The last watering

Imperial crown

“…suitably to its name, came to the European ornamental gardens through the mediation of two real emperors and two uncrowned kings of Renaissance botany…”

“…One of the emperors was Great Suleiman, il Magnifico, as Italian historians and al-Qanuni, the Legislator, as Turkish and Persian chroniclers called him. He complemented and stabilized the conquests of his father and grandfather, and his long reign was the golden age of Ottoman culture…”

“…Persian literature and art, including garden art, played a great role in this revival. Bread feeds the body, but flowers feed the soul, goes the saying attributed to Mohamed, and in this spirit Suleyman established in Istanbul the Flower Market which still functions on its original site, in the neighborhood of the Spice Bazaar…”

The story continues in the Poemas del Río Wang…

Foggy morning

Autumn colors

Heuchera villosa

I bought it some years ago in the Mocsáry Perennial Nursery. It was early summer, I could only see its leaves, but I immediately fell in love with it. Its leaves are large as a palm of the hand, as if it belonged to the undergrowth of a rain forest. I took away nine at once. Towards the end of the saison I saw that it did not impress others this much, as more or less these nine pieces were missing from the stock.

However, it has continued to attract me. Its leaves are beautiful all over the year. In the autumn, if it has a mood, it turns into red – unfortunately it does not always have the mood. And it does not require any extra care besides some watering, but it also suffers dryness pretty much. They recommend to plant it under sun or part shade, but here in our continental climate with very hot summers I would only put it in part shade. But it is extremely frost resistant (Z3). A perfect choice for cold, shadowy gardens.

And if it feels as well as at us, it delights you with so beautiful flowers from late summer until the first frosts.

American plants - Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania

Coreopsis tripteris. A coreopsis which suffers part shade and grows 150-180 centimeters high. It has just arrived from Staudengärtnerei Gaissmayer.

As usual, I have re-checked its characteristics on the web. It was then that I ran across the site of Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.

I have already found a number of American pages focusing on local plants and their use in gardening, but this one was especially interesting. Some of their plants are also known here in Hungary, but their majority is absolutely unknown at us.

One turns out well… another not…

Aster novae-angliae 'Herbstschnee'. In early summer I was hesitant whether to keep it, because I have read somewhere that the withered flowers remain on it in an ugly way. First it happened so, but then it recovered and for the last month it is beautiful again. So it will remain.

Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'. Very nice, but aggressively spreading. I do not know what to do with it so far.

Aster novi-belgii Royal Ruby. I’ve already decided to dig it out. Even if I find it beautiful, especially here on the side of this Pennisetum. But I planted it in June, and by early September it has spread twenty centimeters. This means that I will have to dig it out and plant it again in every year – and I cannot keep plants that require so much extra work. I’m awfully sorry.

Stipa brachytricha. One of my favorites. This is the only one in the garden. As it grew larger, I wanted to divide it and plant to somewhere else too, but there was no more place for it. Now finally there is. In the autumn I will divide and plant it to two more focal points of the garden. I hope there it will be as beautiful as it is here.

After rain

Anemone Rotkäpchen

Translated to English: Little Red Riding-Hood. If you like warm pinks, then you will love this charming anemone.

Although it is usually considered of small stature, at us it grows about 80 cm high. It is important to know that it is invasive, like every anemone.

In our garden (Z5) it resists winter with no problem. It prefers part-shade, but it also tolerates rather much shadow, and if it gets enough water, it also grows on a somewhat sunnier place. However, you must not put it on open sun and dry places.

I think it can be best joined with purple, warm pink, apricot, pale yellow, butter-colored flowers, but nice combinations can be made with blue and white as well.

At us it is certainly sold by Hegede Kertészet, and perhaps by others as well.

Chef d'oeuvre

Some – like me – have to struggle for those light, floating compositions that enchant so much one’s heart.

Others create perfect things by instinct.

Just a picture

The Echinops composition – in the autumn. The second bloom of Echinops is much shorter than the first one. If there will be a long and warm autumn, it will have a third bloom, too. The Eupatorium and Phlox acquitted themselves well. The first bloom of the Persicaria polymorpha behind them was cut back a bit too late, and thus now it has only a few flowers. Instead of the Berberis and Hosta undulata I would like something more attractive. Perhaps in this autumn I will replace them with Aconitum and Geranium.

Saturday afternoon

Some things I am satisfied with.

This one has enchanted me for days. It became sooo Mediterranean. Not in the way it is fashiionable now, which means heaping up plants that require a climate which is milder by two or three zones than ours. No, this was composed with plants of our climate, but it has an atmosphere like shady Mediterranean patios.

This composition was made in this spring, and I am satisfied with the result. A Molinia 'Karl Foerster' between a Nepeta and a Sedum.

Phlox 'Orange' or 'Orange Perfection'. I replanted them in this spring, and they are still small. They are famous for finding their place with difficulty. Here it is in the company of Miscanthus, Carex and Artemisia lactiflora.

Country feeling in the spice garden.

The pink-yellow bed. I will work on it a little bit more in the autumn, but I already consider it fine.

The same, seen from the pink Phlox. This picture was really inserted because of our cat Muska. By the way, the Phlox is called Windsor. An excellent flower. I planted it in this spring, and it is already this beautiful. It also resisted the heat of this summer. And I find it very fitting to the warm yellow tones.

And finally a somewhat cooler image with some Miscanthus in bloom.

My favorites

Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne'. Well, with her I have a love-hate relationship. I consider her quite beautiful and vigorous, but she is a little bit too yellow for me. Now I have tried to encircle her with much light white and pink in order to counterbalance her strong personality. In the spring I had placed her out on the street before the fence, but she did not tolerate dryness, so in early summer she came back. Thanks God she has fully recovered.

Phlox paniculata 'The King'. Here the colors are like in real life. She has an elegant shade between wine red and purple, quite rare in Phlox. In addition, this is exactly the same color as the rouge one of my beloved professors used back at the faculty of pscyhology. She always reminds me of her, which is an extra bonus of this plant. In the morning when I sat on the bank near to her, I always say good morning to Magdi, too.

Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Rosea'. One of my main favorites. She conveys the impression of marshlands, but she does not require constantly wet soil, she is quite beautiful with normal watering as well. She belongs to those few plants that feel well both under full sun and in deep shadow. In addition, she also grows equally all round if se only receives light from one side. And in top of all that, she requires absolutely no maintenance.

