Each Little World

Thalictrums high and low

I love Thalictrums. There's nothing better than a plant that looks delicate but isn't. All of mine made it through our miserable winter and every other kind of crazy weather that's come along so far. This little gem is T.  kiusianum aka Kyushu meadowrue.

You can tell how small it is by comparing its leaves to the brick edging of this bed and to the mini Hostas nearby: H. 'Dorset Blue' (?) and H. 'Blue Mouse Ears'.

My queenly Thalictrums are all in the Sacred Grove where they are blooming in concert with various orange lilies. This is T. rochebrunianum 'Lavender Mist' in the background.

This is Thalictrum 'Ankum' which Digging Dog Nursery says "shows amazing vigor." I would have to agree given it is well over my head and has reached its mature size of 6 and 1/2 to 7 feet in only two years. 

It is so tall that its flowers are getting tangled with a low branch of the nearby striped maple. That could be a problem should we have any high winds. But for the moment it's glorious.

Wordless Wednesday

Actea pachypoda f. rubrocarpa

EOMV: July 2018

An end of the month view seems a little unnecessary since I just posted a full tour of the garden last week. On the other hand, I planted up an area that is coming along nicely — only you can't see it. My work is completely hidden by a Tiger Eye sumac. Earlier this spring the Sumac was open enough that I had no trouble seeing what was growing there or planting under it. (Double click on the photos to enlarge them.)

MAY 22

At the foot of the trunk is a Milium effusum 'Bowles Golden,' a millet rather than the more typical Carex (foreground). It took me a long time to find this plant and I have two nice size clumps that made it through the winter. It prefers moist, shady sites, so clearly it's happy here. The plant flowering next to it is Tiarella 'Spring Symphony.' This grows about a foot high and wide and my notes indicate I divided the plant I got last fall into a number of pieces. They're knitting together very nicely and also obviously happy here. 

MAY 30

Everything under and near the Sumac is nicely visible.

 JUNE 8

The Sumac is starting a growth spurt but you can still see the garden bed from this direction . . . 

 JUNE 8

though less so from this angle. 

JULY 18

Six weeks later and the Sumac has consumed all its smaller neighbors. 

JULY 30

Drama in color, form and scale. 

JULY 30

Despite the fact that it is impossible to see under those golden fronds, this tree is doing exactly what I've been waiting for. I wanted a statement plant that would be low maintenance and that would need virtually no attention from me. And unlike the carpet Juniper I just planted, it doesn't shout low maintenance. 

I'm letting all this new growth stay as it is. Next spring I will see if all of made it through the winter and then I can decide if I want to do some high pruning. That had been my original thought since it would reveal all the hidden plants. Now I am thinking it is the perfect spot for my Trilliums and Primulas that go dormant in summer. Currently I have a big area across the path that needs attention because of those very plants leaving a semi-bare, quite messy spot as they go dormant. Clearly some serious re-evaluation is in order. Here is that Tiarella from the first photo in midseason. No reason to give it center stage in July.

I added two big plants of Heucherella 'Hopscotch,' a villosa hybrid which can take heat and humidity. Its bronze-red foliage becomes green at this point in the season but it is still sending up flower stems and looks quite nice. Though it wants part to full shade, I'd like to be able to enjoy this plant all season. So maybe I can move it to a more visible but equally shady location. I snapped the photos of the two flowering plants after I crawled under the Tiger Eye Sumac from behind. I had to shoot in a crouching position so the angles are not the best. 

This post obviously turned into views over a few months. It's interesting and informative for me to look back and see how this area progressed. As things go dormant or stop blooming or get hidden, it is hard to remember what a particular garden bed looked like early in the season. So this is a good reminder for me and a prod to decide what the future of this bed may hold.
 

In a vase: Summer beauties

"Summer Beauty" is the name of the Allium that is happily growing here in the traffic island bed in the street in front of our house. 

A few years ago I planted a Calmintha nepeta ssp. nepeta in the four corners of this bed and put a triangle of 'Summer Beauty' Alliums on each side. The center was supposed to be filled with Geranium 'Rozanne' but a wild Geranium has been trying to take over and needs my attention. 

The only maintenance required for this bed is cutting back the early spring bulbs after they're done blooming. This floral combo does well with no attention from me. Plus the whole group is a bee magnet. They were everywhere as I snapped this photo in the early morning breeze.

Though I did not take advantage of it in this little bouquet, these Alliums are tall with very sturdy stems. That makes them useful in a variety of arrangements. 

 

The bouquet is on my bathroom vanity where the lighting for photos is not the best. That tall stem is the Calamintha. 

