Magnolia sieboldii

This is magnolia season here, which usually means we'll have some really unpleasant weather to go along with it. Occasionally we get a year when the magnolias can just bloom and smell nice and be delightful. More often , though, just when the magnolias are about to put on their show, we get, you choose, rain, sleet, snow, freezing weather, drought, heatwave, or other unpleasantness. This year will be no different. Some of the later blooming magnolias will probably escape this year, but the early ones are being assaulted. The picture is Magnolia sieboldii. I picked a large branch of this one, with buds about to open, before the cold spell started and brought it in, along with another type, to put in a vase on the kitchen windowsill. My whole kitchen is now sweetly scented. They don't last all that long inside, but while they do they are lovely. I also brought in branches of quince, lilac (my white flowered one that always blooms way before anything else), some small blue flowers of various sorts, and armloads of daffodils. Hank kids me about making this place look like a funeral home sometimes when I pick that many flowers. I just have to hate them frozen outside when I could be enjoying them. Luckily I have several dozen vases to fill.
Yesterday was a weird weather day. It was cold and windy and from time to time we had snow. The snow didn't last long and didn't stay on the ground long. Sometime around the last blizzardlette, I finally thought to take a picture of daffodils covered with snow. Too late. By the time I got the camera, the sun had come out, even though it was still snowing, and everything melted in about 30 seconds. Just weird.
I guess I should say something about the magnolia I pictured. It is one of the nicest scented ones, very lemony. It lives in zones 6-8 and grows 10 to 20 feet tall. Ours are closer to the 10 foot size after about a dozen years in the gardens. They like partial shade and moist but well-drained soil. They start blooming at an early age, which is always nice. Like most of the northern magnolias, they are deciduous. The color in the center can vary from pale pink, though rose, to a rather dark red. Ours seem pretty carefree, though since they are an early season bloomer, they can get frosted.
The sun is shining, so even though it is cold, I suppose I'll head outside to do some gardening.
Jane

Flowering Cherries - Prunus

Prunus is a huge family that includes ornamentals as well as edibles. The cherries are but a part of that family. The picture above is Prunus subhirtella. It is a very lovely tree as you can see. It is a weeping cherry. This is just the species though there are numerous named clones and some with double flowers. It grows about 25 feet tall. The blooms come out a medium pink and fade to white after a few days. It sits above the upper pond and can be seen from almost any place in the gardens.
This next bloom is from our Prunus 'Okame', or Okame Cherry. It is a slightly smaller tree, probably 15 feet tall. These flowers stay pink. It is growing in a more wooded section and so probably doesn't flower as much as it might if it had more sun, but it is in a group of flowering things - a pink/orange flowered quince, some viburnums, a spicebush, a Cornus mas, redbuds of various sorts and some dogwoods. Not all are out together, but their bloom seasons overlap quite a bit so the area is always colorful.

This is the bark on the Okame Cherry. It is pretty typical of cherry bark, but I took the picture since I like the way it looks - quite different from most other trees here.

The last is a closeup of the blooms on one of our Snow Fountain Cherries, simply Prunus 'Snow Fountain'. This is a smaller tree, rarely over 10 feet tall (though if upright it would be twice that) since the trunk is fairly upright, but the branches weep. It is quite sculptural. One is in our Japanese garden and one in the upper gardens. The first one is one that Hank got when he was 16 years old, from Wayside gardens back when it was a nursery center near Cleveland. (Now that was a long time ago!). It has moved to several states and various gardens over the years, but has been here since the early 70s and has taken on a wonderful gnarled shape. This one, as are all of the cherries are pretty ephemeral, dropping their petals if frosted or in a heavy rain.

In Athens we have a long row of cherry trees along the Hocking River where it runs through the Ohio University campus, a gift from the Japanese government many years ago. These are magnificent trees when in bloom as they are now (or were on Sunday morning before this rain and cold). I hope they survived the weather and will still be gorgeous for a bit longer. We drive past them on the way to church and I always enjoy seeing them.

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but I awoke to temperatures that were a bit colder than expected and had to run out early to get all of the plants we had left out to enjoy the rain, back under cover. The day sort of got away from me after that and I didn't get back to the computer till very late.

Jane

Tulips - species

These are the smaller tulips that we grow, the species ones, that are not usually annuals here and which seem to be able to keep going. We do grow them in kind of rocky soil, where cactus thrive, but they also don't seem to attract the varmints that eat tulip bulbs on the larger ones. Maybe the bulbs are just too small to bother with.
This first one is Tulipa acuminata, with it's dainty blooms. Actually, all of these have smaller blooms than what most people think of as tulips. Acuminata is sometime called Fire Flame Tulip. It has been grown since at least 1813. You can see how small it is when you consider that it is pictures in front of a clump of miniature iris.

Next is Tulipa clusiana 'Cynthia', one that has only been here for 2 seasons. These pictures are all from last year, but these all are budded and about to bloom. This one starts out a creamy yellow and changes to more creamy white with the red on the outsides of the petals. You can see how happy it is growing right there with a large cactus.

This one is Tulipa ' Heart's Delight'. It is one of the Kaufmanniana Tulips. They are, as a group, very early flowering and some, like this one, have the same kind of mottled foliage as the greigii tulips. 'Heart's Delight' is only about 8 inches tall.

This one is 'Lady Jane' - guess why I just had to buy this one! It is quite similar the 'Cynthia' pictured above, but is always pink/rose and white. The flowers open up fully flat in the sun.

