Late Spring Garden

After ten days in France, we came home to a lushly green garden full of alliums, columbine, coridalys, and late daffodils. Here's the front yard a few days ago. I love the red color of the Japanese maple contrasted with the fluffy green prairie dropseed grass.

Here's a green Angelica in bloom. Not sure if I want to keep this plant long term, but it's fun for now. It was a seedling from Caroline a couple years ago.

Here's a cute little wild hyacinth (Camassia sciolloids). This is the first time it has bloomed.

At the bottom right of this picture is Clematis integrifolia just starting to bloom. And just above that is Iris siberica 'Flight of Butterflies.' On the far trellis is Clematis integrifolia 'Rooguchi'.

And here's a picture of my little gardener, checking out a coleus cutting from Melissa.

There's Always Room for More Bulbs

I'm finalizing my bulb order at Brent and Becky's. Since I've been ordering daffodils and tulips every year, I've decided to take a break from those and focus on more minor bulbs, including Eranthis cilicia (winter aconite) and Chionodoxa forbesii. They're both early spring and I'm hoping they naturalize under some of my smaller trees.

I'm also trying a couple less common bulbs including Triteleia 'Rudy' and Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant.' They're also fairly early spring.

The Spring Garden

The more years I've been gardening, the larger my bulb collection and the better the spring display. I still have a lot to learn about how to plant things with different bloom times for a constant show, but if nothing else, I am making progress in this area by sheer numbers of bulbs I plant each fall. Here are some of the things blooming now.
Daffodil 'Tahiti' - I absolutely love this flower in my tropical garden. The flowers are showy and long-lasting. They're not the most floriferous, but well worth planting. And of course, daffodils are of high value for their pest resistance.

This is a Trillium erectum that isn't quite flowering. Underneath it is an epimedium that I bought at a plant sale and later couldn't read my own writing as to the variety.  But it has a cute little orange flower.

Here's the front yard. The pink is Phlox subulata 'Red Wings'. It seems to be fool-proof and a good way to add bright spring color. I seem to recall it reblooming last year too. 

Here's the tropical garden with our Karl's Favorite pear blooming. The red tulips on the right (Tulipa 'Orange Shogun') have interesting speckled foliage.

And here is one of my bloodroot beds with  Magnolia 'Ann' in the middle, just about to bloom. 

My Favorite Time of Year

This is the time of year when I crouch down low to the ground every day, scouring the ground for signs of green shoots poking through. After a long, Wisconsin winter, I'm desperate for something green and fresh. My hard work each fall of planting hundreds of bulbs pays for itself in the spring when first a sea of crocuses appears in the lawn and beds (though shortly afterwards it's usually eaten by bunnies), then the dwarf irises (Iris reticulata 'Pixie' and 'Pauline'), then hyacinths and daffodils. The first hyacinths and daffodils just opened yesterday, the nicest day we've had this spring. I'm not counting the strangely warm days we had in February. And the blood root opened its first blossoms over the weekend as well. The birds are chirping, the lawn is getting green, and it's a joy to be alive.

Favorite Nurseries

The winter is when I look through all the nursery catalogs that come in the mail, read gardening books for inspiration, and make my lists of plants I want to purchase. Thus far I haven't ordered many plants by mail (bulbs being a notable exception). I like to visit nurseries in person in order to see the actual plants to make sure I actually like them, pick the healthiest ones, save on shipping costs, and have the opportunity to talk to nursery staff. Here are my favorite nurseries:

Perennials: The Flower Factory
This nursery has reasonable prices and an amazing selection of herbaceous perennials. In fact, that's all they sell. It's a quick drive down Hwy 14 from Madison. Their catalog is very organized (though it has no pictures), as are their plants.

Dwarf conifers and other interesting trees: Stonewall Nursery
This nursery is just past the turnoff to Flower Factory. It's a little hard to find anything or know what they have, but if you're just looking for something interesting, it's a wonderful place to browse and the owner is highly knowledgeable.

Annuals: Klein's
Located at the intersection of East Wash and Stoughton Rd, it's a bit of a hike from my house. But I go there at least once a year to buy many of my annuals. They have a wonderful selection of coleus, lantana, alyssum, snap dragons, and other annuals. They also have a decent selection of common shrubs, with a list posted on their website. I think their perennials are pricey and nothing special.

Bare root trees: Jung Garden Center
I get very excited when Jung's bare root room opens in about late March. I've been known to make an impulse fruit tree purchase here. I make my list from looking at their colorful catalog, though the garden center doesn't always get everything that the catalog lists. If you go and they're out of the tree you wanted, come back at a later date to check again because they do restock to some extent.

