Randy Best’s Hosta Garden.

It’s not summer YET but when the heat finally comes, I’ll wish I could hang out in Randy Best’s cool hosta garden, shown above and in lots more photos here.  Around our Beltsville store Randy’s known as Mr. Hosta – not only because his garden is jam-packed with them but because he’s a true Hosta expert and breeder of new Hosta varieties.

In pursuit of new, even more beautiful Hostas, Randy is always on the look-out and keeps up with what the other breeders are up to.  That’s how he came to find the 18 exciting new varieties now on offer in our perennial Department in quart-size pots.  Randy carefully selected these introductions and ordered them directly from a tissue culture lab (plant-geek talk for breeder) in Illinois.

Here’s how Behnkes’ Stephanie Flemming described the scene: “If Randy had a tail, it would have been wagging when the boxes were unpacked.”  Sounds like a true Hosta addict!

We have one flat of each of these cool-looking varieties, so come check out Mr.  Hosta’s Introductions for 2013 while supplies last!

‘Jubulani’ (left) and ‘Blue Flame’ (right.)

 ’George M. Dallas’ (left) and ‘Thunder Boomer’ (right.)

I was once a small-scale collector of Hostas myself but had  to give them all away after the deer arrived in my backyard one day and decided to stay – despite my repeated cursing at them and more sophisticated repelling techniques failed, too.

So last season, when the construction around my Greenbelt home was finally done in the late summer, I bought up several of my favorite varieties, including ‘Sir Frances Williams,’ the glory of my old shade garden (shown below in its formative years).   Then over the winter I moved so many perennials around to accommodate the shrubs and trees I rather abruptly decided to plant that I couldn’t find Frances anywhere and declared him a casualty of gardening-in-winter.

Until I finally found him a couple of weeks ago, behind and almost under a teak bench I’d also moved.  I bet Mr. Hosta can appreciate what a thrilling discovery it was.  Frances now has a prominent and perhaps even permanent spot in my garden, along with some new favorites.  Ah, to have a deer-free garden again!

Posted by Susan Harris.

Just as we’re all going gaga over the (finally!) emerging spring bulbs, let’s pause to appreciate some flowers we’ve been enjoying for the last couple of months, those of the Hellebore family.  Hellebore breeder (and author) David Culp visited Behnkes during our recent Spring Open House and used these and more fabulous photos of his own Brandywine Hybrids to make the point that Hellebores more than earn their place in our hearts and gardens.

The Virtues of Hellebores

• They’re long-lived.
• They’re evergreen.
• They seed around “with great abandon,” their seedlings eventually filling in a whole bed, even under the most difficult trees.
• They’re easy.  “Put ‘em in the ground and forget about them.”
• Plant them in full shade, full sun, or anything in between.  Though if they’re not blooming, they might not be getting enough light – or you’ve planted them too deep.  David calls them “the ultimate shade plant.”  (DO avoid planting them in wet, boggy conditions, though.  They hate that.)
• They’re critter-resistant.  Even deer don’t like them.
• David brings them indoors as cut flowers, floating them in large bowls, where they look great for 10 days or so.
• They bloom even through the snow!

About those “Blooms”

David explained that the Hellebore’s so-called flowers we’re enjoying in winter are really not flowers at all – they’re sepals, colorful parts that attract pollinators.  In fact, they’re getting more and more colorful these days, with breeders choosing sepals that are in colors like pink and purple, and less green.

About their Nodding Nature

Breeders are always working on developing Hellebores whose flowers face UP, so we can see them without bending down, but David has a different take on that.  They’re just “hiding their sexual parts from the cold.  They’re smart.“  David actually likes that slight nod.  You have to bend over and turn it up to see the inside, so the Hellebore is a participatory plant (love that term!)   You can avoid having to bend down to see the insides of their flowers by planting them on a hillside, or in a raised bed.

Care

Just cut off their old leaves in January, a bit of housekeeping that isn’t required but lets the emerging flowers shine on their own.  They don’t need dividing, though they can be divided if you wish.  Just dig them up, wash the soil off, and separate into chunks that have both dark and white root, and at least two leaves.  Late summer or spring are the times to divide them.

Native-Plant Wannabees

That’s what David calls them, because they’re so well adapted.  They’re originally from Central Europe, mostly the Balkans, at higher elevations.

Brandywine Hybrids

They’re all from his very own garden, which is revealed in beautiful photos and inspiring text in his recent book The Layered Garden, which I raved about in this blog post.

Posted by Susan Harris.

Spring gardening events in the DC area start this weekend!  First up, the Behnkes Spring Open House.

Discover the Joy of Gardening
Behnke’s Spring Open House 2013

10 am to 4 pm at the Beltsville Store
We will have lots of new products to show off, gardening experts to talk with and demonstrations to show you. Free door prizes will be presented throughout the day. And when you want to relax a little, you can grab some food and enjoy a little music.

Next, going on all weekend, is the Washington Home and Garden Show at the DC Convention Center.  The perennial complaint about this show is that it’s loaded up on the home side and there’s not enough on the garden side for people like us – gardeners.  But, this year there’s a special treat for vegetable growers.  The famous Barbara Damrosch (whose syndicated column appears in the Washington Post on Thursdays) is making a rare appearance in the DC area, speaking at 10:00 Sunday at the show.  (A late addition, her talk isn’t listed on their schedule of speakers but I’ve confirmed it with the show people.)

