Beautiful Flowers

Into July

It’s been quite a while since the last post! With the weather fine and dry through most of June, we spent all our days out in the garden. Now it’s hot and humid, with a tropical storm predicted for Independence Day. It seems early for hurricanes*, but hey, I’m not a meteorologist, I’m a gardener. And so, here are pictures of the garden. Lots of color as we head into full summer!

Bee Balm (Monarda) and wild marjoram.

Daylily (Hemerocallis)

Astilbe

Anthemis and bright orange Asclepias

More Bee Balm, one of my favorites!

Lavender (Lavandula) growing along the sidewalk to the greenhouse.

* Hurricane Rhyme…… “June: too soon,  July: stand by,  August: upon us,  September: remember,  October: all over.”

Either a  “mariner’s proverb”, or a “Carribean folk saying”,  reportedly first published in “Weather Lore” by R. Inwards in 1898.

 

 

 

At the End of the Year

For the last blog of the year here are a few favorite pictures from 2013. Some of them are of beautiful things and some of them just make me smile, like the picture of all the seedlings coming up for the plant sale.  Happy New Year!

January 24th 2013, frost patterns on the glass inside the Conservatory. Temperature outside was -3 F.

February 8th, 2013, the Blizzard left about 18 inches (?) of snow in South County and damaged many, many trees

March , signs of spring!

April, seedlings for plant sale.

May is glorious!

June, midsummer, green.

July, full of colors.

August.

September

October–fall is the best time to plant!

November, putting away the dahlias for the winter.

December.

Garden Glory in July

Bee Balm (Monarda) ‘Cambridge Scarlet’ in the sunny border.

Hydrangea ‘Endless Summer’ , cool blue like nothing else in the garden.

Lots of Echinacea in “Jo-Anne’s Garden” near the Outreach Center.

Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro) and Day Lilies (Hemerocallis) thrive in a hot and sunny spot.

An unknown-to-me pollinator on Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) west of the greenhouse.

July in the Garden

The year has a rhythm of seasons and each season has it’s own beginning, middle, and end. Mid-July, high summer, hot and dry. Weeding in the garden has slowed down with the lack of rain. Daylilies, beebalm, echinacea, daisies, all out in full force! It’s beautiful and quiet, visitors relaxing in the shade and catching whatever breeze might come up over Kingston Hill. Evidence of four-legged visitors is clear in the neatly “pruned” hostas all over the Garden.

I haven’t seen them yet so they must be wandering in at night. Other, very small critters hop around with no fear, too young to realize I could be a predator. So far they prefer the clover in the grass to my perennials, so I can sit back and enjoy their wide-eyed little faces and big ears.

July is a great time to take notes on what will need to be dug, divided, or moved in the fall. It’s also a good time to take pictures, for fun as well as for creating a visual history of the garden.

Finally, the little bit of a lull in July allows time for learning something new on a hot afternoon.

Color, Part Three

Recently I was flipping through a seed catalog (a favorite activity) and something caught my eye. It was in a description of a pastel-colored flower: “offers a hint of relief from the bold colors of summer.”  Hmmm. I can’t imagine wanting relief from the bold colors of summer! They bring me joy, they make me smile every time (even orange!:-) ). The bold colors of summer are only here for a little while, really. I enjoy autumn colors but there is always that feeling of an end approaching in the fall. Winter has it’s evergreen and red, with black and  white accents. Spring begins with pastel-colored ephemerals, which I also enjoy….the anticipation and the newness. But what are we anticipating? Summer, of course! So bring on the bold colors of summer, I will revel in them for as long as they are here.

Cool ‘n’ Shady

We’ve been very busy playing catch-up at the Botanical Gardens, but now it’s looking good! Tuesday Tours have started — come any Tuesday evening at 5 PM (meet at the Gazebo) and learn all about about our beautiful plants and gardens on a guided tour with yours truly.

Weather update: very hot! Often on a hot day I prefer to be outside in the shade rather than inside with air-conditioning. The Botanical Gardens has lots of shady nooks with benches for those of us who use this strategy to beat the heat. I love the beach, but isn’t it better after 3 pm anyway?

Color

Spring is flying by with “hazy hot and humid” summer weather. Some flowers went by so quickly I feel like I didn’t see them…where’d the azaleas go? And the rhododendrons, usually glorious for early June… some are already gone. The peonies are in full to overfull bloom, so catch them while you can (here’s last year’s peony blog: https://uribotanicalgardens.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/the-queen-of-flowers/  ) They will always be the Queens of the Garden to me!

As flowers come and go there are some color combinations I didn’t plan around the Gardens which look great. I know, many gardeners don’t like orange flowers and especially not with cooler colors, but these are making me smile:

(Sumer is icumen in)                                                                                                  Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow
blooms
And the wood springs anew,
Sing, Cuckoo!

Back to the Garden!

Now that the plant sale is over (and a great success), it’s time to return my attention to the Botanical Gardens. The plant sale is a lot of work, although it’s a lot of fun too, and it’s gratifying to see the greenhouse EMPTY! Many thanks to the students who helped me out the past two weekends.

I am really happy to be back outside in the Garden, even to pull weeds. The main garden, where the stage is, looks good. This part of the Garden is the area most often reserved for special events. The College of Nursing will be holding their Commencement ceremony here.  A retirement party for the Dean of Pharmacy, Joan Lausier (celebrating 50 years at URI!), will be held in the Garden in June. A few weddings are already scheduled, and of course garden tours are always going on.

May is a busy time for garden chores. There are peonies to stake, already flopping with last night’s heavy rain. Annuals are ready to be tucked into the perennial beds for extra color. Plants for the All-America Selections Display Gardens are getting impatient in the greenhouse and will be planted out this week ( hopefully!) Dahlias need to planted, Montauk Daisies cut back, and of course, the never ending task of weeding.

Speaking of chores, our summer garden crew is all new. Welcome, Louis and Feather. And good bye to Mike (Bartlett Tree Service), Giles (Central Nurseries), and Emily (Tower Hill Botanic Garden). You will be missed! Ryan (Arnold Arboretum) and Kyle (adventure), hope to see you in the fall. Let Summer Begin!

Getting Fresh

Food from the Garden: If you know me, you know that’s near and dear to my heart! We picked another round of the peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes from the All- America Display Garden and brought it to the Food Pantry in Peace Dale. Earlier in the season everybody (that’s me and The Boys ) had a sampling of this bounty. The eggplants are amazing; there are so many, and each one is tender and delicious! Of course the cherry tomatoes are a hit, also  prolific, and there are 4 kinds of peppers from mild and sweet to quite hot. The Food Pantry is happy to have fresh food, and it has been a highlight of the work week to deliver the harvest.

This year it looks like there will be at least 4 large pumpkins from the one monster vine growing near the CE Center: through the garden, over the fence, and across the grass.  In contrast, the Christmas melon  looks as lame as it did last year (what’s up?) but there are  beautiful watermelons AND acorn squash getting bigger by the day in the upper Display Garden.  Dodge the trucks and crates of glass to see them in between the greenhouses, and enjoy the pink petunias (‘Opera Supreme Pink Morn’) keeping it cheerful over there.

Other Garden goings-on:  I finally saw honeybees in the garden (where have they been all summer??), along with a praying mantis. Mike said he’d eat a worm — does that count as Food from the Garden? A Tuesday Tour tonight at 5 PM, should be a lovely cool evening. Finally, here’s a picture from Olallie Daylily Gardens, in South Newfane, Vermont.