Collector’s gardens are frowned upon by designers, most likely because the parts are of greater importance than the sum, and that is true to some degree in this garden. Sacrifices, most very minor (I think), have been made to cram in another Japanese maple, or any of a dozen (or more) other small collections. Hopefully,…
Category: Japanese maple
Almost complete recovery
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Spring planting
In case a reader has not been outdoors in recent weeks, or has just emerged from hibernation (or lives far to the north), it’s spring. The scattered few cold nights expected over the next few weeks should not discourage the gardener from getting on with his spring business, whether that’s cleaning up before anything new…
Early March
‘Ogon’ spirea (Spirea thunbergii ‘Ogon’) is unlikely to flower this spring. It flowered modestly with the warm temperatures of late December and early January, and then began to leaf before cold put an end to the premature growth. A less sturdy shrub would be troubled when newly emerging foliage is damaged by repeated freezes, but…
Four tiny maples
I can’t help myself. Despite declaring that I would stand fast, and not fall victim to a buying frenzy caused by my typical impatience waiting for spring, it has happened anyway. Still, this is only a single order, and a small one at that. Four tiny Japanese maples arrived by parcel delivery this afternoon. There…
A must have
Unfortunately, no space can be found in the garden to add ‘Bihou’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bihou’, below), no matter how desperately I try to determine one plant or another as expendable to make room. I suspect that many gardeners are unrestrained by logic, bound more by the beauty of the flower or foliage than…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 