Each Little World

Spring officially arrives

Yesterday afternoon about 3:30 p.m. I glanced out the living room window and was taken aback to see our resident ducks — Fred and Ethel — had arrived. As you can see in these photos, there is so little open water in our pond that I had no expectations of seeing them for another few days — if at all. They've been coming each spring as soon as the snow melts off the pond, typically arriving in mid-March. This is the latest date that they've landed since they started coming in 1998.

The life expectancy of Mallard ducks is 20 years so they must definitely getting up there in years, given we've been seeing them each spring for 16 years. And we have no idea of their age when we first saw them. They always look the same; Mark and I are the ones who are visibily aging.  

But it is a joy to see them as we've come to count on their annual visit. They animate the garden in a way that few other creatures do. Seeing them is the surest sign that Spring is really here despite the snow that's still on the ground.

 

Cool clear water

In hot dry weather nothing makes a garden feel cooler than a water feature. I found these two examples in a home garden (top) and at Olbrich Botanical Gardens (the bottom two). They are similar in components: bubbler, container and rocks but quite different in style. A bowl filled with still water is the easist way to add water to the garden, but it's the sound of water that has the cooling effect.

First lotus

We added water lilies to our pond the first summer after we created it — 1998 — and they've been doing beautifully ever since. This year's early Spring and hot, sunny weather have give us a bumper crop of both lilies and leaves. We've always dreamed of growing lotus as well. But it wasn't until I discovered a dwarf version that we decided to give one a try. 

We ordered 'Baby Doll' from Lilypons and added it to the pond in early May. It's been slowly putting out leaves which have floated on the surface of the pond. But suddenly the leaves are getting bigger and standing up the way you so often see them doing. Now we're just waiting to see if we actually get any flowers. Stay tuned for updates.

Serene Sunday

Cool and cloudy here, with rain apparently falling around Madison, but missing us again. It would be so pleasant to spend a day indoors while a gentle rain refreshed the garden — and us.

Dan Toberer's big bowl on the deck with Stewartia blossoms.

Serene Saturday

New blooms for the pond

I've just placed my second plant order of 2012 and am quite excited about it. In 2005 I clipped an article from House & Garden magazine about water gardens that mentioned dwarf lotus plants. I wrote to Lilypons for more information and discovered the one mentioned would be hardy in our zone. We've always wanted to try growing a lotus, so this spring I finally ordered one. Lotus want sun and hot weather to flower; whether our summer will provide enough of both remains to be seen. But this mild winter suggests a long hot summer is ahead of us.

WATERFORD GARDENS

Nelumbo 'Baby Doll" is a small white lotus (above) that is often suggested for tub or barrel gardens. Though our pond is much larger than a barrel, this small lotus will be more in keeping with our garden's scale. The flowers are 4-6 inches wide, carried on stems that are up to 30 inches tall. But since the plant will only spread about two feet, it won't take over the pond the way that a full size lotus would. And with white flowers, it fits into my yellow and white pond color scheme.

PAM PENICK/DIGGING

The above cutie is a dwarf water lily named Helvola. We used to grow 'Helvola' in the big pond and then in our container water garden. Somewhere along the way it disappeared. I'm guessing when we were dividing and re-potting water plants a few years ago, it got mixed in with the debris and discared. It was so perfect for a small water feature that I decided to splurge and order another one. Both plants will arrive in mid-April and I can hardly wait.

The photo of 'Helvola' is from the garden (and blog) of Pam Penick in Austin, Texas. Amazing to me to know that this water lily works in Pam's garden as well as mine up here in Wisconsin. Hardy to extremes in both directions it would seem. 

Olbrich: What makes it such an outstanding garden?

We spent a recent evening wandering around Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison. Everywhere we looked there was something to see — all of it inspired and inspiring. The time-honored phrase "God is in the details" certainly applies at Olbrich where nothing is too small to deserve careful thought and attention. This raised rectangular water garden — one of a pair — is a perfect example.

It's situated just beyond the Atrium doors that lead you out into the gardens. Many people probably walk right by these containers drawn by the landscape ahead of them. They never look down to see that the first water garden sits on flat pavement. But you will note that this one has been inset into the sloping pavement so that its top is level, making it a perfect match to its nearby companion. A gesture that is lost on many visitors, but sets this garden — and its staff — apart.

A new water feature

Recently Mark stopped in at one of our favorite shops on Regent St., HIgher Fire. It is a wonderful gallery/workshop/resource for those of us who love ceramics. Turns out that owner Linda Leighton is moving and won't have a garden in her new home, so she was "de-accesssioning" a wonderful piece by Dan Toberer of Omaha.