This is a clump with 'Little Beauty' (The reddish one) and 'Little Princess' (the orange one). These barely get over 4 inches tall and seem to multiply nicely. They also live with cactus. Maybe they think the bunnies will be scared off by the thorns. Not much chance, I don't think, since the bunnies come into the cactus bed to eat the fruit from the cactuses in the winter.

Next is Tulipa sylvestris. It is yellow, just plain yellow, but just so cheery. It is about 8 inches tall on a thin stem. It is more of a southern flower, not totally happy here, but it is surviving. It has naturalized freely at Monticello but I never expect it to happen in my garden and am just happy to keep it alive.

This is Tulipa tarda. It is a star shaped, quite open form in yellow and white. It is an early flowering one and has been in commerce since at least 1933. I think in general the older varieties do better in my garden. Although I do fuss over my plants, with the size of our gardens, plants that can take care of themselves are most appreciated.

Some of these are blooming now, some almost done, but most are just budded and coming soon. I hope our nasty weather this week doesn't hurt the buds. We are expecting snow tomorrow and Tuesday, though they say there will be no accumulation. After that there will be unseasonable cold weather for most of the week. I hope all of those things that have started like the magnolias and lilacs can just slow down and wait for spring to return.

Jane

Tulips

This is a picture of one of my all time favorite tulips , Monsella. They are just so bright and happy. Unfortunately, tulips are pretty much an annual here. The climate doesn't especially suit them and they sometimes bloom a second year, but not usually after that. I keep myself happy with a few new ones each year. My other long time favorite is 'Shirley'. It is a white with a delicate lavender picotee edge.

Tulips that do better seem to be species types and not the fancy hybrids. This one is Tulipa greigii 'Donna Bella'. It grows in amongst the cactuses in gravel and seems perfectly happy - unless rabbits munch it. I like the patterned leaves, though they don't show up well in this photo.

The last is Tulipa 'Robin Hood'. I had thought is was a greigii, but the leaves don't have the mottling that is characteristic of those, so I'm not sure. It is awfully pretty, in any case. These are also fairly long lived here. Our resident huge deer munched them last week, though, so no blooms this spring. He even pulled one of the bulbs right out of the ground. It always amazes me when I walk up within a few yards of him. Surprises us both since I usually almost trip on him when he is sleeping. He leaves quickly, but doesn't get scared off permanently since we have such a salad bar here for him.

Like so many of the other spring bulbs we grow in this country, tulips are native to the Mediterranean region. Because of their native climate they do enjoy our cold winters, and spring rains, but we often can't give them the baking, dry summers they also like.

We also grow some very dainty species tulips which I'll post pictures of tomorrow.

Sanguinaria canadensis

One of the joys of spring for me is when the Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, first makes its appearance. One day, out of the blue, they will suddently appear . . .

and by the next day, they will be in full bloom. They are not long lasting and both flowers and leaves will be gone before you know it, but they are just so cheery. When I lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania, there was a bank across the road from our farm where there was a patch of Bloodroot at least 50 feet long and about 8 feet wide. I've never seen another like it. Ours spreads a bit, and has seeded a new clump some distance away, but that patch must have been there for quite a long time. Wish I had taken a picture of it.

The last one, not a good photo, is Sanguinaria canadensis multiplex, the double form. I'm going to have to re-do this picture, but included since this was the day I was writing about Bloodroots. It comes up a bit later and the flowers seem even more fragile. Maybe it's just because they make such a pile of petals when they drop.

I see both forms for sale in catalogs, though some years the double one seems to be in short supply. Both like dappled shade in woodsy soil. Just remember where they are so you don't plant something else in the same spot later in the season when the Bloodroots have gone dormant for the year.

Jane

Corydalis solida

I discovered these charming spring bloomers late in my discover of the Corydalis family. I always knew the Corydalises as summer blooming perennials, long lived and gently (or not so gently in the case of ophiocarpa) colonizing the garden. These are spring bloomers, putting on their show right now, and are bought as bulbs rather than plants. I seem them in more catalogs all the time. The species is reddish pink and there is a names form, G.P. Baker, I think it is which is similar. What I have found is that they seed freely and seem to come up with endless variations in color when they do. They also transplant very easily, the babies having no bulb at first, only developing one as they grow. The can take a light frost without damage, but a hard freeze will do them in for the year. They are about 8 inches tall and as wide once established. They go dormant with hot weather - I didn't know that the first year and thought they had all died!
This first one is one of our seedlings, a lovely lavender.

This one has bloomed for the first time this year and is a lighter pink with a bit of white. I think there is one with more of a two toned bloom, but don't have a picture of it yet.


This next one is what you'll get when you buy Corydalis solida and we never knew about all of the wonderful variation we'd get in the seedlings when we got it. We liked it just the way it was, but now we like a lot of the seedling colors better. Good thing we have plenty of room for all of them.

This last is my current favorite and was one of the first seedlings. I love the deep grape juice color.

It's a lovely sunny day here, though a bit cold yet, only about 34 degres (F), so I'll probably spend the day weeding and mulching. Daffodils are starting to be in bloom everywhere and I'm planning where to plant more this fall. Just hate to have a bare spot in the spring when there could be a daffodil or some other spring flower there.

Tomorrow I think I'll talk about Bloodroot which has just started to bloom.

Jane

Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn'

Here's the picture of the viburnum I promised. Isn't it just the best pink. They seem to stay out forever and aren't much bothered by frost or unseasonable hot weather. The flowers are heavy textured and waxy, but at the same time very delicate. Most of my other viburnums are white, though some have pink buds. This is a fairly tall shrub, probably about 10 feet and about as wide. It will sometimes root where a stem touches the ground, so I keep it pruned up a bit to keep it in one place.
Tomorrow, the spring corydalis.
Jane