I realize now that I have mistakenly planted Surprise lilies (or red spider lilies, Lycoris radiata, below) where their late summer appearance is hardly surprising. Flowers have been up for days, but these have escaped my daily viewing until Saturday’s very leisurely stroll with a fortunate glance beneath the wide spreading ‘Sun King’ aralia. Another…

Bees and wasps are seen in abundance in the six weeks that mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum, below) is at its peak bloom in the garden, but as the flowers fade pollinators move on to gardens unknown. Oddly, toad lilies (Tricyrtis) are visited exclusively by carpenter and bumblebees that largely avoid the busyness of the mountain…

The lush restfulness of the garden in late spring is now disturbed by a weathered, brown edged hosta. Once crisp and green, the leaf is now frayed and preparing for its journey into winter’s dormancy. Thankfully, parts of the garden remain unblemished by summer’s heat, so I lounge peacefully on the stone patio (below) in…

I should not be so enthused seeing our native, common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana, below) flowering along a trail (on the WV/VA border) at 2900 hundred feet elevation this second week of September. While I’m happy to welcome cooler temperatures after a summer that is always too long and too hot, I’m in no rush…

Today, the garden suffers the typical traumas from the stresses of summer heat, but also from inches of rain in recent weeks. Variegated sedums (below) along a dry, rocky ledge (but backfilled by rich clay) flourished in the heat of July, but a few inches of rain turned much of the foliage to black. Fortunately,…

A bit of a decline in the late summer garden is expected, but I think most of this is the gardeners’ weariness battling the heat and short periods of drought. There is not a dramatic change in September except that cooler temperatures arrive and I roam the garden more, not only lounging in the shade….

September, thankfully, promises fewer extremes, in temperature and rainfall. Undoubtedly, the change of season will deliver milder weather, though the heat of summer might sneak in for a few days. Hopefully, not longer. Today there is a gentle rainfall while I write under the cover of the summerhouse. This is not the deluge of tropical…

Ground hard as a brick a week ago has turned to mud, but no way I’m complaining despite having to spend considerable labor cutting and cleaning up tree limbs that litter the side garden following each thunderstorm. I routinely scan the forest canopy for limbs dangling, ready to fall, so that my eventual demise does…

I must sleep on it for a night, or a month or two before planting a small area inside granite pavers just dug into the lawn. I understand that I am prone to jumping in with a barrel full of inspiration, but with a slight possibility of moving too fast. My wife is no help….

Spotting of foliage of the red horse chestnut seems unavoidable by midsummer. Probably, a regimen of fungicides would prevent this annual plague, but instead I must recall its most glorious spring days and know that the disfiguring spots will not deter their return. Certainly, the severe spotting might persuade against planting the horse chestnut, but…

This Seven Son tree’s (Heptacodium miconioides) meager blooms are excused by it’s small size (planted a year ago), but the still sprawling shrub has made considerable summer progress. Three branches have turned upright, as hoped when I wondered how a tree could be formed from only horizontal stems. Today, I see the path, and with…

Inches of rain have fallen over this past week, so of course I can now cease whining about this summer’s dryness. I will not jump into complaints about the garden’s wetness, at least not yet. A before and after might reveal stark differences between the stress of summer heat and dryness, and the relief following…