Spring Thoughts, Snowflake Sparkles

Friday, April 11, 2008

Already 7:30 PM here on the hill. The temperature is down to 34 degrees and the rain continues to pound the standing seam roof as ice crystals from somewhere high above bounce off the windows. The snow is melting to our pleasure even though there is a chance that tomorrow morning will find heavy wet stuff everywhere. This is April in Vermont and this is what is supposed to happen.

Gail is off visiting friends tonight so Alex and I are on our own. When I returned home from work, the pile of mail was on the table and some spaghetti and meatballs was the intended meal. Self service is kind of ok with me as Gail has had a difficult time lately with her Mom. Frankly I don't know how she does what she does but Gail has great concern for others and never seems to forget what they need or when they need it.

Near the mail was a catalog opened to page 28 "Orange". I knew in an instant she had been successful in locating a source for a hybrid tomato named Sun Gold that our Director of Hydrological Services was having trouble locating. Winnie is 80 years old but don't tell anyone. She is also the only person we have ever found who really and truly enjoys watering with a garden hose and talking to the plants at the same time. She was having trouble finding seed for these small fruited, cherry type tomatoes which are described as "Very sweet, bright orange...taste not just sugary but also fruity and delicious. A vigorous grower, these tall plants bear long clusters of fruit." The catalog was Tomato Growers Supply Company, PO Box 60015 Ft. Meyers, Florida 33906

I can't vouch for the catalog but after stopping at half a dozen stores and trying web searches from companies I know, this was quite a find and I'm grateful Gail remembered. I know Winnie will be pleased too. One store owner tried to sell me something that was "close, and also very good". I replied, "Thank you very much, you do not know older folks yet." Old folks want what they want and they don't want substitutes. It could be something as simple as Quaker Oatmeal or Blue Bonnet Margarine but that's what they want. Nothing new, nothing different. I'll order a package up on-line in a few minutes and next week I'll put together a flat full of seed starting mix and make the delivery. With snow still on the ground here, there's plenty of time for Winnie to get these going.

As the snow melts here at 1530 feet, gardeners in low elevations already are on their way to a joyous festival of hellebore blooms. This is an interesting plant I learned of years back from Barry Glick of Sunshine Farm and Gardens, Renick West Virginia. Barry bills his business as selling Uncommonly Rare and Exceptional Plants for the Discriminating Gardener and Collector. People have told me that I am an uncommonly rare and exceptional gardener including Gail so perhaps that explains why I like everything Barry sells.

It seems odd that I am so pleased with a plant that looks so ratty in the spring with brown, tattered, left over foliage, prostrate on the ground, flattened from winters' snow pack. Just the same, to be able to see incredible color surrounded by melting snow is a welcome sight we enjoy here.


Hellebores come in lots of varieties but so far I have stuck with the most common. They are doing well in the lower garden and have begun to seed in well. I have no plans to relocate any to our new nursery and will just buy in some more from Barry to get going. That won't be this year as we're already too busy but this fall or next spring we will for sure.

This plant will be blooming here in about three weeks. That's a guess because they are under two feet of snow right now but that is going fast. Any where that the ground has been bear, my guess is they are showing buds by now. Although Barry is at over 4000 feet at his nursery, his website temperature gauge says it's 69 degrees there so I expect he has some real good bloom.

It's June here before we get some good looking foliage back on the plants but by then you don't even notice because so many other flowers are in bloom. In the meantime you received that spring jump start you needed and even if snowflake sparkles had been pounding on your window or your spring thoughts had been dampened by three consecutive days of rain, I'm sure the colors of hellebores would have brightened your thoughts. It always works for me! Try some and you'll see.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where enough of the edge ice of the pond opened today to permit a flock of Canadian geese to set down tonight for a rest and a snack. Think I need a snack too!

Good gardening thoughts!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Mourning Doves in the Morning

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Sunrise is camouflaged in gray clouds this morning and the sun appears to be having difficulty recognizing morning responsibilities. It is dull outside, and the ground crunches as you walk. Last night's 24 degree temperature solidified yesterday's snow melt. Karl the wonder dog and I just returned from our morning walk and it's apparent spring in here in his mind as he resisted a return to the house. I had slip-slided about enough on the patches of ice along Peacham Pond Road but minor slips to a dog are meaningless when spring smells abound.

