Garden Bloggers' January Bloom Day

 

Orchids in my bath.

For my first post for the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day (a day late) I'm starting with my indoor garden, where I have a couple of orchids in bloom in my bath. The dark pink is a Miltonidia, a hybrid of Miltonia with Oncidium, I believe. This was the first orchid I ever bought many years ago--it was on sale at a local garden center and looked almost dead, but the orchid expert there assured me it would revive if soaked in water for a few hours, which it did. It has bloomed regularly since then.

The other orchid in the bath with fading blooms and a new flowering spike coming up, I bought at a road-side stand during a trip to Florida, and appears to be a Brassia hybrid, maybe Brassidia? It too flowers regularly for me every year during this time. This season it produced three flowering spikes.

 

Phalaenopsis hybrid

Moving along downstairs to the family room is another orchid, a Phalaenopsis hybrid one of my sisters gave me a few years back, that has re-bloomed reliably. I have another five or six florists' orchids around that haven't bloomed in several years, but hope springs eternal in a gardener's heart, so I won't throw them out just yet.

 

Pink Anthurium

Near the Phalaenopsis is this pink Anthurium, also a gift from my sisters. The African violet below is one of two Optimara varieties I've grown for nearly forty years; I've kept them going by taking leaf cuttings regularly.

 

Optimara African violet (Saintpaulia hybrids)

 

The plant below is the exotic Gardenia Tree (Tabernaemontana divaricata) which I've been growing for about seven years now, and blooms during winter. The flowers have a marvelous scent for the first six hours after opening, and gradually lose their fragrance. My tree is about three feet high now, and I'm wondering just how much larger it might get--I may have to give it away to someone with a greenhouse when it reaches a size I can't accommodate.

Gardenia tree (Tabernaemontana divaricata)

The only thing blooming outdoors in my USDA Zone 6b garden is a native witchhazel tree (Hamamelis virginiana), and some buds are appearing on a Japanese Andromeda (Pieris japonica).

 

Witchhazel blossoms.

Japanese Andromeda cultivar in bud.

There is one more blossom to account for, but this one is the fruit of my artistic endeavors--a flame azalea watercolor that I finally finished. As I was painting this, it was exciting to I learn that the eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly is one of the few insects that can pollinate these native azaleas in the wild.

 

Flame Azalea and Pollinator.

I photographed the flowers and the butterflies two years ago during a trip to a West Virginia forest.

My Early Spring Garden

Hyacinth 'Delft Blue'

 

With the Spring Equinox past, early spring manifests itself in my garden. 'Delft Blue' hyacinths bloom along the front walk, as the carpet of several varieties of sedum begins to revive from its winter slumber. 

 

Blue Siberian squill, Pieris, and young rosettes of great blue lobelia.

"Queen Charlotte' violet (Viola odorata)

Along the east side of the house, the tiny blue flowers of Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) carpet the ground near a Pieris in bloom, among the sprouting young rosettes of the Great Blue Lobelia that is spreading here. My 'Queen Charlotte' violet is reviving and spreading nicely, but so far I detect no scent--perhaps it's still too chilly for the violet to emit its lovely perfume?

Hellebore Wedding Party 'True Love'

Hellebore 'True Love'

Close-up of 'True Love'

At the foot of the 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple, the hellebore Wedding Party 'True Love' is flourishing now that it's protected from the browsing deer. As soon as the critters have enough to eat in the woods, I'll remove the barrier so I can admire it without obstructions. I'd love to grow another hellebore near this one, perhaps one with white flowers with a touch of pink on the edges. There are so many beautiful varieties to choose from in my gardening catalogs, but all are so expensive, I may have to wait until I find some on sale.

Blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) with 'Mount Hood' daffodils

In the back yard some grape hyacinths that haven't been browsed too much by the deer are emerging among the 'Mount Hood' daffodils, while the Forsythia's yellow announces the official start of spring. A few of the 'February Gold' daffodils in the back bed are in bloom, but most of the others won't open until a week or two later.

The back yard this week.

The Little Indians bed.

Lots of new shoots are coming up in all my flower beds--above are 'Autumn Joy' sedum with muscari and daffodil bulbs, and daylilies. I'd forgotten about the anemones I planted last year, and was surprised to find this tiny one coming up near my roses. Such a delicate little thing!

Anemones.

Bergenia buds

Front yard this week

In the front yard, the seasonal progression continues: the February Gold daffodils are finished, now the Thalia and Tazetta narcissus are just about to pop open. And, I have great hopes of seeing a few camellia blossoms for the first time--the buds are just beginning to unfold.

 

Camellia 'Kumasaka'

More Garden Additions

New tree: deciduous Magnolia 'Butterflies'

The fall weather has been so pleasant recently that it's allowed me to continue expanding my garden, while taking advantage of the great sales to be found at this time of the year when nurseries are trying to clear out all their stock.

Springtime Garden Center had two nice-size deciduous magnolias of a new variety named 'Butterflies' with yellow flowers, and it was impossible to resist. I'd been wanting a magnolia for some time, so I bought the best-looking one of the two and made arrangements to have them plant it for me, which they did this past week.

New boundary flower bed

During previous weekends I'd been working on consolidating the three plants I had at our eastern property boundary into one larger continuous bed. I put in one of the Japanese maple seedlings gleaned from the grounds of the office building next door to where I work. This will eventually shade the Rhododendron I had planted there a couple of years ago. I added two divisions of the Gazanias from another bed, a yellow-twig dogwood (Cornus sanguinea 'Artic Sun') and a Pieris shrub. The Silky Thread grass (Nassella tenuissima) that wasn't doing well in the back I transplanted here, adding a few bulbs of Blue Squill to fill it out. We'll see how this bed looks over the next year as the plants grow.

Gordlinia grandiflora

Beyond this bed I planted another irresistible bargain found at Wayside Gardens: Gordlinia grandiflora is a hyrbid of the famous Ben Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha) and the well-known Loblolly Bay (Gordonia lassianthus) of southern forests. Like the Franklinia, Gordlinia blooms in the fall as the foliage turns red, and it's supposed to be evergreen. We'll see if it lives up to that claim in these latitudes.

Bed with evergreens on east side of house (Gazanias in front)

I finally decided upon what I think is the right spot for the ferny-leaved cypress ( Chamaecyparis obtusa filicoides) I bought last spring. This meant moving the lovely dwarf blue spruce I'd planted under the bay window to the other side of the Golden Hinoki cypress, and moving the Floxglove that was there to another bed. Fortunately, herbaceous perennials are easy to transplant, and the spruce had only been growing for one season, but I think the combination of foliage colors looks better in the new arrangement.

Herb kids me about transplanting and moving plants so frequently, as if it was as easy as rearranging furniture, but it's really not that much different. If it improves the overall look and the plants were not prospering where they were, why not?

Front yard from the east, construction of new houses in the background