Have you grown hellebores yet?
I have long been a big fan of hellebores. I planted ours about four years ago. They were a bit slow to get established, which apparently is not altogether unusual. Then last year–their third year–they took off. This year they are really making a show of themselves. I tidied mine up yesterday and thought I would do a little show and tell. But now I can’t resist a bit of hellebores boosterism too. So if you haven’t yet added some to your garden, let me offer seven reasons why you should.
1. Hellebores can be grown in a variety of locations. They are most famously known as shade plants. That is true. They do grow nicely in the shade, as you can see from the hellebores on the north side of our house. But they are very flexible plants and will bloom very nicely, thank you very much, in partly sunny areas as well.
2. Hellebores bloom very early. Here in Maryland they bloom in February–long before the forsythia and daffodils make an appearance–and last well into summer.
3. Hellebores are green all year long. Unlike some perennials, such as irises, that get unsightly after the blooms are spent, hellebores keep up their appearance even in the coldest and hottest months of the year.
4. Hellebores require little care. Once you have established hellebores in a well-prepared bed, the only maintenance required is trimming off the old foliage in February or late winter or when they become scraggly. Divide them in the spring to ensure good ventilation.
5. Although not the boldest colors in the garden, hellebores come in a variety of colors, from white to pink to deep purple to green.
6. Hellebores have relatively few pests and diseases. Although no plant is invulnerable to attack, hellebores are amazingly hardy.
7. Once established, hellebores are drought tolerant. And if you lived through the drought last summer like I did, you know there are lots of other plants that are much more finicky about their water than hellebores.
Are you convinced yet? And if you have them, how are you hellebores?
Robin
Colleen V. at In the Garden Online established these awards to recognize excellence in “online gardening.” You can vote for for up to three of your favorite blogs in each category by going here. There are categories in:
-Best writing
-Best photography
-Best design
-Most innovative
-Blogger you’d most like as a neighbor
-Best gardening podcast
-Best North American blog
-Best international blog
-Best new blog
-Post of the year
-Garden blog of the year
-Best forums
-Best gardening site of the year
I already have most of my nominations decided. But it’s not too late for you to woo me with cookies and pies to submit your blog. I can be bought we sweets! I’ll wait until near the deadline to send in my votes so you don’t have to pay for FedEx to get all the treats to me in time.
We all need to get our votes in by April 13. Don’t worry. You’ll still have two days to do your taxes!
And while you’re voting, don’t forget to have your say about blog posts on garden products here on Bumblebee. The poll is in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Now go vote!
Robin
Some images just stick with you…like the idea of eight million bees loose on the freeway.
This story came out of California a couple of days ago. It seems that a truck hauling 440 colonies of bees overturned–setting loose EIGHT MILLION BEES! That’s an image I can’t get out of my mind. Take a look at the photo at the bottom of this news story.
It seems that the big rig that was hauling the bees home overturned, setting loose all the flying critters. It shut down traffic for hours while several other beekeepers–WHO HAPPENED TO BE PASSING BY THE ACCIDENT–wrangled them back into the colonies to be hauled away.
The good news is that bees are very orderly creatures. Once the hives were set up the buzzing bees rendez-voused with their brethren so they could be transported to their next job. Some bees were lost. And it will take a while to sort out the whole one-queen-per-hive issue. But for the most part, the cool-headed beekeepers efficiently dealt with eight million potential problems fairly handily.
First, I didn’t know that there were itinerant bees. I thought that bees were pretty much home-based and took care of their own fields and crops. But these bees were apparently being trucked back to Washington state after a gig in the San Joaquin Valley.
Second, who knew that there were so many bees a coming and going that there would be more than one big bunch of beekeepers on a single stretch of California highway? What are the chances? Well, apparently pretty good in California. But then, California is a special place, no?
My head is still buzzing with the thought of eight million bees on the loose.
