Ask the master gardeners

Q: Looking around my neighborhood I have noticed that some gardeners cut down their ornamental grasses in late fall. I have always cut my grasses back in the spring. Am I doing something wrong?

A: You are doing nothing wrong at all. By keeping your grasses all winter you are able to enjoy a beautiful distraction in the normally bleak winter months. There are so many grasses from which to choose — small and compact, tall and free flowing, with colors ranging from yellow to red, green, blue and everything in between.

One of my favorite dwarf grasses is Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Little Bunny’ (dwarf fountain grass). Another, Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue” (blue fescue) has powder blue leaves that hold their color all year.

Ornamental grasses are wonderful additions to the landscape as they are generally very hardy, low maintenance and deer resistant.

After they provide your garden with winter interest, give them a good shearing to about 3 to 6 inches in early spring before they begin their new growth. You will soon be rewarded with new vigorous growth.
—  Bonnie Ossman, Nyack master gardener, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland

From Amy Pelletier, Horticulture and Education Coordinator at Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring:

“2009 Schedule of Events for April

“April 4 & 18
Open Saturdays from 10am-5pm

April 14
Guided Garden Tour- One Hour guided tour with staff horticulturists showcasing Spring Bulbs throughout the Garden.
6-7pm
$10/members no charge

April 18 & 19
Trough Making Workshop- Discover the secrets of trough making in a two day workshop that allows participants to learn about the art of trough making while constructing their own trough.
9am-1pm each day
$80/$60 members
Registration required. Please call (845) 265-2000

April 25
3rd Annual Alpine Plant Sale with Alpines Mont Echo, Wrightman Alpines, Evermay Nursery and more. Visitors can shop among Alpine, rare plant, Conifer and trough vendors from all over the East Coast and Canada and can stroll the Spring bulb display throughout the garden.
10am-4pm
$5/members-no charge

April 26
Garden Conservancy Open Day. Open from 10am-5pm.

For more, go to stonecrop.org.

Well, sort of. It sure is cold today. But I found lots of bulbs beginning to emerge in my garden over the weekend, even day lilies and irises.

Snowdrops:

Daffodils just about to bloom. I think these are ‘Tete a tete.’

Tulips:

Read more of this entry »

Here’s a Spring Plant Preview from Garden Center magazine of what you may find in nurseries this spring. Just click on the cover line, Spring Plant Preview on bottom right of the cover, to get to the pages.

From Bedford Audubon:

“As promised, our new Executive Director James Nordgren has hit the ground running. Already, a number of educational programs have started, and more are in the planning phase. Under Jim’s guidance, we’ll expand our community  outreach as exemplified in the attached news release describing several Citizen Science projects at Bylane Farm, Bedford Audubon’s headquarters on Todd Road in Katonah, and elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Helle Raheem
Communications Committee
Bedford Audubon Society
_

Bedford Audubon Society Announces Citizen Science Programs

Concerned about biodiversity loss and water pollution in Westchester and Putnam Counties and wondering what you can do about it? Then please consider helping Bedford Audubon Society in these exciting citizen science projects:

An Amphibian monitoring program is already in full swing. Bedford Audubon volunteers have learned to recognize amphibian calls in order to monitor populations this spring in the Bedford area  as part of NY DEC’s North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP). Please call for possibility of joining this project.

April 25: Water monitoring training, Hilltop Hanover Farm, Yorktown, and May 16: Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Cross River. Since 2004, Bedford Audubon volunteers have been testing area streams for pollution as part of Westchester County’s Citizen Volunteer Monitoring program. Training in water collection procedures is required.  Testing takes place weekly from May to October. Please call for times. Read more of this entry »

From the nonprofit Glynwood Center, which is off Route 301 in Cold Spring; call (845) 265-3338 or go to glynwoodcenter.org:

“Saturday, April 4

“Backyard Fruit Trees
10 am until 3 pm
$65 per person, lunch included

“This workshop, presented by Charles Day, is for anyone who has or would like to have a few fruit trees in their yards. The program will cover all aspects of the Backyard Fruit Tree and will include some hands on pruning work in the Glynwood orchard. Read more of this entry »

Looks like the Obamas will be planting a vegetable garden after all. Here is a link to a story in the NYTimes.

