High season of grasses

The first one is the Miscanthus sinensis 'Neue Hybriden', already mentioned in the post of August 8. It has already began to turn in green. By the end of the autumn the complete plant will assume a warm yellow color.

The Pennisetum - Persicaria (Polygonum) couple, also mentioned in the post of August 8, is just as beautiful as it was then.

The Miscanthus sinensis 'Ferner Osten', also mentioned there, assumes particularly beautiful colors. (For some other Miscanthus sports see the Bluestem Nurserey.)

In September starts to bloom the Stipa brachytricha as well – in my opinion one of the most attractive grasses.

And finally a composition of some smaller grasses. (The one with the red leaves is a Carex flagellifera, the small green one an Eragrostis spectabilis, while the long one a Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'.)

With the exception of Carex, all of them can be also planted in relatively dry part-shadow.

Gardening with grasses

This is the saison of grasses. Here you are three fantastic pages on grasses.

This picture was shot in the beautiful garden of L'Ortie-Culture in Belgium. Their page is in French, but their pictures speak for themselves.

Concerning grasses, the Knoll Gardens is the nursery number one in Britain. Apart from browsing through their garden pictures, you should also have a look at their catalog. You will have a completely different idea about what grasses are.

I’m convinced that as to the use of grasses in gardening, Piet Oudolf is one of the best garden designers of the world – although he is that in every other aspect, too. In his homepage you can see some dozens of beautiful images on his works.

Work bouquet

I made this photo in the last week, but in the meantime my computer went wrong, so I can upload it just now.

Since when I have been so welloff that I can observe flowers not only in two inches web pictures but in life size in my own garden, every time I want to make some changes, I make a bouquet to see how the candidates look like together. This is also such a “work bouquet”.

Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne', Cimicifuga ramosa 'Atropurpurea', Telekia speciosa, Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'.

I am satisfied with the result, so from next spring they will be the protagonists in the part shade under the walnut tree.

Summer-end yellows

I love summer-end warm yellow colors. However, it is not easy to find a place for them in our garden. According to Gertrude Jekyll, one should keep these warm and vivid yellow colors near to the house.

I also started like this, but even one single warm yellow flower destroyed the harmony of the pink roses. And, in addition, these warm yellow plants usually prefer suns that our garden does not have in abundance. I tried to plant them in part shade but vivid yellows were very disquieting there.

After the failures of long years I had to accept that one cannot put many yellows in our garden.

I renounced those yellows that required much sun, and I managed to find place for some that also live in part shade, contrapuncted with light white flowers and/or grasses, hostas and ferns.

I think I love the final result more than the impossible alternative with many yellows.

Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'

My absolute favorit. If I could only have one perennial, it would be this, I think. I saw it for the first time at Beth Chatto, and I immediately fell in love with it. To protect the one I bought, I purchased a small backpack in London and I took it on the plane in that, together with a couple of more plants.

It had survived that journey without any problem. However, the next spring, when it did not show any sign of life several weeks after the Persicaria amplexicaulis sprouted up, I thought it become frozen during the winter, and I threw it out. I was convinced that such a Japanese wonder must be frost-tender. But no, it belongs to Z5, it is frost-resistant down to -29ºC. And, in contrast to some of its infamous relatives, it is not invasive. (Some other members of its family, like Persicaria amplexicaulis, Persicaria polymorpha and Persicaria virginiana 'Painter's Palette' are not either – but the overall sold Persicaria bistorta runs like the Orient Express, and its blooming period is also short.)

A professional-looking American review wrote that it also grows on clay. At us it is effectively on clay, and it apparently feels well. You have to water it of course, but it does not require as much water as, for example, the Ligularia. At us it is planted in shade. Where it gets more sun, its leaves become more red. It grows 1-1.5 meters high and 1.5-2 meters large. At the end it blooms small white flowers (on the above picture you can see one or two), but it is usually planted for its beautiful leaves. I also regularly put them in bouquets. It is perfect in every aspect. You only have to take care not to throw it out in the springtime by mistake.

