IRIS  EXTRAVAGANZA
 

Went all out for 16 German iris last summer and now, of course, this 

new extravaganza has only made me want more – more 

variations – more subtlety – just More!

Purple/blush salmon called 'Secret Service'
against a young Cornus controversa, the very same 

weeping  white-splashed tiered dogwood that
I fell in love with at Rosemary Verey's Barnsley.

Tear-dropped or rain-splashed…this one, 'Ocelot', 

could make you melt.

The variations, even in solid colors, are just staggering.

These 2 are slightly different.

Perhaps my favorite of the season, called charmingly
'Glamour Pants'.

I usually only like yellow in foliage as a variegate or maybe the 

inconsequential little yellow flowers of a groundcover
like Sedum ‘Acre’,
but this I like…

The pale mustard and white, 'Owyhee Desert', has to-the-real-eye 

purple striations in it and is divine with the pale on vivid.

But here we are and the Iris and

Peony spectacle has dwindled down to almost nothing:

By mid-June they are all gone save for the still-to-come,
dare I say lovelier, Japanese iris.

All of the Iris are from the great specialist
Shreiner's Iris Gardens with a great web site.

PEONY PLETHORA

Breathtaking in its fragility is the woodland Peony japonica.

See it nestled just under the bird's perch,

and Tree Peony 'EZRA POUND'.

I especially love plants and flowers with literary associations.

But this is Heaven, though I have been waiting several years
for these 2 blooms.

PATIENCE....

WHAT THEY SAW

More than a hundred enthusiastic people came garden-viewing
on the Garden Conservancy Open Day, Saturday May 12th.

This is what they saw:

The mingling of Japanese Maples Autumn Moon and
Red Moon at their freshest.

The last tulips--this one named Sky High Scarlet--
very fiddle-dee-dee
in the shadiest border

sharing space with shy Arisaema sikokianum, who this season
decided to turn his back on the garden path.

The secret architecture of Allium triquetrum -- so  named
because of the charming little bells rising on a sturdy
three-sided triangular stem.

English bluebells that are really Spanish bluebells, but calling them English bluebells has more resonance--and they are slightly heartier
(and a little less expensive) than Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Excelsior'. If you are a purist, then get Hyacinthoides non - scripta which is commercially grown as Scilla nutans and is most closely akin to the indigenous English bluebell. But I would stick with this...

Allliums ready to pop.
Aren't they sexy...

That caressable makes-you-limp-kneed lavender Tree Peony....one
of many, many blooms on this old tree - well, old for me, brought
from my first garden where it barely produced a flower and
has now flourished in the sun.

Columbines mixing with Fritillaria acopetala under the snowy
whiteness of Japanese maple 'Butterfly' bought at the
Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons some 3 or 4 years ago.

And lastly - and I suppose most importantly because it was
the absolute People's Choice. Everyone's favorite densely
layered dwarf Japanese maple, I think it is 'Mikawa yatsubusa'
and I acquired it from Lynch's in Southampton in 2007.

GARDEN CONSERVANCY OPEN DAY

May 12

86 Davids Lane

East Hampton, New York

10 - 2

The weather is supposed to be gorgeous!

I look forward to seeing you!

EUPHORBIA  EUPHORIA

Having just torn open a packed-to-last-forever box fromForestFarm, that grand Oregon nursery that has everything,
I am reminded again of my abiding Euphorbia ecstasy.
Among the most advantageous of the useful plants – and by
useful I mean the ones that really give you year-round pleasure
and punch – it is no wonder I ordered 4 new kinds.  Well, one of
them isn’t new, this will be my 4th or 5th attempt at Tasmanian Tiger,
but I am heartened enough to try again because one of three last
year that had come from the wonderful North Fork grower,  
Glover Perennials, survived our climate-changed winter in
full sun and now I can say with assurance that this is a plant that is fabulous 12 months a year.

HOLY SATURDAY RIFE With SMALL  MIRACLES

Things that had never bloomed, non-growers that I had given
up for lost/never found or just plain disappointing
appeared before my very eyes like a wonder.

An Arisaema sikokianum…you know, the one everyone adores,
was lovingly planted two or three years ago...
and nothing
till
Miracle Day.

A vining Fritillaria planted in 2009! That had never shown its face
before suddenly was there climbing up the fastigiate yew – just as
I had pictured it...all those years ago.

 Fritillaria verticillata – the only vining spring bulb,
or one of the very few.
And a tricolor quince, or Chaenamoles, sporting several little
bouquets of flowers on its limbs that are indeed three colors,
never before seen,
but I have faith in ForestFarm,
even though this took 6 years to bloom!

