Bloom Day – June 2009 June 15, 2009

The blooms are a bit sparse right now: the cool spring has delayed things like the hydrangeas and swamp marsh phlox.  Nevertheless, there are things blooming…..

….like thyme and a mystery yellow-flowered groundcover inherited from the previous homeowner.  Any ideas about what this could be?

Wild iris (Iris shrevei)

Also,

• Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)
• Canada anemone (Anemone canadensis)
• Peonies
• Petunias
• Lavender ‘Blue Cushion’
• Chives

There are also many things setting fruit right now….

….like the Baptisia australis. I wonder if I should be deadheading this?

Also,

• raspberries
• invasive bittersweet (all the berries will end up in a village compost heap, believe me!)
• ‘Autumn Brilliance’ serviceberry (pictures when they start ripening)
• Celandine poppies

On the down side of things, the wild hyacinth looks about dead – it never bloomed this year. The strawberries are spreading everywhere, but don’t seem to be coughing up any fruits, darn it!  But pretty much everything else is going great guns, if a week or two behind their normal schedule.

Bittersweet update June 13, 2009

I was worried earlier about how long it would take for the new native bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) I planted last fall to cover the trellis. I’m pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the new stuff is growing!  The older non-native (C. orbiculatus) plant is on the left, the native plant is on the right.  With only a couple of months of growth, it’s over halfway up the trellis.  The folks at Moonshine Designs raised some very healthy plants!  I’m continuing to cut back the invasive plant as much as possible, leaving just enough so the trellis doesn’t look barren.  I’m hoping to have all of the orbiculatus out of here by the end of the year.

Do note that you can really tell the difference between the leaves of the invasive versus the native in the photo above.  The invasive’s leaves are rounder, thicker, and glossier than the natives.  There’s also a subtle difference in the distribution of the flowers.

Shades of Green June 10, 2009

A cool and wet spring/early summer means that everything is very lushly green.

The sunny bed by the bittersweet (more about that later) is full of different green shades and textures.  The Proven Winners petunia from Spring Fling provides a bit of color among all the herbs.

The a/c hasn’t been turned on yet this year, so a Celandine poppy is growing in a highly unlikely position. Guess it’s shade tolerant, huh?

Summer is here June 7, 2009

Summer has arrived in Chicago, so it’s finally time to start using the patio.  Nothing is quite as relaxing as sipping wine while listening to the waterfall.

The wild irises (Iris shrevei) are blooming both in the pond and out of it. The pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) is poking up above the water, and the lizard’s tail (Saururus cernuus) has spread over quite a bit of the pond.

On the other side of the pond, the blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) is almost done blooming. The goldfish have lost their springtime shyness, and are now begging for food every time a human wanders near the edge of the pond.

The Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla) is still blooming, amazingly enough.  The vine is having a great year, and may take over the entire garage trellis.

Spring Fling, Days 2 & 3 June 1, 2009

Whew – all the hubbub with Spring Fling kept me from posting more photos until now. I kept forgetting my camera, too, so this is yet more iPhone as landscape camera.

What with the bus running late and Rick Bayless‘ garden being “my” event, I didn’t take any pictures there. Other gardeners were more on the ball and took loads of pictures and got the word from Bill Shores about urban organic gardening. Lunch at Andies was delicious, and then we got to poke around Carolyn Gail’s lovely garden and home. Her goldfish are large and gorgeous – I can only hope my shubunkins look like hers eventually.

Next, we stopped at the Ginkgo community garden to see some more urban organic food gardening. I was enamored with vine-twined shed, along with the healthy gardens and big fruit trees in an open lot in Wrigleyville.

Sunday, a few sturdy souls headed out to Garfield Park Conservatory, a jewel on the West Side. I can’t get enough of Jens Jensen’s fern room there, although it’s not as compelling now as it is in February.  (Jens Jensen also designed the big park straddling the continental divide just a few blocks west of my house.  Have I mentioned how much I love living in Oak Park?)

