Home
Email The Wild Gardener
Books by Peter Loewer
Peter Loewer--Printmaker
Vitreographs: Series 1
Vitreographs: Series 2
Educational Presentations with Peter Loewer
The Beauty of the Moss Garden
Ferns for the Graceful Garden
Growing Unusual Fruit
A Fungus, Among Us!
On the Green Road with Tosca and Forest
The Trip to Scotland
The Botanical Gardens
at Asheville
Smithsonian Archive of American Gardens
Past Columns from
The Wild Gardener
Plant & Seed Sources
|
|
From the Winter into Spring Garden
Went out last week to check the burgeoning buds on both leaf and flower and found
the widow's iris in full bloom, just below the steps down to the garden next to our
house. Although not strictly speaking an iris, Hermodactylus tuberosus, the snake’s
head or widow iris, with its velvety brown falls and the off-white petals is closely
related to Iris reticulata. For continued late winter flowering provide a
well-drained soil in a place where it gets a hot, dry summer.
Image List for Last Night's Talk in Fairview
The New Small Garden-2013
Peter Loewer--www.thewildgardener.com
01. Title
02. An English train made of flowers.
03. Potted caladiums on an Asheville terrace provide color all summer long.
04. Hens & chicks do very well in a pot made for a bonsai tree.
05. It might be a Phoenix rooftop but it's just a big container.
06. An Italian salute to grass.
07. Another Italian grass salute this time covering a car-but still a small garden.
08. A great use for an aging truck.
09. Another truck continuing to earn its keep.
10. A number of pots in a California garden.
11. Spring crocuses in a glass container--like ships in a bottle.
12. If your ground space is limited, how about hanging pots of succulents.
13. In England, one of the biggest hanging containers I ever encountered.
14. Blocks removed from a pool edging and planted with ornamental grasses.
15. My friend Budd Meyers used a cold chisel to open up a planting area on a huge glacial rock.
16. Common horsetail in an old enamel container.
17. If the mountains are too far away, bring them to your backyard.
18. And remember, even a collection of forgotten junk becomes a great addition to a small garden.
19. This is an ad from a 1970's issue of Horticulture magazine, showing some things have improved.
20. Always use good pots and good soil for growing containerized plants.
21. A delightful addition to a small garden.
22. Elephant ears summer on a back terrace and this year will have a better and more decorative pot.
23. A bubbling fountain recycles the same water and makes a most refreshing sound.
24. Here's a small water garden planted with azolla and floating glass balls.
25. A great backyard fountain made from boiler plate.
26. A box store amoeboid plastic pool edged with flat rocks and planted with purchased and found water plants.
27. A birdbath holds a small pot of the dwarf variety of the common horsetail.
28. My collection of water plants summer in a large enameled container.
29. An old pottery saucer holds four large scallop shells for a delightful small water garden.
30. Another plastic pool, edged with flat stones, and holding a collection of aquatic plants.
31. A weekend project: A small pool made from a rubberized pool-liner, edged with stones.
32. An oriental glazed pot full of water with a floating hibiscus blossom.
33. A garden of containers at the Conservatory of the Biltmore Estate, with papyrus, horsetails, and palms.
34. A restful waterside garden with chair, sculpture, and tin pail full of lilies.
35. A garden of pots featured at the Biltmore Estate.
36. That's a potted pony-tail palm backed by a banana at the Biltmore Estate.
37. Variegated geraniums, a cut-leaf maple, and an antique amphora make a great small garden at Hever Castle.
38. One of Christopher Mello's collection of old, cast-off machine parts with a succulent doing quite well.
39. From Savannah, a gardener took mussel shells from the river and glued them on a pot.
40. An azalea flowers in a great Japanese pot at the Japanese Garden in Seattle.
41. Another Christopher Mello arrangement of succulents in rusted gear casings.
42. Daisies in a wooden tub.
43. A small garden in a tub delights for the entire summer.
44. I use potted plants throughout my Asheville garden.
45. A tree in the bonsai collection of the North Carolina Arboretum.
46. In John and Jeff's Wake Forest garden, a gazing globe looks great behind a crop of red clover.
