BLACK GOLD – All the riches of the earth

The lactiflora peony ‘Madame de Verneville’ is a fine old French cultivar. (image by Carol Adelman)

As I mentioned in my April article, the spring season in the Pacific Northwest has been phenomenal but warm.  The winter was mild and many marginally winter-hardy plants survived.  Earlier this month we had weather in the 80’s, which is almost unheard of  in this part of the world.  Not only in my own garden but in others I’ve visited, many plants are blooming earlier than normal.  This has been most noticeable in common seasonal bloomers like iris and peonies. Weather is certainly one of the things happening in our garden that we cannot control; all we can do is make the best of it.

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Colorful late summer drama provided by bananas, cannas and elephant ears in a private Indiana garden.

May is the perfect month to include summer bulbs in landscape and container plantings. Why do we wait so late to plant the bulbs, tubers, and corms of various elephant ears, all sorts of lilies, gladiolus, oxalis, dahlias, and everything else deliciously summery from bananas to cannas? It is because  in most parts of the United States (especially here in the Southeast) soil temperatures are finally warm enough for tender tropicals, indigenous to Southeast Asia, South America, Africa, Mexico, and Polynesia, to survive and thrive.

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Fresh huitlacoche on display at summer market. These ears sell 50 times more than standard ears.

In polite company it’s called the Mexican truffle, but in the American corn belt it’s nothing but common smut (Ustilago maydis). In fact, the USDA has been trying to eradicate it for a century. If you have ever seen a smut infested ear of corn, you’d know why this bizarre sooty looking fungus freaks people out. No doubt backyard gardeners in the Midwest will see it often this flood year because the fungus thrives in warm, wet weather.
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Rhododendron ‘Sir Charles Lemon’ is a striking spring beauty with trusses of white flowers decorated with dark anthers.

Here in the Pacific Northwest our spring season has been phenomenal.  Of course we have had rainy cool spring days, but we have also had unbelievably warm and sunny days occurring over several weekends in March.  Garden centers reported record sales during these times, and one salesperson told me it was like a sunny weekend in May because they were operating at capacity!  That is certainly good news after last year’s spring when it seemed to rain every day.

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A bumblebee pollinates the edible flowers of borage.

Well-placed culinary blooms are surprisingly delicious and bring unique and elegant beauty to the table. Many edible flowers are common garden plants, which provides even more encouragement for everyday gardeners to take advantage of petaled delights. They are not just for chefs and connoisseurs.

Edible blooms can be broken down into two categories: herbal flowers and edible garden flowers. Herbal flowers are those of garden herbs, and most garden herbs have edible flowers—though you always want to double check before chowing down on any bloom. Some garden ornamentals also have edible flowers, but there are only a handful of these that are safe and tasty. Two easy-to-reference table guides of common herb and garden floral edibles are provided below.

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Are you a failed wildflower grower? Growing California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), lupines, Coreopsis and five spot (Nemophila maculata) in the arid West is downright tricky. We sow them, and they refuse to sprout. It’s rare they return for a second season. So, what’s the problem?

First off, these western species are ephemeral annuals, meaning they live for just one season then go to seed before summer. Most of them need the full extent of our brief winter rains to get a head start on completing their life cycle prior to the long drought to come. Therefore they should be sown by Christmas to receive the rain that is essential for early spring bloom. Yet all too often they are sown during the planting frenzy of spring, which is far too late in much of the West. This leaves too short a season for them to become established and finish their life cycle.

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