Plant of the Week...Phalaenopsis Orchid

Orchids are America's favorite flowering plant

America's favorite orchid, and maybe even houseplant, is the Phalaenopsis, aka the Moth Orchid, so named for it's flower shape. Available in many outlets, including garden centers like Valley View Farms, Phals are easy to grow and priced reasonably. 

Love the arching stems of Moth Orchids in outdoor mixed planters

Phalaenopsis are epiphytic, growing on tree trunks, branches and rocks. They send out fleshy, aerial roots that often grow outside of the pot at your local garden center.  Do not cut the roots off as this is how the plant gets its moisture and nutrition. I've had the blooms of the Moth Orchid last for several months. The flowers stalks begin at the base of the orchid, growing from leaf joints. The tall flower spikes naturally fall forward in a beautiful, arching form. In stores, most are staked and held by floral ties or clips to keep them upright. 

Beautiful colors, spectacular blooms

How to care for Phalaenopsis:

Moth Orchids like the same conditions as other common houseplants like African Violets. Provide an

east or shaded south-facing window. Phalaenopsis can also be grown and cultivated under grow lights. Daytime temperatures between 70-85 F and nighttime temperatures above 60 F will suit them.

Simple, arching forms

 Watering Moth Orchids is slightly different than watering other houseplants as they are planted in a special bark mix to allow for good air circulation. Keep the orchid bark medium moist, always allowing for good drainage. Special orchid pots are a good investment for the orchid collector.

Orchid pots have holes in the side to allow for better air circulation for the roots

 Fertilize with a general purpose or orchid specialty food in the spring and summer. In the fall, switch to a blossom booster fertilizer, coupled with cooler nights, to induce plants to set buds and flower.

 Provide humidity by placing pots on pebble trays, keeping the water level low enough to not interfere with the plant's roots. Do not use the ice method of watering. These are tropical plants that like warm, tepid water. 

Most fertilizer companies have a specialty orchid food

After their bloom period, leave the flower stalk as Phals may form new flowering branches along old stems. If the stem browns, cut it back. Repot every year or two. The orchid potting mix tends to break down. Repot in late spring using the aforementioned potting mix. 

Look for potting mixes particularly for orchids

Valley View Farms offers an orchid repotting class every winter. Eric R will demonstrate and talk about Phalaenopsis and other orchids. Stay tuned for our 2024 Seminar Schedule to be released soon. In the meantime, get on board the orchid train and enjoy these incredible plants in your home and office. 

Longwood Gardens 

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How Do We Decide What to Grow Each Year?

The last two springs have been incredible when we consider the number of plants that our own farm grew to ship to our store, basically every day from mid-April thru mid-June. Deciding what to grow, and how much, is our biggest challenge as we sit down to review last spring and plan for 2023. 

John and his crew at our growing location in Hydes, MD, start to plant pansies in late January. By late February into March, all 12 of our greenhouses will be open to growing the many plants we'll need to have for our customers. We will begin to ship plants to Valley View Farms in early March. 

A few of the tomatoes grown at our Valley View Farms greenhouses

Our vegetables are all planted from seed. John and his team will grow over 28,000 tomato plants alone! Our variety list changes slightly from year to year. To find new varieties, we'll scour seed catalogs, check in with local farmers' markets to see what is trending, read articles on new introductions, and ask and listen to our vegetable gardening public. We've found that All-America Seed Selections (AAS) are a wonderful resource too, as they have trial gardens nationwide to see which varieties perform the best.

The AAS tag means it has performed well in gardens 

 Adjustments are made accordingly. Last year, we grew over 70 varieties of tomatoes. Our customers wanted more small-fruited types, so we will add some for next year. We go through the same process for choosing pepper, squash, eggplant, lettuce, and other vegetable varieties. 

The flowering plants we grow come into John's greenhouses as young plants, which his team will transplant from plug flats containing a hundred or more plants into the pots that we will sell in our store. Choosing those varieties is similar to how we decide on vegetables, but we have a few other ways to see new plants. In mid-spring, trials for plants are held in California. Newsletters from our trade industry highlight the best of the plants. This is usually our first peek into new varieties. We will then attend Cultivate, a huge show for horticulture every summer held in Columbus, Ohio. There, breeders show off the best of the new plant cultivars.

Salvias are favorites of pollinators

Rudbeckia in so many sizes

 

Our customers love begonias

We attend trade educational seminars, like those offered at our Maryland Nursery Landscape and Greenhouse Association's Chesapeake Green and Greenhouse Field Day conferences. Plant breeders and sellers send glossy catalogs and tempt buyers with magazine articles in trade magazines, and emails. We are lucky to also have a large regional plant trial hosted by Penn State in the Lancaster area. We will walk those grounds to see what improvements may have been made to some of our old favorites.  

