Down To Earth
By Gerlind Dubey (05/15/2009)

Saturday May 16th 9am -
Annual plant Swap at Tangled Twigs

Cornell Co-Operative Extension

Ellicottville has one of the best resources available for gardeners. Take advantage of the all that the Master Gardeners at the Co-op have to offer. If you have a gardening related question you can always call the Master Gardener Hotline. They are available Monday’s and Wednesday’s from 9:00am until 12:00 pm.

Also they can test your soil anytime for a charge of $3.00 per sample. For a minor charge they can also identify plants and insects. The Master Gardeners offer a guided tour of the arboretum for a charge of $2.00 per person and offer free clinics like the upcoming Wednesday’s in the Arboretum series and Gardening Day.

Way, way back when I first started gardening, I had no love for the usual annuals so popular in garden centers. Especially the geranium, and petunias; I didn’t want what every body else had, but over the years I have come to appreciate the ease of these garden annuals. These annuals are perfect to plop in the garden around spent perennials or those perennials that don’t bloom until late in the season.

Do you love spring bulbs in bloom but hate the aftermath? By that I mean the fact that you must let the foliage of bulbs die back naturally in order to fortify next years blooms. You have several choices; one is to not plant them. But what fun would that be? Or you could dig them up foliage and all and let them dry out, then store them to replant next fall-Been their done that don’t want to do it again! Because that my garden friends is a lot of extra work! Personally I think the easiest way is to plant ever-green perennials like day lilies, liatris, or autumn sedum around the bulbs to camouflage the drying foliage. Or pop in a few bright colored annuals to take your eyes off the sore spots.
Spring Bloomers…My favorite spring anemone, (anemone sylvestris) aka “snowdrop” is in bud and will soon make its amazing debut. This spring-blooming anemone features cup-shaped, fragrant, white flowers with a golden yellow center. The flowers grow singly on upright stems up to 18” tall above medium green, mounded foliage, making them great for cutting. The flowers give way to white, woolly seed heads and then the plant starts to look a little worse for wear. That’s when it’s time to plop in a geranium or two to camouflage, the plant until the cooler weather of early autumn, when the snowdrop anemone makes a repeat, but less dazzling, performance.

A Late Bloomer…Last season I waited with anxiously for my hardy hibiscus to show signs of life, while all other perennials were reaching for the sky, the hibiscus plants laid dormant under the ground. I feared the worst, because the plant looked like nothing but dead branches. But I needn’t have worried because, true to their reputation, my hardy hibiscus waited until almost June to emerge. The plants emerged vigorously enough, but were still rather small, 3 feet high and 1 foot wide. I didn’t expect blooms last year, and I was green with envy when lushly blooming hibiscus appeared at the local greenhouses and mine remained in a vegetative state. Must to my surprise and joy in late July I began to see flower buds on my plants and I waited with bated breath for the first to open. And boy did they bloom, just as my garden was looking a little bedraggled 8 inch round flowers opened to smile at the sun. It was just the pick-me-up my garden needed. Then in the fall I planted daffodils and other spring blooming bulbs around the hibiscus to fill in the space until my plants emerge this year. In the fall I also plucked a few seed pods and saved them to germinate this season, which I did back in March. Out of the 8 seeds I planted two are thriving and will be ready to be planted in the garden as soon as weather permits.

Hardy Hibiscus is unlike any other flowering plant in the garden, offering us flowers that are both huge and delicate, as if they were fashioned from crepe paper. The flowers range from a petite 3 or 4 inches across to the proverbial dinner plate, 8 to 12 inches in diameter! In the center of each impressive flower you’ll find a prominent pistil and stamen structure that adds to their beauty.
They are native to marshy areas of North America and sometimes they go by the common name mallow. You may recognize them as close relatives of the not-so-hardy Rose of Sharon bush, and that wonderful wild pink and white mallow that grows uncultivated all over our area.

GET DOWN AND DIRTY