Like a refugee from Alice’s topsy-turvy world, the hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium) seems to do everything backwards. The pale pink or white blooms appear in mid October before a fine crop of leaves that stay deep green all winter long. The plant virtually disappears in the summer, just when everything else is in full leaf and flower. It reappears to delight us every fall, in various spots around the Japanese Garden.

These delicate-seeming flowers are tough as nails. Their native range includes a large part of southern and eastern Europe, on into Turkey and Greece. They are related to the florist’s cyclamen that appear in shops in early winter, but they will actually thrive in Northeast Ohio gardens.  The fragrance is sweet and refined, a little like that of an heirloom rose. Of course it’s easier to catch a whiff when you are lying on the ground to photograph the flowers!

A reliable and long-lived perennial for shade gardens, their foremost requirement is a nice, dry summer season. Don’t forget their location when digging in the flower beds, either, because it is possible to accidentally damage the dormant plants. Cyclamen hederifolium are hardy to zone 4, and will gradually increase and spread by root and seed.

Posted by Ann McCulloh

April may be the cruelest month, but March runs a close second, especially for shallow-rooted garden plants. After the protective snow blanket melts away, the top 3-4 inches of soil are exposed to the widely fluctuating air temperatures of early spring. The resulting thaw-freeze-thaw cycles allow ice crystals to form in that top layer of soil, rapidly pushing shallow-rooted plants above ground. Then, when the sun emerges, warm air melts the ice crystals in the bare soil first, while the shaded ice under the plant stays frozen longer. The exposed soil shrinks down, no longer held up by expanded ice, while the plant sits on top of a little ice platform. To make matters worse, spring downpours wash soil from around the plant. A little plant that survived the winter buried in snow is now literally high and dry, with exposed roots vulnerable to the next dry spell or ice storm.

 

The fiery glow of  Sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’) seems to raise the temperate around it by a few degrees, although that’s purely an illusion today! The two main groups of pigments that give autumn leaves their colors are: Carotenoids, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colors; and Anthocyanins, water-soluble substances which are produced when there are high levels of sugars in leaves or fruits under bright light conditions. Bright days and longer cooler nights, with adequate, but not excessive rainfall, are generally considered to be the catalysts for great fall leaf color.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a good, readable explanation of “Why Leaves Change Color” online, for all of us who have never tired of asking “why?” Whatever the color, do heed the good advice on this site and others to rake and compost fallen leaves. They also make an excellent mulch when left in place where they fall. Tiny micro-organisms will put them to good use replenishing the all-important organic content of the soil.

Posted by Ann McCulloh

There comes a time every October when the summer annuals start looking drab. The sweet potato vine and the dahlias might be holding on, but the caladiums, begonias and coleus are showing signs of not liking the cooler temperatures. 

As a result, I pull everything and freshen up the containers with plantings that will handle the light freezes that we will inevitably be getting over the next month. Mums and ornamental cabbages are perfect for this, and pumpkins, gourds and squash will stay fresh longer in the cooler temperatures. Using these fruits with hard shells provides some bold colors and should hold up to everything but a hungry squirrel. And it is amazing how much plant space a large pumpkin will occupy in an arrangement.

Accessorize with baskets, crates and hay bales if you have the space. And if you are feeling creative, find some interesting driftwood shapes that can be painted for Halloween.

It is with a little sadness that I start tearing out the summer arrangements I have enjoyed since June. But the browns and the oranges are more appropriate colors for this time of year anyway. These new arrangements are easy to do and are not meant to last much past a hard freeze. But they will buy me some time to come up with winter display ideas!

Posted by Bob Rensel

Time to Close

“The End of All Things,” is the title to one J.R. Tolkien’s closing chapters in Return of the King and it describes this final week of October. Hershey Children’s Garden concludes its ninth season this Friday with a quiet closing of the gate and a click of the lock, but the work does not end there. Next comes fall clean up.

