Though several Japanese maples continue to show minor damage from the ill timed April freezes (below), questions about their long term health have been answered. Most have fully recovered. Leaves that hang limply on damaged maples will soon become brown and fall off without any action taken by the gardener, and there seems little doubt…
Category: Flowering plants
Not a crazed fanatic
I am not quite certain of the appropriate description for my plant collecting. While I might be fanatical, or obsessed, I’m not so far gone that I will pay any price for a favored plant. I’m not a patient person, but neither do I waste money foolishly, though some, mostly my wife, might argue otherwise…
A succession of dogwood blooms
Finally, flowers of our native dogwoods (Cornus florida, below) are fading as new leaves emerge. This end date of early May is very typical, but the start date for flowering was pushed forward by a week (or ten days) with the warm temperatures of March. The coolness of early April, and two late freezes did no…
From a muddy mess, flowers
In recent years more locally native shrubs and perennials have been added to the garden, not so much for propriety as by necessity. Doubtless, planting natives is the thing to do, but that was not my intent. As a portion along the southern edge of the rear garden has become much wetter, long established hollies…
Woe is me
Woe is me. And, probably every gardener at some, or multiple points through the year. We don’t have to try very hard to find some disappointment, or catastrophe, for certainly there is some weed that has tangled between the irises that will be next to impossible to extricate. Or whatever, and it could hardly be…
Not so fragile daphnes
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…
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…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 