Tale of Two Quilts

Maggie's quilt

Usually I want to talk about plants. Or nature. Or little and big things that catch my eye. Today I can do better than all that. I got my Christmas present from my younger daughter- a beautiful handmade quilt. I know she's been working on it for months. It's her first one. She says it calms her down and she loses her worries in her work. It is a lovely combination of colors and patterns, and it is just perfect for me and my room.

Katie's quilt

This isn't the first quilt that's been made for me. Several years ago, my older daughter made me a quilt. It was also her first, and I think her last. At least so far. It too has lovely warm colors and patterns, very much like the new one, and also perfect for my room.
So now I have two quilts, handmade as labors of love, to keep me warm. The transition has been steady, and is now mostly complete. It used to be my job to bind their threads into the fabric of a family; to wrap them with soft strong surrounds; to keep them warm and protected. And to slowly let them go.
My girls are all grown up. There's a little bit of bittersweet pleasure in that idea. They have selected schools, careers, homes, pets, friends, loves. They have stitched those choices together into very personal and unique patterns. They are beautiful, intelligent, accomplished women- different as night and day- and each the love of my life. They fit me perfectly.  I am still Mom, but will now rest wrapped in the beautifully crafted biographies of my capable girls. These quilts are already heirlooms. I will happily hold them in trust for the generations to come.

The hardest part of raising a child is teaching them to ride bicycles.  A shaky child on a bicycle for the first time needs both support and freedom.  The realization that this is what the child will always need can hit hard.
  ~Sloan Wilson

Blessings of this Season

The first day of winter. Dark early, light late, usually cold and gray. My most un-favorite time of the year. But this year, that turning point has come quickly, and easily. The weather has been gloriously mild, mostly sunny, and sprinkled with good rain.
It is also a busy time of year. I can usually get lost in the hustle and bustle of friends, family, shopping, gifts, visiting, cooking, and working. If I am honest, much of that busyness is in the service of avoiding the dark. This fall has been so much more mellow than others that I am trying to take some time to reflect a bit on the year, and to enjoy the gifts that surround me. I thought I might just share a few here.

Chimonanthus praecox

Chuck's Blue Sport

Heron Fountain, Huntsville Botanical garden

Huntsville Botanical Garden RR

Jasminum nudiflorum

Evergreen Acer

Mahonia x 'Winter Sun'

Pinus thunbergii 'Ogon' candle

Prunus mume 'Rosebud'

Pinus virginiana 'Wate's Golden'

LOOK AND SEE

This morning at waterside, a sparrow flew

to a water rock and landed, by error, on the back

of an elder duck; lightly it fluttered off, amused.

The duck, too, was not provoked, but, you might say, was

laughing.

This afternoon a gull sailing over

our house was casually scratching

its stomach of white feathers with one

pink foot as it flew.

Oh Lord, how shining and festive your gift is to us, if we

only look, and see.

Mary Oliver, from Why I Wake Early

Giving Thanks

If you've followed this blog at all, you are probably wondering when I will start complaining about the short days, early evenings, boredom, paperwork, and cold gray days. And how in the world will I manage to cope this year? I can't say for sure, but it has been such a gorgeous fall that maybe I have just repressed the inevitable.
Instead of getting SAD, I have been enjoying the warm sun, the vibrant colors, the work opportunities in such conditions. I have also been savoring the last days of my "new" garden this year- the Big Leaves.

Musa velutina

Thanks to donations of some of my gardening buddies, I had an absolute ball learning about some tropical looking shrubs, bulbs and perennials that have color, flowers, texture and stature of a completely different nature from my usual conifers, succulents and maples. This new bed has been amazing, luscious, relatively easy (except a little extra water just to get it established) and a treat, in part, because it is here today and will go away when it gets cold.

Brugmansia

Here's what I have learned so far:

Some Colocasias are prolific, regardless of drought. 'China Pink' was gangbusters!! Maybe not the most beautiful, but the toughest.
Even the plain old elephant ears have been very good, without much water or fertilizer. Others with dark leaves, dark stems, yellow or dark splotches did pretty well in the harshest of sunny conditions.

Amsonia hubrectii

Amsonia hubrechtii fall color

Amsonia hubrectii is a fantastic companion plant for these big coarse leaves. The summer foliage is soft, and the fall color is fabulous.

