March Goes Out - and None Too Soon!

Today is the last day of March, and I for one am damned glad of it. While indoor spring is fully cooperative, with nearly all my seed trays and propagators full of green seedlings, outdoor spring (or what passes for it at present) is another matter altogether. This morning, I woke up to a lawn and trees covered with snow. Again. Fortunately it had disappeared by noon, but it still honked me off. The only cheering note was that new crocus have come out, and now the striped squill is nearly ready to open. And I will confess, it could be worse - the eastern part of NY and much of New England stand to get upwards of a foot of snow tonight and tomorrow! So I'm trying not to whine overmuch. Still, I was going through some old magazines this afternoon, and I found a quote that pretty much encapsulates how I'm feeling about winter at this point in time. It's by a woman named Kathleen Norris. "There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year."

A Mother-in-Law's Tongue Can Be A Beautiful Thing

I walked into my little conservatory the other evening, and was bowled over by the lovely fragrance in the room. It took me a minute, but I suddenly realized that it came from the large pot of sansevieria, or as it's commonly known, mother-in-law's tongue. I had seen the appearance of the flower stalks (for the second winter running), but I generally don't go in there at night. The strong scent made me grab my Mac and start doing a bit of research. Last winter, I had noted the sweet smell of the flowers, but it was very faint. This in-your-face perfume at night made me wonder if it might be a night bloomer - and that appears to be the case. Internet searching and my AHS Guide yielded some very interesting facts.

First of all, Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii', which appears to be the cultivar I have, comes from dry, rocky areas in Africa and some other countries. The plant seems to produce flower stalks only when potbound, as mine certainly is. It originally came from a dish garden that was sent to my mother's funeral nine years ago, and is now a large clump that's as tall as me (5'7"). It's grown on in the same pot all those years, undisturbed. Sansevieria will tolerate a good deal of neglect; in fact, it should be underwatered in winter, as too much water easily causes the plant to rot. The room temperature (a consistent 70-72 degrees) appears to suit it. According to the AHS Guide, a mature plant in happy conditions will send out flower stalks in late winter. The stalks vary in length from about 6" to 12" inches, and have bright, lime-green whorls of flowers all along them. I'd need to do more research on pollinators, because the buds are all dripping with nectar (similar to peonies) which might imply ants, but as night bloomers, moths would be more likely. Interesting. To interested parties, I hope to be able to post a photo, but I'm not a techie by any stretch of the imagination and I haven't figured out how to yet. You can see photos from similar species on GardenWeb.

I had been fixated on the two flower stalks at the front of the plant, but further investigation revealed that there are 6 stalks in total, scattered throughout the plant leaves, so that explains the powerful fragrance. Once the flowers open, they quickly begin to fade and drop their petals. They're a bit messy, but if you're a fragrance freak like me, that's a minor matter. I'll enjoy it every minute it lasts!

March Madness - Meh.

After two glorious, warm and sunny days, we're back to the kind of late winter weather we here in Rochester know and are tired of - gray, cloudy skies and a chill northwest breeze. Inasmuch as spring officially begins tomorrow, it really shouldn't matter, but after being outdoors without a jacket, feeling the sun on my face (and seeing a nice pink glow looking back at me in the mirror) and seeing so many flowers beginning to bloom, being busted back to a de facto winter is just so disappointing. And I don't even have the consolation of going to the annual garden show this weekend. I gave up on the Rochester Gardenscape show after seeing the Philadelphia Flower Show in all its glory. Rochester's show, I regret to say, is a joke. Once upon a time it was an eagerly anticipated event. The Federated Garden Clubs (my peeps) had a standard flower show there that was a huge crowd pleaser. There were special exhibits by the area florists, tons of plants and seeds for sale, etc. Well, they kicked us (flower show) out first, moving us from prime floor space to progressively smaller and more cramped areas, until our last show which wasn't much better than a modified storage area! When they started wanting us to pay a premium rate for that crappy space, we left. Then the florists disappeared. After that, the number of plant vendors began to steadily decline, followed by other garden vendors. Now most of what's in the market area is totally unrelated stuff - foods, clothing, as-seen-on-TV junk. As a garden show, it's pretty much a bust. Even the landscape displays have declined in quality. What really makes me laugh is how the organizers love to tout it as "the next Philadelphia Flower Show". I've seen the Philly show folks - in your dreams....

