Back in October of 2011, I answered a question a follower asked us on Twitter: “How do I overwinter a mandevilla vine?” It was simple enough to come up with an explanation at the time, but little did I know I would be receiving so many additional questions after the fact. Over the last two years, a number of Plant Talk visitors have stopped in to leave their comments and requests, which I’ll answer here.
For those who are not familiar with it, the mandevilla (Mandevilla splendens) is a Brazilian native with glossy leaves and bright, trumpet-shaped flowers. It is normally grown as a vine but occasionally pruned into an upright shrub shape. A hybrid, Mandevilla x amabilis, forms a tall vine perfect for growing on a trellis. But because these plants are not hardy in our zone, they require some special care in the cooler months. You can read all about it in my original post. In the meantime, I’ll answer the more specific questions our visitors have posed in hopes of helping your mandevilla survive the coming winter.
If you have a question that I haven’t answered here, feel free to leave it in the comments below!
In the spirit of the season, I’ll be in the Perennial Garden this weekend giving a demonstration on how to make decorative arrangements with pumpkins and gourds. This demonstration is always a popular one, giving homeowners some fun, easy, and creative ideas on how to dress up their homes for the holidays.
The other day I was working opposite the Garden Cafe on our Seasonal Walk, the border that was designed by Dutch Designer Piet Oudolf. This border is characterized by an intermingling of permanent and ephemeral plants that drift through it, and my late season task was to deadhead the dahlias.
We have some stalwarts of the garden in this border, one of my favorites being the popular flower known as Dahlia ‘David Howard’. This dahlia was immortalized years ago in Christopher Lloyd’s borders at Great Dixter in Sussex, England, sporting dark black-purple foliage and bright apricot-orange flowers. The contrast between the foliage and flowers is stunning, while the flowers alone are quite showy with their large, 4-inch-wide, blousy double blooms. In our garden, the height of ‘David Howard’ ranges from 3 – 3.5 feet tall.
Giving ‘David Howard’ a run for his money is the stunning, blushing Dahlia ‘Bashful’. She is a prolific bloomer and grows from 30-36 inches. Her flowers remind me of a raspberry parfait. She has purplish petals that fade to mauve-lilac on the tips, each surrounding a buttery golden center. Delicious! On the morning that I went out to deadhead the dahlias, several bees were asleep on her flowers.
Autumn is often an under-appreciated season in the garden. Natural light casts deep shadows and illuminates the garden with silvery hues. Fall foliage adds fire to the drama. While many flowers are fading, statuesque tropical salvias are coming into their own.
In the Perennial Garden, the main entrance is lined with some magnificent salvias. The prominent star of the promenade is the Mexican sage, Salvia ‘Phyllis’ Fancy’, which differs from the straight species in that she flowers earlier and for longer. Her foliage is greener as opposed to the wooly silver tinge of the species.
What she has in common with her predecessors is her beauty. The flowers are the classic velvety purple and white flowers of the Mexican sage. They remind me of pipe cleaners in their texture and appearance. Her most outstanding feature is that she is a hummingbird magnet. Whenever I frequent the location—morning is the best time—I see hummingbirds flitting around the blossoms with their iridescent bodies traveling at the speed of light.
The same location is home to the velvet sage (Salvia confertiflora) whose fuzzy red inflorescences are as soft as the name advertises. She is accompanied by Salvia ‘Blue Chiquita’—a compact salvia with quilted leaves and a white underside. The azure flowers are out from late summer until frost.
Over the past few weeks, I have been coordinating with one of my colleagues at the Shop in the Garden regarding some attractive fall options for containers and the garden. We perused the availability lists from one of her vendors and came up with some refreshing changes for late season color. Traditionalists need not venture into our Shop with trepidation—my colleague also ordered plenty of the stalwart fall mums. I, however, was looking for something beyond mums. Here are a few suggestions that we came up with.
One of my first picks was Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’. It is an intoxicating variegated spurge that looks good from spring until frost. The variegated foliage is a green-grey color (more green with smoky overtones) with creamy yellow edges. In the fall, the foliage takes on a pinkish orange autumnal hue. This 20-inch perennial is hardy from zone 5 – 9 and is deer and rabbit resistant, as well as being drought tolerant. It makes a wonderful addition to a mixed container display as well as growing beautifully in your mixed perennial border.
We all have good intentions. Recently I was perusing well-known quotes on ‘good intentions’ when I came across one that I liked from Jeffery Kluger, a senior writer at Time Magazine. It reads as follows: “There’s a deep-freeze of sorts for all good intentions—a place that you store your plans to make changes in your life when you know you’re not going to make them at all.”
