a garden maker's notes

Ilex verticillata 'Red Sprite'

Mid-February a traveling flock of Bluebirds visits the Rhus typhina grove edging the wetland behind my house. (Aside: is a massed drift of a native shrub called a ‘grove’?  To this morning’s tired brain -Winter Olympics held me beyond my bedtime last night- the term ‘grove’ works better than ‘massed planting’.  The Rhus looks like a grove of small multibranced trees with large red fruit)  Usually I have Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) mixed with the conifer branches in the deck containers. It’s a lovely combination that I enjoy from November thru the first warm day in March when the soil thaws enough to releasethe branches to my not-so-gentle tug. I didn’t manage to get the berried branches this year. Too bad because it appears its the frost softened fruit that attracts them to my deck and close viewing. Seeing the flock in the grove I was hoping the feeders would attract them but without the berries to devour–no go. Note-to-self: Winterberry branches on the shopping list for next November. Better yet, plant the ilex (male and female plants) so I can harvest branches in a few years. There are many varieties to choose from that include the 8-10′ species to the more compact. ‘Red Sprite’, one I use often, grows to about 5′ in its first 10-15 years but matures to about 12 feet. Good massed and placed so that its summer green leaves provide contrast whatever is planted in front. Kirengishoma might be great with it’s delicate late summer yellow flowers and uniquely shaped lighter green foliage. Anyway, I miss the bluebirds personal visit to my deck. Its the only time of year they appear coming from somewhere going to somewhere else.  Harbinger of spring and wonder. Ah, I’m glad I saw them in the grove and know they survived and continue to mark spring for me.

Kirengeshoma palmata

Winter Form Rhus typhina Attracts Bluebirds

Chamaeycyparis 'Fernspray' and Hamamelis 'Arnold Promise'

Hamamelis 'Arnold Promise' against Pinus strobus

Sometime ago I encountered an enchanting description of a small Japanese village’s winter festival that celebrated the way plants catch snow.  The novel’s author called the snow that was captured in nooks and crannies, branches and seedheads, branches and buds, ‘Snow Flowers’.  Ever since I look at fresh snow differently.

Early September Planting Combination with Sculpture

It’s snowing today and quite beautiful. I’m enjoying the woodland view from the comfort of my home and grateful for it. Within my view the indoor garden features the stunning blooms of  ’Dancing Queen’ Amaryllis that I showcased in this blog last January. Two other varieties are promising flowers and some ‘Paperwhite’ narcissus just might bloom and scent the room soon. Pretty special.  In another room, an orchid’s in bud and a begonia in flower. These are the some of  the plants that keep a New England gardener and garden maker somewhat sane by providing living beauty during our long winters.

Early last September I visited the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden and and didn’t feature it in my blog.  Its a fabulous garden and I look forward to visiting it again. (In fact, it’s so fabulous that as an New England Chapter officer of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD) I’m organizing a chapter event there July 30th!) BTW the yellow flowers are a rudbeckia, the white an echinacea, the blue a perovskia, and of course, ornamental grass varieties complete the composition. The sculpture takes your eye up to the sky and leads you back into the flowers. I imagine it looks wonderful surrounded by snow!

Hydrangea m. "Endless Summer"

It’s cold out there–in the teens.  Yet as I dart to my car I can’t help but notice the morning light illuminating the hydrangea’s winter form.  One lone blossom that I didn’t cut for my vase indoor before the hard frost. (I’m still enjoying those blossoms by the way).  The snow’s blue in shadow and fairly close to the summer color of these hydrangeas or at least as I remember it.

In case you don’t know the plant you can go to www.westonnurseries.com website and  learn all about it. Its a great one for a New England summer blooming blue hydrangea because its bud hardy here inland.

P.S.  Here’s hydrangea above in early fall.

Hydrangea 'Endless Summer' blooms in my fall garden

Amazing texture, shape, and colors....

If you tire of the beautiful winter wonderland, look closely at your friend’s or your own indoor plants.

