In early summer my goal was to find, read and assess murder mystery heroes/heroines who were also gardeners. Here is my unenthusiastic report.

Mum’s the Word, by Kate Collins, stars a plucky, self-deprecating flower shop owner whom I grew to admire.

Red Delicious Death, by Sheila Connolly. I was taken with the setting—an apple orchard in Maine—but the wooden characters were uninteresting.

Pushing Up Daisies, by Rosemary Harris. By the time this book got to the top of the stack, I was numb and only Lord Peter Wimsey or Kate Fansler would have made the cut.

Poisoned Petals, Joyce and Jim Lavene. I wanted to like this book. The heroine owns a successful horticulture business, The Potting Shed, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has a Ph.D. in Botany. But she has an uninteresting life with a truly door-mat, vet boyfriend and I couldn’t finish the book.

A Morbid Taste for Bones, by Ellis Peters. Even though Brother Cadfael is a famous sleuth I just can’t relate to this 12th century Benedictine monk.

Mulch, by Ann Ripley. This story has the best gardener/heroine in Louise Eldridge. Ripley knows plants and generously sprinkles Latin names throughout the text. She also understands good landscape design and eruditely critiques all gardens Louise encounters.

A Hoe Lot of Trouble, by Heather Webber. While this novel wins first prize for its clever title, the characters are annoying—much like a silly sitcom—and I didn’t care what happened to any of them.

As a break between murder mysteries, I snuck in some non-fiction.

Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’m re-reading my copy from 2006 after seeing the movie with Julia Roberts in the starring role. While this adaptations was very good but simply can’t compete with the depth of the book. But as before, I am completely swept away by the wonderful food in Italy, the serenity of the ashram in India and the romance of Bali.

My French Kitchen, by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde, includes an excellent selection of recipes (I’ve marked 12 so far) and gorgeous photographs of idyllic French food and scenes.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

Clematis taxa are magnificent flowering vines and herbaceous perennials with unbelievable flower shapes, colors and fragrances…every garden can house a clematis.
~ Michael A. Dirr

A garden designed for year-round display is a rarity. Many gardeners focus on flowers that bloom in spring and summer or grow fruits and vegetables. Planning for a garden that peaks in autumn, though, shouldn’t be difficult as nature does much of the work.

Foliage of trees and shrubs are changing into a myriad of colors and, as usual, evergreens are providing the proper backdrop. A garden can contribute annuals that are still in good shape and fall-blooming perennials should be peaking.

Highlights of my garden include two bright zinnia cultivars, ‘Magellan Orange’ and ‘Magellan Cherry,’ several ‘Madness’ petunia cultivars in rich shades of rose, carmine, hot pink and purple and, of course, ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum. A dazzling chartreuse and lemon number is a conifer, ‘King’s Gold’ false cypress; equally vivid is ‘Tiger Eyes’ sumac.

Amidst all this effervescence, however, is a shrubby clematis cultivar, ‘Mrs. Robert Brydon,’ and she is stealing the show.

‘Mrs. Robert Brydon’ (MRB) billows forth from her spot in the bed at the base of the trellis and sprawls east, north and south. The medium green foliage is large and coarse. The plant now, in early autumn, is covered in tiny, lavender-blue flowers with a sweet smell reminiscent of a fresh, fragrant daffodil.

The dainty blossoms are barely one inch across and are borne in small groups (called cymes). At first, the flowers are bell shaped but as they mature, the four sepals (there are no true petals) curl back to reveal dozens of creamy white stamens. Even after the sepals fall, those fuzzy stamens remain into late fall.

The Clematis genus is large and breeders have fiddled with the plants so that heritages are murky. Most gardeners are familiar with large-flowering members of the Jackman, Lanuginosa (‘Nelly Moser’), Patens (‘Miss Bateman’) and Viticella (‘Betty Corning’) groups. In addition several species are popular:  C. montana, C. terniflora (sweet autumn clematis) and C. virginiana, or virgin’s bower, a plant native to Minnesota. MRB is a cultivar of the either C. heracleifolia or C x. jouiniana, depending on the source.

