Azaleas

Two winters ago I planted a bunch of seeds of east coast native azaleas. These are deciduous and fall into two main color groups: pink to white and yellow through orange to red. I joined two azalea societies so I could buy from their members' seed exchanges and staff from a couple of arboretums kindly shared some seeds. I've written about the perils and plagues of the seed starting elsewhere. These have been in trays or pots through two seasons. I wintered them over in the basement last year and ended up with 18 well rooted, well grown 1 gallon sized plants and 10 more smaller ones.

From TTH200905

The runts are in the basement under lights again but the larger ones are planted in Hagen's Woods, a large island of trees and shrubs in my backyard.

From TTH200910

The small things in the foreground are azaleas. There's also a Franklinia alatamaha to replace the one in my front foundation bed that struggled and died.

From TTH200910

I still have to make more chicken wire fences to hold off the rabbits. If I don't protect young trees and shrubs they will eat them to the ground during the winter.

Basement Light Cart
This is a shelving unit I bought at Lowes. Shelving.com sells the same sort of shelving in any dimensions you can think of. I added wheels to this set and for now am using some honking big compact fluorescents. I bought a bunch of long 'shop light' fluorescent fixtures and tubes and when I have time will hang those instead.

From TTH200910

From TTH200910

From TTH200910

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day 4/15/2009

Today is actually very dark and rainy so I'm going to cheat and show you the flowers I cut and arranged on 4/12 for Easter dinner. Except for the daffodils these are all still in bloom in the yard today. The bluebells have filled in beautifully this year. They look best when they are massed. I didn't think they would last as cut flowers since they are rather floppy in form to start with but they did very well. They started dropping flower heads this morning so I tossed the arrangements when I got home.

Visit May Dreams for more Bloom Day

The last of the daffodils and some sorta species tulips

From TTH200904

Bluebells and serviceberry blossoms for the kitchen table

From TTH200904

Bluebells and pieris blossoms for the dinner table

From TTH200904

Other things blooming in my yard:
Plum tree
Apple tree is in bud
Spicebush is just finishing
Wood poppies are starting

In the Shenandoah Valley the redbuds are in full bloom. The woods edge along the highways looks like someone took a broad paint brush and painted swathes of pinky purple.

April finally had some showers

We got some very welcome rain and the effect is very visible. Grass is green, violets in bloom, redbuds all along the highway are in the deep purply stage.

I mowed the wildflower meadow and there is lots of new growth starting. Last summer this just swarmed and hummed with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

From TTH200904

I have daffodils massed in the long bed by the board fence. This bed cycles through daffodils, Siberian irises and daylilies with tall climbing roses at the back. One of the roses, a hybrid musk called Rambling Rector is becoming a monster. I have an Alchymist on order that I'll grow in a pot this year. If it prospers I may look for a new home for Rector.

From TTH200904

Cats contemplating daffodils

From TTH200904

The front bed has mostly spring ephemerals. And cats.

From TTH200904

Dutchman's Breeches

From TTH200904

From TTH200904

Bluebells went from this

From TTH200904

to this

From TTH200904

Shooting Star (Dodecatheon meadia)
I planted a dozen of these last spring. So far I've counted 11 up this year. I love these. The flowers look similar to cyclamen flowers in colors from white through pink to purple.

From TTH200904