It's late autumn, but have you started thinking about next year's flower garden? Here at my farm, I've planted the first seeds outdoors.
I sow thousands of seeds every year - all those wonderful seeds I enjoy purchasing during my travels, and seeds I order from favorite sources. Some are considered "cool season flowers," or those that can withstand the cooler temperatures when planted in the fall. Their roots take hold and become firmly established before winter and then emerge as new growth once the soil warms in spring. Not long ago I asked my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, to plant an unused cold frame bed with flower seeds such as lupines, foxgloves, and poppies.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
This raised bed behind my main greenhouse was previously used as a cold frame. A cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground that utilizes solar energy and insulation to create a microclimate suitable for growing or overwintering plants. The glass cover made out of old windows broke, but I kept the bed for planting cool season flowers.
I love purchasing all kinds of seeds. I get my seeds from many different sources, such as trusted seed producers, garden shops I visit when traveling, or from friends who share their favorite seed varieties.
Lupines are members of the pea family and can grow up to four feet tall. They are attractive and spiky, and can add color and texture to any flowerbed. I’ve grown lupines for years and they thrive in my garden.
Lupines come in a range of colors from pink and purple to white, yellow, or with some species, even red.
If planting lupines from seed, direct sow in the garden in late fall or early winter for blooms the following spring. One can also sow seeds in the spring four to six weeks before the average last frost date for blooms later in summer.
This is a foxglove plant, Digitalis purpurea. Foxgloves can also be planted in fall when the soil is still moist and workable, which encourages new root growth.
Foxglove flowers grow on stems which may reach up to six feet in height, depending on the variety. The downward-facing, tapered, tubular flowers are spotted inside with dark purple edged in white on the lower lip, which serves as a landing platform for pollinators.
Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy or breadseed poppy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Papaveraceae. It is the species of plant from which both opium and poppy seeds are produced and is also a much-loved ornamental plant in the garden.
Poppies are cool season hardy annuals that prefer full sun.
This is the bluish-green poppy seed pod capsule, which is what’s left on the stem once the flower blooms. When the seed heads turn brown, they are cut and the seeds inside are harvested and saved until they can be planted in the garden the following year.
Poppy seeds are very small. Here, Ryan pours some into his palm before dropping into the soil.
Ryan makes seed furrows all the way down the bed. The furrows are about half an inch deep and about six inches apart.
Next, Ryan sprinkles the seeds in the furrows. The bed was designed for easy reach from both sides.
These lupine seeds are from Vilmorin. Vilmorin was founded as a plant and seed boutique in 1743 by seed expert Claude Geoffroy and her husband Pierre Andrieux, the chief seed supplier and botanist to King Louis XV. I’ve been growing Vilmorin seeds for years.
Lupine seeds are a little bigger than poppy seeds. They are brown and resemble beans.
Here are some of the seeds in the furrow. Hard to see, but they’re there.
These seeds should sprout and establish root systems before the really cold weather.
The bed was already well fertilized. These plants should overwinter nicely in this location protected from wind and where they can receive morning sun.
Ryan rakes over the furrows to ensure all the seeds are covered. He will also give them a good drink. Rain, snow, and condensation should keep the soil moist through the cold season, And then come spring, we should have beautiful flowers growing right here.
Enjoy this encore post from December 15, 2021. And have a very safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.
I am so happy I can grow lots of juicy, nutrient-rich citrus fruits right here at my Bedford, New York farm.
Citrus fruits come in various colors, flavors, shapes, and sizes. Among the most recognizable are oranges and lemons. Less known, the smallest member of the citrus family is the kumquat. I love them all and I find it so satisfying to walk into my greenhouse and see them all thriving. It is actually quite easy to grow citrus indoors as long as it can be kept in a sunny windowsill or in a bright corner of a room. Yesterday my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, picked a bucket full of wonderful fruits.
Enjoy these photos.
My citrus hoop house is located across the carriage road from my vegetable garden not far from my chickens. My gardeners check the citrus house every day, but on this morning, Ryan is also harvesting lots of delicious, juicy fruits. They have been very productive this year.
