The stewartia’s (Stewartia pseudocamellia, below) flowers do not open all at once, but over a two week period, though I make this claim for the tree in this garden only. With a large section of this garden shaded (with the large stewartia partially to blame), flowers here appear later than in nearby gardens. Careful placement…
A single white flowered coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ‘White Swan’, below) has parented a dozen or more seedlings that squeeze between a wide spreading sedge (Carex ‘Evergold’) and an aged hellebore. Seedheads tossed behind the tall sedge in autumn have germinated, but these are still youngsters and not yet with flowers. A year ago most seedlings…
Stone paths in the sloped, upper third of the rear garden meander along and across a stream and three small ponds, converging at a boulder bordered, circular, slate patio where parts of the three ponds can be seen and heard. The ponds were constructed twenty or more years ago, one after the other over several…
Last evening I returned home from a week in Oregon on business travel. In recent years I’ve gone out a day early to hike coastal mountains and to visit gardens, but Covid closures nixed those plans. Next year I’ll go out two days early. There have been several inches of rain over the past few…
I realize that I diminish the effort required to maintain this acre and a quarter garden, but I intend to counter writings I regularly see that add long monthly lists of garden chores to already busy lives. My weekends are occupied by long hikes in our nearby mountains, not by hours of labor in the…
Despite considerable optimism with a good start a year ago, two young trees have made disappointing progress this spring. The Wheel tree (Trochodendron aralioides) and Korean Sweetheart tree (Euscaphis japonica, below) both suffered minor injury in late freezes, and I am hopeful this setback is temporary. The Sweetheart tree grew considerably in the second half…
Flowers of the Bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla, below) are ten inches across (at least), though I could not possibly hold the branch and measure at the same time. Unfortunately, only two branches of this very tall tree remain low enough that I can reach overhead to pull down to see and smell the flowers close…
Famously forgetful, I could not recall seventeen years back. Did we have Brood X cicadas? I thought maybe, probably a few, but not a lot. But, apparently I was mistaken. Today, there are none while our sons in other parts of the area are experiencing their curious shenanigans by the thousands. When I express halfhearted…
Finally, after weeks of careful monitoring, two flowers of the Itoh peony ‘Bartzella’ (below) opened on Sunday. On Wednesday, petals of one bloom had fallen to the ground, and the second was fading quickly. A second peony ,’Karl Rosenfield’ (second photo below) began flowering earlier and will hang on at least for a few more…
Undoubtedly, May is this garden’s peak season, which is likely to be true in countless others where spring flowers predominate. There are interests in every other season, and June is also a delight, but in an unusually warm week and as several blooms fade the onset of summer seems very near. I am in no…