Singing in the Garden

CURRENT Singing in the Garden

e8b9bdbe-96a5-11e4-94ec-22000a4f82a6-Yellows-Mellow

Are The Yellows Mellow? Some, Not All

The color has life throughout the growing year, and beyond.
Top Left: Wingstem’s distinctive seed clusters. Top Right: Milkweed pods releasing fluff-borne seeds to ride the wind. Bottom Left: Seedheads of Queen Anne’s Lacelook like little birds’ nests. Bottom Center: Asters have seeds with fluffy parachutes to carry them on the wind. Bottom Right: The bowed seedhead of torch tithonia (Mexican sunflower)

Mountain Garden: Going to Seed

The magic of seeds goes beyond their amazing numbers and viability. They’re also, in many cases, simply beautiful.
Left: Old-fashioned rambling roses, accidentally spared, bloomed exuberantly around and over the old mulberry stump. Right: The spidery blooms of witch hazel appear in late October, lighting up the woods as autumn’s foliage fades.

Mountain Garden: Flexibility Pays Dividends

In what might be called the “garden whisperer” approach, there’s much to be said for letting the plants have a role in the plans.
The white flowers, clumped along the stem, are easy to miss. They expand into clusters of spiky scarlet seedpods containing ricin-laced “beans.”

Mountain Garden: Holy Moly! It’s a Castor Oil Plant

The plant’s poisonous seeds don’t preclude growing “something out of maurice sendak’s imagination.”
Worth the wait: A passed-along rhizome produced just leaves for several years. Then this.

Mountain Garden: Irresistable Irises

Easy to grow, easy to keep and easy to look at, bearded irises have a long history of beauty.

Departments

CALENDAR OF EVENTS