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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

While we were away...GBBD May 2013

Full of tulips at Gilmore Gardens in May!

As excited as I was to be touring Chanticleer and Winterthur last week, I was a little sad to be missing the over 200 tulips we planted last fall in our front garden! So, while we were away on our spring trip, I asked my friend Melissa Ellen to take some photos of our tulips. Melissa did a great job! I knew she would, as she does a wonderful job with photos of everything beautiful on her own blog, Melissa Ellen's Loft. If you are in need of some pretty ideas for your home, give her blog a look. Thanks to her for all of the beautiful photos in this post!!


Gardening in Pennsylvania could not be any better than in the month of May. I have done practically nothing with our garden this month (or in April), and it still looks spectacular. I was truly happy to get out there this week and get to pull a few weeds here and there, having been dirt deprived from my travels. So please, take a walk with me around our corner town garden; it is stuffed full of tulips and everything nice for May!

*See our Garden Map for the location of these garden areas.* 


The Hill Garden: a grand display of purple moss phlox, Phlox subulata, and Tulipa 'Apricot Impression'.
A few lily-flowered Tulipa 'China Pink' returned in this very well drained garden this year.
Another favorite, Tulipa 'Ballerina' in pots this year again. These also returned from last year quite nicely. I love her raspberry flames.
Tulipa 'Ballerina' is also fragrant!
Our purple moss phlox, Phlox subulata, which grew from a small hand full to covering this hillside after years of propagation.
More tulips on the front steps... Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' and Tulipa 'Ballerina'.
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Walk a bit more down the sidewalk to see the Front Woodland.
Tulipa 'Red Impression' blooming with our forsythia in our curb-strip-turned-woodland garden.
Tulipa 'Red Impression' growing with clumps of dayliles (Hemerocallis) and Sedum 'Acre'.
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    Further down the walk is Cherry Corner garden, which is also planted up with Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' this month.

Our weeping cherry showering its petals for the season.
Narcissus 'Pink Charm', Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' and cobalt blue Muscari armenicum.
Muscari armenicum, has the scent of grapes which hints to you its common name: grape hyacinth.
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Looking from the front yard path, you can see the same Tulipa 'Apricot Impression' also in the Front Walk.
One of the longest lasting tulip combinations in our gardens has been this one: Tulipa 'Shirley' and Tulipa 'Cum Laude'.
Another look at the Front Walk to the street corner. Here you can see the same tulip as above, as well as the copper spring foliage of Spirea 'Goldflame', white daisy-like Anemone blanda, and a few Tulipa 'Prinses Irene' peaking out.
View from the street corner. Tulipa 'Red Impression' is glowing away with a few forget-me-nots (Myosotis) about it.
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The back of our property has a sloped area that we have transformed from un-mowable turf to a tapestry of ground covers. This spring I decided to plant in some Narcissus 'Thalia' to come out this month. It has been a fragrant joy! In this photo, you can also see that our Serviceberry trees (Amelanchier canadensis) did finally bloom with the flowers in our curb! We missed it, but thankfully Melissa took this so I could see it!
Underneath the white-blooming Serviceberry trees is a 226 square foot swath (21 sq. m) of these flowers: Anemone blanda 'White Splendour', Muscari 'Ocean Magic', Sedum 'Acre' and a few Sedum 'Frosty Morn' that will look lovely later in the season.
Muscari 'Ocean Magic' is a delightful little grape hyacinth that fade to white at its tip. Also, it does not put out its foliage until springtime, unlike the common Muscari armenicum. Sedum 'Acre' is the ground cover.
Another pretty tulip, this one from the backyard: Tulipa 'Angelique' with Lamium maculatum.

Hope you enjoyed your walk around! Check in at May Dreams for more pretty May blooms.
And into Melissa Ellen's Loft for more pretty photos!

Happy May!
~Julie

25 comments:

  1. Wow, it is looking truly stunning!! What a treat for your neighbours :)

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  2. Your tulips make me want to try again next year! My tulips have yet to bloom, and in southeast Tennessee, I feel like they are very overdue. But they are beautiful flowers, and your pictures remind me that they are worth trying again!!