And Never Give Up!  That is how I see it…

THE  GARDEN REALLY  IS  ART

E.V. Day, an artist that I first came upon at Edsel Williams' always-interesting Fireplace Project Gallery when
she was in her wrapping- Barbie-like-a-mummy phase.

She has done many great things since,
recently showing her work at the great
James Salomon Gallery in Chelsea and has now leapt
into a new –and sacred – arena with a body of work created at
the God-head garden at Giverny.  Monet’s idyllic springboard has
been transported to The Hole Gallery on the Bowery where E.V. has
collaborated with Kembra Pfahler.

IT DIDN'T HAPPEN, BUT THE VERY IDEA of
A  MONSOON! 

THIS  IS  EAST  HAMPTON, after all

God knows, we needed some rain, but monsoons….this is what
they were saying anyway about what to  expect last weekend.
So, in the pouring rain – fearing that my gorgeous tulips will go the
way of all monsoon-ridden flowers – I ran out to retrieve
a bunch before the deluge.  If I must say so myself, on the Sunday evening of 22 April, my color combinations are to die for.

All musky and muted and purply – dusk-tinted shades of salmon
and brick and chestnutty-maroon.  Too rainy to gather too many,
but this is an idea…

DIG DEEP WEEDER DOES ITS JOB

Take that, you stinky old dandelion!

I THINK I WILL SERVE TEA

Everyone is baffled by the early spring.

I have to do something because any poor garden tourer that is
visiting my garden on May 12 will have absolutely nothing to see.

This is what they will have missed:

My darkest hellebore kissed by the beautiful white daffodil
Thalia with Muscari botryoides 'Superstar' in front.
(although I'm not sure this one lives up to its name,
might stick with classic M. armeniacum,
though I love the pale blue 'Valerie Finnis'
and the bushy M. comosum).

More of that adored Thalia peeping out from under the Sargent’s Weeping Hemlock – which proves 2 things:  it has great tenacity (this is the 4th or 5th year for this clump which started out on the edge of the treeline and is now completetly engulfed in its shade) AND  that the Weeping Hemlock has totally outgrown its spot.

Variegated Petasites at their freshest.

The unfolding of this circular-leafed Podophyllum (or mayapple)
Scored from
Calista Washburn’s great garden at the
Garden Club of East Hampton’s posh Memorial Day flower sale.

The unfurling of the especially fuzzy brown fiddleheads of
Polystichum polyblepharum  (or Tassel Fern)
nestled among the spotted leaves of an
Erythronium (dog’s tooth violet) that has
yet to bloom…but I have faith in it.

An Erythronium that finally did bloom!  It’s called ‘White Splendor’
and took 3 years to produce this fine little flower.

Japanese maple ‘Orange Dream’ showing off its irrepressible
color behind the twisted Larch just popping into puffs of new
growth – like a myriad of little paintbrushes.

Fiery new growth of Acer 'Goshiki Kotohine' against the blue needles of Cupressus glabra 'Blue Ice', a charming Arizona cypress.

The clash of the Burnt Sienna Fritillaria imperialis against the
astounding Magnolia.

So, the appreciating and appreciative that come to see my garden on
GARDEN CONSERVANCY OPEN DAY
May 12
86 Davids Lane
East Hampton, New York
10 - 2
will have missed all of these spring lovelies,
but there will be other delights.

It is time to start marking your calendars 

for all of the wonderful seasonal 

events on the East End. 

For starters, may we suggest the following:

The Garden Conservancy Open Days schedule is full of wonderful gardens  for you to visit. 

My garden will be open on May 12th--you 

can view details HERE!

Saturday, June 16th is the 

Garden Fair @ Madoo in Sagaponack.

Over the last forty years, artist and writer Robert Dash has established a green, organic encyclopedia of gardening  on two acres of land in Sagaponack, featuring Tudor, 

High Renaissance, early Greek, as well as Oriental garden influences. 

You must visit! 

Check out the Madoo website for details 

on the Events page. 

OH My God I ALMOST MISSED IT

But something caught my eye…and what to my wonder did appear but a 

Dogtooth’s Violet, Erythronium dens-canis.

AND

The first fully-formed Fritillaria 

michailovskyi ‘Multiflora’

What is spring anyway without a Peeping Stick?

AND LOOK at this TRILLIUM

For me, this is to die – planted on blind faith from 

an innocuous tuber from Plant Delights about ten 

months ago – it was worth everyone of the $26 to see it emerge in all of its subtle mottled glory this spring. 

Trillium ludovicianum to be exact.