Dave – Page 133 – Ramblin' through Dave's Garden

An old spruce

The old columnar blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Fastigiata’) is ready to give up. In twenty years it has gone from nearly full sun to part shade, and the Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla) and a pink flowering ‘Satomi’ Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’) have further crowded it. The lower limbs are nearly bare, and I figure…

Winding down

My walk through the garden on Sunday afternoon was brief, too brief. And, my treks out into the garden are becoming more infrequent. There’s just not much to see. With several nights over the past few weeks that have dropped into the mid-twenties most of the garden has gone dormant. The toad lilies and autumn…

Yellow

Before the autumn foliage of deciduous trees and shrubs disappears completely I feel compelled to discuss the color yellow. Yellow is common, and perhaps the predominant color of autumn leaves, and for the most part it is my least favorite. With exceptions. Too often yellows are faded, or signs of disease. The foliage of hostas…

Japanese maples and late season foliage color

By mid November most tree foliage has turned color, faded, and leaves have fallen. If any foliage was hanging by a thread the hurricane winds surely took care to blow it into the next county, so that today most trees are bare. But, a few trees are almost fully in leaf, and now are at their…

Through freeze and frost, until ….

With little effort the gardener can find a surprising number of plants that flower late into the autumn so that the garden’s season is extended and the drab of winter is shortened. There are also winter hardy flowers for January and February, but that’s a story for another day. By early November there were frequent…

Winter’s coming …again!

I’m not ready for winter! It doesn’t seem possible that it’s November. I’m not ready for long pants or a jacket, and I definitely am not ready to start cleaning up leaves. I suppose I’ll get over it, but I won’t be happy about it. Two weeks ago there was one night that dropped below…

Starting over

A few blocks from my house there’s a garden that’s nearly as jumbled and over planted as mine. At least there was. Now, it’s gone. Over the summer the house sold, though the garden was so overgrown that it was difficult to see the For Sale sign in the front yard. It was obvious when the…

The storm’s aftermath

My house and garden are situated in a valley of sorts between tall hills and bordered to the south by a strip of towering maples and tulip poplars. The land sits low enough that strong winds often whistle through the tree tops, but the garden below is somewhat protected from the worst of it. But,…

The storm begins

The storm rages this afternoon as towering tulip poplars and maples sway wildly in the gale. As a precaution my wife and I are planning to sleep on couches on the ground floor tonight since trees loom a bit too close to our bedroom window. A number of trees in our garden and the neighboring…

Surprising camellias

In most years ‘Winter’s Star’ camellia (Camellia x ‘Winter’s Star’, below) flowers beginning in early to mid November, and continues for several weeks, and sometimes a month. Occasionally, if temperatures remain moderate there will be a few blooms into the start of the new year. I don’t get too worried if flowering is delayed by…

Encore!

I’ve written in the past about Encore reblooming azaleas, though I blame no one for failing to pay full attention. I’ve been known to occasionally pay only part of a mind to reading or conversations, and to remember nothing a few minutes later. Ask my wife. For those who have read and remembered I won’t…

What to do with the bananas?

I have a problem. There are too many tropical plants that have grown much too large to fit back into the house to overwinter. I could possibly fit them all indoors if my wife and I decided to give up the den for the winter. But, it’s not only the winter, it’s half the autumn…