Garden Notes: Bringing in the outdoors

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The low, slanting light of late October transforms familiar places into new scenery, setting off the gloss and glimmer of foliage, and blinding homeward-bound drivers at day’s end.

The big storm blew and blew the week before last. Many were stranded here or on the mainland. The Vineyard received about five inches of much-needed rain during it and the Oct. 8 rain event. Cyril Norton of Chilmark wrote about stormy weather in the Dukes County Intelligencer, Vol. 22, No. 3, February 1981: “According to old-time fishermen and seamen hereabouts, a southeaster would most often last only from nine to 11 hours and a sou’wester from 12 to 14 hours. But no attempt was made to estimate the limit of a nor’easter.”

Norton continued: His mother, Mrs. Malvina M.R. Norton, told him, “on Nomansland during one of the codfishing seasons, a nor’easter once lasted for 21 days. That was in the days of sail, before engines were available, and during that time, not a boat left the beach in all that time.” So — no whining about being stranded!

Those amaryllis …

Here, there seems to be an annual increase in the numbers of amaryllis: gift plants, and natural increase of the bulbs themselves accounts for it. They captivate. Temperatures are on the downward curve. Yearly, all houseplants that summered outdoors must soon return inside, including the amaryllis.

The current amaryllis count is 12 potted plants. And yearly, strategizing occurs about managing the increase. Space is limited. Gifting? Triage? Or — hope eternal — this year they all get such superb management that miraculous rebloom follows?

The plants, enormous bulbs, are native to areas where they go dormant for a part of the year. Some are from South America and the Caribbean: the Hippeastrum; others, the Amaryllis, from South Africa. Wikipedia’s entry on Hippeastrum is extensive: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippeastrum.

Returning to the management aspects of care, the 12 are now resting in darkness in the basement. The rest period is eight to 12 weeks, after which the plants are restored to daylight and lightly watered.

The old leaves are removed, and repotting bulbs in a free-draining soil, if needed, happens then. They are replanted with a third above the soil line, in pots only slightly larger than the bulbs themselves. The bulbs are susceptible to rot and foliar disease if overwatered or left standing in water. If all goes well and the foliage was able to feed its bulb, a flower bud will emerge after the rest period.

For an opinionated and very complete assist, with photos, read Marianne Willburn’s bit.ly/GR_SavingYourAmaryllis. 

Bringing in the rest

All the tender plants will be returning inside shortly, as clear days and nights bring killing frosts closer. Insect populations that have been incubating on them, while we attended to other gardening, will hitchhike.

Pictured are two citrus plants, a Meyer lemon and a Cay lime, which are magnets for citrus scale, tenacious and endemic on citrus, especially on stems and leaf undersides. Turning on their sides is the best way to reach these insects with insecticidal soap, horticultural oil, neem, or other means of control. Repeated applications are usually necessary.

Drenching pot soils with a one-to-four mixture of hydrogen peroxide/water is recommended in many online videos; exercise caution with this, as mycorrhizal soil life is also destroyed.

Native Plant Trust fall/winter programs

Native Plant Trust’s schedule of programs for fall and winter 2025 – 2026 is open for enrollment. All course registration may be done online at nativeplanttrust.org/education/classes.

More than ever, people are turning to natural plantings and native species to design and plant public and private spaces. Native Plant Trust supplies not only the information and education but also in many instances, through its nursery, the plants themselves that have the survival and botanical associations needed to be appropriate and to survive here.

For instance, HOR4502, “Foundation Plantings For a Changing World,” is the sort of information that helps homeowners design and plant something that will be uniquely attractive and durable, in ways that satisfy a desire to do planting differently from one-size-fits-all designs.

Or HOR1518, “Designing a Four-Season Garden”: “Explore how to create varied, beautiful native plant gardens and landscapes that benefit wildlife all year long.”

Native Plant Trust offers classes in nature and arts, native plants, botany, field and landscape studies, and professional certificate courses. It is the nation’s first plant conservation organization, and is the only one solely focused on New England’s native plants.

MV’s own ‘burning bush’

Speaking of native plants, for years I have heard rumors of “burning bush,” the highly invasive Euonymus alatus (now on the Massachusetts prohibited plant list) being smuggled onto the Island from out of state by its diehard fans.

If only these smugglers were aware that the Vineyard has its own, “very Vineyard” burning bush. As in so many cases, familiarity seems to breed contempt. Or, paraphrasing Emerson, weeds are plants whose virtues are yet to be discovered.

According to “Manual of Woody Landscape Plants,” varieties of sumac, treated as weeds here, are given positions of honor abroad, such as at Hidcote Manor, due in no small part to their adaption to dry, poor soils and their fabulous fall color, not to mention value to wildlife. Recommended are R aromatica, R. copallina, R. glabra, and R. typhina, and selected cultivars, as having the best garden qualities.

“Island Life” lists four species of sumac here, in addition to poison sumac and poison ivy, which also color beautifully in autumn. Poison sumac is found only in wetland, while the four Rhus species mentioned above are found only on dry soils.

In the garden

Collect carpets of pine needles, one of the best organic mulches available. For increased storage, cure winter squashes: store in a warm place with good air circulation for 10 to 14 days. The MVAS Harvest Fest is on Saturday, Oct. 25, 10 am to 2 pm, at the Fairgrounds.