P.S. Wondering what this plant is?  Echeveria gibbiflora.  My friend Marylyn–a horticultural diva– grew this succulent. It’s in the same family as the jade plant. ”Echeveria gibbiflora ‘Carunculata’ is quite distinctive. This cultivar has very blue colored leaves with very exotic-looking growths that arise from the upper foliage during some periods of the year. Rather than having the usual rosette, ground-hugging form, this looks more like an overgrown flowering cabbage or kale that we typically see during the fall months in garden centers”. While I’m interested in the foliage, you might like to know that this “hens and chicks” (not the Sempervirum associated with this “common” name)  blooms in the winter months. In zones 8-10–its native area it prospers in a woodland area.  Succulent in a woodland–interesting mental picture–isn’t it? My friend Marylyn grows it in a sunny southern facing window filled with other plants (some tall and some short)–maybe that mimics a woodland. For more information, check out the site I googled and quoted from “Cacti and Succulents Site–the article by Bella’s online Cacti and Succulents Editor, Connie Krochmal.
  

Yellow Conifer, Silver Grasses, Red Branched Tree

Rock, Tree, Grass, Conifer, Sky

The sun, low in the sky late in the afternoon in early December, cast long light and shadows in the Adrian Bloom Garden at Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank, Wellesley, MA. Seeking winter compositions I found many.  Here are my favorites. See how form and color work in the winter landscape with the use of colored branches, grasses, textured bark, interesting evergreens low and high repeated and grouped to great effect. Design the winter landscape first as the framework for the seasons that follow and receive stunning combinations all year round.

Japanese Maple with European Ginger, Silver and Spotted Lungwort

Mid-November and much in the perennial garden has been cut back or left lingering for the shapes created by the first snows. A casual stroll finds many lovely aspects in the garden in a season many consider without charm.

Taken a few days ago, the photograph reveals a combination revealed through an intricate pattern of branches.  A similar photo could have been taken in early spring and cherished as much. The asarum europaeum (European ginger) and the pulmonaria ‘Silver Shimmers’ (the very silver leaf) and pulmonaria ‘Mrs. Moon’ or ‘Victorian Brooch’ appear very early in spring and bloom before the Japanese maple (Acer j. ‘viridis’) leafs out. 

During the summer, Acer p. ‘viridis’ cascades with lovely dissected green foliage. Not long ago the maple displayed a stunning yellow-orange fall color. I know that throughout the winter I will continue to enjoy this plant as snow and ice traces its form. For the present I’m savoring this mid-November garden combination of branch and perennial foliage that continues to provide texture and color. It’s one of many tucked within the late fall tapestry provided by the garden. I hope you’re inspired to seek out November treasurers in your own garden.

Joni Mitchell’s lyric rolled through my mind..something about paving paradise with parking lots and creating tree museums….and here I was strolling in Boston’s Arnold Arboretum late afternoon in mid October.  Struck by the shape of the trees, I realized how I see trees–shaped by suburban lots and streets.  Crammed into the sidelines, pruned for power lines, and  by trucks traveling beneath I see lots of trees but rarely in their individual form.  The woodlands I wander grow trees in dense populations so unless one happens on a clearing with a lone tree you’re unlikely to see the kinds of shapes that startled my vision that afternoon.

Tree shaped by space --unencumbered by power line or truck pruning at the Arnold Arboretum

Sky shaped by tree

Tree museum exhibit extraordinaire

Of course, even in a tree museum nature shapes the trees and staff add their sculpting vision.  But the trees are amazing.

Inspiration comes too. Fortunately my life  finds me immersed in New England’s autumn colors. Each morning the deepening color of the forest outside my window greets my first waking sight. Daily treks down multicolored leafy roads quiet my mind and call me to attention. This year I beheld the glory of “peak color” in Rangeley, Maine. (That’s right, Rangeley– it’s located near the Canadian border–16 miles from Quebec).

'Height of Land', a stop along Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway