This time last year it was nice and cold, but for the last few days it's been in the 60s and 70s (though today it's finally in the 50s). Forget about the freak East Coast snow in late October. It made no dent. There are so many flowers blooming in my yard it looks as it did in mid-fall. Gomphrena 'Fireworks', hardy Chrysanthemum, Salvia elegans, Salvia coccinea, Salvia Navajo Dark Purple, sweet alyssum and hybrid Monarda viridissima are still shining as are the blooms of the native vine, Lonicera sempervirens. I'm still cutting pretty table arrangements. My daughters are rapt!

A few weeks ago I madly harvested herbs and dried them thinking they would be toast by mid-November at the latest. All still look as fresh as a daisy. Rosemary, thyme, chives, sage, oregano, parsley and even a few peaked basil leaves are fragrant, green and available for the picking.

It's the warmest November in memory. Some may find the balminess pleasing, but unseasonably warm weather depresses me, particularly early in the season. It's just not jolly in areas where snow and chill are the norm. I want snowy, plush jacket weather, weather that will give me an excuse to snuggle up to new spring seed catalogs and forget about tending my garden for a while.


Rosemary and hardy mums still growing and blooming on December 1, 2011.


Pretty purple Salvia and sweet alyssum still shining.


This pretty late-blooming Monarda is as colorful and beautiful as can be.


The purple-pink flowerheads of Gomphrena 'Fireworks' have yet to succumb to the cold.

This cranberry sauce is the best pumpkin pie topper ever.

I can't get a hold of a recipe without majorly tweaking it, and last Thanksgiving I tweaked a home run. In this case, I modified the fruity Wayne's Cranberry Sauce, a highly rated Food Network recipe posted by Paula Dean. I changed the citrus, raisins, added orange zest, upped the Grand Marnier, removed the spices and added toasted pecans. I also chose the tart, winey, late-season cooking apple, 'Stayman Winesap.'

The results were perfect for my wants--a clean, fruity sauce with a nibble of nut. Everyone loved it, and my father asked me to make more and bake it in a pie shell--a brilliant idea. It evokes all the best harvest flavors and also tastes great on pumpkin pie (a two layer pumpkin and harvest cranberry pie may be on order).


Dean-Inspired Fruited Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4  cup water
• 2 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 cup finely chopped apple (a tart cooking apple is best)
  
• 3/4 cup chopped, toasted pecans
• 3/4 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup Grand Marnier
• 1 large orange, zested and juiced
  

Directions:

Boil sugar and water in a medium saucepan until the sugar has totally dissolved, around 5 minutes. Add in the fresh cranberries, return to a boil, then lower to medium-low heat and simmer for around 8 minutes. Add the apples, golden raisins, orange juice, orange zest and Grand Marnier then cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Make sure all the cranberries have popped by squishing those that are still whole. Remove from the heat and let the sauce cool. Mix in the pecans before serving (this keeps them more crisp).

Add the mix to a pie shell and bake or enjoy with a festive turkey dinner. 

By the end of the meal, little cranberry sauce remained.

Mom will be so proud. I recently received my first ranty mention on the popular gardening blog, Garden Rant. Does that count as another notch towards garden writing success? The effervescently optimistic side of me, if such a side exists, says, "Oh yes!"

Apparently, I made a boo boo by writing, "Most garden magazines stick to the classic gardening demographic, which most popular surveys recognize as older, financially secure females with college degrees and no children at home. This is a good thing (we love our serious, dedicated gardeners), but cultural and economic changes are changing the face of the American gardener. Wilder seeks to appeal to that new face. " in my blog about Wilder Quarterly. It incurred this rant by Elizabath Licata: "So far, the word on Wilder is that it addresses a different audience than that aimed at by the current gardening magazines. That is likely true. What isn't true is the assumption that those magazines were satisfying the "older, financially secure females with college degrees" which is how Wilder horticultural editor Jessie Keith defines the traditional gardening demographic. All generations and all demographics of gardeners want new and exciting content in their magazines."

