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!

Anyway, this year I seem driven to edge (rather than driven to the edge which is a whole ‘nother blog for someplace other than this IMA site). When planting in annual beds it is nice to do the edging before planting, if only because when you are done you are done. I can say this spot is finished and not really think about it anymore. With perennial beds,for whatever reason, I feel I can wait a little longer to get to them. But I have a lot of annual beds, so you may think the reverse in your garden.

Most folks are going to use a foot operated edger to get the job accomplished. You have at least a few options, including whatever you have on hand that can do the trick. Preferences here run toward a couple things:

The half-moon edger is very traditional. You simply step on the edger, pushing it into the ground, then pull the handle back to loosen the soil.

This is followed by cleaning out the cut so you remove the grass, etc that may be there. Clean (as in no grass or weeds) soil can be tossed back into the bed.

Another popular hand tool is the King of Spades. You can actually use any spade but this one is THE King.

Or is this?

Or is this?

Or is this?

It gives a very clean cut but you do have to step higher. You could pretend you are a Rockette.

For my larger areas here I like to use this baby:

A real live gas-powered edger with a cutting knife:

When you get done you feel like you’ve been trying to hold onto one of those machines they mix paint with. But you get a lot done quickly. I mark my edge with those little construction flags to guide me, especially for curves or long straight edges.

I won’t say edging is the answer to all your garden issues, but I’m here to tell you it does wonders for sprucing up the garden so you are not driven to the edge……. the edge of madness.

Then nature says, “Oops. It’s still winter. Sorry about that heat wave. Here’s some 10 degree weather to rebalance everything.”  The plants and I both are screaming, “NOOOOO! Too late. Spring launch sequence has been activated. Cannot abort mission. Repeat. Cannot abort mission. Catastrophic damage at this point. It’s too late. It’s too late!”

But you roll with it. As do the plants.In the meantime, it sure is nice out. This is the kind of weather that makes you want to get outside and get back to real horticulture work. That is to say, physical labor. So this week we pruned on the dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostrobioides) around Sutphin Fountain, the paperbark maples (Acer griseum) on the tunnel, and the red maples (Acer rubrum) on Sutphin Mall.

The dawn redwoods really just needed limbing up to get branches out of visitors’ faces when they stroll around the fountain. Essentially we removed some lower branches. The overall structure or skeleton of these trees is fine.  The paperbark maples didn’t need too much work either. Some branch removal to improve structure was about it.  The red maples on the mall required the most work. This is their third pruning counting the one that was done before they were dug and then brought here. Of course we removed low hanging branches again so they were not in people’s faces. But we also got up in the trees to remove dead wood, crossed branches, and any branches that interfered with healthy growth and good structure. For instance, if two branches coming from the main truck were stacked one above the other, only a few inches apart, we usually removed one. The same could be true of branches side by side. You want the branch structure to be balanced, if possible.  A limb on one side of the tree has a partner on the other side, not always exactly opposite but near if possible. Some trees were developing a second leader also. The leader is the highest growing point on the tree and you want a tree to have one as a rule. A second leader is usually growing at a very tight angle from the trunk along side the main leader. These angles are generally weaker and can cause the tree to split from storm forces or with age. And frankly, the tree just looks better with a single leader. The secondary leaders can be removed at the main trunk or be cut back part way to allow the leader to remain in its position.

Here’s a good portion of the branches we removed.

We then chipped them to use as mulch in the gardens later in the year.

Well now. I had not planned to go like that about pruning. I did take a few shots of some plants freshly released from their ice confinement. Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ is ready to take off again. Always does my heart good to see those little leaves.

The cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) don’t look so happy. But they are marginally hardy anyway.

This little sedum is as gorgeous as the day the first snow flake fell. Its scientific name is bigger than it is – Sedum dasyphyllum variety glanduliferum.

And I love the little hummocks of Carex radiata.

And the witchhazels (Hamamelis) are blooming!

These late winter flowering shrubs are always out first to welcome a break in the weather.  If it gets cold the petals just curl back into a ball and wait for a warmer day. We have them all over the property so any walks during the next month or more should lead you to some. Most are fragrant.

