Just a girl with a hammer

Tag: garden bloggers bloom day

  • Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day December 2015

    Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day December 2015

    The Meiji shinto shrine in Tokyo
    At the end of October Greg and I flew to Japan for our honeymoon. We had one full perfect day in Tokyo under our belts when I got a call that my brother had passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. He was 42 and an exceptionally good human being. We are completely devastated by the loss of him. I think almost everyone knows this already (and you’ve all been so nice, thank you for that) but I’m posting it here for those last far-flung friends of mine who don’t have a Facebook account. (Which is so annoying, guys. Everyone is on there; please get an account already.) In-person social interactions are exhausting and I can’t handle talking on the phone, so I find myself very grateful for social media, which has allowed me to interact with the living without getting out of sweatpants or this fort I’ve made from used kleenex.
    I am also grateful for my mahonias, which are bright, cheery beacons in the winter.

    Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies’

    Mahonia x media ‘Charity’, which bloomed for the first time!
    And this clematis, which I put in the ground in July, forgot to water, and thought I killed. It defied me by blooming through a hard frost and some of the heaviest rain we’ve had in ten years. Thank you Xera, for growing bullet-proof plants. This one is evergreen, turns bronze in the winter, and blooms November through February. I planted it outside my kitchen window where I can appreciate the hummingbirds covering it.
    Clematis cirrhosa ‘Wisley Cream’

    Thank you to our host Carol at May Dreams Gardens. We really can have flowers almost any month of the year.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day May 2015

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day May 2015

    Good lord, this is a bloomy month. Everything is blooming right on schedule, so I’ll just show new plants or ones that I missed last year (or we’d be here all day).

    Akebia longerracemosa ‘Victor’s Secret’

    Papaver orientale ‘Royal Wedding’

    Camassia leichtlinii semiplena, Allium christophii, and Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Arctic Summer’

    Iris x pacifica ‘Alison‘s pink lips’

    Stipa barbata

    Stipa gigantea

    Parahebe perfoliata glows from across the yard

    Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Arctic Summer’

    Disporum cantoniense ‘Night Heron’

    Erigeron glaucus ‘Wayne Roderick’ with Camassia quamash

    Cistus obtusifolius

    A very happy bloom day to you! Thanks, as always, to our host Carol at May Dream Gardens.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day April 2015

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day April 2015

    Happy bloom day! 

    It’s April, which means it’s camassia month! Huzzah!

    Camassia leichtlinii ‘Blue Danube’

    Iris x pacifica ‘Civic Pride’

    Iris x pacifica ‘The Eyes Have It’
    Hooker’s fairy bells (Disporum hookeri/Prosartes hookeri)

    Geranium phaeum ‘Darkest of All’

    Epimedium grandiflora ‘Red Queen’

    Tulipa ‘Flair’ with a bird-planted Cotinus coggygria

    Cistus obtusifolius

    Salvia ‘Flame’

    Syringa patula ‘Miss Kim’

    Lewisia cotyledon

    Lewisia cotyledon ‘White Splendor’

    Othonna cheirifolia

    False Soloman’s Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

    Coronilla v. spp. glauca ‘Variegata’

    The blooms of Darmera peltata emerge before the foliage does.

    A very happy bloom day to you! As always, thank you to our host, Carol, at May Dreams Gardens.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day March 2015

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day March 2015

    I may be late but many of my blooms are early this year. We have tulips already, for Pete’s sake! The daphnes, hellebores, and Pieris are all still going, making this month feel especially floriferous.

    Tulipa ‘Flair’
    Tulipa ‘Come Back’

    Bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum)

    Ribes sanguineum ‘Variegata’

    Ribes sanguineum
    Rhubarb (Rheum x hybridium ‘Victoria’)

    Vaccinium ‘Sunshine Blue’

    Epimedium ‘Black Sea’

    Aucuba japonica ‘Rozannie’

    Fothergilla gardenii ‘Jane Platt’

    A happy bloom day to you! Thanks to our host, Carol.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day February 2015.

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day February 2015.

    I missed bloom day in January, even though I had but three things to post. It doesn’t get much easier than January. Also, so many people are buried in terrible weather, why wouldn’t you celebrate having blooms in your garden?

    Friends is on Netflix streaming. That’s why. Also, Greg pulled a quilt that his Grandmother made him out of storage and it makes our couch dangerously comfortable.

    Sarcococca ruscifolia

    Hamamelis I. ‘Early Bright’

    Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies’
    But I’m ready to rejoice: I’m finally past the season when Ross had a monkey and the weather has been so delightful lately! I’m getting off the couch, but only for a little bit. 
    Arctostaphylos ‘John Dourley’

    Daphne odora ‘Mae Jima’

    Euphobia ‘Blackbird’

    Crocus chrysanthus ‘Romance’

    All of my hellebores are blooming and all of them look pretty terrible. I wasn’t quick enough to get Sluggo down this year.

