This year, everything seems to be blooming earlier in the gardens - my flower garden is bursting with so much color and life.
The perennial flower cutting garden is located just outside my main greenhouse at the foot of my long clematis pergola. My gardeners and I spend a lot of time caring for this garden - carefully placing and planting each specimen. Right now it is already showing off many lupines, poppies, columbines, irises, dianthus, alliums, peonies, and more. Such a gorgeous welcome to summer this Memorial Day Weekend.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
My large flower cutting garden, which measures 150-feet by 90-feet, is growing more and more lush each year. I wanted the plants to be mixed, so every bed is planted with a variety of specimens. Every row of flowers is interesting and colorful. Right now, we have so many lupines!
Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine, is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes more than 200 species. It’s always great to see the tall spikes of lupines blooming in the garden. Lupines come in lovely shades of purple, pink, white, yellow, and even red. Lupines also make great companion plants, increasing the soil nitrogen for vegetables and other plants nearby.
The leaves of lupine are grey-green with silvery hairs. They are palmately compound in groups of nine to 17. Leaflets are two to five inches long, and up to an inch wide.
I grow so many alliums here at the farm and they continue to bloom so beautifully interspersed with other blooms. These easy-to-grow bulbs come in a broad palette of colors, heights, bloom times, and flower forms. They make excellent cut flowers for fresh or dried bouquets. What’s more, alliums are relatively resistant to deer, voles, chipmunks, and rabbits. This allium is ‘Globemaster.’
‘Globemaster’ is one of the biggest alliums. Small, silvery purple florets form stunning eight to 10-inch flower heads.
We continue to plant more and more flowering plants in this garden. Here is Brian planting Baptisia I recently purchased from this year’s Trade Secrets. When planting, always remember to tease the roots to stimulate growth before putting into the ground.
Baptisia produces loads of sturdy spikes filled with rich pea-like blossoms that emerge in mid to late spring.
The showy terminal flower spikes are followed by inflated seed pods. The pea-like flowers are attractive to butterflies and other insect pollinators.
This is Baptisia ‘Carolina Moonlight’. This plant produces loads of sturdy spikes filled with rich buttery yellow pea-like blossoms that emerge in mid to late spring.
And here are also lots of gorgeous poppies blooming everywhere – those colorful tissue paper-like flowers that look stunning both in the garden and in the vase. Poppies are flowering plants in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. They produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
Poppies are attractive, easy-to-grow herbaceous annual, biennial or short-lived perennial plants. Flowers have four to six petals, many stamens forming a conspicuous whorl in the center of the flower and an ovary of two to many fused carpels. The petals are showy and may be almost any color. Poppies require very little care, whether they are sown from seed or planted when young – they just need full sun and well-drained soil.
The plants typically grow to about two feet in height forming colorful flowers during spring and into summer.
Oriental poppy blossoms, Papaver orientale, last only a week or two, but during that time, they provide one of the high points of the gardening season with its bold colors. The flowers appear to be fashioned of crepe paper and can be more than six-inches across on stems up to three-feet in height.
Iris flowers can begin blooming in late winter to early spring. A range of varieties provide extended color in the flower bed. Iris care is minimal once the growing iris is established. I have many iris cultivars growing in the garden. Iris flowers bloom in shades of purple, blue, white, and yellow and include many hybridized versions that are multi-colored. Iris × hollandica, commonly known as the Dutch iris, is a hybrid iris developed from species native to Spain and North Africa. The bulbous iris has narrow linear green leaves and bears largish blue to yellow to white flowers.
Anyone who visits this garden admires the bearded irises. These flowers get their common name from their blooms, which consist of upright petals called “standards,” pendant petals called “falls,” and fuzzy, caterpillar-like “beards” that rest atop the falls.
The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that blooms in a variety of colors during spring. With soft-mounding scalloped leaves and delicate blossoms nodding on flower stems, columbine is ideal for borders, cottage gardens or naturalizing wooded areas. This columbine is a rich, dark purple with white tips. The bonnet-like flowers come in single hues and bi-colored in shades of white, pink, crimson, yellow, purple and blue.
Here is a white columbine flower. On this, bright apple-green foliage forms under the tall stems bearing pure white flowers and short curled spurs.
Here is a perennial poppy commonly called Moroccan poppy. Papaver atlanticum hails from Spain and Morocco and shows off soft apricot-orange, semi-double three-inch flowers.
Dianthus flowers belong to a family of plants that includes carnations and are characterized by their spicy fragrance. Dianthus plants may be found as a hardy annual, biennial, or perennial and most often used in borders or potted displays. There are numerous types of dianthus – most have pink, red, or white flowers with notched petals.
Here is another dianthus – very different with its fringed blooms.