I expect snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) and winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) to be blooming very soon as these are our two earliest spring bulbs. And the hellebores will come on fast too since the forecast suggests no bitter cold in the near future. Subject to change, of course.

So what to do instead? I was looking at the plants in my window and thinking that would be a good start. I brought several things in from home so I would be sure to take good care of them. It’s hard to ignore an Abutilon gasping for water when you can see it for eight-plus hours a day. And it is really paying off. The windows face…. What direction do they face? Just a second I’ll ask Chad. South. They face south. I actually figured that out before I asked him. But I did ask just to be sure. No wonder the plants are happy. That’s the Number One direction for a winter plant window in the Midwest. Hmmm, I’ll be damned. Isn’t that fortunate? Beats the hell out of a cubicle. Not that there’s anything wrong with a cubicle. But let’s go on.

Number one on my list of window plants that are making me super happy despite the crappy weather is Euphorbia fulgens.

Scarlet Plume appears to be the common name. I guess it does have a scarlet flower but it’s not a plume. Or not my idea of a plume. Anyway, it has beautiful burgundy leaves all year so it makes a great plant for containers in summer. I love the color and texture.

Don’t forget about texture when designing your gardens and containers. But if you bring Euphorbia fulgens in for the winter you get the flowers too. Now mind you, I’m not one for buying winter blooming plants as a rule. I just fail too often to keep them happy enough to bloom. We don’t even have to talk about the not keeping them happy enough to live. That’s a whole nother issue. When I’m plant shopping, if it is described as winter-blooming? Shooooot, I just automatically skip it, unless it has great foliage of course.

Back to the Euphorbia. I got my first one in 2008 from Baker’s Acres in Ohio (go there!). I killed it come winter. But Sue Nord at our IMA Greenhouse got one too. It was probably a two feet tall bush at the time I killed mine. And come that January it was blooming. Gorgeous scarlet red flowers. I had to have it. I got two more small plants from the Greenhouse (propagated from cuttings) in late winter/early spring 2009 but killed them – I think I actually over-watered them. People that know my overwintering regime know this fact is truly amazing as I am famous (or infamous) for not watering from November to May. You cull the weak stuff right fast that way, trust me. Anyhow, they died.

So in Spring 2010 I bought three more. Obviously I had to have the plant. I put each in its own container because I knew I wanted to save them and this way I didn’t have to re-pot or anything at the end of the season. I even added granite grit to the soil to increase drainage. The drowning still haunted me a bit. This stuff is great for any plant that needs extra drainage. I use it in all my succulent pots anymore. Not that you have to have it. It’s just nice in my opinion. It’s sold for feeding poultry.

You know the term “rare as hen’s teeth”? Well that’s because chickens don’t have teeth. They grind their food in their gizzard. The grit in the gizzard helps grind it all up. Now if your chickens are running loose they will get little rocks and the like from the soil. But if they are confined then it’s a good idea to supplement with some grit. I bet you all were just dying to have some chicken knowledge dropped on you. Better chicken knowledge than chicken poop, I say.

Back to the plants. I noticed buds forming on my plants a month ago I bet, maybe longer. Two weeks ago they started blooming. All three plants have blooms and more buds coming. Unfortunately, they face south toward that sunlight. But they are right pretty from the backside.

Look at this:

Doesn’t it just seem to say “Please. Please let me have some sun. I need some sun. Sun. Sun? Where are you, Sun?” Took the words right out of my mouth.  Oh, I meant to talk about more plants but I’m already past 900 words. And shoot we need a video. I was feeling kinda blah until I really started looking at the Euphorbia fulgens. But now, why I think this will chase away the last bit of those winter blues.

