When Does Specializing Turn Into Hoarding?

I’ll just come out and say it. I am a Collector. Over the years I have built - and dispersed – so many collections, in categories such as craft supplies, books, glass paperweights, pink flamingos, Westmoreland milk glass, hardy geraniums, hosta, tools and hardware, office supplies, and for a while in the 80’s, budgerigars. At one point I had 18 of them in a giant flight cage. Good times.

It’s an all-American pastime as shown by the popularity of reality shows about hoarders and people who bid on the undisclosed contents of abandoned storage lockers. I haven’t slid so far; I prefer to do my collecting one piece at a time.

But when does “collecting” cross the line into hoarding? To me, collection is all about doing a deep dive into a particular subject and learning as much as you can about it. When I am studying a new topic, reference books get involved, and talking to experts in the subject, joining Reddits or groups, and getting as much hands-on experience as possible. For instance, I have collected figural cast iron - doorstops, bottle openers, party favors, door knockers and bookends – for years and I am pretty good at spotting reproductions and knock-offs.

When you really love something it’s easy to get caught up into accumulating, and it can be a rude surprise to look around one day and realize there is not one more square inch in your garden to wedge a single additional hosta, even though you are pretty sure you DON’T already have one virtually identical. That’s where we get to the critical difference between a “collector” and a “hoarder”. If you can’t part with your duplicates or lesser-value pieces; the books you’ve read ages ago and won’t look at again, stuff that’s broken or stuff that you MIGHT find a use for …someday… well, now you’re slipping into hoarder territory. News flash: your kids don’t want your stuff. You might want to winnow down your belongings before it gets bad.

I am not quite there yet. Yesterday I spent ten or twelve hours moving all my house plants back indoors after their summer vacation. Somehow there are more of them now than what went out this spring. I don’t know what happened! I have plants all over the house, on shelves and étagères, under lights and crammed into the windows. I am kind of proud of the fact that I also said farewell to a few of them! I am not a hoarder after all. Just don’t ask me how many house plants I have.

I’ve been planting a wide variety of nursery stock from the moment I had a yard to plant in. I bought my first home in the 80’s and after ripping out pretty much everything that was there – it was time for a rehab – I started bringing home my favorite plants from our vast inventory here at Christensen’s. That employee discount got QUITE a workout, let me tell you. Sure, there were failures, for example my attempts to grow daphne, oxydendron, and a succession of acer palmatum, but in my mind a dead plant just opens up a spot to plant something new.

However.

There are some plants I NEVER should have planted. They all have one thing in common – aggressive, invasive growth. It’s not an accident that several of them are vines, plus some perennials that spread underground and come up yards away from the perfect spot you chose for it then proceed to colonize the rest of your yard, and the neighbor’s yard, too. Word to the wise – avoid “plant swaps”. There is a reason people have excess to trade.

I didn’t plant any bamboo, luckily, but the Japanese anemone had to come out, as did the Ribbon grass (Phalaris). I didn’t plant the Aegopodium or the Convallaria, but only was ever able to eradicate the Aegopodium as the bed was contained by the concrete drive. We built a giant sieve out of hardware cloth and I dug up the whole bed and got every scrap of root. The Lily-of-the-valley persists to this day among some hosta I transplanted to my new house, wish me luck.

The beautiful Porcelainberry vine I hid behind the garage is probably still sprouting back in spite of repeated attempts with spade and sprayer, and the gigantic Sweet Autumn Clematis that grew to cover the entire shade structure is likely still trying to swallow Plymouth Township. But it sure was pretty and smelled fantastic. But don’t plant one. It’s horrible.

The number one worst plant I ever planted was the Trumpet vine. Fond memories of plucking the orange flowers and tasting the nectar inside (sorry, hummingbirds) from my Grandmother’s yard at the original nursery on Ann Arbor Road gave me the bright idea of planting one in a tiny spot in the side garden of my postage-stamp yard. I even extended the chain-link fence six feet higher to give it a nice trellis to climb on. Visions of hummingbirds filled my imagination, and I figured in a year, maybe two – OK, FINE, three – I’d be a major stop on the hummingbird highway.

Hah.

The seasons passed with not one single flower. Ever. But the VINE? It ran underground and started coming up randomly, all over the yard. Ten, twenty feet away, no problem. Digging it up was futile. It’s immune to Roundup (apparently). I tried to get rid of it for ten years.

I finally moved.

These days the only vines you will catch me planting are Clematis (which randomly die for no good reason) and Hydrangea petiolaris, which is always well-behaved. A mature one came with my new house, and when the tree it was climbing on died, we left most of the trunk standing, because nobody messes with my Climbing Hydrangea. You really should plant that one.