Mark had first seen this dramatic upturned platter, with its slashes of white glaze in the interior, at the Cambridge Pottery Festival a number of years ago. That's actually where and when Leighton acquired it. He loved the piece way back then, but it was beyond our budget. This time the price was right, so home it came with him. Then it went instantly out into our garden to serve as a new water feature at the edge of the deck. 

We spent a lovely evening with Toberer and his wife, Susan, last month when they were here for the annual Cambridge Pottery Festival. Toberer makes the kind of huge pots we love but have less and less room for indoors or out. This platter, however, looks like it was made for our garden and is also a practical and pretty way to remember Dan and Susan!

The gravel garden

My former co-worker and gardening mentor Doris Lang will be bringing the members of her garden club on a tour of our garden Monday evening. When a group makes a reservation a year in advance, you want everything to look its best. So we've spent the last few days weeding, pruning, deadheading, mowing the grass and just generally sprucing up the garden.  

The last thing Mark always does before we have garden visitors is to rake the gravel into patterns. It looks best in the early morning or late afternoon when the low angle of the sun highlights the texture of the gravel, emphasizing the high and low areas of the design. So their early evening tour will show this area at its best.

A season of iris

When we moved into this house almost 17years ago, the yard had traditional flowers like peonies and iris. The peonies have almost been shaded out over the years, but the iris are still going strong. Most likely they are Iris pallida dalmatica: tall, pale lavender, tough as nails with a Concord grape fragrance. I brought Iris pumila 'Cherry Garden' with me from our former garden. Over the years I've acquired countless other Iris until I now have Iris of all types blooming from the end of the snow until mid-June. That was never a conscious plan but it's certainly worked out well.

My Iris photo parade (below) includes a Rosebud matchbox for scale in a number of the pictures. It's 1 and 1/2" tall (3.8 cm) x 2" long (5.1 cm) and 1/4" (.06 cm) deep.

Reticulated Iris: Iris reticulata 'Harmony' (above)

Lake Iris: Iris lacustris 'Alba' is found along the gravel shores of the Great Lakes and blooms earlier than the Crested Iris in my garden.

Lake Iris: Iris lacustris 'Alba' is about half the height of the crested Iris.

 Dwarf Crested Iris: Iris cristata 'Navy Blue Gem' is a darker form of the popular plant.

Dwarf Crested Iris: Iris cristata of unknown origin. I bought a couple of plants at the WHPS sale and also at the West Side Garden Club sale — perhaps from the same garden. 

Dwarf Crested Iris: Iris cristata of unknown origin. This photo gives you a sense of what a great ground cover this plant is.

Iris gracilipes: a Japanese woodland plant. Slightly taller than Iris cristata.

Iris gracilipes: This was the first season for this plant. Notice the delicate stems and buds. I am totally in love with this little gem! It will develop into a rounded clump, a bit like a daylily.

Dwarf bearded Iris: Unknown Iris pumila from the garden of my former co-worker and garden mentor, Doris Lang.

Tall German or Bearded Iris: I call this Iris pallida dalmatica "Smithy," in honor of the Don Smith family who built our house and put in the original trees and perennials.

Tall German or Bearded Iris: These are pretty much pest-free, very tall (38" / 96.5 cm) and never flop over — even after strong winds and rain.

Tall German or Bearded Iris: This view shows you the irises in place. The area long the dry stream where these irises bloom is dry, compacted soil and they love it.

Dwarf bearded Iris: Iris pumila 'Cherry Garden.'

Dwarf bearded Iris: I've been growing 'Cherry Garden' for just over 20 years and still love its velvety falls and rich saturated color.

Bearded Iris: Iris germanica 'El Dorado' is bi-color and tends to flop a bit but the flowers are so stunning that I put up with that little fault. 

Bearded Iris: 'El Dorado' is described as an "unusual elongated open flower in which the tips of lthe standards never touch." It's about 35" (88.9 cm) tall.

Water Iris: This unknown Iris laevigata arrived in a pot of supposedly blue plants. Either that, or it is the result of the blue water Iris crossing with Iris laevigata 'Snowdrift' while I wasn't looking. 

Water Iris: This view shows two varieties of Iris laevigata that self-seeded in the pebble beach at the edge of the pond. The rest of these Iris grow in the bog where they were originally planted a dozen years ago.  

Not pictured: Siberian Iris (Iris sibirica) and Japanese Iris (Iris ensata).