Havenwood ~ GBBD October 2014

Native asters, Doellingeria umbellata, flowering away at our new garden this autumn.

Welcome to my new garden in Pennsylvania, zone 5 for the autumn!

I have been hard at work this year to put in many new garden area according to my garden master plan (see it here). Before getting to bulb planting yesterday, I took a walk around to capture some of the little fall flowers that are already blooming away here at Havenwood...

Progress in the Knot Garden

My daughter stepping up our newly cemented steps at Havenwood.

Greetings garden lovers! We are certainly not done with the gardens yet this year, but I thought you might like a look at where we are right now with things.

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ July 2014 GBBD

A bee sampling the nectar in the last foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, of the season in the Shade Path garden.

Welcome to Gilmore Gardens in July!

Work is in full swing still over at our new garden, Havenwood, as I try to prepare new beds to hold our flowers at Gilmore in the fall. There are a lot blooming over there, so here are just a few glimpses this month!

Clematis Up a Tree

Clematis 'Perle d' Azure' growing near the Shade Path garden at Gilmore Gardens.

This Clematis is the star in one of my most popular posts of all time: How to grow a Clematis on a tree trunk. If you like this look, that post is a great place to start looking at getting one going in your own garden!

It is also popular in our own family, each of us waiting to see how high it is going to bloom this year. It is still doing well! Even though we no longer see it out our windows during the day, we still drive by Gilmore Gardens to check on how things are going. Often, the children ooh and ahh louder than the adults, as they instinctively feel that this garden is still a part of them as well. We look forward to bringing some of our flowers over to Havenwood this fall!

Gilmore Gardens ~ GBBD June 2014

Catmint, Nepeta 'Walker's Low', and Geranium 'Orion' beside the road in the Curb strip this month.

Welcome to my little garden in Pennsylvania!

June is here, and we are enjoying it both at our new garden, Havenwood, and at our old garden, Gilmore Gardens. Here are some pretty shots from Gilmore just after the rain last evening...

First Clematis at Havenwood

Clematis 'Fleuri' by Raymond Evison in a pot on our front steps.

 Our first Clematis blooms around the garden this lovely June morning...

Beautiful Vines

If you are interested in seeing some pretty vines (or climbers as they say in the UK), you will enjoy looking through my garden archive for June, or taking a look at this folder I made as a part of the Hometalk community...

How to Train a Clematis on a Tree Trunk

Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' on our maple tree in the Shade Path garden.

A few years ago, I planted Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' at the base of an old maple tree. It has become one of the most original elements in our gardens.

Here are some tips to get a Clematis started up your own tree!

Lilies by the Driveway

Dwarf Asiatic lilies blooming on the edge of our Driveway Garden this week.

Lilies are one of the fragrant joys of the garden in July! We have quite a few here and there this year. These dwarf, pink lilies are always a favorite by our walk from the back door to the car.

Three Large-flowered Clematis by the Circle Lawn

Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' on one of the trellises around the Circle Lawn, with Clematis 'Fairy Dust' and Clematis 'Perle d' Azur' in the background.

Our garden has so many clematis this month, that I still have not gotten to post them all. Here are a few more for your viewing pleasure!

Clematis 'Henryetta'

Clematis 'Henryetta' on a trellis in the Driveway Garden this week.

Clematis 'Henryetta' is really blooming this week on a trellis in the Driveway Garden. And it only took a couple of years to get to this point. My experience with clematis is that they often take a few years to get settled and really start blooming.

This clematis is a not a great climber... in fact it is more of a mound-maker. I imagine it crawling slowly over old stumps in its native habitat. That meant that it took a a little more persistence to make sure that it was tied into the small trellis in this tightly planted bed, instead of flopped over somewhere underneath everything. But it was worth the effort! I love its pendulous flowers.

Climbing Rose and Clematis Combination

Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' blooming with our pink climbing rose.

It is rose season at our house!

The pink climbing rose is blooming this week and oh, so fragrant. Last year I added a clematis to it, and this is the first year they have bloomed together. Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' is a beautiful red climber that we also have on a trellis by our Circle Lawn (see it last week).

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD June 2013

Our Shade Path Garden full of yellow perennial foxgloves, Digitalis grandiflora.

Welcome to Pennsylvania for Garden Blogger Bloom Day!
There are lots of flowers to see this weekend around our small, town garden. Come take a walk around...

Pink Rose and Purple Clematis Combination for June

In our Driveway garden, an old pink rose bush makes a wonderful host for purple Clematis 'Etoile Violette'.

