In the Bleak Midwinter

Its raining again, which means the many things that need to be done outside are not having any progress made.  I was able to run the mower over part of the grass, which vacuums up the leaves and chops them up while trimming the now brown zoysia grass low for spring.  Above you can see the Maryland Senna seed heads that need to be trimmed off, but for now they provide a nice profile in front of the Chesapeake.

There is one leaf left on the Serviceberry, Amelanchier canadensis, glowing in the otherwise gray light.  It is the one bit of color left outside.  The tree is the remaining one of about a dozen saplings I bought from a mail order nursery many years ago.  Most died within the first year, since I was trying to establish them in the sandy hill behind the house and it was a dry summer.  When I found two had survived, I took pity on them,and moved both up to the edge of the vegetable patch.  Once they had gained some size, I expected to return them.  This one survived the move, and has claimed its place outside the kitchen window, beside the shed.  As long as it doesn't get too big and block the view out the window, I will allow it a place. 

Perhaps more fitting for the somberness of the day, is the Cunninghamia Konishii tree that grows on the edge of the ravine.  Known as the Taiwan Fir, even though it is not really a fir, this originally was bought at a National Arboretum sale in 1998.  I loved the foliage, but never really had a place for it on the small city lot we owned, so it stayed in a pot for two years.  It was one of the first trees planted on the side of the ravine in 2001, and has grown to over 25 feet tall.  In this perspective the size of the trunk is dramatic, with the green of the dwarf bamboo, Shibataea Kumasaca that are about 4 feet high. About five years ago I moved about a dozen bamboo roots into the area below the Cunninghamia because it was rapidly eroding, soil sliding down 60 feet to the bottom.  The bamboo seems to be holding the soil well, at least protecting the top layer.  I hope so. I want to keep the tree for a long time.

Finally, a shot from November, with Broddy surveying her domain.  When I tried a few minutes ago to get her to chase a squirrel from the bird feeder with me, she stopped inside the door and gave me a look of disdain.  Why would she want to go out when it is cold and wet?  Maybe she is the sane one, since my feet are now damp and cold, and the squirrel has probably back, having driven the birds away and chowing down on sunflower seeds.  I better go check. 

Autumn Insects

These insect pictures all date back to September, so I must apologize for the delay, but they are too good to leave out.

Here is a Monarch Butterfly enjoying the Verbena Bonariensis, which attracts a large variety of insects.  Usually there are many Monarchs coming through the garden, but this was one of the few in 2012.

After a good bit of research, I determined that this is a Sphex wasp.  There are quite a variety of them, so I could not determine the exact species, but the black body and extremely thin waist is characteristic. 

I have seen these on a variety of the more intensely scented plants, such as the oregano growing at the front porch.  This one is on the Calamintha nepeta, or Catmint, which I bought from Plant Delights Nursery two years ago.  I had heard that they can spread around a lot, but I have not had that problem with this one,  It has stayed in its place, and blooms heavily from early summer through September.  It is always covered with insects eating the nectar.   

Also on the Catmint were many delightful Lightning Bugs.  I spent a lot of time checking this fellow against various identifying sources to be sure I got it right.  It is funny, for all the years of catching these in jars a a child, I though I knew how they looked, but without waiting until night, wasn't sure.

Who know they lived on the nectar of flowers, though it certainly makes sense!

 

The final shot is of a spider, the Argiope Aurantia, which has been a part of my gardens for years.  They build such large webs, and the zigzag that is visible below it is characteristic of these creatures.  I have always respected them, left them alone to catch whatever they can. 

I wonder where they go once the air gets cold, and everything has hfound a place to spend the next few months until the return of the warmth?

The last few days have been very busy with heavy autumn work.  Even with two of us working most of the time, there has been  lot to do, but also a lot got done.

This shot, taken just a week ago, is already out of date, since the leaves on the Crape Myrtle, 'Natchez,' on the left have already turned yellow, and most fallen to the ground.  The Katsura on the right has also lost most of its leaves.