47. Gloriosa lilies bloom twice a season in pots on my back terrace.
48. An aloe in an old metal pot sits outside for ten out of twelve months.
49. A collection of potted plants at the great English garden of Sissinghurst.
50. The owner of this garden knew that the pot she found at a garage sale would finish her garden border.
51. Keep your eye open for the perfect sculpture for the garden.
52. The North Carolina Arboretum specializes in all kinds of containerized plantings.
53. A canna cultivar set off with Devil's backbone (Pedilanthus tithymaloides variegatus 'Red Bird').
54. Tony Avent's garden of succulents, most in pots but displayed as a group.
55. A garden of cactuses and succulents at Asheville's White Gate Inn.
56. A garden with a collection of potted perennials.
57. Majella Larochel's moss garden is the size of a closet door, about three feet by seven feet.
58. The Japanese style moss garden in John Cram's Asheville garden; literally a no-care garden.
59. Clipped boxwood squares planted yearly with spider-flower cultivars.
60. A Brooklyn brownstone celebrates spring with potted bulbs in profusion.
61. Another city garden with pots full of spring bulbs.
62. A small city garden in Hoboken, New Jersey.
63. A small garden outside of a Bed & Breakfast in England.
64. Potted maples spend the summer in this backyard.
65. Here's a week-end garden project: A garden hose was used to make the curves for the plot of grass.
66. Edith Edelmann's backyard garden beckons the visitor in Raleigh, NC.
67. Here is Judy Ferris' backyard garden outside of Oxford, Ohio.
68. Anne Halpin's all-white garden is a mix of annuals and perennials.
69. A garden of hanging baskets allows for the ease of cutting grass.
70. A rooftop garden has only one caveat: Make sure it's strong enough to hold potted plants.
71. Late spring: The grass at center left is Molinia caerulea 'Variegata'.
72. Mid-summer: The same grass with flowers.
73. Early autumn: The molinia begins to lose its green.
74. Early winter: The molinia is still the star of this garden corner.
75. Neil Dibbol's backyard garden features native grasses and wildflowers.
76. Various pots include sun coleus, lily-of-the-Nile, and white lilies.
77. Another small garden of potted plants accustomed to heat.
78. A prize-winning Japanese-style garden at the North Carolina State Fair.
79. A Japanese touch to a small garden.
80. An abstract arrangement of annuals.
81. My first scree garden survived winter is Upstate New York where ground froze to a depth of nine feet.
82. The various perennials around the edge of the scree bed.
83. The scree bed with a light dusting of snow.
84. Peter Lincoln's backyard gave up grass for a rock garden.
85. Peter Wallenborn's Asheville garden is an eclectic collection of perennials, bulbs, and annuals.
86. At John Cram's garden a background of English ivy is intertwined with morning glories and Cobea scandens.
87. St. Fiacre guards the spring with azaleas and wildflowers.
88. In mid-summer the saint is almost hidden behind ligularias.
89. The saint's still there but it's now going into fall.
90. A spring bulb bed made with stacked stones and planted with summer annuals when the bulbs are through.
91. A jug surrounded by blooming celoisa in the University of Tennessee garden in Knoxville.
92. Even the smallest deck has a place for a trough garden with rock garden plants.
93. Millie Elmore's backyard garden in Asheville features a great gate as a focal point.
94. Budd Meyer's small garden in an old soapstone sink.
95. Budd Meyer's Pennsylvania garden is easy to care for and only needs a new dish to make everything new again.
96. Sylvia Redwine in Raleigh features a great selection of succulents. Photo by Pam Beck.
97. Asheville roof garden with copper containers lined with wood and replanted with Boston ferns every year.
98. So whatever happens with global warming, development, or just plain greed, greet every day with joy!
99. Always try to be just a little different--
100. --and make sure that your red wagon is full of great plants for a small garden.
From a Winter Garden
My good garden friend and traveler Randy Harter has a great garden on the side of a hill
overlooking trees, forest, and sky not far from the Asheville VA. A few weeks ago he took
some time for taking photos of what he found of interest in his garden. The image above
features the now-dried seed pods of an alpine peony that bloomed last summer.
