An Iowa Garden: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Exploding Whale... EEEEW!

Here's something I'll bet you've never seen before: a whale explosion. Apparently this whale washed up on shore, and was being trucked to a marine research station to examine it, when the heat caused it to swell up and explode. I don't know what amazes me more: these pictures of an exploded whale, or the fact that there is a website devoted entirely to trucking accidents that I lifted them from.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:10 AM 5 comments

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Carefree Garden

A few years ago I planted an area right on the edge of a ravine by our house with a wildflower mix. It's quite interesting the changes its gone through over the years in terms of what grows there, and the stages it goes through each year; it goes from prairie phlox blooming in the spring, to sweet williams blooming now, then to pink coneflowers in the fall... or at least it would go to coneflowers if the deer didn't keep eating them off. Our screen porch looks right over this area, so it's been a nice (and now quite carefree) addition.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:29 AM 6 comments

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Bonus Points For Aging

There seems to be some sort of subtle bonus system for aging in gardeners; as I've gone along, I don't think I'm any smarter, and I certainly don't work harder in the garden, yet many plants that I used to kill regularly, now grow here with abandon. Maybe they've gotten the word that in this garden they sink or swim on their own, so they might as well snap to it. Heucheras used to fade out on a rather regular basis for me; one day I'd just suddenly realize that they were gone (again). Now, I just stick them in any old place, and they take off like cabbages. I suppose the new heucheras saw the old garden labels in my junk pile, from their dead predecessors. fear is a good fertilizer.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:28 AM 7 comments

Friday, June 27, 2008

Turning Over A New Leaf

Pinellia cordata 'Yamazaki' is really a pretty astonishing plant to see growing in the garden here in Iowa; it looks so much like some type of tropical houseplant, with its large (five inches long), thick, waxy leaves that are heavily patterned and deep maroon on the underside. It's sweet-smelling floral structures are a bonus; it is an aroid, cousin to the jack in the pulpits, with a similar inflorescence that arises from the ground on separate stalks amongst the leaves. There aren't too many plants that are six inches tall that can absolutely stop people in their tracks, but this is one of them.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:06 AM 3 comments

Thursday, June 26, 2008

The Impatient Gardener

Patience is not my strong suit. I realize the lack of this virtue is not a good thing in a gardener, as it leads one to look for instant effect by jamming too many plants in a small space. Take this hosta bed; I felt I was being pretty restrained when I only put 23 hostas in a space the size of a closet. I moved two plants out of this bed this spring, but three of four of the others are already disappearing from sight, so I need to move some more. Now, the next issue is figuring out just where I can find an empty spot to move them to.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:09 AM 6 comments

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Accidental Landscaper

I am not a landscaper; you'll find no grand vistas in our garden, no manicured shrubs, no white gardens. What you'll find is a jumble of plants of all kinds from all over the world, jammed in together in a jolly, exuberant, overgrown botanical melange. At the entryway to our garden however, is a large clump of phlox divaricata (woodland phlox), around the base of a three foot tall statue of pan, and the phlox contrasts with a bright yellow euonymous planted right behind. Very nice, and people often comment on my tasteful landscaping in this bed; the trouble is, the phlox was actually growing wild there when I started gardening, and I just left it. I had planned on having the euonymous grow into that whole spot, but whenever deer sneak into the garden, they head right for that bush and chew it off. After getting chewed to the ground half a dozen times, the euonymous has gotten smarter, and stays short, hiding behind the phlox.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:35 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Now Whose Dog Died?

I rather pride myself on having a fragrant garden; starting in early spring with Viburnum carlesii, on through hyacinths, lilacs, azaleas, roses, trumpet lilies and orienpets; climaxing in late summer with dozens of Oriental lilies with their musky, heavy perfume which hangs in the thick August air like a sweet cloud.
Then there's this week; the dragon arum just finally decided to follow through with its smell of impending death, and started folding up its tent. Now today I'm walking down the main path and think a large animal has decided to crawl into the garden to expire. Instead I find the voodoo lily, Sauromatum venosum is in bloom. Note to new gardeners: if you decide to plant one of these oddities DON'T plant it right next to your main garden path!

