May Bloom Day

White bearded iris.

Yellow iris.

The 15th of the month is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's "May Dreams Garden" blog.

The month of May is so beautiful in the northern hemisphere, a gardener would almost wish it could last all year long, except that then we wouldn't appreciate it as much... to everything there is a reason and a season.

I love bearded irises because of the beauty of their regal flowers and easy care. Today some are already past their peak in my garden, but most in my collection are still blooming. The core of my iris collection was given to me by a lady at the Virginia Native Plant Society's booth at Garden Fest, a weekend-long plant sale at Blandy Farm, the Virginia State Arboretum, held every spring. The rhizomes she gave me weren't native of course, nor were they labeled, so I have no idea of the names of these varieties. Other varieties that I've purchased over the years have names, of course.

One of my favorites is the white you see above--its lovely pure white falls and standards have pale blue beards with weird little tongues on their ends. The pure yellow and the purple and apricot bi-colors are also lovely

 

Bicolor iris with red 'Double Knockout' rose buds.

Iris patch along the front walk.

 

Last year I dug up and thinned the old-fashioned variety that once grew in my mother's garden in Falls Church, so this year my bed is a bit skimpy, but there's still enough bloom to admire.

 

Mom's irises.

A few years later I added two more varieties: the blue 'Victoria Falls' and 'Blatant', a yellow and wine bi-color.

 

'Victoria Falls' and 'Blatant' in the back yard.

 

My Virginia fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) is a dwarf cultivar, and it was spectacular about a week ago--there is still some bloom there. Underneath the columbine 'Blue Barlow' has spread nicely.

'Blue Barlow' columbines under Virginia fringe tree.

Foam flower (Tiarella)

 

This clump of foam flower also grows under the fringe tree--I usually keep this one under a wire cage because the deer love to eat it, but I remove it to take photos.

 

Clematis 'Etoile Violette' with 'New Dawn' rose.

 

At the side of the porch my "Dawn and Dusk" combination of clematis 'Etoile Violette' and climbing rose 'New Dawn' is about to launch its fabulous display of bloom. I need to find a way to re-train the rose back up on the porch pillar where it once was before a storm blew it down, but the rose is so huge and heavy now, it's hard to control. I need a suit of armor to get in there to prune it!

 

Elderberry (Sambucus 'Black Lace') with Dutch iris and red honeysuckle.

Dutch iris with red honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler'

 

The Sambucus 'Black Lace' is just opening its bunches of pale pink, next to the purple Dutch iris. The red honeysuckle "Major Wheeler' has started to offer its red trumpets for the ruby-throated hummingbirds to feast on. At the end of April we saw the first of the migrating hummers visiting, and since then they've been coming by regularly.

 

Blue Salvia with Coreopsis and pink Dianthus.

 

On the west side of the house my late spring/early summer perennials are starting their display. I have other flowers here and there, everywhere.

 

Pink Dianthus in front.

Indoors  two Phalaenopsis orchids are blooming. My sister Silvia gave me the white one some fifteen years ago and it bloomed regularly for a number of years, then went into inexplicable decline a few years back; it had not bloomed in over five years. After a lot of coaxing, it has finally been persuaded to re-bloom. The pale pink one was given to me by my other sister, Bea, and has bloomed regularly for about eight years.

 

White Phalaenopsis orchid indoors.

Pink Phalaenopsis orchid.

 

Currently my porch is full of potted plants--Mother's Day gifts--waiting to be set out in my garden. A lot of vegetable and flower seedlings I've been growing indoors are being hardened off here

 

Plants of the porch.

Hanging baskets on the front porch.

I planted my hanging baskets last week, but it will take some time before they look like much. Here's hoping for good, lush coverage soon!

A few days ago I had a bit of a start--I saw a small snake crawl up through the wood slats onto the back deck and slither across the threshold of the sliding door. The color and markings looked suspiciously like a rattlesnake's but I didn't seen any rattle at the end of the tail. Just to be sure, I looked up photos of juvenile snakes, and was reassured to see that juvenile rat snakes do have these markings. So, I let this garden buddy slide away down the clematis vine the way he came. Rat snakes are a gardener's friend--they eat a lot of garden pests, particularly mice and voles, though they do go after birds' eggs too. This one was probably looking for some eggs in the birds' nests under our deck.

