Each Little World

The wonders of a warm day

The garden suddenly looks like a garden! More plants are appearing every time I ramble around. I'm still waiting to see what damage the frost may have done to those plants that were fully budded. But things look good for the most part. 

I piled leaves on Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' to protect it from the last frost. But she pushed through them immediately.

Syneilesis aconitifolia is extremely difficult to see when it first appears. I always leave the stems so I can find it in the spring. A garden friend aptly refers to this plant as "hairy thumbs." 

Its cousin — Syneilesis palmata 'Kikko' — in the front garden is much more obvious when it appears. It also comes up earlier.

I bought this one for its patterned foliage which disappears quickly. This is the brief moment when it looks the best.

The drama queen of ferns: Dryopteris crassirhizoma.

I believe this group is Polystichum retroso paleaceum.

I need to see if there is a tag buried near this fern as I am not at all sure of its identity. Though I am pleased at its early arrival.

My 'Arctic Alley' willow made it through its first winter and it starting to send out catkins.

Dutchman's britches (Dicentra cucullaria) is blooming throughout the garden. Nothing bothers this little beauty or slows it down.

Rain and cooler temps are forecast for the next three days. I'm good with that as I need to do some work indoors for a few days instead of exhausting myself in the garden. 

Wordless Wednesday

IVOM: Frosty spring bouquets

We woke up Saturday morning to a rain/snow mix and very chilly temps. The on again/off again overnight frosts finally had me covering a few things Saturday and Sunday nights. But mostly I've decided to just let nature take its course. I'll learn which of my early plants can sail through unscathed and which plants are not going to survive the climate changes in my area. 

Mostly I cut flowers for bouquets as we were having company for dinner Friday night, friends for a casual Saturday afternoon in front of the fire after they visited Mark's photo show and a few garden gals for cookies and conversation Sunday afternoon. 

My daffs, Hellebores and some Fritillaries are the only flowers that are prolific enough that I felt free to cut them. This group is from last Thursday.

I grabbed the first Muscari and a bud from Paeonia mairei for a vase above the kitchen sink. I think the Peony buds may have fatally frozen and are not going to open. I wanted to see if the warmth inside the house would do anything. So far it has not. 

A big bunch of Hellebores with an early Trillium sessile in a Richard Jones vase. The painting is by local artist, Chuck Bauer.

More daffs and frits. I love the pale yellow trumpets on these daffodils which fade to creamy white. I just keep adding and subtracting to this vase to keep it fresh as it's right where we sit and read.

Our neighbor's Forsythia often sends a stem or two through the fence — perfect for clipping. The big Fritillaria radeanna have been through a number of frosts and they still look quite good. I will definitely be adding more of them to the garden. 

Slow spring

There are a few upcoming frosty overnight lows, but most plants seem to be dealing with the temperature swings. It's only the gardener who's having a hard time. Luckily I can use the rain this week as my excuse for not getting any work done out of doors — other than constantly checking plant progress. The real progress here has been the next phase of the street project. 

The street crews are getting a lot of work done. The gas company almost has the new main gas line in place and piles of huge cement rainwater and sanitary sewer pipes were unloaded all along the street the week. I dragged Mark out to photograph me next to a few of them in order to give you a sense of scale. The pair above are sitting on the lawn of the neighbors across the street. I'm standing behind the one below. 

It has openings on two sides so it will be interesting to see where it goes. 

As you can see the pipes range greatly in size.

This row of pipes are oval rather than round. 

I thought it would be consistently warmer by now and thus set up mid-and-late April delivery dates for plants I ordered on line. Two down and another one this weekend. Interestingly Digging Dog Nursery in California sent me an email saying they are moving my shipping date back from April 18 to May 18 because it has been so cold at their nursery. 

On again, off again

It rained most of last Sunday (4/16), eventually turning into snow. It was so wet and miserable I decided not to go out and cover any plants — despite the fact that the overnight low was going to be quite low. All week the forecast kept going down.

