Three Magnolias

     This week the weather door creaked open, and we experienced glimpses of early summer, with  several days in the 70's, all the way to 80 yesterday. Open windows in late February is not the norm. Friday was an exception. It barely made to 50 with cold, dank air. It never really rained, but a mist fell all day, and I never could seem to get warm. However, it made for some good photo ops on the early blooming magnolias at work. Deciduous magnolias are lovely trees, but not every year is a good one. Often they open early, only to have winter make a comeback, turning their delicate petals brown. I wish I had a garden large enough to allow space for tree that big that only blooms for a long week under the best of circumstances.

Magnolia x 'Todd Gresham'

Magnolia denudata

Magnolia × loebneri 'Leonard Messel'

     No matter the weather you may be experiencing, I do hope you will consider participating in my 2018 Winter Walk-Off. 

Hanami

How leisurely the cherry
blossoms bloom this year, unhurried,
by their doom

Kinu, 1817

A Morning in the Perennial Garden

     This morning I joined a co-worker in the Baker Perennial Garden at work. She was leading two daylily-centric "walk and talks" of the garden in conjunction with the Tidewater Daylily Society's annual show and sale. To make these plants look their best, we went through and deadheaded every daylily in the garden, which took the two of us about 90 minutes. After we were done I took advantage of the beautiful 70 degree weather, and grabbed some shots of the recently groomed photogenic beauties.

     Hemerocallis citrina

     'Cricket Call'

     'El Desperado'

     'All Things to All Men'

      'Green Inferno'

     This is 'VT Purple Passion', and it was bred and introduced by my former employer and local daylily enthusiast, Linda Pinkham. It compliments her 'VT Spirit', which has the school colors of Virgnia Tech. 

     'Sundays with Vernon'

 
     'Summer Fireworks'

     'Premier Surprise'

     'Nona's Garnet Spider'

     'Lord of the Rings'

     'Lime Peel'

      'Land of Cotton'

     Although they were the reason I was there, daylilies were not the only things blooming. Rudbeckia maxima is probably becoming my favorite member of the genus.

     Lilium 'Holland Beauty'

     These hanging baskets have Elymus arenarius (whose color is a dead match for the arbor), 'Carita Cascade Purple' Angelonia, and 'Silver Falls' Dichondra. 

     Verbena boanriensis with Filipendula rubra 'Venusta'

Summer Color III

     This is the final post in a series showing some of what my team created at the Norfolk Botanical Garden last summer. A canal bisects the garden nearly in half, and there are three bridges that get visitors from one side to the other. During the warmer months we hang hay rack planters from two of the bridges, which are filled with annuals. By NATO Bridge we opted for simplicity, and used a combination of just three plants; Asparagus densiflorus 'Myersii', Plectranthus amboinicus 'Variegatus' (Variegated Cuban Oregano), and one of the geraniums (Pelargonium) from the Caliente series, but I can't remember exactly which color.

     For Rose Garden Bridge we wanted a color combination that would be vaguely patriotic, so I could put flags in it for Independence Day and Labor Day. We also wanted it to look good with the surrounding crapemyrtles as a backdrop. However, we did not limit the palette to just three plants. The baskets included blue lyme grass (Leymus arenarius), Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost', Pentas 'Butterfly Red', Evolvulus 'Blue Daze', Dichondra 'Silver Falls', and pink and white Mandevilla.

     The summer before last we created three wall mounted succulent planters that were framed so as to resemble a gallery. While we liked what was created, we wanted improvements for this past summer. One of our talented facilities workers beefed up the frames, made them easier to water, and built two of the planters from scratch. We also switched the frame color from gold to one that complimented the plants better. I think our visitors liked it as well; it became a traffic hazard with so many taking their photos in front of them.

     I started this series back in early February in response to the gray and cold outside. We don't really need it now, as the temperatures have made it feel like we have skipped March and April, and jumped right into May. In the past week or so the local landscape has blossomed into spring with daffodils, magnolias, and the early cherries coming into full bloom. It definitely feels like winter has left the building, but I am not sure the door is locked just yet.

(If you are interested, and I hope that you are, there is still time to join my Winter Walk-Off challenge which ends at midnight on the 19th.)