Monthly Garden Photos - December 2013

We've had a few snowfalls already this season. Here are the monthly photos for December. I'm back to taking the photos from an upstairs window in the house.

Perennial Garden and Enclosed Garden

Garden outside Wisteria Studio

Family Pond and Wetlands

Cicely Mary Barker's Holly Fairy

 The Holly Fairy

 Why this post? Read here.

Holly

Holly

With holly and ivy

So green and so gay,

We deck up our houses

As fresh as the day.

With bays and rosemary, and laurel complete,

And everyone now

Is a king in conceit.

- Unknown

The English Holly, Ilex aquifolium, and the American Holly, Ilex opaca, are common symbols of Christmas time. Images of this plant decorate greeting cards, wrapping papers, dishes, glasses, vases and linens which we display during the holiday season. “Deck the halls with boughs of holly” describes the ancient tradition of incorporating the holly, with its green leaves and bright red berries, (traditional colors of Christmas) into wreaths, garlands and centerpieces. It is said that branches of holly were brought into the home during Roman times to celebrate the festival of Saturnalia, which took place during the winter solstice. Many beliefs and superstitions advocated bringing branches of holly inside to protect the home against malevolent elves and fairies or to enable benevolent fairies to live in the home among humans during the cold weather. Planted outside the home or barn, holly was said to protect against lightening strikes. Modern science confirms that the spines of the holly leaves are able to conduct electricity to the ground, which protects the area surrounding them. 

American Holly

English Holly

 The homeowner has reason to plant hollies near the home and around the property for their great ornamental value as well. The English Holly, with its glossy dark green leaves, is highly ornamental year round and the yellow, orange or red berries on female plants during the autumn and winter months provide cheer when it is sorely needed. Birds eat the fruit, which adds another attractive dimension. The English Holly has over 400 cultivars so there is a variety which will fit your location and taste. Leaves are usually a dark green but plants can be purchased which have blue-green, white variegated or yellow variegated foliage. Stems can be green or purple. Berries are various shades of red, orange or yellow, depending on the variety. Size can range from a foot to fifty feet in height. 

Hollies of all species need acid soil that is well drained and rich in organic matter. They do best in partial shade but will tolerate full sun in cooler climates. Protect them from wind which tends to desiccate the leaves, especially during the winter months, causing them to turn brown. Most hollies are dioecious which means they bear male and female flowers on different plants. If you want your hollies to bear fruit, be sure to have a male holly planted within a few hundred feet of it. One male holly plant can produce enough pollen to fertilize up to six female plants.

Holly berries, though eaten by birds, are toxic to humans. Bees make a reddish colored honey from the flowers, which is described as mild, sweet and buttery in flavor. The wood of holly is extremely hard and ivory in color. It is used for inlaid marquetry, and takes stain beautifully. It has been used to make walking sticks, riding whips, tool, broom and brush handles, chess pieces and piano keys.

This spring, plant a holly somewhere on your property. The ornamental qualities will delight you and you will have branches to bring inside each December.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Article written by Susan Ernst for 12 Months in View

Monthly Garden Photos - November 2013

It is interesting that it is already November 12 and we have not had a frost. We usually get one the third week of October. The weather has been very dry. We haven't gotten any rain for about five weeks. A lack of moisture in the air may be the reason for the lack of a frost. It has been delightful to have flowers still in bloom and even reblooming. There is one yellow iris plant that has a big beautiful bud on it. Ready to open any day if the weather holds up. But after today, I don't think it will.

 Here are the monthly photos for November plus a few more.

The Perennial Garden

The Enclosed Garden

Garden outside Wisteria Studio

The Family Pond and Wetlands

Cicely Mary Barker's Poppy Fairy

The Poppy Fairy

Why this post? Read here.

Papaver rhoeas - The Field Poppy

Field Poppy – Papaver rhoeas

The cadmium red Field Poppy, also known as Corn, Flanders or Red Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is a hardy annual plant that grows wild in fields in parts of Europe such as Great Britain, France and Brussels.  It is also cultivated in gardens and wild flower meadows.

