Can it really be the 4th of July?

DIRTIER ....The Newsletter Volume 48     3 July 2013 Dianne B DIANNE  B’s GARDEN  DOs  +  DON’Ts DON’T  be  skeptical. It was with only a shred of belief last year that I ordered two Acanthus ‘White Water’ from the Territorial Seed Company – only because I was ordering tomato plants for Lys and said, “Oh, what the hell... why not?” Even though I've  never had luck with Acanthus, even from the fanciest nursery. Well, you see, you never know. Not only did both plants come up with gusto this season... but they are really white-leaved and you know, I am a sucker for that. DO let the ants crawl all over the peonies and don’t worry. Peonies love ants and vice versa:  my first piece of gardening lore from Steven Hamilton’s grandmother Minnie-Minnie Meyer. DO invest in single petal peonies, for my money they are the most beautiful...  DON’T EVER Plant big Oriental lilies under Japanese maples – it was a lousy idea and those lily stems poking through the otherwise harmonious canopy is just awful... DON’T  fall for an enticing name... After waiting 3 years for this ‘Red Velvet Elvis’ iris to bloom, it’s a dud. This Louisiana Iris definitely does not like New York. DON’T GIVE UP....2 examples I thought this spindly twig of a Chionanthus would never bloom, But here it is. Just as ethereal as an image I’ve tried to emulate for ages. and 2. Back to Acanthus. I've been waiting for bloom on a simple Acanthus mollis for years and years.   I finally have ONE, just one, but it's a great tall muskily colored sexy stalk. Another nice thing is that it was a gift from Rick Bogush of Bridge Gardens It looks even better now than this pix. SNEAK  PREVIEW Not only are the LongHouse Reserve and Watermill Center Benefits the best parties in The Hamptons (and this is according to Bill Cunningham in the New York Times, not me); but they afford the most fantastic opportunity to buy really good, preselected art of many kinds (usually at much better than gallery prices). Due to my inside track in these two wonderful foundations, here is a tiny taste of what will be found at the Benefit Auctions: At LongHouse – White Night – Saturday, July 20 2013 Alice Aycock, a drawing, beautiful Michael Combs, a photograph of creatures he has carved with his own hands Dale Chihuly, a gorgeous glass nest Christo, the iconic wrapped Pont Neuf Dickie Landry, a great photograph Hope Sandrow, one extraordinary feather At The Watermill Center – Devil’s Heaven – Saturday, July 27 2013 Peter Dayton’s fabulous photo transfer table. Alex Prager photograph Andy Warhol Punching Jean Michel Basquiat, a famous photo by Michael Halsband Lovis Dengler, magical photograph Lucy Winton, a very special drawing Warren Neidich exemplary construction If you absolutely cannot make it, not to either Benefit (or have qualms about the ticket prices that start at $500)... there is still an opportunity to exercise your art collecting yearnings: The auctions will both be online: LongHouse as of July 8th at  paddle8.com Check watermillcenter.org  as of July 15 Don't miss out.   A NUT for JAPANESE MAPLES My admiration for these splendid Acers never wanes and I just grow fonder with the leafing out each season... as I madly snip and clip to keep them in my close garden bounds. This long-fingered red leaf came from the great HAH Plant Fair A classic cut-leaf in gold came from a Madoo Conservancy auction   the clever mixing of two classics the exuberant new growth of Full Moon maples, Autumn Moon is better in summer than it is in autumn, and Red Moon (the dark one) is actually Acer palmatumxShiras Johin. Johin means elegant, which is no surprise. The mounding form of this Lion’s Head we first saw at April Gornik and Eric Fischl's and the little burgundy one beneath it is 'Shaina'. It is a real 'dwarf' just like Marders promised.   LET ME SHOW YOU A FEW THINGS This extra black purple German Iris is a real flower that produces dye.  Not some dyed-to-match thing from a corner deli mind you, but the real thing. The mysterious color dribbles out of the flower as it is waning, or, I suppose, it would bleed also if crushed while still  fresh, but who could bear to do that. I imagine this is from whence terms like Royal Purple derived. The falls look even blacker than this, trust me Allium ‘Forelock’ This one’s a treasure...a stand-out...a weirdo just like I like them. It arcs gracefully, like a swan neck, as it is coming into its own; but taller than all the other Alliums which are, you know, stiff as a board. This droopy one is my favorite stage and lasts a few good weeks And then magically when about to burst open it straightens up tall...well over 6 feet... Then turns into a funky brush-top colored like a three layer cake in Lavender over violet iced with a funky  green It's great. And here is a Smoke Bush actually Smoking (Cotinus coggyria) Another of those gardening dreams come true The gigantic palm-shaped leaf Magnolia macrophylla has a huge flower too. Unfortunately you see it here on Day 2... I thought to myself the day before – oh I’ll take a picture tomorrow, but as you see –the big bloom is a fleeting thing And now,  a few views of the Sag Harbor garden of Jon Gilman and Brad Learmoth. This is a self nurtured garden... the palpable difference between it and a paid-for landscape is always so evident: Look at the way they’ve nestled their Monkey Puzzle Tree in a quiet corner The personality of their koi pond (one of their ponds) is apparent in the mix of disparate and eccentric elements ( too imaginative to have been bought yesterday at any price) The wonderful strangeness of their plant choices And then, this single rose   GROUNDCOVER The Continuing Saga of Glamorous Groundcovers There can often be too many ferns of the big thug type that like to take over.... but of the Athyrium species, I think you can never have enough: this is the Japanese fern ‘Ghost’ and tucked in front  is the lacier A. felix-femina 'Victoriae'. Ringing the foreground is ever-useful Lamium and the shiny green leaves are always beautiful Hellebore. The other indispensable fern is Autumn Fern. Oh, it is the last to put out new fronds in spring but hangs on longest through the seriousness of winter, and is the most delicious mutation of coffee colors ever. Here with Solomon’s Seal, Asarum and more hellebore leaves....  