Hydrangeas Queen of the Summer Garden - You Can Grow That!

Hydrangeas are one of the delights of the summer garden.  I like to think of them as the Queen of the garden because they seem to reign over other summer shrubs with their blooms.  With an array of bloom types, heights and colors, from the traditional Mophead, Lacecaps, Oakleaf to the Ever blooming series, you an count on an outstanding statement for mid to late summer splash of color.

Most hydrangeas tolerate medium/bright shade and some cultivars can withstand full sun.  Therefore it is important to know what cultivar you purchase, what zone you are in and what your growing conditions are.  Averaging in height from 2/3 feet to 6/10 feet, knowing what type you need for that special spot is very important.

Hydrangea's are best planted in early summer or fall.  If you are not sure of the bloom color/size/plant habit, plant it where pruning will not be a necessity.  If you are transplanting an existing hydrangea, this should be done when it is dormant.  Watering deeply rather than often, usually ensures that the roots are getting the moisture that they need.  Also, well draining soil is a necessity to ensure the health and well being of your hydrangea. If you notice that the leaves wilt mid day and/or get brown along the edges, this usually means that it is getting too much sun.

Soil neutrality or acidity can affect the color of your hydrangea.  Turning a pink hydrangea to a shade of blue can be done by adding aluminum to the soil.  In order to change a blue hydrangea to pink you would do the reverse and subtract the aluminum from the soil.  Sometimes this is harder than one would think and some hydrangeas will not change color no matter what you do. Purchasing hydrangeas in bloom definitely allows you to know what color and size your typical bloom will be.

Sometimes the large leaf hydrangea is susceptible to powdery mildew.  As with most plants, this happens when there is high humidity and improper growing conditions (like too much shade).  If grown in too damp conditions, fungal spots might prove to be a problem on the leaves and will eventually cause certain death tot he plant, unless it is relocated.  Oakleaf hydrangeas are very sensitive to soil conditions that are too damp and will surely die if not moved to soil that drains better.  Mites can also become an issue if hydrangeas are not adequately watered  during the dry times of the summer months.  As with most plants, paying attention to small issues and addressing them quickly, will result in a happy shrub and a happy hydrangea owner.  Hydrangea................You Can Grow That!

Mr. Pearl's Wisdom....From The Bottom Up

I love being able to make my dreams a reality.  One of the drams I had was to just touch the hands of Mr. Pearl Fryar...so I made it happen.   Who is Mr. Pearl Fryar and why would this be so important to me?  Allow me to share.

While visiting my daughter in New York, she spoke of my love of gardening to an artist friend of hers.  I was asked if I had seen the video about Mr. Pearl Fryar and his topiary garden.  This caught my attention and I wrote it down to make certain that I followed up on this Mr. Fryar and his garden.  I bought the video and my Dad and I watched it together.  I was amazed, enchanted and knew at that point I was going to have to meet this Mr. Pearl Fryar.

I had the opportunity to go down to Bishopville, South Carolina and seize a few moments with this man whose hand I felt I had to touch.  The hands of a creative gardener, like myself, who had mastered the art of topiary, like Mr. Harvey Ladew - only in my lifetime - with no prior experience.  Mr. Fryar was an educated man, but a simple gardener who won Yard of the Month by the local garden club in 1985.  Who knew that it would urge him on to create the masterpieces that are in his yard today.  In 2006 the video "A Man Called Pearl" was produced and from there friends (organized forming Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, Inc.), interested people and even the Garden Conservancy are pitching in and helping keep Mr. Fryar's vision alive.  As his schedule allows, Mr. Fryar greets visitors from all around this country and even some from around the world.  Imagine all from a Garden of The Month Awardee!!!

