Plants Nouveau Archives

Recent Weeding Gnome e-letter Articles by Angela Treadwell-Palmer:

2010:

A Harlequin Romance in the Vegetable Garden – People don’t realize how beautiful vegetables can be. What a great complement to the Pansy crop. I’m not talking those funky, colored cabbages and curly leaved kales that everyone sells. How about a ‘Red Russian’ or ‘Redbor’ kale? Redbor, or Side Show Bob hair kale, as I call it, is one of the most ornamental vegetables you can grow. It’s deep purpley-red and I think it’s much more attractive than any of the ornamental kales offered in the spring. Plus, it’s much more edible.

Are We Chasing Our Tails? – My take on all of this is maybe the big boxes have the right idea. Buy local. It’s all the rage for food right now. It gives people a warm and fuzzy feeling to know they are supporting local business. Supporting local growers who have a limited shipping range, but grow plants adaptable and good for their shipping area would be a really great thing.

Pancakes for Dinner and a Flower Shop on Each Corner – Imagine the how helpful it would be to shop the houseware departments if they were merchandised by color? If you needed a lime green accent, you’d go to the lime green section. It’s sort of like gardening for dummies or paint by number, but guess what folks…most consumers are “dummies” when it comes to buying plants. That’s why it’s often intimidating for them to walk into a garden center. It’s like me walking into the Apple store at the mall.

I’ve Given Up On Getting Ahead… – My journeys took me to West Virginia and back. Boy, is it beautiful down there, but don’t count on using your cell phone. There’s NO cell service there, so you’ll be driving up and down and up and down and up and down the mountains to find one service bar. Thank goodness the mini is great on gas.

The Nursery Business Is In A Mess… – We select and grow plants in this country so they fit on the specified racks and look good on the shelves of the big box store. Big growers especially only want plants that fit on the racks. They only want plants that are in bloom. That means if I want to buy a purple coneflower (Echinacea sp.) in May, so I can get my perennials planted and established before it gets too hot and dry, I’m out of luck. That plant will most likely only be for sale in June and July, when it is blooming. Isn’t that sad for gardeners?

A Week of Planting, Planes and Peonies – I hope to have the opportunity to show this brilliant breeder that people in the horticulture industry are honest and they do care. I hope to get the chance to make it all right, make him famous for the talented breeder he is and to make him some money for all his hard work.

The Dreaded Return of Dracaena Spikes – Do the buyers even know others exist and that there’s not a law stating you must have a spiky green thing in the middle of every container? Creativity is such a wonderful thing and mixed containers should be creative expressions of those who display them. If they are all alike, our neighborhoods will start to resemble Stepford communities.

Anti Social Media and Old Fashioned Nursery Folk – I love social media. I also love a good print ad too because in this industry, there are many ludites and old timers who just plain refuse to jump on the technology bandwagon. Until they do, we must have a strategically placed presence in both.

Jury Duty & the Small Business Owner – I was selected to serve in Baltimore City on a murder trial jury. That’s right, a horticulturist with more things on the “to do list” this month than most people accomplish in many months, was chosen to be a juror. No rest, and no break for the small business owner living in the city.

Advertising: Living In The Peaks Not The Valleys – …the best time to test a new campaign is when you have a working control. The company that waits for the results to diminish before thinking about change is the company that sees valleys in their profits. I only want spikes… Don’t you?

A Bittersweet Celebration of Life and Death – Earth Day celebrations cherish life in nature, in the garden, and the life of those who care about the Earth. I was fortunate enough to attend the Earth Day festivities at my son’s school yesterday morning. We just finished construction and planting on a new 1200 square foot school vegetable garden for grades 1-5. It was an amazing project from beginning to end.

Ups, Downs & Foamflowers Follies – In the video, you’ll find out why Sinclair Adam is so passionate about foamflowers and you’ll see why he was named the Pharaoh of foamflowers by his peers. He’ll show you some of the foliage forms he is searching for and explain why the ground covering selections are the prefect replacement for the ever-invasive English ivy (Hedera helix) and periwinkle (Vinca minor).