How to grow MRB.
MRB is a sturdy plant, easy to establish and has few requirements.
• can grow in most soils except those that are extremely wet.
• needs full sun to partial shade.
• keep base of plant well mulched.
• mature size is 18 – 24” high with a spread of about 8’, i.e., give her space!
• cut back hard in early spring.

Finally…
Proper pronunciation of clematis is klem`a-tis with emphasis on the first syllable.

Many thanks to my gardening friend, Jill, who generously shared a chunk of her MRB last spring.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

For as much as I like to read I’ve never been a big follower of the comic pages in the newspaper. As a teenager I liked Brenda Starr Reporter and off and on over the years I’ve read Doonesbury.

But I never miss the Peanuts strip. Even after its creator, Charles M. Schulz, died in 2000, newspapers continued to run old strips……and I continue to read them faithfully.

Who is your favorite Peanuts character? Charlie Brown, the loser, who tangles with kite-eating trees and said, “I only dread one day at a time.”? Perhaps you can relate to loud-mouthed, selfish, crabby Lucy? Or Linus, the sweet-natured, bespectacled one who is never without his blanket and believes in the Great Pumpkin?

Hands down, my favorite character is Snoopy. He’s wonderful whether he’s dancing “The Beagle,” imitating a fierce vulture or playing the World War I flying ace. And how can you not love a dog that lost everything when his dog house burned….but then resolutely replaced his ruined Van Gogh with a Wyeth? 

While Charlie Brown can’t win on the baseball diamond or with the little red-haired girl, he has always been Snoopy’s devoted owner. Several strips hang on the bulletin board of the Northwoods Bird Dogs’ kennel office that my husband, Jerry, and I run. One in particular we can relate to:

Charlie Brown can’t sleep on a cold night because he’s worried about Snoopy. So he hauls a sleeping bag out to Snoopy that is so huge it hangs off the roof of his dog house and drags onto the ground. But Charlie Brown can then sleep well knowing Snoopy is warm.

As a horticulturist, though, two strips last week particularly caught my eye. Charlie Brown is cautioning Snoopy about poisonous plants and is reading a list of “plants which are dangerous for you to eat, Snoopy.” It’s quite a list:

Elephant ear, narcissus, oleander, burning bush, jimson week, mountain laurel, lily-of-the-valley, rhododendron, spider lily, foxglove, ivy leaves, dumb cane, mock orange, castor beans, four o’clock, cyclamen, pimpernel, sweat pea stems, bayonet roots, tulip bulbs, monkshood roots.

Snoopy doesn’t appear too concerned. In the last frame, he’s thinking, “It’s been a long time since the gang and I used to sit around eating monkshood roots.”

When it’s August in Minnesota, eat tomatoes…..or my version of When in Rome….
 
Pizza Night
When my husband, Jerry, and I are exhausted at the end of a busy week, we have Pizza Night. I start with a large frozen pizza and simply doctor it up a bit. I’ll see what’s interesting in the cheese drawer (goat cheese is a favorite) and sometimes I cut up olives or sun-dried tomatoes. But for the last weekend in August, I halved cute yellow and orange cherry tomatoes and sprinkled lots of dried oregano. The fragrant, bubbly pizza was perfect with our house red wine.

Salade Nicoise
This Julia Child recipe has been in my repertoire for years—as evidenced by the many stains and drips. I usually don’t follow the recipe exactly and instead exclude or substitute ingredients as necessary. I do, however, always make her Oil and Lemon Dressing, a key component of the dish. Composed salads can be time consuming but are fun to prepare and look so pretty on the plate. This evening I included hard-boiled eggs (sprinkled with salt and freshly ground black pepper), canned Italian tuna, juicy chunks of tomato, olives and capers. Bon appétit!

No-Cook Tomato Sauce (Salsa Cruda)
This is so easy! Mix freshly cut tomatoes with olive oil, parsley, basil, thyme, garlic, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss hot, cooked penne pasta with the sauce, let rest a minute or two, season and serve. As I said, so easy!