One of the things that got done today was the final digging out of the grass and putting in edging strips for the entrance of the labyrinth.  It has taken so long because I have been debating how to finally lay it out.  In the photo on the left, in the lower left corner is a spreading rosemary, seeming at the end of the flower bed.  Now, the bed extends another four feet, and I moved part of the tree peony from the North Garden just a foot to the left of the rosemary.  Pictures later.

Much of the work for this time of year is not dramatic.  We spent a morning cutting down a yew hedge at the side of the sun porch, and digging out most of the stumps.  It will become the site for a triple bin compost heap. We put in a temporary hardware cloth and metal post bin for the winter.  I spent a lot of time and energy taking the top off of the existing pile, mixing it in with leaves that David collected and chopped up with the mower before they all blew away. 

The Viburnum rhytidophylloides, 'Allegheny,' is blooming profusely, again in the autumn, which always seems strange to me.  There are even a few red berries, but typically it gets hit by a frost before it can produce many berries, and just looks bedraggled. For a time of year when little is blooming, I shouldn't complain, but it is a surprising cycle.  Maybe it is as confused as the many daffodils, which have pushed their leaves up five inches above the round, thinking that maybe spring has arrived.  Two years ago the same bush did this end-of-the-year growth, and was severely frozen back by the winter cold, killing many branches.  It is just beginning to look good again. 

Every fall the climbing rose in the North Garden, a Rosa x 'Meivaleir' 'Garden Sun,' does a final explosion of flowers at the end of October into November.  Even knowing it will probably do so again, the exuberance of flowers are surprising, especially since the canes always look very beat up and bare.  

Fall bulbs

Even as the wind and rain of Hurricane Sandy beats against the windows, I still have pictures that show off a few of the bulbs that bloomed this fall.

Here is a Colchicum, the variety being lost in time, that started blooming in early September.  While I haven't been timely in getting the picture here, I still enjoy seeing it.  There are two clumps under the 'Little Gem' Magnolia, which don't get very much sun, but still hold their own in providing a few weeks of color in a spot where not much else is growing.  You can see some of the magnolia leaves that were dropping in the late summer around the base of the clusters.  I don't have a lot of good spots for these at this time, but I expect there will be more places as the other trees get larger.

Here is my Lycoris Radiata, from the Plant Delights Nursery.  The end of September was the first time it has bloomed underneath the Paperbark Maple tree, in its second year.  This is a very good spot since it still gets lots of light and sun on the leaves, which are now up.  There were only leaves last fall, but they collected enough energy that there are two flowering stalks. 

I planted three other Lycoris around the base of the standard/grafted dwarf cedar in the labyrinth.  I have wondered why they weren't doing anything.  Then last weekend I saw the leaves above the ground on one, but they were heavily chewed by one of my critters.  David blamed the deer, but the teeth marks were too small for one of those long-legged rodents.  I am guessing either a rabbit or groundhog, with my money on a rabbit.  We only see rabbits occasionally, but they also cover a wider range of area.  The groundhogs stay much closer to the edges since they move slower.  The maple tree is closer to the house and road, so it doesn't get the rabbits.  I need to move any that appear this fall to give them a chance.

Then there is the Oxblood Lily, Rhodophiala bifida, in the labyrinth.  Another selection for Plant Delights, and again, this is its second year.  I keep a metal stake next to this, as well as the other fall blooming bulbs, since it is easy to forget their location. 

This resides in what I call the back turn of the labyrinth, close to other plants that are distinctly red or orange in color.  In the background you can see a type of perennial foxglove which I am trying to verify the proper name.  Again, since this picture was taken in late September, there is a large cluster of leaves that have emerged, and will continue until late spring, building up the bulb for next year.  At about twelve inches high, I really like this since it appears when the rest of the garden seems to be dying around it.  I hope there will be a nice large clump in a few years, especially since it appears to be unattractive to the chewing rodents who claim this territory as their own.  I guess I can't blame them, but it gets expensive to feed them such exotic meals.

