vines Archives - A Way To Garden

natives in a formal garden, with stoneleigh’s ethan kauffman

margaret — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:41:33 +0000

CAN A HISTORIC formal space become the home to a forward-thinking landscape of native plants? The team at Stoneleigh, a five-year-old public garden on an old estate in Villanova, Pa., says the answer is an emphatic yes. And their horticultural experiments seem to prove that’s true. Its director, Ethan Kauffman, and I spoke about how he and his colleagues are reinterpreting the grand old landscape with a natives-only ethos that was handed down to them by the nonprofit called Natural Lands that conserved the place. Two-dozen kinds of native vines now climb the majestic century-old stone pergola at Stoneleigh, and space-defining hedges of white pine and American arborvitae, or dwarf Magnolia grandiflora, are among those redefining the 42-acre landscape. There’s lots of other lessons for home gardeners, too. Read along as you listen to the July 10, 2023 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). natives in a formal setting, with ethan kauffman Margaret Roach: Yeah, so we did a “New York Times” column together, and that was fun. And learning about […]

The post natives in a formal garden, with stoneleigh’s ethan kauffman appeared first on A Way To Garden.

fear not! how to prune clematis, with dan long

margaret — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 16:48:50 +0000

ONE OF MY FAVORITE lines ever in a garden book: vintage Christopher Lloyd, the late daring plantsman of Great Dixter in England, in his Clematis manual. “An unpruned Clematis looks like a disemboweled mattress—a painful sight,” he wrote. Indeed. Yet so many of us go into denial and paralysis mode when approaching our beloved vines during spring cleanup. “Now what was I supposed to do with this one?” we say, scratching our heads while not-so-accidentally turning away to some other task, and leaving the botanical sprung mattress innards just hanging there. Boing! I asked Dan Long of Brushwood Nursery to help me (us!) get past our “pruning fears and misconceptions,” as he calls them. The how-to pruning story is below in Q&A format, plus pruning diagrams … and a podcast full of more vine-growing tips beyond the subject of pruning. the clematis-pruning q&a with dan long Q. On the Brushwood website, and in other Clematis references, pruning instructions always refer back to three types, or groups. Can you explain? A. My first answer to anyone about Clematis pruning is: Don’t worry! It’s very hard to kill one by pruning it or neglecting it. That said, they will all […]

The post fear not! how to prune clematis, with dan long appeared first on A Way To Garden.

week 15: visual relief from the heat, all fresh and white

margaret — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 11:21:27 +0000

IT WAS HOT, really hot (and will be again, no doubt). There was a bit of visual relief, though: Through any windows that were not covered in heavy curtains against the sun’s heat, it was the white-flowered tough guys of early summer that made the place somehow still look cool and fresh, as wilted as I felt. I always think of the big panicle hydrangeas, Hydrangea paniculata, as serving this freshening role around August onward, when much of the garden is just too tired. But the trend of summer whites really starts now, with plants like these: Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake’ MY FRIENDS at Broken Arrow Nursery recommended I try the oakleaf hydrangea called ‘Snowflake’ (Hydrangea quercifolia ‘Snowflake,’ Zones 5-9), with its distinctive double blooms (detail above). Broken Arrow calls this shrub a “wow” plant because of its foot-long flower trusses, with each individual bloom having extra sepals—hence the double appearance. Best of all, it performs in part shade, and then there is the burgundy fall foliage that this Southeastern U.S. native species is also known for. ‘Snowflake’ gets to 6 feet high by similarly wide. Clematis fargesii ‘Paul Farges’ THIS IS MY first year of bloom from Clematis fargesii ‘Paul […]

The post week 15: visual relief from the heat, all fresh and white appeared first on A Way To Garden.