The garden’s native orchids have been slow to emerge through piles of leaves, though the yellow lady’s slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) is now flowering. Barbara and I have enjoyed abundant pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule, below) hiking along mountain trails in recent weeks, so the delayed display in the garden is a bonus. Non-native Calanthe orchids…

With the native dogwoods (Cornus florida) fading after a splendid, extended bloom due to cool, early spring temperatures, the next wave of dogwoods is poised to extend the period of flowering that will not end until the middle of June. While several native dogwoods joined redbuds for a glorious month of April bloom, there will…

Amongst many failings that are better not listed, my sense of smell is severely lacking. This is far from a tragic disability, but an inconvenience for a gardener in a garden chock full of delicious scents (I’m told). This moment’s treasures are the various sweetshrubs (Calycanthus), a collection that has expanded in recent years to…

In a few weeks I’ll tour several public gardens while visiting the Seattle, Washington area, and fortunately I’ll be on my own to stroll at a leisurely pace. While some gardens with massed floral displays can be dashed through, detailed combinations require more time, more than my wife (and probably anyone else) is willing to…

Individual plants are most often featured in this garden, but occasionally I must sneak in the broader view. Admittedly, most rules in the design book have been ignored in the lustful pursuit of varied plants. Trees and shrubs are crammed together, colors clash, and no doubt there is an excess of variegated leaf plants. But,…

It’s spring. There are lots of plants in the garden, with some not fitting into whatever I’m blabbing about this week. So, here’re a bunch of odds and ends so we’ll be all caught up. Until tomorrow. Red, emerging cones at the branch tips of Acrocona spruce (Picea abies ‘Acrocona’, above) contrast beautifully with the…

I suppose it’s possible that the brilliantly colored and fragrant, deciduous Exbury azaleas could be chopped to fit a smaller garden, but this would curtail the extravagance that makes them a mid-spring favorite in this garden. While the white flowered Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus, below) in the background fades after a long week, the orange, pink/…

I am often mystified, and again wonder why the red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea, below) is not more widely planted in gardens. Yes, it lacks splendid autumn leaf coloring, and occasionally its foliage is spotted by late summer with our plentiful rainfall, humid days, and warm, muggy nights. Still, there is no better tree…

A week of warm temperatures has brought the last of the Japanese maples into full, glorious leaf. Decades after planting many of them, I still marvel at the brilliant spring colors. Several have interesting flowers or seeds, but Japanese maples are about the foliage. As we visit this later leafing group of maples, I must…

My spring weekends are rarely spent laboring in the garden, but most often stumbling along rocky trails with my wife in our nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. An hour or two might be spent early one morning roaming the garden to catch up on anything missed during the workweek, but then Barbara and I are off…

I suppose that most area gardens hit their peak in May, and certainly this one does. Still, I’m overjoyed in this last week of April, though still waiting for several ferns that seem tardy but probably are always slow to come out. I am always on the lookout for interesting plants to add to the…

I could scream. As soon as leaves emerged , deer munched the lower leaves of the small, variegated horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum ‘Memmingeri’, below) planted a year ago. The top buds have not fully opened yet, so I can spray the repellent and I expect the small tree will survive. But, this is the reminder…