May Flowers

The heat is bringing on more blooms every day. On April 30th this lovely lady made her appearance. She's Paeonia 'Scarlett O'Hara' and the first red peony I have ever had. She was one of those end-of-the-season sale purchases last fall that I will love forever. I have actually cut all of her flowers for the house. They are simply too pretty to leave alone in the garden! The rest of the peonies started blooming yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to photo them yet.

They are a full two weeks early - like just about everything else. They are a reliable Mother's Day bloomer in this part of the world. They also guarantee rain. It never fails that they get full of blooms and heavens open dumping gallons of water on them and beating them down to the earth. It's always a battle to try to get as many of the first ones cut and in the house as I can before the downpour!

This gorgeous Indian Hawthorn is the other addition from last weekend. Known more formally as Rhaphiolepis indica 'Elenor Tabors', it's an evergreen shrub about three and a half feet tall and very full. We have two that were a house warming gift, so hold a special place in our hearts. They bloom reliably, but need to be trimmed early in the fall before they set all their flowers for the next spring. Learned that lesson the hard way!

Every day is a new adventure in the yard. Just wish I could find a bit more time to enjoy it.

Guest Gardens in Portsmouth, Va.

While Mitchell sat thru a seemingly endless meeting on Friday afternoon, I took an impromptu walking tour of Old Towne Portsmouth. Altho we get to that area a couple of times a year, I had not visited Old Towne in nearly 40 years and had never walked it. It looked like the sort of place where I would find nice little gardens tucked here and there - and I was not disappointed.

Old Towne dates to Revolutionary times and is located on the Elizabeth River which leads directly into Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay. Like Old Town Alexandria (Va.) and Georgetown (D.C.) and Boston and Philly and lots of other cities on the East Coast it was originally side-by-side brick townhouses with small yards in the back. It is still partly that way, but there are many places where the single family homes have been replaced with larger structures - a former hotel, apartment buildings, and bed and breakfast inns, plus a church or two. It's full of little courtyards and interesting nooks and crannies. And, of course, flowers.

Altho it was a hot afternoon and I stupidly forgot to carry a water bottle, I had a great time just wandering the streets and peeking into side yards to see what was happening.

It's the end of azalea season, so they were everywhere providing everything from soft pastel pinks and lilacs to the garish cerise and reds. The prettiest ones were the ones that climbed over some of the old wrought-iron fences.

Several places I found climbing roses that were already in full bloom, like this gorgeous red one that climbed up the porch column and on across the porch roof. This was apparently a private home, altho I saw several others climbing pergolas and porches at an inn.

This mini-park was behind an apartment building and apparently done privately. It stretched nearly the full depth of the block with mostly flowering shrubs along both sides and a series of circular beds in the center, each with some sort of focal point - a gazing ball, a fountain, a piece of sculpture. It was not only beautifully kept, but a shady, cool oasis from the hot afternoon. Unfortunately, there was no bench to sit so apparently the gardener wants one to enjoy, but not for too long!

I did not get photos of the two "best" gardens. At both homes the gardener was out working and I spoke briefly with each one, but felt odd about asking permission to photograph their gardens. But my favorite sight was this:

In some ways it think it sums up the popularity of gardening in Old Towne. Wish I had thought of it first!

A New Look - A New Focus!

Some time ago, I struggled over deciding whether to continue this blog or to post exclusively on my gardening blog - It's My Garden.

For a few months I did not post here, but I found I missed the give and take of talking about different things even when I still found myself drawn more often to post about the garden. So for the past six months I have schizophrenically tried to maintain both blogs. It has been frustrating.

The truth is that except for Mitchell and a couple of my Wise Women, the garden is the most important thing in my life. It's where I think. It's where I go for strength when I'm feeling down. It's my escape from work - and we all need one of those! It's where I am creative. It's even my favorite place to have that Friday champagne when the weather cooperates. It's part and parcel of who I am and trying to divide myself was a typically Gemini thing to do.

Last night I had an ah-ha moment. I can reconnect my Gemini halves. So now I have only one blog - this one. I will continue to write about whatever strikes my fancy, when my fancy is struck, but you will find more about the garden now. This morning I made it official and posted a final time at It's My Garden and invited my friends there to move here - and I do hope they will!

Knowing my garden friends will like my eclectic friends and vice versa, I have pulled you all together. I hope you will still come visit me and we can continue our journey together. Let the fun begin!

ps: Perhaps by mistake, I've imported all the old posts from there to here, so now if you are interested you can go back and see what I've been doing for the past year - or not.

Spring is All About Change -Right?

Everywhere you look, everyday things are changing in the garden right now. Yesterday the the lilac bloomed - Syringa patula 'Miss Kim'. It is truly a love in the garden. It blooms later than other lilacs, extending their season. It's compact - 6-8 feet at maturity and easily trimmed to stay shorter, so you can use it as a foundation plant. We put it at the foot of the steps from our deck to the yard. The moment you step onto the deck - from the house or from the yard - you get the wonderful fragrance.


And, it's a beautiful color. The buds are pinker, but the flowers are more ice blue-violet. Oh, and it doesn't mind our climate. A winner all around! This is one of my "memory plants". I planted it in memory of a dear friend's mother.


Another beauty that came into full bloom this week is a weigela - Weigela florida 'Java Red'. It's a smaller variety - not really small enough to be considered a dwarf - but better for smaller spaces. This one is going to get a major pruning after it finishes blooming in the hope of improving its shape. The side that you cannot see is nearly flat because there was a huge clump of sea grass behind it until last fall. I finally decided that the sea grass was way too invasive and dug it up, but it had really hurt the shape of this shrub. I hope that by cutting it way back, it will grow out all the way around and even out in the next couple of years.

And, then if you truly want to see what an early spring we have had, here's my best proof.

A water lily bloomed this week! This is one that Mother gave me a couple of years ago. We didn't have room for it in the fish pond, so we got a small pond liner and created a lily (only) pond. I don't give it an annual cleaning (since fish are not dependent on it), so I don't cut back the plant in the fall, and the result is this! Turns out the frogs have the prettiest spot in the garden right now!

More Change in the Air.

In the spirit of spring, I have decided to make a change in my blogging, too. For about 18 months I have maintained two sites - this one which has been wholly about the garden and my first site - From the Garden Bench - which was planned to be insightful comments on my life and the world. I find that I have much more to say about the garden, and this topic is the one that draws me most of the time, but I still want to write about other things from time to time - without needing to maintain a presence at both locations. So, starting May 1st I shall combine the two blogs - but over at the other site. This one will remain up in case anyone is just dying to look up something in an old post - and so I can link back to it - but all the new stuff will be other "there". And, gardening will still be the main focus of what I write.

I will leave a link here, but hope you will come find me next month "on the bench" as well as "in the garden".