Bee on swamp milkweed If all the birds and the bees and the spiders and the insects and the chipmunks and the squirrels and all the other creatures disappeared from your garden, what would be left? It's a trick question. Nothing would be left. For soon without the birds and the bees and the spiders and the insects and the chipmunks and the squirrels and all the other creatures, the garden would no longer be a garden. It would be reduced to a group of sad plants and flowers, with no reason … [Read more...] about The creatures make the garden
wildflower wednesday
Wildflower Wednesday – Trilliums
This is the time of year when I go out in the evenings and wander around the garden, looking for new blooms. I'm rarely disappointed in my search for new blooms. As spring accelerates its arrival, I literally find new blooms every day. The other day, I found the blooms of Great White Trillim, Trillium grandiflorum. These are native wildflowers, though I've never seen one in the woods. To have any chance of doing so, I would first have to find a woods, then I'd need to visit it regularly, and … [Read more...] about Wildflower Wednesday – Trilliums
Wildflower Wednesday: May I express my gratitude?
Bee on Cup Plant flower Dear Gail, I'm writing today to express my thanks to you for coming up with this wonderful meme called Wildflower Wednesday. Through your garden, which we've all come to enjoy through your blog posts on Clay and Limestone, we've learned so much about the importance of planting wildflowers to attract pollinators. I thought of you when my garden designer sat down with me a few years ago and pointed to a newly proposed flower border in her design and suggested … [Read more...] about Wildflower Wednesday: May I express my gratitude?
Garden fairies take over for Wildflower Wednesday
Nemophila maculata Garden fairies here. We are garden fairies and we are once again called upon to take over this blog and provide some useful information for the fine readers who come here looking for useful information only to find some of that stuff Carol will sometimes write that we don't think is useful at all. Plus, if we don't post for Wildflower Wednesday to show what we did in the garden, then who will? Indeed. That's what we thought as well, and so here we are. It is has been … [Read more...] about Garden fairies take over for Wildflower Wednesday
Wildflower Wednesday: Carolina Silverbell
Carolina Silverbell Blooms I'm not sure if the Carolina Silverbell tree in my garden is a testament to my laziness or to my stubbornness. Probably a little of both. It's a pretty little tree, or could be under the right growing conditions. It has a unique bloom which looks like a little pink bell. In the top picture, the bells are just beginning to open. In the fall, each bell shaped flower will produce a seed bearing vessel called a dry drupe. This is the second Carolina … [Read more...] about Wildflower Wednesday: Carolina Silverbell
Wildflower Wednesday – Flowers in the Lawn
Pretty little mystery flower in the lawn I've spent time the last three evenings on my hands and knees and sometimes on my butt planting bulbs for Glory of the Snow, Chionodoxa gigantia (also known as Chionodoxa lucillia), in my back lawn. I bought 1,000 bulbs of Glory of the Snow, which doesn't take as long as you might think to plant. I timed my first 300 bulbs. 40 minutes. Not bad. After three sessions, I'm almost done planting these bulbs, which also don't go as far … [Read more...] about Wildflower Wednesday – Flowers in the Lawn