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    Hot, Hot, Hot

    7/26/2016

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    Crocosmia 'Lucifer' vies with Delphinium exaltatum for center stage
    PictureDelicate Crocosmia 'Lucifer' flower buds
    FLANKING THE WIGGLE WAGGLE water feature at Bedrock Gardens is the Garish Garden, a 100-foot-long bed of bold, showy sculptures, plants, shrubs and trees. This is the garden in which plants, whether through foliage or flower, vie and clash, and ultimately rise up in front of you to demand attention. Here, throughout the seasons, you’ll find giant, elephant-ear-like ligularia with its spiky yellow flowers (Ligularia dentata 'Othello'), tall purple delphiniums (Delphinium exaltatum), coneflowers both white and purple (E. purpurea 'Alba' and E. purpurea), a golden smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria 'Golden Spirit'), masses of yarrow that change color from yellow to burnt orange (Achillea 'Terracotta'), and a variegated maple (Acer Platanoides Drummondii) that fractures the sunlight and sends it shooting off in a thousand directions.

    Not to be outdone by these is Crocosmia 'Lucifer', with its spiky, sword-shaped leaves and vaguely tropical scarlet flowers. The crocosmia both grounds and exalts the Garish Garden. The leaves form a steady march of upright soldiers that offer structure and steadfastness throughout the seasons. Early summer brings delicate, red-tinged, feather-like buds waving on tall, stiffly arching stems. Fireworks arrive in mid-July, with the buds exploding into flaming red, trumpet-shaped flowers that float above the foliage and tease onlookers (including hoverflies, butterflies and hummingbirds) to come closer.  Finally, if your growing season is long enough (it's not, here) long sprays of yellowish, chestnut-shaped seed heads appear in fall, along the flowering spine, which eventually open to reveal complex, wine-colored seeds.

    A member of the Iridaceae family that is native to eastern South Africa, crocosmia (common name, montbretia) can’t help but be flashy, as its siblings include gladioli, lilies, irises and crocuses. C. ‘Lucifer’ is a hybrid developed by the late, great English plantsman, Alan Bloom, at his Bressingham Nurseries in the late 1960s. It is a clump-forming plant that propagates by corms and seeds. New England’s climate limits its spread each year, but in places like California's Pacific Coast and England, it has outworn its welcome by spreading like a weed.

    Alternatively, in NE, it can be slow to establish, sometimes taking two to three years. Nurseries recommend digging up the corms like gladioli, or heavily mulching around the plants for winter. Jill does neither: "I used to dig them up but left them one year, and they did fine," she says. She hasn't dug them up since. 

    ​To allow C. ‘Lucifer’ its greatest glory (and height, up to four feet tall), plant it in moist but well-drained soil in a sunny location. Let it show off in broad swathes, or ribbons that allow it to wend its way among (and lord its way over) its neighbors. If you have less space, plant it in a clump of at least a dozen corms for greatest visual impact. Folks in warmer climes will want to cut off the seed heads each fall (they’re terrific in dried flower arrangements) to check its spread. Other maintenance includes springtime division every three to four years to discard the old corms and replant the new, though again, this may depend on where you live. After seven years of growing them without crowding, Jill divided hers for the first time last year, in order to donate some to the Mastway School Garden in Lee.
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    There are many crocosmia hybrids on the market now, some with earlier bloom times (you can have a whole summer of crocosmia blooms!), and others better suited to smaller gardens. C. ‘Fire King’, for example, blooms from early to midsummer, and grows to just two feet. C. ‘Carmine Brilliant’ also reaches two feet tall with reddish-orange blossoms with yellow centers. Both adapt well to planters. If red is just too garish for your garden, try C. 'Citronella' with its bright green leaves and soft yellow luminous flowers.

