This is NOT a Bonus!

This is NOT a bonus!

Yes, I know you haven't seen me here for awhile. That's what having four grandchildren and being "retired" will do.

It has been an unusual spring so far with many of our plants just loving the cooler, damper weather while our bearded iris have been slow coming and looking for heat. Me, not so much. The tree peonies in our display beds have been blooming quite happily and our herbaceous and Itoh are budding nicely.

Each year someone will ask us about the "bonus" peony growing with his or her tree peony. This is NOT a "bonus"! The tree peonies we sell and the majority you find on the market for sale, are grafted. Tree peony stock is grafted onto a common garden variety root. We always tell people to plant the tree peony a couple of inches deeper than the level it is at in the pot. The tree peony will then set its own roots and the "mother" root will die off. Before this occurs or if the tree peony was not planted deep enough, the garden peony will send up stems and if allowed to grow, will eventually take over and kill off the tree peony which we certainly would not want to occur.

Tree Peony with "mother plant" coming up from the base.

To prevent this, you need to cut the stems completely to the ground. "But they look so healthy!" you may say and "Isn't it nice that I have a lovely pink peony to go along with my lovely yellow tree peony?" NO! You may feel mean snipping away, but your tree peony will be forever ( a good forty years or better) grateful that you have eliminated the intruder from its base. It is a good idea to mound up a couple of inches of soil at the bottom also if you think you did not plant deep enough originally.

Herbaceous Peony Leaves

Knowing what to cut is easy once you are aware of the difference in leaf structure. The herbaceous plant has leaves that are shaped differently and much smoother and shinier as seen in the accompaning photos.

Tree Peony Leaves

 

Tree Peony Leaves

Herbaceous Peony Leaves

                                                                                        
As always if you have any questions, send us an email and we will gladly try to help you with any peony or other gardening inquiries.

Have fun in the garden!
Cheryl

Spring is here???

Well here we are on day 6 of spring (?) and as you can tell by the above picture of Pittsgrove, winter has decided to stick around longer than most of us would like and for the past few days has caused havoc across a good portion of the US. This time last year, we were relishing temperatures in the 60's and working daily in the garden beds. Yesterday was the first time in ages that John and I ventured outdoors here for any length of time beyond gathering kindling for our wood stove. It wasn't the cold, but the accompaning wind that cut through to the bone that kept us from our chores. We cleaned up more winter debris and started preparing the vegetable garden, but planting has still been postponed to some yet unknown date in the future more amenable to the sowing of seeds and tender seedlings.

This is still the time of year, if weather permits, to get out to your garden beds to finish any cleanup that wasn't finished during our equally uncooperative fall. It's much easier to get those pesky maple leaves and dead weeds removed rather than waiting for warmer weather which then finds all your perennials suddenly appearing and growing like Topsy making your job much more tedious.Whip out those clippers and cut back any perennials that you didn't get to earlier.Your iris won't look very attractive with a heap of brown leaves lying next to them and if you cut away the brown leaves from your helleborus you'll be greeted by some beautiful blossoms waiting to kiss the sky.

Helleborus last spring

So buck up, bundle up, and clean up those flower beds for spring is surely on the horizon. At least that's what the calender keeps telling us.

Think positive thoughts!
Cheryl

Iris Unguicularis-AKA Winter Blooming Iris

Having just experienced "The Winter That Wasn't" here in Jersey, it may seem strange to be writing about a winter blooming iris, but we try to introduce you to some plants that may be unfamiliar to all of you who just remember Grandma's iris (tall bearded) growing in her back yard.

Iris Unguicularis, additionally known as Algerian iris, is rarely available and rarely seen. Its foliage is evergreen and is about 18" in height, forming a nice clump. The approximately 3" light purple blooms are nestled in the center of the clump.


The plant will start to bloom when the weather starts to turn cold, around November and will continue to bloom until about April, stopping its blooms if the temperature drops to 15 degrees or so. The plant above had 6 or 7 flowers blooming for months since this winter was so mild.

