-- Gladys Taber, 1899-1980, American author of the Stillmeadow books

Our NEW Catalog is Online Now!

        Woo-hoo! We just posted our brand-new 2012-2013 catalog at oldhousegardens.com -- and you're the first to know.
        1. For a quick list of everything that's new, go to oldhousegardens.com/newBulbs.asp . Highlights include Victorian-favorite 'Albatross' daffodil, pearly 'Frances Willard' peony, lively 'Garden Party' tulip, opulent 'Shah Jehan' iris, dramatically tall 'Challenger' daylily, and spiky little 'Klankstad Kerkrade' dahlia.
        2. For our fall-planted bulbs, go to oldhousegardens.com/display.aspx?choices=Fall .
        3. For our spring-planted bulbs, go to oldhousegardens.com/display.aspx?choices=Spring .
        3. To search by zone, color, fragrance, animal-resistance, bloom-time, etc., go to oldhousegardens.com/search_request.aspx .

Our Print Catalog Will Follow Later This Summer

        Of course we're still doing our traditional print catalog, but that's a much more complicated project and it probably won't reach your mailbox until the end of July. Please DON'T wait till then to order, though, because:
        our rarest treasures often SELL OUT early,
        you can always ADD to your order later, and
        if you're a returning customer, you'll get a 5% DISCOUNT for ordering early.
        Our doors are always open at oldhousegardens.com, so go ahead and start shopping right now before the crowds arrive!

Tasty Beauty: Eating Daylily Buds

        In Asia where daylilies grow wild, people have been eating their roots, flowers, and buds for millennia. Today the dried buds known as "golden needles" are often found in the Asian food section of American supermarkets. They're even tastier, though, when fresh picked from your own garden.
        In his award-winning blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, Hank Shaw recommends a very simple saute: "Just lily buds, butter and salt. Delicious. Briefly cooked, the buds have a bit of knacken, a German expression meaning a 'pop'. Yet the insides reminded me of squash blossoms. The taste? Green, with a whiff of radish and a dash of green bean. Honestly, I'd eat this as a side dish any day, any place. It needs nothing else." Shaw isn't as enthusiastic about the flowers ("okay") and leaves ("not terrible") but calls daylily roots "quite possibly the best tubers I've ever eaten."
        For a slightly more complicated recipe, try this Daylily Bud Saute with a hint of nutmeg from Golden Harvest Organics:
        24 daylily buds
        1 clove garlic, finely minced
        olive oil
        3 eggs
        1/2 cup flour
        1/8 tsp salt
        1/8 tsp pepper
        dash of nutmeg
        1 tsp milk, as needed
        Cut the base off the buds. Saute the garlic in olive oil. Beat eggs and mix in enough flour to make a thin batter. Add the sauteed garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. If the batter is too thick, add a teaspoon or so of milk. Dip the buds in the batter and saute until golden brown.
        Enjoy!

Link of the Month: Bulbs, Veggies, and Garden History from Monticello

        Thomas Jefferson was an avid gardener and his restored gardens at Monticello are a national treasure. Since 1987, Monticello's Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants has been preserving and promoting historic fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Although the Center no longer publishes its annual journal, Twinleaf, dozens of its fascinating articles are free for the reading at the Monticello website. Our favorite (no surprise here) is "Thomas Jefferson's 'Belles of the Day'" which explores the great man's love of bulbs.
        There's a lot more for gardeners to enjoy at the Monticello site, too. You can take a video tour of the grounds; check out the TJCHP's collections of historic iris, roses, and pinks; and read about "A Rich Spot of Earth": Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello, the brand-new book about Jefferson's vegetable gardening by Peter Hatch, Monticello's Director of Gardens and Grounds -- who, by the way, is retiring this year after 35 years at the helm. Congratulations, Peter, and thank you!

"Plant These Lilies!" Say Two Famous Garden Writers -- and Dan

        As lily season unfurls in all its glory, trying to decide which of those luscious beauties to add to your garden can be overwhelming -- so here's some helpful guidance.
        "I've never seen an Asiatic lily I didn't like," wrote Allen Lacy in his 1992 The Gardener's Eye. "I do have, however, a personal favorite: 'Red Velvet'. It is easily the most magnificent plant in my garden in July . . . [with] dramatic trusses of as many as twenty-five outfacing flowers to a stalk. The red is intense and, somewhat to my surprise, the plants look wonderful in combination with deep pink achilleas."
        We're big fans of Henry's lily, as was Gertrude Jekyll, arguably the greatest garden writer of the 20th century. In her 1901 Lilies for English Gardens she wrote, "It is a handsome thing, the flower being much like that of L. speciosum but of a strong and yet soft orange color. To see the plant growing it impresses one with a feeling of vigor and well being. When established it will rise to a height of six feet and bear as many as twenty flowers. In short, though we have known it but a short time [it was introduced from China in 1889] it can be confidently recommended."
        And our good customer Dan Tyson of zone-9b Simi Valley, California, a few miles northwest of Los Angeles, emailed us in May saying, "Success! I want you to know how pleased I am with the 'Citronella' lilies I got from you last fall. I thought lilies wouldn't really do well in our Southern California climate. I was wrong! I planted the bulbs in a large pot on my patio and kept them moist until they started sprouting in early spring. Now in mid-May they have burst into glorious bloom. Attached is a photo. Thanks for recommending them."

