Each Little World

Slo mo

Every time I check the weather, the forecast has changed. Rain has turned to chance of light snow or frozen mix despite daytime temps barely dropping below 40°F for the next ten days. Monday and Tuesday were mostly sunny and we hit 50°F both days, so there has been progress in the garden — just not with the snowdrops. Most still have barely appeared. But other things have. 

Paeonia japonica. I aways leave Peony stems in place in the autumn to mark the location come spring. Since they arrive early I want to be sure I don't step in the danger zone.

Paeonia mairei, a Chinese woodland Peony that blooms very early and can take some shade. I like Peony buds as much as the flowers. 

Since I planted a few Tulips acuminata in this bed last fall, that's what I am assuming these leaves represent. I caged them as soon as I took the photo. No other spring bulbs are showing anywhere else. 

Last spring, I planted three Galanthus 'Mrs. Macnamara' "in the green." Whether the other two will flower is unclear. 

At the same time I planted two bulbs of G. 'Wasp.' Clearly they are very happy. I'll be happy when they opens their "wings" and look more waspish.

Hamamelis vernalis is the spring-blooming witch hazel. Alas, it is not a Wisconsin native as I assumed when I planted it. Very insignificant flowers and a poor shot by the gardener. But you get the idea: The Carex growing beneath it is more interesting.

One of the drawbacks of Witch Hazels is the fact that they hold their leaves for a long time which often obscures the flowers. Luckily this is the only branch with foliage still on it. The green ribbon marks a tree that our aborist is treating.

The long view

Looking down the length of the roof on Mark's fence across the back of our garden. Now those shingles are moss covered and some have fallen off. The tree in the foreground is the old cherry tree that got taken down last winter. 

A good reminder that short term thinking doesn't work well in a garden. The start of a new year is a good time for me to remember that it also doesn't always work that well in life itself. 

A look back at 2022

As gardening years go, 2022 was an unusual one. We had three major garden tours: One each in June, July and August. Won't ever do that again. I felt like all I did was get the garden in shape for other people. It was fun on one level, but it also kept me from just hanging out in my own garden.

This coming garden season I will be alone in my garden as the city will be tearing up our street for a summer-long project. So I will get to see if I really prefer that.

Here's a more detailed look back at 2022. 

JANUARY

I ordered more plants on-lilne at the start of the year than ever before. I'm not sure if I've even got room for much else, but I am currently getting emails from nurseries left and right. 

FEBRUARY

When Mark built the fence across the back of our property, he encased the old cherry tree that was growing there. We should have taken it down but we were using any extra cash for garden design and plants in those days. The tree finally came out in February making it possible to see the spectacular Dawn Redwood in our neighbor's garden.

I love watching the arborists work in the most awkward situations. 

MARCH

The Witch Hazel put on a great show before any other plants were pushing up.

APRIL

April Food's Day gave us snow and then the temps started climbing quickly . . .

until it snowed again mid-month. Pretty common weather for us.

MAY 

For the first time in long time, I planted multiple containers. Some had shrubs waiting for a final home, some were filled with bulbs or houseplants like Begonias. A big Buttonbush shrub in a pot is temporarily filling the space where half of a large Pagoda dogwood died over the winter. 

JUNE

We drove out to Vermont at the beginning of the month for my sister's memorial celebration, which was a lovely event. I dug these Primroses out of her garden to add to my garden as a way to remember her. 

A week after we got home, Mark had surgery for his A-fib and the following week the Garden Blogger's Fling visited us. Lots of fun to see long time blogger friends and meet new ones.

We we so pleased that at least a couple of people actually went into the Tea House and sat down. (I downloaded this photo from the Fling site and don't have any id's.)

JULY

I took advantage of the city putting off tearing up our street to invite members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society to stop by. This photo is by Steven King, the new president of the Wisconsin Daylily Society. I love the images he and other visitors took of the garden. So often standing in places where I had never thought to stop with my camera before. 

AUGUST

The first week of August I took advantage of early sales and bought even more plants. These are all from our local nursery, K & A.

SEPTEMBER

I spent a chunk of the month ripping out and redoing areas that had never quite been finished or had become problematic for many reasons. Two new shrubs were added in this narrow bed on the west side of the house. 

OCTOBER

We had spectacular fall color everywhere in the garden and it lasted and lasted. A memorable autumn. 

We took out another old and diseased evergreen tree (you can see the stump below), along with a Korean maple that had succumbed to verticillium wilt. Our arborists also did pruning on the trees that had suffered winter damage. 

NOVEMBER

All the problems I had with Typepad got me thinking about archival projects. I've kept years of big and little journals on the garden, trips, menus and parties. Now I've started making some physical books to remember the garden down the road when we're no longer living here.

DECEMBER

On December 9th we had such heavy wet snow that Mark went out to try to clean off the trees. I went out the following week to do the same after the next snow fall. On Thursday, Dec. 23, I noted that it was -7°F (and felt like -29°F, according to WeatherBug) at 9 p.m. The next Thursday, Dec. 29, the high was 50*F. which made the snow disappear overnight. Not really sure what to expect next.

Though we have a lot of winter left to get through here, I'm anxious to get out in the garden and hopeful that most of my new plantings will have successfully weathered our winter. 

Autumn perfection

The garden has never looked better in autumn than this year. This is the view from the spot I aways sit in our living room. Once I sit down, I've hardly been able do anything but look out the window at this glorious scene. 

Of course, the above photo is one I intended to post when Typepad started acting up. In the intervening days, that green tree turned red and now all of them have lost most of their leaves.

Gorgeous warm weather today, followed by rain and temps dropping into the 30s — if the weather forecast is to be believed. 

Where they went No. 2

More looks at where some of my 2022 plant purchases have gone.

