A charming red amaryllis is in flower. I raised it from OP (open pollinated) seed. Pretty.
I find these more modest-in-size flowers have a certain appeal that the huge ones do not.
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Wednesday, 4 June 2025
A charming red amaryllis is in flower. I raised it from OP (open pollinated) seed. Pretty.
I find these more modest-in-size flowers have a certain appeal that the huge ones do not.
Monday, 26 May 2025
You know acanthus, those leaves decorating the top of columns
in Greek and Roman architectural tradition, as eary as 450-420 BC
image copyright free from Wiki Commons
Any column in my garden is more of a plinth, supporting a pot.
But I do have an actual acanthus, Acanthus mollis 'Tasmanian Angel'.
Friday, 18 May 2025
Why BelleWood? Well, there are bells in the garden, such as these two small Arcosanti bells.>/p>
I grow Oxalis regnellii var. triangularis for its intense purple-with-magenta-splotch leaves.
Columbines reseed here and there. As I only have this purple with white, all the seedlings come "true.'
Ajuga reptans does spread out where it will. But its spring flowers are a lovely rich blue.
Properly, the name for this shrub is Chaenomeles ×superba 'Cameo'
but it may be named Cydonia. Both are quince. Chaenomeles is the
ornamental shrub. Cydonia is the tree whose fruit is used for preserves.
Sunday, 6 May 2025
Early peonies. This is Paeonia 'Early Scout', a hybrid with fern leaf peony ancestry.
'Illini Warrior' is another early single peony with petals
of rich deep color and bright golden stamens at center.
Rhododendron yakusimanum showing color. Deep pink buds open to apple blossom pale pink.
Friday, 4 May 2025
I ininheritedherited this Rhododendron yakusimanum when my friend John Osborne died. That was
back in Connecticut. Of course when we moved to New Jersey it was one of the plants that
moved with us. Safe from deer - there's a fuzzy indumentum on the underside of the leaves.
Thursday, 24 April 2025
My most reliable amaryllis. Hippeastrum 'Baby Star' is flowering in the greenhouse.
Several cultivars of Narcissus poeticus are flowering beautifully along the path to the Forest Deck.
The bulbs were a gift from a friend when we moved here back in 1995. Very reliable.
Pristine white petals, very short cup green at the throat, yellow, and a thread of red.
Saturday, 12 April 2025
Daffodil season. 'Dutch Master' at the bottom of the driveway. This cultivar has replaced
'King Alfred' as it is preferred for its hardiness, larger flower size, and overall vigor.
Continuing up the driveway towards my tool shed you'll find 'Ice Follies' White petals
and a cup that opens yellow and then fades to white. Another favorite, reliable cultivar.
Several Magnolia stellata, flowering down in the woods, across the seasonal brook.
I didn't thing last winter was that severe. Apparently I'm wrong. Both the short bamboo
and the tall running kind have completely browned off. I see the same wherever I drive.
Monday, 31 March 2025
Over time I planted 6 or 7 star magnolias, Magnolia stellata, here at BelleWood Gardens.
They are the familiar white flowered kind. I like them, in part, because their straplike petals
seem less subject to frost damage than the much larger M. soulangeana that collapse and fall
In view from the front door is a cultivar with lovely pink flowers, M. stellata 'Rosea'.
Well named, don't you think.
Thursday, 20 March 2025
I was not sure where to put this. Certainly it could be in Flowers Around Town as these early little bulbs
snowdrops and winter aconites, have shown their way up above last autumn's fallen leaves
and here they are across the road from BelleWood Gardens. But I do know that's where they came from.
How did they get here? Floods washing them across the road? Gardening squirrels? What do you think?
Wednesday, 19 March 2025
It's the little bulbs that bring the first flowers. They seem quite happy here, multiplying nicely.
Winter aconites, Eranthis hyemalis, are frustrating to begin, then settle in and become very happy.
They grow from a small, even call it a tiny tuber. Which do not appreciate drying out for shipment.
Fortunately their price is as minute as their size. So plant as many as you are comfortable buying,
soak in damp peat moss overnight, then plant. If 20% appear next spring you can rejoice. Because
they'll flower, seed, reproduce, and in only a few years the few bright flowers become very many.
Snowdrops are perhaps the most iconic of the little end-of-winter flowering bulbs.
While similar overall, there are several different species, there are named cultivars.
Galanthus woronowii differs from the common snowdrop, G. nivalis, in that it has bright green leaves.
Galanthus 'Virid Apice' is distinguished with a green marking on its three outer petals.
Galanthus 'Hill Poë' is a sturdy double snowdrop discovered in an Irish garden in 1911.
Not a snowdrop but rather a snowflake, Leucojum vernum, for vernal meaning
in, or appropriate to spring. Looks rather like a bell, or a starched white petticoat.
A crocus. Not positive if it is Crocus vernus or perhaps a deep colored cultivar of C. tommasinianus
The dainty little two leaved scilla, Scilla bifolia with its raceme of starry blue flowers.
Narcissus (or do you think of them as daffodils) provide a forecast of spring.
Narcissus 'Rijnveld's Early Sensation' from circa 1943, is the earliest of trumpet daffodils to flower
by a good two weeks. Absolutely cold hardy, it stands up to surprise snowfalls. Skullduggery
in its naming. Apparently (or so the story goes) it was originally bred by F. Herbert Chapman
in England sometime before 1943, but only registered in 1956 by F. Rijnveld & Sons of Holland.
I'm not sure who this daffodil might be. My records have it as 'Mustard Seed' but it looks
nothing like the online information for that name. After some research I now believe it is
Narcissus minor 'Cedric Morris', which does make sense as it is also very early into bloom.
Now onward from bulbs with their underground stored food reserves to perennials.
That of course brings BelleWood into bloom with hellebores. Here, my favorite deep purple
of Helleborus Early Purple Group. What's not to love - they grow in woodland shade, are
pest proof, even by deer that believe my garden is a salad bar, and display their lovely flowers
unharmed by freezing weather that nights might bring. This year there was massive leaf browning.
Hellebores do, by the way, offer their flowers for a fresh from the garden bouquet.
Tuesday, 11 March 2025
Last November I presented a talk on "Little Bulbs for Rock and Woodland Gardens" to the Delaware Valley NARGS (that's North American Rock Garden Society) chapter in Pennsylvania. They are a very active group. All who attended were given a little bag with some spring flowering bulbs. I came home with two gift bags of Narcissus 'Ice Baby' bulbs. (My friend Bill who came with me graciously gave me his.) Rather than plant outdoors I decided to pot them up.
Now the nice thing about daffodils is that if you use a standard flower pot (as tall as it is wide) and plant in two layers they'll all grow and flower at the same above-soil height. It's like this: Fill pot 1/3 with potting mix. Set bulbs at north, east, south, west. Fill pot with 1/3 more potting mix and set bulbs at northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest. And one or two bulbs in the center. Then finish filling pot with potting mix.
I watered the pot and set it in our unheated garage to root and grow. As you can see, the results delight me.
And meanwhile, in the greenhouse
where it is warmer than the garage! - clivia is in flower.
Saturday, 8 March 2025
Springtime delights as time changes and galanthus flower in the garden.