Okay. So if this blog post goes up in the next day or two it’s just a three week gap and not four, and I guess that’s better, even if I’m forcing myself to sit here right now and get something done while my heart is saying do nothing, crawl into bed, find a blanket, play mindless phone games….
The violas of spring look great, they love the cool weather and frequent rains, and for once I like the color mix in this pot. Too often I impulsively buy a celebratory mess of spring shades and hope for the best, and then act confused when the colors still look like a mess when planted!
With this week’s chilly and damp weather a blanket is definitely required even though a couple days prior the air conditioning had to go on to fight the heat and humidity. Those temperatures, alongside regular rains and then a little too many rains, has the garden bursting with growth and color and fortunately not with fugus and blight yet, and I hope it stays that way. I grabbed a bunch of pictures last weekend during a gap in the rain, and my favorite subject was the lovely rose ‘Aicha’. I love her soft shade of yellow, the simplicity of her single flowers, and the arching shape to the bush. She has a light fragrance, and right now I can forgive the leaf spot and only a few here-and-there sparse reblooming flowers in late summer.
The yellow of ‘Aicha’ ushers in the yellow/blue/purple phase of the front garden.
I picked up ‘Aicha’ at Der Rosenmeister nursery on a spring trip to Ithaca NY one year, and each summer since it has been a rose dream to make it up to their open garden party (June 13th this year btw) which Leon hosts each year. It’s a party with music and fun, plus hundreds of full-bloom, cold-hardy rambling and climbing roses massed across the grounds of his home. I would make a wish list of course. It took me days of contemplating to fit in just three, so a list would be trouble which I don’t need but where’s the fun in that?
Somewhat fitting into the yellow/blue/purple phase is the variegated Iris pallida ‘Aureo Variegata’ which I love for foliage as much as the lemony scented flowers.
It’s actually still early for roses so lets bask in the show of the bearded iris first. The iris don’t like the rain right now, but last summer’s drought was just what they do like, and this spring they’re showing their appreciation of the previous year’s rot-free dry weather. I probably said I wanted more last summer and then did nothing to accomplish that, so this year I have a plan. I think they would do very well on the berm. I’m at a point where I want to plant something appropriate on the berm, and as long as nobody complains too vigorously about weeds in the iris I think this summer I’ll give it try. Younger me would aim for weeding after planting, but I’m starting to understand my limits as I get a bit more experience, and I can warn everyone right now that the iris on the berm will be weedy and I apologize ahead of time.
‘Sunol’ is an oddly colored iris which would probably do better on a weedy berm rather than the garden since it’s just as crowded, but less sunny here. I believe the “dwarf” blue spruce is squeezing it out faster than I wanted to imagine.
I guess you can’t talk about the May garden without mentioning weeds. One of this year’s goals was to eliminate a few from the garden and mostly from the lawn, and when a friend saw that post they mentioned the idea of a wildflower section in a corner of the lawn as a a safe-zone to balance the weedless-lawn effort. Upon hearing this excellent suggestion I realized that what I wrote was really a bunch of misleading nonsense. Such is often the case for this blog but in this case it gives a totally different picture than intended. I forgot that the lawn purists consider a lawn as a place for grass and only grass, and oh my gosh that’s not what I’m aiming for since in my opinion a grass-only lawn is about as boring as boring can be. My weeds are narrowleaf plantain and creeping charlie. I hate the plantain and have grown tired of the creeping charlie so they are now the two weeds who’s numbers I am trying to reduce. Violets as well but I hesitate to mention that since they’re so beloved, but they seed everywhere and are nearly impossible to get out of flower beds, so enough is enough. My biggest problem in spraying to control these three weeds is that the clover and dandelions are also killed if spray get on them, so I have to be careful and precise to miss them. Hawkweed is also a treasure in my lawn, and to be honest I’ve transplanted plugs to get it into new spots… actually in the older parts of town I’ve seen a lawn or two with a few shades of yellow which I’d love in my own lawn, but I’m not quite ready to knock on doors asking for weed samples. So just to be clear, for me a weed-free lawn is only grass-based, and the green is well spangled with the blooms of a carefully curated blend of colors, just with less plantain mostly because I just don’t like the stuff… unless it’s the wide-leaf form in purple which I guess I do like…
Bearded iris are not weeds in any sense of the term. This is ‘Elsinore’, one of my favorites.
