Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Friday, May 19, 2006
Assorted
The house renovation project is back underway, and seriously disrupting my thinking (again), but there's a couple of garden things too interesting to pass unremarked.
Yesterday's NY Times Home and Garden section had a front page article about the iris lady. I guess her address is Herndon, but it's one of those places that used to be in the country and is now in the suburbs - right on the Reston Parkway/Lawyers Road/West Ox Road (Lawyers Road at that point). According to the article, Mrs. Thomas began selling irises in 1974 after her husband died. I used to drive by that way quite often before the Fairfax Co. Parkway was built, and wondered about all the irises. I assumed it was just somebody's favorite flower and a hobby that got out of hand. Now she's 84 years old, and has been offered gazillions of dollars for the property, but is still holding out and hoping that somebody will look after her garden when she's gone.
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I escaped to my own garden for several hours on Wednesday. After I did all the digging I could stand, I pulled up some violets that were becoming obnoxious. They're at the back of the lot, well mulched by oak leaves. As I got toward the middle of the clump, one of the oak leaves started to move on its own. Hmmmmm, maybe not an oak leaf.....no, a polyphemus moth. I was separated from my camera by dropcloths and ladders and paint, so I just watched it a while. It's body was massive - much bigger than your average butterfly - it looks far too heavy to fly. It didn't seem inclined to go anywhere, so I put it under another clump of violets, and moved on to another task.
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Hummingbirds have been daily garden visitors since I put the up hummingbird feeder, but I was pleased to see that they're also getting nectar from the flowers. I've seen them at the Cupheas and lately at the sage (Salvia officinalis). I plan to have more to say about the Cupheas later - I've assembled a collection of them this year.
2 Comments:
I hope she doesn't sell out, there's already to many housing complexes around.
Plantfanatic
I agree, it would be a shame to lose a nice garden to more houses. When I moved here 20 years ago, that area was still somewhat undeveloped. It's now totally surrounded by housing. I hope the garden can be preserved.
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