Is this a trick question? Not really. Every year, in mid to late spring, turtles start to move. The males are looking for partners and the females are looking for a good place to make a nest for their eggs. Unfortunately for a lot of them, this means crossing busy roads and a lot of them don’t make it. Sun-warmed pavement and sandy road edges combine to attract these tiny travelers so look sharp as you drive – what might look like a rock in the roadway ahead could well be a turtle trying to cross.

Michigan is home to about ten species of turtles, nine native and one introduced. The most common one is probably the pretty painted turtle, and most of us have seen a snapping turtle. We also have musk turtles, map turtles, spiny soft-shell turtles, spotted turtles, and the introduced red-eared slider. Three of our turtles are quite rare and if you’ve seen one, congratulations! They are the wood turtle, the Blanding’s turtle, and the Eastern box turtle.

My pond is home to a small colony of painted turtles and two summers ago there was a pretty big snapper, but I think she has moved on. I’ve found turtles in the yard trying to dig a nest for eggs a couple of times, but I have yet to find any baby turtles of any species. A shocking number of nests are dug up and the eggs are eaten by raccoons and other animals, often just days after being laid. A lot of animals eat baby turtles, too. It can take 20 years for a turtle to get old enough to breed so if I see one trying to cross a road you can bet I am going to pull over and try to help it.

If you do try to help a turtle cross a road, always carry it in the same direction it was heading, and set it as far off the road as you can, 10 or 15 yards if possible. Never lift a turtle by it’s tail, and don’t be tempted to move it to another location – they know where they live and can be killed trying to get back home.

Locally to me is the University of Michigan Edwin S. George Reserve, a fenced 1300 acres where researchers are studying the endangered Blanding’s turtle. Because they have been able to tag individual animals, they have been able to age one particular female as 83 years old (in 2016). I have been lucky enough to have seen a Blanding’s come through my yard and it’s a thrill every time. Now if only I can find a box turtle someday I can die happy.

If you're looking for additional resources for turtle information, please check out the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

How's everyone doing? I think we are now past the worst of the summer heat but to be honest I was ready for fall weeks ago. We may like to complain about the weather but when you are out in the hot burning sun day after day I think it's justified. Congratulations on making it through the dog days! Labor Day is the traditional end of summer but you and I both know there will be weeks of beautiful - even hot - weather before we trade sunscreen and Gatorade for hoodies and Carhartts. But today, let's get out of the sun for a minute and do some shade gardening.

I'm a big fan of shade gardening, and the plants that thrive in shade and partial shade. I used to have an enormous Hosta collection but now that I am gardening in the country I had to scale back on those because they are basically expensive entrées for our hordes of deer. I keep a few favorites behind fences but out in the yard I have better luck with ferns. 

Lest you think that all ferns need daylong shade, I have quite a colony of Ostrich fern that do just fine in nearly full sun. In fact they were getting a little carried away so I had to take some of them out. Here they are happily crushing my baptisia.

You're going to need to provide supplemental water especially under big trees, but established ferns can be surprisingly drought tolerant. Maidenhair fern can be a little fussy but Autumn, Lady, Male and Cinnamon fern are all happy in part sun to full shade, which is also where you will find ME when it's 90° or better. And you should really try to have some Painted fern if at all possible. 

So let's take a break from summer heat and enjoy this word search puzzle created by our very own Jeff Good. (Answers here)

Earlier in life I enjoyed a lack of sensitivity to our old friend, poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans). The allergic reaction to this plant can wax and wane throughout one's life, but most of us start out allergic and stay allergic, with the effects growing worse with each exposure. I had a friend that even got it in the winter, but I never did. Part of it was that I quickly learned to recognize it even at a distance, especially after noticing the resemblance to Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica), a safe-to-handle ornamental native shrub. Check out this website here for some examples.

However. A few years ago (OK, it was 15) I was surprised by a nasty case that required a course of steroids to get rid of. Maybe doing that woodland cleanup on a humid day wasn't such a good idea? Now I dedicate myself to avoiding poison ivy at all costs. I didn't encounter too much of it in my suburban garden but out here in my country garden holy heck it is everywhere. The tricky part is to not only look for those "leaves of three" but those tell-tale rooty vines clambering up tree trunks, with no foliage at eye-level where you stand a chance of noticing it, until popping great big leaves in the canopy, blending in with your hardwoods. Don't lean on any tree trunks!