So rest assured this garden is quite safe from a turf obsession. To lose finches picking through dandelion seedheads, bunnies grazing the clover patches, and bees working the birds foot trefoil would be sad. Actually I feel a little concerned when I see a vast expanse of fertilizer-hyped, weed-killer soaked turf and think of the hours wasted keeping it that way and the dollars which could have been spent on better pursuits. Those people obviously never grew a snowdrop nor jealously eyed a patch of English daisies growing in a garden they visited last weekend and then thought of their own pot of English daisies and then spent the next three days staring out at a rainy garden wondering where a good spot would be to plant them in the lawn… Hmmm. You may see why little actual work happens here when the gardener wastes hours thinking about where in the lawn to plant new weeds.
The colchicum bed with a few not-colchicums filling in the gaps. The orange poppies are red horned-poppies (Glaucium corniculatum) and love a dry, poor soil which doesn’t speak well of the soil in this bed.
Enough about weeds. May here is about flowers and the enthusiastic growth of plants, and besides the iris here are a few odds and ends of treasures and tasks.
Matt Bricker will often bring a few non-galanthus goodies to the Galanthus Gala, and one year a pot of Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus ‘Lynnhaven Carpet’) came home with me. It’s a nice low groundcover with soft leaves and cheerful daisies in spring and is about as easy to grow as anything.
Not that I’m anything close to a purist but I just noticed the horned poppies and Robin’s Plantain (a daisy not to be confused with the previously mentioned plantain) are North American natives and to keep with a theme for more than a minute here’s one last shrubby, maybe someday small treeish native thing, the red buckeye (Aesculus pavia). In a miserably hot and dry spot on the berm it carries on, growing inch by inch and blooming faithfully each spring. It would like a better spot but carries on well enough with what it has, the show increasingly clashing with the pink and mauve rhododendrons which also suffer on the slope here.
Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) is listed as a hummingbird magnet but as of yet… it’s just a pretty shrub on the berm. I’m hiding buckeye seeds each year and maybe one day they’ll carpet the industrial park.
That was possibly a full minute of focus on how unfocused I am, but as I’m sure you know there are just so many other things going on it’s hard to stick to a task. A gardener goes out with the ambition of transplanting a sedum but sees a branch to prune and a weed to pull and then gets lost looking for a trowel they remember using two days ago and before you know it the rain started again and you’re wondering why you spent twenty minutes deadheading hellebores instead of mucking leaves out of the pond. There’s a mile long to-do list, which I’m sure is the same for every gardener (and if not and you are that rare exception please keep that an inside thought) and perhaps this weekend the list will get shorter before it gets even longer. I don’t even know what my list says so here’s a guesstimate. Most everything is out for the summer, most vegetables are coming along, a few new plants are here, but the summer bulbs and back porch have not yet been attended to.
The bromeliads are slightly pale but nearly as lush as when they came inside last fall. They’re almost too easy and this gardener is only allowed to buy maybe one or (at most) two new ones this year since that’s ok and not a sign of addiction at all.
On a plus side the garage is still being used for vehicles rather than entering the annual contest to hold as many empty pots, wheelbarrows, boxes, bags of potting soil and tables full of drying bulbs and corms as possible, and to achieve that the driveway has stayed open enough to drive on. It’s basic math since I am out numbered now. Three out of the four drivers here agree that the driveway is better utilized for cars rather than as a makeshift summer nursery/pot ghetto/staging area for excessive plant additions to the garden, and now the gardener is forced to hide his compulsion just around the corner, alongside the garage 😉
My friend Kathy Purdy warns that stray tree and shrub seedlings should be addressed when small and not allowed to sink their roots in and create a removal issue down the line, but… golden ninebark seedlings (Physocarpus opulifolius) are so cute and can’t possibly ever be in the wrong place… right?
