Winter Weather Advisory

Winter Weather Advisory.  Those are words we've only heard once or twice here in the Nashville area this winter.  In fact, our winter has been closer to a Zone 8b winter than our typical Zone 6b (or 7a if you choose to believe the new USDA Hardiness Zones Map that was just published http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ ).  Yes, we've gotten warmer.  Imagine that.  The new Hardiness Zones Map is based on 30 years worth of data, rather than the typical 10 years, so at least we're headed in the right direction and looking at long-term weather data rather than potentially anomalous short-term trends.

Narcissus pseudonarcissus

While I have personally enjoyed not having those frigid winds whipping across the ridge and the treacherous road conditions that go along with living in a region that is notoriously unprepared to deal with winter weather, the garden has been confused.  Not all of the plants are confused, mind you, but some that have a predisposed notion for popping up early in the season were waaaay ahead of schedule.  Narcissus pseudonarcissus the early daffodil that is naturalized all over the southeastern U.S. usually begins flowering about now--sometime between Valentine's Day and the end of February.  This year, it was in full bloom in my garden on January 20.

Helleborus niger 'Josef Lemper'

Hellebores, also called Christmas or Lenten Rose depending on the species, are staples of the Southern shade garden.  Their evergreen foliage provides year round interest, but it's their flowers that are most welcome during the short, gray days of winter.  I have several and can honestly say I don't think I've ever met a hellebore I didn't love.  Some of the most impressive that I have trialed over the past three years include Helleborus niger 'Josef Lemper', which began flowering the week of Thanksgiving (2011) and continues to produce new flowers even as I'm writing this, the third week of February, three months later.

Helleborus niger 'Double Fantasy'



Helleborus niger 'Double Fantasy' as it ages.

Helleborus niger 'Double Fantasy' is a fairly recent introduction from Japan and has pristine white flowers which, once the plant is well-established, will be fully double in form.  Younger plants will produce what are often called "anemone-flowered" blooms with a ruff of central petals like the photos above.  I also love the way the flower ages, with the outer petals often turning green while the inner petals remain white.

Helleborus x 'Winter Moonbeam'

Another outstanding performer in the garden during the past three years or so has been Helleborus x 'Winter Moonbeam'.  I love its foliage in the summer--a dark, almost black-green with creamy silver marbling in the veins.  It's right by the front door where I can appreciate it every day.  And in winter, it greets me from around New Years Day until late March with creamy white flowers that age pink and eventually to almost maroon.  They remain on the plant for several months and I remove them only when the new foliage begins to push up in mid-spring.

I also love the opportunity to visit other gardens around Nashville and wherever I may be traveling for business or pleasure.  Some recent trips to Cheekwood, our local public garden and Glen Leven, a property owned by The Land Trust for Tennessee, offered up these spectacular winter and early spring garden gems.



Edgeworthia chrysantha--Chinese Paperbush

Chimonanthus praecox--Wintersweet (flowering at Christmas!)

Arum italicum--Italian Arum (Leaves appear in autumn and remain throughout the winter.)

And a very special little narcissus, known throughout the South as a "Sweetie" because of its intoxicating fragrance, Narcissus jonquilla (flowering about a month early).

So if, like me, you live in USDA Zone 6b or warmer, you too can enjoy many of these winter-flowering beauties.  Many are hardier than Zone 6, growing even into Zone 5 (and in the case of the Narcissus, Zone 4).  They'll just flower at the end of winter instead of throughout the winter months like they do for me.

And In Christmas News...

Early on this Christmas morning, while the family is still asleep, I thought I'd share a bit of the week's good news with all of you.  I want to thank each and every one of you for following along!  Gardener Cook (formerly Garden Notes) will officially reach 25,000 views before year's end!  This is no small feat and is thanks entirely to you.  No readers, no blog.  It's that simple.

As I have alluded to in many Facebook posts and the occasional blog post, I've been wanting to share some exciting news for several weeks, but was unable to until the official word came and I was 100% sure it was going to happen.  I didn't want to jinx it!  So today, I can tell you with a great sense of pride (and a certain amount of relief!) that my first book proposal has been accepted by Timber Press and that I will be spending much of 2012 writing and photographing for a new book tentatively titled In A Southern Garden--Lessons From 20 Years of Gardening in the South.  This is only a working title and may (will, likely) change, but you never know.  Regardless, the proposal has met with all levels of approval, has been officially signed off on and I will have a contract in hand the first week of January!

