Photography by Marie Viljoen, unless otherwise noted.
February doesn’t need to be the low point of the gardening year. But this year I decided to be more restrained, to review my 2017 gardening successes, to get over what failed (Eremurus, Camassia, oh dear) and to order or propagate more of what really worked well in my Brooklyn garden.
Allium ‘Mount Everest’
White alliums pop in gardens where a lot of green foliage would camouflage their more popular purple pompon cousins. Planted in front of an ivy-covered wall and fence in our garden last year, these elegant onion relatives provided a sense of depth and slender height in shallow beds.
Three pineapple lily bulbs are $9.75 from Brent & Becky’s. The pots received six hours of sun a day at the height of summer, but by the time the plants bloomed in August that was already down to four.
Pineapple Lilies
In late fall I lifted some of the bulbs and am overwintering them in small bags with peat moss in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator.
Dahlia ‘Nuit d ‘Été” is $3.25 per tuber from Brent & Becky’s. When I dug the plants up at the end of the season, their long, fingerlike tubers were fat and prolific.
Dahlia ‘Nuit d’Ete’
A Lilium regale bulb is $5 at The Lily Garden. I do not think any of my New York gardens have been without elegant regal lilies (Lilium regale).
Lilies
Saffron
Saffron crocus is available for 25 bulbs for $12.75 from Dutch Garden. The plants take up very little room, and I will be adding more. I overplant them with annual crops for the spring and summer months (when the leaves are dormant).
Ostrich Fern in a one-gallon pot is $15.99 from Prairie Nursery.
Ostrich Ferns
I became interested in indigenous ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthioterus) from a foraging point of view—they are the source of the sought-after edible spring fiddleheads—but I now also value them for their graceful structure, feathery texture, easy propagation, and the fact that they absolutely thrive in shade.
Each time a clone is produced by a fern crown, I transfer the new plant to a new spot.
Milkweed
Swamp milkweed in a three-inch pot is $5.99 from Prairie Nursery. Right on cue, the monarchs arrived in July.
A packet of 750 seeds of Nicotiana alata is $3. A very sweet bonus is that hummingbirds are drawn to the tubular blooms; they visit our garden in September.
Nicotiana
Photograph by Vincent Mounier.
Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas
A packet of dwarf gray sugar peas is $2.25 from Baker Creek. Harvest their edible flowers, tendrils, and tender foliage (as well as the pea pods, of course).
A Thai lime tree from Lemon Citrus Tree is $95.99 for a four- to five-year old tree. My two potted Thai lime trees (Citrus hystrix) have thrived.
Citrus
Lime leaves effectively infuse an intense lime gin, and add their distinctive flavor to traditional southeast Asian curries. Enthused by their success, I now also have a Meyer lemon and have ordered an Australian finger lime, which will arrive as soon as shipping temperatures are safe.