Lady’s mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, grows along both sides of the path of my cutting garden. It is a clumping perennial which typically forms a mound of long-stalked, circular, scallop-edge light green leaves, with tiny, star-shaped, chartreuse flowers – they’re so pretty.
And, among my favorite flowers is the peony. The peony is any plant in the genus Paeonia. Peonies are considered rich in tradition – they are the floral symbol of China, the state flower of Indiana, and the 12th wedding anniversary bloom. The peonies are stunning this year – wait until you see the herbaceous peony bed filled with large pink and white flowers. What flowers are blooming in your gardens?
The season's outdoor vegetable crops are all thriving and looking great.
My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew have been very busy in my new vegetable garden. Over the last six weeks, we've planted many crops - potatoes, asparagus, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, artichokes, herbs and more. This week, we planted eggplants and peppers - both sweet and hot. I love these vegetables and always plant enough to share with my family and friends. Soon the entire garden will be filled with rows of wonderful and nutritious produce.
Enjoy these photos.
The new giant half-acre vegetable garden here at my farm is doing so well. Whenever I can, I walk through and check on our growing crops. Here are the beets. Beets are highly nutritious and very good for maintaining strong cardiovascular health. It’s low in calories, contains zero cholesterol, and is rich in folates, vitamin-A, B-complex, and antioxidants.
And look at the curly parsley. Curly parsley is an easy-to-grow type of parsley with round, curly leaves. In general, it is milder than the flat leaf variety.
Everything is looking so lush and green. This is just some of the spinach. Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, folate, and a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron, and vitamin B2.
On this day, Ryan and Phurba planted the eggplants – all different varieties. Eggplant, Solanum melongena, also called aubergine or Guinea squash, is a tender perennial plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. Eggplant has a flavor similar to summer squash or zucchini – tender, mild, and sweet with a slight vegetal bitterness.
The first thing I always instruct the crew to do is use twine or string to ensure the rows are perfectly straight. My gardens are often photographed and videotaped for television, print, and social media – from the ground and from up above, so it is crucial that they look their best. Ryan extends the gardening twine the entire length of this bed to mark where the center line is and where the center row of three will be planted.
Next, he measures the sides and starts to place the eggplants where they will go – equally spaced and about 16 to 18 inches apart.
Here are all the eggplants positioned in their designated spots. Some of our eggplants came from outside sources while some were started from seed right here in my greenhouse.
For planting vegetables, we use small shoveling tools. The mini trowel and mini shovel are from Gardener’s Supply. They’re perfect for making holes in the garden beds.
Phurba uses a garden trowel to dig the holes. The eggplants should be grown in soil that’s at least six inches deep.
Phurba removes the eggplant plant from its pot, teases the roots and inserts it into the hole…
…And then lightly presses the soil down around the plant. Plant eggplant in a location that gets full sun – at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day. Eggplant grows best in a well-drained sandy loam or loam soil that is fairly high in organic matter.
Eggplant needs warm weather and will not thrive during a cool season. Ryan schedules when to plant things outdoors according to the weather in this area. We had an unusual late frost just a couple weeks ago – it’s important to watch the weather forecasts to prevent losing any plants.
Here is one of the eggplants in the ground. Eggplants are ready to harvest as soon as 70 days after sowing the seeds.
It didn’t take too long to plant our entire bed of eggplants – they will do so well here. In another month, we will provide low stakes to support the growing fruits. Staking various vegetables is necessary to keep fruits off the ground and to reduce the risk of disease and rot.
And here comes Pete with our trays of peppers – also ready to get into the ground.
I plant lots of peppers – sweet bell peppers in all colors. Green peppers feature a more bitter flavor. Orange and yellow bell peppers are sweeter, with the sweetest being the red bell pepper. I also plant a variety of other peppers from mild to hot in taste.
Ryan measures the bed and decides how many rows can fit.
He uses a piece of cut bamboo as a guide for spacing the plants. Pepper plants should also be about 16 to 18 inches apart.
Here is one bed of sweet peppers all laid out and ready to plant.
Meanwhile, Ryan also makes the appropriate markers for the plants. It is always good to take the time to make markers, so one knows which varieties do best and should be planted again next year.
Phurba starts planting the peppers. Set pepper plants in a hole that is twice as wide as the seedling root ball and about one inch deeper so a portion of the stem is below soil level.
By afternoon, our peppers are in the soil and everything is ready for a good drink. Fortunately, we had a good rainstorm a couple hours after these were planted. I am so pleased with how our vegetables grow here at Cantitoe Corners. I’ll share more photos from the garden as our crops develop. I hope you have some time to plant in your gardens this holiday weekend.
I have a rather sizable collection of tropical specimens at my Bedford, New York farm. During the winter, they are all stored in special greenhouses. Once the warm weather arrives, they are all brought out for display - some go to my home in Maine, and the remainder of the plants are placed in various locations here at Cantitoe Corners. It is a big undertaking to move all these plants at the beginning and end of each season. Thankfully, I have the help of a strong outdoor grounds crew and some heavy-duty farm equipment to get the job done.