Molinia 'Transparent'. I already wrote about her in the last year. This is now a recent picture. By enlargint it you will see how beautiful great arch she has.

Miscanthus 'Ferner Osten'. I also wrote about her in the last year. She starts to bloom now. In front of her there stands a Helenium 'Rubinzwerg', one of the few Heleniums that are also beautiful in part-shade.

Hosta 'Paul's Glory'. This is in fact one of the most elegant Hostas. It was hard to find exactly that shade of part-shade which she preferred. With a little bit more of sun she was burnt, and in more shadow she languished. Now it seems that we managed to find the balance, to the great satisfaction of both of us.

Twelve pictures

Banská Štiavnica (Selmecbánya) - Botanical garden

The Slovakian border is only forty minutes by car from us. Slovakia is full of beautiful landscapes and monuments. Very civilized and prices are rather low. Whenever we can, we go over to sip a little bit of Europe there.

One of our favorites is Banská Štiavnica / Selmecbánya (the first is its Slovakian name, the second the Hungarian name, as Slovakia was part of the Hungarian kingdom until 1918, and the majority of the town’s inhabitants was Hungarian). It’s a wonderful little medieval town. Fabulous places, fantastic cafés and “brave old world” small restaurants.

You should by any means check on it the post of Tamás in Poemas del Río Wang.

In this week we finally managed to get there again.

This time we also went to visit the local botanical garden.

This was the garden of the Academy of Banská Štiavnica. The first academy of mining and metallurgy in Europe was established in this town in 1737, and it was further enlarged with a department of forestry in 1807.

This botanical garden is especially famous of its exotic trees, pines, cedars and Sequoias. The above two images show a Sequiodendrum giganteum which had come from America many, many, many years ago.

By walking among the gigantic old trees one understands what makes an aristocratic castle.

Time somehow becomes touchable.

Molinia arundinacea 'Zuneigung'

This photo was made this evening, but it has been blossoming for at least two weeks. It is this beautiful until the first frosts.

We bought it from Gaissmayer in last spring, and it has grown this large in one and a half year. This is more or less its final shape. It copes with all kinds of soil, but it needs regular watering.

In the last year I already wrote about another Molina, the Transparent.

On Sunday morning I made one more photo of it:

Sun hardy hostas

As almost all parts of the garden are sunny at noon, I have much experience concerning the sun tolerance of hostas. And I have to tell that some of them surprisingly well tolerate strong sunshine.

The absolute record-holder is undoubtedly Hosta plantaginea. You can plant it in full sun, and it even tolerates dryness. In late summer it produces white flowers with a strong fragrance. It grows 60-80 cm in height, but at least 120-150 cm in width.

Hosta Francee. At us it is in sun from morning till afternoon, but in Daves Garden some people write of having put it in full sun. It starts to blossom in late July. It blossoms long, and even its dry flower stems are so beautiful that I never cut them. In size it is more or less the same as plantaginea.

Clive Nichols Garden Photography

Unspeakably beautiful images of extremely beautiful gardens...

Clive Nichols Garden Photography.

Monday evening

Echinops ritro and Hosta undulata

This is a part of the upper large perennial bed. Here, as in all the garden, I try to set up the gardens with harmonic compositions of plants with contrasting forms.

This is for example a smaller composition: Hosta undulata 'Mediovariegata' - Echinops ritro - Berberis 'Atropurpurea Nana' - Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' - Phlox paniculata 'Düsterlohe' - Lilium 'Latvia'.

One source of the contrast is the different form of the plant – some are uprising and some rather shrubby –, and the other is the soft or hard character of their leaves. Purple color is common in all, this is the basis of their harmony. And the different shades of purple add an exciting, playful element to the overall impression.

Yellow flower bed

This is the place for most of the yellow roses.

And this is the period of rose flowering. They started at the beginning of June, and they continue it with various intensity until the frosts.

Spring and early summer blue, white and pink perennials have already ceased flowering, while the yellow composition will be really spectacular only from the beginning of July.

However, some early ones like this daylily have already opened the yellow season.

Until they are followed by the rest, this part is made exciting by the contrast of large-leaved hostas and filigran grasses.

Azeri socks

We bought them in the late autumn of 2007 in the bazaar of Tabriz, Western Iran. They had been made for an engagement present. The jewels come from the nomadic tribes around Mashad to the east. The carpet – which is in fact a camel bag opened – was woven by Bakhtiari nomads in the mountains above Isfahan to the south. I usually read by leaning against it in the evenings.

In the last week there were elections in Iran. Many call in doubt the authenticity of the official results. There are manifestations all around the country. As I’m writing this, a crowd of several thousand people gathered in Tehran. According to recent news, the militiamen have been authorized to use live ammunition. Yesterday in Isfahan a young boy was already shot dead.

The inhabitants of Tehran for the last days have been praying by thousands “Allahu akbar” – “God is the greatest” – on the rooftops, just like they did during the revolution of 1979. We have also been intensively praying for them. We ask you to pray for Iran.

In light and in shadow.

Saturday morning

Pentecost

The large rose bed

Paeonia 'Do Tell'

We have bought this peony from Miely's Pfingstrosengarten, too.

Haschberg elder, juneberry, cornel…

I hoped I would be able to complete an overview on groundcovers, but I’m still far from it. Thus I only post some new photos on the garden.

In the meantime I want to tell that recently I was in the Silvanus Nursery, one of the best retail sellers in the northern part of Budapest, to buy a Haschberg elder. This is an Austrian selection that produces much and evenly. In Hungary it is quite difficult to get it. In the Silvanus they sell plants of 40-60 cms in height for less than three euros. It grows quickly, so within two or three years even this small one will get a proper bush. And its price is pocket-friendly too. In the Praskac you get the same for 11.80.

Besides elder, they also have a very good kind of juneberry (Amelanchier lamarckii) on sale, for about the same price. In the Praskac this size is 9.70 euro if you have much luck, but more probably 17.70 or 26.50. It will grow four or five meters on any soil, it tolerates dryness, has a beautiful autumn color – and produces very tasty berries, similar to those of cranberry in size and taste. They also had some nice cornels and inermous rose-hips as well, for about two euros a plant. They also had a large offer of cranberries, but it is only recommended to those whose garden has sour soil and plenty of water.

Paeonia Pink Hawaiian Coral - Paeonia Coral Sunset - Paeonia Coral Charm

Paeonia Pink Hawaiian Coral


Paeonia Coral Sunset


Paeonia Coral Charm


The peonies are from Miely's Pfingstrosengarten.