the very best groundcover, though most gardeners don't perceive them as such.   ERIC FISCHL'S BAD BOY BOOK Well, it is definitely my current bedside reading Full of artworld anecdotes and artistic metaphors A large crowd gathered at Guild Hall last week to hear Eric talk and get their books signed.  It was there I learned how many people were unaware that you can view his controversial and now iconic bronze sculpture ‘Tumbling Woman’ right here in East Hampton... So don't be in the dark Come into the light where else but at LongHouse Reserve. IN MEMORIAM   The Last Issue of Herbertia + The Dissolution of the International Bulb Society This seems sort of sad.  Even though they were only paper periodicals (and always a little too tropical and/or houseplant-y for me)... I joined because I liked the idea that this society existed at all. Another of gardening’s little quirks.... and now it's gone ~~~~~~~~~~~ but I feel really sad about the  memoriam which follows... Rest In Garden Heaven JOHN  BARHAM He was a great guy and a passionate gardener. I know that all of you who have ever been the recipient of his good-natured gregariousness or have been touched by his bigger-than-life fondness for abundance will join my feeling of melancholy He loved monkeys, and buddhas and linghams and hands and bronze birds and bells, but most of all he loved monkeys in all their various representations. So, his gift of a pair of bronze monkeys are among my most precious treasures. In his garden In my garden   THE ARTIST IN THE GARDENER   Bearded Iris and Tulips have a never-ending palette and unlike a painter saying a work is finished... a garden is never finished.  So, I relish the opportunity to choose a few new iris for next year.... For instance... I love this burlap color Iris (it sort of looks like most of my summer clothes) but it does not harmonize with the pink tree peonies behind it... so I am on a hunt for a rosy-taupey one   And how to expand this combination of a Japanese maple showing off its new leaves, the droopy-bell Allium bulgaricum and this gorgeous Iris named ‘Touch of Mahogany’? And more of this purple-navy blue against the intense darkness of Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ And I know I have always touted Schreiner’s Iris Gardens as my go-to Iris source, but I have a new find. Mt. Pleasant Iris Gardens I have just placed my first order and get this --- they have a beautiful web site but you have to print out the order form fill it in and mail it I am charmed   PRECIOUS  PULPITS Is it Jacks-in-the-Pulpit or Jack-in-the-Pulpits? Either way...more thrilling than ever ‘Black Mambo’ continues to proliferate   and this rare one, Arisaema costatum, is in its second year in my garden and I'm ever so proud because it adorns the backcover of the scholarly Timber Press tome, The Genus Arisaema (for which I paid $79.95 !) see it at the base of the bronze bird...look at that leaf The disappointing note here is Willow Creek Gardens in California, from whence it came, no longer carries these superlative Arisaema because NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE WANTED THEM Can you imagine? and there is nothing to say about this A. candidissima peeping through the Oxalis except that it is divine   4th of JULY VERY GOOD DEAL I realize that most of you will be spending your Holiday weekend splashing, partying, firework watching and eating hotdogs, but there are those of us who do not neglect our gardens no matter what the occassion... So for those of you who need a little incentive in the way of garden accoutrements --- this is your chance at Dianne B Best Our Made in America items are yours at SPECIAL PATRIOTIC PRICES For  4th of July 1/4  Off in other words...25% less The Engraved Monogrammed Steel Shovel you have always wanted, (or wanted to give) 108.75 instead of  $145.00 (Shovel price total does not include $20 heavy shipping fee) The One and Only Dianne B ToolBelt $43.50 instead of $58 (discount applies to Loaded or Empty Tool Belt) The Irreplaceable Zinc Markers $29.25 instead of $ 39 And that, my friends, is an unbelievable bargain And last but not certainly least The Exclusive Dianne B. Peeping Stick $26.25 instead of $35 This offer good until the French Independence Day, July 14 LAST CHANCE Of course, the garden loves to be visited at any time, but this season’s  last Garden Conservancy Open Day for me is Sunday, July 14. The lilies are plumping up and I hope they will be bursting into bloom And there are a few other floriferous havens here and there But you know my garden is not really about flowers, so come to see the layers and patterns and shapes and colors that are in their peak of fashion now...   Visit DianneBGardens Read Our Blog           Visit Our Website          Find Us On Facebook Forward this message to a friend

