My Favourite Annuals

I have been doing some seed shopping again. These really aren't planned purchases; I just buy seeds whenever I happen to find them. Well, not just any seeds of course, but interesting species or cultivars. I have been buying both perennials and annuals. I like sowing seeds and I'm quite happy about the fact that by doing so I save money if compared to buying plants.

I really appreciate annual plants because they nicely fill any empty spot in the border. My flower benches still have those empty plotches because my garden is newly founded and all my perennials, shrubs and trees are really small. I would say that annuals are exactly what I need, although I'm not sure to what extend, because I have dozens of perennial seedlings from last summer as well.

I would like to have all those pretty annuals on my yard, but as I'm not too keen to have endless rows of seedpots on my windowsill, I have given up on quite many species. Now I only buy those seeds that can be sown outdoors directly. I know this is no news any more, as I have been talking about it at least a couple of times already.

But what do I buy then? Here are some of my latst buys.

Lord Nelson seeds are sold in K-rauta, Hortus seeds in City Market and Weibulls seeds in Prisma.

My favourite annuals are poppies, of course. But as you can see, I like many others as well. I have been buying California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), different kinds of Clarkias, annual larkspur (Consolida) - I love the perennial one too! - Linanthus, Zinnia, sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) and Calendulas. I didn't buy any marigolds (Tagetes) this year, but I really liked this 'Vanilla' marigold ( below) last summer.

This Tropaeolum 'Salmon Alaska' was another favourite of mine! Beautifully spotted leaves and blooms with shades oh apricot.

Here's a Papaver somniferum 'Lilac Pompom' in front of some Cosmos that never bloomed....

And this corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) must be a 'Shirley Double'. There's a blend of beautiful pink and strawberry red shades in this seed mix, and I just had to go to have a look at the blooms every single day, because they were so fantastic.

Bachelor's buttons (Centaurea) were a nice fill in the border as well. Here I have red and pink flowers, other colours were sown elsewhere.

There are many beautiful varieties of California poppies. This pink one probably came in a seed pack of 'Thai Silk'.

These feathery black poppies were a surprise. I thought I was sowing 'Drama Queen' seeds, but only one of the flowers actually looked like that variety looks in the pictures I've seen. If anyone knows what these are called, I'd like to know! Then I could buy them again. Last autumn was so rainy, that all the seedpods were destroyed before they were good to harvest. These are not as stunning as some other dark varieties, but they certainly looked "different"! (And they were at the right spot!) 

It looks more purple in bright morning sun, but really black for the rest of the day.

Calendulas weren't ready to be harvested either before the frosts came. I don't mind though, because they didn't look like anything they were supposed to. I mean, I love yellow (I do!) but these were supposed to be pinkish...

Those tiny little Linanthus flowers are really cute and the plants form a dense, feathery looking, healthy green carpet. It looks really nice in places were you need a low ground cover between bigger plants! I'm not sure if you are able to see them behind this bold cone flower (Echinacea). Their flowers only seem to be open when it's sunny.

We all love bunnies, don't we?

They are so soft, furry and cute, especially at Easter time when they hop around hiding coloured eggs everywhere. And they are delicious too. We don't have any wild rabbits in northern Finland (although there are some around Helsinki area), so the bunnies I'm talking about are either mountain hare Lepus timidus (we call it "forest hare" probably because it lives in the forest and there aren't any mountains around here) or brown hare Lepus europaeus. The latter is much bigger and it doesn't usually chance its colour for winter like the mountain hare. It's also more an invasive species here up north.

The reason why I don't know which I'm actually talking about is, that I haven't really seen the animal itself, but the tracks it has been leaving all around my yard. And as I'm neither a hunter nor a good tracker, I can't really tell the species by its tracks. I just know it's a hare and that's all.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like the hare. Last winter when no-one had introduced the idea of NOT feeding birds around this building, I had a bird feeder on my yard. The hare came to eat some nuts at night as well, when there was nobody watching. Now that it's prohibited to feed animals here, the hare came to eat my trees and shrubs instead.

