Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: 11.15.08

No shade, no shine,

No butterflies, no bees.

No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds.


November! 

Well, it’s not quite as bad as Thomas Hood suggests in his list of no-no’s. The Washington hawthorn and the crabapples still have berries and the crows woke me up the other morning.

But the surface of our pond froze for the first time this week. It thawed again but suddenly it’s past time to ready it for winter. One of the many good things about Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is that it made me decide to start keeping a record of the date of the first morning the pond is frozen. It should be a useful phenological note, especially if I couple it with the date the pond opens each spring.

My garden is shady and moist enough that moss grows in a number of places including on these bricks edging a path.

As for blooms in a Wisconsin garden in mid-November (Zone 5), there really aren’t any. I’d actually take the sight of them as another sign of global warming. As the garden goes through its stages of red and gold fading into buff, anything green — that’s not grass or evergreens — begins to look good. So here are some bits of greenery making their last statement before the snow falls.

Primula vulgaris 'Blue Sapphire': This primrose looks like Spring but the fallen cinnamon-colored needles from our neighbor's Dawn Redwood mean this is a late fall photo.

A lovely charmer whose name I can never remember. This sent out a new flush of growth after the heat of summer but will die back soon and reappear in Spring with little white flowers. Looks delicate but is very, very hardy: Isopyrum biternatum (False rue anemone).

 

Helleborus foetidus Wester Flisk group: I've had this Hellebore three years and it's marginally hardy here. Great foliage but maybe one of you can tell me is this a bud, a bloom or new growth?

Helleborus orientalis: My notes say 'Ivory Prince' but this does not look like the other plants by that name. Suffice it to say that it's striking with or without flowers. 

Heuchera 'Brownies': larger and fuzzier leaves than most coral bells.

Tiarella x cordifolia 'Running Tapestry': This foam flower does run, though rather politely, through the garden with a show of white flowers come April.

Pachysandra procumbens: Allegheny spurge or native Pachysandra. More interesting than its imported relative, this is just starting to get its tortoise shell coloring which it will hold til Spring. It will still be looking amazingly good when the snow melts.

I love Carexes for their ability to thrive in miserable soils. Carex plantaginea is a no fuss, no muss member of this group and has been slowly colonizing under a silver maple. 

Epimedium grandiflorum: This is either 'Dark Beauty' or 'Purple Prince' from Plants Delights Nursery.

Ladies' Tresses orchid (Spiranthes cernua var, odorata): This is actually the only plant blooming in the garden. Newly planted late this summer or early this fall, I am amazed that this orchid is so hardy. I had forgotten all about it until I saw it still flowering at the boggy edge of the stream. 

While my photographer and I were walking through the garden looking to see what was still green, we also found a few hardy ferns, some interesting variegated-foliage plants and some almost-evergreen ground covers all going strong. Photos were snapped and a closer look at some of those plants will appear later.

Click on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in the Categories list to see my posts for September and October.

Comments

[Kim]

Lovely, striking foliage post! I adore the stinking hellebore and the tiarella especially.

That might be 'Ivory Prince'--my prince has red-tinged stems, but the leaves are a little bluer. And seem a little more compact, maybe. Does yours have blooms like this:
http://blackswampgirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-prince-has-come.html
?

[joco]

Hiya,
Phenologically no less :-)

Oddly enough I have both moss and phenol ( I know, I know..) on the mind: my neighbour poured a mix of lysol and phenol (banned) on her drive to kill moss, and I fainted from the fumes. Living in the country is not for the fainthearted.

It seems that even though you have no for colour at the minute, you also have yes for hope.

Only another 3 months...

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

joco: What a ravishingly beautiful post you have for GBBD. I am strictly an outdoor gardener and this year did not even manage to order paperwhite bulbs for forcing. I am really impressed that you have a greenhouse and all those indoor beauties as well as outdoor growing areas. It's no small feat to grow such good looking plants. Thanks for your post and thanks for visiting mine.

I was having trouble getting your comments section to accept my comments so here they are (above) instead.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Kim — after looking at your Hellebore photo I do believe mine is 'Ivory Prince." Thanks for directing me. I am already trying to figure out what I will show on GBBD during these coming snowy months. Last year we set an all-time snowfall record: 101.4 inches. It began on Dec. 1 and never stopped til some time in April so we are all on tenterhooks wondering what this winter will hold for us.