    Helleborus orientalis ‘Metallic Blue Lady’

    Othonna cheirifolia

    Rosemary

    Arctostaphylos bakeri ‘Louis Edmonds’

    Helleborus x ‘Black Diamond’
    Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ with a bumble bee!
    Not pictured: Pieris japonica, whose blooms I always miss even though the entire shrub looks gift wrapped and Euphorbia myrsinites.
    Happy bloom day! Spring is near! Thank you to our host, Carol, over at May Dreams Gardens.
  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day, December 2014

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day, December 2014

    I had blooms to show you in November, like this beautiful Crocus speciosus.

    Or my Salvia ‘Amistad’ that was improbably pushing out blooms, despite a freeze.

    Or my Helenium ‘Mardis Gras’.

    But I couldn’t pull my shit together last month (a recurring problem) and now those things have finally succumbed to weather. I’m left with Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies’ outside.

    Indoors I have a few blooms to cheer me up.

    Cuttings of Echeveria diffractens I brought inside are blooming in a sunny window
    An unknown succulent blooms despite a tenacious mealy bug problem.

    Happy bloom day to you and yours! Thank you Carol for hosting us. I for one am looking forward to spring crocuses, hellebores, and a new year.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day October 2014

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day October 2014

    “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” –F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

    Ignoring the fact that the quote above is uttered by one awful person to another awful person in a book I didn’t really care for, I agree with the sentiment. Fall weather is finally here! I have been cooking and wearing socks and bringing tender plants indoors and I am so freaking happy about it. The bird feeders are up, my Netflix queue is full and I am so ready to hibernate for a bit. This is that nice time when we’re finally getting rain and cooler nights but the castor beans haven’t died yet and things still look okay.

    All of the salvias and agastaches are still going strong, acting like they just might bloom all winter if you let them. This canna popped up in a pathway and I left it to be a surprisingly effective hosebreak all summer.

    My bloom is sad because someone didn’t water me all summer.

    These Aster oblongifolius are my favorite right now. They cooked all summer next to reflected heat of the chimney without a drop of water and they couldn’t be prettier.

    I’ve spent more time than I’d care to admit internally debating whether Dan Hinkley was on a bender or responding to a dare when he named this Mahonia eurybracteata ‘Soft Caress.’ Its blooms aren’t quite as showy as its relatives but I’ll take them.

    Eutrochium rugosum is sited right next to some large clumps of snowberry, making this fairly uninteresting part of the yard look gift wrapped.

    Eutrochium rugosum and Symphoricarpos albus
    Plectranthus ecklonii was a spring addition to the dry shade under the cedar tree and I’m very happy with the late blooms.

    Is it early for Fatsia japonica to be blooming? It feels like it.

    Happy bloom day and happy fall weather to you! Be sure to visit our host Carol at May Dreams Gardens for the full show.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day September 2014

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day September 2014

    I’m late, I know. My garden is fried and so am I. Between the Fling and having out of town guests and trips all summer, I’ve let my garden coast much more than usual. I gave up on weeding a while back and I’m very close to giving up on watering because I’m so sick of doing it.

    I recently noticed that my bumble bee numbers are down dramatically while all of my other bees are way up. I posted to a gardeners’ group on Facebook to see if this was the normal time of year for them to die off. People suggested that maybe I need to work on prolonging my bloom successions and, because I’m cranky and I’ve been watching a LOT of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, I got super defensive and like, “Bitch, why are you hating on my garden? I am very rich in blooms!”

    And I really am. The salvias, the zauschneria, the sedums, the agastaches, the penstemons (all bumble favorites), they all keep going even though I’ve abandoned deadheading. My milkweed hit six feet, then blew over, so I cut them back and now they look like they might bloom again. If only my tomatoes would keep going, I might not mind all this watering so much.

    Just in case the pollinators are sick of the same old fare, we’ve got fresh flowers-formerly-known-as-asters popping out.