I did realise this would happen, and I bought some wire netting that I successfully installed around two of the trees in autumn. Yes, only two. Because the wire netting was really heavy, wanting to roll back to its original rolled position and because I was doing the job all by myself. I was exhausted after the two trees and only covered the trunks of the rest with a plastic roll. "Trunk" doesn't really describe that feature well though, as my trees are still really small, and their trunks are more like twigs.

I have crabapples, an apple tree, some cherry trees and cherry shrubs and two plum trees. Only two of the trees now have a wire netting around them. As it has been snowing, the plastic roll doesn't really protect any part of the rest of the trees, as the surface of the snow is already above that level. So when the hare come to feast on my trees, there's not much if any protection for the tree. They have been eating some branches and the main trunk itself above the plastic roll.

Some branches have disappeared completely, but the trunks have been peeled. Last year I read in a garden magazine, that this could possibly be fixed by wrapping some plastic wrap around the area where the bite marks are. This way the tree could mend itself and grow new bark. Of course the protective plastic foil should be placed as soon as the damage has been done, in order to prevent the area from drying out. When spring arrives and the sunshine starts warming the trunk, it will start re-growing the bark. This is why it has to be clear plastic wrapping, as the sun light has to be able to penetrate it. This is exactly what I did, and now it remains to be seen if it works or not. If you try the same trick, please tell me how did it go.

'Hopa' with plastic wrap taped around its main branch.

I also acquired some birch tar oil from my mother and daubed it around the trunks, branches and the poles supporting the trees. There are different types of this product, used as a "pesticide" or rather as a medium to keep the pests away. There's one for snails and one for mammals. I hope this works against rodents as well.

I'm not sure if there's any fail proof way to protect the trees against rodents. The animals I would be talking about are european water vole Arvicola amphibius as the worst of them and some smaller species of the same kind. They don't just chew some branches, but peel the trunk around the base or chew up the roots. In spring you can lift up the whole tree and see that the roots are gone. Some say that the snow around the base should be treaded so that it becomes compressed and the rodents can't make their paths through it any more. I haven't done that, so I hope there aren't any hungry voles around. And if there are, I hope that the birch tar oil works on them.

Summer Bulbs

I have been preparing for the summer already. I have been buying seeds, sowing seeds, storing bulbs, and... even buying some new ones. Yes, I know! It's only February. I will only be able to plant the bulbs in May after there's no frost in the ground any more.

I bought lots of different lilies, Irises and other bulbs last year. Most of them didn't even bloom. The best performers were low growing lily varieties like 'Mona Lisa' and the tiger lily 'Pink Tiger' (which I believe to be 'Splendens' instead, because it doesn't really look like 'Pink Tiger' at all). Others were just too late last summer, and didn't get to bloom before winter. Summer 2012 wasn't exactly warm. It was quite cool and I kept waiting for the "summer to finally arrive" all summer long! Those lilies that were early enough were growing along the southern wall, and probably enjoyed more warmth than others.

I have been ordering most of my bulbs abroad for years now. Mainly because it's easier to find more cultivars in one place. But then it happens, that I come across some lovely cultivar at my local hardware store, and have to buy that too... Here are some I bought last week.

So what I found there in Bauhaus were oriental lilies, dahlias, iris and Crocosmia. I also placed a big order at Eurobulb. My list includes some Eucomis, Iris, Hemerocallis, Gladiolus, Trillium and some other bulbs. To be honest, I'm not sure if there's going to be enough space in my garden for all of them, but I guess I'll just make more space if there isn't yet.

Sowing Seeds In Winter

People who have been sowing perennial or tree or shrub seeds are probably familiar with the term "stratification" which means simulating winter conditions in order to make seeds sprout. Many plants originating from colder climate produce seeds that don't sprout before they have experienced a winter period.

Last winter I had my fridge full of seed pots. As the stratification process is not the same for all the seeds, I had pots with labels explaining how long they were supposed to be kept in cool. I suppose most people just have small plastic bags with moist sand and seeds in the fridge if they intend to have anything stratified, but I had both bags and pots and I have to admit I had better success with pots.

