Containers Dominated Boston Flower Show

March 25, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Containers dominated Boston Flower Show –

Last week I took the Silver line train into the Seaport section of Boston for the annual Boston Flower and Garden Show.

The weekday that I attended a moderate amount of visitors filled the Seaport Center. It was easy to navigate the floor.

What took me by surprise was the emphasis on container gardening.

It was captured in the exhibit by Miscovsky Landscaping called “Potlandia.” [below]

Giant terra-cota pots stood out in this exhibit by Miskovsky Landscaping from Falmouth.

The exhibit included three giant planters, each probably ten feet tall.

These pots made of terra-coat were painted in bring, attractive colors.

The plantings in each of them were pretty much the same. The center of the pot included a Japanese maple along with shrubs and perennials. Remember these containers were quite large.

The exhibit won a prize of $2000 for its outstanding forced plant material, including fruit trees.

You could see many bulbs throughout the design.

I took this photo to provide a perspective on the size of the containers. [below]

The exhibit called ‘Potlandia.’

There is no question that the size of the containers made a bold statement about the importance of the container in the landscape.

I got that.

So as I walked around the Show every container after that seemed to be important.

The exhibit by Terrascape Design had wrought iron planters with wonderful brightly colored plants.

A series of window boxes even caught my eye. Many great plants filled each of them.

Filed Under: Annuals, Bulbs, Flowers, Garden fashion, gardening

Victorians Loved Cut Flowers

February 18, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

Victorians loved cut flowers –

The Victorian period in the nineteenth century ushered in a love for cut flowers from the garden.

Here is a beautiful chromolithograph from William Rawson’s seed catalog of 1888 called ‘Gems from the Wild Garden.’ The image visualizes what a glorious choice of flowers for tea and lunch were available to the Victorians. [below]

Rawson Seed Company, Boston

In his book The Victorian Garden Tom Carter calls this love of cut flowers from that period ‘floristry.’

He writes, “Competition was the essence of floristry, and the spring and summer months were filled with shows held all over the country.”

The flower shows proved an outlet to show off flowers like roses and dahlias.

I remember on ‘Downton Abbey’ when Maggie Smith’s character said,
“My yellow rose won top prize at the county fair.”

Even in the cities Victorian gardeners took pride in floristry.

Carter writes, “Workers in the industrial towns took to floristry as about the only form of gardening open to them in the restricted spaces of urban living.”

Whether in country or city, Victorians encouraged floristry and so they enjoyed their cut flowers.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, English Style, gardening, Victorian

Ordering Dalia Tubers

January 28, 2019 by admin 2 Comments

Ordering dahlia tubers –

Right now I am receiving garden catalogs, many with dahlias to sell.

In the past I have searched both on-line sources and catalogs to find a particular dahlia tuber that I wanted to plant.

Often no luck.

It seems to me it is better to choose from the selection offered than spend time looking for a particular variety. There are, after all, over 10,000 registered dahlias.

Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ [Courtesy of White Flower Farm]

Dahlia History

American gardeners have been ordering dahlias since the early 1800s.

Nineteenth century Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) had over 500 dahlia varieties in his trial fields.

He sold named varieties and his own hybrids for that time.

The flower has had its ups and downs since the beginning.

Now you might say there is a Renaissance of interest in growing dahlias. We like everything about this flower.

If the popular dahlia shows in September are any indicator, there are a lot of people today who love dahlias.

Price

The price of a dahlia tuber can vary quite a bit.

Take ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ as an example. With its dark leaves and bright red flowers, it is one of my favorite dahlias.

The least expensive online price for one tuber is $3.25, and the most expensive $11.95.

Quite a difference.

Vick offered ‘White Aster’ in his catalog of 1880 for 25 cents.

You can still buy ‘White Aster’ today, but, of course, at the current rate.

I can see why Vick wrote in his seed catalog: “The Dahlia is the grandest Autumn Flower we have.”

Filed Under: Annuals, Bulbs, Flowers, Victorian

Can Amaryllis Bloom Again?

December 17, 2018 by admin 2 Comments

Can amaryllis bloom again?

It’s holiday time and for many that means amaryllis as a gift plant.

Many gardeners as well as non-gardeners love to grow amaryllis. I counted myself in the former group. That is, until I thought it would be great to have an amaryllis rebloom the following year.

The amaryllis belongs to the tropical plant world. That means for us here in New England an amaryllis becomes a houseplant.

Amaryllis ‘Red Lion’ [Courtesy of Target]

A few years ago I received the Smith and Hawken amaryllis called ‘Red Lion’ as a Christmas gift. I had never grown an amaryllis before and I was excited to try it.

In early January I potted it according to the instructions and it grew just fine. First the plant’s long green leaves appeared, and then the large red flowers followed.

