The summer is officially over, both in the garden and on the calendar, we just passed he point when the day becomes shorter than the night. The light shifted, a soft but impossible to miss change that always precedes the beginning of fall.
As usual at the end of September I'm excited to welcome the stars of the fall garden, the toad lilies. I can't get over how understated and sophisticated these flowers are, both at the same time, you have to get really close to capture the charm of their northern orchid countenance.
Don't be deceived by their fragile appearance, under the right circumstances they are hardy low maintenance bulbs, performing very reliably in cool temperate climates, although they do resent wet winters and will not come back the spring after that.
I think this time I finally matched the perfect Goldilocks conditions that will make them happy: not too sunny, not too shady, not too dry, not too boggy, not too soft, not too crowded, not too exposed. If you plant them in full shade they will not last very long and hold off on blooming, despite the fact that the plant is advertised for such growing conditions. I am not surprised, in fact most full shade plants prefer dappled shade and will not give their best if they don't get any sunshine at all.
The original Tricyrtis plant (that's the name if you don't feel right calling it toad lily) only comes in its characteristic purple polka dots, the feature that gave the plant its nickname, but as with many garden flowers, the horticulturists managed to overcome the natural coloring and create a pink and a blue variety, both of which I planted. The pink one bloomed, I don't see any trace of the blue one yet, sadly. It makes me wonder if it is one of those plants that react to the soil pH.
Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "Letters to Lelia"; "Fair"; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog
I started learning about gardening from my grandfather, at the age of four. Despite his forty years' experience as a natural sciences teacher, mine wasn't a structured instruction, I just followed him around, constantly asking questions, and he built up on the concepts with each answer.
I started blogging in 2010 to honor his memory and share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born this way: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from him, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might find it useful it in their own gardening practice.