I like to cut Edgewortha at this time of year and carry it around. It’s like perfume on a stick.
The FUTURE West Conservatory at Longwood Gardens. Architectural drawing from Longwood Garden website.
February garden chores? We’ve seen this before.
Plant of the Week:
Edgeworthia chrysantha
I first saw an Edgeworthia chrysantha in Charleston, South Carolina, in the Ansonborough garden of Patti McGee. Patty’s famous garden (she has since built another one on Sullivan’s Island) was filled with special plants and yet I remember her enthusiasm at this particular specimen. I was there in spring, and her Edgeworthia was an attractive, slightly tropical looking shrub, but I couldn’t see the magic at that stage. That is because the magic happens in winter, and it’s happening right now in my garden.
See how mine looks more like a tree, but Edgeworthia can look shrubby if you let it grow suckers from the bottom of the plant
Once I did some research I was intrigued, but I did not try to grow the Paper Bush in my Connecticut garden because they don’t do well above USDA Hardiness Zone 7, and I was on the edge. Upon moving to Charlottesville, Edgeworthia was one of my first big additions (though it is but a shrub, or you could say a tiny tree) to my garden here.
The silvery-yellow bells that hang down start to get plump in January, then in February they swell enough to really light up the plant as if you have decorated it with corpulent fairy lights. You would think that the activity level of fairies would keep the weight off, so it’s an incongruous look. What’s even better than the look is the scent. Edgeworthia is one of the most fragrant flower I grow in my garden, and THE most fragrant at this time of year.
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Guest: Karl Gercens
Karl Gercens has been at Longwood Gardens for over twenty years, and my goal in getting him to chat with me on Into the Garden with Leslie was really about Longwood, the Pierre S. du Pont estate in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (but oh so close to my sister, Sue Ann, in Wilmington, Delaware— it’s all the Brandywine Creek Valley) that contains over 1000 acres of gardens, including meadows, fountains, and a 4.5 acre (ACRE!) conservatory, of which Karl is in charge. That would keep up chatting for a while, I thought to myself.
Well, little did I know that another huge horticultural component of Karl Gercens is that he could hold the world record for garden visiting, and he takes fabulous photos as he goes— more on that in a minute.
Karl is the Manager of the East Conservatory at Longwood Gardens. If you have visited, you may be wondering how you missed the West Conservatory, but fear not, It’s still in its architectural rendering only stage, seen at left. You can visit the Longwood Gardens website for further intel.
It was fascinating to hear of all the combinations of plants that the team at Longwood must source, grow, and display. And of course, if something goes wrong, then there must be a Plan B, C, D etc. So much to think about!
Karl and I discussed how gardening at that scale is different from gardening at home, and how it can be similar too.
It didn’t become clear HOW Karl manages to balance his huge horticultural job with his hobby (inquiring minds obviously want to know, as that topic is literally a FAQ on his web site). But the evidence is in that he does balance it, and he estimates that he has visited over 3,000 public and private gardens. He organizes his photos on Flickr. You should check them out.
Play List
I took a little cue from a GardenRant column by Anne Wareham that I read on ‘what to do in the garden right now’. Her piece is honest in its assessment that I made reference to a couple of weeks ago on the pod: February garden chores are much like Ground Hog Day in their repetition. There just isn’t that much to do.
But I am out there every day I can be, schedule and temperature permitting, and here’s what I am doing. Again.
February Garden Jobs
Prune dead and diseased branches, and branches that are in the wrong place.
Check on seedlings every day.
Cleaning up SOME leaves, depending on how tidy you want that particular bed to be
Cut back SOME perennials, but leave as many as your impatient gardening self will permit, for habitat for those lovely bugs and beasties.
Pull early weeds. Lots of annuals winter weeds out there, and lots are native. Their flowers may be feeding early bees, so maybe leave a few!
How not to divide (for removal, not propagation) Miscanthus grass.
Miscanthus caper
Oh, and one other thing I tackled this week, but I don’t really honestly recommend my technique… I am getting rid of invasive Miscanthus grasses in my garden gradually (only a few left now!) and their root balls are so darned big that after prying them out of the earth I cannot lift them. So I get out my axe and you can sort of see that silliness on YouTube, but I sort of axed my way out of the camera shot.