Warning: this post may not be suitable for readers who are upset by insects eating other insects.
As I wrote recently, our friend Jo ana came over to help with the garden last week. She is a keen observer of the natural world. This applies to insects as well as flying Geranium seeds. So we were inspecting some of the plants when we saw something that looked like a tick. Instead of squishing it, we tried to get a better look and as a result the critter ended up on the sidewalk.
The garden is full of Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) seed pods these days.
And remember how I said that Wild Geranium spreads via exploding seed pods that hurl the seeds several feet (with a good wind) from the mother plant?
So when my friend Jo ana came to help in the garden last week she took this very cool video of Geranium pods expelling their seeds. You can actually see the extremely tiny seeds flying away. She slowed it down a bit to make it more fun to watch.
Wild Geranium is a fine woodland native, and now it’s clear how it gets around so quickly.
Our Martagon Lilies are finally blooming! I planted them fall before last, but last year they just sent up stems with no flowers. Apparently that is par for the course with this type of Lily. This year, though, there are bountiful orange flowers with maroon markings. and brick-red anthers. This variety is called ‘Sunny Morning’.
The garden is mostly quiet shades of green these days. There are some blooms, which tend to be white or blue. Here’s a selection, though I’m holding a few things back for future posts.
So when we put in the new driveway it was widened a bit, which made the narrow strip of lawn between the driveway and the Crabapple Bed even narrower and more pointless-looking. So last year I said to myself, why not take up that last bit of lawn and plant bulbs? Alliums, specifically, which were much on my mind at the time. So I did.
Last fall I added another three Bowman’s Root (Porteranthus trifoliatus) to the raised bed in the shady Back Garden and I really like how they are filling in and flowering more profusely.
I realize that I recently wrote about our Peony ‘Snow Swan’, but now that it is coming into full bloom I felt compelled to do a little brag post with more pictures. Also I have a few more bits of information to share about this Peony cultivar.
Maybe you’re tired of me talking about my Alliums every spring and summer. But I have something new to say about ‘Purple Sensation’ that you can’t say about every Allium.
I’ve been undergoing chemotherapy of some kind since August of last year, shortly after I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. During that same period I’ve continued to be an avid, some would say fanatic, gardener, as I have been for about the last five decades of my life. The two things are linked in my mind. Chemotherapy keeps me alive, albeit with side effects. Gardening enriches my experience of life, an enrichment I require now more than ever.
Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea) is a plant that provides cheerful color during that quieter period in the garden in late spring, It is perhaps not one of the spectacular garden plants, but it can make a fine addition to more informal beds and borders. It is native to a wide swath of eastern and central North America, from Quebec across the Middle West and as far as Texas.
