oakleaf hydrangea

Not ready for winter

Somehow, this year has passed too quickly. When cold persisted too long into spring, the internal clocks of many plants became muddled, and mine also so that it seems only a short while ago I was nursing too many shrubs through their winter injuries. I was jolted, along with the garden’s hydrangeas, by fifteen degree…

Mysterious disappearances

This is hardly surprising, or disturbing, but very little seems to go exactly as planned in the garden. Perhaps this is why the gardener is so pleased when one thing or another goes right, which fortunately occurs with some regularity. On occasion, a perennial or bulb disappears from one year to the next, and I’m…

One hydrangea overlaps another, then another. Poking out from this melange is a small clump of Pineapple lily (Eucomis comosa ‘Sparkling Burgundy’) and a soft wooded, variegated Blue mist shrub (Caropteris divaricata ‘Snow Fairy’) that struggled through the cold winter, and now is barely hanging on as an overly vigorous Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) nearly overwhelms…

The Oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) planted in deep shade against the forest’s edge have only a few leaves remaining, and these show little of the autumn color of ones planted in more sun. The leathery foliage of Oakleaf hydrangea begins to color early in October, but the colder temperatures of November bring out its boldest reds…

Cure for the common flop

For whatever reason the oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia, below) have decided to explode in growth this spring (in fact, all hydrangeas have grown remarkably). A few were munched by deer in early autumn when I mistakenly decided that it was late enough in the season not to have to spray a repellent, but now the…