For Sandwich Night Alone:  Parmigiano Reggiano, Tomato and Basil on Baguette
This sandwich was inspired by a larger-than-life photograph in a magazine ad…and it’s delicious. Place thick slices of Parmigiano Reggiano, thick slices of tomato (sprinkled with salt and freshly ground black pepper) and basil leaves on a hunk of baguette that’s been cut in half and dabbed with olive oil. Since my aperitif included a crisp white wine, I simply poured a little more into my glass.

For Sandwich Night with Jerry:  BLT
How can one go wrong? This sandwich just might be the ideal combination of flavors and textures. Crisp, thick bacon slices are first placed on toasted bread spread with plenty of good mayonnaise. Thick slices of tomato, sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper, are next followed by ample amounts of fresh greens. Another piece of toasted bread spread with more mayonnaise goes on top. I always press down gently on the sandwich so all gets blended—the creamy mayonnaise with the salty, crumbly bacon and the juicy tomato. Cut the sandwich in half and serve with a nice lager.

Eggs a la Betsy
My preferred way of eating eggs lately has been to fry them over easy and then sprinkle on suitable cheese, herbs and other morsels. It’s easier than an omelette and, besides, I love runny yolks (and I’m not worried since I know the provenance of my local eggs). On a recent Sunday morning, I broiled grape tomatoes (thank you, Jill!) with olive oil, salt and Herbes de Provence until they were soft and the skins were charred and split. After the fried eggs were gently placed on the plate, I sprinkled crumbled feta, dried oregano and the broiled tomatoes over the eggs and finished with a touch of salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Since one needs something to sop up all the tasty tidbits from the plate, I had plenty of good bread.

Steve Aitken is the editor of Fine Gardening magazine. As a huge fan, both have been written about elsewhere on this blog.

When I ranted recently about the purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), I failed to include some pithy comments by Aitken who wrote about them in his editorial in the August 2010 issue of Fine Gardening.

Why are they called “purple coneflowers” when, clearly the flowers are pink.

We could call these plants “echinaceas,” something that those who insists on “all Latin, all the time” would strongly encourage. Echinacea is one of the prettier-sounding botanical names, as if it could have been the name of a Greek maiden Zeus tried to beguile. Calling these plants by their genus also saves us from the awkward common names of some of the cultivars—‘White Swan’ purple coneflower, for example.

It’s late August and, honestly, what a long summer. The record heat and frequent downpours have most likely turned your garden into a jungle. Healthy perennials also mean vigorous weeds. Flourishing green lawns require too-frequent mowing. And while normally you wouldn’t complain because you haven’t spent hours hauling hoses around, the ample rainfall has been tough on herbs, annual geraniums and other plants that like drier soils. Fungal diseases have appeared on normally carefree plants.

Are you ready to throw in the trowel? Or, perhaps, did you think you were done in the garden?

…fall—not spring—is the great planting season for woody things. If, in other words, you had thought of lolling in the warm weekends admiring the chrysanthemums and the dogwoods turning red…let me cheerfully remind you that you should be exhausted (not lolling) since this is the busiest of all garden seasons…The very idea of just sitting about in the sun!
~ Henry Mitchell, The Essential Earthman

Autumn is a busy time but the cool temperatures and clear skies make being in the garden a joy. Here are three extremely pleasant fall projects: bulbs, bargains and container gardens.

Bulbs.
No matter the size or style of the garden, or even the talents of the gardener, no garden should be without bulbs. Spring-flowering bulbs seem miraculous after a northern winter and, in addition, they are economical and somewhat low maintenance.

The four pleasurable steps for having a bulb garden are:  1) design the space; 2) buy the bulbs; 3) prepare the site; 4) plant the bulbs.

For complete information on design tips, bulb planting depths and spacing, click on the I Love Bulbs category.

Bargains.
Many nurseries have excellent sales this time of year which solves two business problems—lures customers back in to shop and reduces inventory carry over. Besides, fall is a wonderful season to plant woody plants.

