The Simple Things…
“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.”
-Eleanora Duse (Italian Actress. 1858-1924)
The dandelions have been blooming beautifully in the driveway and earlier this week they set their seed heads. Brings back memories. Who didn’t LOVE blowing the seeds off of a dandelion when they were little?
What simple thing are you enjoying today?
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Friday Favorite: The Garden in April
April is that month here in my zone where everything seems to burst forth overnight. The tiny seedlings start to grow quickly, the flowers start to come out and almost all the plants start putting up new growth. I’ve truly been enjoying spending time outside this week, I think I’ve spent a few hours every single day, some days I’ve been able to spend 5-6. Here’s what my garden looks like right now:
The dogwood blooms opened up earlier this week and they’re quite nice. Not as prolific as they were last year, it seems they look especially great every other year and last year was their year. The front flowerbed is brimming with color and exuberant growth. I love to see it come to life after being kind of sad and bleak all winter long.
Things are coming right along in the edible garden as well. The garlic is looking fantastic, the first sowing of beets are coming up, the golden peas in pots on the front porch will be climbing their supports soon, and the strawberries are blooming prolifically.
I’m also super happy that the wrens returned yesterday. Mr Wren spent the morning serenading me while I weeded! The weather has been really great this month, though a tad on the dry side. I’m certainly not complaining after last spring when it was so wet I could barely get a few hours outside. I’m looking forward to what this coming gardening season brings; no doubt successes and failures, should be interesting!
How does your garden grow in mid-April?
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The Chiot’s Run Hosta
Eight years ago I started purchasing hostas for the gardens of Chiot’s Run. We’re surrounded by HUGE trees on 3 sides thus making 75 of the garden pretty shady. The first hostas I purchased were ‘Frances Williams’ and the other one I cannot remember at the moment. They lived happily in the garden for years. Each year I kept adding hostas and they lived happily multiplying slowly in the shady side gardens. Four years ago I acquired a ‘sieboldiana Elegans’ hosta. There’s something about this hosta and ‘Frances Williams’ that makes the perfect match. Ever since then the hostas set seed and tiny hostas pop up all over the garden and walkways and pretty much everywhere.
They so sweet when they’re tiny seedling, these are new ones that just germinated this spring. As you can see they’re smaller than a penny. These are the big corrugated leaf hostas, so they grow very slowly. They also have no variegation in the leaves and the color is neither the blue from ‘sieboldiana Elegans’ or the colors from ‘Frances Williams’. The leaves aren’t quite as corrugated as either of the parents either.
The second year they’re only about 4 inches all and will have one or two more leaves. The third year the leaves are bigger but still sparce. I think it will take about 6 years to mature from seed. I think next year I’ll have my first mature hosta offspring!
I wish they grew a little faster so I could use them to fill in areas along the woods, but alas they take their jolly old time (especially in the lean soil here).
I’m guessing these hostas are one of the parents of the two that cross pollinated, I could look them up and figure it out. But I think I’ll just call them ‘Chiot’s Run’ hostas.
Do you have any plants that have cross pollinated to create new varieties in your garden?
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Plant Spotlight: Erythronium Pagoda
Somewhere in my reading I came across the Erythronium or the dogtooth violet. I can’t remember for sure where, maybe in a wildflower book. If I had to guess it would be from one of the books written by Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd, most likely I read about it in A Year at North Hill : Four Seasons in a Vermont Garden. It doesn’t really matter where I found out about it, I’m just glad I did.
I ordered bulbs for erythronium ‘Pagoda’ last fall and they arrived nestled in one of the boxes of my 2500 bulb order. I double checked my invoice with the included items, everything had arrived and I didn’t think about these boxes in the garage for a few days. When unpacking and organzing the bulbs a week later, I noticed the pack of Erythronium said “PLANT NOW!” (yes in all caps with an exclamation point- oooops). I grabbed by trowel and planted most of them in the east facing side flowerbed and a few in the north facing bed by the back door.
Erythroniums are native to the Northern Hemisphere and prefer forest and meadows with slightly acidic soil. They can take part to full shade which is one of the reasons I purchased them. Being surrounded on three sides by very large trees, I have an abundance of shade here at Chiot’s Run. I’m often struggling to find something besides hostas that will thrive in the shady corners of the garden. Since there are forest natives I knew they’d love the conditions in those beds, they are essentially just like the forrest floor.
This little plant isn’t of the viola family even though it’s nickname suggest it, it’s of the lily family (Liliaceae). It’s nickname “Dog Tooth Violet” comes from the corms which are white and shaped like a dog’s tooth. It also has a host of other nicknames as well. Sadly, I didn’t take any photos of the corms when I planted them so I can’t show you what they look like. You’ll have to take my word that they did in fact look like giant canine teeth.
Erythronium is usually grown as an ornamental garden plant, but it’s also edible. The leaves and flowers may be consumed raw or boiled. The corm can also be ground and used as a starch. From my research, it was often used for making thin noodles. In Japan the ground corms are used to thicken sauces and make tempura. It’s been used medicinally as well, the leaves can be dried and used in teas, or they can be crushed and used as a poultice. It is high in alph-methylene-butyrolactone which prevents cell mutation and may help fight cancer. Native American Indian women were said to use the raw leaves as a contraceptive, Roman soldiers used it for foot related issues and it was used throughout the ages as a diuretic, fever reducer, to treat gout, to aid in decongestion, and to help reduce ulcers and shrink tumors.
I won’t be eating mine any time soon, I want them to multiply and grow into lovely little patches. You can believe I’ll be trying to find a few other varieties, which are different sizes and colors, to add to the garden though and when I get a good patch going I’ll try eating them in a variety of ways.
Have you found any new and interesting plants recently?
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The Parrot King Tulip
Today we’ll be taking a break from the cleaning series because I didn’t get home until late from the family Easter celebration and didn’t have time to take photos & write the post. Also because a few of my parrot tulips are blooming. These ‘Parrot King’ tulips are a show stopper and they’re stealing the show by my back door, the OOPS ones that I accidentally left in the garage. I can’t help but stop and stare whenever I’m head in or out!
I planted these in pots specifically to be able to examine them closely. The detail in these flowers is so amazing and hard to capture with my camera. They’re stunning from bud to bloom. The variety of colors in each bud, the fringe on the petals, the way the colors change and they get deeper as the blooms age.
Normally, I’m not one for blooms with flourish like these. I don’t even really like orange and yellow flowers, but for some reason I’m enthralled by these beauties. They remind me of Spanish Flamenco dancers with all the ruffles and their bright colors. Definitely focal points wherever you plant them. I’ll never have a garden without parrot tulips from now on and I don’t think I’ll go without forcing some in a pot to admire by the back door each spring.
Do you have a plant/flower that you love that doesn’t fit in with your normal gardening tastes?
For more photos of this beauty head on over to my Flickr photostream.
