You Can’t Go Home Again

As a North Carolina native, this title of a famous novel by Thomas Wolfe comes to mind anytime that I visit the southeastern United States. I was back in Richmond, Virginia this week where the spring season has begun. As our plane landed, I recognized the familiar sights of loblolly pines, wax myrtles, and of course, red-tipped photinias. Our group was heading to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden where we were to meet with their staff and tour their conservatory. As we drove along strip malls towards the gardens, I saw more indications that I was in the south: Chik-fil-A, Hardee’s, and Nandina domestica.

Once we reached the gardens and the red brick, Jeffersonian visitor center, we disembarked from our rental van. The air was in the low 50’s, a welcome treat from months in the 20’s here in Maine. Our group joked, “tell me again, why do we live in Maine?” Good question. Yes, the winters are long in Maine but so are the summers. You just learn to enjoy the winters and the snow. I am firmly committed to live in Maine and help make this new garden grow and had that thought in mind until I saw an old friend from the past.

The boxwood hedgerow in front of the visitor center was probably planted there as an homage to the gardens of Colonial Williamsburg. As I walked around the box planting, there up against the brick building was the old friend who I had not seen growing outside for years. In full, spectacular flower was the paper bush, Edgeworthia chrysantha. Oh, Edgeworthia, you are so beautiful. Plus, your daphne-scented flowers are to die for. In addition to your beautiful yellow and white flowers, you have large, gorgeous leaves that come out after flowering and stay in full splendor until fall. When I worked at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, the gardens featured a massive specimen that was 8 feet tall and wide, with a perfectly rounded canopy. That plant, which has since been given the cultivar name of ‘Snow Cream,’ was one of the most asked about plants in the garden.

Alas, I will probably have to wait until our conservatory is built at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens before growing Edgeworthia. With a cold hardiness down to USDA zone 7b, trying to grow paper bush outdoors in Maine and expecting it to survive the winter would be as foolish as me expecting Maine’s winters to be as mild as North Carolina’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Maine. I just wish that we could grow any of the gorgeous cultivars of Edgeworthia chrysantha out in the garden.

–Rodney

Images: Rodney Eason, treeflower

Glorious Gloriosa Daisies

This past week, a group of us were brainstorming a list of flowering plants native to the eastern United States. Among the coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and Joe-Pye weed exists a plant that is used more in ornamental beds than in the native landscape. The annual black-eyed Susan: Rudbeckia hirta, and its cultivars, seem to be more accepted in a carpet bedding scheme rather than in a naturalized landscape. These Rudbeckia, also known as Gloriosa daisies, originated as native seeds that were treated with colchicine. This research was first conducted by the late Albert Blakeslee when he was working at Smith College in Massachusetts. By treating the seed with colchicine, he was able to generate a strain of polyploids with larger flowers.

Since Blakeslee’s original research, the number of selections of Gloriosa daisies has continued to increase with plants of various colors and sizes. Some fantastic cultivars already available include ‘Prarie Sun,’ ‘Autumn Colors,’ and ‘Irish Eyes.’

We are buying in and growing several new cultivars this summer. I would also like to buy in some seed of R. hirta and start breeding and trialing new selections. From there, our new grower, Dan Robarts, would like to play around with hybridizing certain selections of R. hirta with other native species. We can try for several different hybrids and then select for flowers, leaves, and size. Can you imagine a 5′ tall Rudbeckia with flowers like ‘Autumn Colors’ and leaves like Rudbeckia maxima?

–Rodney 

Images: loghouseplants.com, theinemans

Figuring Things Out

We all want to make meaningful work while doing something different. As artists and designers we are seeking a work life described by creativity and joy versus following the rules. But often when we face adversity, we end up going the safe route and following the rules set by others who went before us.

Why is it in our human nature to follow the rules? What if we cast those rules aside while still working together as productive teams?

There is no shortage of motivational writing on being creative in today’s workplace. I’ve read quite a lot, practiced even more, and the best thing that I have found is to plan the night before and set your alarm early.

Every night before going to bed, I write out what I plan to do first thing in the morning. Then, once I see how much I want to get accomplished before I leave for work, I decide what time I need to get up and set my alarm. There is no book, no app, no motivational speaker out there that will set your alarm for you at the time you really need to get up. As John Wayne famously said, “we’re burning daylight.” Look at the habits of some of the most creative people. Most of them get up early and start on their creative work while the rest of us are hitting the snooze buttons.

As gardeners, we are accustomed to getting up early to start on our work. It must be our connection to the land and agriculture but one of the most serene times to be in the garden is as the sun is rising. There is an ethereal quality to the amber light casting its rays across the garden.

As the days are getting longer and hopefully, warmer, the urge to get up earlier and get stuff done is growing. I love learning about how other folks work, find their creative spark, and get focused on things that matter. What is your routine like for figuring things out?

