The Hottest Summer Ever

I’ve declared Baltimore to be Maryland’s new desert. Just about every storm passes us by and we just can’t seem to get a break from the heat and humidity.

According Michael Masto of Baltimore’s ABC 2 News:

“The summer of 2010 as it stands now looks to go down as one, if not, the hottest summers on record.

The last time July was this hot dates back to 1872.”

Experts blame this hellaciously hot and dry summer on a complex La Nina cycle ongoing in the equatorial Pacific coupled with a slow synoptic pattern over the United States.

Whatever that means…

I suppose it means August could be just as bad, if not worse.

I really need to move. I can’t take it anymore. I despise watering. We have city water, which means we pay for each and every drop. If you have a trial garden with very special plants from breeders all over the World, you must water.

Our water bill for May to July was nearly $500! It’s usually less that $200.

Did I say how much I hate watering?

Nothing quenches the plants like real rain. No matter how much you water in a summer like this, they still look peeked.

If I’ve learned one thing in this harsh, nature-controlled business it’s my inane ability to make something from nothing. What have I learned this summer?

Let’s see…

Surprisingly, there are still plants that can handle temperature and moisture extremes without crying for water.

I like those plants. I need more of them.

I have some real stars this year. They truly stand out. I should start a new marketing campaign for plants that can do without. Non-whining plants for everyone.

You know the whiners…they stare you down as soon as your car pulls up at the end of the day. You can hear them crying as you gather your things from the car. As you walk down the path to the front door, something overtakes you, forcing you to drop your briefcase and anything else you are carrying, run for the hose and rescue them from the heat.

Try having that ALL summer long. It stinks.

I have a new found appreciation for a few plants in my garden. Take Helianthus x multiflorus ‘Sunshine Daydream’, for instance.

I have an older plant of this and a few plants I planted last October as 4″ pots. Those 4″ pots are now 5 1/2 feet tall and appear to be made of plastic. The leaves don’t wilt, the flowers didn’t brown in the repeated 105 (yes, you read that right, 105) degree days we had last month and the plants just keep on blooming and growing despite the unfavorable growing conditions in which I’ve asked them to perform.

Here’s a picture of one of those grown up 4″ pots in my yellow and purple border. Isn’t it lovely?

I visited North Creek Nurseries yesterday and saw their amazing crop of stock plants. It surely was the star of their new trial garden. Nothing phases it!

It’s such a happy go lucky plant.

I’ve also been impressed with Eupatorium dubium ‘ Little Joe’, found by me and my friend Steve Lighty while we were both working at The Conard-Pyle Co. Talk about a plant that asks for nothing. I have had several plants planted in my westward facing, extremely hot and dry foundation since the summer of 2006. They’ve been in full bloom since mid July, looking as good now as they did 5 weeks ago.

When I do make it up the walk without a hose in hand, I enjoy their sweet fragrance and never failing power to attract tons of butterflies. This is a wetland plant, right?

Yet it takes my desert-like front border.

Planted next to Little Joe is Echinacea ‘CBG Cone2’ Pixie Meadowbrite, bred and introduced by Dr. Jim Ault at The Chicago Botanic Garden.

Although this selection is the one that seems to attract leaf hoppers and the foliage is peppered with white spots this time of year, this tiny little blooming machine has seriously been in bloom since June and new blooms open every day.

It’s a three way cross with E.purpurea, E. tennesseensis, and E. angustifolius in it’s blood. If you deadhead this one, it gets shorter and shorter, but it will bloom until Thanksgiving in my garden. It’s a a proven performer.

What else?

Echinacea ‘Avalanche’ from AB-Cultivars in The Netherlands has been blooming it’s head off in a bed that doesn’t get any extra care all summer. This short, stout little cutie has single, pure white flowers, yellow cones, strong stems and deep green leaves. The plants only reach about 18″ tall, but they are completely covered in blooms – still.

Our new selection of Stoke’s aster, Stokesia laevis ‘Elf‘ has the most amazing habit and foliage of any Stoke’s aster I’ve seen. Admittedly, I missed the peak bloom this year because it happened while I was in Portland and it was, once again, 105 degrees. There are more blooms coming, so I’ll see them later, but the foliage is so deep, dark green and the habit is so tight and neat. This plant doesn’t require any extra water. I think it would be a fantastic plant, used en masse in municipal plantings. It’s tight and non-flopping, it blooms in July and August and it’s evergreen in zones 6 and 7 for sure – maybe even further north.

Most of the summer phlox in my borders blew out in a matter of days due to the killer heat, but Phlox paniculata ‘Shortwood’ is still going strong. Boy, does it stand up well to high heat and drought. I’ve not seen one speck of powdery mildew and the bloom color is an electric pinky-lavender, similar to, but brighter than the species. It glows in the early evening light. This plant was selected by Sinclair Adam of Dunvegan Nursery and named after the garden of famed perennial diva, Stephanie Cohen.

As Stephanie says, “It’s not short”, like she is, but her garden is named Shortwood. I’m assuming it’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to Dollywood.

Two last standouts in all of this misery are my two new favorite coral bell selections from Charles and Martha Oliver of The Primrose Path, Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’ and ‘Stainless Steel‘.

Even though the slugs have enjoyed Stainless Steel for the first year ever – I must not have enough hostas. Haha!

This plant has never asked for water and the foliage color (minus the holes) is still very attractive compared to my other heucheras that have faded significantly. This plant never wilts, either.

I just can’t say enough about Dark Chocolate.

Is this plant made of plastic too?

I haven’t paid much attention to watering it since I planted them. It’s covered with super tough, deep maroon and chocolate colored foliage. Once planted, it requires nothing. Talk about a carefree plant.

And last, but not least for all of you native plant fans…here’s two really tough, carefree natives.

First, this seems to be the year for each and every Aeslepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) seedling to germinate. I bet I have a better crop than most nurseries trying to grow this for resale. I’m talking hundreds of seedlings blanketing the ground of my front border.

Could be worse, huh?

To have brilliant orange blooms on top of cute, needle-like foliage all over the garden in June. I can think of worse things.

Second, mySilphium conatum (New River selection cup plant), from Peter Heus of Enchanter’s Garden is amazingly abundant. I adore the architecture of this plant. It multiplies like any good native should. It’s cool and the gold finches feast on the seeds, so what’s not to like?

Talk about a drought tolerant plant. Good grief, this plant is tough. We found out Violet, our new dog, likes to dig really big holes to lay in. Aren’t we lucky?

Violet dug a hole the size of a large pig right next to one of my cup plants and exposed half the roots. If the heat and drought don’t get the plants, no worries – the dog will.

Well, you’d never know it by looking at the plant. It’s also in a spot that is really hard to reach with the sprinkler, so it gets very little extra water. This cup plant grows 8 to 10 feet tall and 5 to 6 feet wide in two years. The leaves collect water for insects in their “cups” and each stately stem is topped with clusters of golden yellow daisies.

Like I said, I’m making the best of a horrible summer… I’ll have many butterflies to entertain my daughter next year on my massive crop of butterfly weed. Of course, she would surely prefer they were pink.

Breeders out there…make a pink butterfly weed for Ella please.

Oh, I almost forgot…I’ve had a few requests for the magical wrinkle cream I use that’s kept me looking young – young enough to receive the Young Professional Award from the Perennial Plant Symposium, even though I’m not young at all. I use Origins Starting Over moisturizer and their A Perfect World for eyes, eye cream to keep the bags away. It works wonders, especially when I stay up way too late writing The Weeding Gnome.

Until then, Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell-Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau