October

Posted on October 1, 2012 by paridevita

“October isn’t a month, it’s an ecstasy.” —Jack Kerouac

Some older pictures of various cyclamen to show why growing cyclamen is a happy obsession, and what this month can bring.

Cyclamen hederifolium growing in Hedera helix. Deep symbolism.

Not to draw the wrath of Nemesis on me or anything (it’s too late for that anyway), but bearing in mind Beth Chatto’s maxim, “Grow nothing not suited to your own conditions”, I noticed that the recent rain has brought Iris lycotis and its ilk out of hiding (with no “protection from summer rain” at all …..). Granted these have to be grown in cages to keep squirrels from digging them up, but that’s another story altogether.

Iris paradoxa var. choschab. I got this at the RMCNARGS chapter plant sale. Believe it or not. I said I already had one, and “someone else should get it” (I might have been fibbing), but people talked me into it. Okay.

The other I. paradoxa var. choschab.

Iris iberica subsp. elegantissima. This is good, really. It wasn’t until a month or so ago that I learned that a part of eastern Turkey was called Iberia, so this doesn’t have anything to do with Spain.

 

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Mary Stoker

Posted on September 30, 2012 by paridevita

I think it was Horticultural Crisis 4168 that caused me to dig up Chrysanthemum ‘Mary Stoker’. 4168 was one of the Big Ones, when I realized that voles had destroyed a third of the Long Border and something needed to be done.

Replanting with vole food seemed impractical, so I dug up the chrysanthemum, determined to rid myself of water hogs, and replace the whole of the Long Border with sticks and twigs and pointy things that I never had to water and visitors would pass by in silent condemnation.

At least a hundred crises later, pieces of ‘Mary Stoker’ were still sitting in gallon pots, waiting for the time when I made the noble gesture of giving them away, when I realized that I didn’t really want to let go of this plant. I’m tired of letting things go.

For one thing, it was one of my wife’s favorite plants, like her, it was beautiful and smelled good. It attracted all kind of flying things, including the painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui. And, if you cut it back around mid-July, it would bloom profusely at just the right time of year–now. So I decided to keep it.

Yes, you can give up everything you love, give up everything to which you’re attached and around which you define your life, but it’s not very much fun, and gardening, above all else, should be fun.

painted lady butterfly on ‘Mary Stoker’

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