I am still digging tropicals and other non-hardies at home. If the weather had not been so great I would be in deep double-dug doo-doo. As it is, I’m sort of leisurely going along – but admittedly starting to look over my shoulder for “real” November weather. Whether it was the cooler summer or the steady rains I don’t know but many plants did extra good this year. The Amorphophallus konjac got huge.

The Xanthosoma violaceum produced “pups”. A first for me.

Even a stroll around the IMA reveals horticulture rarities. One of the bananas Jim planted by the Rain Garden bloomed this year. Since that stalk will die anyway he just left it in the ground. The leaves look real sad but that bloom, that bloom thinks it can still make fruit. The middle of November and it is barely touched by cold.

These little yellow flowers would each develop into a banana in the perfect (tropical) climate.

Behind Deer Zink the containers still have variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegata’) looking great. On November 13!

On the Sutphin Mall Geranium ‘Rozanne’ demonstrates why I still am willing to plant it. Plenty of flowers on a plant that started blooming in May.

The woody plants continue to put on a show as well. Near the Formal Garden, European beeches glow in the afternoon sun. All that yellow holding back the gray of winter.

In the Overlook an oak and some viburnums seem to have color coordinated themselves.

So even though it is mid-November there is still plenty to enjoy and delight in the gardens. Why don’t you come and visit a spell?

And you never know where a magnolia is going to show up.

Why, a lot of folks even thought I was from the South. They seemed genuinely surprised I was from some place as far north as Indiana. Just something about the way I spoke I guess. That was just so precious. I was there for the national meeting of the Garden Writers Association (GWA). My first. I finally joined this past winter after some more urging from Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp, the Hoosier Gardener. Plus Indianapolis will be hosting the national meeting in 2011 so I needed to get some idea of how they did it in Raleigh. Mark Zelonis, the Ruth Lilly Deputy Director of Historic and Environmental Preservation, attended as well so I wasn’t the only IMA staff there.

The conference consisted of a mixture of lectures and tours. I always like the tours best but enjoyed the lectures as well. Many were on the internet and social media (Surprise! Surprise!). I attended one or two of those.

But let’s face it. It’s no secret that I am a plant whore. I wanted to see gardens and plants. If I would have been invited to see some gardens during the lectures I would have been out that door faster than a nest of fire ants can attack a Yankee. (Did I mention I love Southern accents? Hell, I love all accents. Why should we all sound alike? Cause we ain’t.) Fortunately there were enough gardens on the regular schedule to keep me satiated – mostly.

Plant Delights is on every Plant Pig’s list of nurseries and gardens to visit. Tony Avent has created a truly unique place. The gardens are filled with plants that explore all the possibilities for gardens, especially in zone 7 North Carolina. But I’m always up for pushing the hardiness scale. One isn’t really surprised to find palms and variegated bananas at Plant Delights.

But I’m always taken back a bit when I see huge agaves in the ground knowing they survive the winter right there!

I showed remarkable restraint and only bought 5 plants.

The Sarah P. Duke Gardens (Duke University) are wonderful as well. There are wooded sites, lakes, terraced gardens, and wonderful plants everywhere. You can see everything from old Dawn Redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides – like around the Sutphin Fountain) to native Loblolly pines to pink bananas (Musa velutina)

At NC State University there is the JC Raulston Arboretum named after the great plantsman and educator I wish I could have met. He believed in getting plants of merit out to as many people as possible so they would not languish in obscurity. He introduced an enormous number of plants to the horticulture world. And he wasn’t a purist considering natives. He wanted to find as many plants as possible to use in the North Carolina Piedmont and display them at the Arboretum so everyone had access to them.  Like any good garden, you can find design ideas for any part of the country there. And a good many plants hardy here. This Callicarpa americana ‘Welch’s Pink’ (American beauty berry) is one I would like to try.

It’s a garden I highly recommend and don’t miss the trial gardens. The hot peppers were just that. HOT!

One of the best parts of the conference was the closing night award ceremonies. Because SEASONS won the Silver Award for Best Overall Product in the newsletter category! Be on the lookout for an e-newsletter replacing it soon. Here’s a shot of the very happy IMA group with the award.

