A Gardening Year

The adventures and misadventures of an heirloom gardener

Friday, May 05, 2006

And it's outa here!

Many thanks to everyone who emailed me or left comments. My pretty wildflower turned out to be the dreaded Garlic Mustard. It has been removed and bagged with the equally dreaded poison ivy to be taken to the local recycling center if I am ever able to leave the house again. My rash became infinitely worse and despite my terror of needles (I pass out just having blood drawn), I went back to the doctor and requested the shot. Apparently, I am past that stage and he gave me a prescription for a stronger dose of Prednisone. To give you an idea of how awful I look, I was not allowed to stay in the waiting room. I was, instead, immediately whisked into an exam room and the nurse acted as a go-between for me with the receptionist. Ditto at the drugstore. The pharmacist took one look at me and filled my prescription in record time.

Believe it or not, there is an upside to my situation. I have had time to finally read Old Time Gardens by Alice Morse Earle. Originally published in 1901, it contains many photos of turn of the century gardens. Both her descriptions of gardens and the photos reminded me of the gardens kept by women of my grandmother's generation.

I have more green tulips! They are Deirdre tulips. I didn't think I was going to like them because the buds were really ugly, but now that they are open, they're not half bad:

In the Wildflower Garden, I had noticed one of the columbines was larger and the leaves were a lighter color. My suspicions were correct. It is an entirely different type of columbine, one of the spurless types and faintly lime green.

I have moved it into the Green Garden. Normally I wouldn't transplant any plant while it is flowering, but columbines are notorious for promiscuously cross-pollinating and I want to keep the little red wild columbines pure.

Here is my first entry for the 2006 Weirdness Chronicles:

Is this one plant with two different colored flowers or two plants growing so close to each other that they appear to be one?

My fernleaf bleeding heart did not do well last year. I never figured out why. It is making up for it this year, though:

In contrast, my old-fashioned bleeding heart did exceedingly well last year but is not nearly as spectacular this year:

Because it blooms so rarely, I have been obsessively taking pictures of my lilac bush.

No, it's not really that dark colored. It's just the light or lack of it. In the lower left-hand corner in the background is my Mme. Plantier rosebush. In "Old Time Gardens", there was a photo of one that looked just like it. I was glad to see that it was allowed to sprawl like mine rather than be neatly pruned. I like the look of roses when they grow naturally.

8 Comments:

At 7:38 AM, Blogger Stuart said...

Great images of your garden OldRoses. I'm envious of your spring flowers as the leaves continue to fall from our autumn tainted trees.

The lilac is gorgeous and I can see why you would be taking more photos of them. Keep them coming.

 
At 8:51 AM, Blogger Naturegirl said...

I can smell the lilacs... mmm!! Can't wait for mine to appear! You poor baby with that rash!!!

 
At 4:44 PM, Blogger David (Snappy) said...

I hope my lilac tree blooms like yours, but i guess it might need a year or two to grow.You have a picture of a viola somewhere.Its genetics.Remember i had some that were purple/white/yellow but the self seeded ones on the same plants were purple or purple n white.Whatever colours they crossed were becoming expressed in the petal gene!
hope you get better from the poison ivy,Hey at least you got to read that old time gardens book.I am still reading the english garden history book slowly.I love reading descriptions and amazingly some gardens have been recreated with authentic plants.Keep on blogging!
Whats the plant below the bleeding hearts?with red flowers/yellow centres?I want to grow columbines after reading about them in medieval gardens and tudor gardens

 
At 11:03 PM, Blogger OldRoses said...

Snappy, those are primroses sadly past their prime below the bleeding heart. Everytime I order "mixed" I seem to get the same color! I try buying them locally, but they die. So, I have lots and lots of red primroses.

 
At 6:32 PM, Blogger stormiedame5 said...

Lilac bushes bloom on new growth. After they bloom, you need to cut them back. What grows this year will have blooms next year.

 
At 6:47 PM, Blogger kerry said...

Hope the rash is clearing up. Been down that road myself with the eyes swolen practically shut. Thats pretty much when I overload on benedryl and sleep for days on end till it goes away. Thank goodness for sick time.

I have been trying to eradicate it from our place this spring. So far I've been lucky and haven't contracted it yet. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 
At 9:55 AM, Blogger Mary said...

Wow, that sounds like a horrible case of poisoin ivy -- I would definitely take the shot the next time it's offered! Bless your heart. Mine is annoying, but nothing like what you're enduring. I wonder how it got in your eyes? Was the wind blowing?

In any case, you have a lovely garden. Kudos to you for continuing to work in it as you're dealing with the dreaded P.I. I would have given up and stayed inside to watch DVDs.

 
At 11:21 PM, Blogger Stunned Donor said...

The woman I bought my lilacs from told me to never put anything on them other than lime, she claims that if you fertilize them, they will not bloom.

 

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