Each Little World

GBBG: 6.15.2021

Our prolonged hot weather has meant that many flowers are blooming together which do not usually appear at the same time. I've been cutting them to enjoy indoors rather than let the heat do them in as soon as they open. Thus I am combining my vases with Bloom Day. 

Itoh intersectional Peony ' Border Charm' with Heuchera flowers

Peonies are satisfying at every stage from emerging foliage to seed pods.

I moved the vase away from the gold Japanes screen on the wall to get a photo of the true color. 

This is a Victorian brass vase on a stand, probably Chinese. I thought it was a good match for the flower which has a bit of an over-the-top Victorian flavor. 

Heuchera flowers don't make much of an impression in the garden, but I love them in a bouquet. 

Allium 'Forelock'

Lilium martagon 'Claude Shride' in the red room. Another impossible location to take a good photo. But I can never resist the red on red effect. 

This glass vase by Richard Jones of the late Studio Paran has different designs on the front and back.

Both sides, however, have a thin red line which makes this my go-to vase for red flowers. 

A Peony whose petals are gone and is quickly turning to seeds in the center. Love this moment with Peonies. 

IVOM: Spring bounty

Frost was forecast for Friday night, though it only got down to 37°F, so the garden came through in fine fettle. Saturday the low was expected to be 39°F. but Weather Bug said it was 34°F. when I checked at 5 a.m. Sunday morning. Come on; we are at Memorial Day weekend. By the end of this week we will be in the mid-80°F. when it is not yet summer. The weird weather continues.

A couple of rainy days mid-week sent me to cut flowers before the frost arrived. Aquilegia 'Black Barlow' has seeded in so many places I no long remember where it was first planted. I also grow A. 'Nora Barlow' but she always looks a little fussy compared to this member of the Barlow family.

I cut a few broken fronds of Maidenhair fern and the native Thalictrum dioucum to see how they would work as foliage in a vase. After a few days the ferns were starting to fade and curl but the Thalictrum is perfect. This is a plant that seeded in the garden and I am going to start spreading it around as it is a great filler. 

'Bowles Golden' millet, a yellow Yew, a pale Heuchera leaf and two kinds of Euphorbia fill this little teacup. 

You really can't tell the flowers are from two different Euphorbias; but the difference in the garden in color and size is striking. One is Euphorbia 'Bonfire' which is about 10" tall and the other is Euphorbia palustris which is about 3'. I was totally surprised at the similarity when I put them together. 

Peony 'Burnished Bronze' is a real drama queen compared to all the soft colors in the garden at the moment. 

She looked lovely for a few days before she decided she was done. I love watching a Peony go to seed. 

I planted these Alliums at least 20 years ago and they got shaded out. But they have started to re-appear where I don't want them: at the base of special trees where it will be dangerous to dig deep enough to find the bulbs. I cut them all for a bouquet so they can't go to seed and make the problem a bigger one. I do love their ghostly beauty along with a shadow of the big Lohan sculpture. 

I have a serious amount of planting to catch up with after a couple of weeks of too hot and too cold temps, rain and very high winds. Hoping for a few days of rational weather to get some work done in the garden. 

GBBD: 5.15.2021

Despite temps dropping down into the 30s on Thursday night, things are looking good in the garden. Now if it would only rain.

Trillium grandiflora

Malus sargentii 'Tina'

Rhododendron 'Yaku Angel'

Paeonia japonica

Peony "Molly the Witch"

Japanese painted fern with Epimedium 'Domino'

Primroses, late daffs and Tulips, Bleeding hearts, Ladyslipper orchids, Brunnera and Jacob's Ladder are adding color to the garden. But the group above are the main drama queens at the moment. 

The Peonies are popping

Our unseasonably warm weather and a bit of rain have the species Peonies bulking up quickly. These Peonies are very early in any year, but they are making quite a statement for mid-April. I have a number of different varieties, including a few that I thought disappeared and then showed up again; as a result I am definitely confused about names.

This is a seedling I moved that turned out quite differently from what I was expecting. Or was it a plant resurfacing that I put in this new spot. Just ordered a Peony book from the library to help me make sense of all my varieties. 

This is P. mairei, a Chinese Peony and the first to bloom in my garden every year. 

A few warm sunny days and these buds will be open. 

P. japonica is hot on the heels of P. mairei. 

I am assuming the tiny clump on the left is the same as the big Peony obvata willmottiae on the right. But given my propensity for moving things, I am not positive. 

We are supposed to get down to 32°F tonight and low 30s for the next few nights. Very unnerving. I will be covering these and lots of other plants whose buds might freeze with such a low temp. Don't want to take any chances. 

Sad news from Song Sparrow

When I look back on the year 2020, it won't be the pandemic that I will remember most — as crazy as that sounds. It will be the loss of the two nurseries that have been my go-to sources for plants since I started gardening. First Flower Factory closed its doors in September with the retirement of its owners, Nancy and David Nedveck.

Now comes the news that Song Sparrow Nursery will close at the end of this year. I always refer to the nursery as Klehm's Song Sparrow because it was still owned by the Klehm family when I first discovered it. In recent years, the staff took over the business. 

Members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society taking advantage of a few hours of special on-site shopping at the Song Sparrow nursery on a chilly day in May, 2013 (above).

 

I've been shopping at Khelm's for so long that my memories and list of plants from them are both endless. I still have one of the first catalogs I ever got from them — 1995 — when they were still located in Illinois, before they moved to Wisconsin. The catalog was for mail-order plant purchases and remains the most beautiful garden catalog I've ever seen. It was a square format (9" x 9") with thick, high quality paper. There were limited color photos on glossy paper, grouped in three sections: Peonies, Daylilies and Perennials.