 Mark keeps pointing out that I'm always putting a vase here and there but I keep ignoring the Japanese bamboo container that hangs on the wall. I think I just enjoy it as an art object and forget it has another purpose. This is a clipping from my neighbor's Kiwi vine which grows on our shared fence. 

Curious about what other gardeners have put in a vase today? Then visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this most enjoyable and addictive meme. 

 

Weeded and washed

On Friday — the day before the Conifer Society tour — Mark noted the garden was pruned, polished and weed-free. So he went out between rain showers and took 207 photos to document what it looks like at the moment. He suggested everything looked so good, we should put a "For Sale" sign up immediately. So this is a photo-heavy post but only includes a fraction of the pictures he took.

. . .

Stepping out the back door onto the deck.

The stone path that is parallel to the deck leads off in either direction. The pine needles are marking what used to be a grass square. It's in transition to another look or maybe just to new sod. We're undecided what we want to do here. 

This view is standing at the front edge of the deck and looking right.

You've stepped off the front edge of the deck, turned left and walked on the stepping stone path going east. 

You could have stepped off the east edge of the deck and taken a different path to the get to this same spot. This is the view looking back as you get to the east side of the garden.

Take the bridge across the dry stream and start up the path going under the spreading limbs of the old apple tree. 

Stop half way up the gravel path and turn right to look across the length of the pond. This is the view you get if you sit down on the bench we put under the apple tree last summer.

Follow the path as it curves to the right between the Turtle Mound (left) and the Buddha Mound (right).

Looking left at the backside of the Turtle Mound . . .

and looking right at the side of the Buddha Mound that slopes down to the pond. 

The same view just a few steps further on. I love how woodsy this looks.

Now you've turned right and the back of the Buddha Mound is on your right and the fence marking the back property line is on the left. Straight ahead is the area I call the Sacred Grove, though the original trees that made it a grove have almost all succumbed to old age.

You haven't moved — just glanced over your shoulder at where you've been. The path on the left will take you over the stream while the one on the right will lead you back between the two mounds. The fence and back gate is on your right. 

The gravel path leads you to the stepping stones across the stream while the Grove is "paved" with needles from white pines.

Looking back at the Grove path. You are now at the west side of the garden where the path runs along the fence line. 

Those big green leaves are growing in the upper pool

You've just walked behind the Tea House and are going toward the west end of the house.

Looking back towards the Tea House. For the tour, the doors and windows were all open and a big Japanese textile banner hung across from the roof across the front. We let people go inside the Tea House but they have to remove their shoes. 

If you continue along the west side the path between the house and the fence, the path surface changes material and brings you out to the circular Moon Garden in front of the house. There are four locations to access this central garden. Two of them are visible in this view.

 

Following the gray pebble path as it curves to the right.

Looking back. Our neighbor's property is just on the other side of the sculpture and the hedge.

If you look at the image of the circle garden, you've just walked down those stone steps on the left which lead you to the front edge of the garden. This path goes across the entire front of the property.

Just before you reach the driveway on the left, you see another path that leads to and from the Moon Garden. This was designed as a wheelbarrow access path; one of many without steps or stepping stones so we can easily bring tools and whatever we need anywhere in the garden. 

The view to your right as the front path curves down to the driveway.

The view along the opposite side of the driveway. 

The long driveway border has box, yew and Barberry spheres as well as a row of specimen trees — both deciduous and evergreens.

There you more or less have it. I don't know about you but I'm exhausted after all that walking.

Caught by the camera again

Last July I posted an image of myself with two gardening friends who are among the group that meets for coffee every Saturday morning. A number of the guys in the group, including Mark, are photographers. So one group is often gabbing about gardens while another talks cameras.

The photographers are always trying out new cameras and lenses and settings, which means the rest of us are always getting our picture snapped. It's become such a common occurrence that we just keep talking and ignore the paparazzi. 

Our regular coffee haunt has been closed for a number of summer Saturdays, so we've tried a few new locations. This was taken at Porter in the the old RR depot on West Washington Street in Madison. The depot buildings are still there with a number of businesses located in them.

We took our coffees outside and sat at tables on the covered walkway which is still paved with the original bricks. Tom Schmock took this photo as well as the one I posted last July. This was a chilly morning at the end of June as you can see by the shawls and scarves two of us are wearing. As usual, I'm the one with the hat. When he sent this image out to us, I believe Tom titled it "Ladies Waiting for a Train." We certainly look like we're ready for something!

More a rescue than a vase

One of the thrills of coming home to the garden was the appearance of 'Forever Susan,' a group of Asiastic lilies that mostly got chomped by rabbits before they bloomed last summer — their first season. This year I put cages around them the minute they poked above the ground. I ordered this lily after seeing it in a friend's garden. The bi-color blooms offer a lot of drama but in what I would term a sophisticated palette. 

