Each Little World

End of the month views

One of the visitors to our Open Garden last Friday evening was Steven King, Vice President of the Wisconsin Daylily Society — and an excellent photographer. He posted a wonderful group of images of our garden on the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society FB page. Pam Penick's photos in late June gave me a series of end-of-the-month views of my garden then. Now Steven's July images let me see what things are looking like one month later.

It is always fascinating to see what captures someone else's eye when they visit your garden. I have a tendency to take pictures from the same locations over and over again.

Steven shot a number of views from spots where I never stop or in directions that I rarely look. I love it when I look at a photo of my own garden and have to stop and figure out where it was taken.

Even familiar views look different when taken from a different angle . . .

or closer in . . .

Steven and I talked about turning around and taking a photo of where you've just been. 

The image above and the one below are opposite each other. You only see one view unless you turn around.

Steven got the perfect shot of the new symbolic water garden. The western sun lit up the pattern of water drops in the pond. 

Thank you again, Steven, for all the wonderful photos you took of our garden and for sharing them with the members of the WHPS.

Open Garden Tonight

This week the temperatures dropped down into the 70°s with the highs only hitting the low 80°s. I decided it was the perfect moment to host an open garden evening for members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society. The garden is definitely showing the effects of this hot summer. But the cooler temps meant Mark and I had the energy to work outdoors and spruce things up. And it will actually be pleasant to be out in the garden from 4:30 until 7:30 this evening. 

Local inspiration

Last month four members of the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society opened their gardens for late afternoon/evening tours. Our "garden girls" gang of four toured them together. That way we got to socialize, share info and answer each other's questions.

The plant behind the Rodgersia (below) is Stylophorum diphyllum aka Wood Poppy, happily growing in the garden of Mary Ellen and Tom LaChance. This can be fairly aggressive in a woodland garden. When I've found it in my garden I've always pulled it out. But it was used to great effect in two of the gardens. I fell in love with it on this tour and just ordered one for my garden. 

I have not had success with the flashier varieties of Athyrium ferns but I am ready to try again. I think this is A. 'Oceans Fury' and I have a spot for it next to my Hakonechoa grass to recreate this scene from Rita Thomas' garden. 

This pairing of a Hosta with Shredded Umbrella Leaf (Syneilesis aconitifolia) in Rita's garden is a much more attractive combination than the grouping in my garden. Another idea worth imitating. 

Andrea Diss-Torrance lives around the corner from where I shared a flat in the 1970s. This is a view of her neighbor's back steps from the path into Andrea's back garden. Not really my style and yet it's pure perfection catches my heart.

Andrea is a serious gardener and uses her side of the path for plantings and tools.

She is the queen of container plants with dozens of them staged on her back deck which has steps framing two sides. 

She has a greenhouse/shed and incredible willow structures to hold up climbers. Most amazing of all are her wattle fences. Her property is a lesson in garden history as well as proof that you can be creative in small spaces. 

Stephanie O'Neal's garden is another example of small space gardening. When I got home I realized I spent so much time talking with Stephanie that I never took any pictures of her garden.

Garden Girls

Like most gardeners, I love my own garden the best. Part of that is the fact that I am the designer as well as the one who decides which plant and where and who actually puts it in the ground. It is that familiarly that breeds contentment.

Not long ago I realized I have three gardening friends who all live on my side of town and whose gardens I have visited enough to be quite familiar with as well. I decided we should form an informal group to visit each other's gardens, talk gardens, get in-person advice and share books, information and ideas. But no set meeting schedule, no projects, no fees or obligations.

We've met four times and have seen all the gardens but one. At our last meet-up we all brought books, computers, 3-ring binders and talked about how we keep track of our plantings and how effective each particular system is working for each of us. One person even brought a beautiful piece of stained glass she'd just made that she later installed in her garden. When we're not meeting, we're emailing each other with reminders of events, questions and links to articles, plant lists and Youtube videos.  

I'm sure that this desire to hang out with fellow gardeners in person is a lingering result of our year of living COVIDLY and mostly gardening via Zoom. Though I am a long time member of Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society (and am on their excellent FB page many times a day), nothing has proved as much fun as getting together in living color with this like-minded group. 

Light at the end of the tunnel

After four endless years, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible at last .. .

So get up, get out and VOTE (if you haven't done so already)! 

Photos from a WHPS trip to Villa Terrace, Milwaukee.

Foliage and more foliage

By high summer, flowers and color have been banished to the very back of my garden. I want green and serene when I look out from now on.    

Clockwise from left front: Hosta 'Spritzer,' Cornus 'Golden Shadows,' Adiantum pedatum,  Tiarella 'Running Tapestry,' Carex Divulsa, Brunnera macrophylla 'Alexander's Great,' Deinanthe caerula and Heuchera 'Autumn Haze'  

Acer tegmentosum 'White Tigress,' Athyrium hybrida 'Ghost' and Hosta 'El Nino' 

Astilbe 'Garnet,' Hosta 'Shade Fanfare,' Brunnera macrophylla 'Sea Heart,' Melica unipolar f. albida  (grassy foliage) and Paeonia veitchii (The black hole in the center is probably more  Heuchera 'Autumn Haze')

Athyrium niponicum var. 'Pictum', Hostas 'Spritzer' and 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd'

Kirengeshoma palmata, Geranium phaeum 'Samobor' and Heuchera 'Palace Purple'

Paeonia japonica, Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold,' Athyrium niponicum var. 'Pictum' and Epimedium 'Lilac Fairy'

Polystichum acrostichoides aka Christmas fern, Carex morrowi 'Ice Dance,' Hosta 'Inniswood,' Heuchera 'Green Spice,' Tiarella 'Elizabeth Oliver,' Carex caryophylla 'Beatlelmania/Mophead' and Epimediumx youngianum 'Baby Doll Pink'

The next two photographs offer close-ups of the grassy foliage in the above picture. Polystichum acrostichoides, Carex morrowi 'Ice Dance' and Heuchera 'Green Spice

Tiarella 'Elizabeth Oliver' and Carex caryophylla 'Beatlelmania/Mophead,' which is much more yellow in person

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.