A Peek At What’s Bloomin’

Epimedium - "Bishop's Hat" Blossoms

We love Epimedium’s heart shaped leaves with delicate pink and white flowers. Large patches grace numerous shaded garden spots. This one sits at the base of an old and very large Ash tree that shades the plant almost entirely from the sun.

Bergenia - "Pigsqueak"

A small mass of Bergenia receives a good dose of mid-morning sun and remains shaded for the rest of the day. This plant has been moved countless times over the years before finding its happy place here among a Hosta patch.

Euphorbia - "Spurge"

Color, color, color! Fluorescent Euphorbia is a real eye opener and loves full sun.

Trollious "Globle Flower"

It is said that Trollious may re-bloom if you remove faded flowers promptly and cut back foliage to the ground in the summer. We have yet to have such luck with this magnificent spring bloomer twice in a season, but that’s okay.

Dicentra "Bleeding Heart"

Flower cuttings from our old fashioned Bleeding Heart mixed with striking variegated Hosta leaves fill vases and grace all the accommodations at our bed and breakfast.

Anemone "Windflower"

The bright welcoming faces of Anemone cultivar “Macrantha” spreads quickly and on occasion will re-bloom later in the season. Be sure to dead head in a timely fashion to control its abundant self seeding nature.

What’s bloomin’ in your garden???

Spring has arrived in Maine and warmer than average temps. have brought us early blossoms!

Japanese Red Maple

Tiny leaves on many trees are beginning to appear.

Cinnamon Fern

Delicate fern heads are emerging and soon will leaf out into graceful fronds.

Magnolia Bud

The fragrantly sweet scent of our  Magnolia tree’s flowers fill the air.

Magnolia Blossom

Pasque flowers are a spring time favorite of which there are many deep rich colors. The urn-shaped flower sits above feathery bracts of delicate spiny greenery and follows up with a most unusual seed head that adds intrigue to the garden. Unfortunately our “Blue Bell” which has dark violet flowers did not survive this past winter, however our wine and white colored varieties are flourishing.

Pulsatilla (Pasque Flower)

White Pasque Flower

Shade-loving Pulmonaria brightens up a dark spot in the garden with its blue and pink flowers and continues to add interest after it blooms with handsome white speckled foliage.

Pulmonaria (Lungwart)

Large bright pink patches of creeping Phlox are spilling over the edges of numerous rock walls and best of all they will re-bloom later in the season.

Phlox (Creeping)

We have two varieties of Primula (Primrose) that we grow in a shady spot in the Rhododendron garden. A carpet of Primula “Alba” blooms first and has bright white pompoms that is quite impressive en masse.

Primula (Alba)

Arabis (Rock Cress)

Pillowy mounds of Arabis grace precious garden spaces. Here it is happy sitting atop one of our stone walls.

Warmer than usual temp. this Spring had us uncovering our garlic patch here in Mid-Coast Maine approx. 2-3 weeks earlier than usual.

A Heavy Mulch Of Straw And Leaves

It seems like it was only last month when we planted our garlic cloves and shared with you our planting techniques this past November.

Carefully Uncovering The Patch

We remove the mulch bedding with care. Tender growth can easily “snap off “.

Tender Growth

A layer of straw if left on the ground to control weeds.

Leaving A Bedding Of Straw

One week later with warm temps. and lots of sun our garlic has greened up.

1 Week Later

Getting A Jump Start

We dug, divided, and stored more Dahlia tubers than ever last fall, remember?  It is a task for the determined and partially insane depending on how many plants you grew and intend to grow each year. In Maine our growing season is certainly not in our favor,  so in order for us to enjoy the amazing blooms of the Dahlias sooner, we will pot up individual tubers indoors and place them in a sunny spot.

We start by bringing all of our stored tubers up from the chilly temps of our cellar on the 1st of March. Each tuber will be checked thoroughly for signs of rot,  and if so we will discard them. This year has proven to be nearly 100% successful. The tubers are in the same form as when we stored them. No rot or shriveling.

Plastic Wrapped Dahlia Tubers

Inspecting For Rot

We will come back to inspect them within 2 weeks to see if any have “eyed up” (signs of life). This example of Dahlia tuber Ken’s Rarity (below), the tuber has advanced beyond the “eye” stage and a shute is ready to burst out of  its wrapping (3 weeks later). Some cultivars eye up quicker than others therefore we will inspect them more regularly.

A Tuber Ready To Pot

Sunny window space is limited so we pot up our tubers in small containers to get as many cultivars started as possible.  After each pot is filled half way with potting soil the tubers are placed with the “eyes” facing up and topped off with additional soil.

