Yes, Virginia. There IS a Hardy Agapanthus!

Tropical Agapanthus on a balcony in Quito, Ecuador

Every time I visit a warmer climate than mine, I'm enamored with the Agapanthus. Most recently, I saw plenty of it in Ecuador.  These plants are staples in places like California and Florida, but here in Zone 5, they aren't commonly seen to be growing, because they aren't hardy.

Wait.  That's not true.

Back in 2008, I visited the Toledo Botanical Garden and they were having a late season sale on some plants. One of them was a hardy Agapanthus. Hardy?  To Zone 5? I questioned the manager, and he showed me in the book where the hardiness was listed.  Indeed, Zone 5. I decided to take a chance and bought two.

It's now 2014, six years later, and we experienced the worst winter we've had in many, many years last winter. How's the Agapanthus?

Agapanthus 'Blue Yonder' in August 2012, after surviving four winters at
Our Little Acre in Zone 5b

It has been giving us beautiful deep blue blooms for many years and though I had my doubts for this year because of The Winter From Hell, the plant is still very much alive. However, we only had one bloom stalk this year. Unless we have another tough winter this year, I expect it to be back in fine form next summer with its usual bunch of blooms.

Agapanthus 'Blue Yonder' - August 2012

There's also a hardy white available, but I don't know much about that one. Joseph Tychonievich, who lives in central Michigan grew it for years, but he reports that it did not survive last winter, unfortunately.

So what is this hardy Agapanthus and where can you get it?

Agapanthus 'Blue Yonder' blooms in August 2013
(foliage not shown)

Agapanthus 'Blue Yonder'

Common Name: Lily of the Nile
Zone: 5-10

Height: 24-30 inches (bloom stalks), foliage tops out at about 12-15 inches
 Full Sun

Possibly available here:

Santa Rosa Gardens

Easy to Grow Bulbs (currently out of stock)

Nature Hills Nursery (currently out of stock)
Greenfield Plant Farm

Projects X 2: The Berry Barn & The Weeping Circle

It seems as if life around here is operating on a delay much of the time. Too busy? We're getting older? Maybe a little of both, but it feels good to have two of our planned projects completed now. One, The Berry Barn, should have been done last fall and The Weeping Circle was something I've wanted to do for a couple of years now. Neither really took all that long, but you know how that goes.

Thornless blackberries beginning to ripen earlier this season.

We've got six thornless blackberry plants, or at least that's what we started out with a few years ago - three each of 'Chester' and 'Triple Crown'. They've done well and we've gotten some great tasting berries from them, but the birds like them as much as we do. We've netted them in the past, but nets are a pain.

There are also three Raspberry Shortcake^™ thornless raspberry plants I received as test plants from Fall Creek Farm & Nursery a few years ago in close proximity to the blackberries. We've never gotten any berries on those, but it could be because just when they were getting big enough to possibly give us some, the rabbits decided they would do us the favor of chewing them off at the ground. We forgot to cage them last winter. Our bad.

Last year's 'Jelly Bean' blueberries

For the past couple of years, we've grown blueberries in containers, mostly because we've got alkaline soil here and blueberries like it acidic. It's easier to control the pH when you grow things in containers.  We've got some great compact varieties, also test plants from Fall Creek Farm & Nursery ('Jelly Bean' and 'Peach Sorbet'), as well as 'Pink Lemonade'. But I wanted to try them in the ground, amend the soil around them, and see how they did.

2012 Blueberries

So how did they do?  Ask the rabbits.  By the end of last summer, I really thought they were large enough to withstand a little rabbit pressure, but nooooooo... The rabbits sheared them all off right at the ground too. It was a rough winter for everyone. But guess what? None of them died, even though I was certain they were goners. We didn't get any blueberries this year, but they did recover nicely and I expect to get some next year.

To better address these bird and rabbit problems, I came up with an idea. My husband dislikes it when I do this, because he knows my ideas mean work for him. He's not opposed to working in the yard or work in general, but he likes it better when it's his idea. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't finagle this into being his idea in any way. But he agreed to build The Berry Barn. (I have other ways of persuasion.)

My idea was to build a wooden frame and put chicken wire all around it to keep the birds and bunnies out, but still allow pollinators in. Since the raspberries and blueberries would remain relatively small due to the varieties they are, and with all of those planted about 4-5 feet south of the row of blackberries, I wanted the roof line of the enclosure to be asymmetrical, being longer on that side. Hubby says, "Can't you just ever do something the simple way?"

 

 

 

To make a long story short, The Berry Barn got built (my dad even came out and helped one day), and I was so happy with the way it turned out, I literally was jumping up and down.  Hubby smiled. I suspect the rabbits and birds will not be pleased. Too bad, so sad.

In the same week, a paved circle was placed around one of our weeping trees, the Weeping Extraordinaire™ Double Flowering Cherry (Prunus x 'Extrazam'), from Lake County Nursery/UpShoot!. This project didn't take nearly as long and was made easier by special ordering the patio kit from Menard's. No cutting of pavers!

 

Hubby didn't understand the need for this project at all, but he agreed that it looked nice when it was done. There were a couple of other little projects on my list - a cinder block wall by the pool house and a short trellis near the newly-planted Eco-Lawn area in the middle of the garden. More on those later!

