Each Little World

Apple scruffs — in bloom

Mark usually tackles the job of pruning our two old apple trees in late February or early March, when there is still snow on the ground but it's warm enough to spend an afternoon working outdoors. This year there wasn't the usual late winter kind of day to do that job, so it got done as the garden was actually springing to life. 

Over the years we've made a habit of saving those apple tree prunings to use as an edging for garden paths. This year was no different and I put them in a number of locations as I cleaned up and mulched the beds in April.

For whatever reason — the warm winter, late pruning, unseasonably hot spring — a number of the apple hoops that I stuck in the ground have sent out new leaves. Just another sign of a year in which none of us know what kind of weather to expect next — or how it will affect the garden!

My Rhodie blooms at last

This Rhododendron — R. yakushimanum 'Yaku Angel' — is nine years old. I bought it from the late Roslyn Nursery where I also got my other Rhodie, R. yedoense poukhanense 'Alba.' They are growing next to each other in more shade than they probably would like as well as in soil that is more alkaline than acidic. 'Alba' has always flowered and now is easily covered with 70 blossoms.

'Yaku Angel' has never done anything but slowly grow. Michael Dirr says it should be 3' x 3' after 20 years; it's currently about 24" high x 30" wide.  I love it for its thick leaves whose undersides are covered with fuzzy brown indumentum, so I've never minded that it hadn't flowered. But last fall it clearly set what looked like a couple of buds on the tips that get the most sun (above). 

I freaked a bit when I first saw the buds coloring up hot pink this spring. I am definitely not a fan of the typical pink and purple PJM Rhododendrons that I most often see in gardens. But my notes from the Roslyn catalog said "pink buds opening to white flowers," and sure enough that's what's happening.

'Alba' blooms with pairs of white flowers while 'Yaku Angel' opens up with a whole handful of blossoms. It's certainly been worth the wait. And if it never happens again, I don't know that I'll be heartbroken since I'll always have the gorgeous leaves to enjoy. 

Both white rhododendrons are located in my mini "white garden" in the Birch Grove. In addition to the rhodies there's a white bleeding heart, a white Trillium grandiflorum, Pulmonaria 'Sissinghurst White," ferns and Vancouveria which gets a small white flower a bit later in the season. 

Paeonia japonica

I posted a photo of the buds of one of my woodland peonies, Paeonia japonica, just pushing up in time for Foliage Follow-up on March 16. By the same time the following week the plant was almost fully up and covered with big fat flower buds — 24 at a quick glance. 

Then the temperatures dropped and we had a bunch of cool, cloudy days and an inch of rain the last week of the month. I am not unhappy with this more traditional spring-like weather since there's nothing more enjoyable than watching a big clump of peonies slowly unfurl in the early spring garden. 

Even though April temperatures have dipped down below freezing a number of times, the buds were not harmed and the flowers began to open on April 9 — a good month earlier than in 2011. Looking back to 2007, this particular peony typically opens around Mother's Day, but bloomed on April 23 in 2010. I am guessing that this year's early bloom date will be a record that stands for a number of years. 

A native groundcover

Japanese spurge — pachysandra terminalis — is ubiquitous in American gardens as a groundcover. It's an aggressive spreader but is grown for its attractive shiny leaves. But I think the native version is even prettier. Allegheny spurge — pachysandra procumbens — is a slower spreader, or at least that's been my experience. I have a patch of it growing near a down spout where it seems to flower more prolifically than the nearby clumps in drier soil. 

But it has gorgeous mottled leaves that have an almost tortoise shell look to them, no matter the location. These are the old leaves from last year and this is how they look after being covered with snow and going through cold temps. New leaves will appear soon but with less dramatic markings. If you've been thinking about using spurge as a groundcover, go native!

Foliage Follow-up: 3.16.2012

The Austin, Texas blog, Digging, is the place to be on the 16th of each month where Pam Penick hosts a day devoted to foliage. Nothing is more exciting in the early Spring garden than all the amazing buds, shoots and leaves that are making their first appearance.

Woodland peony, Paeonia japonica; its location in the garden marked by last year's stems:

Bergenia cordifolia; these leaves are leftover from last season but they always perk up when the warm days arrive. I love the burnished red color they get from the cold weather:

Perennial Plant of the Year: 2012

The Perennial Plant Association recently named Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' as their 2012 "Perennial Plant of the Year." If you pay attention to this annual plant choice, you will no doubt have noticed that the chosen plant is always something that has been on the market for a number of years, already well-loved and well-used. Once this was the must-have plant, but the group of gardeners who are always looking for what's new (that includes me) has moved on. So  Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' can recive this accolade because the early adopters proved it will grow well for a wide audience. And that, I believe, is what really qualifies award status. 