Hardy perennials for dry places

To the West of us gardeners are quite concerned with the consequences of global warming. In recent year for example they have paid much attention to hardy plants for dry places.

The great German nursery Staudengärtnerei Gaissmayer from where I often order plants has dedicated a separate page to hardy perennials for dry places. It is divided in four sub-lists:
perennials for dry sunny places,
grasses for dry sunny places,
plants growing both in dry part-shade and in dry shady places,
and plants for dry, windy and sandy soils.

If you are interested, you can also read some articles on this topic on their page. If you read just some basic German, you are encouraged to have a look at them. They are easy to read and very informative.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Teni'

Japanese woody peony. In the last year I have already mentioned, but now I repeat it because it is important that the Japanese sports are more frost-hardy than the Chinese one. This one is for example Z4 (that is, down to -34 ºC).

It has just opened this afternoon. Have a look at its pictures from the last year, too! And if you are interested, check its page in the fantastic Paeonia database of Carsten Burkhardt.

I have purchased our peonies from the German nursery Staudengärtnerei Gräfin von Zeppelin. Now they offer 180 sports, more than 50 of them woody ones. Watch their page even if you do not want to buy, their photos are beautiful and true to life. And if you need good quality plants, you are encouraged to buy of them.

Rhodotypos scandens

I wanted to begin by saying that this is one of my favorite plants. But then I recalled that I almost always begin with this. When considering it a little bit more, I realized that in fact, almost every and each plant in the garden has something for which I especially love it.

Therefore, this is one of my favorites. Really. I am always happy when I pass by it. It belongs to those rare plants that I bought without any special consideration, just in the heat of passion. It was only twenty centimeters, but already so appealing that I immediately put it in the chart, although at that time I was already over the “large is the garden, there will be some place for it” phase of garden building.

This was about five years ago. By now it grew about one and half meters large. Somewhere on the net it is written that it grows well in dry shady parts. And it is truly so. It is planted in almost complete deep shadow under the walnut tree, in a part which I can only rarely water. In better conditions it is spreading, but here, in dry shady place it behaves well. It is very frost-hardy (Z4). It grows 1-2 meters (in other opinions 2-3) high and the same large. At us it grows on clay soil, but it is reported to cope with any kind of soil.

In the autumn it produces small black berries which decorate it until springtime. If you are looking for a plant which feels well, appears fresh and healthy and grows quickly even in dry shade, you should try it.

Flower carpet

Easter Sunday

“The Sabbath day ended. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices. They were going to apply them to Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, they were on their way to the tomb. It was just after sunrise. 3 They asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?" Then they looked up and saw that the stone had been rolled away. The stone was very large. They entered the tomb.

As they did, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe. He was sitting on the right side. They were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. But he has risen! He is not here! See the place where they had put him. 7 Go! Tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. It will be just as he told you.” (Mk 16, 1-7)

Holy Thursday

Springtime is here!

Those wonderful barberries! 2. Berberis thunbergii 'Aurea'

You can see it in front of the birch in the middle, between the thuya and the rose. At us it grows on a rather shady place. On a sunny place it get much more yellow.

It was one of my best gardening catches. I bought it some years ago in the New Garden nursery as a completely developed plant. On a deeply reduced price, as nobody bought it. But I at once fell in love with it.

Here it is at the left side of the picture, in the middle of the summer. Beautiful, as throughout all the year.

Its form is so architectonic that one can put it even in a Japanese garden, as they often do it indeed. But it also fits well to our more colorful, loose mixed flower bed.

In the autumn it assumes beautiful colors. It also produces berries, but at us unfortuntely quite few. In has a spectacular form also in the winter, here behind the birch to the right.


It is quite frost-hardy (Z4). It grows about one meter hight and one to one and half meter large. People often recommend to plant it on an light soil, but at us every Berberis thunbergii feels better on adobe soil than on sand. However, it cannot stand soils with bad drainage. (This is no problem at us, as all our soils drain water better than necessary.) It loves sunny or partly shady places. It works well in dry places. That is, it is perfect of its kind.

European Spindle - Euonymus europaeus

This is so beautiful that it is almost unbelievable. These berries are its greatest attraction. In the autum you can admire them for weeks. In our region it is a frequent forest bush, but it also occurs in such elegant places like the garden of Beth Chatto.

This is how it looks like a bush. This is a young one planted in 2004, the photo was made in the autumn of 2008. Later it will grow branchy. As you can see from its location, is is amazingly hardy. I have planted it directly to the stock of a huge poplar, on dry, sandy soil which hardly receives any water.

The nursery pages usually describe it as 2-3 meters high and large, while the pages of universities and of environmental protection give a much bigger height, even 4-7-10 meters. It is spreading, but not aggressive. It is extremely frost-hardy: Z4, and some pages even categorize it in Z3. An excellent plant for dry part-shade.

Fruit-Grafting Lady Day

Under your protection we run, holy Parent of God! Don’t despise our entreaty in the time of our distress, but protect us from every danger, you always glorious and blessed Virgin;

our Lady, our Interceder, our Protector, appease your holy Son for us, recommend us to your holy Son, present us to your holy Son! Amen. (Prayer from the 3rd century)

Squirrel

At the end of the winter the squirrels often come up as far as the house.

Yesterday this same squirrel was jumping in our window, but then we could not photograph it. Tamás today managed to take some pictures of it.

This beautiful red one with white belly is my favorite one.

It keeps a Turkish hazelnut in the mouth. Interestingly they prefer it to common nut. But as one can see at its good conditions, in the winter they also eat the nuts they find in the garden.

From tree to tree 2

From tree to tree 1

Bears

The February winter has brought us some bears, too.

Source, seventeen pictures altogether: English Russia.
... And here you are a bear tale and some cultural bears too, from the Wang river, the blog of Tamás.

This morning

I don't say we woke up with this view, because we started the day at half past five as usual, but around nine we saw this from the window.

After that I managed to cut back the dry grass, thanks to God. I asked Tamás to pray for me to succesfully finish this heavy work. I completed twelve Miscanthus and ten Pennisetum in about two hours. I was very satisfied with the result.

The last snow

It is absolutely not sure that this will be the last one, but I would like very much if it were so.

There were some years when on March 21th there was more than twenty centimeter of snow in the garden.

Nevertheless I hope that in this year spring will come already in February. It did happen sometimes. To the family budget it would do good anyway.