Remember these two crucial rules.
• Plant the right plant in the right spot. Know sun requirements, moisture needs and mature size.
• Dig a $100 hole for that $10 bargain. Understand terms like root collar and soil ball. Click on Just the Facts category and scroll down to the entry “How to plant woody plants” dated May 1, 2010.

Fall container gardens.
Colors associated with autumn usually are rich and jewel-bright—ruby, emerald, amethyst, sapphire and topaz—which makes designing a container garden a blast. Newly planted pots should last well into November.

Here are design ideas for fall container gardens.
• Plant frost-tolerant herbs like thyme and rosemary.
• Consider small-sized woody trees and shrubs (any of the hydrangea cultivars) and perhaps try marginally hardy plants like purple beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma), nandina (Nandina cvs.) and Japanese maple (Acer palmatum cvs.).
• Choose an evergreen which easily transitions to a winter container garden such as a graceful false cypress with bright foliage, ‘King’s Gold’ (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘King’s Gold’). Silvery-blue foliage is a gorgeous foil for fall’s exuberance. Check out Welchii juniper (Juniperus scopulorum ‘Welchii’) and dwarf globe blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Glauca Globosa’).
• Use berried branches. Look for rose hips, cranberrybush viburnum, crab apple (love the cultivars with golden fruit), bayberry, glossy black chokeberry or bittersweet.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

When shopping at the nursery in the spring, who can resist all those darling little plants in their cute little pots…especially when they look like a nifty new cultivar?

Some things work, of course; others don’t. Here is a short list of plants I’d grow again.

SunPatiens Spreading White Variegated Impatiens (Impatiens ‘SunPatiens Spreading White Variegated’ )
This plant has a lot going on—bright white flowers grow at the tips of stems with vivid yellow and green variegated foliage. When seen on a sunny summer day, the effect is bedazzling. It seems to thrive in its terra cotta container on our south-facing deck and has been fun and easy to grow. The plant requires lots of water and, luckily for me, it rebounds well when wilted. (See photo above.)
Sun:  full sun to part shade
Moisture: likes and needs lots of water
Size:  24 – 36” tall and 24 – 36” wide

‘Sweet Georgia Bronze’ Sweet Potato Vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Sweet Georgia Bronze’)
Two of these plants are part of huge hanging baskets on my covered front porch. They are surrounded by white New Guinea impatiens, ‘Rustic Orange’ coleus, Swedish ivy and bright ‘Xtreme Utopia Mix’ impatiens. The plants are vigorous, full and self-branching. New growth is bright spring green and matures to coppery maroon/bronze. Gorgeous!
Light:  tag says full sun but mine is very happy with an eastern exposure
Moisture: keep evenly moist 
Size:  6 – 8” tall before trailing

‘Kent Beauty’ Oregano (Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’)
This cultivar has been around for years but I still feel compelled to mention it. ‘Kent Beauty’ is a true oregano—with that intriguing pungent fragrance—but pendulous in growth habit. The flowers are spectacular! Dainty, purple-pink blossoms peak out from celery green bracts that are reminiscent of hops fruit. Like most reliable herbs, this plant prefers dry conditions and the excessive rainfall this summer has been hard on it.
Sun:  full sun
Moisture: let soil dry slightly between waterings
Size:  6 – 10” tall

‘Hip Hop’ Euphorbia (Euphorbia ‘Hip Hop’)
The four-inch pots of this plant were indistinguishable from its famous cousin, ‘Diamond Frost,’ on the greenhouse bench. But, yikes, does it flower! Dainty white flowers absolutely smother the foliage. It’s growing in a stone container on the screen porch and I adore the juxtaposition of delicate and rustic.
Light:  full sun
Moisture: dry
Size:  12 - 24” tall

‘Heart of the Jungle’ West Indian Kale (Colocasia ‘Heart of the Jungle’)
Colocasia have been the rage for several years now and, before this season, I had successfully resisted. The whole tropical look just wasn’t for me. But I had a perfect spot in a big turquoise container garden planted with pink dipladenia and ‘Crystal Palace Gem’ pelargonium. I’m glad I relented.  This Proven Selections cultivar continually sends up new shoots and has spread nicely. I’m completely taken with the big floppy leaves that wave like fan blades in the slightest breeze. The foliage does get damaged in windier weather but that can be easily solved by using in a more protected location (not to self for next year).
Light:  full to part sun
Moisture: normal to wet
Size:  3 – 5’ by 3’ wide

Earlier in June, I wrote in general about the history of bouquets and, in particular, about picking flowers from the garden and that you need some vases.

