George's Current Ramblings and Readlings

Is It Once and Done for an Outdoors Philadelphia Flower Show?

June 22nd, 2021

   The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society didn’t want to move its world’s-biggest indoor flower show outside or change the timing from end of winter to late spring.

This Habitat sign spelled out in dried flowers welcomed visitors to the 2021 outdoors Philadelphia Flower Show.

   If COVID wouldn’t have come along, I’m sure the 2021 Philadelphia Flower Show would have taken place inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in early March, just as it has done to crowds to the tune of 250,000 since moving from the Philadelphia Civic Center in 1996.

   Faced with the prospect of canceling or going outside, PHS picked the latter and made the most of what it could at the city’s FDR Park near Philly’s sports stadiums.

   Normally, PHS knows the show dates and themes three years out. But because of the lingering uncertainty of COVID, a decision hasn’t yet been announced what will happen next year.

   “We are still taking feedback and will make an announcement in the coming months about the future,” said Sin Gogolak, PHS’s associate director of communications.

   My hunch is that if at all possible, the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show will go back inside the convention center at the usual time early next March.

   For one thing, the show is under contract with the Convention Center for next year.

The outdoors venue at least spread out the crowds.

   I saw the 2021 show four times and thought PHS staff did an overall good job of making lemonade out of lemons – at least with the major decisions.

   The FDR Park site was good for location, the layout between the park’s boathouse and American Swedish Historical Museum was well planned, and the diversity and quality of the display gardens was on par with most years.

   Some visitors actually preferred how the layout was more “integrated” with vendors and food booths more mixed among the gardens.

   The food options also got higher marks than the rather abysmal choices usually available inside the convention center.

   Most of all, though, the leading improvement was how the crowds were much more spread out over the outdoors 15 acres than the more cramped 10 acres inside.

   Despite the prospect of a return to the cattle-herd conditions, I’ll be happy if the 2022 show goes back inside… and stays there.

   A couple of key drawbacks this year outweighed everything else in my mind.

Solution Gardening 3: Even More Plants to Solve Yard Problems

June 15th, 2021

   My past two posts looked at Dr. Allan Armitage’s “solution gardening” theory on how people buy plants – by the situation they address, not their type.

People tend to shop for plants by the situation they solve as opposed to looking for specific plants.

   The posts included 14 situations with my Pennsylvania-geared recommendations on plants that make good sense in those situations.

   Today finishes the three-part series with good plants for seven more yard situations.

   If you’ve never noticed it, my website also has a “George’s Handy Lists” section in which I post a few dozen other gardening lists – all free for the viewing. I’ve added all three Solution Gardening lists to that section as well.

   And I’ve put together an 18-page “Survivor Plants of Pennsylvania” booklet that zeroes in on hundreds of the best plant varieties with sizes, bloom times, and other important attributes that help gardeners get the right plant in the right place. It’s available as a $5.95 download on my Buy Helpful Info page.

   Here are the final seven situations with plants to consider in each:

Shrub roses such as these Knock Outs are a good choice for sunny house foundations.

Plants for Along Sunny House Walls

These are good choices for along sunny house foundations, generally west- and south-facing ones:

Evergreens: birds nest spruce, blue holly, boxwood, cherry laurel, dwarf Hinoki cypress, dwarf globe blue spruce, dwarf cryptomeria, globe arborvitae, juniper, yew.

Flowering shrubs: abelia, beautyberry, bush honeysuckle (Diervilla), caryopteris, dwarf butterfly bush (sterile varieties only), dwarf black chokeberry, dwarf crape myrtle, dwarf lilac, dwarf winterberry holly, deutzia, ninebark, oakleaf hydrangea, panicle hydrangea, red-twig/gold-twig dogwood, rose of sharon (sterile varieties only), shrub roses, spirea, St. Johnswort, sumac ‘Gro-Low,’ viburnum, Virginia sweetspire, weigela.

Perennials: allium, agastache, amsonia, aster, baptisia, betony, black-eyed susan, butterfly weed, candytuft, catmint, coreopsis, daylily, dianthus, dwarf goldenrod, dwarf Joe Pye weed, euphorbia, gaillardia, gaura, hardy geranium, hardy hibiscus, heliopsis, iris, lamb’s ears, lavender, liatris, lilies, liriope, mums, most ornamental grasses, penstemon, peony, perennial sunflower, phlox, purple coneflowers, Russian sage, salvia, sedum, Shasta daisy, sneezeweed, stokesia, veronica, yarrow, yucca.

Annual flowers: ageratum, alyssum, angelonia, blue salvia, celosia, coleus (sun-tolerant types), dusty miller, dwarf sunflowers, dwarf zinnia, euphorbia, geranium, globe amaranth, gloriosa daisy, lantana, marigold, pentas, petunia, scaevola, verbena, vinca.

Solution Gardening 2: More Plants to Solve Yard Problems

June 8th, 2021

   Dr. Allan Armitage’s plant-buying theory is that most people don’t show up at the garden center looking for certain plants.

Arborvitae are the classic choice for solving privacy issues, but it’s far from the only option.

   They’re there looking to carry out a gardening project or to solve a yard problem.

   My post last week looked at this idea and Armitage’s intriguing suggestion that maybe plant-sellers should start displaying plants that way instead of the traditional way of lining up plants alphabetically by their type.

   He dubs the idea “solution gardening.”

   Last week’s post included seven of my Pennsylvania-geared solution-gardening lists of perennials, shrubs, and evergreens. Below is a list of seven more with seven others coming in next week’s post.

   If you’ve never noticed it, my website also has a “George’s Handy Lists” section in which I post a few dozen other gardening lists – all free for the viewing.