The meteorology site MetNet - the most reliable one in Hungary, to my experience - does promise a budged-friendly weather for the next week.

Inspired by this outlook, I decided to start to put the garden in order in the next year. I will cut back dry grass and perennials.

So, if God helps, these are the last photos of grass with snow in this year.

This morning a thin layer of snow greeted us as we looked out of the window.

By now it has disappeared. But it was beautiful.

A blessed, beautiful week to everyone!

Country Gardener

I have to say thanks to Heirloom Gardener - you should by all means visit her site - for the blog of Yvonne Cunnington, the Country Gardenert.

Yvonne is a gardener and photographer. She has a garden in Canada, near to Ontario.

I like very much the garden of Yvonne. It is very natural, but in the meantime so poetic and subtly elegant that stands very near to me. And it has a special interest to me as she has built it in a rather cold climate, just like us.

If you have a little bit of time, have a look at her site.

A little bit of springtime in January

Peter Janke - Gartenkonzepte

It could have been made even by me. But it was not me. It was Peter Janke of Germany (the link on his name leads you to the gallery of his page). On the page of James Golden I found a short post on Janke in December. Our tastes are identical again, like so many times before.

2008

We have put the album selected from the pictures of 2008 on Hortus Carmeli.

(When entering the garden, go to the bottom of the page. By clicking on the thumbnails in the albums, you have the images enlarged, and following the little hand in the upper right corner you can visit them one by one.)

Those wonderful barberries! 1. Berberis koreana

One of my great favorites. An extremely sturdy shrub which is beautiful all year long.

This is how it looks like in the spring, when the leaves spring up.

In May, when in blossom.

This is its summer shape. I find that it enhances the Oriental character of its environment. And it is a rather shady part of the garden, with heavy clay for soil. It is almost impossible to find a plant that grows well here. Although I water here (if you compare the spring and winter images you can see that it grew like fool), but according to Praskac it endures dryness as well.

It is about 1.5-2 meters high, and although most pages underestimate its dimensions, I think it will be at least 3 meters wide. Its berries are eaten in its native Corea.

It can be brought by us as well. In the Zöld Király nursery I always see one of its sports.

Blessed New Year!

A walk around the garden on the last day of the year.

Close to the house, behind the thuyas is the “peasant garden,” where I grow various berry-producing shrubs, and this is also where I keep my little collection of Phloxes.

In the right corner of the picture is the bench in front of the house with a view on the roses and the large upper bed of perennials.

The same bench seen from the rose garden. The columnar poplars indicate our borders. Behind them comes the forest.

The lower part of the garden, towards the forest.

The row of thuyas you’ve seen on the second picture, now seen from the lower part of the garden.

In the middle: the medlar tree.

The right side of the lower part. The path in the right lower corner takes you back to the “peasant garden.”

In the meantime the sun came ahead from behind the clouds promising snow. The evergreen magnolia you’ve seen on the third picture here is hidden behind the Leyland cypress to the right. The main stair to the lower part descends here, as seen from the Japanese tea garden.

The stairs descend to this twisted hazelnut.

By following this road, you get back to the house. The white brick wall is our fence towards the street.

This is the path to the house. The evergreens are immediately at the house.

Both on gloomy and sunny days: a blessed, happy new year to everybody!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

... There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. ... He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God ...” (Jn 1:1-12)

Blessed Christmas to you!

Frost

Tuesday morning

Molinia 'Transparent'

The grass in the middle is called like this. I think you will understand why.

It is my most beloved one of all the grasses. I have been trying to write about it in all the year, but I have not managed to take a photo of it that would do justice to its beauty.

By now I have accepted that for the time being I am not able to take better pictures. In the reality it is much, much more beautiful.

It grows two meters high. It starts to bloom in June, but it is attractive from the spring until the end of autumn. However, it collapses at the first serious snow.

Originally it is a marsh grass, and although it does not require a constantly wet soil, but it needs regular and thorough watering.

As to the soil, however, it is not picky. At us it loves both light and heavy soil. It develops equally well on the sun and in part shade.

Happy birthday, Anne Marie!

I came to know Anne Marie through the blog. She lives in the USA, Illinois, but her grandparents still had a farm around Budapest – this is why she signs her e-mails to me as “Anushka,” with the Hungarian form of her name. She and her husband run a very sympathetic biofarm. They have five children, Anne Marie teaches them at home. I intended to write about her blog in the next week, but her post of yesterday was so wonderful that I have immediately translated it for the Hungarian version of my blog and also include here its original English text.

35

When I was growing up, and to this day, I think being 37 will be fantastic.

Why?

Well, by that time, I believe that I will be very comfortable with who I am in so many different ways. I always knew I would be married, but never to such a wonderful person. I always knew I would have children, but most certainly not 5 in such a short time. I always knew I would be Catholic, but never knew how important it would be. Only in the past few years have I realized, amongst my busy life on the farm, have I realized my faith is who I am. It defines me. It guides me. It comforts me beyond my comprehension. I know each year… no, each day that every step I take needs to be toward God, not away from Him.

I also understand just recently that my vocation in life is not just one sided, but multi-dimensional. That I need to be a teacher full on sometimes, and a loving wife at others.

That my Catholic faith has led me to understand that giving my self freely to God, I am sacrificing myself to Him. Letting Him guide me in everything that I do… every step I take.

On my 35th Birthday this past November 30th, on the 1st Sunday of Advent, it went like this:

An early morning rise with fresh Hazzlenut coffee and a homemade angel biscuit, warm, with Amish jam and silence.

It was snowing, and the children dressed in anticipation of what my birthday would offer.

We traveled to early morning Mass, and enjoyed Saint Andrew's Feast Day upon the 1st Sunday of Advent. After having some wonderful chit chat with friends, we took the most beautiful drive South to a park where a rustic lodge in the woods serves a homemade breakfast.

As we sat and enjoyed our meal, and looked past the rough sewn logs within the lodge, the snow was falling outside to creat the most wonderful atmosphere.

We took a idle stroll through the blanketed ground and inhaled the clean crisp air. Some of us enjoyed a snowball fight, while I took pictures…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNE MARIE!

Rose pages

Now as I finally don’t have to weed, there is time to browse the pages of gardening. Let us begin with roses.

Rosenmeile: The page of Christine Meile, rose gardener and photographer (as well as a dog fan). Wonderful and rich in information.