. . . 

The Lower Moon Garden

Thuja orientalis 'Franky Boy' performed beautifully in a pot all summer.

It has such great texture that it was nice enjoying it up close.

Its permanent location is far out in the front garden. Given it's potential size — 4'-6' high x 3'-4' wide — I am hoping it won't take too long for to become visible at a glance out the kitchen window. Right now it's barely noticeable among the nearby ferns, ground cover shrubs and trees.

Once the leaves disappear and the Geraniums die back for winter, it will definitely be more visible, especially with a little snow cover on the ground.

The West Gate Garden

On the west side of the house we planted three seedling European spindle trees that I bought from the original Heronswood nursery. Opposite them were three burning bushes original to the house. Over time, both plantings were devastated by tent caterpillars and we removed them all.The ground covers in this 2011 photo are also long gone.

I loved the transition from the shady front space to this short sunny corridor. But Mark has been after me to put something taller in there. I don't want to lose all that light so I have been focusing on tall but narrow plantings. 

On the front left is a Thuja occidentals 'DeGroot's Spire' which will get around 16' high and a little under 3' wide. This is the last big plant that I intend to put in this area. It went in late in the summer. 

There are clumps of Epimediums echoing the same plants across the path. Between them on the left is a very small Taxus cuspidata 'Amersfoort' (6' x 4'), followed by a Cornus sericea 'Pucker Up' (eventually 4' tall) and ending with a Carpinus betulus 'Columnar nana', a dwarf fastigiate Hornbeam that will ultimately get up to 6'-8'.

Serious fall color

The trees in the front garden have rapidly turned color in the last week and one has already lost its leaves. Most plants are still very green making the red foliage pop. For the first time the leaves on our Burning Bush are an intense red — the result of much more sun without the old Sugar Maple tree that came down last winter. I'm standing with my back towards the street, directly under the burning bush, looking toward the house.

The orange leaves on the left belong to an Acer Manchuricum, while the gold ones on the right are from Acer tschonoskii. The small weeping yellow tree in the center is a 'Tina' crabapple. 

The Burning Bush in all its autumn glory. 

The Acer tschonoskii lost its leaves first which means this gorgeous moment was very fleeting. 

'Tina' was bright yellow late last week and is already moving into less attractive brown tones.

This tall, narrow Acer triflorum is one of our favorite trees in the garden. 

I particularly enjoy this low branch that drapes over the Japanese forest grass. The grassy backdrop is perfect to set off the tree's foliage . . .

no matter what stage of fall color it's showing. 

The top of the tree in the sun is always brighter and often the leaves even look shinier than the more matte foliage down where I can easily see it. I think that is just the way it looks to me and not a true difference. 

An early Locust pod

More and more our honey locusts drop endless amounts of seedpods in the autumn. At that point in the year they are dark brown. Some are velvety and some are glossy. 

But I've  never seen one at this stage of its development with that warm orangey tone with the apple green edge. It had the soft velvet texture and was too pretty not to capture in a photo.

IVOM: Stewartia pseudocamellia

We planted our Stewartia 22 years ago in an area where we kept adding another unusual tree. We assumed some would die but no one did. Last year we had to take out one of them  as they were crowding each other. The Stewartia stayed, even though we can only see it when we go looking for it.

We usually discover it's blooming when we find its flowers on the ground. As I was cleaning them up, I set aside the most recently fallen ones to take indoors.

When I float Hellebores, I always pack the bowl full of blooms. With Stewartia, I think fewer flowers look more elegant. 

The central "poppy seeds" make this flower perfect for my favorite speckled dark brown bowl.

Last winter we took out an old cherry tree that was shading the corner where the Stewartia grows. Hoping that more light will cause a few blooms to form on the lower branches so we can enjoy them before they fall to the ground. 

Back from the dead

We planted our 'Forest Pansy' redbud tree, 22 years ago this month. It's a tree with big gorgeous leaves summer and fall (below). We had a lot of winter dieback the first few years which made us nervous about the tree's survival. It also leafed out later than any other Redbuds in the neighborhood. 

When we checked with Peter Moersh at Stonewall Nursery, he gave us this advice: "If it hasn't leafed out by the 4th of July, it's probably dead." Though he was joking, we took that concept to heart and no longer worried. It was always so full and gorgeous by the 4th that we often had to prune it. This is what it looked like on June 10th of this year. 

It seemed pretty clear that last year's drought and the lack of snow during the winter had put an end to this beauty. We were too busy to do anything about it right away, other than half-heartedly talk about replacement trees. But then something happened. The two lowest branches started to leaf ou — and not just with a few scattered leaves. Still, the tree looked more than a little sad with only those two branches covered with leaves. 

By the time the 4th of July arrived, the tree was sprouting new growth all over.

New foliage was on most of the main trunks and branches.

One minute I think it looks silly; the next sublime.

It seems as though the tree is going to survive after all, though it's probably too soon to count our blessings. But two things are clear. (Double click to clearly see the live and dead branch mix.)

One: That Peter's humorous advice is spot on. And two: We're lucky we were too busy to cut the tree down.

Shakkei

Shakkei is a Japanese term that refers to incorporating views of a neighboring landscape into one's garden. We've enjoyed our neighbors' huge old Forsythia 'Beatrix Farrand' for as long as we've lived in this house.. Some years the branches have come right through the fence and we've told our neighbors not to prune them on our account. This is the view along the fence path approaching our hoses and faucet  — and the gate into their garden so we can enjoy their plants up close.

Their Magnolia stellata is always a wonderful sight. Usually our trees are more leafed out and the line between the properties is not so obvious. 

Next up will be their hot pink and orange Rhododendron shrubs. A perfect pairing of colors from the 1960s.