What I Like in My Garden Right Now

There's not much to like right now, but here and there a little green can be found.  The overall look of the garden is that of ugly brown sticks but if I squint my eyes just right I can focus on the occasional green plant in a vast sea of dead leaves.

The boggy area, which has been bone-dry this entire year, still has green stalks of umbrella sedge, Cyperus involucratus sprouting up five or six feet in height.  The dry conditions may be why it hasn't spread as much I would have liked or maybe I'm just impatient.  At any rate, it is living and it is green.

The stalks of the black berry lilies, Belamcanda chinensis, provide great 'winter interest,' which is a term I am using much too frequently these days.  Their leaves are still green and there are new fans popping up around the original plants.  The background fortnight lilies, Dietes iridioides, have finally become happy in their home against the fence and even put up a bloom once in a while.

 Tea olive, Osmanthus fragrans, is a bit scraggly as a shrub but the sweetly scented, inconspicuous flowers are why two of them live in my garden.  I wasn't able to squint hard enough to keep all that brown perennial peanut, Arachis glabrata, from getting into the picture. 

I read somewhere that winter rye grass can be sown over the peanut in winter. The front lawn gets the annual rye grass treatment each November so the peanut area will be included next year to see how it looks.

Coonties, Zamia pumila, keep it green by the front door along with jasmine minima, Trachelospermum asiaticum, and  one of my most cold hardy bromeliads, Neoregelia spectabilis.

The impossibly green rye grass makes a great backdrop for the rabbit's foot fern, Davallia fejeensis, and more of that bromeliad, N. spectabilis.  I did a really good job cropping this picture.  You don't have any idea of the carnage surrounding this scene.  But, I'm talking about what I like in my garden right now.

This little bird is definitely something I like in my garden. 

( Goldfinch?)

A Monday Morning Meander

After a Thanksgiving holiday weekend full of family and food, this Monday morning brings a feeling of contentment.  A quiet peace flows through the shady gardens in the front yard and a meandering walk through them satisfies the heart.

There are plenty of blooms but they are not the exuberant blossoms of spring and summer with their hot colors.  These flowers are soft pinks and purples giving rest to the eyes.

The hallmark of any shade garden is the variety of textures, shapes and hues of green.  There is no sense of hurry here.

An unknown nidularium bloom reflects the pinky purple of the baby Queen Emma crinum which was recently gifted to this garden by a gardening friend.

In the springtime the light pink blooms of these azaleas will blend perfectly in the new front entry-way bed.  Until then, their green leaves make a perfect backdrop for my favorite cranberry pentas. 

A lazy bumble bee reflects the mood of the morning as he drifts from flower to flower.

The white bench at the top of the driveway provides a perfect spot for enjoying another cup of morning coffee.  It is situated between pots of  rabbit foot fern and  angel wing begonia.  While sitting here and observing the front planting beds it is easy to dream of changes and additions for the future. 

The pathway between mature formosa azaleas could use a focal point to draw the eye to the the base of the oaks at the other end.  Perhaps a colorful bromeliad grouping or a variegated cast-iron plant would be the perfect thing.  No hurry, plenty of time to let this idea develop.

Thanks for meandering with me through My Garden Path this Monday morning. 

Remembrance

Many plants bring back memories of people I've loved.  My mother has been gone from this earth for eight years but everytime the Bilbergia pyramidalis bloom I think of her.

She would have loved this variegated form which has been introduced to My Garden Path just this year.  Two specimens were planted just after the freezes had passed and now there are four beginning to bloom.

There are several groupings of the solid green variety, which came from my mother's garden, surrounding oak trees in my front yard .  The original bromeliads brought from her home to mine have multiplied and bloomed many times over.

These bloomed in July while I was away from my garden and I missed the show.  I'm so glad they are blooming again in mid-September.  They are a common sight in my area surrounding ancient oak trees. 

These easily propagated bromeliads make great pass-along plants.  I've given many away to gardening friends.  Earlier this year some of these were passed along to my daughter's garden.  From my mother to me to my daughter, three generations within my family have grown and enjoyed these plants all from a single ancestor.  And so, the memories continue.

Blooms Along the Shady Path

When I look out my kitchen windows onto the shady backyard I see tiny plants making a comeback amid bushels and bushels of fallen oak leaves.  It takes some looking but here are some blooms I found popping up through the leaves.

This bromeliad was gifted to me from a gardening friend and is blooming for the first time in my garden.  I don't know the name of it but it sure is pretty.

Spiderwort, Tradescantia ohiensis, is a native plant I considered a weed for the first 20 years I lived here.  I've dug so many of these up I've lost count.  A few years ago I was browsing a native plant fair and saw these flowers being sold for $4/ gallon size pot.  Having a monetary value placed on these and seeing them listed as native plants, I now carefully cultivate them.  They grow well in the floodzone of my middle backyard and are just loving the wet earth there.  Another reason to love these plants is that they didn't skip a beat during the cold weather.

Another plant that the cold didn't faze is the blue walking iris, neomarica gracilis.  I have these hopelessly mixed together with the yellow variety, neomarica longifolia, and when they bloom en masse starting about this time of year, they are quite lovely.

The 'Fruit Cocktail' shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeana,  is a recent purchase that was made to give some color to a slowly returning garden.

These plants are all under my huge live oak tree that creates one big self-mulching bed taking up half the backyard.  My Garden Path gets its name from the circular path that surrounds the oak.  As soon as leaf fall and pollen fall are over in a week or so, this area will be a favorite spot to spend time as it is always cool and pleasant under the big oak.