February | 2014 | floragloria

The “miraculous power of gardening: it evokes tomorrow, it is eternally forward-looking, it invites plans and ambitions, creativity, expectation…. Gardening defies time; you think in seasons to come.” So said award-winning author Penelope Lively in her latest book, Dancing Fish And Ammonites. And so say I. Fie on this horrific winter! I’m planning for Spring.

Over 20 years ago, the late, great plantsman, Jim Cross, pointed me in the direction of Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, CT. The Nursery was for a time a rather small operation, with a mimeographed plant list of 4 or 5 pages stapled together, and sales only on site. Broken Arrow’s current inventory includes over 1,500 woody ornamentals and perennials. (At present, Broken Arrow’s website and online sales are not operational.)

For my garden this year, I largely focused on Broken Arrow’s collection of Japanese Maples:

Acer palmatum ‘Koto no ito’ (Zones 5-8)

credit Broken Arrow Nursery

Koto no ito means Harp Strings. True to its name this small, elegant tree has delightful, string-like foliage. New growth is green with red tones, becoming green in summer and then shades of gold, orange and red in the fall. (Note: For many Japanese maples, leaf color is variable, depending on the degree of light exposure; this may account for the differing views on seasonal color expressed by various reference texts.)

Acer palmatum ‘Fairy Hair’ (Zones 6-8)

credit Broken Arrow Nursery

This slow-growing, dwarf maple’s mature height will probably not exceed 3 feet. Its unique, fine, thread-like foliage is orange-red in spring, green in summer, and orange-red again in fall. The tree has an ethereal quality, impossible to resist.

Acer shirasawanum ‘Autumn Moon’ (Zones 5-8)

credit Broken Arrow Nursery

Highly prized for its showy, colorful foliage – burnt-orange and pink in spring, chartreuse with touches of peach in summer, and autumnal shades of gold, red and orange in fall – Autumn Moon is a show-stopper.

For comprehensive information about Japanese Maples see Japanese Maples: The Complete Guide to Selection and Cultivation (Timber Press, Fourth Edition 2009)

And for successful companion planting, I like to partner Japanese Maples with Rhododendrons; they have similar culture requirements. A particular Rhododendron favorite is the divine, snowy-white, purple-flared, R.’Calsap’, purchased by me from Broken Arrow over fifteen years ago. (Below are photos of my Calsap in the garden.)

For 2014 I’m also adding to the mix a new plant offering from Broken Arrow, Bletilla striata ‘Yellow Striped’ (Zones 6-9), a recent woodland orchid introduction from Japan. This lovely has a reputation as a tough, long-blooming perennial. (Photo below.)

The orchid has green leaves striped with creamy-yellow, and charming magenta flowers for three to four weeks in late-Spring, early-Summer. It’s a spreader – but not fast enough for some! And it too shares similar culture needs with the maples.

Update 2015: The bletillas didn’t survive. Voles, perhaps?

Camellia Forest Nursery has a nonpareil inventory of camellias, as well as a fine selection of unique trees and shrubs, many that are hard – if not impossible – to find in the trade. Here are my 2014 choices, plus a few old favorites:

Camellia japonica ‘April Blues’

April Blues is a new addition to the outstanding April Series of zone 6, cold-hardy camellias, introduced by the acclaimed camellia hybridizer, Dr. Clifford Parks. (Dr. Parks’s wife and son are co-owners of Camellia Forest Nursery.) Aptly named, the plant’s deep pink flowers take on interesting bluish-purplish tones in cool weather. The camellia is a late Spring, prodigious bloomer. (No photo currently available.)

You might also like one of my older japonica favorites, the lovely bi-color, eighteenth century introduction, Camellia japonica ‘Governor Mouton’. (Photo below.)

Consider, too, the Nursery’s extensive collection of fragrant, hardy, Fall blooming sasanquas, including the sought after but difficult to find pink beauty, Camellia sasanqua ‘Jean May’. (Photo below.)

In my garden, Jean May has bloomed from September to frost, even in 2012 when she thumbed her nose at the Oct.-Nov. combined assault of Hurricane Sandy and a Nor’easter. The Nursery has a limited supply; grab one while you can. (See also my earlier post of December 2, 2012, “Fabulous Camellias for Northern Gardens: Autumn Flowering Sasanquas”.)

Disanthus cercidifolius (Zones 5-8)

photo credit: Camellia Forest Nursery

With its pretty, heart-shaped, blue-green leaves that in autumn turn fabulous shades of red and purple, this award-winning, relatively rare, deciduous ornamental shrub is an ideal plant for a shady garden. Disanthus thrives in acidic, organic-rich, moist, well-drained soil – a perfect companion for rhododendrons – and is both pest-resistant and disease-resistant. An added bonus are the surprising, dainty, reddish-purple flowers that show up at about the same time the leaves drop.

Acer caudatifolium ‘Variegatum’ (Zones 7-9)

photo credit: Camellia Forest Nursery

I’m very excited about this dazzling Taiwanese Striped-Bark Maple that flaunts pink-flushed new growth which becomes a variegated, rich green splashed with white, and then turns a brilliant orange-gold in autumn. Moreover, young trees sport exquisite, creamy-white bark. Amazing! Provide moist, well-drained soil in shade.

Cryptomeria japonica ‘Globosa Nana’ (Dwarf Japanese Cedar, Zones 6-8)

While Globosa Nana is a wonderful, award-winning dwarf conifer, it is not generally available. I bought one from Camellia Forest about five years ago and now have a second on order. The plant has an appealing, dense, dome-shaped form and a well-behaved mounding habit so you never have to prune a wayward stem. It is said to have a mature height of from 4-6 feet, but it’s a slow grower. (Photo below of Globosa Nana in my garden, alongside Magnolia ‘Yellow River’.)

You can easily access Camellia Forest’s 2014 catalog by clicking on the blog link to the right.

As I write this, we are snowed (iced?) in again. What a winter! Not much I can do about it but dream of Spring. And feed our friends.

2/23 Update Alert: Camellia Forest’s printed 2014 35th Anniversary Plant Catalog is now available.

floragloria

A Garden Blog by Lois Sheinfeld

Archive | February 2014

2014: What’s New? Part 3

2014: What’s New? Part 2