Category Archives: spring

We interrupt this blog for a special garden message – or maybe it’s time to stop blogging about travel and get back to the garden now that spring is here.

We’ve had a long, cool spring without more than a couple days in the eighties, so nothing has been cooked to death.  In fact, I still have daffodils in bloom, a new to me species called ‘Pay Day.’  Yellow with a touch of white and very welcome even this late in the season.  Here’s a picture thanks to Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, where I think I bought it.

Earlier this week, just in time for Garden Day, we had a deluge of up to four inches of rain.  I’ve never seen the Rappahannock so high – from the Chatham bridge, you could almost reach out and touch it.  Here’s a photo from the Free Lance-Star.

Now it’s sunny, breezy and magnificent, perfect gardening weather.

So much is in bloom, in fact, that I compiled a list.  Geranium maculatum ‘espresso’, False Solomon’s seal, small white allium, a gray blooming bulb that I can’t identify, hellebores, mazus reptans, bluebells, tulips (going by), blue columbine and wild columbine (which has gotten huge), sweet woodruff, tiarella, euphorbia, vinca, sorrel, Star of Bethlehem, dandelions, Viburnum ‘Shasta’ which looks lovely backed with the neighbor’s pale pink dogwood, bleeding hearts both red and white, ‘Sherwood’s Purple’ phlox which has gone to town under the oak tree, Delaware white azalea, garlic mustard, geranium macrorrhizum, bugleweed, lily of the valley, pink azalea, coral bells, ‘Sun Dial’ narcissus, pansies, lily of the valley ((one lone one) and baptisia australis.  Whew!

I’ve planted black radishes, Yaya carrots, cilantro, and tatsoi from seed, and so far the radishes and tatsoi are coming up.  I totally missed the window for peas and sweet peas and will vow to plant the latter this fall.

It’s been a cool, wet spring, and right now everything looks delicious.  August will come soon enough, but for now, enjoy these delights.

These tulips, whose name I don’t have to hand, were gorgeous and blowsy and beaten down by the rain.
The oak tree garden is gradually coming to the end of its flowering and will soon become a sea of greens.  But there are a few more highlights before it’s over.  Here is the Jack-in-the-pulpit from Becky, and the Japanese roof irises, last to bloom.

Rhododendron ‘Caroline’ finally demonstrated why people rave about her.  I was convinced to try her because of the rave review from the late, somewhat lamented Carroll Gardens man:

There is no better Rhododendron than the Caroline. When it blooms in late spring beautiful clusters of blush orchid-toned flowers will cover the evergreen foliage, a display that will take your breath away. Not only pleasing to the eye, the subtle fragrance will lightly perfume your entire garden, a feature that you will surely enjoy while walking through your garden or having coffee on your porch. The clusters make perfect cut flowers and with such an abundance of blooms, there will be plenty to go around without losing any beauty in your garden. Even when not in bloom, the dense, evergreen deep green foliage will give a wonderful background for the rest of your garden or provide needed privacy.

Well, it has languished in my garden, but I was convinced to keep it on when I met people at the 2012 Philadelphia Flower Show who knew the gardener ‘Caroline’ was named for and raved about it.  This single bloom, first since I planted it in 2007!, persuades me not to give up on her.Above is the native columbine, nothing so special but, on the other hand, so airy and delicate that I want to add more to the oak tree garden.

By the terrace is this trio of stripy things, which I like to think I planned – but knowing the kind of gardener I am, I’m inclined to think it might have just happened.

The swarm has emerged in Ferry Farm.  Here’s what it sounded like one morning earlier this week.