Studiology

Travelers

This will be the third year in a row that I have chosen October as my featured artist show month. It works for me, the month that brings fall and celebrates Halloween and spooky things. The title for this year's show is "Travelers" and I'm building assemblage pieces that are winged, walked and driven. I've been having a lot of  fun with the concept, building them in my new studio space. The one concept that has me creating various models is a moth, it's called the death mask moth. With artistic license I am free to choose colors, patterns and even wing shape. There will be several and here is a sneak preview.

Even the altered Pez dispensers will adhere to the theme and "Alice in Wonderland" has come to mind. Here I give you Alice, the dormouse and the white rabbit. 

The gallery is in Occoquan, Art A La Carte. The month is October, as in new work will be on display as of October 1. The "meet the artist" and reception is October 28th from 1-5. There will be a wine tasting and finger food, and Occoquan will be having their "Haunt the Town" as well. Travel to see the "Traveler's" show.... stay for some Occoquan hauntings.

Allium 'Millenium'

Recently announced (August 2nd), the Perennial Plant Association chose the perennial plant of the year for 2018, picking a relative newcomer, an ornamental onion named Allium 'Millenium'. The program that selects these perennial standouts is a subsection of the Perennial Plant Association and members of the group are asked to vote for their favorite perennial, also choosing 2 for future consideration. Since this is an organization that represents the entire United States, it's preferable if the plant does well in many climates and garden zones. For 2017 the perennial plant of the year was Asclepias tuberosa or butterfly weed, a great choice considering the popularity of the pollinators garden and the need to feed the monarch butterfly larvae. 

The story behind Allium 'Millenium' begins with Mark McDonough, a man that became infatuated with ornamental onions while still in high school. An architect by trade, he is well known in gardening circles as "The Onion Man". He lives in Pepperell Massachusetts, and his work with onions is widely respected. Working primarily with rhizomatous onions or those that have tightly spreading roots and small bulbs, these are much different than the large bulb types that flower in April and May. Summer flowering with a good growth habit is his goal, a few species he is working with even have sweet, fragrant flowers. With 850 species of allium, there is a lot to work with. Mark concentrates on the smaller species of Central Asia, he has selected and named many hybrids but the marvelous Allium 'Millenium' has won the gardeners jackpot, so to speak, with recognition from an organization of professionals that have a big influence on the nursery trade. He is not a big nursery or even a big self promoter, choosing not to trademark or patent his selections.

 The trail of hybridizing with this gem begins with one of Mark's older hybrids named Allium 'Satellite', a pink flowering hybrid from A. nutans (grows over all of Central Asia). Three or four generations later he tests another round of seedlings, recognizing that this one is a winner which he selects and names in 1990. Supposedly sterile, not producing seedlings, I can say that I have seedlings from the mother plant, little babies with a habit and bloom similar to the parent (and I have no other alliums in the area). To grow Allium 'Millenium' best plant this perennial in full sun. My three year old plant is 18" tall with a 24" spread. I have used the flowers in flower arrangement from the first buds which I cut on July 17th. Here on August 21st, I still have 25 flower buds, so the span of flowering is over a month with an incredible amount of flowers, which are often visited by butterflies and bees. 

Mine is planted with Sedum 'Autumn Charm', the variegated sport of Sedum 'Autumn Joy', and it's a great companion plant. For next year I plan on adding Calamintha 'Montrose White', the frothy white flowering catmint relative that flowers for 3 full months in summer. The "piece de resistance", or at least I'm pretty certain it will be, is adding Agastache 'Blue Boa" with its short lavender-purple flowers that go for months and months.

The gardener is always thinking of ways to improve their space, either by adding plants that flower when little else does, or adding plants to bring in wildlife. This is a winner on both counts.

 

Stuff Going On

Listed below is my late summer and fall schedule with lectures and featured artist show in Occoquan. These are open to the public, all lectures at Merrifield Gardens are free.

Friday, August 18

Something new for me, a podcast! I was interviewed by Jennifer Ebling of the "Still Growing Podcast" and it airs Friday and will be available anytime you want to listen. It's a repeat of my lecture for the Garden Bloggers "Fling" about plant exploration. I love Jennifer's podcasts and listen to them as I work, it's a perfect match, listening to people talk about gardening as you garden. Jennifer is thorough, detailed, and delivers an incredible amount of information. Click the link above to access the podcast. Below is a photograph of Ernest Henry Wilson in China, an individual that I will cover in the podcast.

September 9, Saturday at Merrifield Gardens, the Gainesville location at 10:00 AM

This lecture and demonstration is on fall containers. There will be new plants to discuss and some exciting ways to put your fall containers together or just add to what you already have. This lecture is free and open to the public.

September 16, Saturday at Merrifield, the Merrifield location at Gallows Road at 10:00 AM

This lecture is about bulbs, how they grow, how to plant them and some new innovative ideas for mixing and planting. It's free with no registration required.

