Roses and June go together. Some of our lovely roses begin to bloom in late May, and many linger through summer, teasing with a stray flower now and then. September offers a sweet echo when a number of them rouse themselves into a last chorus before frost. A few really hardy roses can be seen blooming into October and November.

 

Why the "OVERgrowth?"

I sometimes get the complaint that the children’s garden is so "overgrown." This is a complaint of adult personages and not of children. Children seem to have no problem navigating the environment in which they find themselves. I thought of this particular comment yesterday as I was pruning the Little Leaf Lindens that stretch their arms over each side of the front garden gate. The bottom branches create a filtered view into the garden and a height requirement as adults must bend slightly or face branch brushing. Hershey Children’s Garden is built around immersion. The garden is designed as a full immersion experience with plant, flower, frog and dragonfly. As a gardener I want plants smacking you in the face. In this garden, people move for the plants and not the other way around.

Having said all that, I do take certain measures. My style of gardening is to provide a wild but controlled look to any space I manage. This is reflected most in the way woody plants are pruned. I prune to control growth so as to keep plants in scale with others or to provide filtered views or clear path ways. Kids do become intimidated when a path becomes too overgrown. We find kids do not choose a path if it is so congested that it looks like a scary place to be or an impenetrable barrier.
 

One of the pleasures of a perennial garden is definitely the anticipation of seeing favorite blooms and vignettes re-appear year after year. The scene is the same, but always with a difference. Some plants thrive, getting fuller and more beautiful every year. Others are meant to dwindle away, to eventually be replaced by something new and just as lovely. The rather short blooming period of many perennials adds to the charm of a garden that is always in flux, always on the cusp of another transition.

This is the Garden’s CK Patrick perennial border, composed of herbaceous perennials and medium-sized shrubs. All combine to create harmonies of color and texture with foliage as well as flowers. This is one of my favorite moments in this garden, when the 7-foot foxtail lilies frame a cottage-pretty view of ‘Carefree Delight’ roses, pale yellow foxgloves, ‘Bee’s Ruby’ thrift and a dozen other pink, yellow and lavender beauties.

Yes They Exist!

Okay, so maybe you are not as horticulturally ignorant as I am, but until recently I still conceived (even with all my vast training) of flowering bulbs as a spring and fall thing. There is, however, a whole series of options that add interest throughout the summer. Here are a couple of my current favorites found in Hershey Children’s Garden:

• Eucomis comosa  is the pineapple lily. This semi-hardy South African bulb provides interesting spikes of color for a solid week (if I recall) and the broad, coarse leaves add great textural interest.
• Many lilies, Lillium sp., are wonderful to behold. An unknown orange cultivar, pictured above, is blooming as I write this article.
• Triteleia sp. is actually a cormous set of fourteen species, but it’s delightful summer blue is worth pointing out. The blooms last for approximately a week and definitely like more sun. Come see such a display as seen below.

Personally, I’d rather not see my beautiful perennials falling over in mid- to late summer, would you? It is so much easier to consider staking certain taller perennials in the early summer than it is when they actually fall over and many times, unfortunately, snap at the base. We frequently stake our Phlox, Monarda, Sidalcea, and tall Rudbeckia varieties to name just a few plants.

You can use a number of items for stakes- bamboo which comes in a natural taupe color or painted green is probably the most common staking device. It’s strong, inexpensive and will last a quite a number of years. Of course, you’ll need to replace the string around the plants every year and removing old string from bamboo stakes is not my favorite job. This year, we’re trying a new type of stake pictured here that is spiral shaped, made of steel and covered in green plastic. It literally takes less than a few minutes to install. The stake really blends in well to the plant so that you barely notice it once the plant encompasses it. Consider staking now while your plants are still a reasonable size to manipulate- or you might be picking up their floppy stems come one windy, rainy day in August.

I recently had the great fortune to spot a newly hatched praying mantis egg case and several mantis babies from that case walking around the Elizabeth and Nona Evans Restorative Garden. A number of people have asked me whether or not I think mantids are good bugs to have in their gardens. Being an entomologist, that answer is quite simple: OF COURSE!

Now, do they really help in controlling plant pests? Yes, to a certain degree. Being predators means that they can eat some plant pests. However, mantids do not distinguish between plant pests and other insects considered ‘good’ like bees and butterflies. In fact, mantids can be cannibals and will readily eat other mantids if the opportunity presents itself.

