Flower As Gift Blog

‘Nova Zembla’ Rhododendron Bud

The Red Rhododendrons were starting to bloom at the farm. The White Azaleas were in full bloom underneath them and it was a nice combination. I know some gardeners don’t like white and red together but it is one of my favorite color combinations. The picture I took of them together didn’t come out and the Rhodos really needed a few more days to be in full bloom.

‘Nova Zembla’ was introduced in 1902 and it is considered one of the hardiest reds. There are certainly more exciting red Rhododendrons but Novas seem to be very dependable. They can get up to 10 feet tall and have nice foliage. Since this is only picture of the bud you can’t see that the flower has nice black spots when open.

What are you going to say about White Azaleas? They have really been spectacular this year (like most years). I am not sure of the cultivar on these but if I had to guess it would ‘Delaware Valley White’. These planted in front of the Rhododendrons with some semi-dwarf type of Juniper. When I first saw the Azaleas and Junipers together I thought that doesn’t look good but when they bloomed it was actually pretty nice. The Juniper needs to be pruned since it is kind of taking over.

Today is a holiday in the US and I am not working. I think I went 40 days straight without a day off and it feels weird not to be at work.

Cannon`s Double Azalea
Azalea x ‘Cannon`s Double‘ (Exbury hybrid)

It would hard to describe the color of this Azalea because it was several all at once. It was very easy on the eyes. It gets to about 6 feet tall and has red tinted foliage. I am going to have to try one of these.

Here is a partial list of the plants we planted at the small farm the last couple of days. Sorry for the mix of common and botanical names. It is just how it came out. The plants marked with star are the ones I haven’t grown before. Since it is the most northern of our gardens I have to watch what we plant. It gets a lot colder. Lucky about 3 miles is a large wholesale nursery that I am very familiar with. They grow a lot of their own stock from propagation so it is a nice test on the climate and the plants are acclimated already.

Ajuga ‘Burgundy Glow’
Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’
Azalea ‘Fashion’ Azalea ‘Lorna’ Azalea ‘Gartrell Pink’ Azalea ‘Gibraltar’ Azalea ‘Girard’s Crimson’ Azalea ‘Girard’s Fuschia’ Azalea ‘Golden Lights’ Astilbe ‘Montgomery’ Red
Astilbe Pink
Black Bugbane (Cimicifuga simplex ‘Brunette’)
Buddleia davidii “Dark Knight’ Buddleia davidii ‘Nanho Blue’
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Carefree Shrub Rose ‘Carefree Celebration’*
Coral Bells (Heuchera ‘Caramel’)*
Coreopsis grandiflora ’Flying Saucer’*
Crimson Wonder Hardy Hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Cutleaf Lilac (Syringa laciniata)
False Forget-Me-Not (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’)
Fern-leaf Bleeding Heart (Dicentra ‘King of Hearts’)
Golden Spiderwort (Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’)*
Golden St. John’s Wort (Hypericum androsaemum ‘Golden Tutsan’)
Hairy Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta)
Hardy Chrysanthemum Sheffield Hybrid
Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum)
Knockout Roses
Liatris spicata ‘Kobold’
Lungwort (Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’)
Lungwort (Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’)
Montauk Daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum)
Meyeri Lilac
Morning Light Miscanthus
Rhododendron ‘Nova Zembla’
Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’
Sneezeweed (Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’)
Summer Wine Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Summer Wine’)*
Spirea ‘Neon Flash’
Tatarian Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’)
Tatarian Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Ivory Halo’)
Tiger Tail Spruce (Picea alcoquiana ‘Howell’s Dwarf Tigertail’)
Variegated Blue Holly (Ilex meserveae ‘Blue Maid’)
Variegated Iris
Veronica ‘Red Fox’
Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’
Weigela ‘Minuet’
White Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’)
White Globe Thistle (Echinops sphaerocephalus ‘Arctic Glow’)*
Yellow Ice Plant (Delosperma nubigenum ‘Basutoland’)*

Two Pink Flowering Crabapples

As usual I enjoyed the Crabapples this year even though their flowers were cut short by the wind and rain we had. These two pink-red Crabs were outstanding and I am glad that I planted both of them. The first one is Malus x ‘Prairie Fire‘ and it is a hardy tree (US Zone 3), which gets to about 15-20 feet tall. Although I have been keeping it a little smaller. It is disease resistant which maybe the most important cultivar selection criteria for me now. ‘Prairiefire’ has been around for some time now, it was introduced in 1982.

