Considering Narcissus

There are few things that feel as good in life as that first warm stretch after a cold winter.  

That’s what we enjoyed this past weekend here at Ephemera Farm.  I finished the great cutback, and the garden is cleaned of last year’s growth.  In the areas I cleared a few weeks ago, the early foliage of Arnoglossum plantagineum (prairie Indian plantain) and Rudbeckia maxima (giant coneflower) are already making a strong presence at ground level.

And, the plantings are beaming with Narcissus (daffodil).  They are one of the non-native species I use to fill an empty gap at the beginning of the season.  My naturalistic plantings can look quite devoid of plants until early March when the first wave of color from Phlox (phlox), Glandularia (rose vervain), and Lupinus (bluebonnets) start.  The Narcissus glow on both the bright and solemn days we have in February.  

It’s taken me a few years to figure out which species will grow well here in east Texas where we have less cold than further north.  I now have a handful of varieties that have proven to bloom well.  

Last weekend was a good time to pause and admire their attributes.  I was reminded of how important the process of plant selection is from my friend Molly Hendry when we spoke together a few weekends ago in South Carolina.  She shared while she was at Great Dixter, Fergus Garrett had grown 10 different types of Muscari (grape hyacinths) in pots and then had the interns evaluate which of them were the best.  They were asked to consider flower, form, foliage, how they would fade, and more, and they were then to tell Fergus which were the best.  I admired that great attention to detail. It clicked with me how simple this approach was for us gardeners to examine a plant's attributes, and it's something I've been thinking about as I prepare for the next Botanic Bootcamp on the power of plant selection. So, I walked the garden collecting flowers and foliage to compare.   

Narcissus pseudonarcissus (Lent lily) has been the dominant daffodil I’ve used in my beds.  The light yellow flowers are not too overpowering for the space.  And, after they finish flowering the thin blue leaves echo well with Rudbeckia maxima and Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master).  I make sure I go through and remove the seed pods so that they don’t seed around and that redirects energy back into the bulb.  

In the core beds near the house, Narcissus pseudonarcissus blooms with a soft yellow.

I have debated over the years if I have one or two different types of Narcissus tazetta (tazettas), but after amassing this collection, I can see the differences.  Both were nameless backroad rescues. One has a darker cup and thinner foliage, which could be ‘Grand Primo’.  The other has a much larger presence in the garden with its flowers and larger leaves. Greg Grant suspects it is an old timey cultivar called ‘Grandiflora’.  On this one, I noticed a bit of damage in the middle of the thick blades where they bend. My guess is that spot is where the sun shines on the freezing mornings, and the tissue burned a bit.  Because the foliage can show winter damage and the volume of blades produced, I’ve decided to not plant them in any beds. They can start looking too flimsy after flowering. Instead I hoard them under my blackberries.  I love using them here to smother the weeds out. 

Narcissus tazetta ‘Grandiflora’ cover the ground under our blackberries with their thick foliage.

Most of the rest of my Narcissus have been in trial beds waiting to see where I can use them most effectively.  ‘February Gold’ is a new one I bought a few years ago, and I am ready to commit to planting them into beds on the western side of the garden where I have more warm colors from Salix ‘Flame’ (willow) and Cornus amomum ‘Cayenne’ (silky dogwood).  Over the period of a few years, I watched as other bulbs planted at the same time like ‘Tête-à-Tête’ and ‘Jetfire’ melted away, but ‘February Gold’ continued to weave more golden flowers.  For us it’s early and started blooming February 5 this year, even beating Narcissus pseudonarcissus that opened on February 9. The green verdant leaves are different than the many others I have with a bluish cast.  For me the leaf color is the driving factor of putting them on that side of the garden.  The green foliage pairs better with the warm colors.

I have bulked up hundreds of Narcissus × odorus (campernelle), and I’m eyeing putting them on a hillside on the eastern part of our property where it stays wetter just down from our ‘Ann’ Magnolia (hybrid magnolia).  The flowers are a strong yellow, and they have these thin green leaves that aren’t as strappy as others.  Perhaps this year I’ll be able to check that off my list.  

Another perspective of the flowers so you can enjoy the insides of the coronas.

I love ‘Carlton’, but the large flowers are a bit overpowering, and they are also an intense yellow.  I haven’t quite decided where I want them to go yet, but I’m leaning toward mixing them in with the campernelles so that they can play a bit off the same color with just different shapes.  

