Delay in open garden...

Please note that the grand opening day for Melanie's Perennials will be May 1st.

Much as I had hoped to open the garden tomorrow, April 17th, life has given me a challenge to overcome first. This past Wednesday I underwent a lumpectomy and will not be able to lift or dig for a while.

The good news is I can take lots and lots of photos in the mean time and plan on sharing them with all of you.

Hope to see you May 1st!

Melanie

The last Hoorah

What a great weekend for gardening. Even though yesterday was a wet, drizzly day, I spent hours outside weeding the front garden. It was perfect conditions to take out perennial seedlings and pot them up. How cool is this double Platycodon seedling?

I have a small double Platycodon plant in the same area, it never grew as vigorously as the single variety but it has returned reliably for at least 5 years now. This seedling was found a few feet away.

Platycodon are hard to transplant or divide because of their tap root. A tap root is a long single carrot-like root. When dividing Platycodon, I get my long perennial shovel and make sure I dig very deep before trying to pry the plant out of the ground.

The hardy Begonias are still blooming like mad. Not too many seed pods yet, they are even prettier than the blooms! I potted up a few of them, they don't seem to mind being moved at all so I will try to get a few more out of the ground in the next day or two.

Besides these beauties I've been potting up a few Corydalis and Digitalis (fox gloves). This coming Saturday will be my last hoorah. A big plant sale day and then it's time to close for the season. On Friday I will be digging and dividing Hosta like crazy. Stop by in the afternoon if you want to see how it's done.

Melanie

Back to Business!

Just have to share some good news with all of you. Melanie's Perennials will be back in business!!!

I'll be in this location for two more years and have been thinking of all kinds of ideas for future lectures and sales. This fall I'd like to hold some classes here in the garden. Topics such as how to make cut flower arrangements from your own garden, making flavored oils and vinegars using garden herbs, fall division of perennials, planting bulbs for spring beauty and more.

As the weather cools down I will be able to get out there and really attack the garden.

The next few days are packed solid with meetings and appointments but I will be bringing my camera with me and will be looking for hot summer perennials to showcase here.

Oh, I almost forgot, the photo is a huge bloom on one of my pumpkin plants (thanks to my neighbor Cynthia). Can't wait to see if there will be some pumpkins growing!

Melanie

Final Days

Today is one of our final sale days of the season. Temperatures are just getting too warm for gardening. We've still got lots of daylilies in pots, many are in bloom.

The garden is in the middle of a color explosion, there are so many things in bloom that I couldn't begin to list them all. Very few shade plants are blooming so I'm really enjoying this 'Red Volunteer' daylily planted as a single specimen in the Hosta bed.

Out front there are many varieites of cone flowers, balloon flowers, Monarda, Phlox, and so much more. The Sedums that weren't pinched back are putting out buds, the butterfly bushes have the largest bloom tresses ever!

We'll be open for buisiness today but please park in the street as we have a dumpster in the driveway. Next Sunday (July 26th) we'll be setting things out by the curb for a massive garage sale. It will be our last sale day until late August or early September when we start some serious gardening workshops here.

Stop by and say "Hi"!

Melanie

Daylily Close-ups

One of the newer focus of daylily hybridizers are "teeth". They are sharp edges on the petals. This daylily 'Double Pompon' has some wonderful teeth on it, the funny thing is it's from 1972 so I guess those teeth have been around longer than anybody realized.

'Curly Cinnamon Windmill' has to be in my top 5 favorites. When you've grown hundreds and hundreds of different varieties, that's saying quite a bit! I am going to have a hard time leaving this daylily behind and will have to gift the whole clump to somebody nearby so I can visit it.

Karol Emmerich's 'Cast Your Net' has the most romantic pattern etched in Lavender. I don't really collect patterned daylilies, they look amazing when you stop and stare but I tend to choose plants on their overall design value in a garden.

Another Karol Emmerich's (the name escapes me right now) has been opening perfectly every day. Karol lives in Minnesota and if you want to collect daylilies that are hardy here on Long Island, then try some of her beauties!

One of my favorite hybridizers is Tom Polston of Dayton Ohio. Tom's daylilies are rock solid hardy and beautiful to boot. This is 'Raspberry Goosebumps', what a delicious name :-)

'Frosted Amethyst' is another older variety, I find that more and more often I fall in love with the older, tried and true varieties instead of the newest creations.


'Try It' was on the wish list of all three visitors today. These lucky ladies were first to sign up to reserve plants that will be dug in the next few weeks. Just about everything here will be up for sale so if you get a chance, stop by and put your name on some true collectors plants.

Today was a tiring day so I think I'll get to bed early. I never got to live-head the daylilies this evening, that means getting out there right after dawn tomorrow morning.

Sweet dreams,
Melanie

Plant Sale!

Yes, it must be the weekend because it's Plant Sale Time! Today was one of those wet and drizzly days that is so perfect to dig and divide perennials. My goal was to pot up 100 pots but I think I fell short of that number (not by much). I haven't taken an inventory lately but must have over 400 pots right now.

We've got pots of the pale pink Stachys monierri (just try to find this for sale, I only see the purple one at local garden centers) and the hot pink annual Silene armeria that self seeds around the garden to return year after year.

Sedums are a passion of mine, many are here on display and others have been potted up for sale. This photo shows 'Sedum' Matrona' which is one of my favorites.

