Recent mild temperatures have encouraged flowering of several spring flowering camellias along with prolonging blooms of a single azalea that occasionally flowers into early December. The formula of cold nights followed by mild daylight hours that spurs early, spring-like flowering is imprecise, and in the case of camellias December flowers are quickly damaged in twenty…

While prompting no more celebration than an approving nod, I am happy that several flowers are coming along on a ‘Marvel’ mahonia (Mahonia x media ‘Marvel’, below) that was moved earlier this year from a too shaded spot where it did not bloom since planting several years ago. There are plants in the garden that…

The family gathered around the firepit beside the koi pond on a mild Thanksgiving afternoon as sunlight faded. Logs of the aged variegated redbud (Cercis canadensis ‘Silver Cloud’) that was cut down a year ago after the weakly rooted and top heavy tree leaned to touch the ground burned brightly as we scooted chairs back…

Thankfully, leaves of the Korean Sweetheart tree (Euscaphis japonica, below) have turned, not to copper or purple but to brown. A year ago, the foliage did not drop until late in December, signaling a lack of dormancy with some winter injury as a result, so today brown is better than green. I expected the young…

I should know better. I do know better, of course, but this matters little when I am blinded by enthusiasm, or occasionally lulled into an inattentive daze. This garden was begun thirty-two years ago, so there are rarely gaping holes to be filled, but the small size of gaps and the lust for new plants…

As winter temperatures become more regular and strolls become more brief, I am uncertain if enthusiastic thoughts of additions to the garden lengthen or lessen the seemingly interminable period until spring. Few gardeners, I suspect, look to the next growing season with dread. Most, and I lead this charge, are certain that the year to…

The last leaves of Japanese maples cover the front walk. All other trees are bare, curiously with the exception of a Korean Sweetheart tree (Euscaphis japonica) that also held its leaves into December a year ago. I was concerned then, but less so now, though the tree struggled a bit in spring. Since the Sweetheart…

The white flowered dogwood (Cornus florida) in the front garden has suffered various maladies over recent decades, but none threaten its survival, it seems. While a number of galls are concerning, most disappointing is the annual leaf spotting and powdery mildew by mid-summer that deforms leaves and diminishes autumn leaf coloring. Spring flowering is not…

There are two questions pertinent to this twenty-four degree morning. What effect will there be on the garden? And, why was I headed to work on a chilly Saturday morning? At least I’m home early. The heavy frost has melted in a sunny morning, which has now turned to a cloudy afternoon. Today is far…

Sadly, locating the garden’s newest acquisition, the evergreen ‘Empress of China’ dogwood (Cornus elliptica ‘Elsbry’, below), was not difficult. The tree was purchased assuming that it would be shoehorned into some marginally acceptable spot, which is perfectly acceptable practice in this garden. Two Pagoda dogwoods planted earlier in the year were fit perfectly to stand…

A week of overnight temperatures below thirty degrees has ended flowering of toad lilies (Tricyrtis) and most of the reblooming Encore azaleas. The lone azalea holdout, ‘Autumn Amethyst’ (below), will often flower into December, and of course I have no idea why this flower tolerates the cold while others fade overnight. Outdoor thermometers stuck to…

Five nights below freezing have started the foliage decline of the garden’s paperbushes (Edgeworthia chrysantha, below). Wilted leaves will be followed closely by yellowing, and then foliage will drop to expose the large flower buds that should begin showing color in early to late February. Several paperbushes have grown to twenty feet in width, much…