Today's plant obsession - Aquilegia

Today's plant obsession is Aquilegia, common name Columbine, though some species are also called Granny's Bonnet.

We have enough Granny's Bonnet here at May Dreams Gardens to open up a hat shop, a milliner's delight of color.

This is mostly due to allowing Aquilegia to self-sow about the garden because at least in this garden, I believe it is a sin to weed out Aquilegia.

As a result, we have this lovely stand of light blue double columbine, probably 'Blue Tower', growing where it planted itself in a garden border that currently has no name.

Nearby, a darker blue columbine is sharing space with a hellebore.

Don't worry, though, columbine and hellebores are both in the same plant family, Ranunculaceae.

It's funny now, but back in college, when I took a class in plant taxonomy, I never thought much about the Ranunculaceae family. I didn't think it had much to offer me. Now I'm obsessed, in a good way of course, with several members of its family, including Aquilegia, Helleborus, and Clematis.

These pastel colored columbine may appeal to many gardeners, especially in the spring time.

These are growing in Plopper's Field, just about ready to be overtaken by some daylilies. 

Also growing in Plopper's Field is this stand of mostly pink Granny's Bonnets which are probably progeny of Aquilegia 'Tower Pink'.

Across the way, in the garden border called Woodland Follies, a native columbine is blooming in a little stand of native woodland flowers.

It is probably Aquilegia canadensis.

I've always wanted a yellow columbine, and now I have one.

I would have to find the plant tag to know the exact variety, but my guess it is 'McKana's Giant', which are mixed colors, and I just chose a yellow one to plant.

I always keep a look out for interesting Aquilegia at the garden centers.  That's how I found these dwarf columbine.

This spring I found 'Green Apples' columbine for sale and bought one to plant somewhere in the garden.

Columbine do have some issues.  Leaf miners always disfigure the leaves, though they rarely kill the plant.  There is also the problem of columbine sawfly larvae which can skeletonize the leaves overnight. The best method of controlling them is to just pick off the little green caterpillars as soon as you see evidence of them. They are tiny, so you have to look closely to find them.

The only other issue I can think of is that Aquilegia can be addictive.  I dare you to try to plant just one.

I really must stay clean today

I really must stay clean today because I am going to my niece's wedding and it just won't do to be other than clean.

This means that I must stay out of the garden.

Even though I think the containers and plants waiting for new homes on the front porch could use a splash of water, I'm afraid to water them.

I know if I get out the watering can, fill it up, carry it to the plants, and then water them, somewhere between filling and emptying the watering can, I might splash water on myself.

Or I might realize too late that the watering can had dirt on the side of it  and that dirt has inexplicably transferred itself to my pants.

I dare not go outside because I might see a weed and reach down to pull it out. Just one weed, how could I get dirty pulling it?  Oh, let me count the ways. I could pull up the weed and in the process bring up a bunch of dirt that then splatters on me.

Or if that doesn't happen, I might get dirt on my hands when pulling the weed and without thinking, wipe my hands on my pants. Oops,  I'm well on my way to perfecting my "eccentric aunt who gardens" look.

Or I could forget that I pulled the weed and then at some awkward moment at the wedding, look down at my hands and discover that I have fresh dirt under my fingernails.

I could run out to the garden for just a minute and end up ten minutes later with a trowel in my hand for who knows what planting emergency and then see above about hands and pants and add swipes of dirt to my arms.

Or I could see something under a big shrub to tend to like a weed and find myself carefully crouching down to reach it, trying hard not to actually kneel on my knees, but then kneeling anyway and when I get up, besides now having dirty knees, I have little bits of fading flowers and twigs in my hair.

Later, someone at the wedding will point out that I have something in my hair. When I reach up with my now dirty hand to get it out,  I might accidentally side swipe my face with my hand that has dirt on it and end up with a big smudge on my face.

On and on it goes. There are so many scenarios I could list that involve the garden and my difficulty with staying clean.

I really must just sit and wait quietly for the wedding, and then tomorrow, I can return to my usual gardening self. Thank goodness it is also raining, so sitting quietly and staying out of the garden on a Saturday in May is just a little bit easier.

Though, if I use an umbrella, maybe I could sneak out to the vegetable garden to pull a radish or two for lunch and somehow miraculously stay clean?

I really must stay out of the garden...

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2013

Welcome to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day for May 2013.

