Each Little World

In a vase on Friday

A thunderstorm with possible tornados was forecast for Saturday for our area. So I cut a lot of flowers for the house, knowing they would be a mess if we did get a big storm. We got .57" (1.44 cm.) of rain and the next day the temperature shot up to 83°F. (28.33°C.), so I was glad I grabbed some blooms at the optimum moment. 

Muscari pardoxum, an 1880 heirloom variety in the rear vase; Muscari ''Valerie Finnis; in the foreground with Brunnera.

Muscari pardoxum flowers are a very dark blue with pale yellow interiors visible as they open. 

This rogue Muscari, colored bright purple, is most likely M. botryoides.

This vase is fun to use because you can put a different flower in each opening and it has different illustrations on the front and back. 

Tulips demand to be brought indoors where they can be enjoyed up close. 

Tulip 'Rococo' has petals highlighted with purple, yellow and green. 

I bought this vase when Madison's Studio Paran closed. I knew those red lines would be perfect with Tulips. 

In southern Wisconsin, Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalus) typically bloom for Mother's Day. This year they missed that date by a week. 

They deserve a special vase like this old Mercury glass container and just the right foliage accompaniment. 

Despite their later appearance, I opted to display them with a photo of my mother, myself and two of my sisters. I believe my mom may be pregnant with my youngest sister in this photo. 

IVOM: Clippings

The Hellebore leaves are full up and covering the fading flowers. But I can never just cut those stems and toss the flowers onto the compost pile; thus this vase. Most of these blossoms are H. 'New York Night'. I always thought the color and the name were the essence of big city sophistication. These days it just sounds doleful.  

The tall greenish flower with red edges is H. "Jade Tiger' and the shorter green blooms are H. niger.

But it is the two-toned grape hyacinths (Muscari latifolium) that bring it all to life. 

We have a rabbit family living under our deck and my attempts to trap them have not yielded anything. So I cut these tulips as soon as I saw them to save them from the bunnies. I don't know when I've brought tulips into the house that they did not suddenly open widely. So this vase this morning is much more restrained than I expected it to be. 

Linking to Rambling in the Garden, who hosts this most enjoyable Monday meme where you can see all sorts of spring garden flowers in vases. 

The last Tulips

I planted a mix of Tulips under our weeping Beech (Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain') to complement its emerging spring foliage.

They are planted among Astilbes whose early foliage is bronze-purple. I hoped that might confuse the rabbits, but the Tulips came up much faster than the Astilbes. Thus I caged the flowers as they came up to protect them from our marauding rabbits.

The Tulips are 'James Wild', 'Madras' (below), and 'Prinses Irene' (bottom).

I decided it would be too hard to fit the cages back over the Tulips and into the Astilbe foliage if I took them off for the pictures. Wrong decision. New rule: Always remove cages before snapping a photo.

IVOM: Color

We've had so much cool, gray and wet weather that spring ephemerals and bulbs have lasted a long time. In the case of many of my Tulips, it's more accurate to say that it has taken them a long time to come into full bloom. Now it feels like overnight they've exploded into bright bursts of color.

These are 'Prinses Irene' with a single red one that may be 'Rococo'.

T. 'Purperkroon' is joined by a slightly shorter black parrot type Tulip while the redder T. 'Rococo' continues to hold the bottom line. 

To see what others have plucked from their gardens to put into a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this addictive Monday meme. 

IVOM: Tulips at last

Peony japonica, Tulip 'Schoonoord' and the last Hellebore 'Sparkling Diamond' all blooming at once. More signs of a quirky Spring. 

P. japonica has flowers all open about this far. The cool weather is keeping them from exploding which is nice; but I am ready for some warmer days. 

The lovely yellow dangling bells (above) are Fritillaria pallidiflora. This stem grew in a marvelously twisted direction so it hung down when put in the vase. 

Hellebore 'Sparkling Diamond' looks as good going to seed as it does when it first blooms. 

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, stop by Rambling in the Garden where Cathy hosts all of us who don't mind clipping a few blooms from our gardens to put in a vase indoors. 

New growth on evergreens

Despite having a lot of dieback and even losing some evergreens this spring, the ones that made it though the winter are growing gorgeously. There is nothing quite as lovely as the new growth on evergreens. This beauty is a weeping Norway spruce (Picea babies 'Pendula').

Just across the driveway from the recently planted spruce is this 'Golden Splendor' Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis 'Golden Splendor'). Got this gem from Heronswood for $6.00 in 2002 and it clearly suffered no damage from the winter. It's growth habit is quite airy and it's about 10 feet tall or so. Those are yews in front of it and just to the right of the Hemlock is a golden Dawn Redwood that is out of view. 

Virtually all of the Hemlocks came through the winter with no problems as you can see from this 'Ashfied Weeper'. This one drapes over the waterfalls between the upper and lower ponds. More yews on the right and some glorious marsh ferns (Thelypterus palustris).

I have three of these lovely dwarf Japanese Hemlocks (Tsuga diversifolia 'Loowit') planted in varying amounts of sun and shade; all happy and healthy. Theses have an irregular shape and will be about 18 inches tall x 2 feet wide in ten years. 

In a vase on Monday: Bronze

We planted a weeping Beech tree — Fagus sylvatica 'Purple Fountain' — in the garden in 2010. The leaves actually emerge a peach color and then start to darken to bronze-purple and then fade to greenish purple. I decided to try some Tulips under the tree that would pick up those colors, including this one named 'Madras'. It must be a good 20 inches high. When my sister-in-law saw the flowers against the leaves a week or so ago, she said I should sacrifice them to an indoor display. And so I did.

