Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Last Day of April Pictures

April is one of the best months for the northern Virginia woodland garden. We began with daffodils and the little blue bulbs I love so much, and now we finish with azaleas and dogwood and more.
Azalea 'Herbert' blooms along the back of the lot.

The Spanish Bluebells have been outstanding this year.

Pink tulip-of-the-woods.
Unlike the red one, I remember planting these at one time.
I don't remember planting it in the woods, however.

This old dogwood was here
at the edge of the woods
when we bought the house.

The coral honeysuckle is finally climbing
through the viburnum as I always thought it should.

Not all our azaleas are elegant.
This screaming coral-pink-red one is in front of the house
right where the builder put it.
Most of the houses here have similar ones.
It's been with us so long now I can't think of getting rid of it.

Labels: azaleas, bluebells, dogwood, honeysuckle, tulips

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The Woods Awaken: Native Azaleas

Except for the tree pollen, I love this time of year in the woods. The shrubs start to leaf out, then the trees take on a green haze and the light becomes diffuse but still bright. Last year, I almost missed the native azaleas while looking for spring ephemerals on the forest floor. This year, I've been watching them for 2 months and now they've begun to bloom.

Native azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

I believe all the ones I've found are members of the same species (Rhododendron periclymenoides), but the flowers show some color variation. I just found this key, and I'm going to go double check my conclusion after I publish this. Why not before? Good question, but I'll update the post if I got it wrong the first time.

Native azalea

The dogwood flowers are all unfolded now. They have a lot more flowers when they're in the sun, but I like them best in a lacy swath through the woods.

Dogwood (Cornus florida)

Some of the moss is "flowering" too.

Moss, unknown species

The leaf buds are as varied and interesting as flowers, and I recently learned a bit of folk wisdom about the Beech tree. It's said that when the Beech trees finally drop last year's leaves and begin to open the new ones, there will be no more frost. Looks like we're not quite there yet.

Leaf buds of American Beech (Fagus grandiflora)

Labels: azaleas, beech, dogwood, wildflowers

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

CeVA Journal: Wildflowers

This started out to be a post about our long weekend in the country, but a long weekend leads to a long post, so I decided to break it up.

When we bought the country place last fall I couldn't wait for spring to discover all the wildflowers that were just bound to be springing up in the woods. And I'm still waiting. Yesterday afternoon, I was determined to do a thorough search. Who ever heard of a woods without spring flowers? There must be some somewhere. So I crisscrossed the woods with my gaze firmly on the ground. I'd already found a few patches of bluets several weeks ago - I'm skipping over them here, but they're still blooming and even more numerous.

In front of the house, there are lots of ferns. We're going to regard ferns as honorary wildflowers for this discussion. Christmas fern was with us all winter and is now putting up new fronds. Then there are several others that are new to me. I don't know what this one is but it's going to be big.
I think this is bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, but I welcome corrections.
Near the stream, I found this. It looks like Solomon's Seal to me, but it's much smaller than the ones in our suburban woods.
I've been watching the shrubs that I think might be blueberries. Very early in the spring, the tall white-flowered ones bloomed. This one is a low-growing thing that's part of a thick colony towards the back of the lot.
At first I thought this was another Solomon's Seal, but it appears to be Uvularia sessilifolia, or Sessile Bellwort.
A closer look at the Uvularia flower.
But while I had my nose pointed at the ground looking for tiny flowers, I almost missed this, which was above my head.
I believe this is Rhododendron periclymenoides. There's only one shrub like this blooming back in the woods, but there are several others nearby with just foliage. I may try to take a few cuttings and get it growing closer to the house. I liked it so much I went back and took more pictures today.

Labels: azaleas, CeVA, ferns, wildflowers

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Hearts and Flowers

Happy Valentine's Day! I brought you flowers. This is a genuine unretouched photo of the azalea plant I was recently complaining about. I guess I'll keep it a while longer. Behind the azalea, through the dining room window, you can see our latest reminder of winter. Our ~~snow storm~~ ~~sleet storm~~ ~~ice storm~~ precipitation event left everything looking like a freezer in need of defrosting. No transparent ice glaze; no sparkly snow; just this white crusty mess. I think we got every type of frozen precipitation there is, except hail. This is the best photo I could manage of the crud. eeeYEWwww! But while trying to find something pretty to take a picture of, I stepped on a daffodil bud. Just a few more weeks to go.

Labels: azaleas, seasons, weather

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