Gone Gardenin’ — Decorative corn is poppin’ at autumn markets

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/10/2017 (2944 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the fall decorative corn appears at some farmers’ markets, where it is a highly sought after commodity and therefore a fairly pricey one. Cobs of decorative corn command a high price because the plants are difficult to grow in zone 2 and 3 gardens.

Decorative corn requires about 100 frost free days. Its need for a long growing season and hot summer temperatures make it an iffy crop to grow in our area. Years ago I tried to grow it but the kernels were not even completely filled when hard fall frost in early September put an end to it.

About ten years ago I gave it another try growing it in our garden on my brother-in-law’s farm shortly after we moved to Minnedosa. I chose an extra early variety called ‘Painted Mountain.’

This variety is suited to cool climates and short growing seasons — the time to mature from seeding was listed as 85 days in the catalogue from which I purchased the seed. More and more farmers in the area seem to be growing field corn successfully and it requires a similar frost-free growing season, so I decided to give decorative corn another try

“Painted Mountain” is not listed as a decorative corn although there were several varieties of those listed in the catalogue. It is listed as a flour corn. There were also varieties of miniature decorative corn and broom corn varieties that produce foliage used to make brooms.

The kernels of ‘Painted Mountain’ contain soft starch which will produce corn flour. I didn’t want to use it to produce flour, but rather I wanted to grow it to get the brightly coloured cobs for use in fall decorations, and it was reputed to have nicely coloured cobs.

The kernels come in a wide range of colours; dark red, orange, burgundy, gold, and purple are some of the colours, and interestingly many of the cobs are multi-hued, containing several colours all on one cob. Mainly though, I chose it because it was the decorative corn with the shortest growing season.

I planted the seeds in the garden as early as I thought practical to avoid late spring frost about the middle of May. Corn takes up to a couple of weeks to germinate but once it came up it grew quickly.

My ‘Painted Mountain” developed cobs about the same time as our main crop corn and by the end of the first week in September the kernels in the cobs were hard to the touch. The experts say to leave the cobs on the plants until the husks are dry and brown but I was afraid of frost so I picked the ones that had filled.

Because the husks were still turgid and green I knew that I had to get them dried as quickly as I could. I carefully peeled the husks back off the cobs; I was careful to leave the husks attached at the base of each cob because I wanted the dried husks to be attached to the cobs to create my fall displays.

After I removed the silk from the cobs, I tied the cobs in bundles, three to a bundle. I did this by tying a piece of twine around the ends of the husks.

I hung the bundles on a sturdy line in the garage, the bundles hanging cob-end down, and I set up a fan to blow air on the cobs.

I also ran the electric heater in the garage to create even more air movement and to reduce the humidity by adding heat to hasten the drying process.

The cobs and husks dried more quickly than I had expected and the kernels did not shrink. I was glad that I had not picked the cobs until the kernels were filled as I am sure that is why they did not shrink during the drying process.

I kept the fan running and the heat on for a couple of weeks or so until the cobs, as well as the husks, appeared to be dry enough to use in displays, I then began the process of putting together Thanksgiving/autumn displays using my decorative corn cobs.

Some of the cobs were simply placed in baskets on beds of raffia, letting the cobs stand alone to emphasize the beauty of the colourful kernels. Other cobs were combined in baskets with mini-pumpkins and decorative gourds.

Some baskets were finished off with a big bow made from wide ribbon in autumn colours, while raffia, colourful artificial autumn leaves and potpourri were used as filler in some baskets to add colour and to fill in gaps between the corn cobs and mini-pumpkins.

I also made large porch arrangements of dried plant material, using goldenrod, dock, pampas grass, wild tansy and cattails. I placed several colourful corn cobs at the base of each arrangement as a focal point.

Some of these designs were finished off with a large bow but others simply relied on the bundle of decorative corn cobs to supply the focal point. I haven’t grown decorative corn for a number of years but I sure enjoyed decorating that fall using my “Painted Mountain” decorative corn.

Albert Parsons lives, writes, and gardens in Minnedosa.

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