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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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Posted by christinmk z5b WA (My Page) on Sat, Nov 7, 09 at 19:47
| What is your favorite season/month in your garden? What time of year does your garden look the best, at least to your eye? Why do you think so?
What do you think is the most unattractive season/month in your garden? Why do you think so? Do you have any plans for amending it?
My favorite time in my garden is spring, late May to early June. I like it best then for several reasons: 1) everything is so lush and new, nothing has browned or died back yet 2) some of my favorite plants are blooming in this time period (roses, peonies, iris- the 'Holy Trinity' of the gardening world!) and 3) I like the jewel-toned colors the dominate the garden then.
My least favorite time in the garden is August, when it gets super hot outside. It is that time inbetween the brilliance of the July garden and the new flush of the early fall garden. I find that no matter what I do the heat will always sap some of the life out of my plants. Not much I can do about the heat. But I do plan on tweaking things by adding a few things that bloom then yet still look nice and fresh.
Your turn!
CMK |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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Hello! i agree that late may(as soon as frost danger has past) through june is wonderful, however i love it all the way through september! I think the worst month was october, it makes me sad to see the leaves fall off plants and roses stop blooming.I know its weird but mums and fall plants just dont do anything for me! I did plant alot of perrenials this fall, and im hoping i did things correctly and they all come back (esp my new dwarf mock orange!)
Also i get really excited the first grass cutting, whenever that is! I love the scent, and the look of a fresh cut lawn. |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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I love all the seasons, but my garden probably looks the best early summer when most things bloom.
The season I like the least is early spring when I'm anxious for everything to bloom but hardly anything is. I purchased some muscari bulbs this fall to help with that. |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| -lilyfinch, what kind of Mock Orange is it? I have been thinking of ordering a dwarf MO called 'Snow Dwarf'. I love it when they develope dwarf shrubs! -hollygarden, while I don't think my garden looks the best in early spring (for the reason you mentioned, not a lot up and bloomin') I must agree. Often times in fall I will complain about how much bulbs are, how they do not provide instant gratification, they have to be dug so far in etc. But they DO give me so much pleasure, especially after a long and hard winter! This year I finaly bought a bunch of Tulip bulbs. I figured it was deserved if I could get through a winter as tough as last!
CMK |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| Christin, it is called miniature snowflake, said to get 3 ft tall and 2ft wide, which is pretty much its current size. Ive only smelled one in bloom once, and it stuck with me, so i really cant wait to see it bloom next year! And its the perfect size for my garden. |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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Nov. to the end of Feb. are certainly the 'quiet' times in the garden here, although once we get snow, the garden is quite pretty again. But this thread made me think about what the next spectacular show - not for more tan 6 months unfortunately! - will be. This year was the first year that the Chinese wisteria we planted in 2000 to grow as a tree put on a really spectacular spring show! It's been blooming lightly for a couple of springs now, and it's always had quite a nice secondary bloom in July, but this year it obviously reached a key growth milestone. This is my favorite picture of it with a young friend visiting the garden, perfectly color-coordinated with the tree!
 The tree still needs a few more years for the woody framework to thicken up and become more substantial, because it still looks a bit spindly from a distance:
 It'll be a few more years before the Japanese wisteria tree at the north end of the bed gets big enough to bloom and continue to show once the Chinese wisteria at the south end of the bed is finished blooming. I've got my fingers crossed for a not-too-harsh winter and no May frosts next spring! |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| Ooo... that wisteria tree is BEAUTIFUL! I used to have one, but the people on here made me get rid of it. haha. (Just kidding.) Best time: MAY! I LOVE MAY!
