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.

An Almost Wordless Wednesday!

 All Hail The Sunshine

I hope your day is filled with sunshine and joy.
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.

Wildflower Wednesday~Two Native Verbenas

Verbena hastata

I love verbenas...and the two natives I have growing in my garden are a treat to the eyes in this time of golden yellow rudbeckias.

Rose vervain with Brown-Eyed Susan, 'Grey Owl' Juniper and Switchgrass

I've grown Verbena/Glandularia canadensis 'Homestead Purple' for years, but, have never found it happier than in its new home on the Tommies Hill. The full sun and excellent drainage have kept this fellow blooming from early spring, when it was planted, all though this long hot summer. There are half a dozen or so plants on the Hill and I am more than sure they would cover the entire bed if Rudbeckia triloba hadn't sprouted there!

'Homestead Purple' is a chance hybrid that was discovered by Alan Armitage and Michael Dirr at a Georgia country homestead while they were driving  back to Athens, Georgia. They saw a patch of brilliant purple flowers and stopped to speak with the homeowner, took cuttings and the rest is history. 

We have them to thank for a plant that blooms for months; provides nectar for visiting bees, skippers and butterflies and is one of the best flowering groundcovers ever!  It's not unusual for Rose verbena to be semi-evergreen in my Zone 7 garden, but, it will die out in badly draining soil.  So plant it on a well drained site with full sun and let it fill in.

If you're like me  you can combine it with golden yellow rudbeckias, purple asters, Liatris, Echinaceas, Gaillardias and native grasses or go for a tamer look and plant it in the front of abed with sweet pale yellows and blues and silvers. 

'Homestead Purple' is a perennial in zones 7-10 but, the species is perennial in the Central Plains and the Eastern US.

each bloom is about 1/4 inch~now that's tiny

Verbena hastata is new to Clay and Limestone~by new I mean brand new, having just brought several plants home from GroWild (my go to nursery for native plants) this past week. I am so excited about this plant, that I am willing to do what I can to make Swamp Verbena happy!

A hard spot to photograph, it's either too shady or too sunny!

Yes, Swamp Verbena is the common name and it's happiest in a moist soil; will even tolerate soggy for a bit of time. They're planted on the far edge of the Susan's Bed in a newly dug space between slabs of bedrock where I hope it will stay moist enough to keep it happy the rest of the summer and will then settle in nicely during our usually wet, wet winters. That's the plan!  We'll see if the weather and the verbena cooperate.

You'll find V hastata in almost every state and province minus a few in the US and Canada...

Flowers on each spike bloom bottom to top

Here's what I like about this plant and why I was so excited.  It's cute.  It's a slender, upright plant with lanceolate, serrated leaves and it has flowers on showy candelabra-like spikes.  The flowers are the  tiniest little things and each one is about 1/4 inch and they open a few at a time from the bottom up.  Did I mention that the tiny little flowers are a marvelous blue-purple that are just what this garden needs in the middle of the time of rudbeckias!

More importantly, they also fit right in with the other rough and tumble, take care of them selves wildflowers that do best in my garden. If it's happy, it will grow tall, form a small colony, bloom for months and attract pollinators.

If your lucky you might even find a Bumble on one...Just in time for Wildflower Wednesday!

xxoogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky.


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.

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.