Dave – Page 109 – Ramblin' through Dave's Garden

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,…

April arrives

Unsurprisingly, there is much good news as April approaches, and it’s about time. Temperatures are rising, and it seems there’s a real chance that spring is not just visiting, but here to stay. The off and on cold mixed with mild weather in recent weeks is not unusual, but it’s hardly enough to satisfy the…

Planting in March

A hazard of planting hellebores in March is that much of the surrounding garden remains dormant. It seems obvious that new hellebores must be planted where they can best be enjoyed when they are flowering in late winter, and this means planting along the driveway and the front walk where the garden is already quite…

Adding hellebores

Fourteen hellebore cultivars await planting on the driveway, twenty five plants total at last count, though additions are likely. There seems no end to my collecting of marvelous varieties, which is madness, I suppose, as my wife has pointed out frequently in recent days. Already, there are dozens in the garden, and more seedlings than…

A few Winter aconites remain

As is too often the case, a few years ago I planted too few Winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis, below) for them to make a proper show. The bulbs could not have been too costly, but for whatever reason I purchased only a dozen or two when I should have planted no less than a hundred…