Though the 'Madras' flowers look the same despite a different in age and light, the later Beech leaves (above) are distinctly different from the dramatic leaves picked a week earlier. 

Another simple vase this week with one kind of flower and one type of leaf. Then again this artful bamboo container would not hold much more. 

To see what other gardeners are enjoying in vases this Monday visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. She's the instigator and creator of this meme that has become a favorite of many gardeners around the world. And here is a view of the leaves turning darker and tending toward green yesterday.

In a Vase on Monday: Tulips and tea bowls

We've had such a rainy weekend that I dashed out beforehand and cut a few flowers to make bouquets for this meme and to take to a couple of social gatherings on Saturday. These 'Schoonoord' Tulips had been in a vase a good 4 or 5 days by the time I photographed them. I initially put them on a tall Chinese display stand in front of a painting by local artist Tom Sargeant because I thought the colors in the vase were similar to some of the tones in the painting.

We found the vase at the recent Clay Collective weekend where the artist — Shumpei Tamaki — had a booth set up at Mark Skudlarek's studio and shop. The vase was fired upside down in the kiln and so the drips and lines of glaze run upward when the vase is set upright. 

It didn't take long before I decided to put the vase on the fireplace since I walk by it dozens of times each day and it is directly opposite the spot where I sit to read. 

'Schoonoord' is a double Tulip and I wanted to be able to easily watch it continue to unfold and reveal touches of gold and green in its interior. The vase also has a sprig of ivy, a stem of Euonymous and a leaf from Lily of the Valley 'Hardwick Hall' (Convallaria majalis).

The vase with the Tulips is at the other end of the mantle from these two tea bowls that were also made by Shumpei Tamaki.

I walked into his booth and went directly to the large dark tea bowl on the right. I picked it up and thought "this is the one." Then I waited for Mark to arrive and I watched to see what would catch his eye. He did the exact same thing I did, so I knew that bowl was coming home with us!

He was also smitten with this one with its glassy blue/gray/green glaze. It's quite different from most of our other tea bowls because it is porcelain and has a crackle glaze which pooled "like a rim of jewels," as Mark put it. I think it will also make an attractive little flower container at some future time as well. 

To see what other gardeners have put in a vase today, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this long-running meme.

Tulip trivia

These days I only subscribe to one print garden magazine, Gardens Illustrated, which is published in the UK. I love its large format and variety of gardens and information. Besides, I am an Anglophile from way back.

One of the most intriguing articles in the last issue I got (the U.S. is always a bit behind the current issue with home delivery) was titled "Cracking the Code." It was a short piece about genomic experts unlocking the common tulip's (Tulipa gesneriana) genetic code in hopes of being able to improve breeding. The Dutch consortium which sequenced the tulip's genome notes it has about 34 giga base pairs.

Guess what? That is "almost 11 times bigger than that of humans." Apparently the "entire human genome fits into one tulip chromosome." Who knew?! Maybe that's why humans have always been so fascinated by tulips. On some level we knew there was more going on behind the scenes than we could possibily imagine. 

Bulb alert

It's April! Have you ordered your bulbs yet? I don't typically plant a lot of bulbs each year, but I always get some. I like to try something new or add more of a favorite that's done well for me in the past. Since I also like to order from specialty nurseries like Old House Gardens, Brent and Becky's Bulbs and Odyssey Bulbs, I know that I will be out of luck if I wait until summer to place my order. So for the last few years, I've been ordering my fall-planted bulbs in March. This year I'm getting two Tulip varieties that I've looked at in the past and decided now's the moment to try them. 

Tulip sylvestris:

OHG says this heirloom plant is violet-scented with "small, yellow, almond-shaped flowers that nod in bud and then open wide in the sun. Gerard pictured it in his great Herbal of 1597" and Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello. Also known as the  ""Florentine Tulip,"  T. sylvestris grows 8-14 inches tall and is hardy in zones 5a-8a.

This Tulip is unusual in that it is generally considered a perennial performer if it is happy and it is often grown in woodland settings. I am thinking of trying some bulbs near Erythronium 'Pagoda" and purple Epimediums and others near some pink and yellow Erythroniums and Fritillaries.

What I need to do next is take photos this spring so I know where to plant the bulbs when the arrive in the fall. And I need to mark those spots in some way as well.  

Tulipa whittallii

According to "The Plant Lover's Guide to Tulips" from the Kew series of guide books, T. whittallii is a species Tulip that is supposedly one of the best that can be grown in the open garden. It blooms in various shades of orange set off with a dark, round heart and is up to 12" tall with narrow leaves. The book notes that though it comes from Turkey, it is "surprisingly adaptable to cooler, wetter regions."

I planted a clumps of bronze and orange Tulips under our weeping purple Beech last fall. I put them in a rough row behind a swath of Astilbes. I am hoping I can shoehorn T. wittallii bulbs among the Astilbes which will hide the dying foliage. I like the idea of slightly shorter, more delicate Tulips contrasting with the big blowzy ones. 

The leaves of the purple Beech unfurl in lovely warm peach color with mauve and bronze overlay. The Astilbes emerge with very dark foliage — all of which should do well with the Tulip colors. Certainly it looks fabulous in my mind's eye. We will see how it looks in person eventually.