June is underway and the roses are blooming here in Pennsylvania. Our Driveway Garden is covered in pink and blue this week, with a bit of white thrown in to lighten the color palette.

When we bought our home, we inherited an old rose bush by the back corner of our house... and one to match it across the driveway. It blooms its socks off once and year, and then needs quite a bit of pruning to keep it in line. A newer rose would give more for repeat bloom, but the light fragrance and pink color make it worth keeping. And even better yet is the combination that happens when Clematis 'Etoile Violette' blooms along with it. The clematis it is planted at the roses feet and it appreciates the cool shade the rose provides. It easily grabs a hold on to the rose brambles and pulls itself to the sun.

Around the perimeter of this rose, which is 5 feet high and 6 feet wide (1.6 m x 2m), there is ground cover of variegated deadnettle (Lamium maculatum), evergreen moss phlox (Phlox subulata), and yellow-blooming Sedum 'Acre'.

Yellow foxgloves in the Shade Path Garden

Digitalis grandiflora and Clematis 'William Kennett' in our garden this week.

Along the Shade Path garden this week, the perennial yellow foxgloves (Digitalis grandiflora) are in bloom. They are a favorite every year, and seed themselves happily around our dry shade garden.  After they have bloomed for about a month, I trim back their spent blooms to the first set of leaves. This deadheading helps them to re-bloom again in September, which is a real treat!

The Shade Path succession planting started out in January with snowdrops and a few Hellebores in February. It was a really cold spring, so things did not really get going until the Iris reticulata 'Katherine Hodgkin' covered the path in April, followed by many more Hellebores orientalis. Then, the shade garden was covered in blue and white for May. Oh, and there was quite a display of pink columbine in there too.

Color for the Weekend... all along our fence!

The colorful, clematis-filled scene in our Fence Garden today.

Red Clematis 'Earnest Markham' and blue Clematis 'William Kennett' hover over the pink flowers of Geranium 'Bevan's Variety'. Pink columbine (Aquilegia) bloom in the distance in the Shade Path Garden.

Hope you have a restful weekend in your own garden!

~Julie

Chanticleer's Clematis macropetala Blue Bird

Clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird' at Chanticleer in April

Chanticleer in Wayne, PA has many beautiful plants for its spring show: tulips, daffodils, roses and annual pots galore.  Clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird', though, is the only Clematis that I saw that April day. But what a beauty!

Garden Party at Gilmore Gardens

Our annual garden party in Pennsylvania is in the beautiful month of June!

I wanted to post a few photos of our 3rd annual Gilmore Garden Party that was held the first Saturday in June this year. June is such a beautiful time of year in our gardens, which I am especially appreciating now that the garden is a bit ratty from our dry summer.

I set up the food in the kitchen, since I am shy of being caught in the rain like we were for our first party! We were, however, able to eat outside this year thankfully. The little girls so look forward to dressing up in all their finery. It was a fun, relaxed time of yummy food, walking through the garden and the ever popular hunt for little garden trinkets amongst the flowers. My girls could not wait to find their birdies! In past years, we have had a flower identification hunt with an illustrated guide. It was so nice just to share being in the garden with so many friends.

A garden party needs a yummy cake: Almond cake topped layered with fresh whipped cream and the most scrumptious strawberry icing!!

True Red Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon'

True Red Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon'

Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' is a beauty which is hardy from zones 4-9. It is a taller clematis, reaching to 10 feet and beyond, which makes it a great candidate for pairing it with a climbing rose, like the famous, Rosa 'New Dawn'. She has a truer red color than does the more pink Clematis 'Ernest Markham'. She usually blooms in mid-summer, but is early this year as the rest of my flowers are also.

Red Clematis 'Madam Julia Correvon' is on the first trellis, and two earlier-blooming clematis are on the other trellises surrounding the Circle Lawn. You can just see blue Clematis 'Perle 'd Azur' on the tree by the Shade Path garden.

Training Clematis on a Tree Trunk

Clematis 'Perle 'd'Azur' blooming on our mature maple tree in the Shade Path Garden.

I have had a lot of positive comments about the Clematis that we have trained to grow on our mature maple tree at the front of the Shade Path garden, so I thought I would give it its own moment of glory.

Around the same time that I planted the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris) near our maple tree, I also planted Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' thinking that it climb the tree using the hydrangea vine for support. Clematis climb by wrapping their wrists around small twigs or fishing line, so other vines are also wonderfully helpful to their climbing success. By planting it on the shady side of the tree trunk and adding compost, I was able to give its roots the shade they need to start well. 

Maple tree with Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' climbing right up and in bloom with the yellow foxgloves (Digitalis grandiflora).