Last year, I decided to design a new garden along two sides of the carriage road between my Summer House and my stable. I wanted to add lots of colorful azaleas - a variety of unique specimens in shades of pink, orange, crimson, and white. I already have many azaleas growing and flourishing in this area, but I wanted to expand this azalea grove and add many, many more. We planted at least 350 azaleas down the road - most of them from White's Nursery. And this year, they're blooming magnificently.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
If you follow this blog regularly, you may recall the day we unloaded all these gorgeous azaleas. Many of them came from White’s Nursery in Germantown, Maryland. White’s Nursery specializes in azaleas as well as rhododendrons. It has more than 350 varieties of evergreen azaleas such as Glenn Dale, Bowie Mill, Satsuki, Robin Hill, and many others. In addition, there is a wide selection of deciduous and native azaleas, and some fragrant varieties.
This photo is from last May just as we were starting to plant. Before any planting could be done, my gardeners sorted the plants and arranged them by color and variety.
Earlier this winter, I instructed my outdoor grounds crew to use any old burlap to cover the areas surrounding the azaleas. I wanted to get rid of the grass and have the space entirely mulched to cut down on mowing and to enhance the appearance of the garden.
Holes were cut around the plants.
And then the mulch was placed around each specimen on both sides of the carriage road. I am fortunate to be able to make mulch right here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Here is one section of the grove all mulched and groomed.
And within the last few weeks, all the azaleas have erupted with gorgeous color. Mulch protects Azalea roots and helps keep the soil consistently moist and well-drained.
Here is a beautiful light pink to white azalea. I wanted to keep similar colors together. Azaleas prefer morning sun and afternoon shade, or filtered light. Hot all-day sun can stress the plants and make them more susceptible to pests.
This azalea is one of my mature specimens – it continues to flourish year after year. It is important when planting azaleas to consider the specimen’s mature height. Some azaleas, including native types, can reach towering heights of 20 feet or more. Dwarf azaleas grow two to three feet tall, and many garden azaleas stay four to six feet in height with as wide a spread.
Azaleas are native to several continents including Asia, Europe, and North America. These plants can live for many years, and they continue to grow their entire lives.
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the Ericaceae family, which includes blueberries and mountain laurel. They are also all rhododendrons and members of the genus Rhododendron.
These azaleas look so beautiful grouped together and mulched.
Azaleas are generally healthy, easy to grow plants. Some azaleas bloom as early as March, but most bloom in April and May with blossoms lasting several weeks.
The tube-shaped base of the flower contains a stamen that protrudes from the center. The leaves are often evergreen with wooly undersides.
Azalea flowers can be single, hose-in-hose, double or double hose-in-hose, depending on the number of petals.
I made hundreds of these markers to place around the azaleas to hlep identify them. Some of the varieties we have here include Azalea ‘Dr. Henry Schroeder”, Azalea ‘Fancy Nancy’, Azalea ‘Tradition’, Azalea ‘Delaware Valley White’, Azalea ‘Mattie Baron’, Azalea ‘Stewartstonian’, Azalea ‘Blaauws Pink’, yellow Azalea Narcissiflora, and Azalea ‘Cannon’s Double’.
Azalea petal shapes vary greatly. They range from narrow to triangular to overlapping rounded petals. They can also be flat, wavy or ruffled. Many azaleas have two to three inch flowers and range in a variety of colors from pink to white to purple, red, orange and yellow.
The best time to shop for azaleas is when they are in bloom so you can see their flower colors and forms.
Azaleas have short root systems, so they can easily be transplanted in early spring or early fall. just be careful not to plant too deep, and water thoroughly after transplanting.
Remember, never eat azaleas. Like its cousin the rhododendron, the azalea is a toxic plant, and all parts of the plant are poisonous, including the honey from the flowers.
Azalea Exbury orange is an upright growing deciduous azalea that explodes with giant trusses of vibrant orange flowers in early to mid-May.
I just love how the rich bold colors of azaleas look in the gardens. All the new azaleas are great additions to this area of the farm. The beautiful displays will get even more stunning in the years to come. Remember to stop by White’s Nursery if you’re in Maryland this weekend! You’ll love their offerings… I think I will get some more too!