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    1. Perhaps you should use a different source for your bulbs next year? I use John Scheepers and Van Engelen (they are sister companies). And their prices are really good compare to anywhere else I have seen. Hope your tulips are up soon for you!
      ~Julie

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  3. Beautiful Julie, I don't know how you could bare to go away when your garden is so lovely. Lots of tulip ideas for me to think about. Enjoy the rest of May! Christina

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    1. Christina,
      I groaned about being gone from home more than once :) But it was good timing for sampling the delights of Chanticleer and all of the other beautiful gardens. Your gardens are looking so beautiful as well!!!
      ~Julie

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  4. Beautiful photos of such beautiful tulips - will you let them die back in the ground or dig them up and try and store them for next year?

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    1. Thanks Julie! I leave all of my tulips as is... in the ground or their pots to soak up some sun for next years bloom. I have had a lot of success with tulips reblooming, and expect that these Darwin varieties will stay for many years.
      ~Julie

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  5. Your tulips are truly lovely. Because the deer also love tulips I have planted mainly daffodils. Seeing them in this post certainly make me want to find a place for a few more close to the house. I also love the small ground covers that are in the beds.

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    1. Thanks Sue :) Maybe try some tulips in pots that you can set out by your house when they are ready to flower? I kept mine in the garage for the coldest part of winter.
      ~Julie

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  6. How kind of your neighbour to take photographs for you while you were away. Tour tulips are lovely as ever and you have made me think I must plant more in pots for next year. Your neighbours have a wonderful changing scene through the year when they look at your garden, they are so lucky!

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  7. Simply beautiful. Wish my neighbors would landscape their yards the way you have.

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  8. I can tell from your garden, or should I say gardens, you love tulips just as much as I do! I love 'Angelique' and 'Shirley' and had them both at some point in the garden but they're gone by now. All I have left are two tulips. I have to plant more next fall!
    You have the most beautiful garden(s)!!! Your friend did a great job photographing so we could enjoy them as well. Thank you.
    Marian

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  9. Forgot to say, love that carpet of moss phlox! I had never seen anything like it!
    Marian

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  10. You have an amazingly beautiful garden. The photographs of your spring bulbs are breathe taking. You have some lucky neighbors.
    Susan

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    1. Thanks Susan for your high praise! Melissa really did a great job with her first stint as garden photographer; so glad that she was around while we were gone to share these photos.
      ~Julie

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  11. Your Tulips and Phlox combinations are wonderful! And Forsythia still blooming! Ours are starting to fade now with the heat. That hell strip planting combo is perfect!

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  12. Stunning. Your guest photographer did a great job! That has to be the most beautiful curb strip in America. And I absolutely must get some of those 'Ballerina's for next year - what fantastic color.

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  13. Thanks for all of these lovely comments! It makes my joy all the more complete to get to share with you, my fellow gardeners.
    ~Julie

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  14. Planting that many bulbs must have been alot of work. Wonderful to reap such a reward when you invest the time. Everything looks beautiful! I wish more of my neighbors would take up gardening. Happy GBBD!

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  15. Julie, thank you so much for your sweet words! I LOVED walking through your beautiful gardens... You are an incredible gardener and I am just so thankful I have been able to enjoy the beauty so much!:):):)

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  16. Julie your gardens are show stoppers especially with all the tulips...I dream of tulips but so do my deer...I think they have won. And that phlox....waves of color!

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  17. Absolutely stunning! I especially love how the Purple Moss Phlox carpets the ground under everything else...makes it look so much more "together"!

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  18. People in your town must drive miles out of their way just to see your beautiful gardens! It's a stunning inspiration! I especially like the Narcissus popping up out of the ground cover on your back slope, and the moss phlox everywhere, and the 'Shirley' tulips, and the anemone blanda . . . What beautiful pictures your friend took for you!

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  19. So many beautiful images but I'm loving the Purple Moss Phlox - I seriously must get hold of some.
    What a wonderful palette of colours you have created there.
    Thank you so much for sharing - I'm a new follower.

    Linda - The Tenacious Gardener

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