Ramblings in Gardening

A View from Federal Twist - Ramblings of a "New American" Gardener is the blog of the New York gardener James Golden written about his own garden and, as the title shows, about his ramblings in other gardens. All the pictures below are of him.

I found his blog by way of someone who came from there to mine. I visited it, and I was absolutely amazed that someone on the other end of the world composed the garden of my dreams.

Although it is not easy for him either. He has to cope with a heavy, wet clay, and he can dedicate time to his own garden only in the weekends.

Our taste is so similar that the second link in his blog is my favorite Canadian nursery specialized in grasses and willows, the Bluestem Nurserey. But this is not the only one among my favorites that I have found at him.

This picture of James recalls my great ideal, the garden of Beth Chatto. (You are invited to visit the page composed with the pictures of the Beth Chatto Gardens on our homepage Hortus Carmeli.)

And as you can predict on the basis of the pictures, I also found on his page the gardener from whom I learned the most besides Beth Chatto, Piet Oudolf. (Check his page by all means! And then, for a further visit, check the page of a Dutch nursery with a lot of beautiful pictures of him. And as his books are absolutely unavailable at us in Hungary, here you are the Timber Press – just now I see that this is also one of James Golden’s keywords – where you can order them. I have no experience with them, I bought my own copies in Britain.)

One of James’ August posts is for example about a work by Piet Oudolf in the Battery Gardens that I have already saved as a link. It was very interesting to see the same through the eyes of James.

And as one can suspect from the large amount of grasses, Noel Kingsbury is also a recurrent guest in James Golden’s blog. I learned a lot from his book written together with Piet Oudolf (Gardening with Grasses, Frances Lincoln 1998). I can recommend it to everybody who wants to do something with grasses. And the world is small: the foreword was written by Beth Chatto. They chose their motto from Ernst Pagel. He is a fantastic German gardener from the former German Democratic Republic. He has no homepage, but you can buy his plants at Gaissmayer. He himself refers to another wonderful German gardener, Karl Foerster, whose plants are also on sale at Gaissmayer. Beth Chatto considers Foerster as her master, while Piet Oudolf simply calls him my hero.

And another gardener from whom I have learned a lot about the meaning of freedom in the garden: Dan Pearson. He is also known to the Hungarian public through his book A modern kertművészet (The art of modern gardens) (Park Könyvkiadó 1999). And a famous name, John Brookes. He was the first English gardener known to me, and now as I already know more about gardening, I see how excellent he is, too.

And finally back to the Old World. On the blog of James Golden there is also a German garden, the Hermanshoff that I knew from the journal of the English Royal Horticultural Society, the Garden. Exactly that blend of sensitivity and thoroughnes that I love so much in German culture.

In the blog Neues von Lindenhof that I found in the last autumn, on October 16, 2007 there was a detailed report with many pictures about Hermanshoff. The blog of Lis is also worth to follow. I love her own garden, too, but she also regularly gives account of various gardens and gardening events. And – just to round the world off – the Gaissmayer nursery, who sell the plants of Ernst Pagel and Karl Foerster, the masters of Beth Chatto, Piet Oudolf and James Golden, regularly participates at these events.

Our Lady of the Assumption

Today we celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

A short walk in the garden on this beautiful day, before the rain arrives.

A quite young Acer palmatum 'Garnet'.

Agastache rupestris, a licorice mint with an apricot colored flower. In contrast to other mints, it does not belong to Z7 but to Z5, thus it is certainly frost-resistant at us, too.

On the left side a brook thistle (Cirsium rivulare), in the middle a Gaura linderheimeri, while the grass in the background is a Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'.

Between the hostas there is a small bamboo that does not spread its rhizomes: Fargesia murieliae 'Bimbo'.

