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Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Perennials are continuing to hurl themselves into bloom. Bulbs are also popping into flower. Shrubs too.
It is a thug, admittedly. So choose a place where it is free to romp and roam, and give it sturdy neighbors.
Then you can enjoy the yellow splashed foliage of Petasites japonicus 'Variegatus' with a clear conscience.
The typically brick red flowering quince have been in flower for a while. Showy, especially when planted
next to screaming yellow forsythia, as is often the case. I do prefer the softer, peach pink blossoms of
Chaenomeles 'Cameo'. Just coming into flower now, but perhaps my site is a little colder.
A wonderful primrose from Japan, Primula kisoana displays masses of bright pink flowers in my woods.
Ranunculus ficaria 'Bowles Double' had a just few flowers on 22 March, lots more on display today.
The pale yellow flowers of Epimedium ×versicolor 'Sulphureum' look terrific with the rosy new leaves.
Foliage truly sets off flowers. Here, the silver spotted leaves of Brunnera macrophylla 'Langtrees'
make a marvelous foil for the airy sprays of forget-me-not blue flowers. And a nice summer display too.
Its airy grace conceals a sturdy nature. Corydalis ochroleuca flowers right through summer.
Not so the little Dutchman's breeches, Dicentra cucullaria. As flowers fade, the leaves also disappear.
Its near cousin, squirrel corn, Dicentra canadensis does the same.
I do like to use running myrtle, Vinca minor, as a groundcover. Glossy forest green, evergreen leaves
are embellished with masses of lilac purple flowers in Spring. Not as coarse as pachysandra, either.
There are nice variations, such as 'Atropurpurea'
Guinea hen flower, Fritillaria meleagris has this nice white flowered
variation. Not having purchased it as 'Alba' or 'Aphrodite' I cannot use
these clonal names. I'll just say "white form" and enjoy it all the same.
Stinky it may be but none the less, I appreciate the crown imperial's
magnificent flowers. Fritillaria imperialis, you see, has this skunky
smell: flowers, foliage, even the bulb. And it wafts on any breeze.
Daffodils are still making quite a show. 'Trevithian is in the jonquilla group.
Dark green rush-like leaves, 2 or 3 flowers / stem, and a deliciously sweet fragrance.
Introduced in 1916, Thalia is a classic favorite, opening pure white, fragrant flowers. Classified in the
triandrus group, it has two or three flowers / stem, and is an excellent perennial, returning year after year.
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The major planting of poeticus daffodils along the path up into the woods to the Forest Deck are now in flower.
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Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Perennials are popping into flower - seemingly - if I blink. Popping up out of the ground too. Especially weeds.
Cultivars of Narcissus poeticus are among my favorites. They all have a close family appearance -
crystalline white petals and the shortest little ruffle of a cup banded green, yellow, red. They are,
in a more typical season, among the latest daffodils to bloom, in early May. Clearly, not this year.
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Another charming daffodil is 'Polar Ice', a dainty class 3 / small cup.
Newly open, the yellow cup will soon fade to a pristine white.
Class 3 / small cup refers to the relative proportion of cup to petal length.
Clearly, this pink short cup is massive compared to 'Polar Ice'. Absent
the missing label I haven't a clue to its cultivar name. Care to make a guess?
Geophytes, those lumpy underground bulb / corm / tuber / rhizome
class of plants - are really hitting their stride. Fritillaria meleagris,
the Guinea hen flower, are opening their boxy chequered bells.
Anemones are another of those genera that include some geophytes.
And also fibrous rooted perennials. These two are both geophytes,
with slender little little rhizomes that look like polished twigs. Above,
wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa. And below, a Japanese cousin,
Anemone flaccida. Both will go promptly dormant after flowering.
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More sessile trilliums. They look especially wonderful this year. Or do I say that each Spring?
Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, that were in bud on Sunday are well open today.
Twin leaf, Jeffersonia diphylla, is open now. Unfortunately the flowers come. And go. All too quickly.
