Tithonia
Well this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day catches us right in the middle of annual flowers ablaze in the vegetable garden. Zinnias, marigolds, cosmos and things like the Tithonia above.
Particularly striking are the gladiolias that come into the house on an almost daily basis.
Gladiolias
Purple Glads
Otherwise there a some worthwhile elements around the yard worth pointing out.
Mirabilis jalapa (four o’clock)
The Four O’clocks have expanded their space this year such that even though they are a tender perennial they look like a solid part of the perennial garden.
I note also that the Allium millenium have reliably returned as an August perennial.
Allium millenium
Nearby is a lovely little Gentian that recreates the blue of Gentians in August
Gentiana makinoi ‘Blue Star
And right beside it is an Arisaema that has leaves that are as desirable as the flowers.
Arisaema consanguineum ‘The Perfect Wave’
Also in the backyard is the first of the fall Cyclamens. Both the leaves and the flowers are delightful.
Cyclamen purpurascens
Wandering out to the pasture finds a number of big fat mushrooms from recent rains.
Mushroom in the pasture
And the Crepe Myrtle in the pasture stands out for its many flowers.
White Crepe Myrtle
And let me finish with the Buddleia which has many butterflies sampling the flowers.
Swallowtail on Buddleia
Swallowtail on Buddleia
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day June 2026
Lily ‘Forever Susan’
Well it’s already past the middle of the month and I will try to catch up with a brief post for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day.
Life has been very busy with travel to Europe and strange weather in Maryland. As shown above the first lillies are beginning to appear.
Lilium ‘Purple Marble’ is in the Peony garden.
Lilium ‘Pink Perfection’ sits out by the blueberries.
One flower that is particularly striking is the bright red Bishop Dahlia.
Bishop of Llandaff Dahlia
This one comes back every year even though dahlia are nominally not hardy enough to over winter in our are. The bulk of our dahlias are dug and put in the basement to get through the cold part of the year. Perhaps I should try a couple of other varieties in the ground over the winter. Right beside this Dahlia we grow a palm and a banana so it may be an unusually warm spot.
Nearby is a particularly nice green leaved plant with bright yellow flowers.
Lysimachia paridiformis var. stenophylla
Of course it’s important to note that the Stewartia is covered with flowers in a 20 foot tall tree at this point.
Stewartia pseudocamellia
And I’ve been meaning to mention one of the loveliest ‘weeds’ you could possible plant.
Corydalis lutea
These guys are zero care, widely spreading, and easily pulled if you think they are taking up too much space. And they flower from now until winter.
In the newly rebuilt Alpine bed the first Lewisia flowers are delightfully showing themselves.
Lewisia ‘Little Snowberry’
Besides the Alpine bed we have reconstructed the vegetable garden including two raised beds which were added today thanks to visiting family from Massachusetts.
2 raised beds
This should provide some more good growing space for beans, lettuce, and garlic.
And in lieu of a more complete posting I should mention that we did spend two weeks in England at the end of May. Once again we were at the Chelsea Flower Show. This time with a tour group led by our good friend Marianne Wilburn. (Hortcultural Exceptional Garden Tours)
Just a few shots from Chelsea, with more images to follow.
Chelsea Chrysanthemum
Tacca Chantrieri
Inspirational Ferns
Fern heaven
South Africa at Chelsea
Once again Chelsea is just loaded with inspirations for the future. Ironically one of things I discovered was Cornus Venus, a delightully large flowered hybrid Cornus that I had planted this Spring with knowing that the flowers are gigantic compared to the normal Chinese Dogwoods.
Cornus ‘Venus’
The world is full of discoveries…
Garden Bloggers Bloom Day January 2026
Camellia japonica
Well, for this GBBD it’s going down to 18 degrees tonight but this Camellia japonica doesn’t seem to mind. We have a fair number of Camellias but this particular Camellia has two parts, one which blooms early and the other half comes in the normal Spring blooming for Camellia japonicas. Here’s another view of the same plant.
Camellia japonica blooming early
Most of the other japonicas have lots of buds but no blooms as in this example.
Camellia japonica
It’s hard not to want to plant more Camellias since they have such an extensive blooming season and look good even when they are not in bloom. Here’s the last flower on the fall blooming Camellia sansanqua.
Camellia sasanqua
And then there is the very lovely little hybrid Camellia ‘Yume’ which manages to flower extensively across the late Fall to early Spring.
Camellia ‘Yume’
Other than the Camellias, flowering is still pretty limited. We are seeing the first snowdrops appearing in multiple places including the lawn.
