As discussed last week, good site conditions such as a soil pH of between 4.5 and 6, soil rich in organic matter, good drainage, and a part-shade to full-sun environment including protection from strong winds are essential for the health of azaleas. Be sure to research basic information about the azaleas you are purchasing including color and bloom time, its ultimate size, growth habit, and hardiness When planting azaleas, it is important to provide enough space between them for sufficient light and air circulation. Plant labels and catalogs generally supply appropriate spacing information for both the height and width of the azalea.
Chances are that the azaleas you purchase will have been grown in a container, either in a soil-less potting medium or a mixture of composted bark and sand. While these are fine mediums for plants grown in a container, making them easier to care for, the potting mediums are very different in structure from native soil, and water will not flow freely from one to the other. Often, the native soil around the newly planted azalea will be moist while the root ball remains dry. Because of this, the day before planting, water your potted azaleas so that they are well hydrated but not too soggy.
If you have good drainage, plant your azaleas at the same level to the soil as they were in the container. The planting holes should be the same depth as the container and 3-5 times as wide, with sloping sides. Most of the roots on each azalea will be growing in the top 12 inches of the soil, extending outward rather than downward. The goal in making a wide hole is to loosen the soil in the area of maximum root growth. Remember, azaleas are a shallow rooting plant. Do not dig the hole excessively deep, otherwise the root ball will sink and settle too low. If you have clay soil, you can plant your azaleas slightly higher than grade (1 to 2 inches higher). Sometimes azaleas are planted 6 inches higher with great success. To do this, add coarse sand and leaf compost to the backfill and grade on a slight slope.
When removing an azalea from its container, take care to protect the tiny hair-like feeder roots along the main roots, which can be torn if the plant is pulled from its base straight from the container. Instead, for a small container, with one hand cup the top of the container around the stem. Tip the container upside down–cradling the plant with the cupped hand–and slide it out of the container. If the root ball sticks to the container, tap it against a firm surface to dislodge the plant from the pot. For a large container, two people may be needed to hold and tip the container or to lay it on its side and gently slide the plant out.
Ed. note: The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden is swinging back into life! Here’s a quick look at some of the year’s first blooms from Peter Kukielski, the Rose Garden’s curator.
As expected, the early species roses have begun blooming. These are quick to come into bloom and are only around for a couple of weeks.
R. Virginiana (native)
A handsomely foliated plant which shares much in common with other North American species; densely suckering, tall canes with abundant foliage, somewhat smooth, small but charming pink flowers with soft-yellow stamens and a fine crop of round red hips. Tops on Rosa virginiana‘s list of attributes though should be its fall foliage which runs the full spectrum from gold and yellow to amber, rose and crimson.
R. spinossissima var. ‘Altaica’
A larger-flowered clone selection of the well-known and much-loved wild Scots Briar. Its rich, creamy, almost yellow flowers are well scented, and are borne on a tall and spreading plant.
R. eglanteria
A lovely, deep pink form of the Eglantine, with its fragrant and handsome foliage, large and arching and very productive of small, round, scarlet hips. The Eglantine has naturalized in North America, where it is found far and wide. Britton and Brown documented it in Virginia and Tennessee as R. rubiginosa.
R. blanda (native)
Wide, crepey petals of lightest rose-pink with pale-buff stamens and a pungent-sweet scent. A native of the Northeast of North America R. blanda is nearly thornless with soft green foliage. Sets a crop of small, round red fruit. Synonym: Hudson’s Bay Rose, Labrador Rose.
R. sericea pteracantha
Noted for its four-petaled white flowers, but more particularly for the elongated red thorns that stud its canes, R. sericea pteracantha makes a stunning focus in a mixed planting. Tall and arching, and perhaps most effective if older canes are removed annually to make way for new ones, whose thorns are yet translucent and red.
There are many things we cannot predict in life, chief amongst them: The weather. And while the forecast for this weekend is looking a little gray, maybe we can all just use the drizzly weather as opportunity to tell mom, “You are my sunshine!” (come on, you know she sang that to you when you were little), while feting her over a delicious picnic amid the insanely gorgeous new Azalea Garden.
Call us hopeless optimists, but the weatherman does seem to be wrong more often than right. So don’t let the threat of a little rain scare you away. This weekend’s Garden Parties will go on, rain or shine. Picnics will be under the Picnic Pavilions. Activities will take place under a tent in the Children’s Adventure Garden. And the soft, gray tones will just make the unbelievable colors of the new Azalea Garden that much more spectacular! So come celebrate with us, and let your mother be the one who shines!
The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
The New York Botanical Garden has officially signed on to be the exclusive U.S. partner of the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest (also known as IGPOTY). We couldn’t be more delighted! To celebrate our partnership, and our 120th anniversary, IGPOTY is even offering a special commendation for the best photograph taken here at the Garden. The winner will receive a free year’s Membership to NYBG.
For those new to IGPOTY, it is the world’s premier garden photography contest. The competition is a rolling program that follows the gardening year. The categories include: “Beautiful Gardens,” “Wildlife Havens,” “Breathing Spaces,” “Bountiful Earth,” “Trees Wood Forest,” “Fragile Landscapes,” and “Greening the City.” Entries for the sixth contest are now open, and must be received by November 30, 2011. Finalists will be announced in February 2012 and winners will be announced in April 2012.
