11/30/2016
Stuff We Love
Chris Beytes, Jennifer Polanz, Ellen C. Wells & Jennifer Zurko
Chris Beytes: A Love Affair
I love wood. Love the trees it comes from and the smell of it being cut, varnished and burned in a barbecue. Love the textures, love the grains, love the colors. Love it combined with other materials. And I love what you can do with it in your garden center.
At the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition in Ft. Lauderdale, I spotted these clever plant ID tags in the Excelsa Gardens booth. They’re made from inexpensive fluted molding you can buy at any DIY store and painted in a combination of antique crackled gold and cream. Black and white with gold lettering would be nice, too. Choose your own combination.
At Powerscourt Garden Pavilion, part of the Powerscourt Estate in Ireland, I found a clever solution for covering up greenhouse walls with a slat wall that features adjustable shelving. Our friend Jim Wallitsch of Wallitsch Nurery and Garden Center in Kentucky demonstrates the simple shelf bracket, which hangs on the horizontal supports for slats.
Shiplap siding is the wall treatment du jour, thanks to Joanna Gaines of “Fixer Upper” fame. Here’s how to achieve the look using scrap wood, courtesy of a couple of vendors in an antiques market I visited in Apopka, Florida.
In the same Apopka market, I spotted a pallet wall softened with fabric.
At Shades of Green in San Antonio, Texas, owner Bob Webster combined galvanized roofing with randomly spaced wood strips to create fencing to define his entrance. A taller (10-ft.) version at the back of the property blocks the view of a neighbor.
Jen Zurko: Big & Bold
One of my favorite plants are tuberous begonias, so I’m pretty lucky that Golden State Bulb Growers are nice enough to offer free bulbs to attendees of their California Spring Trials every April. I just pile a bunch of bulbs in this container on my front step and let it go crazy. The result is a huge planter of awesome blooms in a variety of colors—which is very tempting for a 7-year-old who likes to pluck the flowers to put in her hair.
Delicious Delizz
Another score from Spring Trials is taking home a strawberry plant from ABZ Seeds every year, which is worth the headache of lugging them through airport security and on the four-hour flight back to Chicago. This year, I think they hit a homerun with their new Delizz variety. (And since it’s an All-America Selections winner, I’m not the only one who feels that way.) Although some strawberry varieties do flower a second time, in my experience, it’s only with a few fruits. Not the case with Delizz—both of my plants flowered all spring and summer and even had fruit into the fall. The downside was that the fruit was so yummy I had to compete with the birds and chipmunks to get at them. As you can see from the photo, they were even eating the ones that weren’t ripe yet! Next year, I’ll need to invest in some good bird netting. Grrrr!
Sprinkles of Chocolate
Well, not REAL chocolate, but at least you don’t hate yourself after eating a handful of them. Chocolate Sprinkles is a newer variety of cherry tomato from PanAmerican Seed’s Handpicked Vegetables line. It’s got an interesting dark red/brown/green color pattern on the skin and a great flavor, regardless of when you pick them—especially for impatient people like me who can’t wait until they’re fully ripened. And the plant kept growing and producing tons of fruit that provided more than enough tomatoes for every summer salad I made (and I made A LOT!).
Jen Polanz: A Bigger Bounce
Story time: There once was a woman (fictitious, of course) who planted Bounce Impatiens in containers, then promptly forgot to water them. One died, and she was sad, but didn’t give up because, after all, someone named them Bounce for a reason (hopefully). But this one plant was pretty dead.
It was spring 2016 and she renamed it Jon Snow (“Game of Thrones” fans know what’s coming next) in the hopes it would return triumphant. She watered and fed Jon Snow carefully throughout the next couple of months and, of course, just as scripted, it returned to its blooming state and continued to bloom through October. But, alas, Winter is Coming …
Workaholics
I don’t feel like I’m a particularly aggressive gardener engaging in a lot of vigorous activity, but for years I couldn’t keep a pair of gloves to save my life. They would get holes and wear out halfway through the gardening season. I’ve had these Wonder Grip gloves for at least two full seasons now and they’re still going strong. The nitrile palm is tough enough to repel thorns, too.
Tropical Vacation
A tropical vacation wasn’t in the cards this year, but having Tropical Sunrise Calibrachoa from Proven Winners on my back porch every morning made me feel like I was waking up in the Caribbean. I don’t normally get too excited about calibrachoa, but this plant was one of my absolute favorites this year. From start to finish it bloomed consistently and kept this gorgeous blend of bright colors all summer long. I’m not a big fan of fussy plants and this one was a performer without the fuss. Now, if it came with the sounds of gentle ocean waves, my vacation dreams would be complete.
Ellen Wells: Succulent & Stylish
Sticking with the succulent theme on the cover, I was dazzled by the succulent displays at Dümmen Orange’s Spring Trials location at the BarrelHouse Brewing Company in Paso Robles, California. Why? Because they were creative and stylish and I wanted to take them all home with me! They had help with the display creation in the form of author/designer Robyn Foreman, who not only created some gorgeous succulent containers, but also served up several outside-the-pot pieces.
The containers are given a bit more pop with a flowering kalanchoe—also a succulent. But why stop at traditional centerpiece-type containers? They’re hosting their Trials at a brewhouse—pot up some succulents in some bottles, too! And while they’re at it, create a bar faced with succulents and tuck some succulents into a panel of old grape vines to make a beautiful standing piece of art. Color, texture, dimension, versatility and an ability to bounce back from being manhandled—those are just some of the reasons succulents are skyrocketing in popularity, especially with non-gardeners.
GP