From Blizzard to Blooming Redbuds in Eight Weeks – In one week, all of my roses leafed out, the much awaited, and might I say, well-deserved after the blizzards we had, cherries (Prunus sp.) bloomed, the redbuds (Cersis canadensis) quickly came and went, the pansies (Viola sp.) fried, the ferns unfurled and the oak (Quercus sp.) pollen coated everything insight with a yellowish-green film.

Why Is It I Adore Skunk Cabbage So? – Each spring, about this time, I stop the car and make my son walk the stream banks to see the first skunk cabbage. He loves it and looks forward to it each year. The leaves smell like skunk – what seven year-old boy wouldn’t love that? I get so excited to see their leaves emerge. It makes my day. Somehow, that signals the official start of spring. And for some reason, it reassures me everything’s all right in the world.

Why Do People Hate Forsythia? – Perhaps it’s because it is so common. Perhaps it’s because they are quite possibly one of the most tortured ornamental plants in America’s gardens. When I studied landscape design in college, we would rather have died than spec something as common as forsythia in a design. It was taboo… and we thought we were way too cool.

Mama, Do We Always Have to Look at Plants? – Most resorts in this area are clear cut and then planted with assorted tropicals and lots and lots of grass. We chose Xpu-Ha because it won an award in 2009 for being one of the best ecologically conscious resorts in the World. Since there’s no grass, we wandered the edges of the mangrove swamps, and the savannahs, looking for plants.

Natives are Easier. Yeah, Right! – There is no such thing as an easy, foolproof plant – unless it’s a weed. They are easy, they’ll grow anywhere AND they need no water or fertilizer… Teaching people about natives is terrific. I support anyone who tries. I teach and lecture all the time on native plants. But teaching naive homeowners, and in most cases, virgin gardeners that natives are easy is wrong. It’s so wrong, that they will surely fail and never plant natives again.

Sugar Feeds Cancer, Plants Come to the Rescue – Do doctors tell people who get cancer they shouldn’t eat sugar? I know most doctors care nothing about nutrition. I have worked really hard to find a family doctor and a vet who do care. Both practice Eastern (Chinese) medicine first and then resort to Western medicine if all else fails. It’s not just Echinacea any more folks, just about every plant we grow in the nursery industry has some herbal-medicinal use.

If Plant Carnage Has You down, Pull Out Your Tiara – Outside of my garden, deciduous shrubs and small trees have taken the brunt of this monumental storm. Many are just now popping up from the massive snow mountains that have held them captive for the last three weeks. Evergreen foundations are toast from the crushing weight of snow falling from rooftops. Rain gutters are bent from the weight of ice and melting snow and lots have broken off. I’ve not seen anything like this.

Coral Bells and Other Happy Spring Thoughts – I dream of new plants that were planted last fall coming up for the first time, poking their heads out of the soil or leafing out for the first time in my garden. I am so happy to be representing Charles and Martha Oliver of the Primrose Path and their glorious new coral bell selections. The scrumptious new selections, Heuchera ‘Dark Chocolate’ and ‘Stainless Steel’, are touted for their ability to withstand tough, drastic climates and have the most beautiful, florist quality cut flowers.

Don’t Take Social Media and Trialing New Plants for Granted – In order to be a visionary in any industry, you need to be visible in many places. Social media, if done well, can increase your visibility to a nearly endless audience, so why ignore the potential power? Social media will not save a failing business, but for a business to grow, it must incorporate online marketing into the business strategy. AND Social media must be a active component of any businesses online marketing strategy.

Who is going to be the Next Garden Idol? – I went for a groovy outfit instead of a hippie chic outfit, donning canary yellow go-go boots and a large, reddish-brown “fro” wig. With a tie-died background to all my slides, the crowd was certainly feelin’ the groove. They totally got into the music and would have rushed the stage to join me as fellow twirlers, (total Deadhead reference here – sorry if you’ve never been) had the music played longer.

Towanda! Empowering Gardeners to Plant Cardinal Flowers Again – If I hear one more person tell me cardinal flowers MUST have wet soil and that they are weak and not hardy, I think it’ll drive me to drink hard liquor, do my best to impersonate Kathy Bates playing the unfulfilled housewife, Evelyn Couch, and shout, “Towanda!”

