Each Little World

CBG Antiques & Garden Fair

After a hiatus of a number of years, Mark and I went to the Windy City for the 2013 Antiques & Garden Fair put on by the Chicago Botanic Garden. This year's event featured more than 100 vendors from the Midwest to as far away as Nantuckett Island and England. Everyone sets up their space with vintage, antique and ethnic treasures in tents and assorted buildings right in the middle of the CBG. 

The weather at the CBG was wet and windy — pretty much the same thing happening at home. It reminded us of our trip to the gardens with the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society in the fall of 2008 when the gardens closed due to record rainfall while we were visiting. The photo above — flooding that closed parts of the parking areas on Friday — gave us a clue about what to expect as we walked from our car to the Visitor Center.

As we exited that building onto the bridge that takes you out into the gardens we could see how high the water was in the lake that is a feature of the landscape. Note that there isn't any green showing on the trees and espalied shrub on the wall. Virtually all the outdoor blooming plants we saw were things that had been brought on in the greenhouses and put in place before the Antiques Fair.

How long can these plants survive this much standing water? 

Mark snapped the picture above in 2008. It shows water lapping at the shoreline path along this promenade area on the way from the Visitor Center to the Regenstein Center. Compare it to the shots below which he took on Friday — clearly conditions appear to be much worse this time. 

Plants as well as the path were underwater. I love this area of the garden with stepped rows of hedges and groundcovers, including boxwoods and cottoneaster. The railing along the pathway (below) is barely visible above the water.

Cold, wet and windy conditions meant the tents housing the dealers, the visitors, and the antiques had be securely fastened down.

Even with all the weight holding things in place, we did see a bit of occasional rippling of a wall filled with paintings. 

Once inside the tents, however, we pretty much were able to forget about the weather, though most visitors and even some vendors kept their outdoor jackets on.

The view below is the bonsai display courtyard in 2008. For the Antiques Fair, even the covered walkways around this courtyard are put to use.

The courtyard became a staging area for LP gas cannisters for the heaters that were whooshing warm air into the covered walkways that had been closed in with plastic sheeting to make more display stalls for the vendors. It was nice and warm in this area.

Once inside there was so much to see, that I put the woeful weather and the tragedy in Boston out of my mind for a few hours. I just honed in on beautiful old objects.

Among my favorites was this delicate Chinese bamboo vest displayed on an equally lovely stand. The garment was meant to be worn in the summer under a kimono to protect the fabric and keep it from touching one's hot sweaty skin. 

As you can see from the topiary in front of the vest, most vendors had some kind of fabulous flowers in their booth. This dealer had an assortment of topiaries and all of them were for sale, too.

Later this week, I'll share more photos of the antiques we saw as well as the stunning floral displays that were put together especially for this event. 

Another sign of Spring?

We're in the midst of a big stretch of rainy weather. Anything to help replenish the groundwater depleted by last summer's drought is welcome. But there's still so much frozen ground that we're under flood warnings until the weekend. We've already got water in the basement and this morning I woke to a landscape covered in ice. And I just got a call that Olbrich is rescheduling the hands-on class, "Gardening with the Pros," that I was scheduled to take on Friday morning. Too wet to work in the garden whether you're a pro or an amateur!

Photos of my lolipop lilac and assorted maples taken with my phone.

It's raining . . .

and has been doing so since some time after midnight Friday. We've had 2.56" so far, including .75" in just a little over two hours this morning. Enough rain that it may have been able to penetrate our bone dry soil. Definitely enough to penetrate our basement where Mark got to try out his new shop vac.

After watching (via the library window) our dry stream come roaring to life (above), Mark grabbed an umbrella and went outdoors to shoot the fall color in our garden which looks beautiful glazed with rainwater (below).

This is the most significant rain we've had since July 18. We're down at least 10" for the year, so it will take a lot more before the garden is in ideal condition for winter!  

I've got my Brelli . . .

It's cool, it's cloudy, it's supposed to rain today. I've got my Brelli; why won't it rain? I keep waiting and hoping and listening for thunder. But there's no sound outdoors or in; nothing but a soft swish as I open and close my artful umbrella.

