February Gardenbloggers' Bloom Day

There's not much showing in my garden right now. By not much, I mean any of my wildflower loves, but there are a few delightful non natives that have been in the garden since it's earliest days. Like the golden yellow daffodils that came with the yard. I've added more over the years and I'll have them in bloom until the temperatures soar into the 80s!

The rivers of Crocus tommasinianus that I planted every year have been eaten by hungry chipmunks and voles/mice. Mr I Don't Garden says I don't get to complain since I have invited wildlife into the garden. He's right, I do have a very welcoming sign posted in the front garden, but that doesn't mean, I want them to eat all my plants!

But, being a non-gardener, he doesn't understand how brokenhearted a gardener can feel when she waits all year to see crocus blooms on chilly winter days and instead of a river of the thousands she's planted there are less than a dozen. I know you all understand.

Did I say there were no native wildflowers blooming. How could I forget, Hamamelis vernalis! She's  still in bloom. I do love this beauty. It has the loveliest small orange/yellow/reddish crepe paper streaming petals that furl and unfurl as the temperature falls and rises. They perfume the garden with their sweet clove vanilla scent on warm days. I planted them for the earliest visiting pollinators and for that unforgettable fragrance. Once you smell them, you will, want them in your garden, too.

I love that not only do winter blooming shrubs and trees flower for months, they almost always have some fragrance. How clever of Mother Nature to give winter bloomers that something special to insure that a little fly, gnat or bee will follow the scent and pollinate the flower.
 

 Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' is also in bloom. She's unfurled her spidery crepe paper petals like solar collectors. and they're in full sun receivership, waiting for any early pollinating visitors. Even the marcescence leaves do not detract from her red flowers against the nice blue winter sky. There's speculation that the leaves that cling (until after the last flower petal folds up for the season) actually help protect the blooms from foraging mammals, but, I wonder if they might protect the delicate looking flowers from the bitter cold winds that often arrive when they begin to bloom.

In a few weeks the earliest spring ephemerals will be shining heralds of spring's arrival and I will be back on GBBD to share them. In the meantime, head over to May Dreams Gardens to see lots of other posts celebrating blooms.

xoxogail



Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Spring is my favorite time for blooming exotics

If you've visited here before you know that I grow mostly Central Basin natives that can take the difficult growing conditions that this garden throws at them. (Plant More Natives) They just make sense for a garden that's wet, wet, wet all winter and dry as concrete most of the summer. But, tucked here and there are spring blooming exotics that make me smile.  Exotics are welcome here if they have charming good looks, provide pollen or nectar to visiting pollinators, and behave themselves! Like this sweet Magnolia stellata 'Centennial' (above) with its delicate and fragrant flowers.

Here's a few more that make me happy...for my very late Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post

Daffodils...I have forgotten the names of many of them but, love inviting the different divisions into my garden~trumpet, jonquilla, split-cup, large-cup, small-cup, triandrus, Cyclamineus, poeticus and even a few wild ones.

 Today, these bright orange cupped beauties and

 the gentle yellow small-cupped ones have caught my eye.

Crocus tommasinianus

Crocus! I only grow one crocus in my garden~ Tommies~ which are reported to be squirrel proof. They are, but, here the chipmunks delight in digging them up and carrying them away, I presume to eat, because they haven't popped up anywhere else in the garden. 

I love the Tommies. Every fall I order 1000 and plant them in a river in a sloping bed on the side of the driveway and each spring they delight me from late February until the too early heat or torrential rains take them out.

Aren't they fabulous spilling down this hillside.

Summer snowflake! If you live in the Middle South and dream of Galanthus blanketing your garden then you must plant Summer Snowflake instead. You won't be sorry, it is not particular about soil type and even thrives in my heavy clay soil!  Thank you Leslie (Growing A Garden In Davis) for these delightful Leucojum aestivum. They make my heart smile.

If you come back later this week I'll share the natives that are blooming! Here's a sneak peak!

Now, please have a wonderful day.
xoxogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Collinsia verna, Where Are You?

I've looked everywhere for you, crawling on hands and knees through the wet clay, pulling back the leaf mulch, hoping to see the small seedlings that have always greeted me in February.

 You are nowhere to be found!

Collinsia verna  is a winter annual that can be found growing in rich deciduous woodlands 

Blue-Eyed Mary is a native winter annual that blooms in the Spring, sets seed in the summer, germinates in the fall and then starts growing in February.  

I love it and have my fingers crossed in hope that it's better at hiding than I am at searching.

~Although, the Blue-Eyed Mary was a no-show I did see

False Rue Anemone (Enemion biternatum ), always one of the first Spring ephemerals to bloom.

Early blooming daffodils.

Tommies!

An array of beautiful Hellebores.

Aren't they worth mucking about in the mud!

A few  Dandelions for the earliest  visiting honeybees.

