You've already seen my clems, two gifts from a friend who no longer wanted them. I've never had clems before so I had no idea they played color games with the setting sun. You probably already knew, but I have to share it anyway.
Wow!
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I think I see a painting in there somewhere.
This is too funny not to share.
A few years ago my nongardening but pristine-landscaping neighbor tossed to the trash a rose that she said refused to bush and bloom. I caught the toss and brought it home and planted it beside a stem of wisteria against an old clothesline pole. I suspected her nonbushing nonblooming rose might be a climber, though I wasn't sure because she had it planted in shade, with no name tag of course. Plus the fact was, she'd pruned it to an inch of its life trying to make it fuller.
Anyway, the rose grew and bloomed and so did the wisteria. Last fall I pruned the climbing rose back a little so the canes didn't grab me during fall cleanup, then tied and wrapped the wisteria (making a standard of it).
I think I must have missed a rose cane or two when I pruned. The wisteria is full and far above my head. It's already bloomed and leafed out by now, so when I glanced outside this morning I thought something was caught in its branches. All I could see from my perch on the porch was a blob of red high up in the wisteria.
Yes. I do believe I missed a cane or two when I pruned last fall.
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I love funny sunny days like this. A tree rose!! Happy Easter!
I didn't plan this, it just happened. But it's one of those plans that went awry yet ended up just as if it were all part of the plan. I did not plan to have a blue and white spring garden in front of my house. I didn't plan it for the back yard either.
The two clems were gifts from a friend a couple of months ago.
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Moving the blue furniture from my back yard to my portico in front was the only part I did plan. The white azalea which hadn't bloomed in years suddenly grew and bloomed all over. The 41 year old rhododendron that was pronounced dead, oh maybe 4 years ago, quickly livened up. The columbine, brought from the mountains and mostly blooming pink over the years, suddenly blossomed blue. Within a week, the garden transformed itself into a magical blue and white kingdom, with not a bit of help from me. These are old plants, for goodness' sake!
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When I saw it happening right in front of me, I did manage to splurge and bought a flat of petunias. Purply blue, and a few white, but still, that counts in the great scheme of things. I stuck them in the tiered hanging planter and dared them to fill in and become the roundish ball they are supposed to aspire to. At least the heuchera's blooms remained pink.
Lesson learned: Mother Nature has plans of her own.
I need to remember this; there's no telling what she'll do in this same area next year on the 5th of April.
This is one of those years for a lot of places. We woke up to a sudden spring that was unexpected. Makes my heart smile right out loud.
The first picture, the darker one, was taken last night. The one to the right of it was just this morning. Amazing azaleas.
The columbine came from the mountains and is as old as I am. Sometimes it's pink, sometimes blue and sometimes purple. It reseeds, so I never know what it's going to do.
The creeping phlox came from the mountains too, two colors, one from each grandmother.
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The last image is what I see when I step out of my car. It sure does smell good.
It isn't very quiet what with the robins chirping and the bees buzzing.
I really need to get my grass mowed and the weeds pulled but it's so much more fun to just sit here and soak it all in.
So beautiful, so amazing.
I have the kind of wisteria that doesn't invade, doesn't drive me crazy and doesn't seem to need a bit of care. American wisteria some call it, but I've also heard it called Kentucky wisteria.
About 30 years ago a friend took me roaming around on some acreage her family had owned for years. There had been a house on it at one time, but as often happens, years passed and people passed and the house was no longer. But the plants, oh wow the plants. Daffodils, tulip foliage, evidence of daylilies on their way, roses rambling over an old broken fence. It was gorgeous. There was wisteria growing up a tree, not much of the tree was left, only the trunk, but it looked so much like the whole thing was a wisteria tree in full bloom.
Now I love my trees, and there wasn't a one of them I would have killed just so a wisteria could grow up the trunk of it, but I figured I could build myself a wisteria tree one way or another.
I nabbed two long skinny strands of new growth that was close to the base of that dead tree, brought them home with me and attached one of them to the clothesline pole that was in the back yard. I didn't use that clothesline anyway, though I wish now I still had it. I really didn't think that long skinny strand of wisteria would grow.
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| Back yard . . . | . . . different years |
In the front yard I had nothing to stake the second wisteria strand to, so I grabbed an old worn out broom and sawed off the handle. It would have to do.
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And so they grew. And grew. And grew some more. As they grew new strands, I just wrapped them around the first strand I'd planted, including the broom handle or the pole as I wrapped. I wove the end into other branches. And so they grew and grew and grew, weaving themselves a trunk.
Eventually the broomstick rotted away but by then the front yard wisteria was pretty well shaped and held itself upright. Until the ice storm of 2009 landed on it and knocked it to its knees. I cried. It probably cried too, but I propped it up with rocks and bricks around its base and that spring I wove and wove new branches around its bottom. It still doesn't have good form, but it doesn't know the difference and just keeps right on brightening up this entire neighborhood every April.
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| Front yard . . . | . . . different years |
Now I know this is only March 22, and I know it's about 3 or 4 weeks early this year, but if it wants to bloom in March, then so be it. It is a beautiful spot in my landscape.
The one in the back yard, the one growing around the clothesline pole, is picture perfect. It is an amazing sight right now. And for some reason, different soil I would guess, the one in back is lavender blue while the one in front is more of a lilac color.
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| Back yard | Another view |
Both are beautiful 'wisteria trees' and they've housed robins and wrens and a few cardinals over the years. One time I was in a local nursery and the man in the checkout line in front of me asked the clerk if they sold any 'wisteria trees'. The clerk explained that she had never heard of a wisteria tree but that they did have some wisteria vine. The man told the clerk she was wrong, that he knew of a house not far from his and there were two wisteria trees growing there, one in the front yard and one in back. The clerk told him that if those two wisteria trees were in his neighborhood, maybe he should visit the house where they were and ask the owner where he got them. The man growled a little and walked away empty handed.
I didn't say anything because I didn't know the man and I don't do well with growling men anyway.
That same evening I was out working in my hosta bed in front. A truck pulled into my driveway and the growling man stepped out. He was still growling, but he left with two little rooted strands of wisteria and my best wishes. I told him he'd have to find his own broomstick or clothesline pole.
I never saw him again, and I never saw any wisteria trees anywhere else in my neighborhood, so I don't know what happened. Maybe the wisteria didn't like growling men either.
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Edited to add more photos taken today. It's drizzling rain and the sky is dark. I think that has drained the color from my camera. The image tones don't match the true color. The smallest tree on the trellis is only about 5 years old. It's come a long way in 5 years.
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