The 2024 Garden Year
January 19, 2024 January Our year started with snow, ice and frigid temperatures in mid-January. Our temperatures stayed below freezing for almost a week. I think it was the most consistent cold that we've experienced since moving here. Fortunately, it was a dry snow so there wasn't too much damage. Once again, we almost lost the azara and I'm afraid there would have been some breakage if I had not kept knocking the ice off. February 14, 2024 February In past years, it seems that inclement weather seems to hit around Michael's birthday in mid-February. After the January snow and ice, this month was actually quite tame. Nothing exciting to report - mostly birdwatching . Early flowers like hellebores, cyclamen and crocus begin to bloom in mid month. March 3, 2024 March I got into a walking routine which I'm happy to report I am continuing this year. You get to the point where you feel guilty if you miss a day. I do miss days occasionally but I'm learning that ...
'Josephine' is a stunning clematis! You have so many blooms and color right now. Very impressive!
ReplyDeleteCameron
This one's easy! I love the Clematis, can't wait for mine. Your garden is beautiful- I wish I could get mine to look like that :) Happy GBBD to you.
ReplyDeleteJosephine lives up to royal namesake
ReplyDeletePhillip...Your photos are spectacular and the blooms in your garden are impressive! I love Lady Banks rose...If I had the right spot for her, right soil, right amount of sunshine! Waoit a minute...that would be your garden! Happy GBBD! gail
ReplyDeleteMy gosh! Those shrubs are huge! How lovely to have all those established foundation plants!
ReplyDeleteMy husband, son and grandson are all named Phillip. Love the name. How nice of your cute kitty cat to pose with the Chinese Snowball. You have a lovely "bloom day" going on in your yard. Josephine is especially appealing to me and also the Wild Columbine and that big round Tree Peony bud. Actually, I enjoyed every single photo in your post.
ReplyDeleteOh, I feel a major case of zone envy coming on.... lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteYour garden becomes so indescribably spectacular in the spring...It's like visiting at a fairy-tale world drenched in flowers.
ReplyDeleteYou must have to duck under the Rosa Banksiae crossing the threshold; I love that!
And look what happens to an unpruned Loropetalum! Amazing! I had no idea. I don't think they do that in California.
That 'Alabama Crimson' honeysuckle is amazingly red. I love it. And I'm interested to see what you're training the climbing raspberry up. Is it simply a cedar post with wire around it?
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody! Pam, yes that is just a cedar post with wire around it.
ReplyDeleteGosh Phillip your garden is just gorgeous right now. No wonder it is one of your favorite times of the year. The Lady looks lovely as she sets forth her first blooms. What a delight it must be to stroll beneath her branches.
ReplyDeleteOh this was worth the wait!;-)Beautiful, beautiful blooms! I saw Chester hamming it up. LOL
ReplyDeleteYou are so lucky to have the space to let everything get so large! I love them all! I'm putting 'Josephine' on my list, I'm going to a nursery tomorrow to look for that one. My 'Nelly Moser' never does very well. It's about 1/4 the size of the others now.
ReplyDeleteHi Phillip, what fantasmagoria in your garden! We have many of the same plants, I am so excited to see Fortune's Double yellow in bloom for you. We ordered it last year to grow on the new arbor, it has grown very fast and has many buds. I do think Josephine is one of the finest Clemmies too. I have Elsa Spath, but she is much more blue. Is it just the photo that makes it like that? Speaking of photos, yours are absolutely fabulous! As is your entire garden.
ReplyDeleteFrances
Frances, you are right. 'Elsa Spath' is much bluer than that. It is the camera!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is an impressive group of blooming flowers. All so beautiful and also really nice photography.
ReplyDeleteI can see why it is your favorite time in the garden. Your clematis are scrumptious. How funny – I was just thinking how warm it is in Maine because it’s getting up to the 50’s! I can't wait for my clematis to bloom.
ReplyDeletePhilip, your garden is stunning and your photos, outstanding, especially loving your clematis portraits! Isn't this time of year glorious?
ReplyDeleteI can see why you love this month. The cat looks serene in the garden as cats do. Great shots, Phillip. I like to see the overall garden and it is sometimes difficult to capture. You have done it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Bloom Day post. Josephine is simply stunning. Great shot.
ReplyDeleteYou have a rose I have long coveted: Fortune's Double Yellow. How does it do for you? I always drool over the picture in the ARE catalog.
Mrs. BR Cant is looking as lovely as ever.
I'll have to look for the 'Stairway to Heaven' Jacob's Ladder. I haven't seen that one.
Happy GBBD!
My 'Josephine' has soooo far to go to catch up to yours.
ReplyDeleteThe Loropetalum--OMGosh! Stunning! If only I could get mine to grow to a fraction of that size. Well, something to aspire to I guess.
I have the white flowered Banksia rose. It has buds. Love it. Love all your photos.
The very first photo looks heavenly, Phillip. "Clair Matin" is yet another star! No doubt you go crazy when you stand there in your garden. SO many colors around. I love your bird house photo.
ReplyDeleteFantastic post! First time I've ever seen or heard of a climbing raspberry with rose like blooms. That's very interesting. Love your clematis. Wonderful structure you have Lady Banks growing on.
ReplyDeleteMarnie
Beautiful! I'll take that lorapetalum as a warning ;->
ReplyDeleteSo many wonderful blooms, and there's Chester!! I also like the pale, yellowy green of new leaves, though my favorite season, in and out of the garden, remains fall.
ReplyDeleteBy the time the last photo scrolled up I was almost collapsed in my chair, Phillip. Your garden is so lovely the viewer forgets to breathe. Not just the roses, but the way you've allowed classic shrubs like Deutzia, Spiraea, Viburnum, Kolkwitzia and Loropetalum to grow into long graceful wands. My loropetalum is much smaller, but also unpruned. I'm so weary of seeing them turned into pathetic cubes in Austin.
ReplyDelete"Josephine' is gorgeous...hope the bloom period will overlap with the tree peony so you can see both of them at once.
Happy Blooming Day!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I don't know how long you have been gardening at this home, but your pictures make it look like it has been gardened for generations. Very old South.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your pruning learning experience. I decided to try something new with my Type II Clematis, not pruning at all some of the shoots, pruning others part-way down, and then pruning some canes all the way to the ground. It should be interesting.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks lovely right now, with the Roses brimming with blooms and the big, bold Clematises, kind of like June or July around here.
Your garden looks so amazing. I can see why you love it. Have you seen a lorapedalum trimmed in to a tree? I did that once.
ReplyDeleteYou have some really pretty arbors and vine post. It's all just great.
So many interesting and different things blooming. Like that first clematis - wow, I've never seen one like that. And that climbing raspberry - definitely like a rose. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteYour garden is lovely. I think my columbine and camassia will both bloom in June.
ReplyDeleteWonderful photographs!! Your garden is beautiful. Your Nelly Moser will probably bloom later in the season. I have several type 2 Clematis that have accidentally been pruned at the wrong time. Even if no buds appear this year console yoursef with the thought that your plant is getting stronger and will bloom better next year!!! (works for me!)
ReplyDelete