A January Afternoon
It's warming up again and this lovely Monday afternoon of January 7th, welcomes
a warm sun, a Caroliona blue sky, and gentle breezes from the south. If that marvelous sculpture called "Fat Persian Cat"
could talk what a climate tale he could tell.
"The Wild Gardener" is back on the air!
--that's cyber-air but air none-the-less. Once a week I'm again
voicing my hort-thoughts on Asheville-Fm and all you have to do is click the link
The Wild Gardener and the
voice and the thoughts are there, if you know how to listen to radio from your computer.
--and "The Wild Gardener" is back again,
at least in book form!
Thanks to the good graces of Bella Rosa Books and its publisher, Rod Hunter,
The Wild Gardener, that award-winning book that opened up American
gardens to the wonderful world of native plants, is back in print. Selected
as one of the 75 Great Garden Books by the American Horticultural Society
and winner of the Garden Writers of America Art of Communication Award, this
book is not only full of hort-knowledge but entertaining as well.
In addition Mr. Hunter has also republished Thoreau's Garden and in addition now
stocks that great children's book The Moonflower.
Click this link to reach the publisher!
Night-Bloomer at the Movies
A week ago Monday I took some time off to take in a matinee movie over at the
Beaucatcher's Cinema, across from the Mall on South Tunnel Road and thoroughly enjoyed the
new James Bond film Sky Fall, an aptly named and well-done 007 thriller. While in
line I got a faint whiff of a very sweet and pungent perfume and glancing to my right saw
the corn plant (Dracaena fragrans) in their small lobby garden was in full bloom.
Most house plant gardeners often miss this late autumn or early winter blooming because
the plant needs almost perfect conditions, consisting of just the right light to trigger
flowering and cool temperatures of the degree often found in public places.
The small triangular theatre garden is under skylight that provides filtered illumination
of just the correct amount and as the daylight hours shorten the plant got the signal
and began to bloom in mid-November. Yesterday on November20, I went to see another very fine
film, Lincoln, and the blossoms had shed their petals and were slowly drying up, hopefully
to bloom again next year.
Brought in from the Wind and Cold to Bloom
with a Nuance of Tropic Nights
Last year I overwintered in the potting shed a large pot (about eighteen inches across at
the top and two feet high) of twelve acidanthera corms purchased from a local box-store after they
languished in a cardboard box unwanted by the passers-by. Why? I suspect because there were no illustrations
of the beauty possessed by this cormous flower that is usually at home in far-flung countries of the
Tropic Zone, originally being Ethiopia. The scientific name is Acidanthera bicolor and in older books the name
is Gladiolus callianthus, because it is, indeed, a member of the great gladiolus family.
After a summer of growth the sword-shaped leaves are between two and three feet high, and
attractive enough in their own right to occupy a space in the garden. But then towards summer's
end about two-thirds up the leaf, a stem with four to six buds appears and opens one bud at a time,
buds that bear a marvelous fragrance. They began to bloom in mid-September. Then in going through the garden
to save desired plants from the ravages of Sandra, found they were still blooming in the pot. Turns out
they make great cut flowers.
A Visit to Lichtenfelt's Nursery in Greer, SC
Had a great time on Saturday morning visiting Lichtenfelt's Nurseries over in Greer
South Carolina, not too far from a well-attended soccer match on a beautiful, but chilly
morning. I was introduced to a number of my garden friends by Jani, the talented and gracious
horticulturist who is the chief factotum at this marvelous nursery. A plant question arose about
a shrub called the Turk's-Cap Bush. Turns out it bears during most of the garden season,
bright red flowers that resemble the hats worn by Turkish men during odd moments of that
country's history. It's botanically known as Malvaviscus penduliflorus and is known
to be hardy through most of USDA Zone 7. Ladies, I did my homework! The photo above was
provided by a garden writer friend of mine, Cheryl Kearns, who snapped this shot at the JC Raulston
Arboretum over in Raleigh.
