Thursday, September 29, 2005
Season Turning
There comes a day, every year in the garden where, sometimes without really realizing it at first, you find yourself doing the first fall, winding down, chore. Today I found myself pulling up the tall lily stakes, and realized that all too soon, frost will creep into the woods, and the show will be over for another year; a thoughtful moment, for sure.
Monday, September 26, 2005
A Garden Walk With Liz
While I was gone this weekend, Liz went for a garden walk on a misty day, with her little Canon, and took some snapshots. I was quite interested to see her view of the garden; no spectacular shots of double blooming whatsit bushes or wide angle shots... rather, a series of quiet, intimate little pictures, showing small details I'd never see. If I live with her for a hundred years, I'll never grow tired of discovering who she is.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
What the heck is that?
In my woodland garden, over the years I've picked up plants from here and there; some bought, some grown from seed, some were gifts, and occasionally I don't know where the heck they came from; they just appear one day, quite to my amazement. This is an example of a mystery plant... it has a label (which was slightly mis-spelled), by which I know it is Leucoseptrum stelliperum. The catalogue descriptions of this plant are quite glowing... it is a Japanese woodland wildflower... but it doesn't do much for me, and looks like it could cover a lot of territory. I'll be keeping an eye on it, now that I know it's there.
Bee careful out there
I recently blogged about how I seem to dig up at least one yellow jacket nest every year, to my regret. This is a record year, probably because of our drought, in that I've just unearthed my third nest of the year. The first nest only got me once, the second time I didn't get stung at all, and this last nest, which was the mother of all yellowjacket nests, was pretty awesome, but I apparently beat a retreat before getting stung . Five minutes later, as I was walking up the path, I found out too late that one of them had gotten into my shorts.
A Walk In The Garden Today
This is the season when darkness starts to creep into the garden, when tiny fall flowers and foliage look like bright jewels on the somber earth, and when the gardener needs to pause, and take some time down on hands and knees, to closely observe these little plants... this is the newly emerging foliage of Cyclamen coum E. A. Bowles.
I've before touted Podophyllum 'Kaleidoscope'; this shows how fresh and interesting its foliage still looks, even after a summer of record heat and dryness (of course this connotes some concern about winter hardiness... so far only one Iowa winter under its belt, and it emerges very early in the spring and MUST be protected from hard freezes then, in our climate).
Cyclamen cilicium... this is not supposed to be hardy here, but has done well for a number of years.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
The Malevolent Storm
Rita now has the third lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in an eye of a hurricane, only bested by the monster Gilbert, and the 1935 Labor Day storm; may God have mercy on all creatures in its path.
A Walk In The Garden Today
My new favorite toadie: 'Rasberry Mousse'; flowers blotched and spotted with deep rasberry purple, and the flowers seem to open all at once all the way down the stem, so much more spectacular.
