Echinacea "Art's Pride" (Orange Meadowbrite) and Mango Meadowbrite

I purchased Art's Pride about six years ago as a new introduction by the Chicago Botanic Garden.  They were named after Art Nolan who was the director of a large foundation which contributed funds to Dr. Jim Ault who bred Art's Pride.

I ordered them online because they were not readily available in the garden centers.  I ordered  three bareroot plants and put them by the side of my cedar shed the, site of my mini cottage garden, which borders my raised bed vegetable garden.

I was very disappointed when they bloomed and I saw two Art's Pride next to each other and then this yellow speciman which looked just like the orange flowers but yellow!. 

I guess I could have complained to the online nursery, but I decided to investigate what this plant might be.  As I read about Art's Pride I found out that sometimes this Echinacea produces a sport, and guess what, this sport is Mango Meadowbrite.  I kept all three, one Art's Pride succumed after a couple of years, so I am left with one Art's Pride and one Mango.  They are not as sturdy or as upright as other Echinaceas but I have come to love them for their whispy nature.  They are perfect in this casual farm-like area.

Subsequent to the development of these two unusually colored Echinaceas there have been many more orange and yellow varieties, i.e., Sunset, Sundown, Sunrise, Harvest Moon, etc.

Even after all of these years the Meadowbrites are difficult to find.  I have never seen them at Home Depot.  However, they are still available online.

Grass-Be-Gone

This is going to be boring to many of us because I am going to talk about grass.  As gardeners, we do not think about grass, we think mostly how can we get rid of most of it and have more room for our plants.

I do not have much grass. In fact, my husband says a gerbil could mow our lawn! However, the little grass that I do have I treasure for my dog to go out and run around, for my grandchildren to go under the sprinkler and most of all to add an inner frame for my garden.

We have had a great deal of snow this year, and a few years ago when we had unusual snow our grass came back as almost non existent. I was sure we would have to sod the whole back yard. Before we resorted to this we thought we would try a seeding process. Believe me, we were not optimistic about this project. We could see our neighbors passing though our alley and actually stopping their cars to look at our desert-like property. We do receive sun in our backyard, so we purchased a good Kentucky bluegrass seed, a seed starting fertilizer, some high quality topsoil and shredded peat moss.  I know peat moss has come under fire lately, but it seemed to work for this application.

The first task was to rake the grass that was left into a standing position, sprinkle the topsoil in all the bare areas, sprinkle the seed on top of this and then sprinkle the shredded peat moss on top. The next task is to water, water, water. We even put out a large garden pinwheel to keep aways the birds, but this may not even be necessary.

Lo and behold, the grass started to sprout, it became beautiful, neighbors stopped in the alley to look at the beautiful grass. I can't believe we did it, and we may have to do it again this year after all the snow we've had and the dog walking on the snow and us walking on the snow!


***BOOK REVIEWS
If I have a review that has to do with the outdoors or gardening I will post, any other genre I will give you the link.

The Book About Tony Chestnut  (Childrens Book)

http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/2145/1/The-Book-About-Tony-Chestnut-Reviewed-By-Eileen-Hanley-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html

Does Your Home Reside In More Than One Zone?

You can't imagine how excited I was when shoveling my pathway that leads from the back of my house all the way to the front.  There is a raised bed (about twenty-feet long) and on the other side a narrow strip about two feet wide by twenty feet long.  As I pushed the snow along and hoisted it a little at a time to deposit in the raised bed, my eye caught something green coming up in the opposite narrow strip.

I could not believe my eyes, the daffodils were up about four inches and muscari about two inches.  They were green and looked unexpected with the mounds of snow all around.  I threw a little snow on top of them because it almost looked like they had been born too soon!

Let me tell you about this strip, it has been an experiment for six years, and like a detective each year I try to solve the mystery.  It is certainly a zone 6 or above (it is flush with the house), and I think I could grow tropicals here - ha! ha!  My May Night Salvia does great in this area, but it blooms one month before the May Night in the front of my house.  The daylilies displayed burnt foliage, but the clematis and campanula were fine, Veronica not doing well either - burned leaves.  I even have a drip system under this area and also spend each day watering by hose.  Year after year I would plant some of the heat tolerant annuals like zinnias and marigolds, but I really wanted perennials in this area. 

Last fall I pulled out my daylilies, left the Veronica and began to leaf through the High Country Gardens Catalog.  I ordered and planted "Blue Lips" Penstemon, Dianthus "Firewitch" and "Arizona Sun" Gaillardia.  They took to that area like they were home at last, growing by leaps and bounds before the fall frost set in.  I don't know what the result is yet but I have positive vibes.  Could this be a Xeric area in zone 5?  Xeric plants thrive in hot, dry areas requiring only minimal amounts of water.  A great book to read is Lauren Springer's The Undaunted Garden.  It is a little heavy on text but contains lots of important information on water wise plantings.

We probably all know the answer to this, and I know I have learned that as much as I tried, the plants I chose would not fit the area.  http://www.highcountrygardens.com/  Check out their catalog, the plants listed are adaptable to many areas in your garden.

Burpee Came Yesterday

I received my Burpee Catalog yesterday, and I don't know why it is so late.  I usually get a huge influx of catalogs in January, so this is very late to be getting a seed catalog.  Now, I really don't know what to do, too late to start many of the seeds, but they do offer small plants, but not the ones I want!  How frustrating this is just when I am ready to get started on my vegetable garden.

I think I will order the tomato plants called Brandy Boy (a cross between Brandywine and one of the Boy tomatoes) higher yields than the heirloom "Brandywine." and a pepper called Mariachi (an All America Winner) just a hint of heat!

I am just continuing to ignore the snow, maybe I will go shopping for fertilizer today.

**Ordered my plants from Burpee (got free Espoma Fertilizer), bought my onion sets from Home Depot and some garlic sets to keep the rabbits away
  

The Countdown Has Begun

We had a snowstorm last night, but my countdown has begun!  I have decided I am not going to be affected by the weather because I know that four weeks from now I will be planting my seeds in the raised bed vegetable garden, onion sets, radishes, lettuce, spinach and parsley.  There have been years when I planted these seeds with snow flurries in the air, and there have been years when the weather was quite mild.  But, spring break heralds the beginning of the spring planting season.

It is a very small raised bed and I do not have the ability to rotate crops.  So, as Martha Stewart said today on her radio broadcast, if you cannot rotate improve the soil.  I do this every year like clockwork, manure, compost, some additional soil, shredded peat and some slow release fertilizer.  My husband came in with the dog and said it was like "flakey rain" coming down.  I do not want to hear this!