The season of color and full foliage is upon us! The Heartland Harvest Garden shows promise with flowers, foliage and fruit galore. Here Purple-leaved 'Grandpa Gourley's' heirloom peach sets off blue-flowering Walker's Low Catmint at the top of the water stairs where the Insectaries Garden begins. The blue container of edible flowers and foliage deliniates the Millstone Entrance Plaza to the Heartland Harvest Garden.
The Menu Garden is the appetizer for the Heartland Harvest Garden (pun intended as our Director would say) and shows an abundance of edible flowers from pansies to calendula, many greens and peas on their way.
The Apple Celebration Court is cloaked in blooming chives -- their strong aroma permeates this sunny day. The chives are doing their job too: attracting loads of honeybees, butterflies and other pollinators as well as deterring the apple tree borers to perfection. Chives are apple tree companion plantings -- learn more by a visit and read our interpretive signs.
Chives are quite a beautiful sight in full bloom and vary in color between various plants. The flowers are edible as well as the chopped leaves so well known in "sour cream and chives." We will have to deadhead our entire mass so that we prevent billions of seedlings. Thank you volunteers!
Roses are an apple and grape companion plant as well and are really putting on a show now. This is 'Mary' a David Austin Rose that is currently in exquisite full bloom in the Vineyard. Don't miss the roses in the Vineyard and be sure and smell the Damask Roses; the commercial source of rose attar. FRAGRANT is an understatement.
The Vineyard Arbor is starting to get its Mediterranean design feel, the new Morning Light roses on either side have been more beautiful than expected and are a climbing rose developed by Knockout Rose breeder so sure are disease resistant. The other climbing roses are well budded but not yet in full bloom. Roses are the canary in the mineshaft when it comes to grapes.
Have you ever seen the beautiful blossom of a blackberry? This Apache Thornless Blackberry is in the vineyard --their stunning white flowers will be adorned with delicious berries later in the summer.
Most of our berry bushes in the Harvest Garden are very berry laden! Here 'Crandall' Clove Currant is straining under the weight of maturing currants. This is a selection of a native shrub and produces a delicious black currant in mid-summer.
The Blueberries are also bursting with berries: this Northland Blueberry shows the developing fruit that should start ripening in a month. The blueberry crop will be very good this year.
The apples have been thinned and are showing very promising fruit. This is the Stark Galaxy Gala Apple in the Apple Celebration Court. Barbara Fetchenhier has thinned the fruit so that each has six to eight inches of space on all sides.
The pears are full of fruit too: young 'Kieffer' pears appear to be aiming at the sun.
Fuzzy baby peaches are growing well on the trees whose flower buds shrugged off our long winter. This Contender Peach is living up to its name, flowering heavily this spring and showing an abundant crop of fruit in the Peach Court.
This glossy, red baby fruit is a Stark SunGlo Nectarine. Many of the nectarines are faring well too; good news for those who don't like peach fuzz. Nectarines are mixed with peaches in the Peach Court as they are just a variety of peach (Prunus persica var. nectarina).
Put Powell Gardens on your plans for this predicted warm sunny weekend. Roses, Peonies, Iris, Columbines and many other plants are currently in full bloom. Cool season flower displays are luxuriant and the Heartland Harvest Garden is bursting with Strawberries to sample at the Tasting Station (as well as all depicted above!).
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