Category Archives: white

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August Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day

July in Virginia is usually even hotter than August, but this year August might be winning. A week of highs approaching and exceeding 100 degrees is giving way this week to high humidity and daily showers. Better than drought, I guess? Of course, the sunny garden is an absolute JUNGLE at this point, and it’s too wet to weed it. Maybe next week.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa, a tall one that I should probably move. It’s in the boxwood garden and doesn’t get quite enough sun, but isn’t it bold and lovely?

The less dramatic black-eyed Susan has decided to sow itself in the back, but here’s one small clump in the side garden by the raised bed.

An anonymous sunflower sowed in the big blue pot. Again, not quite enough sun for the best show.

The silken flowers of the datura bloom early in the morning and fade like the twelve dancing princesses by mid-morning.

The native passionflower is a real problem. It pops up everywhere and aggressively twines around everything it can find. It even pops up in the lawn. But then I see how the butterflies and bees love it, and I let it go wild. I need to get a grip!

I imagine this bee got drunk on the nectar last night and is just beginning to wake up this morning.

I’ve moved the hummingbird feeder so that I can see it from the sewing room window. The hummers love the feeder as well as the zinnias. They don’t seem to mind the scruffiness of this part of the garden.

The Joe Pye weed is just coming into bloom, a bit shorter than usual since I gave it the Chelsea chop. And the butterfly bush is still going strong.

This one is a bit of a mystery. I think it’s Arisaema dracontium (Green dragon) that I got at the farmer’s market years ago. I noticed the seedhead and then not long after these little seeds. At first I thought they might be bugs!

The perennial pea from Mom is looking a bit worse for wear right now.

Looking forward to some better weather so that I can edit this wild landscape!

Spring blooms

Posted on February 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

I first noticed some blooms at the end of January. I still remember (or think I do) when seeing winter aconites in February was unusual…

January 25: yellow crocuses under the oak tree first-crocuses

January 29: winter aconite (in bloom for a week or more by this point) and crocuses winter-aconites tommy-crocuses

February 6: white crocuses (and notice how dry the soil is) white-crocuses

And today, February 19: Tête-à-tête dafodils in the front garden, hellebores front and back (in bloom for some time), and more of the delightful Tommy crocuses.

These crocuses, opening up in sunshine, always make me think of Sara Teasdale’s poem “Barter,” invoked by a long-ago children’s librarian about storytime: “children’s faces looking up/ holding wonder like a cup.”

Bloom Day March 2016

Posted on March 15, 2016 | Leave a comment

A drizzly morning is good for the garden and good for garden photos. In bloom today, after a very warm week last week and just a bit of welcome rain this week, are:

grape hyacinths – modest little bulbs but I want to add more for a sea of blue. I like the contrast with the red blossoms from the maple. IMG_20160315_093458

hellebore – one of the most satisfying of perennials, these come in several colors and postures

daffodils – the cutting garden is doing well (I’ve already cut several dozen in the last few days), and more are in bloom under the oak tree and outside the shed. I need some in the front garden.

chionodoxa – my plan for a sea of blue under the hydrangeas is slow to mature, but I’ll keep adding bulbs each year

speaking of blue, the blue anemones seem to be the only ones to survive. They do well in sun and are not showing at their best on this cloudy morning. They would look great under the maple tree. Next year?

and finally, leucojum ‘Snowflake’ – this one is in the bed with Bishops weed, so I rooted out both the weed and some of the leucojum a year or two back. It seems to be thriving again. It makes a very sweet tiny bouquet that allows you to see the delicate green lines on each petal.

And, of course, dandelions, myrtle and forsythia, all appreciated but too common to record. Otherwise, plenty of buds are swelling – not just the maple but also the bottlebrush buckeye and the hydrangeas.

This is why people grow astilbe

Posted on June 11, 2014 | 1 comment

I have astilbe ‘Deutschland’ in the front garden and in the erstwhile white garden. My mother grew astilbes, they are the backbone of the garden, a classic perennial, and so on. Not in Virginia! The summer droughts tend to parch it so much that it barely hangs on. I’ve dismissed it but never gotten rid of it either.

This year, it’s perfect: airy white wands wave in the breeze, lighting up the dark green corners of the garden. I’m sure Henry Mitchell had something pointed to say about it. Adrian Higgins just says to give it a pass in Virginia. But here are two more reasons to grow it.