That’s it from here. It is now Saturday morning and once the last person asleep here wakes up we shall go to a coffee shop and the two children will make us breakfast… assuming we pay for it and tip them as well, and then after that I’m sure something will get done here even if your guess is as good as mine as to what it will be. The lawn needs cutting, so I’ll probably head outside and start by planting petunias next door and then check the pool filter. Maybe I’ll eventually find that trowel again, who knows, but in the meantime I hope you have a wonderful spring weekend!
sorta like suburbia 
garden looks great and I think I’m going to spend the next few dry days wandering from one task to another and never quite finishing any of them. Love the scene of the variegated Iris foliage. Finally had rain here so my garden has exploded into chaos.
Thanks and good to hear you had some rain! We have had plenty and it’s been cold as well so it sounds odd hoping for more but I shall always be on the side of too much rather than too little. Chaos isn’t the worst thing 🙂
Love, love Iris ‘Elsinore’ and those pics with the blue fescue (guessing) are stunning. We also have had nothing but rain for weeks. We are planning to put in a big pond just below the house, and our pond guy said in mid-April that it might be dry enough the next week to dig it. I actually believed it and started worrying about moving plants out of my berms (which will hopefully be 8′ under someday soon). No guesses now on when it will be dry enough to dig. Constant rain in spring is pretty typical here but what’s odd is that we haven’t had a frost since sometime in April. The blueberries are in full bloom, the lilacs and crab apples are almost finished, and my Primula japonica swale is in full bloom. (HINT: come visit soon!) I have a torn hip ligament so the weeds are also having a good year, but so far they’re not outrageous. Come visit with your posse!
A pond! I’m both excited for you and a bit jealous. I was actually looking at my tiny, weedy, dirty, swamp of a pond and thinking it was my favorite thing in the garden and I can’t imagine having a full real one right outside my back steps.
Sorry about your hip, I hope you’re still able to get around enough to do most of what you want and have an excuse to put off the stuff you don’t really want. I find the weeds are nicer to pull anyway once they’re waist high and there’s less reason to bend.
Yesterday it was warmer and we had the joy of blackflies or gnats or whatever it is which loves to fly into your eyes and ears, the wind and cold today and no flies is the only plus to this gloomy chill. A visit is definitely on the list for this year, and the posse is 100% up for it!
Yes, we’re pretty excited about the new pond. Picturing it looking so great for a big family reunion that will be here end of July into the first week of August. In reality of course, it will just be a big muddy hole about then, but hopefully we will be able to communicate the “vision.”
I’m really not able to do much of what I want. If I spend an hour working in the, umm, mud, then I have more pain for a day or two. I still do it, but I’m following good internet advice not to take ibuprofen until the end of the day so I am less likely to overdo. I haven’t been able to dig out the plants I want in the berms, but I have had folks here digging out things they want, and someone took a load of plants for a plant sale. I found someone who is coming next week to move some plants for me.
Here the little black winged pests are called May flies, and then I guess they become June flies. I’ve been wearing a lightweight pair of safety glasses that keeps them out of my eyes, but haven’t resorted to wearing a hat with flaps to keep them out of my ears. That may be next.
Come soon if you can. I’d love for you guys to see the primulas while they are at their best. They love this weather of course.
I hope you post plenty of pond construction pictures. I know it won’t be pretty most of the time but I love watching big projects like that come together, and I’ve always dreamed of a wet and boggy spot to plant in with all those things I’ve never been in a position to grow. I know they’re not native but an astilbe collection might be fun if they’re not all the short dumpy ones which are today’s favorites! Actually any weeds and wildflowers would be great. I was the kid who would muck around a pond collecting bugs and tadpoles and get excited about a waterlily so a big pond really is a dream.