 

Juvenile rat snake on the back deck.

Begonias on the back deck.

My collection of houseplants is almost all outdoors now--the begonias and succulents always take a beating when they go outdoors, but recover quickly.

Green thumbs?

This last photo is for fun--I have very soft nails and my thumbnails have been splitting down to the quick lately (even wearing gloves), so I decided to put some nail polish on them to try to stop the unraveling. The only nail polish I had on hand is green--my husband Herb thought it was a great sight gag!

The Merry Month Of May

The garden east of the house.

A closer look.

 

The merry month of May launched with some much-needed rain in the last two days of April, but the following cloudy, drizzly days have brought very little additional rain thus far. Still, the rain was enough to help the emerging foliage--my Japanese maples in particular appreciated it.

The flower beds to the east of the house are really starting to shape up into a lovely display with the pink-tinged foliage of the full moon maple 'Shirawasanum' on the right, the deep red of 'Bloodgood' beyond, the pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) in bud, the dwarf  Virginia fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicum) and Rhododendron  'Southgate Brandi' in the background. The dark purple flowers of the columbines 'Blue Barlow' growing underneath are starting to open.

 

Virginia fringe tree and Rhododendron in flower.

 

Earlier in the spring I re-edged all of the flower beds to the east of the house, and re-planted the Hakonechloa grass (Hakonechloa macra) closer to the front of the bed, in hopes that it will spread and make a better show.

 

Hakonechloa grass with hydrangeas.

Moving on to the back yard, the iris bed I dug up last fall is showing some blooms, though it will take a couple of years for the rhizomes to re-grow and bloom as profusely as before. These are the most perfumed of the irises that I grow.

Old-fashioned iris from my mom's garden.

My iris 'Blatant' had not bloomed for a couple years after being attacked by a beastie who ate some of the rhizomes, but it's blooming again this year. My other irises in the front garden are also blooming, just starting their seasonal display. I bought two new varieties last year, but thus far, neither is showing any buds--perhaps they are later blooming varieties, or just haven't grown long enough, who knows?

 

Iris 'Blatant'

Irises along the front walk.

White iris.

 The clematis that my sister Bea gave me is blooming beautifully. The two lilacs near the clematis haven't bloomed very much this year--too dry or too early for them, perhaps?

Clematis

The pale lilac Dutch iris have opened up, as has the red honeysuckle 'Major Wheeler.' Our first humming bird sighting took place on April 25--the earliest date since we've been here--feeding on the honeysuckle! The males are the first to begin their migration north in the spring, and it was surprising to see two or three males buzzing the flowers together--normally they are solitary birds. These little hummers were probably heading to Canada and parts far, far, north; they travel amazing distances alone rather than in flocks, unlike most other birds.

Dutch iris.

 

A new acquisition, a red carnation, went into the expanded bed on the west--the plant looks a little beat up at the moment, hopefully it will settle in soon. I haven't finished planting this bed yet, I plan to put in the anise hyssop I'm growing from seed there along with some bee balm.

 

Red carnation.

Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)

After digging up the Spanish bluebells under the Zelkova tree last fall, separating and re-planting them, I 'd hoped for a better display, but the deer attacked the foliage and buds earlier in the spring, so I didn't get as much bloom as hoped for. Next year I must cover this bed with some sort of netting--the Muscari on the perimeter was also chomped down--such a shame!

 

New natural garden decoration.

Above is a new garden decoration--I found this weird-looking twisted juniper wood stump in the back woods a couple of years ago and wanted it for my garden, but wasn't able to detach it from the ground then. Last winter during one of my forays, I tried prying it again and it came out easily. Perfect to decorate the Herb bed! I planted some sedum and moss in it, and still have one pocket left for a succulent, maybe some hens-and-chicks or Crassulas?

 

Red Columbines

One columbine I planted in the back bed survived and is flourishing--I think it may be a dwarf variant of our native columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). But I also planted seeds of the native variety here a few years ago, and this could be one of them, it's hard to tell. I have another set of seeds of the native variety sprouting this year. Hummingbirds love this plant.

