Another Trip Through the Garden

I thought I’d take another tour through the flower beds before they get ahead of me. Everything seems to want to bloom at once this year. Clematis is one of my favorite flowers. Nothing could be easier to grow than these virtually no maintenance vines. I planted one on each side of my front steps many years ago and haven’t really touched them since. In spite of my neglect they still reward me with flowers like that in the photo. Clematis are in the buttercup family. The well-known wild virgin’s bower is a clematis. Dianthus is a huge family of fragrant plants which carnations belong to.  Pinks like in the photo above are also dianthus, and are called pinks not because of their color but because the petal edges look like they have been trimmed with pinking shears, giving them a frilly appearance. These flowers are among the most fragrant in the garden. The leaves of garden pinks are usually a grayish blue color. Bowman’s root (Gillenia trifoliate) isn’t often seen in gardens and that’s too bad because it is a beautiful plant in the rose family that is covered with fragile looking, 5 petaled, white flowers. This plant is native to the eastern U.S. and is also called American ipecac for the purgative power of the roots, which Native Americans are said to have used. English colonials called Native Americans “bowmen” which explains the other common name. This yellow bearded Iris was given to me by a friend several years ago and is a favorite of mine.  Unfortunately it is also a favorite of Japanese beetles whose damage can be seen on the petals.  Since I don’t use pesticides, we share and learn to get along. On a bearded Iris a fringe or “beard” runs down the center of each of the three petals that fall or hang down. This is an example of a beardless iris that is most likely a yellow Siberian iris (Iris siberica.) When this flower is compared to the bearded iris it is easy to see that they are very different. Meadow anemone (Anemone canadensis ) is an old fashioned garden favorite that has much larger flowers than our other native wood anemone.  This plant is also called crowfoot because of the foliage. Native Americans used this plant for many different medical reasons. When I was a boy I used to find Tradescantia, or spiderwort, growing along the railroad tracks. I’d pull them up to take home and plant in the yard along with asters, goldenrod and anything else I could find that had flowers on it. My father couldn’t understand what I wanted with those “damned old weeds.” Wouldn’t he be surprised to know that most of those “weeds” are now grown in gardens!  Tradescantia is another native that has gone to the gardens because true blue flowers are so hard to come by.  The common and well known house plant called wandering Jew is a tradescantia. Weigelia is an easy to care for shrub that is originally from Asia but has become quite common in American gardens. A little pruning to maintain its shape is all it really needs.  Weigelia flowers can come in white, yellow, lavender, red and pink. I grow the pink one seen here in my yard and the hummingbirds love it.The blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) is in full bloom now and is another plant held in high regard for its hard to find clear blue color. This is another tough native plant that bees love. Black seed pods full of loose, rattling, seeds will follow the flowers. Hyssop (Hyssopus) hails from Europe and Asia and has been under cultivation for so long that it is mentioned in the Bible in the book of Exodus. In the mint family, today it is used as an herb in soups and on meats.  It is yet another plant highly valued in the garden for the blue of its blossoms. Peony (Paeonia) is a flower with a scent close to that of old fashioned rugosa roses. Much loved and used for hundreds of years in American gardens, their only drawback is their weak stems which, unless staked, will leave the flowers dragging in the mud after a rain. I’ve come across old field stone cellar holes along long forgotten, overgrown roads that still have peonies blooming in what was once the front yard. Plants have been known to last for well over 100 years. Here is the owner of the scent that peonies seem to mimic. I grew up with a hedge of Rugosa roses in the yard and the fragrance of so many blooms was almost too much to bear. Unfortunately Japanese beetles love this flower and come from miles around to feed on the blooms, which is why it is almost impossible to find a blossom without damage.  If you have ever smelled the fragrance packet on a Japanese beetle trap then you know what Rosa rugosa smells like. This rose is originally from Asia. I thought this white peony that was just opening was a beautiful thing to behold. If a white peony is floated in a bowlful of water into which a few drops of red food coloring have been added, the flower will absorb the colored water and the veins in each petal will be seen. Peonies have been grown in Asian gardens for thousands of years.

In joy or sadness flowers are our constant friends.~ Kakuzō Okakura

That’s it for this trip through the garden. Isn’t it interesting how many native plants we have adopted to grow in our gardens?  Thanks for visiting.

 

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From the Garden

I thought I’d get out of the forest and back into the garden again for this post. Flowers are beautiful no matter where they grow, so you’ll find a little of everything from everywhere here.

