Irvin Etienne, Aesthetic Czar, whose garden trowel I am not worthy to clean, is away this week.  He said something about a professional conference in St Louis, but I hear Dolly Parton is performing in Branson, so I’m not sure…

Anyway, he left me keys to the blog-o-graph and said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

More and more this season, I have been enraptured with wonder at what nature does.  For the blog’s title, I turned to Jens Jensen, one of the great evangelists for the church of mother earth.   In the first chapter of Siftings (1939) he said that the “[natural world] about us has within it all the joy and happiness that we need.”  Amen.  As much as my life is enriched by the amazing work I see in our galleries, more nourishing for my soul is the beauty and humility of plants.  I want to offer three little samples.

Symbiosis.  A pea does not spring full grown, drenched in butter, from the head  of the Jolly Green Giant.  It is the product of co-operation with a bacteria Rhizobium leguminosarum.  Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient for crop growth, it is not readily available in the soil.  Nitrogen is 78% of the air around us, but can you grab some to get your plants to grow lushly?  I didn’t think so.  A slender vine leaps from the earth, makes beautiful flowers, and delicious sweet peas – because it forms little nodules on its roots to shelter the bacteria.  As the bacteria goes happily about the business of life, it pulls this invisible gas nitrogen out of the air and provides it for the pea plant’s nutritional needs.  Does the iPhone have an app for that?

Effortlessly graceful patterns. The harmonious flow of line is a goal of design from cups to clothes to cars (well, okay, not for every designer and artist).   But how would humans know what beautiful pattern is if not for nature’s originals?  I love the swirl and arc of maturing sunflower seeds in arrays that cannot quite be predicted (in the IMA orchard, photo “Sunnyside up” by “whisperingwolf1” on Flickr)

If miraculous productiveness and original design are not enough to draw you into the church of nature surely the silky white color and heady perfume of the lilies that line the aisle between our new apple trees will convert you (thanks again to “whisperingwolf1”).

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.