One of the great advantages of living in a temperate climate is the glorious colors displayed by the plant community in the fall. Trees, shrubs, and even some perennials seem to want to throw one last orgiastic Las Vegas-style display before winter slaps everyone upside the face and screams, “Go to sleep! Now!”
The reverie is in sight everywhere here in the gardens and grounds of the IMA, from the contemporary gardens near the around the museum building to Oldfields to 100 Acres. You can find a plant somewhere doing its best hoochie-koochie dance to get your attention one last time. How long will the show last? Hard to say. With the drought this year I think it will be a quick peep then lights-out, leaves fall. But, I could be totally off the mark. Nature’s floor shows can be difficult to predict. Your best bet is to get out there and enjoy whatever performances you can catch.
I’m prone to go on and on about paperbark maple, Acer ginnala. I know, I know, I’m prone to go on about everything. Get your own blog. Paperbark maple is a favorite of mine with its fabulous bark, foliage, and fall color. But I want to mention the paperbark’s slightly more subtle friend, three-flower maple, Acer triflorum. We have a few on the north side of the parking garage.

Beautiful foliage, beautiful bark, and good fall color. All on a tree small enough for most any landscape but big enough to provide some shade.

A more traditional maple for shade is this sugar (Acer saccharum) near Deer Zink.

The uncommon Disanthus cercidifolius and our native spicebush (Lindera benzoin) look wonderful in their fall finery.

With Oldfields being an 80-plus year-old landscape many mature trees can be found there. The red maple, Acer rubrum, in front of Garden Terrace is one of the first to color up.

My eye is always captured by the way this sugar maple glows through the other, still green trees this time of year.

It really looks like each leaf is lit from within.

And from beneath it’s just gorgeous.

The service drive going towards 100 Acres is nice, of course.

And the fall colors always create a neat color echo for the pony-truss bridge across the canal.

Within Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments, the fragrant sumac, (Rhus aromatica ‘Grow-low’) are developing their trademark glossy red colors. The switch grass (Panicum virgatum, at the top,) likewise is getting some burgundy in the leaves to go with the silvery flowering plumes.

By the lake, the gray and white bark of a young sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) makes a great background for the very red foliage of Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia).

Down the road along the lake, mulberries (Morus alba) provide a color echo for one of the pieces in Jeppe Hein’s Bench Around the Lake.

Even some of my tropicals are getting in the act. The Tibouchina grandiflora, princess flower or glory bush, around Sutphin Fountain are taking on simply mouthwatering shades of pumpkin orange.

Great color, great texture, what’s not to love? I mean, who cares if it ever blooms? Okay, I would like the purple flowers with the pumpkin foliage. But you can’t always get what you want.

Now, this here ain’t no dog and pony show. It’s the real deal for us garden writers. The Garden Writers Association (GWA) is a highly respected organization of more than 1,800 professionals communicating about gardening, horticulture and the environment. I’ve been a member of GWA about two years now, joining some months after I started writing my IMA blog entries. Every year the GWA gives out awards covering different types of media for all forms of writing, from on-air personalities to photography. In the spring, GWA announces its Silver Award of Merit winners for the various categories. The Gold Awards are not announced until the night of the banquet at the annual meeting. You have to win the Silver in order to be in the running for the Gold.

When I got the Silver back in April I told myself to be happy with that. If I didn’t win gold I would be fine. And I was. But to be honest, I wanted that gold. Wanted it bad. And I was willing to do anything to get it. Anything. Beyond that, I can’t really say much about the selection process for the Gold Award. Except there are judges involved. A lot of judges. Judges located all over the US and Canada. Judges I was willing to “work” with in order to assure my entry would be thoroughly considered.

I had fellow Indianapolis GWA members there to celebrate with me. Here’s the “G-4” posing after the banquet. From left to right they are Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Peggy Ammerman Sailors, Carol Michel, and me.

Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, Peggy Ammerman Sailors, Carol Michel, and me

We have a very busy year ahead for us (along with some other folks). In August 2011, GWA will hold its annual meeting in Indianapolis with the IMA as the host institution. As many as 600 members can be expected to attend. We have a website and you can find us on facebook and twitter. Here’s the video created by Indianapolis GWA member Karen Kennedy for our booth at the Texas meeting.

My award was based on three blog posts I submitted: Me and Barbie, Bzzz. Bzzz., and Echinacea Nation. I would be most appreciative if you check them out when you get the chance.

Does winning this award change anything? Oh, not really. I still get up in the morning, make some coffee, go to work. I still weed and water and design. I still come home and garden some more. Still fix some supper when I come in for the evening. Still get to bed later than I should.

And yet, everything has changed.

I don’t always have that first cup of coffee by myself.

As I design my gardens for 2011 I’ve got somebody right beside me to bounce ideas off of.

Somebody can help pick the eggplant for supper.

Somebody shares the meal made with the eggplant.

And the other pillow isn’t empty every night.

