Trick or Treat?!?

Well, it was a treat for those like me who enjoy seeing the landscape covered with newly fallen snow, but it was the trick part with which I take exception! The goblins played a Pre-Halloween trick on us here at Pittsgrove Farms and throughout many parts of the New Jersey with high winds and early snow. We received about 2" of heavy, slushy stuff, but it was reported that as much as a foot of snow fell in Lebanon, NJ where we once had a garden center. I think that is carrying "frost on the pumpkin" to the extreme! The heaviness of the snow combined with strong, gusting winds caused havoc by bringing down branches and trees and knocking out power lines with resulting power outages. We must have a guardian angel since we only lost power for an hour and large branches missed our parked car by inches, saving us from huge repair bills.


We intend to cover our potted peonies with insulating blanket, but Mother Nature tried to cover them with branches. I appreciate the thought, but branches don't really serve the same purpose and only add to all the other other branches that John and I have had to cut up throughout the property.
As long as our iris, peony, and daylily beds weren't damaged we can't complain. The hard work and fresh air will keep us in good physical shape and when we're through we'll have no need to buy firewood this winter!

Iris Curtain Call

Immortality

As summer finally made its exit and autumn has established itself with some glorious color here in western central Jersey, I have delighted in the return of some of our reblooming irises.

Pink Attraction

Immortality, that most reliable and prolific of our reblooming bearded iris, proved itself to be the head honcho, perking up our landscape wherever it was planted, whether in our stock beds or in the display gardens. In a previous post I had mentioned our new iris, Pagan Dance, (my Australian uncle got such a kick out of that one that he now signs his letters Uncle Graham, The Pagan Dancer!) also continued blooming on the tiny stems of these newly planted gems. It was joined by Pink Attraction which looks like it will also prove to be a strong iris with wonderful attributes.

Halston

Intermediate Davy Jones teamed up with Halston adding to the rich, deep color that so many iris lovers look forward to in their gardens. But the blossoms that warmed my heart the most appeared on tiny Baby Blessed the dwarf that nestled in a bed of autumn leaves next to our driveway. I've always had a fondness for yellow and being of short stature, relate to anything little with spunk, so have great respect for this little plant that stood up to the frosty temperatures of late while everything else was succumbing to the cold that had set into our area.Baby Blessed

These lovely blooms will soon fade as we prepare for the onset of winter, but they have served to whet my anticipation of things to come once spring awakens the earth once more.

Oh No--Powdery Mildew!!!

Some of you, like us, may be alarmed at the sight of our beautiful peony plants suddenly looking like someone went berserk in the garden with a jumbo size container of baby powder. The culprit here is Powdery Mildew, a white, dusty talcum-like substance on the leaves. Powdery Mildew is a fungus that sends tubes from spores on the leaves into the plant which then take nutrients out of the plant, often causing the leaves to yellow, die and fall off. It is a condition that is less prevalent in semi-arid regions and makes its appearance more likely in mid to late summer when warm, humid days are followed by cool evenings.

Peonies should be provided with good air circulation with proper spacing, planting in full sun, and avoidance of overhead watering especially late in the day. Remove and destroy infected leaves and flowers--do not compost! Sanitation in the garden should be practiced, such as always raking up and disposing of fallen leaves and garden debris every autumn, and being careful to wash your hands after handling infected plants before touching those that have not been affected. However, despite all these preventative measures being taken, some peony varieties are simply less resistant. Here at Pittsgrove Farms, we have peonies that are planted with all the above recommendations taken into consideration. They are strong, healthy plants that have bloomed marvelously for years, but that darn Powdery Mildew rears its ugly head without fail.

We approach the problem by cutting the plants back and disposing of all stems and leaves.
John and I rarely use chemicals, but certain fungicides, chemical or organic, can be used to manage Powdery Mildew when first detected. We recommend checking with your local Extension Service for their recommendations and then closely following directions on the label.

Take a deep breath since the end of the world isn't here. Your peonies should be back in the spring greeting you with their breathtaking beauty. You just have a little extra work to keep you busy in the garden. So what else is new?!?

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.

Daylilies as Cut Flowers--Who Knew?

Rose Emily

How many of you think of a daylily as a cut flower? Strangely enough, even though John and I have always grown daylilies at Pittsgrove Farms and are used to cutting all kinds of flowers from our gardens to fill our vases, it wasn't until recently that we discovered how well they survive indoors.

It came about by accident when John was transplanting some large clumps to put in one of our new display gardens. He cut back the divisions and I rescued the stems that he had discarded and put them in a vase. Much to my surprise, not only did the blooms look lovely in the vase, but as the blossoms faded and I plucked them off, they were replaced by continually opening buds. We had a great display throughout the week.

I guess we had never really given much thought to them as a cut flower since in all the years that we ran a florist shop at the garden center, daylilies were never available as a cut flower. Debbie, our friend at The Rose and Radish Fine Florals in Whitehouse Station, NJ said although the daylilies we gave her and her partners to observe bloomed magnificently, they would not work in the cut flower market since people are too lazy to remove the faded blossoms. Her experience has been that many people, especially in the corporate world, want fresh flowers to act like silk flowers and remain beautiful without doing anything to them, such as changing the water in the vase so it doesn't smell like a septic system (that last line is mine, not Debbie's!).

Frosty Beauty & Rose Emily with Cleome and Zinnea

If you are reading this blog, you are, in all probability, a gardener who is not at all afraid of hard work. Providing fresh water and plucking off dead blooms will be a piece of cake for someone who likes digging in the dirt like me. So do yourself a favor and bring some of those daylilies indoors, impress your friends at your next dinner party, or just give your family a treat of a mixed flower bouquet at the breakfast table.

Day Lilies for Decades

Summer greetings to you all! We recently returned well-rested from vacation only to be greeted by some of the most tenacious weeds on record. I swear some of them were rooted in cement! However, along with those darn weeds, my first (and we all know Jersey are the best!) tomatoes were ripe and ready to pop in my mouth. Yum! The grape and cherry varieties sometimes don't make it out of our garden as I gobble them by the handful as I weed. They provide the perfect reward for all that labor.

Besides the tomatoes and weeds, our day lily beds were just about in full bloom which I met with anticipation since we grew many varieties this year that I hadn't seen outside a catalog.

Little Heavenly Angel

Sassy with Mini Stella

Most of you are familiar with the orange day lilies that grace country roads far and wide at this time of year but may not be aware that like iris and peony plants the number of varieties of daylilies is mind boggling. With sizes ranging from the petite such as 10" Mini Stella and Little Heavenly Angel at 16" to the stately 40" Hyperion, a rainbow of colors well beyond orange, and flowers that resemble party ribbons or fancy lingerie, day lilies are a beautiful addition to any garden.

Red Ribbons

Spiritual Corridor

Most varieties fare well in full sun to partial shade with minimal care once they are planted and in most cases do well with benign neglect. John and I planted some divisions of the orange species from a friend over 30 years ago along our property line, they are still going like gangbusters and we haven't touched the majority of them since planting. Their individual blossoms may last only days, but the plant's life in your garden will probably outlast the time most of you own your homes!