// posted by IBOY @ 6:30 AM 7 comments

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Lushness Of June

In Iowa it may snow in March; April can be windy and rainy. Even May can turn from blue skies to cold and clouds for days on end. But June... June is warm, sunny days and cool nights; it's a riot of flowers and singing birds and long, still evenings. It is a month of utter, and beautiful lushness.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:48 AM 6 comments

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Strange Bouquet

It happens every year; Liz decides she wants a bouquet of cut flowers for some occasion, so she hands me a vase and asks me to go cut some flowers in the garden. A snap in a one acre garden, right?
Well, let's see... how would a three foot tall dragon arum that smells like rotten meat look in that vase. Well, then how about if I throw in a two inch tall Primula juliae with flowers the size of a piece of confetti, and maybe the plant pictured above; Paris polyphylla, with flowers that look like earrings for a Martian?
Maybe I need to plant some zinnias.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:02 AM 6 comments

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Turtle Time

There is the calendar year, and then there is the natural year... we march to both drums. Early summer here is turtle time, when the painted turtles make the long, slow climb up the hill to lay their eggs in our back yard. They are eagerly watched for (and worried about, when they are late to show). This year, with our cold, wet spring they had been complete no-shows until today, when a rather small one was found digging her nest. I always wonder for how many years turtles have been struggling up the hill to lay their eggs here, and how many little turtles have caught their first view of the world from this spot. I know I'm happy it's turtle time again.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:40 AM 7 comments

What's In A Name?

Once in a while the Linnaean name for a particular species is somewhat of a head scratcher... take Arisaema robustum, a jack in the pulpit from Japan. It's a cool little thing, with a deeply embossed, thick, five part leaf, and the spathe/spadix arises from the base on a short stalk with the spathe (pulpit) being green and white striped.
When I bought this jack I thought from its name (robustum) that it was going to be a hunk. However, compared with the giant, four foot tall and three foot across Asian jacks like speciosum and heterophyllum that I have growing nearby, robustum is rather... small. Also, while several of these other jacks have multiplied nicely, robustum just kind of sits there; no bigger and no smaller. In fact I'm going to move it this fall, because another Japanese jack (sikokianum) is starting to push robustum out of the way. Maybe it needs some steroids?

// posted by IBOY @ 5:13 AM 6 comments

Friday, June 20, 2008

Mowing The Bird Feeder...

As everybody knows, Iowa has been suffering through a truly apocalyptic weather year, with floods, tornadoes, and other assorted calamities that altogether make one feel like we are living under a big bullseye. How wet has it been? One of my little jobs around here is mowing the birdfeeder.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:37 AM 4 comments

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Arisaema Costatum

This jack in the pulpit is native to the lower, wooded slopes of the Himalayas in Tibet and Nepal, so I'm pleased it does well in our garden, for most of the Himalayan jacks are not fond of our summers, tending in July to shrivel up and flop over like a balloon with the air let out of it. I do have this planted in a nice cool (for us), and somewhat moist ravine. I guess I should be doubly pleased that it is hardy here, as it is rated zone 7 for winter hardiness, and the last time I checked we were zone 5. The plant itself is a stately three foot tall; the single large leaf has three leaflets which are thick and deeply ribbed, for that nice tropical banana look. The floral structure is deep maroon red with white stripes, and the coolest part is the long thread hanging down from the jack; the thread reaches all the way to the ground.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:19 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

I Think I'll Keep It

I obtained this Asian jack in the pulpit labeled as Arisaema intermedium, which it isn't; I've never figured out just what species it is (it just might be a form of consanguineum). However, it is already four foot tall, with waxy, thick, tropical-appearing leaves, a long thread hanging down from the spathe (pulpit) almost to the ground, a nicely "snakeskinned" stem, and it has three new little offset plants around the base... whatever it is, I think I'll keep it.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:33 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

I Smelled This Flower So You Don't Have To!