They will stay in this greenhouse for about seven months. Citrus plants dislike abrupt temperature shifts and need to be protected from chilly drafts and blazing heaters. Dwarf citrus trees require at least eight to 12 hours of full sunshine and good air circulation to thrive.
I have many lemon trees. The Meyer lemon was first introduced to the United States in 1908 by the agricultural explorer, Frank Nicholas Meyer, an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture who collected a sample of the plant on a trip to China. Citrus limon ‘Meyer’ is my favorite lemon because this thin-skinned fruit is much more flavorful than the ordinary store-bought. I love to use them for baking and cooking.
Meyer lemons are also smaller and more round than their regular store-bought cousins.
This is a Citrus hystrix, or makrut lime. It is native to tropical Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The leaves of this tree are often used in Thai cooking for their delicious flavor and fragrance.
This is a Nagami kumquat, Fortunella margarita – the most commonly grown type of kumquat. The tree is small to medium in size with a dense and somewhat fine texture. These trees are quite cold-hardy because of their tendency to go semi-dormant from late fall to early spring. Unlike other citrus fruits, which have thick, pithy rinds, kumquat peel is thin and soft, and perfectly edible.
Calamondin, Citrus mitis, is an acid citrus fruit originating in China. Calamondin is called by many names, including calamondin orange, calamansi, calamandarin, golden lime, and musk orange.
The fruits of the calamondin are small and thin skinned. Its juice can be used like lemon or lime to make refreshing beverages, or to flavor fish and various soups.
These calamondins are still young and green. One calamondin is about 12-calories and like all citrus, packed with vitamin-C.
This is citrus hybrid I purchased in Florida during a recent visit – I love its striped fruit pattern.
And here is another – I always look out for rare and interesting varieties. This fruit has classic yellow skin but bearing vertical stripes of green.
The leaves are also marked with cream and soft green.
Citrus flowers are either solitary or clustered – and one can practically smell their beautiful aroma.
All citrus fruits are members of the genus Citrus and many of them have thorns on their trees. Some of the most common citrus trees to sport thorns are Meyer lemons, most grapefruits and key limes. Thorns provide protection from predators, specifically hungry animals that want to nibble away at the tender leaves and fruit.
Another citrus bearing fruit right now is the Citrus australasica, the Australian finger lime or caviar lime. Australian limes are a species of the plant genus Citrus that are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. They have a minty, citrus aroma with a tangy, sweet, and slightly sour, floral, lemon-lime flavor.
It’s important to store the plants so none of them touch. This prevents a lot of diseases from being transferred specimen to specimen.
Here’s one full bucket of various citrus fruits. I always have enough lemons for whatever I need. I can’t recall the last time I actually bought a lemon.
Citrus sinensis ‘Trovita’ is thin skinned and develops without the excessive heat most oranges need to produce good fruit. The fruit is smaller, juicier, and milder in flavor.
And this is my beautiful Citrus limon ‘Ponderosa’ or ‘The American Wonder Lemon’ – this plant produces a thick mass of highly fragrant flowers, which become tiny lemons. Those lemons get bigger and bigger, often up to five pounds! This ‘Ponderosa’ citrus tree is pretty large, so it is always stored in the front just behind the doors.
Here’s a closeup of one of its fruits – it is bigger than the palm of one’s hand.
Once all the fruits are harvested, they are brought up to my Winter House where they are cleaned and placed into my refrigerator. It is so nice to know I can grow all these wonderful fruits right here at my farm. I only wish I had a bigger greenhouse, so I could grow many, many, many more — maybe one day.
While we're all busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, here's another encore blog you'll enjoy - it was first published in October of 2021.
Here in the Northeast, autumn is a wonderful time to enjoy the changing foliage, but it's also a good opportunity to appreciate the many seeds, berries, and cones that grow on the trees and shrubs.
Many birds and small animals rely on the fall harvest of berries and seeds. They provide calories and crucial nutrients that help them thrive during the colder months when other natural food sources are nonexistent or buried in the snow. They also add beauty to the landscape when most flowers are already gone. Here is a sampling of some of the many seed pods, berries, and cones that are around my Bedford, New York farm.
