A Garden Retrospective -- A View from a Window

What's the end of the year without some sort of retrospective? I often find them incomplete at best and often dull, but since this is a gardening retrospective...

The first picture is from April, when the rose Climbing Old Blush and the bearded iris were in bloom. This is the view from an upstairs window of the big perennial bed. One of our pastures is beyond the garden, and the neighbor's pasture is on the right.
 

The second was taken in July. The blob of color is Monarda "Raspberry Wine".
 

The third was taken in late August, just as the Bidens were starting to open.
 

The fourth is from the middle of September, when the Bidens were in full bloom.
 

The last was taken in October, when the Bidens were done, the Swamp Sunflowers were in bloom, and Climbing Old Blush was blooming once again.
 

Last of the Fall Color

Here it is, nearly the new year, and there is still some fall color. This is Rosa carolina, showing colors from pink/purple to red/orange. The leaf coverage is sparse this time of year but the colors are intense.
 

This is Golden St. Johnswort (Hypericum frondosum), purchased from the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. According to Michael Dirr, "the British consider it to be the handsomest of the American species [of St. Johnswort] in cultivation'. I believe it. The foliage, which is a lovely glaucous bluish-green during the growing season, didn't look at first as those it would have much fall color, but has very late in the year turned lovely shades of yellow, orange and red.
 

Oak-leaved Hydrangea is one of my favorite native shrubs. The leaves turn color very late in the year. This is the cultivar "Dayspring", blooming in early June with a mystery purple Penstemon, and showing fall color in December.
 

 

 

Purple Muhly starting to bloom in October
 

and still looking good dry and tawny in December. The seedheads usually last until spring.
 

Another of my favorite native shrubs, Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). Several of these grow wild on our farm. They love wet conditions. Usually birds strip the berries in January.
 

Blooming Friday 12/26/08

Elizabeth Lawrence, author of A Southern Garden and many other books, considered Prunus mume to be the most beautiful of the winter-flowering trees and shrubs. Really, it's no contest, as Prunus mume is extraorinarily lovely in full bloom and most winter-flowering shrubs are more noted for fragrance than for beauty.

Prunus mume is not common in the American landscape, but there are over 250 named cultivars in Japan. The buds can easily withstand temps in the upper teens, and depending on the weather, the tree may bloom all at once, or have waves of bloom as cold cuts down the open blooms. It's disease resistant for a Prunus -- on par with Prunus subhirtella -- so while it's not a very long-lived tree, it can be counted on, unlike a peach tree. In central North Carolina (zone 7b) it blooms any time from December to February.
 

 

Some of the buds on my second Prunus mume, which has smaller, darker pink flowers, will also open soon.
 

Wishing everyone a continued safe and happy holidays! Thanks to Katarina at roses and stuff for hosting Blooming Friday.

A Christmas Card

 

The first blooms of Japanese Flowering Apricot

A nice surprise! The weather has been so warm the last few days that some of the Prunus mume buds opened up.

I grew 5 Japanese Flowering Apricots from seed; I have 2 and gave 3 to my MIL. This one is my favorite. The flowers are clear pink, with a wonderful fragrance (not as much like Dianthus as I remember). The other three have smaller flowers that are a dark rose pink, and the fifth is a very pale pink with large almost single flowers. The fragrance of all 5 are discernably different.
The warmth has drawn out honeybees, who are also enjoying the flowers.
 

 

December Bloom Day

This is all I have blooming right now: some pansies that I picked up at Lowe's. This one is hunkered down among the lavender and strawberry leaves.
 

Even so, the winter garden has a special beauty all its own -- the bare bones of the garden are in plain sight. Often we don't have "real" winters here in central NC, so we can have blooms all year with the right plants, and each of those flowers are to be treasured.

December is the one month that my garden doesn't often have any blooms, except for pansies. I am trying to remedy that -- I have a couple of Wintersweets that I grew from seed, and I would like to get Hamamelis vernalis (especially Christmas Cheer) and Hamamelis virginiana. Elizabeth Lawrence was a great pioneer of looking at the garden all year, and I love to look at her research and experiences with winter gardening.