Helpmefind: Everything that is rose. They publish several photos of each plant (and eventually links to gardens where the respective rose can be found), give very precise data about their height and width, and often also about their tolerance of shade. They provide detailed information about special sorts like the completely cold hardy Canadian roses which had been developed in the last decades. This is the site I use the most about roses.

RogersRoses: The web version of that fabulous English book whose illustrations incited us ten years ago to establish our rose garden and that I have been regularly browsing ever since. The internet version has a very good search function.

EveryRose: One of the largest rose databases with an advanced search function. Its composite searches were a great help to me as a beginner.

RoseFile: Another rose database with many good images and information, and with a special page on roses for cold climate.

JustOurPictures: The most beautiful rose photos I have ever seen.

David Austin Roses: In my opinion the most beautiful roses of the world. They look as marvelous as historical roses, but in contrast to them they are remontant. They have fantastic colors, some of them smells wonderfully, and some are extremely sturdy. In my experience, however, we in Central Europe should better import his roses from more nearby regions, Germany or Austria, because they are stronger and develop better at us.

Peter Beales Roses: The other world famous British rose nursery alongside with Austin’s. They sell more than 1300 classical roses, and have a quite fantastic offer concerning wild roses and historical roses. The page has a very good advanced search function that also includes the roses’ demand of light and soil, an information otherwise hard to obtain. (Nevertheless, take with caution the periods of blooming reported by them.) Their roses curiously tolerate better the change of climate between Britain and Hungary than those of Austin.

Rosen von Schultheis: The doyen of German rose nurseries with a large offer and good quality. It sells a lot of English roses, and also a number of such specialties like the Canadian and Estonian hybrids which are surely cold hardy at us.

For Saint Catherine’s day

As soon as I uploaded the post of yesterday, I received in the Hungarian version of the blog a name-day greeting from Ildikó. Thank you very much! I also wish a happy name-day to every Catherine. These are the pictures of this morning.

However, to tell the truth, I celebrate my name-day not today, but in the spring, as my patron saint is not Catherine of Alexandria, but that of Siena.

When I was baptized in 1989, my spiritual director István Katona told me to choose a patron saint. My namesake Saint Catherine will be OK, I said. Well, he replied, but which one? There are a number of saints of this name. I checked the Lives of Saints and I chose Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Alexandria, the fabulous Orient, The Alexandria Quartet (nowadays I already have not so high opinion of it as then), Catherine of Alexandria who overcame the wise men with her great intellect and who was finally quickly and easily beheaded. That’s the man! (The Lives of Saints, obviously to spare the weak-nerved twentieth-century reader, did not explain in detail why she was always represented with a wheel and how many sorts of choice horrors had been done to her before being beheaded.)

I gloriously went to Katona to report the name of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. He gave some thought, and then told me ‘let it be rather Saint Catherine of Siena.’ Her fasts were far less attractive to me than the magic Alexandria – since then, having learned a lot about the brutal materialism of Italy, I already understand much better her asceticism as well – but I thought perhaps Katona knew something I didn’t, and I said all right.

And in fact he did. Saint Catherine of Siena belonged to the order of the Dominicans, just like Saint Thomas Aquinas. And there are very few things in this world that are more beautiful than a well built garden, but the theology of Thomas is surely among them.

In 1995 we spent about eight months in Rome. This period had a determining impact on what I hold for beautiful, so it has quite directly influenced the way as I have shaped my garden.

Rome
Rome – details
Rome – churches
Rome – doors
Rome – windows

The Santa Maria sopra Minerva was one of my favorite churches. I only discovered much later that this was the church of the Dominicans and that there was also the body of Catherine – I cannot say buried, because her body is intact and it can be seen through a glass coffin.

Some years later, in a very difficult period of my life I came across the famous book of Catherine, the Dialogs which helped me a lot, especially by showing me how one can get free from the pressure of materialism that enmeshes our life in so many ways.

I wanted to have a copy of my own, but it was an old edition which has never been published again. So I went to a shop selling Catholic devotional objects and old books to order it. They told it was absolutely superfluous to leave my address, because they had never received any copy of it. However, I insisted so much that finally they took a note of it. Three weeks later they called me to go in for a copy they had just got from somebody.

Having grown enthusiastic upon this success, I asked them to inform me by all means if they get a copy of the Letters of Saint Catherine of Siena. They promised it quite unconvincingly. Some years have passed and in fact nothing happened. I, however, thought that while the shopkeepers might forget about me, Catherine will certainly not.

So I have returned there from time to time to check whether my letters arrived. In this November I also had things to do in the downtown, and I dropped in there right after opening. The first thing I saw was a bulky volume, the Letters of Saint Catherine of Siena. I asked them when they had got it. The evening before, they said.

Perhaps Catherine at this time, around the feast of her namesake wants to tell me something important again.

Today at dusk

Just a couple of days ago

Whorled Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum verticillatum)

It is the tousled yellow one, to the right of the pitcher. This is, of course, its autumn color. During the season it is green.

I brought it in 2005 from Britain, from Wisley, the garden of the Royal Horticultural Society near London.

I found it so poetic that in 2007 I purchased two more ones from a Belgian nursery. They are told go grow two meters high. At this moment they are only one meter twenty, but as they are planted near to each other, they produce enchanting red berries.

In the meantime I have learned that whorled Solomon’s seal is a protected rare native species at us in Hungary as well.

An October morning

A bouquet of dry flowers

In every year I dry flowers for the winter. In this year I dried them in a place which was not airy enough, so I unfortunately had to throw out two third of them. Nevertheless, there remained enough for two bouquets.

Autumn has come

... what a beautiful, cold autumn (Xin Qiji)

Euonymus alatus 'Compactus'

I have not believed it until I saw in our own garden that this is the real autumn color of this shrub.

This is how it begins.

This is another shrub which has just started to turn in red. This one has already developed to full hight; in the future it will only get larger. The ones on sale are usually one meter high, but as you can see on the picture, it will develop higher, one and half or – according to some pages – two meters. The width of a fully developed shrub is between one and half and two meters, too. (You have to keep an eye on what you buy, because the basic species is twice as great.

It is particularly beautiful with Miscanthus and Pennisetum.

It is also well accompanied with hosta, barberry, cotoneaster and cherry laurel. It is often used in Japanese gardens. It tolerates surprisingly much shade, although it becomes coloured much later if planted in shade. As to the soil, it has no special demands, and resistant to aridity – but it will not suffer the hottest (30ºC+) weeks of our summer without proper watering.