Winter Blooming Iris does well in a warm, dry location in zones 7-9 and really seems to thrive on neglect. When you come upon it in the garden in January or February in full bloom, it really surprises you. The color and size of the flowers make you think of spring, not winter.

The iris should be planted in the early fall by division. It takes a couple of years to form a nice size blooming clump.


With the warm weather continuing, we expect it to be an early year for all our plants, so as we watch the flowers fade on the Winter Blooming Iris, we welcome the burst of color that spring brings and await the first blossoms on our bearded iris.

Look forward to seeing you at the farm!

Happy Spring!
Cheryl

Presby and Pittsgrove-Growing Together

For those of you who have followed our blog, you will recall that a couple of years ago we partnered with Presby Memorial Iris Gardens in Montclair, NJ to help support these magnificent gardens. We have supplied the gardens with plants for their annual Mother's Day plant sale in what has proven to be a successful fund raiser for this worthy organization.

We are happy to announce that this year Pittsgrove is returning a good number of Presby's iris back to them to be sold at the sale. After bloom time in 2010, we took divisions from the gardens and propagated them here at the farm. Available for sale this weekend will be some historic iris such as King Christian, Blue Boy, and Fiorentina. Other varieties will become ready for sale in weeks to come, both at Presby and here at Pittsgrove.
All profits from the Presby sale go to the operations of the gardens. If you are in the area, please consider picking up something for your garden or for that special mom in your life to help preserve the beauty of this New Jersey gem.

The sale is this Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7 from 10:00-5:00. And if you are interested in coming to Pittsgrove, we are open by appointment. So give us a call and come for a visit. Hunterdon County is a beautiful area especially in the spring.

Happy Gardening and Happy Mother's Day!
Cheryl

Is Spring in the Air?

Well, finally a day at Pittsgrove spent entirely outdoors working in the sunshine. John was certainly in his element today and some much needed cleanup was done by both of us. Have you ever noticed that no matter how much fall cleanup you do in the garden beds, when spring comes rolling along there is still plenty more to attend to before the beds really look good again.
We were happy to see hellebores nicely budded and all varieties of perennials are beginning to peak out from beneath the soil.
Overall the perennials and bulbs seem to have survived this past winter fairly well. The trees and shrubs are showing the most trauma, from both the heat and drought of the summer, and the snow and blasting winds during the winter. I have a great deal of pruning to do, some plants to dig up, and branches and trees that have to be taken down. That last bit will not be by me! We had more deer damage this year than ever before with all the snow cover we sustained. However, on the bright side, John told me that the chewed branches will make it that much easier for me to shape the shrubs. It's nice being married to an optimist. He also keeps weather records from year to year and pointed out that we are getting a jump on things compared to last year.





I hope the rest of you gardeners have had the opportunity to get down on your knees and play in the dirt. If you haven't, get out there soon. The muscles may get sore, but your mind and disposition will surely be rejuvenated.

Happy gardening! Cheryl

Two Bluebirds and a Butterfly

After the one-two (3,4,5,6,?) punch winter has given our country this year, all of us are longing for warmer, milder weather. We got a taste of that here this week when the sun came out and temperatures rose into the 60's here at Pittsgrove finally melting away most of the several inches of snow that had accumulated for weeks.
I spent a good part of the day collecting and breaking up the branches that have fallen from some of the extremely windy days that we have been experiencing. I wandered the property to get a guesstimate on how well our beds held up over the winter. Snow cover is actually quite beneficial for most plants in providing insulation from harsh temperatures, but it also means that deer, so prevalent in much of our area, are deprived of primary food sources in fields and woods. This year they ate a good portion of our Manhattan Euonymous that they have never touched in the 20 or so years of its existence next to our well. The rest of the gardens seem to have held up pretty well so far, but the truth will come out when spring finally arrives and we see what survived.
During the next spate of mild weather, get out and examine your gardens. Push back any plants that may have heaved, clean up any debris that you didn't get to in the fall, and you'll be a step ahead of the game.
The other day I saw two bluebirds and a butterfly. Can Spring be far behind?