Dahlias (and More) for Mrs. Roosevelt

        Although you'd never expect to see furniture from Ikea in the parlor of a historic house museum, the gardens of historic sites are often full of modern plants. This is gradually changing, though, as the best sites work to make their gardens more authentic and engaging. This spring, for example, Anna De Cordova ordered a dozen of our heirloom dahlias, explaining:
        "These dahlias are going to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park, New York. I'm doing two big garden renovations there this year, and generally taking the landscape out of mothballs. A catbird is following me around Val-Kill supervising my every move. We assume she's Eleanor, and I know she'll love the dahlias."
        (You can bring a bit of the former First Lady's spirit into your garden this election year by planting our 'Eleanor Roosevelt' iris and 'Eleanor Roosevelt' peony. They're both superb -- as the catbird herself might tell you.)

It's Official: Spring was Hot

        "Call it spring's fever," wrote Seth Borenstein in a recent Associated Press article that confirmed what many gardeners already suspected. "Federal records show the US just finished its hottest spring on record. March, April, and May in the lower 48 states beat the coldest spring temperature record by a full 2 degrees. The three months averaged 57.1 degrees, more than 5 degrees above average. That's the most above normal for any US season on record. . . . The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also reported that it was the second warmest May since records began in 1895. May averaged 64.3 degrees, just behind 1934."
        And it wasn't only spring. "The first five months of 2012 were the hottest start to a year in US weather record history. The 12-month period starting last June is also the hottest on record." Whew!
        It's hard to predict all of the ways that this extreme weather will affect plants. Our good friend Art Tucker of the University of Delaware, for example, wrote us in surprise: "This spring was one of the driest and hottest on record for Delaware. About 50% of my established peonies refused to emerge and those that have emerged have prolific botrytis, which I have only occasionally noticed here and there in the past. Why botrytis now, after the driest spring on record? I thought botrytis was fostered by moist weather???"
        Tulips have also been impacted, especially in zone-7 gardens in the East and Southeast where temperatures last winter were more like those of zone 8. Tulips and many other spring-blooming bulbs need a certain number of hours below about 48 degrees F to develop the gibberellic acid that allows their bloom-stems to lengthen and emerge from the soil -- which is why gardeners in zone 8 typically pre-chill tulips for 8-12 weeks before planting. Without that, tulips will bloom on very short stems or even attempt to open their flowers underground.
        Gardeners should expect to see long-term effects, too. In many areas, for example, the warm, dry spring pushed bulbs into dormancy earlier than usual, giving the plants less time to photosynthesize and bulk up -- which could mean diminished bloom next spring. So stay tuned, and keep your green thumbs crossed.

Easy to Love, Hard to Spell

        One of our most popular bulbs is the hardy and amazing Bissentine glad . . . er, Bynzyntine glad . . . no, wait a minute -- how do you spell that?? If you're not sure, you're not alone. Gardeners searching for Byzantine glads at our website have misspelled it and its Latin name byzantinus 23 different ways. But don't worry, we're here to help! Whether you spell it Bisantine, Bisentine, Bissentine, Bizantine, Bynzyntine, Bysantine, bysantinus, Byzanine, byzanticus, Byzantile, byzantinas, byzantinis, byzantinius, Byzantinne, byzantinum, byzantium, Byzatine, byzatinus, Byzentine, Byzintine, byzintinus, Byzntine, or Bzatinne, you'll find true stock of exactly what you want at oldhousegardens.com.

Follow Us at Facebook

        More and more fans have "liked" our Facebook page. Thank you! As of this morning our friendly group of gardeners there numbered 1918. If you haven't yet, please come take a look, join the fun, get occasional early-bird alerts, and help spread the word about heirloom bulbs.

Did You Miss Our Last Newsletter? Read It Online!

        We didn't send a May newsletter (we were too busy in the garden!), but April's articles included ergonomic garden tools (with a 15% discount for friends of OHG), dividing daffodils to increase bloom, endangered hybrid tea roses, the Founding Fathers endorse manure, and more. You can read all of our back-issues, by date or by topic, at oldhousegardens.com/NewsletterArchives.asp .

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