At the foot of the birches a Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Rosea'. A very brave plant. It does not spread its rhizomes and seeds, you do not have to cut its dried flowers, it blooms continuously from July until the frost, and it is extremely hardy. Unfortunately you only find it beautiful in a close sight, so after a long inner struggle I decided to change it for its red flowered sport in the autumn.

Helenia and roses. I don’t know why, but the Helenium is not in mood at us, similarly to the Phlox, although they live their renaissance in Western Europe. And with a good reason. If someone is interested, there is a wonderful German page with a bunch of Helenium and Phlox photos: helenium-pholx.de.

A fabulous Monarda, called Gewitterwolke. Unfortunately this picture does not do justice to its beautiful purple color. Now I’m considering to divide the big one I have in the peasant garden, and to plant it in the middle of the big perennial garden, too. It is on sale at Staudengärtnerei Gaissmayer.

Grasses in bloom

One of my favorites: Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. At us it grows 120/150 cm, twice as large as the you usually find in the catalogs of the nurseries. An absolute surviving champion. And, in contrast to the basic type, it is completely winter-hardy at us. After the autumn bloom I usually cut it back, because it strongly propagates with seeds.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Silberspinne'. According to the Praskac it will grow 80 cm, but in the reality at least 120 cm. I purchased it there in a 9×9 pot, and it grow this high in 4-5 years.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Neue Hybriden'. I bought it in the Szigeti Nursery at least 5-6 years ago. It survives everything and it is so beautiful. It is worth to know that most Miscanthus are very resistant, they live on almost every kind of soil and even with relatively few watering. On good soil and with much watering they are of course more beautiful. And finally it received such a place.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Ferner Osten'. I purchased it in 2001 or 2002 in Vienna, in a nursery in the outskirts of the town. It was a beautiful large specimen. In the rain I came in with it to the Naschmarkt – five minutes before closing still there was everything – and from there to the Westbahnhof. I will never forget it.

Finally, a Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. On the above image it grows on sand, while on the second on an alluvial deposit. In my view it is beautiful on both places.

Panorama

Bouquet, July 25, 2008

More precisely, this is not a “proper bouquet”. I only hastily composed it of various samples of the big perennial garden, so that I might take it with me to the nearby town of Vác and check which hibiscus matches them.

In fact, the Rappai Nursery – the biggest exotic nursery of Hungary – has a stand in the three days Vác Festival on the bank of the Danube. If you want to see their beautiful plants, you do not have to go to Zomba in souther Hungary – it is enough to go as far as Vác.

Butterfly or what...

This little miraculous creature with orange spots on its wings was attracted to the garden by the Phlox. It looks like a butterfly, but I’m not sure it is.

In fact, on its forehead it has a very elegant, curved sucker that is almost as long as the animal itself. It looks very much like a small tropical bird. I am really happy of its visit. The Phlox season just begins, so I hope I will often see it.

A morning – an evening

Due to the several tall trees, the rising and setting sun throws its light in beams of ray over the garden. Thus amost every plant has its own moment, when the light falls exactly on it. Like in a play where every actor stars for some minutes.

The large perennial garden

The upper central part of our garden is a large perennial garden. Here originally there were peach trees and grass. However, the trees could not stand the sandy soil, the humidity and the decrease of the sunlight taken up more and more by the quickly growing large hazel tree, so they died out one after the other. And the grass was so weak that we had to completely resew it four times in ten years.

Finally in 2006 I had enough of this agony, and we decided to replant this part of the garden. With a terrible heartache, we cut out those peach trees covered by complete shadow. I wanted to replace the grass with flowering ground-covering plants.

However, I was longing so much for some wonderful perennials that I decided to include them anyway. And one beautiful flower brings the other with it, and one nice combination the other one.

Finally, beauty won. I converted the complete territory into one large perennial garden. Ground-covering plants remained part of the conception, as I am experimenting both here and in the rest of the garden with low ground-covering plants that would oppress weeds, but would comfortably live together with perennials.