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Posted on April 10, 2021 by gardeninacity

The Tulip From Turkestan

After Tulipa kaufmanniana ‘Early Harvest’, the first Tulip to bloom in our garden is T. turkestanica. T. turkestanica is a wild or Species Tulip, whose native range covers rocky hillsides and river valleys extending from Iran through Central Asia and into China’s Uighur region – the origin land of many Tulips. T. kaufmanniana also started as a wild Tulip from Central Asia but for some reason is generally not classified as a Species Tulip.

Tulipa turkestanica
T, turkestanica

T. turkestanica has white flowers with orange-yellow centers. The flowers are star-shaped with 6 points, smaller than those of hybrid Tulips. The flowers will open only in sunny weather. The leaves are also interesting: long, wavy, and grey-green.

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Posted on April 7, 2021 by gardeninacity

This is going to be a short post because we have our son David his partner Meridith visiting from Minnesota this week. So I just want to show you what I think of as our garden’s first wave of Daffodils.

View from back door. You can see the Hellebores are still doing well.
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Posted on April 2, 2021 by gardeninacity

When we put in the new driveway the narrow strip of lawn bordering the Left Bank Bed became even narrower. So naturally, I decided to dig it up. The new garden space was filled, among other things, with Glory-of-the-Snow (Scilla forbesii, formerly Chionodoxa forbesii).

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Posted on March 30, 2021 by gardeninacity

It’s nice that’s it’s officially spring and all, but many of us are asking: when will the Tulips bloom?

‘Early Harvest’ Tulips
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Posted on March 27, 2021 by gardeninacity

If you are thinking about adding Coneflowers (Echinacea sp. and cvs.) to your garden this spring, you might want to look at a recent report put out by the Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware. The Center has done extensive research with an eye to promoting the use of native plant varieties in American home gardens. Their evaluation of several dozen Coneflower species and cultivars is available online. The evaluation, conducted in 2019 and 2020, looked at each plant’s ability to attract pollinators as well as its horticultural performance.

Straight species Purple Coneflowers in the Driveway Border before I had to take them all out.
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Posted on March 23, 2021 by gardeninacity

It is now officially spring, snow has melted, buds are budding, and it seems like a good time for an overview of recent developments.

Driveway Border, March 21, 2021

So most of the garden still looks like this, but there are green bits emerging and even a few flowers.

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Red Poppies Lurie Garden

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Posted on March 18, 2021 by gardeninacity

Last week Judy had to go downtown to get her second COVID shot (yay!) and while there decided to visit the Lurie Garden. What she found was a bit concerning, especially when combined with other developments at Lurie over the past several months.

Lurie Garden, March 2021

It appeared that no attempt had been made to start the spring clean up, though Crocuses and Snowdrops had started to bloom. Normally, a small tractor is used to cut back the grasses and other stems in this 2.5 acre garden. This is done while the ground is still frozen in order to reduce soil compaction and damage to plant crowns and early foliage. Also, it needs to be done early enough to showcase the Lurie’s magnificent bulb display, which features tens of thousands of spring blooms.

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Posted on March 15, 2021 by gardeninacity

So I thought I was doing a good thing when I planted a purple-leaved Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana ‘Schubert’) in the back garden, and another along the east side of the house. Chokecherry is a small North American tree with great wildlife value. I was looking forward to the flowers, the fruits (small and very sour, but popular with birds), and the butterfly larvae (Chokecherry is a larval host for many butterflies and moths).

Chokecherry ‘Schubert’ in the back garden.
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Posted on March 12, 2021 by gardeninacity

The snow is gone! And the weather has been warm enough that I’ve been out in the garden the last couple days, actually doing garden chores. It feels like I have been sprung from prison.

Hellebore leaves and buds uncovered
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Posted on March 7, 2021 by gardeninacity

Snow is melting, patches of bare ground expanding, and gardeners are chomping at the bit to get started with the growing season. For some of us, that means starting seeds indoors.

I am a newcomer to seedstarting, but I won’t let that stop me from sharing the benefit of my (very limited) experience. Which is this: when it comes to tender and many other annuals, patience pays.

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