Moscow Food Co-op Organic & Local ProductsGardening Heirloom Gardens: Part One
by Pat Diaz, from the January 1999 Newsletter
Many of us prefer the more old-fashioned sorts of garden plants, both of the edible kind and the beautiful. I'd like to focus on that for the next two months, this month featuring peonies and hollyhocks.
Have you ever come upon an abandoned homestead with bright, cheerful and beautiful peonies still blooming away? They can live to be quite old; in fact, they can thrive undivided for over a hundred years.
Peonies are bushy plants that appear to die off each winter, only to reappear each spring. You can plant them two ways - either as tubers in the fall or as containered plants in the spring. They are herbaceous perennials with three-season value in the landscape. In spring they poke up large, strong leaf buds. In summer, beautiful big blooms appear. And through summer and autumn, they provide great clumps of greenery. And because they need the winter chill, they are quite suited to our garden climate.
Peonies like at least six hours of direct sun each day. If you're planting tubers, dig a bed to 18", enrich with plenty of compost or other organic matter, and plant with the eyes pointing up under no more than 2" of soil. Water well. It is important to make sure that the eyes are no deeper than 2" or your peonies may never bloom.
There are also tree types of peonies but they are far less common and slower growing than herbaceous types. Their flowers, however, are spectacular. They can grow three to five feet tall with blooms two to twelve inches across. Peonies differ in types of blooms also. There are single and semi-double peonies with one or two rows of petals. Then there are Japanese types with a single row of petals with very large stamens in the center; these resemble giant wild roses. Doubles, the most common type of blooms, have two or more rows of petals and resemble very large roses.
While peonies rival roses for beauty, they are much easier to grow. They have a delicate fragrance and colors that range from red, pink and salmon to yellow, cream and white. To enjoy cut flowers indoors, cut the flower stem with a bud that's just about ready to open and the flower will unfold in a couple of days. They are quite long lasting, too. Try to cut stems that have only a few leaves because the foliage produces food for the plant to help it bloom the next year.
Probably the only drawback to peonies is that ants are attracted to the sweet syrup that the buds produce but they are harmless to the plant. You should mulch new peonies before the ground freezes in late fall. And you need patience as your peony may not flower the first year but remember that many generations will enjoy the blooms year after year.
For many, the favorite old-fashioned flower is the hollyhock. Not the doubles that are so common today, but the beautiful, simplistic single blooms of the old, tall varieties, which are often more than eight feet tall. Hollyhocks are greatly loved by hummingbirds and butterflies and were used in ancient times as medicinal plants to treat a number of ailments. It was difficult to find an English cottage garden or early American homestead without hollyhocks. There have been many beautiful paintings and photographs produced showing the simple, tall blooms of single hollyhocks against old wood or stone cottages. Most of the early varieties, however, were lost in the late 1800's to rust disease. In fact, entire nurseries were wiped out due to this disease. Today's plant breeders have produced new varieties and colors, as well as shorter varieties that don't need staking and showy double-petal types. One of the double flower types that did survive the early days is Chater's Double.
Hollyhocks look best when they are planted along a sunny wall or fence or in
the back of a flower
border. They are biennials, taking two growing seasons before they flower. They
are easy to grow from seed; you can start them early indoors or wait until early
spring and plant them then, which often forces them to bloom the first year.
To produce a plant with better flowers, however, sow seeds indoors in mid-summer
for blooms the next year. They re-seed themselves, too, producing an on-going
area of beautiful flowers. This works especially well if you keep the soil beneath
them loose. You can also transplant them from the gardens of friends, but they
may not flower the first year after transplant. By the second year, though,
they will be in full bloom.
While hollyhocks will thrive anywhere, they like rich garden soil which drains well as this helps a deep root system develop. With a good root system your hollyhocks will be virtually drought resistant. I've driven pat some old run-down shacks, covered with dust from passing traffic, dirt hard-packed and dry as a bone, and there are the old-fashioned hollyhocks bravely blooming away in the dust.
I hope that I've revived some wonderful memories of shared seeds and old-fashioned flowers. Next month we'll discuss heirloom and antique annuals including that wonderful favorite, sweet peas. I will also give you sources for ordering heirloom garden seeds, both vegetables and flowers. Until then, have happy thoughts of warm, sunny gardens.
Heirloom Gardens: Part Two
by Pat Diaz, from the February 1999 Newsletter
Most varieties of heirloom annuals are available only as seeds, although you can purchase some as seedlings from nurseries in the spring. Many grow more vigorously and taller if sown in place. Plus, of course, seed packets are much more economical than actual plants.
