Continuing Ed.
Created on 6/9/2009
Education Continuing
It’s tough to get in training. I long for college days of uninterrupted reading, library and lab work. A friend who is curator of Redcliffe Plantation historic site – took a four day – day and evening brick laying and repair last week. For our staff, we do lots of travel, but we also bring in a few professionals. This week, Moore Farm staff and four invited professionals will spend 2 days together for an intense workshop on propagation of ferns from spores.
Yes it sounds like a festival for plant geeks – in fact, we only found 5 professionals who are so into native ferns that they wanted to learn this propagation technique of yesteryear. But this sort of training, challenging ourselves, at any level of horticultural knowledge is exciting and continues the skills handed down for centuries.
Tom Goforth is nationally recognized fern expert. Look at his web page with incredible, close up pictures of fern spores. Sublime. http://www.crowdognativeferns.com/
WHATS LOOKING GOOD
Rudbeckia maxima Giant Coneflower
Yellow Black-eyed Susans up to 9 feet tall. The blueish leaves look great all through spring. BUT now and just after flowering, the leaves look ratty – so plant with something to make an outer skirt. A carex or how about Baptisia?
Sesbania punicea Rattlebox
Yep, it’s a big wild weed, escaped from South America but it’s eye candy! This woody shrub grows easily from seed – collect and sow them in the next few weeks and you’ll have great ferny foliage and flowers like ORANGE WISTERIA !!!!
Passiflora cearulea May Pop
Most of the crazy flowers are finished now – those flowers that look like 7 different people working different shifts, without a plan designed them. “ I’ll just add this” says number 1. “I’ll just add this” and so on till everyone was tired and the poor flowers way over done. Now, we have puffy, soft fruits that are fun to pick and throw hard at a wall – for that POP which gives them their name.
Onoclea sensibilis Sensitive Fern
GREAT TEXTURE, GREAT COLOR (See Picture) GREAT in massive combinations with shade grasses and perennials. I love this as a base all around the dark, shiny leaves of wax myrtles. And for a big, bold surprise; add in some lilies to pop-up in the fens. Available is small sizes, so you can do a big mass from Crowdognatieferns.com
Althea syriacus Rose of Sharon
While this is a shrub, it’s invaluable as a backdrop to perennial gardens. Tough and reliable, its in full flower now. We have a mass of pink/mauve ‘Aphrodite’ fronted with a mix of blue salvia. Neither would be much without the other.
Rhexia mariana Meadow Beauty
This little runner flowers for months. You can mow it, shear it and plant it about anywhere. Why do some high and mighty horticulturists, like my dear friend Ethan Kauffman say bad things about it? EK wonders, “In flower. Why does the trashiest Rhexia just so happen to be the earliest, longest, and most prolific bloomer??!!”
WHATS THE WORK
Divide Crinum, Canna, Elephant ears and other tropicals. This is a great time to pull off little pups and stick them in the ground around mother plants. With all this rain they’ll take root and make your clumps bigger. But only do this if you have a good size established clump.
Plant more Gladiolus and rain lilies so you’ll have a succession of flowers through the summer.
Shear hedges! Even though I use a growth-retarding hormone to treat my hedges and make them grow more slowly – once every six weeks is a must.
Guide Vine: Yep, we’ve talked about this before. Now, vines have put on lots of growth so not only can you guide them, but you can shear and prune them into check too. I sheared, with gas-powered-shears (sorry Greenies, they’re not even hybrids – but then neither are my roses) my antique rose vines last week.