Enjoy these photos.
Have you ever heard about the beautyberry, Callicarpa? Tiny spring flowers produce clusters of these magenta colored bird berries that remain on these spreading shrubs after the leaves drop.
These shrubs are outside my guest guest house and show off beautiful color this time of year. The fruits become a good food source for many different birds, including mockingbirds, robins, and brown thrashers.
If you follow this blog regularly, you may recall learning about the bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa. We planted two rows along the outsides of the boxwood allee, one on the left and one on the right. The leaves of the bur oak are easy to identify. They are alternate, simple, six to 12 inches long, roughly obovate in shape, with many lobes. When mature, the two middle sinuses nearly reach the midrib dividing the leaf nearly in half.
This is the acorn of the bur oak. The bur oak acorn is very large – macrocarpa is Latin for “big fruit”. The cap of the acorn is called the involuchre and nearly covers the entire nut and is very hairy. As the acorns mature, the cap and seed will turn brownish tan.
This is called a Chinese Scholar tree. The Scholar tree is a deciduous, round-headed tree growing up to 50 feet or taller with a somewhat open look while young.
It has compound leaves with seven to 17 two-inch-long leaflets.
The pods of Scholar trees appear in the fall and look similar to dangling beads.
This tree is an Atlas cedar. I have several planted down behind my chicken coops not far from a stand of tall white pines. Cedrus atlantica, the Atlas cedar, is a distinctive evergreen. Its silvery blue to bluish-green needles are eye-catching in any landscape.
All members of the genus Cedrus produce upright, barrel-shaped cones. These are male cones, which are smaller than the female cones and don’t stay on the tree for very long.
Cornus kousa is a small deciduous tree that can grow up to 40 feet tall. It is in the flowering plant family Cornaceae. Common names include kousa, kousa dogwood, Chinese dogwood, Korean dogwood, and Japanese dogwood. It is native to East Asia including Korea, China and Japan.
This is a fruit of the kousa which is edible. The soft pulp is sweet with a similar flavor to a ripe persimmon but it also has hard seeds inside.
These are the seeds of the magnolia tree. In the fall after the flowers are long gone, Magnolia seed pods, which resemble exotic-looking cones, spread open to reveal bright red berries. Birds, squirrels, and other wildlife love these tasty fruits. Inside the berries are the magnolia seeds.
I am sure many of you recognize the leaves of the ginkgo. The leaves are unusually fan-shaped, up to three inches long, with a petiole that is also up to three inches long. This shape and the elongated petiole cause the foliage to flutter in the slightest breeze.
Here are fallen ginkgo tree fruits. The most noticeable thing about these is their smell. Have you ever smelled one? It is hard to miss, and the stench is quite disagreeable. The outer, nasty smelling pulp is known botanically as sarcotesta. The ginkgo seeds inside contain urushiol, which is the same chemical that causes poison oak, ivy, and sumac, so always wear gloves and protect your skin whenever handling the fruit.
Here is one seed separated from its fruity encasement. It is a single hard-shelled seed enclosing an edible kernel. The kernels are often roasted and used in Asian cuisines.
Catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, is another tree I love – this one located just outside my carport. Mature catalpas can reach heights of 50 feet or more. They are very showy with their white orchid-like flowers in June, huge leaves, and cigar-shaped fruit.
In autumn, mature catalpa seed pods turn brown and often hang on the tree through late fall and into winter.
This is one of my many Stewartia trees. 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. 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.
Stewartias feature stunning bark that exfoliates in strips of gray, orange, and reddish brown once the trunk attains a diameter of two to three inches.
Stewartias produce woody ovoid capsules of seeds each of which has five seed chambers containing up to four seeds.
And here is a rose bush laden with hips. The rose hip or rosehip, is also called the rose haw and rose hep.
Rose hips are the seed pods of roses. They look like small crab apples and are typically red to orange, but ranges from dark purple to black in some species. Rose hips remain on the plant long after rose blooms fade. I hope these photos help you appreciate the seeds, berries, and cones of the trees and shrubs in your own backyards. They are all beautiful in their own right and important food sources for our woodland friends.
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