Yesterday my husband asked me how many trees I'd planted since we bought this property, and after counting, I was surprised to realize that we've planted thirty-six trees in our less than half-acre plot! That count doesn't include the shrubs like Viburnums, beautyberries, hollies and hydrangeas, or the cherry tree and arborvitae that were already here when we bought the house. Some of my trees will stay small in scale, but some will get much larger eventually--I'll post something about my trees soon: quite a few are exotic, and some of my natives are unusual, you don't see them planted in gardens very often.

More flowers to come on May 15's "Bloom Day," the peonies and roses are starting to bud.

Calmes Neck

Pawpaw flowers.

 

 Last Saturday I went on the Virginia Native Plant Society's (VNPS) walk at Calmes Neck, a tract of private land overlooking the Shenandoah River a bit north of Front Royal. This is a unique site that contains a good number of native species over varied terrain: limestone cliffs with ferns and Columbines overlooking the river, and hillsides carpeted in Virginia Bluebells and other spring ephemerals.

 

Pawpaw flowers (Asimina triloba).

We started our walk at the top of a hill that was covered with Pawpaw trees in flower. There was little evidence that these flowers had been damaged by a frost earlier in the month, so I presume these trees didn't begin to flower until after the frost.

Twinleaf plants (Jeffersonia dyphilla)

Seedpod of Twinleaf.

I had hoped to sketch the twinleaf flowers after our walk, and had brought my sketchbook and kit, but due to the recent heat-wave, the plants were done flowering and had gone to seed. There was not a single flower on the entire hillside covered with these plants!

I had to console myself with the native delphiniums (Delphinium tricornis) nearby. There were a few unusual pale sports growing next to the normally deep purple flowers in this small patch near the twinleaf plants. There were also some trilliums (Trillium sessile), near the Delphiniums.

 

Delphiniums (Delphinium tricornis) on the forest floor.

Close-up of Delphinium tricornis

A pale variant of Delphinium tricornis

Toadshade (Trillium sessile)

We walked down the hillside toward the river where Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) grow in abundance. Among the bluebells we found plants of both squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis) and Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria).

 

The path by the Shenandoah River.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

Squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis)

River floodplain filled with Virginia bluebells.

After a short stroll through the river floodplain filled with Virginia bluebells our group turned towards a high bluff overlooking the Shenandoah River. On the rocky ledges of this bluff grew a number of lovely and unusual plants: wild columbines, bulblet ferns, walking ferns, native sedums, purple cliffbrake, and spleenwort.

 

Looking down from the limestone cliffs.

Wild columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) on the rocky ledges.

 

 

Columbines and bulblet ferns (Cystopteris bulbifera).

Spring has been so dry this year that the usually green mossy rock ledges were all dried and brown; the walking ferns in particular seemed to be fried to a crisp! Still, they manage to hang on--I'm sure they'll all revive with the first abundant shower.

 

Walking fern (Asplenium rhizophyllum)

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) with flower.

Rare purple cliffbrake fern (Pellaea atropurpurea)

Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum)

Here was another rare fern--the wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)--so tiny it would be easy to overlook if we didn't have an expert botanist as a guide. Other ferns and plants on the cliffs are unique to this site.

Wall rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria)

Alumroot (Heuchera villosa)

Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)

Rock twist (Draba ramossisima)

A number of other spring blooming flowers were present: spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa), cut-leaved toothwort (Cardamine concatenata), pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), round-leaf ragwort (Packera obovata) etc., that are by-now very familiar to me. I did learn that the tiny spring beauty flowers actually have pink pollen, and that when bees harvest their pollen, the pink pollen sacs tell us they've been visiting these spring beauties..

 

Harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa)

Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)

Round-leaf ragwort (Packera obovata)

I had brought a sandwich and my paints so that after our excursion I could stay a bit longer to paint one of these lovely flowers. I chose to do a field sketch of one of the delphimiums, which turned out quite nice. I had just finished my drawing when I felt the cool breeze presaging that some rain might be heading this way, so I packed up and left.  I had just got back on Route 50 when a shower started.

 

Watercolor field sketch of Delphinium tricornis (9" x 6").

 

I finished the watercolor in my studio at home with the help of my photos. Above is my little sketch.