Mary Rose

Mary Rose, it sounds like a name from a past century.  I believe I purchased Mary Rose at Costco bundled with a Knockout rose.  I had no idea what she was, but I planted her about four years ago.  I started with three and am down to two.  This seems to be what happens to me when I purchase in threes, I always lose one.  She is a wonderful David Austin rose with a marvelous old rose fragrance.  I have her in my border so as you can probably guess, she peeks out among other perennials.

Mary Rose grows about four feet tall and four feet wide and is one of the first roses to bloom in the spring.  The pink color is delicious and when the petals fall it looks like a wedding has occurred in your garden.  I do not have it planted in the most ideal conditions as it is not total sun and there is a lot of moisture in this border. 

It is a repeat flowering rose and very hardy with hints of honey and almond.  Just as a side note, it was named after Henry VIII's flagship which was recovered from the sea after more than 400 years.  For this reason alone it is another rose worth growing!

Groundcovers

I am going to travel around my home and talk about the various groundcovers noting their pros and cons.  In the back garden under my Regent Serviceberries I have Sweet Woodruff.  It was off to a slow start the first  year and was sparse for the first few years.  Then, it really took off and it is beautiful, little white flowers on top of a field of green.  It survives and thrives in full sun even though it will do well in dappled shade, but there is a lot of moisture where it is planted.  It seems fragile, meaning if you pull on it to interplant it seems to be unraveling.

In the remainder of this back garden and in the front garden I have a pretty common groundcover with many names, periwinkle, myrtle, vinca.  I have a newer variety called "Dart's Blue," which grows more from the center than previous varieties, therefore not as leggy. and more disease resistant.  However, I do find that it requires some clipping in the spring just to make it neater and more dense. 

On the north side of my home I have Pachysandra "Green Sheen."  When I planted this six years ago, I could only find it online. It is very shiny and has a wet look, very little maintenance a trim once in awhile. 

Towards the front on the north side is Euonymous Fortunei Coloratus Wintercreeper.  It is a strong grower, roots in the ground and develops long vining arms that reach everywhere and also upwards if there is a structure on which to climb.  It does require clipping to keep it contained and off pathways and walks.  It turns a beautiful burgundy red in the fall and keeps its leaves most of the year.  I am now battling a scale on this groundcover which I hope I can cure in the spring.

It is always interesting to have different groundcovers as you stroll through the garden.  Also realize that some groundcovers make it difficult to insert plantings.  I would say the myrtle is the most difficult to plant through although once done, the plants easily emerge. 

Groundcovers save on the expense and labor of mulch, although it is comfort to the eye to have areas with both mulch and various groundcovers.  Avoid groundcovers bordering a lawn which can eventually root into that lawn (Ajuga and Lirope).  Aegopodium (Goutweed) is still sold in nurseries - do not buy this, it will take over your world!

Childrens Book Review The Up Down Day

http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/2242/1/The-Up-Down-Day-Reviewed-by-Eileen-Hanley-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html

Food for the Gods

The "fun group" had their Garden Club Meeting yesterday and it was fabulous!  As we approached the front door, there were emerging daffodils and tulips in painted tin pails and blooming primrose in a decorative urn. Our host is an artist by trade and her home is a testament to her talent.  I would compare it to Monet's garden with colors that make you feel alive, pinks, lime greens, yellow, deep pinks and white as the color that pops.  Her oils and other mediums were displayed throughout the home all blending with the bright backgrounds.  There were about thirty of us there today and we were invited for lunch and a program on olive oils and vinegars.

There were italian mineral waters, taglio and brie cheeses drizzled with balsamic vinegars with little crusty pieces of bread.  The smells coming from the kitchen were magnificant - I couldn't wait any longer -  I had to go in.  The cook (my artist friend) presented the menu, fresh roasted vegetables with cherry tomatoes drizzled with tuscany olive oil and three leaf balsamic vinegar, homeade pasta noodles drizzled with more olive oil, more balsamic vinegar, sea salt, Wow!  I haven't even gotten to the chicken yet.  The chicken was pounded flat, dipped in egg, rolled in japanese bread crumbs, topped with an apricot mixture and sizzled in the oven in more olive oil.

