May Flowers Between Showers

The white shooting stars, have incredibly short stems. Perhaps the are waiting for the sun to grow taller.

The pink shooting stars seem to be loving the rain.

My 'Jack Frost' Brunnera has beautiful little blue flowers, and such lovely leaves

Ed got a perfect shot of this bleeding heart. The weeds have not been pulled, but at least they are out of focus.

Between the attractive leaves and the lacy flowers this 'Sugar and Spice' Tiarella is a delight.

The Kathy Purdy's Narcissus are fragrant and attractive. Again the weeds are out of focus.

There are years when we think we have the upper hand in the garden. Things get planted on time. Weeds get pulled . For the most part the garden bends to our wishes. This is not one of those years. Mother Nature is in control and we are painfully aware of it. Everything is growing in response to the daily rain, especially the weeds and the lawn. We did get a little sun today. You'll have to excuse me now, I have wet garden clothes to launder.

Stonewall Garden News

We had a light frost overnight. My shooting stars are beautiful, but some critter, chipmunk or squirrel, seems to be eating them.
Ed brought home this nice little clump of Bluets from Steve and Elaine's. They are a favorite of mine.
The yellow Clintonia or blue bead lily that we planted last year is in flower.

I just received some news from Horticulture magazine. They are having a garden photo contest with a $1000 prize. Here is the link: http://www.hortmag.com/gardenphotoawards. The contest deadline is June 1. Wiseacre and Sunita take note ! There are so many bloggers who take fabulous photos, I wanted all of you to know.

The other news is that Plants and Stones turns into a pumpkin on June 21. After that Horticulture will have a new 2010 Summer Class of Bloggers. Be sure to check it out. It could include anyone. I'm living proof of that! Being on that Horticulture best blogs list has been a thrill for me. I feel very much like Cinderella. I still plan to have a ball at the Bloggers' convention in Buffal10 in July. Most likely I'll leave my glass slippers at home, I'd just as soon not lose them!

It's A Boy

I was riding my bike when the red fox walked by directly under the living room window. What a gorgeous creature with beautiful red fur that looks incredibly soft. I watched as he sat below the window casually scratching an itch behind an ear with his back leg. How close was he? Close enough for me to be certain that this was a male fox I was looking at. I got a little excited and tried to take a picture. Of course I pushed the wrong button . By the time I got the camera straightened out, the fox had passed through the garden, and climbed atop the far stone wall. He stood there for a short while ten headed west , marked his trail with urine, and dropped out of sight down into the notch.

Another plant order got called in today. We ordered some new plants from McClure & Zimmerman for the shade garden, to be planted in the spring: Jack In The Pulpit, Shooting Star, Ensata Iris, Bloodroot, Trillium, Acidanthera and "Crested Iris. Our first seed order should be ready by Monday.

New Beginnings

Here we have new plants in a new bed in front of a new stone wall. Yellow downy violets, shooting star ( pink and white) and blue bead lily have been planted here. the cage is to give some protection from passing animals who might want to try the newest thing on the menu. Wintergreen plants are on order to fill in the front of the bed.

The wildflower books consistently mention the importance of soil ph. The blue bead lily requires a very acid soil. We needed to make an adjustment. The area under a pine tree was scraped and screened to get some fine acidic compost. This material lined the planting holes for these lilies. Lighter colored soil surrounds these plants. We will wait and see if blue bead lilies can flourish here.

We Went Wild !

We took a trip yesterday and went just slightly astray stopping at the Catskill Native Nursery in Kerhonkson, New York. We went there on purpose of course with a short list of plants we were looking for: wood lily, wintergreen, yellow clintonia , white trillium and yellow violet. They didn't have the wood lily. There are many yellow violets. The chosen one was not available but another was. The rest of the plants on our list were there. Yes,we did buy some other plants that Becky just couldn't resist: shooting star (pink and white), Dutchman's breeches, round leaf hepatica and a primrose. There was one more thing that I was not expecting to find.




Trailing arbutus is one of my favorite wildflowers. We have some growing here, but it is along a deer path on the side of a steep hill that we now find treacherous. It's a plant whose fragrance will make you drop to the ground to get a better whiff. This was a unexpected and thrilling find. We will do our best to provide perfect conditions for it and our other new "wild" plants in a place where we can enjoy them.

When buying native wildflowers there are concerns about the source of the plants. I hope these plants were raised in nurseries and not wild collected. The plants are so well taken care of and beautiful . I have to think that the owner of this nursery is conscientious. I like to shop on Ebay too but I don't like the idea of buying "hot stuff!"