Each Little World

When FaceBook is fabulous

Some time ago, the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society decided to have a FB page. Initially things were posted by a group of "administrators;" I was one of them. But once we opened posting to the full membership, it started to take off.

Now that WHPS has had to cancel all their meetings and garden tours for the foreseeable future, the FB page has become the replacement. It is the place to share images of our gardens, to ask for plant identification and design advice. Now there are weekly "challenges," inviting members to show their native plants, their garden paths and currently, the art in their gardens. 

LINDA LEE WOOLBRIGHT: GARDEN ART/MARQUETTE COUNTY

I find I am visiting the site constantly to see what's new, who's commenting, and on and on. I've been blogging for a dozen years but nothing has been as much fun or as social as this site. Maybe it's because many of the gardeners posting know each other from WHPS meetings and have visited each other's gardens on various tours. Or maybe it's just because, as members, we are mostly all Wisconsinites, and are curious about gardens in other parts of the state and want to share our experience and expertise.

JOSEPH SMOOT: PASSION VINE

All the gardeners I know will admit that our gardens — as sources of both respite and activity — are helping us to cope with our stay-at-home lives. I can only add that the WHPS Facebook Page is equally helpful. It's a place where we can be social, at a distance but without masks, and revel in the beauty of nature and everyone's gardens.

PAMELA SMITH: CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THIS PLANT IS?

If your garden club or hort society does not have a FB page like this, convince them to start one. You won't regret it. 

Dog Tooth violets and friends

I am thrilled Erythronium 'White Splendor' flowered despite a week of overnight temperatures below freezing.

I am equally happy that all five tubers I planted appeared; the start of a nice little swath of this beauty. 

i would grow this variety for the foliage alone, even though it is ephemeral. 

But I really wanted to see the flowers in person so I could add some other ephemerals to keep them company. 

I love to see early bloomers in UK gardens, but it is much harder to create a similar scene in the Upper Midwest in April. Ed Lyons' recent post about Corydalis — on the WHPS FB page — spurred me to make a few purchases to befriend the Erythroniums.

Corydalis glaucescens 'Pink Beauty'

C. integra.

Corydalis solida 'Vermion Dawn'

Subtle variations on a theme. Hopefully not to subtle to create a eye-catching spring display next year. 

Not quite wordless Wednesday

I could not resist capturing an image of the twisted limb on this fruit tree that I saw on one of last summer's WHPS garden tours.  Can't wait until some green starts showing on the trees in my garden.

Lake Forest: An estate garden

I was one of a busload of gardeners from the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society who visited this estate garden last summer on a very hot, very sunny day. I am including a few images you've already seen of the entrance courtyard and the Japanese Tea House to put the entire property in context.

Our bus dropped us off at the street end of this expansive driveway. We turned left at the garage  . . .

and walked along a covered portico to enter the garden. That sliding shoji-style door on the right was a restroom that the hosts opened for us. You can imagine how thankful and surprised we were at this unexpected gesture. 

We continued along the wooden walkway, getting enticing glimpses of what awaited us.

We turned left at the end of the walkway where it skirted the house before opening into the garden. 

This large piece of sculptural wood marked the corner. 

This was the view as we left the covered walkway.

This stream was on the other side of the shrubs that edged the walkway. 

It curved out into this water feature. 

You could walk up this slope using the rocks as stepping stones between these beautiful swaths of weeping Blue Spruce. 

The folks walking through this shady spot give you a sense of the size of this specimen rock. 

A cloudy and misty day must make these lichens glow. 

This garden was big enough to include large sculptures and to let you enjoy them in long views as well as close-up. 

The Tea House was in this woodsy area on the far side of the garden from the house as well. 

This is the view along the side of the house and garage where we entered the garden — but looking in the opposite direction. 

This little path took you to the back side of the water feature. 

Both ends of this long walkway had unusual natural sculptures.

A beautiful garden, beautifully maintained. 

Lake Forest: The Tea House

Since we have a Japanese-style Tea House in our garden, I was quite excited when I looked across this Illinois garden last summer on our WHPS tour and saw a familiar structure nestled in the trees. 

Like our Tea House, it was stucco. 

I was quite taken with this narrow "veranda" and the beautiful textiles blowing in the breeze.

Flowers and a scroll in the Tokonoma, a display area in a Tea House. 

Every detail in this little building was beautifully done. 

It is not often that one visits a private garden with its own Tea House. I was excited to have the chance to see it up close; definitely impressive. I went home very happy with our Tea House which is a more rustic style but equally impressive, if I do say so myself. 