Galanthus elwesii in the lawn
And I can now see the first flower buds on the Cyclamen Coum.
Cyclamen coum first bud
Otherwise my morning garden walk is more focused on the various ways that green contributes to the garden. Here’s the Cyclamen hederifolium for example.
Cyclamen hederifolium
I find the winter is much more tolerable when there is lots interesting greenery. Here are some other green points.
Japanese Holly Fern (Cyrtomium falcatum)
Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’
Mahonia japonica
One of many Hellebores in the woods
One of many Epimediums in the woods
I also have been tracking the Pussy Willow on the hillside as this is the first year we’ve had buds.
Pussy Willow
Of course for every winter’s day my real focus is on the Adonis and wondering when they will first show up. Here is their status.
Adonis ‘Chichibu Beni’
Adonis ‘Fukujukai’
Lastly let me note that the greenhouse has been a constant joy. Here is one of the current flowerings.
Freesia fucata
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day September 2025
Colchicum bivonae
Well a relatively brief statement this month just to catch up for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. We are just returned from almost three weeks in South Africa and I can assure you that of the many flowers we saw there, Colchicum are non-existent. It’s their Springtime, not their Fall. We got home to find that Colchicum are happily flowering away (which is what to expect in mid-September).
Colchicum (of unknown variety)
Colchicum x byzantium ‘Innocence’
At the same time the usual winners for September were happily flowering despite the terrible dryness Maryland has been experiencing.
Cestrum ‘Orange Peel’
I was happy to see that the Dahlias were spreading their usual joy. Not only the Bishop in the perennial bed but also several other varieties in the vegetable garden courtesy of Swan Island Dahlias.
Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’
Dahlia from Swan Island
Dahlia from Swan Island
I’ll have to research the names when I get time. And we have a lot sunflowers and other annuals in the vegetable garden.
Annual Flowers in the Veg garden
But I do want to share that our exposure to South African Flowers was wonderful. This was all via a trip arranged by the American Horticultural Society. We’ve been a member since forever but this was our first travel experience with AHS and it was memorable. The arrangements were excellent and breadth of exposure to South African culture and plant life will stay with us for a long time. I’ll try to see if I can put together a more detailed summary at some point but here is just a glimpse of what we saw.
Candelabra aloe atop Table Mountain in Cape Town
An absolute must for Cape Town visitors is Kirstenbosch, one of the world’s outstanding Botanic Gardens.
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
Looking at the mountains that are part of Kirstenbosch
We happened to be there for the first annual flowering of the Crimson King Protea which was a celebration for even the curators.
Protea cyanoides (King Protea)
Driving through the countryside there were lovely vistas of wildflowers and wonderful opportunities to explore.
Dimorphotheca sinuata (African Daisy)
And although horticulture was a major interest it turned out that I spent a lot of time photographing birds which are every bit as beautiful as the plants.
Orange-breasted Sunbird on Table Mountain
A Spectacular Carolina Weekend
Crepe Myrtles define the entrance to JC Raulston
We just spent a marvelous weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina in an escape from the last snowstorm (I hope) to hit Maryland this year. We had planned this weekend for a visit to the North Carolina nurseries but when a significant snowstorm threatened for last Thursday, we decided to skip town on Wednesday and I’m glad we did. It gave us an extra day to visit nurseries and gardens in the ‘Triangle’ area. Even four days is not sufficient to see all that this area offers to plant lovers. There are three major gardens in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill and we went to each.
Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham is what I would characterize as a display garden. It’s well funded and beautiful and has lots of examples of how to make a dramatic landscape.
Broad Allée with Winterberry on edges
It had many lovely individual plants including this daphne which illustrated how daphnes want to look in the wintertime as opposed to the burned leaves on ours.
Daphne getting ready for bloom
The North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill also appears to have a lot of financial backing and it’s focus seems to be well-coupled to the University’s effort to encourage the use of native plants.
North Carolina Botanical Garden
It’s set next to woodland trails and seems to get a lot of visitors for that reason.
But our favorite was the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. This is a plantsman’s paradise. Many examples of exotic and unusual plants from all over the world including this dwarf Dawn Redwood.
Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Schirrmann’s Nordlicht’
It was still a little early in the season for any of these gardens but the Ralston captured our hearts.
One of the ulterior motives for this particular weekend was to attend an An Evening with the Plant Explorers at the JC Ralston. This was a wonderful event with 4 1/2 hours of tales of plant exploring mixed in with socializing and plant auctions. Anyone who thinks Latin is a dead language needs to attend one of these events. The plant auction was particularly interesting because it was often for plants that had been part of the explorers’ talks.
