Archive for the 'Signs of Spring' Category

Daphne ‘Lawrence Crocker’ flower

I’m seeing some unexpected spring flowers already and it’s tempting to just skip winter altogether and move on to spring.  We had almost no snow last year and nothing on the horizon for this year.  This tiny little Daphne with bright pink (and very fragrant) flowers would love to be in a real rock garden but it will have to settle for a spot in the garden next to the garage while it slowly grows to shrub size.

Daphne ‘Lawrence Crocker’

Another surprise this week was the first flower on Primula kisoana

Primula kisoana

Another flower this week that was more or less expected (but fully appreciated nonetheless) was the first snowdrop of the year.

First Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis)

Lest we get totally carried away by these first harbingers of spring, I’m still willing to celebrate the remains of the autumn.  The spirea at the back of the garage is a multi-season plant and at the moment is in it’s full fall color.

Spirea thubergii Ogon fall color

All around the yard the various hollies have been having a field day.  For some reason they decided to really ‘berry-up’ this year.

English Holly

And the Heavenly Bamboo beside the garage is doing what that plant’s designer intended.  Beautiful foliage and then berries as an extra special reward.

Heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica)

This is from an advertisement for horticultural grit in England

There is a wonderful posting on seed sowing on the Scottish Rock Garden Club website.  Not for the first time I observed the casual use of the term ‘horticultural grit’.  In England, where practically everyone is a gardener, you can expect that they would have a specialized soil ingredient for top dressing seedlings and alpines.  For us, in the U.S., the search is more difficult.

I bought some bulbs recently from Telos Rare Bulbs that are from California and South Africa so I thought I would try to follow up on this idea of using small rocks as a top dressing.  I have often used mulch as a finish dressing in pots to prevent the soil from washing out when I water.  It has the disadvantage of getting crusty over time and not letting the water actually penetrate.  My local nursery had a product called Mosser Lee Soil Cover (river stone) which was sort of along the lines of what I was looking for.   But it was $1 a pound and not all that much different from the bulk pea gravel that the nursery sold in a plastic bag at 10 cents a pound.

Pea Gravel (left) compared to Mosser Lee River Stone (right)

So I took the less expensive approach and used the pea gravel with my Telos bulbs.

Pots finished off with pea gravel

But I still wanted to find a finer scale gravel at bulk prices.  So I consulted the web, naturally.  I found a long thread on Garden Web trying to track down something called Al’s gritty mix.  I discovered that there were people all over the country trying to solve this same problem.  My efforts led me to the local feed store in Frederick where I bought three different sizes of granite that is used for raising chickens. The product comes from North Carolina and is called Gran-I-Grit.  The 40 pound bags cost $6 apiece and have pretty much given me a range of options now.

Gradations in gravel size

Three different sizes in Gran-I-Grit

Gran-I-Grit Large Size

Another nice discussion of soil mixes and planting techniques that refers specifically to the use of chicken grit is from Tom Clothier on HortNet.

Lest you think that I have wandered off into the gravel mining industry I also did a few other things this week.  I’ve completed the overhead watering system for the greenhouse which will make it possible to travel when necessary…

Overhead watering system in the greenhouse

Overhead watering in process

And I did get outside to take advantage of some of the extended fall weather we’ve had.  I finally put in the garlic which was well overdue for planting…

60 ft of garlic row tilled up

And I’ve almost finished up with this year’s bulb planting, only about another 60 daffodils to go.  There are 40 new daffodils in the ground in addition to 55 tulips and 200 smaller bulbs.  I did some weeding this week too wherein I discovered that the Snowdrops are emerging (which is fine) but the Adonis is coming up too (which is not fine).  I put some compost on top of the Adonis to try to keep it from putting it’s flower up too soon, which it did last year prior to a hard freeze …

Corydalis ‘Blackberry Wine’

I went out at lunch today to see what flowers might be worthy of recognition on this month’s GBBD.  It turns out it was not hard at all to find flowers still in bloom or even some that are already anticipating the springtime to come.  The Corydalis shown above is particularly worthy of note for its long lasting, exquisite flowers and lovely foliage.  I’ve really come to admire the Corydalis family.  As a group they have ferny foliage, many different flower colors, hardiness, and love the shade.  They fit right in with Epimediums and Hellebores as multi-season, rugged shade plants for the mid-Atlantic.  I’ve planted several more this fall (there’s a choice set of possibilities at Odyssey Bulbs).