Finally, though I must quickly admit that is is not a bulb, I wanted to show the blooms of the Vigna caracalla, or Snail Flower.  David and I first saw this in Thomas Jefferson's vegetable garden at Monticello.  There were six foot high teepee poles with monstrous piles of vine and flowers in the late summer.  It is not a perennial, so this year it lives in a big pot, which we put beside the front porch.  When we originally planted it on the former bamboo fence and stick trellis, it was severely eaten by the deer, who also seem to love the fragrant flowers. 

It struggled through the summer, even though there was lots of sun.  David has read it is a very heavy feeder.  Since it is kept in the pot so we can move it inside when the weather gets cold, it needs to be heavily fertilized, which did not happen this summer.  These were the biggest flowers to be found.  We hope to do better next year, but we also need to find a safe place away from the deer. 

September Yellow and Blue

In the final days of September, there is an explosion of yellow at the front edge of the Labyrinth.  There are bits of blue mixed in, though as I look at the mix, I would like more blue for the contrast.  Toward the back of this photo, under the standard topiary cedar, "Feelin' Blue," is a yellow leaved Creeping Jenny.  Although the cedar loses much of its blueness over the summer, it is starting to shift back with the cooling weather.  On either side of the grass path in front are Goldenrod and a native Aster.  I never thought I would be growing Goldenrod in my flower beds!

Here you can see in front the Goldenrod, Solidago 'Golden Fleece,' which is about 15 inches tall.  This is the second full summer in this spot, and they are bulking up nicely.  In the background are Maryland Golden Aster, Chrysopsis mariana, which came from a local native plant nursery that has closed down.  They are three years old, and are just beginning to achieve a size that provides a good splash of color.  This is the first year they have bloomed together, making me look brilliant in my planning, but it is just luck.  I hope they continue this timing in future years.  What I really like are that they are very similar colors, and totally different shapes, so while there is the impact of the repetition, they are not boringly the same.  Finally, in the back right side of the photo, you can see some salvia providing a intense blue contrast.  I need more of these, if I can figure out the variety.  I am supposed to have Salvia nemorosa "Blue Hill," so maybe that is what they are?

Mixed into the Overdam Feather Reed Grass are small bushes of Bluebeard, in this case Caryopteris incana 'Sunshine Blue.'  This variety has a bright yellow leaf as well as the light blue flowers that grow in clumps along the stem.  I bought the original plant from a National Arboretum sale seven years ago, and it roots where ever the stems sit on the ground.  So there are now four plants.  I cut them down low in the spring, and they have a lot of competition from the grasses, but they come back in spite of the hot, dry summer, and provide a nice contrast to the grasses.  However, the grasses will need to get lifted and divided soon, so I hope the roots are not too wrapped around each other.

August Hot and Dry

While I was away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of this month, most plants have continued doing their best to survive the high heat and low amounts of rain.  We installed three different sections of soaking hoses for a few sections of the labyrinth beds, running them for a few hours before traveling and again on coming back.  Some plants have done well, a few have been lost, and others have naturally shut down while enduring the weather.

The Blackberry Lily, Belacanda chinensis, has had it tough all year, but continued to keep growing and blooming.  At the lower left hand corner of this picture you can see the ragged edged leaves where something chomped it down in the Spring.  What finally protected it were the Alliums that were planted among it, which discouraged further damage.  But there have been lots of flowers to replace those eaten.

The Pineapple Lily, Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy,' shown here in late June, has put in its best performance in the three years in this location.  The reason for the name can be seen in the large maroon leaves and the dark stem.  Those other iris-type leaves are exactly that, iris!

The color has changed with the heat of July and August, losing much of the dark purple, and becoming more of a nondescript off-color green.  I have almost come to expect that of any other-than-green foliage, to fade in the heat, so it is not a surprise.

I took picture several weeks after the first picture which shows the top flowers. You can see how the color is mixed into each small flower a little bit differently, creating a very impressionistic appearance.  It becomes an interesting combination of the impressive architecture for the thick column of flowers with flowers that can be seen almost at eye-level, with their individual variety.

The other plants that have continued blooming through the harsh weather are the hardy hibiscus.  There are currently three plants, ranging from deep scarlet, to mauve to a bright, clear pink. 

'Walter Fleming' is the scarlet one, and it continues to perform well in its third year in the labyrinth.

The William Fleming had six different stems grow up this year, each with a few dozen flowers blooming in the first phase.  After the first set of buds finished their cycle, around the end of July, there was a period with fewer blossoms as the plant produced buds on side stems.  Those are now in the cycle of blooming, and I suspect they will continue doing that until sometime in September. 

With the size of each flower around nine inches, and the dark intense red able to hold its own in bright sunlight, this plant offers important color to the garden.  I am well pleased with this choice.

I don't know the name of this pink/mauve hibiscus, having lost the label since we bought it two summers past, and I forgot to record it at that time.  It spent its first summer in a pot on the front porch, then was moved into its permanent home. It has settled into its spot, putting up 5 stems with lots of flowers, and providing a nice contrast.

I have done some Internet research, but have been unable to positively confirm its name.  So, if you know, let me know. 

Winged Pollinators

It is time to celebrate those busy insects, not just bees, that are so actively collecting the sweet nectar from flowers.  They don't care that they are also spreading pollen, acting as sexual agents. 

Here is a simple bumble bee on Allium "Millenium' with its small compact globes of lavender flowers.  I have been very pleased with this allium, since it is well behaved. It blooms over a very long period in the hottest and driest part of the summer, and doesn't seem to be spreading seeds all around.

The most popular of the flowers for all of the butterflies are the Verbena bonariensis.  A tender perennial, the verbena has self-seeded across the garden, coming up wherever the soil doesn't have any mulch.  Sometimes plants will survive a mild winter, but usually it is better to encourage newly sprouted seeds.

Here is a Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly, which relies on pawpaw trees, with the females laying their eggs on the leaves, and the larvae feeding on those leaves.  So there is another benefit of the many pawpaws on the slope.

It is amazing what can be found on the Internet with a little patience.  This small butterfly is a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) according to the Gardens with Wings website.  It is very small, only a couple of inches across the wings, and is here feeding on marjoram flowers.  It is described as very common, and the host plant is asters.  There are certainly a number of those in the labyrinth garden.  I just hope the caterpillars don't do too much damage, since my asters are not particularly strong plants.

Back to the verbena banquet.  Here is what appears to be an American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis), again according to the Gardens with Wings website. 

And what a useful resource it is!  On the identification page, there are different starting points, based on the wing shape, colors, common names, and size.  I only wish it allowed you to select more than one characteristic at a time, to narrow down the options a bit more.

This little fellow feeding on one of the cone flowers, is probably a  Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia).  There are a lot of these to be seen.  The host plants are supposed to violets and stonecrop, which I don't have in the maintained garden area, but I know that there are violets growing in all of the wild areas.  Since they are a smaller size, they do not attract as much attention, but the multitude of them can create a small cloud of movement and color.

The final picture is of a Silver Spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).  This is an oddly shaped butterfly, and the description of it being a combination of butterfly and moth certainly applies.  It has a much larger body, and short wings.  I am not surprised to learn its host plant is false indigo, since there are many of these planted in the labyrinth area and on the sides of the ravine.  I didn't realize that I was also providing butterflies their preferred diet!

This has been a fun research project, and I hope to have more pictures of other varieties.  There was one dark blue swallowtail that moved too fast to get a picture, either a Spicebush Swallowtail or a Pipevine Swallowtail.  There were also a number a very interesting black wasps, but they will have to wait until I can get a good shot and confirm their identity.

Crocosmias!

I have been in love with the dramatic color and form of Crocosmias for years.  Starting in the middle of June, when the late spring flowers are bowing down to the heat of the summer, these glorious perennials start blooming.  By having different varieties, that bloom can extend for several weeks, through July, and even into September.

I will start with 'Lucifer.'  The brilliant red-orange color, on the top of 3-4 foot tall stems hold their color in the intense sun that straddles the summer equinox.  Having a garden which only receives shade from the small tree planted in its center, it is important to select colors and plants that can deal with the intense sun. With the wiry stems, the flowers seem to be floating above the long, narrow leaves.

