The Best Week To Be A Gardener

Our yard is like a cartoon this week, full of vibrant colors, buzzing bees, and singing birds.  

It astounds me every year.

Fothergilla 'Mt Airy'

Everything's so fresh.  This is hosta 'Sagae'.

Two of the three trilliums finally bloomed.  I think it's been three years since I planted them.

This mini bergenia is having its moment before the dwarf hosta quartet fills in around it.

The Lady Jane tulips are happy to see the sun.

Dog tooth violets are clumping up.

Fritillaria uva-volpis 

Tiny pink phlox in a trough.

Oh yeah.  And the plant sales.  Maybe my second favorite part of spring.

Crevice Trough

I feel like I've gone down the rabbit hole.  A few weeks ago I cast a trough from my favorite mold but inserted a jagged piece of rigid foam near the top as I filled the mold.  

I wanted a trough with a giant crack in it.

I'm obsessed with the idea of growing lewisias vertically.  Sick, I know.  I need help...

Chirimen Hinoki Cypress

Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Chirimen', a dwarf Hinoki cypress that I stumbled upon at our local nursery last year.  

I thought it was having dieback on top this spring until I got closer and noticed those brown areas are pollen cones.  Even its reproduction parts are cute!

It's the Little Things

Tulipa humilis 'Odalisque' when closed...

and opening.

Dutchman's breeches

Tall blue squill + golden acorus = yummy

(Proof that I have good ideas once in a while)

leucojum aestivum 'gravetye giant'

Arabis alp. caucasia 'Snowball'

Dwarf willow: salix yezoalpina

And what spring post would be complete without a little forsythia?  And I do mean little (it's a dwarf).  A little is enough when it comes to forsythia.

Leonard Messel Magnolia

Our view from the deck.  The magnolia was pretty small when we put it in about 5 years ago.  It's been growing like crazy ever since.  Since we're going for a multi-trunk canopy, we've been removing select branches each year. 

By the way, our garden runs along the right side of this picture, through the gate and into the backyard. The yellow area behind the magnolia is the kids' swingset.  That area to the left of our fence is our neighbor's patch of dead grass and wild garlic.  Enough said.

Happy spring.

High Spring

I think of the magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' as the king of high spring in our yard...the big event...the Easter bunny...or something.  I always look forward to it blooming.

Sunday morning was cloudy and cool and it started blooming in earnest.  As the day (and the week) warmed up, it really hit its stride.

Chinodoxa showing their beautiful faces in the leaf litter.

Viburnum farreri 'nanum', a dwarf, fragrant viburnum, is finally getting settled in after 4 or 5 years.

For once the squirrels let the double daffs bloom.  They usually eat the buds a few days before they bloom.  

My favorite dark hellebore,

Draba polytricha grows in a hot, dry trough.

Sure Signs of Spring

 It must be spring here.  I've got iris reticulata...

...loads of crocus tommasinianus...

...witch hazel...

and hypertufa troughs in process.

It's still pretty chilly at night so I moved these guys into the basement after I took them out of their molds.  Thirty days is a long time to wait for the final product.