Fall Flower Show and Seminars

Sponsored by Idaho Horticulture Society

and 36th Street Garden Center

“Autumn Breeze; Falling Leaves”

Designs—Horticulture—Education

September 18: Noon-5pm
September 19: 10am-4pm

Location:
36th Street Garden Center
3823 N. Garden Center Way, Boise
Corner of Hill Road and 36th Street

You are invited to view, and encouraged to enter, the flower show and do not have to be a member of a Garden Club to submit an entry. For a show schedule or information call 208.853.6575 or 208.284.1468. Additional information is online at www.idhort.com.

Seminars, Saturday, September 18:

1pm Composting, Jennie Rylee, Boise City Environmental

Education Coordinator

2pm Dividing Perennials, Jeanene Bell, Master Gardener

3pm Cooking with Herbs, Chef 36th Street Bistro

4pm Twelve Great Herbs To Grow, John Beckwith, Idaho Horticulture Society

No admission charge or entry fee for the show or seminars

One way to jerk yourself up by the bootstraps is to place a big fat optimistic order for spring blooming bulbs. Do it when the temperatures at home are, say, 104, on a dog day of August. Get a big glass of ice tea, park your butt in the chair in front of the computer, and shop with flippin’ abandon. I did and I feel better already.

Here’s the lineup. Part of the plan is to plant the Bunker Hill Peonies together for a big statement, and tuck the Sicilian Honey Lilies in with so the deep rose of the bells picks up the deep rose of the peony. We shall see. I’ve had crappy luck with the nectoscordum bulgaricum, they come up and lay right back down on the ground. Their long scrawny necks streeeeettttttcheeeed across the sidewalk or the flower bed. What’s with that? I asked the folks at Brent and Becky’s and they suggested planting them twice as deep and in more sun. Okey dokey.

Trying the blue alliums after seeing them in all their glory at Red Butte Gardens in June. Wowsers.

Then, Frances of Faire Gardens told me about Narcissus Audubon. Of course, had to have a 100 of those. And how about that delish Crocus bi-florus ‘Spring Beauty’?

I definitely needed more Perestroyka tulips. Plant them in a place where they will be backlit at sundown. You’ll thank me later.

And finally, since I am having such bang up success with lilies these days, I am going to tuck in some pink species lilies.

If I start digging holes now I might be ready when the shipment arrives.

The dew is off the rose. It’s the high heat time of August. Range fires go on around me. And thoughts turn to bulbs. Those magic little packages of promise, dressed in their dry, brown flaky tunics. Ah, yes, the promise of yet another spring.

So far on the order sheet:

Nectoscordum bulgaricum. Commonly called, in a much nice way: Sicilian Honey Lily.
Blue Alliums
Tommy Crocus, Ruby Giant
Audubon Narcissus
and more, many more, Perostrokya tulips (try planting these where they will be back lit at sunset. Please. Go ahead. You WILL thank me later.)

I’ll report back on what else falls into my electronic shopping cart.

Gardens 365 – Day 238

Sone folks will recall my fascination with the plant, erigyngium yuccafolium, or rattlesnake master. I call it the darling of the Plains. So there I was, standing at the Lurie, once again, face to face with this incredible plant:

Isn’t that cool? I planted several in my garden this year, so far, about 12-18 inches tall. GROW DAMMIT!

Gardening 365 – Day 237

Friends. Pals. Anyone out there?

I give up. No, not forever. But for the season. Can’t take it anymore. Not another minute.

The Pretty Much Picasso petunias are completely faded and have almost quite blooming. The dahlias were DOA. Dead on my arrival (I was in Chicago for 5 days). Beans are barely producing. Strawberries and raspberries have come to a screeching halt and the tomatoes never did get up and running. The Sungold tomato, um, someone forgot to water IT in my absence. You know about the hoppers and weevils? Well, as if they aren’t bad enough, we’ll add 4 downdrafts to that, peaking at 70 knots. Believe it or knot, that is 80.6 miles per hour. It knocked over my two tallest tomato plants and broke one in half. It broke one branch of my new 5 foot tall ‘Twisty Baby’ honey locust off at the soil. Enough already.

One man died when a tree fell on him.
My darling niece’s wedding reception was cut very short by the power outage from the storm.

I will now turn my focus to ordering bulbs for 2011.

Dee and Carol, I hope your gardens have fared better than mine.

Ta ta,
One pathetic caretaker at Ranch du Bois

Gardening 365 – Day 237 and a pathetic one it is.

I am a complete and total SUCK-AH for gardening magazines. My all time fave is Gardens Illustrated from England. I subscribe to a zillion of them, well, those that are still in business. So, imagine my delight when I discovered this newbie on the block:http://www.growingwithplants.com/.

May or may not be the leading edge of magazine publishing today but I am with them for the next few issues. Check it out for yourself.

Gardens 365 – Day 231. More gardens, all the time.

I learned two new terms this week that are totally cracking me up: Mommy Water. Heehee. Essentially, it means vodka. You know, for all those overstressed mommies.

Second, Porch Pounder. Now, this is more my style. Certain wines fit into the “Porch Pounder” category. I understand this. It means the kind of wine you drink when you are sitting on the porch and pounding it down.
Relevant. Yes. Soon. Very soon.

Gardening 365 – Day 230

one small vignette from the incredible Lurie Garden in Chicago

Check this out: the view from the mezzanine level. Yes, over 1200 vendors and then some. What a show.

Yours truly was down there mixing it up with all these fine folks. Chicago is a very cool city. Oh, and this is at the Navy Pier.

Whew, this is a big day. Off on the Independent Garden Centers bus tour today, to check in at 6 or 7 Chicagoland nurseries to see what’s happenin’ now.

Get this money maker: cord wood. $200 bucks a cord. And this stuff will be gone in no time. Interesting way to make a buck in the off season? I say so.

And this little bright spot, I am calling it, “A Tiskit a Tasket – A bright Autumn Basket.

Gardening 365 – Day 228. Tomorrow: the show.

Dee and Carol and lovely readers,

There are two ways to look at this: either I am 7 days late in getting last week’s letter up, or I am a day early. Let’s go for early. But while we are dwelling on last week (oh, we’re NOT?), I just want to echo Dee’s sentiment about the garden week from hell. The postcard from hell.

I’ve pretty much given up on the garden for the year. Yes, I have a bunch of company coming next weekend.I just can’t do much about the issues at hand. The plague of locusts is hideous. What they haven’t chomped on, the black vine weevils are snacking on, too much heat and not enough heart and determination on the part of yours truly. I just threw my hands up and said to hell with it last week. Spraying down Ranch du Bois with ‘hopper poison won’t do me any good.

I did count 36 apples on the espalier. Maybe I reported that already. The apricot tree has about 36 leaves left on it. There are 3 pears between the two pear trees. Green beans? Might as well chew on my Mirado Black Warrior pencils.

So, I ‘ve run away. Run away to Chicago for a few days hanging with garden peeps. I’ll think about the locusts another day.