I N A GOOD SPRING, BELOVED PLANTS COME BACK. Not everybody, of course; some just can’t find their way home. But enough come up again to keep you hooked, and so the cycle repeats itself. Are all your old friends back this year, and who were you (or will you be) happiest of all to see? This week, a bonus: A slideshow (below) of some of Andre Jordan’s greatest hits, from our first six months of doodles on A Way to Garden. Toggle through…or see all his past doodles at this link.
Click the first thumbnail to start the show, then use the arrows below the images to navigate from doodle to doodle. Enjoy.
Amazing you should pick this doodle for this week! Just a couple of days ago I posted my question in the Q&A Forum at http://awaytogarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=425 : if I haven’t seen any new growth on my clematis ternifolia by now, does that mean it’s not coming back? Was so beautiful last year, but we’ve had too much water since then and I’m afraid it drowned.
On the happy side, one of my favorite returns each year is the bleeding heart. Where there’s just a blank slate, suddenly all the complicated leaves and those wonderful hearts — where does it all come from?! And weeding in a bed over the weekend I saw the oriental lilies are on their way back now — again, just POP and there they are!
On balance, it is a happy time of year. Except for that clematis…
Thursday’s are no longer the same since Andre has come into our lives. Looking at the slide show I cannot pick my favorite, they all make me smile. Thank you Andre for your talent and Margaret for sharing it with us all.
I’m most happy to see my peonies… they were actually imported from the previous owner of my house and are a perennial gift to me. I’m such a new gardener though that I am really frightened of dividing them but know I have to do it this fall. Any particular advice? I’m so afraid I’ll kill them.
Beautiful and thought-provoking at the same time. I think it gets to the heart of what I love about gardening: a sense of renewal and wonder and connection to the natural world with its seasonal rhythms…
My poor, dear fiance is always stunned and bemused when I haul him outside to show him the first micro-inch of a sprout or shoot. He wonders how I can spot something so tiny, but I’m drawn to my plants almost magnetically!
I can’t quite believe it, but I seem to have sunflowers. Nobody told me the seeds from those three heads I left out for the squirrel (the one who chewed on my tomatoes…an act of forgiveness) would survive the winter and sprout in all my pots! I’m delighted, but I suspect they’re not really sunflowers. Weeds in clever disguise? One in particular looked like a sunflower but has remained squat to the ground as it’s leafed out. That can’t be right. But I’m leaving it in. Maybe I should ask the squirrel about this.
There is something about the renewal of spring. The emergence of the plants, the HAPPY yellowish-green tint the trees take on as their foliage unfurls. It is also about the smell of the lilac, and the chance to be out in the sun again. After the show that the daffodils put on, there is a WONDERFUL zen period, when it is mostly just the beautiful new foliage tapestry, with it’s colors of green, blue-green, chartreuse, burgundy and gray. Spring is also about hoped continuity. Looking for your beloved “babies” to emerge again, and give you a beautiful display for another season.
Welcome, Nicole. Don’t be afraid; and do it any time you want. Yes, late summer or fall is ideal, but I have moved peonies at every non-winter month of the year and never killed one. Just don’t bury them too deeply (not more than 1-2 inches of soil on top of the eyes) when you replant the divisions. I love the info on the Klehm Song Sparrow site (such peony experts!). Have a look at some of their peony FAQs.
The caption on the doodle reminds me of the saying on my religion; “Merry meet. Merry part. Merry meet again”
Hi… Saw the piece about you in the Guardian for Compost Week! Well done, you!
Here.
Welcome, Pigtown-Design. Thanks for the head’s-up, and yes, I do love my compost. Both at slow speed and on hit-and-run drive-bys. :) See you soon again.
Just back in the Maine garden for the first time this year, VERY ready to be asked what came through and what didn’t…
so thanks, Margaret. and here’s just a snippet from the shade:
*huge herds of digitalis purpurea – gone; happens every time the spring is long, cold and wet.
*herds of aquilegia – present; ever-multiplying anyway, but this year there’s a wall-to-wall carpet under the wild apple trees.
*mega-gift ( isn’t this why we keep at it through disappointments and aches?) a very great many baby cimicifuga, some black like mommy, some green. They must have been there last year too, still too tiny to see, but now I know I have them. Yay!
hope similar treasures keep coming to you.