Tulip-Mania

Like the Dutch tulip crazy of the early 1600's, I am always interested in the most unusual tulips. It may be a little past the prime time for these bulbs in our area, but Tulipia 'Party Time' is deserving of a spotlight this week, and allows me to illustrate a great lesson in plant history. A member of the Fringed group, this Biltmore Series tulip is definitely unusual, and has put on a show for over a week.

I first read deeper into the Dutch Tulip-mania in Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan (a book I recommend to any plant-lover). However, I have been re-introduced to the topic through a plant pathology class that I am in, and continue to be mesmerized by the power these small bulbs brought. Tulips are important in the field of plant pathology because the first ever described plant virus was the cause of the sought-after color breaking on Tulip flowers... so here's a little gardeners history lesson, and some pretty pictures!

 

Tulipia, the genus of Tulips, is named for the Turkish word for turban, which the flower resembles. Found growing wild in Turkey, and later cultivated by the local people, the cultivated Tulip was first brought to Holland in the 16th century. The bulbs thrived in the temperate climate, and an industry was born! By the beginning of the 17th century, horticultural experimenting created many new varieties. These exotic and expensive mutations were coveted by the rich for their beauty, rarity, and status. When the middle class realized how much the rich would pay for these bulbs, tulip-mania was born.

Based on futures markets, Tulip prices skyrocketed. For just one rare bulb exhibiting color breaking, the seller received: 2 loads of wheat, 4 fat oxen, 8 fat pigs, 12 fat sheet, 2 hogsheads of wine, 4 barrels of beer, 2 barrels of butter, 100 pounds of cheese, a bed, a suit of clothes, and a silver beaker! The rarest bulbs brought equivalent to US$ 50,000 in gold. The amazing thing is these "rare" bulbs would actually die over time from the virus which caused them to be so unique. But, there was not enough time to make that discovery, as the Tulip-mania only lasted 2 years, at which time the market crashed and sellers were forced to give or throw away bulbs. Plant viruses would not be recognized until almost 300 years later (This information is from Plant Pathology 601 at NC State University). Just a little food for thought, as we all enjoy our spring tulip blooms.

"For look into a flower, and what do you see? Into the very heart of nature’s double nature—that is, the contending energies of creation and dissolution, the spring toward complex form and the tidal pull away from it. Apollo and Dionysus were names the Greeks gave to these two faces of nature, and nowhere in nature is their contest as plain or as poignant as it is in the beauty of a flower and its rapid passing…Could that be it—right there, in a flower—the meaning of life?" 

~Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire

The Perennial Border: A Spring Study

When looking for our first house, the yard was an important aspect: we knew we wanted a large perennial border. We were lucky enough to find a home with, among other features, a South-facing fence in our garden that makes a perfect backdrop for our full-sun mixed perennial border.

 

When we moved into our house in January of 2009, the first thing we did when the ground was warm enough to dig was fix the drainage around the property. Snaking its way through the back of the border is a buried drainage pipe that is trouble to dig around, but helped lay the plans for our perennial border. Brian, being the landscape designer, drew out the curvy style of our beds, while I was left with my favorite task of filling it in with plants. A huge area to fill, it took us 2 seasons to complete our plant selections. Starting with some clearance shrubs and home-propagated native perennials we built it up steadily. With almost everything in since last summer, this year promises to be gorgeous. There is one more hole to fill in this area however, an arbor at the far end was taken out, leaving me with some more room to expand the sun-perennial collection... I dread the time when I run out of room to plant!

Another great advantage of our home is the raised back porch. It provides a perfect vantage point to survey and document the garden. The view from above provides a much different perspective, and makes it even more of a challenge designing plantings that look good from every angle. The result of such is usually planting things a little too close to fill in holes seen from above, leaving me no room to walk into planting areas for maintenance. But, that's the thing about your first house/garden: you make lots of mistakes and always learn from them. Anyway, the vantage point on the porch is perfect to take a series of pictures to see how the border progressed over the month of March and early April.

March 9th, 2011

March 20th, 2011

March 29th, 2011

April 4th, 2011

The growth rate of things amazes me this time of year. I swear the Monarda grows an inch every night! As of now almost everything is up in the garden, with a few exceptions like fall perennials such as Joe Pye Weed. The Reeves Spirea (Spirea cantoniensis) really stands out in this series, as the blooms progress from the back to the front, weighing down the branches.

The weight of the blooms on the Reeves Spirea are so heavy that the branches touch the ground in the front of the border, making a rare visit with the "Little Beauty" Tulips. What a beautiful meeting!

I had to include some close-ups of a few other standouts right now in the perennial border. The 'Double Dutch' Tulip is a standout from any angle, at any stage of bloom. From a too-bright-to-capture neon orange, to this rusty aged copper, this Tulip has to be one of my favorites.

The Roman Hyacinth (Bellevalia romana) (left) was one of the first plants to go in the border. Bought on clearance and not planted until the end of January, these little guys have toughed through and are just now beginning to bloom. Not a standout from afar, it sure looks beautiful for its spotlight picture! The 'Stairway to Heavean' Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans 'Stairway to Heaven') (right), on the otherhand, is a standout from afar, and you can see its white new growth in the foreground of the perennial bored time-lapse pictures. Yesterday, the first little sky blue bloom appeared, and soon they will be covered in blooms. Perhaps one of my favorite foliage plants as well, these little guys had to be moved into their shadier location to prevent leaf scorch.

The Easter Rose (Kerria japonica 'Honshu') (left) burst into bloom this week, and is setting many more buds for what looks like will be a long bloom time. I'm enjoying this new addition more and more every day, as the tropical looking flowers add a touch of summer to the spring pallet. The 'Wine and Roses' Wigelia (Wigelia florida 'Wine and Roses') (right) was another standout in the pictures, as you can see the wine-colored foliage appearing in the center of the perennial border time-lapse pictures. What you can't see from those images are the swelling rose colored buds, covered in pollen, but still beautiful!

I will conclude with a bit of a misfit, as it is not in the sun perennial border, but the Wisteria is in full bloom and dropping its lilac-colored petals all over the garden. Tonight promises to be our last night below 45 degrees, very exciting times! Perhaps a trip to the garden center is in store for tomorrow...

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom."  ~Terri Guillemets

The Great Awakening

The garden has been awake for about a month now, but the magic really starts for me when the native trees begin to leaf out, changing the world from grey to green in a matter of weeks. 

As a lover of trees, spring presents one of those unique viewpoints when across the landscape you can pick out species based on colors: red samaras of the maples, light green deciduous leaves of the tulip poplars and sweetgums, dark green needles of the pines, or the showy white dogwoods and magenta redbuds peaking out of the understory. The two largest trees in the picture above are Tulip Poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera), each about 3 feet in diameter, guarding the stream at the edge of our property.

We are lucky enough to have our little piece of city property back up to an undeveloped easement with a perennial stream.  A rare 3 acre unmanaged tract for being within the Raleigh City Limits, it attracts a wide variety of wildlife and has mature second growth hardwoods flanking the stream. The easement is dotted with naturally regenerated dogwoods, this one (right) is at the back of our property, trying to fight through the wisteria. A beautiful mixture of colors for this picture, I will eventually take this vine down because they are so invasive. The only thing stopping me is that the plant was a sentimental gift to the previous homeowner from our neighbor, but I will have to take it out before we move to prevent it from spreading.

 In the garden things are moving along at an astonishing pace. With so much rain, the plants have been growing steadily, and on a rare sunny afternoon everything woke up. Warm season herbaceous perennials like this native Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) (top left) are even making an appearance, just peeking over the newly laid mulch. With passing early spring flowers, the Winter Hazel (Corylopsis glabrescens) (top right) popped open its swelling buds to reveal crinkled new leaves. Even the lawn is blooming! Amid the catastrophic chickweed outbreak we had had this spring are common violets (Viola floridana) (bottom left) showing their faces for the first time this year. Although considered a "weedy" plant in some situations, I leave these little guys alone to set seeds for the songbirds. In the shade garden, the evergreen Sweet Woodruff (Galium odoratum) (bottom right) has recently sent out a flush of new foliage, and with it delicate white flowers with a sweet scent.

 A new addition to the garden this spring, the Easter Rose (Kerria japonica 'Honshu') is getting impatient and looks like it will open its buds before the name would suggest. I always love seeing the first flower on a new plant in the garden, and even the buds are beautiful on this one. You may also notice the pollen grains on everything! It is officially that time of year when the waters run yellow with the Loblolly Pine pollen flight. Although the grains of pine pollen are too large to induce allergies, they do make mess on the outdoor furniture. The rains lately have really helped though, hopefully we will have the same luck with the Oak pollen flight that will happen in a couple weeks, one that makes even me fuzzy headed in a bad year.

 One of the simple joys I find this time of year is watching the buds swell in the spring and pop to unfurl leaves. The Variegated Beautyberries (Callicarpa dichotoma 'Duet') (left), another new addition this spring, have put on quite a show. The yellow buds and variegation on juvenile leaves is especially exciting to watch progress over the days. The Wine and Roses Wigelia (Wigelia florida 'Wine and Roses') (right) always makes a stunning showing in the spring with its purple-tinged foilage and early buds. Providing a complementary background is a white blooming web of Mazus (Mazus reptans).

I couldn't resist including this pop of color, like I couldn't resist planting these Lorapetalums in our front landscape.  A beautiful evergreen specimen plant, these small Chinese Fringe Flowers (Lorapetalum chinensis 'Daruma') only get about 4ft tall, and flush with a purple-maroon growth of foliage as a backdrop for these neon flowers.

Other, less conspicuous blooms are also present in the front landscape. The Rose Glow Barberry (Berberis thunbergii 'Rose Glow') became covered in tiny bell shaped blooms over the last couple days. Even the winter-burnt and possibly disease-ridden Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinado) joined in the fun, offering sparse appearances of white flowers with a touch of violet.

For the final picture I will leave you with the Tulipia 'Little Beauty' that I mentioned in the last post on bulbs. After waiting patiently for 2 days of rain, the budded dwarf tulips opened all at once to greet the sun, and I like to think pose for my pictures too. With more rain in the forecast, and snow for our northern friends, these 'Little Beauties' send spring wishes from our garden!

"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility." ~ Rachel Carson

Bulbs, Old and New

I love bulbs, tubers, and rhizomes and corms. The physiology of the plants has always fascinated me: how they can store all they need underground and sprout beautiful and lush seems an amazing feat.

 

However, right now my tulip bulbs are not really loving me back. Above, a crimson-colored late double tulip, Tulipia 'Double Dutch', was my only traditional tulip bloom in the perennial border (1 out of 20 bulbs), but did make a spectacular showing! Many bulbs are easy to grow, but in the South keeping your tulips blooming regularly proves to be somewhat of a chore. I think the problem in our garden is that they are mixed into the perennial sun border, an area which demands frequent irrigation in the summer months. The tulips, on the other hand, prefer to be dry during their dormancy. Perhaps I should dig and move these to a less water-intensive area. 

In a different location in the garden, these unique tulips (left) just beginning to push blooms above the foliage are a new addition last fall, a pink fringed late variety from the Biltmore Bulb Collection (Tulipia 'Party Time'). Narcissus (I prefer that name to daffodils) are a solid performer in our area, and many perennialize. My favorite in our garden is this pure white variety (right), a Triandrus group Narcissus with 2-3 flowers per stem (Narcissus 'Thalia'). On a warm day these heirloom beauties give off a slight sweet smell. 

I seem to have better luck with the smaller tulips in the garden. These little pink ones (left) are only 6 inches tall and will open any day now to show a royal purple heart (Tulipia 'Little Beauty'). The Muscari (right) were a pleasant surprise this spring.  These were first planted around Christmas 2 years ago when we moved into our house and have never flowered before. I even planted perennials right over them and they are still toughing through.

 

So on to the new bulbs part. Its time for summer bulb plantings already! Every year I generally order a few bulbs from Brent and Becky's. They are the only online source I use for bulbs, partially because they are a short drive away and in the same zone as us, but also because their bulbs are consistently high quality. I also love the included plastic tags for easy marking. This year I got a small variety, a couple Dahlias, Crocosmia, Dwarf Gladious, and a (supposedly) 10 ft tall Lilly. These all went in the day after arrival, leaving me with a blister from the bulb digger! I've quickly learned my lessons about bulbs in our garden and clay soil, and now plant everything with a small handful of gravel topped by a handful of soil to increase drainage. Like with the tulips, the wet environment during the dormant period is often the killer of marginal summer bulbs here. Dahlias and Gladious are marginal here, and I have seen first hand that with the same mulching they will come back in more well drained spots, but not in those wet soils. Hopefully I made the right choices in placement this year! With bulbs planted and blisters bandaged, now we wait for summer.

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright."  ~Henry David Thoreau