While the children play in another field, garden staff work away on a number of projects. First, there are bulbs to plant to welcome everyone back in the spring. Then, there are perennials to cut back and fall decorations to remove and store. Besides clean up activities, there are a number of maintenance projects we will undertake in order to make the garden even better and more beautiful next season when we open for our tenth anniversary season.

Posted by Josh Steffen

When I first saw Tom Nardone’s book on extreme pumpkins in the fall of 2007, I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! He has a new book out now, “Extreme Pumpkins II.” Check out his website. Too funny! While you’re laughing at his silly creations, don’t forget to save the pumpkin seeds. There are many websites touting the health benefits of pumpkin seeds. They are a source of zinc, iron, amino acids and other beneficial nutrients. I’ve seen recipes that call for boiling them in salt water before roasting them in the oven and other recipes that call for just salting and roasting without rinsing them. Whichever way you choose to roast them, enjoy them whole and don’t bother peeling away the shell- that’s far too much work! Besides, your body needs the fiber.

Posted by Cynthia Druckenbrod

Fall adds a certain sense of urgency to the air, especially for gardeners. I just managed to get all of my houseplants indoors before they began to droop and sulk. I snipped off the last of the basil, pulled up the pepper plants and put the last green tomatoes under newspapers to ripen under cover. Here at the Garden we are busy moving the exuberant tropical plants – bananas, hibiscus, elephant ears, palms and more, into winter storage. Coming soon: leaf raking, lawn fertilizing, trimming, composting and of course, massive bulb-plantings!

The urgency is heightened by the fleeting magnificence of fall foliage and thrilling, blue skies. Some of the most brilliantly-colored leaves last only moments on the tree, or so it seems. It’s nice to stop in the midst of all the flurry to let the beauty of a perfect combination soak into your soul. Enkianthus (Enkianthus campanulata)  and fall-blooming Anemones (Anemone japonica) are one such combination. The perfect scarlet of the Enkianthus and the clean, gold-crowned white of the petals don’t coincide every year. Sometimes a frost will clip the flowers before the Enkianthus has completely turned to red. In some years, the Enkianthus doesn’t really reach full color. Anticipation is part of the pleasure.

Posted by Ann McCulloh

Have you been bothered by yellow jackets this time of year? Yes, they are a nuisance, especially as the weather gets cooler and their colony numbers swell. I doubt they realize their time is short, but nevertheless, they are aggressive in their pursuit of sugars and proteins. I never advocate using broad-spectrum spray insecticides as they end up killing far more beneficial insects than the few pests that are targeted. Instead, use bait traps throughout the summer and place them away from your patio, enticing bees and wasps there, and not to your food (or your perfume). You can also re-use a 2-liter bottle – just cut off the top third and place it upside down in the lower half. Then fill the lower half with soapy water, banana peel or a small peice of meat, changing it out every few days - then recycle the bottle. After growing their colonies throughout the summer, yellow jackets become much more noticeable in the fall. Remember, they are considered beneficial insects as they eat your garden-munching caterpillars during the summer. Wouldn’t you rather have them eating caterpillars rather than spraying your vegetables with chemicals?

Posted by Cynthia Druckenbrod

It’s All About Leaves This Month

Have you ever stopped to consider the wonder of leaves? In the spirit of the season, here are a few things you may not know. Leaves are solar panels…really efficient solar panels. Leaves come in unexpected forms. Did you know the spines on a cactus are really leaves? Did you know that the tendrils on a grape vine are really leaves? Did you know that all those little rose “leaves” on one little stalk are really part of one big leaf? Did you know that the celery stalks and onion bulbs you purchase are really leaves?

Leaves are extremely complex and not easy to describe. They come in so many different shapes and sizes, too. Botanists have a long list of separate descriptors for the overall shape of a leaf, the tip of the leaf, the edge of the leaf, the base of the leaf, etc.

See what I mean? There is no end to the wonder of green, but I must “leaf” off here.

Do you have any fun facts about leaves? Let me know.