I have two Narcissus that feature a color shift between the petals and the corona.  I love ‘Ceylon’.  The orange cups are so striking on this Narcissus against the yellow petals, and it is one of the only orange cup types I’ve had success with so far.  And I’m delighted that ‘Ice Follies’ is growing well for me.  I have seen it here and there in east Texas and finally decided to give it a try.  It was one that I grew back in Tennessee, and I love how the petals fade from a creamy yellow to almost white while the cup holds a buttery yellow color.  I still haven’t decided where to place then, and that’s ok.  I can enjoy them in the patch for now in their holding beds.  

Foliage and flowers to consider mixing with Narcissus left to right: Rudbeckia maxima, Eryngium yuccifolium, Ipheion uniflorum (starflower), Arnoglossum plantagineum, and Leucojum aestivum ‘Gravetye Giant’ (summer snowflake).

Before I gathered them into a bundle for taking inside, I walked the garden and collected foliage and flowers from other plants that they will share space with in the coming weeks before going dormant.  I focused on plants that have hints of blues and greens to see if there are combinations that I should further consider.

Many solo planted bulbs have bulked up over the years, and I’m keen on dividing some clumps this spring and moving them around. And, after I put them in their new spots, I imagine the joy they will bring in future springs. But for now, I’ll enjoy this one.

Reflections from Winter Storm Fern

In the south, winter weather has a duality. Yes, it is beautiful and lovely to see the landscape. But, it can wreak havoc on infrastructure and interrupt life.

That was the position we found ourselves in yet again three weeks ago when Winter Storm Fern hit. Fortunately, because we have been through these situations before, we were prepared with firewood, gas, food cooked, and a generator.

Sure, I don’t like when winter weather impacts life, but I love to see how it interacts with our gardens.

We got just enough for Magnolia to sled on a back hillside and just enough to make some magic in the garden as ice and snow fell on and around our plants.

Snow and ice events can tell us much about our gardens—what plants will stand upright, collapse, or bend and bounce back afterward. I realize that most people don’t design gardens with ice storms in mind, but it’s worth noting what happens during these extreme events to learn for the future.

I grabbed my camera and went out to explore, and I wanted to share my observations with you.

The core garden beds near the house fared well through the storm. Lilium formosanum (Formosan lily), which I use as a strong upright, mostly bent downward from the weight of the ice. You can see their stems going every whichaway.

I chuckled after seeing my Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ (switchgrass).  They looked like a comb over.  Amazingly, they would right themselves after the ice melted.

The bejeweled panicles of Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’

Another grass that looked pretty entombed in ice was Andropogon virginicus (broomsedge).

Eragrostis spectabilis (purple lovegrass) always gets a decent coating of ice with their abundant panicles.

Isn’t this odd?  The left stem of Helianthus angustifolius (swamp sunflower) barely covered with ice while Eutrochium fistulosum (hollow Joe Pye weed) clearly has a thick layer. It left me wondering why the difference?

Another hollow joe pye weed plant with the dazzling inflorescence. Every joe pye weed in the garden appeared the same with their ice coatings. My suspicion is the pedicels were horizontal, which allowed them to capture more water to then become ice.

You can also see these horizontal branches of Salix nigra are loaded with ice as well. The trees glowed against the sky with their icy coating.

I was very impressed to see the Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant) remain standing after the ice storm. If they can stand after this storm, I believe they can be strong elements throughout winter.

I saw the same thing with Silphium laciniatum (compass plant).  The culms remained up right.

Boltonia diffusa (southern doll’s daisy) is really growing on me for its low growth habit, fall flowers, and dark stems in the winter. Here we see the stems and spent flowers coated in ice.

One last thing I noticed as I walked outside was that any herbaceous plant I brushed past would break off.  Stems, twigs, and even leaves like you see here on this weedy rye.  For some it was the weight of the ice, but for others it was the frozen foliage that shattered apart. 

The golden orbs of Ilex decidua ‘Finch’s Golden’ (possumhaw) pop with a coating of ice.

I love the fiery twigs of Cornus amomum ‘Cayenne’ (silky dogwood, header image). The color is even more intense with some ice or rain on them.

The last blooms on my Hamamelis vernalis (Ozark witch hazel) were coated with a bit of ice.  The petals tolerate freezing well and will often curl to help offset the issue. 

One of my favorite plants to look at during ice storms is Ludwigia alternifolia (seedbox).  The box-shaped seed capsules always get a good coating of ice.

I figured that Coreopsis tripteris would collapse with the ice, but it also stood upright well.  

The split seed pods of Oenothera rhombipetala (four-point evening primrose) offer a unique texture after an ice storm against the blades of broomsedge.

I went for a walk in the woods beyond our house to enjoy the winter scene, and I noticed that the marcescent leaves of Acer floridanum (southern sugar maple) barely held any ice at all.