Others have recently chimed in on the topic.

Rita Konig wrote a piece for The New York Times on July 13, 2010. She reiterated my point that a collection of vases or, if you prefer some alliteration, “a variety of vessels,” is critical to the whole flower-picking notion. “It is a good idea to collect these small receptacles whenever you see them…If you pick things like this up when you see them, suddenly you will have a really good cupboard full of pieces that have lots of uses.”

Konig admitted that she is not a skilled artisan. “I have two routes to flower arranging. The first is to buy enough of something that it kind of looks after itself, like a vase jam-packed with tulips…The other is the small jar of delicate flowers cut from the garden, like sweet peas in a little jar or poppies…in something taller; they don’t really need a lot of arranging.”

The August 2010 issue of Martha Stewart Living included an appealing feature on bottles and jars— wonderful “vessels” for flowers. I might have saved myself the embarrassment of actually purchasing the magazine but, in addition to that story, I saw two recipes:  a delicious-looking, deconstructed lobster roll, called Inside-Out Lobster Roll (a simple lobster salad with brioche croutons) and a Bacon, Avocado and Tomato Sandwich doctored up with radish sprouts.

The bottles and jars story included interesting tidbits about glass history and collecting antique pieces and, as with most things Martha-ish, the photographs were gorgeous. Jars and bottles were grouped by color and blended into one another like a rainbow—purple, clear, yellow, amber, olive green, emerald green, pale green, aqua, blue. The purple ones caught my eye and reminded me of an intriguing collection I had seen while visiting the home and garden of Mary Emerson in Gorham, Maine.

Mary grew 50 or so plants in her ultra charming sitting room but there were equally as many glass bottles and jars. A few were blue, aqua or clear; but mostly they were purple.

According to MSL, “Natural glass is not colorless; it has an aqua tint that requires an additional chemical to become clear. Until 1900, the chemical used turned lavender with sun exposure…”

Go forth and shop! Here is carte blanche to either begin purchasing/collecting vases if you haven’t or to continue. Konig concluded:  “…you will be surprised how fond you will be of them, because most likely they will become souvenirs of trips and afternoons spent with a friend.”

Photo above:  Just a small portion of Mary Emerson's amazing collection of glass vases, bottles and jars.

“You ought to have seen what I saw on my way
To the village, through Patterson’s pasture today:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!”
~ Blueberries, by Robert Frost

Blueberries are synonymous with Minnesota. These sweet-tart little fruits have won the hearts and stomachs of our residents. The blueberry muffin is our official state muffin and Park Rapids and Ely host big blueberry festivals each summer. Most tourist trinkets feature, if not a loon or a moose, a blueberry.

Both wild and cultivated blueberries have been in season for several weeks now and, like a good Minnesotan, my refrigerator is filled with many pints. 

My favorite way to eat blueberries is simply a big bowl of fresh berries every morning. But the cook in me had to try more complex preparations.

Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake
This is a recipe with two parts—the topping and the cake. Pecans, cinnamon and nutmeg went into the topping; buttermilk, eggs, flour, sugar and blueberries were the main ingredients for the cake. After an hour in the oven, this warm, buttery, crunchy coffee cake was divine. Feeling munificent, I cut generous portions and shared them with employees and neighbors.

Blueberry Pecan Bread
My husband, Jerry, and I love good bread and have been known to drive 100 miles for a loaf. In addition to hearty grainy types, baguettes and ciabatta, we are especially fond of tea breads. As a quick breakfast they are fabulous and more appealing, we think, than muffins.