A major issue is that poison ivy foliage is extremely variable. The three-leaf thing is definitely an ID point, but the darn leaves can be notched or smooth, matte or a bit shiny. The one thing that seems constant is it's exceptional vigor - it looks green and healthy all season until it bursts into glorious fall color. And while poision ivy is usually seen as a vine or groundcover, it can get quite woody and shrublike with age.

Another thing that confuses people is that there are OTHER vining plants found in the same habitat. Can you reliably tell wild grape and woodbine (parthenocissus) from poision ivy? Another fooler - baby boxelder seedlings. Even I sometimes glove up to pull one, just to be on the safe side. But I will tell you, if you see white berries on a vine, you are looking at poison ivy. Incidentally those berries are a valued food for plenty of wildlife which helps explain why it comes up everywhere.

In other (unwelcome) news, climate change is is making poison ivy both more virulent and allergenic. Ugh. Climate change is making poison ivy stronger and itchier

To remove it one must either pull it or use Roundup (glyphosate). Sever the vines that are climbing your shade trees, treat the fresh-cut stump, and spray any regrowth that occurs. Forget those "organic" salt and vinegar recipes, it's just going to re-sprout, and salting the soil is undesirable. And you must never, ever burn it as the smoke is toxic. Goats eat it, so you could see about renting a herd of them to clean up your acre, like the City of Ann Arbor does. Keep a bottle of Technu by the sink, and in your work truck or garden tool bag for fast treatment if you think you've been exposed and you might save yourself a trip to the doctor for a steroid pack.

If there is one plant every landscape should have, it is the peony. This handsome perennial is long lived and easy to grow, given a site with at least half a day of sun and decently well-draining soil. They are stunning focal points in mixed beds, or as the backbone of a perennial border, and belong in any style of garden from farmhouse to contemporary. Once I saw a row of peonies in full bloom running up a long driveway. I almost went off the road. The hard part is choosing which ones to plant. 

Peonies come in three types. The first, and earliest to bloom, are the woody-stemmed tree peonies (P. suffruticosa). The second are the fully herbaceous garden peonies (P. lactiflora, officinalis, and others), and the third are the intersectional peonies that are basically a cross between the two. Today's post is about the garden peony, the best known and easiest to find.

Let's dive in! Peonies have been cultivated for thousand of years and that means there are thousands of cultivars to choose from. Colors range from the purest bright white, to ivory, coral, pink - allllll the shades of pink - into fuchsia and finally, red. No matter which colors you choose, they all go together, so feel free to mix it up. The proper planting depth is key to getting flowers, so be sure to get those eyes no more than 1.5 - 2" deep. 

Peonies also come in a variety of different flower forms. My favorites are the wide open Single and Japanese forms, with bright showy centers, followed by the Anemone type that have a contrasting center fringed by wide petals. Other forms are Double, Semi-double, and Bomb. Many cultivars are fragrant, too. The earliest blooming ones kick off the season in mid-May, and by planting different cultivars you can go until late June. 

You may have heard that peonies, once planted, do not like to be moved. It is true that they are happy to stay in your garden for decades, but they can be transplanted successfully if you - like me - decide to move and can't bear to leave them behind. I've had my 'Sea Shell' peony for a good thirty years and she's doing great in her new garden.

Here in SE lower Michigan we have an amazing resource in the Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden (Ann Arbor), which has a massive collection of herbaceous peony, many of which are heirloom varieties. It has to be seen to be believed! Admission is free and the prime time to visit begins around Memorial Day weekend. You'll come away with a burning desire to plant peonies everywhere you can get a shovel in the ground.

• Nichols Arboretum Peony Collection Website
• American Peony Society - Herbaceous Peonies
• Peony Flower Types - American Peony Society (PDF)

These days I have a forty-minute commute to work, and I enjoy the progression of bloom through the season, of everything from landscape ornamentals to woodlots and farm fields. There is always something happening. There are some plants I would like to see less of, though.

In late May the purple, white and pink flowers of Hesperis matronalis, aka Dame's Rocket, bloom in abundance all up and down the roadsides and into fields and woodland edges. I love it, and I don't - it's invasive, having long ago escaped into the wild. It sows itself with abandon, soon forming vast colonies that crowd out and replace native plants. Related to Garlic Mustard, it spreads just as aggressively. If you like the look I would steer you to the tall phloxes, like P. paniculata or P. divaricata because we do not need any more of this plant. Don't get me started on Garlic Mustard, it's not even pretty.