Dahlia imperialis buds

Dahlia imperialis really does get to look like a tree before it forms buds. Unfortunately, we had a bit of early frost this year before it actually bloomed, but I have great hopes for it next year. 
 There are many new lantanas on the market that are MUCH more showy, many more hot and interesting colors, and with an excellent range of sizes and habits.

Apricot Sunrise

Ham 'n Eggs

Vanilla Ice

Lantanas and Margarita

My favorites this summer were 'Ham 'n Eggs', 'Apricot Sunrise', 'Vanilla Ice', and 'Orange Crush'. All are touted to be perennial, and we know that 'Ham n Eggs' actually is. I have my fingers crossed for the others. We'll see next spring.

I am back to loving German Iris. I have been growing both dwarf and repeat bloomers in this bed and they are wonderfully tough and tolerant companions, too.

Big leaf Castor

red leaf Castor

red stem castor bean

The Castor Beans are deadly, but divine!! This year I had red leafed, green leaf and red stemmed, and an incredible HUGE leafed one that dazzled all summer.

Tetrapanax

Tetrapanax grows great in the shade and in the sun!! I gave my little starts a slightly low but totally exposed spot, and they thrived.

Euphorbia myrsinthes and Iris

Euphorbia myrsinthes is maybe one of the most interesting tough plants I have ever grown. I have had great luck with all of them in those tough exposed places, and they have generated the most questions and general interest of all the odd plants in that bed.

Morus alba 'Ho-O'

Most of all, I guess I can say I have made it to another Thanksgiving week full of curiosity, enthusiasm and awe at the world of plants that sit at my fingertips. After a really cold and miserable winter, which was followed immediately by a hot, dry and grueling summer, I am feeling pretty good about easing into a little down time. I've still got lots to learn, and the tremendous gift of time and opportunity to experiment, absorb, and share with my plant geek friends. In this glorious fall season I am so grateful to be able to do what I do. And not even thinking yet about the winter......

Just a Moment...

I have too much to do. Well, don't we all. Too much to do in fits and starts. Too much multi-tasking, too many short attention span opportunities, too many emails, texts, phone calls, questions about too many diverse subjects. When November comes, I'll be free again. I can't wait for those long short days full of transplanting, weeding, pruning: you know, the totally boring, plodding, "alone with your thoughts" hours. My old brain craves that quiet country life pace.

In the meantime, I have been working on some talks I will give soon, and thought I would share a bit of the subject that fits our too hurried modern lifestyles: Garden Moments.

 
What I mean by that term is a small glimpse in a garden; one that might be at an entryway, a bend in the garden path, a specimen highlight.It can be just a plant or two; just a small feature that works to catch those wandering attentions and make a memorable statement. These few pictures are good examples. You can use anything.....container combinations, or the containers themselves; plants combined with art or architecture, or the art or plants themselves. You can create a mood with outstanding and exciting plants, or mellow out with cool, gentle or even formal plantings.

Remember, it is only a glimpse. This is not the place where the Landscape Architect gestures with waving arms about wide sweeps of azaleas or swales of impatiens. This is a little design idea good for those days when you just can't hold much more in your brain, but can be very satisfied with a tiny little personal touch of the gardener in you. And your garden can be very satisfied, too. Maybe we could even say that it could be a garden smile.

Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile.  ~Paul Simon, "Only Living Boy in New York"

Hopeful Hurrican Season

I've been sitting in my office for the last half hour pouring over the hurricane maps, the spaghetti tracks, the rain potential totals. Meanwhile, sweat drips from my hair onto my shoulders, and I have to wipe my face with my shirt sleeve every now and then. I am feeling a little more optimistic, now that the news seems a little more ominous. Yes, glad that the news is bad. And getting worse.

What a horrible person I am, wishing for flooding in New Orleans, after everything they've already suffered. But while taking that beating of 12-20 inches, they can hold on to the big storm Lee long enough to have it spin towards me with the first real rain in over a month. Is that too much to wish for?



 Look at my field.





my back yard,

 

or my poor hydrangeas

 And I am sure my conditions are not nearly as bad as those south of me, or south and west.

