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| Magnolia 'Toro' |
When we were young we so loved huge sweeps of color and we still do... but we've also changed... matured, grown up as it were. We've come to appreciate the adopted ones in the garden in a different way... the individual blooms, the tiny alpines, the shy bloomers... even our little ones who show their shy personalities for only a day or two out of the entire year are appreciated all the more for their reserved and demure natures. Our 'children' have come to us from all over the world and we in turn have come to love them all... we want to meet their needs and protect them as best we can, for the more diverse our 'family', the happier we are, overflowing with joy and appreciation for the opportunity to have them close at hand.
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| Diminutive early daffodils |
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| Magnolia 'Pink Perfection' with 40 tepals |
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| Chionadoxa luciliae |
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| Magnolia stellata |
Two forms of Magnolia soulagiana
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| Anemone pulsatilla |
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| Hellebore |
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| Lathyrus vernus 'Alboroseus' |
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| Evergreen azalea |
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| Veronica 'Waterperry Blue' |
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| Syringa |
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| Magnolia 'Daybreak' |
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| Dicentra spectabilis 'Valentine' |
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| Camassia |
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| Rhododendron 'Wyandach Pink' |
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| Magnolia 'RoseAnne' |
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| Dianthus gratianopolitamus 'La Bourboule' |
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| Eranthus hyemalis |
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| Azalea hino-crimson |
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| Hellebore 'Pink Picotee' |
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| Magnolia 'Simple Pleasures' |
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| Calycanthus 'Hartlage Wine' |
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| Tree Peony 'Hesphestos' |
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| Aquilegia 'Cameo' |
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| Clematis 'The President' |
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| Abies koreana 'Horstmann's Silberlocke' |
As I gaze out our windows and anticipate two more large snowfalls in the next few days, I find myself being thankful... could we be in line for a normal winter this year, and more importantly, will we have to worry about drought again? Hopefully not as we have been getting a wonderful amount of moisture for the past several months. With any luck at all, we'll have 6-7 more weeks of winter followed by a spring without major freezes. I will attempt to amuse myself with more photos from our plant family album and hopefully they will bring you a bit of pleasure as well.
Take care, Larry
Croci
14 comments:
Hi Larry...I really enjoyed this post. The pictures are beautiful. I am so looking forward to seeing more of your garden in spring!
Almost too much Larry! Such a breathtaking sampling of your work with God in the gardens. Thanks for sharing! Carol and I hope we can get there in person again one of these (spring or summer) days! :)
Beautiful pictures, I especially love the crocus. I am keeping my fingers crossed that your wishes for the weather turn out to be true. Certainly we are getting closer to ending the drought.
You have a wonderful, handsom family Larry! I just adore magnolias, but as you probably can guess, in my garden there is no room for one of these big trees. For me it is Magnolia soulagiana which is THE magnolia, although there are many other pretty magnolias too, but there is just something about the flowers that makes them stand out for me. 'Simple Pleasures' was really pretty.
I hope you will get a 'normal' spring this year, we are having a 'cold' spring here in London, it snowed again today, although not much, but it is very cold and everything has slowed down - again.
In the mean time, lovely to see all your spring photos :-)
Spring...just around the corner. Thank you for reminding me in your photos. All, so beautiful.
Beautiful photography!
Thanks for visiting my blog. I love your photographs, will drop by again
Wonderful posting, Larry. I love the idea of plants being part of the family. I'll look at my own plants differently now. P. x
Ah, you have Hesphestos - I keep looking at that one in the White Flower Farm catalog and wondering if I have a place for it! Lovely. With all your magnolias, have you grown 'Black Tulip'? I've been drooling over it, but it seems to bloom early for a magnolia and I wonder if my bottom-of-the-valley late frosts would zap it each year.
Black Tulip doesn't work here... it's not as hardy as listed. If you want hardy, late blooming magnolias with 4-6 weeks of bloom, look at Song Sparrow Nursery (Avalon, Wi.) on the web. The very best are the ones hybridized by Dennis Ledvina and he will be listed as the hybridizer. There are a few other nurseries that carry my friend Dennis' plants as he is just starting to be known throughout the world. He did a recent article on magnolias for the British Horticultural Journal. I will check your web site and see if your e-mail is there... if so, I'll send photos of Hesphestos... it's gorgeous when covered with blooms and I'll try and send some mag info as well. Larry
Larry, thanks so much for the info on Black Tulip. I'll just admire it online, I guess. I don't have my email listed in an effort to avoid spam, but it's mama woolley at yahoo dot com, no spaces. I'd love photos of Hesphestos to convince me to shell out $159 or whatever they're going for now :-)
I'm so glad I popped over as I finally saw your Lathyrus vernus 'Alboroseus'. Oh it's such a pretty colour and so dainty looking. Now I wonder if I can source that here in the UK to grow alongside my purple vernus.
Thanks for reminding me of what is coming soon in my garden. You have a lot of my favorites here. Questions: I have never grown Pulsatilla successfully for more than a couple of years. What's the secret? Also my 'Daybreak' magnolia does not have any big furry buds on it that I am used to seeing when magnolias are going to flower. I planted it last spring but it is quite large. Do they swell late than other varieties?
Carolyn... My pulsatillas are growing and seeding at the edge of the rockery... the soil is rich and fairly heavy loam and there is pea gravel about their crowns. They have even seeded into a piece of real hypertuffa that I have near by. The Daybreak in my yard took a very long time to develop and start blooming... buds are intermediate in size. I have noticed that some of the hybrids that have daybreak in the parentage can sometimes take a long time to begin blooming... I'm thinking particularly of the marvelous Rosemarie which had its first blooms for me this past season after perhaps ten years in the garden... it was worth that wait I can assure you. My attitude has become... "buy the magnolias now and see them bloom in this lifetime!" Larry
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