No One Puts Orchid in the Corner, aka a Box – I had the great fortune to attend the TPIE (Tropical Plants Industry Expo) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week and it was a great show. There was lots of marketing going on, some of it clever, and it was easily walked in a day, which is nice. I did notice a LOT of money being spent on marketing to the attendees. For goodness sake, there were two hot air balloons!

Readers Speak Out – Friday nights are so exciting because I get so many cool and often heated responses from readers who agree and sometimes disagree with my opinions. No matter the opinion, I love reading them and I really do look forward to getting the comments, so keep them coming!

Time To Change… My MANTS Epiphany – If you are not willing to change your selling and marketing style to entice the touch screen, app using, traditionally “unsocial” group that will make up the market place in just a few years, then you have no idea what’s going on. We’re talking about a generation that has been taught to be social in a completely different way. It’s virtual social, imprinted by technology.

Echinacea Hot Papaya For Everyone in 2010 – Echinacea ‘Hot Papaya’ really DOES exist and I’ve seen them with my own eyes. They’re out there and they will be for sale in full force this year at garden centers and home stores all over the US. I know you’ve been waiting patiently, but your time has come, so come this June, open your wallets and head to your local garden center and be one of the first gardeners in the US to have this amazing plant in your garden.

2009:

Happy Christmas Everyone – On this, Christmas weekend, I would like to thank my loyal readers for reading this new weekly e-letter. I enjoy writing The Weeding Gnome rants very much. It’s therapeutic at times. I do also enjoy talking and writing about new plants. We really are setting the stage for introducing sustainable fashion for the world to plant and we couldn’t have done that without your support.

Gnomes Celebrate Christmas While Corn Ruins Your Engine – What I really despise more and more are really popular, yet invasive plants. Corn reminds me of an invasive plant. It’s something we really need to stop growing, yet so many people are depend on it for their livelihood. Take Hedera helix, for example. I was disheartened to see a house up the street that just sold had someone plant a brand new crop of ivy plugs in the same spot that they paid (a lot, I’m sure) to have a landscape company remove 50 years worth of ivy that was taking over their house and every tree on the property. Ugh… and double ugh..

Spiders Aren’t Scary and Public Gardens Deserve Less Tomfoolery – Children these days are also taught to fear spiders, bats and bees. There is no respect for the work they do to keep us safe and fed. We sit on our patio at dusk just to watch the bats zoom and zip through our yard. It’s super cool and the kids (2 and 7 years old) now know that bats eat mosquitos and they are our friends. I also purposefully surrounded our patio with Clethra virginiana ‘Hummingbird’ (summersweet) so we could watch the bees in the summer when it’s in full bloom.

Holiday Decorations: Sparkly, Spray Painted Coneflower Seed Heads – …really cool holiday decorations include: dried coneflower (Echinacea sp.) heads, red twigged dogwood (Cornus sericea) branches, winterberry holly (Ilex verticillata and serrata) berries, seed pods from Kentucky coffee trees (Gymnocladus dioicus), seed pods of sweet gum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua), seed pods from southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora), and many more…be creative and make your garden work for you.

Thankful for Thanksgiving Supper & New Plants – I love celebrating the harvest. Thanksgiving is all about the harvest and celebrating with family and friends. My extended family thinks I’m crazy to do all of this. It’s fun for me. I am also thankful for the people that have found plants and/or created them, for without them, I would have no business. Without their trust, I would have no plants to promote.

Burn the Burning Bushes! – Bright red fall color is hard to come by. The brightest red fall color is, of course, the horribly invasive burning bush (Euonymus alatus var. compactus or EAC as it is affectionately termed in the nursery industry). It’s so dang beautiful that everyone wants to plant it. The problem is, this plant is an invasive species of woodlands…

Nothin’s Tacky in Baltimore, Hon! Garden Art 101 – If you hide gnomes in groundcover plantings and under shrubs, people visiting your garden will happen upon them. Grouping them is fine, but I hear they like to work alone. Just don’t ever leave them sitting out in the middle of a bed or in the grass alone. They need shelter. Plus, you never know when a new version of the Gnome Liberation Army will pop up.

Milk, Corn and the Next Generation of Gardeners – Maybe this new generation of Eco-loving, earth and body mindful adults will be the generation that brings back the importance of flowers and plants in the home. Someone needs to start a marketing campaign now! Can you smell a new macramé generation?

