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Last week my parents rented a lovely cabin in Portageville, NY for the whole family to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. The five cousins ages 7-11 had a great time creek-stomping in the waterfalls, reading and playing all manner of games. The adults also read, and enjoyed the waterfalls, though slightly less vigorously. The television was not turned on once.

In the small town/ countryside location I saw lots of familiar wild flowers along the side of the road like Queen Ann’s Lace and blue chickory. The fields looked a bit different. The corn was much shorter and at least two weeks from tassel. Instead of beans, tobacco or alfafa, potatoes were the strong second crop. With an average frost-free date almost a month behind Lancaster County, this makes sense.

We spent one day at Niagra Falls. The kids enjoyed getting soaked on the iconic Maid of the Mist. My family then crossed over the border to Canada and went on to visit friends living in Ontario.

Petunias were everywhere- and such lush baskets! The slightly less humid, cooler weather really helped many annuals put on a fantastic display. (Pictured above: Amazing petunias and lantana containers in Ontario)

I mentioned seeing lots of vineyards in Ontario and my friends educated me about “ice wine”. Several wine grape growers specialize in this dessert wine made from grapes not harvested until after they have frosted/frozen on the vine. The grapes must be harvested precisely at the right moment when the freeze occurs often within a few hours, before the grapes begin to rot on the vine. In Ontario this usually happens around Christmas. Ontario produces about 75% of Canada’s “ice wine”.

They also told us Canada grows different varieties of wheat than in the States which affects the crunchiness of their commercial bake goods. Canadian Oreos are MUCH crunchier. Who knew? My kids were also amazed to see milk in a bag instead of a carton or jug. Those crazy Canucks.

The cabin was a few miles from Letchworth State Park. “The Grand Canyon of the East”, this park has the reputation of being one of the nation’s best state parks, but was largely under construction when we visited. Boasting three large waterfalls, a newly constructed nature center, and museum dedicated the history of the Seneca Native Americans and the Letchworth family there is something for everyone.

It was a very relaxing vacation. The nicest thing about being away is I feel no compunction to pull other people’s weeds. Weeds will be our topic next week.

The summer of 2012 was a bad one for impatiens lovers.

These shade-loving, colorful plants were the #1 flower for shade, and one of the top five most commonly grown annuals in the United States. Then disaster struck.

Downy Mildew was first discovered that winter in Florida. Impatiens there are planted in the fall as a “winter annual” and they started dying in large swaths. The spores blew up the East Coast on the wind or hitched a ride from propagators in the South.

Downy Mildew is technically a water mold that causes a fluffy white network of mycelium under the leaf surface. Leaves first yellow, then curl slightly, the mold becomes visible and the leaves fall off leaving bare impatiens skeletons. Spores are thought to persist in the soil for 3-5 years.

By August of 2012, there were documented cases from Maine to Florida and as far west as Chicago. Landscapers in New Jersey were especially howling as many commercial properties needed to be replanted. Many homeowners also lost lovely planting under their trees.

The next year growers panicked. Many drastically reduced the number of plants they were growing for the 2013 season or discontinued them completely. This was quite a blow to the #1 shade annual. But gardeners and greenhouse growers are resilient and faced with the choice of nothing, or try something new, many tried something new.

This was a great opportunity for plants like torenia (wishbone flower), coleus, begonias and New Guinea impatiens which are all resistant to the fungus, to shine. Breeders quickly kept new plants coming down the pipeline and choices of beautiful blue or purple browallia (pictured above), new interesting foliage plants, colorful caladiums and upright fuchsias quickly took center stage. A seed strain of New Guineas lowered the price point so there were even New Guineas being sold in market packs like the regular bedding impatiens.

Here it is 5 years later. Many growers have cautiously brought impatiens back. Last summer there were very few reported cases. But landscapers for the most part are still staying away. If you had trouble in 2012, trying them in pots has been successful. But the king of the shade has been dethroned. Many homeowners have discovered there are very good alternatives and growing a diversity of plants lessens your general risk of disease.

**This article was written in July.  By late August reports of the disease started coming in again.  Looks like we are not out of the woods yet.  

If you only visit your favorite greenhouse in April or early May there are several annuals that you probably did not even notice. These are heat-loving plants that bloom profusely when the mercury climbs.  They thrive when many cool season flowers like pansies and lobelia are petering out and can be depended on to give bright color until frost.

The first is probably the best known. Lantana is a tropical sub-shrub. When we lived in Florida, it was a hedge outside my office, but here it is an annual. Breeders have refined the habit and broadened the color range. There are mounding and spreading forms in shades of yellow, pink, red, purple and orange. The flower clusters often have more than one color per cluster. They are also nectar-heavy making them a favorite for butterflies and hummingbirds. Another distinctive feature is the fragrant foliage. When rubbed between my fingers, it reminds me of citrus. Because of the oils in the foliage, it also repels mosquitoes and other bothersome pests.

It is drought tolerant and thrives in full sun with little supplemental irrigation once established. Good for pots, baskets or the front to middle of flower beds.

Summer snapdragons, or angelonia is a great upright annual with flowers in spikes. It comes in white, pink, blueish and purple. This plant was first introduced about 20 years ago and made a great home cut flower. Since then breeders shrunk it down to be more of a bedding plant at the expense of taller sturdier stems. In the last few years more vigorous varieties with larger flowers have come on the market making it suitable for cutting once again. Flowers have good vase life and make excellent mid-tall components in containers or beds.

Pentas or butterfly flower (pictured above) is another tropical with nectar-laden tubular cluster of flowers sure to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden. These plants reach 18-30” depending on the variety and are great additions to a sunny perennial border to add some color between seasons. Bold red, bright pink, lavender or white flowers mix well with most color schemes.