–Rodney

Image: Schoolhouse Electric

Kittens, Tigers, and Sages

This past Sunday, our twin girls celebrated their tenth birthday. To surprise them, we decided to take them to the animal shelter so they could pick out their own kittens. After 45 minutes of looking at all of the kittens and cats in the shelter, they finally decided on the two kitten brothers formerly known as Chase and Scout. Aww, they are so adorable. Everybody in our house loves them. Even when they run around and wake us up in the middle of the night. We have since renamed them Oliver and Felix, which were the names our twins picked out. We know that they will someday turn into big, cuddly cats with idiosyncratic behaviors but for now, we enjoy watching them leap around and chase random pieces of thread around the room.

One day, as my mind was wandering (my wife tells me that it happens a lot), I started thinking how incredible it is that these little kittens are related to massive tigers. They have similar behaviors but the main difference being that the kittens will be our girls’ best friends while a tiger cub might eat them. Then, stay with me here, you pay to go to a zoo to see a tiger while no one, to my knowledge, has ever paid to go to a zoo to see a cage full of kittens. It would be cute but you can see that at home or on YouTube since it is full of kitten videos, I hear.

Now, this is the analogous part of this story, I started thinking about how folks are still planting little bedding salvias in their gardens while there are massive, show-stopping salvias available from nurseries. Here’s my point: why would you plant a bed full of little salvias (read into this as cute little kittens) when there are 3, 4, or even 5 feet tall salvias available from nurseries. These big sages are the tigers of the horticultural world. They start off as a small plant in early summer and then can grow up to 10 times their size by autumn. Big salvias such as Salvia madrensis, S. leucantha, and S. confertiflora start flowering in mid-summer and keep flowering right up until a heavy frost in November. They roar in the garden for up to 6 months. Plus, one well grown cultivar of a larger salvia species can take up the same garden bed area as 5-10 of its little kitten brethren.

I love all of the new and unusual Salvia cultivars on the market. This year, we are planting at least seven different selections as annuals and look to grow more in the future. For our USDA zone 6a garden in the mid-coast of Maine, we grow all Salvia (except for shade tolerant S. koyame) in full-sun with well-drained soils and consistent moisture. We top dress with compost when planting and then add an organic liquid fertilizer once temperatures pick up in the summer.

If you’ve never grown one of these ferocious cats but annually fill the front of your plant bed with little red-flowered kittens, I urge you to give one of the larger sages a try this summer. If you have already grown one of the larger species or cultivars, what are some of your favorites? I am interested in good flower colors and plants that stand up to summer weather with stiff, sturdy stems. Some of the larger salvias have a tendency to snap later in the season in high winds and I would love to hear which cultivars can survive roaring summer storms the best.

-Rodney

Images: Rodney Eason, grndoordesign

Heating a Greenhouse In New England

After the bitter cold New England winter of 2013-14, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens decided to turn off the heat in our greenhouse this winter. Well, sort of. We compared the cost of what we paid for fuel during the 2013-14 winter months to what we paid for annuals that were brought in from outside nurseries. Believe or not, even with buying close to 10,000 plants, plugs, and seeds, it was almost the same amount of money.

We have one Quonset hut greenhouse approximately 20 wide by 60 feet long heated by a propane-powered, forced-air, Modine heater. The frame is covered by two layers of clear plastic, which are inflated by a squirrel-cage blower. Last winter, we had the thermostat set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit in order to overwinter select tropicals and tender perennials as specimen and stock plants. On nights when we dipped to subzero temperatures, the steam plume just billowed out of the heater’s smoke stack, along with dollar bills. Keeping a greenhouse warm with a 50 degree delta between inside and outside temperatures was just too much for our utility budget to handle.

I have since spoken to a few nursery owners who are faced with similar dilemmas. Many are choosing to turn their greenhouses off during the winter, fire up the heaters in the spring, and then finish growing plants that are shipped in as plugs for late spring and summer sales. The question that I faced as we headed into this winter was: what about the one of a kind annuals that many wholesale plug suppliers are not producing? How would we keep these plants and build up their numbers for future display designs?

Ingenuity kicked in and an idea was born: our team used leftover greenhouse plastic to build a makeshift mini-greenhouse over a bench inside the existing greenhouse. To heat the small greenhouse, they bought two electric powered, oil-filled radiators. A wireless remote thermometer allowed our plant recorder to monitor the temperature from her desk. The horticulture team nicknamed the makeshift contraption “the Turducken” after the infamous Thanksgiving meat treat. Sure it received some laughs but on the nights when we went down to subzero temperatures, the Turducken stayed above freezing. So far, we have been able to overwinter some of our specimen banana plants along with other exotic annuals using this greenhouse-within-a-greenhouse method.

