Gardening
Heat-Tolerant Beauties for Gardens and Containers
Soiree® vincas are drought tolerant, thrive in full sun, and add lots of color all summer with an abundance of flowers.
Photo courtesy of Suntory Flowers
Boost the summer-long beauty and heat tolerance in your gardens and containers with new varieties of annual vinca (Catharanthus). The unique Soiree® vinca varieties provide added appeal with their cute, double, and ruffled flowers.
Annual vincas, also known as Madagascar and Rose periwinkle, thrive in full sun and well-drained soil. Once established they are drought tolerant. Similar in growth habit as impatiens but these flowers thrive in hot sunny locations where impatiens struggle. Hardy in zones 10 and 11, vincas are grown as an annual in most parts of the country.
Include annual vincas in containers, hanging baskets, and garden beds. Mix them with other plants or allow them to shine on their own.
Soiree® Kawaii vincas light up any garden with their vibrant mini flowers. You'll enjoy an abundance of flowers that cover the 9 to 18" tall by 12 to 18" wide mound of glossy deep green foliage. No need to prune away long leggy branches as this plant maintains its compact habit all season long. Kawaii means cute in Japanese and these flowers certainly are just that.
Select from eight Soiree® Kawaii (suntoryflowers.com) flower colors ranging from white to coral, purple, and red. Add some sizzle with Paprika Red, a patriot flare with the Lady Liberty Mix, or a harmonious mix of pinks and purple in the Berry Blast mix. Grow White Peppermint, Coral, or Coral Reef Soiree® Kawaii if the disease phytophthora has been a problem in the past. These three are as resistant to this disease as Cora XDR, the gold standard of phytophthora resistance.
Visitors to your garden will take a second look when you add Soiree® Double and Flamenco vincas to the landscape. Their unique flowers don't look like a typical vinca, adding a bit more pizzazz to any planting and combination.
Soiree® Doubles have two distinct layers of frilly petals and produce an abundance of blooms. They are more vigorous, with a larger growth habit than Soiree® Kawaii. These plants have a larger leaf and body. You can select from white-, pink-, or orchid-colored flowers that bloom all season long. Don't be fooled by their delicate appearance, Soiree® Doubles are as heat tolerant as other annual vincas.
Unlike any other vinca, the Soiree® Flamenco puts on a display as fancy as that of a flamenco dancer. The ruffled petals may be solid or bicolor. This plant grows 8 to 12" tall and 15 to 20" wide. It has the same heat tolerance, glossy green foliage, and compact growth habit as the other Soiree® vincas.
Senorita Pink Flamenco flowers have a dark pink eye surrounded by a lighter pink blending into the white outer edges of the frilly petals. Contrast that with the deep maroon ruffled petals with a bright terracotta edge of Salsa Red. Salmon Glow's white eye contrasts nicely with salmon peach. Pink Twist has the most curled flowers in a lovely pink, adding to its appeal.
Look for opportunities to add some unique flare to this year's garden and containers. You'll enjoy their season-long beauty and the oohs and aahs they inspire.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Suntory Flowers for her expertise in writing this article. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
American Folk Art
Photo courtesy of Wayne Tuiskula
I've had the pleasure of seeing and handling a wide variety of antiques and collectibles and one of the things I enjoy seeing most is folk art. Folk art follows traditional forms of style, theme, and craftsmanship. Items were made from whatever resources were available to the craftsperson at the time. Folk art pieces often have a utilitarian purpose but are also aesthetically pleasing.
Folk art started being created in the United States in the late 1700s. Itinerant painters traveled from town to town during the early 19th century painting portraits for the people who commissioned them. The portraits were mainly of wealthy people who had the means to commission them, but middle- and lower-class people are sometimes represented as well. The paintings also offer an insight into life at that time. The Worcester Art Museum has a portrait of two girls with a fruit basket and their cat. A painting in Colonial Williamsburg shows nine children in an outdoor setting. One of the boys has a stick and hoop that was a popular toy at the time. An older girl is holding a baby. Other paintings of the time depict boys with fishing poles and a sea captain with a ship beside him. Given the high mortality rate for children during that time period, many paintings of children were painted posthumously.
Another type of folk art is quilting. European colonists were skilled in working with wool and linen. Quilting was born out of necessity, though. When imported textiles weren't available or when people didn't have the money to buy them, they repurposed material. Block printing and printing on copper plates were used to create designs on fabric, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These fabric pieces were often incorporated in quilts. Basic designs consisted of squares, diamonds, and hexagons. There were other styles of quilts, but the patchwork quilt is a popular style that used small pieces of cloth to create something that not only kept people warm but looked great in their homes.
There are many other types of folk art, including weathervanes, whirligigs, cigar-store figures, trade signs, ship's carvings, stoneware face jugs, game boards, carnival game wheels of chance, and scrimshaw. Most definitions describe a whirligig as a toy that spins like a top or pinwheel. The folk art whirligigs often depict people with paddle-like arms that twist in the wind or cause a character to saw wood or perform another task.
Some of the more interesting types of folk art we've handled were trade signs. We sold a painted zinc sign that had painted eyes inside the frame to let people know they could find an optometrist there. That piece sold in the mid-thousands. We've sold multiple weathervanes, but an old banner (directional arrow design) with great patina (natural aging) went for over $4,000. A pair of beautifully painted leather fire buckets with a connection to Sutton, MA sold for nearly $20,000. We've sold two 19th century wooden barber poles that brought figures in the thousands. One pole had a sign attached advertising haircuts, shaves, and baths. Up until the 1700s, barbers also performed surgery, dental work, and bloodletting. The red and white design that's still being used symbolized blood and bandages. In the 18th century, you had to be very clear when telling a barber to "take a little off the top."
We are accepting folk art consignments for our summer auction, along with historical items, fine jewelry, sterling silver, art, coins, and other antiques and collectibles. It was nice discussing antiques with the large group who came to the Holden Senior Center last week. Thank you to the readers of this column who attended the event. I'll be at a Learning in Retirement event in Danielson, Connecticut on May 6th discussing downsizing. Please visit our website https://centralmassauctions.com for links to other upcoming events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique, Collectibles Auctions and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111).