When we got up Monday mooring it was 27°F and snow covered the garden. We left the house at 6:30 a.m. for Mark's first cataract surgery. Got home around 10 a.m. which is when I took the snowy photos. All the gravel and stones melt the snow quickly.

But the plants were still well covered. Hellebore 'Jade Tiger'

Fritillaria 'Raddeana' on Monday morning.

F. 'Raddeana' at 10 am Tuesday morning. The snow is mostly gone but these flowers are only standing up by virtue of their cages. 

Just about complete recovery by 6 p.m.

That's pretty much the case with the plants I was most worried about — like Paeonia 'Nosegay' pictured in the a.m. and p.m. yesterday.

This very early blooming Peony is a second generation cross between P. mlokowitschii and P. tenufolia. I adore it. A 2014 purchase from the late, great Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery. 

I'm hoping everyone stands up straight again and that their buds haven't been fatally frozen. I went back in my records to 2018 and discovered that I'd covered plants to protect them from April frosts a good 4 or 5 times in four out of the five years. With climate change it seems our weather is more unpredictable than ever. I am thus moving toward an attitude where the plants have to survive without me. 

As I write this it's 39°F (3.88°C) but feels like 33 °F. (0.55°C) Rain is forecast for 6 out of the next 10 days. I'm good with that; less happy about the overnight lows that are forecast for this coming weekend. 

IVOM: Before the whatever

I dashed out around 8 a.m. Sunday morning during a break in the weather to check my rain gauge: .57" overnight. The brief moment of sun didn't last long. The 10 day forecast is mostly rain, snow and freezing overnight low temperatures. 

The recent week of heat marked the end my snowdrops, so I picked a bunch to enjoy indoors last Monday. 

I took a number of photos from different directions. trying to get the flowers and the details of the cup and saucer. I think the Hellebores are from an early blooming H. niger. The ferns are leftover fronds from last season. 

I am interested in trying to draw this grouping. It may not happen but I took the photos so I would have more than my memory to work from.

I put this vase together on Saturday knowing the rain was on its way. The yellow Fritillaria raddeana is half its height. I cut off most of the stem to fit it into this small flower-brick style vase.

I planted a small group of Narcissus 'Arctic Bells' last autumn and am thrilled with their sweet presence. Though many of my Hepaticas have tags, I can usually only identify them once their foliage is up as that is the reason I've purchased many of them.

The big pale daffodils are N. 'Beersheba' and the tiny white stalks are the blooms of native Pachysandra, P. procumbent. They have beautiful foliage but are very slow growers. 

The summer begins?

The week began with a lovely Easter which we spent quietly at home. Mark is a big fan of carrots so I always buy him a special one for the holiday.

I got up Monday morning and went to the window to determine the source of the strange noise I'd just heard. Turns out the folks behind us were getting a new roof. But then I heard odd noises in the opposite direction.

Madison Gas and Electric company had arrived to begin putting in new gas lines for the street with new connections to all the houses. They'd set barrels along the curb last week in prep for the work, so I don't know why I was surprised to see them. 

Due to this work our street is currently only one lane and one direction. When the city crews come in a week to tear up the street for new water and sanitary sewer lines — plus a total redesign to allow space for bikers and pedestrian — the street will be closed to everyone but residents.

The city crews will potentially work 7 days a week until November. Once the project is all done, there will no longer be any on-street parking. This project was not too dusty or noisy but that will not be the case with the larger city project. I think we will be spending a lot of time with our windows closed.

Mark has probably taken thousands of photos of the work this week. I have to admit the process is fascinating and the crews are so polite and friendly. 

I tried to do as much garden prep as possible this week, but it was sunny with temperatures in to the 80°s most days and a lot of wind. It was exhausting as the leaves aren't out on the trees yet so there was no shade. We have been under fire warnings all week; a rare occurrence here.