Winners receive a monetary prize of £5,000 (approximately $8,000), are published in an annual book, and are displayed in a public exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and for the first time in the U.S. at The New York Botanical Garden. The fee for entering the competition, which covers the expense of mounting and touring the exhibition, is £10 (approximately $16) for four single images, or £25 (approximately $40) for a portfolio (a set of six themed images). The contest is open to all photographers, both professional and amateur. Photographers who are under 16 years old may enter for free. Learn more and register to submit photos here.
Above the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
In addition, there are other categories and awards. Themed, seasonal competitions, collectively called “4Seasons,” run throughout the year, with upcoming deadlines for the those themed categories on May 31, August 31, and November 30. “Spirit of the American Garden” is a standalone award with a cash prize that can be entered into any category mentioned above. Other standalone prizes include “Best Image of Kew” and the “Best Image of The New York Botanical Garden” to commemorate the Garden’s 120th anniversary.
Hardy Waterlily (photo by Michelle Longo)
One of the truly great things about the IGPOTY contest (aside from the amazing recognition and monetary prize) is the ability to ask for a critique of the photos you enter into the contest from the panel of judges. It takes the judges some time to give this feedback, but according to my contact at IGPOTY, it is one of the most satisfying aspects of the contest for both entrant and judge alike.
Japanese Anemone and Bee (photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen)
In that pedagogical spirit and as an effort to help hone everyone’s skills, we will be hosting monthly themed contests on the NYBG Flickr Group Page. We’ll hold the first one in June. So in the meantime, we’re asking out shutterbug friends to head over to Flickr and to share the best picture they’ve ever taken at NYBG and to actively discuss the photos, what they love and where they see areas for improvement (but please play nicely). It’s fun to see what each person considers “best,” so please join in! To say that we’re thrilled by this amazing partnership would be an understatement. We hope you’re as excited as we are. Happy snapping everyone!
Thomas C. Andres is an Honorary Research Associate at the Garden.
President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause] Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden. President “Bobby”: In the garden. Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again. President “Bobby”: Spring and summer. Chance the Gardener: Yes. President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter. Chance the Gardener: Yes. Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy. Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring! Benjamin Rand: Hmm! Chance the Gardener: Hmm! President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
[Benjamin Rand applauds] President “Bobby”: I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.
Drawing by Honoré Daumier, 1865
This is an exact quotation from the 1979 movie Being There and in a sad way, it is remarkably relevant today. Actually, we should be so lucky as to have politicians listen to a gardener, even one as simple-minded as the protagonist in this movie. I can only think of a few examples in recent times of national politicians who were gardeners. President Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer, and Michelle Obama has become an avid kitchen gardener at the White House. Less known, at least in the United States, is that Ariel Sharon, whose father was an agronomist, was a commercial pumpkin grower in Israel. Thomas Jefferson was probably our most famous politician who was also a gardener. Jefferson introduced to the United States a number of new crops, including Brussels sprouts, eggplant, cauliflower, and broccoli, that he acquired overseas while the envoy to France. He was also innovative in cultivation practices and in promoting proper stewardship of the land.
If you have been focused on local, state, and national budget crises, and the wars abroad (including the elimination of terrorists), you may not have noticed that it is finally spring. And with that, it is time for us to turn our thoughts to planting the garden because, no matter what the pundits say, summer and fall will follow.
That said, there is gardening, and then there is the sport of extreme gardening.
Growers of the giant pumpkin, i.e., the species Cucurbita maxima, are in a class of their own. This is not gardening for the faint-hearted. Ever since the last behemoth pumpkin was weighed in 2010, there has been a clock counting down the seconds until the next weigh-off this fall. Even throughout the bleakest part of winter, these growers have been thinking about how to break the record and perhaps even the one-ton barrier. Last year a new record was set of 1,810 1/2 pounds (821.23 kg). This is less than 190 pounds off the one-ton mark; just a little over a 10% weight gain is needed. Or think metric–reaching 900 kg is even closer. There may be as many theories on how to reach this milestone in plant husbandry as there are dedicated extreme growers.
Representatives from SNEGPG (Southern New England Giant Pumkin Growers association) pose with grower Steve Connolly and pumpkin Carver Scott Cully.
For the rest of us, we can take our minds off such weighty matters and plant zucchini. They taste much better, that is if you don’t let them get too big! I know this culinary tidbit about giant pumpkins all too painfully. Every year someone asks, “How many pumpkin pies could that giant pumpkin make?” While Scott Cully was carving Chris Steven’s 1,810 1/2 pound pumpkin, pieces were flying off, each containing enough flesh to feed an entire household. This seemed like a terrible waste, so I asked if I could have one of the pieces. I knew that these cucurbits were considered low quality for human consumption, but I had to test this for myself. First I used a hand held refractometer to get an indication of the sugar content. I got a reading of 5°Bx, which is considered poor (15°Bx and above is considered excellent). That didn’t deter me though, nor did the fact that it had pale-colored flesh, indicating a low Beta-Carotene content.
I have found that adding pumpkin or winter squash to store bought macaroni and cheese always improves the flavor of this ultimate comfort food. First, I roasted cubed pieces of the giant pumpkin to help concentrate the flavor and then added it to the mac ‘n cheese mix. The result: only fit for livestock feed! There were horrible stringy fibers, not the tender fibers found in spaghetti squash. And it had that distasteful off pumpkin flavor described by Amy Goldman in her glorious book, The Compleat Squash: A Passionate Grower’s Guide to Pumpkins, Squashes, and Gourds. Therefore, the answer to the question, “How many pumpkin pies does a giant pumpkin make?” is simple. Zero!
