Gardening will Make you Happy(er)

Yesterday an article showed up on my facebook feed that caught my attention and I just have to share it. They have discovered microbes in soil that are antidepressant. That's right, playing in the dirt is actually good for your mental health.

Here is the link to the article: How Dirt Makes You Happy.

So get out there and play in the dirt!

a Turtle by any other name is still as neat

I was visiting my in-laws today and happened to look at a wildlife calendar they have on their fridge. Oh neat, a green sea turtle. I like sea turtles. The caption said the scientific name for the turtle was Chelonia mydas.

hi

Wait, Chelonia? The scientific name for turtle is Chelonia? Gee, that sure is an awful lot like....

...Chelone!

Chelone lyonii

Now it makes perfect sense why the scientific name for Turtlehead is Chelone! I love it when these kinds of connections are made!

  

Incidentally, I have always mixed up the scientific names for Turtlehead (Chelone) and Spider Flower (Chleome). I don't know why. Probably the same reason why I always read "uniformed" as "uninformed," and for years thought that Morden Sunrise Rose was Modern Sunrise Rose.

But now I'll always remember the right name because I learned the name for turtle!

Como Zoo Conservatory

Meet my new partner in crime, William! (born September 2013)

                 

                         

The two of us had the opportunity to visit the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory in March. It was great to be around all the greenery after a long, cold Minnesota winter, and introduce William to the wonder of plants. He wasn't too interested in the plants, but he got really excited about the big kitties (lions, tigers, and cougars, oh my!) that we saw later.

Below are pictures from the Fern Room. I've tried to get the names of a few of them, but it's been a while since I took the pictures so I can't remember which name matches up with which fern. If you know I've given one the wrong name, please let me know! (If you want to see pictures from the last time I was at the Fern Room, click here.)

wall of Staghorn Fern
Platycerium ziesenhenne

Dwarf Tree Fern
Blechnum brasiliense

Woolly Tree Fern
Dicksonia fibrosa

Japanese Birdnest Fern
Asplenium antiquum

No trip to the Conservatory would be complete without visiting the Sunken Garden. Below are pictures of their Winter Flower Show. (For pictures of the Winter Flower Show from my last trip here, click here.

The Peonies of Eugene Lins - Part 2

A recent trip to The Lins Peony Garden produced these photos of the mid-season blooming peonies. For more info on The Lins Peony Garden and pics of the early bloomers, click here, or hop to the tab at the top of the page. Enjoy!

Casablanca (1942)

Dolorodell (1942)
named after Eugene's daughter

Ensign Moriarty (1945)

Gold Crest (1963)

Hawaiian Sunset (1958)

Mandaleen (1942)
named after Eugene's daughter

Marcella (1952)
named after Eugene's daughter

Mary L. (1949)
named after Eugene's wife

Ramona Lins (1942)
named after Eugene's daughter

Waikiki (1959)

Weatherball 90 (1962)

Several of the Mid-Season Bloomers were on the down side of their bloom time so they didn't look so great, which is a shame. I'll have to be more diligent next year to get photos of them in their prime. Many of the Early Season Bloomers were still going, but I only included Mary L. because she actually looked better this time around.

I think my favorites of this group are Casablanca, Dolorodell, Hawaiian Sunset, Mandaleen, and Marcella. It seems my peony preference tends towards the paler hues that also have subtle accents of color. Weatherball 90 is just a cool name for a peony, but I don't think I caught it in it's prime. I managed to find a picture of it on this website from Germany and it looks entirely different. Maybe it ages to the pinks? Maybe it ages to the white? Maybe the specimens in the Garden really aren't Weatherball 90? I have no idea. I guess that means another trip!

Christmas Cactus Update #4

The time has arrived. After months and months of waiting and watching, it is finally time to prune the Christmas Cactus! It stopped blooming in mid April and I had to wait another month before pruning it. Here it is before the big process:

If you've been following the progress of this Christmas Cactus, you may remember that I've been wanting to prune this thing since February, and in an attempt to curb my impatience, I wrapped green twist ties on the branches that needed to go. Like this:

Then all I needed to do was to reach in and start cutting.

Now there are three important things to know when pruning Christmas cacti: 1) wait one month after it stops blooming (which we've discussed already), 2) never remove more than one-third the size of the plant at one time, and 3) always leave a whole segment - do not cut the segment you want to keep. If you look at the photo just above, you'll see that I'm making the cut at the top of the segment with the twist tie.

So, how does it look now? Here is the before:

And after:

We can once again work at the sink without being shoved by the cactus. Now the Christmas Cactus will simply be green until November or so when it starts blooming again.

The Peonies of Eugene Lins - Part 1

Not much happens in Cologne, Minnesota. It isn't known for producing many famous people, either. But last year I discovered that one of the peony hybridizing pioneers of this century lived right here. And you may have one of his peonies.

Last fall my husband and I got into geocaching. We were trying to track down a mystery cache and ended up in Cologne Lions Park. We paused in the pavilion and my attention was drawn to a framed collage of peonies. Next to this were several information plaques and I learned, to my astonishment, that nearly 40 varieties of peonies - my favorite plant and so full of nostalgia - were created by a native of Cologne.

His name was Eugene Lins. He started growing peonies on his farm at the edge of town in the 1920s as a hobby. This hobby took off and soon Mr. Lins began hybridizing and propagating those peonies. He named several of them after his wife and daughters: Mary, Mandeleen, Marcella, Ramona, Rosemarie, and Dolores. By the 1960s he created 39 varieties, many of which won state and national awards, and shipped them all over the world. Mr. Lins gained international fame for his world-class peonies. In fact, Lins Peonies can still be found in Europe, Australia, and other countries. They are also displayed at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. And, of course, Lins Peonies can be found all across the little unassuming town of Cologne, Minnesota where they all started. (I'm pretty sure my neighbors have a whole row of them!)