Hamamelis 'Diane' holding court in the understory, and 

Slippery Elm glowing above it all.

~~~~~

Really, not bad for a chilly few days in the garden...

xoxogail

I am several days late for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, but don't let that keep you from popping over to May Dreams Gardens to see what Carol is up to...

 Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Wildlife Welcome...

Carpenter Bees are even welcome!

On the whole, I am a generous wildlife gardener. I am willing and even eager to share my garden with the wildlife that visits and lives in this garden.

a peahen straggler was welcomed

I've even opened my door to a wanderer or, too.

Cute only works for a little while!

But right now, I am thoroughly fed up with the resident chipmunks! My friends, they've crossed the line and made peaceful coexistence difficult.

They ate every one of my Tommies.

EVERY ONE.

I kid you not. Every last one of the corms is gone.

They were so lovely last spring and I was so sure that these squirrel proof, but, not chipmunk proof,  crocus would finally make my Tommies On A Hillside dream come true!

It's time to order spring blooming bulbs and I refuse to let  the wildlife in my garden keep me from my dream! They're impossible to evict, but, I can make it darn hard for them to eat the bulbs after they bloom.  I shall take a page from my friend Frances of Fairegarden fame.  She has had pretty good success planting those especially tempting bulbs in sunken wire and rock!


Wish me luck!

Critters be warned...you're going to have to look harder for your food!
One, two, three, four, I declare chipmunk war.

xxoogail




Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Lady Jane Tulip, Small Stature, Big Impact

Tulipa 'Lady Jane' is most definitely in the I Want More category!

I love this hybrid tulip even if it's not the species, Tulipa clusiana with which it is often confused. The species has a purple painted throat and the petal color is a darker red.  I want  that one, too. 

Both hybrid 'Lady Jane' and the Tulipa clusiana will return and increase each spring if planted in well drained soil that stays dry during the summers.  I was reading this morning that this bulb  needs dividing more often than botanical tulips...Just be sure and give the tiny offsets a dry winter spot with good drainage and ix-nay on removing those leaves before they have yellowed.

I have no complaints about the sweet face of hybrid 'Lady Jane' and appreciate her habit of blooming early enough to disappear before the wildflower show that follows.  The bulbs are small and you can tuck them between plants where they will make a fine vignette with the Tommies (Crocus tommasinianus), Grape Hyacinths and violas.  Lady Jane has enough white, pink, and yellow to  be a good companion for other smaller bulbs, but, pretty enough to stand alone in the garden. 

Thanks go to my good friend Frances of Fairegarden fame, it was at her urging that Lady Jane came to live in my garden.  They may be small of stature, but, they have a big impact.

xoxogail

 Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Tommies On My Hillside Sing A Spring Song

The Tommies are in bloom!  I wish you were here to see them!  I know they must be making a statement because Mr I Do Not Garden or Blog thinks they look wonderful.

He's right, they do look pretty wonderful.

Just look at that flower, it's covered in golden delicious pollen.

 But, you don't have to take my word for it.

The hillside that has charmed me for decades!

 You might remember my inspiration!  A dream of a hillside with tens of thousands of Tommies.

 I think I've finally found my hill.  It was covered with forsythia and made the entrance to the house feel crowded.  Early last fall we cleared the shrubs and planted  Juniperus virginiana 'Gray Owl', Panicum virgatum 'Northwind',  stone unearthed in the clearing process and of course Crocus tommasinianus.

So far the Tommies are unscathed by the resident rodents!  The hill has perfect drainage, great soil and plenty of sunshine. They just  need one other  thing to insure that they naturalize with ease and

also planted on Tommie Hill

It sure looks to me like the bees are doing their best to make sure there will be more Tommies at Clay and Limestone!
xxoogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

A Brilliant Blue Sky for GBBD~February 2012

It was almost too cold to get into the garden this past Sunday, but, I made myself dress warmly and head outside to see what effects the 45 degree drop in temperatures had on the early blooming daffs. I'm so glad I did there were just enough blooms to make me smile and to share on GBBD. Shall we see what was out there?

The sky was brilliant blue and the witch hazel, Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' had unfurled her spidery crepe paper petals like solar collectors. She was in full sun receivership. Waiting for pollinating visitors. Even the marcescence leaves could not detract from her red flowers against the deep blue winter sky.

There's speculation that the leaves that cling until after the last petal folds up for the season actually  help protect the blooms from foraging mammals but, I wonder if they might  protect the delicate looking flowers from the bitter cold winds that often arrive when they begin to bloom.

Hamamelis vernalis is also still in bloom. It has the most unusual orange/yellow/reddish coloring on those amazing crepe paper streaming petals that furl and unfurl as the temperature falls and rises.  They perfume the garden with their sweet vanilla scent on warm days. I planted them for that fragrance and once you smell them, you will, want them in your garden, too.

I love that not only do winter blooming shrubs and trees flower for months and months, they almost always have some fragrance.  How clever of Mother Nature to give winter bloomers that something special to insure that a little fly, gnat or bee will follow the scent and pollinate the flower.

The hellebores are in full bloom~Not even temps in the teens can stop them from showing off their pretty petals. My favorite right now are the doubles. Oh, aren't they pretty!

Helleborus hybridus x 'Golden Lotus Strain' 

Both are from Marietta O’Byrne's (Northwest Garden Nursery in Oregon) Winter Jewels™ strain of double hellebores.  They are gorgeous, loved and welcomed in my garden every time they bloom! Although my heart belongs to native plants, I find much to commend these beauties.  I've decided to  move them all to their own hillside where they will get the good drainage they love....More on that later.

Crocus tommasinianus

I'm not sure why I was surprised to see a few Tommies standing tall on the hillside. They aren't called snow crocus for nothing. These delicate looking flowers bloom early and are unfazed by the cold weather winter seems to throw at them.  I'm hoping that the thousands I've planted will all be blooming before too long.

The earliest blooming daffodils were up and nodded good afternoon to me as the sun moved further into the western sky. I hope you enjoyed our little tour and have a marvelous Bloom Day.

 Now make this garden blogger smile and pop over to May Dreams Gardens, where our delightful hostess, Carol,  has set up the Mr Linky magic carpet ride to take you to more Bloom Day posts than you can imagine.

xxoogail

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.