ME? I STICK TO MY STORY: CONSISTENCY! So here it is, time once again for planting up pots, but I’m stuck on my same color theme–hot, hot, hot. I’m working with an expanded palette of sunny-colored annuals gathered at the garden centers, including a very sexy new-ish petunia called ‘Potunia Papaya,’ from German breeder Dummen-Red Fox, above. Forgive its rain-splattered blossoms, and other still-in-their-flats snapshots that I added to the show in these “before” shots. Bring on the heat and some sunshine, and they will grow. [read more…]
slideshows
Since college-age, I have loved taking photos, and these days the garden is my primary subject.
new lilac slideshow: call me old-fashioned!
May 16, 2011 at 11:14 am
THERE ARE MORE THAN 2,000 NAMED LILAC CULTIVARS, and I grow just a handful. But in early May, I feel as if I’m positively surrounded by them–one of the great joys of a Northern garden, where the climate suits these popular spring shrubs. You won’t find any with silly modern names here (I know, the recent “reblooming” variety ‘Bloomerang’ is all the rage) because I like my lilacs to not just look and smell but also sound old-fashioned. Like these beauties, in an updated Syringa slideshow: [read more…]
may 10 slideshow: apple blossoms, fern croziers
May 10, 2011 at 2:44 pm
IPLANNED ANOTHER SLIDESHOW of what’s blooming here, the third weekly installment since spring 2011 started taking hold. And then…my camera angrily decided against it this morning, as I headed out to document the latest arrivals. Off to the shop it goes. Thankfully, a loaner is en route from a friend–and I had taken a few photos yesterday that will have to tide us over. That big cloud above is made of apple blossoms, and there are fern croziers and the start of the lilacs, too. Enjoy! [read more…]
blooming in my garden: may 2, 2011 slideshow
May 2, 2011 at 2:19 pm
THE MOST COLORFUL CREATURES HERE as April turns to May: returning male birds in mating plumage. The last week included the arrival of rose-breasted grosbeaks and Baltimore orioles…but I am straying, as the point is plants, right? Oops. A look at what’s blooming (including Uvularia grandiflora, above), the second in a series of new slideshows during this busiest of changing garden times. [read more…]
blooming in my garden: april 25, 2011
April 25, 2011 at 6:24 pm
AS IF THEY SIMPLY CANNOT WAIT ANY LONGER, the list of things starting to color up and open this cold, wet spring is accelerating–no matter whether the weather lifts its pall. From spike winterhazel (above) to the first of the Corydalis and Primula, here comes the start of full-on spring. A slideshow of today’s bright spots. [read more…]
slideshow: dogwoods, or cornus, i rely on
March 6, 2011 at 4:12 pm
ABIG, OLD CORNUS FLORIDA, or flowering native dogwood, shaded the patio of the house I grew up in, a handsome tree in multiple seasons and one under which many Nancy Drew books were read and Good Humor popsicles savored. I don’t grow C. florida in my current garden, but looking around here now as the snow recedes and making my pruning task list for the weeks ahead, I realize how many other dogwood species I do grow, and enjoy. A slideshow of some reliable favorites. [read more…]
slideshow: my garden’s bulbs, updated
February 22, 2011 at 8:17 pm
CALL ME IMPATIENT, BUT I AM THINKING ABOUT BULBS already, as in: Would the snow please melt and let me see some? Most bulbs take up little room, and I have a particular fondness for animal-proof ones, various of which are included in this updated version of my popular bulb slideshow. [read more…]
slideshow: 10 great groundcovers to rely upon
January 27, 2011 at 10:53 am
IAM THINKING OF SIMPLIFYING SOME OF MY BIGGEST GARDEN BEDS this year—spots where the shrubs have grown in and are just crying out for a simple groundcover or two at their feet. In a slideshow, then, some of the tried-and-true choices I’ve got plenty of here to choose from come spring (including Geranium macrorrhizum, above). Divide and conquer, right? [read more…]
2010 in pictures: slideshow of an extreme year
January 3, 2011 at 7:35 pm
CALL IT THE YEAR OF EXTREMES: An extra-early spring, an extra-dry summer, an extra-wet fall (or was that just the way it felt by contrast, since summer had been so rainless?). And lots of shoveling at both ends as one winter faded, and another eventually arrived. Want to wander through a photographic recollection of 2010 in the garden, good times and bad? [read more…]