Pheasant Eye Daffodil-also called Narcissus poeticus. This is supposed to have been one of the first daffodils cultivated in ancient times, and this is the latest and most fragrant one to flower here. I’ve seen more and more of these in fields and along roadsides so they are naturalizing. The yellow center cup with a red fringe and the late blooming period are good ways to identify this flower. Azaleas are blooming heavily this year, with bushes so full of flowers that you would think they would topple over under the sheer weight of it all. This deep pink one is in my yard and is a dwarf evergreen azalea. All azaleas are in the genus Rhododendron, and evergreen azaleas are in the subgenus Tsutsusi.This is a deciduous azalea that is much larger than the previous one shown and very fragrant. It grows in a local park. Deciduous azaleas are in the subgenus Pentanthera. I’m eagerly anticipating the native azaleas that will bloom soon. This deep purple Beaded Iris (Iris germanica) was in the same park and looked almost black. I don’t know the name of the cultivar. I’m sorry about the harsh lighting in some of these photos, but with a full time job and home renovations on-going, I just don’t have the luxury of waiting for an overcast day to take pictures.I thought this white bearded iris (Iris germanica) was especially beautiful.  Too much shade will cause weak blooming in bearded irises and these that I found in a park were being shaded by trees and shrubs. If they were moved to a sunnier spot they would do better. This is a Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) that blooms before all other irises in my gardens. This native to northern Asia and Europe is such a tough plant that I usually use an axe to divide it into smaller plants. Partial shade doesn’t bother this iris. In fact, nothing bothers this iris. This yellow daylily (Hemerocallis) is very early, blooming just after the Siberian irises bloom. This plant was given to me many years ago by a friend who has since passed on and I have divided it many times for family and friends. Two things make this plant special: the early bloom time and the heavenly fragrance that smells of citrus and spices. I have a feeling this is a Lemon daylily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) which is a very old species brought to America in colonial days and originally from China and Europe.  The Greek Hemerocallis means “beautiful for a day,” and that’s how long each flower lasts. It’s a shame that many of today’s daylilies, bred for larger and more colorful flowers, have lost their ancient fragrance. Blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) is a beautiful plant in the pea family. This is a native plant that is sold in nurseries because it is so popular. Its flowers resemble those of the lupine, which is also in the pea family. Native Americans used this plant to make blue dye. True indigo (Indigofera) comes from the tropics.The pink flowers on this horse chestnut tree were really beautiful. I found it in a park so I don’t know what cultivar it is, but I’d like to have it in my yard. Believe it or not this is a columbine-a double flowered variety. Interesting, but I think I like the ordinary, single flowered columbines more.

Ornamental perennial salvia is blooming already. The culinary form of salvia is the herb known as sage. I’m wondering what fall will be like this year. Everything is blooming so early; I wonder if there will be anything left to bloom in September. Dogwood used to be a tree that you saw only occasionally, but now you see them everywhere-even at fast food restaurants. That doesn’t mean they are any less beautiful though. The sepals on this one were beyond white-I think the whitest I’ve seen on a plant. In a post I did recently called Under Cultivation I showed a photo of this flower and said I thought it might be a button bush, but I couldn’t be sure. Now I’m sure; it’s a native shrub related to witch hazel and is called Witch alder (Fothergilla major.) I’ve never seen this before this year, but I like it because it is so unusual. Witch alder (Fothergilla major.) 

Seed head of the pasque flower (Anemone patens,) which is almost as beautiful as the flower itself. One is just coming into bloom in the upper part of the photo. I saw a flash of color in the corner of my eye as I was driving and what I discovered, after I backed up and jumped out, was a wisteria vine trying hard to make it all the way to the top of a cherry tree.  The problem is I don’t know if it is a Chinese or Japanese wisteria. It’s doubtful that it is the American species because that one isn’t supposed to be hardy in New Hampshire. Whatever it is, it’s beautiful, and I want to go back later and try to identify it. Wisteria can grow under siding and shingles and actually tear them off, so they should never be planted near a house. Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), though beautiful, can overrun a garden. These flowers grow from a bulb and are native to southern Europe and Africa. The bulbs contain toxic alkaloids and have killed livestock, so they are now listed as an invasive species.