Enjoy these photos.
This is the inside of one of three large plastic hoop houses where most of my tropical plants are stored during the cold weather. They actually spend about seven months of the year in these temperature-controlled shelters, but they definitely thrive.
These structures are built using heavy gauge American made, triple-galvanized steel tubing. I chose this gothic style because of its high peak to accommodate my taller plants.
Every year, these tropical plants are taken out of storage, cleaned up and repotted if needed, and then moved to their warm-weather locations.
The crew is always very careful when moving these container plants. I have a large variety of special planters – antiques and reproductions, planters made of stone, lead, fiberglass and resin, and in a wide array of shapes and sizes.
As the plants are removed from the hoop house, they’re grouped by type. Here are several potted bird’s nest ferns. Bird’s-nest fern is a common name for several related species of epiphytic ferns in the genus Asplenium.
Here is one of my bird’s nest ferns, Asplenium nidus. The bird’s nest fern is known for its tropical fronds that grow out of a rosette in the middle of the plant which closely resembles a bird’s nest. It is also occasionally called a crow’s nest fern.
The sago palm, Cycas revoluta, is a popular houseplant known for its feathery foliage and ease of care. Sago palms prefer to be situated in well-drained soil, and like other cycad plants, do not respond well to overwatering.
Below the foliage is the bare section of trunk where leaves were once cut. The rough trunk becomes leafless as it ages.
Here is a closer look at one of the fronds. The tips are quite pointy and sharp, so it’s best to keep it away from lots of foot traffic.
Here’s Phurba moving one of the heavy container plants by hand. This is a potted Beaucarnea recurvata, the elephant’s foot or ponytail palm – a species of plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí in eastern Mexico. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true palms. In fact, it is a member of the Agave family and is actually a succulent. It has a bulbous trunk, which is used to store water, and its long, hair-like leaves that grow from the top of the trunk like a ponytail, gives the plant its name.
I go through all the potted specimens and decide where they will be displayed for the season. I always try to vary their locations.
This is a Bismarkia palm, Bismarckia nobilis, which grows from a solitary trunk, gray to tan in color, and slightly bulging at the base.
Bismarckia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to western and northern Madagascar, where they grow in open grassland. The genus is named for the first chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck and the epithet for its only species, Bismarckia nobilis, comes from Latin for ‘noble’.
This potted agave is one of many in my collection. It is so beautiful, but be sure to keep agaves in low traffic areas, as their spikes can be very painful. And always wear gloves and eye protection when potting them up or dividing as the sap can burn. Agaves are exotic, deer-resistant, drought-tolerant plants that can live happily in containers. This blue agave has gray-blue spiky fleshy leaves. And do you know… tequila is actually distilled from the sap of the blue agave?
Agave plants spread without flowering by growing offshoots, called pups. These pups grow into new plants once they are separated from the main plant. They can easily be removed by exposing the connecting root and cutting through it. Once separated it can be replanted in another container.
In this area – more ferns. I have all different types with interesting foliage. It is so nice to see them all again after the long cold season. The weather this week has been in the high 60s and 70s, which is perfect for taking all the plants out of storage.
Bird of Paradise, Strelitzia nicolai, is a species of evergreen tropical herbaceous plant with gray-green leaves that grow up to 18-inches long out of a main crown in a clump. Look closely, these plants have actually evolved to create splits along their lateral leaf seams to allow the wind to pass by. In doing so, they eliminate the risk of being snapped in half by strong tropical gusts.
Here is a green colocasia. In contrast to Alocasia, the leaf tip of colocasia points downwards.
The foliage of philodendrons is usually green but may be coppery, red, or purplish with parallel leaf veins that are green or sometimes red or white.
Shape, size, and texture of the leaves vary considerably, depending on species and maturity of the plant. I have many philodendrons that are growing so well here at Bedford.
I also have several Norfolk Island pine trees, Araucaria heterophylla. These are native to the South Pacific, so Norfolk Island pines prefer warmer, wetter climates between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit – similar needs as my citrus trees. The foliage is medium green and needlelike with an awl shape.
And here is a tall pygmy date palm tree, Phoenix roebelenii. This tree grows to about 10-feet tall or more. Phoenix roebelenii is a popular ornamental plant and needs little pruning to develop a strong structure. The slender trunk has decorative protuberances along its entire length from where fronds were once attached, but have fallen off as the tree matured.
It’s amazing how many plants can fit in these durable hoop houses. I am so fortunate to be able to store all these plants during the cold season, and then enjoy them all around my farm when it gets warm. There are just a few more to take out. I’ll share photos of where I placed them around the farm in an upcoming blog.
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