August

The garden has been so buggy this summer, that we haven't spent as much time there as in other years.  That's what a rainy spring can do, I guess, but it's still lovely now.  The joe-pye weed is flourishing!

Where did summer go? June pictures

How is it possibly September and I haven't posted since May?   Time passes so fast!

June

June was a bit rainy, but the roses were still lovely!  The climbing rose was ridiculously abundant, as were the foxgloves.  We'll see what happens with them next year, as we don't see the hundred tiny seedlings that we had last fall.

Early May

We're definitely early this year! The columbine are starting, the lilacs are peaking or past. Bless those Boy Scouts who came on Saturday!

Visiting Arnold

In the spirit of having a first name handle for all the gardens I'm on a first name basis with, the Arnold Arboretum has one conveniently built in.

The cherry trees are just starting. The plums are looking beautiful! But the forsythia and scilla are truly spectacular!

Visiting Abigail

Rather than using the formal names of the Dorothy Quincy Homestead and the John Adams Mansion, I prefer to call the houses by the names of their mistresses - Dorothy and Abigail.  It sounds more neighborly, doesn't it?

Anyway, Mom and I went to visit Abigail's garden last Friday and saw her chinodoxa - so beautiful!  They've also introduced some dark blue scilla around them to widen the patch and give a little contrast.  It's a really nice idea.

Scilla binge

As you can see, the scilla are out in full glory!  They're carpeting one corner of the garden, just where the fence to the adjacent apartment building is.  In my ungenerous moments, I'm ticked that the pollen from the scilla always tends to move toward the apartments and decreases the number of scilla actually in Dorothy's garden every year.  However, bulbs are just generous that way!  That won't stop me from transplanting about 2 x 5 feet of bulbs to other parts of the garden after they stop blooming to give us a bit of a buffer and keep a few more of the cubs actually in the garden.  It's nice though that we can share with neighbors. 

The dark lenten roses are still looking gorgeous!  I've heard they make nice cut flowers.  Mom is trying them now. 

(One experiment in trying to get a picture of the house - to put the tree close up right in front of the heating pipes that spoil the view.  What do you think?)

The tree fallen at the Hancock St. edge of the garden makes a fine perch!  Perhaps we should put in a bench.

The forsythia is looking gorgeous!  All around the neighborhood it's just in its glory.  Next step - plant some scilla under each of the bushes.  I saw this in a Brookline garden - it's really lovely. 

Scilla inside

 I'd never tried this before, but it works really well!  Just dig up a few bulbs that aren't quite blooming yet and put them in some container (doesn't even need gravel) and enjoy up close!  I tried it this spring with snowdrops.  They were beautiful for a while and then got too warm in my house, but it was fun while they lasted!

Crocus Fever Part 3

It's hard to stop!

I was pleased to see the scilla coming out as well.

Crocus Fever Part 2

You can see - you have to get close up to a crocus to really get the full benefit of the experience!

Crocus fever!

While the 400 pictures I took last week of the crocus lawn are downloading, (not to worry - I'll only post a few!) I couldn't resist sharing this video my mom took on Monday at Dorothy's.

I also wanted to share this book, Elizabeth and her German Garden, by Elizabeth von Arnim who also wrote The Enchanted April. (Coming up soon! I have to watch the movie it was made into every April.) It's a free download from Project Gutenberg - bless them!

The crocus lawn is starting!

I haven't seen it yet, except in pictures, but I can't wait! Here's some inspiration in the meantime from Copenhagen.

Beautiful video of Rosemary Verey's garden

This is so pretty! All about winter gardening too, though we're nearly at the end of that. I hear the crocuses here are just peaking out.

Heavenly Snowdrops!

This garden definitely looks like one for the list! I'd love to visit Colesburne Park someday.

Waiting again...

The snowdrops are up! And were briefly covered in snow yesterday. We spread them around the grounds last year, so the patch is more patchy than usual. One fine experiment - we tried putting a few of the bulbs into a teacup with a little gravel on the bottom. It looked beautiful and they kept for a good week in a cool room

In the meantime, we've been feasting on two new gardening books:

Val Bourne's lovely book the Winter Garden. I like this one best for the wonderful pictures and clear categories of plants. I took a walk around the Arnold Arboretum after reading and felt quite the expert!

Rosemary Verey's The Garden in Winter This book has wonderfully clear instructions about tasks you can get done during Winter when your fingers are itching to go to work in the garden. The pictures are fuzzy but still inspirational.

The forsythia's doing a nice job of forcing this winter - thank heaven!

Enjoy!