Autumn in the Wings
The first Saturday in September and warm rains fall, the temperature just a bit less
than the time Sadie Thompson and her admirerers went slightly mad back in the jungles of
Central America. Already the blossoms of the tall goldenrod bloom against the backdrop of the
falling waters of Kenilworth Lake.
The Naked Ladies Are a Bit Early!
Their scientific name is Lycoris and their leaves appear--without flowers--in early
spring and then in about a month, the leaves vanish and nothing more is seen until, suddenly,
usually in mid-September the blossoms appear on stems naked of leaves, hence on common name.
This year just in time for the first major hurricane (they're also called hurricane lilies in
the South) the complex and quite beautful red flowers appear on foot-high stems.
The Cut-Leaf Forsythia Blooms Out-of-Season!
The cut-leaf forsythia is, like all forsythias, hardy up to USDAZone 5. It's ultimate
height is eight feet and it spreads out about six feet with an upright oval to rounded
shape. The unique quality of this particular cultivar, known as 'Tremonia', rests in the
most unusual handsome dark green foliage that is deeply cut (in the trade it's serrate) making
it a standout in the garden when it's not in bloom--but when it is, this is a stellar plant.
A Carpenter Bee Awakes in the
Blossoms of the Great Blue Lobelia
Early Monday morning of August 20, I was about to plant a great blue lobelia (Lobelia
syphiliticus) out in the new meadow garden when I noticed that a carpenter bee was sound
asleep wrapped in the beautiful blue petals of this fascinating wildflower. So I let him snooze
until the morning sun touched the plant and the bee woke up to a new day. Back in the 1700s
it was believed that a drug made from this plant would cure syphilis but, unfortunately, for the
New World and the Old World, it didn't work. Carpenter bees are almost identical to bumble bees,
the difference being that the body of the carpenter is black and the body of the bumble is black
striped with yellow. Both make honey.
A Tropical Passion Flower Blooms in the Garden
The scientific name is Passiflora and there are dozens of species throughout the
warmer parts of the world ranging from the jungles of Rangoon to the mountains of North
Carolina. Their floral structure is complex and in the Christian Church the many parts from the
coiled tendrils to the central structures represent the Passion of Christ.
An Eastern Box Turtle Rests in the Garden
Their scientific name is Terrapene carolina carolina and it's our only turtle species that
can enclose their bodies completely in their elegant hinged shells. We have a garden not far
from a lake best described as an open woodland and these land turtles have a home range of about 250
yards so the turtle above continues to roam while searching for berries, funguses, and fruit;
they abandon the carvierous live style upon reaching adulthood.
A Giant Lacewing on a Coleus Leaf
Lacewings usually fly at night aiming for lights. They are often found in gardens
tht are located near water and at the edges of a forest or large grove of trees. Little is
known of their food preferences and even less about life cycles. They are found from Nova
Scotia down to the mountains of North Carolina.
The Harvestmen Are Early
Harvestmen are members of the spider family but have their own order. They resemble
the visiting Martian spaceships described in H. G. Well's sci-fi novel The War of the
Worlds but are far more beneficient. Often called daddy-long-legs, some scavenge on
dead invertebrates and others on bird droppings and some even sip drops of flower nectars.
Until the arrival of winter when they are driven to shelter in leaf litter on the ground,
you'll see them harmlessly wandering through the garden as they look for something to eat;
they are harmless.
A Beautiful Night-blooming Nicotiana
Actually a tropical perennial that blooms the first year from seed, the woodland tobacco (Nicotiana
sylvestris) is native to the Argentine and usually used as an annual in northern gardens.
Reaching a height of four to six feet, the tubular flowers are pure white on the inside and on the outside
beatufiul pastel shades of green and tan while waiting to open. The sweet scent will undo many misfortunes
of the day. They close in late morning to open again in late afternoon.
The Triple Daylily 'Kwanso' Blooms in
Gardens and along Roadsides
Originally blooming in Eastern Asia and carried along the Old Silk Road by carts, wagons, and feet,
the tawny daylily eventually made the journey to the fields and roadsides of America. During most
of the 1900's daylily hybridizers have delighted in breeding tetraploid plants, plants
that tend to have sturdier sepals and petals with many color traits not found in diploids.