Here’s more about Barbara:  Barbara Damrosch, called “The queen of organic growers” by The New York Times is one of the nation’s most respected garden experts and writers. She is the coauthor of the recently published The Four Season Farm Gardener’s Cookbook and the author of Theme Gardens and The Garden Primer, and writes a weekly column for The Washington Post called “A Cook’s Garden.” She appeared as a regular correspondent on the PBS series The Victory Garden, and co-hosted the series Gardening Naturally for The Learning Channel.

Barbara—with Eliot Coleman—operates Four Season Farm, an experimental market garden in Harborside, Maine, that is a nationally recognized model of small-scale sustainable agriculture.

Other “Celebrities” speaking at the show include Ahmed Hassan, the knowledgeable and engaging host of DIY’s “Yard Crashers,” and local favorite Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, who’ll be talking about local challenges to gardening, like deer.  Both Ahmed and Kathy are speaking Saturday and Sunday – here’s the stage schedule.

Posted by Susan Harris.

“Ruin garden” from The Layered Garden. Photo by Rob Cardillo.

Behnkes has come to know garden writer and perennials expert David Culp through his work for Sunny Border Nurseries, one of our suppliers, and we’ve long admired his expertise.  Then our perennials buyer Larry Hurley visited David’s garden near Philadelphia and instantly became a fan of David as a major designer and creator of gardens.  And now we learn the name for that kind of stunning, plant-packed garden – Layered.

That’s thanks to David’s long-awaited book about his garden and the principles and techniques that readers can use to create their own little slice of heaven.  So what IS a layered garden? It’s one with four seasons of beauty at all levels, from groundcover to trees.  But that hardly describes the utter gorgeousness of the book about his garden, packed with photographs by the esteemed garden photographer Rob Cardillo.

I swooned over The Layered Garden when Larry loaned me his copy and decided I HAD to have one of my own.  That’s because David Culp is the kind of gardener I aspire to be – expert in his plant choices and growing techniques and inspired in his design visions.  And his book is teaching and inspiring me to choose the correct plants by understanding how they grow and change throughout the seasons.  It’s teaching me to design and maintain a complex, layered garden.  It even includes tips about coping with drought, deer, pests and maintenance.

Examples shown and described include woodland gardens, perennial borders, kitchen gardens, shrubbery, and a walled garden. The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to signature plants for all four seasons.

In addition to the wealth of useful information, the book includes David’s personal thoughts and experiences while creating his garden.  He’s a warm and, at times, humorous writer who makes this very enjoyable reading.  And lucky us – David gardens in a very similar climate to our own, so his plant choices are just right for us. Click here for lots more photos of David’s garden by Rob Cardillo.

From The Layered Garden. Photo by Rob Cardillo.

WIN A COPY OF THE LAYERED GARDEN

Just leave a comment here or on our Facebook page and we’ll choose one at random.  Entries close midnight EST Friday, December 14.  (The winner will be asked to pick up the book at one of the two Behnkes locations.)  Or just buy it, already.

Posted by Susan Harris.

When I reported on my new back garden in late July it looked woefully empty, as shown above.   Patio and walkway done, a few shrubs and trees planted, but otherwise bare.

In this September photo you can see some of the new plantings I’ve added, but they won’t really strut their stuff until next season and won’t really fill out for a season or two.  Patience is required!

Here are the new plants I’ve acquired somehow or other, all plants I expect great things from.  The color palette I’m going for here is purples, maroons, and greens.

Bought perennials

Amsonia hubrichtii- three.  Wish I had room for more because this may just be my favorite perennial.

Aster ‘Purple Dome’ – just one.  It’ll stay short, for the front of the garden.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’.  Just one, and I hope it spreads fast next year.

Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ was unknown to me but recommended by a designer friend.  VERY cool purple leaves – check it out.

Heuchera ‘Frosted Violet,’ sticking with the purple theme.

Hostas, which I couldn’t grow in my last, deer-infested garden: ‘City Lights,’ ‘Frances Williams,’ ‘Earth Angel,’ ‘Elegans,’ and huge divisions of plainer varieties from neighbors for fast fill-in in the first year or two.

Iris ‘Argentea Variegata’ for its light green and white foliage.

Penstemon ‘Husker Red’  for its deep red stems and leaves.

Persecaria polymorpha (Giant Fleece Flower) was also recommended by my designer friend – for something tall and dramatic.

Perennials from my old garden or giveaways from neighbors

Calamint ‘White Cloud.’  Great filler plant for the front of any border.

Euphorbia amygdaloides, Robb’s Spurge.  Evergreen even in the shade!  Also, fast-spreading.  Used it to great effect in my former woodland garden.

Miscanthus ‘Morning Light’ blooms too late for the seeds to germinate, so it’s not invasive.

Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ are divisions from a neighbor.

Plus these fill-in plants

‘Tangerine Beauty’ Crossvine (Bignonia) for a vertical accent that’s evergreen and then sports reddish orange blooms in the summer.  Planted far enough away from the purple-maroon palette that it won’t clash – hopefully.

Hardy bananas will, I’m hoping, give me some instant screening next year where it’s needed the most.  Eventually the three Cryptomerias (Japanese cedars), six Blue Prince and Blue Maid Hollies, and three full-size Abelias will provide screening, but not by next year.

Patience is again helpful but when it’s in short supply, fast-growing hardy bulbs come in handy.

Posted by Susan Harris.