Monarchs

When I heard P. Allen Smith describe orange as a "quarrelsome"color in the garden - that it doesn't get along with other colors, I laughed.

It is true that orange doesn't mix well with the most popular hues we love in gardens: combined with pink, for example, the sight is akin to the clanging of two pot lids. Awful. In some cases, orange can be a high contrast for deep purple.

However, the only orange flower I own is milkweed (asclepias) because it is a Monarch caterpillar host plant.

I planted it next to a yellow butterfly bush to assure the butterflies would find the plant they lay their eggs on with ease. Mother nature did the rest, and every year, to my delight (as if I had something to do with the wonder of nature) I can spy the vivid yellow and black striped caterpillars munching happily away.

I cannot find, hard as I look, where they create their emerald green pupae, though. Now that will be a grand day!

Worrying about them, though, is pointless. The caterpillar is savvy. The juices from the butterfly weed makes them poisonous to birds, which avoid preying on both the caterpillar and the butterfly. That is why Painted Ladies mimic the Monarch in design - they are trying to trick the birds.

This year was an especially glorious season for butterflies, and I had beautiful black swallowtails much of the summer.

Butterflies need a complete habitat. While the butterfly bushes are wonderful, they also need early bloomers and host plants. To attract and track butterflies in Connecticut, visit the Connecticut Butterfly society, www.ctbutterfly.org.


September is the time Monarchs make their great migration to Mexico, and each year the CBS has a field day at Hayley Farm in Groton. There, children can capture various butterflies to examine them before they leave for the winter. The field trip is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, Hayley Farm, Groton. For more information, (860) 859-1326.

One sure way to attract these majestic butterflies to your yard, is the butterfly weed. Look for it in garden centers. If orange is too quarrelsome, try the pink or white variety. I wish I had.

Fall divisions and some fall favorites

I was at a garden center the other day and my neighbor, who is an equally fanatic gardener, said she wanted some of my daylillies to divide. She was also coveting my phlox, which is crowding out my garden bed - and to have someone thin them out would actually be a great favor to me!

But now isn't the time to dig up garden phlox that is a late summer bloomer. Springtime is better - especially when the weather is mild and misty. That is beautiful transplanting weather.

However, there are some spring bloomers that can be divided and put into gardens now.
Generally speaking, if it blooms in the spring, dig and divide in the fall. Likewise, fall bloomers, like mums, are best taken up in the spring (in fact, if you want mums to flourish in general, buy them in the spring). I once made the mistake of ignoring a seasoned nursery man (Wayne Paquette, Quakin' Grass Nursery, Brooklyn) and planted my favorite mum, 'Sheffield Pink' in the fall. It's tips blackened and they died.

While many mums are available now, the ones that will are the best, and good perennials, are also available in the spring - not to say I don't have two mounds of mums that have lasted ten years and were planted...in the fall. It can be done, but it is better to do it in the spring.

These plants can be divided in fall:

Iris
Foxtail lily
Moss phlox
Oriental Poppy
Peony
Pulmonaria (lungwort)


Now is the time to also plant your iris, as well as divide them. I found a fabulous Iris farm that does mail order for the most beautiful, lush iris in unusual colors. You can contact them for a free brochure.
Their address is: www.schreinersgardens.com.

Hostas, which can be considered fall flowering, or summer flowering, are perfect to divide when their crowns are emerging.


I recently posted about my vole woes. Well, if I didn't have a horrible vole problem, I would be taking photos of one of my favorite fall bloomers: Monkshood.

Ironically, it took me years to plant it because all part of the plant are considered poisonous (ha!). So I've posted the photo above.

Another glorious fall bloomer in blue is plumbago, which is a great groundcover or dotting a stone wall. The cobalt blue flowers are tiny explosive bursts, and it also turns a nice fall red.

One other fall bloomer that is a must in my garden (again being attacked by voles) is snakeroot, or bugbane. It likes shade, and is fragrant, being the last attractor of hungry butterflies and hummers.

