May 2022 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Maggi Young]

From the Perthshire garden of Anton Edwards:
"Rhododendrons and Rape all at their best. Time to move on now....."

   In answer to the question.... Do you have bulbs in the area of longer grass?
    " Indeed we do. Started by planting a few thousand crocus to brighten up March, leave cutting till mid June or thereabouts. And now the uncut areas are developing bluebells, Fritillaria meleagris and Lady’s Smock."








 "Fed up with gaudy rhododendrons? Try Clematis ‘Freda’ on a south wall: just needs water and mulch round the base occasionally."

[Mariette]

The pics of Scottish gardens make me sorry for having not visited any, yet! Flowering rape has a wonderful scent, wafted over quite a long distance, I noticed. It must be great to enjoy the rhododendrons in flower and that lovely smell at the same time!

Chris, Your Weldenia candida looks very attractive!

Shelagh, Your Gymnocarpium robertianum would be a great asset to my garden if I only could grow more ferns.

Stefan, nice scenes from Your garden. The first pic shows a flowering quince?

Akke, I simply enjoy plants enhancing each other, either those growing wild or planted in the garden. Even in the garden, some assemble by chance, like the golden balm and Parameconopsis cambrica in my vegetable garden, due to the use of lots of compost.



In this case the flowers of self-sown Anthriscus sylvestris adorn the leaves of Polygonum microcephalum ´Red Dragon´.



Robert, I marvel at Your rhododendrons, I wouldn´t have thought that they´ll grow in California. Due to the heat and drought of recent years, we lost more than half of them, this trio represents some of the survivors.



Another plant which suffered from the drought is Saxifraga granulata ´Plena´. I didn´t plant it in this spot, but somehow it managed to move into the shelter of Lamium maculatum.



When I got Lathyrus laxiflorus from Bulgaria I thought it would prefer a drier place in the garden, as L. vernus does. But during the dry spell we faced recently it didn´t look happy.

[Nik]

Mid-May is when everything becomes green in our area. I decided to show as an example my very first Japanese maple seedling. All of my Japanese maples suffered quite a bit this spring from aphids damage.

[Robert]

Although much of our garden is devoted to small-scale subsistence agriculture, I am still concerned about the look and feeling of our ornamental plantings and the garden as a whole: [Our vision is for a place of incredible beauty, stimulating for all the senses]. Pictured above is the view of the garden we see when rounding the corner of our house and entering the garden each morning. This view changes constantly with the seasons; my goal is to have a feeling of wonderment and pleasure upon entering the garden for the first time each day [each hour is magical]. This is something like the ambiance as Robert Conway crossed the pass and saw for the first time the Valley of the Blue Moon – a valley filled with fruit trees, vegetables, grains, as well as ornamental plants. Think actor Ronald Coleman in the 1937 film Lost Horizon. These ideas fit into my concept of an oasis garden, a refuge from the outside world.



Clarkia, Farewell to Spring, blooming is fitting as our garden transitions from spring to summer.



Our late blooming California native Themidaceae are now coming into bloom. Pictured is Brodiaea minor.



Here Triteleia bridgesii is coming into bloom with the last flowers of Eschscholzia caespitosa.



The last of the California Themidaceae to bloom in our garden is Harvest Bodiaea, Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans. It is a fitting name for this species as the first flowers generally open with the barley harvest and the last flowers opening with the rye and wheat harvest.

[Robert]

Our low elevation native and annual Chaenactis species generally thrive in our garden. This is Chaenactis artemisifolia. The flowers of this species are a delight as well as the lace gray foliage. There are other annual native Chaenactis species I wish to try in our garden. I am in no hurry, it will all happen in time.



Papaver somniferum ‘Lauren’s Grape is my favorite Papaver somniferum variety.



I very much appreciate and like Ian Young’s Bulb Log comments concerning nature and naturalistic plantings. This is Polystichum californicum growing among Lilium pardalium and both native and non-native Aquilegia species. Vegetables and other edible crops look good in beds and tidy rows. Our ornamental plantings are somewhat random as I let many species seed around naturally. I never know what I am going to get; however it almost always looks nice to me [Jasmin adds: I think it is exciting and gorgeous. I love happy surprises.]. Annual as well as perennial species seed about. As much as I try to plan and duplicate garden aspects that I like, it is always turns out different than planned. This is fine with me. Nature does a much better job of creating beauty than I do.

[Maggi Young]

From the Perthshire garden of Anton and Margaret Edwards:


Arisaema quinatum lurking by the rhododendrons.


The rock garden getting ready for  June....

[Nik]

I tried to post a single picture today and I failed. In this day and age that is Inexplicable. This is my last post to this forum.

[Maggi Young]

I tried to post a single picture today and I failed. In this day and age that is Inexplicable. This is my last post to this forum.

What a shame.  Most of us know that such mishaps occur in all sorts of ways, "even" in modern life!

[ruweiss]

Thank you all for showing us these beautiful landscape and plant pictures.
Attached are some photos from our garden:

[MarcR]

What a shame.  Most of us know that such mishaps occur in all sorts of ways, "even" in modern life!

It is often said that patience is a necessary trait for gardeners. If one failure garners that kind of response, What will the poor fellow do when expensive plants die unexplainably?

[ian mcdonald]

I think he should try again. I,m the worst person to use modern equipment. I don,t even understand what many people are saying these days as they seem to speak a different language nowadays. I have just used a dvd to look at some photos. in the lap top and now it will not work again.