This large clump of plants started a a few corms 4 years ago.  In that short time they have multiplied and spread out rapidly, creating a large drift of foliage.  In fact, one of my favorite nurseries warns that Lucifer "actually crowds itself out so quickly that it rarely flowers after the first year in warm climate gardens."

I have not had that problem, yet, but I have had the problem of too much sun. Here you can see that same foliage, just weeks later, after it has endured too much sun and too little water.  I once thought that if I just watered it enough, everything would stay green and beautiful. But I no longer think that is true about this variety.  I need to move this into somewhere else in the labyrinth with less sun.  If is really does keep multiplying too fast, requiring annual sorting and replanting, I will probably get rid of them. It would be  shame, because I love it, but there are many others that I have been trying.  So, there are three others.

Here is the clump of 'Walrhead' which I purchased and planted in spring 2010.  Again, there were 2-3 corms, which have multiplied somewhat, but not as aggressively as the Lucifer.  The plants are much shorter than the Lucifer, with leaves reaching up to about 2 feet.  I am disappointed in that the flowers begin blooming much more down within the foliage, but it is still early in its bloom cycle.  The flowers didn't begin opening until the second week in July, almost a month after Lucifer.  Last year the period of new flowers was relatively short, but it was still establishing itself, so I hope it will live up to the description that it will continue to bloom until September.

Here is a close-up of the flowers.  The petals open up wider, and face outward, creating a more substantial presence than the tubular and upward facing flowers of Lucifer.  The color is not a bold, but still keeps its power when the full sun hits them. More importantly, there seems to be no problem with the foliage turning brown from either too much sun or too little water.  I hope that is true, because I cannot control the sun, and even with our attempts to keep things watered, there is little that can be done when there are periods of drought, like this summer.  The soil is very sandy, and doesn't hold water.

But there are more to discuss, so moving on.

Here is 'Star of the East' which was purchased last year.  Plant Delight nursery describes this as a 1912 introduction, which says pretty amazing things about its good qualities.  What I have noticed is how far it has thrown out new plants in just the year.  I only planted one set of corms, and you can clearly see two clusters about six inches apart, and there is a third behind them.  It has yet to reach the 32 inches in the catalog description, and there are only a few flower stems, but it has only been one year.  I planted this near the bench, and the flowers really do well with a close inspection.

See!

As you might have figured out by now, I have a lot of pictures to show.  That is because I kept taking pictures, but never got around to putting them up for you to see.

So jumping ahead, the final Crocosmia is 'Solfateree' which was also added into the garden last year.

This is clearly a much later blooming variety, just beginning to open its flowers past the middle of July.  It is significantly less prolific than the other varieties, with only a few new corms in the year.  It is staying much shorter than the others also, and I am uncertain about how it will do in the labyrinith.  So, I will need to just watch, wait and see.

Late May 2012

Following up on Allium Forelock, here are two flowers a month later.  While they are still much the same size, they are slowly transforming in seed heads.  I'll have to decide whether to harvest the seeds, and see if they will grow.  I don't want them to scatter about, because if they are viable that would be dozens of new plants, most likely growing in the grass.

I promised to have more to say about the orange foxglove.  That will have to wait until I can confirm the proper name.  I thought I knew it, but a closer examination makes me suspicious. The problem of knowing the proper name soon will be solved by the list of plants I am compiling in digital form, from 12 years of journal entries and a bag full of plant labels.

One of the nice May combinations can be seen on the right.  The lavender blue flower is a native Penstemon smalli bought from the now closed Lower Marlboro Nursery.  The yellow flower is Coreopsis 'Jethro Tull' with a ground cover of Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) - which has not been added to the list, so I cannot specify the variety.  Unfortunately, the Feather Reed Grass on the right is also still unlisted.  Give me a break, I just started to work on the list this week and am up to 2004.

Here is a close-up of the Penstemon flowers.

The Penstemon blooms for 3-4 weeks, with the Coreopsis starting in the second week and continuing on for about six weeks.  With regular deadheading, the Coreopsis puts up new flowers, though they get smaller and more sparse, until it is done by the end of June. 