Until this time nearly all daylilies were diploid. Called "Tets," by breeders these
plants have 44 chromosomes, while triploids have 33 chromosomes and diploids have 22
chromosomes per individual. Hemerocallis fulva 'Europa', H. fulva 'Kwanso',
and H. fulva 'Flore Pleno' usually do not produce seeds and reproduce with underground
runners. A polymerous daylily flower has more than three sepals and more than three petals.
Some gardeners link "polymerous" with "double," many polymerous flowers have over five times
the normal number of petals.
The 15-Spot Black and White Ladybug
This morning I found a new (at least to me) ladybug on the leaves of a big geranium
out in the side garden. It's known as the 15-Spot Black and White Ladybug, and it's
as cute as a ladybug usually is. This is a native species usually limited to the eastern part
of the USA. Each wing-cap (elytron) has seven spots: one near the shoulder, a row of three near
the middle, and another row of three to the rear. At the top of the wing-caps is the
beetle's fifteenth spot, which is divided between the two caps.
Such a great spring but one wonders
about the summer to come!
Archimboldo's painting is a great representation of what just passed in Asheville,
giving the idea that everything this year bloomed about the same time!
Lest We Forget, Here's an
Autumn View of Kenilworth Lake
The Single Most Important
Architectural Treasure in Asheville!
Right in the middle of Asheville's downtown is the Basilica of St. Lawrence (1909). Designed and
built by Rafael Guastavino Sr., this magnificent structure is a salute to the entire spirit of
humankind and the master's last project completed in his lifetime. It's one of only two churches built
worldwide where Guastavino Sr. served as the primary architect. And please grant the City of Asheville
the wisdom necessary to provide the gracious and dignified surroundings necessary for such a
great ediface by supporting the church in its efforts to control development in the line
of sight surrounding the church's property.
The Cincinnati Show
The top eight pictures above were taken at the opening of a dual art show that featured
some of my botanical drawings alongside figure drawings of my old Manhattan partner Richard
George. The event was held at Cincinnati's Malton Gallery. It's a great gallery and owner
Sylvia Malton was a marvelous hostess. That night I was introduced to some of the most gracious
guests from the art world of Cincinnati. My images were all in black and white drawn
the old-fashioned way with pen and India ink.
The two images at bottom are (left) Japanese Palm Number Two and (right) Japanese
Palm Number Three. Both measure eighteen by twenty-four inches and are again drawn in pen
and ink.
Greetings to the Moon
I took this photo in the early morning light of last Sunday (09-18-11) before the
night owls nodded off or the morning paper was delivered. A member of the great morning glory tribe,
this particular tropical plant (Ipomea alba) begins to bloom in mid-July and continues
to charm the gardener until just before frost cuts it back to the earth below. But there are
always seedpods left behind to provide flowers for the next summer season. These fantastic
flowers are fragrant, too!
Welcome to My Garden!
Margaret Shook took this photo last week of the sundial (the fancy name is an
amilliary sphrere), on one of those days when the temperatures were moderate, there had been
adequate rainfall, and the sun was high!
English Ivy in Bloom
Last year, during the first week of August, the mature English ivy (Hedera helix) growing on the
very old white oak that shades the path leading down to the larger of our gardens, began
to bloom. The flowers are small with tiny yellow petals, are deeply fragrant (mostly like
rich honey) and full of honey bees in search of nectar. Note the leaves are more like a goose-foot
rather than traditional ivy but that's what happens when ivy reaches maturity (30 to 45 years)
and changes from an climbing vine to an aboreal shrub.
Those Naked Ladies
The leaves of the lycoris species generally appear in mid- to late spring where they
persist for a month or so, then vanish. But towards the end of July, stout stems shoot up
from the earth, each capped with a number of beautiful blossoms--obviously lilies--and
in England known as naked ladies because there are no leaves to be found.
A Favorite Shrub
This is a beautiful shrub that is perfect size for smaller Asheville gardens.
