Category: Autumn Garden

Heritage Rose: Flowers in December

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This past weekend when it was a bit warmer, I was surprised when I took my daily walk about the garden and noticed Heritage (pictured here back in November) had a few roses opening up still. The warmth seemed to have awakened them, so I decided to cut a few for the house. The frost damaged the outer petals, but once I peeled these away, the flowers were in good enough shape to display. I can’t believe its December and I still have a few roses.

Heritage has been an unbelievable bloomer. It has beautiful, big, fragrant cupped flowers and is definitely one of the stars of the David Austin rose collection. The foliage is super healthy, even during the hot, humid days of summer.

Heritage has many uses in the garden. I started Heritage in a pot on my deck where it did very well its first year but was growing taller than I wanted it to be. I find that many of the Austin roses grow a lot taller than stated with our hot summers.

I re-planted it in the Children’s Garden where it has continued to grow very well. Heritage has very few thorns and offers a lot of flowers for the kids to cut for vases. Heritage also sets hips after I stop deadheading it in August which the squirrels (not the birds) eat in the fall and winter.

For more information about David Austin roses:

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/

Japanese Beautyberry

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The first picture shows what the Japanese Beautyberry is known for: its distinctive purple berries that appear in autumn and persist into the winter.

The second picture shows what the plant looks like in the summer, on the lower left, beneath the Pee Gee hydrangea.

I like these two stages of the plant, but am less fond of its other stages: the early spring when it looks dead and is late to leaf out; and the autumn when the leaves droop and look lifeless for about a month before they fall off.

They are healthy and vigorous plants. I purchased very small plants and they grew quickly in the first year. Next year, I am cutting them back to six inches off the ground in early spring to avoid the first problem. Further, I keep moving them around my property in hopes of finding the perfect place to enjoy them, and they are not bothered by this.

For fall and winter arrangements, you can cut the branches with the Beautyberries. If you do so when they still have leaves, I recommend that you remove the leaves because they droop immediately after being cut.

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Click here for a follow-up post on propogation: http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2008/02/japanese-beatyberry-unexpected.html

Blackberry Lily Seedheads

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I love splashes of orange in the garden. My blackberry lily has small orange flowers with red dots. There is another cultivar that is yellow. They do not look like lilies. Unfortunately, I don’t think I took a picture of the flowers. I have to remember to take some pictures of them next year.

The blackberry lily blooms at the end of July over several weeks. The flowers and seed heads make great cut flowers for arrangements.

These lovely seedheads develop in autumn. The first picture shows the immature pods. The outside becomes brown and papery. They break open to reveal the luscious blackberry seedheads. Resist temptation: do not eat them. The seedheads persist into winter. They will drop and produce more plants the following spring.

Although it does self seed, it is not prolific and gives a more natural look to the garden. The seedling take one to two years to reach blooming size. Note: they are deer resistant.

Vegetables and Herbs: How to Build Raised Vegetable Beds (on a Slope/Hill)

julia erickson6 Comments

In my children’s garden, my children and I grow vegetables in addition to flowers. For the last two years, we used the same raised bed construction that I used in the side garden:

http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2007/11/creating-space-for-garden.html

These were short raised beds constructed with six inch wide ipe wood. You can see a picture of one of these beds below from last summer with heirloom lemon cucumbers:

The rabbit fencing around the cucumbers was to keep the resident groundhog from eating the cucumbers in the same way he did the tomatoes.

Towards the end of the summer, we visited New York Botanical Garden’s Home Gardening Center (http://www.nybg.org/hgc_online/hgc_onsite/) and were inspired by their raised beds that were significantly taller than the ones we had constructed. Thus, once we had harvested the last of our cucumbers and zucchinis, my husband deconstructed the old beds and built the new ones you see below:

Ipe was too difficult to work with and costly, so we made these out of cedar wood. We purchased standard six by one inch, un-treated ten foot planks and had them cut in half. Each box (two of three are pictured) is made of three planks on three sides and four planks on the fourth side because our entire property is on a slope. Two additional boards are placed on top on either side to create a place where you can sit, place tools, or when the vegetables have grown, stand.

We filled the bottom of the boxes with compostable garden waste. On top, we added a mix of composted cow manure, Bumper Crop and top soil. Then, to protect the soil, we sowed a cover crop of winter rye that I purchased from Johnny’s Seeds (http://www.johnnyseeds.com/). The winter rye will be turned over in the spring adding even more organic material to the soil.

The overall result was a neater looking garden that will hopefully produce an even more robust crop next year.

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For a follow-post on organically preparing the soil for planting, click here:
http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2008/03/raised-vegetable-beds-organically.html

Ballerina Rose Hips

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In my prior post about Ballerina, I wrote about her all-purpose qualities that have won her many places throughout my garden. In addition to what I previously wrote, I went out into the garden today and took the attached pictures of her cute little hips that provide winter interest and food for the birds.

For my prior post and pictures of Ballerina’s flowers:

http://heirloomgardener.blogspot.com/2007/11/ballerina.html

Sophie’s Rose Provides Late Season Color

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The frost has come and gone, but Sophie’s Rose continues to bloom. I purchased Sophie’s Rose on a recommendation from Matterhorn Nursery in Spring Valley, New York, one of the best nurseries in the tri-state area:

http://www.matterhornnursery.com/

Matterhorn Nursery contains a large David Austin rose display garden and sells many David Austin roses, including Sophie’s. It blooms prolifically from May through November.

Sophie’s Rose is planted in my front mixed border in part-shade. I am amazed it blooms as much as it does given the lack of full sun.

This is a tall, but not wide rose. It should be planted in a group of at least three, each spaced two feet apart. After being pruned to about twenty-four inches tall in the spring, it ends the season approximately seven feet tall.

For more information about David Austin roses:

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/