Look at my beautiful plants.
These babies need to have
new homes......ones that would be cool and wet. How can I send them out to others' gardens without that cooling rain?




Am I just rationalizing when I say everyone thinks this way?

 Is there a way to resolve this guilty conflict of interests? Maybe there is not. But I cannot think about this without being reminded of this poem. Better than any other glimpse of this age old question is this, from my dear friend  

Elizabeth Seydel Morgan:

Watching the Weather Channel

Is it raining on you, Linda,

down in San Antonio-

raining too much?

Here in Virginia

the grass breaks

under our feet: the creek's

left some stones for the cows to lick.

The TV screen shows us cracks

in the earth where there used to be hay,

simulated systems massing 

and fading across the globe.

We say we pray for rain

but what do we know 

about asking for what we need?

We pray for the hurricane

to go around you- but send us its fringe,

the way we pray for the hand of Death

to pass on to another geography.

Glass Half Full

It is on days like this I remember why I chose the name for my blog. It has continued to be really hot, and really dry. Each morning the weather lady tells me that the heat advisory includes my county, and that the chance for shower relief is 20%. Each afternoon the field turns another notch towards the right on the green to brown color continuum. Each night I fall into bed exhausted, having done little actual work besides watering and weeding.
 While wandering around the nursery trying to figure out where to start today, I am also reminded that there are a really good handful of plants that actually like this hot dry weather (besides crabgrass, that is....) So today I am applauding these durable woodies which perform in spite of my negligence. Let's take a look:

Rosmarinus 'Anna Hulke'

 Rosemary is a no-brainer. And comes in many sizes, forms, and textures. This picture is of a large sturdy shrub form called Anna Hulke. I don't do anything to it, but this big upright takes pruning very easily, and could be a very formal hedge. As far as I know, nothing can kill it.....maybe the combination of bad drainage and irrigation.

Abelia 'Rose Creek' and Lantana 'Apricot Sunrise'

Lantanas and Margarita

 Nothing in the summer really beats
Lantana.
There are many coming on the market that are cold hardier than they used to be, and can now be considered perennial in many areas. In addition to profuse flowering in a wide range of colors and habits, these plants are deer proof, and maintenance free. That's my kind of plant!

Buddleia x 'Silver Anniversary'

Anisacanthus wrighti

A couple of easy, tough shrubs are Buddleia "Silver Anniversary' and Anisacanthus wrightii. Each of these loves hot weather, grows to about 3'x3', and they are also deerproof.

Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

 Another group of plants that are a joy in mid to late summer are Caryopteris (Blue Mist Shrub) There's 'Longwood Blue', Summer Sorbet', Worchester Gold' and 'Snow fairy' just to name a very few. Deer Proof, tough, and a bumble bee magnet!

Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy'

Caryopteris 'Worchester Gold'

Cupressu glabra 'Chapparal' behind Caryopteris 'Summer Sorbet'

Here's a photo of an old fashioned southern
garden plant : Cestrum parqui. It blooms from about May thru till frost. We usually prefer botanical names, but this plant is often referred to as the "peanut butter plant" because of that distinct foliage smell.

Cestrum parqui

Another very aromatic plant that shines in the heat is this green santolina. It will make a fantastic dark green mound that will not melt out no matter how hot or dry it gets.

Santolina virens

Another great group of plants that I like more and more each day is the shrub Hypericums. They are evergreen, deer proof, heat and drought tolerant. They have large starburst yellow flowers in mid summer, and maintain a nice neat habit of about 3-4' x3-4' with absolutely no maintenance. These are not easily found in the retail market, but certainly should be. Go look for them in gardens around your area.

Hypericum densiflorum

Hypericum pseudohenryi

Hypericum kalmianum

 I will throw a few plant combos in here. I am sure there are many possibilities, but these turned up in my early August garden as examples: From herbaceous perennials to evergreen shrubs to magnificent large conifers, there are many plants that can spice up your summer garden. Now is the time to find them, take note, and make plans to put them in your garden as soon as it cools off and starts raining again. "For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use being anything else "- Sir Winston Churchill

Agave, Euphorbia, Juniperus deppeana

Amsonia hubrechtii and Colocasia 'Black Magic'

Conifer display

Opuntia and Artemisia