sprig to twig

I had to lead with this, even though my many attempts yielded no very good image of Disporum cantoniense ‘Night Heron’. This is new, and just a baby being coddled on the deck until the new bed I am working on is ready for it. The flowers are subtle, but well worth the effort of close inspection.

We are right in the middle of Rhody season, bloom-wise. Although our shopping is based on leaf forms, some of them are spectacular in bloom. Rododendron Loderi ‘Saint George’, above, is like a giant bridal bouquet.

The passalong orange geum had little chance to bloom last year because the deer nipped off most of the buds. A preemptive strike with nasty hot spray did the trick and it is going great guns.

‘Fire Charm’ is the latest addition to my Euphorbia collection.

I am glad you couldn’t see the contortions I went through to get this shot of Epimedium x warleyense. Suffice it to say that the entire plant is only a foot high.

This is not a bouquet that will appeal to everyone, but it does to me. It has been fun to watch the Nectaroscorum siculum emerge from its carapace like a butterfly, and let’s zoom in on that Iris…

so that you can appreciate the delicate pale lavender. On my monitor, at least, it is pretty true to the real color.

Finally, I hope you can help me to identify these newcomers that sprinkled themselves beneath some shrubs in the berm on the east side of our house. They almost look like wildflowers, but so far I’ve had no luck in tracking them down.

All of the usual suspects are blooming their little hearts out. It is May, after all. I’ve tried to be selective and show you what is new (to me, at least) or outstanding. Carol has made it her mission to introduce us to bloomers world-wide.

Wow! I have really fallen behind. It’s been a busy spring, with lots to report, so after being AWOL for a couple of weeks, I will now bombard you with a rush of posts in the next few days, starting with belated Bloom Day & Foliage Follow-up.

After three years of little to no blooms, the Clematis armandii is again smothering the front deck in fragrant blooms nearly as lavishly as the first year.

Here’s a close-up of that same evergreen clematis. Can’t you almost smell it?

The first of the Rhodys to bloom here is Rhododendron PMB. It is far from the showiest, but it did bloom right on schedule for GGBD.

While the earliest, bright yellow daffodils are welcome for their promise of spring, I am happier with the white of ‘Salome’ with her pinkish cups.

And my favorite of the Narcissi ‘Thalia’.

The Euphorbias are in full swing. Here’s ‘Blackbird”, no longer black, but still pumping out bracts to beat the band.

The fruit trees are beginning to blossom, the pears being the first. If the rains will give the bees a chance at them, there will be a bumper crop of fruit to put up and/or give away. C’mon out!

You know there is more, it being April and all, but that is all I have to show you right now. For more, you know by now where to find it.

Out in the weeping bed (yes, we have a whole berm given over almost exclusively to weepers) the Himalayan Weeping Juniper is settling in nicely.

Tucked into the nooks and crannies are a number of sedums, with the hope that they will eventually spill over the edges. I have lost track of which one this is, so if you know, please tell. It is a good spreader and transplants easily.

Augment my sparse foliage report with a visit to digging, where Pam will leave you sated.

Everyone has been talking about what a “mild winter” we have had, but nobody seems to have informed the plants. They are all dragging their heels, compared to years past. Oh, well…here are a few shots I was able to squeeze in between rain/snow storms over the last couple of days.

Last month I showed you blue primroses, the earliest, but now the white ones are joining in. They are the biggest and longest-lasting. They also show up to greatest advantage, sprinkled around the forest floor.

One of the many pieces of information picked up from blogging is that when I bought this Stachrus praecox, what I was really after was Stachyrus salicifolia ‘Sparkler’ for its long, dangling beads. The photograph that I carried around with me for ever so long misidentified it. These little blooms on bare branches are sweet, though, and more than welcome here.

Moss is king, covering the knarled roots of the ancient cherry trees. Many clumps of Narcissus ‘Tete-a-tete’ brighten the scene.

Common violets would normally be forming a fragrant carpet by now, but they are just beginning to show up by ones and twos…here again, popping up through carpets of moss.

The nodding heads of Euphorbia wulfenii show signs of being ready to raise their faces to the sun, if we ever get any of that rare commodity.

The wild elderberries at the woodlands edge are the first shrubs to leaf out and blossom almost simultaneously.

