“The first few months of the new year can be the most unpleasant months in the calendar...” Vita Sackville-West
Among northern gardeners, Vita Sackville-West’s sentiment is common. The gardens are dormant, yet the seed and plant catalogs arrive to remind us that spring will return. Winter is a time to reflect and plan ahead for the garden to come. Relax and dream.
A garden is an attempt to make order of the chaos of nature; a fleeting creation full of ephemeral beings. Flowers may last only a day, plants only a season, a gardener hopefully many, and a garden only as long as tended.
Some of the most ephemeral plants are the annuals, which last only one season. But they make up for their short stay by flowering the whole time. Nasturtiums, Tropaeolum majus, have beautiful flowers and leaves and both are edible with a peppery taste. In May, I soak the nasturtium seeds for a few hours before planting to aid in germination. Packets of seeds are available in mixed colors such as jewel mix or Alaska. I find the single colors more satisfying. Empress of India is a bright red; Vesuvius a salmon pink; Moonlight a pale yellow; and Milkmaid almost white.
Morning glories, Ipomoea tricolor, are easy and inexpensive annual vines. Again, soaking the seeds, this time overnight, will break the hard shell and lead to better germination. The best germination occurs at warmer temperatures. Plant early inside or wait until the soil warms up. For years the morning glory, Heavenly Blue, has been my favorite, but I’ve discovered Flying Saucers and now have to grow both. I understand where the name Heavenly Blue comes from as the flowers are like a piece of blue sky brought down to earth. But the name Flying Saucers puzzles me. The flowers are like blue and white batik or tie-dye. Maybe they were named by an aging flower child: tie-dye/1960s/lost in space/flying saucers.
A cousin to morning glories, in the same genus, is the cardinal climber or cypress vine, Ipomoea quamoclit cardinalis. With small trumpet-shaped flowers of a saturated red and handsome palm-like foliage, this vine is a beautiful magnet for hummingbirds and butterflies. Another cousin, Ipomoea lobata, used to be known as Mina lobata. Its blooms are graceful wands of red, cream, and orange and, again, the leaves are attractive, almost like those of a grapevine.
Bachelor buttons or cornflowers, Centaurea cyanus, are one of my all-time favorite flowers. Last year they self-sowed in my garden and I had a small sea of blue. I find that sowing in the garden in the fall and then again in early spring extends the season of blooms. Deadheading will also help, but bachelor buttons are shorter-lived annuals. Consecutive planting may help, or you can accept that they have a short, but sweet, lifespan. The old-fashioned ones are a true blue and I am partial to blue flowers. The black are beautiful, actually a deep, ruby red. I find the pastels less so.
“At no time in the cycle of the seasons do you get the feeling of ‘here we go again’ so strongly as in the winter.” Christopher Lloyd
February 2017
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