As a public service, I have sniffed this newly opened Dracunculus vulgaris (dragon arum) so you don't need to. Now, as a guy, I am genetically somewhat immune to gross stuff; I remember hearing about a survey taken amongst young boys, asking them what they most remembered about the ancient Egyptians, from studying them in school. To a lad, they said the one thing they remembered was that when the Egyptians were mummifying the dead, they sucked the brains out through the nose with a straw (I suspect this answer was usually followed by a loud "EEEEW!"). However, I must admit, even though I am as a male not repelled by squirmy or foul things, to me the smell of this flower is just... well, awful. After checking it out in the back ravine where it is blooming, I feared the odor was permanently imprinted in my nose, then realized I was just still smelling it clear across the garden , two city blocks away, uphill and upwind. Let's say your Uncle Ralphy was a bit daft; he'd drive around and collect roadkill, which he'd take home with him. After a while he got really difficult, and stopped paying his utility bill because he thought the electricity in the wiring was affecting his brain, so the utility company shut off everything. After a few months of him sitting in the dark with no bath, you had to commit him to a nursing home, and a few months after that he died. Well, when you finally had time you went over to his house to clear things out, and opened up the warm freezer, which turned out to be where he was storing all his roadkill. I believe this plant smells a little worse than that (note the American carrion beetles munching on the spathe).
No thanks are necessary...

// posted by IBOY @ 5:22 AM 8 comments

Monday, June 16, 2008

A Different Mayapple

Podophyllum pleianthum, the Chinese mayapple, has wonderfully shiny leaves a foot across and a pendulous cluster of maroon red flowers with a (cough, cough) interesting fragrance. If more than one clone of this plant is present in the garden, it produces viable seed; a number of babies are popping up around this plant. The seed pods being hidden under the large leaves, I always seem to forget to gather the seed to plant in my nursery bed; I must write myself a note to remember this year.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:19 AM 5 comments

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Spotted Jack In The Garden

Arisaema iyoanum ssp. nakaianum is from Shikoku Province in Japan, a large island off the southeast coast of mainland Japan. This is a particularly unique and unusual Asian jack in the pulpit because the spadix (jack) is somewhat club-like, and prominently spotted... The Spotted Jack.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:45 AM 0 comments

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Forsaken

It has gone on and on; storms and floods and destruction. Today, in the midst of the worst flooding in the history of Iowa, with the sandbag dikes failing by the hour, and bridges being destroyed one by one, the dreaded sound of the tornado sirens sent weary sandbaggers looking for cover, as hail and torrential rain lashed the flooded city... and another storm is coming.

// posted by IBOY @ 3:16 PM 9 comments

Surviving The Flood

When you're a baby groundhog flooded out of your burrow, the world can seem very large and very wet. But, If Mom's there, things will be alright.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:02 AM 9 comments

Friday, June 13, 2008

The Plant That Shouldn't Grow Here...

However, I'm not complaining. Arisaema speciosum is from the Himalayas and most such plants die an ignoble, but quick death in our steambath summers, but this stately (four foot tall) jack in the pulpit has thrived and bloomed here for four years (which, as I recall is forty years in jack in the pulpit years). It is rated zone 7, and even there is thought tricky and usually is grown in greenhouses. So, a tip of my hat to this visitor from the high mountains of India, Nepal, and China... now, pass the corn dogs!

// posted by IBOY @ 6:42 AM 2 comments

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Drowning Of Iowa

Iowa, or much of it, is under water. We've all heard of "One Hundred Year Floods". I had never before heard of a "Five Hundred Year Flood", which is what this is being called. If I were to drive a few blocks down the road to the bottom of our hill, I would drive into the maelstrom in the bottom picture above... and the real flood has not even begun! The Coralville dam, seen at the top on June 10th, is predicted to overflow by five feet of water (over the lower wing dam on the right). Our house is at the top of the wooded hill seen to the right of the dam, about a half mile away. The roads and bridges around us are already closing, the sandbags are breaching... and it's raining again. Pray for Iowa.

(pictures from the Iowa City Press-Citizen of June tenth, for which I thank them)
Press-Citizen

// posted by IBOY @ 12:25 PM 12 comments

Plastic Hostas?

Considering myself to be a reasonably sophisticated gardener, I turn up my nose at all plastic plants (this doesn't really have quite the patrician effect that I desire, my nose having been badly broken twice, so it's quite lacking in any upper crust airs). I think some of my aversion to artificial plants stems from my re-introduction to Iowa fine horticultural practices; I had lived in the Bay area of California for six years before coming back to Iowa, and in that time had come to think that rose bushes the size of a garage, billowing hydrangeas, and front yards looking like small botanical gardens were the norm. I love Iowa; it's a lovely place with lovely people, but let's face it; a sign of garden sophistication here is painting your truck tire planter in the front yard. I was pleased though, with a small, cute brick house just down the street with dark green shutters and rough wooden window boxes filled with red geraniums. The geraniums looked lovely against the dark brick, and they were always in full flower all summer and fall, and every time I passed by I enjoyed the sight. Then we had our first snowfall, and when I drove by, there were the geraniums, still in full flower, and they remained so all winter.
So, while I am not a fan of plastic flowers, could I recommend two real hostas that look and feel as if they were made of plastic? Hosta 'Pathfinder' is at top and 'Fair Maiden' at bottom; by chance they are planed side by side in my garden. They won't look like this next January like the geraniums, but they stay almost unchanged all summer and fall; stiff and crisp and fresh looking; they don't flop all over like many hostas in the heat of summer.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:37 AM 2 comments

