Christmas in the House!

There are no flowers in the house this week - altho I hope to add some next week - but Jane has asked us to share what we've decorated.  And, I am all about decorating!  Well, not nearly as much as some folks, but it's a small house and I don't have a lot of storage space!

A handmade tin and copper star that I cherish.

So, the tree is up ....

... and a wreath on the inside of the front door.

Something festive on the hearth ...

.... as well as on the coffee table. 

For the kitchen I changed out the ribbons to coordinate with the walls [i know!], 

and then a little something on the book shelf.

Still plan to do flowers for the table, but that will be next week.  Hope the weather's good and you're nearly done with all the getting ready so that you can enjoy the holidays!

Be sure to stop by Jane's house to see who else has been busy.

Cookie Day!

One would think that with just two adults in our household and few visitors expected over the holiday season that i would cut back on the Christmas "doing" and i tell myself that i have.  

Well, i still put up wreaths, and a tree, and decorate, and invite a few friends for Christmas dinner.  That seems to pretty much cover the major items, doesn't it?

But the other thing that i simply haven't been able to give up is making Christmas cookies.  It's just too deeply ingrained. 

We don't eat them, of course.  The last thing that we need is dozens of tempting sweets around the house.  So, i make them and send them to my brother's family!  With teenagers and young adults in the house, i assume that they have enough traffic during the holidays that there will be plenty of folks available to devour whatever i send.  And, i tell myself that it means as much to my brother as it does to me.

I have cut back to only three favorites:  Ginger snaps because Mitchell loves the soft ones [not like the hard, crunchy ones you buy], "Janet's Christmas Cookies*" and the sugar cookie-based recipe that came from Grandmother and is made with a cookie press.  

[Small commercial here:  having worn out both my cookie press and Mother's, i had to get a new one a couple of years ago.  The Williams-Sonoma brand is excellent!  Even easier to use than the old ones and it seems to hold up well.  No financial inducement was given for that recommendation.  i really do love it!]

Over the past week i reviewed the recipes and made a shopping list and then took Friday off to bake.  Mixing, pressing, decorating, baking, and packing up to go!  I was a  whirling dervish in the kitchen and it was a wonderful day.  Good smells, good tastes and lots of fun.

So, maybe i did keep a few for home consumption ... with a cup of tea.

Hope you are caught up in whatever you enjoy most about the season - and not stressing too much about it!

*Janet's Christmas Cookies are candied cherries surrounded by a wonderful dough with pecans and orange rind and iced - delicious!

It Really is Hinting About Fall Around Here

Belinda tells us that the light is changing in England and fall is definitely in the air there.  We are not quite that far into the season here, but there are definitely changes.  The cooler days and increased rain over the past week have started to work their magic.  

 

The last of the summer flowers have perked up and started to bloom some more. 

 The garden phlox has re-bloomed after a severe cutback last month.

A few spring bloomers have decided to throw a few extra blossoms out of season.

This viburnum only bloomed a little in April - it was too hot then.

And, the first of the harbingers of fall are starting to pop out.

The fall anemones bloomed in July, but they are back.

Phystostigia - Obedient Plant is always one of the first fall bloomers.

 Lady's Mantle

Sedum 'Madrona' is one of my favorites.  A rounder bloom and a darker pink than some other varieties.

This chrysanthemum is ahead of the rest, but many of them bloomed in June and are getting ready to re-bloom now.

An old favorite - Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

All in all, it's lovely!

Wednesday Workday

With Mother Nature's help and support the new garden bed is finished.  The long weekend didn't hurt, either. 

Saturday morning on my knees pulling out the last of the hypericum, led to a quick trip to the Big Blue Box for plants - five azaleas and three chrysanthemums - and by Monday voila!  A bit of rain each day didn't hurt a bit, and more is expected this week to help settle them in.

They are small, but they will grow.  It's a philosophical discussion Mitchell and I have every time I plant something.  I prefer to buy many smaller plants and watch them grow, while he would like for me to get a few BIG plants.  I think they are harder to transplant and get going ... and I usually am the one digging the holes.  So, small it is.  Come back next year and suspect it will be very different!

Spring is All About Change -Right?

