My Stewartia Garden continues to thrive at my Bedford, New York farm.
My Stewartia Garden is located across from my long clematis pergola. The space was once planted with rows and rows of ferns and lilies. Many still grow here, but the garden is also filled with beautiful Stewartia trees, Japanese maples, Cotinus, and lush plants including Epimediums, Syneilesis, Thalictrum, and more.
Enjoy these photos.
Just beyond my charming Basket House and behind my Tenant House where my daughter and grandchildren stay when they visit, is a garden filled with lush perennials.
If you didn’t already guess, I named this garden the Stewartia garden because I planted several Stewartia trees in this space. Stewartia is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae, native to Japan and Korea. All varieties are slow-growing, all-season performers that show off fresh bright green leaves in spring, white flowers resembling single camellias in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. Some of the varieties in this garden include: Stewartia gemmata, Stewartia x. henryae, Stewartia pseudocamellia ‘Ballet’, Stewartia monadelpha, Stewartia rostrata, and Stewartia henry ‘Skyrocket’. And do you know why I love Stewartia trees? Well, Stewart is my last name after all. However, there is no relation. “Stewartia” is named for Scottish nobleman and botanist, John Stuart, who had imported the plant to his personal London garden. He later served as British prime minister from 1762 to 1763.
The tiger lilies are just beginning to bloom. Native to China and Japan, Tiger lilies, Lilium lancifolium, bloom in mid to late summer, are easy to grow and come back year after year. I also have them across the carriage road in my long and winding pergola garden.
Hostas have easy care requirements which make them ideal for many gardens. I have them all around the farm. Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name, giboshi. They are native to northeast Asia and include hundreds of different cultivars.
When blooming, osta flower rise high about the foliage. The flowers feature spikes of blossoms that look like lilies, in shades of lavender or white. The bell-shaped blooms can be showy and exceptionally fragrant.
Some of the ferns in this area include the Japanese painted ferns – beautiful mounds of dramatic foliage with luminescent blue-green fronds and dark central ribs that fade to silver at the edges.
In contrast are the ostrich ferns – a light green clump-forming, upright to arching, rhizomatous, deciduous fern which typically grows up to six feet tall.
Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.
Last year, I decided it was time to create some new footpaths around my Stewartia garden. I used large flagstone pavers placed several inches apart and surrounded with mulch. I have many stone materials already here at the farm and knew these would be perfect for this space.
These are the dainty leaves of Thalictrum, or Meadow Rue – a robust, upright, clump-forming perennial featuring clouds of lavender mauve flowers later in the season.
This is Syneilesis palmata. Over time, these plants form a sizeable patch of green umbrella-shaped leaves. Mature foliage can be more than a foot across with deeply toothed, narrow leaves – it is really an interesting plant.
I love Japanese maples and have many here at the farm. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple tree is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape. Some of the Japanese maples in this garden include Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Crimson Queen’, Acer palmatum ‘Shaina’, and Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Red Dragon’.
This is Pulmonaria, or lungwort – a beautiful, versatile, hardy plant. Lungworts are evergreen or herbaceous perennials that form clumps or rosettes. The spotted oval leaves were thought to symbolize diseased, ulcerated lungs, and so were once used to treat pulmonary infections.
The garden is edged on one side by the towering bald cypress trees, Taxodium distichum – a deciduous conifer. Though the bald cypress is native to swampy areas, it is also able to withstand dry, sunny weather and is hardy in USDA climate zones 5 through 10.
One of the most interesting characteristics of the bald cypress is its knees. Known by the scientific name pneumatophores, these growths are specialized root structures that grow vertically above the moist soil near the tree. It is believed that these structures aid the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange in the roots. Looking carefully at the ground, one can see many of these unique knees.
The delicate puffs from the Cotinus can be seen from afar. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs.
Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
Epimediums are long-lived and easy to grow and have such attractive and varying foliage. Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, and horny goat weed, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae.
I also have several Cotoneaster in one corner of the garden. Cotoneaster is a vigorous, dense, evergreen shrub with soft arching stems studded with leathery, glossy, rounded, dark green leaves. These plants work well for a low hedge – I only wish I had planted more.
Asarum europaeum, or European Wild Ginger, is a slowly spreading ground cover that is primarily grown for its glossy, leathery, heart-shaped, dark green leaves.
Here’s another view of the handsome stand of bald cypress. All my gardens continue to be works in progress. Every year, they grow more beautiful and more lush.
Another outdoor chore is checked off the list - my crew is getting so much done.
My Bedford, New York farm sits on 153 acres of gardens, pastures, and woodlands. Every year, I work hard to design new garden spaces and enhance existing ones. I take into consideration a plant's growing needs and mature size and plant accordingly. Down by my tennis court, I already have a collection of wonderful white hydrangeas growing on one side. I decided the area would look even better with hydrangeas planted around the entire perimeter... and it does.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
My tennis court in Bedford is tucked away in a far corner of my farm. The court is surrounded by the same type of fencing as my perennial flower garden. And like all the other structures on the farm, it is painted Bedford gray.
The surface of this court is gray clay, a wonderful surface to play on.
On one side of the court behind and next to the observation pergola, is a selection of beautiful white hydrangeas including Pee Gee hydrangeas.
Recently, I instructed my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew to plant more white hydrangeas around the entire court. Here, my foreman Chhiring Sherpa removes the sod from the areas to be planted.
