In the News: Garden Tours
I would like to invite you to both of my Northview Garden Open Days. The April date will be for daffodils and spring ephemerals and the June date will be cool-season annuals and biennials. The tours will take place rain or shine so in the event of rain please wear appropriate footwear.
If you belong to a garden group and would like to arrange a tour for your group with an educational component and a cup of tea or coffee in blue and white Spode cups and saucers, please check out my website for details. We are booking for fall and next year.
The Northview Open Garden Days are all from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon.
Tuesday April 23rd
Monday June 3rd
$20 per person (cash).
Please carpool—parking is limited.
See and learn more about Northview here!
We grew up with the old saying about March that it “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” Meaning, of course, that the early March winds and weather roar around the garden like a lion and then calm down as we get closer to April. Our writer this month, Robin Lane Fox, has a similar thought about his March weather in the quote above.
How is your weather this March? I hope that as you read this you are getting one of the lovely soft spring days that fills your heart with joy. If it is not “a lovely spring day,” you know that it won’t be long now until the warm weather arrives and the winds are soft.
While you are wandering around the garden, wrapped up against the wind, remember to look up and see the difference between your deciduous shade trees and your evergreens. As the days lengthen it becomes obvious which parts of the garden are open to the spring sunshine. Make a note of these places as future planting areas. Spring sunshine and summer shade are a perfect combination for many spring-flowering bulbs and shade-loving plants like the hellebores shown below.
Plant of the Month:
Helleborus x hybridus
Hellebores are one of the easiest flowers to grow for early spring. Who wouldn’t love a shade-tolerant and deer-resistant plant that is extremely drought tolerant once established? Add to those positive attributes the fact that they have attractive single or double flowers, and you have a winner in the garden.
The foliage is evergreen and has sharp serrated edges. Always wear gloves when you handle hellebores. The flowers are borne on stems that are held above the leaves. We cut off the leaves in winter so that when the flowers emerge from the ground you can see the blooms. We send the cut off leaves to the municipal composting because there is a fungal disease of hellebores that we do not want but that is destroyed by the high temperatures in their composting facility.
I have grown hellebores for years. I bought most of mine as small plug plants because the little root balls are easy to find room for in a very fully shaded area. Now my hellebores are seeding themselves into the gravel paths in my shade garden. I have plenty to share.
Interestingly, I have heard gardeners get upset about the fact that the flowers of hellebores are nodding. Remember, this is an adaptation that is found in many winter flowers so that the stamens and stigma are protected from rain, snow, and ice. There are breeders who are producing upward-facing hellebore flowers that will be fine as long as we don’t get those late winter storms that March can still bring.
Book of the Month: Variations on a Garden, Robin Lane Fox, 1986
Robin Lane Fox is the longtime gardening columnist for the Financial Times of London. He writes about and teaches Greek and Roman history at Oxford University but still manages to garden.
What I like about his garden writing is that there are so many layers. Robin’s historical background coupled with garden travel is a wonderful combination. He is a contemplative author who writes from decades of thinking, examining, and doing.
To carry on with the March theme, Robin says, “By the time I have ordered my seeds, I feel that spring ought to be in the air: it never is, but on one or two days I am tempted to explore the debris of winter, checking for weeds beneath the dead top-growth of borders I never clear until March….” I find this remark written for the first edition of Variations on a Garden in 1974 to be forward thinking for the time. There are still gardeners that disregard the needs of insects that hide in your garden stems in winter and take away the stalks in early autumn.
Robin is not afraid to show his journey of discovery as a gardener in passages such as: “I blush to admit my ignorance: for the first time I discovered how sweetly so many crocuses smell.” He goes on to remark that, “The season of these crocuses is a time of false starts.” I certainly know what he means by this. How many times are the crocuses beginning to open and then there is snow or a really heavy spring rain.?
You may already read his pieces in the Financial Times; if not, you might like to read this book, which, though old, is still packed with fascinating anecdotes.
Note: I am not sponsored to promote books found in these newsletters. They are featured because I truly love them.
In Case You Were Gardening…
Inspirational Women in Horticulture – March 31, 2020
From Seeds to Flowers – February 7, 2024
Snowdrops and Galanthomoania – January 28, 2023
If you like this newsletter, please tell your gardening friends about it. It is easy to subscribe by contacting me via my website.
If you would like to see photos of my garden at Northview and images of my garden travels, please follow me on Instagram at @NorthviewGarden and @JennyRoseCarey
Bye for now,
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