Bloom Day – January 2010

The first Bloom Day of the year. The first Bloom Day of a new decade. I wish I could post something really splashy, but I don’t really have much in the way of houseplants – but here we go.  I made a trip to Logee’s Greenhouse several years ago and the only thing still thriving after all this time is two scented geraniums. Their blooms are not notable. I bought them for their beautiful scented foliage which continues to please. Right now both plants are really leggy and it is time to cut them back before summer. I am always timid when I have to cut back, but I will do it.

The Christmas cactus is going by, but it has put on a good show.

And of course, there is the ever faithful abutilon, flowering maple or parlor maple. Take your pick.

What I really celebrate at this time of the year is the continuation of life, even when it is invisible.  Last winter I left my big jade tree out in The Great Room where it has lived for several winters. (It goes outdoors on the piazza with all the other ‘houseplants’ during fine weather.) Unfortunately, we had not paid realized, that with some new insulating we did between the Great Room and the main part of the house, the Great Room did entertain freezing temperatures during the night. When we finally paid attention I declared that the jade tree was deadern’ a biscuit. Henry said, not so!

And he was right.  We cut it back to bare stumps, and look what happened. New growth everywhere. Life will not be denied!  And so we celebrate on this gray, cold Bloom Day. To see who has more color visit our host, Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. It is also Blooming Friday, so for a double hit of blooms visit Katarina at Roses and Stuff.

Bloom Day – Everywhere

The Christmas cactus is blooming right on time! However, there isn’t much else in flower right now. The Thanksgiving cactus bloom has gone by and the abutilon has a couple of puny blossoms, but not photo worthy because there are so many different kinds of blooms to show this Bloom Day.

We visited daughter Betsy and her family this weekend. Her orchids are blooming. She says she regularly gets them to rebloom. She is not known for having a green thumb, but she and the orchids get along fine.

After admiring the orchid it was time to decorate the Christmas tree. This is a walk down memory lane because Betsy and the boys have stories to tell about all the ornaments they have made over the years. It is a joy to see the family blooming with health and happiness.

The weekend was full of celebrations. A surprise birthday party for Suzy (in red) on Saturday night. Fortunately someone had made sure that the martinis and olives were on hand. The evening bloomed with friendship and joy.

And in this season we celebrate the birth of Christ. The Charlemont Federated Church put on a Living Nativity. The Holy Family looks pretty happy. They must have made it to Egypt already.

But the Flight to Egypt was not easy. It began in a stable.  It might not have been quite so cold in Bethlehem as in a Charlemont snowfall, but we are reminded that in these modern days there are still many families struggling, and many children who are cold and hungry.

Happily, we could all celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, and our community with hot drinks and snacks in the warm church. Our community blooms with fellowship.

Can you believe we attended another surprise birthday party? Val (in gold), at 80, continues to serve the town as asssessor and in many other volunteer capacities. Camraderie was blooming at the Community Hall – just as planned.

We also celebrated the new snowfall by trudging out to our snowbreak to cut down a balsam for our Christmas tree. It will be blooming with ornaments. Very soon.

To enjoy more blooms across the county join our host, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Only Two for Bloom Day

Early this morning, after yesterday’s rain, the sun began to break through the autumn mist. The grass is still lush, but all bloom has fled from the garden, except

for a single pot of verbena blooming in front of the house on this Bloom Day.  And indoors 

only the ever faithful abutilon is blooming.  Still, the Thanksgiving cactus is heavily budded and it may bloom right on schedule.

For many more Bloom Day treats visit Carol over at May Dreams Gardens and see how floriferous the blogging world is, even in November.

Bloom Day September 2009

I almost forgot it  was Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day!  I made a mad dash out into the garden with my camera, stopping briefly on the piazza where the Wave petunias, geraniums, Million Bells and verbena are still going strong.

I don’t have as many asters as Mr. McGregor’s Daughter, but I do love them. These are nameless.

Once heard who can forget Alma Potschke’s name?  She might be the brightest pink in the garden, but I always seem to have a lot of pink.