I couldn’t find any tea bread recipes specific to blueberries but cobbled my own from several sources. In addition to the standard ingredients, mine had pecans, cinnamon and maple syrup. While it won’t win any blue ribbons at the county fair, come winter, when a thick slice is pulled from the freezer and warmed in the oven, it will be mighty tasty.

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
How quintessential are these? An old Gourmet magazine recipe sounded deliciously moist with both buttermilk and sour cream. I added so many blueberries to each pancake that they oozed out the underside. I wasn’t sure of the outcome but Jerry said, “With enough butter and maple syrup, they’ll taste great.” And they did.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

A huge hanging basket grows just outside our home’s north door. Fortunately or un, we use that entrance most of the time. My husband, Jerry, is usually tolerant of my plants but he has commented a time or two about the size and placement of this basket—especially if he’s just bumped his head. But I love those plants in that exact spot.

The basket is full of beautiful annuals—lobelia, heliotrope, two coleuses, ‘Marguerite’ sweet potato vine, purple calitunia, ‘Summer Cream’ lophospermum. But my favorite plant is a purple ‘Wave’ petunia.

Why? Fragrance. The smell is sweet but not too strong.

Perhaps I’m partial, also, for the sensory memories brought to mind by petunias. My grandparents weren’t avid gardeners but I remember simple gardens with mass plantings of fragrant petunias. 

It’s utterly sad to me that fragrance, as an attribute, is not highly regarded by ornamental plant breeders. They seem completely focused on visual characteristics. For example:
• color variation on flowers and foliage:  noticed the Heuchera genus lately?
• blossom size and shape:  the venerable Clematis genus is truly in danger with the dreadful ‘Josephine.’
• fruit size, shape and color…and fruitless.
• plant size and shape:  miniature, midget, compact, dwarf, pygmy, prostrate, pyramidal, columnar, weeping, spreading, fastigiated, globe, upright and, finally, how about ‘Little Giant’ Dwarf Arborvitae?
• re-bloom:  Encore azaleas and Boomerang lilacs are an abomination.

So perhaps my petunias are a remarkable stroke of luck. In the 50 years since my grandparents gardened, the simple purple petunia has retained its fragrance.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

A pleasurable way to while away a gorgeous day in high summer is to take in a garden tour. Add the opportunity to see very dear friends who are equally plant crazy and toss in a midday meal at an outdoor café to celebrate a birthday……well, count me in. 

So a recent Saturday found me up and out of the house early and on my way to meet Maureen, Jill and Cathy. We gathered, as usual, at Starbucks in Forest Lake where we refueled on coffee and grabbed irresistible donuts, lemon bread and yogurt parfaits.

Our destination was Minneapolis and Tangletown Gardens, the ultra hip garden center that was sponsoring their annual Garden & Art Tour. None of our group had ever been on this tour and we were eager to check it out—and, truly, not just for the wine tastings in the gardens.

Here are a few highlights.

Hidden behind a rather formal, buttoned-up-looking landscape was a lovely intimate space. Walled on two sides and protected by the back of the house and a garage-turned-garden room was an outdoor dining room constructed somewhat like a pergola. The wooden ceiling was lit by several strands of fairy lights and long, billowing curtains hung from rods. The big rustic table was flanked by comfy chairs and we all thought, “What a fine party spot.”

The most fabulous specimens of Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’) any of us had seen. Believe the catalogs when they list mature size at 6’ x 6’. The wicker chair is cute, too.

Why not hang a basket from a boulevard oak tree? This unique container included a red-blooming bromeliad, ferns and polka dot plants.

An island bed that exemplified my ideal:  massed plantings; nice mixture of both woody and herbaceous plants; excellent contrasts in texture, shape and size; good bloom sequence. Amongst the chamaecyparis, birch, hydrangea, heucheras, thalictrum and grasses was a geranium new to all of us, Geranium endressii. It was low-growing, a pretty shade of soft purple and very tidy in appearance.

Gingham mania has crossed the pond.

In the July 2010 issue of the British magazine Country Living, I spotted small gingham rugs in red, blue and green. They were bright and cheerful and darling.