So, should you buy egg cases to put in your garden? Yes, as long as you realize that while they are fun and interesting to have in your garden, mantids will not control all plant pests that rear their hungry heads toward your flowers or vegetables!

 Posted by Cynthia Druckenbrod

The adorable Chinese Mantis (Tenodera aridifolia sinensis)

Mixed What?

I have come to love mixed garden borders. Borders in general are long narrow plant compositions meant to be viewed from one side. The most commonly discussed and most difficult to design is the classic formal herbaceous perennial border like Cleveland Botanical Garden’s C.K. Patrick Perennial Border.

The mixed garden border is the slightly easier and more interesting design as far as color, form and texture are concerned. The mixed border at the front of Hershey Children’s Garden is a good example. Mixed borders are simply border designs planted with a mix of woody and herbaceous perennials and annuals.

I love the mixed border because of the greater variety of color, texture and form options. I also think they tend to be easier to plant and coordinate the timing of flowering, etc. Herbaceous borders tend to require more plant material, thus increasing their complexity. One other feature of the mixed border I like is the extended seasonality of the design. Herbaceous borders tend to have a shorter window of display. Woody plants add seasonal interest from winter to winter and annuals push color throughout the main growing season.

Other gardeners can have their herbaceous borders. Me, I am going to keep it mixed up.

Posted by Josh Steffen

One thing that fascinates me about the human relationship with plants is our nearly universal love for flowers. From a strictly biological perspective, the attraction doesn’t make immediate sense. The love of flowers seems to speak of spirituality and creativity unrelated to any daily survival concerns. I’m definitely not prepared to dissect this, or veer into philosophy. But don’t you think it’s interesting that we are so compelled by something we don’t usually eat, wear or cure illness with? (Edible flowers are a special topic that I hope to feature in a later blog. Medicinal ones are important of course, but it’s often the bark, leaves and roots that concern us, not the flowers.)

Throughout history, people have assigned plants (flowers in particular) all sorts of symbolic meanings, which are often quite unrelated to their usefulness. In a recent installment of the Garden’s monthly “Twelve on Tuesdays” program for seniors, we offered drop-in visitors the chance to put together miniature bouquets of beauty and meaning.

Using a reprint of a charming little Victorian-era book called The Language of Flowers as our guide to the “secret code” of flower meanings, we used zinnias (thoughts of absent friends), balm (sympathy), chamomile (energy in adversity) and sweet basil (best wishes) to compose a nosegay to give to someone ill or convalescing. Another combination was: honeysuckle (sweet disposition), coreopsis (always cheerful), ivy (friendship, fidelity) and fern (sincerity) to express appreciation to a constant friend.

This was actually quite fun, and it was interesting to speculate on how particular flowers got their significance. I’ll be composing my bouquets with a whole new dimension from now on!

Posted by Ann McCulloh

Right outside my office window, I’m lucky to have the Chinese Ground Orchid, Beltilla striata, poking its pretty pink head out of the lush foliage. This particular orchid is unlike the orchids you see at different retailers in that it is terrestrial (it grows in the ground) rather than an epiphyte (one that grows on trees) as most orchids are. The flower, which can be pink or white (variety ‘alba’) is very similar to a miniature Cattleya flower.

Chinese Ground Orchids have a light, pleasant fragrance and can naturalize if given the right growing conditions. We grow them in a protected valley-like area here where they are in part shade almost all day. Because zone 5 is the border of their natural growing climate, you’ll need to mulch them in for the winter to protect them from the extreme cold. They like rich, organic soil and need to be fairly moist throughout the summer. Given these conditions, you’ll be rewarded with a over a month of blooms in the early summer! Enjoy!

Posted by Cynthia Druckenbrod

Changes Are A Comin’ to Our Sod Roof

If you are a regular visitor to Hershey Children’s Garden, you know that Garden staff members are constantly experimenting with new ideas to enhance the visitor experience. One of the favorite features of the garden, the sod house, is getting particular attention at the moment.

The sod house is a little play house set at the edge of the Children’s Garden prairie. Traditionally, the roof is annually planted with a wildflower sod mat. When I arrived, the flower mats were too expensive, so I went with a drought tolerant turf grass with wild flowers individually planted into the sod. Soon, all that will change.

This June, a team of contractors and garden staff are finishing work on enhancing the plant composition, as well as the structure itself. The entire wood frame has been rebuilt, and a rubber liner has been added along with modular planting trays used in conventional green roofs. The last phase will be seeding a mixture of low-mow grasses and native perennials. Come see the finished product soon!

Posted by Josh Steffen