For the shade, begonias can’t be beat. A new series ofBegonia boliviensishas really impressed me the last two summers. ‘Bossa Nova’ begonias have large bell-shaped flowers in shades of red, yellow, orange and blush-white. This plant has an upright then arching habit, making it a nice component in baskets or containers. I have some white ones in a container on my front porch mixed with white torenia and purple foliage Persian shield and alternanthera. The contrast is nice for my shady porch. This series is related to the orange ‘Bonfire’ begonia that we have been growing for several years. They can be brought indoors over the winter and kept for next season.

All of these plants do best planted well after the last frost is past. We have noticed they really don’t seem to grow until temperatures are in the 70s and 80s so it is best to wait on planting them.

If your baskets need a little sprucing up, or your perennial border is between seasons, try some of these heat-lovers for a pop of color that will bloom through the worst the summer has to throw at them.

Ornamental grasses have a fine texture and unique form that blends gracefully with the plethora of daisies and other summer flowers. In the fall, their lovely seed heads play so well with sedums, asters and solidagos. Most often though, the switchgrasses (Panicum), Pennisetums, and Miscanthus are best suited for full sun. When planted in shade they tend to be floppy, not bloom as well and lose their variegation or reddish foliage.

For those that garden in the shade, do not despair! There are several choices of ornamental grasses to mix with your ferns, hostas and other woodland plantings.

If you are looking to go native, search no further than members of the sedge family. The ones that look most like lawn grass are Carex appalachica (Appalachian sedge) and Pennsylvania sedge. They both have a fine texture and medium green foliage, but Carex pennsylvanica spreads by rhizomes and will make a nice patch over time. If you are looking to add blue foliage to your landscape, C. laxiculmus ‘Bunny Blue’ and C. platyphylla (broadlead sedge) are natives with dusty blue blades.

Many sedges are native to Japan. The most handsome of this group are cultivars of Carex oshimensis. Often evergreen, with boldly variegated leaves in yellow (‘Eversheen’) or white (‘Everest’) edges these plants make an excellent focal point. They are a great addition as a “filler” component in a mixed shady container but are best planted into the ground in the fall.

If you have an especially damp area, the yellow foliage of sweet flag (Acorus gramineus ‘Oborozuki’) brightens up the shade. It does not tolerate dry soils, so save this one for the wet spots. It even thrives submerged in a pond.

We can’t talk about grasses for shade without mentioning the queen of woodland grasses, Japanese forest grass. Hackonechloa macra, grows two to three feet tall; the most popular forms have yellow or variegated foliage. They prefer moist soils, but will tolerate dry sites once established. They have a graceful arching habit and look especially lovely mixed with hostas, underplanting trees, or lining a walkway. They do slowly spread by rhizomes but not aggressively. This one is documented tolerate growing near black walnuts.

There are a few plants that look like grasses, but are actually members of the lily family. Liriope comes in a clumping form (Liriope muscari) that is best used to line a walkway or outline a design, and a spreading form (Liriope spicata) that makes a nice groundcover. Both have purple flower spikes in the fall, followed by black berries. I would not advise eating the berries, but they are not toxic to pets or people. The popular black Mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigriscens’) is also in the lily family. It spreads slowly and is topped with blush bell-shaped flowers in the summer. Darkest foliage is in part sun. This mixes well with yellow foliage plants such as coral bells or Tradescantia ‘Sweet Kate’.

For those of you with shady landscapes, embrace your conditions and try a grass that will thrive for you.

As I write this, school has been out for one and a half days. While I haven’t heard “I’m bored” yet, it’s because my kids know that as soon as they utter those words, they are pulling weeds.

Yesterday we went down to Longwood Gardens. The kids loved exploring the Children’s Garden in the conservatory and the outdoor kid’s area in the Idea Garden. There are nooks and crannies, and cool water features with interesting things for kids to explore.

The Main Fountain gardens are now open after a two year renovation and they are spectacular. You can walk down inside the grotto and see beautiful plants tucked into the rock walls. That will be a cool refreshing place for visitors this summer. There are fountain shows several times a day, though the special firework shows need special ticketing. The Hillside garden and Carillon tower are open again now as they were closed in coordination with the fountain construction. The Hillside garden was always one of my favorite spots at Longwood and it has been replanted with a lot of natives. I’m anxious to watch as it fills in over the next few years.

Today I finally got around to filling my containers. Ali helped me as she loves color and design and at age 8 her designs are looking a bit less hodgepodge than they did a few years ago. She chose yellow zinnias, white petunias, purple setcresea, a silvery Artemisia and coral geraniums for one pot and purple fan-flower (scaevola), coral geraniums, and blue evolvulus for the other one. They look really pretty. Plus she has agreed to take care of them all summer. Win!

While we did our pots, Liam pulled some weeds and found an ant hill to watch. They were moving their eggs as his weeding disturbed their home. He also found an immature mantid on a gerbera flower. He is my bug expert. If he sees something interesting and I can’t identify it he Googles a description and then searches the image database to identify it. The other day he identified a 6-spotted tiger beetle this way. Read the Wikipedia article, then found some Youtube videos as well.

It’s supposed to be in the 90s the next few days. Creek stomping at Theodore Parker Park just south of Quarryville will probably be on the agenda. It is a nice hiking trail through the woods that hugs the west branch of the Octorara creek. There are always stones to skip, dragon flies to watch and caddishfly larvae to search for under rocks in the water. We usually see a Blue Heron or two as well.

In this day of electronic- heavy influences and social media I know my kids are not having the childhood I did, but I can still encourage them to explore the plants, animals and insects in the world right outside their backdoor. If technology can help them learn more about it more the better.