Gardener's Notebook

by Chuck Gleaves, Director

(For Chuck's personal gardening blog click this link:  http://lifestylegarden.blogspot.com )

"Sweet Spot"

Below: Camassia leichtlinii (Quamash) in Kingwood's Terrace Garden

These Camassia pictured above are probably more vigorous and floriferous than any of the many Camassia I have planted in a wide variety of locations. My gardening enthusiasm is all about the cultivation of plants. Finding that "sweet spot" where a plant not just grows but really luxuriates is enourmously satisfying. Often times that term "sweet spot" is also used for just the right place that supports a hard to grow plant. I remember a native plant nurseryman telling me I needed a sweet spot for Cymophyllus fraseri, Fraiser's sedge, probably the most dramatic sedge (dramatic sedge!?). I grow it, but I certaintly have not found that elusive spot yet. Glenna Sheaffer, one of Kingwood's gardener's, certainly found sweet spots for a couple of unlikely plants here at Kingwood - the Japanese Holly Fern (Crytomium falcatum) and the hardy orchid (Bletilla striata).

So why do these Camassia thrive so well here? I have grown them in wetter spots and in drier spots with less success. I think this full sun bed which tends on the slightly moist side of average but isn't soggy except in winter and early spring is the key. Lots of organic matter probably didn't hurt either.

Benign Neglect

Below is a picture taken this spring of of Christmas rose (Helleborus niger), a plant species that is fairly uncommon and thought to be a bit challenging to grow. These clumps have probably been growing in this spot for decades. They are in an out of the way place growing in a groundcover of euonymus. No one is actively gardening in the area so the two big clumps aren't bothered. I call their treatment benign neglect. In this case it works beautifully. The Christmas rose are not in danger of being overwhelmed by any neighboring plants, they have good exposure, and there are no eager gardeners wanting to constantly move, fertilize, or rearrange them. They just happily grow and in early March as an annual rite of spring I walk up there and see if they are blooming yet.

Winter Storage

At Kingwood we use many tender plants that we winter over from one year to the next. Many, if not perhaps most are stored in a manner that most homeowners could emulate. Fortunately we also have a greenhouse, but this article is about those things not in the greenhouse. 

Shortly after 1953 when Kingwood first opened, we inititated a breeding program for amaryllis (Hippeastrum). We haven't bred any anaryllis in decades, but we still have a big amaryllis display in the greenhouse every year. We store them dry in the basement in their pots as pictured below. 

Big leaved tropical plants often collectively called elephant ears are very popular these days and we use lots of them. Xanthosoma, Alocasia, Colocasia are the big three. Pictured below are Alocasia 'Portora' in a storage building with a big window that we keep at winter temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the winter. Our Floriculturist, Jeff Russell, tells me that we buy these as liners in mid summer. They grow to the size seen in the picture and just sit without apparent growth in this cool storage throughout the winter. The following spring they put on enormous growth. 

And then, of course, there are the dahlias, cannas, gladiolus, and other assorted tender geophytes that are stored down in the same basement as the amaryllis where they stay above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Pictured below are the dahlias which Charles Applegate (Senior Gardener) likes to put into plastic bags with the tops open. This seems to provide sufficient humidity to keep them from drying out while not keeping them so moist they rot. 

Another Autumn Crocus, and a Rock Crevice Favorite (Garden details)

In the fall Kingwood has several large displays of autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale). We get a fair number of visitors each year who are surprised that there is a crocus (i.e. Colchicum) blooming in the fall, but far fewer gardeners are aware of the species of crocus (i.e. the genus Crocus) that are also fall bloomers. I have one in my home garden that has given me several years of pleasure. It is Crocus kotschyanus (sorry, no common name that I know of). The inconspicuous leaves appear in the spring and disappear as summer approaches, so it is easy to lose track of this crocus. I am usually slightly surprised  (and always delighted) to see the flowers pop up in September. It is a very gratifying plant to grow. 

Crocus kotschyanus on 4 October 2007

I am able to keep track of my Crocus kotschyanus by growing them next to a rock "patio" in the midst of one of my gardens. The "patio" is about forty square feet of large melon sized (albeit not round) sandstone rocks laid to allow me to grow distinctive plants in the crevices between the stones. The crevices provide a special environment for plants difficult to grow elsewhere in the garden. When the literature says "hard to grow" often they mean it requires a very specific sort of site, not some special skill. One of my favorite crevice growing plants (in addition to the rather prosaic but gratifying Dianthus varieties) is Lewisia "George Henley', a rock garden plant that will rot in most any other spot in my garden. I have attached a picture of the impressive flowers of another variety of Lewisia, since I don't have any pictures of George Henley in bloom, and attached a picture of vegetative George Henley which I think is so fascinating. 

Lewisia 'George Henley' growing in a crevice between sandstone rocks on 4 October 2007