Cutting Garden Class
This past weekend, a few friends and I went to a cutting garden class at Fieldstone garden. Fieldstone is a lovely garden center with beautiful gardens, I don’t need a class to have an excuse to go, but it’s a good reason to make a trip.
It was mostly focused on perennials that can be used for cut flower arrangements. We were given this fantastic list from the University of Vermont. I have dreams of turning the potager behind the house into a cutting garden someday. Now that the deer and wild turkeys have discovered the edible gardens, I need to keep all the edible things contained to one area that can be easily fenced in. The potager will make a lovely cutting garden, conveniently located right behind the house.
I have a decent amount of perennial flowers and plants that offer good options for cut flowers. Each year I try to add a few more. There are a few more things I’d like to add, perhaps a golden smoke bush, another variety of ninebark for colorful foliage, and I could always have a few more peonies and roses in the garden.
Do you grow flowers for cutting?
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Garden Dreams
Boxwood is one of my favorite shrubs and I’ve always appreciated then clipped into spheres. I’m not sure why, but a box ball has always been something I especially love. Yesterday, I too two ‘Green Velvet’ boxwoods, planted them into huge terra-cotta pots, and clipped them into spheres.
They were already large plants, I purchased them during the end of the season clearance at a greenhouse last fall. I scored the big terra-cotta pots for $4 each on clearance as well.
Now I need to purchase some 16″ x 16″ pavers to put under them. I’ll put the pots up on pot feet on the pavers and they will flank the entryway to the main garden in the back. I was hoping they would really create a more formal entry and be a focal point, drawing the eye to the main entrance in the garden. Even though they’re not in their final homes yet, they are already creating the mood I was looking for. I’ll post more photos when I get the pavers and instal them in their spots.
What fun garden tasks did you accomplish this weekend?
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Quote of the Day: Monty Don
“But the gardener must try not to be blindly selective about what constitutes acceptable ‘wildlife’. Slugs, moles, rabbits, urban foxes and mosquitoes are all wildlife, too. Many creatures that seems harmful to your immediate garden might be an integral part of the food chain, enable to the more obviously beautiful birds or mammals to exist.”
Monty Don in Down to Earth
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Friday Favorite: Tree Peonies
Four years ago, I purchased two tree peonies for the garden. I found them at Hidden Gardens for only $25/each, which is a great deal for a tree peony. For the past few years, they’ve been growing and getting established. This year, one of them had 9 buds, the other 4.
I first saw a tree peony in a friend’s garden many years ago. The huge yellow blossoms were very impressive, as was the size of the shrub. After seeing his plant, I did some reading on tree peonies, but never purchased one because they are quite expensive.
I’m quite happy with both of them, they’re not even close to being mature yet. Ten years is the typical time it takes them to become fully mature. Another great benefit of these beauties is that the bees love them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that these two lovelies continue enjoying the gardens here at Chiot’s Run and bloom for years to come.
Have you discovered any new plants recently?
