Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2022 i Horticulture

THOMAS CHRISTOPHER is a garden designer and writer based in Connecticut. For more information about the Ecotype Project, go to Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Growing Greener podcast, at https:// www.thomaschristophergardens.com/podcasts/sefra-alexandra-and-the-ecotype-project. DID YOU KNOW that the native red maple (Acer rubrum) you bought from your local nursery in Minnesota may have originated with a clone collected in Florida? Or that the native meadow seed you planted likely was collected in the Midwest, even if you live in New England? Does that matter? Yes, says Sefra Alexander, an agroecological educator with a master’s degree from Cornell University. Over millennia, truly local plants have evolved to flourish in the local conditions and to harmonize with the local wildlife, she explains. Scientists call these locally evolved plants ecotypes. Sefra, who has travelled the world collecting…

Gardens walk a fine line between design and nature. They’re composed of natural elements, yet they’re inherently artificial. Most of us have learned gardening involves first clearing the land, then amending the soil and finally choosing and placing plants based on aesthetics. We prune, we whack, we weed out volunteers and uninvited interlopers to maintain our vision. If our soil doesn’t match plants’ native conditions, we add fertilizers, mulch and water as needed to compensate. We must stay constantly vigilant to hold the wilderness at bay. In contrast, wild spaces like meadows and woodlands manage themselves. The picture is ever-changing as the plants and other organisms slowly adapt to shifting conditions. A design approach gaining momentum worldwide aims for nature to do a lot more of the heavy lifting in…

When the grounds at Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum were laid out in the late 1890s, designing with plants from around the world was the horticultural fashion of the day. If the landscape were to be redesigned today, the plant choices most certainly would be different, as might be the layout. But the point is moot. The staff at Blithewold—which is Old English for happy woodland— is bound by mission to preserve the original design. But that does not hold the uber-energetic horticulture team back from fulfilling the non-profit’s other mission. As a public garden, Blithewold is also dedicated to its role as a resource for relevant horticultural demonstration and learning. Horticulturists Gail Read, Betsy Ekholm and Julia Callahan are eager to take up this mantle. While the trio is…

Hiking through the mountains of Montana, we keep an eye out for saskatoons, a prolific, slightly sweet fruit that resembles a blueberry and hangs heavy on bushes from mid- to late summer. But nowadays foraging isn’t the only path to this tasty wild food; saskatoons are finally earning a well-deserved place in the home garden and commercial market. Saskatoon, serviceberry, Juneberry, shad-bush—call it what you will, but Amelanchier alnifolia are hardy, productive fruiting shrubs or small trees that have long been popular in the Canadian prairie provinces. For decades, Canadians have celebrated saskatoons in U-pick farms, festivals and recipes. Fortunately for us, more American growers are realizing the benefits of this northern favorite. “The University of Saskatchewan has been a leader in cold-climate fruit production for a long time,” says…

Plant!› By the time May arrives planting season is in full swing in my garden. I’m sowing seeds and tucking seedlings into my garden beds, polytunnel, straw bale beds and the pots on my sunny back deck. As early-spring crops like arugula, radishes and bok choy are harvested, I tidy up each bed, amend the soil with a thin layer of compost and re-plant it with summer vegetables. Good choices for these follow-on crops include beans, summer squash, cucumbers and sweet potatoes. Cover!› Keep row covers handy, tossing them over the tops of garden beds if late-spring temperatures dip. For tender vegetables like tomatoes, melons and peppers, I set up quick mini hoop tunnels at planting time. It only takes a few minutes to bend lengths of 9-gauge wire into…

NANCY BULEY is Communications Director at J. Frank Schmidt & Son, an Oregon wholesale nursery that supplies trees to garden centers across the United States and Canada. The company also develops new cultivars. In this interview, Nancy gives a glimpse of a tree’s life before it reaches its home in a garden or tree lawn, plus some favorite cultivars. SCOTT BEUERLEIN: When did you discover an interest in horticulture and what path led you to JF Schmidt? NANCY BULEY: A long and winding path led me to horticulture, and a lot more twists and turns led me to Schmidt’s. My first job in horticulture was berry picker. I grew up in a wonderful forest environment, but didn’t pay that much attention to trees until I started noticing the trees on…