Worse: Late October/November. Everything just turned brown this year. No beautiful colors. Even if there are pretty colors it is my least favorite time because it is the beginning of the longest period of cold weather. I'll even take January over it, because at least the gardening catalogues are out and I can watch Philip from Cottage Farms on QVC. haha. ;-) |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| Woodyoak- Gorgeous wisteria! I wish I could grow that in my zone :) The most impressive month in our yard is early May, when our huge purple/lavender/white lilac hedge blooms behind our fifty year old apple tree. When they all bloom at the same time it's beautiful. I can't take credit for any of it, as my husband's grandmother planted them all, but it's the best show in our yard. The worst time is probably February, when it's either snow for the fourth month or muddy clay everywhere. Nothing is blooming yet and the daffodils don't even come out until mid-late March. I just started my gardens this year and while I'll never top the lilac hedge/apple tree combo, I am hoping to let the roses and lavender come in a close second :) |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| Late Spring when the lightening bugs start coming out at dusk. When I watch them flashing and darting around the yard I drift back to my girlhood and all the happy memories of that time. Yes the garden is luscious at that time too with a riot of blooming and bee activities all day long. Cheryl |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| The worst is early spring, when nothing is blooming and everything is just gray and slushy. I wait breathless with anticipation for everything to come back to life and start blooming, and read reports from southern gardens with envy! July is usually the peak of the garden, but September has been pretty good this year, too. I had a few weeks in August when it seemed like everything was lavender, but then the sedum Autumn Joy started deepening color and pulled it back in balance. |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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Best for me is mid spring when everything is fresh and new. Worst is December-February. I drink in the tiniest bit of green thru these times and try to entertain myself with daffodil shoots, hellebore blooms and winter jasmine. I think God also made evergreens and things with berries to keep us from insanity in winter! LOL
Jen F |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| Woodyoak, Gorgeous Wisteria!! Do you have to prune it regularly over the summer to keep it in check? Lilyfinch, I just planted that dwarf mockorange this year too! I saw it at a nursery in NY and I swear it just jumped into my car!! There was NO way I was leaving without it! I really like all the seasons in the garden. They all have so many different, special qualities depending on what is blooming, growing, showing off colors, etc. I've tried hard over the years to make sure I was planting for interest in all seasons. Generally there is nothing going on after the fall colors have gone and before the snow/ice has started. While I'm not a fan of driving in snow and ice, it sure makes for nice garden photography and some beautiful "take your breath away" moments. But the month or so leading up to that is quite boring. |
RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| The last week of June is my best time. That's when the rudbeckias and shastas are in full bloom and last year's hibiscus have grown up and are just starting to open. Within a week, the shastas will be done, the hibiscus needs constant deadheading, and the rudbeckias are being pecked to death by goldfinches. 
The worst time, probably January. That's when the magic happens in the bottles at the end of the driveway though. 
February 
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RE: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
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| thyme2dig - yes, pruning is a constant activity but simple to do - because I don't do the finicky pruning that is considered 'proper' for wisterias! I just pinch/cut back all the whippy, curly new growths that appear, to redirect the energy into flowerbuds. Also, the long-arm pruners we use makes it simple to snip things off. We'll keep the 'tree' more or less to it's current size. It usually throws 3-4 root suckers each year so we have to watch for and remove those when they appear. So far at least, it hasn't been difficult to manage. I think being on the margin of their hardiness makes it a more manageable proposition! Also, growing it as a free-standing tree somewhere where there is nothing it can latch onto and where you can walk around it to prune/remove suckers easily helps a lot! The Chinese wisterias have a secondary flush of flowers in the summer and I've noticed that, when the new growth is pinched back, in about 2 weeks or so, a flower appears near where the growth was pinched! From the second year in the ground, it produced some summer flowers. We didn't get a significant spring bloom until 2006 but, since the 'tree' was smaller then, it wasn't as spectacular as this year. We had a couple of years with frosts in early May that killed off flowerbuds but the frosts missed us this year. The Japanese wisterias, I gather, don't do the summer bloom so I won't have any indication of the blooming ability of the Japanese one until it blooms the first time. I figure it'll probably take at least another 2-3 years for the Japanese one to bloom as it was planted in 2007 so is still very young. It's unfortunate that the display, and heavenly scent!, only lasts for about a week. But it was pretty amazing and we're already looking forward to a repeat (hopefully!) for this coming spring. |
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