The Flowers at Skylands

October 2, 2017

The weather here in the Northeast has been rather dry and mild for this time of year.

These last few weeks have also been quite mild up at Skylands, my home on Mount Desert Island in Maine. As many of you know, I love Maine - it's truly a magical place and I always wish I could spend more time there. Cheryl Dulong, who works at Skylands, keeps me updated by sending photographs of the property and the surrounding areas from time to time. She recently sent me this selection of late summer-early autumn images of the flowers growing in my cutting garden. This season, there are many dahlias, hollyhocks and delphiniums - so much color and beauty.

Enjoy these photos from Cheryl.

: Here is an early autumn view of Seal Harbor from my terrace at Skylands.

: My garden at Skylands is blooming with many gorgeous specimens this time of year. This is an amaranth plant. Though it is typically grown as a decorative flower in North America and Europe, it is, in fact, an excellent food crop that is grown in many parts of the world. The amaranth plant is a grain and greens crop plant. The plant develops long flowers, which can be upright or trailing depending on the variety. The flowers are used to produce the amaranth grain, while the leaves can be used as amaranth greens.

: Rudbeckias are easy-to-grow perennials featuring golden, daisylike flowers with black or purple centers, and include the popular black-eyed Susan.

: So many of the dahlias are just bursting with color. Dahlias belong to the Asteraceae family along with daisies and sunflowers. They are generally most hardy in USDA zones 7 through 11.

: Dahlias originated as wildflowers in the high mountain regions of Mexico and Guatemala – that’s why they naturally work well and bloom happily in cooler temperatures. This is Dahlia “Ben Huston” – a clean clear bronze color with excellent substance, depth and form.

: The majority of dahlia species do not produce scented flowers or cultivars, but they are brightly colored to attract pollinating insects. Dahlias come in a rainbow of colors and even range in size, from the giant 10-inch “dinnerplate” blooms to the two-inch lollipop-style pompons. Most varieties grow four to five feet tall.

: This is Dahlia ‘Miss Teagan’. It is pink with inner cream white tones and is an excellent garden and cut flower variety.

: This is Dahlia ‘Kaiser Wilhelm’, first introduced in 1892. Its three-inch flowers have neatly curled petals of soft custard-yellow brushed with burgundy, and a green button eye just like that of an old rose – so pretty.

: Dahlias are colorful spiky flowers which generally bloom from midsummer to first frost, when many other plants are past their best. This beautiful dahlia is called ‘David Digweed’. It is amber bronze, with excellent form and stem.

: In the cold climates of North America, dahlias are known as tuberous-rooted tender perennials, grown from small, brown, biennial tubers planted in the spring.

: Dahlias thrive in rich, well-drained soil. The pH level of should be 6.5 to 7.0, and slightly acidic.

: Dahlias benefit from a low-nitrogen liquid fertilizer such as a 5-10-10 or 10-20-20. Fertilize after sprouting and then every three to four weeks from mid-summer until early autumn – just don’t overfertilize, especially with nitrogen. Doing this could cause small blooms, weak tubers, or even rot.

: There are also many hollyhocks, Alcea rosea, in the garden. Hollyhocks are old garden favorites. The flowers grow on rigid, towering spikes or spires which typically reach about five to eight feet tall and usually do not require staking. Hollyhocks are easy to grow – they need full sun and moist, rich, well drained soil.

: Hollyhocks come in a wide variety of colors, including reds, pinks, whites, and light yellows.

: And of course, the very recognizable sunflower, Helianthus or sunflower L. An annual plant, sunflowers have big, daisy-like flower faces of bright yellow petals, and occasionally red, and brown centers that ripen into heavy heads filled with seeds. It can grow to more than 16-feet tall.

: Delphiniums are perennials grown for their showy spikes of colorful summer flowers in gorgeous shades of blue, pink, white, and purple. They are popular in cottage-style gardens and cutting gardens.

: Panicle hydrangeas, Hydrangea paniculata, are the last of the Hydrangea species to bloom each summer. This particular hydrangea begins flowering around the 4th of July and can make quite a show with its big, cone-shaped panicle flower heads of pure white.

: This is the Chinese lantern, Physalis alkekengi – large, red-orange, inflated seed pods from which the plant gets its common name. These papery pods enclose a fruit that is edible though not very tasty. While the leaves and unripened fruit are poisonous, it’s great for use in dried flower arrangements.

: In the garden, Cheryl spotted many monarch butterfly caterpillars. Just nine to 14 days after hatching from its eggs, a caterpillar will be about two-inches long and fully grown.

: When the caterpillar is full grown it usually leaves the milkweed plant. It crawls, sometimes 20 or 30 feet away, until it finds a safe place to pupate. The caterpillar lays down a silk-like mat and then attaches itself to the mat with its cremaster. The caterpillar allows itself to drop and then hangs there, upside down in a J-shape, for about one full day.

: Here, the chrysalis has hardened to become a beautiful jade green shell. Dramatic changes occur inside the chrysalis. The mouth parts must go from being those required for chewing, what the caterpillar needed to eat milkweed leaves, to what a butterfly will need – a straw-like tongue used for sipping nectar from flowers. Soon, the beautiful flying butterfly will emerge, one of the most amazing insects on earth!