Each Little World

Wordless Wednesday

IVOM

A week ago I grabbed the last of the candelabra primroses and the first Martagon lily to make a quick arrangement for the living room. Stems of Heuchera flowers and an Allium complete the group.

Allium atropurpureum is new for me this year. The flower head is not fully round but more of a bowl shape with a narrow base. The color is dark and intense. Its companion Allium still hasn't opened. 

I love matching and contrasting flower color with the little strokes of color on this vase from Madison's Studio Paran.

The 90°F. temperatures at the beginning of this last week popped all the Martagon lilies, so I had no qualms about cutting them or the Alliums from my traffic island bed. I used them to make a deck vase for the 2022 Garden Bloggers Fling visit to our garden on Saturday. It's still looking good. 

I made a quick run out to K&A Nursery to pick up a special order Hydrangea that had come in. When I went inside to pay for it, I fell prey to temptation and snagged this Begonia. 

The flowers and foliage caught my eye but the stems are the real stars of this show. Alas, no id tag. I used it to block a clump of dead tree trunks as you enter the back garden for the tour. Yes, I know. Totally obsessive behavior. 

The kids are alright

Welcome garden bloggers

to the Madison, Wisconsin

Fling!

Back soon

I've been frantically trying to cope with the weather to keep my plants alive and the garden weeded and prepped for the Garden Bloggers Fling group coming to my garden this weekend. Two days in the 90°s last week and more of the same Monday and Tuesday. I was out just after 5 am yesterday morning to weed and water while the temps were bearable. I went in by 8:30. 

Leaves on many plants are turning brown and crisp from the heat. Other plants are bursting in and out of bloom in a matter of days. Hoping my Martagon lilies last until the weekend but I have my doubts.  

I'll be back next week when the temps should be lower and I can relax and play in the garden.

GBBD: 6.15.2022

Despite being gone from the garden for the first ten days of the month, I didn't miss much. One Peony had come and gone as had the flowers on my various Brunnera. But my new Alliums are just opening and the Martagon lilies will follow shortly.

I've been trying to take more wide shots that will help me remember what's planted in a given area; something plant portraits don't do. This is the bed at the top of the stone steps leading into the front garden. It includes two flowering shrubs: Philadelphus 'Snow Dwarf' in the foreground and Deutzia 'Yuki Cherry Blossom' in the rear. I think the Deutzia needs more light to really flower. The Peony is P. 'Soft Salmon Joy.'

Dianthus 'Bath's Pink' is growing between the two flowering shrubs in the above photo.

Gillenia trifoliata aka Bowman's Root is behind the Peony in the first photo. 

The Geranium pharum in this bed are almost done flowering but Tiarella 'Elizabeth Oliver' is still going strong . . .

as is Thalictrum 'Evening Star.'

In the back garden Thalictrum 'Black Stocking' blooms before any of my other large Thalictrums.Chives echo the color.

Iris pallida Dalmatic was in the garden when we bought this house. It likely was growing here from the mid-1950s when the house was built. This is the Iris that smells like grape pop. I've been moving clumps around trying to find enough sun to get them to bloom. 

I keep planting Digitalis trying to find one that is more peach color than pink. Clearly this is not it. There are seedlings everywhere so who knows what I'll get next year.

A new Allium in the street side garden: Allium nigrum 'Silver Spring'

Allium atropurpureum, also new, is flowering in the back garden. I planted it with Allium 'Summer Drummer,' but it looks like these may be over before it blooms. 

Candelabra primroses have been flowering for ages. 

Loving this old nameless Heuchera whose flowers are mixing with the foliage of Epimedium rubrum.

i was pleasantly surprised to discover how flowery Luzula nivea (snowy wood rush) is when it blooms. I think I will divide some of the plants to get an even better show. These are much prettier than my other Luzula plants.  

Tuesday's high temperature was 96°F and today it waa 78°F when I got up at 5:30 a.m. Lots more heat in the 10 day forecast. I had a long list of things I still wanted to do in the garden before the Garden Bloggers Flingers arrive at my house on June 25. I think the weather is going to keep me from getting much done.

