I've been tivoing all the episodes of Gardeners Diary that are being reshown every morning on HGTV and I watched one last night that had a nursery up your way.
It was in Middletown and the people that owned it were named Walz. I looked it up later and the nursery is called Surreybrooke Farm.
In the show, they were walking in a garden outside a log cabin that had herbs and other plants. On one side of the path there were plants that had foliage like tulips but the flower looked like a very large allium bloom or maybe even fluffier like a dandilion bloom only much, much, much bigger. The flowers looked kind of pinkish and were very close to the ground, just nestled in the foliage. Do you have any idea what those plants were?
I've never seen anything like them. I kept telling the television, "Stop talking about the stupid African daisies and tell us what those really cool looking plants are on the other side of the path." LOL
Critter, I have a question
I've never been to Surreybrook Farm... but I'll ponder those flowers and see if I can come up with possibilities...
Anyone else have a guess?
Yep, Allium schubertii and A. christophii, there may be others. My A. schube's look just like tulips right now.
Hmmm... My A. christophii was more lavender than pink, and it definitely was taller (18-24 inch bloom stalks).... Check out PF for pics of A. schubertii and see if they look familiar, http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/55560/index.html
Were these flowers blooming in spring? Or are we on the wrong track altogether?
Hart,
I plan to go to Surreybrook soon so I can ask. I didn't know about this garden show, but I got my husband to set it up on the DVR for me now. With any luck, I may even catch a repeat of the same show. I'll tell them your description and what the others suggest it might be and they should be able to tell me.
Thanks everyone. The photos in plant files all look too tall with leaves too narrow, but when I searched in google images some there looked more like it. These were very short and the flowers were right at the leaves. Couldn't see a stem at all. I didn't see the long things sticking out from the flowers either, but Allium shubertii must be it, maybe at an earlier stage.
None of the pictures of the christophi looked anything like it - too purple, too tall, leaves way too narrow.
I have no idea when the show was shot but the African daisies were blooming, roses were blooming. So I'd say June or July perhaps.
This message was edited Apr 15, 2007 8:43 PM
Miata -- where is Surreybrook? Am I missing out on a favorite nursery?? :-)
Thanks to Go Gardening, it is located in Middletown, MD. http://davesgarden.com/go/view/940/
I've been there once before and it's a very nice nursery.
hart, I think what you might have seen is Allium karataviense? http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/139305/ This is the google search I did to give you a few more pictures
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-14%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=Allium+karataviense We planted a few about 3 years ago but they've had a difficult time - need really good drainage and one of the dogs laying on them didn't help either!
Thanks, Shirley! I keep forgetting about that nifty new feature here... need to check it out!
I may have to go check it out soon! Miata, LMK if you want company for an expedition there.... :-)
You're welcome. Not only is it a lovely nursery with impressive gardens, but I noticed that they have a lot of wonderful activities coming up as well.
Debbie, I think that must be it. That looks exactly like it. Thanks so much everyone. I had no idea there were all these low growing alliums.
I think you all must make an expedition to this nursery. It was beautiful with lots of different garden areas, restored old buildings like the log cabin and a spring house. It would be a terrific source of inspiration not only for country style gardens but for what grows well in this area too.
I wish I had saved the recording. I could have saved it off onto a DVD and sent it off on the rounds to anyone who wants to see it. If any of you want to see Gardeners Diary, it's on HGTV every weekday morning at 8 am. They're all repeats from earlier years but most are new to me since I just discovered this show last fall.
I hope they're running the repeats before shifting to new episodes. Erica Glasener wrote to someone on another board that she had taped several new episodes last year but HGTV hadn't bought them yet.
It's so nice to see a gardening show that isn't featuring yet another $80,000 renovation of a California yard with plants that won't live beyond zone 8. They always talk about specific plants growing in the featured gardener's garden and give information on the cultivars too. And you get to see the plants growing in mature gardens.