I have set out Narcissus tazetta, in the hopes that they would bloom, but they never have -- they are one of the types that increases into a hundred small bulbs that won't size up to flower.

The Lonicera fragrantissima, now approaching the size of a small house, will sometimes bloom in December, although it often waits until January.

No other flowers right now, but we still do have fall color. Almost overnight, a number of plants that had some color have turned brilliant shades.

Purple Pavement is a lovely shade of red.
 

This Rosa virginiana, which first turned a deep shade of burgundy, is now bright red.
 

Rosa carolina doesn't have many leaves now, but the leaves that are left are the same scarlet hue as the hips.
 

Rosa rugosa alba
 

The Swamp Cyrillas starting turning yellow and orange weeks ago, and are now finishing a brilliant shade of red similiar to Blackgum.
 

 

 

Thanks to May Dream Gardens for hosting Bloom Days.

Blooming Friday Dec. 12th

 

These hips are more ghosts of flowers past, from the beautiful rugosa rose Hansa.

I tried rugosas in my garden as an experiment, after receiving Rose rugosa alba seeds in a trade. I actually expected them to melt down, because when I thought of rugosas I thought of Maine and Alaska. However, the species do beautifully here. Not a speck of disease and they bloom all season. They've only been completely covered in blooms one spring, interestingly enough in a drought year -- it would seem too many calories equals less flowers. But they always bloom enough for me and I love them.

Hansa is a cultivar is as happy here as the species. I first saw Hansa at Witherspoon Nursery in Durham. Witherspoon sells a lot of roses I don't care for -- hybrid teas, grandifloras, and floribundas, roses that for the most part die like crazy here, or worse, hang about looking sickly and reproachful -- but their Hansa was drop-dead gorgeous. What is that purple rose?!?!?! I must have it!

Hansa isn't really purple, it's magenta, but it does look purple in low light, and the coloring and texture of the petals has a very rich and velvety affect. The fragrance is strong, a mix of damask and cloves.
 

 

 

 

Thanks to Katarina at roses and stuff for hosting Blooming Friday!

Blooming Friday Dec. 5th

 

These shiny red hips are a reminder of the ghosts of flowers past. This is Rosa carolina, a delightful rose native to North America. It's often found at the woodland edges, where it may only grow 12-18" and be a shy bloomer. In a garden situation Carolina Rose is much more robust, growing to over 4 feet in height and suckering in all directions.

 

Carolina rose and hungry Hoverfly
 

 

The fragrance is exquisite, a combination of traditional damask rose fragrance and lemon.
 

For more Blooming Fridays go to Katarina's roses and stuff.

OT -- Christmas Baking

The last couple of years I have baked Christmas cookies for the employees in my husband's office. I love to bake. Cooking unfortunately, not so much. I need different/ better equipment: a gas range, to start with.

One of my favorite recipes is Buttermilk Brownies. It's really much more like cake than brownies, and one of my favorite chocolate recipes.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 vanilla

optional: 3/4+ coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts can be added either to the brownie batter or frosting


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 x 10 x 1 or 13 x 9 x 2 baking dish. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; set aside.

2) In a medium saucepan combine water, cocoa powder, and butter. Bring just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add chocolate mixture to flour mixture with an electric mixer until combined. Add eggs, buttermilk and vanilla (batter will be thin) and pour into pan.

3) Bake for 25 minutes for 15 x 10 x 1", 35 minutes for 13 x 9 x 2" pan, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow brownies to cool until just warm to the touch before pouring frosting over brownies. Warning: Work quickly when spreading the frosting because it starts setting almost immediately.

Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting
In a medium saucepan combine 1/4 cup butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons buttermilk. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat. Beat in 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth. You may need to add an additional tablespoon or 2 of buttermilk. Stir in nuts. Pour warm frosting over brownies.