Flowers In The Wild

When this rather poor farmland became ours twenty-eight years ago, we were in our fifth decade of existence and capable of hours of physical labor in intense sunlight.  Sod was removed and stacked to compost.  Stones were sifted from the soil and used to build weed free paths.  Tired but happy was the rule of each day.  Our present loss of function has totally changed our garden.  This Butterfly Weed plant may have planted itself here.  We remember trying to establish purchased plants with mixed results.  This plant may well be self planted from seed.  It is at the end of a planting bed in full view from the living room window.  Many recent days find us watching this Aphrodite Fritillary butterfly from the comfort of an airconditioned room.  As I was being driven inside by the oppressive heat, I  stopped for this photo.

Rose Campion is a beautiful but difficult plant.  Its brightly colored flowers are backed by a silver green colored foliage.  It is a biennial with a low rosette of leaves as its first year of growth.  A long tap root makes transplantation difficult.  We have been content to let these plants grow where they please.  In time small sifted stone paths become filled with composted plant parts and minerals from the stones.  Many plants seem to prefer this mixture as a place to grow.  We happily walk around these beauties to use our garden paths.

This view is looking straight down a thirty by three foot stone path.  No stones are visible despite their six inch depth.  Wood Betony is another purple color flowered plant that has been popular here for decades.  Planted in our carefully prepared soil, the plants grew but did not flourish.  These plants are all escapees from our stone free planting beds.  They find something in the path ground that was missing from the soil that we created.  We intend to clear out some of the weeds while doing no damage to these special plants in preparation for next year's display.

Elle gave us these Gloriosa Daisies years ago.  As she said would happen, many plants returned to yellow only petals while some of the brightly colored flowers persist.  We are moving along in age ourselves with no plan for what comes next and find some comfort from these past gifts.  Many different plants in our gardens came from Elle  They always bring to the front pleasant memories. 
 

Self Planted Beauties

Foxglove is a common name for this plant.  That name makes no sense to me since nothing about this plant suggests an item of clothing that any wild animal might wear.  The tubular tunnel shape of the flowers would likely encourage a child of any age to insert fingers into the blossom.  An acquaintance remembers her childhood fascination with these flowers and bought a potted plant so that her daughter could also have her own memories of this plant.  Digitalis is another name for this plant since it is the natural source for the chemical used in a heart medication of that name.  All parts of this plant are considered poisonous if eaten but not all who admire this plant know that.

  

We did not plant seed nor transplant this Foxglove in our shade garden.  Somehow a seed found its way here.  There is no way that we could weed out this single plant despite its pure white color.  We prefer the more vibrant pink or purple coloration frequently seen.  This plant is self seeded and young plants can be easily transplanted when they are young.  The decision ahead of us is whether or not we will let this plant produce seed.

Rose campion is another self seeder that establishes a large number of plants in a rather small area.  This plant is a favorite here both because of its flower color and its foliage color.  Here again these plants can be easily transplanted when small.  We are unable to keep up with our several gardens and may harvest seed this fall to get something attractive growing on ground that we cannot take good care of anymore.

 

This photo shows the view looking out from the house toward the garden.  The rose bush and the Smoke bush occupy a planting bed that we have completely lost control of.  The rose bush was a gift from Jane and she was shocked to see its size if left unpruned.  These Rose campion plants are self sown and seem to do an excellent job of eliminating the weeds in their ground. 
 

Spring In 15

This winter has held its first snowfall on the ground right up to today.  The only soil that we have seen is the many time plowed driveway.  The sun is steadily climbing higher in the sky and its warmth is now sufficient to melt lane ice despite the still frozen ground.  We placed the long wall of the house facing south.  It is massive and white and both plants and soil are in view here as a result of reflected heat.

Rose Campion is a European native.  It prefers poor stony ground to carefully enriched garden soil.  Here it has seeded itself in the stone paths adjacent to garden beds where it spreads impressively.  Move it to rich garden soil and it will flower once then vanish.  Its bright purple flowers look great next to its whiteish green leaves.

We are not in agreement as to the identity of these plants.  Daylilies usually form large dense clumps but these plants grow in the shade of a Rose of Sharon tree.  Whatever they are, we welcome them.  They remain green despite temperatures in the mid twenties.

