2011 Flower Show: CHS Bulb List

The CHS display at the 2011 Connecticut Flower and Garden Show includes the following bulbs:

Really short bulbs (4-6")
Chinodoxa luciliae
Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty'

Short bulbs (8-10")
Narcissus 'Bantam'
N. 'Minnow'

N. 'Tete-a-tete'
Muscari 'Valerie Finnis'
M. armeniacum

Medium bulbs (12-14")
Narcissus 'Galactic Star'
N. 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation'
N. 'Thalia'

Medium tall bulbs (14-18")

Narcissus 'Safina' 

N. 'Tahiti'

N. 'Pappy George'

N. 'Queen of the North'

N. 'Sunny Side Up'

N. 'Tickled Pink'

N. 'Pink Charm'

Tall bulbs (16-48")

Allium 'Globemaster'

Leucojum aestivum

Narcissus 'Dutch Master'

N. 'Acropolis'

N. 'Fortissimo'

N. 'Ice Follies'

N. 'Sagitta'

N. 'Sound' 

Tulipa 'Marilyn'

Upper photo: Lea Anne Moran
Left: C. Fitzpatrick Michelson

Discounted Flower Show Tickets

Take advantage of a benefit of CHS membership and pay just $9 to attend the 2011 flower show (Feb. 24-27, at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford). That's a savings of $5 off the adult admission price of $14. Buy tickets at our Feb. 17 program meeting, or send your order and payment by Thursday, Feb. 17, to CHS, 2433 Main St., Rocky Hill, CT 06067. Discounted tickets must be bought in advance; only full-price tickets will be sold at the show. More info: 860-529-8713.

May 19: Speaker Adam Wheeler: Plant Geeks Are Us: Oddball Plants for Oddball People

To Adam Wheeler, the oddball plants of his talk title are plants that aren’t found in most nurseries, garden centers and catalogs. They may be rare cultivars of common plants, or have unusual variegated or multicolored foliage, or be contorted and funky, plants only a mother could love.

And oddball people? By that he means “not your generic gardener—a step more obsessed than your average gardener.” A fanatic, he says.

Adam is a plant fanatic. As propagation and plant development manager for Broken Arrow Nursery in Hamden, he oversees the woody plants and is responsible for acquiring and developing new plants.

He also is an adjunct lecturer at Naugatuck Valley Community College, teaching classes in plant propagation and woody plant identification.

Within CHS, he is perhaps best known as an auctioneer; for years at the spring and fall CHS plant auctions, Adam has generously helped to sell beautiful trees and shrubs donated by Broken Arrow and other nurseries to raise money for the CHS scholarship fund that supports students at NVCC and the University of Connecticut.

Adam was born and raised in Morris. His parents and both sets of grandparents were gardeners who grew mainly fruits and vegetables but also tended substantial ornamental gardens. He earned his bachelor’s degree in urban forestry and landscape horticulture at the University of Vermont in 2003, and returned to Morris to begin his career.

In his spare time he enjoys collecting rare and unusual plants, rock climbing and competitive giant pumpkin growing. 

Adam will explore in his talk the fascinating world of woody plants, showing three dozen slides of some of the tree and shrub oddities available to gardeners. “People probably won’t find these plants in but a handful of nurseries across the country,” he says.

He hopes to show how flexible gardening can be, given the selection of intriguing plants that exists. Mainly, he says, he hopes people leave his talk with a renewed sense of just how fun gardening is.

Everyone is welcome to attend Adam Wheeler's talk on Thursday, May 19, 2011. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. (7 p.m. for socializing) at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford, Conn. The fee for non-CHS members is $10. Full-time students with valid ID attend for free. Contact: 860-529-8713.

April 21: Douglas Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

Douglas Tallamy might be considered this century’s leading “tree hugger,” without the derisive connotation and with a sustainability spin.

Tallamy, a professor and chair of the entomology and wildlife ecology department at the University of Delaware, believes that biodiversity is an essential, non-renewable natural resource that people are forcing to extinction. It should be protected, just as air and water are, he says.

His argument, which he will share with an audience of the Connecticut Horticultural Society on April 21 in West Hartford, goes like this:

Consider plants and animals as the rivets that hold together the ecosystems that sustain life. Evidence shows that the richer the biodiversity, the more stable the ecosystem is. Ninety percent of herbivorous insects are species-specific, meaning they survive by eating a particular native plant. When native plants disappear, so do food sources for the insects, birds and other animals that co-evolved with the plants.

When, on a grand scale, we obliterate swaths of habitat or, on a minute scale, plant the newest cultivar from Asia or Costa Rica, we do our part to continue to imperil the estimated 33,000 species that are threatened or endangered in the United States, Tallamy argues. Thus, he says, gardening is about choices that carry moral and ecological responsibilities.

His views, expressed in his book “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants” (Timber Press, 2007, 2009), have gained him an impassioned following. Some people say his message is as seminal as Rachel Carson’s in “Silent Spring.” Her 1962 book about the use of chemical pesticides is credited with helping to start that era’s environmental movement (when tree hugger took root in the lexicon and laws were enacted to clean up the air and water).