Robin
After viewing the exuberant displays of flowers, plants, containers and hardscaping…
…the visitors to the Philadelphia Flower Show were practically foaming at the mouth in the vendor area. I have never seen so many women carrying around bunches of pussy willow in my whole life. They looked like some sort of bizarre religious procession with the waiving branches and the ecstatic looks on their faces.
Well, since I have actually planted my very own pussy willow bush, I shopped for other things. Here are some of Robin’s Fabulous Flower Show Finds.
A couple of days ago I talked about how I am just mad for Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging. Don’t call the Ikebana police on me, because I’m quite sure I have broken some Ikebana rules, but I bought an Ikebana vase and gave it a try here at home.The trick with this nifty little vase is a built-in “frog” at the bottom and an enclosed water well. I don’t have the source for you, but you can search for Ikebana supplies on the Internet and find many similar vessels for your own Ikebana creations.
I have always found that my plants are much happier (ergo I am a better gardener) when they are in clay pots. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to find a stylish clay pot. They are all so mass-produced looking and utilitarian. So I was just tickled pink to discover Goff Creek Pottery. These pots are about 10″ high and cost $40 each. Goff Creek has many larger pots, including huge and decorative urns that go for up to $800. Sadly, there was only so much my husband was willing to carry for the sake of my gardening habits.
I also met a wonderfully charming couple with a tiny little booth of pottery vases. Paula L. Brown-Steedly, at Virginia Clay, is the potter and seems to specialize in organic-looking, hand-built clay vessels, although she also had a number of thrown and thrown and manipulated vessels. I purchased these two vases, about 11″ high each, at about $85 and $70. They look fabulous with a simple arrangement on my farmhouse table.
Do you love African Violets like I do? Well, let me introduce you to the Violet Gallery. They only had about 20 of their violets on display and for sale. But their catalog is 16 pages of mouse type with HUNDREDS of different types of violets. I was just crazy about the variegated varieties, but managed to restrain myself and only brought home four at $4.95 each. In the catalog, the cost is $6 each. Specimens are extremely robust. Highly recommended!
I love fashion. Unfortunately, fashion and gardening don’t mix so very well. I mostly wear jeans or shorts, a tank top and sneakers. I love the look of those British knee-high boots, but frankly, there is just no need for them here. So I get my jollies with gardening gloves and justify the purchases by telling myself how useful they are.
But don’t you hate gloves? I would much rather dig my fingers into the dirt and rip out those wretched weeds with my own bare fingernails. Unfortunately, it’s not quite right to traipse into a focus group room or conference room with raggedy and dirty nails. So I have (mostly) learned to use gloves. I prefer gloves that don’t feel like gloves–I want them snug, but not tight. Thin, but not flimsy. I don’t like rubbery barriers. I want to be able to FEEL what I’m doing. (Ahem.)
Well anyway. I adore these Atlas Gloves. They are, indeed, soft and supple. I can hardly wait to give them a test drive. At $7 they are a bargain. I may have to order in bulk.
BTW, you may notice that these are a size small. Since I am 5′10, I do not have small hands. So if you cannot find these gloves locally and decide to order them, know that they run VERY LARGE.
Isn’t shopping so much fun?!?!
Robin
One of the advantages of signing up for the early morning tour of the Philadelphia Flower Show…
…aside from being able to see the displays without having to jostle, stand on tippy toe and elbow my way through the hoards—was that the guide was a seasoned flower show volunteer. Our guide was a charming older fellow who seemed to know everyone on the floor and lots of stories that won’t necessarily make the official news. Here are some stories you won’t read about in the newspapers about the Philadelphia Flower Show…some his and some from my own observations.
One exhibitor at this year’s show, a nursery, didn’t win any of the judges’ prizes but did win the several of the popular vote awards among visitors, the People’s Choice Awards determined by written votes each day. The display was a music instrument repair shop, in keeping with the show’s New Orleans and jazz theme. A wildly popular fountain of repurposed brass instruments was a focal point, as was an old upright piano remade into a waterfall and a tuba fountain.