The current scientific name is Salix eleagnos angustifolia but I still prefer
the original name of Salix rosmarinifolia. Usually never topping ten feet this plant is
perfect as a hedge or as a great pot plant, easily surviving our winters as long as the pot
is an adequate size.
Desert Cyclamen for Winter Bloom
The other day I talked with one of radio's great voices, Ken Adams, about the
most beautiful desert cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) now blooming in my greenhouse.
Hope you listen to Ken!
Website for Great Plans Outlining Dr. Wilson's Hoophouse
Over in Black Mountain one Dr. Wilson heads up the great community gardens and also
formulated clear and easy-to-build plans for a plastic-sheeted hoophouse so you can
grow veggies all winter long.
Dr. Wilson's HoopHouse
Caladiums in the Shade
When summer winds blow (certainly not now), some tropicals just get to looking better because they,
like most of us, enjoy bright light but cooler temperatures. Here caladiums revel in
morning sun.
Joe-Pye Weed in Bloom
At the entrance to the garden a white form of Joe-Pye bends over with the weight
of the blossoms and welcomes the butterflies (and other pollinators, too), for a
chance to rest from the heat and at the same time, a great snack.
Waterlily in Bloom
Down at our dock on Kenilworth Lake, a waterlily cultivar 'Lemon Chiffon' is blooming to
beat the band. And while wondering about pollinators, when I posted this picture you'll see
within the lily's blossom, a small bee.
Ozone Alert!
. . . and you thought the ozone alerts in the newspapers or on TV-weather shows
were only attention grabbers and aimed at people with weak lungs or respiratory diseases?
Well, thanks to Pat Battle, the following link is the ozone alert we talked about on
the WCQS Garden Show that aired on July 7.
The Dangers of Ozone!
My name is Peter Loewer,
I'm a writer and artist, and often become quite passionate about
plants, from daffodils to orchids to the love of roses to the lore of
poison ivy. Friends call me The Wild Gardener
and perhaps I can help you to get the best from your garden and, along
the way, give you some fascinating insights into a world that, up to
now, just might have escaped your notice. After all, I'm the guy who
brought back the evening garden and the night garden from oblivion, and
that includes the night-blooming dayliliy (Hemerocallis citrina).
They're stealing your days--at least fight
to keep your nights!
A Big Welcome to Fiona Dudley
Fiona is an old friend, who delights in the wonderful world of nature, and knows a lot
about one of my favorite creatures of the night, the great family of moths that fly about
our woods, fields, and gardens, with only the moon and the stars above to guide their way.
Fiona has a great website with some marvelous pictures of wildflowers and the creatures that
haunt their vacinity. Fiona's Website. Be sure to
put an icon on your desktop so you'll be able to keep up with her continual discoveries.
Rapid River and the Asheville Art Scene
By-the-by, I've got a column now appearing monthly in Asheville's very fine
publication Rapid River, entitled "Thoreau's Garden."
If you can't get to a local newstand, it's easy to download the magazine from their
website Rapid River Magazine
and you won't be disappointed in the style or the content of this fine review of the arts.
Peter Loewer - Printmaker
 Vitreography: Hand-pulled prints using glass plates
instead of stone.
Please visit my galleries on this site:
Illustrations
Vitreograph Series I: Botanic Wanderings
Vitreograph Series II: Images and Botanicals
I also have a new Web site devoted to my prints, powered up by Microsoft with sound and fury, possibly signifying absolutely nothing!
|
A Salute to Leeks and Garlic:
Morris Graves (1910-2001) remains today one of the more interesting of American artists, a man who
devoted most of his life to extolling the wonders and beauties of nature. In 1932 after graduating from
high school he settled in Beaumont, Texas but soon returned to the Northwest living around Seattle. His early
work featured oils and often touched on birds, especially birds that were metaphysical orphans of the
storm. In the early 30s he bagan to study Zen Buddhism and in 1934 built a small studio in Edmonds, Washington
that soon burned to the ground and included all his works to date. In 1940, Graves began building a new house,
which he named The Rock, on Fidalgo Island. He lived at The Rock with a succession of cats and dogs, all
called Edith, in honor of poet Edith Sitwell.