Now, in the autumn you can buy it in many places. Before you buy it in the chic garden centers, you should also check it in the more popular nurseries. I for example purchased the above great one for about twelve euros in the Zöldkirály Nursery one or two years ago, while in the New Garden center they sold smaller ones for about seventy in the same time.

High season of grasses

The first one is the Miscanthus sinensis 'Neue Hybriden', already mentioned in the post of August 8. It has already began to turn in green. By the end of the autumn the complete plant will assume a warm yellow color.

The Pennisetum - Persicaria (Polygonum) couple, also mentioned in the post of August 8, is just as beautiful as it was then.

The Miscanthus sinensis 'Ferner Osten', also mentioned there, assumes particularly beautiful colors. (For some other Miscanthus sports see the Bluestem Nurserey.)

In September starts to bloom the Stipa brachytricha as well – in my opinion one of the most attractive grasses.

And finally a composition of some smaller grasses. (The one with the red leaves is a Carex flagellifera, the small green one an Eragrostis spectabilis, while the long one a Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'.)

With the exception of Carex, all of them can be also planted in relatively dry part-shadow.

Gardening with grasses

This is the saison of grasses. Here you are three fantastic pages on grasses.

This picture was shot in the beautiful garden of L'Ortie-Culture in Belgium. Their page is in French, but their pictures speak for themselves.

Concerning grasses, the Knoll Gardens is the nursery number one in Britain. Apart from browsing through their garden pictures, you should also have a look at their catalog. You will have a completely different idea about what grasses are.

I’m convinced that as to the use of grasses in gardening, Piet Oudolf is one of the best garden designers of the world – although he is that in every other aspect, too. In his homepage you can see some dozens of beautiful images on his works.

Work bouquet

I made this photo in the last week, but in the meantime my computer went wrong, so I can upload it just now.

Since when I have been so welloff that I can observe flowers not only in two inches web pictures but in life size in my own garden, every time I want to make some changes, I make a bouquet to see how the candidates look like together. This is also such a “work bouquet”.

Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne', Cimicifuga ramosa 'Atropurpurea', Telekia speciosa, Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'.

I am satisfied with the result, so from next spring they will be the protagonists in the part shade under the walnut tree.

Summer-end yellows

I love summer-end warm yellow colors. However, it is not easy to find a place for them in our garden. According to Gertrude Jekyll, one should keep these warm and vivid yellow colors near to the house.

I also started like this, but even one single warm yellow flower destroyed the harmony of the pink roses. And, in addition, these warm yellow plants usually prefer suns that our garden does not have in abundance. I tried to plant them in part shade but vivid yellows were very disquieting there.

After the failures of long years I had to accept that one cannot put many yellows in our garden.

I renounced those yellows that required much sun, and I managed to find place for some that also live in part shade, contrapuncted with light white flowers and/or grasses, hostas and ferns.

I think I love the final result more than the impossible alternative with many yellows.

Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'

My absolute favorit. If I could only have one perennial, it would be this, I think. I saw it for the first time at Beth Chatto, and I immediately fell in love with it. To protect the one I bought, I purchased a small backpack in London and I took it on the plane in that, together with a couple of more plants.

It had survived that journey without any problem. However, the next spring, when it did not show any sign of life several weeks after the Persicaria amplexicaulis sprouted up, I thought it become frozen during the winter, and I threw it out. I was convinced that such a Japanese wonder must be frost-tender. But no, it belongs to Z5, it is frost-resistant down to -29ºC. And, in contrast to some of its infamous relatives, it is not invasive. (Some other members of its family, like Persicaria amplexicaulis, Persicaria polymorpha and Persicaria virginiana 'Painter's Palette' are not either – but the overall sold Persicaria bistorta runs like the Orient Express, and its blooming period is also short.)

A professional-looking American review wrote that it also grows on clay. At us it is effectively on clay, and it apparently feels well. You have to water it of course, but it does not require as much water as, for example, the Ligularia. At us it is planted in shade. Where it gets more sun, its leaves become more red. It grows 1-1.5 meters high and 1.5-2 meters large. At the end it blooms small white flowers (on the above picture you can see one or two), but it is usually planted for its beautiful leaves. I also regularly put them in bouquets. It is perfect in every aspect. You only have to take care not to throw it out in the springtime by mistake.

Ramblings in Gardening

A View from Federal Twist - Ramblings of a "New American" Gardener is the blog of the New York gardener James Golden written about his own garden and, as the title shows, about his ramblings in other gardens. All the pictures below are of him.

I found his blog by way of someone who came from there to mine. I visited it, and I was absolutely amazed that someone on the other end of the world composed the garden of my dreams.

Although it is not easy for him either. He has to cope with a heavy, wet clay, and he can dedicate time to his own garden only in the weekends.

Our taste is so similar that the second link in his blog is my favorite Canadian nursery specialized in grasses and willows, the Bluestem Nurserey. But this is not the only one among my favorites that I have found at him.

This picture of James recalls my great ideal, the garden of Beth Chatto. (You are invited to visit the page composed with the pictures of the Beth Chatto Gardens on our homepage Hortus Carmeli.)

And as you can predict on the basis of the pictures, I also found on his page the gardener from whom I learned the most besides Beth Chatto, Piet Oudolf. (Check his page by all means! And then, for a further visit, check the page of a Dutch nursery with a lot of beautiful pictures of him. And as his books are absolutely unavailable at us in Hungary, here you are the Timber Press – just now I see that this is also one of James Golden’s keywords – where you can order them. I have no experience with them, I bought my own copies in Britain.)

One of James’ August posts is for example about a work by Piet Oudolf in the Battery Gardens that I have already saved as a link. It was very interesting to see the same through the eyes of James.

And as one can suspect from the large amount of grasses, Noel Kingsbury is also a recurrent guest in James Golden’s blog. I learned a lot from his book written together with Piet Oudolf (Gardening with Grasses, Frances Lincoln 1998). I can recommend it to everybody who wants to do something with grasses. And the world is small: the foreword was written by Beth Chatto. They chose their motto from Ernst Pagel. He is a fantastic German gardener from the former German Democratic Republic. He has no homepage, but you can buy his plants at Gaissmayer. He himself refers to another wonderful German gardener, Karl Foerster, whose plants are also on sale at Gaissmayer. Beth Chatto considers Foerster as her master, while Piet Oudolf simply calls him my hero.