The field poppy has been a popular flower throughout history. Dried field poppies have been found in the tombs of ancient Egyptian princesses.  Their fleeting beauty has been immortalized in paintings by Claude Monet, Robert William Vonnoh and other Impressionists, Odilon Redon, Vincent van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keefe among many others. (I created a board on Pinterest to gather copies of these paintings together into one location.)

The Field Poppy became a symbol of remembrance in 1918 for the soldiers who fought and died in World War I. Inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields”, American Moina Michael began wearing a red silk poppy to honor those fallen soldiers. She campaigned to have it adopted as a national symbol of remembrance and in 1920 the American Legion did just that. This symbol was also adopted by the Commonwealth Nations of Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Red paper poppy flowers are sold and worn on Memorial and Veteran’s Days in the United States and on Poppy and Remembrance Days in Great Britain. 

As their common name might suggest, Field Poppies are easy to grow. Select a sunny location with well drained soil. Loosen the ground and scatter the seeds evenly over it. This is best accomplished by mixing the miniscule seeds with sand. The seeds can be purchased from some suppliers with a coating that makes them larger and easier to sow.  Water regularly and remove any competing weeds. Sow the seeds in late autumn or early spring as they are cold hardy and sprout as soon as the soil warms up. Remove the flowers and stems as they fade to encourage new flower buds. This will extend the bloom time from late June into August. At that time allow the flowers to go to seed and scatter onto the ground. Follow this routine and you will have poppies year after year.

Besides the brilliant shades of red – from cadmium to scarlet to crimson – hybrids such as the Shirley Poppies will provide a range of colors from pale to deep pinks, apricots, creams, mauves and whites that do not have the characteristic black centers.

The Field Poppy, like all poppies, produces a milky white sap, called latex. Unlike its relative, Opium Poppy (P. somniferum), this sap does not contain opium. It does contain rhoeadine which has been used as a sedative. The seeds are sometimes used in baking as a substitute for bread poppy. The flower petals have also been used as a wrinkle preventer as well as a dye for wines, medicines and inks. The oil from the seeds is used as a medium for oil painting.

Though the flowers last a few short days, it is a joy to watch these plants grow. First putting forth nodding buds on thin, wiry stems that open to brilliant color, they eventually transform into ornamental seedpods. These can be cut and used in dried floral arrangements and wreaths along with the seed heads of other wildflowers. A perfect autumn centerpiece.

Article written by Susan Ernst for 12 Months in View.

Cow Parsley and Wild Carrot

Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris

Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1828-1882).

Anthriscus sylvestris, commonly known as Cow Parsley, Wild Chervil, Hedge Parsley, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Devil’s Parsley, is a common wildflower of the English countryside and is largely naturalized throughout the United States and Canada, primarily in the Northeast. It is considered a noxious weed in 46 states in the United States.

 Cow Parsley is a member of the carrot family, Apiaceeae, and shares many physical characteristics with its relatives Wild Carrot, Daucus carota, (commonly known as Queen Anne’s Lace in the US), Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum, and Fool’s Parsley, Aethusa cynapium.  All of these have white umbel flowers and fern like leaves. Queen Anne’s Lace (D. carota), is easily distinguished from the group with its purplish black “eye” in the center of the white flower as well as delicate green bracts at the base of the flower. Its leaves are of a finer texture than the more coarse Cow Parsley. In autumn, Queen Anne’s Lace is easily spotted in a field by its inverted seed heads which resemble birds’ nests. Cow Parsley and its poisonous cousins maintain the umbel shape as it displays its seeds.

 Though once included in the diets of the Celts, all sources advise against collecting and using this plant for food, medicine or dye. Other plants are better suited for those purposes and are not easy to confuse with poisonous plants.

Enjoy the Cow Parsley you find growing in abandoned fields and along highways and country roads, but let it be. Collect (with permission) the Queen Anne’s Lace or Wild Carrot flowers for fresh bouquets in spring, and the seed heads for dried bouquets in autumn.

Article written by Susan Ernst for 12 Months in View