Wallachiana

 

24 May Weekend in Teza’s Garden

Thanks again to Daniel Hinkley for bringing yet another stunning Disporum to gardeners attention – Disporum uniflorum, which is still widely known as D.flavens is a superb plant native to Korea and northeastern China. It creates columns of bright green, clasping foliage on erect clumping stems to 0.9m, with striking long and narrow, soft yellow flowers, similar in effect to those of Uvularia grandiflora, which are formed in terminal umbels in mid spring to early summer. Later, oblong bluish black fruit are produced in abundance.

She may be a pink ‘Mlokosewitschii’ after all, but in my eyes she is divine! A delicate single flowering form that this year has presented me with four flowers!

My Bletilla is blooming. A Chinese terrestrial orchid that is rather easy to grow, its only demand being humus rich soil in partial shade, Bletilla needs to be included in more woodland garden plans. Long, lance like, slightly pleated foliage is handsome all summer long and the flowers, with a true orchid like pouting lower lip can sometimes appear two or three to a stem.

  The Rare and Unusual border is a mass of colour and texture, predominantly blue, green and fabulously chartreuse! Guess its not hard to tell who the caretaker is!

Cory Blue Panda is that you? Of course it is…. who else were you expecting? Fingers crossed that he decides to grace me with his electrifying handsomeness this year! He can be downright Divaesque when he wants to be…..

  I cannot post without including my beloved Epimedium…. their bloom time is so relatively short [with the species I favor at least!] and there isn’t a moment when they don’t make me smile!

The dainty flowers of Epimedium can be seen at the base of Tulipa saxatilis – my all time favourite within a genus that by right should be close to my Dutch heart. Oddly not!

Awww yeah! Hairy leaves can only mean one thing. Okay, maybe two but the other info might fall under the TMI category so I will refrain. I am beyond words thrilled to see that Meconopsis x sheldonii ‘Lingholm’ has overwintered for me.

I am determined to have a yellow flowering Paeonia in the garden this year, and it looks like Paeonia x ‘Going Bananas’ [an Itoh hybrid] might just provide yet another ‘Sweet Baby Jesus’ moment! Stay tuned. In the meantime, is his foliage not to die for!

I love having a heron [okay, so he’s not blue!] that lives in the garden all year long!

The truly serpent like presence of Arisaema thunbergii var Urashima is always a welcome sight for a plantaholic who still considers this to be his first identified genus at the tender age of seven!

   Mark me impressed! I have always loved Dryopteris wallachiana, but after this past week, spent watching his amazing fronds unfurl, I now have a new favourite fern! Judging from the photo below, he is nowhere close to being finished with the unfurling!

Cercis canadensis ‘Greswan’ [Burgundy Hearts] is showing us why it was given this moniker! I have been enamored of his more tender cousin ‘Forest Pansy’ for years, and didn’t think twice about snatching this one up when I stumbled across it last week on a nursery crawl with my boss!

It has been an incredible 24 May long weekend – perfect gardening weather meant record sales at the nursery, and also allowed for me to get the last of the compost spread, the new trees potted/planted and still allow me time to get up close and personal with the kids!

‘I Think I Need an Intervention!’

It was the plant that haunted my dreams. With its deeply pleated,fan shaped foliage, so similar to an Elizabethan collar, and sublime pink and white flowers that look like some form of sugary confectionary, I knew that one day it would be mine! I’m taking about Cypripedium formosanum, and on Thursday morning, during a whirlwind trip to Lost Horizons, destiny intervened [perhaps this is the intervention I was talking about?] and our paths crossed long enough for me to grab one up and add it to my treasure trove! One can never visit this superlative woodland nursery without coming away with a clutch of rare and unusual beauties!

A Daniel Hinkley collection of Disporum uniflorum – one that he says outperforms the more common D. flavens. I adore the genus, and from the looks of this swollen bud, it is going to be a showstopper when it unveils its acid yellow pendulous blooms!

  The sublime Japanese terrestrial orchid Bletilla striata is about to bloom. Its divine two tone flowers with their petulant lower lip are always a conversation starter in the garden!'

Acer shirasawanum ‘Aureum’ was the plant that initiated the term ‘Fabulously chartreuse’ for me, so it should come as no surprise that it should make its way into the garden in a most dramatic manner! Having it on my veranda is like waking up every morning to sunshine! I can’t imagine there being too many dreary days with this dazzler around!

On a recent plant shopping expedition I came face to face with yet another one of my ultimate wishlist plants – Cercis canadensis ‘Greswan’ – an improved selection of ‘Forest Pansy.’ Deep purple, heart shaped foliage emerges once these charming pink flowers dissipate for the season, and the tree itself is said to be hardier by a full zone when compared against ‘Forest Pansy’ which is music to this addict’s ear! Yup. It too came home with me!

A postage stamp sized property insinuates itself when choosing trees and shrubs. Such was the case with Larix kaempferi ‘Little Bogle’ – an extremely contorted semi dwarf selection of yet another favourite genus! His diminutive stature was the complete opposite of his ‘larger’ cousin Larix decidua ‘Horstmann’s Recurva’ which resides on the other side of the garage. I enjoy when my ‘family’ can incorporate cousins within various genera!

Azalea ‘Northern Lights’ won me over with her sublime pink blooms. I don’t have a lot of pink in the garden and was feeling girlish delight when we crossed paths like strangers.

One of my avourite plant combinations combines Diphylleia cymosa and Syneilesis aconitifolia – combining large palmate leaves with deeply lobed, shredded foliage. The combination has always stopped visitors to the garden dead in their tracks!

I came close to losing Disporum brachystemon last year through sheer carelessness, but managed to save it – luckily so, as it appears to be ready to bloom. I love its rich wine coloured flowers! Now I must patiently wait for it to bulk up for me. There is a staggeringly stupendous specimen planting at Lost Horizons that first brought this amazing plant to my attention!

  Sweet Baby Jesus, who’s the dude with the dirty fingernails! The above two photos are of Lilium martagon, both of which appear to be building up blooms. One I have had for close to five years, and the other was yet another divine treasure that made its way home with me on Thursday!

The diminutive Polygonatum verticcilatum has bulked up considerably over the past winter. One of my all time favourite genera, I seem to find one or two new selections every year! I wonder what will find its way home with me this year?

 As promised in the last post, here are some of the adorable Epimedium blooms that continue to captivate me this year!

Epimedium ‘Windfire’ literally brought me to my knees in ‘hoophouse d’ on my Thursday morning sojourn to Lost Horizons. I want to say it is new to his collection this year. Just look at those amazing flowers!

Loree, is my blatant attempt at seduction working, even remotely on some subconscious level?

Sweet Baby Jesus, look at the time! I need to be up and helping Sasha and Jon with the morning watering before the crowds descend. Thanks for dropping by! It feels so good to have the camera in working order again….. now about that intervention!