Letter from the President

Family's History Ties to Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Legacy

Photo Credit: Foss Media

A big winner in the 2013 show!

January 17 is the fast approaching deadline to register for Mass Hort's photography show at the Boston Flower & Garden Show. Don't miss this opportunity to have one of your photographs be part of a first class photography show, seen by thousands of visitors.

As it was last year, this is a juried show. That means that all images must be registered via e-mail by January 17. Once they are organized by class and put into a digital presentation, the images will be judged by a panel of expert photographers. Thirty-six finalists, six in each of six classes, will be chosen, and those lucky finalists will then send in a photograph to be part of the Boston Flower & Garden Show in March.

Last year more than three hundred entries were received. The thirty-six images chosen to be finalists were outstanding and the judges had a hard time deciding on the ultimate winners. The show attracted a lot of attention and visitors expressed their delight at the quality of the photographs.

Don't miss your chance to become a finalist this year!

Click on this link for the photography schedule and information about registering.

http://www.masshort.org/Photography 

For more information or questions, contact Beth Hume at thegardenlady@comcast.net 

Kim Sestak of the Manfield Garden's Club's Miniature Garden from 2013

Have you ever wanted to create a garden for the Flower Show? We are now looking for Miniature Garden Exhibitors, and it's not too late to submit an entry to the 2014 Show.  

Create a romantic garden in miniature on a scale of one inch equal to one foot. The garden is built inside a small box that is approximately 20 inches deep, 34 inches wide, and 30 inches tall. We will provide the box.

Experienced miniature garden exhibitors Debi Hogan and Warren Leach will guide you through the process and answer any questions you may have. Send an email to Debi Hogan at debi.hogran@eathlink.net with your questions or to enter.

Join the Floral Design Competition at the Flower Show

Eden on The Charles

Mass Hort's 2014 Exhibit at the Flower Show

The Boston Marathon

Peter Isberg

Running for Mass Hort

On Patriots Day this April, Massachusetts Horticultural Society will have a new reason to cheer on the runners as they pass through Wellesley. We will be represented by runner Peter Isberg, a first time entrant to the Marathon. Wellesley Selectmen who manage the distribution of Wellesley numbers, saw a good match between Peter's aspiration to support a local charity and Mass Hort's mission to make its gardens better known to the public.

In the summer, Peter's five year old son, Thomas, attends Linx Camp, held at Elm Bank. Peter and his wife, Renee, have run the grounds for several years, and are also frequent visitors to Mass Hort events, including the Festival of Trees. Peter says he was "happily surprised with the coincidence" of being matched with us.  We are too!

Peter has pledged to raise $4,000 for the Society. To further his outreach, he has set up a website through "Crowd Rise". Visit his site at: Crowdrise and donate to his efforts to meet his goal on behalf of the Society.

We've provided a photo of Peter, above. See if you can recognize him as he dashes by on Patriots Day!

Yo-Yo Weather and Your Landscape
By Betty Sanders

 www.BettyonGardening.com.

Sitting in a warm room looking out at our landscape enduring the 9 degree afternoon (up from -17 degrees the night before) and listening to reports of -35 degree wind chill, I can't help but think about what is happening to the plants. Because it was over 50 degrees a few days ago, there's not even a trace of the snow cover which could have protected the roots.

In an ideal winter for plants, it would slowly, but steadily, cool down throughout the fall. The plants would be prepared when the cold temperatures (never below zero, please) finally arrived. Further the root zones would never suffer freezing and thawing because they would rest easily under a winter-long layer of snow.

This year has been the antithesis of that ideal. First we suffered through a dry autumn preventing plants from filling their roots, branches, and for the evergreens, leaves with water. Temperatures have rocketed up into spring-like 50's only days after sitting well below zero. Winds howling at 30 more miles per hour or more have created wind chills as low as 50 degrees below zero, pulling moisture from plants.

So what does this mean for spring?

We will all find out how much damage has been done by the yo-yo weather as March flows into April.  But there are certain things we can be on the lookout for. Any marginally hardy plants (the zone 7 shrub doing well in a sheltered zone 6 site) is not likely to survive. The chaste tree (Vitex) growing in my front yard may die before spring.

