It's Sunday and a Lazy One at That...

This moss rose is named 'Henri Martin', but that is probably incorrect.  It is a moss rose, probably 'Jacques Cartier'.



Always a wonderful idea, this arbor is covered with two different roses and a clematis.


This musk rose is a lot of fun.


I think this is John Cabot or William Baffin, both of the Canadian Explorer Series, both look very similar.



'Dainty Bess' rose, one I need to find for my garden, I think.

...so I thought I would share a couple of my favorite pictures from this year. (So lazy I didn't finish posting this until Monday morning.)

I think I need to try much harder with my roses after collecting these pictures taken at the Chicago Botanical Gardens this past summer. I have selected some good varieties for central Wisconsin, but there are some things I could do better.

Fertilize more.

Water more.

Cut back plants around them, and weed better around their roots.

Tie up all my climbers.

Prune more effectively.

Enjoy!

Silly Allium

I've been taking stock what spring bulbs to plant where and looking for some nice early purples for a potential client. Needing inspiration, I went back to some pictures I took at the Chicago Botanical Gardens back in June.

The lollipop purple allium are so silly, they made me smile. Here's your smile for the day!

Hidden Views, Secret Gardens

Gardens seen through an obscured view lure us into them. They give up their secrets slowly and we would have it no other way. These pictures were taken at two of my favorite botanic gardens, Chicago Botanical Gardens (CBG) and Olbrich Gardens (OG). This one was taken at the CBG.


A view that appears to go on forever. These trees are night-lit with pot uplights. Spectacular. (CBG)


White Asiatic lilies en masse. (OG)













Yellow callas at a pond's edge. (OG)






A doorway accented with potted boxwood topiary and a view to a garden. (OG)


Grove of clump white birch underplanted with a blue hosta. (CBG)



For a brief couple weeks these alliums throw up their heads through lime green foliage. (CBG)

Using What You Grow: Kale Crisps

Picture from the Chicago Botanic Gardens (CBG) of an organic veggie bed with different types of veggies intensively planted. Artichoke is in the middle.

This last Saturday on the way back from the CBG, I had deep-fried okra for the first time. Last year, I grew the green type for someone because of its ornamental qualities. I was amazed with how prolifically it bore its fruit. This year, I hunted down the burgundy okra after seeing a recipe for dilly okra. I really like dilly beans and am thinking the aesthetic qualities of dilled okra alone makes it worth growing.

It is important to grow those fruits and veggies that you actually use and eat. My sister-in-law and I really like salads. I planted lots of greens this year, but I am always looking for other ways to enjoy our harvest. One of the recipes both of us have been eyeing is one for kale crisps. I grew from seed and planted several of the trendy dino kale, also know as Italian black kale, Tuscany kale, or di Toscano. We both enjoy it and so far have been able to keep it eaten down so the leaves are fairly juvenile or immature.

The recipe calls for a couple cups of the kale with the mid-ribs removed, because they cook at such a different rate. The cleaned and dry leaves torn into sections the size of small potato chips and are tossed with a tablespoon of sherry vinegar and a tablespoon of olive oil. They are then placed in a thin layer on a couple of baking sheets and salted with sea salt to taste. They are cooked at 300 degrees for 35 minutes.

Ours were definitely done in about 20 minutes. (We prepared a cup of Savoy cabbage in the same manner and they burned in about 10 minutes!!!)

The color was nice. The flavor was much stronger than in the fresh kale. The two-year-old twins enjoyed them. I think the twins were into the tactile and crispy qualities (I don't think the twins have had potato chips yet.) As a munchy, they were fairly addictive. My brother didn't care for them.

Considering that the recipe said 35 minutes and ours were done in half the time, I have to assume the recipe really calls for mature leaves (which it did not mention), possibly those harvest after a light frost which would improve the flavor in the fresh leaves and, I would assume, increase the flavor in the crisps as well.

I wasn't sold on the value of kale crisps, but both my sister-in-law and I decided we would try the recipe again with mature leaves later in the season. Both of us are looking for the best method to preserve our kale harvest. Possibly, kale will make a better addition to dried soup mixes than as kale crisps. Until then, we'll continue to enjoy the immature leaves in our garden greens salads.

Wonderful Ideas and Take Aways from the Vegetable and Fruit Gardens at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

The Chicago Botanical Gardens are obviously testing the best way to stake tomatoes. This plot is demonstrating three different methods: no stake, square caging (I think using pea fence) and tying to staked wires. The varieties in this plot are all heirloom varieties.


This 6" by 6" slant cut and routered cedar posting with eye hooks and wires is an elegant trellising system for growing grapes. We have not yet put up the trellising for the 'Reliance' grapes in the family berry and fruits area. I might have to copy this idea.


Cabbages grown in beautifully compost enriched soils at the CBG. My cabbage look almost this good. We are two weeks behind the CBG veggie plot, but our soil looks no where near this nice.



The family garden has been difficult this year simply because of the weather and mechanical difficulties with the Mantis tiller. We are seeing lots of greens from the garden so far. We have allowed the 'Honeoye' strawberries to put out the fruit, although we probably should have picked off the flower buds as they formed. The picking of strawberries into tiny buckets has been too much fun for my two-year old twin nephews. They already have the eat two pick one method down pat!


Three Sisters planting method: hilled corn interplanted with beans and squash. This is an idea I am also using in the family garden. The legume I chose was edible soybeans, edamame. I soaked them for a half an hour. I have since read this is a no-no. The germination was not was I had hoped. Hopefully we will have enough to get a taste and decide whether we would like to perfect our growing methods.

I loved these plots. Obviously, the gardeners who work and volunteer here do, too. Their tender care shows.