Plant auction
In particular we were taken by a marvelous Einkianthus, the likes of which we had never encountered.
Einkianthus description
Einkianthus quinqueflorus
Well, in the end this was our take-home plant from the auction…
The other main component of the weekend was visiting nurseries. First and foremost was Plant Delights (which has a bonus of a very nice garden as well). As usual we found many wonderful plants that jumped into our car.
Plant Delights collection
There were three crates like this one that we brought home including many new hellebores.
And then we went out to Pine Knot Farms where the focus is hellebores.
Pine Knot Farms
And we came away with even more hellebores as well as multiple cyclamen from John Lonsdale and a Mahonia confuse ‘Narihira’ (which we had seen at Raulson) and Edgeworthia chrysantha from Superior Plants.
Edgeworthia chrysantha
John Lonsdale says that Edgeworthia survives for him in Pennsylvania so I have high hopes for it in Maryland.
Lastly we stopped at Camellia Forest and picked up four new camellias and two exquisite miniature Rhododendrons.
Rhododendron indicum ‘Kokinsai’
Altogether a wonderful weekend, and by the time we arrived back home the spring was waiting for us…
Chinese Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis)
Hamamelis × intermedia ‘Diane’
Adonis amurensis
Let me close with one more shot of that Einkianthus which I hope will be with us for a long time…
Einkianthus quinqueflorus
A Primula Arrives Early to the Party
Primula allionii ‘Wharfdale Ling’ peeking out
I was surprised to see a glint of color in the Alpine bed yesterday. Indeed it was actually a first flower from the exquisite little Primula allionii ‘Wharfdale Ling’. This tiny little primula species is relatively rare in the wild but has been widely propagated and hybridized because of the size and beauty of the flowers for such a small plant. Jim Jermyn has a great write-up on this species and its natural growing conditions. I’ve just finished my seed order for the Scottish Rock Garden Society seed exchange and I’ve included a different Primula allionii selection on my list. This one has the honor of being the first plant to flower in the new alpine bed — months ahead of time.
Early blossom on Primula allionii ‘Wharfdale Ling’
It’s been generally a great week for gardening. Crisp mornings but sunny afternoons. I spent this afternoon cleaning the moss off of pots in the greenhouse. But not before noting that yet another oxalis species had come into flower.
Oxalis densa
Notice the little hairy leaves. The oxalis are all so different. The buds on these are yet another distinctive image — I need to get a picture. Back to the moss, it had really built up on some of the small bulb pots. As it turns out when you use a gravel top dressing the moss just lifts out taking the some of the old gravel with it and doesn’t disturb the underlying bulbs. And then you just replace the gravel.
We took off one day on an excursion looking at garden art at Alden Farms and the unusual plants at Susanna Farms. Many of the items at Susanna Farms were landscaping specimens beyond our price range, but we did come back with two very nice additions.
Rhododendron nakaharai ‘Pink ES’
The fall coloring is just great on this prostrate rhodie. It will be interesting to see how it flowers out in the spring. It’s said the flowers appear at nearly the end of the rhododendron season which would make them very late indeed.
Crytomeria japonica ‘Little Diamond’
We have always liked Cryptomeria. Our biggest one is 30-40 feet high at the back of the yard. This one should stay within the 2-3 ft range.
The garden art visit was equally fun. We met David Therriault, stone designer and walked through his sculptures. He works mostly with salvaged materials and repurposes them into artwork. We saw several pieces that we liked (it’s Beth’s birthday present), but the one which was our favorite seemed to large for the new garden that we’ve built this fall. However, when we came home it seemed like it could fit after all. To check our perceptions I photoshopped a copy of the sculpture into place, and indeed, we think it fits.
Garden without totem
Garden with Totem
This is all part of our growing love for stone of all sorts. We went to the local stone dealer yesterday and came home with some very pretty pieces from their loose rubble. It’s like buying plants except you don’t have to water them…
Stone with character
Silverlake strip
Emmitsburg-Brown
Starting a New Garden
The Pine Succession Garden
Every garden has a beginning. In this case the garden can be traced to a storm — Sandy, to be specific. A very large Pine Tree came down on our neighbor’s fence line. Leaving a channel of sunshine and a lot of dead roots in the ground. We had also opened space in this area last year when we took out an old and dying Cherry tree (with a stump still remaining). We took the new site as an opportunity and have been considering all year how best to use it. Watching the sunlight in this area it looks like it’s a mix of sun and shade, in other words, part-sun or part-shade depending on the time of day and time of year. But the ground was very hard and covered with roots from the cherry and pine. And I’m pretty sure that the remaining pine and surrounding maple and holly will be sending exploring roots before long. So we decided to make a raised bed, or berm, to guarantee a fertile and friable garden area.