The other day the sky cleared (as my grandmother used to say, there was enough blue to make a pair of Dutchman’s pants) and the sunshine set everything to sparkling. I thought to myself “Aha! I can get in a walk today!” By the time I had been out for a mere half hour, I had been snowed, sleeted, hailed and rained upon and nearly blown off the road by high-powered winds. It’s good to have a windowsill filled with the sherbet-toned, nodding blossoms of Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi until friendlier weather patterns prevail. Garden bloggers in other parts of the world may have more to offer. You can find them by visiting May Dreams Gardens.

Friends brought us a pair of these pots of orchids when they came to Thanksgiving dinner. Hard to imagine a longer-lasting, more rewarding hostess gift, despite its delicate looking, exotic beauty. It has served as the sole blooming thing through the long, dreary winter months.

For the second year running, the Aloe ‘Carmine’ has sent up a blooming stalk. It always seems like a victory of sorts, though I think of this as primarily a foliage plant. I’m working up the courage to perform the operation to sever her pup and try to grow it on. My timidity comes from the absolute lack of growth on the Agave pup (one year, no change…at least it seems not to be dying.)

Finally, a few blooms are venturing forth out-of-doors. For some reason, the blue primroses come first, followed closely by the white. The early birds are a little battered by the rain, and the duff from the cedar trees must be brushed aside to even see them. As spring melts into early summer, the foliage will grow into a handsome statement.

I haven’t enough of these to make much of a statement, but I do appreciate Galanthus elwesii for its early arrival.

The Hamamelis intermedia ‘Diane’ is in full bloom, while some of the deep brown leaves still cling to the branches. It makes for a stunning combination. ‘Diane’ has no discernable scent, so I may need to break down and buy one of the yellow ones, even though this color is much preferred…or maybe I’ll just spring for a Daphne…any suggestions?

>May Dreams Gardens is the portal through which we can enter the world of garden bloggers’ blooms on the 15th of each month. I couldn’t resist posting a day early to combine it with a wish for you to have a very Happy Saint Valentine’s Day. Oh, and if you happen to be at the Yard Garden & Patio Show on Friday, I’ll be manning the HPSO booth from noon to three. Come by to say “Howdy”, won’t you? Here is roughly what I look like. I say roughly, because I can’t seem to make the hair look the same two days running…but the glasses are hard to miss.

Talk about your unassuming little flower: Liriope would probably never make its way into a post if it were not for the paucity of bloomers in mid-November.

Wet fallen leaves are a more likely sight, with northern sea oats shuddering in the wind in the foreground, refusing to come into focus.

The hardy fuchsia ‘Golden Gate’ is hardy indeed. It is holding on long after most have succumbed to cold, rain and wind.

I usually allow the Hydrangeas to dessicate on the bush, becoming lacy shadows of their former selves. This is ‘Limelight’ going the rusty pink, with ‘Preziosa’ turning a complementary rose to sepia behind her.

See the tassel of buds forming on Mahonia ‘Arthur Menzies’? It has done that every year, then been frozen so that I never get to see that wonderful burst of blossoms. If you are longing to see a riot of color provided by blooming plants, you will have to visit other parts of the world. No problem: Carol, of May Dreams Gardens can transport you there via the magic carpet that is the internet.

And now to the “other stuff”. We were working on tidying up an espaliered firethorn the other day when R said “come over here…you gotta see this.” He held the shrubbery aside while I took the picture. Notice how distended the abdomen is. Isn’t it the wrong time of year for any creature to give birth? A raucous scrub jay was kicking up quite a fuss in that area once we moved on to something else. I hope he didn’t make a meal of Ms Mantis.

You may remember the troubles we were having with rodents tunneling into the roots of newly planted treasures. Our latest solution is to build wire cages for special plants going into open ground. It’s a lot of extra work, so it tends to hold down the flagrant purchasing of new plants…they have to be worth it. The new berm I am working on will have wire mesh at its base. The sound emitting devices seem to be slowing down the lawn damage, but we’re not taking any chances with Rhododendron ‘Ebony Pearl’ shown above.

Now just take a gander at what I filled my pockets with on my walk this morning. There are about five different kind of mushrooms here. They look and smell like the varieties I remember from childhood. Referring to the Peterson field guide to mushrooms is only minimally helpful…hard to find an exact match for any of them. Here’s what I have been doing: take a tiny taste of one style, holding it on my tongue to let the flavor develop and see if there are any superficial ill effects. If no problems have surfaced…yes, I swallow. I still feel fine these three or so hours later, so I am planning to feast on wild mushrooms this evening. Wish me luck.