Ah yes, the merry month of May, the month when  the sky is blue, the grass is green, the sun is warm and the garden is all new again.  I dream of the days of May... 

Here in my USDA Hardiness Zone 6a garden in central Indiana, we are still enjoying a relatively slow start to spring.  I can see from looking at  past bloom day posts that many plants are blooming about a week later than in past years.

In Plopper's Field, the alliums are dominating the other blooms which are mostly all buds.

I planted these giant alliums in the fall of 2011, so this is their second spring to bloom. I'm happy see they've returned. They had a rough start because I realized after I planted them that I had planted them upside down.   Good thing the bulbs have a sense of direction and know which way to send the roots and which way to send the shoots.

Near the patio, gilliflowers, Dianthus, are starting to bloom.

I realize gilliflowers is not the most common of common names for Dianthus, but I discovered it this past winter and like it, so I'm using it. Maybe it will start a trend?

These dwarf columbines are flanked by two growing swaths of blooming Sedum ternatum under the honeylocust tree in the garden border I call Bird's Blanket.

The dwarf columbine plants have been confined to some containers on the patio so these must have come up from seeds blown into this garden border.  I think I will transplant the rest of the dwarf columbine in the containers to this garden border and move that sedum to another garden border. It looks a little thuggish here.

I have other columbines growing throughout the garden, progeny of Aquilegia 'Tower Blue', 'Tower Pink' and 'Black Barlow' that I grew from seed a decade or so ago.

I rarely deadhead my columbine until the seeds are ripe. I scatter the seeds around the garden and let the columbine come up wherever they like it. It's a sin to weed out a columbine here at May Dreams Gardens.

I have a new shrub blooming on the edge of Woodland Follies, at the beginning of the path I call Ridgewood Avenue.  (Yes, you can ask me why I call my garden path Ridegewood Avenue, or follow the link for the answer.)

This is a black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa 'Autumn Magic'. It should have great fall color and fruit that the birds will eat, eventually.  The fruit is very sour, sour enough to choke on, so it won't be their first choice meal.

At the other end of the Woodland Follies garden border sits this large snowball bush in full bloom.

This is Virbunum opulus 'Sterile'. I think once it finishes blooming, I'm going to figure out how to cut it back just a little bit.

There is more blooming in my garden - after all it's May. I have strawberries blooming in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral and tulips still blooming in the front garden.  The quamash is in bloom and will soon be joined by blue dogbane,  ox-eye daisies, and salvia.  And because it is a slow spring, I think I'll have time to enjoy it all.

What's blooming in your garden in this month of May?

We'd love to have you share your blooms on the 15th of each month by joining us with your own Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post. Just post on your blog about what is blooming this month in your garden and then come back here and leave a link to your blog post in the Mr. Linky widget below along with a brief comment to let us know you've posted.

The rules are simple... no rules! You can include pictures, lists, no lists, common names, botanical names, whatever you’d like to do to showcase your blooms. All are welcome!

“We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.” ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

Blue skies over and in the garden

Camassia quamash

Blue skies touched my garden today and left their color on these flowers.  This is quamash, Camassia quamash, a spring-flowering bulb. 

It grows in Plopper's Field, which is starting to fill in nicely.

There aren't many spots left in the garden border I call Plopper's Field where I generally plop in perennials wherever they will fit.  I'll have to do some sorting out in this area to see if there are some "undesirables" to evict to make way for more plants. 

Or more likely I'll figure out other areas of the garden to plant new plants in.

I spent much of the afternoon in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral where  I made good progress on weeding out the flower border that runs along the fence from one end of the garden to the other.  This flower border is now a blank canvas, except for a few clematis vines trained to grow on trellises leaning against the fence and an old 'Hyperion' daylily.

I am a tiny bit concerned because some evening primrose found its way to this border. I grubbed out as much as I could today but I expect I'll have to be vigilant in weeding it out for the next ten years to be really rid of it.

The Vegetable Garden Cathedral

Life is pretty busy these days, both in and out of the garden, so I probably won't be able to spend much time in the Vegetable Garden Cathedral again until next Sunday when I plant out the summer vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, and sow seeds for beans, corn, squash, and annual flowers.

In the meantime, I'm beginning to harvest lettuce, spinach, spring onions, and radishes and hope to soon see blooms on the peas. I think I will also have a bumper crop of strawberries this year.

Life is good in the garden, especially in May when the skies are blue, the sun is warm, the grass is green, and the garden is all new again.