What started out as a small project got larger each day as we brought pickup truckload after truckload of topsoil and mushroom soil from our special store of said components in the far pasture. Because we were concerned about driving truck or tractor over the walkway in the backyard it all had to be hauled from truck to the new garden by garden cart. In the end we decided to tie this new garden into the Peony bed on the one side and the pathway in back of the big American Holly on the other. We added some rocks hauled in from the leftovers at our local rock dealer to build structure and character into the bed. Actually I just like rocks. No other explanation is needed. I thought hard about how to add a burbling brook in the middle but no matter how I conceived it there is no way that a burbling brook looks natural in our yard (and I would have to decimate too many tree roots to bring water and electricity to that spot. So in the end we now have a pretty large new garden space just waiting for plants. This is so unlike me to have the garden space before the plants.
Well, there are a few plants waiting in the wings. There’s a Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Billow’ that is already outgrowing it’s pot and is needing a home. There are two camellias, one fall and one spring, that are perfect for this lighting situation. When we could see the outlines of this garden begining to take shape we went to the local nursery to see what might still be around. We came away with some real finds. Most especially a Mahonia without spiny foliage.
Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress’
It’s called Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ and unlike any other Mahonia I’ve seen. The leaves are more like a bamboo though the flowers immediately look like classic Mahonia flowers. Others were a tiny Rhododendron, R. Yakushimanum ‘Crete’, a Toad lily still in flower, and a bush Salvia.
Rhododendron yakushimanum ‘Crete’
A new Toad Lily (Tricyrtis x ‘Sinonome’)
And I now foresee a lot of opportunities for planting bulbs this fall …
Trough update
Large Trough at end of July
Two months ago I planted two troughs and set out a number of alpine plants that I had been harboring this year. I thought it might be useful just to touch bases with the plants after two months of growing in their new conditions. The troughs are set in sunny locations and have received larger than normal rainfall over this period. I have supplement with the hose only a couple of times.
The current state of the Large Trough is shown here.
Large Trough on Aug 4th
This can be compared with the original planting.
Large Trough w- names
What immediately stands out is the Boechera koehleri which took off like a rocket. This is a relatively rare rock cress from Northern California but it has totally exceeded the bounds of the trough and I’ve since shifted it to its own pot. Interestingly when I pulled it out the roots were relatively well behaved. I had planted several other instances of the plant around the yard and none of the others showed more than 10% of the growth of this specimen. The two losses were both Saxifrages, one paniculata and the other unknown in the tufa. My guess is that it was too much sun for the paniculata. Most of the other plants have done pretty well. The Daphne looks very happy and the Delosperma is spreading nicely. The Lewisia tweedyi is one I’m keeping my eye on, hoping that it makes through to next year.
For the small trough that I planted at the same time the comparison is as follows.
Small Trough on August 4th
The original planting looked like
Small Trough w- names
The position of this trough gets a little more shade than the large trough but it’s still pretty sunny. The Silene caroliana grew so rapidly that I had to take it out. I then put in a small primula that did not succeed. The Saxifraga growing in the Tufa is the only other failure in this trough. Everyone else is prospering. Here is the Silene now ensconced in the front garden.
Silene caroliniana
It’s interesting to note that the tufa plants have not succeeded all. In principal the tufa should work well in the trough but it may be that it’s too sunny for the Saxifragas.
The longer term plan for more environmental opportunities for the alpines is the new alpine bed that I’ve built next to the greenhouse.
Alpine Bed by Greenhouse
This has been a pretty labor intensive effort and I’m not done yet. Just digging a trench and then laying the block was testing my muscle development, but then you have to fill the bed after building the bed. I began by adding topsoil to bring the level up to about a foot short of the top.
Filling bottom of the alpine bed with topsoil
Alpine bed ready for alpine soil mix
Then, to do the remainder of the fill, I bought a cement mixer. 
To gain some sense of what’s involved, 1 foot deep by 14 feet long by 3 feet wide amounts to 42 cubic feet. That is roughly 4000 pounds of soil mix. Mixing it by hand just didn’t seem to make sense. I used a formula of 1 part small gravel (starter grit), 1 part larger gravel (developer grit), 1 part topsoil, 1 part miracle gro potting soil, and 1/2 part garden sand.
Resulting alpine soil mix
This particular bed is on the shade side of the greenhouse so I think the Saxifragas should be happy when this is done.