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Why the snowdrops have green tips

Category: Garden | Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:18 pm

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A long time ago when all animals, flowers and everything else was created, they were all given their own colour. The sunflowers stood tall and proud and rejoiced at their lovely yellow. The bluebells whispered amongst themselves: «Look at us, look how pretty we are!» The red roses nodded and mirrored themselves in the puddles, and were very pleased with what they saw. Yes, they were all very happy and thought themselves very lucky to have such wonderful colours.

«But what about me?» asked the snow. «I haven't got any colour at all.»

«Oh dear, oh dear,» cried the colour fairies. «We forgot about you, and now all the colours have been used. We have nothing left. We'll go and ask the flowers if any of them are willing to share their colour with you.»

So out they went and asked all the flowers, but to no avail. Neither the humble primrose nor the proud delphinium wanted to share their colour with the snow. Everywhere the snow fairies got the same answer: «We're sorry, but we need all the colour ourselves,» they said.

The colour fairies were about to give up when a small snowdrop spoke in a timid voice. «I'll share my colour with the snow, if the snow thinks my colour is pretty enough for it.» The snow was very pleased to get a colour and thanked the snowdrop very politely.

The snow never forgets the kindness of the snowdrop, and does his best not to harm her if he falls while she is blooming. And that's why the snowdrop has green tips on her flowers.



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Mum's the word

Category: Garden | Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:14 pm

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It's my mother's fault! All the chasing about after special plants, buying more than I had planned, ordering plants by the dozens from the spring catalogues, and counting my money afterwards, with a slight tinge of desperation: Where do I put it all?

When mother moved from the wind-swept island to her present home, she thought she had entered paradise. She planted roses - five and five together, in soft gradations from white through to deep red, lovingly composed to their advantage. After a few years she gave in and admitted rose defeat. She discovered the rhododendron, then the primroses, meconopsis, lilies, heathers, hostas, paeonis and lots more. She's made a veritable oasis of her clay-soiled, flat property and I have trouble pronouncing the names of some of her stuff. She, on the other hand, knows where every plant is, their common name, latin name, natural habitat and special requirements. I call her my Gardening Encyclopedia, and must, unwillingly of course, admit that I would be far less successful without her.

She's also got an eye for composition that I didn't inherit, but I'm trying to learn. I'd like to share her garden with you, and hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do:

Wide view to the west:



The big border:



Her clematis grows to the top of a tall birch:



Azaleas, iris and rhododendron:



The azalea and smilacina racemosa smell heavenly:



What I call the Swedish border:



A sweet miniature arrangement for late spring joy:



The only cat tolerated in her garden these days:



Rhododendron yakushimanum and bumble bee:



One of her rare, little gems, Campylogonum var charopoeum,



I mentioned paeonies:





There is more. Much more! But I hope you get an impression on what her garden is like. I've got something to live up to, haven't I?

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More Primula

Category: Garden | Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:25 am

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I went out and bought primroses for inside yesterday. They have a wonderful fragrance and cheery colours, and they remind me of spring. I've posted some of my spring flowering Primula before, but I've also got some that flower later in spring, in summer and early autumn.

The Primula must be made for our climate. They love the wet, fairly cold weather and the humus-rich soil. They sulk if given the wrong conditions. On a hot afternoon, they are a sorry sight, leaves lying flat on the ground and flower heads drooping. I divide them every three-four years and keep them where I can see and smell them.

This is one of the early ones. It started as an indoor plant:



This is a tiny thing called "Johanne". I've nearly lost it several times, but have so far managed to save one rosette or two:



These Primula japonica grow in my mother's garden, and bloom in June:



Also June-flowering, rather tall ones:



Primula sieboldii has hairy leaves and a good variety of colour. White, whitish pink, pink, pale blue and lavender:



The Primula vialii looks a bit strange with the red buds and lavender flowers. It starts flowering in June and keeps at it for a month or so. It likes me, and has self-seeded:





This is a white Primula alpicola which flowers in June/July:



The Primula florinda is the latest and longest bloomer of them all. It starts in June/July, and keeps at it through August and some years to September. It's fairly tall, about 50 cm, and loves moisture. I've got yellow, orange and red.







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The confessions of a rescue mission guerilla

Category: Garden | Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:28 pm

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I am a thief. You might scold me if you like, but let me explain myself first, and point out that I've never stolen anything before or since.

Once upon a time there was a lovely, park-like garden with plenty of very special trees, bushes, bulbs and plants. When the people who owned it grew old, they willed the whole thing to the community, care of our politicians.

The clause was that the house, out buildings and park were properly maintained and open to the public. Hah!

The area has always been popular for barbeques, walks and play, but as to maintenance... well...