An equally stunning purple is the Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’.

Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’

For a plant that sometimes doesn’t get full recognition because it’s so easy to grow, a late season Salvia really stands out amid the grasses that it is surrounded by now.

It’s probably not fair to call the Allium thunbergii flowers at this point.  They are more like seed heads but very pretty nonetheless.

Allium thunbergii ‘Ozawa’ seed heads

And the one of the David Austin Roses persists with beautiful well-formed flowers.

David Austin’s ‘Crocus Rose’

Snapdragons are another plant that persists into late fall, often returning in the spring for us.

Seedling snapdragon

A reliable performer in every month of the fall for us is the Red Camellia sansanqua.

Red Fall-blooming Camellia sasanqua flower

Red Fall-blooming Camellia sasanqua bush

Besides the flowers that are extending into late fall, there are also a few that are really anticipating spring.  The double-flowered pink Camellia japonica persists in flowering ahead of time.

Double Pink Camellia Japonica flowering way too early

As does the Rhododendron up front.

Rhododendron carolinianum in November

Also the Japanese Quince is putting forth its bright red flowers, but this is less surprising since it usually needs only the slightest excuse to start flowering.

Red Japanese Quince (Chaenomeles)

So there we have it for the outside flowerings this month.  I need to close by looking at the Androsace in the small rock garden I have on the hillside.  While not exactly a flower the leaves form a wonderful pattern worth sharing…

Androsace sarmentosa ‘Rock Jasmine’ in winter clothing

Iris japonica 'Eco Easter'

It is only appropriate that I begin this well overdue posting with this little woodland Iris that bloomed right at the Easter holiday this year.  It is a very hardy Iris that overcame being stepped on during deer fence construction to come back with lovely blooms.  It’s thriving in total shade and a relatively dry environment.

I have had so many postings that never got past being mental constructs the past few weeks.  It seems that every day has been beautiful sunshine (not much rain) with temps in the 60′s and 70′s and it’s hard not to be outside planting.  At this point I am nearly caught up with all the purchases for the spring and the plants that we brought back from Boston a week ago.  In many senses our garden is a joint project with our kids’ Boston garden.  We now have many plants that were originally started in Boston and for various reasons got evicted or propagated southward.  An example is this Lamium orvala which I had never seen before having it bloom in our garden this year.

Lamium orvala

Another surprise arrival is an Iris koreana, one of several small irises that I picked up at Stonecrop’s Alpine Perennial Sale last year.

Iris koreana

There were many other treasures found at this event which features plants from vendors like Evermay, Wrightman Alpines, and Garden Vision.  Some of the plants obtained from Garden Vision are in bloom right now.

Epimedium 'Domino' from Garden Vision

Epimedium 'Saxton's Purple' from Garden Vision

Epimedium 'Bandit' from Garden Vision

Note the exquisite foliage on Bandit.  Another Epidmedium that we’ve added from a local nursery is Purple Pixie.

Epimedium 'Purple Pixie'

Epimediums are hard to beat for sturdy reliable shade plants that have wonderful little orchid like flowers.  The leaf coloring can be especially intriguing with Epimediums.

To round out the description of some of the treasures in the garden right now, two favorites are the Anemone nemerosa ‘Bractaea Pleniflora’ and the Anemonella ‘Shoaf’s Double Pink’.

Anemone nemorosa 'Bracteata Pleniflora'

Anemonella 'Shoaf's double pink'

In just a few years this little Rue Anemone has grown into a delightful little mound of beautiful long-lasting pink blossoms.

Anemonella 'Shoaf's double pink'

Planted nearby is a little cluster of double-flowered bloodroot that are much longer lasting than their single-flowered cousins.

Sanguinaria canadensis 'multiplex'

And in the front garden we have the species tulip daystemon which continues to expand it’s cluster in the sunny space we have given it.  They open brightly in the noonday sun.

Tulipa daystemon

Tulipa daystemon

Our first Molly the Witch to flower turns out to be more pale pink than the yellow I was hoping for.  But the foliage is still wonderful and I will pretend I never expected a yellow flower.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii

I should also note that because of the mild winter the Euphorbias have been looking wonderful, especially this Blackbird by the deck.