Seattle visitors

We had a group of out-of-town visitors to our garden Sunday afternoon after a mostly rainy morning. Though only .15" of rain actually fell, it still helped to perk up the garden. Once the rain stopped, we opened up the tea house and hung up our Japanese shop sign.

And I took a quick last-minute run though the garden to see how everything looked just minutes before they arrived — picking up fallen apples and black walnuts. I decided to wear my brightest shirt so folks could easily pick me out of the crowd to answer questions!

Even though the sky was still overcast there were waterlilies blooming which really emphasizes the pond as the focal point of the garden. Since it's been so hot and dry here in southern Wisconsin, a gray day was actually a nice change.

About two dozen members of the Northwest Horticultural Society came to visit our garden as part of their Chicago and southern Wisconsin tour. The event was arranged by Wisconsin native Daniel Mount. Like the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society (of which Mark and I are members), the NHS hosts lectures, garden tours and plant sale fund-raising events; but they have over 1000 members in the Seattle area while we're about half their size. 

They arrived at 3 p.m. — luckily having called to warn us they were an hour ahead of schedule! But it meant that they had extra time to spend with us as we were the last stop of the day after Taliesin and the Cedar Grove cheese factory. We've had lots of local garden groups tour our garden but this was the first time we ever had a bus pull up across the street from our house with visitors. It is definitely a bit disconcerting!

Just about this time last August, Mark and I were taking Daniel Mount around local Madison gardens, helping him to pull together this NHS group tour. Daniel grew up in Milwaukee and actually went to Luther Burbank Grade School, "which may very well have been the beginning of this whole plant thing," he says. Currently he is an estate gardener in the Pacific Northwest, garden writer, blogger and educator. His column for the NHS recently won a silver award from the Garden Writers Association and one of his gardens is on the cover of the current issue of Fine Gardening magazine.

We decided just to let folks wander around at their own pace and then to answer questions after they'd had a chance to see the garden. Though we have lots of paths winding through our garden they are narrow (perfect for the two of us) but cause a bit of a bottleneck when curious gardeners are walking them. Some of the Seattle folks actually were stopped by a plant unfamiliar to them — Carex plantaginea —before they'd taken more than a few steps.

Carex plantaginea (seersucker sedge) is one of many sedges we have in our garden, and one that is usually familiar to local gardeners. Folks wondered if we grew any native plants and that particular sedge is one of them — growing just a few feet from some of our other natives like Bur oak, witch hazels and Pagoda dogwoods. 

Another attention-getter was our large specimen shrub: Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum 'Mariesii' (doublefile Viburnum) which is spread out behind the two gentlemen from Seattle. Their presence gives you an idea of its size.

Luckily Mark and I both were doing pretty well remembering the names of plants, trees and shrubs in the garden, so we were able to provide information when people liked something. 

See where I'm standing in the photo below? I'm trying to remember the name of the prostrate shrub on the ground below me near the birch trees. I couldn't do it nor could I find it in my file of plant names. That's because it was mistakenly filed under trees instead of shrubs. It is Pinus sylvestris 'Albyn Prostrata,' a prostrate Scots pine. Ours is more open and leggy than it should be as it needs more sun. Alas I did not get the name of the person who was interested in this pine, so I hope you are reading this!

Eventually we all wound up on the deck and then went indoors for Wisconsin cheeses and brews. Mark and I really enjoyed ourselves and it seemed as though our visitors did as well. They commented on a number of features that most folks don't mention and they wanted the names of some trees and shrubs that don't always get singled out for attention.

Who knows if this is the result of some special Northwest sensibility or just a reflection of individual tastes? What I do know is that I wished we could have spent much longer visiting with each other; everyone I talked to was so interesting and engaging. Maybe the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society will have to think about another Northwest tour.

Finally, a big thank you to whoever gathered up all the dirty dishes and nicely piled them on the kitchen counter by the sink. Now that's our kind of garden visitor! 