A bittersweet journey

Mark and I left Madison on June 1st to drive to my sister Meg's Memorial Celebration in Woodstock, Vermont. I set up my blog posts before we left and stayed off digital media while we were away. That's why I haven't replied to your comments or visited your blogs.

The memorial event was held at this beautiful woodsy sculpture garden that was a favorite of my sister's. A large crowd gathered on a beautiful afternoon under a big tent. Friends and family, including her daughter, spoke. There was a bagpiper! Then we adjourned to a beautiful buffet and looked at photos, memorabilia and shared stories for the next couple of hours. I really had not been looking forward to this day, but it turned out to be the perfect way and the perfect place to remember Meg.

The day after the event, family members went off on their own, meeting up by accident and intention all over Woodstock. It's a town that is so lovely it feels like you are walking around a movie set with historic houses, a covered bridge and Paul Revere church bells. I bought a bagful of books at The Yankee Bookshop ("Eat. Sleep. Read.") and a big blue and white china cup and plate at a dreamy antique store.

But the most memorable moment of the day happened when we walked over to look at the town's library where my sister worked as their techie. This sign was on the door. I spoke to the librarians the day before at the event but had no idea they had closed the library on a Saturday afternoon to attend.

Mark and I decided not to push ourselves and spent three days driving from Wisconsin to Vermont. On the way home, we spent time with one of my other sisters near Chautauqua Lake. We made an overnight stop in Cleveland in order to spend time at the always inspiring Cleveland Museum of Art and have dinner at our favorite restaurant, L'Albatross.

To avoid the stress of driving through Chicago, we drove up to Muskegon, Michigan and took the Lake Express Ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. The ferry was the first high speed auto passenger ferry in the United States when it began operation in 2004. When you get out onto one of the Great Lakes you realize how big they are, as this photo Mark took of the boat approaching Milwaukee illustrates. 

We got in at dinner time and managed to get a seat at a favorite spot, stayed the night and went to the Milwaukee Art Museum where we saw more great art. Mark and I both took tons of photos which I will share later. 

Wordless Wednesday

Accidental science project

I was out in the driveway garden and noticed that I have Geranium maculatum 'Espresso' in four different locations. I remember putting the plant in two places and it likely self-seeded into the other two. The size and shape of the plants and the leaf color are all different to varying degrees. I think it is all based on the amount of light each plant is receiving. I was so fascinated by this little science walk that I took a picture of each plant.

This one is growing upwards, definitely reaching towards the light. No surprise as it is right next to the house and has been hidden behind a big container. 

Number two is further along the same stone wall. Mark parks his truck here, but this plant gets some light as the rear of the truck doesn't usually hide the entire plant. No flowers open as yet. 

This one is hidden from sight most of time by the truck. To me that would suggest its foliage should be green but it is definitely darker than its two neighbors along this wall. But no flowers blooming yet either.

This is the original plant and it's across the driveway in a raised area. Unlike the other three it grows more horizontally. And it has the chocolate foliage that its name suggests. This has been growing under our Forest Pansy redbud where it gets early spring sun. But there is a bad chance that the redbud has died so that will affect the future of this and all the shade plants that were growing under it. 

Geranium phaeum

I've been hooked on true Geraniums for years. Right now, G. phaeum is having its moment. Many of the flowers are deep purple which seems appropriate for its common name, the Mourning Widow Geranium. But others are so sweetly colored one wonders if she isn't a Merry Widow. 

This is probably the straight species with some G. phaeum 'Samobor' mixed in. Some varieties have plain foliage but those with the patterned leaves provide color all season.

G. phaeum 'Langthorn's Blue'

G. phaeum var. lividum

G. phaeum lividum 'Joan Baker' has a larger and more pale color flower than the straight G. phaeum var. lividum (above). 

This is G. monacense 'Muldoon' which looks almost identical to the G. phaeum flowers to my eye. I have a nice big clump of it growing next to 'Joan Baker' and they look like siblings, or at least cousins. 

The flowers on all of these tend to flip and flop in all directions. So I'm glad that I find the back of the flowers as attractive as the front. 

Wordless Wednesday