Plant of the Week
Euphorbia marginata is a really unique plant! An annual native to North America, it really stands out at this time of year because of the fresh green leaves with white margins. You may see Snow on the Mountain (its common name), but I see the fresh green of spring. Reminds me of half of a preppy color combo from the Talbots catalogue in the 80’s. Get some seeds from The Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, where I visited Peggy Cornett, Curator of Plants at Monticello.
This great photo shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia. i was having too much fun chatting with Peggy to remember to take photos, silly me.
Guest
Peggy Cornett was one of the early guests on the show last spring, and we talked a lot about Monticello. But this time I visited her at Tufton Farm, which is about 2 miles from Monticello, and was owned by Thomas Jefferson. This property is now home to the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants. We had so much fun wandering around and talking about plants that caught our my eye (she was very patient with my questions), and some of the ones that we chat about are the Iris domestica (formerly Belamcamda chinesis—which Mr. Jefferson grew!), the Amsonia ciliata (Sand Hills Blue Star), and the Noisette roses. I almost typed in Nicoise. Huh, must be time for lunch cuz I’m pretty sure that’s a salad. But the Noisette roses were in good bloom, especially for central Virginia in August in drought, and they are good ones for you to look into because they are fairly disease resistant, repeat blooming, clearly drought tough, and historical! Here’s an article on TJ’s site outlining the history.
For more information on garden related events at Monticello, you can visit Peggy’s Monticello Farm and Garden Facebook page. Have a look!
The Play List
Have you seen that funny bit on the 12 seasons of Charlottesville Weather? Yeah, I sort of got caught in the False Fall thing, because as I was recording I was all ‘cooling down!’ and ‘move and divide your plants!’ but as I write this I am more ‘where’s the sprinkler’ and ‘oh lord, make it stop’ with 90 degrees coming in soon. This is life in Virginia, and maybe where you are too.
So if you do get a break on temps, or if you can make sure you are going to water, then yes, do…
Divide and transplant things where you want them
Shop for tatty perennials on sale. If the roots are good, take it home and the foliage will follow suit next season
Oh gosh, I FORGOT to mention that you should be buying bulbs! Because everyone else is. Except me—we need to get on this now before all the organized people take the good stuff!
Listen
Such silliness, but there is an Aussie country tune called Snow on the Mountain. A cultural note, and I can say this because I have lived in Oz (I mean, not more than 17 months altogether, but still, more than most): Buddy Williams, the artist, doesn’t try to hide his accent like current recording artists with accents do. Laugh is “loff’, have is ‘half’, mountain is ‘montayne’. It’s pretty adorable.