While leaves are slow to turn with summer temperatures extending into October, the garden remains colorful with abundant blooms. Without a doubt, cold weather and colorful leaves will be here soon, but I’m in no rush to be rid of this unusual warmth. While the pink blooms of Encore azalea ‘Carnation’ (above) are hardly my…
Category: Flowering plants
Unseen blooms
Flowers of the hardy ginger (Zingiber mioga ‘Dancing Crane’, below) are not particularly ornamental, even when they can be seen, which is only when the arching stems are lifted and the gardener bends nose down from his knees. The flowers are perhaps an inch above the soil, not seen without effort, and who would know…
Mostly minor problems
Among many, but mostly minor issues related to this year’s summer deluge is that Alstroemeria ‘Tangerine Tango’ barely grew, and only a few flowers were seen in early summer. In fact, I cannot be certain that the problem is not an overhanging Distylium instead, but shade from the evergreen seems not far different from a…
A lack of self control, who me?
I must start today by denying the obvious. I insist that I am able to control a seeming compulsion to purchase one of too many plants, and collections of far too many. There is meager evidence to support my claim, I understand, but I must point to a recent decision to halt further collecting of…
Delightful berries
Long, arching stems ornamented with clusters of white berries emerge from a tangle of foliage behind the koi pond. Oakleaf and mophead hydrangeas nestle tightly beside an ‘Okame’ cherry, with little space to access for maintenance through crossed branches. Somewhat worse than the typical mess in this garden, but considerable effort would be required to…
Surprising blooms
Unsurprisingly and typically, I’m clueless to explain why ‘Jelena’ witch hazel is flowering in September instead of mid-February. No unusual weather event explains this, and this is not a single flower or stem, but every bud on every branch. Four other winter flowering witch hazels nearby show no sign of imminent flowering, or even swelling…
Ideal planting
Ideal spots for planting are easily identified in shaded areas of the garden. Here, sporelings of Japanese Painted and Sensitive ferns appear together, competing in scattered pockets of deep, moist soil. Too often, Japanese stilt grass encroaches, though it is less particular about the spaces it invades. Fortunately, while persistent and a considerable nuisance, the…
More summer rain
Undoubtedly, rain this summer has been more than is necessary, and more than is desirable for dogwoods and paperbushes (Edgeworthia chrysantha) in lower lying areas of the garden. Two paperbushes droop and shed leaves in saturated ground, then perk up in the too brief drier periods. A woody tree peony, that made it through the…
Seedlings, for better and worse
Typically, I’m overjoyed by plants that seed about the garden, even Japanese maples, toad lilies, and hellebores that proliferate with such abundance that many must be discarded. While space for these has run short, room remains for sporelings of Japanese Painted and Sensitive ferns that thrive in deeper shade and regularly appear beneath shrubs and…
Late August garden update
Yellow wax bells (Kirengeshoma palmata, below) have several flowers this week, though not nearly the number from peak years when there were a dozen or more. Still, this is much better than a year ago, when fleshy stems went limp in a period of summer drought, and all flower buds were lost. In the single…
Better late than never
The garden stinks, according to my wife, who is likely referring to the application of deer repellent yesterday, but who has also been known to make critical remarks about my pride and joy. Regarding my wife’s remarks as the more obvious, it is clear that spraying of the repellent was long overdue, though of interest…
An August wildlife update
If Tiger swallowtails are a bit scarce in this year’s garden, hummingbirds are not, though typically only one is seen at a time, so taking a count is difficult. A tropical Firecracker plant (Cuphea) in a pot on the deck just outside the kitchen window is a hummingbird magnet, but I often see hummingbirds on…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 