Think Spring!
Cheryl

This Too Shall Pass

John and I were recently interviewed about what we do during the winter and although he would much rather be lolling on a beach in Kauai since he's developed an extreme distaste for winter, I rather look forward to each season with winter being no exception. I may have to amend that at the end of this winter if we continue to be walloped with one storm after another.

In winters past, John and I have been able to get out on milder days to putter around in the garden beds, cutting back perennials that we didn't get to in the fall. This year, however, the beds have remained under a blanket of snow. Instead of working in the hoop house cleaning up plants and checking inventory, we have had to remove layers of snow to keep the plastic from collapsing.Weathermen often seem dumbfounded as to what the weather is going to bring next until the event actually occurs. A "light dusting" has translated into 5 inches, leaving them to scratch their heads wondering why that happened. Now that we have just entered into what is normally our snowiest month, there is no telling what is in store for us next. As I write this, branches are crackling as the wind blows against their ice laden branches and plenty of fresh kindling for our wood stove has fallen to the ground. We lost well-established trees, shrubs and perennials over the hot dry summer and know there will be many more we have lost that will have to be removed come spring.
Deer have eaten the Manhattan Euonymus next to our well for the first time since we planted it decades ago (on the bright side, it needed a good pruning anyway). Mice have feasted on a number of plants in our hoop house and we have had to wage a war against them.
Please don't view these as complaints, merely observations. Others are far worse off and we have contended with Mother Nature numerous times over the years. The one thing I am sure of, we will plant anew to replace beloved plants that we lost and even though she is showing her wrath now, Mother Nature will bless us with her beauty once again in the spring.

Think Spring!
Cheryl

Pittsgrove Farms Year End Thanks

As 2010 comes to a close, I wanted to make sure to send our thanks to all of you who have found our web site, read our blog, and visited us here at the farm. We appreciate your interest in us and the plants we grow. We love what we do and enjoy sharing that love of gardening with all of you and hope to continue doing so for long into the future. We're going to kick back for awhile until it is time to start preparing for spring and another flower-filled season.

May all of you be blessed in the coming year with good health, happiness, and gardens without weeds!

Happy New Year!
The Gulish Family
Pittsgrove Farms

Gardening with Mickey and Minnie

When planning our family vacation to Disney World (something Pop Gulish had been urging since the Fairy Princess was born 5 1/2 years ago!) we did not realize it would also become somewhat a bus man's holiday as it happened to coincide with the 17th Annual Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival.

Throughout Epcot, whimsical topiaries and sculpted gardens developed by various landscaping and gardening groups provided eye candy for young and old alike. We particularly enjoyed seeing the myriad of Disney characters from swashbuckling Peter Pan, to waltzing Cinderella, to fanciful ostrich ballerinas. Naturally, John and I had to be photographed in front of farmers Mickey and Minnie. The favorite of our Fairy Princess

Vehicle Boy was delighted to watch the trains at Germany's garden railroad. (Watch for a future blog post regarding garden railways when I discuss a new venture of our friend, Jim Shepard of microscaping.com). Our boy was quite content to view the miniature village while the rest of the family wandered the shops.

The Living Wall was an example of gardening that is starting to pop up in hotels and malls across the nation and something you are likely to see more of in the future.All of us were fascinated by the fruits and veggies being grown experimentally in the greenhouses at "The Land", especially pumpkins growing in air rather than on the ground. Seeing all the wonderful produce made us look forward to harvesting our own in the hopefully not too distant future.
Splashes of color everywhere and the sweet fragrance of roses and violas make our family anxious to see spring arrive back home. We thankfully were not affected by the horrendous storm that hit this past weekend, March 13 & 14, which caused so much damage in flooding and downed trees throughout the Northeast. Jeremy and Christina had a tree come down, but luckily it only damaged some wires, not the house. The 15" of snow we left behind when we began our vacation has now been replaced by sunshine and clear skies, so it looks like we'll be out in the gardens for the next few days. Hope that's where you are too!
Think spring!
Cheryl

Did Anyone Say Spring?