Spring is a popular time for fairs and sales of all kinds and whenever my busy schedule allows, I always try to catch a few of my favorites.
Yesterday, I attended The New York Botanical Garden's Collectors' Plant Sale and Silent Auction. This event featured hard-to-find trees, shrubs, and plants propagated from NYBG collections, and hand-selected for their rarity, hardiness, and charm. The sale offered something for everyone. It’s a splendid time of year to be at The New York Botanical Garden - not only to enjoy its many fun and interesting events, but to see its stunning horticultural displays. I hope you take the opportunity to visit The NYBG next time you are in the New York City area.
Enjoy these photos.
Everything at The New York Botanical Garden is so meticulously maintained. Located on 250 acres, The NYBG is a living museum, an educational institution, and a plant research and conservation organization. I always enjoy visiting and seeing their stunning displays.
This Collectors’ Plant Sale and Silent Auction event was held at The Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill building. All proceeds from this sale support the Garden’s internationally important programs in horticulture, botanical research, and children’s education – all central to preserving and protecting the world’s flora.
The Garden is an ideal venue for learning about plants and expanding personal botanical collections. The Collectors’ Plant Sale attracted many buyers. Inside, tables are filled with for-sale specimens. NYBG experts were also on-hand to help guests make their selections.
All the plants were grouped together by variety and labeled with its characteristics.
This moth orchid is called Phalaenopsis Star Green Emerald. It features pale-yellow green flowers and a slightly darker lip. These Phalaenopsis orchids are easy-to-grow and are among the most popular for beginning home orchid growers as well as serious collectors.
These are the delicate flowers of Epimedium ‘Raspberry Rhapsody’. I have many Epimediums in my gardens. This one has mauve-rose spurs and pale pink sepals. Its leaves emerge in shades of mahogany-red before turning green in summer.
There were also many plants outside on the back terrace. Some with gorgeous lush foliage and others with colorful blooms.
This is Picea orienetalis ‘Aurea’ – a moderately fast growing, broadly conical, upright selection of Caucasian spruce. It creates an impressive spring show of creamy yellow new growth that darkens to darker green over the course of the season. I loved it.
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Marian’ is a dwarf variety of Hinoki cypress with a slow-growth rate and an irregular and interesting shape. Branches have fan-twisted shoots and bright-green colored scales in autumn and gold-yellow in winter.
This foliage is from a Thuja plicata ‘Whipcord’ – a dense, multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with finely textured, green foliage, and gracefully arching branches.
These beautiful blooms are from Rhododendron ‘Mrs. Nancy Dimple’ – with its large, showy trusses of rose-pink double flowers. It grows to about four to five feet tall and wide.
And this is Rhododendron x calendulaceum ‘Tangerine Delight’ – full of large showy clusters of fragrant orange and peach colored flowers.
This is Cornus kousa ‘Wolf Eyes’ – a kousa dogwood. It features dramatic foliage with distinct ivory margins. The creamy white flowers are followed by bright red fruits in late summer and then displays leaves in shades of pink and red in autumn.
Leucothoe fontanesiana ‘Silver Run’ has white sprays of tiny bell-shaped flowers that bloom in spring.
In front of the Stone Mill building is another collection of sale items – stunning hard-to-find trees.
During refreshments, CEO and The William C. Steere Sr. President of The New York Botanical Garden, Jennifer Bernstein, took to the podium and welcomed everyone to the sale.
The Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill is very historic. It is the oldest existing tobacco manufacturing building in the United States.
The Stone Mill was built around 1840 right next to the Bronx River to supplement an earlier building of the same function.
The schist, or metamorphic rock, that makes up the building’s walls was quarried locally. Behind the structure is this expansive terrace overlooking the river.
On the left is NYBG‘s curator of the Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, Stephen Scanniello, along with Marc Hachadourian, NYBG’s director of the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections and the curator of the orchid collection.
It’s always fun to attend events like this one with friends. Here I am with Christopher Spitzmiller, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, and Memrie Lewis.
After plants are purchased, NYBG staff members transport them to the front of the Stone Mill where they can be picked up as guests leave. It is a very well-organized event.