The call of the mourning doves is welcoming. Somewhere I read that they pair for life and that may explain the single whatever that has been at the feeder outside my window all winter. I am seldom into male-female bird identification but the bird kept me company all winter in a strange relationship as it appeared when others birds were not interested. They are silent as they land and leave and when you see them on the roadways eating grit, they seem fearless or stupid. They do not spring into the air until you hit the brakes and share commentary they cannot hear and would not care about anyway.

As Karl and I walked down George Jewett Road, we faced Hooker Mountain straight on. It's a beautiful mountain with some thick cliffs I want to climb some day in search of bobcats. The backside was clear cut a few years back and is a messy representation of man's greed. Two years back a logging trail was cut across the summit to access another 60 acre woodlot and for some reason that road was obvious to me today. When we woke to our first spring day here in Marshfield in April 1990, bears talking about their winter hibernation were audible from here but since the clear cutting, even the bears have said enough of this and have moved on. I miss those calls as they remind me that I live in a place apart from bustle and noise and interruption. That has changed.



Last night I went out three times to listen for barred owls but they were silent or perhaps absent from the area. It has been a difficult winter for owls and those that live on ground rodents because of the snow. Several years ago Alex and I made a nice wooden house from plans we found in an old bird book. This winter we made two more but only got as far as dragging them on a sled out back to where they will be hung. Getting the ladder out is a chore and this all should have occurred last year but time was short. Sometime soon? Barred owls supposedly nest once a year here between February and August. I don't understand that behavior but that's what I have been told.

I just wrote an overdue check this morning to the Species Lily Preservation Group I am three months overdue but I figure they will forgive me. This is a the kind of catch up work I do at 5:30 in the morning before the real stuff has to start. The SLPG is an important lily group because it seeks to protect and reproduce important lilies from which today's favorites derive. I really have to get with the program here and write the Pacific Northwest Lily Society and find out when I need to renew with them. Plant societies are always looking for members but members don't always do their share of responsibilities. Gail and I belong to more than a dozen societies right now and I almost need a spreadsheet to remember how many years I renewed for, what the membership fee is and who the treasurer or secretary is. Regardless of my forgetfulness, these are very good societies.

Bulb lilies are a special plant to us. We have elected not to sell any this year as we make the move to our new nursery. It's not because we are giving up as much as they require a higher maintenance in pots and we have lots going on this year. Gail reminds me it would have been easier to have some for sale as opposed to having to tell everyone why we aren't carrying any this year. She's probably right but in our business, I am the juggler and I have too many things in the air already. Box stores and ag stores like Agway and Blue Seal often carry some lilies and Gardeners Supply in Burlington recently merged with Four Seasons and both of them offer lilies.

The Internet has a number of companies which mail order lilies. It's best to go with companies which specialize in lilies and also better to stay away from the companies that say they carry everything and always run some kind of low cost special. There's nothing like ordering what looks like a nice apricot or a muted pink that grows up orange or white. Just a thought.

We send all new lily growers to Judith Freeman in Washington State. Her business,
The Lily Garden, is only lilies and her personality is nothing but friendly and professional. She's always on top of the lily world and always has a lily which will make you and your friends stop in awe. As for me, I better stop everything right now and get on with today's projects.


Good gardening from the mountain above Peacham Pond where a Hairy Woodpecker is pleased with the new chunk of suet I put out last night.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Trying to sell some plants on-line at Vermont Flower Farm

Healthy Lilies

Monday, March 24, 2008

Another sunny day here in Vermont but another day when the sun was prominent but the rise in temperature was not. The snow banks are still so high that they don't seem to move. I fear for a repeat of last April's snow which in this area amounted to almost three feet of new snow in about three weeks. It went as quickly as it came but this year that kind of storm would draw out spring and create big problems for the state's deer herd.