Now, just one more little thing. When I left for this trip it was summer. When I returned one week later it was fall. I’m not happy about that. When I find out who is responsible they are in big trouble. BIG trouble. You would think I could leave town for a week and you all could keep things from going to hell. I am most disappointed. It will be reflected in how I dole out my good graces. I need a lot more time to prepare for moving plants inside.

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.

image courtesy of neatorama.com

I admit these temps are not ideal for maximum growth on my precious tropicals but for everything else (including me, okay, especially me) it’s fantastic. The Hydrangea paniculata ‘Kyushu’ along the mall has never been so happy. Not that they have looked bad other years. It’s just they look extra full this year.

The Sedum ‘Black Jack’ and ‘Matrona’ on the tunnel at the IMA entrance suffered in the spring with foliar disfigurement from fungus but now are glorious in their fall bloom, all covered in an assortment of bees (many of them of the honey variety).

I had not planned to have a mix of these two but nature thought otherwise. ‘Black Jack’ is a very dark burgundy mutation of the gray/green flushed with burgundy ‘Matrona’. But it is a rather unstable mutation and ‘Black Jack’ very easily reverts back to ‘Matrona’. Kinda like a politician heading to church on Sunday morning after a Saturday night full of debauchery in the clubs. Anyhow. We are now in September and the temps should begin cooling regardless of the summer weather pattern. The last several weeks before frost are the glory days for one of my favorite plants, dahlias. Though they bloom nicely all summer, it is here in the autumn when the sun looses a bit of its power and the nights cool that dahlias really start pumping out the blooms. It seems they are at their absolute zenith when the first frost hits. And I’m okay with that. Afterall, they have been blooming since July or earlier. Let the frost blacken them and send them off to their winter sleep. Come spring we will start all over again.

Dahlias were brought to Europe over two centuries ago from there homeland in Mexico and Central and South America. It was nearly 200 years before that when the Spanish conqusitadors first saw them in Mexico. The tubers were first tried as food. The Europeans found them rather bland though I think the petals will work nicely in a salad or as a decoration. After the food thing didn’t work out so well the blossoms were looked at and declared pretty enough for the garden. The modern dahlia was created using up to seven different species mostly from Mexico and Guatemala. You rarely find the species type today with the exception of the tree dahlia. Which as it turns out may be two distinct species, one white the other lavender. The tree dahlias can reach 25 – 30 feet in height but they take a long time to bloom so success this far north may not come every year. Nor will those heights. You can find more information in great detail from the American Dahlia Society. We grow several older cultivars here at the IMA. I think of them as justified and ancient.

Many of these came from Old House Gardens, a mail-order nursery that specializes in heirloom bulbs (and tubers and rhizomes). They have Dahlia atropurpurea introduced in 1789 which I should try one day. But for now we have plenty of others. Jersey’s Beauty is from 1923. It’s one of out tallest growing cultivars. I’ve seen ours over 6 feet tall.

One of the heaviest bloomers is ‘Glorie van Heemstede. It’s called a waterlily type because the flower shape is reminiscent of waterlily blossoms.

Another yellow but with small ball shaped flowers is ‘Yellow Gem’. This one dates back to 1914.

Introduced in 1944, ‘Sherwood Peach’ has the largest flowers of the heirloom varieties we grow. The big peach flowers have a hint of lavender in them with makes them all the more beautiful.

I first tried to just cut the fully open flower and leave the lateral buds. I couldn’t get enough stem for it to be useful. I now cut the stem longer and the lateral buds add can be cut off or left be. The heirloom that really brought dahlias back to forefront of current garden design beginning in the early to mid 90’s has to be ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ introduced in 1927.

The screaming scarlet flowers combined with black lacy foliage make it an absolute standout in the garden.

I’m quite certain it is in the parentage of most of the current dark leaved plants on the market including ‘Bishop’s Children’ (duh) and the Happy Single® series (They couldn’t find Happy Marrieds?) We have three that I just call by their color as they were purchased before individual names were given like Happy Single® Romeo™ from Proven Winners. Just look at all those trademark symbols. I call the ones we have simply Happy Single® red, lavender, and amber.