Everywhere you look, everyday things are changing in the garden right now. Yesterday the the lilac bloomed - Syringa patula 'Miss Kim'. It is truly a love in the garden. It blooms later than other lilacs, extending their season. It's compact - 6-8 feet at maturity and easily trimmed to stay shorter, so you can use it as a foundation plant. We put it at the foot of the steps from our deck to the yard. The moment you step onto the deck - from the house or from the yard - you get the wonderful fragrance.


And, it's a beautiful color. The buds are pinker, but the flowers are more ice blue-violet. Oh, and it doesn't mind our climate. A winner all around! This is one of my "memory plants". I planted it in memory of a dear friend's mother.


Another beauty that came into full bloom this week is a weigela - Weigela florida 'Java Red'. It's a smaller variety - not really small enough to be considered a dwarf - but better for smaller spaces. This one is going to get a major pruning after it finishes blooming in the hope of improving its shape. The side that you cannot see is nearly flat because there was a huge clump of sea grass behind it until last fall. I finally decided that the sea grass was way too invasive and dug it up, but it had really hurt the shape of this shrub. I hope that by cutting it way back, it will grow out all the way around and even out in the next couple of years.

And, then if you truly want to see what an early spring we have had, here's my best proof.

A water lily bloomed this week! This is one that Mother gave me a couple of years ago. We didn't have room for it in the fish pond, so we got a small pond liner and created a lily (only) pond. I don't give it an annual cleaning (since fish are not dependent on it), so I don't cut back the plant in the fall, and the result is this! Turns out the frogs have the prettiest spot in the garden right now!

More Change in the Air.

In the spirit of spring, I have decided to make a change in my blogging, too. For about 18 months I have maintained two sites - this one which has been wholly about the garden and my first site - From the Garden Bench - which was planned to be insightful comments on my life and the world. I find that I have much more to say about the garden, and this topic is the one that draws me most of the time, but I still want to write about other things from time to time - without needing to maintain a presence at both locations. So, starting May 1st I shall combine the two blogs - but over at the other site. This one will remain up in case anyone is just dying to look up something in an old post - and so I can link back to it - but all the new stuff will be other "there". And, gardening will still be the main focus of what I write.

I will leave a link here, but hope you will come find me next month "on the bench" as well as "in the garden".

Too Early for Iris!

Iris bloom in May and June. Any gardener can tell you that. Apparently someone forgot to tell the iris that this year. This beauty opened this morning - at least two weeks early.

Mother gave me this one for Christmas about three years ago and I neglected to save its tag, so haven't a clue what it is... except huge. It's about eight inches "tall" and about four inches "across" the main part of the flower and a delicious pink. Fortunately, it is also pretty happy with its conditions. There were originally two rhizones, and now I have at least four fairly large clumps - enough that I gave some away last year.

At one time I had some plants that were descended from my grandmother's favorite iris. They were a small yellow flower that succumbed to an overly wet winter several years ago. While this one can't replace that family heirloom, it certainly has made a place for itself - both in my garden and in my heart.

Longfellows in the Garden

Our local botanical garden - Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden - is a whole mile away - close enough to walk on a pretty spring day. I love to drop in frequently to see what's looking good in their plantings and to consider things to add to mine. Someday soon I will take you there to see some of the pretty things they have and to tell you about it. But not today. Instead we have a special event.

Currently they have a fun exhibit of glass sculptures by Hans Godo Frabel. The pieces are placed throughout the property and among the plants all over the garden. Last weekend we saw about half the exhibit, which was either geometric glass sculpture like this fountain or his more whimsical "longfellows" and clowns.


These are longfellows. As you can see, they are like stick figures in glass, but have elongated legs and arms. Their heads are tiny, but yet they have faces. This is my favorite group. They are settled in among the Japanese maples and junipers in the Asian Garden. There is a stream that flows from the Tea House above, down the hill and then behind this group. The columns are glass and reflect the water, the sky and the plants all around the figures. The sun was bouncing off the figures and sparkling so that they seemed to be moving.


Another fun group is a dozen clowns who are balanced on floating glass balls in the lily pond that surrounds the children's garden. There are about a dozen of them on brightly colored balls.









This group of the longfellows was riding a turn of the century bicycle. At one time this property was the location of a bicycling club and they would have ridden high wheelers like this.

