spring we lived in this house, I thought our efforts to plant a perennial garden were all for naught. It just looked dead out there in our flower beds. I complained to a co-worker that I thought my plantings were dead, to which he replied, “You can’t kill them – they’re weeds!” Sure enough -- upon closer inspection I found green close to the ground. And, of course, that’s happening again now. Last year’s stems need to be trimmed back to show the plants at their best. Yes, suddenly there’s work to be done and we’re making plans for even more work.
I haven’t had a lot of luck ordering bare root stock. (You know – that’s what they call plants ordered from a nursery thousands of miles away. The plants are quite young and are packaged in plastic with very little soil.) Besides the fact the plants are young and vulnerable, they often arrive at a time that is least convenient for me and days lapse before they get proper attention. Last year I ordered $60-worth of perennials (I think of that as a lot of money to invest in plants) from a famous catalog seller, some of which I planted here and the rest at the farm. None of them grew, doubtless due to planter error(s). But I wrote the seller and told them I was disappointed even though I knew my thumb might not be green. They replied that they guarantee their plants and that they would either refund my money or I could take a credit. I took the credit and ordered iris for the bank behind the clothesline on the farm. I do have pretty good luck with bulbs and rhizomes. I can hardly wait to see if they grow / bloom. I’ll let you know.
Even though I swore off ordering plants, Mike made a contribution to the Arbor Day Foundation and they mailed us 10 trees – 10 different varieties. They arrived last Thursday, the day of my tea party, so I stashed them in the shed. Fortunately, Mike said something on Friday that sparked my memory and we took care of them on Saturday. We planted the dogwood and the Eastern redbud on the west side of the house and heeled in the rest on the east side so that we can take them to the farm. [See photo left (morning was not a good time for that shot.)] In addition, we have ordered another 60 Ponderosa pines for the farm. It seemed to go well last year; most of the 60 we planted appeared to make it through the hot summer. KW
The first spring we lived in this house, I thought our efforts to plant a perennial garden were all for naught. It just looked dead out there in our flower beds. I complained to a co-worker that I thought my plantings were dead, to which he replied, “You can’t kill them – they’re weeds!” Sure enough -- upon closer inspection I found green close to the ground. And, of course, that’s happening again now. Last year’s stems need to be trimmed back to show the plants at their best. Yes, suddenly there’s work to be done and we’re making plans for even more work.
I haven’t had a lot of luck ordering bare root stock. (You know – that’s what they call plants ordered from a nursery thousands of miles away. The plants are quite young and are packaged in plastic with very little soil.) Besides the fact the plants are young and vulnerable, they often arrive at a time that is least convenient for me and days lapse before they get proper attention. Last year I ordered $60-worth of perennials (I think of that as a lot of money to invest in plants) from a famous catalog seller, some of which I planted here and the rest at the farm. None of them grew, doubtless due to planter error(s). But I wrote the seller and told them I was disappointed even though I knew my thumb might not be green. They replied that they guarantee their plants and that they would either refund my money or I could take a credit. I took the credit and ordered iris for the bank behind the clothesline on the farm. I do have pretty good luck with bulbs and rhizomes. I can hardly wait to see if they grow / bloom. I’ll let you know.
Even though I swore off ordering plants, Mike made a contribution to the Arbor Day Foundation and they mailed us 10 trees – 10 different varieties. They arrived last Thursday, the day of my tea party, so I stashed them in the shed. Fortunately, Mike said something on Friday that sparked my memory and we took care of them on Saturday. We planted the dogwood and the Eastern redbud on the west side of the house and heeled in the rest on the east side so that we can take them to the farm. [See photo left (morning was not a good time for that shot.)] In addition, we have ordered another 60 Ponderosa pines for the farm. It seemed to go well last year; most of the 60 we planted appeared to make it through the hot summer. KW
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