I often admire gardens displayed in magazines and books, and wonder, what can I do to make my garden look like that? I must be wired in another direction, and probably lack the skill to duplicate these lovely gardens. Masses of perennials, each more lush than the next, spill from beds with color and textural…
Month: February 2016
Flowers, and a muddy mess
Finally, snow has melted along the shaded front walk. Slowly, snowdrops (Galanthus, below) and hellebores (Helleborus) have emerged to join others flowering in more open areas that melted a week ago. With this recent thaw the rear garden is a muddy mess, and with a single narrow entry point I will try to avoid muddying…
Emerging from winter
No matter that winter began with a delightful session of warm temperatures, ice, snow, and cold in recent weeks have soured the gardener’s mood. Though hellebores and snowdrops appeared through mounds of melting snow in full bloom, it is a single warm afternoon that has improved his disposition. An extended stroll through the garden, the…
Arnold is tardy
‘Arnold Promise’ (Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’, below) is running a bit late this year. Typically, ‘Arnold’ flowers a week or more earlier in this garden than the red flowered ‘Diane’, which is now beginning to bloom in mid February. But, thus far only swelling buds are evident on ‘Arnold Promise’, and there is no…
Shivering through late winter
A fresh coating of snow covers the few remaining piles in the neighborhood left behind from the recent blizzard, but much of this shaded garden has remained snow covered for weeks. Daphnes and many hellebores are buried, and with afternoon temperatures in the low twenties, spring seems more than a few weeks off. With a…
Four tiny maples
I can’t help myself. Despite declaring that I would stand fast, and not fall victim to a buying frenzy caused by my typical impatience waiting for spring, it has happened anyway. Still, this is only a single order, and a small one at that. Four tiny Japanese maples arrived by parcel delivery this afternoon. There…
A clash of variegation
Yes, there will be something flowering everyday through this winter, but no matter how wonderful, the gardener is not fully satisfied with only witch hazels (Hamamelis) and an occasional snowdrop (Galanthus) flowering for weeks through January and February. In this winter that was off to a mild beginning before snow buried the garden, there are…
The garden peeking through the snow
This garden is positioned with tall maples and tulip poplars along its southwestern border, with the consequence that snow melts more slowly than on more exposed neighboring properties. While neighbors’ lawns are almost clear, only small parts of the garden are visible two weeks after the blizzard. I am encouraged, however, that thirty or more…
A must have
Unfortunately, no space can be found in the garden to add ‘Bihou’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bihou’, below), no matter how desperately I try to determine one plant or another as expendable to make room. I suspect that many gardeners are unrestrained by logic, bound more by the beauty of the flower or foliage than…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 