2012

It sounds weird, but one of my favorite times of the year, gardening-wise, is January.

That's when I look forward to seeing all the new mailorder gardening catalogs in my mailbox. It's also when I make my "Plants I Want" wish list. And it's also the time when I repot indoor plants and mark the coming year's master calendar with seasonal gardening chores.

I know, it sounds anal. Perhaps I'm overcompensating for my ADD, which has turned me into somewhat of a calendar junkie:  If it's not on the calendar, it just doesn't get done.

Anyway, one of the chores I'm putting on there now is pruning. Without it, my front and side yards quickly become overgrown in summer and crowd out all the light, air and space. I at least need to go and trim all the dangling and dead branches left in the wake of all the winter wind storms we have in our area.

Pruned Flower Carpet roses with tete-a-tete daffodils in early spring

Late winter is a great time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs, although in cold climates like my Zone 6ish garden. Here in western New York, I usually prune on or around St. Patrick's Day. It's an easy way to remember it, anyway.

When you do prune deciduous trees and shrubs, make sure to remove diseased, damaged or close-crossing branches, but take special care not to spoil the plant's natural shape.

For magnolias, forsythias and other spring-flowering woody plants, delay pruning until just after flowering. Summer-blooming shrubs such as hydrangea and hibiscus are best pruned in winter or early spring, just before growth gets going. 

March and April are big months for pruning roses. My Flower Carpet roses are the easiest to prune: I just take a sharp pair of hedge sheers and reduce their volume by about two thirds. A more conservative approach is needed for traditional bush roses: Aim for an open vase shape, making cuts about a half-inch above an outward-facing bud. Old-fashioned roses that flower once in early summer shouldn't be pruned until just after flowering.

For more information on pruning Flower Carpet roses, check out the video "How to take care of Flower Carpet roses in spring" by Dave Epstein of Growing Wisdom.

Whenever you prune, always use clean, sharp pruning tools. Mangled, unclean cuts can lead to disease. And don't put diseased material in the compost bin. If Jack Frost strikes, avoid removing any frost-damaged growth, as this helps protect the plant from further frost damage.

I know it's hard to wait till spring, but try to enjoy some garden dreaming and planning. And don't forget to put pruning on your calendar!

Looks like kids gardening is going to be bigger than ever in 2012, by the looks of all the yowza grow kits marketed to them on the shelves.

Seems the gardening industry has caught wind of the fact that those Gen X and Y consumers they've been trying to reach have kids, and that a good chunk of any disposable income Mommy and Daddy have for gardening is probably going to go toward something they can do with their children. Same goes for the Baby Boomers and their grandkids.

And I don't think it'll just stop at grow kits. After all, Netherlands-based flower auction company FloraHolland just announced the release of its Hello Kitty line of plants, aimed at girls and young women. Now that's marketing MEOW!

Hello Kitty plants

Obviously, the industry also knows that kids will go for anything with a character on it – from breakfast cereal to bandages to toothbrushes and toilet seats.  Hence the Growums garden kits (tagline: "Add a little character to your garden!") retailing for $39.98 at my neighborhood Home Depot. The 50-plus characters - with names like Adam Apple, Duke the Cuke and Elvis Parsley are part of six themed edible gardening kits (pizza, taco, herb, salad, ratatouille and stirfy).

Growums ($39.98 at Home Depot)

And of course, there's an online component at Growums.com, where you can learn about the characters and their gardens, play games, use Growums for fundraisers, follow Growums on Twitter and Facebook and even "track your Growems" (I don't know what this means, since I didn't buy one and you have to enter the UPC code from the kit to find out). I think it's smart marketing - and as the mom of a 4-year-old, I'll know to steer clear of it in Home Depot if she's with me and I don't want to spend the extra cash. Kudos to Bonnie Plants for really thinkin' this one through!

$39.98 a little much for ya? How 'bout the $2.99 "Eco Plant Pals" (also available at Amazon.com). I found as part of a mondo kids' grow kit display in my Wegmans supermarket. These kits, too, feature their own cartoon characters, like Strawberry Sarah, Aloe Alin and Basil Bob:

Eco Plant Pals ($2.99 at Wegmans)

Princess Garden ($14.99 at Wegmans)

Carnivorous Creations ($24.99 at Wegmans)

Looks like "fairy gardening"– that gardening trend in which tiny plants are grown as part of a miniature scene fit for a fairy - has really taken off. I know I saw a lot of fairy gardening stuff on display, at least, at the 2011 Garden Writers Association symposium this past summer in Indianapolis: 

Fairy Triad grow kit ($24.99 at Wegmans)

But the most exciting thing for me personally, as an incurable plant nerd, were all the kits offering the opportunity to grow exotic edibles (well, exotic in my western NY Zone 6ish garden, that is).  baThere were kits for bananas, peanuts, coffee and even pomegranate trees. And as the kid who always wanted to sprout an avocado pit on the windowsill to make my own tree, I'm willing to slap down the $4 or $10 to see if it actually works.

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Pomegranate grow kit ($4 at Wegmans)

Sometimes life calls for a little attitude. And you’ll definitely find it in “Tangerine Tango” – Pantone’s 2012 Color of the Year. This “spirited reddish-orange,” just dubbed the new “it” hue by global color authority Pantone, is sure to burn up any of the fog left over from a gloomy economy and – as Pantone says – “provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.”

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

So where can we find this color for our gardens? And how do we use it in the landscape to its fullest? Here are just a few ideas:

Tangerine Tango - Pantone's 2012 Color of the Year

“The reddish-orange blooms of this dark-foliaged canna certainly match Pantone’s “Tangerine Tango,” says Anthony Tesselaar, cofounder and president of Tesselaar Plants, developer of the colorfully foliaged Tropicanna cannas. “What’s more, the backdrop of black, broad leaves makes this color pop even more.”

Tropicanna Black canna bloom

Tesselaar suggests using this color in containers with subtle echoes of the same color: “Not too much with this fiery hue,” he says. “A little goes a long way.”

For example, Tesselaar suggests a hot-hued “thriller-filler-spiller combo,” with Tropicanna Black as the thriller, ornamental peppers as the filler and thread-leaved croton as the spiller:

On her North Coast Gardening blog, California garden designer Genevieve Schmidt suggests a more analogous color grouping: Tropicanna Black  (above) with other outrageous reds like Helianthemum (sunrose) ‘Henfield Brilliant’ and Clianthus puniceus ‘Red’:

Helianthemum 'Henfield Brilliant'

Clianthus punicea 'Red'

Another good plant featuring this fiery orange-red color is Bonfire begonias:

Just one will wake up a whole garden bed:

The orange in this red also makes it pop against a bright blue pot (since orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel):

So, what other plants bring this Pantone color  into the garden? Post a comment and let me know! I'd love to hear about some other color combos starring Tangerine Tango!

In my previous post on Top Garden Trends for 2012, I mentioned how larger ponds are giving way to smaller water features (like this recirculating fountain featuring a hollowed-out boulder, designed by Sharon Coates and Bruce Zaretsky of Zaretsky and Associates design-build firm in Rochester, NY):

Sharon and Bruce also sent me other great images of the latest water features too - as did California garden designer and North Coast Gardening blogger Genevieve Schmidt. I fell so in love with all of them that I decided they needed a post of their own:

Water fountain globe (submitted by Genevieve Schmidt)

Scupper (designed by Zaretsky and Associates)

Rain chain with boulder base (designed by Zaretsky and Associates)