The little maidenhair tree grove in Salvisa , Kentucky . Rose Cooper photo .
I am reading Julian Barnes ’s rollicking and upending book about death , entitledNothing to Be panic-struck Of . Well , I am frightened . I do n’t inhabit on expiry , but the end is near — of this grow season at the very least . We had our first patchy frost a workweek ago .
I am trying desperately to gain a piffling control over reality .
The little gingko grove in Salvisa, Kentucky. Rose Cooper photo.
Some thing are simpler than others .
I ritualize drop garden cleansing by doing nothing .
Little tommies . Crocus tommasinianus . Shutterstock photo .
Little tommies. Crocus tommasinianus. Shutterstock photo.
And then there is the backstory on both garden and spirit .
Bacterial wilting squeeze late zucchinis , and the proverbial hill of beans never number to much .
While the terror of Covid is being downplayed , it continue to clean up steam again .
Chrysogonum ‘Superstar’ (Norman Singer’s form).
I hope the next few month do n’t do us in .
There is a lot at post .
For instance …
Virginia bluebells. Mertensia virginica.
The wellness of the President .
The election .
And uncertainty about the widespread availability of a Covid vaccinum by bound .
Oxford orphanage plant. Kalimeris pinnatifida ‘Hortensis’.
One affair seems certain . The annoying 17 - yr cicala will return to Kentucky sometime in May .
Chrysogonum ‘ Superstar ’ ( Norman Singer ’s shape ) .
cotton plant balls muffled week of afflictive droning cicala racket for me last go - around . The resurrected adult , dormant in the ground for 17 years , chiseled into untoughened new increment of trees and bush . I ’m exit with ear bud and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band to avail preserve saneness next spring .
The littlest tomato sandwich of 2020.
Keep your Kuki up .
I would n’t curb my breathing place on hunting expedition hope , but I have seven plants that I do n’t require to go untimely , or create chaos , for me in 2021 . A few could be standouts for you .
Plant as manyCrocus tommasinanusas you’re able to afford this autumn . Do n’t be shy — a dozen , a hundred or a thousand . They ’re unbeatable . Many of the showier crocus metal money are fodder for squirrel . Not this one . The Ursuline Campus on Lexington Road in Louisville has thousands of lavender - one-sided “ tommies ” in efflorescence every early March . I kiss winter ’s ass goodbye when they spread out . The bulbs are small , and it ’s tricky to figure out the top from the bottom , but it ’s all right to implant them on their sides .
Redwhisker clammyweed. Polansia dodecandra.
Rose keeps beleaguer me to implant more Virginia bluebells(Mertenisa virginica).This require judicious stealing . Every April we walk through a beautiful , species - rich woodland in Prospect , KY that used to be Rose ’s grandmother ’s homeplace . Bluebells have pink buds that turn blue and flower with toothworts , regret windflower , dog - tooth violet and the other , maroon - floweringTrillium erectum . At the family burial site , I devotedly filch a few bluebells each year for planting at home with unwarranted ginger and Mayapples . Virginia Hyacinthoides nonscripta seed mature within a month of bloom and ego - sow around our spectre garden . The Scilla nonscripta soon go dormant , once the temperature inflame up into the high 80 . I ’m not ready for dormancy myself until we polish off the 90s .
Virginia Campanula rotundifolia . Mertensia virginica .
Chrysogonum virginianum‘Superstar ’ ( Norman Singer ’s flesh ) is my go - to gullible and gold . Some of you may wonder what ’s wrong withChrysogonum‘Allen Bush ? ’ Let me be honest . It ’s a clunker . I do n’t have the brand name name acknowledgement that POTUS has , but like many Trump - brand businesses , the cultivar ‘ Allen Bush ’ is overvalued . It was , however , kind of nurseryman Andre Viette to signalize my namesake from another cultivar he originate , named for his boy , ‘ Mark Viette . ’ While both are skilful groundcovers , they do n’t have dark fleeceable foliation or the proliferation of perky golden bloom of youth like ‘ Superstar . ’
The historic, hermaphroditic Gingko at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, KY.
The Oxford orphans' asylum industrial plant is a perennial in want of a household . Please adopt this indestructible , long - blooming aster congener . Your benignity will be reinforce with an teemingness of semi - duple - snowy blossoms that start in June and do n’t close down until frost . I was given a piece in 1982 by the legendary gardener and author Elizabeth Lawrence . She called itAsteromea mongolica . I could notice no justification given for the name . Eventually , Pamela Harper , writer and gardener , figured out that the proper name was the equally clunky - soundingKalimeris pinnatifida‘Hortensis . ’ So be it . If you do n’t consider this Allen ’s recommendation , take it from another Allen — Allen Armitage : “ If nurseryman are disoriented about what plant to commence with , I commonly urge this one . ”
Oxford orphanage plant life . Kalimeris pinnatifida ‘ Hortensis ’ .
I think the heirloom ‘ Mr. Stripey ’ would steal the serious love apple honors in our vegetable garden this year . What a o.k. slicer he was , but ‘ Black Cherry ’ tomato plant steal the show . Jamie Dockery gave me small plugs of this delicious heirloom and a fresh scandalmongering fruited selection , aptly key out , ‘ Chef ’s Choice . ’ A late freeze in mid - May knocked out any hope for my first Lycopersicon esculentum sandwich by July 4th , but ‘ Black Cherry ’ ripened six hebdomad after planting new plugs . I was thrilled with my first diminutive tomato sandwich of the season . From then on , I would graze on these racy fruit every time I walked by . I had to grab them fast . The raccoons took a radiance to them , too .
The littlest tomato plant sandwich of 2020 .
I may be heaped with scorn for recommending a native yearbook call the Redwhisker clammyweed . I can take the heat . Sarah Owens , gardener , artist , instructor , world traveler , baker and James Beard award - bring home the bacon author , feed me seeds several years ago . Sarah consider it was an perfect , wild cleome species . So did I. Like cleomes , this annual flower non - stop and ego - sowed adventurously . ThePictureThisphone app brought a bit of clarity to the true identification . Polansia dodecandra , an 18 ” magniloquent species , is native to a panoptic belt of North America . It blooms all season long . I pinch the old blooms , and many of the pod , to encourage new blooms and to forestall a flood of clammyweeds the next year .
Redwhisker clammyweed . Polansia dodecandra .
There are only a few weeks leave alone before the gingko leaves will track the ground like a gilded gown in a single day . I pay homage every October to an sinful gender - bendinghermaphroditic gingkoin Louisville ’s Cave Hill Cemetery . Ash tree have taken a pounding from emerald ash borer . Walnut pestilence is out there , while laurel wilt endanger sassafras and spice George Bush , butGingko bilobahas stared down atomic bomb calorimeter and will be sturdy to take down . I ’m excited about our new , little gingko grove , but Rose is impatient . She asks , “ How long will it take before your grafted ‘ Autumn Gold ’ buggy whips amount to anything ? ” I respond , “ Baby , you ca n’t hurry love . ”
The historical , hermaphroditic Gingko at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville , KY .
I hope your inflammation for gardening continues to expand in 2021 as it did last leaping . Do n’t be frightened , as Julian Barnes would say — at least not about this .
tell apart me what vegetables , yearbook , perennials , bulbs , trees or shrubs will guarantee your felicity in 2021 .