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

If I Could Have Just One (Azalea)

I was musing today, while walking around looking at the blooming azaleas, about which azalea I would choose if I could have only one (really about as unthinkable a proposition as having only one slice of pepperoni pizza). However, if I did have to choose, I could do worse than Northern Tri Lights; one of the newer Northern Lights Azaleas bred in Minnesota for extra winter hardiness. In fact Tri Lights is said to be a little less hardy than most of the rest in this series; it is more of a typical Exbury type in its flower. But it still never loses a twig here, is always covered in the spring with beautiful fragrant white and pink flowers, and stays more compact than the Exburys. I could live with it... now limiting me to one slice of pizza is another matter!

// posted by IBOY @ 6:29 AM 6 comments

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Visitor From The Woods

We have three native orchids that grow in our woods (we had four, but the green twayblade seems to have disappeared); the showy orchis is done blooming, nodding pogonia hasn't started, but the puttyroot orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) is now putting up its bare flower stalks, covered with lovely little soft purple and green flowers. The leaves of the puttyroot die back just as the flower stalks arise, so the flower stalks are naked. The leaves re-appear in the fall and persist through the winter (hibernal leaves). The puttyroots have popped up in several flower beds and made themselves right at home; they are welcome visitors from the woods.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:16 AM 7 comments

Monday, June 09, 2008

A Wandering Little Sunbeam

Disporum sessile in its common form is up to two feet tall in nature (perhaps a foot here in our garden), and is an amazingly accomplished spreader. There are however, quite a number of selected, named cultivars that are shorter and cuter, usually with variegated foliage, and they are described as being much less aggressively stoloniferous. I'm not sure what these plant catalog people are smoking; these selected plants are shorter, they're cuter, but they still spread like crazy. Disporum 'Tightwad' in one year has staked out an entire section of a flower bed and is in the process of mugging everything else growing there, then rambling out into the surrounding woods, looking for a fight. Plant Delights opines that while Disporum 'Sunray' does wander a little, they wish it grew faster; my small plant in one year spread two feet in every direction, popping up in the middle of a clump of shooting stars and was nudging an anemone and a toad lily out of the way. I had to rip out these stolons and put an underground plastic barrier around the main clump. Now this spring I received a tiny plant of Disporum 'Awa-no-tsuki' (shown above). This little plant certainly is lovely, with amazing bright yellow foliage with blue-green streaking. Usually plants that are almost all yellow are rather frail and tend to get sun-frazzled here to the point of disappearing altogether in our hot summers. Therefore I gave this wee plant a nice spot nestling under an azalea, with my only concern being that it looked so fragile. Well three weeks out of its tiny pot, it is putting up a new stem a foot away. How does a plant three inches tall and four inches across put out a stolon a foot long? A plastic barrier goes in tomorrow. Awa-no-tsuki; you're cute, you're beautiful, and I'm watching you like a hawk.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:28 AM 5 comments

Sunday, June 08, 2008

EEK... It's A Tour Bus!

Well, it's not everyday when a bus with fifty-five people in it pulls up to your house to tour your garden... in this case, it was the Master Gardeners of Polk County ( from the Des Moines area two hours west of here). Incredibly nice people, and fortunately our seemingly endless rain held off (though more rain is predicted tonight, and there is a strong possibility the nearby dam on the Iowa River will actually overflow in a couple of days and flood Iowa City as it did in 1993). Being wooded, our garden is primarily a spring garden, but I thought I was pretty good in not continually telling people they "really should have been here three weeks ago".
A fine time was had by all; they laughed at my stories and were very kind in not commenting about all of the weeds in the flower beds. As far as I know, they all made it back on the bus, but I'll keep my eyes open the next few days.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:26 AM 7 comments