It helps to pay attention to where ice and snow settle and where it melts, and how long it stays.  Such observations can tell you where warmer and cooler parts of your property are.  

Site Inventory and Analysis

Want to Learn More?

I’m hosting a live Botanic Bootcamp session, Reading the Land for Smarter Planting, on Monday, February 2 at 6 pm CST. You’ll learn how to read a site before you ever pick a plant. We’ll discuss seeing visual and experiential aspects, understanding light, soil, and water, and more so your plantings are more resilient, intentional, and purposeful. This session will give you the framework to make better planting decisions from the start.

What does it mean to read the land?  To me it starts with taking account of everything that is present and to imagine what the site can become.  

Reading the land requires us to have two ways of seeing the landscape, what does the landscape offer and what potential does it have.  We call these two mental modes inventory and analysis.  

Sure, this process isn’t as glamorous as picking what plants to grow and how to arrange them.  Often we want to rush into design, but doing inventory and analysis first can save you so much headache later on. We can prevent plant death and replanting, blocked views, flooded beds, wasted money, constant maintenance, and much more.  And it doesn’t have to be a new garden that you are assessing.  It could be one that you’ve lived in for twenty years.  

Thrash Early

Inventory and analysis are part of the process that Seth Godin calls thrashing, where we get things right early in a project.  We take stock of what we have and what direction we want it to head. We bring everyone in on a discussion to make decisions early.  For some, it may be a husband-wife team.  For others, it’s multiple stakeholders and people from the public.  However, it is better to thrash early than wait until the project is 95% finished to realize we missed something.  

Site Inventory

With inventory, we are asking what is present.  It is objective, descriptive, and observational.  We are making no judgments yet.  Just the facts, ma'am.  

For me, site inventory breaks down into six categories:

• Physical — buildings, hardscape, utilities, topography, geology

• Biological — flora and even fauna on site, where types of plants congregate, plant communities

• Soil — soil texture, soil drainage, soil nutrient levels and pH

• Weather and climate — temperature, rainfall and where water pools, wind movement across a site, microclimates, where things feel warmer or cooler

• Light — how it shifts over the day and over the season, sun angle and reflection

• Visual and experiential — vistas and long views, the mood of the site, the spirit of place, and natural movement paths

Site Analysis

With the inventory complete, we begin the analysis to consider what this place can be.  What can I do with this space? Analysis is interpretive, evaluative, and creative.  We begin to introduce goals and priorities, and we begin to see the site through human desires and wishes.   We start considering constraints and opportunities and can we work with things or will we need to move against what we see.  

I should stress that analysis is not design yet.  There are no plant lists, layouts, or styles decided on yet.  You are just trying to see what you can do with the possibilities and constraints of the site.  

So, just a few ideas for the same six categories

• Physical — Do you hide or accent the house?  Are there places for more entertaining options? What does the lay of the land dictate about movement or erosion?

• Biological — Should trees stay or go?  Does the vegetation have a natural tendency toward an archetype? Should it be allowed to progress or interrupted? Are there plant communities, animals, or ecological processes that need to be accounted for?

• Soil — How can soil fertility and texture influence what plants grow?  What can we do with high fertility or low fertility? Does soil drain well or is it mucky?

• Weather and climate — What does it mean that this microclimate is warmer or cooler? Should we plant species that will move with the wind, or do we need a wind break to calm the air?

• Light — How can you play with light?  Do you want more light or less light?

• Visual and experiential — Are there potential views you can create or enhance?  What can you do to create feelings of prospect and refuge? What are the landscape preferences that we can embrace and enhance in the space?

Analysis isn’t limited to one idea.  It may be worthwhile iterating through options to consider what all possibilities exist. For example, when we bought our property, we had a large open space beside our house that could have become anything.  I could have planted a vegetable garden, more trees for shade, or an orchard. 

I noted the space’s proximity to the house, the sandy soil, how water moved across it, and how it wasn’t saturated like other parts of the property.  It was mostly turf, which meant that it was ripe for planting.  Light would interact with it throughout the seasons and for most of the day. Being in an elevated spot, it offered good views of other parts of the property, and I didn’t want to interrupt that.  I knew I wanted a naturalistic planting, and inventory and analysis helped me reach the conclusion that this spot was perfect. Even when I consider any changes to the garden, I keep these initial observations and ideas in mind.  

Our blank slate of a yard in 2017. It took me time to read the land, to inventory what we had, and to analyze and think about what I wanted this space to become.

Several years later, here’s what I get to look at. It all starts with inventory and analysis.