We learned that some olive trees are thought to be thousands of years old and that not all olive oil is the same.  In fact some may not even be olive oil but hazelnut oil mascrading as olive oil.  Do not keep olive oil indefinitely - it has about a two year shelf life from pressing.  Unless it says 100% olive oil on the label it probably is not.  We don't always know when this oil has been pressed unless bought at a speciality shop.

Balsamic vinegars are like wine although they are not wine vinegars. being made from grapes that have never fermented.  Balsamic spends time curing in kegs and comes in many different colors and flavors.  I had never thought of adding vinegars to fruit but it was delicious on the strawberries - three leaf balsamic.  The "leaf" notations have to do with the thickness of the vinegars, the thickest being four leaf.

I am always amazed how gardening interconnects throughout our lives.

Ghost Fern Versus Japanese Painted Fern

The Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum pictum) is one of the most colorful ferns in the garden, gray-green, burgundy, green, always noticeable and adaptable.  I have a colony of  them under my Chanticleer Pear Tree along with Huchera Villosa, Lirope Spicata and Astrantia Lars Major (Masterwort).  They unfurl about the time my early bulbs have finished, and continue sending up new fronds throughout the summer season.  They will take a good amount of morning sun filtered by the leaves of the pear tree.

Last year I found a new fern that grew taller with less spread.  It was called the Ghost Fern (Athyrium 'Ghost') and literature was touting it as a companion for the Japanese Painted Fern.  I didn't want it as a companion but needed it to come up behind my Rhododendrums interspersed with August Moon and Halcyon hosta.  My tag said it would grow to three feet, although I am getting mixed messages from some of the descriptions out there.  It has more gray-green no burgundy and I really do not see them as being alike in any way.  They grow narrow and tall not broad and spreading.

At the symposium I attended last week the Perennials in Focus group was concerned that people would not purchase it because it was so similar to Japanese Painted Fern.  I didn't have an opportunity to tell them that after I purchased the first few I could no longer find it at Home Depot and had to go to my high-end nursery and pay double to fill in my plan.  It is obviously more popular than they realized!

Midwest Gardening Symposium

A whole day of just talking Gardening and Gardens what could be better?  I attended the Midwest Gardening Symposium on Friday at the Morton Arboretum.  It was a great day filled with wonderful garden books, authors as speakers and so much up-to-date gardening information:

• Slow down on the garden curves, no amoeba shaped lawns
• Go upstairs, if you can, and look out at your lawn shape
• Use more straight paths with multiple centers in the garden
• If you have a curving path keep it soft just enough to create mystery
• Your multiple centers should have a destination focus, i.e., fountain, statuary, pergola, arbor, obelisk, etc.
• Make sure there is something distinct to look at as you gaze through a window, i.e., statuary, structure, container, etc.
• Release the inside into your outside, garden should be an extension of your inside home, color, style, etc.
• Use art in your garden palette, i.e., Vincent Van Gogh colors for your patio containers, check out an art print book and use the colors of a favorite artist for your theme
• Think of telling a story with your garden, antiques with a newer home, collectibles, painted vintage chairs, some eclectic modern surprises with a vintage home
• Make vignettes such as sword (grasses), frilly (ferns) broad (hosta) all together
• Plan or redesign your garden in the winter thinking  pathways, structures, raised beds, evergreens, trees for shape and deciduous shrubs and grasses
• Use flower plantings in your vegetable garden and vegetables in your flower borders (many of us have been doing this for years)
• Use light plants against dark
• Borrow a pleasing view from a neighbor's yard, arrange your plantings so that their yard shows through
• The new outside decorating color for furniture and pottery is aqua or turquoise

Our speakers were wonderful, Gordon Hayward author of Art and the Gardener, and several other books, Pam Duthie author of Continuous Bloom and Continuous Color.  Pam Duthie is part of a new group called Perennials in Focus who are in the process of evaluating plants over a three year period in real gardens.  They have a new website  http://www.perennialsinfocus.com/  We had other expert speakers talking about using vegetables in containers and garden plantings and garden maintenance. 

I spent too much on books!!!!