I planted a group of Lilium landini (below) in 2015 and its dark color later inspired me to add 'Susan' across the path knowing they would complement each other. For unknown reasons this lily did not make an appearance this year, so I grabbed a couple of new plants on my last trip out to the Flower Factory. When I went out to the garden Sunday, it appeared that a critter had tried unsuccessfully to bite through the thick stem of L. landini. It was hanging down but still attached though all the lower leaves had been stripped off the stem. 

As a result, I cut it out of the garden and plopped it in a vase on the table on deck where I was enjoying a morning coffee. I am going to have to order more of these bulbs as I don't want to be without this lily; partly because it is so beautiful and partly because without it, L. 'Forever Susan' dominates the garden more than I prefer. 

The weekend was warm but nothing like the temperatures we've had. As a result Mark and I worked on weeding, pruning and general garden maintenance which was sorely needed after eight days away. This week's temps mean that I will need to get out in the garden very early in the morning if I want to get any more work done. 

Catching up with my garden

I hate to leave my garden in June even for a lovely family reunion. All I could think about as we drove away was all the blooms I might miss, to say nothing of the storms and wacky weather that might happen while I was gone. I brought my potted plants onto the deck and filled up a bunch of watering cans so my neighbor could easily douse the plants if we didn't get any rain while I was away. 

We were gone 8 days and got a little over 2 inches of rain, so clearly we are still in this extremely wet weather pattern. The leaves on my beautiful new dwarf columnar Carpinus are starting to turn yellow and I think it's from being in a pot sitting in a saucer that keeps getting full of rain water. I'm going to plant this tiny treasure in the ground now rather than later in the season, which I hope will help it maintain its youthful vigor.

The kids had a great time playing in the garden while I was away. This is the downside of moss gardening: someone is always looking for grubs and other bugs under my velvet carpet.

Somebody jumped off the highest fence onto the Kirengeshoma after they'd dive-bombed the Synellisis (shredded umbrella leaf), leaving both of them bowed to the ground. Then they kicked up the pine needles from one end of the path to the other — after they'd dislodged one of the old logs marking the edge of the path. They do go crazy when I'm not around to yell at them.

I'm going to dig out and discard all my Stella d'Oro daylilies and redo this street-side bed. I was concerned that the daylilies I want to retain might bloom and be done before I got back. I need not have worried as they are all just starting to flower. 

I've been putting big id tags close by the flowers I want to move into other locations, so I will know who is who if there are no flowers to guide me. I'm hoping to attack this redesign project next week, unless we hit temps in the 90s again. There are a lot of problem plants that have found a home here like that baby black walnut tree (above) that all need to be dug out as well. 

Most of my Asiatic lilies are just beginning to open, including this variety called 'Apricot Fudge'. Its flowers are described as more rose-like than lily-like and I think that is true. I loved the images of this in the catalogs and online. But I do not like it in person at all. I guess I'm not too old to be taught a lesson about the difference between pictures of flowers and the plants themselves. 

 

 

Heat wave

Yesterday's high was 80 degrees F. (26.66 C.) in late afternoon. That's almost 20 degrees above normal for this time of year. It's hard to enjoy a golden sunny day like that when the Hepaticas are in full bloom and the Erythroniums are sending up their mottled leaves. It's been too cold for most of these spring ephemerals to make their appearance. But this kind of heat is equally problematic.

The Epimediums and Hellebores are still barely making an appearance. Though the extreme heat apparently made my one Hellebore that's up and fully budded flop over. Temps will be a tad cooler today with highs in the mid-70s. Who knows what to expect tomorrow.

Hepatica maxima (top) has fuzzy leaves that grow much larger than other varieties of Hepatica. I believe the flower directly above is Hepatica nobilis 'European Pink.' The color is dazzling in person.

Dreaming of June

Last June we toured a private garden that verged on what I would consider an estate garden. Certainly its location in the Highlands neighborhood right next door to the home of the president of the UW System, suggested a treat was in store. As it turned out, the homeowner — who is also the chief gardener and designer — was as down to earth as his garden was heavenly. 

Love the way the flower buds on the Spirea echo the foliage on the Barberry.

The same plants from the first two images above but viewed from a distance.

This is a closer look at the plants on the left side of the grass path above.

Not many of us have gardens where the grass paths widen out into serenely beautiful spaces where you can sit back and reflect.

The photo above and the two below all show the same area but from different viewpoints. 

The variegated leaves on the Dogwood tree are the clue to where you are.