Lenten Roses in Bloom

I'm in love with Helleborus 'Pink Frost' in the Rose garden. It needs a few more ;)

They are all under snow now.

But oh! What a lovely start to March! 

Wildflowers in the Birch Walk

Our Birch Walk is starting to fill up with wildflower, some that I have seeded there and some that I have allowed.

See more about what I am up to at Havenwood on Instagram.

~Julie

Havenwood Comes Alive in May

European Hornbeam, Carpinus betulus fastigiata, leafing out in the Rose Garden.

May is here! I think it is my favorite month, because it is in May that spring truly arrives in my zone 5 garden. We have had many beautiful days of sun, many quiet days of rain, and the last of the frosty mornings. Blooms are popping out daily and are deeply appreciated after our long winter. 

Forget-me-nots in the Rose Garden

Astrantia major rising above the blue sea of Myosotis this week in the Rose garden.

See all that is blooming away in my garden these days on Instagram!
Happy May to you!
~Julie

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.

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!

Crocus tommasinianus for Early Spring

The bees are out drinking it up in the spring sunshine.

This is undoubtedly my favorite early spring crocus, as every year it spreads its cheery purple all around both of my gardens, here at Havenwood and Gilmore as well. I cannot get enough color at this time of year. Inevitably, I think, "Why did I not plant a few hundred more?"

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...

Mystery Plant... more mystery...

Six yellow stamens, six petals...

I posted a photo of this mystery plant last week with the Trillium... and it has bloomed this week but I am still stumped!

Knot or Parterre?

So I am still trying to decide what design to go with for our Knot Garden... see my progress here.

I am planning on using green boxwood and variegated box for the central design, and then lavender or catmint around the edge. It is a longer, rectangular space, so many of the traditional knot designs will not work, as they are square. And I do not like the typical overlapping squares in a long row.

Flowering crabapple and Indigo Bunting at Havenwood

 Pretty photos of our old crabapple trees in the rain... and with a vibrant winged visitor...

Trillium grandiflorum

Native Trillium grandiflorum in our Woodland at Havenwood this week.

 I shared a few of these beauties for our first GBBD at our new garden. Here are some views of the larger patch that are in full glory this week... and also a mystery plant!

Beginning the Knot Garden

The first month of the Knot Garden at Havenwood

Now that we have finally reached spring, work has definitely picked up on the garden as we race to get as many plants in the ground as possible before summer brings its hotter, drier weather. The Knot Garden began as an empty slate in April....