Campsis x tagliabuena ‘Madame Galen’

Echinops banaticus ‘Blue Glow’

‘Blue Glow’ in bud

‘Blue Glow’ eaten by gophers…guess they didn’t find it tasty: they did this to one and left the others alone.

I should perhaps used the fireworks setting on my camera to capture Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’.

Started from HPSO seed many years ago, this Gaura lindenhamerii was transplanted to this spot earlier this year, and is already waving its wands of butterfly-like blossoms on long, waving stems.

Rudbeckia subtomentosum ‘Henry Eilers’

Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’

Anemone ‘Honorine de Jobert’

Eupatorium maculatum (10′ tall)

Oxydendrum arboreum

So there you have my hit parade for September. I counted 66 things blooming, but how boring would that be? If you want more, or just want to engage in a little zonal envy, May
Dreams Gardens is the place.

Astrantia rewards close inspection.

The wands of blossoms on the Heucheras have an ethereal quality that is hard to capture, but you can get an idea of the colors in this bed, with the Astrantia nearby, and a Hydrangea that will soon pick up the bruised tones.

On the other side of the entry, hot pink blossoms complement the dark foliage of Weigelia ‘Wine and Roses’.

As you can see, I really go in for the dark stuff (the garden, you may be glad to know, is pretty much where my noirish tendencies leave off). Sambucus nigra ‘Eva’ anchors another bed. I love her near-black foliage, but she is also pretty when she puts on her pink party dress.

Next to ‘Eva’, Physocarpus oputifolias ‘Summer Wine’ steps back a couple of notches to deep bronze foliage and covers herself in clusters of paler pink flowers.

Out along the fence line, the iris are in full swing. Normally, they would be finished by late May. This blush-colored one is the first to bloom,

With this sort of generic two-toned purple hot on her heels. I’m wondering if anyone knows if iris tend to revert to this color? I seem to have way more of them than planted, and fewer of what I thought I would get. Speaking of which, I ordered up a collection (mail order rhizomes), only one of which produced a flower looking anything like the photos in the full-color brochure.

Here it is, the only one to come true, and thus the only named iris in my “collection”, ‘Immortality’. The buds are a very pale ice blue, opening to pristine white.

The others must be content with names like “bronzy-yellow”,

“mahogany”

and “champagne”.

I can almost smell the Philadelphus just by looking at the picture.

…and speaking of fragrance…

The cute little pinwheel design of the buds on Oxalis adenophylla

open to this.

Whadda ya know…the tree peony ‘Gold Sovereign’ is, for once, in bloom for GBBD.

I could go on and on, but we all know about the “embarassment of riches” that is June. Instead I will leave you with an indoor shot of an orchid that I found abandoned and nursed into bloom. If you are still wanting more, click here. Thanks, Carol!

The focus shifts from searching far and wide for something to show to editing out all but the most photogenic of the bloomers in the garden. Not that they are not beautiful and garden-worthy, it’s just that the camera (or the person behind the camera) is unworthy. Anyway, here are a few of the stars in my garden this month:

A plain old barberry might seem like an odd choice to make the cut, but let me explain. This one, Berberis thunbergii purpurea arrived as one of two tiny little whips of plants from one of those cut-rate catalogs. They grew so vigorously that I was seduced into ordering other things from the same source with far less success. Those catalogs now make their way immediately to the round file. Still, the barberry shrubs came to dominate their border and surprised me with a profusion of tiny flowers.

At Dancing Oaks Nursery the Barberrys shed the cloak of contempt that so often obscures their natural charm. I left there with this Berberis replicata

and Berberis jamesiana. Purchased in 2007, they are just coming into their own. Jim here bloomed for the first time last year, but only sparsely. I take the plentiful blossoms this year as a good sign that he is working up to the clusters of pearly hanging berries that were love at first sight.

I was told that ‘Blue Jeans’ was the hardiest of the Ceanothus and I guess it’s true. I’m happy, after losing ‘Vandehberg’ last year without ever having seen a blossom.

The Rhodys are going great guns. We buy them primarily for leaf shape, but with the foliage suffering from the cold snap, the parade of flowers is a welcome distraction. This one is Rhododendron ‘Seaview Sunset’.

