What’s the wackiest thing you’ve seen someone do to a rose? When I asked if I could come by and see his roses, he said, ‘Sure.’ And that started me on my way with this book. But I remain head-over-heels in love with Clarence Rhodes – who is famous in Portland, Maine, where I live, for his car-stopping roses – because of his infectious joy and the way he laughs with such obvious pleasure when he talks about them. I fell in love with each person as I met and wrote about them. Of all the roseaholics you’ve met, who’s your favorite character? Roses are the perfect combination of danger and beauty. All this on a plant that can make us bleed. Some of the scents are quite head-spinning. It’s the only flower you can fill an entire garden with – and it won’t be boring.
The rose can be so many things – a tiny mini or a great puff with 100 petals. So what is it about the rose that makes people beserk? I caught up by phone with the first-time author from Maine during her West Coast b ook tour.
It’s a book about love and passion and the never-ending allure of the Queen of Flowers.
#CLACKS DAHLIA PATCH DRIVERS#
The subtitle is even more to the point – “Inside the Obsessive and Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening.”Īurelia describes a surgeon who convinces roses to open by warming them with his wife’s hair dryer and a lawyer who “chastises underperforming floribundas with a sharp shovel.” She guides us through this alternate universe where truckers and chemists and race car drivers and butchers and anesthesiologists plant and prune and primp and pamper their prickly darlings in pursuit of awards and trophies and a place in the court of honor at the National Rose Show. I just finished reading an entertaining book titled “Otherwise Normal People” by Aurelia C. Here are two of my favorites - Snow Lotus and Yang Gui Fei Wearing a Crown of Kingfisher Feathers. You wouldn’t want to lose a single bloom.Īfter a day at Cricket Hill Garden, I can hardly wait to grow my own tree peonies. Around the first frost, remove leaves but don’t cut the woody stems. When the flower show ends, deadhead faded blooms so young plants don’t put their energy into making seeds. Kasha and David also like a rock powder amendment called Azomite that replenishes the soil with 67 minerals. Feed plants every couple of weeks with liquid fish-seaweed fertilizer. Once established, tree peonies are drought tolerant. Protect them during their first winter with a blanket of mulch, and water during the growing season if conditions are dry. It's hard to believe that flower s this gorgeous demand so little.īut it's true. Unlike other garden divas, tree peonies don’t require a lot of fuss. You'll also want to make sure your tree peony is at least eight feet from large trees so it doesn’t have to compete for water and nutrients. Which is why David and Kasha bought their gently sloping property in the Litchfield Hills and why they dug the peony beds three feet deep, then filled in with wood chips and other organic matter. Good drainage is essential – a raised bed or slope is the perfect place. Kasha and David place charming handpainted umbrellas in the garden to protect the blooms. Plant it in dappled shade so flowers last longer. Depending on the variety, some grow into 10-foot-tall superstars, although that might take 100 years or so. Make sure it has plenty of room to reach its potential – most tree peonies mature into four-by-four-foot woody shrubs with deep roots. In time, one plant will perfume your spring garden with 50 or more colorful 8-inch flowers. Take care of your tree peony and it will reward you with true beauty. I'll be adding a few tree peonies to my garden in the fall, which is the perfect time for planting since th at's when they're dormant. Just take a look at Coral Terrace and I'm sure you'll understand. I was enchanted by the woody deciduous shrubs that the Chinese have revered for more than 2,000 years and that plant explorers brought back to Europe in the 1700s. I tell their story and the story of their nursery, Cricket Hill Garden, in my column. Actually, it's a 7-acre wonderland of sun-dappled terraced hillsides in Thomaston, Connecticut, where Kasha and David Furman nurture hundreds of tree peonies.
I spent a little time in peony heaven recently and I'm so glad I did.
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