And another gardener from whom I have learned a lot about the meaning of freedom in the garden: Dan Pearson. He is also known to the Hungarian public through his book A modern kertművészet (The art of modern gardens) (Park Könyvkiadó 1999). And a famous name, John Brookes. He was the first English gardener known to me, and now as I already know more about gardening, I see how excellent he is, too.

And finally back to the Old World. On the blog of James Golden there is also a German garden, the Hermanshoff that I knew from the journal of the English Royal Horticultural Society, the Garden. Exactly that blend of sensitivity and thoroughnes that I love so much in German culture.

In the blog Neues von Lindenhof that I found in the last autumn, on October 16, 2007 there was a detailed report with many pictures about Hermanshoff. The blog of Lis is also worth to follow. I love her own garden, too, but she also regularly gives account of various gardens and gardening events. And – just to round the world off – the Gaissmayer nursery, who sell the plants of Ernst Pagel and Karl Foerster, the masters of Beth Chatto, Piet Oudolf and James Golden, regularly participates at these events.

Our Lady of the Assumption

Today we celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

A short walk in the garden on this beautiful day, before the rain arrives.

A quite young Acer palmatum 'Garnet'.

Agastache rupestris, a licorice mint with an apricot colored flower. In contrast to other mints, it does not belong to Z7 but to Z5, thus it is certainly frost-resistant at us, too.

On the left side a brook thistle (Cirsium rivulare), in the middle a Gaura linderheimeri, while the grass in the background is a Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'.

Between the hostas there is a small bamboo that does not spread its rhizomes: Fargesia murieliae 'Bimbo'.

At the foot of the birches a Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Rosea'. A very brave plant. It does not spread its rhizomes and seeds, you do not have to cut its dried flowers, it blooms continuously from July until the frost, and it is extremely hardy. Unfortunately you only find it beautiful in a close sight, so after a long inner struggle I decided to change it for its red flowered sport in the autumn.

Helenia and roses. I don’t know why, but the Helenium is not in mood at us, similarly to the Phlox, although they live their renaissance in Western Europe. And with a good reason. If someone is interested, there is a wonderful German page with a bunch of Helenium and Phlox photos: helenium-pholx.de.

A fabulous Monarda, called Gewitterwolke. Unfortunately this picture does not do justice to its beautiful purple color. Now I’m considering to divide the big one I have in the peasant garden, and to plant it in the middle of the big perennial garden, too. It is on sale at Staudengärtnerei Gaissmayer.

Grasses in bloom

One of my favorites: Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. At us it grows 120/150 cm, twice as large as the you usually find in the catalogs of the nurseries. An absolute surviving champion. And, in contrast to the basic type, it is completely winter-hardy at us. After the autumn bloom I usually cut it back, because it strongly propagates with seeds.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Kleine Silberspinne'. According to the Praskac it will grow 80 cm, but in the reality at least 120 cm. I purchased it there in a 9×9 pot, and it grow this high in 4-5 years.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Neue Hybriden'. I bought it in the Szigeti Nursery at least 5-6 years ago. It survives everything and it is so beautiful. It is worth to know that most Miscanthus are very resistant, they live on almost every kind of soil and even with relatively few watering. On good soil and with much watering they are of course more beautiful. And finally it received such a place.

Miscanthus sinensis 'Ferner Osten'. I purchased it in 2001 or 2002 in Vienna, in a nursery in the outskirts of the town. It was a beautiful large specimen. In the rain I came in with it to the Naschmarkt – five minutes before closing still there was everything – and from there to the Westbahnhof. I will never forget it.

Finally, a Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'. On the above image it grows on sand, while on the second on an alluvial deposit. In my view it is beautiful on both places.

Panorama

Bouquet, July 25, 2008

More precisely, this is not a “proper bouquet”. I only hastily composed it of various samples of the big perennial garden, so that I might take it with me to the nearby town of Vác and check which hibiscus matches them.

In fact, the Rappai Nursery – the biggest exotic nursery of Hungary – has a stand in the three days Vác Festival on the bank of the Danube. If you want to see their beautiful plants, you do not have to go to Zomba in souther Hungary – it is enough to go as far as Vác.

Butterfly or what...

This little miraculous creature with orange spots on its wings was attracted to the garden by the Phlox. It looks like a butterfly, but I’m not sure it is.

In fact, on its forehead it has a very elegant, curved sucker that is almost as long as the animal itself. It looks very much like a small tropical bird. I am really happy of its visit. The Phlox season just begins, so I hope I will often see it.

A morning – an evening

Due to the several tall trees, the rising and setting sun throws its light in beams of ray over the garden. Thus amost every plant has its own moment, when the light falls exactly on it. Like in a play where every actor stars for some minutes.

The large perennial garden

The upper central part of our garden is a large perennial garden. Here originally there were peach trees and grass. However, the trees could not stand the sandy soil, the humidity and the decrease of the sunlight taken up more and more by the quickly growing large hazel tree, so they died out one after the other. And the grass was so weak that we had to completely resew it four times in ten years.

Finally in 2006 I had enough of this agony, and we decided to replant this part of the garden. With a terrible heartache, we cut out those peach trees covered by complete shadow. I wanted to replace the grass with flowering ground-covering plants.

However, I was longing so much for some wonderful perennials that I decided to include them anyway. And one beautiful flower brings the other with it, and one nice combination the other one.

Finally, beauty won. I converted the complete territory into one large perennial garden. Ground-covering plants remained part of the conception, as I am experimenting both here and in the rest of the garden with low ground-covering plants that would oppress weeds, but would comfortably live together with perennials.

The Japanese tea garden 2

In the morning I often take my first tea here. In front of it and behind it, to the east and to the west there are high trees, thus before foliation and after the fall of the leaves it is a sunny place, but in the summer it is shadowy and fresh almost all the day.

To the left I see the forest.

Here I can still catch a glimpse of the rising sun among the crowns of the trees.

In front of us there is also the forest and our part-shadow garden.

Daylilies seen from near.

And from even nearer (Hemerocallis 'Victorian Fantasy'.)

To the right, in the middle, another part-shadow parcel. In the middle of the picture, one of my favorites: Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'.

To the right the part-shadow garden continues.

The young catalpa seen in the previous picture, now nearer to us. Its flowers are very fragrant.

Sunday morning

Verticillium wilt

This Japanese maple unfortunately has already died. The same happened to three other ones as well. I did not understand why, for we did all our best. We planted it in the right soil, in part-shadow, and watered it abundantly.