So what's a Rochester gardener to do on a day like this? Curl up with a cup of jasmine tea and write a blog post, I guess!

Happy Bloom Day!!!

It's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - woohoo! This is a fun tradition that I only learned of today, and I certainly will mark my calendar for next year. We garden bloggers are supposed to blog about what's coming up in our gardens on this date so, ever suggistible, I promptly went out to have a look-see. Since I live just south of Rochester, NY and we only just got rid of our season snowfall total of (I believe) 120", the pickings are a bit slim - but not for much longer. My half-acre here in zone 5 contains the following:

winter aconites, 1 snowdrop ('S.Arnott'), 1 patch of bright orange crocus, 1 light purple crocus and some pussy willow stems

The hellebores are all budded and just waiting for a few more mild days to open up. Daffs, tulips, glory-of-the-snow, striped squill, more snowdrops, hyacinths and other crocus are pushing up by the day. Peony tips have begun to emerge. There's no stopping it now, baby - spring is as good as here, no matter what the calendar says.....

Idiocracy and Partial Redemption at the National Arboretum

Now that the world and I are coming out of winter hibernation, I was giving some more thought to a couple of columns I wrote for my local newspaper on the azalea garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. For anyone who may not have been aware, late last fall a dastardly plan was uncovered (and outed in the blogosphere) in which the entire azalea and boxwood collections at the Arboretum were to be destroyed. Yep, the shrubs were to be cut down wholesale and the stumps drenched with herbicide to kill them. We're talking about thousands of azaleas that were the hybridizing work of one man, Benjamin Morrison, in his quest to extend the northern hardiness range of large-flowered azaleas. We're also talking about a boxwood collection that is acknowledged to be the most complete IN THE WORLD. Not something you rip out on a whim. Back then the Arboretum officials gave all sorts of lame excuses for why it needed to be done. I won't go into all of them, but my personal favorite was that the azalea display created too much traffic through the Arboretum at bloom time, and they couldn't handle it. Well, they've been handling it quite easily for the last 20 or so years, with shuttle systems and adequate restroom facilities - and since when, in a bum economy, is an excess of people spending money at a public garden a bad thing?? There were like excuses and weak explanations, and the opposition got up a good head of steam. All right, I'll put out another of the more lame stories - that the azaleas just weren't all that important. Now, bear in mind that one woman has been curator of the azaleas for 20 years now, and because the area had been neglected, she and volunteers were cleaning it out and identifying and cataloging the collection. I imagine she was mightily surprised to learn that she'd been pissing away the last 20 years for nothing! Even other public gardens jumped into the fray. Magnolia Gardens in Charleston, S.C. announced that they had received permission to come up and take massive amounts of cuttings from the azaleas (and the boxwoods as well, I assume). Their intent was to grow them on and then parcel the plants out among other botanical gardens nationwide to ensure their survival. Long story short, the plants have all gotten a temporary reprieve. All the furor inspired some anonymous, generous soul to make a $1 million dollar gift to save them. And a new executive who came on board announced that the plan had been tabled for the time being.

The plot did continue to thicken, however. About the same time that the plants got their stay of execution, it was announced that the Arboretum would be adding a new Chinese garden, in partnership with the Chinese government. They'll provide the plants, statuary and other accessories; the Arboretum will provide site preparation and staffing. Now, this is interesting on several levels. First of all, another rationale for the whole azalea fiasco was that funding for two staffing positions had been lost. Sounds to me like those people were simply transferred over to the Chinese garden. And it seems that more people would be needed to maintain a newly planted garden than an old, established area. But what really arouses my suspicions is this: obviously, this new garden area has been in the works for some time. Did the Chinese want the azalea area for their garden, and did the Arboretum go ahead and promise it to them, figuring it would be easier to ask forgiveness than permission? I wouldn't be surprised, seeing that we tend to kiss China's ring at every opportunity. And what really makes me angry is that we're talking about the NATIONAL Arboretum, meaning it belongs to EVERYONE, not just the bureaucrats. They bloody well should have asked the owners' permission first! It will be extremely interesting to see future developments........