Conducting Your Inventory and Analysis

Doing your own inventory and analysis is easy. You can easily take some blank paper and sketch what you see.  Or, find the place on Google Maps, capture a screen shot, paste it into PowerPoint, and make the image 50% transparent.  Then you can print off a few copies and walk around the site writing or drawing what you see. 

You also don’t have to do inventory and analysis just once.  You can repeat the process over the course of a year.  I know that most designers are under the constraints to only visit once or twice, but it can be hard to truly know a site until you’ve experienced it for a trip around the sun.  You don’t know yet where the last light lingers on the winter solstice.  Or, how the water moves across the property during a deluge. Time and a few tricks that I’ll discuss in Reading the Land for Smarter Planting will help you.

Remember, inventory describes and analysis decides. And, once you’re done, the magic can begin as you start to create the garden of your dreams.  

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KEEP GROWING

The Case for Bare-Root Plants

One of the joys of winter is getting bare root plants in the mail. They may have been ordered weeks or months ago, but to open the door and see the box sitting there is always a fun surprise.

I think some people forget about the advantages of bare root plants. They are usually cheaper because they are younger plants not being sold with potting soil. The absence of substrate also makes it easy to ship, and the roots can be easily inspected to confirm there are no defects like circling or J-roots that might be hidden in a rootball.

However, there are a few disadvantages. Bare-root plants need to be planted as soon as possible upon receiving. The roots can dry out quickly since they aren’t exposed to soil. And, since bare-root plants need to be dormant because having leaves would lead to much water stress, there is a limited window for planting from late fall through early spring. But, that’s when I try to do most of my woody planting, so it’s no problem for me.

My first shipment this winter included a collection of five muscadines and four blueberries. I have long wanted a muscadine trellis to complete my double fence around our patch where we grow vegetables and cut flowers. The goal was to make it doubly functional—protect plants from deer and produce delicious fruit.

Like many projects in fatherhood, the muscadine trellis has taken longer than I anticipated. I treated myself to the eastern redcedar posts two Christmases ago from a local sawmill, I rented an auger and sunk them in the ground this past August as a birthday gift, and I ordered the plants around Thanksgiving for an early Christmas gift.

Bare-root plants can be easily assessed for any root defects. Vitis rotundifolia ‘Summit’ (muscadine) looks good to me.

I like using scrap pieces of eastern redcedar for plant labels as seen here with Vaccinium virgatum ‘Premier’ (rabbit-eye blueberry). They can be stuck in the ground or hung from a trellis or plant for easy identification.

I spent a few hours this weekend getting them in the ground. Before planting, I made labels using scraps of eastern redcedar that last a long time in our soil. I determined plant spacing between posts with a tape measure and marked where I want each to go. Muscadines take some planning for siting due to their flowering habit. Some are self-fertile, which can produce fruit on their own, while others are female, which need a self-fertile plant nearby for fruit set. So, I alternated self-fertile and female plants to encourage fruit set.

Prepping for planting bare-root muscadines

I know people say don’t directly amend the hole for woodies, but in our very acidic soils I’ve gotten in the habit of sprinkling a little bit of granular lime into the hole and in the surrounding area unless the soil test indicates otherwise or it’s an acid loving plant like blueberry. I then use my gloved hand to mix it lightly into the soil. I make sure as I plant I flare the roots out and keep the point where roots and shoots meet at ground level. I then firm the soil around the base, level the soil, and check once more that the highest root is just under the soil.

I like to make sure I flare roots out before planting.

I then mulch the plants with a nice layer of leaf mold or compost, and I top that off with four pitchforks full of hardwood mulch (header image). I make a donut ring so that the water will be directed toward the base of the plant. And then I water well, usually passing back and forth a few times across all the plants.

I’ll wait for spring to fertilize them. There’s no point putting fertilizer down when they aren’t actively growing.

How do I know how much to apply? I did soil tests back in the fall for where the muscadines are going and other spots around the garden that I want to plant this year. Soil tests are crucial for reading your site to understand how to plant better, and if you struggle to understand soil tests, I’ll be talking more about them in my upcoming Botanic Bootcamp session Reading the Land for Smarter Planting. I like having multiple tests to have a snapshot of my soil in the garden. And, I like to have a base original soil for comparison.

My soil test results to better understand what my site needs for fertility. M (medium) is optimum, while VL (very low) and L (low) indicate too low levels and H (high) and VH (very high) indicate that the nutrients are too high.

