By Nan Sinton, Director of Programs

I’ve always lived near the sea, which for a gardener can be both good and bad news. Good for the ocean’s moderating effect on winter cold and summer heat, bad for the wind, the salt and the storms. One thing I‘ve learnt is that in New England fall will linger and spring will be late.

In London in early March I saw the daffodils in full bloom, and later, on the Horticulture tour to Sicily, there were hillsides of golden coreopsis and blue alkanet, (Anchusa arvensis). Back home in Massachusetts snow and ice covered the ground.  Now, nearly two months later, the daffodils are still blooming in my garden, joined by Leucojeum aestivum, the spring snowflake, and something that came as a sweet surprise, a collection of grape hyacinths, Muscari sp., a gift last year from a friend. Dark blue, pale blue, white, two shades of blue-- this is the prettiest mix I’ve ever seen. (It came from the excellent John Scheeper’s Beauty from Bulbs catalog). But much though I enjoy the extended bloom of the bulbs, our weather has remained chilly and the trees are just barely beginning to open, so I was taking a chance in early May when I decided to call it ‘officially’ spring and bring out the bananas. My “plantation” winters in the garage – more on garage gardening another time – and were already leafing out and heading for the ceiling. I’m growing Musa bajoo, the Japanese fiber bananas, which are technically hardy in Zone 6 so I don’t actually have to dig them up and take them indoors, but I do. When I decide that spring has come I prepare a big hole for each plant, mix in a hearty feed of cow manure and my best compost, move the bananas out on a two-wheeler, remove the individual black garbage bags in which they’ve spent the winter, settle them into the ground with a deep drink of water and hopefully, they are off to a happy summer of growth.

I’ve always enjoyed growing tender and tropical plants and find it encouraging that one of the finest sub-tropical gardens in the world is actually in the far geographical north, in Scotland, at Logan Botanical Garden. There the garden is on a tiny peninsula surrounded by salt water and the resulting mild climate enables the gardeners to grow an amazing range of plants. Bulbs from around the world, Chilean flame trees and New Zealand tree ferns, the enormous pre-historic looking Gunnera manicata from Brazil and the tiny Gunnera magellanica from Chile mingle with perennials and vines,  trees and shrubs from Asia and the United States. I’m looking forward to making a return visit to Logan with our Horticulture group when we visit Private Gardens in Scotland at the end of August.  I think Logan is at its best in late summer, as are many of the gardens that we plan to visit.  And by that time in the summer I’ll be ready not only for new ideas but to see new plants to try in my not-always sub-tropical greenhouse and garden. I wonder if a tree fern would like to join the bananas for a winter snooze in a New England garage?

Nan Sinton
Director of Programs,
Horticulture Magazine
98 N.Washington Street
Boston, MA 02114

5/18/2007 4:03:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]