Because of the road work, I went out into the street and dug up the tulips that I had planted in the traffic island. They're potted up and I'm hoping I get some blooms. A big job that was not on my to-do list. 

Yesterday Mark had his unexpected project when the neighbors behind us said they'd had compost delivered and it was more than they needed and did we want some. All we had to do was come and get it

Luckily it was a downhill trip from the pile to our garden, so Mark brought three big wheel barrow loads down. We piled it on a work path until I figure out where I want to use it. 

This extremely hot and sunny weather has pushed the garden into overdrive. I discovered Fritillaria raddeanea had opened when I walked through the garden yesterday morning. Last year it bloomed on May 6 — a difference to three weeks! 

Frost is predicted this weekend. This seems to be our new normal. Extremely hot weather to begin the season followed  by typical cold spring temps. But it's a big problem when delicate plants are being pushed so far forward. Viola odorants var. rosea will likely be less bothered by the cold swing than the hot weather. I think I will have to get flat on the ground to get a face-on image of the tiny flowers. 

A surfeit of snowdrops

The big end of March snow storm, followed by cold, kept the snowdrops in a waiting game. A few hits of sun and warmer temps caused an explosion at the end of last week. I went out and picked a number of different varieties. But I'd forgotten most of their names by the time I got them into a vase.

Glanthus nivalis fore pleno 'Blewbury Tart' is so unusual that it's easy to recognize.

I thought I was picking a few stems of G. 'White Dreams,' but when I looked more closely the yellow coloration tells me I am wrong. I am growing two yellow forms and I know where they are planted, so I am confused. 

This is most likely G. fore pleno 'Hippolyta.' Or could it be G. 'Dionysus'? 

G. nivalis 'Greenish.'

I love these little charmers despite getting confused about who's who. Sometimes the best kept notes are still not enough.

IVOM: Small vases

Warmer temperatures have finally pushed the garden into providing flowers for the house. I filled two small vases for Easter display.

These Helleborus niger flowers were up and ready to open last December when winter arrived. I buried them under leaves and discovered they'd broken through the leaves this past week and were flowering in a big group. I think the winter chill gave them the pink tinge on the edges of the flowers.

I cut the three biggest flowers and put them in a vase with last year's native Pachysandra foliage. I love this foliage plant but it grows sooo slowly.

I used my favorite small purple glass vase that always comes out at Easter. Perfect color container for the earliest spring bulbs.

I cut a stem of Helleborus torquatus for its dark foliage, but the flowers are still just tight buds. I added a pair of Iris histories 'George' and two Crocus tommasinianus. At least I think they are both Tommies, though the colors are quite different from each other. 

I am sure I make almost identical groupings of flowers in the same vases each year at this time. That may mean I am stuck for new ideas and new flowers. Or that I am more of a traditionalist than I like to admit.

No bouquets yet

I did make a tiny arrangement of snowdrops for a friend, but the garden is so wet from the snow and rain that I'm just enjoying it from a distance. A few weeks ago I arranged a display on our pair of Chinese wine tables in anticipation of Spring. This is as far as spring has made it inside the house. 

I first saw this plate a number of years ago on the website of a store called Asiatica in Kansas City. It has been out of stock since the first time I saw it — until now. It is one of the few things in this beautiful shop that I could afford, so I snapped it up immediately.

And I got the bowl as well. You can see that I enjoyed my pots of Muscari until the bitter end. I will plant the bulbs out in the garden very soon. 

I have a small number of Japanese indigo fabrics woven on narrow looms. I don't really have a plan for them, but I couldn't resist the different patterns. Rolling them up and displaying them in this tray from Target seemed like an easy way to enjoy them. 

Despite the fact that this is not a large vase, it will be a while before there are any flowers in the garden that are tall enough not to be hidden below the rim. 

The rain should end today and the forecast is mostly sunny with temps in the 70°s by early next week. That's way too warm for early April, but it is what we are seeing more and more as the climate changes.