The good thing is we are both on the same page. Big businesses, mainstream garden magazines included, target demographics based on expensive research and surveys. Every magazine does it, save modest, experimental periodicals like Wilder Quarterly. The question is how are larger garden magazines defining what their most prevalent demographic targets like to read? Most recycle the same dull gardening themes with little divergence, which is a real bore to longtime gardeners and readers. Where's the new content and new perspective? Fresh ideas are in order.

From a writer's perspective I've been disappointed too. Lots of my fresher, more unique garden article ideas have been shot down by mags because their subjects are not "mainstream enough" or "don't fit the demographic."

Either way, I got my rant and won't give it back.


A snippet from BHG showing their reader's demographics.

What's the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? It's a common question asked of horticulturists this time of year. The two tubers may have similar textures and flavors, but sweet potatoes and yams are not the same.  They come from two distantly related plants  from very different parts of the world--though they are both tropical vines that grow under similar sunny, hot growing conditions.

There are approximately 600 yam (Dioscorea) species and several are edible, but the most popular and readily available are the fleshy roots of Dioscorea cayennensis, or the yellow yam. African in origin, its large, elongated brown tubers have hard yellow flesh that softens up when cooked. Unlike sweet potatoes, it needs to be peeled before cooking and eating. Above ground it forms monstrous vines that can reach lengths of 40 feet, if not maintained.  The tubers of this tender perennial take around a year to mature, so it's not a quick turnaround crop. Yam tubers also don't store for long, unlike the fleshy tuberous roots of sweet potato.

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is actually a morning glory, if you can believe it. It's one of those rare plants that's grown as a tasty vegetable and a pretty ornamental (yellow, purple and variegated-leaved forms are popular foliage plants). Unlike yams, this vigorous, herbaceous, trailing vine is native to Central America and the Pacific Islands. Its fleshy, tapered, tuberous roots have edible smooth thin skin that houses firm sweet flesh of white, yellow or purple-blue that softens when cooked. Above ground it forms vigorous vines that can reach lengths of 20 feet, if not maintained. Sweet potatoes can be grown any time of year, so long as growing conditions are very warm, and produce a harvestable crop in only three to four months. The tubers store well for months of kept in a dark, cool place.


Yams must be peeled, otherwise sweet potatoes and yams cook up similarly. My busy holiday schedule won't allow me to cook and share my favorite sweet and savory yam and sweet potato recipes, so I'll just share a few excellent recipes from worthy cooking sites.

1. The sweet potato pie by SheSimmers is absolutely amazing! She adds chopped pecans to the crust. Super yummy.

2. I've made Martha Stewart's watercress salad with roasted sweet potatoes with spicy, seasonal arugula and it's the bomb. It makes a pleasingly light addition to holiday meals.

3. Perfect yam fries with cumin from The Three Cheeses. Need I say more?

4. The uniquely tasty sweet potato gnocchi with crushed hazelnuts from The Italian Dish is a lot easier to make than it looks.


A bowl brimming with white-fleshed sweet potatoes ready for cooking.

The other day I was at the community garden amending my veggie beds for winter and planting garlic. For conversation, I asked some fellow gardeners if they knew where I could find a couple of rhubarb plants this time of year (perusing nurseries is too time consuming for my busy schedule). Anyway, both asked, "Can you plant rhubarb in fall?" My response was "Yes. Rhubarb is tough as nails." In the same vein, I received a comparable question when I transplanted asparagus late last fall.

Hardy spring perennial edibles are most commonly planted in spring, but I'm not sure why because they fare beautifully, if not better, if properly planted in fall. Their roots get a chance to establish, and by spring they're rearing to go. Amending and covering with a good bit of rich compost will protect through winter and help them on their way.

I cherish my 1961 copy of How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method by J.I. Rodale and Staff, and in it they indicate fall rhubarb planting is best done in regions with long, cool falls. (That's what we have in Delaware.) But they also emphasize that rhubarb is one of the few perennial crops tough enough to manage Alaskan winters, so those living in northerly states may also be able to plant it in fall with success.