Euphorbia 'Blackbird'

We came back from Boston with a new respect for the Corydalis genus and I’m planning to add more as the opportunity presents.  The first such addition is a hybrid, Blackberry Wine.

Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine'

I do have to mention two other things before closing.  The apple tree bloom has been amazing this year.  The trees are into biennial bearing and we have a cloud of white surrounding the house.  In particular the Mutsu, a personal favorite, looks ready to have fine crop.

Apple Blossoms 'Stayman'

Apple 'Mutsu'

And I will close with a walk in the woods that takes you to one of our most unusual daffodils, just perfect for a woodland scene.

Narcissus 'Arguros'

Magnolia stellata 'Star Magnolia'

For this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day it’s hard not to lead off with the star magnolia which presents not only it’s wonderful blossoms fluttering in the wind but an equally charming scent for anyone who takes the time to sample.  This is a very reliable early bloomer for us but in terms of timing it seems to be lagging compared to all the other plants competing for attention right now.  The temperature climbed to 82 degrees and almost everything is off and running.  Although I like seeing everything blooming I don’t like to blast our way through spring.  I’m praying for a little more cold weather.

A real star performer this spring has been the lowly Primula vulgaris which started blooming on January 27th.  It is still looking wonderful despite all the heat.

Primula vulgaris

Primula vulgaris and friends (Narcissus 'Rapture' for one)

We have at least a dozen of these primrose clumps and the plan is to start dividing since they all seem to do really well here.

The Hellebores continue to be at the top of their game.  Ivory Prince is particularly noticeable for the quantity of flowers and their variable appearance on the plant.

Helleborus 'Ivory Prince'

I just planted another six hellebores today that were brought up from Plant Delights in North Carolina.

Another couple of choice plants that jumped in the car in North Carolina were a false freesia

Anomatheca laxa 'False Freesia'

And a particularly pretty Corydalis

Corydalis leucanthemum 'Silver Spectre'

Our Spirea ‘Ogon’ is fully in bloom now — a solid blast of small white flowers.

Spirea 'Ogon'

The Pulmonaria has a particularly vivid blue when the flowers first open.  Then they gradually shift to red.  They also have a very extended flowering season.

Pulmonaria (Lungwort)

And the violet variant of the blue chilean crocus (check out Telos Rare Bulbs) that I shared a few days ago had its first flower today.

Tecophilaea cyanocrocus var. violacea

And of course it’s really daffodil time.  They are flowering outside in the hundreds.  We fill the house with them to absorb their fragrance day and night.  And they definitely are proceeding much too fast thanks to the heat.  Here are a couple to close this posting with.

Daffodil with pink cup (Pink Silk maybe?)

Narcissus 'Cassata'

I must confess that GBBD sort of crept up on me this month.  I’ve been so busy planting and transplanting since I got back from the south.  And there are so many other plants in flower right now.  Step on over to Carol’s post to see what other flowers people are seeing in their gardens.

Chilean Blue Crocus (Tecophilaea cyanocrocus 'Leichtlinii')

This is the third year we’ve grown the Chilean Blue Crocus and it’s still exciting to see it pop up.  Judging from last year it’s about 10 days earlier this year though each species seems to be reacting differently to the warmer weather.

I’ve been gone to North Carolina and Florida for the past week.  Making my annual trek to Plant Delights and spring training.  I brought back three boxes of garden treasures from the Plant Delights open house including this new Hellebore

Helleborus x hybridus 'Berry Swirl'

When I returned I was pleased to see that the season had advanced but I hadn’t really missed any flowerings.  Especially wonderful at this time of year are the tiny Hepaticas.

Hepatica nobilis 'Deep Red-Pink'

and it’s somewhat larger american relative

Hepatica acutiloba 'Large-form Pale Blue'

Speaking of tiny, this diminutive Alpine Draba came from a seeding that my son planted in Boston last year.  I tried putting two into a tufa stone (unsuccessfully) but the one which grew was planted in the garden on a slightly dry modest slope.  It seems to be very happy next to the Adonis and a dwarf daphne.

Alpine Draba (Draba alzoides)

Another gift from my kids at Christmas last year seems to have successfully returned.  It’s foliage is easily recognized as different than your normal hellebore.