On the same day--almost at the same time, in fact--a second project that I had been approached about working on also came through.  If all of the stars align and we can work out any "conflict of interest" concerns, I may actually be working on two books in 2012!  The second would be a distinct departure from my gardening world, but an easy step into my second passion--food!  (There was some logic behind my changing up the blog earlier this year!)  I can't say much more than that for now, as many of the details still have to be worked out, but keep your fingers crossed and perhaps by year's end I'll have some further news on this exciting second project.

I hope this brief post finds all of you well this holiday season!  Regardless of which holiday you celebrate, I hope it brings you joy, happiness and peace.  From my garden to yours, Merry Christmas and I'll see you in 2012!

Not Your Grandmother's Amaryllis

Before we dive into the world of these stunning "new" amaryllis, let's talk for just a minute about names.  While I have used the word "amaryllis" in the title and again in the first sentence, it's because I'm writing for you, the gardening public, and not because it is necessarily accurate.  In fact, amaryllis has become the accepted common name for a group of bulbs technically called Hippeastrum.  These are the bulbs that we all know and love as the Christmas bloomers, often with giant red, pink, or white blooms (or multiple variations on that theme).  The truth is that Amaryllis (capital "A" and italicized) is the name of an entirely different genus (group) of plants and is not at all what it is sold in stores around the world at Christmas time.  That said, we all refer to these holiday beauties as "amaryllis", so in keeping with what we all understand, I'm using the same terminology.

The amaryllis I'd like to introduce you to are a newer group of bulbs with extremely unusual and exotic blooms with often spidery petals and an almost otherworldly appearance.  These unusual blooms come from a species known as Hippeastrum cybister, pictured below in a print made around the time of the species' discovery in South America.

In the past two decades, hybridizers have been working with Hippeastrum cybister and crossing it with other species and hybrids to create an entirely new group of bulbs known as the Cybister Group or Cybister Hybrids.  Some of the best include stunning new introductions such as:

Hippeastrum 'Evergreen':

Hippeastrum 'Rio Negro':

 Hippeastrum 'Merengue':

And one of the most unusual of all, Hippeastrum 'Double Merengue', a full double-flowered form of the variety pictured above.

So there you have it!  Some new, unusual and out-of-the-ordinary amaryllis to add to your Christmas collection.  You may not find these in every garden center you walk into, but they are becoming more widely available through various online retailers and a quick Google search should help you locate several nurseries and bulb suppliers who offer them for sale.  I hope this post finds everyone well and enjoying the holiday season and I wish you the very best in the coming year!

Winter Inspiration

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has already passed and December 1 is bearing down upon us.  And of course, the weather has taken a turn for the worse long before I (or the garden) was ready.  In fact, I'm sitting here writing to you now with a fire in the fireplace and snow--yes, SNOW!--bearing down on west Tennessee.  It remains to be seen whether it will make it all the way to the Nashville area, but indications are that we'll have at least a dusting and maybe as much as inch or so before it's said and done.  Some areas are expecting more!

Even with the weather turning sour, the garden still has some life in it.  In fact, this beautiful "Christmas rose", Helleborus niger 'Josef Lemper' just started flowering this week and will continue, completely unfazed by the weather, until April!  It is my favorite of all of the recent hellebore introductions.  There are others, as well, but none that have the flower power of Josef.



Here is Josef Lemper last January with a bud pushing up through the snow!

Other winter favorites include the many witchhazels like Hamamelis 'Primavera', pictured below.  Flowering as early as January in warmer climates, its bright yellow petals are a bright spot in the winter garden and are completely unaffected by cold temperatures. 

A plant that often gets a bad rap for being "invasive"--another topic for another blog post--is Mahonia bealei, Leatherleaf Mahonia.  Its outstanding architectural form is a welcome presence year-round in the garden, but my favorite feature of mahonia is its winter blooms.  In fact, its one of the few nectar sources available to honeybees that emerge to scavenge for food on warm winter days.

 One last winter favorite, and yes, another of those that some gardeners consider "invasive" (remove the seedheads and they won't move an inch, and it's not that time consuming--you deadhead everything else...)  Arum italicum is an important denizen of my winter garden.  The foliage emerges in late October and early November, remaining completely evergreen throughout the winter, thumbing its nose at temperatures well below freezing.  If we dip down into the teens for an extended period, some leaves my suffer some frost damage, but those can simply be removed and with the warm days of spring, new foliage will appear.  Keep in mind that this is a plant that goes dormant in the summer, hiding underground during the hottest months of the year, so plan accordingly.   Its the perfect plant to mix in with hostas and other shade lovers that are dormant in winter.  The arum will be up all winter long and as it goes dormant in early summer, the hostas will take its place.  In autumn, the cycle will start over as the hostas go dormant and the arum emerges.