Asparagus is a little less hardy, so fall-planted crowns definitely require a mulch layer of compost for good root set and successful overwintering. My crowns flourished last yea,r and I even had harvestable shoots, though I abstained from picking them to help the plants build power for the 2012 spring harvest. One suggestion for fall planters: refrain from fully cutting back the tops if planting asparagus in fall. The tops continue to feed the roots through the season and help plants become better established faster.

Anyway, back to my original question, "Can I find a couple of rhubarb plants this time of year?" I found them online at www.burpee.com right away. The flavorful red-stemmed cultivar 'MacDonald' is what I'll probably choose. They suggest folks in my zone plant in mid-October, but I bet I can push the envelope and plant now with success.


My 'Jersey Knight' asparagus was divided and moved to my veggie bed with great success last fall. After planting I amended with rich compost and got rid of the bark mulch.


Good red color and great flavor are what I want from my new new rhubarb plants. 'MacDonald' offers both.

Saint Mary's Cathedral of Hildesheim, Germany is no ordinary church. It has been on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list since 1985 and houses some of the most beautiful and ancient Roman bronze works I have ever seen--namely a fantastic  door decorated with three-dimensional depictions of the life of Jesus (image below). The original church itself dates back to 815 and its lovely inner garden houses the Gothic chapel Annenkapelle, built in 1321. But what makes the garden most appealing and fantastic is the ancient 1000-year old dog rose (Rosa canina) it houses.

Some have doubts that the rose is as old as they say, but if dutiful guardians have regularly taken cuttings from the original rose over the course of 1000-years, it is feasible. Either way, it's huge, well-tended and beautiful year round. My photo shows it in full hip just a few days after Christmas.


The 1000-year old dog rose of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim is well-protected and beautifully pruned and trained.


Small graves in the courtyard garden are decorated with modest stones accented with simple mounds of trimmed shrubs and evergreen groundcovers.


Cobbled roads lead to the main church of Saint Mary's Cathedral.


Seeing the intricately decorated ancient Roman bronze door at the cathedral is worth the visit alone. The door was commissioned by the Saxon Bishop Bernward in 1015.


A holiday appropriate detail of the door.


A verdigris tower is the high point of Saint Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim.

(Prefatory note: This blog was written in 2010. Sadly, when I visited Longwood last week in hopes of finding groovy carved pumpkins there were none to be found. Maybe because it was such a bad year for pumpkins in the region. It was so wet, mine literally rotted on the vine. Local farmers had similar troubles. Maybe next year?)

Professional pumpkin carving and carving contests are a hot item inthe Brandywine River Valley. The influence of events like the Chadds Ford Great Pumpkin Carve (www.chaddsfordhistory.org/events/pcarve/...) have certainly influenced local interest in fantastically carved pumpkins. Longwood Gardens (www.longwoodgardens.org/)has also boosted its pumpkin displays over the years to include lots ofwonderfully carved giants. Last year's display was certainly one of thebest and this year's should prove to be even better! Here are just a few of their pumpkins from the 2009 season:

A cheerful monarch butterfly decorates the face of this huge 'Atlantic Giant.'

Easter and Halloween merge with this interesting bunny pumpkin.

All the carved pumpkins are decorated with a cool display of diverse gourds and squash.

Not your typical Jack-o-lantern.

VW pumpkin

Some of the squash on display were amazingly huge! My 6' 4" brother is standing for scale.

This frog themed carving is certainly unusual. It'll be interestingto see how long these sculptural carvings last. As long as the weatherstays cool.

These shots offer a small taste of the pumpkins creations you'll find on display at Longwood Gardens this year. Check them out if you can!

Note: This year Longwood will also have fantastic displays of glass-blown pumpkins and squash created at Cohn-Stone Studios! These lovely works of art will also be available for purchase.

Over the years I've wrangled with Dirr's books on woody plants--his more scholastic Manual of Woody Landscape Plants (1998) has the technical information I want but is visually lacking, while his Hardy Trees and Shrubs: an Illustrated Encyclopedia (1997) is slim on content but pretty. It was my hope that the new Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees & Shrubs (2011), which is slated to hit bookshelves in November, would strike a balance between the two older volumes, and largely it does.