As our growing operation continues to expand, we will need to seek other creative ways to grow plants year-round in such a cold climate. The fuel we use should be sustainable, relatively inexpensive, and easily available. Electricity is of course one option but I am also beginning to explore external, wood-fired boilers. Along with using a main heat source, we need to pursue other creative ways of keeping our plants warm including heat curtains, insulated side walls, and radiant floors and benches. We are extremely interested in hearing what growers are doing and experimenting with in Maine and other parts of New England. Leave a comment so we can continue this conversation about creative and sustainable ways to keep our tender plants alive during the long and cold winter months.

-Rodney

Mr. Snuffleupagus Plant

What in the world is a Mr. Snuffleupagus Plant? Well, it does not really exist. Until now. I just made that name up for a totally obscure plant known as Rostrinucula dependens. Now, let me tell you why I call it the Mr. Snuffleupagus Plant.

Last fall, I went down to Connecticut to stay with friends and attend a Garden Conservancy symposium. Near the end of the day of lectures, a few folks were invited up to talk about some of their favorite plants. As Adam Wheeler from Broken Arrow nursery was going through his list of plants, my eyes fell upon one of the most unusual shrubs that I had ever seen. It was called Rostrinucula dependens and this exotic and obscure plant was an unknown to me. I just had to get one. After the symposium, I walked outside with Andy Brand from Broken Arrow and helped him carry a couple of plants to his truck. When we got to the back of his box truck, he lifted the roll-up door and there it was; just like Big Bird’s once-imaginary friend, Mr. Snuffleupagus. The Rostrinucula had beautiful, pink inflorescences that hung down like Mr. Snuffleupagus’ trunk (or Snuffy, as Big Bird called him). I offered to carry Mr. Snuffy back to Maine with me and Andy just smiled. Then, as soon as we lifted the other plants onto the back of his truck, he closed the door. But! But! But! I had to show my new Snuffy plant to all of my friends back in Maine. This small, rounded shrub with long, pink flowers was just too good to be true.

In doing some research on Rostrinucula, I read that it is native to China, it is in the mint family (Lamiaceae), and can grow to anywhere from 3 to 6 feet in height and width. It may not be hardy in our USDA zone 6a gardens, but we will at least give it a shot. That way, my friends will believe that my magical Mr. Snuffy plant does truly exist.

–Rodney

Images: Puppet Wikia, W. Ravestein, Broken Arrow Nursery

Spring To Do Lists

With the slowly-forming glacier that is covering all of the northeastern United States, there is not a lot of outside gardening work to be done. When I write not a lot, I am describing either shoveling snow or pruning anything that is above the snow line. With the longer days and gradually warming temperatures, we can at least start to sow seeds and begin growing this summer’s flowers indoors. Most of our seed orders arrived last week at work and we are outlining the schedule on when we need to start these seeds in order to get great looking plants by the time the snow melts. At this rate, that might just be late August.

Eventually, the snow will melt, the ground will thaw, and we will jump into the garden in order to feverishly get all of the work done that we have planned over the last two months. Like a Las Vegas betting pool, I am thinking of starting my own pool to see the first day that we can garden. What will the winner receive? Sunscreen and a piña colada. Hopefully, there will be at least one week in 2015 when you can enjoy both.

This summer, we have thousands of plants to plant, gardens to mulch and groom, and multiple exhibits to install. The longer it takes us to get into the garden (n.), the less amount of time we will actually have to garden (v.) and get it all done. I would love for a miracle app to appear to show me how to get it all done for $2.99. I have yet to find this miracle app, so I am searching for the best methods on how to stay organized and get everything done in a timely fashion. I once started reading a description of David Allen’s GTD (getting things done) system as a way to possibly help organize all of my to-dos and responsibilities. I don’t know if you have ever researched or tried this system but I thought, if I actually spend the thirty minutes to an hour each day doing this system, I could instead spend the time doing three to four things on my list.

Armed with spreadsheets and to-do lists, we are marching into the much welcome spring of 2015. As we head into the season, I am still looking for a system or app that will help keep it all organized and on schedule without being too much of a burden. What I really need is a modern-day Rosie from the Jetsons. When someone asks me to do something, I could say, “Rosie, can you schedule time next Thursday to draw this out?” When I need to be at lacrosse practice at 4:45 on Wednesday, Rosie will remind me and have the car waiting. Heck, while I am dreaming, Rosie could even make a well-balanced meal with just the right proportion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for our family of six. Got that, Siri? We do not need a magic watch, we need a dinner maker. Maybe with Rosie, we could get everything done that we want to get done and make it look great. Until Rosie comes along, I will continue to search for that special something that will help me remember everything without taking too much time.

Now I would love to hear from you. Do you have a system in place to remember everything and get everything done on time that has worked for you, for years? If you use the GTD method, great, but how have you made it work? I am also interested in methods of organization and management for right-brained creatives.

-Rodney

Images: dumbonyc, Stark Design, Animation Connection