Oh but I think our Northern reaches trip won’t be until summer kicks in. School has to end, parties must be had, and all these pots have to be planted or at least hooked up to the drip lines before I’m allowed to get distracted!
I echo the distraction one faces when out in the garden, sometimes I come back in after a couple hours realizing that I never did the task I set out to do. I’m trying to go with the flow and claim whatever gets done is good, but then I walk past the algae filled fountain yet another time telling myself, “I really got to clean that!”
Mem.Day weekend is the unofficial planting day for annual veggies/flowers and the bed is choked with weeds, so those have to go first before I can plant. But the deer fence has to go up before the seedlings go out… yeah, you know how it goes. So nice to have your company, Frank! 😉
haha, yes! I knew I’d be in the best company 🙂
Sometimes it takes an hour to plant a single tomato as you search for tools, clear ground, move valuable surprise seedlings, rustle up stakes, clean the garage lol
There’s also dealing with the guilt. Each day I pass the Eucomis and think ‘well if I dig it today it would be ok to ship but I can’t wait any longer’ and then I wait longer. You were right, they should have gone out last fall, but maybe this fall!? It’s all still fun though, and I also keep reminding myself that anything which gets done must be good 😉
Just came across this quote, so perfect: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu
🙂
Your plants look AWESOME as always. Your hard work always pays off! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the nice comment 🙂
Ha, it seems like a good majority of us start one thing and find ourselves completely involved in a different task before we realize what’s happening! Your garden is looking absolutely May-wonderful!
Thanks Tracy, I hear some people stick to those ‘Ten things to do in May’ lists and none of them say “4. Drag all those trimmed branches from March off the lawn and into the woods” and I was worried it was just me!
I have Erigeron pulchellus but it’s not a named variety. It just showed up. I guess you’d call it a wild flower. “I’m sure you know there are just so many other things going on it’s hard to stick to a task.”–Glad to hear I’m not the only one with this problem. I also love the Elsinore iris. I believe my advice to pull out tree seedlings was directed at unwanted seedlings. If I had a golden ninebark seedling I would at least get it in a pot until I knew where I wanted it. And, of course, if the Posse visits Deborah they must also visit here.
Unwanted seedlings…. I wish I had the strength to say no to few of them, but they’re so small and innocent looking, even if they are oak seedlings or even more ninebarks. I am getting better though. Sometimes I just pull them. Sometimes… I guess I’m realizing I don’t need to see every single rose seedling bloom or find a home for each coneflower seedling which is “doing so well and so healthy”.
Kimberley has been saying we need more trips North. We’ll do a visit for sure, and maybe some dabbling around the finger lakes perhaps!
I am very envious of your golden variegated Iris! That particular one has been on my wishlist for several years but I just can’t ever find a nursery that has one in stock! Iris Elsinore is beautiful too – I am definitely developing a love for irises, especially fragrant ones. It looks as if your garden is getting off to a good start this year with plenty of rain. It has been exceptionally dry here, with cold nights, so plants have been slow to get going. Good to hear that your lawn is full of weeds – the best gardeners have weedy lawns! LOL!
I hope you can find the variegated iris, it’s one of the fragrant ones and really looks good all year unless it gets exceptionally hot and dry. Fragrance in the iris is so nice, the whole front garden smells of lemons and roses depending on what you’re closest to, and then a few have a nice grape scent as well. Iris came from Europe, I should be able to send a few back! For me the best scented ones are mostly pre-1940’s and I also like their simpler form, but some of the newest, ruffled ones are quite impressive.
Some of my garden is getting shadier than the iris like. I might have to make a choice in the next few years!
“A visit is definitely on the list for this year, and the posse is 100% up for it!” Wait, what happened? Here the summer is over, and I haven’t seen the posse yet. Silly me, I thought you meant it was a visit to me.