Yes, it’s all changed since Mr. Media Award has come into my life. The sun’s a little brighter. The moon a little fuller. The sky a little bluer. The clouds a little fluffier. But it ain’t love, not real love. This is real love.

So don’t go expecting any changes in what you see or hear from me. Because really……. I’m still just a simple farmboy that likes shiny sparkly things.

(via weheartit)

In honor of Earth Day, we pulled together some eco-friendly videos for your viewing pleasure. Get your green on:

Tonight! Can garden design be a subversive act? At this Planet Indy talk, on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, offbeat garden guru Felder Rushing addresses “slow” gardening for cheapskates, alternatives to the oppressive lawn, and irreverent approaches to horticulture that are also more sustainable.

Rushing is a 10th-generation American gardener from Jackson, Miss., whose quirky cottage garden has been featured in many TV programs and magazines, and includes a huge variety of weather-hardy plants and a collection of folk art. Rushing is the author or co-author of 15 gardening books and co-hosts a public radio call-in garden program.

Joep van Lieshout, with his studio Atelier van Lieshout, will present a group of 20 benches with drawings of large bones that will together form the shape of an enormous, stylized human skeleton.

The work grows out of ideas about native heritage and cultural development, with bones iconically referring to artifacts and remains from previous occupants. The artist, who encountered visitors sitting on rocks and other natural perches on his visit to Indianapolis, wanted to create benches as sites for resting in 100 Acres.

Check it out! We’ll have a treasure trove of unique plants and there’s bound to be something on that list calling your name.

Dicentra 'Burning Hearts' courtesy of Walters Gardens, Inc

It was one of those rare days when the fog got worse as the morning went on. I think it was heaviest about 8:30am. Two volunteers and I were working on the South Parking Lot Hill doing spring clean-up, raking out leaves and twigs then cutting back the plants. The leaves of the Carex muskinguminsis and Diarrhena americana were frozen!

I had to beat the rake through them to get out the tree leaves and twigs!

The temperature at 9am was only around 32 degrees. Not sure how cold it had gotten overnight. But a landscape can be very pretty in the fog. I captured these photos after it had started to lift really.

Look how these yellow flowered plants glow in the low light of a gray morning. Yellow is so welcome in spring.

Here’s the Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ (witchhazel)

Here’s the Cornus mas (cornelian cherry dogwood).

There are so many plants in bloom right now it is amazing. With 70+ degrees coming for several days this week by the week-end it will be an explosion of color. You need to visit and visit often.

Crocus seiberi ‘Tricolor’ around Sutphin Fountain.

The three colors in ‘Tricolor’.

Snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) still make me happy no matter how many years I’ve seen their spring show.

Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) are very happy little bulbs.

Even on a gray day their bright yellow color absolutely glows.

The honey bees love them. Look at all the pollen on the bees leg.

The bees tended to take flight just as I was ready to snap the photograph.

Bee butt.

Now get your butt to the IMA and enjoy this glorious weather.

Snowdrops behind Deer-Zink are blooming.

Some of the Anemone blanda ‘Blue Shades’ in the beds around the Sutphin Fountain are very close to blooming.

Witchhazels are blooming all over the place.

Perennials are pushing new growth.

And I saw winter aconite that will be in bloom tomorrow. Hellebores should be showing color too.

So much happening. More later.

(via IMA Flickr 2004)

Bambi is a browser. This does not mean that deer tend to thumb through magazines at the newsstand instead of making a purchase. No, they browse in the sense of “chew off the buds and tender twigs of trees and shrubs.” Sure, deer eat grass and hostas and other herbaceous plants, but they have a fondness for woody plants enjoying the young stems and sweet buds of fruit trees and shrubs – I need those buds for next spring’s blossoms. And they like to take naps in the flower beds. So, if you see Odocoileus virginianus out in the gardens, please suggest they trot back over to 100 Acres or Crown Hill.

2009 was a great year to be gardening, because there was plenty of rain and it was not too hot. That also made for a great year for plant pathogenic fungi, which spread more readily during damp weather. In particular downy and powdery mildew defoliated my squash. Unless the plant is a cultivar with disease resistance, it is necessary to spray fungicide once or twice per week. That is NOT something I will be doing, so I may opt for newer varieties if I cannot find resistant heirlooms.

Us plant wonks got a little excited when a seldom seen parasitic plant showed up this past year. Dodder (one of several species in the genus Cuscuta ) probably arrived as a contaminant in some clover seed. Dodder is not a fungus, but a true flowering plant whose seed germinates in the soil, but it promptly attaches itself to another plant, in this case clover. The dodder then loses its roots in soil, and lacking chlorophyll of its own, sucks nutrients out of its host. The stem of the plant is thinner than a paperclip, with flowers about the size of this letter “o”.

Due to a lapse on my part, cabbage loopers (the larvae of a moth) wrecked havoc on my Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and kale. Not much thicker that a pencil lead, they can quickly defoliate cole crops. Fortunately, there is a highly effective organic control, a naturally occurring bacteria called Bascillus thuringiensis (often sold under the brand name Dipel or BT) which only attacks larvae of moths and butterflies (collectively referred to as the order Lepidoptera). Unfortunately, Bt does not work if it is sitting in the bottle on the shelf.