I wish I had space and time to go into the modern cultivars but I fear I may have said too much already. So much to tell you all about. All the plants I mentioned growing here can be found in the cutting garden adjacent to the IMA Greenhouse.

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.

Crocus pushing itself up through the mulch

The main plants I want to talk about are the witchhazels, Hamamelis. We have several in the IMA gardens in full bloom right now. Or they were. When it gets real cold the petals curl back up in a ball and wait for a slightly warmer day. Witchhazels do best in full sun or part shade and do like good soil. They make great cuts for a vase too.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ and H. mollis ‘Wisley Supreme’ can both be found in the Garden for Everyone. Most witchhazels are somewhat fragrant but these two are especially so. You can catch their scent from a long way off. Both are a bright yellow that really shows on a cloudy February afternoon. This is ‘Pallida’ on the top and ‘Wisley Supreme’ on the bottom.

Pallida

Wisley Supreme

A third yellow cultivar is blooming in the Tennis Court area of Oldfields, H. x intermedia ‘Primavera’.

Primavera

Yet to bloom is another yellow cultivar, ‘Arnold Promise’, selected by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University located in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. The oldest public arboretum in America, the Arnold is one of the meccas of horticulture for those who love woody plants.

Diane

Just so you don’t get the idea witchhazels only come in yellow I want to show you two others we have. From the red group we have H. x intermedia ‘Diane’ behind the Lilly house at the start of the Ravine garden.  Notice how the flowers are not fully open? That is due in part because this particular plant is somewhat shaded. ‘Diane’ is one of the best reds.

Of course a garden isn’t really a garden without some orange in it so we have the beautiful ‘Jelena’, another H. x intermedia located in the Southwest Border Garden.

Jelena

A close inspection of the flowers reveals they are really made up of at least three colors – red, orange, and yellow.

Jelena close-up

The overall effect is very, very tropical – mango, papaya, and passion fruit. In February tropical is very, very good if not actually needed. Witchhazels tend to have good fall color too. An interesting tidbit, the red and orange flowering ones tend to have red and orange fall color and the yellow flowering ones tend to have yellow fall color.

Some witchhazels get quite large and I think they could make nice small multi-trunked trees over time. I’m thinking in smaller gardens or near patios, that sort of thing.

And the snowdrops have stated blooming! These antique bulbs are located several places but these images were from between the Formal Garden and the Ravine Garden.

Snowdrops

I’ve been trying to look at other horticulture/gardening blogs. I came across one by Margaret Roach (15 years with THE Martha) called A Way to Garden. There I stumbled upon an entry about using cardboard as a weed suppressant and a way to prep an area to be planted. I had read about and used newspaper but this cardboard use was new. These materials are used in conjunction with some sort of mulch. I’m trying it at home this year. Look out ground ivy.

In these continuing wintry days and uncertain economical times I long for warmer weather and comforting affection, some sweet summer lovin’.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Dolly Parton.

Sutphin Fountain

But I need some color! These deciduous shrubs with yellow, orange, green, or red stems provide it like nothing else in the middle of a Midwest winter and are a hardy easy to grow group of plants. The colors really pop against snow or evergreens but are excellent in any situation. Don’t be afraid to cut a few to bring indoors too.

The first plant I want to mention is a willow. Yes, a willow. Not a weeping willow though they can have nice twigs as well. This is Salix alba ‘Britzensis’, the coral bark willow.

Coral bark willow

It can become a tree of considerable size. But as with the other shrubs in this article, the best color is on the younger growth so you want to be cutting them back on a regular basis. Usually that means cutting out about one third of the old growth annually. ‘Britzensis’ grows so fast you can cut the whole plant to the ground in early spring and have an 8 foot shrub by late summer. It doesn’t need to be in a wet area but avoid super dry sites. In this photo of the base of the plant notice where it has been cut back in previous years. The older the stems, the weaker the color.

Some color

Another shrub that isn’t always chosen for its winter twig color is Kerria japonica, Japanese kerria (aren’t common names clever?). Kerria is grown mostly for the bright golden yellow flowers covering it in April. In the winter, when anything other than white, brown, or gray is in desperately short supply, these green twigs are a welcome sight. This is the only shrub in the blog that grows well in both sun and shade. The cultivar ‘Kincan’ has lots of yellow striping on the twigs. It’s very nice. Here’s a group of the cultivar ‘Golden Guinea’ planted near the back side of the Toby.

