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Take a tour of Reiman Gardens’ Winter Wonderscape 2025
Celebrate the season with highlights from Reiman Gardens’ Winter Wonderscape in Ames, that includes magical mild shows and festive cheer.
- Gardeners are reflecting on final 12 months’s climate and planning for the upcoming planting season.
- Building easy indoor plant stands will help with beginning seedlings earlier than spring arrives.
- Many gardeners plan so as to add extra native vegetation to help native pollinators and wildlife.
Overall, my gardens did nicely final summer time regardless of the dearth of rain − largely due to all that sunshine. Most of us had a moist spring and early summer time, then a really dry summer time and fall. For folks planting new timber, shrubs and perennials, it meant a lot of watering. Until vegetation have finished some root development, they really want to have soil that doesn’t utterly dry out. Vegetables, in fact, do greatest with evenly moist soil.
Each 12 months I plant just a few extra timber and shrubs, despite the fact that my listing consists of greater than 100 completely different varieties that I’ve planted since I purchased my home in 1970. Last spring, I planted a spring-blooming witch hazel known as “Arnold’s Promise.” I’ve had the native witch hazel for many years – they bloom late within the fall with beautiful yellow blossoms. This new one is a Zone 5 tree, solely hardy to minus 20 Fahrenheit. I’ve been in a Zone 4 space for many years however have been attempting Zone 5 timber for the previous couple of years, and so they have all survived our winters. Hopefully, “Arnold” will, too.
Last fall I planted a Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). This shouldn’t be the California redwood, however a descendant of timber solely present in fossil information till the Nineteen Forties. Then an alert forester discovered a grove of them in a distant a part of China. He contacted the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, and an expedition was mounted after World War II. Seeds have been collected and despatched all around the world, and this fast-growing deciduous conifer has succeeded nicely in lots of areas. It likes moist soil and prefers full solar however will tolerate some shade. I’ve seen a number of in New Hampshire and Vermont. I can’t wait to see the way it performs for us.
Looking forward, I’ll quickly be finding out the catalogs and web sites of my favourite seed corporations. It’s good to order seeds now, as some widespread seeds will promote out − particularly small packets of tomato seeds of issues corresponding to “Sungold,” my favourite cherry tomato.
If you’ve got been enthusiastic about beginning your individual seedlings, now is an efficient time to construct a easy A-frame stand that may help lights and the flats you’ll use to start out your vegetation indoors. I’ve written how you can make one, so simply electronic mail me if you need instructions on how you can do it. Your native lumber retailer ought to be keen to chop all of the items of wooden to dimension for you. It’s fairly straightforward to construct − even for non-carpenters.
I don’t imagine in writing New Year’s resolutions, however I do prefer to replicate every year at the moment about what enhancements I wish to make in how I backyard and what I shall plant. Here are just a few of my concepts, and some from mates keen to share theirs.
Although we have now giant populations of native vegetation that help pollinators and birds, in 2026 I hope to find and plant a wider range of vegetation. I’m on the listing to get the Massachusetts Master Gardener online newsletter called The Dirt. The January challenge lists native vegetation which are vital to help our pollinators which are “at risk” and declining in numbers.
Using that listing, I’ll see which I can add to the environment. Robert J. Gegear, who researched and ready the listing, consists of bloom time, whether or not it is crucial for pollen or nectar, and which pollinators it advantages most. A great supply for native vegetation is the Native Plant Trust backyard store in Framingham, Massachusetts, and their manufacturing facility, Nasami Farm, in Whately. Both are open seasonally, opening in mid-April.
My buddy Hank emails this: “Over a cup of tea and the last of the holiday cookies, I sift through the dog-eared pages of color and hope (the seed catalogs). I take the time to add to the lists, create my To Do’s, and purposely circle plant varieties that I am interested in trying. … I take the time to consider where I’ll be building a new shed and then wander into the barn to spend more time organizing, looking for the tools that need to be cleaned and sharpened.”
And Jenny from Vermont emailed saying that she will “try to keep the goutweed in check so the new Mayapple can dominate, and I’ll try to rein in the white cohosh that has gone wild. Last year I tried to add a toad lily and it failed − I may try again …” My thought? Yes, try toad lily again. It’s a great plant (but not a true lily) that blooms in the fall. I always give plants two more tries in different spots if I wasn’t successful with them on the first try.
Last year, my friend Mark planted five little pawpaw trees that he got from another friend. Pawpaws send up lots of root sprouts, but they will not produce fruit if they are genetic clones (all from a single mother tree, as his probably are). I have some from another source, so he’ll trade me one of his for one of mine. Most small trees move easily. Pawpaws are a native tree common in Appalachia but also hardy here. Their fruit tastes tropical!
Sara told me that she is looking forward to warmer weather. She wants to rewild areas on her property to include more native species that will support pollinators and wildlife.
And my buddy Rika emailed saying, partially, “My intention every year is to become more relaxed − not casual − and intuitive in the garden.” I prefer it!
I want you all a profitable 12 months in your gardens.
Henry’s column seems as soon as a month. Reach him at [email protected] or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you possibly can go to the hyperlink bellow:
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