Monarchs Led Me To This Talented Artist

I have a heart for one the most iconic symbols of this country - the monarch butterfly.  I've always been fascinated by them and entranced by their beautiful markings and how they metamorphose while being encased in a green jewel chrysalis. When I became a gardener, I learned of the importance they play in their role as a pollinator.

Monarchs nectar on many plants, such as this coneflower (Echinacea purpurea),
but they only lay eggs on milkweed plants.

Besides their beauty and utilitarian function though, is the miracle of their migration. How a creature that is two months old or less knows to leave their place of birth at just the right time and travel thousands of miles to a very specific location where they've never been before is incredible. Not everything is known about just how they do this, but the fact that they do is one of the world's wonders.

This monarch is nectaring on swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in my garden.

In recent years, the monarch population has declined drastically, due to loss of habitat and the use of pesticides. Monarchs require plants in the milkweed family (Asclepias spp.) on which to raise their young. These are the only things they eat as caterpillars. So gardeners are encouraged to grow milkweed in their gardens to try to help. Recent reports are that efforts are helping, even if the progress is very slow. Keep up the good work, people!

The monarch dress launched Luly Yang's
career as a fashion designer.

When I was in Seattle a couple of years ago, a walk through downtown led me by the design house of Luly Yang. Yang is famous for her monarch butterfly dress and there it was, in the window. I fell in love with it and could envision myself wearing it at some fancy schmancy social function.

I did a little research online about the dress and read an article about Luly Yang. The article had a photograph of Yang, wearing a beautiful monarch design scarf. Hmmm... a monarch scarf.  I could do that. Because the monarch dress wasn't for sale and I wouldn't be able to afford a single wing of it anyway. So I began a search for a monarch scarf.

Kim Kennedy

To make a long story short, I came upon Kimberly Kennedy, an artist in San Antonio, Texas, who had created a beautiful silk monarch scarf and a quick inquiry to her let me know that yes, she could make a scarf for me. She does these "on demand," one at a time, and it's a lengthy process that I have neither the talent nor the patience to do myself.

As we communicated back and forth, I was interested in what led Kim to choose the monarch as the inspiration for her design. I had a feeling she felt a connection with nature, and I was right. We chatted one day about her art...

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How long have you been designing scarves?

I have been designing scarves since 2002.

What inspires your designs?

I am always finding inspiration all around me. I love the great outdoors and often am inspired by being out in nature. I use a lot of nature inspired designs in my work such as leaves, butterfly wings and abstract sea-life. I always have a camera on hand to remember interesting patterns, textures and wildlife that I see so I can reference it later. 

That's my monarch scarf, nearly completed.

 How long does it take for you to complete a design on a scarf, start to finish?

It really depends on the complexity of the design. There are two main techniques I use, serti and shibori, and each has a different level of involvement. The serti technique involved hand drawing onto the silk a pattern. The more complex the pattern, the longer the scarf takes to complete. Typically a serti scarf can take 4-36 hours to draw and dye. 

A shibori scarf is much less time consuming. Shibori is a Japanese binding technique where you use pipes and wooden blocks to wrap, clamp and dye scarves. This yields completely random, but beautiful patterns. After 24 hours the dyed scarf can be treated with a dye-set. Therefore each scarf takes a minimum of 24 hours from start to finish, mainly due to the required inactive time for the dye.

Kim works on creating one of her original scarf designs.

How did you learn how to do this?

It all started with a new art teacher in high school, Mrs. Killmore. She taught the class some basic techniques, but I wanted to learn more than just basics. She took me under her wing and taught me more and really helped me to learn what dying was all about. Because of her I gained the building blocks to be where I am today.

What is your favorite design and why is it your favorite?

I love the butterfly designs! The butterfly takes the longest and is the most difficult to create, but the end product is just so amazing. They look so unique and really grab the attention of people around you.

Have you done or do you do any other kinds of art besides your scarves?

Oh my goodness yes! I actually went to an art college. I have a BFA in Graphic Design from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. I play with many areas of art including sculpture, painting, drawing, ceramics and photography. I really enjoy working with my hands, so any opportunity to do that makes me happy. One of my favorite forms of art is photography on my old Pentax film SLR that was handed down to me by family. I also like taking digital photography, but there is something so raw and special about film. When I travel I bring both cameras, but the film photos almost always win over the digital photos.

I know you've said this is a sideline for you. Do you have future plans to make this your life's work?

For now my business is a part time endeavor, but someday I would like to open a shared gallery and studio space. It would be a place for artists to collaborate on new and exciting work to share with the community, not just a stationary place to view art.

Is there anything else you want to share?

Besides fine art also I also enjoy building structures and being the family handy-woman. I built my Chicken coop out back and have plans to build a backyard studio soon too. 

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I now own one of Kim's monarch design scarves and if you think it looks beautiful in photos, you should see it for real. I wore it one day at the recent National Children & Youth Gardening Symposium, held this year in Columbus, Ohio, and all day long I had comments and compliments on my scarf. 

I don't usually wear the scarf in my hair, but it's long enough that I can!

Here are a few of Kim's other scarf designs, which are just as beautiful:

 

 

 

What a special gift this would be for the upcoming holidays! Since it takes a bit of time (up to four weeks) for a design to be completed and shipped, it's not too early to think about it. She does custom orders too, in any pattern and color you like. 

You can find Kim and her beautiful works of art at her website: 

 Kimbertimbers - Handmade Fiber Art Wearables