Helleborus Thibetanus

Apparently this takes a few years to reach the flowering stage, but judging from the online pictures it’s worth waiting for.  In the meantime the leaves are quite pretty.

And after waiting a few years, the first buds are visible on one of the Molly the Witch Peonies.

Paeonia mlokosewitschii 'Molly the witch'

There are so many things blooming in the yard right now it’s hard to give them all appropriate appreciation.  Certainly all the crocus in the grass are worthy of more individual attention than they often get.

Crocus versus with almost tulip-like proportions

And the Glory of the Snow (chionodoxa) are popping up everywhere, often far from where they were planted.

Of course it would not fair imply that the only thing I look at are the little guys.  For instance the big Pink Camellia is covered with blossoms and hard not to notice.  Our camellia plantings are in for an expansion this year now that we have a deer-free zone…:)

Pink Camellia japonica

Hepaticas emerging

Every day now is an opportunity to walk around the garden (maybe more than once a day) and see what it stirring from winter slumber.  It has to be my favorite time of year.  Each of the little spring ephemerals has it’s own way of surprising as it sends up the first exploratory shoots.  The hepaticas with their hairy stems are especially charming to see.  The first off the mark is one of the very tiny Hepatica nobilis.

Hepatica nobilis 'Deep Red-Pink'

The startlingly red color more than compensates for the small size.

Trillium and trout lilies are putting up shoots and in the woods the little striped squalls are in full flower.

Puschkinia scilloides var libanotica

Also in the woods the wonderful early Daffodil ‘Little Gem’ is brightening up the forest path.

Daffodil 'Little Gem'

The Hellebores are continuing to amaze.  I plan to be shopping for more this week.  A very strong grower is Ivory Prince.

Helleborus Ivory Prince flower

Helleborus Ivory Prince Plant

Surprisingly the Fritillaria raddeana is blooming almost as it’s coming out of the ground this year.  I remember it usually being much taller before the flowers come out.

Fritillaria raddeana

And one of my favorite plants, the variegated winter daphne, is opening up its flowers.

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'

This is a flower that I have never satisfactorily photographed.  I think it’s partly because I ‘see’ it also with my nose and that fragrance makes it beautiful beyond compare.  The plant is large enough to create a cloud of incense as you walk by.

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' plant

Fragrance, flowers, and winter-hardy evergreen plant.  What more could one ask for?

Helleborus xnigercors 'Green Corsican'

We are celebrating this month’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for many reasons.  First and foremost because the weather has brought a bounty of flowers this winter, many of which I’ve already shared.  But, hey, what’s a little repeating of stories between friends.  The Hellebores have all been given their spring trimming and are showing off their flowers.  The Green Corsican above is particularly nice about flashing it’s flowers to the sun as opposed to facing downward like many others, e.g., this pretty rose colored hybrid.

Helleborus MG Apricot

The Adonis is showing ever more signs of propagating in place.  I now count at least 5 buds on the fukujukai variety.

Adonis amurensis 'fukujukai' spreading

A particularly nice white crocus is Cream Beauty.  It’s fully in flower in the lawn while some of the others are still considering the appropriate date for flowering.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty'

And the Winter Aconite are adding new flowers all the time as they demonstrate that although they are not naturalizing as fast as the Glory of the Snow, they are none the less spreading around our gardens.

Winter Aconite going wild

However today we are also celebrating the visit of the tree trimmers who work for the power company.

Tree trimmers at work

I had been ready to pay to have the large Cherry and Ash trees next to the power pole taken out but it turns out no one is permitted to work next to the power pole without the power company go ahead.  So when they showed up to take out the trees for free I was overjoyed.

Weed trees next to the power pole

And when they were done, we had only a bunch of fire wood next to the pole.

After trimming next to power pole

That Yew bush was a three foot high shrub next to the porch when we moved in and I dragged it down to the edge of the yard next to the street.  The tall branch in the picture is part of the Japanese Pear tree that I will have to cut back before the season gets much further along.  I never noticed how tall that leader had grown with all the other trees that were previously present.

And the other major reason for celebrating this February 15th is that we completed sealing the deer fence today (well a few small openings left but hopefully the deer won’t find them before I get it completely deer tight).  What a project this has been!

Deer fence west side

We now have a whole new mental image for what we call yard and a lot more sun space to garden in…