“These jolly gingham designs sit perfectly by the back door, or take advantage of their super-absorbent qualities to catch spills and splashes from the hob and sink.”

Wait. What’s a hob? To quote Joe Soucheray, a radio guy who is mayor of the mythical town of Garage Logic in the mythical Gumption County, “You learn more here by accident than elsewhere by design.”

According to my dictionary (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language) a hob is “A shelf or projection at the back or side of the inside of a fireplace, for keeping things warm.” But the colloquial meaning is the burners on a stove.

Imagine an English kitchen with a beautiful cream-colored Aga stove, in front of which is a blue-and-white-checked gingham mat. How jolly indeed.

Life is far too short not to have a little umbrella in your drink.
~ Leigh Standley, Curly Girl Design

Last summer I couldn’t pick up a newspaper or magazine without seeing some reference to cocktail gardens. Growing plants to put in drinks was the rage.

But not this year. Instead, a different trend has surfaced.

Bartenders are no longer satisfied with plain names for plain drinks like margarita, martini and Manhattan. Further, according to Frank Bruni in a story in the June 9, 2010, issue of The New York Times, “The monikers offer no clue:  They’re pure literary whimsy, a proudly opaque muddling of the chartreuse with the abstruse.”

Consider these cocktails from various bars around New York City:  Penelope Cruiser, Beggarman Thief, Legend of Zarro, From Beirut With Passion, White Star Imperial Daisy and Sexy London.

Johnny Michaels is the best bartender in the Twin Cities. I know because I’ve tasted a few of his concoctions over the years and because I once took a cooking class for the sole reason that he was presenting drink recipes.  (Unfortunately, I can’t remember much about either his strong drinks or the food.) He has long been associated with La Belle Vie, the best restaurant in Minnesota, and other enterprises of Tim McKee and Josh Thoma.

Here’s Johnny’s drink list:  Night of the Hunter, Black Pearl, French Teen Idol, The All New 2010 TCG 1000, This Boot Was Made For Drinking and my favorite, Gild the Lily.

The Redhead is a restaurant in New York City that was brought to my attention by a small mention in Esquire, perhaps a year or two ago. Esquire raved about The Redhead’s Bacon Peanut Brittles—a simple snack of “maple-roasted peanuts with smokey bacon” and “because everything tastes better with bacon.”

The cocktails listed on the Redhead menu have simple names—especially in comparison—and the bartender thoughtfully added subtitles. For example:  Gotham (a dark and complex Manhattan), Vesper (James Bond’s first martini) and Aviation (high flying classic).

Wanting to bring of bit of that vibe to my happy hour, I ordered a package of Bacon Peanut Brittle and filled a crystal party dish. Then I guessed at amounts of rum, ginger syrup and fresh lemon juice in their ingeniously named drink, the Ginger Snap, and toasted the day.

Photo:  Very cute matchbox from Curly Girl Design.

Whether considering evergreen or deciduous trees, white pines are my favorite and have been a key component of the landscape of every home I’ve owned. My first place—a tiny white cottage—was dwarfed by a gorgeous specimen pine that was totally out of scale. But I loved that huge tree with its long, graceful boughs and, whenever the wind blew, I was reminded of a childhood book. Even though Heidi’s trees were firs, her awe was unforgettable. 

The thing which attracted her most, however, was the waving and roaring of the three old fir trees on these windy days. She would run away repeatedly from whatever she might be doing, to listen to them, for nothing seemed so strange and wonderful to her as the deep mysterious sound in the tops of the trees. She would stand underneath them and look up, unable to tear herself away, looking and listening while they bowed and swayed and roared as the mighty wind rushed through them.
~ Heidi, by Johanna Spyri

What is a white pine?
The white pines native to our part of the country are Eastern white pines (Pinus strobus). The tree has a vast range from the Lake States through southeastern Canada, into the northeastern U.S. and down to the southern Appalachians. The Western white pine (P. monticola) has a small, disjointed range in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia.