The next casualty is likely to be the buds of flowering trees and shrubs. Forsythia and peach buds are both believed to die at -15 degrees. Many other flower buds may be killed as well. While leaf buds are hardier than flower buds, the loss of early leaves is a more serious matter. The plant will need to use previous energy early in the spring to replace leaves that die before they ever open.  

Leaf burn is an early and obvious sign of winter damage. When the plant cannot send enough water up to the leaves, either because the winds are removing it too quickly, or because the roots cannot find enough free water in the frozen ground, the leaves begin to die around the margins and needles die at their tips. Sometimes the entire leaf (or needle) will take on the burned look. That leaf will most likely fall off early in the spring, hopefully to be replaced. Those burned just on the edges should be allowed to remain because the center of the leaf is still capable of creating food for the plant.

An unseen victim of extreme cold can be the plant's xylem. The xylem is the layer of plant cells that transport water and minerals up to the leaves. If the xylem in smaller branches is damaged by the cold, affected branches will be slow to flower or leaf out in the spring, and they may even die.

Without snow cover, the feeder roots (those nearest the surface of the soil) of some plants can be damaged or killed. Some roots dying off is neither unusual nor dangerous to the plant. The question is how many roots have been killed, and you won't know that until growth should begin in the spring.

Most herbaceous plants - the perennials which died down to the ground in the fall - will be much less affected by the cold, unless freezing and thawing of the ground occurs with the roots then being exposed to the cold. Adding extra mulch or evergreen branches can still help.

The good news is the cold weather can also reduce the pest population. Subzero weather will kill some insect egg masses wintering over on trees, such as winter moth. While snow cover can provide protection to voles (who damage lawns) and rabbits (who damage tree and shrub bark), the lack of snow cover makes them vulnerable to larger predators, hawks, foxes and coyotes.

For now, the gardener can only to see whether our terrible winter weather continues or whether Mother Nature will give us a break with an early and gentle spring.

Happy New Year from Adrian Bloom

Bressingham Garden on a Warmer Day
Bressingham's Designer   

 

We in Britain are having gales and floods whilst you in the U.S. are snowed in with extreme low temperatures! I thought it an appropriate time to send you and Mass. Hort. members a Happy New Year and attach an image which taken on a very hot day in August 2007 (97 degrees)  resulted in the planting and development of The Bressingham Garden. Are you in this photo? The Bressingham Garden is now part of the horticultural attraction for members and visitors to Elm Bank. 

January Horticultural Hints

by Betty Sanders

BettyOnGardening.com

 

Garden Journal. Call it a journal or a diary or your notes, use a wire-bound notebook or a fancy journal, but start keeping track of your garden today. What's to record at this time of year? Start with the daily weather, add what you see out the window (birds at the feeder, storm damage from snow, winds, ice or snow plow).  

 

The start of a new year is a great time to begin keeping a garden journal

Next, make note of any areas where an evergreen or woody plant with interesting bark would improve winter interest. As the season goes forward, report on the changes in the garden: buds swelling or plants pushing up the first greenery, for example. Come spring, add notes on areas where you might add new plants. Keep track of soil temperature if you are anxious to start a vegetable garden early.  

 

We all have our own way of doing it, but it helps us remember what we wanted to do, when spring, summer and fall arrive, celebrate our successes and analyze our failures. Start today: it's cold or wet or sunny, and there's a redheaded woodpecker outside your window.

 

Protecting your plants. Since early November the weather has been on a roller coaster; below zero temperatures followed by 40's and 50's. Snow followed by rain, then rain followed by snow. Our New Year's snow is a great insulator if it survives the next round of warmer weather. For plants hardy in our zone, cold temperatures are not a problem, but cold periods followed by warm-ups are.  

The plants face two threats. Frozen ground suddenly thawed will thrust upward, pushing plant roots out of the ground and leaving them exposed in the next cold spell. Prolonged warm spells can convince a plant to start its spring growth. In each case, the result when the cold returns is damage or even death.  

 

The branches from your Christmas tree make excellent bed protection

If you covered your garden beds with a layer of chopped leaves or other mulch in the fall, they are protected from the worst effects of the changing weather. It is not too late to give your plants a better chance by covering them (even over snow) with branches from your Christmas tree. Keeping sun off the bare plants will reduce the effect of weather fluctuations and increase the odds of their survival.     

