It’s been hot. Not oh-my-god-I’m-gonna-die! hot, but hot. Especially on the more humid days. As long as you have a patch of shade to work in during the afternoon, it is quite bearable. If you can wait til evening to do the gardening chores, there is a bit of a cool down as well.

The same can be said of taking time to enjoy the labors of your gardening. Rarely is it not lovely to stroll through your garden in the morning, the earlier the better some days, I admit. Come afternoon it is much lovelier to stroll through your shaded garden – if you have one. And again, come evening the temperature usually moderates so it can be nice to do the daily inspection or sit out in the garden and just relax.

But you need some plants out there or why bother? Something that does well in the shade. Something that shows well in the evening light. Something not too demanding as it is July and hot and humid and you are a little weary of garden chores. How about a shrub? How about a white flowering shrub? How about a tough shrub? How about a native white-flowering tough shrub for shade that also does well in the sun? How about Hydrangea arborescens, smooth hydrangea?

This plant can be seen back home in southern Indiana growing on the cut bank of the gravel road, clinging to the soil, and live no matter what the weather has been. You gotta be tough to grow along a gravel road. Trust me. That’s the ‘hood I grew up in.

Hydrangea arborescens can grow from three to five feet tall and wide, on average. Unlike the more sought after Hydrangea macrophylla (big blue and pink blooms), this hydrangea blooms on new wood so you can cut it back every year if you want and it still blooms (this also reduces the size somewhat). It will even bloom after one of our vicious winters. And yes, I know many new forms of H. macrophylla claim to bloom wondrously every year, but I have yet to see one truly pull that off. I want them to, yet the performance just doesn’t seem to match the promotional literature in my experience. But I will keep trialing them.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

It is officially summer but we’ve gone from stifling heat to comfortable warmth. It’s so freaking weird. Last winter’s snow and ice cover caused me to bitch constantly. It just would not go away. But now in my garden at home I have multiple non-hardy plants growing luxuriously (and a good thing as I’ve planted almost nothing at this point). Eucomis (pineapple lily), Amorphophallus (voodoo lily?), Nerine bowdenii (Guernsey lily), dahlia (why did I dig any of them), Plumbago “First Love” – all came back, thanks in part at least, to the insulating properties of the white stuff. The oddness continues as the season progresses. My Phlox paniculata “Blue Paradise” is in full bloom, probably two weeks ahead of normal. Normal. What a concept. Anyway. Also blooming at this time is the Monarda didyma – bee balm, which is what I really wanted to talk about. Well, that and the problems with Echinacea but I just didn’t want to research on that right now. So, on with the Monarda.

Monarda is one of those perennials I go back and forth on to some extent – love it, hate it, tolerate it, love it again. Right now I’m loving it. They are also loved by bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. In addition to the gorgeous flowers, the foliage has a wonderful scent as well, reminiscent of mint yet totally different.

For some time, Monarda was quite the thug in a garden. It was also a powdery mildew slut. Breeding programs have helped on both accounts. The newer dwarf cultivars are less aggressive and no breeder would introduce a plant that was not more resistant to the mildew. Bear in mind that the mildew is constantly evolving so your perfectly clean plant today could be dusty white next year. Also remember weather affects mildew intensity. Good air circulation is helpful in the mildew wars.

Monarda can vary greatly in height, from the new dwarf cultivars staying near one foot tall to the four or five feet tall amazons of the garden. I like the first of the dwarfs, “Petite Delight.”

Mainly because of the color. Hey, color is important.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

Aside from a spelling variation of a certain culinary dish, the modern use of “poppycosh” is the description of a random shout of joy.  Why Pollinator Poppycosh?  It’s that time of year to celebrate pollinators (and it’s fun to say)!  National Pollinator Week is June 20 – 26, 2011.

A pollinator by definition is any sort of animal that carries pollen from one seed plant to another, unwittingly aiding the plant in its reproduction.  Most pollinators do this in the process of feeding off of the nectar of the plant.  This busy process has resounding effects.  The pollinated blossoms mature to fruits that feed wildlife and people and insure the genetic diversity on our planet.

Here at the IMA, our 152 acre campus is filled with gardens of diverse plantings.  Not only does this create a year-round experience for our visitors, but it provides a lush habitat for pollinators.  The IMA’s Horticulture staff has also purposefully introduced pollinators on the grounds of the museum.  If you’re a follower of Irvin Etienne’s blogs, you’ve probably read about our honey bees.  It’s been quite the experience for us as we learn to care for and manage the hive properly!

A healthy hive of honey bees can house upwards of 40,000 – 80,000 bees at one time.  About 98% of those thousands of bees are worker bees; the ones out each day working in our gardens.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

The weather has been somewhat brutal this past week, not that we Horticulturists at the IMA are the only ones suffering. But mercy! You can just stand still and sweat like crazy. Plus, I am always amazed at how soil can go from such a water surplus to such a water deficit in such an incredibly short time. But we have moved right along through the heat to get the Spring planting finished.

Sometimes before we can put one group of plants in we have to remove another group. This is of course most common in the annual areas. One of my major annual plantings is the Cutting Garden next to the Greenhouse. Most years I only do a summer planting there but this year we had the Garden Club of America national meeting in Indianapolis. Something had to be done for an earlier show. In these still rough economic times, buying enough pansies or other Spring ornamental to cover the whole area was out of the question. So what to do? Mix it up and make it work. I bought some pansies for a few spots so there would be instant color. For the rest of the area? Lettuce. Direct sown lettuce.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

It has been a bit rainy of late. But much of that rain has come in the evening or night or early morn. What has come during the workday has tended to be light enough to remain out and continue working. Well, except for Wednesday afternoon when the sirens went off. It didn’t seem reasonable to stay out even though the weather looked fine. It’s really not wise to play games with tornadoes. So I’ve been desperately trying to get as much planted as possible, while trying to not damage wet soil, and while keeping an eye on the sky. It’s enough to drive you mad.

In addition to devoting many hours to planting the annuals and tropicals, I have been edging the beds.

I know they should be edged every year to keep them nice and sharp, but I just don’t get to it every year – which is a mistake, or rather, two mistakes.

First of all, I lose that nice clean edge. Your garden can be full of weeds, the perennials needing deadheading, the shrubs needing pruning, but……. if you have a nice crisp edge on the bed? Nobody sees the flaws. It’s like the eyes just stop traveling past the edge cut.

The other mistake created by not edging is especially problematic if you have turf bordering your beds. That grass sneaks into the plantings. Before you know it, the damn stuff is twelve or eighteen inches into your perennials or annuals. And it is always harder to get it out of the areas you don’t want it than to get it into the areas you do want it!

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture