Magnolia, Wasp and Nursery

 

The 'Little Gem' Magnolia continues to bloom through the summer.  Most of them are far above my height, but this one is within reach.  The shape of its inner parts continues through to the seed pods that drop all over.  Aidan has decided that they are great fun for chewing, while I fear he will swallow one.

On the other side of the yard a Great Black Wasp is busy collecting nectar from the cat mint, Calamintha nepeta "Monrose White'.  They are nectar and pollen eaters.  I often see these among the flowers, and am pleased to learn that they are quite beneficial.  They burrow in the soil and lay their eggs next to a cricket, grasshopper or Katydid carcass, keeping those chewers under control.  

Earlier I had a picture of the caterpillar for a Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly.  If you look closely you will find at least four of them in this picture.  At the top is a very large one chewing on a Aristolochia fimbriata (White Veined Dutchman’s Pipe) leaf.  Stupid me, I had not made the connection between the vine and the butterfly!  This is their favored food, and the flowerbed is full of the vines.  Therefore, I keep seeing lots of these beautiful swallowtails in the garden.  And the vines are still growing, though not as large as usual.

View from the Bedroom

This is the view out our bedroom window in June.  Lots of different types, sizes and colors of leaves with occasional flowers appearing for a short time.  It gets much more shade than the rest of the yard, partly because of its location on the north side of the house.  But it also has a 20 foot 'Little Gem' Magnolia on the northwest corner, and a Japanese Snowbell in the middle.  Some of the branches of the snowbell are visible on the upper left side of this photo.

I also call this the hidden garden, because most of the time the wandering deer do not find their way into it.  So it has lots of Hostas and day lilies.  Just this morning I looked out the kitchen window to see a young deer walking into the labyrinth.  When I opened the front door, it looked at me casually and didn't move until I was stepping off the front porch to push it out.  The dog had no clue, so she didn't help anything. 

Visible on the right of this photo is Hydrangea Serrata 'Blue Bird.'  When I saw it at the nursery, growing among acidic soil under a pine tree, the blue color was intense.  Growing it alongside the foundation, I have to constantly add aluminum sulphate to the soil to keep the blue.  As you can see in the close-up below, I haven't put any on recently, and that is okay since I like the variation in color also.

January 2012

It has been a mild winter up until the first week of this month, with the temperatures plunging into the low 20's for a few nights.  This killed off the foliage of the few remaining herbaceous perennials.  But some other specimens are holding their own, such as the Viburnum Alleghany bush, seen on the left.  This bush was severely damaged last year in a similar sudden drop in temperature, with large sections killed in spite of its hardy nature.  So, the few surviving old sections are blooming, even though the new suckers have not gotten mature enough to do the same.

Some plants, like the Sedum 'Angelina' that grows beneath the Inkberry hedge along the road, resist the cold.  This particular spot is protected enough that the intensity of the chartreuse color has not shifted.  I have no idea where that beech leaf could have come from, since there are none in the immediate area.  At the top right you can see how the zoysia grass has faded into its tawny color for the winter.  While many people dislike this characteristic of zoysia grass to shift from green to brown in the winter, I rather like the way it changes everything.  For four or so months green is not the dominant color, and anything that is green, such as the Sedum, becomes more noticed.  Last weekend with the full moon, the lighter straw color of the grass seemed to shimmer in the moonlight.  That would not have been true if it were still green.

The thyme that grows in some of the narrower sections between the paths of the labyrinth is also looking very strong and healthy in the softer winter sun.  I love the way the reddish lavender highlights appear in the cold weather.  I haven't figured out what causes some of the stems to have it, while others don't, but the variegation provides a subtle bit of warmth to the patch.  This year I hope to find and plant some more varieties of thyme into these different sections in addition to this one and the lemon thyme next to it.  They enjoy the long hours of hot sunshine, can survive being run over by the mower wheels or even chopped off by the blade if they get too tall.  As one of the few plants avoided by deer, who seem to avoid many of the herbs, thyme would also help protect the bulbs planted underneath.  Sad to say the deer have been nibbling at the tops of the daffodils and other bulb leaves that are supposed to be deer proof!  So, a disguising layer of thyme may be in order another year.

On the other side, at the edge of the parking pad, the Magnolia 'Little Gem' has recovered very well from last winter's destruction by heavy snows.  There has been vigorous new growth throughout, from near the ground and all the way to the top.  It has been spoiled this summer because we could not get the faucet to completely close, so there was a constant drip of water over its roots.  Once we spent the three hundred dollars to get a plumber out to fix the faucet, it will have to keep going on its own.  It was even spared losing branches for holiday decorations, but that means all the more for next year. 

There are more pictures to come, but they will have to wait for another day.