I was amused to hear the booth representative explain not once, not twice, but three times how no instruments were harmed in the making of the display—they were all old and useless anyway! It seems that some people had been complaining about how the nursery had destroyed instruments for the purpose of the display.
Our guide told us about one exhibitor in the nursery class, the J. Franklin Styer Nurseries Inc, a Philadelphia-area nursery that was recently purchased by Urban Outfitters as part of its quest to launch its outdoor chain Terrain. (If you haven’t heard about it, the goal of Terrain is to “to transform the local garden center into an experience that celebrates the beauty and abundance of nature while offering an eclectic mix of garden-inspired products tailored for the contemporary customer.” Watch out Smith & Hawken.) The purchase occurred just three weeks before the Philadelphia Flower Show, where the nursery has for years had a major display area. The nursery’s designer and flower show coordinator promptly quit, leaving the nursery—and Urban Outfitters—with just three weeks to fill a big hole that other companies spend months and months designing and planning.
Well, don’t underestimate Urban Outfitters and their desire for an untarnished reputation and a smashing 2008 launch for Terrain. Within a week they had hired a Hollywood set designer and came up with a stunning display that won Best of Show for the nursery division. Sadly, my photos don’t to justice to the display, which included a stunning Bougainvillea with vines as thick as my arm winding up on to a porch. It was breathtaking.
Our guide is also a member of the Philadelphia Men’s Garden Club. He said the club was formed because years ago there were only ladies clubs and the fellows felt outnumbered and misunderstood. With their own club, he said, “We can break all the rules and drink beer while putting up our display.”
Their display, in the by-invitation division, was a men’s private club in a swampy setting, complete with alligators swimming in the waters around the clubhouse and a porch sign that warns, “Beware! Poker Players and Loose Women.” I gave them high marks for creating a display appropriate to the group.
Our charming guide pointed out one nursery display that was heavy on salvaged pine trees. It seems that a while back the nursery owner broke his hip, lost is wife and his business. It was a very bad year. The Philadelphia Men’s Garden Club swung into action, passed the hat and collected some money to help with the doctor bills. They found a surgeon to do the hip replacement for free and even pitched in to complete some of the unfinished nursery work. Now, our guide proudly pointed out, the nursery owner was back in business and once again exhibiting at the flower show—an example of the camaraderie and support among the show folks.
The Best in Show award for the best florist went to the entrant who decided to suspend their display from the ceiling—the first time for such a “daring display.” Thousands and thousands of individual flowers in florist vials were arranged into a kind of chandelier cum mobile. Painted footprints on the floor indicated where visitors could stand to hear music under one of the three suspended floral arrangements.
Although he was an entertaining guide, his enthusiasm for the show is better than his hearing because he seemed to think the music was on when only the electric lights were buzzing. “Isn’t that fabulous?!? It’s beautiful!!! Listen!” I had to smile, but a young woman in our tour group kept yelling in his ear, “It’s the LIGHTS! It’s the LIGHTS!” Aren’t people funny?
Here are a few more photos from the show…
Okay, that’s it for the Philadelphia Flower Show stories except for a few choice finds that I found in the vendor area. Coming up!
Robin
There are flower arrangements and then there are flower arrangements.
Personally, I detest the overly-colorful and tightly packed arrangements that I associate with almost anything you can order through FTD. I have finally trained my husband to get a bunch of fresh flowers from the florist–or even the grocer–that I can arrange at home in my own lovely containers. But Ikebana is another matter altogether. Take a look at these displays from the Philadelphia Flower Show and tell me what you think. They are competitive examples of Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging.
You won’t find abundant and exuberant displays of bountiful blossoms. This is all about line and form. Restraint even, from what I can tell. And the container is as important as the arrangements, which often rely on twigs or other materials to make a line to draw the eye and create the form. Frankly, I find the arrangements artful and, well, refreshing.
