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Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Tulip sylvestris in Daffodill Dell

Florentine tulip, or the wild woodland tulip, was and is grown still at Monticello.
What a lovely tulip! I am in love with this plant, which I have only read about it books until this spring. Here is a bit about its relatively short history in our country as a naturalizing tulip...

Friday, April 15, 2016

Spring Flowers for April ~ GBBD April 2016

Welcome to Havenwood!
It has been such a roller coaster spring, as I am sure you know or have heard from many other eastern US gardeners. We had more buds in January than ever before, as our true cold did not arrive until February. Then a especially mild March, with more snow and cold in the first two weeks of April. And now it is 70 degrees again today.  This is not totally abnormal for our zone 5 garden, but the high temps have been much higher than usual. This has brought the garden further along than it normally is at this time of year.

Many flowers that were doing so well, so soon... too soon... did meet a cruel end with the frost.

The star magnolia blooms were blackened after one day of blooming all around our town. The taller daffodils did not stand up as well to the snow that covered them soon after they were full out, but the shorter ones have stood the test. The pretty star of Bethlehem, that I recently posted, were soon snuffed out with cold. But still, the garden and the gardener marches on...

There are still a few pretties to see today for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day in our western PA garden.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

A Few White Spring Flowers...


Lenten rose, Helleborus orientalis, comes in a plethora of beautiful colors and patterns.
We have had some beautiful spring weather! And also some more snow. That is spring here in Pennsylvania, with its immoderate temperature swings and hour by hour changes. But then much of the interior US is like that. Only the coastal areas benefit from the moderating effect of the ocean.

And yet, we can still have beautiful flowers that hold up to these extremes and come out on the mild days. Here are a few beauties I can recommend!