Time for Fall Planting

Daylily beds with some divisions

What glorious weather we have been having and it is a good thing, as the now "unretired" Gulish couple are busy from dawn 'til dusk (I do have a tendency to exaggerate!) working on the perennials.

Earlier in the week we were weeding the beds and dividing daylilies and have been dividing many varieties of iris on and off the last few weeks. Then on Tuesday our friendly UPS man arrived with boxes of bare root peonies promising to return the next day with an equivalent load. After my initial excitement of getting the shipment with the anticipation of blooms next spring, I realized I was missing an important step--planting the peonies.

Peonies potted for Spring of 2009

Now is a perfect time to plant peonies for next spring along with the other perennials that you and we may be dividing and planting for next year's garden treasures.



We are now offering bare root peony roots for sale at Pittsgrove Farms at prices reduced from what they will be potted in the spring. Pittsgrove Farms will be open the next two weekends, Friday-Sunday, 9:00-5:00, September 19-21 and 26-28, or by appointment on weekdays. And naturally our iris and daylily varieties will also be available. For directions and contact information please click here to go to our website.

As the days grow shorter and we have less time to work in the garden, now is ideal to cram in that last minute gardening for the big payoff in the spring of beautiful blooms. You can sleep in the winter, at least that is our plan.

In Honor of "The Land Down Under"

My apologies for my long absence. You must remember we are "retired"! At least we were for a few weeks with a much too short visit with our dear west coast family and then some fun in the sun down the Jersey shore (no one in Jersey goes to the beach--it's always "the shore").

Now it is back to business, and with the weeds that awaited us as always, computer work piling up, and an email saying our first batch of peony roots have been shipped, we are certainly out of retirement mode.

John sometimes teases me that I like to order plants the same way his beloved mom used to pick race horses on the rare occasions she went to Monmouth Park-by their nifty names. Just like Grandma Gulish, my picks often turn out to be winners.

Two of those, one a daylily, the other a tall bearded iris fall into that category. Each was chosen because of my very special Australian aunt and uncle who are also avid gardeners.
The award winning daylily, Anzac, struck a very special chord with me as the acronym, ANZAC stands for the Australian New Zealand Army Corps of which my Uncle Graham was a proud member dating back to WWII when he served alongside my American GI Dad in New Guinea. Of course that daylily had to be grown in his honor and turned out to be a tall, stately addition to our stock beds.It is fortunate for me that my Uncle Graham and Auntie Rae have keen senses of humor as evidenced by the nicknames I gave them, Duke and Ramona. Although now in their 80's, they display the pluck and "can do" spirit of people decades younger, which is why they will laugh when I say I chose Pagan Dance as a tribute to them! I by no means consider them pagans, but after reading the description of this iris, I knew we had to grow it.

What caught my attention first naturally, was that it was from Australia, but the fact it was a rebloomer and so rich in color added to its desirability. We planted the rhizomes a month ago and much to my surprise, like my aunt and uncle, this plant shows great spunk! Who would expect it to bloom so soon after planting and just not a single bloom, but a cluster. Pagan Dance has brightened our otherwise colorless field, just as my aunt and uncle have brightened my life with their lighthearted ways.