White pines have a fascinating lineage. They belong to an ancient group of plants, named gymnosperms, which dominated the landscape between 250 and 100 million years ago. Since that time, gymnosperms have declined and angiosperms, the more evolved and complex plant division, have advanced.

Now only five orders of gymnosperms remain.
• Cycadales:  tropical and subtropical plants that resemble palms and tree ferns.
• Ginkgoales: ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is the only remaining species.
• Gnetales:  an intermediate order between gymnosperms and angiosperms. 
• Taxales: yews and torreya.
• Pinales:  conifers including the Pine and Cypress families. 

The Pine Family “is the largest and most important timber-producing family of the gymnosperms,” according to Harlow & Harrar’s Textbook of Dendrology by James W. Hardin, Donald J. Leopold and Fred M. White. Other members of the family include:
• larch (Larix)
• spruce (Picea)
• Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga)
• hemlock (Tsuga)
• fir (Abies)

White pine facts.
• grows to about 80 – 100’ in height with a spread of 20 – 40’.
• maturity isn’t reached until 200 years of age; trees have been found with 460 growth rings.
• Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan has 49 acres of old-growth pines with one 300-year-old monarch soaring 155’ tall.
• produce soft, bluish green needles in fascicles, or bundles, of 5.
• needles remain for 2 years then turn brown, die and fall off .
• monoecious with male and female flowers on same plant.
• fruit is a long (up to 8”), slender cone that remains closed the first year and matures/opens the second year.
• produces abundant pollen but isn’t a cause of allergies.
• propagated mainly from seeds which need a 60-day stratification.
• easily grown on a wide variety of soils; prefers full sun but can tolerate some shade.
• pests include white pine blister rust, white pine weevil and deer.
• to estimate age in years, count whorls of side branches and add 2 or 3.

What does Dirr think?
Michael Dirr is my go-to guy for information about plants. He has a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and is a horticulture professor at the University of Georgia in Atlanta. His Manual of Woody Landscape Plants is the bible for gardeners, landscape architects and other plant geeks. Dirr has incredible breadth of knowledge about plant identification, culture and propagation—all of which leads to excellent pronouncements about landscape design value. His comments are erudite, pithy and, on occasion, hilarious. 

“In youth a symmetrical pyramid of soft, pleasant appearance; in middle-age and on old trees the crown is composed of several horizontal and ascending branches; gracefully plume-like in outline and very distinctive when compared to other conifers.”

“…one of our most beautiful native pines; a well-grown, mature White Pine is without equal among the firs, spruces and other pines.”

Finally…
Last week my husband, Jerry, and I cleared a space just to the north and west of our home and planted three small but exquisite white pines. They are only seven years old now but with a bit of luck, what a legacy.

This also appears in the Askov American, Askov, Minnesota.

Does it seem like once you notice something particular, you see it everywhere?

I've long been a fan of On The Street, a photo essay in The New York Times' Sunday Styles section. Bill Cunningham has the enviable job of tooting all over New York City photographing fashion trends. One week he'll capture images of 40 people wearing huge, drapey scarves and another week he'll find everyone in puffy, white down jackets. Recently Cunningham was on the trail for Lady Gaga look-alikes and shot 36 photographs of teenagers in goofy outfits.

I feel a bit like Cunningham but instead of "Gaga Garb," I'm seeing gingham.

The down-home, classic gingham has gone haute. Gingham dresses, lampshades, plates and pillows were pictured in the Trend Alert department of Elle Decor (July/August 2010). I saw more gingham in a French magazine and gingham ribbon in another. Vogue (July 2010) chimed in with its feature of Marion Cotillard modeling a gingham vintage bikini.

I couldn't get away from gingham! My husband, Jerry, and I took a few days off and stayed in our favorite summer cabin at Burntside Lodge just outside Ely, Minnesota. Lonnie LaMontagne has exquisite taste and the simple but beautifully furnished rooms had gingham curtains—burgundy in the main room and black-and-white checked in the bedroom.

Well, it was high time to add a little gingham to my decor. I tied a fresh bow of blue-and-white checked ribbon around the neck of the Black Dog--my official welcome sign.