The rest of the book (it was 109 pages!) was detailed with beautiful watercolor illustrations, like the one on the cover (below) by Marcella J. Spanogle. The design quality, time and attention to detail that went into the creation of the catalog suggested to me that any plants I ordered from this lovely book would be of equal quality. And that has proven true, right up to my most recent order.

When I had a sunny garden in the early 1990s, Klehm was my go-to source for unusual daylilies, including those with small flowers like 'Cricket' that suited my small garden at the time. When I moved to a larger garden, Klehm provided me with Hemerocallis 'Tetrina's Daughter,' a daylily with four foot high stems that bloomed at the end of the day with a extreme lemony fragrance.

How many of us are still growing Paeonia 'Soft Salmon Joy', the Peony plant that Roy Klehm gave to every member of the WHPS at the October, 2001 meeting where he spoke to the group? Mine is still going strong (below, after a spring rain storm), even after having been moved during a construction project. 

Perhaps my most notable memory of Klhem's is the year I ordered three Martagon lilies from them. They were expensive enough that it took me a while to decide to take the plunge. When my plants arrived I was stunned to find three narrow boxes, each at least three feet tall. I assumed I was getting bulbs but, instead, I received three plants that were fully budded with stems as tall as the boxes they were housed within.

The boxes opened like a closet door to easily remove the plants without damaging them. In fact, not a bud had come off in the time those lilies left Klehm's and arrived at my house. At that moment I fully understood the cost of shipping and I've never complained about that expense again. (Martagons in bud in my garden).

It is heartbreaking to know that I will never again get a catalog or a package of plants from such a rare and historic nursery as Klehm's Song Sparrow. Best wishes and a healthy and safe future to all the wonderful people who made Song Sparrow such a trusted and treasured name among gardeners.

Early fall color

Though autumn has officially arrived, the garden has very little fall color. But what's there, is fairly dramatic. This is one of my favorite pond plants: Penthorum seloides aka Star fruit. 

Ilex verticillata 'Berry Poppins' living up to her name. 

Seedheads of Paeonia obvata var. alba.

Spots of color inside and out

We are having a heat and humidity wave but the rain keeps passing us by. I picked a quick bouquet of Heuchera flowers. I have a number of plants of this variety but haven't a clue as to which one it is. I only know it produces more flowers than any other one I grow. 

I brought in this broken branch from one of my species Peonies indoors because I love the seed pods. They start out looking like green jester's caps. 

To my surprise, it opened up to display its dramatic interior after a few days in water in the house. The red seeds are the infertile ones.

My Rosa glauca only got flowers on one long cane. I really grow it for the foliage and it never got Japanese beetles this summer, so I am more than happy with this modest display of rose hips coloring up. The foliage in this photo is from the Peony and Hellebore growing beneath the rose. 

June is busting' out all over

I did not publish this yesterday on June Bloom Day as I took these photos a week ago. Hot weather, wind and rain has brought an end to most of what you see here. Our late frosts seem to have put an end to the buds of many of my lilies, so the garden is not as floriferous as I was expecting it to be. 

Roses and no bugs so far. I grow this mainly for the foliage, but it will be fun to have rose hips come autumn. 

 A once in a life time event: Flowers on my Helleborus foetidus. Not as dramatic as the photos I always see; but I'm not complaining. 

Alliums under a golden Dawn Redwood. These have unexpectedly reappeared after an absence of many years. 

This Iris was planted by the family that built our house in the 1950s.

An Iris that doesn't mind its feet getting wet. 

Clelmatis 'Guernsey Cream'

Peony 'Golden Angel' has golden early foliage and pale yellow flowers but these have faded to white. 

Peony 'Burnished Bronze' had a record number of buds which opened in 24 very hot hours. And then were dispatched by heavy rains. 

We had a bout of cooler weather so I have been digging up, moving, adding and rearranging in the garden. Lots of fun and a great way to take a break from the world. 

Perfection

When you put a plant in the ground, you hope you've given it what it needs to survive and thrive. What a thrill when it grows and turns out to be more wonderful than you ever imagined. 

A passion for Peonies

I have a baker's dozen of Peonies in my garden; one is a tree Peony (P. suffruticosa), a few are traditional herbaceous garden Peonies (P. lactiflora) and the rest are species Peonies, including a couple of clumps grown from seedlings discovered near the mother plants. As gorgeous as the flowers are, Peonies are one plant that I find fascinating at every stage, including its first appearance in spring.

This is P. obvata var. alba emerging.

A clump of her seedlings growing into a nice plant. 

I usually leave Peony stems over the winter so I can easily find these early risers. This is P. Japonica on March 10th.

P. japonica on April 17, fully budded and leafed out but not quite ready to bloom 

P. mairei on March 10. 

P. mairei is just waiting for the cold weather to end to bloom. 

P. 'Burnished Bronze' absolutely glows at this season. 

My newest Peony, planted last autumn, is 'Golden Angel' whose stems clearly emerge red/gold unlike any of my other Peonies. The leaves have yellow tones, complementing the yellow flowers. 

P. 'Nosegay' is another early bloomer; a cross between P. mlokosewitschi and P. tennufolia. 

Another seedling; most likely P. japonica.

P. vetchii and P. mlokosewitschii are barely visible while P. ludlowii has not made an appearance at all. P. ludlowii has never bloomed for me, but its foliage makes a  tropical statement so I don't mind the lack of flowers.