One of the places a person could still find the joy is in container gardening. Even containers can suffer, but at least you can watch a few of them and give them extra care. The rest of the garden can pretty much go to hell as you devote the wee bit of energy the weather has not totally sapped from you to those containers… Containers you thoughtfully place near the house so watering and other chores are easily accomplished. This would have been a great year to have used those water-holding crystals. Alas, I did not. Wait, they probably would have caused everything to rot during the rainy season anyway. And it’s a little hard to incorporate them when it turns dry two months after you planted your pots.
Our containers at the IMA look very good this year despite the weather we have experienced. I did a quick tour of them this morning and took some pictures so what you see is in real-time.

Patty tried one of  the new trailing vincas (Catharanthus roseus ‘Cora Cascade Magenta’) for her pots between the Formal Garden and Lilly House.

I think this group has a lot of potential. I’m always looking for good flowering trailing plants.
In her pots at the front of the Formal Garden texture reigns supreme over color.

Katie created a hot tropical scheme with flowers in oranges, yellows, reds combined with burgundy foliage.

I love these colors of course.

Jim showed the elegance you can have when using a single species in a container. Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) is one of the best for this. In front of Lilly House is ‘King Tut’, a wonderful slightly smaller grower.

In the planters behind the house are my favorite of all, just plain old papyrus. Stunning, elegant, beautiful, and yet, tough as nails – if only people were so grand.

Even from below they are gorgeous.

In front of the Deer-Zink Pavilion I placed a single giant variegated Agave americana. They thrive on heat and require very little water so it was great for this summer.

As an added bonus for using a single species – all the plants require the same care.

You can do the same by using multiple species having the same requirements like I did at Garden Terrace with several different succulents.

Around the Sutphin Mall I selected a purple and silver palette this year.

I really like this Tibouchina grandiflora (princess flower, glory bush) with the hot pepper ‘Purple Flash’.

The hot peppers are fabulous plants for sunny situations whether in containers or in the ground.
It’s delightfully cool today, maybe it could rain too? Or am I just wishin’ and hopin’?

Ask us, and well, after last week, we might have to say Felder Rushing. IMA TV stopped to chat with the Southern gentleman in the Oldfields orchard while he was at the IMA for his talk as part of our Planet Indy series. Check out the latest IMA TV episode and you’ll see why we’re crazy for this offbeat gardening guru.

I get to the point that I’m either begging for frost to come and take out the garden or begging for one more day above freezing so there won’t be any damage. Gardening schizophrenia. It doesn’t happen so much with things here at the IMA, but at home ….. well, that’s another story.
As if the gardening I normally do at my quaint little domicile isn’t sufficient to fill many of my waking hours, this year I decided to plant the entire backyard. Down went cardboard, paperboard, and paper feed bags followed by my special rabbit and chicken manure mulch.

Poof! The grass was gone. Unfortunately the dandelions, violets, and bind weed were not as cooperative and they accounted for at least half of my “turf”. But really the only serious weeding I had to do in these new areas was the bindweed. Next year there will be plenty of glyphosate sprayed on the beast. Because I’m going to have so much more free time? Who the hell am I kidding? Whatever. Hopefully I will manage to get a good spray program going because pulling the damn things does not work.
Perhaps the truly scary part of all this is the fact I was able to fill nearly all that space.

It’s hard to believe I once thought it was too much area. Not true. Not true at all. By the end of August, I was searching for more open ground. By early September I finally kind of gave up, though I am sure I will put a few more things in the ground about ten minutes before frost hits. I really am crazy! Why didn’t you people tell me?

Overall, I have been pretty-well pleased with the results. My new dahlias grew and bloomed beautifully.

My tomatoes went in late, but got huge.

My favorite is the variegated one that Gwyn gave me. That’s a feral petunia with it. They just show up every so often.

Even the fruit is variegated.

The Colocasia ‘Thai Giant Strain’ got fairly gigantic, almost six feet tall, but I know I can get it bigger.

And it has a lovely bloom.

I didn’t feel there was quite enough color, so I enhanced some Paulownia stems with paint (Mango Madness).

Then to give everything a little sparkle, a scattering of wine bottles, blue mostly.