Gail and Alex were at a neighbors when I returned from work and Karl the wonder dog was anxious to get outside. So was I. I leashed him up and we headed down to the pond. The ice on the roadbed crinkled and crunched as we walked along. It was cold as soon as we got into the woods cover. Red squirrels were busy everywhere and we crossed three sets of coyote tracks which bothered Karl some. It was good to get out just the same.

I received a comment yesterday from Frances from southeastern Tennessee where she writes a great blog named Faire Garden: Humble Thoughts About My Garden. She inquired about Eucharis grandiflorum which I pictured, and she also wanted to know more about the less than admirable Easter lilies I observed just prior to Easter. She asked about identifying lilies with problems.

Eucharis grandiflorum is a plant I have grown for ages. The green leaves aren't anything special but when the blooms begin, not a visitor enters the house without making a comment. This is a flower which you might not pick up in a greenhouse or nursery even if you saw it because when not in bloom, it;s just a pot of big green leaves. With good potting soil that is organic and drains well, the plant grows quickly and flowers three or four times a year.



Frances inquired if it was hardy outside and I knew it was more of a tropical but didn't know the exact zone. Coincidently, a flower catalog showed up today and part of the mystery was answered. Understand this is just a catalog that came in the mailbox. I have no experience with the company but they do sell Eucharis grandiflorum. They list the plant as zone 10 and higher and they sell it for $19.95. They mention that it likes high humidity but I can vouch for the fact that it's about 6 feet from our wood stove here so I guess it can survive without the humidity as long as it gets watered on schedule. The company is Stokes Tropicals from New Iberia, Louisiana. The website is http://www.stokestropicals.com

As for identifying any lilies with problems, let's just say that when you have grown tens upon tens of thousands of them over twenty years like we have, you can spot problems or good health from a distance. Botrytis is a common floraculture problem. In lilies this fungus first appears as small round, brown circles on the lower leaves. Think of something not bigger than a pencil eraser sized spot. When you notice these on the leaves, it's usually too late to do anything. The fungus is common in the ground and garden debris and it attacks the underside of leaves, essentially growing through the leaf as it spreads about the plant.

Botrytis will not kill the lily but by virtue of destroying some leaves, the lilies will be less vigorous the next year. Oriental lilies and some Longiflorum Asiatic hybrids are strong and less susceptible than most Asiatic lilies. If you have ever seen lilies in a garden and the bottom 8 inches of leaves are browned and shriveled, then you have seen botrytis. This is an easy problem to care for and should not have been something I noticed in a greenhouse grown lily. Those problems were common at one place I stopped at.

Lily virus which I found to be more prevalent is something unstoppable. To see it in a large number of crops suggests the bulbs were infected to begin with. Although lilies with a virus will often grow in your garden for a few years, they usually weaken over time and eventually just give up. The leaves are often curled and contain yellow stripes or variations of leaf color. It takes more than a quick glance to figure this out because over or under use of certain chemicals can produce confusingly similar discoloration. Lilies with virus should be removed from your garden and discarded (no composting!) so the problem doesn't spread. Green and clean is what you want to see in a leaf.

Lilies are in tremendous production because they are so heavily used by the florist industry. They can be cut while still budded and they ship well so they are a popular plant. The industry changes colors annually to provide plenty of opportunity for the floral industry. The downside is that fields and bulb crops do not always get tested as they should and a bulb growing in a pot, unless tested, takes a while to develop signs of problems. If you see lilies exhibiting any of these descriptions, leave your doubt about the real diagnosis and the plant at the store or garden center. No matter how tempting the price might be, there's no sense in bringing home a problem.


The chef has given second call and that means I must close for now. Someone...somewhere... reading this has the luxury of fresh spring flowers or forced forsythia branches on the table. Our azalea and tulips continue to do the trick for us but we can't wait for our own flowers.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Easter Wishes

Saturday, March 22, 2008

It's very close to Easter here at Vermont Flower Farm. I remember there was a time when virtually everyone I knew celebrated Easter. Times have changed and some who did, no longer do, and some people I know are of other faiths while some have no interest in any religion at all.