I had to ask Mr. Fryar if he had words to share with me.  He shared that at one time he was punished because he wanted to do interesting things with plants as a child.  It was as if he was denied the opportunity to tap into his inner creative self. Fast forward to when he was in his forties....he built his house, planted shrubs and trees of all kinds and treated them in a way that even today perplexes horticulturalists.  Mr.Fryar believes that if we teach kids from the bottom up, they will release a lot of creativity that is missed as we continue to teach from the top down.  Training to learn from a book, we are then book taught with no real experience...just following the leader, so to speak.  From the bottom up, we learn as a seed learns from a mere seed in the ground to a seedling to a plant.  This message makes simple sense to me.

Here are some examples of Mr. Fryar's hands on work....

One of Mr. Pearl Fryar's proudest accomplishment's is how he could create a topiary from a Live Oak.  As he says, this has stymied the experts.  He just might share how this can be done as he writes his book.  I personally cannot wait to read it.  Even after meeting and touching this true man of the earth, I am even more so amazed and impressed by his talent.

At this time, Mr. Pearl Fryar has a part time helper who he is training in the art of Topiary, five days a week, a few hours a day.  While this is appreciated help, it will take a team of creative artisans to maintain the work that one man started over forty years ago.  Age and time has a way of stealing some of the greatest talent and lesser known secrets on this earth.  It would be a shame to not go see this Artisan, Gardener and Knowledgeable Man of the Earth...to touch his hand, hear words of his wisdom and allow the sense of peace to touch your heart and soul.

Take a moment to visit Mr. Pearl Fryar, watch the video or contribute:
www.pearlfryar.com
www.gardenconservancy.org
info@pearlfryar.com

Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden
PO Box 1111
Bishopville, SC  29010

Trust me, you will be glad you did.....I am!!

Taking care of the Temple and Cultivating a New Approach.......

I have come to the conclusion that it is time to take it a bit easier on my Temple.  As a gardener, I can do it ALL.  Sling mulch bags, till new beds, rake all the leaves from my yard and my friends yards, and then put them in the new compost area, flip the older compost, plant new additions to any garden with lightening speed, etc.  As a Gardener, I am invincible....or at least I was last year.  This year, I have certainly noticed a difference and am ready to adapt new policies and procedures as it pertains to gardening.

Yep this is hard for me to accept.  I am a go getter and have always been this type of person - since childhood.  I always appreciated a helping hand but then did it myself anyway.  That is the Speight in me - a touch of stubborn, hard working and can do it all....or at least I could at one time.  I get this honestly of course, my Great Great Grandmother helped lay bricks for the Church...and I hear she was not a bystander serving lemonade....she actually helped lay bricks for St. Johns Holiness Church in Snow Hill, North Carolina.  Big Momma was a farmer and helped her husband, John Henry in the daily operations of the land they lived on.  I love hearing my Dad share stories about his adventures with Big Momma and Grandpa and how sad he was to leave the farm as his parents migrated up North.  As we know, back then, people did what they had to do - including leaving the familiar - to feed their families and make ends meet.  With 11 children to feed, my grandparents came to DC and created a better life for themselves and their children, starting on M Street in Georgetown and ending up on Capitol Hill.  Big Momma and Grandpa kept my dad until his parents settled in and then they came right back to get him.  They wanted all of their children with them as they started their new life.  What a journey that had to have been.  They also appreciated the help - but then did it themselves anyway.......I believe I get this can do mentality and touch of stubbornness honestly.

This garden season, those 2 cubic mulch bags seemed a bit heavier than usual - even when they are bone dry.....this was my first sign.  The unfamiliar feeling in my knees and the subtle aching in my lower back was the sure fire sign I needed to come to the reality that "things are a changin"....(in my best southern accent).  My private denial was getting the best of me when I caught myself paying attention to other gardeners that I collaborate with.  "Girl you better be careful lifting all that mulch" or  " All that stooping and weeding ...doesn't that hurt your back? Girl, you better slow down....."  I had to quietly admit, that perhaps they were right. Why even at the last Master Gardener meeting, the Coordinator mentioned a handout on proper gardening techniques for aging gardeners, I caught myself thinking "send her an email first thing tomorrow morning....". I cannot believe that I am admitting this - but tis true......I am an AG - Aging Gardener....UGH!!!

