Winter Beauty

12/23/12

     Whew!  I can't believe it has been a month since I last posted.  I do not recommend buying and renovating a house during the holiday season.  I have had to make too many decisions this last month about flooring, lighting, appliances, fencing, doors, etc.  And then to have to make gift decisions not only about Christmas, but also three family birthdays has made me feel like a zombie with a mind of melting jello.

     Now I have only a fireplace redo to decide on and then a move into the house in three weeks.  I am thankful for Christmas eve and Christmas day when all I'll do is spend time with family.

     I have managed to spend a half hour each day walking the dog and these few photos are of winter beauty I observed on our walks.  I don't know what these berries are in the first photo.

     These are seed pods from a Rose of Sharon at the woods edge.

poinsettia

     This is winter beauty on my kitchen table.  I bought this at the local grocery.  I hope I have time to post at least once more before we move to tell you about the bulbs I have already planted at the new house.  Merry Christmas to all.

A New Yard

11/21/12

Kwanzan cherry tree

     A few days ago we closed on our new house.  Now the fun begins to turn it into a home.  We won't be moving in until mid-January because of inside renovations.

     The house sits on an acre of land, and there is a lot of lawn which I realize is a no-no for many gardeners.  We are supposed to be growing meadows to support wildlife.  But I love the spacious, open feeling of the property.  We do have woods behind us that I hear have resident foxes and many deer.  There is a country feeling to the neighborhood.  A few weeks ago I took the following photos of some of the bushes and trees that are growing in the yard.

crepe myrtle

loriope and holly

Japanese laceleaf maple

pine

   

rhododendron

black walnut

dogwood

     This is about half of what is growing in the yard.  I don't believe there are any perennials except around the cable box in a front corner of the yard.  I will be planting about 150 bulbs this holiday weekend.  A Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Surprise Fall Blooms

11/8/12

Arum italicum

     After being glued to the TV for days staring in disbelief at the destruction after Sandy, and then burning the midnight oil watching the election, I had to get outside.  It has been cloudy, windy and cold here since superstorm Sandy.  As I walked around the yard, I saw we had no damage except a few fallen limbs.  But I came upon some unexpected blooms.

     The Arum italicum plants, which produced orange berries in July/August and then died off, are emerging again.  The leaves emerge in autumn and are evergreen throughout winter in warmer climates.  Since this is my first time watching them grow, I will note how they do in winter here.  The leaves are similar to caladium and resemble Jack-in-the-Pulpit.




hardy cyclamen

      In a shady, somewhat inaccessible area near the house, I was surprised to find hardy cyclamen blooming.

azalea blossom

     A spot of red caught my eye in the front yard.  I investigated and found one lonesome azalea bloom on an azalea bush stuffed between two other bushes.  The yard of this rental house keeps surprising me with unexpected blooms.

Fall Flora and Fauna

10/25/12

aster ericoides

     I've been so busy with family things (a couple of minor surgeries, buying a house), that I've missed blogging for a few weeks.  We won't be able to move into the new house until mid-to-end of January, but I hope I can get some photos of what is growing in the lovely yard in a future post.

     We have had our first frost/freeze in the surrounding area, but not in my immediate area.  I have observed the gradual march of fall into the area, starting with the acorns falling at the end of August, then the pine cones in September, now the leaves in October.  The trees are just about at peak color here.  I took some photos of what is happening in the woods on the flood plain in my neighborhood.  I have seen only two of the aster ericoides bushes at the edge of the woods.  This herbaceous perennial is soil and drought tolerant.  There are many bushes with berries at the edge of the woods.

     I am not sure what the above bush is with the yellow berries.  A type of bush honeysuckle?

bush honeysuckle

     This is a bush honeysuckle.  There are several species that grow in the area.  Some species, from Asia and western Europe, are considered invasive.

wild grapes

     The wild grapes continue to ripen throughout the fall.

box turtle

     This box turtle has been spotted a few times in the back yard.

white-tailed fawn

     I have seen lots of fawns come through the back yard.

two fawns and mother doe

     Most of the time the fawns roam the back yard woods with their mother.  There are two fawns in this photo, one in the very center.  Mom is at right.

grey tree frog

     I took this photo in August.  The frog is sitting on a branch of the Japanese laceleaf maple in the yard.

     There is at least one and possibly two chipmunks that live in the yard, but they have always managed to scurry away before I could photograph them.  Every now and then I see a fox trot through the back yard, but it is always to quick to photograph also.

Ladew Topiary Gardens

10/2/12

hunt scene

     This past weekend I visited Ladew Topiary Gardens north of Baltimore, Maryland in the hunt countryside of Harford County.  The Garden Club of America called it "the most outstanding topiary garden in America."

     Harvey Ladew purchased the 200 acre Pleasant Valley Farm in 1929 and created flower and topiary gardens on 22 of the farms's acres.  Mr Ladew grew, trained and maintained the topiary shapes himself and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the Garden Club of America.  Once a year topiary trimming begins in July and takes three months.  As you enter the gardens, the first topiary is the hunt scene with horse and rider, hounds and fox of clipped yew.  It has become the international symbol of the Ladew Topiary Gardens.

swans on waves

     The Great Bowl is a 2 acre bowl-shaped lawn where summer concerts series take place.  It is surrounded by topiary swans swimming upon waves of yew.

sculpture garden topiaries

     The sculpture garden contains several topiaries such as sea horses, a heart with an arrow through it, and a butterfly on a flower.