This second Crabapple was new to me but it performed nicely the last two years. ‘Cardinal’ Crabapple (Malus ‘Cardinal‘) was introduced by Princeton Nurseries of New jersey and is also considered disease resistant. The flowers a deep pink but the best thing about this tree is the purple color of the leaves. Mine didn’t set a lot of fruit and I hope that changes but overall I am very happy with this tree.

‘Nova Zembla’ Rhododendron Bud

The Red Rhododendrons were starting to bloom at the farm. The White Azaleas were in full bloom underneath them and it was a nice combination. I know some gardeners don’t like white and red together but it is one of my favorite color combinations. The picture I took of them together didn’t come out and the Rhodos really needed a few more days to be in full bloom.

‘Nova Zembla’ was introduced in 1902 and it is considered one of the hardiest reds. There are certainly more exciting red Rhododendrons but Novas seem to be very dependable. They can get up to 10 feet tall and have nice foliage. Since this is only picture of the bud you can’t see that the flower has nice black spots when open.

What are you going to say about White Azaleas? They have really been spectacular this year (like most years). I am not sure of the cultivar on these but if I had to guess it would ‘Delaware Valley White’. These planted in front of the Rhododendrons with some semi-dwarf type of Juniper. When I first saw the Azaleas and Junipers together I thought that doesn’t look good but when they bloomed it was actually pretty nice. The Juniper needs to be pruned since it is kind of taking over.

Today is a holiday in the US and I am not working. I think I went 40 days straight without a day off and it feels weird not to be at work.

Cannon`s Double Azalea
Azalea x ‘Cannon`s Double‘ (Exbury hybrid)

It would hard to describe the color of this Azalea because it was several all at once. It was very easy on the eyes. It gets to about 6 feet tall and has red tinted foliage. I am going to have to try one of these.

Here is a partial list of the plants we planted at the small farm the last couple of days. Sorry for the mix of common and botanical names. It is just how it came out. The plants marked with star are the ones I haven’t grown before. Since it is the most northern of our gardens I have to watch what we plant. It gets a lot colder. Lucky about 3 miles is a large wholesale nursery that I am very familiar with. They grow a lot of their own stock from propagation so it is a nice test on the climate and the plants are acclimated already.

Ajuga ‘Burgundy Glow’
Artemisia schmidtiana ‘Silver Mound’
Azalea ‘Fashion’ Azalea ‘Lorna’ Azalea ‘Gartrell Pink’ Azalea ‘Gibraltar’ Azalea ‘Girard’s Crimson’ Azalea ‘Girard’s Fuschia’ Azalea ‘Golden Lights’ Astilbe ‘Montgomery’ Red
Astilbe Pink
Black Bugbane (Cimicifuga simplex ‘Brunette’)
Buddleia davidii “Dark Knight’ Buddleia davidii ‘Nanho Blue’
Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Carefree Shrub Rose ‘Carefree Celebration’*
Coral Bells (Heuchera ‘Caramel’)*
Coreopsis grandiflora ’Flying Saucer’*
Crimson Wonder Hardy Hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos)
Cutleaf Lilac (Syringa laciniata)
False Forget-Me-Not (Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’)
Fern-leaf Bleeding Heart (Dicentra ‘King of Hearts’)
Golden Spiderwort (Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’)*
Golden St. John’s Wort (Hypericum androsaemum ‘Golden Tutsan’)
Hairy Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta)
Hardy Chrysanthemum Sheffield Hybrid
Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum)
Knockout Roses
Liatris spicata ‘Kobold’
Lungwort (Pulmonaria ‘Blue Ensign’)
Lungwort (Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’)
Montauk Daisy (Nipponanthemum nipponicum)
Meyeri Lilac
Morning Light Miscanthus
Rhododendron ‘Nova Zembla’
Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’
Sneezeweed (Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’)
Summer Wine Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Summer Wine’)*
Spirea ‘Neon Flash’
Tatarian Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’)
Tatarian Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Ivory Halo’)
Tiger Tail Spruce (Picea alcoquiana ‘Howell’s Dwarf Tigertail’)
Variegated Blue Holly (Ilex meserveae ‘Blue Maid’)
Variegated Iris
Veronica ‘Red Fox’
Weigela ‘Wine and Roses’
Weigela ‘Minuet’
White Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’)
White Globe Thistle (Echinops sphaerocephalus ‘Arctic Glow’)*
Yellow Ice Plant (Delosperma nubigenum ‘Basutoland’)*