Which is why I am so fond of foliage in the garden. This variegated
Pachysandra terminalis will "pay its rent" the whole year around.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
The weather has continued mild. A couple of nights at 29° Fahrenheit but most nights above freezing. Peach trees in bloom. In March. Absurd.
Popular as a groundcover, in early Spring Pachysandra terminalis actually has charming flowers.
Acorus gramineus 'Variegata' is a foliage plant that's good for shady wet places. Especially bright in Spring.
Lungwort, Pulmonaria saccharata is still doing fine, silver-spotted leaves, pink buds, and soft blue flowers.
. . . .
Narcissus 'Dove Wings' opens with white petals and a yellow cup which fades to ivory white.
Corydalis solida multiplies prolifically, carpeting the ground in Spring before fading away.
Not so much a thug as Ranunculus ficaria since the foliage is not as dense. Easier to dig, too.
Fritillaria thunbergii would rather be growing in some low brush. Then its curling tendril-like bracts
could find something to grab on to, rather than just making a graceful accent to the greenish bells.
One of my favorites, Trillium cuneatum is early into bloom (but generally not quite this early.) Better yet
it likes it here at BelleWood Gardens. Every year there are more, with oxblood red flowers and mottled leaves.
Even Trillium grandiflorum is in bloom. I once saw them by the thousands
along Route 480 in Ohio. Once, for the next year there were houses in their stead.
Virginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, another native wilding that likes shade and moisture is nearly
ready to move from pinkish buds to sky blue flowers. Just another few days. Fugacious, it will bloom and
then quickly go dormant. Sort of like a good houseguest who comes, then goes, before you wish them gone.
Dainty little flower of the Spring woods, Anemonella thalictroides. Flower like a miniature anemone,
leaves like a meadow rue, Thalictrum. Hence its common name of rue anemone. Subtle in its appeal.
Primroses are starting, and as Doretta Klaber titled one of her books, Primroses and Spring. Evocative
of the season. I think this is a hardy survivor of some past 99¢ supermarket sale a couple of winter's ago.
Another out-of-season absurdity. Paeonia obovata, the Japanese
woodand peony, already up and well budded. It's early, but not like this.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Everything is in proper sequence, just that flowers are popping into bloom anywhere up to a month earlier than usual.
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Hyacinths are adding fragrance as well as beauty to BelleWood Gardens. They repeat nicely, year to year, but do not seem to multiply.
Narcissus 'Ice Follies' is popular, and with good reason - attractive and reliable.
I swear I bought this dainty little daffodil as 'Mustard Seed'.
That was so long ago, when we lived in Connecticut, I cannot find
the purchase order. No matter, the dainty little yellow trumpets
are charming. It is a good doer, and increases at a modest rate.
Other bulbs are also coming into bloom. Well O.K., Anemone blanda
is in fact a tuber. It's still one of those lumpy underground geophytes
whose plain brown wrappers conceal flowers in a rainbow of colors.
Dog tooth violet. Looks more like a miniature lily than a violet. If
you have X-ray vision then yes, the bulb looks like a dog's canine
tooth. Erythronium japonicum's flower nods above a slender
stem that does a nice job of supporting it above a pair of leaves.
"Bulb" is most often associated with Spring flowering geophytes imported
from abroad. The term, however, has nothing to do with place of origin. So
geophytes may also be native, as is the case with Sanguinaria canadensis
whose common name of bloodroot also references the orange red oozy sap.
And trilliums are up. The sessile ones always come up earlier than the pedunculate kind, the ones with a little stem between flower and foliage.
I like the leaf patterning on these too. Think a deer may have sampled one - see where there's a bare stem towards center, bottom of the image?
I went around scattering Milorganite in case they intend to sample more. Doesn't smell horrid to me, plus it's a mild fertilizer. And easy to scatter.
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Named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, Jeffersonia dubia is a northeastern Asian species with blue flowers and red flushed leaves as they emerge, while the American version, J. diphylla has white flowers and paired leaves like tiny angel wings. Self-sown seedlings emerge here and there around the parent plant but I've never had much luck collecting and sowing the seed in a pot. And only young plants transplant with any ease and success.