Seeds: Jung Garden Center
Go early to make sure they don't sell out of something you really wanted. I also buy a fair number of seeds from Seed Savers Exchange. You can either order from them by mail or buy from nurseries that sell them, such as Bruce Company. They also have a store at their farm in Iowa.

Bulbs: Brent & Becky's
I buy just about all my bulbs from this mail-order catalog. They do have a store and beautiful show gardens, but it's in Virginia so I probably won't ever make it there. You get a discount if you order early (by about July for fall-planted bulbs and by about March for spring-planted) and let them charge your credit card at the time of ordering. Daffodils are their first love and Brent wrote a lovely book about them.

Vegetable seedlings: The Dane County Farmers Market
I start most of our tomato, pepper, and eggplant plants under grow lights in our basement now, but before I did this we bought most of our vegetable seedlings from various farmers market vendors. You can find interesting heirloom varieties there that a nursery like Jung doesn't carry. And you're supporting local farmers.

The Last Flower Standing

Each year I look forward to the very last perennial that blooms in my yard: Chrysanthemum rubellum 'Venus'. It doesn't bloom until October and then stays in bloom until after frost. It starts out light pink and then gets darker as it ages. It responds well to cutting it back by a third in June (though that probably makes it bloom even a little later). It is a slowly-spreading clump that gets about 24" tall.

This year we've really only had one light frost and it's already mid-November. My zinnias are still alive and while the dahlias weren't quite dead, today I finally pulled them because the blooms didn't look great anymore. There's certainly more fall cleanup I can do, but for one thing I have a baby whose naps are of unpredictable length and for another, my compost bin is already overflowing. :)

Fall-Planted Bulbs

Each July or so I order my bulbs from Brent & Becky's to plant in October. Their pictures and descriptions are so enticing and it's so easy that I usually order quite a few. Click, click, click. And then the box arrives in October and I'm overwhelmed by the work of actually planting them. It's such a relief when I finish that task. It's worth it in the spring when green things poke out of the snow. Here's what I planted this year:
Narcissus 'Kiss Me' and 'Tripartite:'

Tulip humilis 'Lilliput' and 'Persian Pearl:' I'm not a huge fan of growing tulips in my yard because first of all, they're attractive to rabbits and there's nothing worse than watching your work and money go to waste when the rabbits mow your bulbs to the ground. And second, the foliage on most tulips is unattractive after the flowers are done and takes a long time to die so I can clean it up. But these tulips are super tiny and I thought they might be worth a shot. The Lilliput bulbs were about the size of a large pea.

Muscari aucheri 'Blue Magic:' I haven't grown grape hyacinth before because I thought the standard purple variety is too common. But this variety is an interesting blue color. Hopefully I don't regret planting these as I hear grape hyacinth can spread like crazy.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Goldilocks,' 'Cream Beauty,' and a bag of mixed varieties: I love growing crocuses because they're the first thing that starts growing in my garden in the spring. But most crocuses are rabbit candy. However, I've had pretty good luck with the chrysanthus species. And I figure that since they're cheap and fairly easy to plant, if I keep adding more each year I'll just overwhelm the rabbits with volume. I already have some of the 'Goldilocks' and I planted this new batch among my dwarf irises ('Pauline' and 'Pixie') because they bloom at the same time. I like how the purple and yellow look together.

Eremurus 'Orange Marmalade': I haven't grown any foxtail lilies before, but I thought they would be a good perennial addition to my tropical bed. The catalog says they get 4-5' tall. I'm not going to plant castor beans next year because the beans are highly poisonous and look like candy, so I put these at the back of the tropical bed to be the backdrop instead. We'll see if it works. I've found heights listed in catalogs to be unreliable.

One note from my spring-planted bulbs this year - all the 'Karma' series dahlias seem to grow 5-6' in my garden, not the 2-3' listed in the Brent & Becky's catalog. They're beautiful flowers and grow well, but are way taller than listed.

June flowers

Here are some of the lilies that are blooming in the garden.

These white lilies were part of a mixed pack I bought years ago. The pack didn't name varieties or species.

The white lily just behind the pink poppies in the front was supposed to be a yellow variety, but it was mislabeled. I had planted it in a bed that didn't have any white in it so I moved it here last fall (turns out it's not in a good spot - it's getting lost). The pink poppies are from heirloom seeds my mother gave me. I had many, many more last year, but I put down fresh mulch this year so most of them weren't able to germinate.

 This little guy was from a plant exchange two years ago. Lilium asiatic 'Cancun'.