|
Tough Plants
The following pictures (except for the Arundo donax, phototgraphed in a Wake Forest garden)
were taken in my garden during the late spring, summer, and early fall of this year. I call them
tough plants because they are growing in garden clay laced with shredded leaves and if in pots, bagged potting soil that is fertilized two or three times during the
growing season.
|
The Wild Gardener Blogs:
When thinking about the madness of today, remember what W. G. Sebald wrote
about Austria's Thomas Bernhard, as quoted in the December 25, 2006
issue of The New Yorker:
"He found a dark humour in the tension between the insanity of the world and the demands of reason."
The following digest of a poem by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is a salute
to the continued stupidity of the White House and the Cabinet and the
Generals and the Congress and the whole ball of Washington wax.
The Conundrum of the Workshops
The tale is as old as the Eden Tree-- and new as the new-cut tooth-- For
each man knows ere his lip-thatch grows he is master of Art and Truth;
And each man hears as the twilight nears, to the beat of his dying
heart, The Devil drum on the darkened pane: "You did it, but was it
Art?"
We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the
shape of a surplice-peg We have learned to bottle our parents twain in
the yelk of an addled egg, We know that the tail must wag the dog, for
the horse is drawn by the cart; But the Devil whoops, as he whooped of
old: "It's clever, but is it Art?"
|
Recently, thanks to the instigations of Byron Belzak and Byron Belzak's salute to Asheville, I have started my salute to the upper level of Society Asheville
and its all-in-fun, continual pursuit of pleasure here in the mountains. Of course The Green
Road is the road less-traveled but eventually, the public will jump on.
|
Here's another bit I was tardy about:
Some months ago I promised to run the old column on what you can grow in the vicinity of walnuts.
Walnuts, as most gardeners know, produce a poison known as juglans, a
chemical that attracts a number of other plants causing them to
languish, then slowly fade away. But there are a number of plants that
appear to be immune.
Read the Walnut Tolerant Plants List Here.
|
And let's not forget the squirrels of Asheville,
rather entaining but by some considered trouble-makers, as they spend
their fun-filled days in eating birdseed, chewing off high branches of
oak trees, and using all the tactics of jewel thieves in Topkapi
when finding that birdseed. Look below and hear that tap of clashing
sabers. Listen! You can almost hear the memorable score of Manos
Hadjidakis as these furry critters play at fencing (courtesy of a
Victorian stuffed-animal display in a small antique shop just down the
road from Sissinghurst).
|
|
Remember the world of strange flowers--
There are a number of very, very strange flowers living in the world today,
having nothing to do with prehistoric times. One belongs to a group of tropical
plants with blooms referred to as peilican flowers or calico flowers.
The most bizarre is the pelican flower, Aristolochia gigantea, which first arrived
in England being shipped from Guatemala in 1841. This is a high-reaching vine that can reach up ten feet, and bears flat,
smooth, heart-shaped leaves that have a slightly rank odor when crushed. The six-inch flowers are
off-white, veined with purple, and sit on top of a U-shaped tube of a greenish color and also with
an unattractive odor. Best as a flower for the evening garden, this is a showstopper.
The vines do best in pots that hang on wires, allowing plenty of room for growth. They can also
be carefully unwound from one wire and rewound on another but remember to maintain the counterclockwise
turns.
|
|
It was a phenomenal spring, the spring of 2006. For some reason (closely
connected with the passing winter, the temperatures, the rainfall, and
the mountain psyche), everything seemed to bloom at once: Red maples
vied with camellias, in turn blooming above crocuses and daffs,
providing one of the best floral shows that we've seen in years. Then
came the trilliums on parade. The image on the right is the noble
yellow wake robin or toad shade (Trillium luteum also called var.luteum or
T. viride var. luteum), a yellow-flowering variety of the common deep maroon toadshade, with
flowers usually lemony yellow to a very pale green. The yellow
wakerobbin is native to the American Southeast, and found in damp woods
ranging from Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, to North Carolina and
Tennessee. Three yellow petals stand upright in the middle of three
green sepals that either lay flat or are somewhat upright like the
petals. The elflike mountain dwellers call it the goblet trillium and
unlike the maroon variety, this form has a light scent of lemons. Like
its maroon relative, the three large leaves are mottled and if somebody
could develop a variety that would keep its leaves until the fall,
their fortune would be made--many times over.