 

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IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

The Little Bulbs they call them…

and thrilling they are despite their size. 

Of course, it requires some very nimble scampering about to get close enough to them to get a picture, or heaven forbid,

try to sniff the scent.

Here is a breathtaking little fritillaria michailovskyi under a hellebore. Look closely, it is wine red and gold.

And this, an irresistible tiny 1st year hellebore, tenderly Yellow

and A Double!

Yellow is more appealing in Hellebores than in Daffodils but this 

dwarf has plenty pizzzazzzz and could only do it by being yellow...

why it is named after sleepy Rip Van Winkle is beyond me.

One lonely species tulip ‘Persian Pearl’...

precious, isn't it?

One stands-on-its-own Muscari ‘Blue Magic’.

And talk about tiny…only a spring flower nut like me could be enthralled by this little liverwort. Those little things you see growing behind it are new stalks of moss ... that’s how petite is this Hepatica.

But you can forget about this one...

This is the “flower” of a just emerging Asarum.  Totally insignificant except for maybe the one day before the leaf rapidly covers it up...

When you see photos in catalogues of this, believe me....the people that go crazy for these are real fanatics.

It's the Asarum leaves, though, that make up for

the insignificant hidden 'flower'.

Excerpted from DIRTIER. 

This Flying Duck Orchid is a tropical fantasy, but isn’t it great?

And you know I have a weakness for ducks…

Ours are exceedingly hungry these days…as are the geese, seagulls and as always – the swans…as a matter of fact, the swans are more demanding than ever.  We do have the most adorable signs on our lane -- ‘Slow Down for Ducks’ they say, but somehow that doesn’t quite prepare you for a swan commandeering the street.

Now they hang out in the street like a carnival barker saying
“Come on in, hon”….”Give us some food.”

And of course, me and my Nature Trail Committee Girls – we always comply.

Excerpted from the latest issue of DiRTIER.

No April Fool This Year

It is the Real Thing.  Yes, we had a real winter  freezing cold, ice and sleet, and lots of velvety blankety snow (which the garden loves) and ergo… now we are having a Real Spring and it is divine.  Those heartwarming and tempting sprigs and sprouts are not 3 or 5 weeks early, they are deliberate and insistently pushing their way up in their normal cycle..so each arrival is more anticipated and therefore…much more special.  This Easter weekend is the perfect ushering in of the real thing…

 

BLOOMING  BONANZA

This issue of Dirtier was meant to arrive in your in-boxes before Easter, but such were the Wonder Full busy days of recent weeks…in and out of Church, oohing and aahing over the precious images of early spring…that I hope you will have a moment to savor them on this very first April day…

First anemone appeared on March 3^rd, but the rest of them are taking their time, as they should.  Right now there is still only this one…which is odd but endearing.

Right now that same persistent one is looking a little worse for wear 

but still hanging on.

 

Snowdrops are especially loveable when there is a patch of snow and so fulfilling to watch the patches flourish… my one $18 ‘S. Arnott’ planted 2 years ago is now 4…I couldn’t be happier…

The cyclamen now has several flowers.

This crocus is called C. vernus ‘Flower Record’  it is big and blowsy
and early to bloom

More refined is Cricus tommasinianus  ‘Ruby Giant’, though it is neither gem-red or very big… 

Well, here is a comparison…

The smaller sweetheart is Crocus chrysanthus ‘Ladykiller’… which is quite
a poignant name with which to have caressed this tender little beauty.

Most all my bulbs are from Brent and Becky's Bulbs, John Scheepers/van Engelen
and the wonderful Odyssey…

 

The Iris reticulata have already been around for a few weeks.

This one blooms a little later and is noticeably larger and it is a gorgeous shade of really heady rich red wine…not to be confused with the purples and blues at all, though they all look great together. This one ‘J.S. Dijt’ –

Whoever he was he had very good taste…

Popping up unexpectedly from within the heather is especially divine.

 But perhaps, everyone’s favorite remains the sweet Iris histrioidies
‘Katherine Hodjkin’.  She must have been a pretty girl.

Read this entire issue of DiRTIER Here!