Has Our New Catalog (with NO Price Increases!) Reached You Yet?

        We mailed our beautiful new catalog June 17, and the ordering frenzy has already begun. (Thank you!)
        If it hasn't reached your mailbox yet (and you're an active customer), don't worry. Bulk-mail can be slow and unpredictable, especially to the West Coast. Letting your mail-carrier know that you're waiting for it may help.
        If you don't have it by Tuesday, July 14, email us and we'll send you another. Sometimes, somehow, they just disappear.

There's No Need to Wait! It's All Online Now

        Our brand-new catalog is online now, and we're eager to serve you there 24/7.
        1. For a quick list of everything that's new, go to oldhousegardens.com/newBulbs.asp .
        2. For our fall-planted bulbs, go to oldhousegardens.com/cat.asp?CatID=1 .
        3. For an easy search by color, zone, animal-resistance, fragrance, bloom-time, etc., go to oldhousegardens.com/search_request.aspx .

Summertime… and the Lilies are Blooming

        Despite plenty of competition, lilies are one of the iconic flowers of the early summer garden. In "Growing Old Lilies," our good customer Sara Hartley sings the praises of her favorites. "Most recent hybrids," she writes, "tend to blur ubiquitously: large, upward facing, rigid, stocky, scentless, differing from one another only in tint. I prefer species lilies and the old breeds most evocative of childhood memories and painted tableaux. For a New England garden into which frost intrudes, these are my favorites for a full season run . . . ."
        Sara ends her essay with a few kind words about us and a shout-out to all who are growing heirloom bulbs. "Bulbs survive only by keeping the continuum growing, generation after generation," she writes. "We gardeners form a necessary and pleasurable part of the chain, by our purchases and support of dedicated providers such as [OHG], and by perpetuating cherished bulbs in our own soil types, climates and aesthetic settings."

Blog of the Month: Early American Gardens

        "A museum in a blog," that's how Barbara Sarudy describes her entertaining blog devoted to American gardens of the 1700s and early 1800s. Much as I love her landmark book, Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 1700-1805, Sarudy's blog is more fun to read because it's so personal and meandering, filled with, as she says, "snippets of garden history and images that fascinate me." Though she's clearly enjoying herself, Sarudy is a serious and expert historian. As in a museum, she presents us with authentic artifacts, both written and visual, giving us the opportunity to enjoy and draw our own conclusions from them.
        A few of my favorite entries are the ones about arbors, bee-hives, and slave gardens. Be sure to check out the "boring assumptions, introductions, and housekeeping rules" in the left-hand column, too. This is some of Sarudy's most interesting writing, and spot-on.

Are Red Spider Lilies Hardy in Wisconsin???

        Maybe. Although we recommend them for zones 7 and warmer only, Jean Virnig of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, has been experimenting with them. She writes:
        "I ordered your heirloom version of the red spider lily (L. radiata radiata) because this form is triploid and rare in the trade, having been replaced by the diploid form (L. radiata pumila). Jim Shields of Shields Gardens wrote in his online journal that the triploid form is hardy for him in zone-5 Indianapolis while the diploid form perishes. He added, 'Why are the triploids hardy in the cold North when their diploid cousins are not? It might be because they have extra amounts of a few critical genes that promote cold hardiness. For some genes, having three copies allows the cell to produce more of the gene-product than having only the usual two copies does.'
        "Here in my zone-5a Wisconsin garden, I have been growing the heirloom form for two years now, and although they have proved hardy enough to survive the winters with no special care, they may not be truly suited for this climate.
        "Red spider lilies put up leaves in the fall which have to survive until spring. Last winter we had lows of -20 F, three weeks when the temperature never once rose above freezing, and destructive, desiccating winds. Nevertheless, every one of my bulbs still had green leaves this spring, albeit shorter, as they were burned back by the cold. On the bulbs I planted last fall, most leaves were 4"-6" long, as they were not able to grow much longer before the weather turned inhospitable. Those that were already established, planted the year previous, grew much longer foliage that lay down on the ground after the first snow and survived the winter nearly fully intact. Currently in late June all of the foliage is still green with no signs of dying back, although I suspect it will soon.
      "In areas that have more consistent snow cover, or in a sheltered location like a woods, damage to the leaves over the winter would probably be mitigated. As for me, I will try covering them with straw this winter and removing it in the spring. I am still hopeful of some red spider lily blossoms in my yard in the future."

Book of the Month: The Truth About Organic Gardening

        Cool-headed, down to earth, and funny, Jeff Gillman is a hort science professor who's trying to help gardeners make their own, educated decisions about gardening organically or not. Instead of polemics, he offers clear explanations backed up by plenty of facts and a broad context for weighing the pros and cons.
        Most of the book is devoted to an item-by-item discussion of all sorts of organic and synthetic choices for improving the soil and controlling weeds, insects, and other pests. For each option, Gilman includes its Environmental Impact Quotient, a number which quantifies (as best as possible) just what it says, and he ends his discussion of each with a handy three-part summary of Benefits, Drawbacks, and The Bottom Line.
        The Truth About Organic Gardening is currently ranked as Timber Press's #11 best-selling book. Though I borrowed it from our local library, after reading it I was so impressed that I bought a copy for my staff to read and for future reference. I expect we'll be using it a lot, and my guess is you would, too.

Conserving the Topiary Wonderland of Pearl Fryar

        Topiary has a long, glorious history dating back to Rome and before, but today it's hard to find shrubs clipped into anything other than spirals or meatballs. Which makes the garden of Pearl Fryar all the more remarkable. In his modest backyard in a small town in South Carolina, Fryar has created an exuberant topiary garden that's so inspired it's become a preservation project of the Garden Conservancy. Starting this fall, the project will gain the able help of one of our favorite former employees, Lindsey Kerr. "I'll be doing an oral history with Mr. Fryar," Lindsey wrote us recently, "as well as documenting the grounds and planning for public use."
        You can take a quick tour of Fryar's garden with Raleigh garden writer Helen Yoest and get the full story at pearlfryar.com/index.asp. For a fascinating glimpse of the roots of American topiary, see Barbara Sarudy's blog on topiary in the 18th century.

Your Feedback, Please: How Are Our Iris Doing?

        We shipped bearded iris for the first time this spring, and we're eager to hear how they're growing. Have they settled into your garden happily, and did you get blooms this first summer? Our trial-runs were successful, but we want to make sure we're delivering iris in a way that works for all of our customers.
        Though most sources ship them in mid-summer, a separate, iris-only shipping season would mean our customers would have to order a full $30 worth (our minimum order) instead of just one or two. With spring delivery, on the other hand, most gardeners will get bigger plants faster along with blooms in a couple of months rather than a year. The way we see it, that's a better way to serve our customers and to help preserve heirloom iris.

Did You Miss Our Last Newsletter? Read It Online!

        May's articles included peony tips, iris seeking, 400 years of NY gardens, and more. You can read all of our back-issues -- by date or by topic -- at oldhousegardens.com/NewsletterArchives.asp .

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