[Andre Schuiteman]

1. Astrantia major. A spontaneous seedling from a named clone, Princess Sturdza. The mother plant appeared virussed and was discarded, the seedling looks almost identical but seems perfectly healthy and vigorous.

2. Erodium glandulosum.

3. Paris luquanensis. Received as P. marmorata but I believe this is P. luquanensis instead, which has relatively longer petals. The flowers open before the leaves have fully unfolded. This is one of those plants I wouldn't risk planting in the open garden unless I had a backup, which I haven't. So it will stay in a pot outdoors in a shady spot, plunged in sand.

4. Phlox nana. Both this Phlox, which is not as dwarf as the name suggests, and the Erodium are recent acquisitions from the AGS Early Spring Show (from the same well-known Welsh nursery), so I am not claiming to have properly grown them myself.

[Akke]

So many lovely pictures and plants, in a pleasant way, some make me think of a jigsaw puzzle.

Stefan

The light and contrast on your daisy (?) picture is great.

Nik

I know it can be quite annoying when something doesn’t go as planned, it usually happens to me as new replies have been posted while writing (slowly). I’ll miss your Acer palmatum (maybe something is happening here) and your mosses (ours are just getting wet for the third time).

Robert

Rain has come, in this part of the Netherlands, the particularly fine one, dropping down slowly and for now a good start. Other parts have been less lucky and had destructive thunderstorms, in Germany even tornado-like, climate change? In a totally different way, part of California doesn’t seem to do well either.

Mariëtte and Robert

Good to hear that you didn’t  plan all those lovely plant combinations, thanks for sharing more great ones, you certainly know how (and which) to show.😀 I’ll go on experimenting.


Robert

Combining agriculture with ornamental plants in your garden looks good, I like vegatable gardens. Considering the amount of square meters per person in this country (a lockdown-inspired art project made a good representation),  growing your own food on a big scale doesn’t sound very attractive, I’ve enjoyed my first sweet peas though, first strawberries are getting pink.



In my containers things have slowed down after the abundant flowering late winter/(early) spring (changing point probably is variable), even more then expected after autumn reorganization, moving plants to neighbours’ containers.  Well, it is work in progress and a very joyful one.
Allium season starting and A. oreophlium dwarf is a new bulb, the colour is really this dark.


Regarding annuals, (bees mixes have been sown late) Nemophila maculata (sown early March) is a very lovely ‘Californian’, keeping trained Quercus company.

N. menziesii is also starting to flower, a handful of seeds of both will be sown in autumn.

No flowers, not even green, still a good sign.

Seedpod of Crocus rhodensis, got this one before the ants did.

The old Hortus botanicus is a good place to go borrowing now, high season is starting there, very considerate.

Lots more in flower, this group of Polygonatum multiflorum(?) looks impressive.

This willow (trained by nature) is in the top of favourite trees in the park.

Very peaceful, yet the water and land were actually part of the city defense (used in 1672), still celebrating 28th of August. I really wish that these kind of remembrance days were something from the past.

 

[Robert]

Akke,

Allium oreophlium looks quite striking with its reddish colored flowers. Thank you for sharing the photograph.

The photograph of the willow also caught my attention.

I have so many questions to ask, but these will have to wait. I have drifted back into agriculture and a completely different rhythm of life. This is where I started and I am happiest. For me this is the good life.

I have a backlog of photographs of ornamental plants from our garden to share from the past week and will share these soon enough.

[Robert]

We have exciting news from our garden! The Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies, Battus philenor, have found our California Pipevine, Aristolochia californica! It has taken a number of years for the butterflies to find our plant, but they have finally arrived. The larva of this butterfly species feeds on our California native Pipevine. Last year I gathered seed from our Pipevine. The seeds germinated this spring and I am now growing more on to plant out in the garden. Now that the Pipevine Butterflies have found our garden, Jasmin and I immediately went out and bought concrete reinforcing mesh to provide support for the seedling Aristolochia we will be planting out: Already Jasmin prepared three other locations. In addition, numerous native Arctostaphylos species have been planted in our garden to provide nectar for the Pipevine Swallowtails in the early spring. When out doing field botany in the early spring I often see the Swallowtails feeding on nectar provided by Arctostaphylos flowers.
[Jasmin:  It was such a miracle to witness this butterfly, I wept.  It was so fast and active, hardly settling for long.  I kept praying to get just one photo.  Perhaps my asking it to come for just one photo worked?  We are grateful!]



The spring flowering season is winding down.  [Although the West Coast Lillies are just opening, and native Aquilegia is still strong.] Dichelostemma multiflorum is looking nice near one of our native Arctostaphylos species.



Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans has been planted throughout our garden.  [Although the nearby Eriogonum is not as brilliant as earlier, it is still a lovely show, particularly near the strong purple of the Brodiaea.  This lighting and composition of this photo does no justice to the two. The nearly 40°C and blasting sun is happier for these plants than for the photography.]



Here Brodaea elegans ssp. elegans is blooming near an early ripening orange-flesh nectarine that I budded last autumn.



Here Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans is blooming near Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida. This is a plant association that is frequently seen in native habitats in our area. Seedpods of Calochortus luteus are ripening (left), and Leptosiphon ciliatus is blooming with its tiny pink flowers.