. . .

Seattle folks: If you are curious about the design and construction process of our garden, you can follow it step-by-step by clicking on "My Garden Odyssey" in the category list. Just be aware that the most recent posts are first. So if you want to start at the beginning, go to the archives for Nov. 2008 when the first Odyssey post appeared: "All in Good Time." 

Rejuvenation

Amazing how quickly some plants have bounced back as a result of our recent rains. I have always had good luck with Japanese painted ferns; so much so that I use them in some areas in the garden to edge borders and almost as ground covers. But this year most of them faded or even disappeared from the heat. Even my watering did not help them. I was going to pull out the worst offenders but suddenly they're back, standing tall and looking good. So they get a reprieve for now.

One noticeable quirk: My painted ferns fall into two groups, one more gray and the other more greenish. All the new growth is the palest, ghostliest green I've ever seen. Maybe that's what always happens when they rejuvenate themselves like this. It's not something that happens often enough that I've ever noticed this color change before. 

The day lilies that were looking beat are sending up new growth as are the Astilbes that literally got fried from the weather. I have a number of the same Astilbe plant interspered in a short curved border and three really did not do well while one held its own for most of the summer. Difference in soil, slight variation in amount of sun or sprinkler water — who knows what causes the variation in their ability to withstand the weather. Definitely not something I've figured out yet.

If we get a little more rain, my garden will look almost normal when a group of Seattle gardeners come for a visit later this month. Keeping my fingers crossed. 

At last . . .

It's raining and the temperature has dropped down into the 60s! 

Summer of 2012: Drought tolerant plants

No matter where you go this summer or who you talk to, in this part of the U.S. there is only one topic of conversation: the weather. For gardeners, the tale is one of endlessly dragging hoses around the garden trying to keep plants alive while we wait for rain. We've finally been lucky and have recorded 4.27" of rain since July 18th. The garden has definitely perked up, except for those plants that had already succumbed to our record heat and drought. What future summers will be like for gardeners in southern Wisconsin is anyone's guess. 

Paging through my garden journal from last summer, I noted temps in the 90s in early June and more in July. Officially, the total local June and July rainfall was 5.42" but we had about 3/4 of an inch less than that at our house. So clearly drier than "normal" — and most of it came in tiny dribs and drabs. This year at the same time we are about an inch lower in our garden than 2011, with virtually all of the rain coming in the last two weeks after six dry weeks. 

Right now I'm looking at my garden to see which plants are doing well and which aren't — relative to the extreme conditions this summer. Then I think I will have to seriously consider getting rid of or at least reducing the number of plants that didn't like these drier conditions. So what did do well for me?

In my full sun and very dry traffic island, Nepeta barely slowed down. All the lily bulbs came up and bloomed and a Pelargonium with splotched leaves that I overwintered did well. And this is one location that I never watered until things were pretty desperate. 

Elsewhere in the main gardens, Hostas and assorted Geranium macrorrhizum are all doing fine. My oldest swaths of Epimediums did well but those that were only planted last year suffered. Tiarellas struggled but Heucheras were mostly OK. All the summer bulbs did well.

Most of my Japanese painted ferns faded and flopped and were quite unhappy even though I tried to water them. But they put out new growth the minute they got rain. Interrupted and Christmas ferns did much better along with most of my assorted Dryopteris ferns. Sedges and even the Japanese forest grasses seem fine. I am confident that the things I've mentioned will come back next year — if we pick up more rain and have a typical snow cover this winter. I recognize, however, that is a pretty big "if."

How about you? What plants fared well in your drought-challenged garden? Leave me a comment and perhaps we can pool our information to help us all prepare for a changing climate.

. . .

Two plants that were noteworthy for their stellar performance this summer were Queen Anne's Lace and chicory (in the photo above). All the median strips of grass turned brown while these plants bloomed profusely along the curb. Half the front lawns and gardens in town are sporting these two plants while they've covered whole fields in the countryside. A gorgeous combo but, alas, not one I really want in my garden. 