I always have had an Easter Lily or two or three and have always enjoyed them. What we know of as an Easter Lily is really a longiflorum and not at all like Madonna lilies associated with a far different part of the world in a much earlier time. This year I don't have any Easter lilies because I couldn't find any that looked good enough to purchase. After four stores, each with lilies that had botrytis and had been over fertilized, I was about to give up. There's only one greenhouse that produces them up this way and it's still 65 miles away towards Burlington. I knew they would have very good lilies but the trip didn't make any sense. I tried one last store and those lilies looked as if they had been frozen. I was disappointed and settled for a nice azalea just starting to open and some tulips. Gail was quite pleased but still wanted a full explanation of why we were going to be lilyless.

Several years back I bought Easter lilies from a box store. They looked exceptional and they were. When I got them home I found out they had some pretty hungry red ants inside but the ants didn't seem to bother us and the plants were well enjoyed. Lilies are a very good investment and reward you for a long time if you purchase them when they are just starting to open.

This Easter presented a real challenge for growers and that's probably part of the problem with all the lilies I looked at. Balancing light and fertilizer is very tricky. Growers now days use growth regulators to compensate for the lack of sun when the bulbs are first planted --say 80 days ago, and the increasing sunlight each day since planting. The number of variables involved is where the challenge comes in and just anyone can't figure this out. This year Easter is very early compared to other years which means the bulbs were planted and grew under artificial light during much of their early start.

A couple alternatives to consider if you can't find a nice longiflorum is a potted lily or several stems of lilies of either Orientals, Asiatics, or the crosses of those two. Oriental lilies are the nice showy and fragrant lilies while Asiatic lilies come in a large variety of colors, hold up well and are fragrance free which is something to consider if you're having company with possible allergies. The various longiflorum hybrids are also readily available as cut flowers and are very impressive.

In early August I always think of Easter because the nice trumpet lilies begin to bloom here including Regale. This one always gives great pleasure with it's burgundy backing and pure white petals. Just looking at this picture makes me wish I had a few pots going right now.

Finally, I have grown to love Eucharis grandiflorum, the Amazon lily pictured at the top of the page. Ours are just finishing blooming again and probably would have been on target for mid April if I hadn't moved the pots into my office when we had some company over a few weeks back. They are not as easy to find any more but you can track them down on the Internet.

With a twitch of a bunny's nose, Easter will be here. Regardless of your belief, I know that you probably enjoy plants. I hope these thoughts have been helpful as you purchase and grow plants for Easter in years to come. In the meantime, enjoy time with family and friends and give some time to think about the origin of Easter.



Easter wishes from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the moon is just now rising above the fir balsams and tamaracks and the wind I thought had stopped, reminds us again that cold days will remain for some time longer.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

Daisies As Fillers & Extenders

Monday, March 17, 2008

A beautiful morning here at Vermont Flower Farm until you go outside. The sun is bright but when the wind makes snow flow horizontally, one has to wonder about being outside. Gail and Karl the wonder dog just returned from an abbreviated morning walk and I could hear Gail's repeated "Boy is it cold out there...." before the inside door even opened. 12 degrees and windy will do that for a morning.

I wrote last about gloriosa daisies but all daisies are nice. Places that sell those cans of wildflower seed mixes that disappoint people often make huge (what's bigger than huge? millions?) annual sales based upon the colors on the labels. Everyone has a portion of their landscape that can benefit from swaths of color and all the daisies do that work nicely.

I mentioned 'Mahogany' the other day as it's one I try to keep going by reseeding each fall. It's always a problem because people want it and I've never had the time to produce any for sale. I always tell customers to return in the fall and help themselves to seed but that isn't appealing in today's "Want-It-Now" world. 'Goldsturm' is another example of a good grower. (pictured below) Some equate it to just-another-orange daylily type thinking but I don't agree. When you're looking for mid-July until frost flowering plants, these are the ones to include in the plan.

About three years ago Gail ordered some plugs of Rudbeckia 'fulgida'. We were busy and they didn't get planted and they didn't get planted and finally I asked Michelle to mix them in the display gardens. The following year I had no idea where they were and the second year they started to show nicely. This past year they were in abundance and I could see how well they reproduced. This is a smaller flower than 'Goldsturm" but there are lots of flowers and the seeds disperse nicely. In a pasture setting or on a perimeter away from the house they are excellent.

