MAINE-LY GARDENING: What’s in the house? Flowers: luxury or necessity?

by Jude Hsiang

After planning next season’s vegetable garden and ordering the seeds we’ll need, my thoughts turned to the flower garden. As a very thrifty gardener I’ve tended to think of flowers as a luxury. While living in other parts of the U.S., I didn’t want to put in the money and work for a garden that wouldn’t reach full maturity before moving again. Finally back home in Maine, I’m not delaying any more.

During a dozen years of teaching basic botany for a university’s Extension Master Gardener program I assisted my colleagues who taught the other topics and were avid home gardeners, too. Everyone enjoyed sharing plant suggestions and favorite tips. While working at garden centers and nurseries I learned some very important lessons from customers

One was an elderly lady who surprised us by ordering 400 tulip bulbs and arranging for our help in planting them. She explained that she’d always wanted great swaths of tulips and was finally going to have them. She had resisted the idea because tulips don’t live as long as other bulbs like daffodils and deer might eat some, but she decided not to worry, just enjoy. The result would be more beautiful because she could do some of the work herself.

New customers included a couple who were selling their house in a suburban neighborhood known for attractive landscaping. Their Realtor had suggested a little planting to improve the curb appeal. They’d never thought they had the time to garden but agreed to purchase two small hollies and some flowers to brighten the entry area. Later in the season they returned, saying they’d sold the house and moved a few miles away. They realized how much more welcoming the old house had looked and decided to start a small garden at their new place right away.

A young couple bought a house in winter. The house wasn’t much to look at and they really disliked the color, but they were just starting out and it would do. When spring arrived they were delighted to see lots of flowers and several shrubs in bloom. When July came, the spring flowers were gone and the house and small lawn looked drab. Neighbors told them that the previous owner was a teacher who spent every summer away and therefore didn’t bother with summer blooms. As young teachers themselves they wouldn’t be able to afford summer travel for some time so they began adding summer blooming plants little by little while working at summer jobs.

We bought our house here in Maine on a cold gray winter day. We could see where a vegetable garden would do best and found the framework of a small greenhouse that looked repairable. Following the advice of generations of wise gardeners I resolved to wait a year and learn the “lay of the land” before investing beyond the vegetable garden. Then one spring day I found an old flower garden at the shady edge of the woods. Some day lilies, a peony, and a rose bush were still hoping for sun. I moved them to the sunny area which I’d identified as my future flower garden and bought a couple of inexpensive 6-packs of summer flowers to keep them company. That was the beginning.

Still thrifty, I’ve bought, or started from seed, a few shrubs and perennials over the last few years. On these cold winter mornings, I look at the leafless shrubs and clumps of perennials with their seed heads left for the birds and think of the pleasure they’ll bring in just a few months.

© Judith Chute Hsiang
Jude Hsiang is a retired Extension Master Gardener instructor and member of the China Community Garden.