Plant of the Week: Columbine
If you call Columbine Granny’s Bonnet you can see how she could firmly fasten her head gear with these spurred petals.
The sweet face of the Columbine. Is that Granny’s powdery nose sticking out?
The plant of the week is the Aquilegia vulgaris, or Columbine, which is not a native, but I see lots of bee activity associated with it in my garden, which is fun! I have grown this flower ever since a garden club buddy up in CT brought me a little plant from yet another member's garden. The latter gardener was older at that time, and not as mobile, but very generous with her plants.
It seemed it was both ladies' mission to both inform new gardeners that every good garden should have some of Mrs. So and So's columbines, and if it didn't, perhaps it would be found wanting.
Well, I didn't wish my garden to be found wanting, and free plants are always fun. I wish I could say that I remember the older gardener's name, but it has faded with her garden, as these things must.
But I have that memory still, and to me, inheriting plants like that is better than any shopping trip. And I do so love shopping trips!
Guest: John Robinson
Just a few days after my call for help with the podcast, John Robinson wrote me a lovely email. I read it and the resume that he kindly included and immediately reported to Jeff that I had gotten a reply that was simply too good to be true.
I had expected to have to spend time on zoom with whomever I found. I assumed I would either end up with a tech savvy person who didn’t know gardening, or a gardener who was shy about computers. But no, John is very capable editor, lives 2 miles away, and is a true gardener. Plus I was so thrilled and amazed when I saw his property that I actually had seen it before!
Poured concrete steps to be able to access the creek. It was overrun with invasive plants and you couldn’t see the water or a little beach area before John cleared it.
I was consulting for a client who had purchased a home for her young adult daughter last fall, I saw a little side yard that I thought belonged to that house. My client explained that the nicest neighbors had bought that yard, which would be great for her daughter as there would be less to care for, but a lovely scene to enjoy, as the neighbors were keen gardeners with a young family.
When I met John, of course we talked gardening immediately, and he said he had an additional side yard, but I didn’t put two and two together until I saw it, and the changes that they made in 8 months were flat out amazing.
Can you imagine having the following features all on one— well, technically two— small properties?
Oh wait! Did I say John has built a blue bird house?
Veg garden
Hoop houses
Ducks
Chickens
Handmade coop
Raised cutting plot
Reading nook
Children’s garden (complete with small zen garden)
Creek
Rain garden
Raised bed JUST for lavender
Thanks to your generous donations, I can pay John for his generous time. Don’t worry, part of his payment will be any division or cutting he wants from my garden!
John’s HOOP
John’s NOOK (for his wife)
John’s COOP
Coffee Time!
Please consider supporting Into the Garden with Leslie my buying me a cup of coffee
OR! Becoming a member of I’m into the Garden too!
I will send you some LH Gardens gear if you become a member!
Garden Questions, Answered
(or at least opined upon)
What is Bud Blast?
Are Oak cultivars or hybrids just as good as species?
What is your comfort level of flower color in your garden?
I found this photo on the MOBOT site with a good article defining the various reasons that it could happen.
What is Bud Blast?
Sue Battani asked about this Peony malady and I had never heard of it but enjoyed learning. Well, ‘enjoyed’ is strong, but it was edifying to know a bit more.
According to the article I found on the Missouri Botanical Data Base, this sad, most un-peony-like state of affairs could be caused by any number or things.
Some of the more obvious would be that your plants are very young and new, have recently been divided, reside in too much shade, have been planted too deeply, or had a shock of cold temperatures as the buds were forming.
Time and other organic measures are recommended. That’s no way to for a peony to look!
Are Oak cultivars or hybrids just as good as species?
Catherine’s tree was magnificent until an ice storm took it.
Cultivars, yes. Here’s a YouTube of Doug Tallamy, to whom I wrote to ask about Catherine Dugan’s situation of losing a huge 250 year old red oak. In this film Doug explains that there was a study conducted on insect enthusiam for species vs cultivars of oak trees, and happily, there isn’t much of a difference.
The same could be said of a hybrid (a cross) between two native oaks, but the one that Catherine has in her sights is the fastigiate (columnar) Regal Prince. Such an attractive tree but it is a hybrid of a North American and an English Oak, and so would get only half of the interest from native wildlife here.
She intends to add a White Oak to her new planting, so what a happy ending.
What is your comfort level of flower color in your garden?
I think of color choice in the garden as the ultimate personal aesthetic. As I am busy getting the voice of Christopher Lloyd, the gardener and author who owned Great Dixter, into my head before the symposium, I am realizing that he did not agree.
He had firm opinions on right and wrong and what’s good and not good. Fine for his garden, but I don’t see how personal taste should be imposed on others.
I am curious to see if color choice is ‘a thing’ that we discuss or learn about from Fergus Garrett, as a legacy from his mentor or from his own ideas.
I am open to learning, but clearly too boring and timid to pull the trigger on some things, see below.
Not this. Not me.
