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What a season for The Bride pearlbush! Aptly named, it continues to amaze with its blooms of purest white, spilling over, like a trailing wedding gown. How delicious!
I was on the radio thanks to WHYY, so thanks for listening!
After a long cool stretch and a couple of false starts it seems as if spring has finally arrived in the Delaware Valley But one resident whose work depends on the weather wishes winter had hung
Happy Easter blooms!
Back home in DC this weekend, my family and I took a walk in the Palisades neighborhood where we saw this pussy willow and Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick in bloom. We also went to McCrillis Gardens in Bethesda and found camelias, Korean azaleas, stachyurus, and winterhazel in bloom.
This must be the sweetest time of the year.
Because my nose led me around the neighborhood I grew up in to all these spring beauties. Paper bush, pieris, daphne, magnolias, and my favorite - the unassuming fragrant honeysuckle.
Love this hellebore!, Don’t know the name but will soon….
…Well, it’s a mystery. This hellebore came from Clearview Nursery as a freebie, and its name is somewhere deep in the “paperwork.”
A stroll through Mt. Airy reveals a carpet of Crocus tommasinianus! How could one not smile, and think, spring is here and all is good in the world.
Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’ in the Cut Flower Garden
Papaver orientale ‘Patty’s Plum’ in the Cut Flower Garden
Jenkins Arboretum
The interns and I took a field trip over to Jenkins Arboretum a couple weeks ago to see their late spring display.
The Rhododendron collection is the reason most people come to Jenkins in the spring. I couldn’t believe how many varieties we saw - apparently over 5,000 rhododendrons, azaleas, and hybrids from around the world!
Other plants of interest included a great old specimen of Buttonbush down by the pond - covered in moss and contorted like some lurking swamp creature. Jenkins has beautiful stands of native plants - huge swaths of wild ginger, tiarella, golden ragwort (Packera aurea), mayapple, maidenhair fern, cedaline poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), and native pachysandra. Plus, they’re all meticulously labeled, so it’s a great learning library of plants.
Tree Peonies!
I was in peony heaven this afternoon during a tour the Scott Arboretum gave of their tree peony collection. Director of Grounds Jeff Jabco gave a thorough survey of the peonies currently flowering on campus - predominantly tree peonies in addition to some intersectional (Itoh) and herbaceous types. The Itoh peonies were robust with gorgeous green foliage, and some of the standouts were ‘Scarlet Heaven’ and ’Black Panther.’
My favorites of the tree peonies included ‘Nike,’ a Saunders hybrid with yellow crepe-paper petals with magenta flares and many bright yellow stamens. The Japanese tree peony ‘Rimbo’ held magenta-purple double flowers above its foliage. ‘Chinese Dragon’ had wonderful cut-leaf foliage; ‘Vesuvian’ was a deep, dark double burgundy; and the species Paeonia rockii was a bright white with deep magenta flares.
The collection was stunning - over 80 varieties of tree peonies! The recent cool, wet weather had prolonged their flowering, while many others were just in bud. It’s well worth more visits to view the next wave of blooms.