Another plant that came from the closed nursery is the Purple Milkweed, Asclepias Purpurascens.  The original three plants, that were little more than seedlings, have taken three seasons to get established and grow large enough to bloom.  This year they came into full glory, with large clusters of flowers.  They sit among a group of other tall perennials including a hardy hibiscus, visible on the left, Russian Sage, appearing behind and on the right. 

Soon they will fade into the background when the hibiscus starts opening its huge, dark red flowers. But for about three weeks they offer a warm color and disguise the still stretching stalks of the hibiscus.

Milkweeds provide food to a variety of insects, and are famous as a food source for caterpillars of Monarch butterflies as well as other insects.  Until doing research for this entry, I didn't realize that the caterpillars ingest and store the bitter and toxic chemicals in the milkweed leaves they feed upon, which protects them from being eaten by birds. 

Speaking of insects, here is a visiting butterfly enjoying the nectar of the milkweed!  Now if it will also lay some eggs, maybe you will see a complete life-cycle?  Stay tuned.

Finally, here is a super-sized Verbena bonariensis on the edge of the sidewalk.  These tender perennials are usually killed in the winter time, but this one survived the mild weather.  Of course, it blocks half of the sidewalk, which David thinks is just wonderful.  It will need to be pruned back heavily to encourage re-blooming, but recovery is quick.  A hat tip to Christopher Lloyd of Great Dixter, England, where I first fell in love with these.

Looking back to Early May

In the spirit of remembering what bloomed last month, here are pictures from Early May. 

I will start with the Secret Garden.  I call it that because I hope the deer will never find it. That failed last summer when 20 feet of day lily blossoms were eaten early one morning.  This is a narrow strip between the house and a board fence we put up with our neighbor's permission to get more privacy for all of us.  If you look closely highlights from left to right include: many white peonies with one pink one; above the highest peony is the seed head from one Jack-in-the-pulpit; fading hellebore flowers, yellow tree peony blossoms; white bell-shaped flowers on the Japanese Snowbell tree; and the masses of yellow roses on the fence.

Turning to the labyrinth, most of the planting areas have filled up, looking more mature and established.  I am pleased with the variety in colors, foliage shapes and textures, plant shapes from round to tall and spiky, and fine or coarse textures.  As plants have grown enough to be divided, and then moved into different places, the repetition of things create a sense of unity.  There is still more to be done, and this fall it will require some significant dividing and moving of more large plants.

One of the fun, new plants is Allium Forelock, with very tall stems reaching four feet.  They look a bit alien, growing up so much higher than anything around.  I was worried that strong wind or rain showers might knock the sideways, but that has not been a problem.

I had banned any allium until we had gotten control over the wild onions that heavily infested the whole yard.  I wanted as clean a slate as possible, so when there are new onion seedlings, I might be able to distinguish the bad from the good.  So, this is now the third allium we planted in the last year.  I am hopeful the alliums will work over time, because they are totally varmint proof.  Nothing will touch them, a strong criteria for living next to a nature preserve, with its overflow of deer, gophers, rabbits, foxes, and who knows what else. 

Here is a close-up of the Allium Forelock flower-head newly emerged from its sheath.  It is only 2 inches in diameter, with the sides and bottom becoming more rounded over time.  The top looks like someone with a bad hair day.  I will try to get another shot, soon, to compare.

They are not beautiful, but fit the "what in the world is that" quirky category of flowers - so David thinks they are wonderful!  I find them humorous, and anything that makes him smile is alright by me.  We all need to smile more often.

What I want to watch is what kind of seed-head there is.  I don't know whether to leave them on, or maybe cut them off and discard them so they don't self-seed?  Any suggestions?

I promised last time to show the full flower stage on the Continus 'Young Lady.'  It as a fine, slightly pink haze behind the Penstemon digitalis, 'Husker Red."  Since this picture was taken, the flowers heads totally hide the foliage underneath, making a truly smokey looking bush.  Actually, if you look at the labyrinth shot above, you can see the bush near the left edge.  It creates a very useful contrast.