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Destruction In A Small Town

The day of the tornado on Sunday, May 25th dawned murky and warm here, then in the afternoon the sun partially came out of the mist and it became oppressively humid and still. Towering cumulus clouds were rapidly climbing higher, and with a strong cold front coming, I knew Iowa was in trouble. Suddenly a gusting, drier, and cooler wind sprang up here in Iowa City, and you could just feel all the heat, moisture, and scary atmospheric energy flying to our north, as if a bathtub drain was opened. A half-mile wide F5 tornado had formed in northern Iowa and in a matter of minutes destroyed half of Parkersburg, Iowa, then rumbled straight east to ravage two more towns.
Rebuilding will take a long time and a lot of money. Fortunately family, friends, and neighbors have come to help. Insurance companies... in some cases that's a different matter.

To see the frightening power of the Parkersburg tornado, go to this link:
Tornado.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:11 AM 3 comments

Friday, June 06, 2008

A Whiter Shade Of Pale

Another shooting star that is a real favorite here, is the alba form of our native Dodecatheon meadia (which around here is sometimes called the prairie shooting star, though it more often is found in open woodlands or savannas). Natural stands of shooting stars (which are heartbreakingly rare these days) have plants with flowers that range from lilac to white, so white forms are not rare. There are selected commercially available cultivars that include a reddish purple flower, and plants that are quite large and tall. As mentioned, I have several of these (like Aphrodite), but haven't had them long enough to see their full potential. Shooting stars "go ugly"; that is, when they are going dormant in summer's heat, they look pretty painful, so bigger isn't always better.

// posted by IBOY @ 5:32 AM 7 comments

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Jeffrey's Shooting Star

Dodecatheons are lovely, but they look so exotic and seem so fragile; perhaps partly because they shrivel up as if they were dying in the heat of summer, when in fact they are just going dormant, but also because most of them are from the western part of the country, often from cool, wet alpine meadows. It is therefore surprising to me when I realize that we have five of the fourteen species in our garden; meadia, dentatum, pulchellum, jeffreyi, and alpinum. We also have several selected and named clones of meadia. I should mention that alpinum is at this point only a guest, as we just added it this spting, so it has yet to see one of our winters. The only dodecatheon we've struck out on so far is clevelandii.
Above is Dodecatheon jeffreyi (Jeffrey's shooting star), native to California, up through the Pacific and mountain northwest to Alaska. When its flowers first open, they are perfectly vertical, looking like little darts falling to earth; they then gradually raise up to almost horizontal. It is a lovely thing.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:31 AM 1 comments

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Tiny Treasure

One of the cutest of the hybrid cypripediums in our garden is Cypripedium 'Hank Small', which is a cross between parviflora var. parviflorum (the small-flowered yellow lady's slipper native to North America) and henryi (a small-flowered species from China). Cyp. 'Hank Small' has moody, intensely maroon-purple sepals and a light yellow pouch. When my plant is a little older, I can anticipate two flowers on most plants.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:16 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Sunny Oasis In The Garden

Sunny spots in our wooded garden are few and far between, so all the peonies, iris, and daylilies that I brought with me from our last garden, which was at the top of a sunny hill, have now found themselves with the short end of the garden stick. Any little clearing with more than a half day of sun, is packed to the gills with these plants, looking as if they are all holding their breath.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:56 AM 3 comments

Monday, June 02, 2008

If The Slipper Fits...

Usually the bigger the flower the better, but Cypripedium x andrewsii is an exception. This very small-flowered lady's slipper is a naturally occurring hybrid between the yellow lady's slipper and the white-flowered Cypripedium candidum.

// posted by IBOY @ 7:15 AM 1 comments

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Black Jack Jack

This is a selected clone of our native Arisaema triphyllum, the jack in the pulpit. It is named Black Jack, with leaves that look as if they've been shoeshined with black polish, and also has very dark stripes on the hood (spathe). It comes up quite late, and is on the smallish side (a foot tall), compared to the huge, two to three foot tall regular jack in the pulpits that hang out in our garden. Black Jack was discovered in the wild in Florida, and has been distributed particularly by Plant Delights Nursery. While Black Jack is known to be stoloniferous, and my plant is starting to multiply (see small plantlet at the base) it seems to be a very slow grower, and has just not grown or has completely disappeared for a fair number of gardeners.

// posted by IBOY @ 6:17 AM 2 comments

An Iowa Garden