As you scout the seed catalogs you are likely to find new varieties every year. It's not that they are necessarily "new" but just plants that companies put on the market to provide new choices to familiar products. Rudbeckia 'nitida' is an example. I have no idea where Gail bought the few that we have, probably at one of the area greenhouses in Cabot, but these are nice. They're planted outside my office window and they really are special. I like tall flowers and these are eye catchers at about 38-42" tall. It's always dry there and that's the perfect setting.

As you plan your gardens with the time left between now and leaf raking- garden prep time, give all the daisies a chance. The original plants probably will not last much beyond three years but once established they will continue to produce seedlings and nice flowers for some time to come.



Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where trout fisherman have ended their winter season but three feet of ice holds tight to the surrounding shore. If you enjoy brown trout, try those waters in later April when the ice breaks up.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener Our other blog
Vermont Flower Farm Our on-line website for when a real visit just isn't possible

Gloriosas Galore

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A blustery evening here at Vermont Flowerless Farm. It's 25 degrees but the wind must be at about 20 knots and the snow continues to move in sheets, kind of parallel to the earth. I was just getting Karl the wonder dog convinced that it was time for his after dinner walk and a car came down the road and backed into the drive. It was Gail returning from Wednesday night Community Dinner downtown at the Marshfield Community Center.

This is an almost-never-interrupted Wednesday night event with Lawrence Black the chief cook and bottle washer. Lawrence makes a red sauce that somehow always becomes the center of the meal accompanied by whatever people bring. Not only is Lawrence the cook but he is one of the local justices of the peace, local storyteller, and the tallest man in Marshfield or Plainfield. He'll drive a car if you make him but he prefers a vintage "English" bicycle, walking or hitch hiking. Lawrence is a story all by himself.


Anyhoo-o-o-o, Gail arrived when Karl and I were exiting the back door. She didn't need any encouragement to get in the house and Karl followed suit, totally unconvinced that there was any possible smell that couldn't wait until tomorrow. This is March and this is the month of the year when storms arrive like this with giant snow flakes and snow that scoots across the frozen ice and hard pack. It's also the time when maple sugaring is supposed to be in full production but that just isn't the case this year.

I've had this thing in my mind for a while now about how nice these pictures of common old gloriosa daisies are. They almost have some Georgia O'Keefe personality to them although my artistic ability hardly pushes a decimal on the artistic interest meter so I really shouldn't say that. What should be said is these are a plant with potential and they do best when seeded-in where they will live versus being purchased as potted plants. That concept is a hard-sell to gardeners who stop for a visit and see swathes of colors which differ from year to year. Some years it's shasta daisies, some years gloriosas, some years echinacheas or combinations of all. Fact is, however, that gloriosa daisies have a shallow root system and a woody stem structure that easily succumbs to spring moisture or repeated freeze-thaw cycles or adjacent pools of water. That's why it's best to seed them in and get the root structure caught tightly to the soil that is going to support them.

Years ago I bought a packet of Burpee gloriosa seed named 'Mahogany' and these pictures represent some of the offspring. My advice is that when fall approaches and the seed heads have dried, pull them off one at a time and work them back and forth between your fingers, freeing the abundant seeds from the head. This takes a few minutes because even when completely dry, they hang tight. Chances are the critters of the earth will eat a majority of the seeds before spring but of the millions that probably dropped, you'll have ample new seedlings. After a couple-three years, you'll have a proud display. In the meantime, think of Georgia O'Keefe and boisterous flower portraits challenging spring to hurry.


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the wind builds stronger, forcing an occasional puff of back draft from the woodstove's efforts to keep us toasty.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener

the "other" blog and....

Vermont Flower Farm
our website from which we try to sell a few flowers to those who
cannot come visit

Amphibian Monitoring Project

Thursday, March 6, 2008

A beautiful morning at Vermont Flowerless Farm. Today is kind of "the" day of the week with more bad weather moving in Friday night and on into Saturday. In the meantime, the sun rising above frozen Peacham Pond suggests the makings of a beautiful day.

