Somewhere between spring and summer....

Cypripedium 'Aki'

Cypripedium 'Michael'

Cypripedium 'PKP2'

Cypripedium 'PKP2'

A favorite time of the year for me is when the gardens are passing from masses of spring bloom towards the first major blooming period of early summer. This is a time of lush quiet when texture is king. After the bloom of flowering crab apples and magnolias, there comes a time when hostas are at their best and conifers are putting on soft new growth in shades of green, blue, and gold. Beech trees have just leafed out and woodland plants are just going over. Temperatures return to the cooler side of the spectrum and large amounts of rain nourish the lush green of the lawns that define the garden beds. This is when it hits me... these gardens are pretty special in their full foliaged glory... why do I get concerned at times...

Pictured above are three of the four living cypripediums that are in bloom this season... a fourth is on the small side, not blooming, but looking healthy enough. Planting six of these a year and a half ago was an expensive experiment, not only reflecting the cost of the plants, but also the preparation of their location. I probably will add more however, as I am encouraged by my success so far...

4" of rain in 24 hours equals hosta ecstacy!

Early June, prior to bloom is to my way of thinking the best time for hostas... fresh and brightly colored foliage with no insect damage is a rewarding sight in the gardens...

Among others.... hostas 'Great Arrival' in center and 'Rascal' on right

'Dawn's Early Light' is brilliant in the early morning sun... no photo can do it justice...

Hosta 'Blue Angel'

Is it cheating? If you want an impressive hosta display, try planting in triads... as the three fill in they will take on the appearance of a single very large clump... I don't always do this but occasionally I do and it's a very effective technique...

A favorite single herbaceous peony that stands well at 3' in height

Departing azaleas and arriving peonies with Picea pungens 'Procumbens'

Had the winter not played havoc with the old wood of the tree peonies, they would be blooming now... we do have a few blossoms here and there however. As it is, the next round of herbaceous peonies are just coming into bloom... I am extremely impressed with the appearance and bud count of the intersectionals however... they should be amazing this year...

Acer x pseudosieboldianum 'North Wind'

I'm one of those gardeners who is having minimal success with Japanese maples... if not the cold, disease has also been a problem... there is now a solution in a zone 4 hardy cross of the Korean maple (pseudosieboldianum) and Japanese Maple. I got the plant above, 'Northwind' last spring and have now purchased another larger one as well... fall color is a brilliant orange scarlet. I also have a new 'Arctic Jade' from the same series that has a great Japanese maple form... the tree has large deeply cut leaves similar to 'Acontifolium' and fall color is red and orange in combination. While not cheap, these trees are very dependable and I suspect my days of taking chances on less hardy Japanese maples are past. Both are from the 'Jack Frost' series and grow broadly upright ....

The time for staking the delphiniums is close at hand as I expect to see bloom stalks arising any time now... these New Millennium series out of New Zealand really are quite amazing! Lush three year old plants after one of the wettest falls I can remember in many years, coldest winter, and wet spring... and still healthy. I probably could manage without staking but I really like my delphiniums as perfectly straight as I can get them. There's another lesson to be had in the photo above... all over the upper midwest I'm seeing tremendously desiccated taxus (yews)... a possible solution is to plant these lower growing 'Tauntoni'... no burn whatsoever...

Pinus contorta 'Taylor's Sunburst'

Taylor's Sunburst (a lodgepole pine discovered in the Colorado Rockies) matures at about 15' with 10' of width and can be kept smaller with candling. The yellow gold of the new foliage will last several weeks and I personally look forward to the time when it starts to fruit in red.... hasn't occurred yet as my six foot tree is young. Taylor's Sunburst is zone 4 hardy and should live over 60 years... 

'Taylor's Sunburst' with Acer palmatum 'Trompenburg'

I've grown Acer palmatum 'Trompenburg' from a small 'stick' over several years and I must say that it has proven quite hardy for me... of course there are a number of factors that could figure into this, but so far, this has proven one of my best Japanese maple performers, even after the harshness of this past winter...

Picea glauca 'Pendula'

The tall thin conifer on the right in the above photo may be my very favorite of all the ones I grow... I bought this plant as a foot tall tree and it has to be approaching 18' by now.... it keeps curving over and then sending a new leader, making it quite an odd show piece. These are the exclamation points of my gardens and I now own six of them after having purchased two more that are at this very moment waiting to be planted....