And something from Garden’s Supply Co. and kitchengardeners.org about the push to get them to do it:
“NATIONAL BUZZ AROUND POTENTIAL WHITE HOUSE GARDEN BUILDS:
100,000 PEOPLE SIGNED PETITION TO HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN
Environment, Nation’s Food System and People’s Health Stand to Benefit

”(Scarborough, Maine) -100,000 people have signed a petition asking the Obamas to
replant a Victory Garden at the White House, and recent news reports indicate that they
are about to reap what they sowed.

“For advocates of sustainable and healthy foods, this harvest of good news was as
welcome as the summer’s first red-ripe tomato.  “I’m thrilled for the Obama family and
for all who will be inspired by their example to grow gardens of their own this year,”
said Roger Doiron, founder of the nonprofit Kitchen Gardeners International and leader
of the successful petition campaign, “Eat the View.” Read more of this entry »

Perennials: After the snow melts the warm sun will begin to wake up the perennial bed. Spray deer repellent or Milorganite as soon as the tips of tulips and day lilies appear. Fertilize bulbs when they are up and growing.

Flowers: Ageratum, asters, calendula, salvia and snapdragons can be started from seed inside now.

I realize I never posted this story I wrote for the paper a few weeks ago; it was published the week I was in Miami.

I have since gotten a letter from Barbara Thompson, vp of the Hastings Historical Society, explaining that the Longue Vue house and garden in New Orleans was named after a Long Vue inn/restaurant in a beautiful mansion in Hastings-on-Hudson.

The Andrus Retirement Home now occupies the site.

Apparently, the Sterns, the owners of the New Orleans Long Vue, were engaged in the Hastings Long Vue before their marriage in 1921. They later maintained a home in Scarsdale before moving to New Orleans. Always a local connection, it seems.

And thanks to Bill Noble, director of preservation for the Garden Conservancy, for supplying the photos of how the garden looked just after Katrina and how it looks today. Anyway, here’s my article:

“Thanks to the preservation efforts of the Cold Spring-based Garden Conservancy and a very forgiving, garden-friendly climate, the historic gardens at Longue Vue in New Orleans have come through remarkably well since they were nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Two feet of brackish water sat on most of the 8-acre estate for nearly two weeks after the storm, destroying about 60 percent of the plant life at Longue Vue, a public garden adjacent to the 17th Street Canal.

Read more of this entry »

From Don Dembowski, Chair, Hudson Valley Rock Garden Society:

April 11, 10 AM  Dr. John Lonsdale –Spring Bulbs – Garden Talk with Slides
Lyndhurst Carriage House, 635 South Broadway, Tarrytown
Free

John will discuss the methods he uses to cultivate and propagate a wide variety of spring flowering bulbs in his 1.7 acre USDA zone 6b garden in SE Pennsylvania.

He will describe the siting and natural and artificial methods used to successfully grow a wide range of species and selections, including members of the genera Iris, Crocus, Corydalis, Narcissus, Tulipa, Galanthus, Cyclamen and Erythronium, as well as a number of lesser known bulbs.  He is particularly interested in the cultivation of rare and choice bulbs and in pushing the limits of cultivation of many of these plants.

As part of his presentation, he will demonstrate how many bulbs previously thought to be ungrowable in gardens in this region make excellent and exciting subjects for the garden.

He contributes articles to the publications of a number of societies, lectures widely and maintains a website (www.edgewoodgardens.net) featuring over 6000 images of the garden and plants he grows. “
Talk sponsored by Hudson Valley Rock Garden Society.

Info-odembo45@yahoo.com