I recently read an article in Great Garden Design "A Lifetime of Lessons" by Daryl Beyers.  Mr. Beyer interviewed Sydney Eddison.  Her garden evolved from intense plantings that required a considerable amount of maintenance to adding shrubs.  The shrubs were allowed to mature amongst the perennials and add a sense of low maintenance maturity to her landscape.  Mrs. Eddison is an AG.  Her gardens are simply beautiful, age appropriately planted and maintained. 

Whether I want to accept it or not is not the question.  The question is How do I better take care of the Temple as I continue down this new path?  I know I will not give up, that is for sure.  I will educate myself on how to best preserve The Temple so that I can continue creating the beauty that I need to surround me and others who appreciate it.  I also purchased a book entitled "Stand Up and Garden: The No Digging, No Tilling, No Stooping Approach To Growing Vegetables and Herbs" by Mary Moss-Sprague.  I cannot wait to use this information as I rework my shade garden and install the pond. While I know that there will be minimally a few times that I must bend, stoop and perhaps till a few times as I perform these new projects, I will keep in the back of my mind my new found status - Teresa Speight, AG

Thankful for Thursday.......

As a gardener, I always get a tad antsy for the weekend.  It is my time to thoroughly immerse myself into my world of horticultural fantasies of non stop gardening.  When I get to The Cottage - depending on the day, the time, the temps - I realize how thankful I am for my garden.  I am gifted daily with something that went unnoticed that morning...sometimes that week.  Today on this thankful Thursday,  I share what gifts my garden left for me.  I am thankful everyday, but today I am thankful for  this Thursday.......enjoy!

Memories of Spring.........

Well, winter has finally gone.  If you are like me, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever be able to start my Spring clean up before to got too hot.  If I would be able to enjoy watching my hostas rise above the soil like torpedo's or watch the peonies go from tiny red points at soil level to tall burnished red stems of potential fantabulous blooms.  I wondered if Winter would ever give us a break.  Well it finally happened and we have had some awesome weather the past few days.  I finally put the winter coat away and started moving things from indoors to the greenhouse, started getting my shipments from Bluestone Perennials, finally started back walking through my garden in the morning before work, to stay on top of issues that might arise and to just enjoy the beauty that surrounds me.  It is finally Spring at the Cottage In The Court.

I am slowing it down a little this year, so I can actually stop and smell the roses in my own back yard.  I am installing a pond to create an environment to pause and just breathe.  Not that I can't pause the way it it now, I just want that added feature to invoke another place to commune with nature in my own back yard.  I have been busy with off-site projects for the past few years and have missed my own garden and the joy that it brings, as well as the memories. One of the memories is what I call Lexi's Walk.

My niece, Lexi Speight lost her battle with a rare cancer at 8 years old.  The year Lexi left us, I bought some daffodils from the American Cancer Society. Daffodils were in a picture that Lexi and her sister Samantha had shared with me in the past.  I have always loved daffodils as they increase year after year...(like Love)...which makes me love them more and more.  I planted these three years ago in honor of Lexi and this year they are blooming like crazy.  It reminds me of the Love we have for Lexi and her spirit of happiness as her memory graces my garden and at this time every Spring.  I could not have thought of a better way to honor Lexi than with a walk of her own accented by a Yoshino Cherry, native Redbud and Red Camellia's..

I also noticed how the Camellia's were blooming in abundance this year.  Not as big as in years past..... however our drought last year could have had an impact on them.  I will feed them coffee grounds and irrigate them this year. Most importantly, they survived the vortex's of this past winter.....WHEW!!

Spring is in the air and in my garden with the perennial memories that I anticipate every year - the hellebore's, the epimedium, the muscari, the peonies, the Hakone grass (the wild onions...ugh) and the anticipation of what  summer will bring!!!

Enjoy Spring as it will merely be a memory sooner than we think!!!