Anyway, soon I will be having to answer the question that we all must face this time of year when the all-knowing weather forecasters say temperatures are dropping near freezing – Do I cover everything with sheets?
“The forecast says 34.”
“That’s not actually freezing.”
“But it’s only 2 degrees off.”
“Is it cloudy?”
“Any wind? Wind helps.”
“Unless it blows the sheets off and it drops to 31!”
“Aw crap! Because you know, you just know. After this one frost it’s going to be 70 for the next three weeks. “
“But I just want to get it over with. Let it die.”
“But if I cover it this one night I might have dahlias til Thanksgiving.”
If you haven’t lived it, well then, you just can’t understand it.
And if all that isn’t enough, when one finally decides it is time to give the garden over to Jack Frost and his evil sister Wanda Winter, one then must decide whom to save whom to leave to die. Gardening is not for the weak or the meek. But bi-polars do very well.

Lycoris chinensis

I am not alone in this desire to push the limits of hardiness. I know a lot of people with Zonal Denial. Virtually all my coworkers and many friends as well are afflicted. I’ve long said that if I was gardening in the tropics I’m sure I would be trying to grow maples and beeches. It must be the I-can’t –have-it-so-I-want-it-even-more syndrome. Before I can even tell you about some successes I must confess some failures (it’s the recovering Catholic in me).

Let’s go alphabetical – Acanthus mollis ‘Hollard’s Gold’, Agave parryi, Canna ‘Red Stripe’, Colocasia esculenta ‘Tea Cup’, Crocosmia ‘Eastern Star’ and ‘Walcroy’, Musa basjoo (two in one year and it is a zone 5 but I forgot to mulch), Salvia mexicana ‘Limelight’, some palm tree, and many more I’m sure. There. I feel better.

One of the first non-hardy plants I had success overwintering in the ground was Salvia guaranitica, anise sage. The incredible cobalt blue flowers of this salvia are unsurpassed.

And they bloom from July onward so it’s great color for a really long time. The first couple years I had it in the Southwest Border Garden I dug it in the fall and tried to overwinter it like a dahlia. Dead. They do develop tubers similar to dahlias but I had no luck. Then one year I decided to leave them in the ground and see what would happen. Success! The straight species and the light blue ‘Argentine Skies’ (or is that ‘Argentina Skies’?) have been in the garden ever since.

A few years later we added ‘Black and Blue’ which has proven just as hardy. ‘Black and Blue’ is my favorite because the calyx that holds the flower is black as is the upper part of the stem.

I have friends whose plants are increasing in size annually. An interesting aspect of this plant is it seems to get taller when it comes back from overwintered plants compared to newly planted specimens. So if you want a plant under 3 feet buy new. Also, with marginally hardy salvias it is best to leave the stems alone over winter. If you cut them off the water can run down the stem in to the plant crown. The water freezes and the crown blows apart.

In the Garden for Everyone a Lycoris chinensis (surprise lily, naked ladies) was blooming last week. There’re probably 3 or more plants really but only one blooming. The individual flowers are stunning in their deep yellow color and form sitting atop naked 2 feet tall stalks.

In some catalogues you can find it listed as a zone 6 with “maybe 5” added. Sometimes it is listed as zone 7 and warmer. Somebody suggested we try it so we bought 5 bulbs. Unlike the more familiar Lycoris squamigera, the leaves of L chinensis emerge in the fall. In Indiana that is not the best timing. Winter can be a little hard on foliage. But these plants get enough energy back to the bulb for at least some bloom. I definitely want some for home. The red flowered Lycoris radiata deserves more trialing too (I’ve only killed it once).

Now, back to the Southwest Border Garden where Impatiens omeiana has been flourishing since 2002. This perennial impatiens is listed as a maybe-6. I. omeiana is grown for the foliage, bronzey green with a creamy midrib and veining – absolutely gorgeous. Added interest is provided by the reddish stems and leaf petioles.

The pale yellow flowers come in fall and are interesting but not overly showy. This is a plant more gardeners need to experiment with. My photo from this week doesn’t do it justice. You see it May through July and it’s full-on lust. Check for better pictures on our Facebook page.

Sometimes (okay, more often than not) we discover a plant that is hardy by accident. Well, not accident so much as forgetfulness.