    Aster douglasii or Symphyotrichum douglasii if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
    Aster douglasii/Symphyotrichum douglasii
    Aster oblongifolius
    Erigeron glaucus ‘Wayne Roderick’ might as well be an aster.
    Datura wrightii likes it hot and dry, therefore I like it.
    My Miscanthus sinensis ‘Little Zebra’ looks like a giant party favor

    When I was in high school I went through a religious phase. I always found the part of the Sunday sermon where they told you to “greet your neighbors” very odd. It was a weird, mumbly ritual in what was already a very stuffy Presbyterian service. One time we visited what I think was called a “jubilee church.” People danced in the aisle! People clapped! People sang beautifully! And when the time came to greet your neighbor they seem elated to see you and shake your hand. It was actually fun. That’s what bloom day always feels like to me. So I’m cranky and I want rain and autumn, but I wish you a very happy, non-Presbyterian bloom day. Be sure to visit our host Carol and see who else is dancing in the aisles.
  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day, August 2014

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day, August 2014

    I have friends, friends who don’t garden, who ask me, “What’s new? What have you been up to?” and the honest truth is that I haven’t been doing much. I wander out into my front garden and I stare at bees. It’s too hot and dry to do any real gardening but I find I like deadheading perennials almost as much as I like having my hair shampooed (which is a lot). It’s very relaxing. And I can squat and gawp at one plant that is crawling with bees, making my neighbors wonder if I’ve had a stroke or something.

    Agastache ‘Blue Blazes’

    The kids from three doors down wander by and I mutter, “Look at how the bumbles keep to the agastache while the honeybees feed on the sedum. And I don’t even know what these tiny guys are on the tithonia.” They no longer like talking to me because they are teenagers now and also, I’m rambling about bees.

    This year has been a banner year for pollinators in my garden. It could be that they were always there and I never noticed or maybe they really are flourishing because I gave them so many blooms. On the flip side I have no butterflies, save the cabbage whites. I don’t even have skippers. I whine about the yard wondering aloud, “Where are you? I gave you muddy drinking stations.” My neighbors think I’m insane.

    If we’re being honest, I hate August. I’m sick of the heat and I find myself thinking, “I miss eating soup. I want ragout and pasta!” while simultaneously seeing mums at the grocery store and despairing because, what the hell, summer just started! It’s that annoying time of year where I can’t enjoy my successes because I’m already plotting how things will be better next year. I’m grumpy and I suspect I’m unpleasant to be around.

    I planted Eryngium partitum two years ago and it promptly fell over. The seeds waited two years to germinate but they had the good sense to do it in a patch of Rose Campion, which holds them aloft. Good job!

    The heathers that I planted last fall survived our terrible winter and bloom in shades of lavender that I hate. But I’m thrilled they’re alive.

    Calluna vulgaris ‘Fraser’s Old Gold’

    Calluna vulgaris ‘Easter Bonfire’

    Sedum ‘Blade Runner’ shocked me by blooming from the top, as well as the stalk.

    Rudbeckia hirta (I think) and Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’

    Crocosmia x crocosmiflora ‘Solfatare’
    Crocosmia ‘Golden Fleece’
    Shut your bloom hole, Leycesteria formosa. You’re so pretty.
    Sedum telephium ‘Hab Gray’
    Joe Pye, you’re a bee whore and I love you. (Eutrochium purpureum)

    Potentilla gelida needs to stop blooming because I planted it for its foliage and the way it mingles with brown grasses. Brown + silver 4-EVER.

    Happy bloom day, from my cranky garden to yours! Thank you, Carol, for hosting us.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day July 2014

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day July 2014

    My god, where has the year gone? Did you know it’s July? Despite the fact that I celebrated the 4th of said month with fireworks and all that, and the Fling came and went, I was sort of floored to realize that it’s not June anymore. And July is that wonderful time of year when I stand in the garden, swearing at myself for not better documenting the 900 kinds of lilies I planted in the spring. And why did I plant one that will get eight feet tall smack dab in the front of the bed?

    Everything is blooming right on schedule except for my Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgandy,’ which is shy this year. We’re all lilies and grasses right now, which is just fine by me.

    Silk Road is wonderfully scented. One stem decided to fall over so I just had to cut it and bring it inside. You can smell it all the way in the back bedrooms from the dining room. It’s worth the allergy flair-up.

    Silk Road
    ‘Alchemy’  has a much less perfumey scent and is citrusy. It’s wonderful.
    ‘Conca d’Or’ is enormous!
    ‘Scheherazade’
    ‘Miss Libby’ looking a little past her prime.
    Good old ‘Stargazer’

    Some other newer additions for the garden this year:

    Clematis Jackmanii
    Plume poppy (Macleaya cordata) has a dusty pink bloom I normally wouldn’t like.

    Helenium ‘Mardi Gras’

    Eryngium giganteum ‘Miss Willmott’s Ghost’

    Eucomis reichenbachii

    Liatris spicata ‘Kobold’

    Coreopsis ‘Limerock Ruby’ improbably survived the winter.

    Tithonia rotundifolia
    Chionochloa rubra is blooming for the first time!

    A very happy (late) bloomday to you! Thank you, as always, for hosting Carol!