I collect piles of notes of things I want to work into this blog or The Vermont Gardener

and some make it and some do not. It's one of those "how much time in a day" things. One would think that winter would be a calm time for us but once the taxes are finished, it's on to the website, checking and double checking orders that are coming in, and readying for orders going out. It's nice to say that the orders destined to go out are already coming in and that's encouraging at a time when the stock market drops in numbers like 2 or 3% all too often.


One of the things I have had in the pile for almost a month is an announcement from Larry Clarfeld of the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier. Gail and Alex and I met Larry last year at the Jaquith Library here in Marshfield. He was offering a presentation on amphibian monitoring and it was one of the best nature presentations we have heard. We took what we learned and as soon as the snow was gone we headed out at night in search of eastern spotted salamanders and a variety of toads and frogs and other salamanders. I have to admit that I didn't follow through as much as I should have but my observation skills added a new crossing site to Larry's list.

If you have a minute, check out the Amphibian Monitoring Project. As info, Larry will be providing the same great presentation at these sites. Amphibians play a big part in gardeners lives but because they often work in invisible darkness, they don't get credit for what they do.

We guarantee you'll enjoy Larry and his work!

Wed. March 19, 6:30pm Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston

Thurs. March 20, 7:00pm Fairbanks Museum, St. Johnsbury

Tues. March 25, 6:30pm Maple Corner, Calais

Wed. March 26, 6:30pm Goddard College, Flanders Building, Plainfield

Thurs. March 27, 6:30pm University of Vermont, 119 Aiken Building, Burlington

Tues. April 1, 6:30pm Lawrence Memorial Library, Bristol

Wed. April 2, 6:30pm Richmond Free Library, Richmond

Thurs. April 3, 6:30pm North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier

Sat. April 19, 11:00am & 1:00pm ECHO Center, Burlington

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where a Pileated Woodpecker is already blasting away on our neighbor's dying sugar maples, somewhat out of cadence with the Downey Woodpecker sitting outside my window and pecking deliberate pecks of suet through half inch hardware cloth. I don't think woodpecker's miss, do you?

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Thoughts and Aromas of Baking

Sunday, February 24, 2008

A really beautiful day here in Vermont with a high of 32.6 but no wind for a change and a nice clear sky. I worked on the website, brought in some wood, went snowshoeing with Alex and
worked on a sketch for a garden at the new property. Time flew by and that grilled cheese and sprout sandwich at noon seems a distant, hungry past. I hear pots clanging in the kitchen but have no clue what Gail is preparing.

Speaking of chefs and cooking, a quick mention of yesterday's trip to Norwich and Hanover. For as long as King Arthur Flour has had a Baker's Shop in Norwich, we have never gone. It's a mile off the interstate which I go down at least once a week if not more often but I just never have made that last turn. Yesterday I convinced Gail and Alex that we should go and we did. You should go too if you're in that area.

The Baker's Shop is a combination bake shop, retail store, and baking school but it's not just baking and cooking items that are for sale. I found myself picking up and putting down a number of specialty pans and forms for everything from scones to shortbread to popovers to Easter egg cakes to madeleines.

The Vermont Flower Farm crew is in kind of a time of financial restlessness now as we enter a new year at a new business location. I'm holding tight to every dollar for unforeseen expenses when we move but the thought of a new baking opportunity made it difficult for me. Gail is always resourceful and has money squirreled away and she got a few things she wanted. Alex parted with no money but made it out the door with an apricot scone from the demonstration table and a bottle of Harpoon Root Beer Gail added to her purchases. FYI, the Harpoon Brewery in Vermont is Windsor, Vermont's answer the the brewery on North Avenue in Boston. Same great beer and soda products and less than twenty miles south of King Arthur's on I-91.

Right now, however, I'm trying not to think about food as I want to finish my astilbe thoughts from yesterday. Astilbes are a very useful flower. They give contrasting foliage, color, texture and height to other aspects of your perennial gardens and there's not an animal around here that is interested in eating them. As you pick various cultivars, you can extend your bloom time into late summer, all the time experiencing nice flowers for mixed arrangements.