But who says invasive plants *have* to be ugly? Here's another one that is a common sight in Michigan, Hemerocallis fulva, aka Ditch Lily. It's not a true lily, but a daylily, and not a neat clump-forming one, either. No, it spreads by rhizomes and forms large colonies filling the ditches on either side of roads all over the state. I like seeing the cheery orange flowers every summer but again, it's busily crowding out native plants. 'Kwanso' is a double form that is offered in the trade, it is not nearly as aggressive. 

One of the worst offenders is the notorious Lythrum salicaria, aka Purple Loosestrife. In spite of decades of trying to knock it back, by physical removal and the introduction of several species of beetle that eat it, it still occupies acres and acres of wetlands across the entire continent. None of our native animals or insects really need it for either food or shelter and I am personally over the obnoxious color of the flowers, too, because they just remind me of the futility of trying to put the Genie back into the bottle.

There was talk at one time that some of the named varieties were sterile or nearly so, but it turns out that they breed just fine with the wild ones. So even if you find it for sale, don't plant it. If you have it on your property, get rid of it. 

There are loads of invasive plants loose in Michigan, from Autumn Olive to Phragmites, Buckthorn to Spotted Knapweed, Multiflora Rose and Oriental bittersweet, to the honeysuckles - oh, boy, the honeysuckles... To all of them I say, hit the road! 

For more information about these and other invasives, check out these links!

• MSU Extension Field Guide to Invasive Plants - PDF
• Midwest Invasive Plant Network
• Michigan Invasive Species at Michigan.gov

I have a problem. One the one hand, I have landscaping that I like to keep looking, well, ornamental. On the other hand, I prefer to avoid using herbicides and insecticides whenever possible. Now factor in the lack of gardening time that comes with working at a nursery and you can guess what my yard looks like by summer.

A lot of weeding can be avoided by keeping beds mulched, but what about driveways and paths? You can pull the weeds, if you can find the time to stay ahead of them. You can treat with herbicide, and depending on what product you choose, deal with too little - or too much - control. Or... you can do it the fun way - with a propane torch.

Editor's note: CPC is not endorsing this method. Use caution if you decide to try it.

What I like about this method is the instant results and minimal regrowth that comes with superheating the ground, simultaneously cooking weed roots AND seeds lying in wait. The crackling flame as your enemy combusts is also quite satisfying. You'll want to do this on a windless day, to avoid getting into trouble with smoke or sparks.

It should be noted that this is a two-man job, one person running the torch and the other manning the hose. Thoroughly douse everything down after the torch passes so you don't accidentally burn down the neighborhood. I am not kidding about this.

• Always stand with your back to desirable plantings. The HEAT is doing the killing and there can be a five-foot zone of death in front of your torch. (Don't ask me how I know this.) And look up - heat rises.
• Use a board as a heat shield to protect the edges of beds or ornamental fencing. 

• Work slowly and methodically and watch the breeze. If it gets windy you must stop!
• Water the ground the day before. You want green, short weeds, and seeds will cook better in moist ground. Do not use a torch on tall, dry weeds.
• Hose down everything thoroughly as you go so nothing is left smoldering.
• Be sure to have a spare, full tank in case you run out of propane before you finish your area.
• Older, tougher weeds can re-sprout, go back in a week or two and re-treat.
• Do not burn poison ivy - the smoke is toxic if inhaled.

The torch has an adjustment dial on the wand, you want to keep your flame just large enough to burn invisibly but not go out. As the pressure drops you can turn the dial to get more oomph. If your tank ices up stop and defrost it to get some pressure back.

This technique takes a little practice and is not for the faint of heart, but can't be beat for fast cleanups of driveways, paths, and paved areas. The torch shown is designed for clearing large areas, there are others on the market that have a smaller, more targeted flame.

Colorado blue spruce is one of the most popular evergreens we sell. The straight species is usually green, but the cultivar 'Glauca' ranges from bluish-green to an eye-popping silvery blue. The color is genetically determined and before grafting ornamental trees became the norm, the brightest blue seedlings were known as "shiners" and were selected out and sold at a premium. Now we have numerous cultivars with consistent, bright blue color. 

So why might you get calls from customers complaining that their expensive blue tree is turning green? Firstly, the blue color is only present on the new growth, weathering off in time. Pesticides can strip off this waxy blue coating from the needles as well. Other culprits can be air pollution, or poor growing conditions that keep new foliage to a minimum.

Once the blue color has worn off the needle, nothing will bring it back and the tree is going to look green until that flush of new growth each spring. However, you can encourage the best possible color by providing ideal growing conditions and care. Spruce prefer moist, well-drained soil, and you may fertilize established trees in early fall or mid-spring.