Golden Guinea

The majority of the shrubs we grow for the color of their stems are in the genus Cornus, generally referred to as the “twig dogwoods” – redtwig, yellowtwig, etc. Multiple species are in this group and you can also find them with white or yellow variegated leaves for even more seasons of interest, even solid chartreuse leaves (always my fave). As a general rule however these are grown for the winter interest they provide. All produce the best color in sunny sites. For yellow twigs there’s Cornus alba ‘Bud’s Yellow’ near the entrance to the Greenhouse.

‘Bud’s Yellow’

In Nonie’s Garden is the bright red Cornus sericiea ‘Cardinal’ looking really sharp right now.

Bright red Cornus sericiea

And then there is my favorite. This one is yellow, orange, coral, and pink – Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’.

Midwinter Fire

Under good conditions the twig dogwoods can put on 3-4 feet of growth in a year. Stems over 2 years old on any of these are noticeably duller. In this shot you can see clearly where the new growth occurred last year. These were trimmed high to maintain a bit of screening function. It’s a practice you won’t to attempt very often. You would soon have 4 feet of dull gray topped with 18 inches or so of bright color.

Nice color

I said earlier these are tough plants. As living proof here’s one surviving another Indiana winter in a container. Not a place for a delicate little boo-boo-baby plant.

Boo Boo baby plant?

That’s it for this week. Try to get out to the gardens and enjoy the Winter show.

Rather instead, we got out in the Ravine Garden to do some pruning on everything from junipers to shrub roses to crabapples. It was still a bit on the cold side when kneeling in snow. And we had to be careful about walking up and down the steps as they are still snow and ice covered. All in all though, it was nice to be able to get outside and do some gardening. Not that I have all my “inside” work finished.

I have spent time finalizing my picks for the cutting garden this week. I grow a good many of the annuals myself. It’s just not feasible for our suppliers to grow one or two flats of some plant or another. And it would cost considerably more than our budget would allow even when times were good. And if I don’t plant them myself how will I learn the proper methods involved in starting the plants? I shouldn’t keep saying “my” and “I” so much. It’s usually a cooperative effort. But the cutting garden is mine and if we have crop failure it really is my responsibility to correct things. This year Geoff will have a wide range of vegetables he will be starting from seed for the Orchard. It will be good to have vegetables growing here again. We will talk about that more later.

I order most of my seed from wholesale sources which helps to keep the cost down. That also means I get fairly large quantities at times which isn’t a problem. It’s important to remember most seed can be held for 2 or 3 years without any serious loss of germination percentages. Yes, I know some are very short-lived and some are viable for a thousand years, but please, I’m talking in general terms here. Go get your own damn soapbox. Now where was I? Oh yea, seeds. When you have leftover seed just do your best to store them dry and cool. I don’t go so far as refrigeration. But I do think it is a good idea to put them in a container you can seal pretty tight. It can me glass, metal, or plastic. Keep it out of the sun and somewhere the temperatures don’t swing wildly. It’s really not complicated. Some seeds will always be good and some won’t. No big deal.

I’m trying a new dahlia from seed this year called ‘Black Beauty’. I really like the very dark flowers. They look great with bright colors and especially, green flowers. I think an arrangement of ‘Black Beauty’ with yellow-green Zinnia elegans ‘Envy’ and the hot orange of the plumed cockscomb Celosia argentea ‘Fresh Look Orange’ would be great.

It would also look great with pinks like Celosia ‘Cramer’s Rose’.

Amaranths are another staple of my cutting garden here at the IMA. New this year will be Amaranthus ‘Cramer’s Amazon’ (Ralph Cramer has done a lot for cut flowers). This one has hot magenta flowers and just as important, purple/burgundy and green leaves. I never seem to have enough foliage for the arrangers and this looks like a good candidate. I can start using it even before it flowers. I’m a little concerned that the one image I found on the web isn’t quite as nice as the one in the catalogue. Imagine that.