Preparing The Potting Medium

Plant Tuber With Eyes Facing Up

Large tubers are cut prior to potting so they will fit in the containers.

Covering The Tuber

All plants are labeled identifying the variety.

Identifying Each Variety

Potted plants are placed wherever there is sun and left untouched,  meaning no water,  until we see growth popping up from the soil.  Premature watering can promote tuber rot. Not good!

A Matter Of Time And Patience

We have potted 260 dahlias to date and will keep a close eye on their progress, stayed tuned.

Harvesting flowers throughout the growing season is twofold. You prevent unwanted self seeds from taking over precious garden space plus you get to preserve the beauty of the flowers all year long by drying them. Now that winter has settled in here in Maine this is a good time to replace tired floral arrangements.

A Sampling Of Our Harvests

We’ve collected over 20 varieties of flowers throughout the growing season and hang them in a cool and dry place.

Chinese Lanterns In The Garden

Chinese Lanterns are traditionally harvested when they are orange but we pick them from when they are green, then gold, straight through until they nearly turn burnt orange.

Ready To Harvest Straw Flowers

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Nigella

Nigella’s “love-in-a-mist” ballon-shaped seed pods with its delicate and lacy greenery is an all time favorite.

Lanterns With Artemisia

Silvery Artemisia harvested before it goes to seed offers flowing textures that brighten the color and enhance the shape of these delicate yet structured papery orange chinese lanterns.

These tired arrangements are in need of refreshing.

Cornucopia Of Flowers

The soft lime green color of the Annabelle Hydrangeas have faded along with the beautiful dark cherry and lime tones of the PeeGees. Hydrangeas are  also harvested in stages to capitalize on all of their varying shades of color.

Spray With some Fading Echinops

Dried flowers add beauty, texture, and color anywhere.  In this example,  a low ceiling did not provide enough room atop kitchen cabinets for baskets or other large decorative items, so a collection of dried flowers from our gardens filled the space nicely.

Dressing Up Cabinets

Even during the coldest and grayest days of our long Maine winters, these dried flowers bring warmth and cheer. They are also a daily reminder of brighter, warmer and longer days.

End Cabinet

Here Lamb’s Ears, Blue Hydrangea, Poppy seed pods, and PeeGees finish off the space above an end cabinet.

Artemisia, Lanterns, and Eucalyptus

It is said that Chinese Lanterns brings good fortune to a home.

Basket Of Flowers

Here a basket of colorful flowers adds life to a bathroom tub surround.

Top Of An Armoire

Bouquets of dried flowers and a basket filled with lanterns take up empty space atop an armoire.

Annabelle, Astilbe, Poppies, Nigella, Strawflowers, And Statice

It is November and time to plant our garlic patch and as mentioned in our harvesting garlic post this past August we are sharing our planting techniques. Growing and planting garlic is simple. We look forward to this event each year because there is nothing like the enjoyment of the flavor and freshness of your own grown garlic.

We start with broadcasting aged manure and organic fertilizer to the area and then till it into the soil.

Tilling The Area

When the soil has been thoroughly tilled the area is graded.

Grading The Soil

Now we are ready to separate the bulbs into individual cloves. We start with our favorite variety Russian Red, this garlic is favored for its ease of peeling and wonderful garlic flavor. We retrieve the box of garlic bulbs from the cellar that we set aside from our summer harvest. The largest cloves are then culled for planting with the smaller ones set aside for cooking. Always remember the largest cloves yield the largest bulbs.

Beautiful Large Bulb Saved For Planting

Separating The Cloves

We place sticks at the end of each planting row and then tie a string between the sticks to keep our planting rows straight.

Planting

We use a round stick to make holes 1-2 inches deep 4-6 inches apart and then followed up with placing the garlic cloves in each hole.When we finish planting the first row of garlic we remove the string to the next row and identify the row’s variety we just planted, in this case Russian Red. The cloves are planted just barely under the surface.

Elephant garlic is another variety we plant.  It is not as easy to peel as Russian Red but has a milder flavor that is enjoyed in salad dressings and other dishes. This clove weighs well over an ounce.

Elephant Garlic

Planting The Cloves

Rows Of Garlic

When all the cloves have been planted we rake soil over each row carefully so as not to pull out the cloves due to there proximity to the surface.

Covering The Rows

When all the rows have been covered we apply a heavy covering of straw to prevent the cloves from heaving during the winter months. We have just over a foot of straw for frost protection.

Applying The Straw

Lastly we place several large pine boughs to keep the straw from blowing away in our strong coastal winds.

Pine Boughs

Here the garlic will stay covered until spring, we will post on our garlic unveiling then.