Sun, Stones and Cedar Mulch

The raised beds inside the rock walls are looking more green every day.  Though full of perennials, they look so bare until late May, when the earth comes alive with plants that the winter had driven underground.  There are innumerable trucks towing boats rumbling down the road to the boat launch at Nut Point Provincial park.  They get to see me digging dandelions out of the flower beds, and the occasional slow-driving sightseer seems to appreciate the effort.  

Last night, I put four bags of "Natural Cedar Mulch" into this flowerbed adjacent the driveway.  I had a bit of mulch here before, but nearly the entire bed is mulched now.  Not only does this smell wonderful, but I find the mulched areas have minimal weeds and require less water.  Of course, it looks great too.  Cedar mulch contains oils that repel bugs and it is one of the longest lasting mulches, breaking down a lot slower than the other types of wood mulches.  There was also mulch available in black and a tandoori-red, apparently dyed in these colors for people that need their mulch to look more vibrant or whatnot.  I don't really care for the dyed ones, though I can't find that they are harmful.  One website even offers a spray-on dye to renew the color that your mulch came in.  That just seems dumb.

Newly mulched flower bed.

Grape hyacinths in the raised bed.  These are a great little naturalizing (multiply freely) bulb.

The large raised bed.  The foreground highbush cranberries (Viburnum trilobum) have not leafed out yet.

Alpine garden with all its white spring blooms.

 The alpine garden is bright with the masses of spring blooms, including Erigeron compositus, Cerastium alpinum, and Dryas octopetala.  Of these, Cerastium and Erigeron spread rapidly, and I occasionally pull bunches of them just to maintain the aesthetic.  Dryas is nicely behaved and slowly creeps over adjacent rocks.  Erigeron seems to spread by seed and is easy to pull, so I don't mind it much. 

Dryas octopetala, a nice evergreen creeping groundcover flower in the alpine garden.

Phlox subulata "Herbert" is said to be one of the lowest creeping phloxes available.  It certainly is an attractive little specimen.  Even the flowers are miniature.

Erigeron compositus, a generously spreading plant that I have let have run free in the alpine bed.  Sometimes you have to let something take over just so that the weeds don't have any available room.

Spring Bulbs and Colorful Pasque Flowers

The weather has been warm for the last few days, coaxing the spring blooms open (finally). I have more blooms to admire today, and I notice that the daffodils may bloom soon as well! I will be disappointed if there are no big blooms in my yard when we have visitors a week from now.
Purple Pulsatilla vulgaris:

Here are three shades of pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris) in my yard. These plants form nice-sized plants in about three years. The flowers make a big show before much foliage has grown. I'd like to grow some more of the dark pink/red ones, but you have to plant the seed fairly quickly after maturity because the seed is "ephemeral", as seed sellers put it (it doesn't last long). I should try using my own fresh seeds. I'd also like to add a yellow one to my collection some day.

I just planted the new white-flowered Pulsatilla last fall.

Grape hyacinths have just started to bloom in the last two days:

Tulipa turkestanica, another botanical tulip. These started to bloom today.

Pulmonaria saccharata "Mrs. Moon" does well under the partial shade of tree branches. It has delicate blue and pink flowers in spring. This one must have self-seeded, because I found about 6 little plants around the large one. I read that other growers complain of powdery mildew with this plant, but I haven't had those problems here.

Pulmonaria blooms:

Mid-September Bouquet

Last blooms of unnamed rose bush, with orange berries of the mountain ash tree in the background. Dozens of robins fought for a space on that tree today, as they gorged themselves on the ripe berries.Isn't it great to have flowers post-frost! We had a frost that wilted the petunias 3 days ago, but the perennials are tough enough to handle such small challenges! Oh yes, we also had wet snow for two days this past week, though nothing accumulated.

I cut this bouquet from my perennial beds for a party at our house today. The complimentary colors really represent the color scheme in my perennial beds quite nicely. My arranging skills may lack something, but the flowers look pretty regardless! Notice all THREE colors of my pacific giant delphiniums! (Guests say "Nice flowers." Me --the shameless flower nerd-- says while pointing: "There we have Summer Skies, Blue Bird, and King Arthur.")Digitalis flower, the "glove of the fox":

Delosperma, purchased this summer from the garden center as a "rock garden perennial", but from what I read, this succulent might not be hardy. I have no idea whether it will be there next spring or not! Fresh new Muscari armenianum (ordinary grape hyacinths)...no it's not a spring photo! This plant multiplies by seedlings and bulblets, growing thick like turf where it is not divided regularly. Now is the time to plant these bulbs for their bright blue flowers next April/May!

Shades of Muscari

I am still waiting under cool and cloudy skies for everything to bloom...so here are the muscari currently blooming in my yard. I took these pictures with my newly repaired Canon powershot S50 5.0 megapixel camera. The front lens cover (which doubles as the on/off switch) got stuck and stopped working around New Years. We had a manufacturer's warranty, but they refused to honor it, saying that the damage was caused by us dropping the camera (we knew we hadn't). It's easy enough for them to say we dropped it; how do we prove we didn't other than to point out the lack of scratches or obvious damage to the camera? Anyhow, with the bitter taste of warranty/insurance companies in our mouths, we had a local camera place repair the camera for a decent price and now I'm back to the Canon. I was using a 7.0 megapixel Nikon, but I kinda liked my old Canon better. It records the colors more accurately.

Back to the flowers...this is Muscari botryoides "Album"...less common thus MORE EXPENSIVE than the blue kind. It has multiplied a bit over the past year, maybe not to the degree the blue ones have.
I purchased this bulb two years ago simply because "I don't have one of those" (or at least, Resident-Lawnmower-Man says this is my usual shopping excuse). This is Muscari latifolium, the flat-leaf muscari. It doesn't really make me want to jump up and down.
Finally, Muscari armeniacum, the regular Armenian grape hyacinth. It is a lovely color, with its little clusters of blue with the tiny white rim on the bottom. It is very hardy. I grow it in full sun. The ones in part shade did not perform as well.
Well, we are supposed to have freezing temperatures (-2 Celsius) Friday night, so it will be another week before I consider putting the annuals out!

More Little Bulb Wonders

The lovely little blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) are blooming so nicely. I dug into these clumps last fall and snatched many bulbs away for other flower beds. You really can't even tell there are bunches missing! The dried flower heads look a bit unsightly late in the summer, but I leave them on the plants so that the seeds can spread around.
Another of my blooming botanical tulips is Tulipa tarda/Daystemon tarda. It has bright yellow and white flowers. The plant is alot shorter than the Tulipa turkestanica, which has mostly white flowers in cluster of five on each stem. I can't believe I have already received my first fall bulb catalog for the year! Anybody for bulb-shopping already???
These T. turkestanicas are looking even better in their second year, with the cloud of white blooms waving back and forth in the breeze. I think a field of these would be lovely. Again though, the dead foliage and seed heads are best disguised later in the season. Unfortunately I have these right at the front of the perennial border and I'll have to tuck annuals in around them!

Planting Rocks in my Rock Garden

I decided to do some rearranging of the rock garden this week based on design principles I've been reading about. Besides that, I'd always been dodgy about calling the sloped flower bed a "rock garden", mostly for the lack of rocks. Actually, my real dream would probably require large mechanical equipment and aim for some small recreation of the rock gardens at Kew, so I'll stick to what I can do with my hands and a spade for now.

Principles in rearranging my rock garden:

• less "currant bun" effect, with rocks looking like they're just sitting ontop the dirt
  rocks should look like icebergs, meaning that nine-tenths of the rock is buried out of sight


• blasted rock looks more like natural stony outcroppings than rounded fieldstone (which can be better used for Japanese styles)


• align the rocks so any striations match directions


• use local rocks (resident-lawnmower-man hauled blasted rock in from a construction site)


• use similar-type stones, rather than a collection of novelty or multicolored stones
  
• plantwise, I removed dead or raggy-looking plants then moved some narcissus into the bed from elsewhere in the yard
  

Okay, so the picture shows that the little rock garden probably violates half those design rules, but settling of the dirt and planting a few more rock garden plants should help it out. Another gardener gave me some alpine Arabis, Gentiana verna and Gentian septemfida today! Within 2 weeks, the phlox and muscari should be in full bloom and should make the bed look beautiful. Or maybe I'll be out there tomorrow adding more rocks...

Flowers blooming now: Scilla siberica, a hardy bulb that produces these deep blue flowers: Muscari armeniacum "Dark Eyes" (Grape Hyacinth) , which is different from the regular bulk-purchased grape hyacinths in that there are little white rims on the bottoms of each "grape". The planting of this new variety really wasn't worth it in my opinion:
This is how far my single-flowered peony has come this spring. Yeah, I know those of you in warmer climates are probably staking their peonies to prevent their blooms from flopping over...and I don't really want to hear about it! But if you're growing peonies north of my latitude, please do tell.

Grape Hyacinths

I understand that these little blue gems are a weed in Europe. I am quite fond of them in my garden. I planted these Muscari armeniacum two seasons ago and they have multiplied greatly by bulb multiplication and self-seeding. I think that Muscari spreading into the lawn is a possibility but I'm not going to care! They are growing in relatively poor, sandy soil but are in full sun and I've been putting some worm compost around them. I am also trying some other varieties of Muscari such as M. botryoides "album" and M. latifolium (bi-color with wide leaves) but they have yet to flower.