This nameless pink achillea is sending up fresh floriferous shoots from the middle of the plant. I wonder if this is a benefit of all the rain we’ve had.

Pink cosmos are still going strong. A few pink chelone, turtlehead, are still in bloom, but are not photo worthy.

I got this nameless pink phlox at a plant sale in May. It got off to a slow start, but should be very nice next year.

I love red zinnias. These are not artfully placed, but the ground was open here when they needed to be planted.

Dahlias are a wonderful autumn plant.  I decided to use the technique of picking one of each variety and showing them in individual containers.

I will try and name them. Back row, left to right: Purple Passion, Foxy Lady and Peggy Jean.  In the front row is Pattycake, then a dahlia I don’t even remember ordering, and finally Funny Face. I am coming to love dahlias more and more for the color they bring to the autumn garden. I even managed to winter over Funny Face, Foxy Lady and Pattycake, in the basement in peat moss. 

I was surprised at the number of rose bushes that are still putting out a blossom or two. In the first row, from left to right – Pink Grootendorst (planted this spring), The Fairy, Thomas Affleck (planted this spring) and Carefree Beauty. Behind them, Lto R – Double Red Knockout who has been a stellar performer, Applejack, and a final container with two rugosas, Blanc Double De Coubert and Apart.

In addition, my ‘old’ hydrangea is still blooming and making good bouquets, the newly planted Limelight hydrangea, but I can’t take credit for those blooms.  An annual salvia still blooms by the hen house, and wild yarrow, wild asters, Queen Anne’s Lace and goldenrod bloom along the edges of our road. Last Sunday I made a very autumnal arrangement for church that was amazingly full of color.

Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and see what else is blooming around the country.  Thank you Carol for hosting this wonderful monthly garden party.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day – August

I never think I have much of a flower garden, but in August . . .  The Black Dragon lilies are blooming in front of the house along with a crimson bee balm.

The Stargazer lilies were a gift. Only one is blooming so far, but there are two or three more. I am always so relieved when I don’t kill plants I get as a gift.

My Casa Blanca lilies are not planted to  best advantage, but they are beautiful  and now form a substantial clump.  I’ll have to do some dividing.

This is one of 2 beds of daylilies, one on either side of the entry to the Sunken Garden, which might as well be sunken in the bottom of a bog this year. I’d apologize for all the weeds, but this area, always wet in the spring, has remained a swamp this year. It is a testament to the vigor of daylilies that they have not all rotted away.

The two pots of Ann Warner daylilies that have been planted on the brand new daylily bank are blooming magnificently.  Drainage is very good on this bank.  The only other newly planted daylily in bloom is Rosy Returns.

I planted lots of cosmos this year, partly to take up room in a newly enlarged bed, and partly so I would have cutting flowers.  This is one clump, another clump is hiding the newly planted  anemones. I used Renee’s Garden Seashell and Double Click varieties. 

Achillea the Pearl is holding its own against the cosmos.

This pink achillea has been beaten down by the rains.

I bought this un-named pink phlox at the Greenfield Garden Club plant sale. I wasn’t sure whether the other phlox I bought at the same sale was the same color so they are planted separately, looking a little lonely, but I could have planted them together.  The Fairy rose is still blooming as you can see. I do have a propensity for pink.

The hydrangea makes a BIG statement. I am thinking about more hydrangeas – in lieu of lawn.

Cimicifuga racemosa loves its place in the shade of the old apple tree. The clump is huge.

The roses are mostly done for the season, although there is a blossom here and there. I am thrilled that this Pink Grootendorst, planted this spring, is doing so well and blooming energetically.  The Fairy continues strong, of course, as does Double Red Knockout.

This deep purple sweet pea is gorgeous, but it is planted in a new section of the garden and I didn’t put enough ooomph in the lasagna planting.  It is finally coming along, but fighting the tansy sufficiently that it didn’t climb up the white trellis I provided.  You can see how the scarlet bee balm is also suffering from insufficient ooomph.  Next year!

