Color for the Weekend: Pink

Pink flower of Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety' scattered in the Shade Path Garden. White variegated Sedum 'Frosty Morn' stands out among the blue Hosta and palmated Geranium foliage.

 A few combinations from around our garden this weekend, all with a little pink...

Iris Combinations for May

A pale yellow iris with pale pink neighbors by our backyard gate.

I am loving our bearded iris this spring! They had a dry, hot summer last year, and so they are rewarding us with some beautiful flowers in our zone 5, Pennsylvania garden.

The irises by the back gate (above) were a gift from some family friends a few years ago; we invited them to dinner and they arrived with a trunk full of plants! After getting settled over the past two years, growing roots and cooking in the heat, they finally revealed their flower color this past week. I am enchanted by their pale yellow, sweetly scented blooms. And the combination here could not be nicer: pale pink dame's rockets (Hesperis matronalis) and Granny's bonnet-type columbine (Aquilegia).

Scenes from the Shade Path Garden

The Shade Path garden: Variegated Solomon Seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum') in front of the blue flowers of Brunnera 'Jack Frost'.

Here are some views of our Shade Path garden from the past couple of weeks. I love when it turns to this blue and white phase... so peaceful...

Chanticleer's Gravel Garden in Spring

Warm spring display at Chanticleer's Gravel Garden

More beautiful April views from Chanticleer this week at WMG. I hope you are not tired of it yet! There were just so many pretty flowers out to play in the spring sunshine last year, and I cannot bear to leave these photos sit on just my computer any longer. :)

These photos show just a small, upper section of the Gravel garden. The entire Gravel garden  encompasses quite a large area at Chanticleer as you descend to the ponds. After the lush woodland, this is a sunnier spot all in orange, red and white. The blue grass foliage adds depth to this basically warm floral palette.

Visit to Carolyn's Shade Gardens in Bryn Mawr, PA

View of Carolyn's Shade Gardens

Pam and I had a wonderful visit to see Carolyn at her gardens in April. What a beautiful garden! And certainly a plant lover's delight.

One of the defining characteristics of Carolyn's garden are all of the amazing, old trees around her property. No wonder she has found a love for shade gardening! The trees act as a luxuriant setting for everything else. Other people may have cut trees down for more sun exposure, but I am thankful that she instead created gardens that fit her surroundings and even added many more beautiful trees. Creativity is sometimes best displayed when we learn to work with a seeming "garden challenge." 

Views from the Shade Path Garden

Shade Path Garden at Gilmore Gardens, May 2012.

The Shade Path Garden is in our side yard. It is 32 feet in length with the left border being 5 1/2 feet wide at the widest point, and the right border being 7 feet wide.  The grass path is wider at the Circle Lawn to create a longer looking perspective down the length of the path to the gate.

Campanula 'Tinkerbell'

Gardening in Pennsylvania ~ GBBD May 2012

Our picket fence covered in a red Clematis 'Earnest Markham' and heavenly-scented dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis). Potted Allium 'Purple Sensation' on the steps.

There are tons of late spring blooms for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day in our Pennsylvania, Zone 5 garden. We are at least three weeks ahead of schedule, with many plants blooming now that usually do not have their day well into June. Most of the tulips are gone as of about a week ago, though the late single Tulip 'Cum Laude' is just dropping its petals this week. The phlox scents the whole yard right now.

One of my favorite large-flowered Clematis, C. 'John Warren' on the flower trellis in the Driveway Garden.

Fall Gardening Task #3: Move and Thin Perennial Seedlings

Oh, what a wonderful sight!

Columbine (Aquilegia) seedlings around the Circle Lawn

Baby flowers everywhere. But we want them all to thrive, instead of smothering each other.  And there are some areas in the garden that are void of these Columbine (Aquilegia) beauties. The solution is simple: pluck them out with a japanese knife (my favorite tool) or a trowel and set them to growing in the bare areas.

This is my favorite kind of gardening. Leisurely.

Here, there and everywhere amongst the geraniums, sedums and turf.

Firstly, it is always better to transplant little babies like these on cloudy or rainy days in spring or fall. 

Do not be afraid to pop them out, even large sections of seedlings. I usually put them in a large pot (steer clear the holes or use a box instead!), divide them apart from each other and then walk around the rest of the garden thinking about where a nice patch of columbine would add some color at the end of May. 

