Each Little World

Peonies — and more — from PDN

Though I always turn to Klehm first when I am thinking of peonies, this year Plant Delights Nursery is offering three of my favorites that are not always easy to find. I'm talking about woodland peonies, which I've had growing in my garden for a number of years. They are very early bloomers and seem to be able to withstand April snowstorms when they are in bud as well as bloom — assuming it's light snow and disappears quickly. There's nothing quite like a peony to say "Spring," especially when it blooms long before the more traditional big blowzy beauties.

The other great thing about woodland peonies should be obvious from their name: they can take a bit of shade. Mine are growing at the edge of the canopy of a Washington hawthorne, near striped maples and old Austrian pines — and not far from my two neighbors' black walnut trees. These are not easy to find and most catalogs seem to only offer them sporadically, so finding all three in the PDN catalog is a real boon. They are not cheap but I think they are worth the price. Now that I have them I can't imagine the garden without them.

The other plants that I want from PDN are all things that they were able to acquire when plantswoman Ellen Hornig closed her wonderful nursery, Seneca Hill Perennials, in 2011. Some of my favorite plants came from Seneca Hill and I was sad to see it close, especially knowing it was due to the ill health of Hornig's spouse. Last summer she sent out a notice that the house and the noteworthy display gardens that surrounded it were for sale. For a brief moment, I fantasized about moving back to New York and living amidst her glorious garden. 

That dream can't come true, but I can order a few things in memory of Hornig and Seneca Hill. So my PDN order will include three Hepaticas from Hornig: 'European Pink,' 'Lithuanian Blue' and one with speckled leaves from the Spanish Pyrenees. I'm also getting Primula sieboldii 'Drag Queen,' a 2010 release from Seneca Hill (shown directly above). I've had great luck with both Hepaticas and Primulas and always intended to order more from Seneca Hill, so I appreciate knowing that not all of Seneca Hill's great plants will disappear with the closing of the nursery. And that positive give and take with other gardeners is another reason why I patronize independent mail-order nurseries like PDN. So, keep up the great work PDN — and the great catalog covers. This year's was a particularly effective coupling of plants and politics.

All images from the PDN 2012 catalog.

No flowers needed for this vase

Though we have an Anthropologie store in Madison, I don't shop there much. I'm not skinny enough, cool enough or young enough for most of their clothing. But a purchase now and then means I'm on the mailing list for their catalog — which is how I discovered this vase. As a gardener, I am a follower of the philosophy that one can never have too many vases. Most of the ones I own, however, are very restrained: wood-fired ceramics in natural clay colors, some clear glass styles and one or two slightly more colorful containers.

But none are as bright and bold as Anthropologie's "Curvey Chrysanthemum Vase." Though they call the color "mint,"  I think it's more of a soft teal. And given that we have a fair amount of teal and red in our interior, it should be at home in a number of locations. At nine inches tall and six inches wide, it also doesn't take up a lot of space. Best of all, it doesn't really need flowers! Though I can picture it with a big mum like its ceramic counterpart or perhaps red Gerbera daisies or twiggy red dogwood stems, it looks great just as it is. It's already brightening our winter landscape indoors.

Reading Downton Abbey

Viewers who are watching the PBS drama Downton Abbey are apparently likely candidates for books dealing with the subjects of the series, according to a recent story in the New York Times. So publishers are working to provide them with titles that look at the upstairs/downstairs relationships in great houses and at World War I (which pretty much put an end to many of England's great houses). So I thought I would offer a few suggestions as I like those topics as well — and have a whole shelf of books devoted to WWI.

I've written about some of my favorite books, especially those that look at women, their roles in WWI and the aftermath here and here and here. 

I'm currently reading Peter Englund's "The Beauty and The Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First Wold War," translated by Peter Graves. This book looks at the war through the eyes, words and actions of twenty people who were there. Men and women of all ages, from all branches of the services and a variety of countries on both sides of the conflict are represented. Though the book looks at the Western Front, much of the action takes place in different theaters of the war than we often see covered in such books; both Africa and the Eastern Front (including Russia before and after the Revolution) get a lot of ink. This is war on the ground, on the front lines and in soup kitchens and hospitals, in deserts and on mountaintops told in the words of the people who were following orders, rather than making them.

 

The cover photo from "The Beauty and The Sorrow" is from the Minnesota Historical Society.

I read this fascinating tidbit in "The Beauty and the Sorrow" after watching the first episode of Downton Abby/Season Two; the scene where Mary gives Matthew her good luck stuffed toy animal. This is about Alfred Pollard, a British infantryman, age 21, on the Wesern Front in December, 1917:

"He is carrying a new mascot in his pocket — a small china doll with a lilac ribbon round its waist and an angelic expression painted on its face. It is a gift from the sister of Mary, the woman who turned down his marriage proposal so firmly. Pollard has christened the doll Billiken and he always carries it with him from now on."