These green leaves may well be Coral Bells that are native to Arizona perhaps in the high country.  They are green and ready to grow and will soon be weeded and mulched.  Moss growing on stone walls looks great also.

These Sweet Williams look like they are suffering but are clearly alive.  My mood has brightened just with the idea that working among the plants will soon be possible.

 

This bright green belongs to my arch enemy Quack Grass.  Despite our decades long battle, this plant will quickly take over my gardens when I am no longer able to kneel on the ground to remove it.  Still, its early growth is bright, green and strong.

These Iris were a gift from Jane.  Sadly she is no longer with us but many of her plants and wall stones remain.  Royal purple will be the color of this plants huge blossoms.  Early division and replanting will help us maintain this treasure.  Of course, clearing last season's leaves will soon happen.  We believe that the insulation provided by last seasons leaves helps the plant survive winter.

 If anyone needs to mark the location of their septic tank, now is the time.  No close placement to basement walls melted this snow.  An underground organic heat source did that job.  That strange dark shape in the foreground is the end of a low stone wall.  Sunlight and heat absorbing stone melted some snow here.

Survivors

Rain has not visited our gardens in quite some time.  What water that we have brought to the plants was delivered in a hand held watering can.  Needless to say only a select few  were watered this way.  Neither plant featured here saw any of this water.  Different plants have different methods of surviving a drought.  Our shade providing Sumac trees drop some leaf filled stems every day.  Just how the tree selects who must fall is unknown but every morning new dropped leaves litter the ground.  There is not enough moisture to provide for all so some must go.

This Rose campion flower may define the color called magenta.  The white center is easily seen but the dark colored veins remained unnoticed here until seen in this picture.  Our original source for this plant is lost in memory.  It seems to have always been with us but now survives here strictly on its own.

A striking feature of Rose campion is the color of its foliage.  Some combination of the words grey, white or green are frequently used in written descriptions about this plant.  The combinations of color are stunning and are reason enough to keep this plant.  It chooses where to grow here and seems to prefer the edges of our stone filled paths.  Initially six inch deep trenches were filled with the stone bits sifted out of what would become garden beds.  We planned on the stone paths remaining weed free but that did not happen.  Rain washed rich garden soil into the paths and plant debris rotted down into a black colored compost because of contact with the stones.  Perhaps our richest soil can be found in the area between the planting beds and the paths.  If a plant prefers poorer soil, it can easily grow more toward the center of the path.

Rose campion usually survives our zone 4 winters perhaps because of the extra warmth captured and held by the nearby stones.  With no effort on our part, this plant appears in several different locations.  As can be seen this plant is having a banner year despite the lack of rainfall.

Believe it or not these flowers are descended from Black-eyed Susan seeds that were chemically treated to add to the plain yellow flower color.  Ours were a gift from Elle and she told us that reddish brown colors would fade in time and that new seeds would then be needed.  That was perhaps two decades ago and the stunning colors live on.  Some of these plants do produce solid yellow blossoms but we cut those flowers to prevent them from setting seed.  Our patches continue to appear year after year so some of the plants may be self seeded while others may be perennial.  New plants also appear along the edge of the stone paths.  These are easily moved to areas that need a color boost.

One year many plants displayed solid yellow petals that were lightly marked with brown.  Each petal held two parallel brown rectangles near the center disc.  Every petal in each flower held the pairs of exactly the same sized brown rectangles.  Needless to say the symmetrical order appealed to the math teacher in me.  Sadly this color sport soon disappeared and has yet to return.  The pictured plants remain constant giving us no need to buy new seeds.  These plants may represent the greatest plant gift ever given to us. Thank you Elle.

A Bad Case Of Spring Fever

It seems with each passing year Ed and I have become more susceptible to a horrible case of Spring Fever.  The words, Hot to Trot, come to mind.  For example Ed has been out there weeding one of his garden beds.  He would have finished the entire bed, but the soil two inches down was still frozen solid as concrete and his hands got extremely cold and stiff.  The bed  looks great though!

I myself wander the garden with the camera looking for something good to photograph.  Just hearing a few birds sing makes me giddy.  When I heard and then saw a flock of Canada geese way up high flying North it made my heart soar.  It's not the geese.  They are here all winter.  We see them nearly every day, but they were flying North!  I found poufs of rabbit fur underneath Ed's Carolina rose.  The rest of the rabbit was gone.  I left it where it was. The fur that kept that rabbit warm will thrill nesting birds when they show up here in the garden!