Last winter I acquired lots of perennial and tree seeds that needed stratification, and since I ran out of space, I decided to simply sow some seeds in pots and place them outdoors. There was winter there behind the front door, you see, to be taken advantage of. I didn't just place the pots outside without any protection, but dug a hole in the snow and put each pot in their own hole, then covering them with a good amount of snow again.

This winter I'm having my fridge full of bulbs and rhizomes, so I don't have any space there. I have some Dahlias overwintering there and I just bought some new bulbs from the local hardware store. Since it's not spring yet, I have to keep them in cool before planting them out in May.

I'm not planning to sow lots of seeds indoors this year, actually I'm trying to avoid it completely. But since I collected some rose seeds and crabapple seeds last autumn, I had to sow some of them. I'm not sure if they are viable though, because these seeds I didn't store exactly the way the should be stored... I  have to confess that I forgot those little apples and rose hips on a plate in a drawer and they completely dried out before harvesting the seeds! So I may have been sowing something that's never going to sprout no matter what I do.

Here the ever optimistic me has been sowing some seeds of Rosa 'Juhannusmorsian' and Malus purpurea 'Kadetti'. The pot is waiting to be placed in the snow.

Here is a hole I dug for the pot. 

As you can see, I have been doing a good job: the pot fits perfectly.

And here it is. You would never guess there's a pot with seeds beneath the snow, would you? 

The weather has been very mild now, it was about -1 °C when I did this. But last year I did the same at -25 °C and it didn't seem to make much difference, as those seeds sprouted. I guess the thick layer of snow (last winter was very snowy) protected the seeds well enough.

I'm not saying this is a proved way to make the seeds sprout, but I did this with several different seeds last winter, and it worked for some. Then again, I never saw some sprouting at all, but that was the result with some of the seeds I tried stratifying in the fridge as well. I probably did something wrong with them, or they were some very old seed stock with no viability at all. (I would like to think the latter, but the first is more likely to be true.) Those that didn't sprout last spring, I left outdoors for the whole summer. Some rose and magnolia seeds sprouted late in the summer. As some pots had nothing sprouting by the time autumn arrived, I just left them outside for their second winter. Let's see if that'll do the trick or if I will give up on them when summer comes. 

Seed Shopping

This is definitely the time of the year to buy some seeds for the next summer. Usually I start buying seeds as soon as they appear at the shops and when the first seed catalogs arrive. So I have been doing that for a couple of weeks now.

But seed stores online exist all year round, so I have been purchasing seeds even during the summer and in autumn. Today I have been shopping on eBay. I like buying on eBay, because sometimes you find a cultivar that doesn't exist at your local stores. I do buy online at "real" seed stores as well (such as RaraVäxter or Plant World Seeds) so it's not exclusive in any way. Actually I have been buying seeds for year online as well as at supermarkets, garden centers and practically from anyone who is willing to sell seeds at all.

Last summer I bought seeds from some Finnish hobby gardener online. They were all perennial plant seeds, so it will remain to be seen if they come true from seed. I know it's more than likely that especially Aquilegias will be something else than the mother plant. My favourite find last year was Touchwood Seeds and all those Aquilegias I wish to have in my garden next summer unless all the little seedling die during the winter. I kept sowing Aquilegias all summer last year, so I haven't been buying any new Aquilegia seeds yet. Now I'm interested in different poppy cultivars instead, both perennial and annual species.

I had some lovely annual poppies in my garden last year. Perennial cultivars were a disappointment, because all the seeds that were supposed to produce pink poppies turned out to be orange. Even the Papaver orientale cultivar I bought as pot plants, proved to be orange and not burgundy that they were supposed to be. But the annual Papaver somniferum cultivars were spectacular! Not all of the seeds grew up to be what they were supposed to be (especially those bought from various eBay stores) but some of them were even better than expected.

