Top Ten Bloomers

In addition to beauty, one of the qualities I value in flowering plants is a long blooming season. As the year winds down, I thought I would share the top ten bloomers in my yard. (Yes, I actually keep a spreadsheet that calculates the number of days between the first and last flowering date!)

10. Helianthus. Only two annuals cracked the top ten, and the simple sunflower was one of them. The variety that grows in the veggie garden self-seeds, and I think this gives it a better head start than the ones I plant manually. For whatever reason, I was enjoying its sunny blooms from late June until mid-September (85 days).
    
    
    
    
9. Echinacea purpurea. I'm fairly sure that 'Magnus' started before 'White Swan' and 'Rubinstern', but 'Magnus' and 'Rubinstern' look so similar that I'm not sure which ended first. In any case, I had echinacea from late May until late August (91 days). In addition to being long-lasting in the garden, they also last remarkably long as cut flowers.
   
   
   
   
8. Lonicera 'Graham Thomas'. I officially recorded 'Graham Thomas' as having bloomed only from late May to late August (94 days), but honestly, even after that, I occasionally saw a stray flower or two. This past summer, I saw a bicolor lonicera that I would love to have, and I'll see if it's as prolific as 'Graham Thomas'.
   
   
   
   
7. Hibiscus trionum. Some bloggers have written that this annual is a noxious weed (it self-seeds like crazy); others have said that it's hard to catch it blooming. But I fortuitiously put it in a spot where it has natural boundaries and can't spread too much, and I can't complain of its being too shy. I regularly had flowers from late June until late September (97 days), and the plant itself stayed green until late November. The foliage isn't spectacular, but I do like the flowers.
   
   
   
   
6. Buddleia. We have nine of these large plants, which put out hundreds—maybe even thousands—of flowers between late June and late October (123 days), much to the delight of the butterflies. There are way too many blooms to keep up with deadheading, and besides, the spent flowers provide some winter interest and possibly seeds for the birds. We cut the whole shrub back in the spring, and that will have to suffice for garden tidiness.
   
   
   
   
5. Platycodon grandiflorus. I think that regular deadheading is what kept my platycodon flowering for so long. I had thought that, after starting in mid-June, it was done in September, but then after a thorough deadheading, it turned around and put out another four weeks of flowers, gracing the garden until the end of October (127 days).
   
   
   
   
4. Clematis 'Arabella'. This was the surprise of the season. 'Arabella' got bady eaten the first year I planted it, and didn't seem to do much of anything the second year, but it must have been developing a phenomenal root system, because what a performance this year! 'Arabella' doesn't put out any tendrils to help it climb, so it needs training and support (it barely got four feet high this year), but it bloomed continuously from mid-May to mid-October (147 days).
   
   
   
   
3. Roses. I almost didn't include roses in this list because they don't bloom continuously—they go for a few weeks, stop for a few weeks, on and off throughout the spring, summer, and fall. But since about a dozen of my roses do manage to bloom for more than 100 days, with three going more than 170, I really couldn't slight them. 'Iceberg', 'Blanc Doublet de Coubert', and 'Abraham Darby' are the standouts in this category. ('Iceberg' actually lasted slightly longer than my #2 plant, but I decided to average the roses as a category. Besides, 'Iceberg' is in such a sheltered spot that anything is going to bloom longer there.)
   
   
   
   
2. Geranium 'Rozanne'. This amazing plant started flowering on May 28 this year, and is still going! More than 180 days of non-stop, trouble-free flowers! Gotta love it!
   
   
   
   
1. Daphne 'Beulah'. I always hesitate to trumpet the virtues of this plant, because it has such a reputation for fickleness, but I love our Daphne! Beautiful variegated leaves, dainty bouquets of the most fragrant white flowers that last from early April until, well, more than 200 days and counting—I don't know what more I could ask of a plant. Daphne is always number one with me.
   
   
   

So there you have it! I'm eager to see if any new plants that I grow next year will crack the top ten!

Hues of Huechera

You would think that, when we lived in the shade in New York, I would have discovered Heuchera (coral bells), but I never tried any until last year, and I have to admit that I'm hooked!

