The hybrid purple passionflower vine (below) perished over the winter. Last year, it grew vigorously to the top of a wrought iron cage and into the neighboring paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysanthus) by summer’s end, and there were many small flowers, but perhaps this spot on the low side of the garden was too wet through the…
Category: Native plants
A bit unusual
A year ago the Seven Son tree (Heptacodium miconioides, below) was ripped from the ground in a violent summer storm. Unfortunately, it was not uprooted, for trees with roots intact can sometimes be replanted successfully. The manner of the Seven Son is to grow quickly and decidedly top heavy, so when the winds blew the…
A swallowtail convention
Late this afternoon was intermittently sunny, then cloudy as storms passed nearby. But, no matter, throngs of Tiger swallowtails (below) dropped by the garden to sip nectar from a variety of blooms. On cloudy days the number of bees and butterflies is far fewer, I suppose because sun brings out the flowers’ scent, but not…
Surviving the heat of July
The stone path beneath the serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) is littered with a carpet of brown leaves. The neighbors ask if their trees are dying, but this is only a reaction to last week’s sudden heat wave. In summer, many trees drop at least a few leaves due to heat and dryness, and some, such as…
Bumping through a North Carolina tree nursery
Humidity settles into the bottom lands of the North Carolina mountains early in the day. Even on this cooler than average July morning a considerable sweat is worked up on a short walk through a field of ‘Stellar Pink’ dogwoods (Cornus x ‘Rutgan’, below). Today, more walking than usual is required because recent heavy rains…
Spreading exuberance
A groundhog resided for several years beneath a mound of plume poppies (Macleaya cordata, below) in the rear garden. The dense clump provided ample cover for forays into the neighbor’s nearby vegetable garden, which is now fortified like Fort Knox to prevent further invasions, though the groundhog has departed. Plume poppy can be a bit…
Through standing water
With repeated downpours in recent days the depression along the lower southern border of the garden has remained flooded for weeks. While several plants show some ill effects from the constant moisture of this low lying section of garden, I’ve selected plants specifically to tolerate the often standing water of this swale. Bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus…
Flowering as June ends
The flowers of native Indian pinks (Spigelia marilandica, below) are not big and bold, but they are unmistakable and unusual so that even a casual visitor to the garden will be attracted to notice them. Blooms open over the period of three weeks beginning in early June in my garden, and I was disappointed a…
Trees and shade
The inevitable result of planting lots of trees on a property is that the garden becomes increasingly shady. When carried to an extreme (which I have) the exposure of the garden changes radically over time so that sun loving plants are plunged into darkness. Many shrubs are forgiving of the encroaching shade, but some are…
Damp, then damper
In the past week there has been one storm after the other, and the forecast is for more of the same in the next few days. The lower part of the garden is saturated, and mostly the plants in this area are well adapted to damp soil, so there is little harm to be done…
Stellar, but not pink
I have little doubt that you occasionally grow weary reading of the various collections of trees in the garden. The catalog of Japanese maples goes on far too long, but it can easily be argued that the number of redbuds is too few. There are several cultivars that I would add immediately, if only there…
…. bring May flowers
I must hurry along to catch up on the month’s blooms while it’s still May. As I finished up on flowering shrubs last week ninebark, elderberry, and Arrowwood viburnum popped into bloom, and it seems a pleasantly impossible task for me to keep up with the month’s flowers. The small purple flowers of tall verbena…
Ramblin' through Dave's Garden 