Close-ups

With the cool weather continuing, only a few flowers have opened up.  Without competition from dozens of other blooms, there is a special draw to savor each one.  This Paeonia 'Kopper Kettle' has been a strong performer after taking a few years to settle into the spot.  Each flower shifts color from a pink with magenta tone into the salmon range as the petals age. 

The name of this iris, which came from my mother's garden in Ohio, is unknown to me.  It is a shame, since the complex mix of light blue is stunning.  What else can be said?

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. 

End of March

As the end of March arrives, there are a few of the newly planted bulbs showing their flowers in the labyrinth, and many others with buds emerging from the ground.

There is a dramatic difference from last year, when the narrow flower beds between the grass paths were bare.  The idea is to fill them with bulbs, which provide growth and color when the perennials are just beginning to break through the mulch.  Then, after the bulbs die back, the sections will remain empty, contrasting to the rest packed with flowers.  The idea belongs to Harold Nicolson's Lime Walk at Sissinghurst, what he called "My Life's Work" which I hope to see in full bloom some day.  

You see the one of the first narcissus in the front, a variety called Marijke, with pale yellow back petals, and a deep orange, ruffled trumpet.  What the description in the catalog left out is the way the flower faces down to the ground, so the orange trumpet is not even visible.  All that can be seen while standing and walking are the yellow petals.  This shy flower requires getting down on the ground, and looking over/up into the flower to finally see the orange trumpet.  Since the stem is only about six inches tall, you really have to get down low.  I am disappointed with its garden appearance, but as they build up clumps, I imagine many of these will be cut and brought indoors, so that they can bring their fresh brightness up-close on the dining room table.  It also means that next year there will be something else planted alongside these to provide some other color.  Although when I look closely, I see that they are mixed in with something else further back from the entrance of the path.

Another place of excitement are the red leaves rising up from the Itoh hybrid peony called Kopper Kettle.  I found this at the National Arboretum sale last year, and it was a fully grown plant when I bought it, so I did not realize the initial color of the leaves would be this gorgeous.  This is a cross between a herbaceous and a tree peony, so the stems are heavier and stronger that the usual herbaceous, and the densely double flowers are described in one catalog as golden yellow, orange and red.  It is a rich and wonderful display, and I hope the plant will not need the wire supports that are required to keep the rest of the peonies from collapsing in a heap on the ground with the first heavy rain.  I hope this goes well with the peonies that were brought from the homestead in New York and a few other picked up along the way!  One catalog says that it might even re-bloom once it is established - I will be amazed if it will do that!

On the north side of the house, with some of the early Sunday morning snow beneath it, is the gallantly struggling tree peony, brought out from our property in the city. Here are the much smaller buds on the tips of the woody branches, beginning to unfurl.  This section of the yard is more protected, so the hellebores, bulbs and other peonies are actually ahead of the same varieties in the labyrinth area, even though they are not getting much sun at all.  Being on the north side of one section of the house, and the west side of another, they only get late afternoon sun in the middle of the summer, yet that is enough to keep them going.  Planted around the various stems of the tree peony are dog-tooth violets, or trout lilies - Erythronium pagoda.  I first grew these in my full-shade yard in the city, and fell in love with them.  The open-bell shaped flowers just make me smile.  I am pleased to see them multiplying and making bigger and bigger patches.  By the time the peony has fully leafed out, the Erythroniums are dying back and disappearing into the ground.  They are a perfect pairing!

Finally, I cannot resist a portrait of Four Paws, reluctant though she was to stay in place while I focused and clicked the shutter.  She is sitting next to the pointed stem of a Jack-in-the-Pulpit bought a few years ago from the National Arboretum.  This stem will reach two feet before the flower will grow on its top, far above any of the surrounding foliage.  In front of where the dog is sitting there is a clump of native Jack-in-the-Pulpit I moved up from the steep side of the ravine, where it was being threatened by erosion.  There is a third one, still underground, about where I am squatting to take the photo.  Pictures and names will be listed when they are blooming.  It is a fun, small collection, and I could easily become a fanatic since they are simple to grow and delightful in their variety.

Hopefully, today was the last snow of the year, and the weather will move out of the 40's next week.