I love rose campion and this plant is looking spectacular.  I did notice a few bunny berries in the picture and a few of the leaves have been nibbled, but this plant is poised for springs arrival.  This is its year to bloom.  I can close my eyes and see the lovely magenta flowers on fuzzy gray green stems.

 My dwarf Dutch iris frequently bloom in the snow.  Last year they did not bloom at all.  The leaves  that usually come after the flowers grew big and tall and fed the bulbs.  I expected to see buds this year and when I checked the bed I was so thrilled to see them I felt warm all over.  We are not too concerned about our overblown case of spring fever.  Unless the weather forecasters are completely wrong, Mother Nature is going to cool our jets with a healthy layer of  heavy snow.  For gardeners Spring Fever has no cure,  but I think  the snow will make us chill out at least until it starts to melt!

Understated Elegance

Back when we were innocent novices at the mail order plant game, we assumed that the illustration would be reflected in the delivered product.  An assortment of Oriental lilies pictured Lovely Girl as one of the items offered for sale.  As it turned out this hardy bright stunner was a real find but it is neither Oriental nor a Lovely Girl.  The number of flower producing stalks increase each year.  Dividing the bulb cluster results in vigorous growth as what is pictured began with just two bulbs several years ago.

The reddish darker flower is just opening today.  Some time in the sun will tone it down to orange and white.  If these flowers were scented, they would be a popular named variety rather than undesirables thrown in the assorted bin.  We feel lucky to have them.  They are one of the few lilies to have come through the late freeze frost unmarked.

Our roadside bed is presently a riot of colors that do not complement each other. The colors are brilliant and the occupants of cars that whiz by at high speed can't miss the flash of color.  The left upper corner of the picture shows grass clippings spread under sumac trees.  If we can kill off the pasture grasses that grow here, we will try for a shaded woodland garden.  A bench will be placed in the shade to give us a cooler place to sit and admire our work in this area.

Destined to See is the name of this daylily.  The post title refers to this flower.  This was the first exotic variety that we purchased.  It has been with us many years and this plant was separated from the original last year.  Never having tried dividing a daylily, it required a great deal of courage to pierce the clump with two tined spades.  Both plants survived and flowers are opening on each plant.  That is a good thing since several other plants need division.

Beautiful Moments In The Garden

There's so much to do in the garden now!  It's nice to stop for a few moments and appreciate some of the incredible beauty there.  A Skipper loves the delicate blue Amsonia flowers and so do I!  Skippers flit about the garden all the time, but it is a rare treat to catch one still enough for a photograph.

Pink Ontherea and Dianthus co-mingle in the same space making a mixed pink bouquet right there in the perennial border.  No cutting is needed.

Rose campion with its pale grey foliage and magenta flowers makes a bold statement!  This striking volunteer is a plant I always let grow unless I have a reason to pull it.

Campanula portenschlagiana flows from the spaces in Ed's wall around the shade garden.  We could never have too many of these lovely lavender and white stars around!

Ahhh... Nothing is more satisfying than taking a moment to enjoy  freshly weeded red creeping thyme on Ed's stone patio.  It feels so good, I think I will do another patio today!

What can say about this picture?  Wow!  I guess in my fantasy garden I might have a lovely lady with the hens and chicks for a hat and the dew covered spider web for a veil over her face.  But this is our garden and reality is already perfect for us.  You could never count on a spider to cooperate anyway!

In The Shade By 4 PM

A mid November day with temperatures in the 60's is an unexpected treat.  We were able to work with our hands in the dirt without the aching fingers that follow contact with cold soil so common at this time of year.  It is only mid afternoon but the length of the shadows show that sun is soon to set.  Temperatures will drop like a rock and darkness will quickly cloak everything.

Chrysanthemums near the wall have been cut back.  Next year's growth is already well underway.  Cut stems are piled nearby. They will used as loose mulch once the frost has entered the ground.  Next Spring we should dig up this clump and replant perhaps just three prime plants.  This section of garden is intended to be orderly and we must work to keep all of the plants within their small space.

Foxgloves, growing wildly in the distance, are all plants from seed this year.  We have never had large plants like these and all of them need to be dug come Spring.  We wanted them to grow only right next to the stone wall.  How can we leave tall plants at the front edge of the bed?