We originally bought at least two different 'Husker Red' plants.  Multiple divisions later, you can see that this one has more green in its leaves, what the descendants from other plant have a red/purple leaf color. When I dig these greener ones up, I will give them away to neighbors who appreciate the free plants, and keep the others for my own use.  Oops, I wasn't going to tell them that.  Heck, they don't read this blog anyway, so they will never know it!

So, here is one final view across the labyrinth.  I will say more about those orange foxglove type flowers next time.

Catching up on April

I confess, I have been delinquent in putting up new photos for the last, oops, two months.  I have been taking the pictures, but I was gone for almost three weeks in April on a trip to Italy, and then I worked on narrowing down the more than 900 pictures do a manageable 375 and post them on Shutterfly. So, looking back at April, here is what I can show you.

This photo actually dates to before April, when the leaves on the Katsura Heronswood Globe were just emerging.  I wanted to document the progression in color and overall appearance of the leaves on this tree over the first few weeks in Spring. I know there is international interest in the Heronswood Globe because one of the most frequently viewed picture on this blog is one I took of that tree. 

When the leaves are first emerging, there is this interesting blend of light yellow green and burgundy red, making a short term display. 

As the foliage matures over the next 3-4 weeks, the green color deepens into the tone on the right.  However, the leaves on the tips still retain that burgundy color as a light coating on portions of the leaves.  Many websites talk about the foliage color in the fall, but fail to mention this transition in spring. Some places describe the foliage as a blue-green, which doesn't fit what I have seen.  This specimen is in a full-sun situation, and combined with our high temperatures and high humidity in July and August, that may shift the color away from any really blue cast? 

This is an early shot of Cotinus coggygria, the variety Young Lady, which is very slow growing.  There are already pictures, which I will post later, that show it in full bloom, and it is spectacular this year.  It had been in another, prime location in the front of the labyrinth for many years, but never performed well enough to earn its visibility.  So, we moved it a year ago, and put the standard dwarf cedar in its place.  Maybe it is shy and needed a more modest spot, because this year it looks the best it has ever looked. 

You will see water on the next few shots, because I was out early in the morning after a light rain. Those drops of water always sparkle on the flowers and foliage.  On the smoke bush, they bead up dramatically.

The next shot of a rosebud growing in front of the fence in the Secret Garden flouts its water drops in a spectacular way. It just looks so fresh and inviting.  This bush out-performed what it had done any previous years, with dozens of flowers over some weeks of time.  The problem with traveling in April is not being able to enjoy them every day.  After the first flush of warm weather, things cooled back down enough that many flowers lasted far longer than usual.

Moving onto the peonies.  This one, a Kopper Kettle, bloomed for the first time in the three years it has been in the garden!  It had about a dozen flowers.  Curiously, some formed on woody stems above ground, and some on new foliage that emerged from the ground.  As an inter-species variety, with both tree and herbaceous peony parentage, I think each side was showing off!  I took several pictures of this plant, and this one is the most representative of them all.  But I have to say, there were surprising variations - one had bright streaks of magenta on its petals.

This white peony is what I call a "classic" because it traces its heritage to plants growing on the farm my parents bought in 1964 in Pleasant Valley, New York.  I have kept bringing new divisions of it to each garden I have made over the years, and I hope to have one growing nearby into my old age.  These flowers have a strong, spicy fragrance, and a bouquet of 6-8 will fill a room with their heady power.  I have no idea what variety this might be, or where to find that information.  It is tough, lives where ever it is put, and makes me very happy when it is blooming.

I will close with this picture of a soggy common sage plant growing near the front steps.  I am glad we have it there, so I really do notice it blooming.  I would not normally recommend sage for its flowers, but these are worth a front row spot.  This is an area where the previous owner of the house put in a deep layer of gravel, with little soil, and it gets baked in the hot sun during the summer.  If we can get herbs established here, they usually adore the conditions, and we get rich flavors for cooking.

I have lots of pictures from May  that I am working on, and will put them up soon.