The colorful blooms lasted for a couple of weeks. I was happy with the result.

When the plant’s flowers dropped, I simply tossed the contents of the pot in the compost bin. That was my happy first experience with the amaryllis.

Advice

Four years ago I bought three amaryllis bulbs. I thought the group of three would add a burst of indoor color over those chilly weeks of winter. I chose the variety called ‘Minerva’ which blooms with bright pink and white flowers.

After they finished blooming in late March, I wondered if this group of three bulbs would rebloom the following winter.

I asked some of my Master Gardener friends what to do.

All of them insisted on the need for a dormant period for the bulbs of about three months. I needed to have the bulbs rest in a dark, low heated area of my house, like the basement. This was of course after I had left them outside in their pots for the entire summer.

So I followed their advice.

Then I placed the three pots in the bright light of the dining room sun in early January. Over several weeks each grew long green leaves but no flowers of any size ever appeared.

What was I doing wrong?

I decided to try again the following year.

More Advice

This time I consulted an amaryllis expert I met in the spring at Boston’s Flower and Garden Show. For their dormancy period she advised I store each of the potted bulbs in a separate large brown bag in my cellar for three months.

After the three months, it was January and time to bring them out of the basement.

I placed each of the pots on a separate stand in front of the dining room window. The leaves grew well. I waited patiently for the flowers to follow, but no flowers ever emerged.

That was two years ago.

This past year I did the same thing. Three brown bags in the cellar followed by light and water in the sunny dining room in January.

Again no flowers appeared.

When I complained to my gardener friends, none of them could give a satisfactory answer. They only raised questions. Did I have them outdoors during the summer in their pots? Was I careful to keep them in a dark place for several weeks?

Amaryllis ‘Pink Piper’ [Courtesy of White Flower Farm]

Recently I received a beautiful garden catalog from White Flower Farm. The cover and the first twenty-three pages are dedicated to the amaryllis. Beautiful photos of different amaryllis varieties fill each page.

This year I think I might just buy a new amaryllis bulb.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, Bulbs

UNH Sponsors Final Poinsettia Open House

December 11, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

UNH sponsors final Poinsettia Open House –

A few days ago I visited the University of New Hampshire’s Poinsettia Open House in Durham. This is an annual three-day event held after Thanksgiving.

This year the exhibit, held in the University’s greenhouse, included over fifty poinsettia varieties. (below)

Colorful holiday poinsettias lined the metal shelves in the greenhouse at UNH a few days ago.

While there, I found out that UNH’s horticulture degree program will end May 30, 2019.

I was sorry to hear that news.

Over the years I have visited UNH’s greenhouses various times for many events they sponsor like the Poinsettia Open House.

Also, part of my training as a Master Gardener took place in the very same UNH greenhouses.

UNH’s Thompson School of Applied Science will continue to offer two-year associates’ degrees. They include Veterinary Technology, Forest Technology, and in an Applied Animal Science program emphasizing livestock animals.

The Thompson School however will no longer offer degrees in Civil Technology, Culinary Arts and Nutrition, Horticultural Technology, or Integrated Agriculture Management.

UNH leadership explains its decision in this way.

The market has changed.

There is increased competition in availability and price for two-year associates’ degrees, fewer students in the applicant pool, and a significant increase nationally for short-term credentials.

All of this has led to decreasing enrollment and offerings not in line with state and regional workforce needs.

I know this was a hard decision for the University to make.

Many people have signed a petition to reinstate the Horticultural Technology program.

Not sure that will help, but I would sign it in a heart beat.

We need more programs in Horticulture, not fewer.

Filed Under: Annuals, gardening

Victorian Annuals Still Popular

October 8, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Victorian annuals still popular –

I have visited the downtown Georgian Mansion called the Moffatt-Ladd House in Portsmouth, NH many times.

What I like about it is that the garden skeleton basically dates back to the Victorian period. Today the gardeners, mostly volunteers, have sought to use garden drawings and written material as a guide for how the garden should look.

Luckily in 1990 Joseph Copley, curator of the Portsmouth Historical Society, found the garden journal of the late nineteenth century owner Alexander H. Ladd (1815-1900).

Ladd took possesion of the mansion in 1862. Over the years he lived there he became passionate about his garden, located behind the house.

In his journal Ladd writes about several annuals he regularly planted that are still popular today.

He mentions these annuals that he grew in his garden: pansy, petunia, sweet pea, verbena, and zinnia.

To make room for his spring narcissus, Ladd planted narcissus bulbs in an area where he had earlier planted verbena.

He wrote on November 7, 1889, “I planted Verbena bed with my largest selected Poets Narcissus – of which 608 (illegible) put in this bed.”

Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) also wrote about the verbena in his seed catalog under the section called ‘Annuals.’

Vick wrote in 1873, “Well-known and universally popular bedding plants; may be treated as half-hardy annuals.”

Here is a colorful illustration from Vick’s Illustrated Monthly of 1880. [Below]

Verbenas, Vick’s Illustrated Monthly [Courtesy of the New York Public Library]

The tradition of planting Victorian annuals like verbena continues.

Little did Ladd suspect that his favorite annuals would remain popular with gardeners over a century later.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, Bulbs, Flowers, Victorian

Time to Plant Tulips

October 1, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Time to plant tulips –

It is October 1 and a gardener’s thoughts turn to spring bulbs like tulips.

For generations gardeners dug up tulip bulbs only to replant them in the Fall.

Rochester, New York seedsman James Vick (1818-1882) recalled that practice in his garden magazine.

A suburban gardener wrote to Vick in 1878, “I don’t know of any flowers that afford me more pleasure than my Tulips, because they are so sure and so little trouble.

“I take up the bulbs, dry them a little, and store them away until October, when they are planted again.”

Then she laid out her method of planting the tulips.

“To occupy the Tulip ground, secure a few Petunia plants, or Portulacas, and sometimes Verbena.

“In October these have done flowering, or nearly so, and the Tulip bed is made again.

“In this way I get two seasons of flowers on the same bed in one season.”

Thus in the late nineteenth century she demonstrated the common practice of planting the same bed with both spring tulips and summer annuals.

Boston Seed Company

Like many other late nineteenth century seed companies and nurseries, the Rawson Company, with its main office in Boston’s Fanuel Hall, offered tulips to its customers.

Rawson included this black and white tulip illustration in its seed catalog of 1904. [below]

An illustration that appeared in the W. W. Rawson Seed Catalog of 1904

In the 1880s Alexander H. Ladd in Portsmouth, NH planted hundreds of tulips each year in his downtown garden.

He too would dig them up and store them for the summer only to plant them later in October.

Unfortunately, one year his baskets were so heavy on the storage shelves he had created that the whole structure collapsed. Hundreds of bulbs fell to the floor. As you can imagine, the next spring saw a mixture of colors and sizes in Ladd’s fields of tulips.

In 1889 he wrote, “I estimate by loss of Bulbs, to have been at least 60,000 – by the rain and want of attention last summer.”

Year of the Tulip

This is the Year of the Tulip according to the National Garden Bureau which provided this stunning show of modern tulip color. [Below]

The Parade of Pink collection. It is a mix of fragrant doubles that includes white, pink, peach and purple. [Courtesy of the National Garden Bureau]

Today it is more common to leave tulips in the ground so they can continue to grow in the same spot year after year.

Breck’s Bulbs says on its website, “Most bulbs prefer not to be disturbed and can be left in the ground for many years.”

Whether you dig them up after they bloom, or leave them in the ground, October begins the time to plant tulips for spring color.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, Bulbs, Garden fashion, Garden history

Who Doesn’t Love Flowers?

September 24, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t love flowers?

The book The Rescue of an Old Place tells the story of restoring a house and its garden in the late nineteenth century.

The location is Hingham, Massachusetts, a New England seacoast town.

The author Mary Caroline Robbins shows little tolerance for those who would doubt America’s love of flowers.

She writes, “While we and our neighbors are doing our best to stock our grounds with ornamental shrubs and blossoms, it is discouraging to be told by some of our periodicals, which are probably edited by gentlemen who live chiefly in towns, that Americans do not love flowers, because they are used among the rich and fashionable in reckless profusion, for display rather than enjoyment.”

The book traces her journey to restore the flower gardens on the seacoast property she and her husband had purchased.

She says, “I wish that our urban critics could walk through this ancient town, and be introduced to its flower lovers, and get a glimpse of its interesting gardens, before they make up their minds so positively about the tendencies of our people.”

Loving flowers – basic to human nature

“The flower-dealers of the country” she says “need have no apprehension as to the future of their industry. It is based on one of the elementary wants of our nature. Flowers will be loved until the constitution of the human mind is radically changed.”

She writes about the popular flower California poppy. [below]

Eschscholtzia, the California poppy, is the State flower.

She says, “The State flower of California was introduced to the children of that commonwealth as the Eschscholtzia before they could spell it, but this does now prove any lack of love or admiration for it on their part.

Nineteenth century Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) loved flowers.

He wrote these words about California’s poppy in his magazine Vick’s Illustrated Monthly in 1878:

“The Eschoscholtzia Californica, as its name indicates, is a native of California. We have seen it in Europe grown by the acre for supplying the world with its seeds, but no where so gorgeous as in its native home.“

Because of his own passion for flowers Vick tirelessly encouaged growing them in the garden.

