Each Little World

A Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" is a book about architecture, community and design solutions that came out of UC-Berkeley in the 1970s. I own a copy and have skimmed it over the years. I love patterns and recently kept noticing them, no matter where I was or what I was doing. So this is my "pattern language."

White Sound

When rain

whispers

it is snow.

 

— Julie O'Callaghan

Saturday night's light rain turned into snow sometime during the night. I sat on the couch admiring the garden Sunday morning and casually shot this photo with my phone through the window; thus the strange bit of reflected light. By late morning it had started to lightly rain again and most of the snow is gone this morning.

The strange weather continues with temps hovering around 40°F during the daytime hours this week; until Friday when the forecast says we'll hit somewhere in the 50°F's.

Over the weekend I told a gardening friend that I will no longer blame myself when plants in my garden die. From week to week for the last year we've had little of what used to be our "normal" weather. It's becoming extremely difficult knowing what to plant and what kind of weather to protect the plants from. At least my Amaryllis is putting on a gorgeous show to keep my spirits up.

Gardening in our violent world

“The gardens that have graced this mortal Eden of ours are the best evidence of humanity's reason for being on Earth. Where history unleashes its destructive and annihilating forces, we must, if we are to preserve our sanity, to say nothing of our humanity, work against and in spite of them. We must seek out healing or redemptive forces and allow them to grow in us. That is what it means to tend our garden.”

 

— Robert Pogue Harrison,

Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition

 

Winter bulbs: Amaryllis

For many years I got a big order of Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs. I've always liked the fragrance; though Mark was less of a fan. I used to put multiple pots of them in the front hall. I loved coming from the cold outdoors and being hit by an explosion of flowers and fragrance. I still have the containers and the pebbles I used to hold the bulbs in place, but it's been years since I bothered with those blooms. I also kept Amaryllis bulbs going and growing for multiple years and then got tired of them as well. 

But I decided to try my hand with Amaryllis again after seeing them in the charming Arthur Parkinson's book earlier this year. It's a gorgeously inspirational book (and so is he)! After much online searching I found a source for three bulbs of the variety 'Mandela' that he displayed in the book. It's a deep, dark red and a far cry from the sweet 'Apple Blossom' bulbs I used to grow.

Until I pulled this pot out of the cool front hall closet, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch these bulbs from day to day and even hour to hour. This is what 'Mandela' looked like on November 13th. The pot is in front of a wall of south-facing windows with the curtains drawn to modify the light level.

Arthur Parkinson used willow twigs to create a "fence" to help support the big Amaryllis blooms. 

I used a handful of late season pruning twiglets as you can see on this photo from November 15th.

After we had our roof and gutters blown free of leaves and debris in preparation for winter, I rescued all the tidbits of moss that came down onto the driveway. I thought they would be a fanciful addition to the Amaryllis pot. November 21st.

November 24th at 6:45 a.m.

November 24th at 4:30 p.m.

November 25th

November 28th at 8:30 a.m.

Given the dramatic differences in the heights of the stems and stages of the buds, I should have flowers for quite a while. I am already thinking about summering theses bulbs in the garden; letting them get bigger and bigger and more and more dramatic for next winter.

Wordy Wednesday

It's been a sunny and chilly week here and that pattern continues in our 10-day weather forecast. It rained a bit Monday night and turned into wet snow by morning but it quickly melted away. My rain gauge is plastic so it's been put away for winter and I am left guessing about how much moisture the garden actually got.

This weather is typical for this time of year, so I am not complaining after the summer and fall we've experienced with its clear signs of climate change. The Weeping Beech is one of the few trees in the garden still holding its foliage. The color has gone from deep gold when I took the photo last week to a rusty orange. 

Mark recently decided what types of photography most interests him and what cameras he wants to use longterm. Thus he sold off a number of cameras, lenses, film developing equipment and more. That was after doing a major clear out of his bookshelves. I caught the bug from him and took two loads of books to our local library sale and a big donation of all kinds of items to St. Vinnie's.

It's a drop in the bucket when we look at all the books and art we own, but it felt freeing and a good way to prepare for a few months mostly spent indoors.

We're going to relatives on the other side of town for Thanksgiving. It's an easy drive and we were assigned an easy dish to bring. So it will be a relaxed holiday. Hope yours is as well. 

Ferns in mid-November

There are no flowers still blooming in my November garden other than Helleborus niger. At the same time, there are a number of ferns that still look very good despite a number of nights dropping into the high 20°F temperatures. A few are completely brown, some are green and have fallen over, but the ferns below look almost as good as they did in September.

Polystichum ringens aka rigid fern was planted in 2022 and has made it through its first winter and a hot, droughty summer and still looks lovely. It is growing slowly but is a little more than one foot wide. 

Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilobum' is also a year old, but is only about 7 inches wide, despite how big it looks in this picture. 

Polystichum acrostichoides (Christmas fern) is evergreen until it's buried by snow. 

Like the Christmas fern, my Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) is still standing proud.

Asplenium scolopendrium (Hart's tongue fern, left) and Asplenium scollopendrium angustifolium (Ruffled Hart's Tongue Fern) are both still upright though their bright green summer color is fading. 

Parsley fern (Dryopteris felix mas 'Parsley') is as beautiful as it's been all season. 

I always find the name "Autumn fern" (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') rather confusing as the autumn coloration appears on the new fronds in spring. It's solid green in autumn.  

Dryopteris wallichiana 'Jurassic Gold' supposedly emerges golden orange in the spring; but I don't really remember seeing that. But I am loving the color it is showing now.

Polystichum retroso-paleaceum (Narrow Tassel fern) is one of my favorites and is holding its own nicely.

With 4 Polystichum and 3 Dryopteris ferns in this group, it's clear which fern families can take cold weather in their stride.

IVOM: Lasting lovliness

I've never been a big fan of the Chrysanthemums one sees to buy at this time of year. Dense plants of brightly colored flowers that somehow always feel fake to me.  So it's no surprise that when I saw Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield' in the online shop of Avant Gardens in MA, I fell for it hard.

I planted it in August, 2021. I got enough flowers last fall to get a sense of what it would look like this year: Glorious. I cut these stems on Oct. 27th on the assumption that a frost would kill it. Most of the flowers were still in the bud stage and I just left them to their fate in the garden.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered they were continuing to open and bloom despite some pretty chilly weather. I cut more stems and added them to the original group which have now been looking perfect for 10 days.

Front or back, I'm in love with these flowers. So I ordered another one from Avant Garden called "October Glory." Can't wait for it to bloom next year.

Nothing nicer than having enough flowers to cut that you can put them in multiple places indoors. With an equally long-lasting leaf from Heuchera 'Fire Alarm.'

How did I miss these beauties?

I clearly only wandered through a narrow swath of the garden before I posted my November report on Monday. Don't know how I missed these beauties.

You may not think this image of Peony foliage is anything special. But this is the first time I remember having a Peony whose foliage is still green, upright and disease free in November. Amazing.

Not far away I discovered my Helleborus niger, aka Christmas rose, was up and blooming. I've been growing this plant for a dozen years and it surprises me every time. Its partner across the path is barely visible so I just buried it under a pile of leaves. I don't think it will make a show before spring.

This Larch (Larix laricina) is so blindingly bright that it seems impossible to not see it from everywhere in the garden. I think it must have just turned color quickly because I know I could not have walked past it without seeing it.

On the downside this autumn:

Our paperbark maple which is the last tree to turn color — an intense red — just lost all its leaves in the last two days without seriously coloring up. 

In my sunnier beds, the Alliums I planted in 2022 are popping up and growing as a result of our hot/cold/warm weather conditions. I think this means they will not flower come next spring. They put on a nice show this year so I decided not to add any more bulbs in that area. We'll see what happens come June.

Early November report

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! —
November!

— Thomas Hood

It's the beginning of the first full week of November in my Z5 garden in southern Wisconsin and that poem is all wrong this year. This morning it's 56°F as I am writing this at 8 a.m. Yesterday in the garden birds were flocking to the water bowl. The last stems of Aconitum (monkshood) and Chrysanthemum 'Sheffield' were still flowering despite some frosty nights.

There are colorful leaves on the ground and the roof but lots of green leaves still on ferns, assorted perennials and trees. Our Paperbark Maple hasn't even begun to turn color. Here's a sampling of what the garden looks like right now.

Hamamelis virginiana (Witch Haze) is in full bloom and has dropped its leaves so you can actually see the flowers.

Of course, it's not easy to see the flowers without a nice Yew hedge behind this shrub.

Dawn redwoods are deciduous. This one, 'Ogon', is a bright chartreuse all summer before it turns its needle-like foliage a gorgeous cinnamon. I love it when it's in the middle of that change-over and there are bright gold tips at the ends of many of the autumn toned branches. 

I have three varieties of Hackonechloa in multiple locations in the garden. H. macra is shrinking up without ever putting out their inflorescence.

H. 'All Gold' has "flowered" like crazy.

I always wait for a few frosts to put an end to the Hostas. Once that happens it's easy to just pull the foliage off the plant rather than having to cut all those stems.

Hellebores, Geranium macrorrhizum, Vancouver and many ferns, like this Dryopteris crassirhizoma, are still bright green. 

Winter lasts such a seemingly long time that I am not going to complain about this unusually lovely weather. A little rain would make it perfect.

Wordless Wednesday

PHOTO BY MARK GOLDBACH