cadys fallls nursery
PROPAGATION
and other activities
SHADED RAISED BEDS
FIELD PRODUCTION OF PEONIES
OVER-WINTERING POTTED PLANTS
Five foot wide raised beds, made with concrete blocks laid on edge and shaded with movable 2” x 3” boards. Old-fashioned and crude, but it works.
Three year old showy ladyslipper divisions emerging in spring
Trillium grandiflorum spend 4-5 years in raised beds
The edges of the fabric are weighted down and the plants are tucked in for five months
Showy ladyslippers in bloom in June
CHOPPING FRESH LEAVES FOR MULCH AND AS A SOIL AMENDMENT
We field grow our hybrid peonies on a three year schedule. Three year old clumps are dug and divided in October. Fresh divisions are potted and ready for sale the following spring. Small divisions are rowed out in raised beds and mulched-in with pine bark. We rotate the fields to give several years between peony crops in the same soil.
Freshly lifted clumps
Clumps cut back, hosed off and boxed-up
In November, before the first single number nights, and before the lasting snow arrives, we sandwich two layers of polyester blanket between two layers of white plastic over all the perennials in pots and over the smaller potted conifers. Then we hope for snow cover.
Crates of peonies heading to the barn on the digging wagon
Nate dividing peonies in the barn
Preparing raised beds with the bed former,
made from an old 3-point-hitch cultivator.
Fresh divisions of Itoh Hybrids ready to be rowed back out in the new beds
Don and Nate rowing-out peony divisions. After this, the beds will be mulched-in with pine bark and they will remain in the ground for three growing seasons.
Peonies emerging in the spring
A momentary set back in April
With the onset of sub-zero temperatures in December, we move all the plants from the unheated greenhouse to the adjacent cold storage room. Taking advantage of the warm greenhouse and the cold barn, a series of thermostats and fans keep the temperature a few degrees below freezing for four months, without the need of heating or cooling. Plants are moved back into the greenhouse or into unheated cold frames as needed in March and early April. With some of the shelves removed, the cold storage room serves as a cool work space for taking summer cuttings and sowing seeds.
THE COLD STORAGE ROOM
Don harvesting waterlilies from the pond in spring
When leaves become available in late October, we spread them out about 10 inches deep and we make two passes over them with a flail-chopper. Then we push them into piles with the loader.
The way we like the potted plants and the raised beds to look in winter, snow covered.
In November, we spread chopped leaves three to four inches thick on the gardens. They settle down to about two inches and last through the next growing season. The worms go crazy in the rotting leaves.
Blocks of field-grown perennials that do well in our silty bottom-land soil: Phlox, Dicentra, Cimicifuga, Ligularia, Allium, Rudbeckia, Symphytum, Paeonia, Astilbe, Rheum, Hosta & others.
COPPER GARDEN MARKERS
The black lettering comes on rolls of sticky transparent tape which is peeled away from the white backing.
Finished markers on the kitchen table
The markers are made from half inch copper pipe, flattened with a power hammer. Used markers are scrubbed and washed with vinegar for reuse.
The plant labels are printed on a Brother P-Touch printer wired to a Mac computer.
In the garden, the bright copper will darken and become nearly invisible, but the black lettering, which is protected by the plastic tape, remains clear and indelible.
Diane, painting black locust field markers in the greenhouse in early March. Plant names, written in black magic marker on white latex primer, with the lettering facing north, last about two years.
Paeonia obovata var. willmottiae, grown from seed, ready to pot after three years in a shaded raised bed.
Temporary structures are built over the potted conifers to keep the winter fabric from touching the needles
Barb and Nate laying down winter fabric
Well-used sand box in foreground, unused concrete silo in the back
PROPAGATING Daphne cneorum eximia
The cuttings are taken as the growth begins to harden-up in August and the rooted cuttings are grown on in bulb crates in the greenhouse. The next spring they are rowed out in raised beds and left to grow for one or two years
In the spring of the second or third year, they are lifted with the roots cut but the rootball intact, wrapped in burlap and bedded in bark, ready to be sold.
The propagation literature suggests that daphnes do not like to be transplanted but young vigorous plants respond well to this treatment and they readily root out through the burlap and into the bark mulch.
Five year seedling of Paeonia mlokosewitshii
Nate turning compost. All our waste organic matter is composted and spread on the fields. This is a pile of horse manure that will be used for making potting soil.
We cultivate between the raised beds and between the field rows with an 8 HP Troy Built tiller. We scuffle-hoe and hand weed between the plants. We don’t use herbicides.
Cady’s Falls Nursery
Don & Lela Avery
637 Duhamel Rd. Morrisville, Vt. 05661
802-888-5559 [email protected]