Celosia is a fantastic late summer and fall flower

So many shades of Rudbeckia!

The good, the bad, and the ugly are all represented. Lobelia is not the best of the summer crops

On the other hand, Scaevola loves the heat

As we meet to discuss all the information gathered, we look at the larger picture of what gardeners are asking for in their plantings. They want to attract pollinators, have flowers that can be cut and arranged in vases, heirloom vegetables, annuals that bloom all summer, and perennials that reliably come back for years. We find what's new isn't always better and see the resurgence of old varieties with improvements. 

We hope we get it right and that our community is happy with our offerings. Please tell us what you're looking for in your garden next year. Let us know what did spectacularly and what plants didn't live up to expectations. 

We love what we do and strive to provide the most beautiful, healthiest plants for Maryland gardens. 

Special Bulbs---Beyond Tulips and Daffodils Part I

 

Fall-planted/spring-flowering bulbs are proof that gardeners are true optimists. Planting a brown orb into a garden, or even a pot, then waiting through the winter for the emergence of beautiful flowers is what makes us a positive bunch of people. 

Tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths are the stars of the spring garden, but the minor bulbs deserve some of the spotlights too. In a few lectures given to garden clubs recently, these special bulbs took center stage. Here are a few excerpts from those presentations. 

Species tulips, and their bulbs, are much smaller than their Darwin hybrid cousins. They tend to be better perennials, more deer resistant, and can provide a nice border in the front of the garden. The following varieties tend to get 4-8" tall, blooming in mid-spring.

Tulipa vvedensky 'Tangerine Beauty'

Tulipa batalinii 'Bright Gem'

Tulipa bakerii 'Lilac Wonder'

Alliums are, in my opinion, underutilized in the garden, even though the Perennial Plant Association named Allium 'Millenium' as a Perennial of the Year recently. The ornamental onions are pollinator-friendly, deer resistant, great cut-flowers, and, come in an amazing assortment of varieties.

Allium caeruleum

Allium schubertii

Anemone blanda, Grecian Windflowers, have a small daisy-like flower. They are borne on 3" plants with fern-like foliage. Anemones create a nice groundcover for taller bulbs and perennials. Soak the small corms overnight before planting. 

Anemone blanda is in the foreground

Camassia leichtini is one of my personal favorites. The tall spikes of blue flowers grow 2-3 feet tall. 

They will tolerate damp soils around ponds and grow in full sun and at forest edges.

Camassia leitchtinii

Chionodoxa luciliae, also known as Glory of the Snow, has blue flowers that fade from lighter blue to white in the center. Two or three star-shaped flowers bloom on 8-10" stems. 'Blue Giant', one of the large species, blooms in early spring. Glory of the Snow will naturalize in woodland gardens. 

Chionodoxa luciliae Glory of the Snow

Crocus chrysanthus, Snow Crocus, is among the earliest blooming bulbs in the garden. Their 6-petaled cupped flower is wonderful in rock gardens, crevices, and other small spaces. Snow Crocus are lovely in the early spring lawn. 

Crocus chrysanthus 'Snow Bunting'

Crocus tommasinianus, Wild Crocus, is known by the narrow white strip down the center of its leaves. 

Squirrel resistant, they bloom from late winter into early spring. Plant in large drifts in borders and garden beds. 

Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant'

Eranthis cilicica, Winter Aconite, blooms very early. The yellow buttercup with the frilly green collar is a favorite of a friend who works with the Netherland Bulb Company. It's easy to see why. Tolerant of partial shade, plant this cheery yellow flower with other early bloomers like Hellebores and Forsythia.

Eranthis cilicica

The Fritillarias diverse bulbs come in many sizes, from the dwarf meleagris that grows 12" to the imperialis, which grows 2-3'. They prefer rich well-drained soils, like a good bit of plant food, and can have a skunk-like smell that may be what keeps critters away. 

Fritillaria meleagris

Frittilaria imperialis

We will explore other special bulbs within the week. Thank you to The Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland who asked for the information in this blog. Thanks also to the folks at Netherland Bulb Company, who graciously let me use many of their images, and to Becky Heath from Brent and Becky's Bulbs. Finally, thanks to Brian Brannan and Cindi Fielder, who maintain our bulb selection here at Valley View Farms. 

Our Connections to Gardening (and gardeners)

 Wow! What a year! People are learning that plants can provide so much for us during a pandemic. When groceries and essentials became tough to get, gardeners grew more gardens! Edibles like fruit trees, berries, vegetables, herbs, and so many other food plants were sought after by old and new gardeners alike. The plant connection continued through so many parts of our lives to help us find comfort in our own homes, gardens, and selves. 

A friend's raised vegetable garden

I spoke with my niece Becca recently. She has recently moved with her boyfriend Raf and dog, Nala, to a new place. Her job has been downsized, so she is looking for a new one. Away from her friends and family, life has changed. I asked her if having plants helped her out. She started collecting succulents awhile ago.

