Cathy’s ‘Stump’ Garden

Last year the county cut down one of the red oaks growing along the front of our property (but in the county’s right of way, so belonging to the county). Cathy put some planters on the stump and planted a few annuals around it. In the fall they came and ground the stump, giving Cathy fair warning so she could move the containers and so she knew the annuals would be destroyed in the process. Yesterday Cathy planted this year’s garden in the spot where the stump was, including two containers and quite a few plants in the ground. I took a few pictures yesterday but the morning light was on it as I was leaving for work, so I took a few more, including this one. I’ll try to get another picture of it later in the year, when everything has gotten established and filled in. In addition to what she planted, you can see in the lower right that there is a volunteer common mullein (Verbascum thapsus), an alien species introduced from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Cathy’s a big fan.

Sedum (Stonecrop)

We drove back from New York this morning and had no problems with traffic, thankfully. It has gotten pretty warm, although it’s still nice in the shade. I took some pictures in the yard this afternoon, including this photo of some Sedum (stonecrop) flowers. This is a fairly prolific perennial plant and has gotten established in the cracks and crevices around our front steps and walkway. It’s not so aggressive that it’s particularly invasive and it has a lot of these pretty (small) yellow flowers.

Tradescantia (Spiderwort)

Our spiderworts (Tradescantia) have begun to bloom. Ours mostly have very deep purple flowers, although we have a couple with pink flowers. This isn’t as good a photograph as I had hoped, but it does show two of my favorite features of the flowers, the blue stamen hairs and bright yellow anthers. Together, they combine to give the flowers an other-worldly look that I really like. I’ll try to get a better picture at some point, but this will have to do for now.

Iris ‘Eric the Red’

We have some large, bearded irises in bloom but this little one, a pretty, little Siberian iris called ‘Eric the Red’, may be my favorite.

Although it’s called ‘Eric the Red’ the petals are actually a purple color. One interesting thing about it, though, is that in photographs, the petals come out looking more red than they are in real life. In this image, I’ve corrected the color so it matches pretty well what the flowers look like.

Oenothera speciosa (Pink Evening Primrose)

This is our first evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) of the year. Soon we will have dozens of them, lighting up the garden in the evening (as their name suggests, their flowers open in the evening). Actually, this one is in a shady spot and it seems to be fooled by that into opening a bit early, which is actually quite nice. Oenothera speciosa is an herbaceous perennial native basically to the southern half of the contiguous United States.

Sisyrinchium angustifolium (Narrow-leaf Blue-eyed Grass)

We planted a few small plants of blue-eyed grass in our yard when we first moved here and it has proliferated. Among other things, it’s growing in the cracks between the flagstones of our front walk. It’s fairly well behaved and doesn’t go so crazy that it’s a problem, though, so I don’t mind having it about the place. The little blue flowers are quite nice, too, of course. I don’t know for a fact that this is narrow-leaf blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) but that’s the local native so it seems likely and it looks about right.

Roseraie de L’Hay

One of our roses, a rugosa named Roseraie de L’Hay, has started to bloom. It’s a fairly large shrub, 8 or so feet tall and about as much across. It has blooms throughout the summer but in late spring (i.e., right about now) it has it’s best showing. The flowers are a rich, crimson-purple and are double, with a wonderful and very strong fragrance. The only downside to the plant is that it’s so big and many of the best flowers are way overhead and thus hard to see. I should probably give it a good pruning this year and see if I can tame it a bit, but it’s so happy the way it is, I hesitate. This, obviously, is a bud but gives a foretaste of the bloom to come. It also shows the wonderful rugose (wrinkled) texture of the leaves.

The rose is named after the rose garden of the same name in L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Val-de-Marne, France, started in 1892 by Jules Gravereaux.

Lonicera maackii (Amur Honeysuckle)

Among local invasive species, this has to be near the top of the list. It is very prolific. It does have the redeeming feature of pretty flowers in the spring and later will be covered by red berries, but it’s something you want to keep out of your yard, if you can. This is along the side of the parking lot at work and there is a lot of it there, both around the drainage pond and in the woods. I’m sure the insects love it, of course it isn’t like it is consciously destructive. It simply lives where it is planted.

Note: I originally had this marked as Lonicera japonica, Japanese honeysuckle but I was just posting without thinking. This is Lonicera maackii, Amur or bush honeysuckle. The text about it being a pest didn’t need to be modified much.