Today I have been shopping on an eBay store called Southern Seeds and this is what I bought:

 There are oriental poppies, Bellis, annual poppies, larkspur, zinnias and California poppies, Gaillardia and Monarda. I hope they will be as spectacular as promised and that the seeds will be fresh. The amounts were quite small, like 25 poppy seeds per bag, so if the viability rate is low, I won't have too many plants. Bellis is a biennial plant, so I will only be able to observe the result the following year.

Gardening in the north

Living up north means there's not much time for gardening. Not because one is too busy but because the summer is too short. The growing season 2012 here started on the 8th of May and ended on the 15th of October. Growing seasons are expected to become longer during this century due to climatic change, but I'm not sure if that's something worth celebrating. I'm actually surprised to know that the growing season has been a good 5 months, because it really feels more like 3 months to me.

The place where I live is just as north as southern Greenland or Alaska. Let's face it, this is far too north for gardening in most parts of the World. But thanks to the North Atlantic Golf current, the weather here is not as cold as in Siberia. I actually live in the European hardiness zone 4 or the Finnish growing zone 5.

You can find this map and learn more about hardiness zones at the Free Independent Sun.

Apparently this means that the average annual minimum temperatures here are between -28,9 / -34,4 °C or -20 / -30 °F degrees. February usually is the coldest month of the year, and even though this year has been mild, last winter was not. I can grow various plants up here, that manage to survive the winter, but don't bloom. I can also grow plants, that don't only survive the winter, but bloom as well. However the growing season is too short for them to form seeds. 

But the survival of the plant does not depend only on the length of the growing season or the average minimum temperatures alone. You can look for a spot where the microclimate is suitable for a certain plant, like a warm spot close to the southern wall of your house with plenty of sunshine and with protection of winds. But the protected spot can be hazardous in winter, when snow falls from the roof and breaks the branches of the tree. This place might be perfect for some perennials though. But there's not much snow close to the wall either, so there no snow cover to protect the ground and the roots.

Some plants that usually are afraid of cold, may do well under the protective cover of snow. The parts on top of the snow may get frozen each winter, but the parts below the snow stay alive and continue growing the following summer. Of course this means that the plant will never grow too large or maybe not even to the height you were hoping for. There's no point planting a tree and expecting it to do well under these conditions though. It may stay alive for a few years, then get tired and eventually die. Usually they don't survive the first winter. Another problem occurs every now and then; this winter the freezing temperatures of -20 °C degrees arrived before the snow. So there was no protection for the plants before the cold cast its spell over them.

Frost heaving is one problem more. Plants can't start growing before their roots are free of frost, not even if the temperature of the air is nice and warm. This is why evergreens may die during their first winters especially if they have a shallow root system. When the sun starts heating the air early in the spring and their leaves start evaporating, the plant dries out because the roots can't get any water from the frozen ground. That is why it's advised to protect these plants from the spring sun or maybe moderately water the ground with warm water to make it melt faster. I have some Rhododendrons growing beside my front door, so I have been shovelling snow on top of them to keep them protected as long as possible.

I have planted some less hardy plants in my garden, and I'm not sure if I can expect to find any of them alive when the spring arrives. But I thought I'd never find out if I didn't plant any of them. Who knows what kind of a surprise they will offer! I have been told that magnolias can't be grown this north, but I have read that there's a specimen of Magnolia x soulangeana growing in the botanic garden of the Oulu University, and that it has survived. I have been informed, that Malus purpurea 'Kadetti' can not be grown here, but I have seen one growing in front of an apartment building, and surviving several winters already. I have also been told that Taxus can not been grown here unlike the one I just saw the other day.

Of foreign plants we tend to favour Canadian cultivars here because they are usually good and proven and survive the winters well. We grow Canadian crabapples, blueberries, roses and what not. Also Russian cultivars do well over here; plums (Prunus domestica) and honeyberries (Lonicera caerulea var. edulis) for example. Of course we have our own local cultivars as well. I have a damson plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia) 'Silvast' in my garden, several Finnish roses like Rosa pimpinellifolia 'Ruskela', Rosa majalis 'Tornedal' and Rosa pimpinellifolia 'Juhannusmorsian' and a sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) 'Arttula' as well as Finnish Rhododendron cultivars. But surprisingly many garden plants originating from milder climatic conditions can be grown over here as well. Peonies are a good and bold example among them.

