5/3/2013
I usually think of March as Pieris japonica month but it is one of those plants that blooms for a loooong time. Here’s some photos from May 3. From a distance it still looks in bloom, albeit in a dingy get-it-over-with kind of way. An up close look shows the reason for the dinginess. Go here to see my original post on Pieris japonica.
5/3/2013
Pine candles, 4/14/2013
These pine candles are about as long as they will get but still soft enough to perform candling. Check out how much they lengthened in a month. Interested in the art of pine pruning via candling? Go here for more info. Read more »
Koelreuteria paniculata showing the salmon-pink of new leaves. It would be easy to walk right past this tree without noticing anything, the leaves at the moment show up only as the slightest of hazes from a distance. Up close the intricate salmon-pink leaves are beautiful, although I have to say the leaves are stupendously photogenic. The reality definitely was cool, but not so striking as it seems in the photos. Read more »
Confederate jasmine, 3/26/2013
A plain green vine cloaking a fence in March – ho hum. Confederate jasmine is ho hum most of the year but not a bad ho hum. A vine that hides ugly fences, comes through at least this mild winter well-clothed in pristine leaves (no ugly black spots) and flowers well in at least some shade is not a bad plant, but you don’t grow Trachelospermum jasminoides for its evergreen leaves. You grow it for its divine, carrying, summertime fragrance – anything else it give you is just gravy.
For more on Confederate jasmine, check out thispost – August, If only the internet was scratch and sniff.
Stipa gigantea 2/10/2013
In August I wrote about Stipa gigantea in the post, “Large ornamental grasses, to have or not to have?” The flowerheads glow in the afternoon sun but the leaves regardless of the time of year, aren’t beauteous. Here in February you can see these Stipa are suffering from the plant equivalent of a bad hair day, most leaves lax and a few sticking up willy-nilly. They remind me of some sort of nocturnal animal caught out unexpectedly in daylight, creeping desperately for home. Yes, they’re green, which is always appreciated in winter, but in an ideal world I would hide the foliage of this one summer and winter.
Fuchsia magellanica 1/27/2013
Fuchsia magellanica. It blooms and blooms and blooms and then it is dead. Not actually dead but dormant and of an ugliness surpassed by few plants that haven’t been badly pruned. The moral of course, is to plant Fuchsia magellanica where a bunch of sticks going every which way won’t be a blight on the winter garden.
The Cornus kousa from previous posts on January 12, 2013
Slender and lacy, the winter silhouette of this Cornus kousa is so lightweight it barely shows in this photo.
The original post on Cornus kousa in November when it was strutting its autumnal colors can be found here. In a few months I’ll have some shots of it leafing out.
Here are the bracts of ‘Kent Beauty’ all dried up. Not so beautiful anymore but not hideous either, nevertheless, best to have pruned off those bracts as soon as they started to lose their looks. At this point, I’d wait until late winter and then prune the plant way back. Read more »
Koelreuteria paniculata, golden rain tree, 11/5/2012
I keep liking this tree more and more. The big seedpods, rather than looking ratty as I’d feared, give this tree a reddish glow in early November. I wanted to say “autumnal umber glow” but when I checked, the umber in my head didn’t agree with the color the all-knowing internet showed as umber. Read more »
A beauty and the beast kind of plant – fabulously scented late summer flowers and leaves that smell like peanut butter. Iridescent blue berries surrounded by hot pink calyces and surprisingly ugly fall color. A perfectly-sized tree for small gardens and a regrettable tendency to sucker. To plant or not to plant? Read more »