This is the pretty and vicious tansy.  Never plant it!  It is coming up through layers of cardboard and woodchips.  It has seed itself along our road/drive and in the field. Talk about Wicked Plants. I sometimes think it will be the death of me.

This pathetic squash plant with its cheerful blossoms will stand in for all problems in the vegetable garden.  I have gotten a small harvest, but it is not what I expected.  The pole beans are still blooming and bearing, and so are the tomatoes, but they are not even thinking about ripenind yet. Not even the cherry tomatoes.

The chives are blooming, and so is the golden marjoram and the thyme. I’ve gotten a lot out the herb garden!

Other plants blooming are: annual salvia, potentilla, veronica, dianthus fand the geraniums, scented geraniums, petunias, verbena, and Million Bells in pots.

Of course I’m surrounded by Mother Nature’s blooming garden as well, hawksweeds, milkweed, goldenrod battling the tansy in  the field, yarrow and Queen Anne’s Lace. All welcome

To see what is blooming all over the country logon to May Dreams Gardens.  Thank you Carol for instituting this great project.

Bloom Day – Still Rosy in July

The roses were just beginning to bloom on June’s Bloom Day, mostly the rugosas, but this Fairy, one of two, had not yet begun. Unlike most of the roses in my garden The Fairy will bloom into the fall.

I fully expected the roses which had barely begun to bloom on June 15, to be done by today, but they are have a most floriferous and long season.  The Queen of Denmark is still petite, but blooming as she never has. At least the roses like all the rain.

I planted New Dawn last spring and got a couple of blooms, but this year she seems to have taken hold. I expect her to bloom for a long-ish season.

Buckland rose

This year it struck me that the nameless (in proper terms) Buckland rose which was given to me by a Buckland friend is the same rose I bought years ago and then lost the name and record of the name.

No mystery - Buckland rose?

Don’t you think this is the same rose?  The shrub habit and size is the same.  They are even out of focus to the same degree.

So many other roses are still in bloom, Celestial, Rachel, Ispahan, Dash’s Dart, Scabrosa, Mme Legras de St. Germaine, De la Grifferai, Mount Blanc, Blanc Double de Coubert, Apart, Belle Poitvine, Leda, Mary Rose, Mrs. Doreen Pike, 4 red Double Knock Outs, Ghislaine de Feligonde, Betty Prior and Mme Plantier. Oops, I just noticed the Pink Grootendorst I planted this spring also has a single blossom.

The farmgirls are more rambunctious than ever.  Does this farmgirl bear a resemblance to the Buckland rose? She is much smaller.

Even Thomas Affleck, planted this spring at the end of the herb bed is putting out blooms. This is a good rose year!  You can see almost all the roses on the Virtual Rose Walk page.

There are other plants in bloom right now.

I split this achillea plant last fall, and both are doing well.

This hydrangea and spirea are doing so well, along with a weeping birch, that I think something must be done. But what?

The bee balms are in bloom!  I didn’t dare call this Colrain Red at the Bridge of Flowers plant sale, but I think it is.

Last summer I saw great clumps of white cosmos at the Berkshire Botanical Garden. I was inspired, but this year the rains have knocked down the white cosmos, and these pink cosmos are very short.  This new bed needs some serious work. The soil is very poor and it shows in the poor growth of the new plantings.

Other plants in bloom: an undistinguished perennial salvia; an annual salvia, a veronica, a short pink astilbe and the inevitable johnny jumpups.  The pots full of annuals are doing well.  And now daylily season begins.

To see what is blooming all across the nation, check out what’s going on May Dreams Gardens with Carol, who is the gracious hostess of Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  Thank you, Carol!

Monday Bloom Day

Happily for me my Monday Report coincides with Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens.  Be sure and visit there.  This is an exciting time because the roses are just starting to bloom in my garden. They loved all the rain last week.

Belle Poitvine

Apart rugosa

Leda

The Fairy

Harrison

Bloom Day May 15, 2009

Dandelions and violets in the flowery mead are still blooming.