So just because winter is knocking at the door doesn't mean I have to let it in, and even on the coldest winter days the garden will remind me that spring will--eventually--return.

Fashionable Roses

Like so many of you, I work--a lot.  Between my design clients, traveling to speaking engagements, working on magazine articles, building a stock photography library and getting ready to launch a garden tour business--not to mention a few projects that I can't talk about quite yet--my days are fairly full.  To that end, sometimes it's nice to be able to mix some pleasure with my work.  Not that I don't find pleasure in all of my work.  If I didn't, I'd change careers.  But really, sometimes it's fun just to have fun and Friday was one of those days!

I've mentioned one of my favorite projects, the Nashville Music Garden, on the blog before.  This garden is a collection of all of the roses that have ever been named for one of Tennessee's great music artists, groups or songs and, as far as we know, it's the only garden like it in the world based solely on its plants having this kind of connection to the music world.  There are roses named for Barbara Mandrell, Lynn Anderson, Dolly Parton, Pam Tillis and many other artists.  There are also roses named for songs, like Rocky Top, Amazing Grace and Blue Suede Shoes.  We even have a rose, 'Crescendo', that was named by Jackson & Perkins to honor our Nashville Symphony--the first time ever a rose was named to honor a group like this--as well as The Grand Ole Opry, The Nashville Ballet and others!

On Friday, we added a new name to our list of honorees at the Nashville Music Garden--Manuel Cuevas.  Now, some of you may not know who Manuel is, but if you've ever seen a photo of someone like Marty Stuart or Dolly Parton, Dwight Yoakam or Little Jimmy Dickens--or any number of other artists--wearing one of those flashy rhinestoned and embroidered jackets, suits or shirts, then you know Manuel.  In fact, Manuel dressed "The King" himself and is the man who made Johnny Cash "The Man in Black".  So it was a true honor and privilege for this little ol' country boy from Kansas to be a part of the dedication of the new 'Manuel Cuevas' rose on Friday.  Manuel even loaned me a jacket to wear for the event and I couldn't have been prouder to wear it!

Pictured with me are Manuel (holding a picture of the rose that was named for him), legendary singer Lynn Anderson (she never promised you a rose garden!), Pat Bullard (my amazing friend who founded the Nashville Music Garden) and rose hybridizer Whit Wells of Wells Mid-South Roses (the creator of the 'Manuel Cuevas' rose and so many others).

By the way, the real rose that you see Lynn wearing on her shirt is the new 'Manuel Cuevas' rose--and the roses you see embroidered on Lynn's beautiful shirt are Manuel's own artistic interpretation of his new rose.  This shirt will be donated to the Nashville Music Garden for a special, online fundraising auction, details of which I'll announce here at a later date.

If you are interested in growing the 'Manuel Cuevas' rose or others that are part of the Nashville Music Garden collection, see Whit's website at www.wellsmidsouthroses.com.  Also, be sure to visit the Nashville Music Garden's own website at www.nashvillemusicgarden.com and become their friend by "Liking" Nashville Music Garden on Facebook.  And if you're ever in Nashville, be sure to stop by the garden which is located directly across the street from the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Symphony in Hall of Fame Park between 4th and 5th Avenue, just south of Broadway.  You never know who you might catch a glimpse of!

Shades of Autumn

I am admittedly not a big fan of autumn.  I don't dislike the season itself and in fact, some of my favorite garden plants flower as the days grow shorter, temperatures drop and summer begins to lose its grip.  My problem with autumn is that it precedes winter, and of winter, I am not a fan.  In my book, winter is simply a necessary evil--the cold weather I must endure in order to love the plants I love the most.  Perennials, bulbs, flowering trees, shrubs--they all have to have winter in order to survive--and not just survive, but thrive--and bloom.  And so, I survive winter knowing that at it's end, all of my garden favorites will be back to woo me with their flowers, their foliage, their fragrance and so much more.

So, if I have to endure winter, I figure autumn ought to be as beautiful as I can possibly make it.  Here are a few stars that are shining now in my gardens and a couple of others that I have visited this week.  Below, Aster novae-angliae (now technically Symphiotrichum novae-angliae because the botanists have been playing again).  The straight species, not a hybrid, it marries beautifully with Colocasia 'Elena' in the background.

Below, Helianthus simulans flowering in the Color Garden at Cheekwood Botanical Garden.  If you're a Nashvillian (or visiting) be sure not to miss Cheekwood--55 acres of beautiful gardens and the Color Garden, in the very capable hands of my friend Phillipe Chadwick, is especially beautiful this time of year.

Part of the fun of gardening is discovering new plants--or new variations of old plants, as in the case below.  I found this seedling Arum italicum in a friend's garden a few years ago and though it had but one leaf at that time, I thought it looked as though it might have some potential.  I'm so glad I talked her out of it.  Stunning variegation and these beautiful leaves will remain standing all winter long!

Tricyrtis is another genus of fall-blooming favorites.  Tricyrtis hirta, with its amethys-speckled blooms, always makes me smile.  It's not rare or even that unusual, but it sure is fun!

And last, but certainly not least, one of the best flowering bulbs around, Colchicum autumnale.  They last but a few days, but are so much fun when they suddenly burst into bloom in late September and early October.  If you look closely you can see the "checkerboard" pattern (technically known as "tesselation") in the flower petals.  In some varieties, this pattern is especially pronounced and very unique.

I hope that autumn finds you well.  I've been photographing like crazy the past few weeks and have a big announcement coming your way soon, so stay tuned!  See you in the garden!

30-Minute Bolognese

I posted some photos last night on Facebook of a "shortcut" version of traditional Bolognese that I was whipping up to use in a lasagna.  So many people asked for the details, I decided it would be easier to post it here, rather than taking up so much room on my Facebook page and only allowing my Facebook friends to have access to it.  Sorry that I don't have a good photo.  I was snapping with my phone as I went and the images really are inferior for posting here.  I'll do better next time!  At any rate, I can still tell you how you can make a really good Bolognese in 30-45 minutes and skip the traditional, all-day cooking.

Traditional Bolognese is a thick, meaty sauce with little or sometimes no tomato paste or sauce included.  The meat is the star.  The Americanized version is usually a thick, tomato-based sauce full of meat--what we typically would think of as a "meaty" spaghetti sauce.  This quick shortcut version falls somewhere in between and to me, gives you the best of both worlds.  Deep, rich, meaty flavor and a moist, silky, stick-to-the-pasta (and your ribs) texture.  And the time it saves!

What you'll need:

(This makes enough to make a BIG lasagna, 11 x 14, or would easily serve 8 if used with tagliatelle, fettuccine, or even spaghetti.)

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3/4 c. finely chopped celery
3/4 c. finely chopped carrot
1/2 c. finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds 93% lean ground beef
2 quarts of prepared spaghetti sauce (and you may actually need a 3rd quart, store-bought, I prefer the Classico brand Sweet Basil and Tomato, or Publix Premium Sweet Basil)
2-3 Tbsp. sugar, optional
3-4 Tbsp. fresh Basil, thinly sliced

On a day when I'm home all day, I'll make traditional Bolognese that takes several hours to do right, but when I'm in a hurry, this comes as close as you can get and takes 1/4 of the time.

In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.  You want it hot, but don't let it smoke.  The goal is to sweat the vegetables down and, after about 10 minutes of cooking, have them lightly golden brown.  Once the oil is hot, add the celery, carrot, onion, garlic, salt and pepper.  Saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables take on a nice golden color.

Add the ground beef all at once and use a spatula to break the meat up and completely incorporate it into the vegetables.  Open 1 jar of the sauce and add 1 cup of sauce to the meat mixture.  Keep working this mixture until the ground beef has broken up completely and there are no large chunks.  Simmer this mixture until all of the moisture has evaporated and the meat begins to look dry.  Add a second cup of sauce from the open jar and incorporate it thoroughly, simmering until the mixture "goes dry" again.  Repeat this action until the first jar of sauce is gone.  It doesn't take long, maybe 10-15 minutes, and your goal is a very rich, thick, brown meaty mixture when it's done.

Give a taste.  At this point, the mixture should taste very meaty with some tomato.  If it's too salty/tomato-y, this is where the sugar comes in to sweeten it up a bit.  Sugar is optional and to your personal taste.

Once the meat mixture is completely cooked, add the second jar of sauce all at once and simmer for about 5 minutes.  If the mixture is too dry for your liking, this is where the third jar (or part of the third jar) of pasta sauce may come in handy--to get the consistency right for your personal taste.  Keep in mind that good Bolognese should not "run" over the pasta, but actually stick to it.  During the last minute or two of simmering, add the fresh basil and incorporate thoroughly.  Your Bolognese is now ready to serve or use in another dish that needs further preparation, as I did last night with the lasagna.

This may sound like an involved process, but it's really quick, easy and a tasty shortcut to traditional Bolognese when you're in a pinch.