[Darla]

Maybe not bright colors but colors non the less. i think moss growing on brick, rocks and containers adds character to a garden.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Darla — thanks for stopping by. You have quite an impressive display in your garden. My mom used to do a lot of canning of fruits like pears — they will be so enjoyable later in the season. And even more so, knowing you put them up yourself!

[Helen/patientgardener]

I think that Orchid is the same as one bought recently - I'm about to plant my by my wildlife pond so I'm glad yours is doing well

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Helen — the orchid appears quite hardy thought it has not made it through one of our winters yet. But it is still blooming after some overnight lows of about 26 degrees F/-3.3C. I am quite excited about it and quite hopeful. Thanks for stopping by.

[Carol, May Dreams Gardens]

I'm keeping an eye on that orchid. If it blooms this late every year, it would be worth having in the garden. I feel like all my flowers blooming now are "flukes".

Love the moss, can't believe someone would want to kill moss, per the comment above.

Thanks for joining in for bloom day.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Carol — thank you for stopping by. I have to say that GBBD is an inspired idea (and you seem to have lots of them). It is fun and fascinating to see what's blooming as well as how people talk about their gardens. Thanks again for doing all the work to get this project going.

[Mr. McGregor's Daughter]

Oooh, you have Lady's Tresses! And they're in bloom! I'm so jealous. My soil is the antithesis of boggy, so it will never grace my garden. I agree with Kim about the Hellebore. I also have 'Ivory Prince,' & comparing your photo with mine, they look very similar. I can't seem to get moss going anywhere other than in the lawn & on the tree trunks. I offer nice rocks & bricks, but still nothing. The moss gives the garden a lived-in look, a touch of antiquity.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

My biggest area of moss is under two 50-year-old apple trees where I realized I had more moss than grass. So I started slowly pulling out the grass, a strand at a time, and voila! My soil also seems to be rather acidic which helps. I have moss on tree trunks, too, and around the root flare but that seems to come and go. Great for a few years and then suddenly gone. Thanks for stopping by.

[joco]

Hiya,

Thanks for the comment to my bloomday post. Just as well I came back, or I would have missed it. I'll copy and paste it into mine as I need all the help I can get to boost my flagging blogging morale ;-)

Twice 'ravishingly' (somebody else used that word as well, my-oh-my) is not to be sniffed at.

Can't understand what is wrong with the embedded comment system, but it seems to stop typepad users in their tracks. Pity.

Isn't that touch of metasequoia glyptostroboides clever. Great little tree, well so far anyway. It will become quite tall.

Carol wouldn't like moss if it covered more than fifty percent of her garden, lawn, paths and beds.
Try my comments again one day, so I can figure out what's wrong.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

joco — I will try your comments again as I had trouble with a couple of other folks' posts as well and am still trying to figure out if it's me. Always possible as I am learning lots of computer skills as I go. The Dawn Redwood next door is magnificent.

[Curmudgeon]

What wonderful leaf shapes and shades. All the greenery makes for wonderful textures. Enjoyed your GBBD post.

[joco]

Linda,
You made it to the comment box. Well done! Actually, I hadn't altered any settings, so there's hope.

Dawn Redwood "Goldrush", I fell for it last year and
I did a post on this fascinating 120 million year old tree in in April here.
http://clownplants.blogspot.com/2008/04/120-million-years-old.html

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Hi Wenches!

Your cyclamen are beautiful — esp. the leaves. You know you northwest gardeners make us jealous esp. when I wake up on a Monday morning to 20 degrees and darkness. Ugh!

LIked your Muse Day post as well. (And why am I not surprised that you picked Whitman?)

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

joco — We have 'Goldrush' also. I know from my neighbor's Dawn Redwood what this will look like in 50 years, but I'm old enough that I won't be here to see it — alas.

[Les]

Thank you for stopping by my site. Whenever I get a new visitor, I like to see what kind of things they are doing. Your site has some wonderful photography on it, and among all the beautiful shots of foliage, flowers and fabric, I was stopped by a picture of a mundane paving brick. Your post from Sept. about a Milwaukee garden tour showed the same brick(Peebles)I salvaged for use in my backyard to edge my walkways. As I get older it is courious was now catches my attention.

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Les — I am impressed that you went back and read the older post. I remember the Milwaukee brick photo you are talking about. Lots of Milwaukee architecture uses a local brick called "Cream City" which is a pale gold color but you don't ever see it used for paving.