I had no idea that Charles Darwin was a great gardener until I began researching the story that ran in today’s paper about the new Darwin exhibit at the NY Botanical Garden. Here’s a link to the article.

Called “Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure,” the four-part exhibit opens on Friday. Same day as the annual Garden Antiques Show and Sale.

Donna Cooke at Cornell-Rockland wants to get the word out about upcoming activities:

Get a free tour of the Demonstration Gardens at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County, 10 Patriot Hills Drive, Stony Point, on Sunday, April 27 at 1 pm.

Children are welcome. Monthly garden tours will be given on the last Sunday of each month at 1 pm, through October. For more information, contact 845-429-7085.

You can also check out the gardens here.

SUNY Rockland is hosting a free lecture on invasive species at 7 pm Wednesday, April 23.

Here’s email from Lisa Saunders at SUNY Rockland:

“Alien Invasion: Invasive Species in the Lower Hudson
Valley” Lecture at SUNY Rockland Community College

“The SUNY Rockland Community College Science Department and the Rockland County Environmental Management Council (EMC) present a lecture on the invasive species that threaten our ecosystems, food systems, economics, and in some instances, human health.

‘The lecture, “Alien Invasion: Invasive Species in the Lower Hudson Valley,” by Katrina R. Shindledecker, Director of Land preservation, Hudson Highlands Land Trust, is the sixth lecture in the RCC Science Lecture Series. Read more of this entry »

The original and still most important garden antiques show in the country opens Friday, April 25 at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and runs through the weekend.

This marks the 16th anniversary of the prestigious Antique Garden Furniture Show and Sale. The show runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. all three days.

Three dozen exhibitors from around the country will be displaying more garden furniture than ever, the Botanical Garden says. Look for matching sets of tables and chairs in cast and wrought iron, paired urns and statue sets, antique fountains and benches, bird cages and botanical prints.

Ornaments in the show date from 1705 to the 1950s.

Animal forms continue to be particularly popular at these sorts of shows. This year, you’ll find eagles, storks, bulldogs, greyhounds, lions, sphinxes and stags.

Local dealers include Barbara Israel Garden Antiques of Katonah, Avant Garden of Pound Ridge and Fleur of Mount Kisco, which is bringing a charming set of four faux bois twig chairs from 1920s France.

Israel, who is considered the premier dealer and authority on garden antiques in the country, will have a forest-themed booth this year with statues of hunters and their prey, including an 1890 composition stone lion from England.

Wind in the Willows from Barbara Israel Garden Antiques in Katonah:

Read more of this entry »

My heucheras are slowly coming back to life after what seems to be a very late spring. I like these easy-care perennials because they hold onto their attractive ruffled foliage well into December — even later in some winters.

Year after year, Terra Nova Nurseries comes out with bigger and brighter heucheras for home gardeners. This spring, gardeners are welcoming a new variety called ‘Southern Comfort’ into their perennial beds. It offers huge cinnamon-peach leaves and a lush growing habit.

Over the course of the seasons, the foliage color changes from cinnamon peach to burnished copper to amber. Creamy white flowers arrive in late summer.

This new variety from Terra Nova, which is based in Canby, Ore., has been bred to do well in humid weather. It’s hardy to USDA Zone 4.

Known more commonly as coral bells or alum root, heucheras have been best friends with shade gardeners for many years. Within a year or two, ‘Southern Comfort’ will form a dense clump that measures 24 inches wide and 14 inches tall.

Heucheras are not particularly fussy about garden soil, but they do need water in periods of drought. They are supposed to be somewhat deer resistant, but I wish someone would tell that to the deer that took most of mine right down to the ground last month.

Look for ‘Southern Comfort’ in the better nurseries and garden centers (or online, of course).

The latest Q&A with our stable of master gardeners.

Q: The grass is green and growing. It’s time to work on the lawn. Someone told me that aerating the lawn is very important and is the solution to compaction. Tell me more, please.

A: Weeds and other pests thrive in lawns where there is excessive soil compaction or buildup of thatch.

Aerators, either foot or gas powered, remove plugs of soil and improve drainage and air movement. Under these conditions, thatch is decomposed more easily by soil anthropods and microbes. Do this once or twice a year.

A stressed lawn is usually suffering from lack of water or fertilizer, excessive compaction and improper mowing.

