Merry Christmas from Havenwood!

Holly, Ilex aquilfolium, in the Woodland

Merry Christmas friends! 

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  ~Isaiah 9:6

Rose 'Scepter d' Isle'

Rose 'Scepter d' Isle' with the amazing feather reed grass, Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster', in front of our dark arbor vitae and Pieris japonica.

Autumn Scenes at Havenwood

Dew drops on the last of the blue annual love-in-mist, Nigella 'Moody Blues' in the Rose Garden.

Welcome November!

Rudbeckia seedheads

What a beautiful autumn we have had! This October was as nice a one as I can remember. 

Lavender to Remember

Lavender from the Rose Garden at Havenwood

They say that scent triggers the most profound memory centers in our brains... That scent is the key to recalling moments in our lives. 

I was out picking some lavender on Sunday morning as a reminder of our fading summer Rose garden. Next year it will return and with more roses too! But I am going to hang on to these pieces and treasure them up for the next six months until spring comes to save the garden - and me - again. 

Fall Is for Planting Perennials

The first snow fell last night so it is high time to get these lovely shade garden plants in the ground!

The days are getting shorter and cooler and the blessed rains of autumn are breaking through the dry days of summer. It is finally fall planting season! Part of me goes into grieving every year at this time, as I hate to see the growing season end. But hope says to look forward to what is to come and so I like to channel my disappointment in to garden tasks that will bear fruit in the coming year. 

I came home last week from a perennial plant sale with golden sedge, purple Heucheras, pastel Astilbe, Autumn ferns and some new varieties of golden Hosta will fill everything out in the Beech tree bed nicely. 

Pruning Daylilies

Herbaceous pruning (cutting the foliage of perennial plants) has a few uses. Often, it is used to delay the bloom of a plant, or to make it have better branching instead of just one main stem. This is known across the pond as the "Chelsea Chop", because gardeners in the UK can plan on cutting their perennials around time of the Chelsea Flower Show. (The show is usually held at the end of May.)

Another good reason for pruning perennial foliage occurs later in the season. During the hot months of July and August, perennial foliage often starts to look old and tattered. For many years, I sighed and assumed that yellowing leaves meant my garden was passing into its fall foliage already.

Before: Hemerocallis waiting for their trim in the Front Woodland

The Potager

Dill flowering in our kitchen garden this summer.

We enjoyed mixing in some flowers among the veg and fruit this summer. It creates such a beautiful atmosphere in this productive garden and attracts beneficial insects too.

Purple Coneflower and Mugwort

Echinacea purpurea and white-flowering mugwort (Artemisia lactiflora 'Gutzhou')

A lovely combination for late summer/autumn. This combination was one that we spotted at Stan Hywet house and gardens in Akron, Ohio in their Great Garden. See more about this garden in my series on Stan Hywet... here. 

The Rose Garden

Cosmos 'Sweet Sixteen' and blue Agastache in the Rose garden this week at Havenwood.

Follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see more of what I have been up to in my gardens and my garden designs.

Topiary Ivy

Beautiful vintage patinas for this shot thanks to our still-unpainted shed and old wheelbarrow :)

I am finally making another go at my topiary ivies this year! I potted these pretty containers up on our long holiday weekend just passed and hoping they will overwinter well this year for more enjoyment next year. 

Follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see more of what I have been up to in my gardens and my garden designs.

Butterfly on Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea

one warm and sunny moment in our Rose Garden this summer...

Follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see more of what I have been up to in my gardens and my garden designs.

Mexican Sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifolia

Mexican Sunflowers, Tithonia rotundifolia

The Woodland in August

Blue and purple hydrangeas in my Hydrangea bed. Only ericaceous mulches for these lovelies! (pine needles... oak leaves... no mushroom compost.)

July at Havenwood ~ GBBD July 2015

The Rose Garden

Hello all! Welcome to our Pennsylvania garden in July! Come take a look around...

Sunflowers...

Red and yellow for July.

While I am hard at work on our Garden Blogger Bloom Post for July, I thought I would share these cheery flowers with you...

Scenes from Havenwood, June 2015

The Rose Garden at just 9 months old.

Welcome to Pennsylvania in June! Flowers are popping out every moment, so it is hard to even keep up with seeing what is new, let alone sharing it. (Though I have been doing a better job on Instagram / Twitter !) These are the days when every walk through the garden reveals new delights... everything growing like crazy.

This is RHS testing week for me, so I am busy reviewing my list of 300 plants that I am supposed to know backwards & forwards. :) But I could not let this week get away without share a little of what is blooming here at our new garden, Havenwood....