By this spring almost all our magnolias were damaged, too. They started to display signs of sickness in the second part of last summer. They looked as if they got some kind of mycosis, or as if they suffered of some deficiency. They suddenly displayed symptoms of chlorosis and a very spectacular degradation. We watered them much more than usual and sprayed them with all kinds of plant-protecting agents, but in vain.

I was desperately searching the internet for a specialist who could help us. I found one, an assistant professor of the chair of pathology of the Budapest university of horticulture, and she was willing to come out. She immediately told that the soil is certainly bad, that we do not water them and do not care them enough, and so on. I tried to convince her that the reality is quite the contrary, but she did not seem to be interested in reality. Incidentally she also mentioned that there exists a kind of mycosis, but it never attacks magnolia.

I browsed through the web again. I started to systematically search for the diseases of magnolia. Soon it turned out that in fact there is a fungus living in the soil that also attacks magnolia. The symptoms corresponded to those displayed by our plants. It is called Verticillium wilt, and indeed there is no effective protecting agent against it. Nevertheless, there is a small chance that the plant itself will win it. The only thing one can do is to give strength to the plant by foliar fertilizing. (As I understood, our magnolia had already overcome this infection some years ago when I started to apply on it a foliar fertilizer called Wuxal.)

Not only magnolia, but other kinds of plants are sensitive to it as well. Wherever this fungus once occurred in the garden, you should better not plant them.

Plants threatened by verticillium wilt:

ash, azalea, Japanese barberry, Corean box, American (wild) chestnut, catalpa, cherry and other stone-fruits, currant, gooseberry, some sorts of cornel, elder, elm, honeysuckle, syringa, some sorts of lime, maple, magnolia, some sorts of oak, plum, some sorts of rose, some sorts of sorb, sumac, spirea, fustet, haw.

All the plants in the above list that we had in our garden, either displayed symptoms of deficiency, or died, in spite of all our care and efforts.

There are, however, some sorts that are resistant to verticillium wilt:

apple, Western arbor vitae, beech, birch, some sorts of cornel, Scotch fir, ginkgo, Western swape, thornapple, honeylocust, juniper, redwood, mulberry, some sorts of oak, some sorts of lime, pear, poplar, some sorts of sorb, spruce, chestnut, willow.

Some web pages for more information about verticillium wilt:

- Online gardener
- Univerisity of Minnesota
- Elm care
- RHS

Bouquet, June 13, 2008

From the left to the right: A purple-leaved basil, a purple-leaved fennel (Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum'), a catmint (Nepeta × fassenii 'Six Hills Giant'). The red one is a Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus', both to the left and to the right. Some Hostas. The large one is a marsh spurge (Euphorbia palustris), the smaller ones wood spurges (Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea'). Near to it, the Heuchera received of my mother-in-law. One wine-red Dahlia. Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabella'. The purple leaf almost visible behind it is a Persicaria 'Red Dragon'. One fern I received of my neighbor, so I do not know its name, but it is the most beautiful fern I have ever seen. The tousled one in the background is a Heuchera americana.

June morning lights

Bouquet, June 9, 2008

The big blue and white ones are campanulas (Campanula persicifolia). The little blue one to the left is Campanula rotundifolia. The purple one under it is Geranium 'Patricia', above it to the left some Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain' (unfortunately the photo does not render how beautiful it is in life).

The two wine-red ponpons near to it are a brook thistle (Cirsium rivulare). Below, a hydrangea is about to bloom (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabella'). In the middle, below, a Hosta (to the right there are two more Hosta flowers as well). Behind it the wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides 'Purpurea') that is still blooming.

Beside it, a handful of Heuchera coming from the garden of my mother-in-law, of which I do not know the exact name. To the right, a Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum multiflorum 'Variegatum'). And finally, two decorative bulbs: a big purple Allium atropurpureum (uncorrectly called Allium atropureum on its paper-bag), while the two tousled ones are Allium vineale 'Hair' (spelled uncorrectly again as Allium 'Fineale Hair' on their bags).

Amelia - Violacea: fence of historical roses, 2008

Amelia

Blush Hip

Cardinal de Richelieu - Violacea - Sissinghurst Castle - Amelia - Hippolyte

Cardinal de Richelieu

Charles de Mills (the light pink one to the right: Amelia)

The simple one: Complicata; the full-flowered: Hippolyte.

Empress Josephine

Empress Josephine - Amelia - Charles de Mills

Erinnerung an Brod

Hippolyte

In the forefront: Hippolyte. In the background, to the left: Rosa gallica officinalis. In the background, to the right: Rosa Mundi.

Indigo

In the forefront: unknown rose (it was mixed up in the nursery and I do not know its name). In the background: Erinnerung an Brod.

In the forefront: La Sancta. Behind it: Trigintipetala

Sissinghurst Castle

Trigintipetala

Violacea

Bouquet, May 26, 2008

The double-flowered dark crimson to the left: Red Charm. The white one below it: Do Tell. The large one on its side: Cytherea. The double-flowered striped one above: Pink Spritzer. The pink one below it: First Lady. The simple wine-red on its side: Hogart. The butter-colored near to it: Coral Sunset. The dark wine-red above: Mons. Martin Cahuzack. The salmon-colored near to it: Coral Charm.

Most of them were bought at Paeonia Miely.

Morning lights

Viburnum × pragense

One of my favorite evergreen shrubs. I like very much its loose shape that lets it fit both in jungle and Japanese compositions. And it is also undemanding. At us there are two of it in the lower fence, exclusively reserved for survivor champions. It grows quickly, but it is not spreading. It bears beautiful, fragrant flowers in the spring. It needs virtually no maintenance.


height: 2-3 m
width: 2-3 m
soil: It likes good soil, but it lives on almost any soil, even on light sand.
water: It likes irrigation, but also tolerates dryness.
light: It prefers half-shadow, but you can plant it on relatively sunny places as well.

Nevertheless I do not recommend it for dry and sunny sand.

American hardiness zone: Z5 (down to -29 ºC)
bloom: mid- or late spring

Paeonia 'Teni' May 14, 2008

Paeonia 'Kokuryunishiki' 3

Good morning, Pentecost!

Paeonia 'Teni', May 10, 2008

Paeonia 'Teni', May 9, 2008

Paeonia 'Kokuryunishiki' 2

This dark purple-colored arborescent peony is also beautiful when budded.

Squirrel, May 3, 2008