|
 Last
October the toad lilies bloomed in my garden and the election came and
went--with about twenty percent of Ashevillians voting while eighty
percent sat at home, apparently watching survival shows on TV as their
city continues to embowell itself with dirt, traffic, noise, and woeful
development. This year Asheville pits those who want to keep the city
green and thriving with those who want commercial developement (like
the Grove Park Inn condos in our downtown square, a project soundly
defeated by the citizens of the city), brought in to eventually
strangle that golden goose who only awaits more developement in order
to burst! The rain promises to wash out our air remember, the higher up
the mountains you climb, the worse the ozone levels get. But be of good
cheer, the power companies to the west of North Carolina, continue to
spew smoke and the President wants to roll back any responsibilities
for those power companies. And the congress (lower case, here) bows to
political pressure believing that if the citizenry want to breathe, let
'em don masks!
|
 A
while ago, moving some houseplants around the livingroom, I disturbed a
very small napping spider who was resting from building a little small
web that stretched between two branches on a flowering maple. It
reminded me to watch a great Sherlock Holmes' movie that I have on VHS
entitled Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman, with Basil
Rathbone as Sherlock, Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson, and Gale Sondergard as
the Spider Woman. In a dank basement in Soho, The Spider Woman was busy
raising a special breed of poisonous spider using a cultivar of the
night-blooming cereus as pet food. Upon reaching her goal, she was
prepared to attack the Houses of Parliament, freeing dozens of the
spiders and aiming them in the direction of politicians in general.
Only two things could stop her devilish scheme: The government could
pay her big bucks (or pounds) or Sherlock and Dr. Watson would foil her
dastardly plot. The government went to Sherlock and the Spider Woman
fell victim to her own little beasts. It all reminded me that Vanilla Sky
was very, very bad and would have benefited from spiders somewhere in the plot.
|
 Dear Wild Gardener:
I realize there is often no answer to what market forces perceive to be
in the public's interest but I thought I would bring the latest threat
to good gardening to your attention (I will keep the process called
"Donut Mulching" for another letter). It comes from northeast
Pennsylvania where "colored mulch" has hit the scene with the physical
force of an old mushroom but the mental "POW" of a juggernaut. The
wood-chips are dyed with a fast color that borders on bright orange but
(thankfully) does fade over time. But, today, orange! Tomorrow,
possibly red, yellow, and blue! Imagine: Smiley Faces to beat the band!
Adding insult to injury, they spread the mulch over layers of black
plastic sheeting. I realize that education continues to be under
assault in our United States but imagine the future of gardening as
these folks continue to march in the name of the masses?
Best, J.H.
NOTE:
The term donut mulching might be in transition as the new moniker turns
out to be volcano mulching, the mulch being the volcano cone and the
tree assuming the guise of the spurting lava, usually brown instead of
fiery orange! And so it goes...
|
 Occasionally,
bad taste rears its ugly visage in the garden and often the horror is
brought to the backyard in the name of art. Remember, I'm not talking
about rubber tires, turned inside out, painted white, then filled with
masses of petunias because I salute this method of container gardening,
finding it far more respectable then nothing. No, I'm talking about
gnomes, elves, and the polka-dotted garbed rears of rotund ladies who
are made of plywood and painted in primary colors. For example, at left
is one of the uglier elves (if it was a gnome it would be
subterranean), I've yet encountered and quickly point out, it's not
from around here.
 Here's
a case where the urge to do something decorative has been pushed into
service with no thought given to what is one of the fastest fading
trends in society, that of good taste. I am reminded of the old addage:
"Everybody to their own taste," said the Old Lady as she kissed the
cow. As to the "OL" look for her to the right where she continues to
garden away, possibly there until the mountains fall, all based on the
longevity of the plywood and the paint.
|
| |
|