I've always had a little difficulty taking pictures of astilbes and a couple years back I took to doing close ups. It's probably confusing to some who can't make their mind up on purchase/do not purchase but the flowers are very interesting on close inspection. Elizabeth and Amethyst are pictured above and Elizabeth Bloom, Hyacinth and Visions follow below. Mix some of the

18-24 inch varieties in the front of you garden border with different heucheras and some of those flashy new coleus and you'll have a display that visitors will be talking about.

I just heard the oven door open and yelled out an inquiry. Gail has just made pear tarts, "an experiment", with some kind of an interior sauce of cream, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice . Still don't know what dinner will look like.


Good garden thoughts from the mountain above Peacham Pond where it is so very nice to see that at 5:45 PM it's still light out.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Time For Garden Planning

Friday, February 22, 2008

The moon is rising over Peacham Pond and it's looking smaller and smaller as it gets higher into the sky. It has been special to us this week with the eclipse and then its clarity in the mornings as it sets over Route 232 at the top of the hill. I went to Springfield and White River Wednesday so I was a little later than usual heading up the hill. As I crested the top and headed down, I could see all the way to Camp's Hump behind the lunar giant. I reached for the little camera that is sometimes with me but the shot was missed again.

Tonight as I write, the sky is clear and the temperature is dropping. I was in St Albans this afternoon and I had a scary ride home. For a guy that drives 45,000 miles a year, I know bad driving. The road glassed over quickly today as the snow hit in blinding, blizzard format. When I arrived here I came in and hit the couch. Not moving was good. Prying white knuckles apart was better. Then the phone rang, "Hello, I'm calling about astilbes."

For a couple weeks now the phone has been ringing and customers have been asking for astilbes. Gail and I have, without doubt, grown and sold more astilbes than anyone in Vermont. We've been growing them since we first met and generally we have over 70 varieties, sometimes more, but never less than 60 varieties. I usually remind people that if they see something they like, buy it now because when we have to stop selling certain varieties to grow some along, it might take several years before we are ready to offer them again.

During the past two years, astilbe sales have been exceptional. We've been happy because we have really promoted them for years now so it's nice for us to have sales coming together on another plant product. Just the same we couldn't figure out why people were calling and all asking for astilbes. I always have to remind myself that when the snow is thigh deep here, gardeners someplace in America are out in their gardens tilling the soil and planting. When it's cold and snowy or icy, those thoughts just don't germinate with me.

A few nights back the phone rang at around 2 AM. We have been receiving too many 2-3-4 AM calls lately from a certain 91 year old mother-in-law who has a.) succumbed to macular degeneration and is blind and b.) dropped her talking watch too many times so that she has to guess...and let me confirm, she's not a good guesser....what time it is. About the time I was putting together a response for the old gal, I found out the caller was not my mother-in-law at all but a gardener from the west coast. She wanted astilbes. She was from Oregon, second from that state in two weeks, and she was very, very pleasant. I took the order and then couldn't stand not asking how she found out about Vermont Flower Farm. "You know, I saw your address in the back of Better Homes and Gardens Perennials". I agreed as if I knew what she was saying to me, thanked her for her order and said goodbye. With sleepy eyes and a sore elbow I rolled over, checked the order for accuracy and went back to sleep.

Morning came quickly and I felt more like an old boxer than an old gardener as I don't do well with interruptions while I'm sleeping. I don't need more than 5 hours of sleep to get by but it has to be "hours in a row". Boy was I tired!

When I returned home that night, Gail wanted to know who I talked to on the phone. I had a question for her too. "Who put our name, number and website in Better Homes & Gardens Spring Perennial Issue???" For a response, I received a question. Understand me, if I ask a question it's because I want an answer but truly, I have never seen anyone like Gail. She can answer a question with a question and get a conversation mixed up in seconds. Without doubt she could bring down a political debate in just minutes. This time I received a half question "So that's what that was about?"

"What's about what?" I asked. Now I was confused...and tired. Then it came out. Last summer in the middle of a rush of customers and everyday confusion, someone called and said they had been referred to us as sellers of nice astilbes. It was the magazine and they wanted permission to add us as a source. Gail gladly replied but forgot the conversation. All the recent calls had obviously been generated by the spring issue of BH&G Perennials. Two days later I found a copy in Barnes and Noble and the mystery was solved.

