Cool Days, Long Blooms
Photographs by Corey Ullman and Andrew Bunting.
In the Garden with Andrew
This spring has been one of the coolest in memory. Cool days without excessively cold nights have extended the blooming seasons for many plants. These include Swarthmore’s profusion of magnolia trees, especially the incredibly floriferous saucer magnolia, Magnolia x soulangeana. Some saucer magnolias have bloomed for three to four weeks this spring! Today, I walked around the Scott Arboretum and saw some of the latest magnolias still in flower, including ‘Judy Zuk,’ with its intriguing suffusion of orange, pink, and yellow flowers and fruity fragrance, and one of my favorites, the pink ‘Coral Lake.’
Likewise, tulip season has seldom been better. In warm springs, tulips often last only a few days, but this year the displays have been magnificent. Around the borough, especially in the town center, many of the gardens maintained by the Swarthmore Horticultural Society (SHS) are at the peak of their spring splendor. In the beds outside the Swarthmore Public Library, SHS has created voluptuous blends of reds, purples, pinks, and near-blacks. Pops of red come from Tulipa ‘Kingsblood’ and ‘Miranda.’ ‘Yosemite’ brightens the planting with splashes of bubblegum pink. ‘Nightclub,’ ‘Negrita,’ and ‘Merlot’ have striking deep purple flowers. My favorites are those like ‘Queen of the Night’ and ‘Paul Scherer,’ which appear black.
Many of the SHS gardens are boasting the unusual pleasure of kale flowers. Fall-planted ornamental kale survived the mild winter, and now their frothy panicles of butter yellow are as attractive as the foliage. At the SEPTA station, you can see a wonderful combination of kale flowers and the yellow-orange foliage of Sedum ‘Angelina.’
Other highlights include the containers along Park Avenue and Chester Road in Swarthmore’s business district, sporting combinations of spring pansies and ornamental conifers. On Lincoln Way, across from the Co-op, stands a wonderful specimen of our native redbud, Cercis canadensis The Rising Sun™, selected for its yellow foliage.
My mother is an avid gardener in Haddon Heights, New Jersey. From her, I developed my own interest and passion for gardening while growing up in Santa Rosa, California. Last night on the phone, she told me that she loves gardening tips. I thought I would offer a few here to see if readers like them.
Watch out for the rabbits. In the vegetable garden, they will eat spinach, kohlrabi, lettuce, kale, and any number of other leafy crops. My mom says they eat tulips in New Jersey!
Now is a good time to start seeds of summer annual flowers and summer crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplants — if you haven’t done it already. I have grow lights in my basement, but you can also grow them in small pots in a southern or western facing window.
Keep a list of plants you covet. I do this in an Excel spreadsheet. Whether I am looking through a gardening magazine, pouring over catalogs from mail-order nurseries, or capturing ideas from lectures or from friends’ gardens, I put them on my list. That way you don’t have to try to track down that little piece of paper or cocktail napkin where you jotted down your latest favorite plant.
I want to hear from you. Let the Swarthmorean know if you’d like gardening tips to continue. And if you have gardening questions, send them to editor@swarthmorean.com. I will answer them in subsequent columns.
Happy gardening!
Andrew Bunting
Andrew Bunting is vice president of public horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and vice president of the Swarthmore Horticultural Society.