 

Order your seeds. Whether you are a vegetable gardener or a flower gardener, now is the time to pore over the catalogs and chose the plants you will grow this year. Even if you buy locally, the catalogs can help you put together a list. For rare, hard to find, or new varieties; catalogs may be the only choice. But if you use catalogs from other parts of the country, remember to double-check that anything you plan to grow will be happy in our climate. I buy nearly all my seeds from New England and New York based companies that share our climate.

 

While many leftover seeds from last year will grow this year, some - such as onions, corn, parsnips - do not store well. If you are not certain, put ten seeds from a packet in a wet paper towel. Keep it moist and warm and check to see how many sprout. If it's fewer than seven, buy new.  

 

Resolve to add houseplants.

Many house plants do more than decorate our homes. Every day, they remove pollutants from the air, making the air better to breathe; something that is particularly important now when we are spending more time indoors.  

 

Peace lily (spathiphyllum) is the one plant to have if you have only one. It is easily grown and highly effective at cleaning air of benzene, formaldehyde, xylene, toluene, trichloroethylene and even carbon monoxide. (We have one in almost every room of the house.) Others that rank highly, removing many pollutants, include snake plant (sanseveria), spider plant, areca palms and philodendron.

 

Remember your houseplants are more effective if given a monthly shower in the sink to keep the leaves clean. Wiping the leaves of large plants with a damp cloth will also help to keep your plant a healthy and attractive addition to your home.  

 

You can read more of Betty's Horticultural Hints at www.BettyOnGardening.com

 

City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts

by Catie Marron with photographs by Oberto Gili

(New York: HarperCollins, 2013)

Reviewed by Patrice Todisco

In  her introduction, Marron shares that, unable to find books about city parks frequented on her extensive travels, she set out to create her own, in partnership with photographer Oberto Gili.  To highlight favorite parks and cities, Marron, sought contributors deeply connected to selected spaces to infuse individual essays with personal recollections and insights.  Thus, just as every park has its "own soul" formed by the interaction of nature and environment, each essay has its own perspective framed by the perceptions and memories of its author.  As such it is a mixed lot.

Architect Sir Norman Foster (Grosse Tiergarten, Berlin) begins his essay with an overview of the role city parks play within the context of civic design, followed by a history of the park and how, in his six years working within the city on the Reichstag, the park, a constant presence, both informed and was informed by the project. 

High Line Park, New York, NYPhoto by Patrice Todisco

And then, there are the stories where parks become the repositories of memory, places where personal, and often family, histories are nurtured.  These include essays by Zadie Smith, who explored the Boboli Gardens in Florence with her father; John Banville, who shared precious memories of Iveagh Gardens in Dublin with his teenage daughter and Nicole Krauss walking her dogs at dawn on the long Meadow in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.Amanda Foreman recalls being with her grandmother in Hyde Park, London, a living "chronometer" where the seasonal rituals of daily life provide reassurance that memories are not only "visions but also tethers to a previous self that was not lost, simply changed."

Hyde ParkPhoto by Patrice Todisco

This is not to say that they are not important places, worthy of inclusion (although the essay by Bill Clinton on Dumbarton Oaks is not particularly inspiring), but that the phrase "public places" in the title, while reflecting Marron's assertion that parks are places where one can be alone "in public," implies a place available to all without charge. 

This a large book generously illustrated with color photographs by Oberto Gill, who specializes in shooting interiors and fashion.  Most of the photographs are a full page in size and follow the essay which they illustrate.  Integrating the photos with the text and providing plans would have aided in understanding how individual parks relate to their urban context.

As I read the essays, I found myself going online to learn more about how each park relates to the city in which it is located, as well as how it is managed and maintained.  Given Marron's current position as co-chair of the board of directors of Friends of the High Line, placing city parks within the context of current issues would have added an additional layer of meaning to the book.

City Parks: Public Places, Private Thoughts is worthy of consideration and will appeal to both those who love gardens and those who are passionate about the increasingly complex role city parks play within the ever changing urban landscape.  While the essays reflect individual voices and insights, as a group they speak to the interconnectivity of place and time, and the important role that city parks serve as the setting for richly textured memories.

Patrice Todisco writes about parks, gardens and the public realm at www.landscapenotes.com.