"The Beauty and The Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First Wold War" is available from the South Central Library System in Wisconsin. 

Savoring the moment

We slept in this morning after partying last night at the recall victory celebration. It was a great moment to take a couple of hours to enjoy the results of so much hard work by thousands of people across the state. We saw neighbors from the days we lived on the East side and were new homeowners, we saw folks we've met at political events over the last eleven months, we saw organizers, office staff and all the Wisconsin winter soldiers who never gave up. In fact, the spirit, the energy and the mometum of this homegrown movement continue to grow. 

And for those of you outside of Wisconsin, I can't emphasize enought that despite what you may read or hear in national media, this movment is far beyond the union and collective bargaining concerns that sparked it last February. This morning's edit in The Cap Times says it all. 

We arrived about a half an hour after the celebration started and the hall was absolutely packed. Here you see 1,000,000 signatures leaving the stage. The favorite sign of the day was "Thanks a million!"

The stage is at the left out of the frame of the picture, but you can see how big the crowd was.

Everyone hopes that the numbers are significant enough that they will spur Wisconsin's former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold into running for governor. Russ has the name, the experience and the moral high ground.

It's Wisconsin, so yes, there was free beer (and soda). The free beer was Miller lite so we were going to buy a craft beer but they'd run out of the good stuff for sale and were trying to restock amidst the melee! 

Using a Segway to see above the crowd. (Note the political message on the wheel).

Amazingly enough, I ran into Matthew Rigney, the young man who was one of the folks in charge of the West Side Field Office where I picked up and returned all my recall petitions as well as working the phone banks. The button on my hat says "Living Scott free!"

Since it's Wisconsin many people were wearing Badger red; a common sight at all the rallies no matter the seaon. 

Perhaps the most encouraging and heartening sight at all these events over the last year has been the number of families who are involved and who bring their children. We love seeing them and their presence reminds us who and what we are fighting for. 

Scotties, we're coming for you!

The numbers are in! And they are hard to grasp, even for those of us who were out there collecting signatures. It appears that we have garnered more than 1 million signatures on the recall petitions that are being filed as you read this. That number almost matches the 1.12 million votes Walker received in the November 2010 gubernatorial election and far exceeds the 540,000 signatures needed to trigger the recall.

According to news reports, "petitioners on Tuesday also were submitting about 300,000 more signatures than were needed to trigger a recall election against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Between 23 percent and 56 percent above the number of signatures needed were also collected to force recall elections of four Republican state senators, including Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald.

The massive number of signatures against Walker — 85 percent above the level needed — could make it nearly impossible for opponents to successfully challenge enough of them to stop an election."

Here's my favorite picture so far today. This group is bringing some of the signatures gathered to recall the other Scott: Senate Majority leader Scott Fitzgerald to the G.A.B. offices.

If you have cable TV, you can watch Ed Schultz's live broadcast from Madison tonight on MSNBC.

You can read the breaking news story here.

Photo by Craig Schreiner/WSJ.

We are what democracy looks like!

By George, we really did it, we did it, we did it!

We said we'd recall Scott Walker and indeed, we did.

We knew that we could do it, we knew it, we knew it!

We said we'd recall him and succeed, we did!*

 

Well, OK, we've haven't recalled him yet, but Wisconsin citizens have gathered enough signatures to force an election, probably in May or June. We won't know the actual numbers of signatures collected until later today but here are a few numbers to remember:

• A total of 540,000 signatures were required — 25 percent of the turnout in the last gubernatorial election — to trigger a recall.
• 105,000 signatures were collected in the first 96 hours. 300,000 in the first 12 days and 507,000 in the first month. 
• More than 25,000 volunteers collected signatures in every corner of the state.
• The collected petitions weigh 3,000 pouonds.

Here is how my old buddy John Nichols put it in The Capital Times newspaper today:

"Because Wisconsin sets one of the highest standards in the nation for forcing a recall election, the number of signatures gathered will represent a higher percentage of the state's population than has ever petitioned for the recall of a governor — higher than North Dakota, which successfully recalled a governor in 1921. Higher than California, which recalled Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

There is still a race to be run. But this recall drive is the greatest popular democracy movement in Wisconsin history, and one of the greatest challenges to political power in American history.

The signals could not be stronger. The Wisconsin democracy movement is real."

*Apologies to Lerner and Lowe for the lyrics.

The buttons are a few of the ones I've been wearing since last winter. I have enough to always find the right statement to match my outfit!

I will post the final numbers when they are released later today.