There is little doubt that there are more exceptional trees than can be fit into a one acre garden, no matter how hard I might wish to include more. By complete accident, the design of this garden is now dominated by Japanese maples and flowering trees, with a few larger trees fit in along the…
Category: gardens
24 (or 25) and counting
After a harsh winter there is small consolation that the garden’s Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) have suffered little by comparison to the long established dwarf hemlock and Hinoki cypress that have been cut out and discarded. Evergreen magnolias could be the next to go, and I await the verdict on several crapemyrtles that are tardy…
The most splendid season
I’ve made a considerable effort in recent years to add to the garden so that there is something flowering at all times, and even through this dreadful winter that has thankfully finally ended there were mahonias (Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’, below) or witch hazels in bloom every day through January and February. In fact, this…
Problems, problems
There will be few blooms on the azaleas this spring. A few young azaleas have died, and most have suffered considerable damage to their foliage so that they are mostly bare stems with only a few leaves. Unfortunately, I think that this is the good news. At least most of the azaleas are alive, and…
Dogwoods and silverbell
The dogwood (Cornus florida, below) in the front garden suffers from a variety of maladies, though it does not seem in distress at all. The tree has multiple cankers that swell the stems and cause sucker growth that must be regularly removed, and every year the dogwood’s foliage is plagued by powdery mildew and black spot….
Native flowering trees – from the forest to the garden
At the forest’s edge, serviceberries lean far over into the sun, scattered clusters of small white flowers twinkling against the stark bareness of early spring. A native woodland tree, the serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis, below) grows with such informality that I find it ill suited for a position as a centerpiece in the garden. Instead, it is marvelous…
A joyful day
Today, there will be no whining that the paperbushes (Edgeworthia chrysantha) and Southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) are troubled, or that the mophead hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) have died to the ground. Winter has left behind considerable miseries that must be dealt with, but on a sunny, though slightly cool late April afternoon there is too much…
Flowering and delightfully fragrant
The winter daphnes (Daphne odora ‘Marginata’, below) have managed only a few weak blooms near the ground where flower buds were protected from the worst of winter’s freezes, by snow or perhaps just by ground warmth. Though the uppermost buds were damaged, and foliage dropped completely, there are numerous growth buds that are clearly green,…
In the mud and the muck
The lower garden is sinking, I’m afraid. Why, is partly a mystery, but in recent years the back third of the garden has become wetter, for longer periods of time. There have always been times in early spring when sections of the rear garden are wet enough to suck the shoes off your feet, and…
A late start
There are hardly enough hours in the day to keep up with the chores necessary to maintain this garden in early spring. There are piles and piles of leaves to collect. Beneath every shrub and in every corner there are leaves accumulated from the maples and tulip poplars that border the garden, and through the…
The yellow magnolia
On Sunday the blooms of the pale yellow flowered ‘Elizabeth’ magnolia (Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’, below) were perfection. By some confluence of circumstances nearly every flower arrived at once so that the tree went from nearly bare to full bloom, probably within hours though I was not watching at the time. From Saturday evening to Sunday morning the transformation…
A spell of cold
After a delightful series of warm days, this upcoming period of cold is maddening. However, it is not unusual, and it is fairly common for a spell of cold to arrive in April just as the leaves of Japanese maples unfurl. This is when the leaves are most fragile, and tender foliage might be undamaged at…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 