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BelleWood in Bloom

BelleWood in Bloom 2016

February	March
April	May	June
July	August	September
October

October

Wednesday, 26 October

Tubers from different canna look different. These are from
Canna musaefolia, the banana leaved canna.

Enough of a frost last night to nip back tender canna leaves.

Tuesday, 18 October

Autumn sunlight caught in seed heads
of maiden grass, Miscanthus sinensis.

This is another shrub that arrived at BelleWood Gardens in a wardrobe carton when we moved from Connecticut lo these many years ago. I raised this bottlebrush buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, from seed.

And now I could do it all over again. Though
considering how it suckers I don't see the need.

I do enjoy the autumn flowers of monkshood, Aconitum carmichaelii.

The common name is for the fancied resemblance of each flower
to the hood of a capuchin monk's robe.

The rich blue is my favorite. But 'Cloudy'
is also attractive in a more subdued manner.

September

Thursday, 22 September 2016

The drought continues. Even established shrubs are suffering.

It has been very dry. At night earthworms crawl onto the driveway looking for moisture. Then, come morning, they dehydrate even more. And die.

Sunday, 18 September 2016

Oxblood lily, Rhodophiala bifida is native to Chile.
German settles brought it to Texas, where it thrives.
At BelleWood Gardens it winters in the greenhouse.

Monday, 12 September 2016

Autumn comes with the flowering of Colchicum autumnale.

My giant pineapple lily, Eucomis pole-evansii.

August

Sunday, 21 August

My bananas in the rain.

Friday, 19 August

When my crinum come into bloom I forgive and forget all about the nuisance the very large bulbs in their very large pots create in winter when they move into the greenhouse.

July

Friday, 15 July 2016

It's the vegetable vampire, dodder. Looks like a tangle of orange string but in reality it has little hastoria that pierce the cell walls of their host plant, sucking up nutrients. Cuscuta is a real plant. Not a saprophyte that lives on decaying matter, not a fungus. Has flowers, makes seed, sprouts like any normal plant. Attaches to a host and the roots wither away. I have a patch that yearly attacks some yellow dead nettle, Lamium galeodolon. I rip it out, bag it up, and hide host and vampire in the trash. Comes back, every year. So this year I went to war. Since I don't care about the dead nettle I sprayed it with an herbicide, wherever I saw dodder. It killed the dead nettle. And the dodder has not reappeared. Will report back to you next year.

Lilium 'La Reve' has come through several winters
outdoors in a half-barrel size container.

Wednesday, 13 July 2016

They spend the winter dry and dormant in the basement, then waken with the Spring.

Hippeastrum 'Charisma'

and this beauty with a faded label.

Along with the others, enjoying their summer vacation out of doors.

Monday, 11 July 2016

Not sure of the cultivar name for this daylily. Lurking in the corners of my mind is Hemerocallis 'Heart of Africa' but cannot find it on line. Anyone have a suggestion?

A very helpful reader of BelleWood Gardens site - from Germany, no less! - has supplied an answer. It is 'Africa'. My thanks, Jan, your help is much appreciated.

Sunday, 10July 2016

Aptly given the common name of "shredded umbrella" in its native Japan
it's the handsome foliage that gives Syneilesis aconitifolia a home in the woods.

Monday, 4 July 2016

Rain lily, fairy lily, Argentine rain lily - all are names for Habranthus robustus.
Dormant bulbs were potted on 29 June. And in just 4 days they are in flower.

I do like them. And so do honeybees.

Sunday, 3 July 2016

Summer brings Stewartia pseudocamellia with clean white flowers, but alas, no fragrance.

Friday, 1 July 2016

Night blooming and soon withering with morning sun. Mirabilis longiflora.

June

Wednesday, 22 June 2016

The name of this sizzling summer bulb, Hymenocallis, means "beautiful membrane."

Call it what you will, Papaver somniferum is a beautiful annual poppy.

Common names include bread seed, lettuce leaf, and sleepytime poppy.

Sunday, 19 June 2016

Yellow foxglove, Digitalis lutea, is a charming, self-sowing perennial.

It is a welcome addition wherever it decides to plant itself in semi-shade.

Thursday, 16 June 2016

Turns out bees also enjoy our native wisteria, Wisteria frutescens.

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Wisteria frutescens is our native counterpart
to the more commonly grown Asian wisteria.

Just as lovely, and not as rampant.

Sunday 5 June 2016

After the rain this double peony cannot hold up its flowers.

Siberian iris 'Little White' partnered with Allium christophii

May

Monday, 30 May 2016

The hardy bananas are clearly loving the 90 degree Fahrenheit weather.

