We should be seeing lots of post about things popping in everyone's yards. I figure I might as well start the parade. Here's what's been happening here the last couple weeks.
#1 Jet black bead (rhodotypos scandens)
#2 Neviusia alabamensis.
#3 Whitebud cercis
#4 Kerria japonica pleniflora
#5 Aesculus x carnea Ft McNair
#1 Exochorda racemosa
#2 Calycanthus florida
#3 Fothergilla gardenia
#4 Chaenomeles alpine var pygmaeus with serendipitous muscari
#5 Sinojackia rehderiana
Some of my guys aren't quite as demonstrative in the spring, so their displays are more modest.
#1 Sassafras albidum
#2 Forestiera acuminata
#3 Orixa japonica
#4 x Sycoparottia semidecidua
#5 Asimina biloba
So what's going on in your neck of the woods? Let's see some pix...
Squat.
1. Cornus florida 'Cherokee Princess'
2. Cercis canadensis
3. Pieris japonica
4. Tiarella cordifolia (oops, that's a perennial)
5. Syringa vulgaris
Looks great, VV. Particularly jealous of that nice looking pieris (or andromeda, in my wife's jargon). I think I have one sad-looking survivor out of a dozen or more planted. I've given up on all things ericaceous; can't grow sourwood, kalmia, rhodies to save my soul (though I must admit I have a couple enkianthus which still look decent). I'll try to be content admiring yours.
Let's see what's going on elsewhere?
Still waiting for buds to break up here unless you want to see forsythia. Coming soon though. Nice shots.
Same here. Night temps have been hovering around freezing, but things are starting to wake up. These gorgeous pictures remind me of what's to come. :)
OK, OK, hate to be torturing you northerners. Rather, maybe it will give you hope spring is on it's way even for you guys in the tundra.
I'm with you WHA. My amelanchier alnifolia 'Smokey' just started blooming but that's all I got at the moment. Same as you, waiting on buds to break. Our aronia arbutifolia hedge is loaded with buds as well as our sophora davidii. The laburnum is going to have a banner year in regards to flowers. Waiting for Ma Nature to get her act together and decide on warmer weather. We had two near freezes late last week. After Friday, the spring switch looks to be flipped to ON for good (hopefully).
I love laburnums. I remember seeing pictures of laburnum arbors in England dripping with yellow flowers. But alas they don't like our humidity. Or at least that's been my excuse.
They don't mind our humidity. The leaves do stress out toward the end of the season but it hasn't ever stopped this plant. I got it as a BR 5 years ago from Spring Hill (barf) and it's grown like a weed ever since. It blew over to a 45 degree angle during Hurricane Sandy. I hard staked it the opposite way for a season and it seemed to have corrected the issue.
Weerobin has a lovely and interesting collection. Here is what is blooming here:
#1 Choisya ternata 'Sundance', at 6 y/o in dry shade
#2,3 deciduous azalea 'Arneson Gem' 6 y/o
#4 Enkianthus campanulatus 'Jan Iseli Red' sale rack last year
#5 Grevillea noellii Oooohh it is going to have one bloom!
#1, #4 Tree peony 'Hesperus' I cut to the ground last year-now look!
#2, #4 Tree peony 'Tria' normally yellow, but buds frosted a few days ago
$3 the neighbors pink dogwood, having a banner year
#1 Rhody 'Nancy Evans'
#2 the neighbors Magnolia and lilac
#3 Lithodora diffusa 'White Star' is true blue, will climb into nearby shrubs!
I love this time of year.
Awesome Pistil! I'm jealous of your rhody in the third set. You and your cushy zone 8....
Wow, Pistil, looking good. I'll be interested to see that Grevillea open. And I am jealous of your enkianthus. I've struggled to keep any alive around here, but I am cautiously optimistic about a couple which look almost happy - of course, no sign of any flowering... maybe some day. Do you routinely cut back your tree peonies? So that's just one season of growth? Amazing.
A couple more guys blooming now.
#1 Viburnum plicatum Newport
#2 Azalea Komo Kulshan. My azaleas bloom sparsely.
#3 Syringa meyeri Palibin
The last two are for VV's amusement, my viburnum harryanum in full bloom. It's a show-stopper.
Man, that azalea is a knockout!
Weerobin-
The Azalea does not need to bloom heavily, looks great "just as it is".
Here is a link to my thread about cutting back this tree peony in the Peony Forum-Here are photos I just took from my window by my computer. I call this my "Study Garden" because I can see it from here. I will update my thread hopefully this weekend when it is in full bloom. The bottom line is that this tree peony really responded well to a rejuvenation pruning. I cut it to 4" stubs last February, and look at it now.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1314074/#post_9851531
Sequoiad-Yah, I do love this zone, like this Rhody (I planted three), but then I can't grow stuff that needs a proper winter, or summer heat and summer rains. I grew up in Ohio and I miss tomatoes and Heavenly Blue Morning Glories and Mums.