I wanted to show you how the buds are a much deeper hue than the flowers when they emerge, making for an interesting display. This is Rhododendron ‘Mrs Betty Robertson.

The last of the Daffodils to put in an appearance is Narcissus ‘Salome’. I have been planting daffys in drifts, but I may need to rethink that strategy after seeing the impact of this single, well-placed bulb.

Speaking of tweaking and fine-tuning, I love the color play of these orange tulips with the Fritillaria meleagris. More of the frits are called for, don’t you think?

For scent, nothing beats the old-fashioned lilac.

Andy Warhol’s “fifteen minutes of fame” says it all when it comes to bloom time for Penstemon newberryi, so even though it is just getting started, I’m sneaking it in here. Just as a point of interest, it usually blooms around the first week in April.

What is it about Epimediums? They are super-expensive, have diminutive flowers and are almost impossible to photograph (if you don’t believe me, that was the best of my many attempts). Still, I was inordinately thrilled with the first bloom on Epimedium x warleyense that I picked up at an end-of-season sale at Garden Fever. The other one I have is ‘Lilafree’, whose tiny purple blossoms disappear even to the naked eye. It does have lovely foliage that turns autumnal colors before dying back.

Almost forgot to give credit and send you on over to May Dreams Gardens, where Carol has masterminded this monthly ritual and will link you to many more May blooms.

We have set new records for rain and cold, so everything is about three weeks behind schedule. Here are a few of the things that have dared to show their faces regardless of the weather:

the anemones are doing fine, though there are fewer of them than usual.

Evergreen clematis did not die back as in previous cold years, but the blossoms and scent fall far short of the clouds that engulfed us in years when the winters were mild.

‘Ascot Rainbow’ is the only Euphorbia to hold its own. All of the others look like Holocaust survivors, though they do put out the occasional blossom:

as evidenced by this blossom on Euphorbia ‘Persian Velvet’. I won’t ruin your day by showing you the whole plant.

The natives, like this Ribes, which mostly show up voluntarily, remain undaunted other than deer damage.

As bold as they are, the deer refrain from coming this close to the house, so this one is achieving good size.

Out in the front hedgerow, the Viburnum tinus ‘Robustrum’ that has been in the tight bud stage for ever so long is finally beginning to open up to the occasional ray of sunshine.

I didn’t do a very good job of capturing the color of the emrging Dicentra spectabilis, but this is one of the few old fashioned flowers I could not do without. The flowers emerge before the foliage, but hold on long enough for it to catch up. I like the way the baby’s tears and sedums are filling in to form a dense mat, making a nice backdrop for the bleeding heart and the black mondo grass out of the frame.

Some things simply must come inside to be fully appreciated. The delicate foliage and subtle coloring on the checkered lily get a little lost in the landscape.

But Fritillaria meleagris will reward closer inspection. For closer inspection of blooms around the world, May Dreams Gardens is the place.

The Ides of March and not much to show for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, sponsored once again by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. If you click on that link you may have better luck with spring inspiration from other parts of the world. In the meantime, here is my meager offering:

The Hellebores are reliable bloomers, but mine flop over so that they disappear unless I reach in and tip their pretty faces up like a tender lover. I may need to follow some advice given to me by Frances of Fairegarden: move the darn things to a spot that sits above a path so the nodding flowers will be readily visible.

Dainty ‘Tete a Tete’ is always the first of the daffodils to bloom. They surround the closest of the cherry trees,and are visible from the kitchen window…good planning, huh?

Stachyrus praecox bears strings of dangling pale yellow blooms on deep red bare branches.

Shy violets are not very showy, but they perfume the air.

Out along the fence line, Viburnum tinus ‘Robustrum’ has been in this state of pre-bloom for weeks. I begin to wonder if those tight little buds will ever unfold to release the promised fragrance.

The whole plant of Euphorbia wulfenii is not a pretty sight, but a few brave stems are getting ready to do their best.

There are two kinds of Kaufmania tulips in the front entry raised beds. These are ‘Shakespeare’, just emerging. They will be long gone by the next Bloom Day, but maybe ‘Fire Queen’ will be in full bloom (dare I hope?).

Most of my time is still being spent indoors, so I truly appreciate the orchid brought to me by a friend. It is like having a flock (?) of butterflies hovering in the living room.