Of course with over 400 daylilies, you'll find lots to choose from like this lovely 'Regency Masquerade with it's luscious purple eye.

The palest orchid pink (lighter than this photo shows) with a lovely green throat is 'Prague Spring'. It's blooms like the energizer bunny is running the show.

Phlox are potted up too. Remember, we do not sell plants that have been grown in another weather zone or in greenhouses. Our plants have not been forced to bloom so if something is in flower now, then it normally flowers now.

Most of the perennials are not in flower yet and they won't be in flower here in the pot. Wouldn't you rather have them flower for you in your garden than at the nursery?

Hope to see you tomorrow, we'll be open 10:00 to 4:00. If you can't make it this weekend, don't worry, we'll be open three days in a row on Mother's Day weekend.

One last note, we love to give back to the community so 10% of the gross sales are donated to a club at our local high school. Stay tuned and we'll let you know the club of choice this month.

Off to rest up for tomorrow,
Melanie

Open for business!

Well, it looks like the Mother Nature will be smiling down upon us this weekend. That can only mean one thing, we'll be open for business!

Hooray!!!

Today's inventory count was about 240 various perennials, plus 70 daylilies, plus 50 hosta, plus approx. 100 pots of Sedums and Sempervivums.

Not everything is ready to be sold, some plants like the hardy Geraniums are just rooting now.

The Phlox is well rooted but certainly not close to blooming like you see in the opening photo.


Hosta 'Janet' is waiting for division along with a few of her beautiful friends. They are on the short to-do list (instead of the long to-do list that has things that won't get done for another month).

Coreopsis pots are soaking right now, they just started pushing up growth a few weeks ago but like the enegizer bunnies, they are primed and ready to go!


Daylily 'Dear Prudence' is one of the number of cultivars that are potted up. Lots of different varieties will be availabe, not all this week, they'll keep coming out.

What's different about the sale this year is it's not a one day sale. I hope to be open most Saturdays during the spring plus a few week days here and there. Sunday's are possibilities too, it all depends on what my family has in store for me and of course, if the weather holds.

If you come on Saturday, I'll have a sign up list for e-mail notices, remind me if I forget to tell you about it. We'll be open at 10:00 am and stay open until 4:00 pm sharp.

A quick list of what is potted up:
Columbines (very few)
Siberian Iris (blue)
Echinacea (small and few, too early in the season)
Polygonatum (a few but more to come)
Hardy Geraniums (should really wait one more week)
Lychnis coronaria (looks great)
Silene armeria (ready to go!)
Coreopsis (could wait another week)
Violas (popping into bloom as I write this)
Iris (sky blue bearded iris, to-die-for blooms)
Dicentras (these bleeding hearts are ready)
Thalictrums (wait a week)
Alchemilla mollis (needs a bit of warm weather to plump up)
Ligularia japonica (holy canoli, this plant is AWESOME!)
Sisyrinchium (looking good)
Nepetas (going to bloom soon, get them now)
Bronze Fennel (would love to be planted soon)
Euphorbia (another one that's going to start blooming any day now)
Stachys monierri (you have a bit of time with this one but get one someday!)
Sedums (some potted up, many more to come)
Daylilies: Stars Over Alabama, Faith Hope Charity, Lightning Bird, Lana Ishee, Stella De Oro, Hot Town, Always A Pleasure, Dragon King, Purple Arachne, Uncle Bryan, Sovereign Queen, Peach Magnolia, Celtic Christmas, Dear Prudence and more to come.

You can cut and past the daylily names into Google images and you'll get to see what they will look like when the bloom in July.

Hosta, right now only "lost name" plants are potted up and the leaves are just starting to unfurl. Still plenty of time to dig the named varieties. "Sum and Substance" and "Blue Angel" are both on the short to-do list.

Don't worry if you can't come on Saturday, I'll be open next weekend too.

Digging away,
Melanie

Getting Ready for Opening Day

Mother Nature did her best to help us get ready for opening day. Although there's a gazillion things I'd like to still get done, it looks like we'll be ready to start sales on Saturday, April 25th. I'm going to list the official opening time as 10:00 am. It won't be our "Grand Opening", just a preview sales day. If the weather holds, we'll be selling on Sunday morning too. I'm still figuring out a way to let folks know when we are open.

Only a portion of our plants have been dug and potted but some of them are starting to bloom and I know people want to get them while they look so good.

Both the blue and the pink Viola's are full of buds and I've got both varieties potted up now. They do seed around quite a bit but for those of you with shaded areas under trees, these little darlings are perfect!


The holding area is just crammed full of pots, in fact, I need to start a third holding area (this is actual the second spot already). The Dicentra spectabilis (Bleeding hearts) have started to bloom too, as usual there is only a very limited selection of them in pink and in white. I think the Euphorbia polychroma (Cushion spurge) will start to show color any day.


Uh oh, it looks like I waited a bit too long on dividing up the large Thalictrums. I've got them soaking in a tub with water, hopefully all they need is a few days of moisture and shade to perk them up again.

The Hosta are finally up enough that I can start to dig them too. This is Hosta 'Pineapple Upside Down Cake'. I love how the pips are purple on the bottom and lime green on the tips.

In the bottom left corner you can see what 'Pineapple Upside Down Cake' looks like. I love it so much that I haven't decided yet if I have the heart to dig and divide it. Don't worry though, there's lots of Hosta in pots already and lots more that will get divided.

Off to soak in the tub for a bit,
Melanie