All things I could live without in order to have that rhodi. I will say though, I'd give up that rhodi to have a few proper agastache though. You can't grow those can you?
Well, no. But when I lived about a quarter mile from here, I could. Here it is clay, there it was a pile of sand. I think they drown in the winter on clay. I tried about a dozen cultivars before I gave up. 'Ava' and 'Rosita' in particular were gorgeous annuals here.
Why not amend the soil when you plant one? Sometimes I touch the leaves just so I can smell my hand. Maybe that's weird but I love the scent.
Why not amend the soil when you plant one? Sometimes I touch the leaves just so I can smell my hand. Maybe that's weird but I love the scent.
pretty weird ...
Not as weird as fondling bark on exfoliating trees...
John, that photo begs for a caption.
Yeah, well, it wouldn't be fit for the family hour...
Liz seems to be the one with this particular predilection.
Hi Sequoia- I tried putting a sandy mix in a big hole when I planted some-but in the wet clay this can then merely fill up like a mini pond during the rainy season. It does not seem to help shrubs either. How do I know this? I tried it. After a rain the water was attracted to my mini pond and the shrubs drowned. However I have now tried something else based on some advice from Growin several years ago- last fall I planted some Eremurus in a pile of sand mixed with Pro-Mix HP potting soil (HP for high porosity). They all survived the winter! Long term this won't work on a large scale, it would take too much sand and backbreaking labor.
Pistil might oughta try her hand at Backhoe Operation...
I agree with not trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. If you have wet clay, grow well that which relishes wet clay.
If you crave otherwise, be prepared to move Heaven - and a lot of Earth - in order to quench such desires.
Thus the Backhoe. You could excavate/carve larger areas quicker, and replace the removal with the appropriate mix/consistency for those plants which would not normally survive. Alternatively, creating raised beds of sufficient length/width/depth - again filled with the medium of your choice - would work quite well. The "raising" could consist of the fine stonework illustrated in the image above.
Geez Pistil, I guess I'll take my clay and climate of yours any day. I forgot that you get most of your rain in four months over the winter. We get a nice 3-4" per month every month of the year.
VV, your too funny with your comments about that photo.
Actually I am currently working on a plan/dream of a small raised bed on the east side of the house for Meconopsis- the Himalayan Blue Poppy. I read somewhere I might actually be able to grow them here, so I bought some seeds. Other than that I am gradually learning what can grow in my yard, and planting more of those things, like VV advised.
I agree that you'll have more success growing whatever naturally thrives in your environment. But I see nothing wrong with trying meconopsis or whatever else floats your boat. I coaxed a bloom out of a meconopsis once (picture below). Was a little tattered, but what the heck. Lasted long enough for me to snap a picture, then promptly headed off to meconopsis heaven, which for all you know just might be Lake Stevens. My current gardening infatuation is trying to grow alpines in St Louis (because I have pretty much ceded my yard to the animals). Most have been spectacular flops - but a few have survived and some actually look happy. While it is most certainly analogous to the 'square peg in a round hole' situation, I find it quite entertaining.
I think I saw a Meconopsis like that on my one and only trip to England/Scotland.
Hmm...was it in the Tower of London? Caernarfon? Pontefract?
J'oubliette...
For inspiration, Pistil, here's a big swath of your blue Himalayan poppies I ran across on Iceland's northern coast a few years ago. They grew like weeds.
A few more bloomers this week:
#1 Pterostyrax corymbosa. Understated.
#2 My Mary azalea - just getting started.
#3 A species woodland peony - not sure which one.
And a few non-floriferous contestants:
#1 Zelkova serrata Goshiki. A nice green/white variegate.
#2 Tricolor beech just leafing out. The leaves are so soft & fuzzy.
#3 Bright red pollen cones on pinus parviflora Bergman.
Goodness, Weerobin, you have quite a collection of plants. I say we meet in St Louis next spring. I'm not sure which I'd be more excited to see, your place or MOBOT.
MoBot for sure. My yard will never be ready for prime time. Quite a jumble of odd plants. My wife's repeated complaint that our yard doesn't look nice despite all the time I spend out there... ouch! I'm not sure she appreciated the thrill of my latest discovery, a newly leafing-out picrasma quassioides which I just rediscovered this weekend - I thought it had bit the dust a couple years ago. Woo-hoo!
Picrasma quassioides - now THAT'S a blast from the past. You never forget this plant when you first hear its name uttered in a Tennesse drawl by the inimitable Don Shadow.
Best one I've ever seen: Rutgers Gardens - first acquaintance in 1987, and reacquainted in fall 2014 at the 67th Annual Meeting of Holly Society of America.
Well, let's just say, mine isn't quite as monumental as that specimen. Mine's a scrawny 5ft sapling. Picture was at dusk and out of focus, etc but I was so pleased to see it was still amongst the living. Now that I know it's alive, I'll pay closer attention to see if it becomes the beast shown in your post.