This blog entry is about making good on ‘good intentions’ which may incidentally involve a deep freeze. Every year I plant at least four different types of basil. I do this partially for experimental purposes, though mostly because I love having fresh basil around in the summer. But how often do I actually use it?
That is where good intentions come in. Often basil from my garden or from the store lies around the kitchen before it is all used up. I am ridiculously frivolous and wasteful when it comes to basil. Try as I might, there is something about summer that just does it to me. I swear I will be more vigilant and still it blackens and wilts before my eyes.
What, then, can be done to excess basil to ensure that it is put it to good use throughout the year? When I buy or pick a large bundle of basil, the first thing I generally do is stick the long stems in a glass of water to keep it hydrated. I use it like a vase arrangement and place it on the corner of my kitchen counter at arm’s length from my cutting board.
Over the long weekend, I spent my afternoons out in the Jane Watson Irwin Perennial Garden teaching the public how to make herbal teas and herbal vinegars. It is a great time of year to think of creative ways to start using your garden herbs.
One of my colleagues gave me two large pineapple sages (Salvia elegans) for teaching props. Despite its name, pineapple sage has no direct relation to pineapples (which can be seen in our Wild Medicine exhibition growing in containers by the water lily pools). The common name refers to the wonderfully fragrant foliage that exudes a sweet pineapple fragrance. For those of you who like herbs but sometimes feel that the fragrance can get too strong, this is certainly an annual herb for you.
Pineapple sage is indigenous to Mexico and regions in Central America. It is hardy from zones 8-11, so we grow it as an annual in these parts. It is a tall plant, reaching 4-5 feet with beautiful, deeply veined, citrine green foliage. The stems—like other members of the mint family—are square, and in this instance deep burgundy and hairy. Late in the season, this fragrant sage is covered with red flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
Last week we discussed how to plant your water lilies. This week we will focus on the bloom. Water lilies flower for 3 – 5 days, with the bloom emerging from the murky depths on the first day, opening, and standing erect. On the second day, the flower starts to bend slightly, slouching more on the third day and falling back into the water by the fifth.
Once the bloom disappears back into the water, it is a good idea to take your hand and run it down the stem until you get close to the base, then either snap or cut it off. The water lily stem will start to get mushy as it ages, and sometimes a good tug is all you need.
In a pond situation, the flower head forms seeds that eventually find their home on the muddy floor of the pond. As a homeowner, however, you are probably interested in maximizing your bloom. Seed production takes energy away from flowering, so try to remove old flowers and foliage once a week to keep your water lily tidy and focused on producing flowers.
Last weekend I spent my Saturday and Sunday in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory teaching water lilies. We have two pools located in the side courtyards of the Conservatory. The pool on the right contains hardy water lilies while the pool on the left contains tropical water lilies. These pools mirror the structure inside the Conservatory, where the temperate houses are on the right and the tropical houses are located on the left.
The concrete pools are surrounded by glazed bricks, and the interior mechanics are made up of more bricks and cinderblocks used to elevate the water lily containers. A pump oxygenates the water and maintains a slight circulation to help deter mosquitoes, while the koi join in to help keep the water features bug free.
Water lilies prefer their pots to be wide rather than deep to accommodate maximum growth. Containers specifically designed for water lilies are generally 12-20 inches in diameter and 8-10 inches deep, as the size of the pot can have an influence on the size of the water lily. A smaller pot will restrict the growth of the water lily (in small pond situations this might be an asset) and a larger pot will give it more space to grow.
When Keith Reid penned the famous lyrics to the debut song for the British rock group Procol Harum in 1967, his inspiration for the title came from a conversation he had overheard at a party when a man exclaimed to a woman, “You have turned a whiter shade of pale.”
Reid thought it was a cool compliment and wished he had uttered the phrase. Quite frankly, I am glad I wasn’t the woman. Coming from the tan generation, I don’t think I would have taken kindly to the utterance.
If pale was trendy in the UK in 1967, it’s certainly still trendy in the NYC plant world in 2013. I was giving a class on perennial garden maintenance as part of my Home Gardening Series, which meets every Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. (free to all garden visitors), and I was amazed at how many ‘rad’— or should I date myself and say ‘groovy’—perennials were a whiter shade of pale.
Phlox carolina ‘Miss Lingard’ seems to be popping up everywhere this year. I see her in the new Native Plant Garden, in the Children’s Adventure Garden, in the Home Gardening Center and on my tours of the High Line. She is an early version of the stalwart Phlox paniculata ‘David’—a must for any white garden.
Back in October of 2011, I answered a question a follower asked us on Twitter: “How do I overwinter a mandevilla vine?” It was simple enough to come up with an explanation at the time, but little did I know I would be receiving so many additional questions after the fact. Over the last two years, a number of Plant Talk visitors have stopped in to leave their comments and requests, which I’ll answer here.