In the end, I purchased several plants including the Picea orientalis ‘Aurea’, Rhododedron ‘Catawbiense Album’, and Rhododendron prinophyllum ‘Marie Hoffman’. I can’t wait to see these flourish at my farm.
On the way out, I also got a couple Iris pseudata ‘Yarai’. When in bloom, this iris has gorgeous soft peach flowers with deep purple veining. This specimen is a Japanese cross between Iris pseudocorus and Iris ensata. These will look so pretty in my flower garden.
It was a very enjoyable evening at The New York Botanical Garden – please visit the NYBG when you can and check out its web site for upcoming events.
My long and winding pergola is putting on such a colorful and gorgeous display - all the spring flowers are just spectacular this time of year.
Soon after I bought my Bedford, New York farm, I built a long pergola along the carriage road leading up to my home specifically for clematis. Over the years, I've added lots of bulbs and perennials that bloom at different times throughout the season. Right now, the Camassia and alliums are covering the area in an eye-catching palette of purple and blue - it's just stunning.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
It’s amazing what a difference a few weeks make in a spring garden. This is the pergola garden on April 22nd. It’s green and new growth is just beginning – everything around the farm is showing signs of life once again.
One week later on April 28, the foliage of many of the flowers has emerged. This pergola starts across from my perennial flower cutting garden and runs along one side of the carriage road leading to my Winter House. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China – originally used as grape supports in a valley that was going to be dammed and flooded to create a reservoir.
This is the garden yesterday – filled with varying hues of purple and blue – it’s breathtaking.
This palette of colors is a big favorite at the farm – it grows more colorful and vibrant every year. In a few weeks, this border shall transform once again and feature lovely shades of orange.
The most prominent plant right now is the Camassia – it’s blooming profusely and so beautifully.
Camassia leichtlinii caerulea forms clusters of linear strappy foliage around upright racemes.
Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. It is best grown in moist, fertile soil, and full sun.
Camassia also comes in this lighter shade of blue. Both the lighter and darker shades look so good growing together in this garden.
On this, one can see the six-petaled, two-inch, star-shaped flowers.
The flower stalks stand 24 to 30 inches tall and display dozens of florets that open from the bottom up.
Camassia is also known as camas, wild hyacinth, Indian hyacinth, and quamash. The bulbs are winter hardy in zones 4 to 8 and both the plant and the bulbs are resistant to deer and rodents.
In the garden, Camassia blooms in late spring, after the daffodils and just before the peonies and other early summer perennials. Camassia is incredibly valuable since it naturalizes well when left undisturbed in a good spot.
Alliums are often overlooked as one of the best bulbs for constant color throughout the seasons. They come in oval, spherical, or globular flower shapes, blooming in magnificent colors atop tall stems.
An allium flower head is a cluster of individual florets and the flower color may be purple, white, yellow, pink, or blue.
Alliums require full sunlight, and rich, well-draining, and neutral pH soil. This is Allium ‘Ambassador’ – among the tallest and longest blooming. It is intensely purple with tightly compacted globes that may bloom for up to five weeks.
This is Allium aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’, with four to five inch wide violet-purple globes.
Alliums are rabbit-resistant, rodent-resistant, and deer-resistant, but adored by bees, butterflies, and pollinators. They look so beautiful dotting this border.
Spanish Bluebells, Hyacinthoides, are unfussy members of the lily family, and native to Spain and Portugal. They are pretty, inexpensive, and good for cutting – they add such a nice touch of blue.
The boxwood are growing wonderfully every year. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here. These boxwood shrubs were grown from small saplings nurtured in one area of my vegetable garden next to my chicken coops. They’ve grown so much since we planted them five years ago.
Behind the pergola and across the “soccer field,” where my grandson, Truman, loves to play whenever he visits, are six matched standard weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘Pendula’. Weeping hornbeams can grow to be about 50-feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 40-feet. These are very rare and precious trees and I am so happy they continue to grow well here.
I am so proud of this pergola garden. It is among the first one sees when they arrive at the farm, and some of it can also be viewed from my terrace parterre outside my Winter House kitchen. I am looking forward to watching it transform once again later this summer. What flowers are blooming where you live? Share your comments in the section below.
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