Blithewold Mansion, Gardens & Arboretum is a historically significant 19th-century estate in Bristol, R. I. It was the summer residence of Augustus Van Winkle, a prominent industrialist of the era, and his family. At its center is a 45-room mansion, surrounded by 33 acres of landscape architect–designed spaces, including views to Narragansett Bay, strolling paths through treed allées, a small but magical bamboo forest and extensive areas of both formal and informal flower gardens with an antique greenhouse. For more details, including visitors’ information, see http://www.blithewold.org.…

Cultivated saskatoons are still finding their footing in the United States market, but there are a few varieties that can be found from nurseries, along with the species Amelanchier alnifolia. ‘Regent’ is the most common cultivar in the U.S., but it’s reported to be less flavorful than others. ‘Northline’ is a high-yielding and large-fruited type, as is ‘Pembina’, which is less likely to produce suckers. ‘Smokey’ has a sweet but mild flavor. ‘Thiessen’, discovered in the 1970s, is a popular cultivar in its Canadian homeland, boasting the largest fruits and great yields.…

I WILL ALWAYS BE grateful that my treatment for advanced stage cancer ended in the early spring. After chemo, radiation and two surgical procedures, I was very weak and physically diminished, but I had enough oomph to shuffl e across my bedroom every morning and go out onto the deck. I lay there in a lounge chair all day, every day, for months, watching the spring-infused world around me come alive. The coast live oaks grew fresh green tips, squirrels chattered, woodpeckers did their thing, bees buzzed, hummingbirds whirred, jasmine and wisteria blessed the air with gorgeous scent. Poet Dylan Thomas called this “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” I felt that vital life force in every cell in my body, tugging me out of the…

ADDING COMPOST to a garden is a good idea. But is it best to do it in moderation, like most things in life? To answer that question, you need to understand what you are adding and why. Compost benefits both the soil and the plants growing in the garden. It is usually not high in nutrients, so it cannot be used as a fertilizer, but it does improve soil fertility. The well-decomposed organic material in compost supplies essential nutrients for plant growth, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, as well as micronutrients. Compost improves soil structure, making it easier for healthy roots to grow. Because compost adds a stable form of organic matter to the soil, it increases the moisture-holding capacity of the soil. It can also improve soil that is…

This article focuses on saskatoon, or Amelanchier alnifolia, a species native to northwestern North America. There are several other species available to gardeners, too. They also produce edible fruit, but they’re largely grown for their ornamental appeal and value to wildlife, including butterfly species that use them as larval hosts. For the most part, they grow as large shrubs or, with some pruning, multistemmed small trees. These include: 1 Eastern serviceberry (A. canadensis) A denizen of swampy sites throughout much of eastern North America, this service-berry makes a good addition to a rain garden, thanks to its tolerance of wet soil. It’s adaptable to other conditions, too. It has fragrant spring flowers, purple fruits and vibrant orange or red fall foliage. This species includes several named cultivars. USDA Zones…

I’VE BECOME INCREASINGLY DISTURBED at how profoundly a love of plants hinders a person’s ability to enjoy ordinary life like normal people do. I’ll share my own sad example. Any eagerly awaited road trip becomes an exercise in frustration as soon as I begin seeing plants I cannot identify. Even in my own neighborhood, a little piece of me dies every time I happen upon a mulch volcano or a newly planted Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana). It’s getting harder and harder to leave my house. But at home I’m not safe either. Watching a TV show or a movie can be fraught with peril. If a plant appears on the screen, forget everything else. “Is that an azalea? I think so. And a bit chlorotic too.” And, frankly, it’s appalling…