Finally... I have babied this bud for weeks... through frosts and freezes, storms and winds.... Rose Marie has been worth it all. An excellent magnolia by Dennis Ledvina, this tree can bloom for a period of four to six weeks. In fact there are several additional buds preparing to bloom over some time on my young tree. Parentage is Pink Surprise x Daybreak and this is a tree that won't outgrow your yard. Rose Marie has become readily available in the trade.
The magnolia Elizabeth is more greatly appreciated than ever. Seemingly hundreds of blooms were frozen a few days ago, and yet hundreds more fresh blooms have appeared... it's as if the tree's blooms never dealt with the cold spell...
So too, Daybreak keeps sending out fresh beautifully scented blooms...
I thought the combination of Elizabeth and Daybreak would be a disappointment this season after all the frosts, but it's actually quite effective...
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It has been a busy time in the gardens over the past few days. One project that was particularly enjoyable was finishing off the rock garden by adding a number of alpines to the miniature conifers already in place since last year.
I was particularly careful to place plants preferring scree conditions or other special requirements in hyper-tuffa and these will be moved into the garage over winter. By way of example, my success with lewisias has improved remarkably since storing them in the unheated garage and hence avoiding the winter wet.
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The Rockery has been giving me a few concerns recently as well. Last season I removed a great many plants, the epimediums in particular, and did some soil work as I was concerned with drainage based on the growth and appearance of some of the plants. I have the same concerns this season and so once again I am removing and potting many plants, particularly the epimediums. This time I am planning on building the garden higher in tiers and using a lot of rocks and a lot more sand in the mix for these new portions. The primulas which love the present conditions will continue to inhabit the front portions of the Rockery and the epimediums will find better drained wedges and crevices higher up on the imagined structure. While epimediums are said to prefer a moist soil condition with good drainage, I expect my soil is just a bit too moist. The additional tiers will inhabit the area in front of the drain pipe, thankfully hiding much of that as well...
I have recently purchased a goodly number of double primrose cultivars and the best place for them to be admired is the rockery, which is getting terribly crowded. Part of the problem is that the hellebores just love it here and will be the size of a bushel basket before long. Considering that, I will move the hellebores elsewhere and use their space for primulas. So too, the wild flowers and various forms of trillium will be moved to the more wooded areas of the gardens. The one cultivar of hellebore that will definitely stay put is Ivory Prince... in fact, I will bring in more as this works wonderfully here among the primroses and rocks.
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The Northern Lights series of azaleas normally begins with Orchid Lights which has been in bloom for a couple weeks now. White lights are running about a month earlier than usual, and other selections from the series have yet to open...
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Not a lot of planting will be occurring in the gardens for a few days. At two o'clock this morning we got some powerful thunderstorms and received close to four inches of rain in about two hours. To add insult to injury, our north gutters became plugged and it was too dangerous to deal with it during the lightening strikes. The result was hours of pumping out the basement where my woodshop is... a bit of a mess to say the least. We are predicted for more heavy rain through tonight which I hope misses us as the gardens are saturated and I'm not looking forward to missing another night's sleep!To close this post, I'll share some photos from several locations in the gardens...
take care, Larry
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