Dianthus hybrida 'La Bourboule'

We are coming into the season of dianthus and I especially enjoy the small ones blooming in 5" mats in the rock gardens. Their tiny gray green leaves give the appearance of pads of moss and are a joy even when out of bloom. Pictured above is 'La Bourboule', a hybrid with one of its parents being Dianthus gratianopolitanus, it has won the Royal Horticultural Award of Garden Merit. Shearing will encourage blooms from June through August, it is zone 4 hardy, and greatly prefers fertile soil with excellent drainage as in a rock garden...

Metasequoia glybtostroboides 'Ogon'

If you follow me on FB, you may have seen me inquiring about how to deal with this yellow foliaged Dawn Redwood. Also known as 'Gold Rush', I was finding conflicting information regarding it's ultimate size especially, but also regarding its cultural requirements. I was greatly surprised and appreciative of a phone call from Rich Eyre (well known conifer expert) of Foxwillow Pines in Woodstock, Illinois. Rich said that I should figure on the width being 25% of the height. That said, the species basically reaches 100 feet and a yellow form such as this can be expected to do less, at least in my lifetime, despite being a rapid grower. I decided on this placement because it will be an easy spot to maintain the tree's summer water needs, the good drainage it requires, and its proximity to the blue house. Additionally, shearing is not out of the realm of possibility, as well as raising of the canopy.  Other interesting tidbits on this tree include the fact that 'Ogon' is Japanese for 'golden' and that scientists consider the species a living fossil, claiming it's been on earth for 50,000,000 years... can't say for sure myself since that's a bit out of my area of expertise!!

Work in progress... (Pinus flexilis 'Vanderwolf's Pyramid' is throwing new growth and will be fine!)

By the way... a little advice based on my frustration and experience gardening for over 42 years... nothing is set in concrete. I've gotten a number of Korean firs (Abies koreana) of several cultivars... some miniatures, some dwarfs, and some intermediates. Abies koreana is quite hardy but good drainage is imperative for any measure of success. I also found that many of them prefer partial shade by mid afternoon. I've created several areas for new conifer plantings over the course of the past eight months but nothing "felt" just right when it came to the korean firs. About three days ago I was working on bringing in soil for the new terraces pictured to the rear in the above photo. As I worked it dawned on me that the area immediately behind these reblooming irises was gradually becoming free of hot late afternoon sun as the day progressed, and yet the light was still very good. Throughout the morning, it is bathed in full sunshine. It was an 'aha' moment... I dug out the heavy soil and am presently creating a short retaining wall of about 30' in length. Behind that I will build and deposit a soil mix of peat moss, black dirt, and pine bark... should be perfect for the abies and I will also include some smaller forms of alberta spruces including 'Pixie Dust' and 'Rainbow's End' which will also appreciate being free of late afternoon and winter sun. So... the advice is... study your gardens... even after 42 years one can learn new and exciting things regarding micro-climates and light situations....

Variegated maple

Weeping Larch in training

Few trees are more amazing in early summer than Acer platanoides 'Variegatum' or possibly 'Drummondii' (the tree does fade badly by the end of summer and isn't nearly as attractive, nor does it have decent fall color). I checked out the nursery catalog for the tree I have and it is no longer listed so I'm not certain of the variety. On the positive side, my variegated maple never makes those annoying samaras, seeding itself around... I'm not certain if that is always the case with these maples. On the down side, variegated maples love to create reversions and I have some major ones. Left to their own devices, they grow much more readily than the original tree and will take over to a great extent. When the tree was small, it was easy to contain this problem... much less so now. I just purchased a 12 foot step ladder and a 24 foot pole pruner... this could get interesting!

Clematis

This is my first large flowered blooming clematis of the season growing on the clematis tower. As I look at this photo, I notice the foliage doesn't look just right... a bit blotchy. This is just another in a string of little issues that need my attention, but probably won't get it because other things are more pressing in nature. The joys of gardening on two acres....

The Finnish Rhododendrons are proving their worth this year, being totally untouched by our horrible winter. Other rhodies are pretty much defoliated with very few blooms, but they are sending a ton of new growth buds out and may be better than ever by next season, providing the concept of 'polar vortex' is no longer expressing itself...

Well... I'll say goodbye from the birch walk... I feel like I'm only scratching the surface of what's happening in the gardens... rest assured, progress is being made despite all sorts of interruptions, not the least of which is that my congestive heart failure seems to have returned... despite long days in the gardens, I finally decided I had to deal with it and meds have been increased while other new ones are added... I feel better for sure. I'm also looking at a surgery soon but definitely want to get all the new plants in the ground before I deal with that... I've said it often... 'don't give in' and I'm not about to.... God has been faithful all along the way and I count on Him to keep me going... life is such a blast!! Don't you just love it!

Take care, Larry

The 'birch walk'

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