   And I’ve put together an 18-page “Survivor Plants of Pennsylvania” booklet that zeroes in on hundreds of the best plant varieties with sizes, bloom times, and other important attributes that help gardeners get the right plant in the right place. It’s available as a $5.95 download on my Buy Helpful Info page.

Plants for Blocking Unwanted Views

Small Trees: American fringe tree, Carolina silverbell, cherry ‘Okame,’ columnar hornbeam, crabapple, dogwood, dwarf magnolia, flowering cherry, hawthorn, hop hornbeam, Japanese tree lilac, paperbark maple, Persian parrotia, redbud, serviceberry, smoketree, stewartia, sweetbay magnolia, three-flower maple, trident maple, witch hazel

Tall Shrubs: beautybush, chokeberry, crape myrtle, elderberry, lilac, oakleaf and panicle hydrangeas, ninebark, red-twig dogwood, sterile varieties of butterfly bush and rose of Sharon, sumac, sweetshrub, viburnum, winterberry holly

Evergreens: arborvitae, Bosnian or Swiss stone pines, boxwood ‘Dee Runk,’ cryptomeria, greenthread/goldthread falsecypress, fir (except disease-prone Douglas fir), Hinoki cypress, holly, juniper, Manhattan euonymus, rhododendron, spruce, upright yew

Solution Gardening: How Most People Pick Their Plants

June 1st, 2021

   When people head to the garden center to buy plants, most of the time they’re not there looking for a certain plant.

So many plants… which ones to pick?

   They’re generally looking to carry out a goal or solve a problem.

   A disconnect happens when would-be plant-buyers find that the gazillion plants available aren’t grouped by goals or problems but by their type (perennial, shrub, tree, etc.) – usually arranged in alphabetical order.

   Dr. Allan Armitage, the prolific garden-book author and horticulture professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, believes it’s time to rethink that strategy to better help people zero in on the plants that’ll get their job done.

   Armitage coined the idea “solution gardening” to describe how most people shop for plants.

   He says the problem is compounded because the average person doesn’t know enough about plants to determine which ones solve which problems or address which goals.

   Some garden centers attempt to help by producing lists of plants that address different issues, i.e. Plants that Deer Don’t Like, Plants for Under Trees, and Plants for Wet Areas.

   Others publish lists online, as do some Extension services, growers, and other plant organizations.

   If you’ve never noticed it, my website has a “George’s Handy Lists” section in which I post a few dozen of these lists – all free for the viewing.

   And I’ve put together an 18-page “Survivor Plants of Pennsylvania” booklet that zeroes in on hundreds of the best varieties with sizes, bloom times, and other important attributes that help gardeners get the right plant in the right place. It’s available as a $5.95 download on my “Buy Helpful Info” page.

   The best point-of-sale option is the good old-fashioned, ask-the-expert-at-the-garden-center. But that chews up a ton of time and requires lots of sales staff, especially when everyone compacts their plant-shopping into the same few weeks in spring.

   That’s practically non-existent at box stores, and even solid independent garden centers don’t have the size and expertise of sales staff as in the past.

   Unless/until Armitage’s solution-gardening suggestion catches on, I thought I’d weigh in with Pennsylvania-geared solution-gardening lists of perennials, shrubs, and evergreens. I’ll start here with seven of the more common issues and cover 14 more over the next two weeks.

Deer usually don’t mess with Virginia sweetspire.

Plants that Deer Don’t Like

Perennials: agastache, ajuga, amsonia, artemisia, baptisia, barrenwort, bleeding heart, brunnera, butterfly weed, campanula, catmint, coreopsis, euphorbia, fern, goldenrod, globe thistle, helleborus, iris, lamb’s ear, lamium, liatris, lavender, lungwort, monkshood, ornamental grasses, peony, poppy, Russian sage, salvia, sedum, sneezeweed, sweet woodruff, turtlehead, yarrow, yucca

Shrubs: abelia, aralia, bayberry, beautyberry, beautybush, butterfly bush, caryopteris, deutzia, fothergilla, rose of Sharon, spirea, sumac, summersweet, St. Johnswort, Virginia sweetspire

Evergreens: birds nest spruce, boxwood, cotoneaster, falsecypress, Japanese plum yew, juniper, leucothoe, pieris, Russian cypress, sweetbox

Garden Trips Are Back

May 24th, 2021

   It was nice to do something normal for a change.

This hillside water feature was one of the highlights at Pheasant Run Bed and Breakfast, one of our Lancaster County stops last week.

   Last week marked the first time in more than a year that Lowee’s Group Tours and I ran a garden trip – a day trip to a pair of Lancaster County gardens and a pair of Pa. Dutch country plant nurseries with a lunch at the Shady Maple smorgasbord wedged between.

   Other than the masks (and disposable gloves at Shady Maple), it seemed like old times wading through gardens and plants with familiar faces.

   With vaccination rates fast rising and venues reopening to business-as-usual levels, travel is poised to resume.

   If/when you’re ready, your next shot at one of our 2021 trips is June 7, 8, 9, or 11, when we’re doing day trips to the first-ever outdoors Philadelphia Flower Show, being held over 15 acres at Philly’s FDR Park.

   Then we’ll be visiting Mt. Cuba Center and the new Delaware Botanic Gardens on June 25, then America’s biggest garden tour – Garden Walk Buffalo – the fourth weekend of July (July 23-25).

   I’ll lay out the whole rest of the year’s trips – plus a spring 2022 tour of the Netherlands and Belgium featuring the Floriade 2022 expo and the fabulous Keukenhof bulb gardens – in pictures this Thursday, May 27, at 6:30 p.m.

   The program is free, and you’re invited. You can register and get a link by going to this address anytime in advance: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAtd-uqqDIuG9el5Uyp9-Q1Tw0W8i95kPB_

   Or just go to this Zoom link at the above time: https://zoom.us/j/94002269413