One of the darlings of Victorian times was the sweet pea. Old-fashioned varieties are much more fragrant than most of the modern hybrids. The first known sweet pea seeds were gathered in 1697 in Palermo by a Sicilian monk. After two centuries of breeding, a lovely pink and white form, called `Painted Lady' was discovered and the flowers became extremely popular during the Victorian era. Their frilled wings and gorgeous pastel colors make the sweet pea one of our favorites too. The early varieties of sweet peas are once again available. Thompson and Morgan (PO Box 1308, Jackson, NJ 08527; 908-363-2225) carries 'Painted Lady', along with 'Fragrant Beauty', another 18th century variety. Shepherd's Garden Seeds carries several varieties of the original Sicilian sweet peas (30 Irene St., Torrington. CT, 06790; 860-482-3638 or shepherdseeds.com). Other good varieties of sweet peas are 'Antique Fantasy' (mixed), 'Lady Fairbairn' (lavender rose), 'Royal Wedding' (white), and 'Snoopea' (mixed), a sweet smelling bushy type.
Sweet Pea seeds can be started indoors in early March, using sterile starting mix in peat pots, but sweet peas seem to resent transplanting. Outdoors, they need at least six hours of sun but don't plant them against the hot side of a wall.
Corn cockle is a wispy plant with grassy foliage, about 2-3' tall, and has satiny 3" plumcolored flowers veined with deep purple. One of the vest varieties is 'Milas'. Corn cockles need full sun and they reseed.
Larkspurs are very tall garden plants, 4-5' tall, with beautiful spikes of blue, purple, white, salmon, pink, and carmine. Giant Imperial is one of the best strains. The seeds are planted in the fall and should be thinned for the biggest flowers. They can grow in partial shade and the spikes dry well.
Love-in-a-mist is an attractive, lacy plant with 1 1/2" double flowers in rose, blue, and white. The plants grow 18" tall and, after blooming, have swollen, papery seed capsules highly valued for dried arrangements. Some good varieties are 'Persian Jewels', Nigella hispanica (2 1/2" deep blue single flowers), and Oxford Blue, which grows to 30". These are also sown in the fall and can tolerate partial shade.
Shirley poppies (Flanders field poppies) have elegant crepe-paperlike flowers and divided silver-green leaves. 'Mother of Pearl' has delicate pastel flowers, although other colors are white, red, pink, orange, and bi-color. Sow these in full sun; they reseed.
Stocks have fragrant spikes of either single or double flowers in cream, pink, lavender, purple, red, or white. The Giant Imperial strain has multiple spikes on branching plants to 2 1/2'. The seeds are sown in fall and need full sun.
There are quite a few other antique varieties of flowers, many with unusual names: Fenbow's Nutmeg Clove Carnation; kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate (Polygonum orientale); Chinese foxglove; Kniola Purple-Black morning glory; Crimson Rambler morning glory; jasmine tobacco; nasturtiums; painted tongue (a cousin to the petunia); love-lies-bleeding; lavatera; mixed balsam; orange Tithonia; gloriosa daisies; and snake gourd vine.
Antique roses are those that were developed before 1867, the year the first hybrid tea rose ('La France') was developed. Old roses are much more fragrant than modern varieties and many kinds possess a toughness and disease resistance that makes them survivors. They range widely in habit: China roses are compact, 4' shrubs with wide clusters of small flowers; hybrid perpetuals are 5-8' shrubs, with very large, very fragrant flowers; Bourons are somewhat gangly, but vigorous with cup-shaped blooms. Some old roses (albas, damasks, gallicas, centifolas, and most moss roses) bloom only once a year. Others, including most Bourbons, Chinas, hybrid perpetuals, hybrid musks, rugosas, and teas, are repeat bloomers. The varieties of old roses which are best suited to our climate include autumn damasks, gallicas, centifolas, and species roses such as R. rugosa. We can grow Bourbons, hybrid perpetuals, and Portlands with protection during the winter. The best coldhardy favorites are Austrian copper (R. foetida 'Bicolor' from 1590); 'Banshee', a damask not technically an antique as it dates from 1928; Harrison's yellow (R. foetida hybrid from 1830); and R. glauca from 1830. Some of the nurseries which stock these are:
Some nurseries specialize in heirloom vegetables. One company, the Abundant Life Seed Foundation, is dedicated to preserving rare heirloom vegetables, medicinal herbs, and Pacific Northwest natives. Their catalog is available for a $2 donation. Write Box 772, Port Townsend, WA 98368, 360-385-5660, or abundant@olypen.com.
J. L. Hudson, Seedsman, specializes in heirloom vegetables and unusual plants. His office is in the midst of a wild biological preserve in La Honda, CA, and he has no phone or fax. His 100-page catalog of exotic plants is available for $1. Write Star Route 2, Box 337, La Honda, CA 94020.
Native Seeds/Search is a foundation which sells Native American varieties of beans, chiles, corn, melons, gourds, and squash. For a catalog, send $1 to 526 N. Fourth Ave., Tucson, AZ 85705, 520-5561 or see http://www.nativeseeds.org/.
One of my very favorite nurseries is Shepherd's Garden Seeds, which publishes one of the best "reads" in garden catalogs. They have many heirloom varieties of both fruits and vegetables, and the word "heirloom" is put conspicuously at the bottom of appropriate descriptions. The catalog has recipes, culinary equipment, baskets, and other delights.
Other resources for heirloom or uncommon plants include the following:
Next month we'll feature growing vegetables gardens for those who have little room or time. See you then!
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