New Plants Cause Manic Behavior in Gardeners – Folks who collect echinaceas are certifiable when it comes to having the latest, greatest selections in their gardens. They foam at the mouth. They’ll try anything to get the new selection, even if it hasn’t been trialed.

Winter Hardy Echinaceas, You Betcha! – Once established, Echinacea can survive many horrific winters. Their taproot stores food and helps the plant to over winter. I don’t advise planting a young Echinacea purpurea much beyond July.

Let’s Talk About Trees, Baby… – My favorite coffee mug from Muir Woods says, Keeper of the Trees. I gladly assume that role everywhere I live. How do I get this message across to homeowners who only call the tree care experts when their tree falls?

Going Rogue, Part II: Innovation Not Dracena Spikes – Garden centers should be teaching people how to do really cool, different things, but they’re not. We need to change the way people think about the seasons, about what’s available… the industry needs to get out of the boring cycle of pushing the same old crap and start innovating. I like to compare this to a dracena “spike” in every mixed container…

Going Rogue, Part I: Mums & Pumpkins – I get so sick of seeing pot mums, perfectly shaped and ready to burst into bloom, along with perfectly round pumpkins and very boring selections of pansies in every store.  They even sell fake versions of all of these at Michaels for people who don’t want to have to water them…geesh!

The Purple Gnome Has Left the Building – If you want to reach out to professionals who write/blog/tweet about new or even just cool plants, this is the crowd. Exhibiting in the new products expo at Garden Writer’s each year is all about creating a buzz…in more ways than one.

What’s in a Name? – The Weeding Gnome, we may be small but we live in the garden (sic) and unlike my college days we know how to recognize a weed from a knockout.

My Milkshake Brings All the Boys to the Yard – Who talks about Echinceas in bloom in September?  I do. The unique thing about Milkshake is how long the fully open blooms last.  Most purple and nearly all white coneflower blooms turn brown soon after they mature. Not Milkshake…

My Favorite Plants This Month Are… – We strive to select plants that make your gardening life easier.  Plants that adapt to normal garden sites easily is the goal.  Not all plants are drought tolerant, that would be way too much to ask  but having a few good selections you can count on is a nice respite from the dog days of watering in July and August…

Too Much of Anything Is Never Good… - Diversity in everything is the key to life. In our natural landscapes, in gardens we plan and plant ourselves, in the food we eat – diversity is the true essence of life. Even in my neighborhood, while walking around, you find the same old plants over and over again. It’s such a treat to see something special.

April Showers Bring May Flowers, but Where are the Bumblebees? – Perennial plants and American native flowering plants (including Tiarella sp.) are great food for bees. We must plant flowers for bees, or forget about eating that apple and countless other plants which we are pleased to consider as part our daily diet…

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth…Killing All the Bugs? – Preventative health care is preached by teaching people to treat their plants with toxic chemicals that kill (mostly) every possible disease and insect- even the good bugs like fireflies, ladybugs, lacewings and praying mantis…even bees and butterflies.  This can’t be good…

Ah…Ignorance Is Bliss, Isn’t It? – Anyone who knows even the tiniest bit about ecology and plant populations knows too much of anything is a true sign something is wrong. The thickets – and I do mean thickets, so tightly woven you could hardly put your hand through them – of pear seedlings are so abundant…

I’m Surrounded By Yellow Flowers. Sunshine? Daydreams? – Time for all of the yellow flowers to burst open and brighten your day.  In my garden, the first is witch hazel (Hamamelis sp.), ‘Primavera’ , then we move onto uncommon selections of forsythia like ‘Golden Peep’ and ‘Lynwood Gold’…

Breathe Deeply - There wouldn’t be any breathing without plants!  There would be no oxygen for use to breathe without plants.  This is nothing new, but how many of you knew breathing correctly was the key to peace of mind, sustaining your health, and…

City Hall Garden Plots Planted In Veggies – Baltimore, which sometimes carries a poor-cousin chip on its shoulder when it comes to the nation’s capital, is about to trump the city to the south by turning the formal gardens in front of City Hall into vegetable gardens covering about 2,000 square feet.