I love Missouri Botanical Gardens!

 It was a most gorgeous day when we were at Missouri Botanical Gardens last weekend, and what a wonderful way to spend our anniversary! We took sooo many pictures, and I have decided that there is no way to edit them down into one post, so this is the first of several.

I have tried to think of how to frame these pictures with words, but I just decided to let MoBot speak for itself, with captions. Enjoy the pictures.

Chihouly glass sculpture arch in rose garden

One of many artworks in the Garden

The Queen of the Garden on her throne....yeah that would be me!

I've always loved this sculpture with bells

One of many gorgeous planters

Victorian garden

glass scultures floating in the pond, Climatron in the background

Detail of Victorian garden

If you can stand another iris pic, Edith Woford

The Maze

Tiger's eyes sumac

Very old hackberry tree. I love the huge, old trees of this garden.

The ancient trunk of this tree is truly awesome.

Another ancient tree, a sweetgum (and Himself, my gardening and life partner)

Japanese tree lilac. Never knew they could get so big!

Daylily garden, not blooming much yet.

except for this one: "Apricot"

Tomorrow, the English Woodland garden, where I could have spent days instead of hours. Fascinating plants there!

Mother Nature's Magic Tricks Need a Lot of Patience!

When you plant something and it gets all yellow and disappears that same summer; and it doesn't come up again the next year, you know it's dead, right? Well apparently not always! I planted a golden seal (hydrastis canadensis) in a woods bed a couple of years ago, and in spite of what I thought of as proper care, it left me and I just assumed it didn't like my conditions. Though what conditions it would like, I could only guess, as I gave it the humus-rich woodland soil it is supposed to want. I was hoping to get a start on a "very large colony", as my Misouri Wildflowers book hints of, but I thought, alas, not to be.

Not so fast! For three years later, as I'm weeding the area, I find this, the original plant tag still right next to it:

And with a bud, no less! It must have been lying dormant, growing a root system all this time. I have read that it demands moist conditions but it doesn't really get that here, so it may be more adaptable than the books say. (The same books also say that Virginia bluebells like moist conditions but I find they grow in most any woodsy soil, and in my gravel paths just fine.) I'm assuming that it may act like many other native woodland plants, which go dormant when the summer gets hot and dry, resting and marshalling their forces, developing root systems underground with no energy output used in keeping leaves alive; until the next growing season. Ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) does the same thing, disappearing in July or August to reappear in spring twice the size it was the previous year.

I am going to be careful to watch for the ripening seeds, and scatter them in a couple of other places in the woods, including one spot that stays a mite damper than others, and see if they come up. The flower blooms a sort of non-distinguished greenish white, fuzzy little ball of stamens and pistils with no petals, that soon turns into a compact cluster of scarlet berries. If harvested, they should be planted fresh, or they will develop a double dormancy that takes 2 winters to break (just like ginseng again), coming up in the second spring.

Goldenseal is one of the valued medicinal herbs that is harvested for its horizontal rhizomes. A long-lived herbaceous perennial of the deep woods, the root resembles a small, crooked finger. The name is derived from the golden yellow color of the rhizome and clearly identifies it from all look-alikes, of which it has many. Goldenseal root contains an antimicrobial constituent which is used in treatment of upper respiratory infections. In small doses it is also said to be a stimulent to digestion and tones the digestive tract.

Goldenseal and ginseng are both often illegally harvested in the wild, which decimates native stands.  Raiders risk heavy fines from conservation agencies, and possibly a pants-load of buckshot., as growers of woods patches guard their valuable crops zealously. On the other hand, planting as a cash crop is encouraged and seeds of both are readily available. It does take several years before roots are big enough to harvest, often 7-9 years. Kind of a long time to wait!

 

Ginseng, in their second year. The tiny plants in the background are first year plants, the seeds having gone through the double dormancy period and come up the second spring, even though they were all planted at the same time. It will be several years yet before these babies are big enough to be harvested.

As for me, I don't plan on getting rich from my tiny patch. I just grow them for fun--and to see if I can!

For more information on growing both these plants, here is a useful link:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/newcropsnews/94-4-1/ginseng.html

"Nature does nothing in vain."

              --Sir Thomas Browne

Nature Does It With Flair! Columbines!

Hardy orchid Bletilla

Everytime I go out the door I am awestruck by the world outside. Mother Nature never does anything by half, and there is more drama and intrigue out there than ever in anyone's imagination on daytime TV. I could never understand why anybody would want to stay indoors and watch soap operas when there is so much going on just outside the walls of their own houses!

Oh, the columbines this year!

All of these columbines have hybridized into these shapes and colors, and have reseeded in the garden with no help or interference from any human.

But what;s really neat about these plants:

Notice the flower on the right, normal position, new bloom. The one above it is starting to turn up, in horizontal position. The one at left is setting seed, the petals ready to fall, in upright position. See the seed capsule standing upright above the shriveled petals? When it ripens, it splits open and the seeds fly out everywhere! What a great seed delivery system! 

I love Mother Nature!

"This life, sae far's I understand,

Is an enchanted fairie-land,

Where pleasure is a magic wand

That, wielded right,

Makes hours like minutes hand in hand

Dance by fir' light."

           

--Robert Burns

Ah, the darling buds of May!

Seems like summer has sprung, full blown, from the hopeful days of March and April. Spring has flown by on beautiful gossamer wings, flitting off in such haste that has left me shouting, "Wait! I'm not done with you yet, I didn't get to see.....where are you going so fast?" Already the roses are overnight bursting into full bloom, and the rhododendrons haven't even finished opening up.

Red Knockout Rose!

We have been gone for 4 days, at the Tri-State Gem and Mineral Show here. It was an outdoor show, and it alternately rained, hailed, and gusted windily (is that a word? ha!) except for the last day, and most of it it was absolutely miserable, wet and chilly. So coming back to the garden was truly a marvelous adventure. With the rain and a couple of days of sunshine, everything seems to be twice the size it was a week ago and dramatic changes are everywhere.

And what a year for the irises! I am in love with irises, this time of the year. (Of course I am in love with whatever's blooming, at any given moment!) The newer cultivars are absolutely gorgeous, but I think I love the old varieties best. Some of the new ones don't seem to have much fragrance, which to me is the soul of the flower. Like with roses, all that hybridizing seems to have removed the essence and just left the lovely faces.

One of my favorites, an antique that started blooming again after I divided it and gave it some sun.

A new combination has struck me like a revelation: I am going to save seeds of wild columbine and scatter them in the bed of yellow iris for next year.

Won't these be pretty together?

The wild roses are blooming in the woods, scenting the air for blocks around. Kind of makes up for the scentless Knock-outs, which I love for their beautiful, don't-need-any-coddling ways. Therese Bugnet has buds, but being somewhat shaded by lilacs that have grown to tower over her, is just going to be subtle these days. Plus, I found a caterpillar chomping merrily away at her the other day, and it had already stripped a couple of branches. I removed it to a wild rose where it can chomp to its heart's content and not do any appreciable damage.

Therese Bugnet

The wild roses are multiflora roses, a type of rambler introduced from Asia
 to the eastern United States in 1866 as rootstock for ornamental roses. Beginning in the 1930s, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service promoted it for use in erosion control and as "living fences" to confine livestock. State conservation departments recommended multiflora rose as cover for wildlife. More recently, multiflora rose has been planted in highway median strips to serve as crash barriers and to reduce automobile headlight glare. However, because if its tenacious growth and rapid spreading ways, both through seeds and its habit of tip layering its log canes, it has made its way to the noxious plant list and is a scourge of farmers everywhere. I don't think there is anywhere it won't grow; sun, shade, open fields, woods, gardens; and it is lethal to mess with, having prodigious thorns that catch everthing within reach and rip clothing and flesh alike to ribbons if it has a chance. Its saving grace are the wonderfully scented white flower clusters, and the only reason I keep it around. When it is done blooming, I will arm myself with leather rose gloves and a sharp pair of pruners, and reduce it to about a three-foot mound (currently, they are reaching 8 feet and still climbing!) and while I'm at it, I'll dig out its new tip-layered progeny. It will spend the rest of the summer regaining its size, and next spring again be covered with buds. (I'll have to look out for cardinal nests, they like it because it's safe from marauding cats in there!)