Lettuce begin the season

I had to use the lettuce as an icebreaker since gardening is a communal effort - even if it is a communal effort of one person but many plants.  Plants can bring communities together.  Whether it be communities of people, animals or plants, communal efforts work best.

I had this bright idea that things I did when my daughters were little could be reinvented and shared with my grandsons.  I strongly feel that children today miss out on a lot of things because of the lack of communal efforts.  I thought that if I grew lettuce and shared with the children in their classes to show them how to reuse, recycle and reduce waste  in the landfills and eat healthy at the same time, it would be a great thing.  Something different than the norm. I am sure that many of us remember the bean in the Dixie cup that we did not know what to do with after it sprouted.  With lettuce, it can be eaten as it is or dressing with a little dressing.  I started the seedling on the dining room table as the last snow storm of the season was brewing outside.

old holiday baskets that were too good to just throw away, I saved just for this purpose....

I also saved candy containers and salad bowls and even a plastic chicken container to repurpose as planters. I then saved  and collected toilet paper and paper towel rolls to use as individual pots for the children to take home.  These could be planted in the soil as the paper will disintegrate and go back to the earth....continuing the cycle.....

The assorted lettuce and Danvers half long carrots grew and grew and then became leggy due to inferior lighting conditions. I was not erecting grow lights an such in the dining room, but I was going to make this work.  I had a plan and I was not going to fail....after all this was for my grandsons!!!  So I pulled out my little stand alone pop up green house that I use to store tender annuals until the proper time for planting.  (Nothing worse than planting a spring garden earlier than the calendar states and then for a nice frost to come and wipe the slate clean.) I wanted to make sure that the plants had some sturdy growth and were simply beautiful......I put them in the greenhouse.  The end results...

I know .......they look so excited!!!  However this gift to my grandsons to celebrate earth day and to share with their classmates will at least for Earth Day, allow the children to reflect on reusing, recycling and reducing everyday items.  It will also make them rethink how they can garden no matter where they live - apartment or home, a container garden is what you make it!!!  Lettuce garden communally and share our ideas and thoughts to invoke better stewardship to our land.  How will you celebrate Earth Day in your neighborhood or at home??

  

Biding my time,,,, til the snow melts...

This was one of those weekends where I was at the mercy of the weather. The snowstorm buried my truck, I had a class that I had to cancel as the weather forecast called for more snow on Saturday morning ....which meant that I would have to dig out and deal with the nasty greig stuff - treated snow.  So I wimped out and instead explored all the opportunities to garden more creatively this season.   From pallet gardens to upcycling a shower rack to more creatively potted edible gardens....I could not contain my excitement as I read and absorbed the positive energy ooozing from the articles I was reading. 

Although excited about the possibilities, I also know that any good gardener knows that it all starts with the soil.  Soil - good or bad can make or break your garden vision.  Potted gardens need a lighter soil mix, like potting soil.  Garden soil in a pot will only compact and suffocate the roots....leaving you with either a dead or problematic container planting. Check with your local garden center for a quality potting soil specifically made for containers. Once you have found the right quality mix, put your containers inside the garden to add height and added interest with shape as well as color combinations.  Decide whether you want to draw attention to the container, to the plant in the container or if you want the surrounding plantings to simply skirt the container and enhance its beauty.  I have a vision of some of the white datura seeds skirting a bodacious planter of stunning high drama plants....with the sound of water in the background....on my terrace....COME ON SPRING!

Did you compost last years garden debris?  Have you turned it over this winter or are you slow composting?  Will you remember to add it into your garden....specifically where you are adding plants or where you noticed plants struggling last year.  A boost of good food, natural food always helps.  Heard of lasagna gardening, victory gardens, square foot gardening...or gardening in small spaces???  I urge you to explore the possibilities of how you can creatively garden this year.   It will add excitement and anticipation of the possibilities that are available.

For those who know me, the last thing I needed was yet another book.  However, this one really called my name....and I am so glad that it did!  Explore the new and alternative ways to garden.   Afterall, gardening should be not only good for the soul, but an adventure for the mind......now back to my latest read.......