Peonies and Promises

There's something about peonies arising from the ground that is so promising.  These were new acquisitions last year.  Both looked quite poor after a dry spell in the summer, but now they are proving they are wonderful survivors.  I don't expect blossoms this year, of course, but I now can expect to enjoy these plants for decades to come, and there will be blossoms!  Red and yellow, if memory serves correctly for these new plants.

You can see the promise of lots of weeding yet to come.  Let's just forget about that for now.  Another plant I've been taking cuttings of for a few years, and sometimes killing, is the elderberry "Black Lace."  This one, in the ground, is sprouting happily, as is one I have in a pot. 

Some of the perennials I started from seed last year, and planted in the ground, are also thriving.  Many of the seedlings I kept in pots are not showing any signs of life.  I think I'll try more "in the ground their first year" from now on.

Golly, what was this?  Hmmmm...

Eryngium yuccifolium, rattlesnake master!

Maybe this is Parthenium integrifolium, wild quinine.  I must start labelling things!

This last photo is not a great one, but the tree is great.  Last year this unnamed magnolia bloomed for the first time, and this year it will have many more.  So glad it has finally matured, and is happy in its windy spot by the Minas Basin.

Enjoy to the fullest all the great promises in your gardens.

Plant With Nine Lives

Perhaps the only way I have continued growing plants for 35 years, indoors and out, is thanks to the hardiness, toughness, and "will to live" that so many plants exhibit.  I'm a gardener who is very good at neglect and destruction.  This week's example: Crape Myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica. To me this is a very desirable plant: I've never seen it growing in Canada.  I got this little slip of a thing in 2011 from the Honey Tree Nursery in PEI - an amazing resource for unusual trees and shrubs here in the Maritimes.

One of my first blog posts, last spring, was about this little twig coming out of dormancy.  Who knows how hardy it might be in our Nova Scotian winters?  I keep it indoors in a cool place.  Last summer it leafed and branched out nicely.  It had managed to survive the winter in a closed-up bedroom.  As the azalea with it indicates, it dried out too much.  The Azalea died, the Crape Myrtle survived.  I'm a chronic under-waterer of plants.

This winter I housed it in a cold front porch.  I was hoping for a cooler and longer dormancy, and it fared very well.  I found it all leafed out a week ago, and decided to take it out the the unheated greenhouse.  

  Well, it's mid-April in Nova Scotia, and we had a night of -5 degrees Celsius.   Yeah, naturally, the fresh little leaves froze quite solidly.

Here it is.  But notice that one single branch did not freeze like the rest.  And that one stem has kept its leaves, while all the others rolled up and got crispy.  Funny phenomenon.  I've seen this before, with a tray of tender plants that I've left in the greenhouse in the fall.  One night, ninety percent of the succulent leaves froze to death, but the occasional rosette did not, and lived to die another day, with the onset of icy temperatures.  I must investigate this scientific curiosity.

With hopes that the budding twigs of my Crape Myrtle will come back from the grave, I rubbed off all the dead, dried leaves.  Here's hoping this little fellow will flourish again.  Perhaps, one year soon, there will actually be blossoms in the late summer.  And maybe, just maybe, I will venture to plant it out in the ground in a protected spot, and discover if it will live through our winters.  It has only used up about three of its nine lives so far, I'm guessing.

GBBD: April '13

Scilla siberica

As the second little wave of blossoms arise in Nova Scotia, the earliest flowers are still hanging on.  Ahhh... the succession of growth and blossom has begun, and will carry on into every month of the rest of the year... I hope!

Puschkinia scilloides

Eranthis hyemalis

Galanthus nivalis

There's something lovely about the early blossoms coming up through last year's unkempt grass and leaves.

Puschkinia and Crocus

Hyachinthus

My first shrub to come into bloom is a hazelnut.  This bush was a seedling from a friend.  It was a 'normal,' straight-twigged plant, growing beneath it's corkscrew parent, Corylus avellana 'contorta.'

Male catkins just opening up

Female 'blossoms' just emerging

The wild Coltsfoot is thoroughly enjoying the moments of sunshine, blooming long before the leaves appear.  See the stringy petioles from last year?

Tussilago farfara

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day to you all.  Check out everything and everyone at May Dreams Gardens.

Marilyn In Memoriam

These tulips (and the rhubarb) came from the garden of a dear friend, a few years ago; someone who was to me a gardening friend and a spiritual friend.  This post celebrates her life.  I start with some springtime photos from 2006.  Lots of tulips, and other treasures.  Later there would be lots of lilies.

This is a glimpse of Marilyn's garden.  Some wonderful things grow on her property.  She blessed the front and side yard with flowers, her husband had the back yard full of vegetables, and their upstairs renter had big beds of dahlias along the street.  It has always been a great yard to visit, any time of year.

 

Marilyn shared her garden, as she shared everything in her life.  Visitors wandered through it, enjoying something new, digging something up, or bemoaning the constant war against goutweed, or lily beetles!  She was, of course, a devoted garden club member.   

Touring a Day Lily garden

Entertaining at a Christmas Party

A volunteer in many arenas, Marilyn enjoyed worthwhile work, creating fun times, and  contributing to community.  Always ready with a creative idea, always ready to try something new, always ready with a costume, she helped others live life to the fullest, and have great fun.  

"Mother Nature" at a Garden Club Halloween party

Marilyn bringing out the treats at a festive Garden Club party

In my local spiritual community, she was a big contributor.  From decorating the worship space with fresh blossoms to serving tea, from sharing wisdom as a deacon to thinking deeply as a finance committee member, from serving meals for hungry people to raising funds for good causes, this friend 'cultivated' many good things. We likely all need more people around us like Marilyn: positive and energetic, realistic and sensible, intelligent and hilarious, beautiful of spirit and deeply appreciative of others.  

Church decorating committee amid their accomplishments

Servers at a fancy Tea

 

Marilyn White died last week, after a twelve week stay in hospital.  Even in that palliative care time she made the most of every day.  Her own room became a house of hospitality, with artwork, flowers, food, singing, card games, and lots of other joys.

May the tulips of this springtime, and every year, remind all who have known Marilyn, or someone like her, of such dear ones who blossomed and flourished, and inspired us all to do the same.  

Ist Planting in the Veggie Garden

Yesterday was a lovely day here - 10 degrees C at least, and sunny.  Saw and heard the first red-winged blackbirds in the neighourhood.  So it was time to start planting in the vegetable plot.  The ground had dried out nicely over the past few days.

Planting Garlic: better late than never.  Got these cloves in the fall from some friends.  Did not get them planted, obviously.  They have been delicious! Don't know the variety.  Don't know if this is soft-necked or hard-necked.  It certainly kept well in a paper bag on the kitchen counter.  It's barely sprouting now.

Here's hoping for a nice harvest in the early fall. 

And I can't resist a crocus shot ...again.  No bee in this photo, but the honey bees are out and about.  And ants.  From here on in, spring will be developing by leaps and bounds!