Those exceptionally sophisticated and informed folks up in Philadelphia even have a local chapter of Ikebana International. I saw some of the participants spending about 45 minutes on their arrangements, which had already been judged, trying to improve them, gently twisting a twig here, adjusting a flower height there. This is flower arranging for the exceptionally patient.
I spent a good deal of time examining these arrangements before heading off to the vendor section to pick up a couple of “vessels” for my garden flowers. I adore the fact that you don’t have to have dozens and dozens of blossoms to make a beautiful arrangement and that you can use other materials–even dead stuff–to an artistic end. Right now, I have a good deal of dead-looking stuff to use in arrangements. While I doubt that I’ll ever spend more than 10 minutes on an arrangement of flowers, I do believe I have picked up a trick or two from the Ikebana aficionados.
With that said, here’s a little Ikebana walking tour from the Philadelphia Flower Show for you…
I’m fascinated. What do you think? Is Ikebana for you?
Robin
I just returned from the Philadelphia Flower Show. Holy moly.
Let me tell you, this is no ordinary home and garden show. Nay, nay. This is a spectacle! It costs the fine folks of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society about $6.5 million to put on the show, although the estimated total expenditure by the show as well as the participants is three times that. The show covers a total of 10 acres in three areas: major exhibitions, competitive classes and horticultural schools and universities. There is also a large vendor area where you can shop till you drop.
Profits from the show go to benefit the Philadelphia Green program, which cleans up and beautifies outdoor spaces that have been derelict and unsightly. The program also sponsors a prisoner gardening program to raise vegetables for the homeless, neighborhood and community gardens and loads of education programs. Many cities could look to this program as a model of excellence with many side benefits.
This year’s theme was all about New Orleans and Jazz. The entrance was a recreation of the famed Bourbon Street, all decked out in flowers.
The competitions are in areas for landscaping, floral design, florists, by-invitation and by individual plant species. Many local high schools and colleges participate in the program, as do some prisoner groups.
In addition to the huge displays, there are also fabulous displays of smaller competitive areas: window boxes, container gardens, Ikebana, competitive impromptu arranging, stoop gardens, table settings…the list goes on and on. One of the most amazing areas was the miniatures–tiny little dioramas of natural and indoor scenes with real, live, miniature plants.
The Philadelphia Flower Show claims to be the biggest and best in the U.S. and is distinguished from the famed Chelsea Flower Show in London because the Philadelphia show is indoors. Chelsea is outdoors. That means that all the flowers, flowering shrubs, flowering trees–everything–had to be forced indoors. If you have ever tried to force a flower, imagine trying to force thousands, if not millions, of them. All at the same time. All on a particular day. And then arranging them in a small exhibition space to please the judges and the crowds.
And that, my friends, is why they call it a “show.”
(By the way, I arrived home just in time to unpack and pack again…off to Atlanta this time. I have about 1,000 photos to wade through, but will be posting them as soon as I return and recover. I also want to show you all the cool new stuff that I bought!)
Robin
I have to admit that when I first heard about Blotanical, my first thought was “Oh, great. Something else to keep up with.”
With more than 75 blogs in my Google Reader, I already have a difficult time keeping up with the reading. I mean, if I read everything I wanted to read, I wouldn’t have time to write. Or have a job. Or bathe. Or eat.
After a few emails about it, I finally wandered over, logged on and created my “plot,” the profile of yourself, your gardening experience and link to your blog. I poked around for a bit and that was that.
When I started getting the “You’ve been faved” and “Someone likes you! They really really do!” emails, I thought, what’s going on over there anyway?
So I finally started poking around in the past couple of weeks. At first, I was a little confused about what went where because the menu bars changed depending on where you were. I also kept getting a white screen when I went to the “Picks” page, which confused me further until I stumbled across a message that explained it was also confusing to the developer, Stuart Robinson, an apparently very energetic fellow from Australia.