Two foot wide strips of sod are removed and rolled up in sections for easy carrying. It may not look it, but a section of sod can weigh between 15 and 30 pounds per piece, depending on the moisture content of the soil.
Cesar carefully loads the bucket of our tractor with sod, which is always repurposed elsewhere on the farm when possible.
The flowers start out lime green, then turn white in the summer and eventually to an antique white in the fall.
Along the strip where the sod was removed, holes are dug in an assembly line fashion that is quick and efficient.
Fertilizer is sprinkled generously inside the hole and on the surrounding soil.
A good fertilizer made especially for the type of plant is used. This Scotts Miracle-Gro Evergreen, Flowering Tree & Shrub fertilizer is fortified to help with transplant survival, increased water and nutrient absorption, and to encourage vigorous root growth and lush foliage.
Chhiring scarifies the root ball to stimulate growth.
Chhiring uses a Hori Hori knife, one of our favorite tools for the garden. It’s great for digging holes for transplants and bulbs, dividing plants, pruning, weeding, and so much more.
And then Chhiring plants the hydrangea similar to the way it was planted in the pot. Hydrangeas have shallow root systems that spread out broadly near the surface of the soil. Planting them too deep can bury the stems, which can promote root rot.
The hole is backfilled with the existing soil as well as new composted soil made right here at my farm.
I also added a selection of First Editions Diamond Rouge hydrangeas, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Rendia’, which is a small, bushy, deciduous shrub that produces large, rounded flower heads that change color over the season – creamy white in summer, changing to pink later in the season, and then wine red in fall.
Each plant is positioned thoughtfully before it is planted – the best side always faces out.
After everything is planted, Chhiring gives each specimen a good drink.
The entire perimeter is then dressed with mulch also made right here at the farm. It is delivered from my compost yard on our trusted Kubota M4-071 tractor bucket and then spread in an even two to three inch layer.
Chhiring is careful not to bury the plants too deeply.
What do you think? I am very pleased with how it all turned out. I am sure they will flourish here by my tennis court where they will get full sun.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, it's time to "prune after bloom" the roses - meaning deadhead and trim all the faded flowers.
There are different pruning strategies for different times of the year, but overall the goals are the same - to keep the plants looking fresh and open, promote new growth and re-flowering, and to improve the overall health of the plant. Deadheading is one of the easiest forms of pruning - as blooms fade, just cut off the flower stems below the spent blossoms and above the first set of full, healthy leaves. Yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and our NYBG intern, Matthew Orego, pruned, groomed, fed, and watered the rose garden behind my greenhouse.
Enjoy these photos.
Just a few weeks ago, this garden looked like this – full of fragrant blooms. I planted more than 120 roses in this space and they’re all doing very well because of the nutritious soil and diligent maintenance.
Here, I have floribunda roses, hybrid tea roses, and shrub roses – mostly all soft creamy pink to lavender and yellow colors.
Look at the gorgeous, fragrant blooms – some were as big as the palm of one’s hand.
Hybrid tea roses, also called large-flowered roses, usually have only one flower per stem and tend to flower in three flushes from summer to late autumn. Floribundas or cluster-flowered roses have many flowers per stem and tend to repeat-flower continuously from summer to late autumn.
A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae. There are more than a hundred species and thousands of cultivars.
The leaves of the rose are described as “pinnate” – meaning there is a central rib and then leaflets off to each side, with one terminal leaflet. Rose leaves can have anywhere from two to 13 leaflets.
And rose stems are often armed with sharp prickles – they aren’t thorns at all. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
And depending on the variety, some can have more prickles than others.
Now, most of the blooms are faded, leaving plants looking more like this – a clear sign it is time to “prune after bloom.”
It’s time to prune them lightly and selectively to shape the bushes and control any unwanted growth. Ryan removes old and dying flowers from the plant, which encourages the shrub to flower again sooner by diverting the plant’s energy from seed head to more development.
Ryan also removes any suckers which have grown. Rose suckers are unauthorized branches that grow from the rootstock of a rose plant, rather than the flowering part. Ryan snips the sucker from the base.
Rose suckers can have different colored stems and less prickles than the main plants. Notice the reddish tint to this branch.
And when pruning, always cut at a 45-degree angle to help water from sprinklers or rain to run off of the shoot and avoid bacteria or fungi from growing.
As Ryan prunes, Matthew follows, raking the cut rose stems from each row.
Next, Ryan feeds the roses. On this day, Ryan sprinkles cup fulls of Epsom salt, a mineral compound of magnesium sulfate, which helps to improve nutrient uptake, bloom quality, and disease resistance. It also helps produce more lush, green leaves and more roses.
Reddish new growth on roses is normal for many varieties, including hybrid tea roses. The leaves have high levels of anthocyanins, a pigment molecule that causes red foliage in developing plants.
When the leaves are young, chlorophyll levels are lower. They increase as the leaves grow and develop under sunlight.
As the plant continues to grow, the leaves change color and become more green.
Finally, the entire garden gets a good watering. It is important to give roses one to two inches of water each week from early spring through fall and more when it is very hot and dry.
Around the perimeter, I planted boxwood I nurtured from bare-root cuttings. This rose garden looks great – pruned and groomed. Keeping up with plant maintenance will keep them healthy, prevent disease, and encourage beautiful, abundant flowering.
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