Gray green foliage and magenta colored flowers make Rose Campion a winner anywhere.  It freely reseeds and there are always more of these than needed.  We will wait until Winter's end to decide which of these stays.

Most of the recently cleared ground in the photo was completely covered by Oenothera siskiyou.  Its pale pink flowers nestled above dark green serrated leaves made a striking appearance.  Planted in the harsh dry soil in front of the house, this plant barely clings to life.  In the deeply rich and moist soil near the road, this plant became wildly invasive.  We intend to keep it but it cannot grow in the cramped bed by the stone wall.  It will be interesting to see the degree to which we were able to remove this plant from here.

Creeping lemon thyme is one of the plants that is behaving as expected.  We wanted it to edge the planting bed and grow over the row of stones.  Despite the richness of the soil here, this plant has stayed in bounds.  The late winter flood did no damage to this still frozen plant.  Neighbors have grown over other thymes and we work to trim them back since this is the desired plant.

Planting next to a former pasture comes with guaranteed problems.  Coarse grasses will try to take back their ground with a persistence that is frightening.  We fully expect that our chosen plants will be displaced by the natives shortly after we stop working here.  Our line of defense is a trench filled with bark mulch.  The picture clearly shows that the weeds grow freely in the mulch.  What is not shown is the relative ease in removing entire plants including an intact root system.  We worked this strip in the Spring and have done nothing here since then.  If the weather holds, a line will be stretched defining the edge tomorrow and this area will become neatly weed free.

First Flowers And New Growth

Up until today these winter aconites have been closed up tight, but this morning the sun was shining, the air warm and some flies were awake.  I was buzzed by one as I walked over to the shade garden to take this picture.  Pollinators are just what the flowers have been waiting for. When you are a flower there  is no point in flashing your beauty if there is no one there to appreciate it.

Granted we are off to a slow start.  So far only a few of the snow drops have deigned to open up.  Some of them are still closed tight, playing it cool and  waiting for more activity.  There are a couple of nice little rose campion plants in this spot.  They will have to be carefully moved .  A small rosette the first year grows to a large one with flowers the next.  There is no room for them here at the base of my tree peony.

I could only find one open Dutch iris flower this morning, but by afternoon several more were open. I observed a few bees on the flowers. Every spring I delight in these beautiful  hardy little iris.

Ed's October sky asters are coming alive.  Last years' stems will have to be lopped off to make room for the new growth.

This baby foxglove looks pretty good.  It is sheltered by the stone square and coming up beneath the summer sweet.  Some of foxgloves in other places  don't look quite this good.

We were just a little late getting a protective cage over these crocus plants.  They were nipped in the bud, but it looks like they are going to try to open anyway.  You can count on the plants to make their best effort no matter what.  For them and for us spring is a new beginning.

New Growth

Death seems to be a large player in the fall garden.  Slippery slime from frost blackened squash leaves still coats my garden gloves.  Less tropical plants take the change of season in stride and are presently putting out new growth.  This foxglove seedling found itself growing at the west facing base of a dry stone wall.  Shelter and warmth should carry this plant into next summers garden.  The picture would look much more impressive without the dead leaves but finding and operating the pruner with cold gloved hands seemed too much.

Mammoth pink chrysanthemums are reliably hardy here.  Soon the ground will be frozen and the old growth will be cut and placed over the new growth.  The light airy mulch will help the young plants overwinter.  Wood sorrel and Johnny jump ups are persistent weeds here and will overwinter no matter what.

Great lobelia has finished two seasons with us.  Some are blue flowered and some are white.  Not everyone understands why we buy this rather common ditch weed but taking any plants from the roadside comes with risk of a fine.  Many new plants crowd around last season's stems.  Spring division will be required to keep these plants growing freely.  For now, it is time to cut the stems and place them over the new plants.

Only the first Rose campion  requires planting by the gardener.  Following that they come up everywhere.  Their delicate looking whitish foliage and the promise of magenta flowers combine to make it difficult to weed them out.  We always leave more than we should.  Their delicate appearance belies the toughness displayed in the face of frost and freezing.  Compare that with my unwillingness to take off my gloves and snip off some dead leaves.  Working in the cold used to be easier!