We hope to go back this weekend to see the rest of the glass exhibit ... and to see what's bloomed this week!

New Blooms

It's a lovely evening in the garden. We had a full day of beneficial rain. As difficult as it is to believe we are in a rain deficit right now. After the wettest winter in memory, we have had nothing during April and yesterday were an inch behind. I would guess we got about 1/3 inch today, so everything is perking up and saying, "thank you!" this evening. So much is blooming now.

Always my favorite, the clematis are starting to climb everywhere. The first two to bloom, tho, are 'Marie Louise Jensen' and 'H.F. Young'. This is Marie.


"She" is part of the renovation I did last year to the front corner near the porch. You can see that she has already reached the top of her trellis and will soon be making her way up the porch railing. My hope is that she will grow across the top of the railing and on up the corner post before the end of the summer. (We had hoped to get the railing painted this spring, but are running behind. We may delay until fall to let Marie have her way with it! Do you like that excuse?)

'H.F. Young' is growing up the mailbox post:


Unfortunately, in the photos they look similar in color - but they are not. You can see tht H.F. is a much lighter, but it is also a much more pink shade than Marie. See the flower on the lower left, that is not quite open yet? That's more the true color. I have taken a bunch of photos, but they all come out more blue-purple than life. Weird.

A lovely surprise today is this tiarella - 'Sugar and Spice'. I planted it years ago - maybe five - and it has struggled and struggled, but never bloomed. And all of a sudden here it is.


I think it was all the winter rain, but don't really know. This is a part of the garden that needs more water, but I have not found a way to really provide it on a consistent basis. If we ever put in the irrigation system, this spot is number one on my list of places that need help. It's a tiny plant, but with a lovely cluster of pink petals at the tip of each bloom cluster.

The most exciting thing I found tonight is a mistake. About five years ago we visited Longwood Gardens and Brandywine Museum (of the Wyeth family painters). There was a perennial sale at Brandywine and on pure impulse I bought three trilliums - heritage unknown. For the most part, that was the last I saw of them. A couple of springs I have gotten a couple of leaves, but never any sort of bloom. But suddenly I have this:


I think you will agree with me that this is not a trillium, but a Jack in the Pulpit. Either way, I love it and am thrilled that it decided to bloom. I'm guessing it's the wet winter again.

And finally, varigated Solomon's Seal. I really love this plant. We brought a potful from the "old" house (and from my mother-in-law's garden). It has filled in a huge area of [too] dry shade, and provides a lovely pop of light under our elm tree. It is truly one of my favorite plants.




There are plenty of things ready to pop open, so there should be lots more to show you by the weekend.

April 15, 2010 - Something Other Than Taxes

Things are blooming so fast that it's almost impossible to keep up. A stroll yesterday uncovered these little beauties.

A miniature iris - it's only four inches tall. It's best quality, tho, is that it grows in dry shade (as well as partial sun). It was a pass-along from Garland.


Wood Hyacinths. I have pink and white, as well as the blue, but clearly the blue color is genetically dominant. There must be 1,000 times as many blue flowers. These came from our old home 10 years ago and grows all over the yard - wherever I need a blue filler.


A lovely white viburnum. I cannot find the tag for this and am so sorry! It is lovely, altho it has no fragrance, which is a disappointment. To get a size perspective, it's in the final picture.

A cheap little dianthus from the Big Blue Box last summer. I used it as filler in the xeri-garden, but it came back this spring big and luscious, so I left it. I love the hot pink color!


Calycanthus floridus, aka Carolina Allspice. In the sun this would be a big full shrub, but it's in pretty deep shade, so it's an open - not all that pretty - one instead. Last year it had only three blooms and this year about ten times that. The fragrance is like pineapple with something else sweet - maybe vanilla - mixed in. I wanted it next to the deck so that we could enjoy the fragrance with a glass of wine. Maybe next year. You can smell it, but you have to be this close!

Spring Came While I was Busy Working

In the past ten days things have changed in the garden. I hardly know the place.

Planted these anemones - Anemene ciribarua 'Lord Lieutenant' last year and only two or fifteen came up, but they are both back this year and much bigger. There is hope.

