Longwood Gardens

I recently attended our Longwood Graduate school program 45th reunion at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. The 2 year Masters Degree program takes 5 students yearly and offers a full scholarship provided by the DuPont family. Students have a 3 week overseas garden experience as part of the program. The gardens are world famous and cover 1050 acres featuring gardens, greenhouses, woodlands and meadows. The property has a long history with the Pierce house dating to 1730. Pierre DuPont purchased the property in 1906 and expanded gardens and greenhouses through his death in 1954. The present greenhouse complex covers over 5 acres of land and offers spectacular seasonal displays throughout the year. Some of the green house uses go back to the old days including the cut flower indoor rose garden, estate fruit garden featuring oranges, banana house, orchid house and main conservatory. Newer gardens include the silver garden, indoor children’s, garden, palm house, Mediterranean garden, fern passage, cascade garden and the cactus house. The huge pipe organ, ball room and music room adjoin the main conservatory.

The outside gardens include the main fountain garden which features some water jets that shoot water 130 feet in the air. Color lights and music add to this spectacular display garden. The fountains are on display during the evening hours in summer. Exterior gardens include the Italian water garden, flower garden walk, topiary garden, open air theatre, idea garden, water lily display garden, and Pierces woods featuring huge old trees dating back over 200 years. Visit http://www.longwoodgarden.org/ to see more of these unbelievable gardens.

Grafted roses

Grafted roses are the preferred way to grow hybrid teas, teas and other roses in nematode ridden Florida. The preferred rootstock in ‘Fortuniana’ rose. This root stock resists nematodes and allows many favorite roses to grow in our climate. Root knot nematodes are microscopic worms that clog the root systems of roses, gardenias, some hibiscus, and other plants. The clogged root systems cannot take up water and nutrients so the plants gradually decline. Grafted roses on ‘Fortuniana’ root stock can last 30-40 years or more in the landscape. Unfortunately sometimes the graft does not last and the expensive top of the roses slowly dies away.

My ‘Mrs. B. R. Cant’ rose is one of the biggest of the shrubby tea roses. My plant grew 10 feet tall with a 12 foot spread. This beautiful rose has cabbage-like blooms that can be up to 4 inches across in the winter months. Summer flowers are smaller averaging 21/2 to 3 inches across. Flowers are dark pink in the winter and darken during the summer months to almost red. The thorns on this rose are big so weeding can be a problem.

My rose is slowly dying back now one large branch at a time. The weed whacker never touched the plant as its thorny stems kept that implement at bay. I can see stem dieback at the graft union and this can happen with these plants. It is very sad to see this garden friend slowly die but the lawn man will certainly appreciate its demise.

“The Ever Changing Garden”

This is the title of our new e-book which we will present in chapter form over a period of time. Our first efforts will feature flowering trees and we will present the “Best of the Best’ for the tropical and subtropical conditions we have in Florida. The new book should be useful for readers who have similar climate conditions world wide. Co-author nurseryman, Jesse Durko has traveled around the world collecting colorful plants appropriate for our growing conditions. Plants are tested for 3 years before introduction to see if they have invasive characteristics under garden conditions. Florida is suffering from plant, animal and reptile invaders. Pythons and iguanas are the latest receiving publicity on the news. Our climate is ideal for harboring these pests as there are no controls to stop their spread.

I just added ‘Pink Pet’ to my collection of easy care roses. This is a small China class rose and so far is doing beautifully. The plant should grow about 3x3 feet in size with small clusters of pink blooms for most of the year. This plant is not evergreen has attractive fall color before the foliage falls. The plant grows on its own roots so does not suffer from possible graft failure. This is a major benefit as most roses must be grafted here because of nematode problems. My “tough” ‘Knock Out’ rose has black spot free foliage but chili thrips and Sri Lankan weevils decimate the foliage at my home. This plant will be retired and I will select something more durable. Jesse Durko has a collection of old roses at his nursery which is located at 5151 SW 70th Avenue, (Viele Road), Davie, 954-792-2297.

Robert Haehle