Overall, Dirr's new encyclopedia is prettier and easier to peruse than previous volumes, and it's heavy on content. Around 3,530 much-welcome glossy color pictures replace the occasional black-and-white sketches found in the old manual. Clean alphabetical organization of plant species also makes it easier to find plants as does the simple index of botanical names in the back of the book. Students, landscape specialists and gardeners will also appreciate the useful lists of "Selected Plants for Specific Characteristics or Purposes," also found in the back of the book.

The chief setback of Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees & Shrubs is its "text embedded data," a problem I had with his 1997 encyclopedia. When I want basic characteristic information about a plant, I don't want to read paragraphs. Perhaps my perspective is biased. Not only did I learn woody plants from Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, I taught with it and favor its mode of delivery. Its neatly partitioned characteristic information, offered under headers like Hardiness, Habit, Culture and Diseases and Insects, is very accessible. I would value this new encyclopedia far more if it distilled basic information down in a similar fashion.

Lots of new cultivars make the encyclopedia an important update on older volumes. Once again, it's a little challenging picking through the paragraphs to find plants, but the information about them is concise and apt. Dirr highlights those varieties he likes best, which is also beneficial.

Overall, Dirr's new book offers excellent and thorough coverage of hardy woody plants well-adapted to many parts of North America. Its information is very good, as always, though sometimes approached from a southeastern perspective. I would recommend this book to any gardener seeking a definitive book on woody landscape plants for North America.


Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees & Shrubs by Michael A. Dirr. 3530 color photos. 952 pp. Timber Press. $79.95

I first bought seed from Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seed company in the United States, six or seven years ago during an event at Winterthur. Impressive quality and a nice selection of garlic bulbs have kept me coming back. Sadly, the historically significant old seed house is struggling despite the recent financial successes of its new owner, Barbara Melera.

According to a 9/25/11 Philadelphia Inquirer article by Virginia A. Smith, Malara turned a profit this year after accepting loans up to $1 million from friends, family and two outside investors. But the article states, "The two outside investors, who lent <Landreth> $250,000 and $175,000, want to be paid back, and the money isn't there." The article further explains, "Melera's immediate goal is to "raise $150,000 to $175,000 by then from seed sales and advance orders for the 100-page, 2012 catalog."

I encourage gardeners to help out by purchasing next year's seeds from Landreth. Their seed is high-quality, selection good, and the effort will help this American horticultural institution stay afloat.


Image of 2012 Landreth Catalogue c/o Landreth Seed Company

Years ago I planted a suite of Monarda species closely related to Monarda punctata that have flourished and hybridized in my Delaware garden. The plants were procured from graduate school field-collection trips in Texas, Michigan, Florida and the East Coast for my Master's research which culminated in a thesis titled Monarda Section Cheilyctus: Patterns of Speciation and Endemism. Three of the species initially planted were the rare Texas endemics, Monarda fruticulosa, M. maritima and M. viridissima, which have proven surprisingly hardy.

Many interesting and diverse hybrids spring up every year from these reproductively compatible species. Some bloom early in the season, starting late in June, but many don't begin to flower until late-summer or early fall. These late-bloomers are clearly progeny of the fall-blooming species, M. maritima and M. viridissima.

Photos are the best means of capturing the diversity of these lovely late-season Monarda. Some have bright-pink tiered bracts while others have ivory or white. Heights, bloom times and floriferousness varies widely.


The fall-blooming, pink-bracted beauty popping up from the Mexican hairgrass is certainly a Monarda punctata x M. viridissima hybrid as it maintains characteristics of both.


Loads of ivory-bracted Monarda punctata hybrids add unique charm to the front bed. They began blooming in late-August and will continue until frost.


This colorful foot-high Monarda happened to pop up in the front of one of my beds. Its appearance suggests M. maritima and M. viridissima parentage. Who knows where the compact height came from.