Clematis and other Climbers at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

Clemartis 'Josephine' with a climbing rose. The double blooms of 'Josephine' are more noticeable at bottom center of picture.









A white clematis, possibly 'Guyere'


A Jackamanii-style clematis




Akebia quinata adding a structural quality to this wall. I am sure they must prune it weekly!

One thing they do really well is pick out the right clematis to showcase at the Chicago Botanical Gardens (CBG). If you are in the upper Midwest you might want to take a peak at the results of their study to pick the best clematis for the region.

Clematis take time, as do many climbers. Is is certainly no accident that my favorite climbers were also well represented in the CBG. I did not see the orange honeysuckle which blooms nearly all summer in my garden, but as it can have invasive qualities, most likely in areas to our south, I can understand its omission as it is stunning. I'm sure the CBG doesn't want to promote anything possibly invasive.

In my own garden in addition to the orange honeysuckle, I have akebia quinata, sweet autumn clematis, dutchman's pipe, clematis 'Josephine', 'Comtesse du Bouchard', and 'c. texensis 'Diana'.

Weddings, June, Roses...and Don't Forget the Shoes!

I definitely recommend comfortable shoes while touring the Chicago Botanical Gardens. For some, this means wearing flip flops and carrying in the stiletto heels for those once in as a lifetime photo shoots of your life's happily ever after story.



There were minimally eight different bridal parties making good use of the gardens a a backdrop for weddings and untold engagement pictures. Those were almost as easy to spot as the weddings, bride- and groom-to-be arm in arm, her heels dangling from a fingertip and the heavily-camera laden photographer trailing in their wake.

This bride looked every inch the model bride, not the bridezilla version, in her organza and ostrich feather creation. She looked like a swan searching for open water.



And oh! Those shoes!


The dress the bridesmaids, who could have come from central casting, I swear, all a size 6; actually landed a dress they could have worn again, and probably will. My photos do not do the mauve gray tones justice. The cut and line of them-- fantastic!


Surprisingly, the placement of the zipper makes the dress!

I don't think the photographer had to work too hard with this bridal party! It seemed right down to the weather, this bride had every detail perfect in its implementation.

Pictures of More Great Roses at the Chicago Botanical Gardens

Incredible Roses at the Chicago Botanical Garden

I can recognize this rose from a quarter mile away. There is only one red rose like 'Champlain' from the Canadian Explorer series. The sun was pretty bright, and given its location and my desire to capture the impact of the billowing red rose skirting the tree, I have failed to capture the impact and beauty of this rose. I encourage anyone looking for a good red rose to try 'Champlain'.


'Lavaglut'


'Henri Martin'


As I mentioned, most of the roses were well-named and tags placed so I could get a decent picture and the label. I don't know which rose this is. I'm going to blame myself for not looking and photographing the name. I'd bet the name was right there at the time.

'Gourmet Popcorn'




'Ballerina'


'Dainty Bess'


Cabbage Rose, an heirloom rose

Working It

A busy bee working it on moss rose 'Henri Martin'.

After nearly a week of rain here in central Wisconsin, totaling more than 12 inches, the clouds have parted and that big yellowy orb has made an appearance. Am I out in the garden frantically pulling weeds from the soft brown soil? Nope, I am the en route gardener with that dangerous tool, a microphone, for a tour group bound for Chicago's Botanic Garden (CGB). I am working it doing a question and answer on gardening, and talking about favorite garden tools, sights at the Botanic Garden, and chatting up gardeners and garden-lovers alike.

Hey, I had a great time. The group was great, the garden was great, the tour organizer was wonderful, and I took over 530 pictures of garden-related photos. Yes, that's not an errant zero, 530-some pictures.

Best of all, I quipped to the group, these gardens are weeded ahead of me!

It takes a while to wrap my head around that many images. Some are of the labels are of plants on which I want more information. Other than my shovel, my camera, as I told the group, is how I document everything garden-related. Like I told the folks on the bus, some gardeners keep notebooks filed with meticulous notes-- I'm not one of those! Photos downloaded each day into default date folders show me what was blooming and when, and pictures of labels before the photographed plant give me the details as to what that cultivar is.

Other pictures are the tour people, and then there are those of that wedding with the incredible lilac-gray sheath dresses and hooker heels, with the bride done up in feathers looking like a swan ready to float away on a cloud of happiness with her groom. (That was one sensational-looking wedding party!)

The CBG has a great rose garden, which is at the peak of its grandiflorific, flouribundtaculous glory. I know I can't grow half these varieties just 160 miles north, here in central Wisconsin, but it is fun to dream.

The pinetum and the greenhouse gardens were fantastic, too. The fruit and vegetable gardens had a lot of ideas to share with the home gardener. Since my last visit, a number of years ago, the CGB has upped the ante with labeling and growing information signage which is a great thing to see. Not only can I see the great results of their labor,but I can note which varieties are doing really great for them and try them in my gardens, too. And, better still, I don't have to hunt down a garden worker to find out that not only am I unfamiliar with a cultivar, but they don't know what it is either (which I have had happen on more than one occasion here in Wisconsin).

Needless to say, I could not, nor did I attempt to see it all, I had only just over four and a half hours to spend there. the weather was wonderful, not too hot, not sunny. It did not rain! My feet ached, but my soul was plant happy.

So as the primers I teach from when I substitute teach during the school year say, "More to come..." I'll try to share in the coming posts some of these great pictures, including those of that fabulous wedding party (one of at least eight I noticed having pictures done that day at the garden).

When I got home, the post mistress had delievered the awaited parts for the Mantis tiller. Tomorrow, weeds, I am coming for you!