Geraniums - Pelargoniums

I recently had the opportunity to speak at an event honouring a group of people whose gardens were nominated for recognition. I was allowed to choose my own topic and I decided to talk on how I went about learning more on the topic of Horticulture. I then spent some time showing slides that illustrated what I learned from the sources from which I learned about the topic.

I didn't mention the annual geranium in my talk but this was one of my first ventures into the world of cuttings. When we were first married, we would take cuttings from the previous years supply of geraniums and tried to coax them through the Winter. We would often lose half our crop, probably because of the way we started the cuttings.

We tried rooting them in water but that just didn't work for us as the cuttings would rot and die. We tried putting them right in the soil and that worked to some degree but we again lost a significant number of the cuttings for some reason. It wasn't until years later that I mentioned my difficulty to a Master Gardener that I learned to allow the cutting to dry overnight in the refrigerator before putting them in soil that I was most successful. Now most if not all the cuttings survive. I learned too from the same Master Gardener that starting geraniums from purchased seed is almost always 100% successful.

I know that many gardeners will dry out their plants, hang them in a cold cellar and repot them the following year again with mixed success but I'm doing alright with cuttings now that I give them 24 hours to heal before potting them up.

Much to do in the next few weeks

Over the next few weeks, I need to save the annuals and tender perennials that I want to keep for next year. The Dahlias and Amaryllis have to be cleaned and put into the cold cellar, cuttings of Geraniums, Sweet potato vines and Plectranthus taken and Echeverria preserved. Once again I am going to try to overwinter some pond plants that include Colocasia (Taro) and Cyperus (Papyrus).

I still have some tomatoes to pick and some potatoes to dig up. There are seeds to collect as well. I tried growing 4 O'Clocks in a container this year and the experiment worked quite well.

And then there are some areas of the garden that I plan to change. This includes planting a Clethra that has been in a container for several years and a dwarf Elm that was purchased this Summer. There are still a few Jovibara and two dwarf Astilbes yet to be planted as well. I'll likely plant a few bulbs too (Tulips and Alliums)

After all of this has been completed, I'll begin the cleanup. I feel a little like Alice's white rabbit.

What's in bloom now?

It is always interesting at the end of September to do a review of what is in bloom. The other day I was at a fellow Master Gardeners place and she has a Clematis Josephine in bloom. While the flowers are smaller than they might be during the blooming seaon for Josephine, the flowers are nevertheless attractive.

While there are the usual Asters, Anemones, Sedums and Helenium, there is a clump of Iris Immortality that is reblooming along with several clumps of Spiderworts. My C texensis Dutchess of Albany still has some blooms on it too although they are much like Josephine mentioned above. The flowers are smaller and not as perfect as they once were.

An unusual occurence is a stand of New England Asters that when planted many years ago were crimson in colour. Now, the stand is as large as it was several years ago but now is completely purple. There is still a stand elsewhere in the garden that is the crimson colour but this one has changed.

Insect bites

A bee keeper was telling us last night that when he works amongst his bees, he works dirty. This to say that most soaps have a fragrance that attract bees (sounds reasonable doesn't it - the bees think flowers and pollen). So it would make sense that most pollinators would be attracted to scents from soaps and perfumes. That being the case, I guess that it would make sense not to be wearing perfume when you go out to sit in the garden.

I know that mosquitos are more attracted to individuals who eat bananas regularly than those who don't.

Being careful about wearing fragrances from perfumes or soaps in the garden might be a sensible thing this year given the population of yellow jackets this year. For some reason, the population is up considerably and they are building nests everywhere.

Clematis 'Summer Snow'"

I saw an interesting Clematis last night that was described as Summer Snow. From the pictures found on the Net this morning, I believe the Clematis in question is the Clematis Paul Farges 'Summer Snow'.

The site that I found the information on is an American site and they indicate that it is hardy to Zone 5 to 9. That means that Summer Snow should be hardy to Zone 5b in our area. The listing suggests that it should do well in part shade to full sun, moist but well drained alkaline or neutral soil and in a South or West facing location.

The one that we saw last night was in a somewhat sheltered location and is flowering now - the beginning of August. It had spent flowers on it which indicates that it has been blooming for some time. The listing gives indicates that it blooms July through September.

If you like the small flowered Clematis that bloom prolificly, this might be one to consider.

Agapanthus

I had seen some ads about Summer blooming bulbs and decided I'd like to try some. The Agapanthus columba (African blue lily) was described as a pretty impressive plant that produced 7" globes atop 27" stems but the thing that really attracted me was that they were featured in containers alone or with other plants.

I bought some and potted them up 2 years ago but nothing really happened that first year. I overwintered them in our unheated garage in the containers last winter and brought them out again this Spring. They immediately put on a growth spurt and today are over 3' with 7" to 9" balls on top. The flowers are quite attractive with "florets with light blue centres and violet-blue edges" (just like the catalogue said).

This year, I had them in containers by themselves. Perhaps next year, I'll add other plants to the container. If I add other plants to the container, I'll have to ensure that the Agapanthus is centred so that the container will look OK from any side as the container needs to be rotated to prevent the plant from leaning. I'm always a little reticent to mess with something that I thought was pretty good as it was, but perhaps I'll try it with one of the 3 containers.

I add a granulated slow release fertilizer twice a year and water when needed. Haven't needed to water much this year. I think overwintering in the garage is pretty critical as the Agapanthus is a tender perennial. I water plants in the garage a few times over the winter to ensure that they don't dry out.

Adenophora confusa

Confused? I don't think I am anymore.

Back in 96, I purchased a plant called Adenophora confusa from a catalogue service in the US. It was described as a plant that only a Botanist could distinguish from a Campanula. The catalogue described the flowers as "drooping and in racemes and the plants are even more durable and long lived than Bellflowers." The flowers are as the catalogue describes an excellent blue with no enemies on the colour chart. It goes on to say that it flowers in July and August and once established it does not like to be moved.

It has been in the garden ever since and began to spread, even into the lawn. I thought it would be easy to control given it didn't like to be moved but I discovered when I started to dig it up that it had tuber like roots and lots of them. I have been digging out for the last several years and I thought I might have succeeded last year.

Surprise, it is still there. At about the time that I started digging it up, I decided to check a book on weeds and I discovered a weed listed as Campanula rapunculoides (creeping bellflower). The description in the weed book is almost identical to the description in the US catalogue. The weed book goes on to describe the root system as "white creeping and the rhizome is thick and somewhat tuber-like making the plant somewhat difficult to eradicate." Hmmm sounds like my adenophora.

Still not convinced, I decided to check my copy of the Botanical Garden vol II by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix. Now I'm quite sure that my adenophora is truely a campanula. But it is so pretty, do I really want to get rid of all of it. Maybe I'll just keep a little clump of it - if I can keep it little ... It really is a great blue after all.