September 26, Tuesday in Richmond, VA for the Garden Club of Virginia

This event is sold out, but I mention it because I feel like it will be one of my best on a topic that required a lot of homework. The title for this lecture is "The Uncommon Cut Flower". My homework has included creating an arrangement or 2 a week since March 1st! I have scoured the hills for unlikely candidates and grown some very odd plants to include in this presentation. If you are able to garner a ticket, be it the black flower market, or some other way, it will be worth it! You can click on the link above if you want to check it out.

September 24, Sunday at Merrifield, at the Fair Oaks location at 1:00 PM, free but registration is required and may be limited

One of my favorite topics - Photography! This will be a 101 on flower or plant photography. Mostly geared for an SLR camera but certainly suitable for smart phone application.  

October 1, Sunday - featured artist show opens at Art A La Carte Gallery in Occoquan

I have titled this show "Travelers", with a tag of "Winged, Wheeled, and Ridden". New assemblage pieces will be hung on this day, the beginning of a month long show. The gallery is open from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM everyday. Below are a few altered Pez dispensers, and there will be plenty more!

October 21, Saturday at 10:00 AM at the Gainesville location, free and no registration required

The topic is bulbs, a repeat of the lecture given at the Gallows Road location. Learn how to pair them and some new ideas on planting for longevity.

October 28, Saturday from 1:00 to 5:00 PM at Art A La Carte Gallery

I will be at the gallery for my featured artist show. There will be wine tasting and discussions of the how and why of  my most recent work. Click on the gallery link above to see more.

 

Garden Chores

August is not a month to back off of garden chores. This month offers the gardener a time to plant, divide, maintain, and clean-up various parts of the garden. I look at all of the day to day activities I accomplish as an estate gardener, making a mental note of perennial jobs or those that are best taken care of as we move into mid-August and begin preparation for fall with September hot on its heels. 

First off and very important is the removal of leafy growth over clumps of iris. New root growth with rhizome development on bearded iris (in particular) is most active in mid-August. If your clumps are over-grown with neighboring perennials, it's time to clear their air space, to allow sun light to penetrate right down to the rhizome tops. This will make a big difference when it comes to flowers in May. While you are clearing that space, you may make the decision to divide your iris, and this is an ideal time for that too. I plant the end of the rhizome, the site where new rhizomes will fan out, facing south. This enables the plant to clump up nicely, a response to the most favorable sunny direction.

One perennial culprit for stealing sunlight may be the summer flowering phlox or Phlox paniculata.  As the flowers finish, I cut the stalks all the way to the ground. New shoots will resprout and the entire plant will respond in a very positive way. So many perennials benefit from a good summer haircut, the hardy geraniums, particularly Geranium 'Rozanne' is much improved with an aggressive snip. The cooler months ahead will reinvigorate her. 

Fall offers a refresh when it comes to roses grown in zone 7. The expanded cooler days and nights breath fresh life into old canes. For me this is a critical time to rake up fallen leaves under each plant. We are habitually hit with black spot and powdery mildew which is best thwarted by cleaning up the ground around the roses so air born spores don't re-infect your plants. A little organic fertilizer or a top dressing of compost would also be timely.

Planting time is definitely upon us. Cool crops for fall can be planted mid-August. Many can re resown every 15 days for a long harvest season. I prefer September 1st for lettuce but kale, beets, snap peas, green beans, carrots, and turnips can all be sown from now into the month of September.

Lastly, as warm season weeds run rampant, the gardener will be hit with the arrival or return of cool season weeds. This may be the worst, or hardest chore of all, keeping up with old weeds and new weeds! I am a big fan of laying down newspaper and covering that with mulch, especially in areas where it just seems impossible. This is a simple solution that makes a big difference, which is nice when there's so much to do.

 

August

The garden that I nurture peaks in August and September. The month of June and July are ornamental enough, to the casual observer, it's probably lovely. But truthfully, August 1st is like turning on the "GO LIVE" switch. Peak hours are 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM, at that early morning hour there is still a heady fragrance and the bats are flying low. 

This year, this summer is shaping up to be the best ever. For three months I have boiled Romaine lettuce for my gray tree frog babies. The water containers, large and small are full of tadpoles, a second brood is leaving the womb, seeking higher ground. With the water bowls that get too hot, I have rigged up covers to keep the water temperature down. So successful are these efforts that I am sure my summer nights will be delightfully noisy, these are the night's trilling frogs with the occasional barking sound. No one has been able to explain the random barking call, which may sound more like a sea otter's yelp. Their ability to go from tadpole to frog happens so fast with a body shape that still resembles a tadpole, yet their tale oddly absorbed, tucked in somehow.

If that weren't enough, the tomato hornworms devoured my nicotiana, hoards of them. Now they also awaken, from cocoon to adult, ready to zip back and forth as the sun sets. Here I found a newly formed adult, wings still drying, the long proboscis coiled tight. 

As always, it's nearly impossible to photograph them. I took a picture of an adult last night, the movement is fast, the sun is going down and the camera struggles. I know there will be plenty of hawk moths (maybe better photographs), plenty of frogs, the summer program will include bats eating moths and frogs eating mosquitos. 

As the sun sets, great big tropical leaves are backlit, for a short fifteen minutes there is a magic light. 

Summer is a grand thing!