Chinese junk topiary

     Many statues, fountains, and pools are found throughout the gardens.  This Chinese junk floats in a pool with many fish.

pool with fish

the Terrace Garden

     The Terrace Garden contqains three terraces of Canadian hemlock hedges sculpted into obelisks, windows, and garlands.

part of the Terrace Garden

     In addition to the topiary gardens there are also 15 flower gardens.  Harvey Ladew was one of the first in America to create garden rooms, each devoted to a single color, plant or theme.

The iris garden conatins 65 iris varieties and 770 plants

The yellow garden contains all yellow flowers and shrubs







The rose garden contains shrub, climber, and china roses

        Mr. Ladew was a self-taught gardener who died in 1976.  The Manor house, in which he lived, and the gardens are on the National Register of Historic Places.  I am so glad I finally visited these gardens.  The topiary gardens were spectacular and delightful, and the flower gardens were among the most beautiful I have seen.

The National Mall and the National Book Festival

9/24/12

     This past weekend I visited the National Mall to attend the National Book Festival that is held there every September.  It is the largest book festival in the US and features authors and poets from the US and other countries.  All genres were represented including fiction, history, children, mystery, poetry, biography.

     I had the privilege to hear Pulitzer Prize winners Steven Millhauser, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Marilynne Robinson speak, as well as Edgar award-winning mystery author Lisa Scottoline.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Steven Millhauser

     The National Mall is a national park administered by the National Park Service, and is commonly considered to be the area between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol, a distance of 1.9 miles.

The National Mall

     It is a stage for national events (such as Presidential inaugurations) and a national civic space for public gatherings (such as the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom).  There are many events (such as the Independence Day fireworks display), concerts, and festivals (such as the National Cherry Blossom Festival) that take place on the Mall every year, and it contains many memorials such as the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and the World War II Memorial.  All of the Smithsonian museums that line the edges are part of the Mall.

Cherry blossom trees on the Mall

     The National Mall covers approximately 1,000 acres that the National Park Service must manage.  The acreage includes the grassy areas and gravel paths at the center of the Mall, over 20,000 trees, and thousands of flowers and shrubs.  Many of these trees are nationally significant, such as the 2,000 American Elms that line the Mall, and the Japanese Cherry trees around the Tidal Basin.

American Elm trees lining the Mall

     These culturally valued trees require exceptional care through a modern, urban forestry program that helps monitor the condition of the tree population.  A number of methods has been used to control Dutch Elm disease that first appeared in these trees in the 1950's such as pruning, injecting trees with fungicide, replanting with DED-resistant American Elm cultivars, trapping the insect vector (the European elm bark beetle), and spraying with insecticides.



US National Botanic Garden

      There are a number of gardens on the Mall, such as the Victory Garden and Heirloom Garden at the Museum of American History, the Native Landscape at the National Museum of the American Indian, and the US National Botanic Garden.

tulips on the Mall

     Every year thousands of tulips, pansies, and annuals are planted in over 170 flower beds on the Mall.  All of the attractions of the Mall make it one of the more heavily visited places in the National Park Service with approximately 25 million visitors each year.  The large number of visitors requires intensive and specialized management of the park's natural resources.  This brief overview is just a glimpse of the huge amount of plantings that must be managed on the Mall.

Franciscan Monastery Gardens

9/18/12

     I recently visited the gardens which surround the Franciscan Monastery and Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Washington, DC.  The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1898 and construction was completed in 1899.  The church was built in the neo-Byzantine style.  It was added to the US National Register of Historic Places in 1992.  The Franciscan order was founded by St. Francis of Assisi in the early 1200's.

     It has been years since my last visit to the gardens.  Since fall is near and the gardens are winding down, I did not see the gardens at their peak of bloom. 





     
     A statue of St. Francis surrounded by red salvia and yellow marigolds.

     The monastery is known for its extensive rose gardens.  There are still some roses blooming.

The Rosary Portico surrounds the church.  It contains fifteen chapels.  It resembles the Cloister of St. John Lateran in Rome.

     One of the many gardens containing white begonia and red salvia.

     Hosta in a shady spot at the side of the church.

     There are many outdoor shrines in the gardens.  This is part of the Lourdes shrine showing the peasant girl St. Bernadette surrounded by vinca and pink roses.

     On one of the many paths throughout the garden, I came upon a pond with lotus blossoms and fish.

     There are many benches throughout the gardens for rest and contemplation.

Plantings at Virginia Beach

9/11/12

Virginia Beach from our hotel room

     This past weekend our family went to Virginia Beach to get in some beach time before the weather gets too cool.  It is a resort area on the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern Virginia coastline.  This was the first time we've had a vacation or been to the beach since we moved to Virginia in May.

     I have not been to Virginia Beach in several years.  I recalled when I visited the area years ago that it was overrun with souvenir and t-shirt shops, pancake restaurants and crab houses.  It still has those, but I was pleasantly surprised that there were some new hotels and lovely landscaping along the fronts of the hotels and the boardwalk.  Here are some photos I took of the plantings while we were there.

pampas grass

     There is a median strip between the walkway/bikeway that runs in front of the hotels and the boardwalk that fronts the beach.  The major plantings here are pampas and other grasses, sedges and bushes.

looking down the walkway/bikeway

roses

     The median strip also has some flowering bushes like these rose bushes.

hotel front landscaping

     The hotels have done a lot of beautiful landscaping like the above photo of coleus and geraniums.

hotel front landscaping

zinniaz, boxwood and palm trees

hotel landscaping

zinnias and coleus

begonias

dolphins

     On our last day there we were rewarded with some dolphin sightings just offshore.  They are in the very center of the photo.  I'm glad we went when we did, because this week it has suddenly turned quite cool with lows in the low 50's at night and 70's during the day.  Fall is coming too quickly.