Johnny jump ups are scattered everywhere. Where do they all come from? I wonder what a johnny jump up seed looks like flying on the wind. I’m not sounding like much of a gardener so far.

Many of the daffodils are starting to wind down, but others like this pheasant eye daff (Poeticus) bloom late. When I visited the daffodils at Tower Hill Botanic Garden last year I learned that all the shades of pink in pink daffodils come from the red genes in the pheasant eye.

How is it that I never noticed this low growing cotoneaster bloomed? Is this really the first year? Name lost.

Lilac season is just beginning. This is the ancient white lilac that was here when we bought our house in 1979. There is a hedge of white lilacs melding into a row of the old lavender lilacs. I’ve added a Beauty of Moscow whose beautiful pink buds open to white, Miss Willmott who won’t bloom until at least next year, deep purple Ludwig Spaeth, and the pretty pink Miss Canada who will not bloom until a bit later.

We’ve got a couple of semi-dwarf plum trees, and sometimes we get plums. When there are extras I can them and I think they are just beautiful in their juice.

We planted a sour cherry years ago. Any cherries that develop go to the birds. I was racing the rain when I took this photo.

We have apple trees  in bloom – at the edge of the lawn, along the drive (actually the town road), in the fields, next to the vegetable garden and

most spectacularly, the Sargent Crabapple in the center of the Sunken Garden.

For more beatiful blooms go to May Dreams Gardens. And thank you Carol for giving us this great way of seeing what is going on all across the country.

Bloom Day April 2009

Finally I have blooming flowers other than houseplants to report on Bloom Day. I planted scillas and a few Glory of the Snow (Chionodoxa) in the grass a few years ago. Yesterday, when I tramped through all the dead tansy stems from last year, out to the new Potager my eye caught these two tiny plants pushing up through the rough stems and weeds. I can tell you that I have never planted any little bulbs in this area which has been overrun with spearmint and tansy for probably 20 years. Take note. Never ever plant spearmint or tansy where it cannot be firmly controlled! In fact, there were several isolated brilliant blue scillas winking at me, far from where any were intentioally planted.

I certainly intended those two sets of little bulbs to increase, but to find them so far away from the orignial planting is very mysterious. Does anyone know whether these flowers can somehow self seed? It seems as if they must, but so unlikely.

It is also amazing that these flowers growing among strong weeds should bloom before the ones planted in grass. Those showed their heads just this morning.

The daffodils that were here when we bought our house in 1979 have also just started blooming. This is a daffodil unlike any other I have seen. It is a very early bloomer, although I have to note that it is growing in a protected spot, against a bit of stone wall. Also the flowers are very fringey, both cup and petals. I think it must be a very old variety.

I am going to take a cue from Veg Plotting in the UK and note that this is the Middle of the Middle Month of spring and send you on to Carol of May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Mrs. Nesbit of ABC Wednesday.

Boston Blooms

We left the snowy fields of Heath in a hurry on Thursday and made our way to our daughter Betsy’s house. She and her broken ankle were on her couch where she had been rearranging her life for the previous 2 days. Plans were made to get her to the hospital at dawn on Friday morning.

While she was in surgery we took a walk through the Brigham and Women’s Hospital neighborhood where we saw a very neat park, just the kind of sanitary thing you might expect in a hospital neighborhood.

But just around the corner we saw some very promising, albeit less neat, gardens waiting for the gardeners to dig in.
There were nice street trees, with little bulbs struggling toward the sun.

These tulips weren’t quite blooming, but they looked optimistic.

Irises were green and we enjoyed the sunny faces of the crocuses.

Even the ivy was showing signs of the spring energies, even if it doesn’t bloom. So on this Bloom Day, we don’t, and wouldn’t have had any Heath blooms to show, but it was wonderful to get a bit of a spring preview in Boston. Of course, the flower we really came to see

was our daughter, the fair blossom in our family garden, here watched over by my companion gardener. Betsy’s ankle is plated, bolted and temporarily booted, but her bright bloom is undiminished.

For more fabulous photos of spring spreading across the landscape go to Carol of May Dreams Gardens who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.