Tammar Stein, writing for the St. Petersburg Times, called Tallamy’s book “a call to arms. There is not much ordinary citizens can do to create large new preserves. But we can make better use of the small green spaces we have around our houses. While the situation in the United States is quite serious, Tallamy offers options that anyone with a garden, even a postage-stamp-sized one like mine, can do to help.”

Tallamy challenges audiences to add more native plants and trees to their landscapes and to help restore open spaces by, for example, ridding them of invasive plants.

"The way we garden...and landscape today is going to determine what life looks like tomorrow," he told Lawn & Landscape magazine. "Let's not give up on aesthetics, but let's not give up on function." 

Everyone is welcome to attend Doug Tallamy's talk on Thursday, April 21, 2011. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. (7 p.m. for socializing) at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford, Conn. The fee for non-CHS members is $10; free for full-time students with identification. Contact: 860-529-8713. Copies of “Bringing Nature Home” will be sold at the meeting for $15 ($3 off the list price). 

Copies of The Garden Conservancy's national directory of 2011 Open Days gardens will also be sold at the meeting.  The price is $15 -- significantly less than the $21.95 price if ordered online.


Native Plant Resources

- Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group

- Invasive Plant Atlas of New England

- New England Wild Flower Society

- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

- USDA National Invasive Species Information Center

March 17: Charlie Nardozzi: "Edible Landscaping"

With interest in home vegetable gardening rising as fast as Jack’s beanstalk, few topics in horticulture are as timely as edible landscaping. And when it comes to the twin arts of cultivating edible plants and communicating about them, few people have as much experience as Charlie Nardozzi, who will be our program speaker March 17.

Charlie was a spokesman and horticulturalist with the National Gardening Association (NGA) for nearly two decades. He earned a reputation as a dynamic, accessible communicator with a passion for horticulture, appealing to gardeners of all levels. For 12 years, he was an editor with NGA’s magazine, National Gardening, and he continues to write a monthly newsletter, Edible Landscaping, for the association.

Charlie also has written two books, “Vegetable Gardening for Dummies” (2009, Wiley Publishing, Inc.) and “The Ultimate Gardener” (2009, Health Communications, Inc.), and contributed to several others.

His talents as a communicator go beyond the printed word. He was the host of PBS’ “Garden Smart” in 2005, and has been a guest on nationally syndicated television shows. In Vermont, he has had a call-in radio show on an AM station, been a commentator with Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Garden Journal” and produced gardening tips for local television.

A native of Waterbury, Conn., Charlie grew up in a big Italian-American family whose many members lived in the shadow of his grandfather’s “old-fashioned, diversified farm.” Rocco Gagliardi raised chickens, cows and pigs, and grew apples, pears and vegetables.

Graduating from Holy Cross High School in the Brass City, Charlie went to the University of Vermont, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in horticulture and master’s degree in education. He is based in Shelburne, Vt., and since leaving the NGA last year, he has worked as a garden coach and consultant.

In his talk, Charlie will briefly address the principles of growing food and the concepts of landscape design. He’ll talk about how and where to incorporate food plants in the landscape and show photos of “whole landscapes” that illustrate his points.

He’ll also describe some unusual edibles, such as the purple ‘Graffiti’ cauliflower and the ‘Chinese Red Noodle’ asparagus bean. He’ll explore the blueberry-like fruits of some types of shadblow and share a recipe for preparing sunflower heads. He’ll talk about growing figs, pawpaws and miniature apple trees that have no branches but plenty of apples.

And, in a nod to St. Patrick’s Day perhaps, he’ll describe how to gather and cook the tender shoots of the hops plant. It’s as close as he’s likely to get to green beer, he says.

To learn more about Charlie, visit his website. To read about some of his gardening tips, visit Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Garden Journal." 


Everyone is welcome to attend Charlie Nardozzi's talk on Thursday, March 17, 2011. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. (7 p.m. for socializing) at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford, Conn. The fee for non-CHS members is $10. Contact: 860-529-8713

Feb. 17: Speaker Stefan Cover, 'Great New Magnolias for New England Gardens'

Magnolia x soulangeana (saucer magnolia)         Photo: Stefan Cover

Our February program meeting features Stefan Cover of the Magnolia Society International.

Stefan traces his love of magnolias to a tour he took long ago to the home of magnolia expert Harry Heineman in Scituate, Mass. “I felt like I died and went to heaven,” Stefan says.

The genus’ hold on him is due to the sheer flamboyance of blooms, their range of colors and the power of the displays. With their smoke-gray bark and appealing architecture, magnolias are good four-season trees, he adds.

Unfortunately, New England gardens mainly sport the pinkish saucer magnolias and white star magnolias, which “barely scratches the surface of the variety people here can grow and never do grow,” he says. “It’s sort of like a hidden world. People don’t even know what their options are.”

During his presentation, Stefan will discuss different kinds of magnolias and how to cultivate them successfully in Connecticut. He'll also identify some new varieties, including tender Chinese species, hybrids from New Zealand and outstanding red varieties from a Wisconsin hybridizer.

“Come and learn why you should knock down your house, live in a refrigerator box, turn all your property into a garden and plant tons of magnolias,” he invites.

Everyone is welcome to attend Stefan Cover’s talk on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. (7 p.m. for socializing) at Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Dr., West Hartford, Conn. The fee for non-CHS members is $10. Contact: 860-529-8713