A native honeysuckle. I love the color! it grows over a piece of lattice and used to hide the trash cans. It's big enough and thick enough that some years we have a bird's nest in it. Nothing so far this year, but there's still time.



An early azalea that is nearly open (left) and a lungwort (right) - Pulmonaria cevennensis . The latter came from Andre Viette two years ago. It struggled last year and has never bloomed before, but this year popped up early and has been in bloom for two weeks. Don't know if it's because of all the rain, or if it just finally got old enough but either way, it's lovely.




Not actually mine. This lovely lilac is my neighbor's and lives on the lot line. It smells heavenly and is just gorgeous! I look forward to it's blooming every spring.




Fothergilla gardenii 'Mt. Airy'. A lovely foundation shrub. It was scraggly last year, but came back full and pretty this year, like just about everything else in the yard. I hate to think that it was all the extra rain that resulted in the beautiful flowers we are having this year.






And Carolina jasmine. This is one of Mitchell's favorites. We have it growing on a big trellis supported by the house, so it looks like a shrub, when it is actually a vine. Unfortunately, he decided that it needed to be cut back - he was right - so he did it in February when we trimmed some of the shrubs - that was wrong. He cut off more than half of the buds, but it is still blooming and pretty - and much smaller than last year.

A gorgeous spring day in central Virginia. Wish you were here, too.

Spring To Do List

There's always so much to do in the spring that it's easy to just move along doing "stuff" without setting any real goals. Two years ago when I was laid off, I learned that I needed to set real goals to keep moving forward and so that I could accomplish something - even if I did not have a real job. I found that I liked having the list and taking the opportunity each day to look at the list and decide what to work on next. At the end of the day it was lovely to cross something off the list. So here is the spring list for 2010:

1. Renovate the bed around the oak tree. Actually, there is no oak tree. It died last year and we cut it down. Sadly, we killed the oak when we moved into this house. They put the driveway right over half of its root area and therefore deprived it of water. It was fine for a couple of years, but over the past five years struggled and finally we had to have it taken down. Now, what used to be a shady area is a sunny area. It needs additional shrubs and a general re-working of the plants.

2. Remove the sweetspire and renovate that part of the back garden. Sweetspire is a lovely three season shrub that we had in a very shady spot at our "old" house. When we moved here I knew it needed more light, so put it in full sun where it went wild. It became aggressive and was taking over the hibiscus bed. Last fall we decided it had to go, so I used a generous amount of Round-up to start killing it. Now I need to clear out the space and find something to put there.

3. Fix up the entry to the garden shed. It's difficult to get the mover and other big tools out of the shed. I need to take out the grass and put in some kind of pavers to make it easier.

4. Revitalize the veggie garden. Mitchell built a wonderful pair of boxes for square-foot gardening two years ago. He really enjoyed them the first year, but lost interest last year. I really enjoyed the fresh food, so want to grow some more things this year, but it needs more soil and a plan.

In addition to the cleaning that still needs to be done, this list should keep me busy for a good while.

Phirst the Phlox!

Mother Nature has started her daily distribution new wonders - and how wonderful it is! In the past couple of days the creeping phlox [Phlox subulata 'Emerald Blue'] has started to bloom. At one time I had much more of it and in several colors, but this lovely purple has been the survivor. It probably needs more water over the summer - but, in my climate, what doesn't? It still makes a pretty bed, especially with the mini-daffodils peeking thru and around it. I'm going to add to the little bulbs as I can, probably with some wood hyacinths [Hyacinthoises hispanica], also known as English bells or Spanish hyacinths. I have lots - all over the yard - and they bloom much later than the daffodils, so I can extend the bloom in this bed with them.

The other big bloomer I have this week is Harry Lauder's Walking stick [Corylus avellana 'Contorta')]. It's a deciduous member of the hazelnut family and considered a dwarf tree. Mostly, it's an interesting addition to the garden in all seasons. Its blooms - called catkins [really!] - are just a cascade of little yellow flowers. They're called "insignificant" in the trade. En masse, however, it's quite pretty. It will be a full of lush green leaves all summer, but then it will leave me the most interesting architecture to observe all winter. Truly a year-round plant!

Tomorrow - forsythia and hyacinths!