I’m trying not to buy dozens and dozens of bulbs, because planting bulbs is such a pain in my hard clay soil. But here’s the count for this year:
6 Crocus blue moon mixture here and there
50 WFF crocus cream beauty in front garden
6 Tete a tete daffodils at edge of sunny border
25 WFF Spring Green Tulip Mix in containers (visible here).
12 WFF Tulip ‘Tom Pouce’ in containers
May it be a beautiful spring!
This gardening season has had its ups and downs, as usual, and I want to capture my ideas before they melt into the mist.
Spring brought some lovely blooms. The irises, which I sometimes despair of because this bed is so weedy, were lovely (if a bit floppy). I especially like the blue ones. Wish I still had the white ones I inherited from my mother, who got them from Bob Taylor decades ago. This was in mid-May.
Zepherine Drouhin is always lovely, but after she blooms, she’s a mess. Maybe add a clematis next year so there’s something else blooming there?
Despite my vow to sow annual poppies early, I failed. Luckily, this one self-sowed. I love the delicate shading on the petals.
Sarah Bernhardt was in bloom just in time to take her to Duck for the week.
Allium globemaster looked appropriately modern in a 60s sort of way. Plus, it lasted a long time. This was at the end of May.
The drumstick alliums were not quite what I expected, too tall. We’ll see if they come up next year. I was aiming for something like this
but they were very long-stemmed and flopped over. We’ll see if they come back next year.
By the end of June (after the wedding, and English garden pictures to come), long, spiky blooms appeared on the bottlebrush buckeye. The butterflies love them.
(And note the new fence, raw as can be but it should weather to gray eventually). Here’s one of the day lilies, though they seemed a bit meager this year. I love the dramatic dark reds:
And here’s the gallant calla zantedeschia that came as a bonus bulb from McClure and Zimmerman several years ago. If I’d realized its scale, I wouldn’t have planted it so close to one of the lush hostas, but so it goes. It comes up faithfully every year.
And look what’s popped up! A couple years ago I dug up a couple of plants that were just too big for their britches. This is a helianthus that just couldn’t be killed!
There are also signs that the amsonia is resurrecting itself, too. I may bite the bullet and pull it out, replacing it with a variety that has better fall color. We’ll see!
And this was the flowerpot on the steps this year. The pots worked well, but the railing planters were a mess: very dry, and I didn’t have any good fillers or spillers. I’ll add Soil Moist next year and go for something easy like calibrachoa to add color.
The houseplants enjoyed their spa vacation, as always. Note to self: you can never mass too many pots together.
Since this area is part sun at best, it’s all about the foliage here. Still, it could use a little more color but on the whole I was pleased.
Finally, the hyacinth beans I got on sale from C&T did pretty well, though what is apparently a stinkbug larva liked them, too. Never mind, the colors were delicious.
The other nice thing is that the shades of purple went well with the clematis and the Autumn Joy sedum, almost as though I had planned it (ha!).
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!
It’s actually on the 15th of the month, but I’m a bit slow to catch up this time. In bloom in my zone 7 garden last Monday:
snowbells (just starting to bloom)
hellebores
species daffodils (my favorites)
winter aconite (just going by)
crocuses (I don’t remember planting these here, but okay)
squill
It’s been a cool spring, and things are late this year, judging by last year’s photos. The forsythia is not blooming yet, and the daffodils in the cutting garden have just started to open. Soon enough it will be on us like a runaway train!
According to Mr. Google, phenology is “the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life.” This is how you know when it’s time to plant peas (when forsythia and daffodils begin to bloom), or what bulbs will bloom with what. Sometimes it works, and sometimes, given climate change, it doesn’t.
So, one success this year is planting grape hyacinths to coincide with tulip sylvestris, an elegant swan-necked yellow tulip that I read about somewhere and planted for the first time last fall. 
These grape hyacinths are bigger and bolder than my older ones, and the bees love them.
Another success, at last, is ‘Sun Disc’ daffodils with Virginia bluebells. Here they are by the oak tree trunk, finally blooming at the right time.
Other phenological observations are that the cherry trees are beginning to fade, just as the redbuds spring forth. Here’s a cherry tree in my neighborhood several days ago: 
Alison’s two gorgeous crab apples are in full bloom right now. In my garden, there are tulips (the pink ones blooming with the Judd’s viburnum, just as ordered), daffodils, squills, ipheion, snowdrops, and more. It is an exuberant time in the garden.
…which is a nice way of saying that I have neglected this blog in favor of the faster blip of Instagram posts. The original purpose of the blog was to document my garden so that I could learn from my mistakes and notice changes. Of course, over time I’ve included travels and quilting, but in the original spirit of things, here’s a whirlwind tour of what happened this spring.
When Your Plan Actually Works
The ‘Tête‑à‑tête’ daffodils did just what they were supposed to: add color to the early spring garden in front. As a bonus, they bloomed with the grape hyacinths, great color combo. These were perfect and I may get more to add under the maple tree next year. 
I love the English bluebells with the pale yellow daffodil ‘Sun Disc.” Every few years they actually bloom together the way they are supposed to, and this was one of the years.
When You Had No Plan and It Still Works
These pink tulips (French single late from WFF?) beautifully echoed the pale pink viburnum ‘Judd.’ I did not realize I was doing this but will take all the credit for it anyway. Will they bloom at the same time next year? We’ll see.
The yellow hostas and yellow ‘West Point’ are another striking combination for which I will also take )unwarranted) credit.
Old Favorites Do Well
These are Tommy crocuses caught in just the right amount of sunshine.
And these are my favorite lily-flowered tulips, ‘West Point,’ that go on year after year. I hope these do the same even though they’re in a pot.
Echoing Ruth Krauss, daffodils are to give everybody enough.
Sometimes There’s a Mystery
The ipheion in the walkway bed seem to have petered out, so I ordered more. Here is one, looking a bit different from the originals, in the bed by the sidewalk. So I think it’s ipheion ‘Constellation of Blue Stars’ but maybe not?
For next year: more anemone blanda, especially under the maple tree. I also added more trout lilies and English bluebells under the oak tree, and that was a Good Thing.
Maple in the cemetery
That seems to be the theme with this year’s fall colors, which have been slow to develop. Though I miss the brilliant reds we usually get, the golden, cheddar, bright, and light yellows are lovely, too.
Dawn redwood
These two images above are from a walk through the Fredericksburg National Cemetery (Union) with Ann, Shelley and Tena the day after the election. Here’s a yellow maple that was carpeting the sidewalk below the college.
Maple below the college
On today’s morning walk I saw lovely yellowy apricot maples.
Maple
Closer to home, the always reliable bottlebrush buckeye.
The fothergilla has gotten quite big.
And somewhere is a picture of the Solomon’s Seal that, like the hostas, turned yellow as it ripens and fades away.
Caroline's Garden and Travel Record 