Unsurprisingly, I’m at it again. Planting, though if you take the word of my wife the garden’s been full for years, and another plant could not possibly be wedged in. Which is, of course, nonsense. Certainly, she understands the futility of putting a halt to new planting, and now she just groans when she spots…
Category: Flowering plants
A temporary reprieve
Summer-like temperatures forecast for the middle of October offer a temporary reprieve for flowers threatened by the first frost. A week ago, this killing cold seemed imminent, with overnight lows dipping into the thirties. But, with great relief, the critical degree or two colder was not reached, and now there will be toad lilies and…
Glorybower
By far, Rose glorybower (Clerodendrun bungei) is not a favorite in this garden, though its October flowers are quite nice and it has proved to be indestructible in a bit of a difficult spot. This glorybower spreads by rhizomes, with occasional stems appearing eight or ten feet away, and several popping up in the lawn….
The cool nights of mid October
Mounds of brown leaves of the purple leafed European beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Atropunicea’) cover the stone path, an early and mostly unwelcome sign that autumn has arrived and frost is near. Recent rainfall has ended the late summer drought, and after weeks of ninety degree temperatures, I can hardly complain about the cool and breezy days…
A bumper crop of dogwood berries
I’m thinking that berries on the dogwood (Cornus florida) in the front garden are more abundant than usual, though I am unreliable on matters of recollection, and perhaps this is nothing out of the ordinary. In any case, I will presume that I am correct, reasoning that bees were particularly active in pollinating in the…
A favorite October bloom
Several seedlings of toad lily (Tricyrtis) have reached flowering age without notable differences between seedlings and parents. With a dozen or more cultivars in the garden, opportunities for cross pollination are present, but if there are variations from parent plants the differences are slight on second year plants. Flower buds on seedlings of ‘Miyazaki’ (below) stand slightly…
Careful neglect
More than a few times, I’ve erred on the side of excess optimism in advising that one plant or another is rugged, or difficult to kill. Of course, any plant can be killed by chemical means, or by ill timed neglect. Of this, I’ve been guilty, and since some attention to detail is required with new…
Tragedy narrowly averted
If there can be such a thing as a tragedy in the garden (rather than a severe disappointment), one was narrowly averted in mid April when two nights with temperatures in the twenties damaged new leaves of Japanese maples (as well as hydrangeas and others). With fresh growth spurred by early spring warmth weeks ahead…
The first coolness of September
Following late July surgery, an initial bout of boredom drove me outdoors in the worst of summer’s heat. Heat and sweat soothed the soreness as I bent and weeded, stretching the surgeons’s instructions more than a bit. Perhaps, an indication of the extent of my recovery is that I now spend fewer hours outdoors and…
Sporelings in odd places
While I would not for a moment describe it as invasive, or even aggressive, sporelings (baby ferns) of Japanese Painted fern (Athyrium niponicum var. ‘Pictum’, below) are common in the garden. These often pop up in odd places, though always in shade. Along the narrow, constructed stream that flows between two of the garden’s ponds, sporelings…
Most bothersome weed
I suspect that each gardener has a particular weed that is most bothersome, and in this garden the most prolific is nutgrass (nut sedge, below). There are three sections of lawn in the garden, all relatively small in comparison to the area devoted to planting beds and ponds. The section farthest from the house is…
Drought, or just dry?
Probably, the gardener is too quick to label a period in summer without substantial rainfall as drought, but there is no doubt that the past six weeks have been much drier than usual. Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) and ‘Okame cherry (Prunus x incamp ‘Okame’) have reacted by dropping leaves. While moisture loving River birches (Betula nigra)…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 