Dan's Papers - October 10, 2008

Now that the summer is officially over and Columbus Day marks the season to start planting bulbs, I'm taking the time to look back over the beds and pots and evaluate what annuals and new perennials did well and what burned out. I was motivated in part by the Ball Seed Catalogue that came in the mail. The gorgeous pictures of the plant material that they'll be offering next year made me wonder about not only what performed well, but what I might like to replace the experimental failures with next year. Some plants just give me so much pleasure and seem almost fool proof, so I reorder them each year.

Every gardener has his or her list of favorites. For the shade I simply cannot say enough about begonias. I am partial to non-stops, which have big peony like flowers in every color but purple. Pinks, salmon and orange topped the list this year. We planted them in pots in mass groupings under an arbor, pots in the shade of big old Crimson King maples and in window boxes on the north side of the house. They bloomed non-stop as usual, throwing out continual color with large size blooms for months. We also put some fantastic clear yellow ones in with the lantana in another window box under an awning, that gave a great color complement and flower contrast.

There are a large number of new Angel Wing varieties that are fascinating in leaf and flower like Anna Feil, which has green leaves with a burgundy reverse and cascades of salmon pink flowers. A pot of these is actually placed on top of a manhole cover in the lawn under some old sugar maples. No one ever notices what the pot is standing on because the begonias are so elegant. There are others with silver speckled foliage that I did not try but saw elsewhere and may experiment with next year.

For pure foliage there are two rex begonias that I adore. Hurricane Bay has a frosty silver white leaf with no flowers. It is perfect because it makes a "muffin top" of a plant mass in the pots that are in deep shade. I occasionally remember to water them and in the earlier part of the summer, when it rained, I never even bothered. Boston Cherries and Chocolate is equally gorgeous albeit quite different, the leaves are a deep burgundy with splashes of pink that we potted in mass and also in a mixture with Winter Sun Tornado. This has a larger multicolored leaf of greens, silvers, pink and burgundy. These are all in urns in heavy shade under maples and an old fir and yet their colorful leaves still add a spark to these darker areas that few flowers can. They are outstanding, and one client brought them in for the winter, as she could not stand to put them on the compost pile. Begonias take well to this as they fare fine in diminished light and can tolerate drier soils. Over watering will rot them and make the stems fall apart.

If I try only one other of these wonderful Rex begonias it will be Devil's Paradise, which the Landcraft catalogue describes as "A delicious combination of silver and raspberry on spiral star shaped leaves." But that is not all that I will experiment with, Begoinia parviflora grows to 5-6' in one season. The leaves are 12"-16" with a few white flowers, this strong foliage statement might look good with hostas or voodoo lilly.

Years ago Marie Donnelly gave me a small piece of a perennial begonia and for some reason I have walked by this plant for years without ever thinking about using it in other shade gardens. It grows quite large up to 2' and blooms for a very long time starting in mid summer, with long pendulous pink flowers that are in their glory right now. Lately, I stumbled across these in a nursery and grabbed dozens. Begonia grandis evansiana may not be the exact variety that I have going full bore amongst the Brunnera right now but it's a very close relative. The catalogue, now that I'm reading it after the fact of having bought so many and planting them freely cross the Hamptons, says that they are hardy in zones 6-9, but mine has just gotten bigger over the years and has been cheerfully blooming away for months.

Other annuals like the Profusion series of zinnias bloomed constantly as well, but besides some of the new fuchsia varieties that we experimented with this year, very few flowers do as well as begonias in the shade. Except impatiens that is...

Make room somewhere for all those boxes of bulbs that are about to arrive. Sorting them always gives me a headache, just because I order so many and hate to sort them. But the only problem you might run up against is a slight skin reaction to the fungicide used on Hyacinth bulbs so remember to wear gloves - we love those disposable latex ones for a job like this so as not to get anything permanently on our regular gloves that might give us a rash later. Washing with dish soap after handling is also helpful.

For more than 20 years, April Gonzales has been involved in garden design, installation and maintenance on the East End, as well as specimen plant scouting and site supervision for landscape architects.