The pulmonaria are likewise bursting into bloom with, self-sown plants nicely arranging themselves
hither and thither around the garden. I'll have to transplant some from where there are many to where
they're sparse. Fuzzy silver-spotted evergreen leaves that deer don't eat add to their undeniable appeal.
All of the Helleborus niger plants are sending up more flowers as
buds push up from the crown and open wide in white perfection.
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I really do battle with Ranunculus ficaria, the lesser celandine. Elsewhere it's carpeting huge areas. Here at BelleWood Gardens I dig it where I find it and dump the plants and tubers, soil and all, into plastic grocery bags. Then discard in the trash. These two are something different, something I enjoy. On the left, R. ' Brazen Hussy' which spreads but not as excessively as its attractive but obnoxious relative. And on the right, 'Bowles Double' with its green at heart flowers and mottled leaves.
In the last week forsythia has burst into fountains of yellow flowers. And will then spend the remaining
weeks and months of the growing season as green mounds. Which is why its growing at the bottom of
the garden where I can enjoy it in bloom, even cut branches to force, but need not allocate a prime site.
. . . 
There's a native species, Pieris floribunda, which has stiff and upright clusters of white, bell-like flowers. That's not the one you see in gardens. Instead, it's P. japonica, the Japanese species and its cultivars, easily distinguished by its trailing racemes of white flowers. Easily pleased, it likes some shade, a soil with good levels of organic matter that never dries out. Attractive flowers, evergreen leaves, and deer ignore it. Nice!
The magnolias are magnificently in flower, even if a few weeks early. Magnolia stellata is superb.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
I wish there was a way to photograph fragrance. Then you'd understand why I am so fond of this
somewhat straggly shrub. Lonicera fragrantissima truly lives up to its name. Even in coler weather.
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
The hellebores are still in flowers, coping quite well with the absurdly mild weather unlike snowdrops
and snowflakes and winter aconites that have finished flowering, alas, before I finished admiring them.
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Helleborus niger is now in flower. Christmas rose? I don't think so. Unless I have the rare late-flowering form.
Also in bloom is the charming pink in bud / blue in flower lungwort, Pulmonaria saccharata
Scilla bifolia may not be as electric blue as its more familiar cousin, S. sibirica. Love
the starry little spray of soft blue flowers. It spreads itself about, charming under still bare shrubs.
A crocus perfectly happy in the woods? You bet. Little purple Crocus tommasinianus thrives here.
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And with all the absurdly warm weather we've been having - I mean, really, 73° Fahrenheit in mid-March?
forsythia is in bloom. Along with magnolias and cherries. If fruit trees blossom and then we get a frost . . .
Thursday, 2 February 2012
One of my favorite broad leaved evergreen shrubs. Mahonia has buds ready to open, and soon.
Cyclamen coum requires a closer inspection to find its tightly furled, fuchsia colored buds. Almost ready.
The flowerbuds of Helleborus Early Purple Group are also just waiting for a few days of sunshine to open.
Other plants are not so hesitant. There are flowers in the open garden, so it must be Spring, right!?
Surprisingly early, a couple of Helleborus ×orientalis are in bloom. This attractively freckled apple green
and another with flowers speckled all over in pink.
But of course it wouldn't be Spring if there were not snowdrops in bloom. Galanthus woronowii
with bright green leaves (and flowers furled on this overcast day) has emerged from frozen ground.
Friday, 27 January 2012
This early in the year it is my greenhouse that produces flowers for BelleWood in bloom.
Cyclamen persicum produces its numerous dancing pink butterfly flowers. I have had this
tuber since 1973. An easy keeper, it has performed under grow-lights, in a spare room's window,
and in my cool greenhouse where it seems happiest of all. Most years it receives a top-dressing
of fresh potting soil, and only infrequently a complete repotting. Clearly it's happy. And so am I.
A pity it is not possible to photograph fragrance, or I could share with you
the delightful lemony perfume of Freesia alba, noticeable as soon as I
enter the greenhouse. The corms of this South African geophyte were
sent by a friend in California who has it in her garden. It needs repotting
every year, so vigorously do the corms grow and multiply. Just elegant.