Her collection takes up the better part of a room in her new home. She answered yes. She said that "while the world is on fire", these little plants make her focus on a routine. They get checked daily, though Becca waters sparingly. When new leaves appear, she is happy. Becca said that while she has been stuck indoors, unable to go on all the adventures she once did with friends, the plants bring life inside. The first time she went to re-pot her plants was intimidating, but she powered through it. She encourages her sister and friends to try to grow something just for the fun of it.  Becca and I have spoken about the lessons learned when a plant doesn't thrive. It is instantly compostable, causing no harm to the environment. It happens. We move on and try again. 

Last summer, I got a chance to walk through Ladew Gardens a few times, either alone or with a friend.  Emily Emerick, Ladew's Executive Director, told me that the gardens had more first-time visitors there than ever before. The walk through the gardens was both calming and inspirational. I took note of many of the plant combinations in pots and in the garden and copied parts of them for my garden. On a side note, I took my physical therapist, Megan Rich, a true lover of plants with me. 

Megan framed in a hemlock doorway

She loved the gardens and showed me some better ways to navigate the sometimes challenging landscape physically. Now I can claim that Ladew, and gardens in general, help me both physically and mentally. 

Truth be told, I already knew that. Having worked around plants for a lifetime, the air I breathe is fresher, the humidity in the greenhouse is invigorating (except for in the heat of summer), and being outside in the sunshine is wonderful! But it's the people who make my job so fulfilling. When Anne Lynn stops in with a bouquet of dahlias, Nolen sends photos of his prized hardy hibiscus,

One of many of Nolen's prized hibiscus

Eric and his family put in a beautiful new pond; Don shares the hot pepper plants that he grows from seed; it's understood that gardening connects us. My neighbor, Chuck, who helps me out all the time, is putting in raised beds this year. I foresee a collaborative garden between neighbors. Friends and families working together in the garden this year have been a remarkable experience that working from home has enabled us. The Weinberg Village Community Garden in Owings Mills has raised bed gardens that residents are able to plant. Volunteers, including students from The Jemicy School, help on planting days and garden clean-up days.

The Weinberg Village Community Gardens

We are lucky to live in a region where so many plants grow with ease. Our communities come together to help each other, even providing extra garden harvests to food banks. Gardening brings us together, helps us enjoy nature and the outdoors, and offers too many other benefits to mention. 

Weinberg Village Volunteers

Are we ready to keep this momentum going? Everyone I've talked to has answered a resounding yes!

Gardening Has Not Been Canceled

Gardening here in Maryland has taken on new life. I've been lucky enough to work through this pandemic, but have spent much more time at home in late afternoons and evenings. Plants are flourishing; tomatoes are too abundant to use immediately after harvest.  Luckily, they're plum tomatoes, so I'll freeze them for use later. 

Two weeks before the harvest

 Summertime, as usual here in Maryland, flips between drought and tropical storm-induced heavy rains. A friend who lives in Southern Maryland has had 11 inches or more of rain this past week! Her fruit trees have floated up into her pasture, roots and all. Still, with all of its challenges, gardening gives us a nice break from the news of the day and allows us to nurture nature on our own terms. 

Walking through the garden center today, I've made plans for more planting. The vegetable garden gets a restart. I consider this season 3 in the garden. The first round in March-April was for peas, cole crops, and lettuce. Season 2---tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and zucchini. Season 3 will include broccoli, lettuce, and beets in my own garden, planted in pots around the patio. 

Spinach, Swiss Chard and Lettuces

Great time to plant herbs too!

Coneflowers, hardy hibiscus, sedum, ornamental grasses, asters, and mums are a few things that can be planted and give the garden color for another couple of months. Rudbeckia, heliopsis, the aforementioned coneflowers, and coreopsis all feature daisy-shaped flowers with seed centers that birds will love long after the plants finish blooming. 

Hardy hibiscus blooms are dinner plate size

Ornamental grasses

Sedum a few weeks before color

Mums

Captivating coneflowers

Black-eyed Susans

Coneflowers

Pond plants are blooming too. Lotus, waterlilies, and cannas add color to the water garden. The Koi bring delight to everyone. Watching kids feed the koi with enthusiasm is a highlight at the big pond daily at 12:30. 

David topping off the ponds

Water gardens

During storms and times that it is just too hot outside, we move inside with houseplants. Decorating with plants is fun; choosing the right pot to go with our plant and inside spaces brings a bit of nature inside. 

The dracaena is on its way to a new home

Gardening was not canceled this year. We've met many new gardeners. Please use our resources, including signage, handouts, and knowledgeable people, many who are passionate gardeners themselves. 

Keep calm and garden on!