I can see that lime worked on areas I had already applied it, namely the north muscadine bed and the east and west fence areas where I’m working on developing naturalistic plantings this year. But, other areas that have pH values in the mid-to-low 5s will need more. For most of my naturalistic plantings, I want nitrogen to be low, but for areas where I have fruits and vegetables it needs to be higher. Across the board, for the rest of the nutrients, I am concerned by the very low levels of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfate in the beds, and I will be rectifying that this spring. I prefer to use slower release sources like rock phosphate and greensand, and I’ve found a mineral called langbeinite that can provide potassium, magnesium, and sulfur to raise those levels.

My hope is that with the attention and care I give my bare-root muscadines and blueberries we’ll have a healthy crop in a few years. Yes, patience is required, but it is well worth it to pick fruit in my own garden warmed by the summer sun.

‘Summit’ muscadine well watered in

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Keep Growing

Shades of Brown

It hasn’t felt like winter here at Ephemera Farm.  We have had a handful of days pushing 80°F since the new year.  

But, it looks like winter.  We’ve had enough frosts that there are more browns than greens in the landscape, and the deciduous trees and shrubs have mostly lost their leaves.  

Designing with winter in mind is one of my first principles of gardening.  Two months in the spring can manifest a world of difference in my plantings, but from late December through late February, what you see is what you get.  What I see is the culmination of all the decisions I’ve made this past year and the many years prior. It is crucial to think about what the garden will look like at this time because a few months of bland is boring.  

I love to take stock of the garden in winter.  I find myself asking what do I like?  What do I not like?  And, how can I make what I have better?  

My winter garden is not like others filled with evergreens and conifers.   Being dominantly composed of herbaceous perennials, it features a variety of shades of brown in the winter.   I have always enjoyed the winter silhouettes of plants, but it’s nice to be in the vogue now thanks to Piet Oudolf.  He has changed the discussion of the browns of winter, saying, “You accept death. You don’t take the plants out, because they still look good. And brown is also a color.”

It fascinates me that plants that sport nearly the same color of green after frost can be various colors of brown.  Eragrostis spectabilis (purple lovegrass) fades to an off-white, Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’ (switchgrass) becomes a khaki color (header image), Andropogon virginicus (broomsedge) turns a soft tangerine, and Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant) crisps to almost black.  

There is opportunity to think about the faded color in designing winter gardens.  If you’ve taken my class The Preference Matrix for Naturalistic Design, you know that I love playing off coherence and contrast.  With the monochromatic landscape, there are plenty of shades of brown to make the garden cohesive.  But, these various colors and the textures they occupy provide contrast to make things a bit more interesting.  

As I survey my garden, I see tans and sands are pretty common colors in the garden.  So, I’ve been focusing over the past few years in increasing the darker browns.  

I’ve learned that some Silphium are good at holding their presence through the wintertime.  Silphium perfoliatum stands stolid during the winter and appears as a dark tower with its leaves still clinging.  I divided this plant last spring to increase its presence in the garden, so I hope in another year or two to have a few more of these shadowy sentinels in the garden.  I also admire Silphium laciniatum (compass plant) for the taupe, claw-like leaves.  The foliage is lower on the plant but still stands out. 

Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant)

Silphium laciniatum (compass plant)

This past spring, I planted Helianthus giganteus ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’ (giant sunflower) in a spot where it could really take over, and I’ve been impressed with how well the umber stems and seedheads have held up so far this winter.  I have issues with Helianthus angustifolius (swamp sunflower) flopping over in winter.  Granted I did cut ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’ back early in the season to limit its growth (but it’s still over my head!), and I did stake it at one point this fall when it started to flop.  But, those actions then give me a four-foot wide clump of dark stems to contrast with lighter colors in the landscape.  And, the seedheads that dot the sky are another plus.  

Helianthus giganteus ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’ (giant sunflower)

Coreopsis tripteris (tall coreopsis) also holds its leaves well into winter.  Like ‘Sheila’s Sunshine’, cutting it back earlier in the year helped make it a more manageable height.  I also love the little dark buttons that hover above.  

Coreopsis tripteris (tall coreopsis)

Another plant that I’ve been surprised with having a staying presence is Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant).  You would figure that with such rubbery leaves and succulent stems the plant would collapse at the end of the growing season.  But, my clumps still stand upright, and a 2 × 2 foot area of chocolate-colored stems contrasts well.  I just have to keep an eye on their spreading rhizomes that are emerging a verdant green from the soil.  

Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant)

As we approach spring, I stagger my cut back and selectively begin removing the plants of last year.  This weekend, I’ll start cleaning out where bulbs are emerging.  The refuse I put at the back of our property so that fauna overwintering can still emerge. Then, I’ll start taking out the plants that have collapsed from the winter.  But, I love to leave these dark stalwarts that emerge late  and cut them at the last possible moment in early March.  That way we can enjoy their presence as long as possible.  

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KEEP GROWING