The most diligent pest was the bushy-tailed marauder the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger).

"Dug the Dog"

The cute critters started the season by eating the few apples that “set” on the newly planted trees in the Tanner Orchard. Then they moved on to strawberries. And finished the season munching on sunflowers. Hrrr-rumph.

Sharing sometimes seems over-rated!

At least with experience I am able to spot some of the n’er-do-well types before they break my heart – “Oh. You again. Go throw your piddly-assed blooms in somebody else’s flower bed. Just seeing something like you again makes me want to go right out and buy a 50 gallon barrel of RoundUp.” That can be especially true when I can see it’s just the straight species that somebody has tarted up with a cultivar name or a trademark like a bunch of cheap make-up from the Village Pantry. C’mon! Who the hell you people think you’re dealing with here?

But all that said, I still get all excited when the catalogues come out or somebody introduces a plant at PPA’s New Plant Forum. My cynical side is forever at war with my everything-is-roses-and-clover side. A battle of epic proportions. “This plant really could be different!” I really do believe it, at least until I fully process the info. Wouldn’t you rather think it was new and improved and impossible to live without? Ah, infatuation. Maybe it will develop into truly perennial love?

In my last post I mentioned the arrival of the new plant and seed catalogues. This was referring mostly to retail businesses. We have had some of the 2010 wholesale catalogues since last summer. The very nature of wholesale (not to mention the budget) makes it difficult to order all the plants that tempt me. I might be able to try 5 of some new must-have plant but if I am forced to order 25 or 32 or 96, well, it just ain’t gonna happen. I will have to wait until more wholesalers carry it and some of them will sell it in smaller quantities. Or, goddess forbid, I’ll have to pay (deep breath here) retail. It hurts to even say it. Once you go wholesale there’s no going back.

So which perennial pimps are bringing out my horticulturally slutty side? Some of the usual suspects. Terra Nova once again is introducing a huge number of plants in 2010. And they aren’t all heucheras! I’ve mentioned before I have a real weakness for the red/orange/yellow Echinaceas. I want all Dan Heims has (the plants, the plants people). If I must narrow it down to….. let’s say three. Then I pick ‘Tangerine Dream’, Hot Lava’ and ‘Coral Reef’.

'Tangerine Dream' (terra nova)

'Hot Lava' (terra nova)

'Coral Reef' (terra nova)

I admit it. I want to pull all the ray flowers off that last one. Or alternatively, pull them off half the flowers and reattach them to the half still with ray petals.

Sticking with coneflowers for another moment, Plants Nouveau has added ‘Marmalade’ that has “blooms the color of tart orange marmalade”. Want it bad. Real bad.

'Marmalade' (plants nouveau)

Plus there is ‘Pineapple Sundae’, ‘Strawberry Shortcake’, and Raspberry Truffle”. All part of the Cone-fections series. Food and plants. What a concept? Actually, sweets and plants. Now that’s a concept. Maybe they will name one ‘Butter and Brown Sugar’. I would buy a truckload. Oh! How about ‘Buttered Brown Sugar Bacon’? I would buy the whole world’s supply.

If you are seeing winter hardiness problems with these new hot-colored Echinaceas it may be you need to do a little research. I did. Remember they are not pure E. purpurea but rather most are this species crossed with E. paradoxa. They are both Echinacea true, but quite different in their requirements. The resulting progeny require slightly different care than many of us are used to giving coneflowers. Read the blog by Angela Treadwell Palmer on the subject here. Read an article from Dan Heims here. Some sound advice for all.

Walters Gardens has some new Hibiscus moscheutos (hardy hibiscus). Don’t know if I am wild about the dwarf sizes because the normal types are better at competing with my real tropicals in the garden. ‘Sultry Kiss’ looks sexy as all get out. And who on Earth would not want some sultry kisses in the garden? Only a fool. It says magenta-red flowers (hot damn) and foliage that emerges bronze and goes dark green.

'Sultry Kiss' (Walters Gardens)

It sounds really good though I am still a big fan of the Fleming Brother’s ‘Fireball’, which I have grown.

Coreopsis that is NOT yellow and is HARDY?! I’m not counting those pinkish things. The one catching my eye is a sport of ‘Crème Brulee’ that was found by Sunny Border Nurseries. It’s called ‘Sienna Sunset’.

'Sienna Sunset' (Walters Gardens)

I love the peachy color. It would look great with coppers and blues.

Why plants from these particular vendors? In part because they introduce a lot of plants. In part because their catalogues were on my desk. Some even have a link on their site for the general public (it’s the one included here if available). You see, you don’t have to be a professional plant slut to visit these sites. Any ole plant slut can go to them and ogle to their heart’s content. So don’t fret. I’m taking care of you.

You’re welcome.