It took me days and days before I figured out how I could add to the “Picks.” (If you are also confused, there is a submenu under “Picks” where you go to “Current List.” Here you can click on a post and “Pick” if it you like it. Pick mine.)
Users get points and rise to levels, which apparently gives them some sort of privileges–Blotanist, Patron Blotanist, Fellow Blotanist, Master Blotanist and Guru Blotanist. I figured this out when I tried to add to my favorites and hit my limit. “Sorry!” Apparently I have to earn more points to have more favorites.
After scratching my head over this for a while, I have to say I like it. I’m now conflicted between keeping up (a laughable concept, really) with my Google Reader or Blotanical. My Google Reader has more than gardening blogs, which is the conundrum. But if I keep up by reading in Blotanical, I can earn more points and add to my favorites. Plus, I can see a lot more of what is posted in the gardening world than I would see in my reader. I mean, here it is at 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday and already there are more than 75 posts. You can really get carried away with the whole blogging thing, can’t you?
One of the features I like is the map, which allows you to zero in on a geographic area and find other garden bloggers. It takes a bit of manipulation with the zoom keys, but you can see who else on Blotanical is near you. Sadly, there appear to be no other garden bloggers near me in Southern Maryland, although there are several in the greater Washington, D.C. area.
Well, so I suppose I’ll see you on Blotanical. Send me a message and I’ll send you a message so you can send me a message. We’ll be racking up our points.
I wonder if we can trade our points in for prizes? I need a new fountain for my garden. I wonder how many points I could trade for that?
Oh. If someone knows how to get the picture of your blog updated in Blotanical, can you let me know? My new design isn’t showing up. I don’t want to bother busy Stuart if I don’t have to. He must be exhausted.
Robin
Lovely country location just yards from the Chesapeake Bay.
Easy dining in your own hay field. Stylish gourd-style homes. Immediate occupancy.
What do you think? Will I get any takers?
We were very fortunate to have bluebirds set up house in our first year as bird landlords. I am hoping that the rural habitat is as enticing to purple martins as it has been to the bluebirds.
If you’re familiar with the site of these gourd houses or the condo-style houses you see atop tall poles in open spaces but don’t know what they’re for, these are purple martin houses. Purple martins in the east rely almost exclusively on human-provided housing. They prefer tall nesting sites located within 100 feet of a human dwelling and at least 40 feet away from trees and other tall structures where predators can hide.
The purple martins migrate up from South America very early in the season, usually returning to their homes from previous years.
Like some of those aggravating folks who line up even before the plane arrives at Southwest Airlines, the purple martins migrate so early because of the competition for housing. The earlier the bird arrives the greater the chance of getting the location they find desirable.
New colonies like mine are usually first visited and used by birds hatched the previous year who are searching for their own homes. These “scouts” arrive four to six weeks later than the mature purple martins.
According to the scout reports from the Purple Martin Conservation Association, the adult birds are nearly here to our area of Southern Maryland. Well, my houses are ready and I’m playing the dawn song on the outdoor speakers, just in case there are some martins looking for some new digs.
So, we are now open for business. Pass the word.
Reminder: Please register you response to the survey at the top right of this page!
Robin
For some wacky reason, I’ve had several people email me with ideas for Bumblebee this week.
Perhaps you’re all trying to tell me something?
My brother (who you can read about here and here) probably wasn’t thinking Bumblebee when he sent this, but I couldn’t resist sharing the photo of the redneck mansion he sent.
In a weird kind of way, I find this a rather stylish assemblage. I mean, there was some real thought to form and function. Umbrellas, a greenhouse, a pond, windmill and even seating. And you know how important I find seating.
I wonder if the flowers are real, plastic or silk?
March 31, 2008 Postscript: Wouldn’t you know it’s actually from a movie set? See here.
Robin