    Dabble and play with your garden’s palette. Let a section of your garden give way to bold colors, textures and shapes. You may be inspired to tap into that “little bit of devil” inside you, and let C ‘Lucifer” out. ~ Lisa Peters O’Brien

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    Dry Year

    7/10/2016

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    DESPITE THE THUNDERSTORMS that graced us last night, 2016 is proving to be a very dry year. Temperatures over the next two weeks are forecasted to park in the high 80s and 90s. In June, Bedrock’s hometown of Lee, New Hampshire, saw 1.3 inches of rain out of an average of 3.9, according to Weather.com. Spring’s seemingly never-ending  winds didn’t help. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Southern New England is in a “moderate drought.”  
    Our gardens are suffering. Seeds haven’t germinated.​ Annuals, whose root systems haven’t the time to develop fully, suffer. The grass crisps up, especially in shallow soil areas: “Drought is an X-ray,” says Jill. “You can see where the rock ledge on our property is: It’s where the grass dies first.”

    On a recent walk through Bedrock, I heard the Zipper tootling along the Sugar Bush, tools clattering and jostling in the back of it. It pulled up to the slope below the Tea House, and out hopped Jill with a beat up old five-gallon bucket. She dipped it in the Petit Pond, and used the liquid to water the mayapples, Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' and P. delavayi.

    ​Really? The keeper of 20 acres of gardens spot waters?
    “I don’t water in any thorough way,” she explains. “The plants need to tough it out for the most part. After 30 years of soil amendment, the gardens are pretty good at retaining moisture.”

    Jill uses manure and compost to amend, the organic matter of which improves soil structure and fertility, and increases its ability to
    retain moisture. Watering  infrastructure --water hookups, pipe access and miles of hose--exists at Bedrock, but it is only used on an as-needed basis. She tries to spot-water newly planted perennials and shrubs and some precious plants.


    Dry times aren’t all bad. They offer gardeners a chance to raise a critical brow and assess which of their plants can tolerant drought. These may be ones that you want to use more of in future garden endeavors. Typically, plants that conserve moisture or are frugal with its use  are those covered with tiny hairs, or trichomes, which limit evaporation from the leaves (Salvias; Stachys). Other defenses include waxy surfaces,  thick, fleshy leaves (Sedums; Baptisias; Euphorbias), and root systems that reach both wide and deep (Asclepias tuberosa or butterfly weed; Liatris). Many ornamental grasses survive by having thick roots and narrow leaves (Sporobolus heterolepis, or prairie dropseed). 

    Watch them at different times of day, advises Jill. "Lots of plants wilt in mid-day but by the next morning are perked up, like Cimicifuga [black snakeroot and bugbane], Ligularia and bronze fennel." Not many will die in drought, she says, they just don’t thrive.
    Droughts also prompt us to reassess our watering practices: Are we watering plants that don’t need to be, or not watering enough? One thorough watering a week is all that is needed, according to the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension (those folks have a bit more experience with dry spells than we do):  Light watering "only settles the dust and does little to alleviate drought stress of plants...Instead...allow the soil to become wet to a depth of 5 to 6 inches.” 
    Echinacea 'Purpurea"  stands hardy during drought. Jill's sculpture, Ring Toss, circles around the drought.
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    Droughts certainly stress plants, some more than others. Walking through parts of Bedrock I see parched grass and a bleached palette. The pine needle floor around the Petit Pond isn’t spongy; it crunches. Does it stress Jill? She smiles and shrugs her shoulders. Such problems used to keep her up at night, but not anymore.

    “As you get older, you roll with the punches,” she says. So, too, does her garden.
    ~ Lisa Peters O'Brien
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    Look for It:
    In June's Out of the Ordinary post, I described Jill’s stand of Pineapple Lily, Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’, by the back door of the house with its curly parsley (Petroselinum crispum) ground cover. Wisdom has it that in order to keep the plants bushy, they shouldn’t be allowed to flower, but sometimes it's the plants right under your nose get overlooked with the pruning shears.

    “I am loving it,” says Jill. “The umbels are the BEST.”

    Along with the Allium ‘Hair’ that's mixed in, we all agree it looks fetching.



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