Forget this foolishness you read that native plants are hardier, sturdier, or more drought resistant than non-natives. Yes, some are, but others require regular irrigation, or are difficult to maintain in a garden. Some are even aggressive (or invasive), while many non-natives are completely care free and well behaved in the garden. Generalizations about native…
Month: April 2015
The scent of spring
If I can smell it, anyone can. It seems a shame that a gardener is not able to enjoy the scents, as well as the sights of the garden, but if you ask my wife my hearing is not so good either. So, I’m challenged in many ways. On this bright and breezy afternoon I…
Caught up? Probably never
Finally, I have caught up, in the garden and on these pages. Today’s update will cover just about everything that’s been blooming over the past week or two, and then in coming days there will be viburnums, redbuds, and dogwoods, and the buds of azaleas are swelling noticeably. So, there will be plenty to talk…
A wonderful spring
After a winter that was too long and cold, the spring has been joyful. There has hardly been a day to complain about, and certainly the gardener must enjoy the few cool and rainy days that have made the ground ideal for planting. Many early bloomers were pushed a week or two late by the cold,…
White flowers at the forest’s edge
What strange bedfellows this odd spring has arranged. After early cold, one flower is weeks late, while another arrives on schedule in the warmth of more recent days. And so, along roadsides in mid April are splendid white flowers that must be closely observed to discern if they are invasives, or natives. First, in late…
Spring garden tour – day 2
With flowering of early magnolias and cherries delayed by the frigid late winter, today, in mid April everything is blooming. Well, not everything, but enough to salve the soul of the harried gardener. With a poor start to the spring clean up, messes that should have been taken care of weeks ago have been tidied…
Beyond words
There are days in spring when a garden’s beauty is nearly beyond description. But, not this garden, which typically in early April is somewhere between disaster and paradise. One part can be lovely, the next an eyesore, and so it is for another few weeks until the messes are cleaned up and enough foliage has…
At the forest’s edge in early spring
There is no more curious treasure in our damp woodlands than the skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus, flower above, foliage below). The unremarkable foliage reminds of a large leafed, green hosta, but it is the late winter flower that is most odd. The bloom is recognizable only if you know precisely where the skunk cabbages are located…
Spring peepers, bullfrogs, and magnolias
Yes, spring is here, though today is quite cool and cloudy and I will not be dragged outdoors this evening for any reason. Now, the spring peepers are much quieter than on a sunny afternoon when I wonder if they number in the hundreds, or many more. The photo above is most definitely not a…
Plant identification
A hazard of my collecting numerous cultivars of a plant is that each must be marked for later identification or the names quickly become jumbled and forgotten. My memory is not so great to start with, and with too many similar items to recall, the effort seems hopeless. Which is fine for my purposes, but…
Scenes from the early April garden
With snow and cold temperatures that lingered far too long into March there are fewer blooms in early April, but that will be remedied shortly, I am certain. With spring temperatures delayed, I can be satisfied for a while with snowdrops, witch hazels, and hellebores that display more abundant blooms by the day (above). But,…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 