Alberta Spruce lined up in front of a new bed

As our perennials lie dormant, Alberta Spruce and garden gnomes stand as silent sentinels in the snow awaiting the arrival of spring. The pair of Adirondack chairs sit as witnesses to foraging deer near the pond while Japanese and pseudocorus iris nap nearby.

Mr. & Mrs. Gnome standing watch in the snow

As gardeners and lovers of the outdoors, we tend to get anxious about now. The days are getting longer and the sun is setting two to three minutes later each day. The seed catalogs begin to fill up the mailbox and we sit by the fire planning our grand gardens on paper and in our minds. Chairs sitting silently by the pond

Customers have begun emailing and phoning with questions about what we will have available this year, with folks always looking for something new. We enjoy hearing from old gardening friends and from folks we hope will become new friends.

On cold sunny days, we go out to the greenhouse we built to winter over some of the plants we potted up in the fall. We putter with the plants while Sassy, our Westie, sniffs around for mice. She can't catch them but has fun trying.

Sassy, our resident mouser
On warmer days when the ground isn't frozen, we push back down the metal and wooden plant markers that have heaved up due to freezing and thawing along with any rhizomes that may have done the same.

Recently we met with some of our buddies at Presby for a brainstorming session during which a great many ideas were shared to make our collaboration even better than last year. Watch both our sites for information as it becomes available.

We hope spring will be early this year---we have lots to do and would like to get started. There are new beds to fill, Louisiana iris to plant by the pond, and yeah, the two or three beds the wife didn't finish weeding. (Ouch---I forgot she's the one who types these blogs!)

So the spring list is started and we can hardly wait and we're sure, neither can you!

Happy planning! John and Cheryl

Heavenly Helleborus

Those of you who have already discovered the Helleborus, known also as Christmas or Lenten Rose, will attest to the joy of having it in your garden. This is a mostly evergreen, winter-spring flowering perennial that is easily grown, tolerates drought after it's established, and is available in a variety of colors--yellow, pink, lavender, white, etc. Not only are the blooms of the Hellebores very lovely, the leaves are attractive and diverse in appearance.


John and I were cleaning up more of our flower beds and came across our Hellebores which are ready to bloom (hence, Lenten Rose). Here are some tips for those of you who have them in your garden. Make sure you don't head out to your garden with a leaf rake ready to tackle leftover winter debris. Get down on those hands and knees and gently remove that debris by hand around your Hellebores and trim back any old foliage. Nestled inside you will likely find buds which certainly would be disturbed by rake action. You'll be glad you showed them some gentle care once you are rewarded with some of the first blossoms of spring!

Dwarf Iris-Sarah Taylor

Being "vertically challenged" myself, I have a natural affinity for the petite. My sons will attest to the fact that while watching some of my favorite movies I get most excited at the appearance of the Munchkins, Ewoks, or R2D2. The appearance of our dwarf iris in early spring brings similar excitement.

Sweet Sarah Taylor is this week's feature and rightly so. This pale yellow , blue-bearded little iris mimics its tall-bearded cousins, but pops up in the garden well before them which will extend any iris lover's season. Dwarf iris are easily grown under the same conditions as taller varieties, but due to their height are suited to even more locations. Consider placing them in borders or in rock gardens, naturally in full sun in well-drained soil.

Sarah Taylor and our other dwarf (also known as miniature or lilliput) iris generally are in bloom here in central NJ in mid to late April and usually are done blooming before their taller counterparts make their appearance.


Do yourself and your garden a favor by inviting little Sarah Taylor and her family into your life. They will surely bring you pleasure for many years to come.