Magnolia 'Butterflies'

Magnolia acuminata x denudata 'Butterflies'

This was our first year with the lovely, lemon-oil scented, Magnolia 'Butterflies' at the edge of our Woodland garden. Even though we had another very cold winter, its buds outlasted it and came out on our sunny days in April.

For more updates on what is going on in our gardens, follow WMG on Instagram or Twitter.

Shade Garden Treasures for Spring

Yellow Rhododendron 'Capistrano' with Japanese Forest grass (Hakonechloa macra aureola) in the Woodland at Havenwood.

One of the first things I often hear from people who love gardens, is that they cannot have flowers as they "have shade." But there are so many wonderful plants for the shade! Plants for dry shade and for damp shade. Here are just a few that have been blooming in our shade gardens in Pennsylvania...

The Rose Garden in May at Havenwood

Tulips in the Rose Garden this week with Magnolia stellata.

Welcome to the first year for our new gardens at Havenwood!

I have been working very hard lately getting all of our these new beds weeded and mulched for their first spring show, working on new garden designs for local clients, as well as finishing up my studies for the RHS Level 2 tests this June.  We have been having a hot, hot spring. So there has also been need for lots of watering and the plants are shooting ahead in growth... And there were 13 roses, 6 boxwood, 6 fruit trees, 6 birch trees and a hornbeam hedge that went in too!

While I put my feet up & have some mint ice cream, I hope you enjoy having a look around... :)

Our Helleborus come to Havenwood

The darkest of our Helleborus orientalis in the Spring Garden.

Weeks after seeing pretty lenten rose blooms in UK gardens, our Pennsylvania garden has finally delivered a few blooms for us as well! Perhaps they are enjoyed more because of the increased anticipation?

These are always some of the most enjoyed spring flowers in our gardens, rising out around Easter time, sun or snow. The do well in sun or shade, wet or dry soils. Also providing semi-evergreen leaves, they are a staple in my garden schemes.

Gilmore Gardens' Shade Path in Spring

Purple Crocus vernus 'Grand Maitre', light blue Iris histrioides 'Katharine Hodgkin' and white-winged snowdrop, Galanthus elwesii.

Even though we moved residence from Gilmore Gardens a year-and-a-half ago, the flowers there are carrying on through the seasons beautifully. Once the hard work of establishing plantings has taken place, it becomes much easier to maintain those areas, as this garden well shows.

An Egg Hunt and our Bunny...

Iris histrioides 'Katharine Hodgkin' in the Birch Walk

Our bulbs have been a great success so far at Havenwood this spring, even though they were covered in snow just a week before Easter. The snow melted and they made the perfect little hiding spots around the garden for colorful eggs on brown leaves... Can you find them all? ;)

Snowdrops...

...standing taller after the melting of the snow.

 

TO A SNOWDROP

          Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
          But hardier far, once more I see thee bend
          Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend,
          Like an unbidden guest. Though day by day,
          Storms, sallying from the mountain-tops, waylay
          The rising sun, and on the plains descend;
          Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend
          Whose zeal outruns his promise! 

Blue-eyed May
          Shall soon behold this border thickly set
          With bright jonquils, their odours lavishing                
          On the soft west-wind and his frolic peers;
          Nor will I then thy modest grace forget,
          Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
          And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

         ~William Wordsworth, 1819 

March 2015 ~ Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Snowdrop (Galanthus elwesii) huddled in the Birch Walk this March at Havenwood.

Welcome to March in Pennsylvania!

Except for the early spring of 2012, most years we are just peeking out from under our snow cover from the months past and that is certainly the case this year...

Rosy Plans for the Year

Rosa 'Scepter d' Isle'

Rosa 'Ferdinand Pritchard'

Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll'

*All Rose photos in this post from David Austin Roses, US

While the snow was still flying here in Pennsylvania and a hot cup of tea was an imperative (!), I spent an evening sitting on the floor planning out our vegetable gardens for the summertime...

Snow still here...

Sammy Squirrel getting a bit dusted looking for his sunflower seed meal. Read more about his adventures here...

 ...though maybe not for long. It is 50 degrees F today (10 C), so it is dripping away, but it will take a little bit to see the bottom of these piles!

Our snowmen from January are still standing, though leaning a bit. Are we ready for spring?.... oh, yes.

January Scenes

The first beautiful Crocus tommasinianus forced inside this January

Hello from the snow!
I hope this post find you snug, warm, and enjoying the cozy moments of winter in your region. We have been driven inside by sever cold, snow and ice since Christmas. We are making the best of our winter by keeping busy with school, crocheting and some rest before the spring gardening season arrives. Here are some scenes from outside and in this week at Havenwood....