When Mr. Lins passed away in 1967, his family sold seven acres of his estate to the Cologne Lions Club to be developed into a park. Over the years Cologne Lions Park added a pavilion, picnic area, baseball field, and a playground. In 2009 a new feature was added: The Lins Peony Garden.

I couldn't find much information about Mr. Lins or who originated the idea of the this project, but I'm pretty sure his family wanted to commemorate his work. His son, Gene, spent 35 years tracking down, propagating and preserving his father's peonies. One of Mr. Lins' granddaughters made a piece of art depicting each of his peonies. The goal of The Lins Peony Garden is to cultivate and display them for public enjoyment, to preserve a piece of little-known Cologne notoriety, and, perhaps most importantly, to return each of Eugene Lins' 39 peonies to his property.

When I made the discovery of this garden's existence I knew I had to come back in the summer to see these peonies in bloom. Well, the peonies in our yard are beginning to bloom, so I grabbed my camera and set out for Lions Park.

What a sight! The garden boasts three specimens of each variety (currently 27), and stretches for at least 100 feet (30 meters)! Half of the varieties are in full glorious bloom. The date is when that particular peony was created.

Blue Rose (1957)

Confetti (1965)

Festival Queen (1954)

Gardenia (1949)

King Midas (1942)

Lilac Time (1958)
with a little blue butterfly / moth

Mary L. (1949)
named after Eugene's wife

Mercedes (1956)

Old Lace (1945)
note the delicate pink of the lower petals

Valencia (1941)

So these are the peonies blooming right now. I'll be making frequent return trips to get photos of the rest. I will also make a new tab in this blog devoted to the Lins Peonies. I think my favorites (currently, anyway) are Festival Queen and King Midas. I inherited several peonies from my grandmother, the names of which have been long lost, so I'm going to compare them - and the ones my neighbor has - to the Lins Peonies.

I just love how a day of geocaching turned up an entirely different kind of treasure.

How To: Clean Up Hydrangea

Today I did some spring cleaning in my yard. Specifically with the White Dome Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'White Dome'). Like many people we left the hydrangea up for winter interest and now it is time to get them cleaned up for another growing season. Here is what they looked like before I started:

First I'll dive right into pruning the hydrangea, then I'll talk about cleaning up the ground underneath them. Note: This pruning method can be used for any Arborescens-type hydrangea including Annabelle, Invincibelle Spirit, Incrediball, and Bella Anna. It's best to wait until they have put out some new growth; you need to know where the live wood is before you can know where to start cutting. First, locate the set of leaves closest to the end of the stem. Then move down one set and make the cut just above those leaves.

Why? The second set of leaves is usually the most vigorous and the wood below it is the most healthy. Most often the second leaf set is larger than the first. It might feel like you're taking off too much of the plant. Don't worry - Hydrangea arborescens are vigorous growers, and not only grow back on old wood but send up new canes as well so it will have no problems filling out.

While cutting back the canes, keep an eye out for damaged or bent canes. Depending on the vigor of the leaves, cut these canes above the first or second leaf set below the damage. In the case shown below, I actually chose the third leaf set; the first set was on damaged wood and the second leaf set was weak.

It may be necessary to cut back all the way to the base of the plant. I noticed that some of the shrubs had canes growing along the ground. I cut these off all the way to the base, even if there were lots of nice leaves; having the canes in full contact with the mulch and soil is an invitation to rot and disease.

Sometimes the damage isn't as obvious as a cane that is bent or broken. If a cane twists easily to one side or flattens when you pinch it, it is a sign of an almost-dead cane and should be cut off. Here is what the inside of a healthy cane looks like:

Bright white pith with a healthy green ring.

And unhealthy canes:

Discolored, corky pith with gray ring.

Yellowing pith and slimy, mashy green ring.

Also, remove any spindly or thin canes. These canes don't have enough vigor to amount to much, and removing them will keep the plant's energy focused on the larger healthy canes, and prevent the center of the plant from becoming over-crowded.

~~~~~~~

Now, on to cleaning up under the hydrangea. Like I said earlier, we left the hydrangea up all winter. The downside of this is that the shrubs became leaf-catchers. The result is that there was a thick mat of leaves underneath the entire planting of hydrangea. So I started raking, and after the first few passes it was clear I started none too soon. First, I was amazed at how many leaves there were - 5 inches / 12.7 cm of wet leaves, courtesy of our Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). Second, the debris at the bottom and the mulch underneath was rotting. Not decomposing into lovely soil - rotting into a soppy, fuzzy mess.

Waiting any longer to clean this up would have caused the bases of the hydrangea to rot. I was planning to topdress the area with some new mulch, but I'm going to hold off on that until the ground dries out.

So, how do you go about cleaning under hydrangea? I started out using my standard size garden rake, but it could only get so close to the plants before it started hooking the canes. So I switched to my mini-rake (every gardener needs one of these!) which easily reached into the narrow areas between the plants. But remember what I said about the leaf-catchers? The base of each hydrangea was stuffed with leaves. No rake would get them out, and certainly not a leaf blower. So I knelt down and pulled the leaves out by hand. (Gloves were a definite necessity - slimy leaves and soggy, fuzzy crabapples would not have been pleasant without them.)

I actually alternated between tasks: cut back some canes so I could get the rakes closer to the plant, rake a bit, trim some more, rake, remove leaves by hand, rake, move to another plant, repeat. It took about an hour to clean up five plants. Here is a reminder of what the area looked like before:

And here is the result - 

And the leaves? Remember, they were wet so this is not a fluffy leaf pile:

An hour or two of work, a job well done, and the White Dome Hydrangea are all set to go for summer!