A wet cool spring but finally things seem to be kicking in gear.
Here are some of my guys flowering.
#1 is sinocalycanthus chinensis.
#2 is leptodermis oblonga.
#3 is indigofera amblyantha.
#4 is cornus kousa.
#5 is deutzia scabra Codsall Pink. You'll notice mine's flowers are mostly white.
I suspect it's due to growth in primarily shady situation.
What's flowering in your gardens?
They are all so beautiful, Scott. Love the second one and third and last!
Hello, I really love the indigo! In our garden I have a Kalmia latifolia (Yankee Doodle) and a Magnolia virginiana in bloom right now...in regards to shrubs anyway ;)
Beautiful; I want everything you post BUT that indigofera amblyantha......never heard of it but so glad you posted....I MUST....does it die back to the ground each year? All of them, really, are lucious....kim
The indigo is a twiggy shrub, so doesn't die to the ground. It's about 6ft tall.
It's at the edge of my woods, so about 50/50 sun/shade.
The picture doesn't give a very good overall idea of the plant.
The flowers are small but the shrub is covered head-to-toe with them.
Hundreds of cute upright flowering stems.
And it has the fine foliage typical of indigo. Alas, no fall color.
I think it would be more bushy, except it's competing against too-crowded neighbors.
Back 10 or so years ago, I was certainly guilty of the amateur gardener's common mistake
of planting trees & shrubs too close to each other! Now they're all duking it out for survival!
Scott, did you hear the gasp? The Codsall Pinks! I bought more than one at your recommendation. Both are in part sun, part shade.
What a sumptuous garden!
Thank you Scott.....it sounds like such a charming winner....I just have to have one. I'm going to e-mail my favorite nurseryman (70 miles away) and see if he has it as it would be bigger than mail order, I suspect. I wish I had learned that lesson "only" 10 years ago....kim
Kimmy, I have gotten almost all my strange trees & shrubs as teeny little mail-order plants.
That's of course how you can get lulled into planting them so close together.
But it also makes it less risky to try unusual things.
Of course many plants don't work out for one reason or another.
I can be a lot more adventurous with a small inexpensive mail-order oddity
than a more substantial investment in a more mature shrub which may not work out.
Besides, part of the enjoyment is experimenting with unknown plants.
Weerobin...I totally hear you; I've actually had much better luck with small plants also SO I bought indigofera amblyantha from Lazy S Farms yesterday. I've never ordered from them but they have a terrific rating and looks like a really nice selection of stock. After running down a shrub I saw blooming last spring, I ordered that too: Kerria japonica "Pleniflora.' I like their website too b/c it is easy to pay with check. I have seen so many pretty, unusual stuff here at DG and you so thanks for sharing all your good information. kim
I was given a deutzia Chardonnay Pearls that I kept moving around. From a pot to the ground at my old house, back to a pot and to the ground at my new house, where I planted it too high and dug it up three times, including twice this spring, to get it properly situated. These plants mist be tough. I got the best bloom from it this season that I ever have.
I tucked it under an azalea that blooms ahead of it so I could give it a little cover on the south side of my yard and so that it could benefit from the treatment of the azalea.
It was a gift from Raulston Arboretum. This year it gave me a 'Nikko Dawn'. It was big enough to put in near the azalea (which was just about the only thing in the yard when I got there). I never paid any attention to deutzias, but thanks to Raulston and Scott I now have four - and wouldn't want any fewer.
Kimmy, I've had good luck w/ Lazy S, so I hope you'll be pleased.
I have kerria pleniflora also and I love it's overwhelming floriferous bloom (pic #1).
But beware the creeping suckers. You'll have a thicket of Kerria in no time (pic #2).
Mine must be 6ft across. The picture doesn't give you an idea of the density of the canes.
It makes an inpenetrable hedge, if you're in need of such a thing.
If not, you'd be wise to keep it in scale by cutting the suckers periodically.
Otherwise it will devour anything nearby within a few years!
WOW...thanks Scott....I had no idea it would do that. The neighbors have it between their concrete driveway and a wet weather creek but it does look a bit on the "wild" side as it is probably going "up" the boundaries. That certainly will make a difference on where I put it as I will try and keep it in check....I "generally" dislike the thugs. Much appreciated and I too love that bloom amount and color. The first day I spied it, it was dark and rainy and it was quite the sight. It looks gorgeous with that blue sky in the background....kim