Some years ago I enjoyed an afternoon walk around the property, and spotted some very nice marthagon lilies, astrantiums, aquilegias and wolf's bane growing where the flower beds once were. I went back a couple of weeks later to find that everything had been mowed along with the grass.

The following evening I brought my car, a shovel, my sister-in-law and the dog down. My sister-in-law walked about with the dog, and I set to work trying to save at least something of what had been lost. I managed to find a small astrantium root, a small blue-and-white wolf's bane and a couple of marthagon lily bulbs. Unfortunately, some of the bulbs fell apart when I lifted them, but I carefully collected all the little shells and took them home with me.

My sister-in-law got the whole bulbs and some astrantium. I planted the wolf's bane and astrantium where they hopefully might grow and prosper, and put all the little lily shells in good dirt and waited.

After four or five years, the lilies were big enough to give blooms. The astrantium has been split several times, and is now quite wide-spread. The wolf's bane stands about two meters off the ground (six foot six) and is impressive!

Here are my nicked treasures, photographed last summer:





I've been visiting the site of my crime several times since, and the flowers are still cut with the grass. Am I condemned?

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Lawn - what lawn?

Category: Garden | Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:25 am

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When we bought our home, it was surrounded by lawn. Yep, all four sides of it. But "lawn" might not be the right word... The back looked more or less like a collection of various moss. The east side and front seemed to be humps or dumps with grass and more moss. The bit to the west was actually rather nice, but very big.

We brought a battery powered lawn mower with us in the car. That was our first piece of "furniture" - everything else arrived later that day. The first year we spent redecorating the interior and mowing the lawn.

The next year we decided we did not want all that grass around. So we started transforming the lawns into something we didn't have to mow.

The back is now covered with stone, two raised beds and a messy under-construction-zone.

The east and south bit is an acid soil bed with hostas, lilies, trilliums, rhododendron, heathers and what-not. It looks rather nice.

To the west, we're still working on how to reduce the amount of flat greenery. We've made three flower borders, half a hosta walk, some steps that we call a donkey stair case and a sand box for the girls.

Now, why do we want rid of the lawn? Well, the mower's battery got poorer each year, so we had to decrease lawn size in order to get everything mowed in one charge. Then we've got this unstable weather. Mowing wet lawn is a patience-trying experience, and having to do that all summer is really not much fun.

In addition to that, there's moss. Some patches were all moss and no grass, and after having watched the neighbour spending a week removing moss, redressing lawn and tidying up, just to have a nice lawn for only two years, we realized that either we kept the moss or got rid of more lawn.

And to top things off, we're getting short of border space. A fact I believe many Stewbees can relate to.

We'll keep some lawn of course. It's nice to walk barefoot on the grass. But the size will be no more than a tennis court, that will have to do.

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Anemone sorely missed

Category: Garden | Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:27 pm

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When spring arrives again, I'll get to meet my Anemone x lipsiensis. It's a cross between A. nemorosa and A. ranuncloides. I really like the pale yellow colour:



And the Anemone blanda will show too:





I wonder where the Euphorbia will have self-seeded next year. This one found a strange place to live:



The red Rhododendron "Nova Zembla" puts on a show in the beginning of May:



How I miss them.

Last edited: Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:27 pm

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More spring favourites

Category: Garden | Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:20 am

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I am not only looking forward to primroses in spring. I also like it when the Omphalodes verna starts:



And these are called "Texas". My husband saved them from a ditch:



The irises are also nice:





These are small ones, but there's nothing small about their flowers.


Last edited: Fri Oct 26, 2007 7:21 am

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Primula

Category: Garden | Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:18 pm

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I had better start looking forward to spring. My Primula give me a much-needed colour boost. I like my double ones, a reminder of a 75-year-old garden enthusiast further north:









I don't know this one's name, but I like the dark leaves and red veins:





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Autumn is not my favorite season

Category: Garden | Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 7:01 pm

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As I walked in my garden today, I really felt wretched. My lovely hostas are yellow, slimy heaps of collapsed leaves. My colourful lilies are stalks. Brown stalks with brown leaves and the odd bright red lily beetle. I see the tips of my trilliums and know for a fact that I won't see their blooms until May.

Everywhere there are drifts of leaves to remove, but they are all soggy and heavy because of the wet weather, and I can't find my thick rubber gloves anywhere.

The apples that I lovingly thinned in early summer are small and scurvy and mostly birds' food. And the elderberries destined for my husband's wine cellar are gone too, along with the starlings.

Jeez, I do need to find something about autumn and winter that will cheer me up, or else I'll end up in the hospital's emergency room, raving and ranting and clutching my lily bulbs.

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