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“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43BC, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and statesman, paraphrased in translation from a letter to his friend Varro (Cic. Fam. 9.4).
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Cold Enough For You Yet?
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We’ve had sub-zero temperatures here in Ann Arbor for the past week and so have been staying cozy indoors – we hope you are happy and warm whatever your own local conditions! At this time of year we wonder if living in zone 8 might not be a good idea. But we’re closer to spring every day now and while we don’t know exactly when it will arrive (nor how steady it will be) we are confident it will come eventually. In the meantime, Vanessa has had time to research some lovely varieties (more on that in a later newsletter!) and we’ve had the chance to read some gardening books at last (more on one of them below.) If you have a title you’d like to share, please drop us an email and let us know about it – books and gardening are indeed both delights of life!
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Don’t Miss Out on Fall Bulbs or Rare Dahlias!
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Opportunity 1: Our bulbs for fall planting – daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, crocus and more – have just been put back on sale at our website! This is your chance to reserve the bulbs you’ve missed out on other years by getting your place in line early. You can always add to your fall order until Sept.1 so there’s no downside.
Opportunity 2: Usually by mid-February we’ve sold out of many of our rarer dahlia varieties, and this year we actually have some still available…but order soon before they’re gone! These antique treasures include
Staff-favorite spiky ‘Andries Orange’ (1936)
Glowing not-quite-lilac ‘Blue Danube’ (1948)
Heat-tolerant deep purple & white ‘Deuil du Roi Albert’ (1936)
Classic Victorian ‘Kaiser Wilhelm’ (1881)
Exquisite heat-tolerant ‘Nepos’ (1958)
Cute-as-a-button ‘Willo Violet’ (1937)
Stunning customer-favorite ‘Winsome’ (1940)
Unique and variable ‘York & Lancaster’ (by 1915)
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Our Customers Suggest…
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It’s often such a treat to read the notes and comments that you send in, whether as notes with an order or through an email. Some timely recommendations to pass on include one from Kathleen K. in Connecticut: “I just wanted to tell you how much I love the ‘Princess Irene’ daylily! It is the latest blooming of all my many daylilies, so prolific in its blooms, and nearly every scape has a proliferation on it!! Such a bright cheerful color.” And Tom W. in Maine is thrilled with his Canna ehemanii, saying “What a great plant! It started flowering super fast and is still flowering as we head into October. Gorgeous flowers that our hummingbirds couldn’t get enough of. Thank you So much for the introduction. She’s definitely coming in for the winter, don’t want to lose her.” Arty S. from Atlanta recommends the dahlia ‘Little Beeswing’ since “it is one of the most photogenic flowers I know and was wonderful in small bouquets of Salvia guaranitica and summer annuals.”
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Our Current Favorite Book: The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature
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We know that in turbulent times in our lives our gardens have offered both respite and refuge, and Sue Stuart-Smith’s book is a delightful exploration of the many health benefits of time spent in our gardens and in nature. She is trained as a psychiatrist and discusses many of the psychological effects of gardening, beginning with her grandfather’s healing from trauma as a soldier of World War 1, her mother’s experience as a widow and her own as she grieved her father’s death in his late forties. She writes “Grief is isolating and is no less so when it is a shared experience…There is an impulse to protect one another from too much raw emotion, and it can be easier to let feelings surface away from people” and because “nature is unperturbed by our feels” so “we can experience a kind of consolation that helps assuage the loneliness of loss.”
She follows historical thoughts about gardening, nature and healing, reflecting on the fifth century story of St Maurilius, the practices and beliefs of the Benedictines, and the 12th century writings of Hildegard of Bingen. All shared the vision that “In a garden filled with light and suffused with the energy of new growth, the green pulse of life can be felt at its strongest…there is a living relationship at work. Gardening is an interchange through which nature gives life to our reparative wishes, being it turning waste into nutritious compost, helping pollinators thrive, or beautifying the earth.” We experience time differently in a garden and because we cannot speed up the pace of nature we learn to live in and enjoy the present moment, as repetitive tasks like weeding or deadheading allow our minds to become meditative. And because we can with patience see the results of our actions, we are affirmed in our agency and ability and reminded of hope and goodness in the future: “In the garden, there is always something to be planning for or looking forward to, and as one season ends, the work of the next season begins”.
Stuart-Smith’s training as a doctor comes through in her review of current brain science and the biochemical aspects of contact with nature. And there’s a fascinating parallel in discoveries about how microglial cells in our brains function as gardeners: “These specialist cells are highly mobile, and as they crawl around among our neural networks, they weed and root out weak connections and damaged cells. Most of this activity happens while we sleep, when the brain shrinks and gives the microglia room to go about their work using their finger-like projections to remove toxins, reduce inflammation, and prune redundant synapses and cells.”
There’s lots to explore in the book and we hope you’ll take a look. But in short, we can all benefit psychologically through getting outside and working in the yard, so hurry up, spring!! If you’d like to learn more about this subject and would rather watch and listen than read, check out the Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners’ recorded Zoom workshop on the topic. They also have a list of other resources for even deeper exploration.
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Our Growers’ Favorite Dahlias for Cutting
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Dahlias can be glorious landscape plants, providing bursts of colors in the late summer and early fall when much of the garden is slowing down, while some varieties are especially popular for bouquets to enjoy indoors. We certainly have our office favorites and have put 5 of those into our Endless Bouquets sampler, but we wondered which varieties our growers would particularly recommend for this use. While not all of them are available now, you can sign up for a wishlist alert…and several of the others are 10% off right now because crops were so big!
Craig Jensen from the Granite State reports: “A few – like ‘Jane Cowl’ or ‘Tsuki’ – are such heavy blossoms that they need to have smaller and denser blooms supporting them in a bouquet. ‘Andries’ Orange’ is consistently a favorite of our crew. Good stems but also the orange picks up yellow and red and even pink tones when it’s paired. Megan and I also like working with ‘Nonette’ and ‘Nita’ and always wish we could afford to give it more space in the gardens. ‘Rosemary Webb’ often has short and thin stems but it’s just so light and lovely and everyone seems to gravitate to it when making arrangements.”
Michiganders Natalie Vollmar and Diana Paterno both recommend ‘Mrs I de Ver Warner’: in fact it’s Natalie’s favorite OHG variety, “a beautiful pink hue and is stunning in arrangements. Mine last summer were also very robust plants, which I enjoyed.” Diana says that it and ‘Lavender Chiffon’ both “come to mind as having large, prolific blooms with especially long, sturdy stems. I think I’d add ‘Requiem’ to that list as well…And friends and family always, always swoon over ‘Thomas Edison’” She also praises the “dark, saturated colors” of pompons ‘Rocco’ and ‘Natal’.
Sue Inderhees, our own OHG employee as well as grower, shares her love for the sublime ‘Nepos’, and praises the “old reliable ‘David Howard’ with its apricot-orange against dark green foliage. ‘Claire de Lune’s prolific blooms on sturdy stems always add cheer to the garden and floral arrangements. And there’s nothing like the richly-colored ‘Prince Noir’!”
We’d love to hear about your own favorites and how you’ve used them: Wedding flowers? State Fair entries? No-reason gifts to friends or neighbors? A single stem in a vase? The possibilities abound!
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