The outdoor gardens there were gorgeous, although the lily pond doesn’t appear to be up and running yet. I was charmed by the beds of chive flowers.

I hope everyone had a good time visiting Chicago. It was exhausting for all of the committee members, but I think it was rewarding too. I’m glad I met so many of you in person, and I have a lot more blogs to follow now!

Spring Fling, Day 1 May 29, 2009

The first day of Spring Fling had a couple of glitches (including my forgetting my camera), but it was otherwise a fine day. I met all sorts of interesting people whose name I may not remember and saw some amazing things at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Above is a field of Icelandic poppies near the walled English garden, taken with my phone.

I’m a big fan of Japanese garden design, particularly the concept of making a space look much larger than it actually is (very key for a small yard like mine).

The irises near the zigzag bridge are much more stunning than my phone’s camera reveals.  And I think I want to go live in the Shoin building.

Thank you, CBG, for hosting us and thank you, Spring Fling bloggers, for venturing through the streets at rush hour to take the train up there! Tomorrow’s bus ride should involve a lot less schlepping.

Baptisia blooming May 23, 2009

You wouldn’t know it from this blog, but the garden is looking really nice this May.  I can only blame all the planning we’re doing to make sure that Spring Fling will be fantastic!

The blue false indigo (Baptisia australis) is finally blooming – I planted it several years ago and haven’t seen any flowers on it until now.  I’ve seen ones that were 4 feet tall and 5 feet across, so it still has some growing to do.

Pruning is on the agenda for the holiday weekend. The grape woodbine isn’t the only plant that needs it, but it probably needs it the most before the whole back yard gets engulfed by it.

The pond is looking great now that the filters are cleaned and it’s been restocked with bacteria. The pickerel rush and lizard’s tail is just emerging above the surface of the water. On an expedition to buy more shubunkins, we also snagged this corkscrew rush. I don’t believe the fish are actually interested in the rush so much as they think a person hovering around the pond ought to toss in a few food flakes.

Bloom Day – May 2009 May 15, 2009

The bulbs are done, the native spring ephemerals are finishing up, and the perennials are going great guns.  It’s May!

In bloom:

• Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
• strawberry



• (wild) columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)



• Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla)



• wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)
• Celandine poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum)
• violets: both ordinary and Labrador



• prairie trillium (Trillium recurvatum)
• ornamental allium
• lilies of the valley



• blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)



• shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia)
• Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans)
• bishop’s cap (Mitella diphylla)



• Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

This is roughly where we were a year ago, although I swear the columbine are particularly huge this year. Coming soon: peonies, irises, baptisia (for the first time ever) and even more from the Celandine poppies and wild geraniums.  The forsythia never bloomed this spring despite loads of buds.

Serviceberry in bloom April 29, 2009

Last year, I didn’t get a picture of the “Autumn Brilliance” serviceberry while it was in bloom, and vowed not to let that happen again.

I was all set to make a post showing just how quickly the blossoms fade, and darn it all if they haven’t lasted for the past 5 days!

Unlike last year, when they came and went within 12 hours, the blooms this year have been prolonged by (I presume) the cold and damp weather that’s been alternating with warm and damp weather the past couple of weeks.  They’re just about done now, though, and I hope we still get a bumper crop of berries for the birds come June.

Pond gunk and prettier stuff April 23, 2009

In my previous post about the annual pond cleanout, I neglected to show the nasty pond gunk that convinced me that it was time to get cracking:

Now imagine that you could pull up about 10 times that amount each time you swept a net over the bottom of the pond, and no matter how much you pulled out, the next day there would be even more. It becomes pretty clear that it’s time to clean it out! Now that the cleanout is complete and I’m doing a twice a day bacteria seeding of the biofalls, this was about the worst of it. It’ll keep getting better as it warms up and the bacteria get to work.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the garden, it’s starting to look nice. Not lush, but nice.

The Autumn Brilliance serviceberry looks like it’s about to bloom, although the buds are photogenic as well.  I missed the short window of blooms last year, but I’m determined to get pictures this year.