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Plants that can Survive Outdoors in West Chester, Pennsylvania March Weather

tete-a-tete miniature daffodil by ndrwfgg

TheGardenLady received this question from someone calling him or herself “Garden Challenged”.

I’m having guests next weekend and would like to put something pretty in the outdoor planters. Any suggestions for something that can survive mid-March in West Chester, PA (outside of Philadelphia)?

Visit your neighborhood plant nurseries. I recommend checking the better nurseries in your area where they will have the more interesting plants. Look only at the plants that the nurseries have sitting in their yard. (Don’t look at any plants that they have growing in their green house or indoors. Plants they keep indoors will not be hardy if you put them outdoors in a planter.)

Any plant the nursery has sitting on their grounds is hardy for your outdoor planter at this time of year. They should have many plants sitting outdoors including some that are flowering like pansies and some spring bulbs like daffodils. If you are worried, you can also ask the nursery workers if the plants have to be taken indoors at night. Nursery people love to talk about plants and help people. They will tell you how to plant the container. If they tell you the plant cannot stay outdoors at night, they usually know what they are talking about- they wouldn’t leave plants outdoors to freeze. They would lose money and they would lose you as a customer. You don’t want any plant that has to be taken indoors at night if you are planting something for an event.

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Make Sure that your Outdoor Furniture is Eco-Friendly

Green Furniture by geoftheref

TheGardenLady enjoys going to various flower shows. She just recently attended the 2012 Philadelphia Flower Show and she wrote about her experience in the last post. When she visits these flower shows she often sees interesting exhibits of furniture made for the outdoors. And this has the TheGardenLady wonder about what wood furniture one should use when one is making furniture for the outdoors. Here are some of the questions that come to TheGardenLady’s mind: Is the wood that is being used to make the furniture eco-friendly? How do we know if we are buying wood that is on an endangered list? Or how should we know if it is best to use oak furniture for the outdoors or pine wood or teak?

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Philadelphia Flower Show 2012

Philadelphia Flower Show 2012 by Knitting Zeal

I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show on Tuesday.

I had not really wanted to attend this year for a few reasons. One is that as much as I love orchids, these are not flowers that grow locally so it would not be much of a learning experience. I have no greenhouse and do not really have room to raise many orchids in my house- I do own about a half dozen. And from some of the advertising I had read, I feared the show was going to be more commercial than usual. But since friends wanted to go to the flower show, I went along.

The major exhibitor of orchids, I believe, is Waldor’s Orchids. I have visited Waldor’s Orchids Nursery in Linwood, NJ, one of the finest orchid nurseries on the East Coast. I don’t believe one can go wrong if you purchase orchids from Waldor’s Orchids. So of course, I was curious to see their orchid exhibit.

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Neomarica (Apostle Plant)

Iris ‘Neomarica’ – Brazilian Walking plant

This morning I was greeted with the first flowering of my Walking Iris plant Neomarica, sometimes called an Apostle plant.  See here.  Neomarica is a genus in the Iris family (Iridaceae) of about 15 species found in Central and South America. It was given the common name Apostle plant because it was believed that 12 leaves were needed before it flowered.

I own Nomarica gracilis, a plant that grows in Brazil, which grows outdoors in plant hardiness zone 8 and warmer. I live in Hardiness zone 6 so it is one of my indoor plants. It is referred to as one of the ” pass along” plants because one rarely sees it for sale in nurseries but is easily passed along to friends and family members. It is a hardy plant with few pests or diseases. The plant has more leaves than flowers with the flower growing at the tip of a leaf. After it blooms, the stem with the flower will bend and form a baby plant that can be started as a new plant. The way it bends and starts new plants makes it seem like it is walking- thus the common name Walking Iris.

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Flowers are Blooming Earlier than Usual – What Does this Mean?

A splash of colour in the gloom by Steve-h

It is obvious on our planet that the weather has changed. The earth is warming. Many parts of the US are seeing flowers in bloom approximately a month earlier than usual.

In my area, the hellebores have been in bloom for months. Snow drops and crocuses are flowering and now the daffodils are open or opening. Pansies are having their winter show. What this will mean for gardeners and farmers will have to be seen.

