Innholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2023 i Horticulture

VEGETABLE GARDENS have a reputation for being high-maintenance spaces. And while cucumber or tomato plants aren’t harder to take care of than petunias or zinnias, they are less forgiving if you don’t keep up with certain basic jobs, like watering. In fact there are five tasks that must become routine to encourage healthy plants and large yields. I’m a bit conflicted calling these tasks, because that makes it sound like they’re a chore. I love being in my garden and take pleasure in caring for the plants. There are a few things that can be done, however, to make garden maintenance more enjoyable. I like to listen to podcasts or music as I water or weed my beds. I’ve also invested in high-quality tools that make the work easier, more…

Ornamental grasses have become increasingly popular as modern tastes have shifted to more naturalistic garden designs. Grasses bring year-round interest, movement, structure and seasonal changes of palette that enhance every garden. Unfortunately, several popular non-native grasses have escaped gardens to invade natural areas, where they can displace native species. Exotic grasses do not support wildlife in the same way native plants do, and recent studies point to invasive grasses’ potential to worsen wildfires and their effects. Two common ornamental grasses to omit from the garden are Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) and fountain grasses (Pennisetum). Miscanthus sinensis, also known as zebra grass, porcupine grass or maiden grass, has many cultivars, including ‘Morning Light’, ‘Flamingo’, ‘Ghana’ and ‘Adagio’ among many others. Though some of these are advertised to be sterile, cross-pollination…

DEEP ROOTS WE ALL WANT our gardens to attract wildlife. In theory. But when it comes down to it we’re rather specific about which are welcome and how we expect them to behave (same as with family and friends). Meanwhile wildlife has its own agenda and, apparently, little regard for ours. It’s perfectly natural that sometimes the peace unravels. The first deer and bunnies to timidly approach your Eden are adorable real-life visions of Bambi and Thumper. The new homeowner’s universal response is to melt like butter, call the kids and then muscle the kids out of the way to get a picture. A year later, a different universal response: bursting out the back door waving a meat cleaver and screaming like a lunatic to chase them off. That’s what…

GROWING GREENER IT WAS THE GARDENS, predictably, that attracted me when I first visited the Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pa., some 15 years ago. I was already a convert to the beauty of our native flora, because as a student back in the 1970s, I had worked in the New York Botanical Garden’s native plant collection. That experience also gave me some acquaintance with native-plant cultivation. However, I had never seen native plants used with such flair and insight as they were at the Brandywine Conservancy. Local horticulturist F.M. Mooberry had filled the 15-acre campus with perennials, shrubs and trees in combinations calculated to satisfy the gardener’s desire for an unbroken succession of bloom, while also remaining true to the plants’ origins by arranging them…

When the Tangeman family (gardener Anne, her husband John and their two sons, then ages one and three) moved from Massachusetts to the Seattle area in 2002, it was a bit of a return home. Anne had spent her childhood here, and family members lived nearby. She and John looked for a property that would afford space for their boys to play outside and for a garden. They were drawn to one property on a cul-de-sac; its tall hedges and large trees gave structure, but otherwise it sat as a blank slate. Soon after moving in, the Tangemans began to suspect that their home had previously harbored some serious gardeners. The recent owners hadn’t been growing anything special—overgrown shrubs and a mangy lawn dominated the scene. But some mature woodies…

IN PREVIOUS ARTICLES I’ve mentioned how often it is that intriguing and specialized botanical gardens or outstanding show gardens happen to be found near vacation destinations. Sometimes I have researched a recommended garden before the trip, but occasionally I’ve been fortunate enough to stumble upon a horticultural gem out of the blue. My excitement over such a find grows when it is in a region quite different from my own in terms of climate zone, topography or geography. For the last day of a marvelous Hawaiian vacation, I was simply looking forward to a leisurely late-afternoon cruise aboard the Pride of America as it meandered along the island of Kaua‘i’s famed Nāpali coast. This spectacular backdrop features 3,000-foot, verdant, uniquely furrowed mountains that reach down to a rugged, black volcanic…

PERFECT SPECIMENS NOT EVERY SPECIMEN needs to dazzle the eyes by exploding with color. But to qualify as a focal point in the landscape or garden, it should still be beautiful to see and notable for some less tangible quality, such as rarity. There is a maple that’s both beautiful and rare. It’s unlike almost any other maple on earth. Native to a small hillside in the mountains of western China, it may have passed into extinction in the wild in just the past few years. Lucky for us, it earlier found a champion in Bill McNamara, a horticulturist, nurseryman, botanical explorer and former head of the 20-acre Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen, Calif. Over many years and many expeditions to China, he and his cohorts in the botanical…

GARDEN VIEWS BASED IN RALEIGH, N.C., plant breeder and explorer Tony Avent founded Plant Delights Nursery, a mail-order retailer specializing in rare and unusual perennials, in 1986. At the same time, he established Juniper Level Botanic Garden with the goal of supporting genetic diversity and the sharing of plants and information. Through his speaking engagements and writing as well as at the nursery and garden, Tony continues to promote gardening as a path toward plant conservation—and, of course, a source of great fun. SCOTT BEUERLEIN: You own and run the premier mail-order nursery in the country, you’re building a botanical garden, you breed plants, travel the world collecting plants, you speak, you write—how do you find the time? TONY AVENT: Well, sleep is greatly overrated! Years ago I came up…

WINNING PLANTS EVERY YEAR, nursery professionals and home-gardening experts in the Mid-Atlantic region choose a handful of diverse plants to add to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s list of Gold Medal Plants. These species and cultivars must be easy-to-grow, excellent performers in the Mid-Atlantic, where challenges include intense humidity. For 2023, the selection panel also made ecological value, hardiness and seasonal beauty high criteria. For more information and to access a searchable database of past PHS Gold Medal winners, see https://phsonline.org/for-gardeners/gold-medal-plants. GREEN GABLE BLACK GUM NYSSA SYLVATICA ‘NSUHH’ This selection of the native black gum, or black tupelo, stands out because of its habit, which departs from the typical rounded crown of the species. Green Gable’s uniform, upright branching creates a perfectly symmetrical, pyramidal crown that inspired its trade name. In…