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' / PPA photo

That said, I will definitely admit that I wouldn't be without  Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' in my garden. I grow five Brunnera varieties. The straight species was growing here when we bought the house and I fell in love with its heart-shaped leaves and intense blue forget-me-not type flowers. First I added 'Langtrees' which has light speckles on the leaves. The following year I added 'Jack Frost'. Then I planted 'Looking Glass' in 2005 and 'Hadspen Cream' in 2006. 

This picture of Brunnera 'Langtrees" gives you a sense of the flowers and also shows the white speckle pattern on this variety.

The straight species and 'Langtrees' are workhorses; groundcoveres in dry shade that only draw the eye when in flower. 'Looking Glass' and 'Hadspen Cream' want more moisture than they get in my garden, so never look very good once summer commences. 'Jack Frost', on the the other hand, always looks good and performs well. It also self-seeds fairly generously. However, even the tiniest seedling are instantly recognizable by the leaf coloration so they are easily removed. More often than not, I leave them in place and ignore them and then one day notice a huge beautiful clump has developed.

This picture of 'Jack Frost' shows what I mean about how recognizable the leaves are no matter the size.

This is a plant that lights up dark corners of the shade garden and seems to work well with any number of other foliage plants. If you don't already grow Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' this is the year to add it to your garden.

The leaves of Brunnera 'Looking Glass' are almost entirely frosted white except for the veining.

Foliage Follow-up: 02.16.2012

Yes, this is a bit of a cheat since this is another Rex Begonia, the third in the trio I mentioned on GBBD. Though I grow all of them for their leaves, this is the one that I keep in the bathroom in front of the mirror so I can enjoy the dramatic red and green underside of the leaves. It is a particularly striking contrast given the silvery color on the top side. If you look closely you can see the leaves are actually a bit fuzzy, a condition that is more obvious as the color fades from metallic to mint.

To enjoy other foliage posts, visit Pam at Digging who hosts Foliage Follow-up on the 16th of each month.

A Valentine flower for your favorite gardener

Dicentra spectabilis 'Valentine' is high on my wish list of new plants for the garden. This version of the old garden classic Bleeding Heart has cherry red heart-shaped flowers that "dangle from arching, dark red stems in spring. This newcomer offers a different color than the typical pink form, but keeps the same tall, graceful habit of the old fashioned Bleeding Heart," according to the Klehm on-line catalog. In the photo from the Klehm catalog directly below you can easily see the color is as described. 

Tony Avent, in the on-line catalog of Plant Delights, notes that the flower color actually was as good — if not better — in person than in the photos he'd seen, having initially been concerned that the red coloration was more Photoshop than reality. He also points out that the grey-green lobed foliage emerges with a reddish tint. I've included the Plant Delights catalog photo below because I think it provides a better view of the foliage than the Klehm image. Even though the new flower color is the selling point, it is the foliage that we will live with for most of the season.

Though Dicentra spectabilis is often listed as a partial to full shade plant, in my experience it can take a fair amount of sun as long as it has enough moisture. It is hardy in Zones 3-9, and will grow to about 2' x 2'. Klehm's Song Sparrow Nursery is offering Dicentra spectabilis 'Valentine' for $18.95 for a 2.06 qt. container, 3 for $53.00. Plant Delights is offering it for $16.00.

Locally the Flower Factory also lists it in their 2012 catalog for only $9.00. I am going to take a chance that it will be available at FF and plan to get there early on opening day, April 21. Their plants are always good size and, at that price, if I thought it was too small I could always buy two and still come out ahead of mail order shipping costs. 

Foliage Follow-up: 01.16.2012

 

As I mentioned yesterday, much of the garden is slowly disappearing under the snow. We do have a few bouquets of foliage from our garden decorating the house indoors, however. One of them is a small vase I've mentioned before. Another equally small container sits on the edge of the bathroom sink, and is filled with foliage clipped from Heucheras and Heucherellas that I picked from the garden in late October or early November.

The size of that bouquet is shrinking as the various leaves fade away, so I created a new larger foliage arrangement last Wednesday before the weather turned wintry. This one contains leaves from Hellebores, Autumn ferns, Arum italicum and Gentsch White Hemlock branches. Everything but the hemlock is now under the snow. But most of them will be sporting green when the snow melts next Spring.

To see what kind of foliage other gardeners are celebrating today, visit Pam Penick who hosts Foliage Follow-up on her blog, Digging, on the sixteenth of every month. 

Foliage Follow-up: 12.16.2011

No snow means that one can still see foliage in the garden. The recent warmer temps — coupled with Wednesday's rain — melted the ice on the pond where the last water lily leaves have been locked in. We never cut the lily foliage back or moved them down to the deepest part of the pond as we usually do each fall. We'll learn the results of that little experiment come Spring.

Much colder today but everything is still hanging in there, including my Thanksgiving Hellebore. Here's a sample:

Visit Pam at Digging to see what kind of foliage other gardeners are highlighting today.