If the gardener stays in one place long enough, annoyances will come and go so that one day he’s in paradise, the next he’s convinced the only solution is to sell the place. Twenty-seven years ago, this lot was purchased for practical reasons; it’s driveway was short, so shoveling snow would be less of a…
Author: Dave
I've been in the landscape business with Meadows Farms since 1976. I have a one acre+ garden in Warrenton VA started in 1989 that I test new plant introductions and landscape products. I have 6 ponds in the garden and a number of patios and paths.
An occasional weed
The dangling blooms of Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina, below) are of delicate constitution, so with unfortunate timing all flowers were injured in the recent freeze. While disappointing, this should not discourage the gardener from considering this splendid tree for a spot at the edge of his wooded lot. I cannot claim that silverbell is superior…
More sun for more flowers
Of two hybrid ‘Venus’ dogwoods (below) planted several years ago, one has flourished while the other does no more than survive. The vigorously growing (and flowering) dogwood is tucked between taller, more established trees, but it is located so that it is shaded only from the late evening sun. Here, the positioning emulates the understory…
Garden chores
A few chilly nights have bruised my enthusiasm for spring, but much of the garden has made it through recent freezes without damage. I am overjoyed to have completed the worst of the garden’s clean up, which often lingers into mid April, but was completed a few weeks early thanks to the warm early spring. With…
After the freeze
A perfectly satisfying early spring has been ruined. Delightfully warm temperatures through March encouraged early blooms and growth, and now a single freeze has brought disastrous results. Perhaps this will be too much about nothing a week from now, but I fear that some Japanese maples and hydrangeas will be long in recovering from this…
An April freeze
The gardener rejoices with warm temperatures, though his enthusiasm must be tempered somewhat by forecasts for occasional frosts and freezes that should be expected into late April, and often into early May. Inconveniently, cold will coincide with the day that a bloom or an emerging leaf is most vulnerable, and some damage is inevitable. The…
Two in the place of one
Inevitably, when planting in early spring I dig into the roots of something that’s not showing yet, usually a hosta that I kinda knew was close by, but I’d forgotten exactly where. And occasionally, a new something will go into the ground without an apparent conflict, only to discover it’s planted a fraction of an inch…
Spring planting
In case a reader has not been outdoors in recent weeks, or has just emerged from hibernation (or lives far to the north), it’s spring. The scattered few cold nights expected over the next few weeks should not discourage the gardener from getting on with his spring business, whether that’s cleaning up before anything new…
Seedlings of dubious quality
A number of hellebore (Helleborus) seedlings are flowering in the garden for the first time, and I must say, none are exceptional. In fact, I’m not sure that they’re any good at all. Though the foliage is fine, the flower colors are unremarkable compared to the dozens of named varieties in the garden. A few…
Yes, there are flowers
When hellebores, mahonias, and spireas flowered early in winter there was ample reason to wonder, will this be it? Will there be any blooms at all come the beginning of spring? Now that spring has arrived, we see that yes, there are, with the number of flowers barely diminished. ‘Ogon’ spirea (Spirea thunbergii ‘Ogon’, above)…
Warm then cold, a typical March
The gardener should be aware when he complains that the early spring weather is miserable, no one is listening, though perhaps screaming at the chilly breezes soothes his soul. Yes, it’s raining, or snowing, sometimes simultaneously, but it’s March, and this is to be expected. As recent weeks attest, one March afternoon will be seventy…
Early and late, flowering together
Heaven forbid I should ever figure this out. The gardener expects some confusion, and particularly in early spring. My observation in this garden, for whatever little good that might be, is that ‘Dr. Merrill’ magnolia (Magnolia × loebneri ‘Merrill’, below) flowers a day or two before ‘Royal Star’ (Magnolia stellata ‘Royal Star’) which is also…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 