A wild pink dog rose grows by the edge of the wood and I've planted a beach rose that I got from a friend who summers in Maine. It too is a thorny, dangerous thing that spreads, but more of a ground cover type. I don't know its botanical name. It needs to be kept in check with a firm hand also but it's single deep pink flowers are wonderful.

 Speaking of cardinals, I don't know where they are nesting this year, but last year a silly pair built a nest in the magnolia tree right over the path off the deck, just overhead on a low branch. They spent the entire nesting season scolding and fending off anybody who walked under it, and frantically swooping at the cats everytime they came anywhere near the tree. They did successfully raise their family but are not back in the  same tree this year! I think they learned from experience and may be nesting in the euonymous that grows above the stone wall, away from any human and feline threat.

 I've added a few more plants to the woods this week. It took some hunting, but I finally found stoloniferous tiarella, hostas and toadlilies to add to the wildflowers. I have plenty of the clumping tiarella wherryi varieties in more disciplined parts of the garden, but in the woods I want them to spread and form colonies.

Tiarella cordifolia should colonize by the dry stream.

The last leaves of adder's tongue (erythronium) have disappeared for the year, and the path is open again. Part of today will be spent moving wild phlox out of it to a spot where it won't get stepped on. Wild ginger and ferns have almost completely covered another path and need to be relocated. It's still not too late in the season, and it's supposed to rain (again!) this weekend so that will be good for them. Butterbur (petastites) and giant solomon's seal that I moved last week are perky and happy already in their new homes with more wild phlox and ginger, surrounding a pussy willow and an old mock orange where only poison ivy and honeysuckle used to grow.

The cursed invasive Virginia waterleaf. Beautiful, isn't it?

Arum Italicum Pictum in bloom. You have to look under the leaves to find this huge flower!

I love the way this fern is opening up!

 

The woods has changed to summer dress. Some of this ginger has got to go! It will be transplanted to another area or donated to a friend's garden.

The moss along the dry creek is well established, in spite of the robins and brown thrashers. The woods is my favorite place to be. I often put aside my pruners and weeding tools and just sit on the old bench, listening to the birds and enjoying the serenity of this sacred space. It's the first place I go in the morning, savoring my coffee in the dappled sunlight, and the last place I visit at night when the air is cool and dim; listening to Nature speak to me in whispers of soft wind voices telling me deep secrets of the woods.

A visiting neighbor enjoys the garden too! Or maybe he just comes over for the petting.

A local resident out for a stroll among the violets.

Every day is an adventure in the Chaotic garden!

"Nature is a mutable cloud, which is always and never the same."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Mother's Day at the Iris Show

Today is Mother's Day, and for my daughter and I, it always means more irises! We have made a tradition of attending the Tri-State Iris Society show that is held here each year and this year is a great one for irises.  Club members show their finest in May, and in August, the club has a sale which we also attend. What a delightful way to spend a morning!

While we were there, a local tv camera crew came to film the show, and we found ourselves on the evening news tonight! Too funny!

It's really hard to pick my favorites of all these beautiful flowers, but here's a few. I always make notes so I will know what to look for at the fall iris sale, and I always lose them. This year I took pictures of both flowers and labels! Now....if I can remember to look at them and make a list to take with me....but that's another story!

Weekend Update

Ring Around Rosie

Copper Bubblebath

Dazzling

Lacy Lynx

Casino Cruiser

Mastery

Jazz Band

Florentine Silk

Gypsy Romance

Nuclear Nancy

Badlands

Ozark Rebounder

Just a few more from my own garden. These are all "modern" varieties, some of which have lost their name tags over the years so I don't remember what they are. But they are no less beautiful without a name!

Gypsy Dancer

Blaney Marlow

Cinnamon Twist

Savanna Sunrise

Pagan Dance

The iris has been named our city flower, so every gardener is encouraged to plant them. Last year there was a city sponsored iris exchange, where gardeners were asked to donate irises to be given away or exchanged for other varieties. I love this idea! I hope it gets to be an annual tradition.

"They come! The merry summer months of beauty, song and flower!

They come!"

                                  ---William Motherwell