Like Vick, Mary Caroline Robbins thought flowers were an essential part of any garden.

Filed Under: Annuals, Flowers, gardening

Vick’s Nineteenth Century Dahlia Field

September 17, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Last weekend I drove to North Kingston, Rhode Island for a dahlia show, sponsored by the Rhode Island Dahlia Society. This is an annual late summer event that I thoroughly enjoy.

Here is one of the flowers I saw that afternoon. This dahlia’s called ‘Merluza’. [below]

Dahlia ‘Merluza’ at Rhode Island Dahlia Society’s Dahlia Show, held last weekend

The beautiful show of dahlia blooms there reminded me of nineteenth century seed company owner James Vick’s love for dahlias.

In providing seeds for his customers, spread around the country, Vick cultivated acres of various flowers and vegetables, including dahlias.

You would have found his field of dahlias about five miles north of the Rochester city limits. [below]

Vick’s Seed House and Mill at his trial farm, located north of Rochester, New York. History of Monroe County, New York, 1877

Once the editor of the Illustrated Christian Weekly visited Vick’s dahlia field and wrote an article about his visit.

The editor’s article appeared in Vick’s Illustrated Monthly of September 1879.

He wrote, “Mr. James Vick, of Rochester, N. Y., was the pioneer in the systematic growing of flower seeds, and without doubt the most extensive grower in America.”

That was quite the praise for Mr. Vick at a time when the seed and nursery business was growing around the country.

Then the editor raved about the blooms of the many dahlias he saw in the rows devoted to this flower at Vick’s seed farm.

He said, “Perhaps the largest field devoted entirely to one kind of flowers, at the time of our visit, was one filled with Dahlias, and containing six or more acres. It was supposed to include every variety known of real merit, and the display was gorgeous.”

What a sight that must have been – to see six acres of nothing but dahlias.

The Rhode Island Dahlia Society’s Show expressed that variety in what growers had on display. I was especially impressed with the prize winners.

In a room off the central area you could see dahlia flower arrangements.

This is the where you could experience the creativity demanded in flower arranging. The top winner for the category called the ‘Dining Room’ deserved the prize. [below]

Notice the brilliance of the dahlias in this table design.

First place in the category ‘Dining Room’ arrangement.

Vick grew many dahlias. As the editor stated in his letter, Vick cultivated almost every variety known at that time.

Today there are thousands of dahlia varieties available on the market. The Rhode Island Dahlia Society’s show last week offered just a few of them. Many however were new to me.

I am sure that Mr. Vick himself would have been proud to attend the Rhode Island event.

Filed Under: Advertising, Annuals, Garden history, Seed business, Victorian Tagged With: Dahlia

Annuals Make Summer’s End Special

September 3, 2018 by admin 1 Comment

Annuals make summer’s end special.

Annuals become an important part of the garden at the end of the summer.

When so many perennials have gone by, annuals continue to supply color and structure to the garden.

Rochester, New York seed company owner James Vick (1818-1882) wrote about annuals and their appeal even to the end of summer.

In his magazine Vick’s Illustrated Monthly of 1879 Vick wrote, “The seeds of Annuals are sown in the spring, either in nicely prepared beds in the garden, or in boxes in the house, by those who have no better or more costly arrangements; the plants arrive at maturity in the summer, bud, blossom, ripen their seeds and die in the autumn, having performed their entire mission.”

“To the Annuals, we are indebted mainly for our brightest and best flowers in the late summer and autumn months.”

Right now you will find annuals shining in all their glory in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. [below]

Prescott Park garden, Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Perennials form part of this garden at Prescott Park, but it is the continued blooming of annuals that makes this scene at the end of the summer so special.

Vick taught his readers to love flowers, including annuals.

In a piece on annuals in his magazine Vick wrote, “While writing this article we received a communication from the wife of one of the leading editors of America, describing her success with Annuals, and their wonderful beauty during the autumn months.”

Then Vick quotes her.

She said, “I never had much success with Annuals until I became acquainted with your Guide, and learned about good seed and how to grow them, and now I never fail. My garden is beautiful all the fall with lovely brilliant flowers.”

She mentions some Victorian favorites, still popular today. Her list includes pansies, petunia, phlox, amaranth,and nasturtium.

The color in her garden at the end of summer she attributed to Vick’s guidance.

She promised Vick, “I intend to do wonders this year, and exhibit my flowers at our State Fair, and if I take a prize I will let you know.”

As in Vick’s day, annuals continue even to the end of summer to provide a joyous color just like you can see right now at Prescott Park.

Filed Under: Annuals, Garden fashion, Garden history, Seed business, Victorian