Astilbes are a great flower. I wrote about them in 2007 and will continue to praise them time and again. Although I'm in the process of changing our website http://vermontflowerfarm.com to a Dreamweaver format, take a look at the Astilbes page and you'll see some of the varieties we carry. Check back in mid April and with luck you should see a new look and some new astilbes. Feel free to call with questions, but try if you can to reach us before bedtime.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where it's an even 10 degrees above zero.

Good night!

George Africa

The Vermont Gardener

Petunias Wave Hello Again

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Difficult for me to believe that I've been up since 4:30, it's now almost 11 AM and I'm still feeling behind in my schedule for today. Weekends here at Vermont Flower Farm are busy no matter now deep the snow is. I'm feeling a little better today but this cold virus that finally caught up with me seems to take a lot of energy with it. Hopefully in a couple more days I'll be back in shape.

I finally got to the second set of bird feeders this morning, half shoveling, half wading through the snow. I put fresh suet out and got the feeders filled save for the thistle feeder. I don't have to fill that one as often and can't recall where I left the bag of seed. The deep snows have forced scores of new birds here and they clean out everything in little more than a day. If you know what it costs for bird seed now, you have a good grasp of how much I enjoy the wild birds.

Yesterday I finished up a post on Wave Petunias but it appeared before the one named Feathered Flyers. That's because I started the petunia thoughts a few days back and never remembered where I left off until yesterday. Go back to that if you aren't on the email subscriber list as you probably haven't read it yet.

My point today is just to show what you can do with the Wave Petunias which are offered from Ball Horticultural Company. That's the company that produces the seed for these petunias no matter where you live or where you buy your plants. All these pictures enlarge with a simple "click". All the pictures are made available from Ball for promotion of their products. The pictures have been taken at various trial and display gardens they are affiliated with.

Planting the displays you see pictured here are slightly more difficult when you move into zones four or three because it's colder in the spring and it takes longer to get the plants well established. Some people try to purchase advanced packs and slightly over plant their containers or gardens to get them to fill in more quickly. It's actually a better approach than to try to add extra fertilizer and then end up with leggy plants that do not stand up well.

Because these petunias self prune, they flower all summer and will bring you lots of compliments. Planted within your gardens they spread nicely and draw quick attention to parts of your garden you wish to highlight. As you work you way through these pictures you'll notice

how easy it is to create dramatic compositions with annuals of different heights and textures. Perennials such as echinacea, helenium, or rudbeckia can serve as good back drops as can hollyhocks or any of the acteas.
We have seen an interest in dark black and brown foliages in recent years and that stark contrast as in the previous picture make the petunias stand out. You could accomplish the same thing with other annuals but petunias by the nature of their growth habit fill in quickly and are inexpensive.


Four blue jays are feeding outside my window right now but one new one is looking straight at me and shouting indeciferable jay language. I fear he is challenging my apparent laziness and that's enough for me. Back to the snow shovel for me!


From the mountain above Peacham Pond where the heavy snows of last Valentines Day can remain a memory that doesn't ever repeat itself as far as I am concerned.

Good catalog and magazine gardening today,

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

Feathered Flyers

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Winter weather slows me down a lot and at times I have to turn my attention to other curiosities including birds. A blog visitor wrote two days ago and asked if I didn't have a slew of pictures I could float out to readers so there were not such long spaces between posts. Just because I can't garden doesn't mean I don't have projects and lately Gail has been adding to the list.

This barred owl pictured above has been a frequent visitor here at Vermont Flower Farm. The newspaper article to the left was written by Chris Rimmer for the Burlington Free Press. It mentions some very interesting bird sitings and includes barred owls which are one of my favorites. Hope you find it interesting too.

Today it's snowing lightly but the weather hasn't discouraged the ongoing irruptions of pine and evening grosbeaks. If you get a chance today, get outside and go for a walk. Feathered flyers come in all sizes, sounds and speeds and make for an interesting afternoon.

From the mountain above Peacham Pond where serious ice fisherman headed onto the ice at 3:30 AM.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm