Garden Tours Coming

Hey all! Just a quick note before I head home from the office! There's a new section on the website (http://www.troybmarden.com/, or click on the title of this blog entry) about a new venture in garden travel and tours that I am hoping to get off the ground in the next few months.

We're working on itineraries both at home and abroad. Two trips are in the works for 2009, one to the Pacific Northwest touring nurseries, public and private gardens and some amazing natural areas. The other will be to the 2009 Philadelphia Flower Show and will include public gardens, estates and nurseries in the Brandywine Valley (Longwood Gardens, Chanticleer, etc. etc.) Details with costs and itineraries will be posted sometime later this fall--I hope sometime in October--so please keep checking back if either of these sound interesting to you!

In the future, there are itineraries in the works for garden tours to England, Scotland, France and Italy. We're working hard to find the very best accomodations, gardens and other points of interest to make these trips fun, relaxing and beautiful!

Hope summer is treating everyone well, so far. Our thoughts are with the folks in the upper midwest who are living with the terrible flooding and those back home who have been the victims of numerous tornadoes and other foul weather in the past few weeks.

Butterfly Weed

Growing up on the Kansas prairie, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) was a common and favorite sight along the roadsides and across the grassy plains. For those of us who were in tune with these kinds of things, the flowering of the butterfly weed was the official harbinger of summer. It's brilliant orange flowers were impossible to miss, usually in individual splashes here and there in the roadside ditches, but occasionally in brilliant rivers flowing down the hillsides and across the open grassland. These memories from many years ago are still with me today.

I am reminded of it each day as I pull into the driveway and there in full bloom is one of the most spectacular clumps of Asclepias tuberosa I have ever seen. So spectacular, in fact, that I am considering giving it a name and introducing it to the nursery trade. It's a plant that I found a number of years ago that seemed much more robust and a LOT more profuse in its flowering than any other that I had ever seen, so I planted it out to see what would happen. I've kept an eye on it over the years and am convinced that it really does have serious garden potential. It will even re-bloom later in the season if it is deadheaded and given a light dusting of fertilizer after it finishes its initial flowering. I've seen flowers on it as late as September, which is at least two months after most of the others have finished.

When I pulled in this afternoon I noticed a beautiful butterfly fluttering and floating just above the plant. I just happened to have the camera with me and was able to get a couple of good shots before he or she flew off in search of the next great meal. Enjoy!

Back On Track

Okay, I've been a little remiss in posting lately. The 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. shift is beginning to wear on me just a little, so shoot me. This has been one of the craziest springs I can remember in quite some time and I'm STILL playing catch-up. Almost there, though. The work is not coming in at quite the same pace it has been for the past two months and I feel like I'm finally at a point where I can actually get caught up and stay there! To that end, I'm going to do a better job of posting here on a much more regular basis. It's not going to be everyday, I can guarantee you that, but I'll try to do at least a couple of new things each week since we are right in the thick of the growing season right now and topics should (hopefully) abound.

Have you seen the new Pennisetum setaceum 'Fireworks'? Wow! Wow, wow, wow! You know I love just about anything that is variegated and this new form of the old standard Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' (burgundy fountain grass) will definitely knock your socks off! The overall color is still the burgundy that we love, but the 'Fireworks' start when the solid pink, pink and green, white and green, and pink, white and green shoots start showering forth amongst the burgundy. It's a showstopper! Once my plants get a little larger and I can get a good photo, I'll post one here so y'all can see it. In the meantime, when you're out at your local garden center, ask if they have it. It's part of the new "Hort Couture" brand that's out this year and it's a stunner!

What else is new? Hmmmmm. I'm thinking. Oh, the baby 'Thailand Strain' Colocasia (the giant elephant ears) are FINALLY starting to grow. I don't have the advantages of a nice, warm greenhouse to grow them in, so I've had to wait for 80 degree weather to see the kind of growth that my friends have been getting for that past two months. My friend Rita Randolph had plants ready to sell in 4" pots just 6 weeks after I gave her a tray of the seedlings. You should check out her website at www.randolphsgreenhouses.com She has an amazing selection of things. Lots of eye candy!

Another favorite for the past couple of years has been Caladium humboldtii 'Snow', a diminutive (and I mean small!) white caladium with green veining. It looks just like the big ones, but the leaves are only about the size of a teaspoon and the whole plant only stands about 6"-8" tall when it's mature. It's definitely another one of my new favorites! I've found one (a C. h. 'Snow') that I'm very excited about, as it seems to be even more miniature than most of them I have. So far, it's only about 4" tall and the leaves are only about the size of a baby spoon. It may grow larger as it gets more mature and as the heat of summer sets in, but I don't think so. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I feel like I've developed a reasonably good eye for things over the years and perhaps have just a bit of a "sixth sense" about plants that are different or unusual in some way. This one, so far, seems to be one of those. We'll see how it progresses through the summer. It's so small that it will never make a great garden plant, but it sure is fabulous in a 4" pot and would be a great little accent in a shady windowbox! I'll keep you posted on its progress and get some photos of it, too, once it's looking lush and full.

Guess I'd better get back to work if I intend to get caught up! Hope spring is treating everyone well and that your gardens are bursting at the seams.

Tulip 'Yellow Present'

It's not often that a tulip would turn my head and even rarer that I would be so impressed by its beauty as to pick up the phone before I even pulled into the parking lot to call a friend who works at the botanical garden to find out what it was. But that's exactly what happened. I'm not a tulip snob--really, I'm not. It's just that they don't always grow terribly well down here in the south and so often our spring seasons get so warm, so fast that they just don't last that long and the flowers just aren't as robust and beautiful as they are further north.

A few weeks ago, though, I pulled in the front gate at Cheekwood (our botanical garden here in Nashville, http://www.cheekwood.org/) and was completely smitten by the beauty of the tulip display in front of the restaurant at the entrance to the property. Before I even pulled into the parking lot, I was on the phone leaving a message for one of my friends who works there to inquire as to its name. "'Yellow Present' from Brent and Becky's Bulbs," (http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/) the return message said a little later in the day. A present, indeed!

I'm partial to yellow anyway, so there was already a warm spot in my heart for it. But it wasn't just the fact that it was yellow, it was the shade of yellow--a warm, but soft sulfur-yellow upon opening that faded to the softest shade of blonde. The form was outstanding, too, with a large, goblet-shaped bloom held aloft at the end of a generous stem perfect for display in the garden as well as the vase. Rest assured, this will be one tulip that finds its way into my garden next spring and probably for many springs to come!

Lotsa Hosta

As you've likely figured out by now, I haven't met too many plants I don't like. For the few plants that do fall into the "don't like" category, I "don't like" them just as passionately as I "do like" the ones that I do--which is most of them. Are you thoroughly confused by that? Just making sure you're awake. The long and short of it is, there's a pretty clear cut line between the plants that I do like (which is most of them) and the plants I don't (a status reserved for an unfortunate few). I was noticing this morning that the hostas are looking particularly smashing right now, so I thought I'd mention a few that I've grown to love over the years--those which fall into the "do like" category. Here it goes.

Up at the very top of the list is a stunner called 'Golden Sculpture'. I like big hostas. I like small ones, too, but it's the big ones that really get my heart racing. Unfortunately, in the heat of the South, not all of them attain the magnificent size they do in the North. Actually, truth be known, almost none of them do. 'Golden Sculpture' is (almost) an exception to that rule and not only does it attain some size here in the South, it does it in short order--another great attribute. Alot of the big guys are paaaiiiinfully slow down here (and the big hostas are, too). It must be that laidback Southern way of life. Anyway, 'Golden Sculpture' has just outdone itself in every garden I've planted it in, forming a 2 1/2-foot tall, 5-6 foot wide, upright, golden-foliaged, architectural clump in only 3-4 years time from a one gallon pot. Pretty good for one of the big guys.

A few years back, when 'Guacamole' was introduced, I knew we had a hit on our hands! I've been proven right by its outstanding performance, at least here in middle Tennessee and my clumps just keep getting better with time. The great thing is, 'Guacamole' has proven to be a good parent, too! Some great sports have arisen directly from it, as have some great hybrid offspring. Some of the better ones include 'Fried Bananas', an all-gold sport, 'Fried Green Tomatoes', an all green sport and 'Holy Mole', a more robust version of its parent with heavier leaves and more intense variegation. Perhaps the best of all, though, is 'Stained Glass'--a 'Guacamole' mutation that is supremely vigorous, with thick leathery leaves and brilliant gold and green coloration! No shade garden should be without this plant. To top it off (literally), fragrant lavender flowers rise well above the foliage in late summer.

On the smaller side, perhaps the finest miniature hosta ever to come along is 2008's Hosta of the Year, 'Blue Mouse Ears'. You guessed it! When the leaves unfurl they look just exactly like a little clump of blue mouse ears. And wait until you see the new variegated sport called 'Cat and Mouse' with chartreuse centers on a brilliant blue background. Be still my beating heart! Speaking of miniatures, if you're into truly tiny plants you definitely should check out Hosta 'Pandora's Box'. In just over a decade, this little plant has gained star status in the hosta world, having originally sold for $600 at the 1997 hosta convention and now appearing in gardens everywhere! It is truly one of my favorites and has simply outdone itself in a trough garden where it's easier to keep the slugs and snails at bay.

Remember not to judge hostas by what they look like in the pot. Most of them have, for lack of a better term, a "juvenile" form and an "adult" form and these two forms often vary greatly in their appearance. Case in point, Hosta 'June'. For many years I asked "Why would anyone want to grow that? It's not very pretty." Then I planted one in a client's garden. The second year I was as unimpressed as I was the first. The third year was moderately better, so instead of composting it, I gave it one more chance. In her fourth spring, 'June' was a bustin' out all over, as they say, and the rest is history. Now I wouldn't be without her. The same goes for some of our most popular hostas like 'Strip Tease', 'Hanky Panky', 'Paul's Glory', 'Paradise Glory' and the perhaps slightly lesser-known, but beautiful, 'Captain Kirk'. It goes for nearly all hostas, really.

You know the old saying, "The first year they sleep, the second year they creep and the third year they leap." Well, it's true. And sometimes it takes them until the 4th or even the 5th year before they really develop into the fully mature forms that the pretty picture on the tag shows. So my advice is, "Don't give up," and give them a bare minimum of three years in the ground before you start passing judgment on them.

Some new varieties (new to me, but not necessarily new to the industry) that I'm trying are 'Old Glory', 'Prairie Fire', 'Corkscrew', 'Ginsu Knife' and 'Liberty'. By the way, if you happen to run into 'Liberty' at the nursery, buy it immediately! It is a brighter and more boldly variegated form of the magnificent 'Sagae' and is absolutely glowing in my garden right now. It gets big and it gets their in fairly short order. My three-year-old clump is probably going to be somewhere between 3 and 4 feet across this season from an original single-eye division in a one-gallon pot. Not bad. Not bad at all.

I am by no means a hosta collector. I only have about 25-30 plants, but I like to think that I have reasonably discerning taste and I'm also fairly hard-nosed about the fact that the plants must be vigorous and robust. I'm not one to sit around waiting for ten years while some pathetic little plant develops at a snail's pace into a mediocre offering in the shade garden, where space is at a premium. The ones I mentioned above are few of my top performers and I'm sure there will be more to come in the very near future.

Rare Beauty

Once in a while you time it just right. You're in the right place, at the right time and you actually have the camera in hand! Such was the case the day I was at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in October of 2006. It just so happened that I was visiting on one of only a handful of days that their variegated ginkgo was in its full autumn glory. Those of you who are familiar with ginkgo know that the fall color is stunning, but fleeting. They color up seemingly over night, they show off for a few days to maybe a couple of weeks and then, as quickly as they showed their color, they drop every leaf on the ground. One day they're there and then next, gone. Poof! So I lucked out. I was in the right place at the right time and the accompanying image is the result. And people wonder why I find plants so fascinating.

Blazing Hot Euphorbia

I have to tell you about another favorite plant. I'm sure you've figured out by now that there are an abundance of favorites, but the reasons that certain plants become favorites vary from plant to plant. Euphorbia 'Firesticks' (aka Sticks on Fire) is an outstanding variation on the old-fashioned "pencil cactus"--a tough, resilient and beautifully architectural plant that now comes in glowing shades of orange, yellow and red.

The photo I have really doesn't do it complete justice, as my plant was growing in a little too much shade at the time and had not "colored up" to the best of its ability--but you get the idea. The beautiful, nearly leafless, pencil-like stems of this variety look as though they are on fire from the glowing variation of color. It makes an outstanding container plant for a hot, sunny location and will grow into a dense, bushy to nearly tree form specimen (depending on how you prune it) in a relative short period of time. It also looks great in the ground with other sun-loving annuals and perennials, where its unusual form plays well off of other broad-leafed plants.

Pair Euphorbia 'Firesticks' with the blues and purples of salvias such as 'Mystic Spires' or 'Victoria' for great color contrast or really heat things up by putting it with the red texas sages (Salvia greggii varieties) or the vibrant oranges of cuphea (cigar plant). It also works to amazing effect simply mixed with a selection of other succulents in a large container, where their varying colors and architectural character play off of each other in the most interesting ways.