Focus on Flowers

Indiana Public Media
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Focus on Flowers is a weekly podcast and public radio program about flower gardening hosted by master gardener Moya Andews.

  1. Tiny but Tough

    2H AGO

    Tiny but Tough

    The earliest iris to bloom is the petite Iris reticulata. The reticulated irises have a fibrous network on the bulbs that is similar in pattern to the markings on a giraffe, which is also described as reticulated, “like a net.” These earliest blooming iris have 3- to 6-inch stems and they bloom with the crocus. To display the blooms indoors, I use a tiny bottle for each one. There are also intricate patterns on the small petals, and their beautiful colors—maroon, purple, lavender, white, and yellow—delight winter-weary eyes. Plant the little bulbs in drifts in the fall. Since they dislike wet feet, a good spot for them is in a sloping or raised bed so there is good drainage. Iris is the sacred flower of the Goddess of the Rainbow, and iris means “eye of heaven.” (It is also the name of the center of our eyes.) After their spring bloom, Iris reticulata bulbs should be given an application of granular fertilizer, sprinkled over them, and their leaves should not be cut down. They are hardy in zones 5 to 9 and are long lived if they are not disturbed. Plant these little bulbs 3 inches deep. These darling little miniature iris are the start of a progression of flowers of varying types of plants in the family Iridaceae. They are followed late in the spring by the taller Siberian iris. Try to grow as many different types of iris in your garden so that you can have a progression of these blooms until June each year. The deer leave them alone! [Note: Try the following : Iris histrioides ‘George’ Zones 3 to 8, which are dark purple with gold marks, and Iris histrioides ‘Katherine Hodgkin’ zones 5 to 8.] Reference: Perennials Short and Tall: A Progression of Flowers for your Garden by Moya Andrews and Gillian Harris, Indiana University Press (2008), Page 67.

    2 min
  2. Easy Does It

    2D AGO

    Easy Does It

    Quite a number of flowering annuals can be started by sowing their seeds directly into the garden.  Wait until after the last frost in the spring when the soil has really warmed enough for seeds to germinate. I tend to pick up packets of seeds wherever I go so usually have a big stash of them, and it is fun to scatter them in my bare perennial beds. Since seeds are inexpensive, I throw them around with abandon expecting that they all won’t germinate, but hoping that some will and give me surprises later in the season.  I especially love the tall blue/purple spires of larkspur, since delphiniums do not thrive in my climate. Last year I hopefully flung some into my bed of white German iris, and though the iris bloomed first, the larkspur looked lovely among the blue/grey iris foliage later.  If I have big pots on my deck, I sow zinnia seeds into those. Even the small daisy-flowered variety ‘White Star’, which does not need to be dead-headed, does well in pots in full sun.  Cosmos is a pretty, floriferous annual that can be scattered on top of the soil in beds, and it will bloom in 8 weeks. It has pretty foliage and is good for cutting, which stimulates the continued flowering all summer.  Small French marigolds, the gold and brown ones, will germinate easily, also, and are very drought-tolerate, flowering until frost.  And of course, I always save or buy Cleome seeds—better known by the common names of ‘Spider plant’ or ‘Cat’s whiskers’—and scatter them in the middle of beds or the back of borders because they grow tall and last a long time. Those I do not cut, as they are best left in the garden to produce seeds for the following year. Besides, I do not like their smell very much.  Another favorite is blue Clary sage. Direct sowing is inexpensive, easy, and fun and usually results in a few surprises!

    2 min
  3. David Hosack

    JAN 29

    David Hosack

    David Hosack was born in New York in 1769 and in a book about him by Kerri Miller, she states that he is responsible for the establishment of New York’s first botanical garden. There was an interview by Victoria Johnson on NPR that drew my attention to this.  Hosack was a brilliant medical scientist who focused on medicinal plants. The Bartrams, earlier on, grew medicinal plants in their gardens in Philadelphia, but Hosak was the first to grow these plants in North America for scientific research purposes. Dr. Hosack studied medicine in both London and Edinburgh and then returned to North America to teach and practice at Columbia College in New York City. In London he had been trained in the classification of plants using the system developed by Linnaeus in the 18th Century. Miller describes in her biography how Hosack met Joseph Banks and other famous plant scientists in London in the early 1800s and became knowledgeable about European plants and their medicinal properties. When he returned to New York he realized the need for a public garden as a research facility for medical scientists and their students. He even wrote to President Jefferson to ask for plants gathered by the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Later he became the personal physician of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He used his own money, and later went into debt, to buy and maintain 20 acres on Manhattan Island to grow plants, including many natives that had not been known abroad, in order to study and teach students about their medicinal effects. His garden was the first scientific garden established on our shores. This is Moya Andrews, and today we focused on David Hosack.