Two Pink Flowering Crabapples

As usual I enjoyed the Crabapples this year even though their flowers were cut short by the wind and rain we had. These two pink-red Crabs were outstanding and I am glad that I planted both of them. The first one is Malus x ‘Prairie Fire‘ and it is a hardy tree (US Zone 3), which gets to about 15-20 feet tall. Although I have been keeping it a little smaller. It is disease resistant which maybe the most important cultivar selection criteria for me now. ‘Prairiefire’ has been around for some time now, it was introduced in 1982.

This second Crabapple was new to me but it performed nicely the last two years. ‘Cardinal’ Crabapple (Malus ‘Cardinal‘) was introduced by Princeton Nurseries of New jersey and is also considered disease resistant. The flowers a deep pink but the best thing about this tree is the purple color of the leaves. Mine didn’t set a lot of fruit and I hope that changes but overall I am very happy with this tree.

‘What A Peach’ Rose

I saw this strongly fragrant Miniature Shrub rose at the nursery when I was buying a 8 to 9 foot Norway Spruce. The tag said it was a Shrublet rose, which is something I hadn’t heard before. It was bigger than what I would normally call think of as a miniature rose and the final height was listed at 4.5 feet tall. The color was gorgeous and overall it had a classy and cultured look. Right after I took this picture I walked further down the line of roses and when I turned around someone was taking it home.

Christopher H. Warner bred this rose in the UK in 2000. Weeks Roses introduced it into the US in 2002.

Parentage: Laura Ford ® × Sweet Magic
Synonyms: CHEwpeachdell

Dahlia
Dahlia ‘Bishop of York‘
(DAHL-ya)

I planted the Dahlias in Claire’s garden the other day. For the first time in 24 years I bought some pre-finished plants as opposed to potting up the tubers in early spring. It just has been that type of year. I bought 12 different types and this one of three dark leafed varieites. It was already stunning to me so I can’t wait until we get deeper in the season. Having always admired the bronze leafed (is bronze leaf, purple leaf or dark leaf the proper way to refer to these?) varieties I am happy to finally be trying some. I got a couple of the other ‘Bishop’ series and I am sure you will be seeing them here soon, although this is my favorite.

Apparently there is no ‘Bishop of York’ in real life, only an Archbishop. This variety was hybridized by Van Der Linden in the Netherlands and was introduced in 2002.

I have another big day planned. I have three meetings with people and probably won’t get much gardening done.

Fuchsia ‘Eden Rock’

Hybrid Tuberous Begonia
Begonia x tuberhybrida
(be-GON-yuh) (too-ber-HY-brid-uh)
Synonyms: Non-stop Begonias

This year I decided to plant a lot of these and they seem to be a big hit. Valley View grew a mix of yellow, salmon, pink and a couple of bi-colors. They also had some of the Mocca series, which has a dark leaf. I just have been putting the colors together in some big mixed plantings and it makes a colorful carpet in the moist shade. I have read that they are deer resistant and will report back with my actual experience as some of the plants are in pretty heavy grazing territory.

Previously I grown these in containers with good results so I am anxious to see how they do in a bedding situation.