Removing plugs of soil will enable the water to penetrate easily to the root zone, and oxygen used by plants during respiration will be able to escape from the soil.

Do this when the grass is growing most vigorously, and remove plugs one-fourth to one- half inch apart. Break up the cores and top off with organic dressing of half sand and half compost or manure to one quarter-inch deep.

— Linda Treitel, Larchmont, master gardener with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Westchester

Here’s our latest calendar for gardening-related events in our area. If you can spare time out of your own garden, there are lots of classes, flower shows and plant sales this time of year.

April 19
Tappan: Garden Walk. Rain date: April 26. Free. 11 a.m. Tappan Library, 93 Main St. 845-359-3877.

April 23
Bronx: Garden Walk. Speaker: Scott Canning. Topic: Climate change and planting. Free. 11 a.m. Wave Hill, 675 W. 252 St. 718-549-3200.

April 24
Spring Valley: Perennials: Planning for a Sequence of Bloom. Speaker: Tolly Beck. Free. 7:30 p.m. Finkelstein Memorial Library, 24 Chestnut St. 845-352-5700.

April 25
Chestnut Ridge: Organic Beekeeping Workshop. $185. 4:30-9 p.m. Pfeiffer Center, 260 Hungry Hollow Road. 845-352-5020.

April 26
Bronx: Garden Workshop. Speaker: Laurel Rimmer. Topic: Alpine troughs. Registration. $55. 1 p.m. Wave Hill, 675 W. 252 St. 718-549-3200.

Chestnut Ridge: Organic Beekeeping Workshop. $185. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Pfeiffer Center, 260 Hungry Hollow Road. 845-352-5020.

May 1
Spring Valley: Gardening in the Shade Workshop. Speaker: Tolly Beck, horticulturist and instructor at the New York Botanical Garden. Free. 7:30 p.m. Finkelstein Memorial Library, 24 Chestnut St. 845-352-5700. Read more of this entry »

Just in time for your weekend chore list, here’s the latest Do It Now column from Susan Henry.

Perennials
Weed, weed, weed. It is important to eliminate pests like wild mustard before they go to flower and spread their seeds. Cut back clematis vines. Make sure their roots are shaded and they have a trellis or some other form of support.

Looking for your columbine? They may have perished but spread their seeds elsewhere in the garden. Aquilegias are short lived but prolific.

Here’s columbine in bloom on Wildflower Island in Teatown Reservation, by Peter Carr.

Flowers
If the weather is mild, hardy annual seedlings may be moved to a cold frame to harden off. Close the cover on cold nights — and open it on warm days.

Vegetables
Continue planting onions, carrots, beets, broccoli and lettuce in the garden. Plant potatoes as soon as the soil is warmed and somewhat dried out. Give new seedlings plenty of light. Fertilize with a weak solution. Set out strawberry plants and mulch.

Trees and shrubs
Fertilize and lime fruit trees; finish pruning before bud break. Prune late-blooming hydrangeas. Blue and pink hydrangeas are dependent on the pH of the soil. Alkaline soil produces pink flowers; acidic soil produces blue flowers. White hydrangeas are not affected by soil pH. The new Endless Summer hydrangeas bloom on new and old wood, but it is still a good idea to prune lightly in the spring.

Lawns
Continue cleanup and seeding. The best way to get rid of dandelions is hand digging — a few at a time. It’s good exercise!

Houseplants
Repot oversized plants. Discard any that have become tired or will not survive the summer.

General
Biodynamic sowing is a complex system that takes into consideration the position of the moon, sun and con.

— Susan Henry

I just got email from Brooke Beebe, director of the Native Plant Center, about final details for their big plant sale on May 3. It’s one of the best around.

“NATIVE PLANT CENTER HOSTS 9th ANNUAL WILDFLOWER AND NATIVE PLANT SALE ON MAY 3

“The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a number of special events and programs, will host its 9th annual Wildflower and Native Plant Sale on May 3 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

“Plant lovers will be offered an opportunity to choose from more than 65 varieties of native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees. The Center’s sale will be held, rain or shine, near Parking Lot #1 on the Valhalla campus located at 75 Grasslands Road. There will be tent coverage. Admission is free.