The common purple Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is the state flower of New Hampshire so I guess I’d better include it here.  Their scent, along with the honeysuckle and autumn olive, makes doing anything outside so much more enjoyable. Lilacs were first imported into New Hampshire from England in 1750 and grown at the Portsmouth home of Governor Benning Wentworth. The original plants are still blooming today in that garden and are believed to be the oldest lilacs in America.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  ~Walt Whitman

As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing what is blooming here in New Hampshire, and this day I hope you’ll forgive my forgetfulness! Thank you for stopping by.

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Under Cultivation

The blooming time is very short for spring ephemeral wildflowers so the chances are good that you’ll see them on just about any nature blog that you visit now, and rightly so- seeing them on a blog is the only way a lot of people get to see them. But, there are many other beautiful garden flowers blooming now that I think deserve a little bit of our time as well, so here are a few of those.

This native plant is called the pasque flower (Anemone patens.) “Pasque” refers to Easter, and some call it the Easter Flower. Others call it meadow anemone.  They are cold lovers that grow naturally on the tundra and prairies of Canada and the U.S. The showy lavender “petals” are actually sepals. The plant is in the buttercup family along with other plants like clematis, which I think it resembles. The seed heads that follow the flowers are also very showy. The pasque flower was used by Native Americans in childbirth but is considered toxic. Rabbits and deer will not eat it, so it is good in gardens that get night time critter visits. This Japanese bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) grows in my yard and this is the earliest I’ve ever seen it bloom. These large plants are “summer dormant” so their foliage will yellow and die back to the ground by the end of June. This fern leaved or fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) also grows in my yard, and it’s blooming right on schedule. This is a native shade lover that will bloom until frost. I found this shrub growing in a local park and have no idea what it is. I think it might be a button bush (Cephalanthus,) but haven’t been able to positively identify it yet. I found this flowering crabapple (Malus) growing in a vacant lot. It was a true dwarf tree that was no more than 7 feet tall and was absolutely covered with pink, very fragrant flowers. It was a tree that any homeowner would love to have as a landscape specimen, but there it was in a vacant lot. Oh well-maybe more people are able to enjoy it that way. This barberry (Berberis) was also growing in the park, I thought the tiny yellow flowers and the deep maroon foliage were a nice combination. They were also quite difficult to get a decent picture of. There are several deep maroon /purple colored barberry hybrids with yellow flowers. This bishop’s hat or barrenwort (Epimedium) grows alongside some maidenhair fern in my yard. Some think that the tiny flowers resemble miniature columbine (Aquilegia.) This is a low growing plant that makes an excellent groundcover for shady areas; in my yard it might get an hour of sunlight each day. Bishop’s hat shouldn’t be confused with bishop’s cap, also called miterwort (Mitella,) which is an entirely different plant. I bought this shrub last year and planted it in my yard at the edge of the forest and so far am very happy with it. It’s from Japan and in the rose family so it is called Japanese rose (Kerria japonica.) Each lemon yellow blossom is about the size of a nickel. When fully grown it will be 6-8 feet tall and covered with thousands of flowers in early spring. Is this an azalea or a rhododendron? Gardeners haggle over which is which but the differences between them are so slight that botanists don’t separate the two; to a botanist they are all rhododendrons. The flowers on this small shrub were so beautiful that at the time I didn’t care what it was, but now I see that it’s an azalea. How? Most rhododendron blossoms will have 10 stamens while most azaleas have five or six, so counting the stamens will usually tell you what it is.I didn’t care much for the color of this dwarf bearded iris that I found growing in the park, but it has to take the prize for the earliest blooming iris that I’ve seen. This plant is called spurge and it is in the euphorbia family, which contains over 2000 species of plants including poinsettia, cassava, and many popular house plants. The variety shown here is called Euphorbia polychroma, variety “Bonfire.” If deer and rabbits have eaten your plants this is a good replacement, because they won’t touch it. Many plants in the euphorbia family have a milky, toxic sap. The longer yellow “petals” are actually bracts; the flowers are the very small yellow parts in the center of the bloom.

 I don’t think the early 80 degree temperatures we had in March forced the creeping phlox (Phlox stolonifera) into early bloom, but the plants seem to be blooming much longer than they usually do. I think it has been close to a month now that this plant in my yard has bloomed non stop.

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.  ~Vincent Van Gogh

I hope you haven’t minded straying away from wildflowers for a time. Flowers are beautiful whether wild or tame, so I think they all deserve equal time. Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget mom’s day tomorrow!

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