The intersectional yellow peonies are magnificent this year.

Lipstick red. What other name would you give to this red peony.

Paeonia 'Krinkled White' certainly has an oddly spelled name

to go with its handsome flowers.

I got this clump of Siberian iris from a friend.
Odds are it is the old favorite 'Caesar's Brother'.

Even though it is beardless, there still are
bee guide markings to direct pollinating insects.

Monday, 23 May 2016

No idea of the cultivar, but this blue bearded iris has sweetly fragrant flowers.

The fuzzy beard on the lower petals are a bee guide,
directing the insects to pollen and nectar.

Quamash, Camassia cusickii, is an edible native bulb from the Pacific Northwest
one that Sacagawea gave to Lewis and Clark and their men on their westward journey.

Doronicum, commonly called leopard's bane. Must work -
no leopards here at BelleWood Gardens.

Lemon lily, Hemerocallis lileo-asphodelus, is the earliest daylily to flower for me.
It too came from Connecticut, originally dug from the roadside by an abandoned house.

Sunday, 8 May 2016

When we moved to New Jersey a respectable number of years ago one of the first wardrobe cartons off the moving truck contained this Rhododendron yakusimanum.

Deer apparently find the indumentum, the fuzzy stuff
on the underside of the leaves, to be unpalatable.

April

Thursday, 28 April 2016

Umbrella plant, Darmera peltata, adaptable but happiest in damp soil.

Sturdy stalks push up, quickly, before the leaves appear.

Fringed with stamens, the 5-petalled pink flowers make an appealing display.

Jet bead, Rhodotypos scandens, is an easy-to-grow old fashioned shrub.

I like the pleated young leaves and pristine white flowers.

Flowering quince is most often seen with brick red flowers.
Soft coral 'Cameo' is more pleasing to my eye .

Typically, Trillium erectum has dull red-maroon flowers.
As you'd expect, var. album is white.

Trillium maculatum is one of the sessile trillium, with flowers that sit down
on the mottled leaves. Its petals are narrow, claw-like, at that point.

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

Wild sweet William, Phlox divaricata, is sweetly fragrant, and
happily seeds about here at BelleWood Gardens.

Native to Japan, Primula kisoana spreads with underground thread-like runners.

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Summer snowflake, Leucojum aestivum, (aestivale, summer.) Not that April is summer
but it is later than spring snowflake, L. vernum (vernale, Spring) which flowers in February.
And by the way, there is even L. autumnale which flowers - did you guess? in autumn.

Dog tooth violet, fawn's breath, trout lily, adder's tongue -
several common names for Erythronium americanum.

Thursday, 7 April 2016

Temperatures dropped to 24 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday night with this sad result. That low temperature is not exceptional but the preceeding high temperatures that coaxed the magnolias into early bloom were.

March

Thursday, 31 March 2016

Somewhat early, but the Magnolia stellata that I planted so many years ago
are in flower, a wonderful haze of white down in the woods.

Jeffersonia dubia, the Manchurian relative of our native species.

Quick, before they fade away, admire the transient flowers
of bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis,.

The earliest trillium here at BelleWood Gardens is Trillium cuneatum.

Supermarkets are selling primroses right now. Probably Pacific Giant hybrids. Charming, with a caveat. Bred in the Pacific Northwest they don't always survive our winters. But sometimes they do.

Another one of those supermarket hellebore hybrids. Love them.

The daisy-like white flowers of Grecian windflower, Anemone blanda 'White Splendour'.
Not a typo. It was named in England and that's how they spell it over there.

Narcissus 'Dove Wings' opens with a yellow trumpet that fades to ivory as it ages.

Sunny yellow hyacinths, sweetly fragrant.

Not a dandelion. This is colt's foot, Tussilago farfara.

Sunday, 13 March 2016

The little daisylike flowers of Grecian windflower, Anemone blanda, are popping up enthusiastically.

Wish I knew what this little narcissus is named. I keep thinking 'Mustard Seed' but I'm not sure that's right.

Saturday, 12 March 2016

I'm rather happy with this Helleborus niger, flowering sometimes in early February, this year in March.
Over here the general run of the so-called "Christmas rose," do not bloom as early as that.
Look for the 'Praecox' clone for that. Our winters are rather different than the UK version.

One of the self-sown hellebores at BelleWood Gardens, with a charming freckled face.

This early shrub may not be tremendously exciting to look at. Wish there was a way to photograph its fragrance.
Well named, 'Lonicera fragrantissima' is deliciously fragrant. Happy in light shade, deer ignore it,
it does not run wild as do some other honeysuckles. And did I mention its wonderful fragrance?