 This is lilium asiatic 'Yellow Pixels' from Brent & Becky's, my favorite bulb source.

 I think this is lilium asiatic 'Lollipop.'

There are other lilies that haven't bloomed yet. Here are a few other flowers blooming now.
This is Leucanthemum superbum 'Crazy Daisy' that I grew from seed last year. It's about two feet tall and hasn't flopped yet (unlike other daisies I've had).

 This is a really cool flower called Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica).

 And finally, this was my attempt to have yellow climbing roses blooming with a purple clematis. Unfortunately, the climbing rose dies back so far each year, that it never really climbs the trellis. You can see one sad little blossom in the lower left of the picture.

Home at last

After two lovely weeks in Prague, Salzburg, and Vienna, we made it home. While it was a good trip, I'm thoroughly glad to be home. Elliot does much better in his own bed and in his own time zone. While we were gone, there were storms and windy days. Unfortunately, one of the windy days took out our apricot tree. We knew it was damaged, first by rabbits and then by insects, but it had actually set fruit this year (i had counted about 36 apricots) and we were going to let it stay as long as it continued to bear fruit. Oh well. Now I have an excuse to get a nectarine tree (in addition to the peach we already planted this spring).

The yard wasn't as much of a jungle as I had feared. I credit the thick layer of hardwood bark mulch we laid down earlier this year. Without that, the weeds would have been much, much worse. Here's the front yard. There are two columnar apple trees (I think they're Sentinel Yellow and Sentinel Scarlet) in this picture; the one behind the false indigo in the upper right corner has set fruit for the first time. The one in the foreground didn't. The grass is prairie dropseed (I think it looks best right now, before it sets seed) and the red flowers are hardy shrub roses. I highly recommend these - they bloom pretty much all summer and have been hard for me for a number of years. They often die back to almost the crown, but always send up need shoots rapidly.

This is Adam's 'sci-fi' garden. I love this elderberry 'Black Lace' that's in full bloom. 

This is my cottage garden. It's still a work in progress, but most things are growing nicely. The pink flower on the right that's almost done blooming is a foxglove and on the trellis is clematis integrefolia. I think it looks great for only having been planted last year.

This is a lupine that's been there (stuck under a sedum) since we bought the house eight years ago. I always knew it was there, but it has never bloomed before. Lupines are supposedly short-lived, so the fact that this one bloomed after so many years is kind of funny.

My mock oranges are in full bloom. 

And finally, this is a wood lily. This is the second year it has bloomed. We bought it as a tiny seedling year ago so the fact that it survived to bloom makes me feel like a somewhat competent gardener. 

And for fun, here's a picture of Elliot at the park on a gorgeous June day. I have to put a burp cloth over the swing since he always tries to eat it.

My new job

Since I've now resigned my job as an event manager in order to be a full time mommy, I'm hoping to have more time to blog more. At the moment, my ability to do things like blog or garden are completely reliant on Elliot's ability to nap for more than 45 minutes. I have taken him in his stroller into the backyard with me while I try to garden, but I usually only get about 10 minutes that way. I'm next going to try bringing his exersaucer onto the deck to see if that keeps him happy a little longer.

In the meantime, here is what my yard currently looks like (as of about a week ago).

The front - the Japanese maple 'Bloodgood' is starting to get to be a very nice size.

 This is the "cottage garden" i put in last year. Most of the tulips were already done when i took this picture. It could use a few more small bulbs.

 The back bed. The tree in the middle is my sweet cherry 'Black Gold' which flowered more than I've ever seen it flower before. I'm optimistic for a wonderful cherry crop this year.

 The deck. Ignore the lawn that needed to be mowed. The plants under the white pine are my thick, old patch of bloodroot.

Spring 2016

It's been a long time since I last posted. That's because a baby named Elliot came along in October and by mid-summer I wasn't doing a whole lot in the garden. I did almost no fall cleanup, so this spring there is a lot to do. I've almost finished the main front bed and the pear trees. Spring is a little earlier than last year. The dwarf irises started blooming eight days earlier and the first crocuses were at least six days earlier.

Late June Garden

Here are some pictures of the back yard beds.

The back bed has a sweet cherry tree, self-seeding yellow coreopsis, a Red Lake currant, some white alliums, lamb's ear, basket of gold, false indigo, mock orange, corydalis, a Rosanne geranium, among others.

 The cottage garden I planted this yera is starting to grow, though it will get a lot more colorful in a month.

The deck bed features a Rainbow Mix coleus I grew from seed in the basement, columbine, my poor New Jersey Tea (it's the chicken wire on the far right), hostas, asiatic lilies, and perennial bachelor buttons among others.