Gardeners seem to be advised to start planting some early crops already. Peas which were historically planted on St. Patrick’s Day in my temp zone, can be planted now. The Farmers’ Almanac has this year’s calendar for planting.  Besides earlier planting, what the temperature changes will bring will also have to be seen. We may be getting more pests, we may have less water to use on our plants or we may be able to grow bumper crops in areas certain crops were never grown before.

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Organic Fertilizers – Part II

Moo-Nure by OldOnliner

Cow manure is a good all purpose organic manure with a good balance of nutrients. It is lower in Nitrogen than other manures so it doesn’t burn plants. It might have a high salt content because cows are given salt to lick, so don’t use too much at one time. If you have a dairy or beef farm near your property, see if you can get some of their cow manure. Again, ask if it is aged or composted because you should wait at least a month before planting with cow manure. It can take up to a year to compost manures, depending on the climate. Colder, wet climates require more time for the manure to sufficiently decay to be safely used for gardening. Aging or composting manures kills the pathogens in it, making it safe for home gardens. Fresh cow manure is high in E. coli and protozoa that the plants can take up from their roots, or the bacteria can splash on their leaves from watering or rainfall.Composting cow manure involves spreading it into shallow piles and letting it decay.

Read more: Cow Manure for Plants | eHow.com

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A Beautiful Garden in Mmathethe, Botswana

My dear friend Lynn Deutsch, who is a Peace Corps member,  has written another post about a garden she discovered in Mmathethe, Botswana.  You can read her previous post about her horticultural experience in Mmathethe, Botswana here.

I thought you may be interested in looking at some of these garden photos. As I was walking way up to my primary school, I noticed this beautiful garden. I went in, and this woman, Margaret, told me she was from South Africa and came here about a year or so ago when her mother died. The woman doesn’t live close to me, so I don’t know her well…just that when her mom died, she took over her house and felt compelled to keep her mom’s garden going and make it even more beautiful. She spends about 3 hours each day, waking at 5am, to get out before the heat of the day comes. She has several kids, and wants to pass on the art of gardening, and the importance of growing your own veggies to stay healthy.

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Adding a Conservatory or Greenhouse to your Property

conservatory by lert

This GardenLady always dreamed of having a greenhouse. Other terms for the same or similar buildings are hothouse, conservatory or even sunroom.

Historically the concept of having a building that can be used to grow vegetables indoors even during the cold of winter goes back to the Romans. Apparently Tiberius was said to have eaten a cucumber-like vegetable every day. But the first modern greenhouses were built in Italy in the 13th century to keep the exotic plants that explorers brought back from the tropics. From there they spread to other European countries. Today, the Netherlands has many of the largest greenhouses in the world, some of them so vast that they are able to produce millions of vegetables every year. The conservatory at Kew Gardens may be one of the largest conservatories in the world, but I believe that the Eden Project in Cornwall England is the largest in the world.

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Organic Fertilizers – Part I

How much grass…by Kiwilad

TheGardenLady recently attended a talk on Organic Gardening. One of the aspects of the talk presentation was the importance of good soil if you want a good garden. And to get that good soil, good organic fertilizers are needed. Organic fertilizers include animal manures.

First of all, no one recommends using dog or cat manure as fertilizer. You do not want to use the feces of any animal that is a meat eater. “Both dog and cat manure may contain organisms that cause human health problems. ” See here.

So which fertilizers are best?

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Excellent Gardening Lectures

morris in the spring by lisa cee

This is a great time to attend excellent gardening lectures- now before you are busy working in your gardens. The different flower shows host excellent speakers that you can hear free, just for the admission price to the flower show. Don’t fail to check the list of events when you enter the shows so that you can dash over to hear an informative talk while resting your weary feet. I have found these lectures to be under-attended.

Also, many of the Botanical gardens have excellent lecture series. I wish I could attend so many of the interesting sounding lectures that are being given all over the country. It seems like one can get a college-level horticulture or landscape education for a nominal fee by just attending. But sign up early, some of these lectures fill up quickly.

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