Here are some tips from Olbrich Botanical Gardens on how to combat drought in home gardens. I am already doing most of what's on their list but perhaps you'll find some helpful hints. 

A short reprieve

We were on Madison's far east side Wednesday night when the rain storm that's passed us by for the last 6 weeks finally stopped in.  We were touring the gardens of members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society when a darkening sky (below) signaled that we should head for home — on the opposite side of town. We spent the ride buffeted by high winds and blinding rain. No limbs came down at our house, just some water in the basement from clogged gutters. It's been so long since it rained that we've gotten out of the habit of checking the gutters; something that's a must when you are surrounded by big honey locust trees as we are.

Mark went out the morning after the storm to check for damage and to see how the garden was faring. The truth is that some things have flourished in this hot, relentlessly sunny summer. The water lilies are the prime example. The leaves have never spread out so well or been so lush and we have a dozen big blossoms almost every day. The leaf coverage is keeping the pond cooler and keeping algae away.

Grasses have stood up well to the weather as have drought tolerant perennials like Epimedium (behind the Hakone chloa grass below). But only the ones that have had time to develop good root systems. The Epimediums that are only a couple of years old are all stressed and have lots of brown leaves.

We've been watering the garden a lot — especially trees and shrubs and the newest plantings. We don't have an irrigation system because usually we don't need to water much in Wisconsin. Luckily we do have three locations where we can hook up hoses and sprinklers so we can hit every section of the garden. Like everyone in this part of the country, we've let the grass go brown and dormant.

When you look at the garden from a distance, everything looks good. 

It's only when you step into the garden and walk around that you begin to see the damage. These ostrich ferns are in our neighbor's garden but are visible from our garden so we get to enjoy them as well. They typically put on a show until they get hit by the first frost in the fall. But they gave up the ghost early this year. 

It's not easy to determine why things are drying out when plants next to them are doing fine. Usually these little dwarf Solomon's Seal stay green while their Sweet Woodruff companion plants die back. This year the two plants have reversed roles.

We have three very sculptural stems of Euonymous alata growing in the shade along this fence. The two bigger shrubs are doing fine but this one seems to have died. I've noticed the same behavior on the same plant in a garden down the street. Half their Burning Bush is perfect and the other half is dead. Go figure.

I thought I had been keeping an eye on our Golden Shadows Dogwood until I saw this photo. I've been watering and babying this little tree because it has a lot of root competition. It was doing quite well but I think a lot of things just hit the point earlier this week when they could not take the high temps any more — no matter how much water they are getting. There's only so many days of 100 degrees F. (37.77 C.) that any of us can stand before we curl up.

Perennial or tree, everyone is showing the same stress: Rogersia henrici bloomed for the first time in 14 years but is not happy now!

This is the second flush of leaves on this Magnolia sieboldii; the first succumbed to frost after the early warmth made them leaf out too early.

The rain has had some instant results: mushrooms popping up

. . . and mosses and lichens greening up.

We'll see what happens next since the temps look like they are going to go back to the high 90s F. (32.22 C.) right away. We need more grey days in the 80s (26.66 C.) to say nothing of more rain. 

WEATHER STATS: We got 2.91 inches (7.39 centimeters) of rain at our house in three separate storms Wednesday and early into Thursday morning. This was the first rain since June 21st when we got less than a quarter of an inch.

To get a sense of how widespread the drought is, take a look at this graphic from The New York Times on 7/20. So much more shocking to see it pictured like this.

Rain at last!

Woke up to the sound of rain at my house at 5:30 a.m. It continued until about 7 a.m. and we actually got 1.03 inches according to our rain gauge. Slight chance of more rain later today which would be nice, but I'm not complaining. For local folks, UW Extension has great resources for drought information — everything from maps to how to talk to kids about the drought. You can find it all right here.

Depending on which Weather Underground source you follow, yesterday's high temp in Madison was anywhere from 100 to 105 degrees F (37.77-40.55C.). The city is asking Frisbee and soccer players to stay off the grass in local parks for a week to prevent damage to the drought-striken playing fields.