My husband had originally planted some Physocarpus 'Summer Wine' under the white birch out front, but the competition was too much for them, and we ended up transplanting them elsewhere in the yard. But we liked the contrast of the maroon leaves with the birch's white bark, and decided to see if some Heuchera 'Mocha' would be a good replacement. Was it ever! It has delicate white flowers in June, but the main attraction is the leaves, which form nicely rounded mounds from practically the first snow melt until the next snow fall.

Encouraged by our success with 'Mocha', we put some 'Peach Flambe' in front of the river birch in the Bermuda Triangle (that corner of the yard where plants go to die), and they seem quite content there. We didn't get any flowers from them this year, but we'll see what (if anything) we get next year. Even if they don't bloom, their foliage brings such an unusual color to the garden, and really pops in the dappled light!

Although I know I shouldn't covet, I have to admit that one of my neighbors has a Heuchera that I simply must have! It's got pale green variegated leaves and gorgeous neon pink flowers that bloom profusely for weeks on end. She tells me it's called 'Snow Angel', and come spring I plan to call every nursery in town until I find it and make it my own!

Transplant Time

I usually pride myself on positioning plants with their mature size in mind so that I don't have to shuffle things around later. Still, I sometimes forget how well flowers grow! Since autumn is a good time for transplanting, I ended up moving several daylilies that were being engulfed this past summer by the Coreopsis 'Zagreb' and Physocarpus 'Diablo', as well as the Monarda didyma 'Panorama Red Shades' that was bumping up against the bottom leaves of the paw-paw...

...and the Philadelphus that was getting lost amid the branches of my gargantuan Geranium 'Rozanne' (which is still flowering!). Here's the Philadelphus when it was blooming in the spring; it has its "hands up" because it knows it's about to be surrounded!

The daylilies and Monarda stayed in the same bed, just a few feet away from their original positions, so I'm not too worried about them handling the move. (I'm particularly keen to see how the Monarda does—it's going to get a little more sun in its new spot, and when I dug it up, I was stunned at how wide the root ball was, and how many little green shoots were forming for next year!)

But I am concerned that I might have consigned the Philadelphus to its demise. There really wasn't a spot for it in the front bed where it had been doing nicely, so I moved it to the back corner of our yard that we call "The Bermuda Triangle" because so many of the plants we have put there have disappeared...the Onethera, the Hellebores, the Tiarella. The triangle is anchored by a river birch, so it's possible that some of the losses have been due to competition for water and nutrients. Still, it doesn't seem that inhospitable an area—the Heuchera 'Peach Flambe' and Brunnera 'Jack Frost' seem happy there. So we'll see if the Philadelphus keeps afloat or needs a rescue boat!

More Harvest Totals (Cha-Ching!)

My husband likes to tease me about growing hundred-dollar tomatoes. And yes, when we put in the veggie garden, I did splurge on a few things that I could have gotten for less. For example, in previous years, I made my raised beds with 2x6" timbers from the local hardware store that I nailed together myself. But after watching those warp and split after a season or two, I indulged in somewhat expensive composite lumber with corner anchors.

And of course there was the cost of removing the old shrubs, stripping the sod, installing the wire mesh fence (with a decorative iron gate and front panels to please the neighbors), and buying compost, organic fertilizer, row covers, and seeds. Not to mention the repair work for the sprinkler system pipes that I broke when I drove in the stakes for the fence. (I'm not couting the cost of tools that we use elsewhere in the yard, although I suppose I could throw in the hoe.)

But for all that...I still think my veggie garden saves money in the long run. Having just posted my harvest tallies, I decided to estimate what that produce would have cost at the store:

• 16 cabbages @ $.99 each: $15.84
  
• 15 cauliflower @ $1.99 each: $29.85
  
• 4.5 lbs. of sugar snap peas @ $1.99/lb: $8.95
  
• 35 lb. of tomatoes @ $.96/lb: $33.60
  
• 36 cucumbers @ $.88 each: $31.68
  
• 28 red peppers @ $1.50 each: $42.00
  
• 38 hot peppers @ $.15 each: $5.70
  
• 10.5 lbs. of green beans @ $.99/lb: $10.40
  
• 33 eggplants @ $1.69 each: $55.77
  

Total savings: $233.79

Having organic home-grown veggies to serve my family and friends: priceless!

Harvest Totals

It might be a little premature to tally up this year's veggie harvest numbers—for the first time ever, I planted a fall crop of Brussels sprouts, which are still hanging in there—but I'm not incredibly optimistic that those will yield anything, so here are the results for 2009 from my six 4x4' raised veggie beds:

• Cabbage. Of the 16 'Earliana' that I planted, I harvested 14 heads, some on the medium/small side, but I was generally pleased with them. I have an Asian slaw recipe that requires cabbage and scallions, so next year I think I'll plant only 12 cabbage plants and 48 scallions so that I'll be able to use all home-grown ingredients in my slaw.
  
  
  
  
• Cauliflower. The 16 'Early White Hybrid' plants produced 15 heads. Four were large and tight, but the rest were looser than I would have liked, so next year I'm going to try a different variety as well as watch them more closely and pick them sooner than I did this year.
  
  
  
  
• Sugar snap peas. I did without shelling peas this year, but will never do without sugar snap peas! One 4x4' bed of 'Super Sugar Snap' yielded 4 lbs. 11 oz. of pods—about a pound less than 'Sugar Sprint' produced in 2008. 'Super Sugar Snap' also grew too tall and got knocked over by the wind, so next year I'll either go back to 'Sugar Sprint' or try a different variety.
  
  
  
  
• Tomatoes. Four plants each of 'New Yorker', 'Ponderosa Pink', and 'Saucy', along with three 'Juliet' and one 'Small Fry Hybrid', produced 34 lbs. 13 oz. of tomatoes, and I could count on one hand the number I lost to blossom end rot. That's just about four pounds more than 2008, when I grew 'Applause Hybrid', 'La Rossa', and 'Sweet Baby Girl', and lost dozens to blossom end rot. I definitely will not grow 'Small Fry Hybrid' again (too fragile) nor 'New Yorker' (not all the plants produced the same kind of fruit!). I might stick with 'Saucy' or go back to 'La Rossa' for my paste tomato, or maybe I'll try something new next year. Depends on where I buy most of my seed.
  
  
  
  
• Cucumbers. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of these! I direct-seeded 'Bush Champion' in my bed, and didn't count how many sprouted, but I got 36 cukes, which was less than half of what I got from 'Park's Bush Whopper II' in 2008. There were a number of variables besides the variety—the weather, direct-seeding vs. starting the plants indoors, using a trellis vs. letting the vines wander on the ground, larger sunflowers blocking more light than last year, etc. Still, 'Bush Champion' didn't perform as well as I think it should have, and I won't be growing it again.
  
  
• Peppers. I started 12 'Fat N Sassy Hybrid' peppers, but two didn't make it, and I replaced them with two 'Red Bell' pepper plants from Lowe's. I also planted four 'Volcano' peppers that I started from seed. From these, I got 28 sweet peppers and 38 hot peppers. The sweet pepper production was less than previous years, which could be attributed to the cool, wet weather or too much shade from the adjacent sunflowers.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Green beans. The 'Tenderpick' beans yielded 10 lb. 6 oz. of delicious bounty. I liked these plants much better than the 'Festina' that I grew last year, and might grow them again, although in past years I have also very much liked 'Jade'. Decisions, decisions.
  
  
  
  
• Eggplant. I had originally planted 16 'Burpee Hybrid' eggplants, but only seven of them survived. Still, those seven plants produced more than 33 eggplants (and I'm not even counting the ones that were too small to eat at the end of the season). I'm ashamed to admit that I had to discard several of them because I never did get around to freezing them quickly enough. The last one we ate was tough and seedy, probably a result of being left on the vine too long, and that was also a disincentive for preserving the last of the harvest. Still, I really enjoyed growing and cooking with them, and will shoot for nine plants next year—they get fairly large, and in spite of my being a fan of square-foot gardening, I think 16 would be too crowded.
  
  
  

If I do harvest any Brussels sprouts, I'll post about it, but don't hold your breath! (I wonder if the plants might overwinter and then produce in the spring? No harm in leaving them in the bed to find out!)