    2 min
  4. Spring Ephemerals

    JAN 15

    Spring Ephemerals

    Before long now, some of the earliest flowers to bloom will be stirring in our gardens.   Many of them are ephemeral, a descriptor that means “short lived” or transitory. In garden-speak, this means that these cold-hardy little plants bloom early and then die down leaving no trace until they return the following year.  Most grow in woodland settings, where the soil is moist from late snows under deciduous trees and there is weak sunlight, as the trees have not yet leafed out. Some bloom even before al the snow has melted. Their early flowers can be picked and taken into the house for tiny vases.  When the blooms fade, the plants set seed and then go dormant. They are at their best planted where they are not disturbed after they die down, though they co-exist well with low growing plants that grow up over the bulbs and shade them in the hot dry summers.  The sunshine-yellow winter aconite is usually the first to bloom, followed by the snow-white snowdrops (Galanthus spp., zones 3-9), hardy cyclamen (Cyclamen coum, zones 5-9), bloodroot (Sanguinaria Canadensis ‘multiplex’, zones 3-9), Dutchmen’s breeches (Dicentra culcullaria, zones 3-7), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia Virginica, zones 3-8), and European wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa, zones 5-8). Later the red trillium (Trillium erectum, zones 4-9), and Japanese woodland primrose (Primula Sieboldii, zones 3-8) light up our gardens.  The best way to get these early bloomers in your garden is to acquire starts from another gardener during the early spring, or you can find them listed in catalogs. Their dense root systems help them persist and colonize. Notes: Source material from Amanda’s Garden, Dansville, New York.

    2 min
  5. Interesting Quotes

    JAN 8

    Interesting Quotes

    In 1785 William Cowper wrote: Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too. Unconscious of a less propitious clime There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug While winds whistle and the snows descend. In 1974 Maya Angelou said,  "Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says ‘I’m going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that’s tough. I’m going to snow anyway’." And there is a Chinese proverb that makes many of us smile: If you would be happy for a day, get drunk. If you would be happy for a week, take a wife. If you would be happy for a month, kill your pig. But if you would be happy all your life, plant a garden. And Jude Patterson wrote, “In winter, when roots and seeds sleep under the crusted snow, the gardener is an artist hatching ideas for the coming season.”   But my personal advice to you in January is to be careful of all of those tempting offers that arrive in catalogs in the mail this month, as well as all of the seductive offers to order plants online. We are all so eager to have flowers on our gardens again, that we are susceptible to all of the plant offers that bombard us. But it really is too early to start ordering plants—January is too soon!—so try, if possible, to exercise some restraint.

    2 min
  6. Twelfth Night

    JAN 6

    Twelfth Night

    During the middle ages, the Christmas season lasted for 12 days and reached a climax on Jan 6, which is called Twelfth Night.   We often wait, nowadays, until Twelfth Night to take down the Christmas tree and holiday decorations. Once everything is put away the house seems suddenly quite bereft, and we long for something natural and fresh.   January, of course, is a difficult month for garden flowers. Sometimes, however, one can unearth some long stems of ivy in the winter garden. In the summer, I am always trying to pull it out and get rid of it, but I am glad to see any green leaves in winter.   If you ever find any, cut some pieces and hammer the stems and submerge them in a sink of cold water overnight. Next morning, shake the water off and pat them dry with a towel before placing them in a vase.   With this background for an arrangement in place, you may be able to find a few other bits and pieces in the garden, for example, bare branches, berries, Bergenia leaves or even a Christmas rose (Helleborus), to add to the ivy. Otherwise, buy a few blooms to combine with the ivy and rationalize the purchase as absolutely necessary food for the soul.   Buy any color flower but red, as after the holidays red seems passé and our eyes have become tired of it.

    2 min
  7. Norah Lindsay

    JAN 1

    Norah Lindsay

    Norah Lindsay (1866-1948) lived in the Manor House at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England. She was admired for the way that she combined herbaceous perennials in borders, which were so popular during the Edwardian time in England.  In her obituary in 1948 in the London Times it was described how she would trace out a plan for a whole garden in the dirt with the tip of her umbrella. She was known as one of the first amateur, but not quite professional, garden designers who were active in the years before and after World War I. Strongly influenced by Italian gardens, she was famous for her parterres. One that she planned is still maintained by the National Trust in England today. It was a formal planting using low plants and repetition of colors around a central fountain. Clipped yews and a Doric Temple in the distance added to its feeling of formality and structure.  Norah Lindsay was born in Ireland but always admired the classical gardens of Florence and Rome. She created large-scale double borders that stretched down hillsides to create breath-taking vistas.  Her husband, Harry Lindsay, was a flying hero during World War I, and she was so well-connected that she even advised the Prince of Wales on his gardens at Fort Belvedere.  Lindsay was the Grande Dame of gardening in a time when ladies did not have professional careers.

    2 min
  8. Year's End

    12/31/2025

    Year's End

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote a poem about the garden at the end of the year. This seems to be an appropriate time to share it with you.  A spirit haunts the year’s last hours Dwelling amid these yellowing bowers: To himself he talks: But at eventide, listening earnestly, At his work you may hear him sob and sigh In the walks; Earthward he boweth the heavy stalks Of mouldering flowers: Heavily hangs the broad sunflower Over its grave in the earth so chilly; Heavily hangs the holly hock, Heavily hangs the tiger-lily.  The air is damp and hushed and close, As a sick man’s room where he taketh repose An hour before death; My very heart faints and my whole soul grieves At the moist rich smell of the rotting leaves And the breath Of the fading edges of box beneath, And the year’s last rose. Heavily hangs the broad sunflower Over its grave in the earth so chilly; Heavily hangs the hollyhock, Heavily hangs the tiger lily.

    2 min
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About

Focus on Flowers is a weekly podcast and public radio program about flower gardening hosted by master gardener Moya Andews.

Information

  • Creator
    Indiana Public Media
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.8K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © The Trustees of Indiana University
  • Show Website
    Focus on Flowers

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