Calla lilies are not considered hardy in central Indiana. And often are not. But in the lower cutting garden is a cultivar called Mango. It has survived 5 winters in the ground and the clumps get a little bigger each year. It had been purchased for a container one year and the next I planted it in the ground. That fall I forgot all about it. In late Spring a leaf started to unfurl from the soil, deep green with white spots. It was ‘Mango’. The white callas I had bought to use for cutflowers weren’t doing so great so I thought, “Why not leave them in the ground too? At least I would get a few blooms”. They died the first winter. Like I said, it’s a gamble. This year I have 3 Eucomis bicolor (pineapple lily) up that were missed in the fall dig. This is the second time we’ve experienced that. My friend Terry had Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ self-sowing in her garden a one point.

I’ve had Agapanthus come back once – one out of about 10 plants. At home I had a Phygelius (Cape fuchsia) survive several years. Never would have thought that could happen. And all those plants I listed as failures? Don’t think for a moment I won’t try again. I can keep making believe I’m gardening in zone 7 a long time.

Personally I don’t think a date on the calendar brings bad luck. Frequently what appears to be bad luck is actually the result of bad judgment. When I rear ended the car in front of me many years ago it wasn’t bad luck. It was stupidity. Why did I take my foot off the brake at a red light? Maybe I was distracted by the Scotsman in the other bucket seat. When I don’t have a presentation ready and I have an article due and a blog to write – all on the same day, it isn’t bad luck. It’s procrastination (I almost said procastration. Entirely different. And as a general rule I am not but sometimes…..) We make much of our bad luck in my opinion. So on this day that is rife with superstition I’m looking at why this is a GOOD day.

I am alive. Therefore I can still change things that I don’t like about various aspects of my life and world. I have a job I love.

Part of the reason for that is I work with a group of people that in many ways are one of my many families. Which means moments of “Get out of my face or else!” and moments of “What would I do without you?” Just yesterday so many of them helped me get caught up with my own areas that I can take a breath now. And they are talented designers as well. I think Katie’s pots at the Lilly House with the beautiful foliage in coppers, bronzes, burgundies and golds accented with deep purple and orange flowers are going to be great. They are looking good already.

I’m anxious to see how everyone’s designs turnout as the season progresses. The tall plants in that image are Euphorbia cotinifolia, sometimes called tropical smokebush. Purple smokebush, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’, can be found on the north side of the main parking lot.

The connection between the common and scientific names is simple. The Euphorbia cotinifolia has leaves similar to the leaves of the Cotinus. So we have the specific epithet of cotinifolia, cotini – cotinus and folia – foliage. Foliage like cotinus. See? Euphorbia foliage on the left, Cotinus on the right.

It’s so simple.

I have wonderful mix of friends. Freaks, geeks, and uniques.
I like my biological family. It’s easy to love family but harder to like them enough you actually are willing to spend time with them.

I am planting lots of plants that are new to me in one way or another. New cultivars of species I’ve grown before as well as species completely new to me. This is a new cultivar of Colocasia esculenta called ‘Elena’.

It’s the first chartreuse elephant ear from this species. I think it will be beautiful. It’s chartreuse, of course it will be beautiful. Learning feels sooooo good.

I can listen to 2008 album releases from Dolly Parton – Backwoods Barbie (Bless her, she is a Barbie doll!), Madonna – Hard Candy (Oh yea, I want some of your Turkish Delight), and Donna Summer – Crayons (The queen is back). Any Grammy winners there? I don’t give a crap. Music is about what touches your soul or makes your booty bounce.

And lastly but not leastly, this is my momma’s birthday. I’d be a no-account son if I didn’t mention her when my blog entry falls on the same day. She would have been 88. Now perhaps I would have been born regardless of her existence (some things are just meant to be you know) but no doubt my love of gardening was greatly influenced by her. I’m sure she thought I was crazy and going to hell at the very least. But she never said too much. All in all we did fine considering how differently we viewed so much in the world. And we could always talk plants. She and zinnias are forever connected in my mind.