Rhododendron 'Helsinki University'

I'm a hardiness zone stretcher myself, so I plant anything that could be even remotely hardy in the local conditions and just see if it survives or not. Oh, don't tell me they're all going to be dead when the spring arrives! I won't even listen to you. If they show no sign of life before the autumn arrives, then maybe I will consider them dead. Or just well dormant. 

Growing crabapples

I’m really trying to not sow any seeds indoors this year because they take so much space. Also, seedlings need lots of attention. Last year I had a house full of seedlings; vegetables, annuals, perennial, even shrubs and trees! So I’m trying to avoid all that clutter now.

But just yesterday I tried getting some crabapple seeds out of the dried apples I had already forgotten about. They were Malus ’Cowichan’ seeds, formerly known as Malus ‘Kadetti’ in Finland, because the specimen was first found growing in Helsinki, by street Kadetintie. It was only recently that the researchers found out it’s actually ‘Cowichan’, thanks to modern test methods. It’s not supposed to be growing this north, but I found a tree growing on the yard of an apartment building where I used to live before. When I was still living there, we planted a Malus‘Makamik’ right next to it. ‘Cowichan’ has lovely rose-pink flowers while ‘Makamik’ blooms are a little darker.

So last fall I did some apple picking at my own neighbourhood and got apples of both varieties. Both types are beautifully red. ‘Cowichan’ apples are bigger and rounder than those of ‘Makamik’.

Unfortunately I was too lazy to further process the apples… well, what I mean is that I forgot to harvest the seeds, left the apples on a plate to dry, and now they are almost rock hard. I’m not even sure if the seeds are still viable, but lack of knowledge never keeps me from experimenting, so I dug out some seeds yesterday, sealed them in a plastic bag and put then in the fridge. I’ll try to sow them soon, even though it means I will have some pots full of soil in the fridge for a few months. That’s nothing new. Last spring I had plenty of pots in the fridge just to make the seeds believe they’re overwintering in very nice and mild conditions. Or at least very controlled conditions compared to those outdoors. I could go and have a peek every now and then, which I can’t do if the pots are buried in the snow.

'Cowichan' or 'Kadetti' above and 'Makamik' below.

I also have some rose hips drying out too. I should try to remember this tonight and try to see if there’s anything to be saved any more. I have some lovely Finnish cultivars growing in the garden, and I would like to see what their seedlings would look like.

I did manage to grow some apples last year, and now I’m eager to see if they survive the winter! I had some seedlings of an edible garden apple, but as the name tag had been lost (or stolen by a magpie?) I completely forgot the name of the cultivar. I also bought some crabapple seeds of the cultivar called ‘Prairiefire’. The seedlings were beautiful! All of them had leaves with varying shades of red. I would have planted them all over the garden, if my plot only was big enough. But as it isn’t, I only planted two of them. I hope they will do well over here up north, because trees are like babies in a sense that those you grow yourself are the most beautiful ones, just as every mother has the most beautiful child.

I already have some crabapples growing in my garden. I have chosen my two favourites, and the third one is a tree that I bought last autumn for a good discount. So I just couldn’t leave it behind, I had to bring it home. That one is ‘Hopa’. The other two are ‘Royalty’ and ‘Aamurusko’ (=”Dawn”), both pictured below.

 

I don’t think ‘Hopa’ is special in the way these two are, but I like pink blooming trees, so it can stay. ‘Aamurusko’ is not the hardiest one of the cultivars, so I’m kinda trying to stretch the hardiness zones here. Then again, this tree is not the only one testing its limits in my garden, so it has fairly good chances to survive when compared to some other plants (no, I won’t admit that I have several magnolias planted in my garden as well). Anyway. I’d better sow those ‘Cowichan’ seeds this year, just in case that none of my existing crabapples survive. And if they do, I will be planting more crabapples anyway – maybe at night on my neighbours’ yard, as I don’t have any more space for trees on my own yard.

'Cowichan' aka 'Kadetti'