My fellow gardeners:
I keep thinking of the Groucho Marx song "Hello, I Must Be Going." Now that more seasonable temperatures have arrived and the incessant rains have ceased, the garden has stopped calling to me. Instead, it has begun making imperious demands on me: Divide this! Move that! Mulch here! Fertilize the Clematis! And then there are the weeds, snickering behind my back, plotting their coup for garden domination. Yesterday, I came across another large chunk of concrete the top of which is buried less than a foot below the surface. As it is mostly underneath a peony, its removal will have to wait.
The dreary, dripping skies of April have given way to the glorious blue skies of May, bringing the Magnolia stellata (above) and the flowering quince
(Chaenomeles species) into blousy full bloom. It seems that the garden of late April and early May is one of whites, yellows and blues.
The woodland garden has shifted from early to mid-spring with the blooming of the native celadine poppies and the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica). The other blooming blues are the Pulmonaria and the first of the Brunneras, 'Hadspen Cream'.
The Sanguinaria canadensis and hepaticas are winding down, while the trilliums are just starting.
This was purchased as Trillium grandiflorum, but I wonder if it isn't Trillium nivale instead. Standing over them, the redbud (Cercis canadensis) is about to bloom for the first time.
Carex pennsylvanica, a native sedge for dry shade, was in full bloom,
but the flowers are now turning brown. It's pretty nifty in bloom and makes a great, dry shade groundcover.
While not native, Dicentra 'Bountiful' fits in with the native woodland plants.
I can't seem to propagate this plant, unlike Dicentra 'King of Hearts', which is still in bud.
Last week's squirrel atrocity was winding up dead on the front lawn. The crows were particularly noisy that morning, but I didn't notice anything unusual when I returned from a walk. A little while later, I went out front to pull weeds and discovered the offending corpse. I decided to leave it for my very indulgent spouse to dispose of after he returned from work. When the boy got home from school, I asked if he saw the body. He said no, so I went out to look. It had mysteriously disappeared. I blame the crows.
Last week's deer atrocity: yes, deer. With the near constant rain for two weeks, I was unable to keep up with spraying the repellent and the deer came and ate off every 'Easter Moon' tulip bloom. At least I have yellow tulips in back,
although these have a black heart instead of white.
The last of the daffodils have started blooming.
I'm so happy this "pink" daffodil is blooming before the crab apple this year.
The combination of its orangey-pink with the blue pink of the crab apple blooms works like visual nails on a chalkboard on my color sensibilities.
Time for me to head back out to the garden to finish potting up the columbine seedlings. Happy May!