Be sure the soil in their new home is loose, not compacted. Dig tiny holes and be sure that, when you put them in, they are not planted too deeply.  Their tiny crowns need to be just at soil level. If you do not have the advantage of rain after planting, then give them a gentle, tiny sprinkle for their new tiny hole.  I prefer swaths of flowers, so I often plant several seedlings in the same area... some times dozens in a larger area.

Columbine, forget-me-nots and foxglove foliage in May this year.

In the fall, I thin my columbine (Aquilegia), forget-me-nots (Myosotis) and foxgloves (Digitalis). I might also find other little babies that I would like to have more of around the base of their parent plants. Large sections of my garden were covered in just a few years with the extra care in moving these seedling babies around.

You will be richly rewarded for your cold, rainy work come next year!

Read more from the Fall Gardening Tasks series:
#1 Planting Lavender in wet climates
#2 New perennials for fall planting

Aquilegia assortment

Columbine (Aquilegia hyb.) is a wonderful cottage flower. 
It offers height for the early summer garden, which is prefect for peering through when planted at the front of the boarder. Its dainty blooms dance on the breeze... and its colors and forms seem endless. And, as is true of most historical cottage flowers, they grow from seed very easily, given some nurture.

Here they are dancing in our Shade Path garden. They are a great succession planting, filling the gap from Narcissus 'Thalia' to the start of the foxgloves (which you can see shooting up in this May 30th photo).

 The only named variety I have, Aquilegia 'Nora Barlow'.

View from the sidewalk with the Aquilegia in the background of the beginning foxgloves. This tree is also slowly being covered by a climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala petiolaris) and Clematis 'Perle de Azur'.

See more of the Shade Path in May... or June last year.

The Shade Path throughout May 2011

It still has its cloud of forget-me-nots, 
      but is wearing more pink these days.
Here is some of what cam be seen in this side garden at Gilmore Gardens in mid to late May...

These photos were taken May 10th. Narcissus 'Thalia' is still looking elegant and scenting the path (more so as they age, I noticed). Everything is still looking pretty prim and proper, not too much sprawling going on. 

N. 'Thalia' nods along over the forget-me-nots (Mysotis) with white bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis alba) on the left side...

and the right (which is street-side)...

 Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) running by the foundation wall.

 Just days later, on May 19th, and everything has jumped ahead. The daffodils are long gone, the forget-me-nots billowing, and everywhere foxgloves are shooting up getting ready for their June show. The scented Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety' is spread through out the Shade Path.  I love its show of rich pink flowers at this time of year. They used to bloom with my red/pink rhododendrons, which were miserable with the extreme dryness of this area, at least that is my assumption. They were removed this spring and replaced by a shrub, for which I have long wanted to find a spot. Keep reading :)...

Purple foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) are shooting up by the maple tree, not minding the dry shade.  The yellow foxglove (Digitalis grandiflora) are also scattered everywhere in this area. This photo shows the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea anomala petiolaris) that has a good start up the right of the maple tree... with Clematis 'Perle de Azur' climbing along with it.  It will be a few years till these are looking pretty together. More to look forward to! The classic Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa 'Aureola') is still my favorite, though many new colored varieties are on the market.  It is seen here in the lower right corner. Sometimes restraint in color is better I think than having every this wildly variegated.

That said, here is my new favorite variegated plant (sigh smile).  Jacob's ladder (Polemonium 'Touch of Class'), is just a pretty little plant, and that is before it has even flowered! I love it here with the blue and white.

Here is the classic woodland version of Jacob's ladder (just plain Polemonium), which I love for its delicate beauty also. I usually end up ripping off extra hosta leaves at this time of year to make sure that it is not overwhelmed. Later it goes dormant, so the hosta makes other leaves to cover its neighbor's weaknesses. 

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Bevan's Variety' dancing with the forget-me-nots (Mysotis). A single flower below.

And my new shrub is...

The Oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia). I am excited to have room for it here by the foundation.  It already fits the spot so well and I look forward to it maturing the next few years.

An foliage tapestry... white streaked hostas, geraniums, a small rhododendron in the center and some Japanese anemone foliage in the top left.

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris 'Nora Barlow') gracing the path. Several other varieties are along the Shade Path, some still waiting to make their appearance. 

A dark purple variety...

And lastly, the euphorbia adds a hit of charteruse (one of my favorites!) to the right of the path. I like it next to the blue hosta.