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Concord Grapes
A True American Original

My grape arbors belonged to my grandfather, and since we live where my grandparents lived,
we inherited them. I do not have any statistics on how long grape vines can exist, but our are well over 90 years old, since my grandfather moved them here in the twenties.

The Concord grape was first developed in Concord, Massachusetts in 1849 by Ephraim Wales Bull. It is said that he tested over 20,000 seedlings before he came up with the Concord grape. Later, this same grape was made even more famous by Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch, the founder of the famous grape juice company.


These have always been a favorite around here for juice, jam, jelly, and my grandmother's fabulous grape pie.
What they are not, is your everyday eating grape. We like them, but most people prefer the seedless varieties. Since our arbors are so old, we decided to take starts from them this year and propagate some new vines. These are relatively easy to get going, either from cutting off young sections and dipping the cut end in rooting hormone powder before planting them directly in the soil, or using the rooting gel as we did this year.

Pick a young tender shoot

Cut at leaf node

Put cutting through hole in plastic cover of rooting gel pot



It will take a couple of weeks, normally, to see some roots beginning to form. After they do, you can either plant them outside in a protected area, or in large pots until they get larger and stronger. These vines need to be planted eventually near some supports, fences, wire and posts, ect., to allow the vines to travel.

Perennials and Annuals

We've had a really cool and wet spring in Ohio, and the perennials love it. This is one of my favorite times of the year, when I get to see my old flower and herb friends emerge once again. It is, however, when I am forced to decide how to thin out the crowd, transplant some of them, and give others away. For anyone new to perennial flowers, and want to plant some, for heavens sake, find a friend who is thinning theirs and ask for a start. They will be glad to help you out. I started out with one small bleeding heart plant, and now have huge plants in four other areas. Last year I separated one autumn sedum and now have six more. Favorite perennials I have growing, some of which have been there for over twenty years, include, coreopsis, shasta daisies, gloriosa daisies, autumn sedum, coral bells, foxglove, purple coneflower, lamb's ear, yarrow, daylillies, old fashioned garden phlox and many more that I have to look up on my garden chart. I realized, sadly, that the winter took the lavender, the columbine and the gaillardia this year, and I had to replant them.

This is also the time when I remember that I should never have planted any form of ground cover near the flower beds. Snow-on-the-Mountain is a great plant. It is green and white, flowers with white flowers on long stalks in the spring, and is a prolific grower and spreader-(virtually impossible to kill). However, it should only be planted on some slope or field or small unmowable area where nothing else is growing. Every year I spend at least two or three days pulling it out of the flowerbed, where it will take over and cover everything else.

This year I vowed to rely more and more on perennials and less on annuals, but, once again, I went to the garden center and came home with seven flats of petunias, salvias, geraniums, celosias, impatiens, marigolds, coleus, ect. ect. I have to admit, that mid to late summer, when most of the perennials are done blooming, I will be glad that I planted these. Two of my favorite annuals for their beautiful foliage are flowering kale and cabbage. These make a really great accent plant amid the blooms. Also, this year I planted more Sweet William seeds, and Cosmos, which, although not really perennials, will reseed themselves and go on for years and years.
Something that I noticed a few years ago, and a lot of people probably already know, is that dusty miller, if not pulled up in the fall, will usually come back in the spring, as will several other typically annual plants. This makes it even more difficult to decide what to pull up in the fall!

While I have never had a lot of luck with bulb plants, other than my tulips, crocus and hyacinth, I did plant some gladiolus.
So, even though the flower beds are overflowing, I need to stay away from the garden centers now when the big sales begin. I know I won't!