Lake Forest: A courtyard garden

Last summer I visited what can only be called an estate garden in Lake Forest, Illinois with a members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society. Our bus dropped us off on a quiet, densely wooded street with impressive houses at every turn. Though we did not see the inside of this house, the garden suggests it was equally beautiful. But what was most memorable about this garden was the charm and friendliness of the owners.

The front courtyard garden is the entry area to the house. The garage is to the left and the front door is through the opening on the right.

The rocks and weeping trees offer a hint to the Japanese influences that are to be found throughout this garden. 

The subtle house materials and the dark entrance let the greenery shine. 

The ground cover evergreen shrubs offer a textural contrast to the rock work, whether stone pathways or sculpture. 

You can't tell from these views but the house is situated on the edge of a ravine. 

Garden visits: Pots empty and overflowing

A few more scenes from the garden of Bruce and Linda Christensen. As someone whose garden features large, unplanted pots you can imagine how taken I was with these dramatic containers.  

When you treat pots like sculpture, the surrounding plants can be subtle like evergreen shrubs and solid green Hostas. The Hosta in the photo below looks like the so-called "August lily," a variety whose fragrant white flowers will completely change this scene late in the summer. 

The rippling grasses and Hosta foliage emphasizes the movement on this pot to me. 

Not all the containers in the garden were empty. 

Most of them were filled with annuals which made for bright spots of color amidst the greenery. 

I am a big fan of this Begonia and keep intending to grow it.

Though it is a drama queen from some views, in other directions it merely provides an additional bit of color. 

Garden visits: Linda and Bruce Christensen

We first met Linda and Bruce Christensen a dozen years ago when we visited each other's gardens to share experiences with water features, specifically ponds and waterfalls. I remember being impressed with their garden on that first visit; this time I was overwhelmed by its mature beauty. 

This is a garden that keeps you moving deeper and deeper into it, around curving shrubs, along grassy paths and over bubbling streams. 

The mossy rocks and Koi suggest this garden is in the Pacific Northwest, not southern Wisconsin.

We grow Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' which has foliage that is a similar color but the shape and scale of this weeping variety turn it into a focal point. 

The quiet planting around the Redbud also emphasize its star quality. 

One of the things that struck me about the Christensen's garden when I looked at the photos is how they use workhorse perennials and shrubs. They're planted in drifts and sweeps that give them a dramatic presence.  

Since this generous planting is only one kind and one color of flower, it draws your attention but not in quite the same way as the mixed planting at the edges of the beds. 

They also feature uncommon varieties of a common Midwestern workhorse like Hostas, mixing them in a thoughtful combination of color, size and leaf shape. The quiet Yew background gives them room to shine.

I am a big fan of gooseneck loosestrife and used to grow it in a small plot surrounded by concrete. 

It was a thrill to see it in a large display out in the garden, though it appeared to be held in check by stone paths. 

A section of lawn swept around to the exit leading out to the driveway . . .

where we came upon the last colorful and wildly dramatic planting along the edge of the driveway.

Garden visits: Houses for birds and gardeners

With a garden building this attractive, you can be sure the birds at Bruce and Linda Christensen's will have equally noteworthy houses and feeders. 

Garden visits: Ken and Jean Nordlund

Every time I've visited the Nordlund's garden, it is more lovely than the last. Ken says that he couldn't do much more than "distinguish a petunia from a pine tree" when he and Jean moved to this house in 1989. Even a brief glance at this front garden indicates this is the home of a consummate plants person. Front to back and side to side, this is a swoon-worthy garden. 

Heading around the garage (to the left in the above photo) is this walkway with a tall hedge creating a narrow garden room.

The garage wall on the right holds attractive trellises for clematis to scramble over. 

This is the view as you walk out into the gardens behind the house: big trees, hedges and deep dramatic beds of plants and grasses.  

As someone who loves a tightly clipped hedge, I am in awe of this sweep of yew setting off a space for entertaining right in the midst of the garden. 

This garden has a number of Carexs as well as grasses. 

The fenced area in the center back of the view below is the vegetable garden. 

A dairy state icon guards the veggies.

Continuing towards the back left side of the garden leads you to an entirely unexpected view. 

From the street, it is not obvious that the Nordlund's home and those of their neighbors circle a hidden park.

Ken and his neighbors are working on a prairie landscape where his and other properties adjoin this community space. 

Back in the main garden, we are now looking at the beds that border the right side of the property. If you need to reorient yourself, go back to the 3rd or 7th images which show wide views. 

Another garden visitor provides a sense of the scale of some of the hedges and plants. These borders are deep enough that that have paths running through the middle of them. 

Whether you look up . . .

or down, there is something wonderful to see.

All good things must come to an end. 

i'm already looking forward to this year's tours of gardens of members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society.