(Echinacea in one of the demonstration gardens at the campus:)

“This year’s sale will be the largest ever, but interested buyers should come early for best selection as there are limited quantities of all varieties. The sale has sold out for the last several years. “After such a long, dreary and chilly winter, I cannot wait to get my hands on these plants,” says a long-time customer. “Knowing how important they are to the ecology of not only my yard but also the whole county makes this not only a plant sale for plant freaks like me, but I feel really good about what I am planting for the earth,” she adds.

“Volunteers for the Plant Sale are needed on April 28 and the week prior to the event. Anyone interested may contact Volunteer Coordinator Beth Roach at Elizabeth.Roach@sunywcc.edu or at 914-606-7876.

(And monarda (bee balm):)

“Plant Sale Chair Carolyn Summers remarks, “Anyone familiar with the delicate, white blossoms of shadbush (Amelanchier) will be dying to try the rare, pale pink form, Rosea. I think it’s the coolest plant! Many other rarities abound this year, including two endangered plants: one the showy, fragrant swamp pink (Helonias bullata) and the other, Betula uber, a naturally dwarf birch recently rediscovered in the mountains of Virginia. This tree and another natural dwarf, chinkapin oak, are perfect for the smaller garden. For people passionate about purple, there is the stunning Baptisia ‘Twilite Prairieblues’, purple milkweed, and a purple-leafed cultivar of the common ninebark shrub called ‘Diablo.’”

“The Native Plant Center is once again offering groundcovers and grasses. Some of the most popular from past years are offered again this year, including meadow anemone, and crested iris. New picks include green-and-gold, a showy groundcover with yellow flowers and wavy hairgrass, a delicate, drought-resistant native grass.

“Shade gardeners can check out the fern selection; four different species will be offered, as well as the rarely offered dewdrop and speckled wood lily. From rain gardens to rock gardens, there are adaptable, easy-care natives to fill every need.

“All the plants that we will sell are nursery propagated. Buyers should be assured that none are collected from the wild,” emphasizes Summers. “Buyers can purchase with a clear conscience.”

“Thanks to Native Plant Center Co-Chair Barbara Fischer, fledgling gardeners at The Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry have potted up our native hibiscus, butterfly weed and asters, as well as two types of annual Black-eyed Susans grown from seed as part of the greenhouse program at the Village. The boys tend the plants all spring, and bring them to the sale.

“The Native Plant Center has teamed up again with the New England Wild Flower Society (NEWFS), the venerable institution based in Massachusetts that runs Garden in the Woods, to offer plants from their expanded nursery operation at Nasami Farms. This partnership allows The Center to offer plants rarely available in the commercial nursery trade.

“The Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College is dedicated to educating people about the importance of wildflowers and native plants of the Northeast. As the first national affiliate of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, the college’s Center is extending the educational and environmental concepts of the Texas Center to this region. It shares information on choosing, growing, and maintaining native plants. The Center’s mission is to educate people about the environmental necessity, economic value, and natural beauty of native plants in the Northeast.

(One of the demonstration gardens on campus:)

“The Lady Bird Johnson Demonstration Garden and the Stone Cottage Garden on the college’s campus in Valhalla contain native species which thrive in the Northeast. There is no better way to learn about and understand these plants than by watching them grow, mature, flower and seed. In addition, The Center offers classes and lectures by native plant experts.

“To quote Lady Bird Johnson, “Whatever its condition, the environment is, after all, a reflection of ourselves, our tastes, our aspirations, our successes, and our failures.” For more information on this and other events, see The Native Plant Center’s web site at www.nativeplantcenter.org or phone 914-606-7870.”

Good for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam. They’re launching a new Turf Love program to teach residents about responsible lawn care.

The workshop will be held from 9 am to noon on Saturday, April 26.

Here’s a link to an earlier post of mine on organic lawn care, timed to the release of Paul Tukey’s “Organic Lawn Care Bible.”

Here’s email from Pat Madigan about the Putnam program:

“Homeowners’ Turf Love
A program for Putnam County homeowners, who want to have lush, healthy lawns, protect water quality in our lakes and streams, save money and spend less time on lawn care.

“Impossible? It’s no miracle . . . It’s Turf Love.
And it’s coming on April 26.

“A dense, green lawn makes your home look better. But did you know that healthy lawns could also reduce about 15% of summer heat before it reaches your house? And that a densely planted lawn actually helps prevent water pollution?

“But can you have a lush, green, dense, healthy lawn if you don’t mow and water and fertilize, use herbicides and pesticides and then mow and water some more? Read more of this entry »