The cutting garden is somewhat time-consuming. It takes awhile to get everything planted then there is all the usual weeding and watering and general maintenance plus the several hours a week spent cutting. But I love the experimenting with new species and cultivars (some move out of the cutting garden into the landscape). And it’s so rewarding when we can pick a whole Toro bed-full to take to the Lilly House.

Ah Summer, I miss you so in winter.

Because we know, do we ever know, that a squirrel or a freeze or a lightening strike can take it away in a blink of the eye. For instance, on true wintery days like today we are very appreciative of plants with colorful twigs and berries.

Deciduous hollies are probably my first pick for a good berry show. This group of plants consists of mostly Ilex verticillata (winterberry) cultivars and hybrids and Ilex decidua (possumhaw – you gotta love that name) cultivars and hybrids. The fruit is usually red but cultivars are available with gold and orange as well. While these will tolerate a little shade the more sun they get the better they fruit. They will also tolerate wetter than average soils and are not as sensitive as evergreen hollies to our sometimes bitter winters. As with other hollies you need both male and female plants (Prop 8 would pass very easily in Hollyfornia) but you can have several females for one male (every male holly’s fantasy no doubt – what happens in Holly Vegas stays …) or you can just rely on a male from somebody else nearby (like in Desperate Hollywives).

Most of these plants get quite large, 6+ tall and wide in less than 10 years, with some eventually getting well over 10 feet tall and wide. But some dwarf forms are available, including the very beautiful ‘Red Sprite’ planted in Nonie’s Garden and on the tunnel as you approach our main entrance. There is another group of these near the parking garage. The taller ones in Nonie’s Garden are ‘Cacapon’.

Nonie's Garden

As you leave the property at 40th street look to the south between the 2 signs and there is another group of deciduous hollies. The pale orange ones are ‘Wintergold’ and the reds are ‘Afterglow’.

Wintergold

The ones without fruit are the male, ‘Jim Dandy’. Two other male cultivars are named ‘Southern Gentleman’ and ‘Red Escort’. Can you believe those names? Sounds like a male stripper’s convention.

When I said the hollies were my first pick I had forgotten the Viburnums. I’ll give you some names. Sorry, there’s a limit to what I can do here so be good and do your own research. For great fruit in viburnums I like V. dilitatum (‘Asian Beauty’ ‘Michael Dodge’, ‘Cardinal Candy’), V. setigerum, V. sieboldii. Other fruiting shrubs of interest include the native Symphorocarpos (coralberry) and the not native Callicarpa (beautyberry).
I’m out of time and space to cover the colored twigs! I will try to do something on them at a later date. Before I forget, I saw a red fox in the gardens today. How great is that. I hope it sticks around and eats lots of voles. Of course, the fox is just pretty to look at regardless. Just like a well placed deciduous holly outside your biggest window. Gotta go folks. Is that hot chocolate ready yet?

From all of us here at IMA blog head quarters, we wish you a safe and happy new year!

As a gift of sorts and to make our vows public, we’d also like to treat you to some of our resolutions. Enjoy!

Daniel resolves…To be nice. Eat Twizzlers. Play soccer. Be brilliant. To follow some advice from Ghandi: Be the change that you want to see in the world. And in the words of LL Cool J: Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years.

Charlie resolves…For this techie to learn the difference between modern and postmodern art.

Anne resolves…To bring more film artists to the IMA and to The Toby…Wim Wenders, anyone?

Gary resolves…To get the gambling monkey off my back.  I give it 20-1 odds.

Matt resolves…To ween myself off of fast food, join a gym, and to always remember to check things in Internet Explorer before sending out a link!

Amber resolves…To live in the now! No more worrying about the future and what it holds – just live day by day and enjoy it. Also, I need to drink less soda and take my vitamins. Baby steps…

Irvin resolves (with obligatory preface)…I’m a bad, bad horticulturist so first of all – take better care of the plants I’m overwintering. Sow more seed (but no wild oats). Photograph the gardens as they develop this year.

Phil resolves… To impress Anne Laker then together continue taking over greening the world.

And if you too want to make your resolution public, leave a comment!

Until the ‘09, peace.