One last thing -my neighbor, who works at the garden center, spray painted the spent heads of an astilbe bright blue. It's a tact I've only read about and was quite startling. Other dried flower heads can also get bursts of color from a spray can, such as hydrangea.

I'll check in later with some of my fall favorites to share.

Meanwhile, Happy spray painting!

Hibiscus....and sawflys

A couple of posts ago I was bemoaning my end of summer garden. It is true I look forward to the flush of fall, the color, and the cooler temperatures.

And, if it hadn't been for a pesky little bug, I would be enjoying the tropical beauty of hibiscus right now, just when my garden needs swaths of those blowsy blooms. I always marveled at how easy it was to grow those show-stopping, exotic flowers that can grow as large as dinner plates and make others marvel.

But, like many other gardeners, I abandoned growing hibiscus because I didn't have the patience to control the hibiscus sawfly larvae.

Trust me, once sawfly find your hibiscus, they will return every year, and since they can hatch six generations in one season, if you don't attack them at the get-go, before you know it, your hibiscus leaves are stripped to a skeleton shape.

And they are hard to see - the green worms hide on the underside of leaves, and once you spot them you will also notice the sawflies buzzing about. They resemble black flies with a dash of orange on their head area - does a fly have a head?

I did wage a war on my potted hibiscus for a while, smushing the bugs by hand because I loath to use insecticides.

Such a natural approach is good if you are not squeamish and have all the time in the world. Some gardeners make the mistake of using BT for caterpillars, but these are not caterpillars.

Instead, it is recommended to use an insecticidal soap, or spinosad. Be sure to spray when it is below 85 degrees.

I found an excellent break-down on the sawfly problem by googling the bug and University of Connecticut, and a pdf popped up. Here is how to get at it: www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/.../fact.../hibiscussawfly.pdf.

There are some hibiscus, thankfully, which are being bred to be more resistant to the sawfly: H.acetosella, H. aculeateus and H. grandiflora.

I adore hibiscus, and I miss the flowers so much I might just do another round with the plant - although I admit one thing that kept me from putting out a pot this year was my excuse that they lack fragrance and do not benefit any wildlife - aside sawflies, of course. Now I'm kicking myself for being such a snob.

Meanwhile, I have to determine what type of caterpillar is attacking my petunias. And flowering tobacco.

The garden blues

Right now I admit to a bit of frustration with my garden.

The hot, dry spell has been good for a David Austin rose, Jude of the Obscure, which resents rain - causing the roses to curl up in a ball.


It is a lovely rose, with a wonderful scent, but sadly, I can't make this rose last in a vase. David Austin roses are a passion of mine - their website is www.davidaustinroses.com

But my other roses are ailing, and I'm so tired of them I am ignoring them. They appear to be stricken with mites - the whole row of them - and the blooms brown, the stems blacken, and they are an ugly sight. I never had time to baby them with the Bayer fertilizer/bug repellent combo.

Next year, is what I think when I cast my eye around many eyesores right now. By the way, now is the time to stop fertilizing roses.

To add to my woes, a vole has discovered my magical woodland oasis under my oak tree. It has now chomped through the root systems of a curved border of hosta, and is now attacking my fragrant hosta, 'Guacamole.'

I hate that little vole, and as soon as I have time, it will meet its demise.

One critter repellent I can vouch for in terms of deer is Plantskyyd (www.plantskydd.com). Be forewarned it comes out bright red, it is ox blood, bound to horticultural oil. And it stinks. Not only will it keep deer away, it will also keep you away!

My plan this weekend is to dig up my prized fragrant hosta - truly, 'Guacamole' smells like jasmine - and pot it up until I can rid myself of the vole.

The trouble is, I have pity for even the worst pests, and I would prefer to chase the vole away than pour something like poison in the hole, so I will be searching for a solution that saves my plant and salves my conscience.

I do look forward to cooler weather to weed in (the weeds are getting the best of me, for now) and the gorgeous fall bloomers.

Somehow, these dog day of summers is hard on the garden - so many of my favorites have gone by - this is the time you wish you had planted 100 dahlias!