mears garden: Mears Garden news- Spring week 6- May 3, 2009

It is truly the high point of spring. Every crabapple tree in town is in full bloom. Our old pink and white trees are doing their best. They are perhaps a few days away from full bloom, which will then produce the wonderful petal time. The red buds around town have also come out.
The bluebells continue, but the little iris have arrived, producing their show right along the very edge of Fairview Street.
And then the list continues. Other things in bloom include, in no particular order;
late daffodils, the occasional tulip, leucojems, pulmonaria, hellebores, epimedium, brunnera, trillium, celandine poppies, and two remarkable Iceland poppies that over wintered much to my surprise.
It is also the time of year when there are 3000 things to do. There is weeding and transplanting and dividing and planting all those the new things that have either arrived in the mail or come outside from the house.

Pictures are at every turn. Someone stops by and I must show that this trillium or that poppy or how about the crown imperial fritillaria.

For the poll pictures this week there is one majestic picture along with three zany pictures. Go zany.

First there is the crown imperial fritillaria, a creation by Dr. Seuss if there ever was one in the garden.

Second is one of the Iceland poppies that over wintered, saying something about the winter that killed the rhododendron and the boxwood. This is the majestic picture of the week. It certainly should go far next February in the contest.

Then there is its companion, the other Iceland poppy. These seedpod pictures of poppies are always fun. They are a little like flowers wearing football helmets. In the bonus pictures there is the opened flower, a flower so vivid in color that I had some difficulty getting it on whatever passes for film.

The last picture is the ever present Monsella tulip. The bluebells in the back are an extra nice touch. This variety of tulip does not really last more than two years at the most. I do not have many Monsellas this year. I have cleared an area where I will plant the Empress Wu hosta right in the center. Until the hosta gets big, it will have rings of tulips for the next few years. Actually ringing hosta with bulbs always makes sense. It is just with this hosta the wingspan will be 6-8 feet. That can be a lot of tulips for a few years.

So there you have the four pictures this week. I expect you will see most of them this coming…I won’t say the W word.

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This last week you definitely liked the epimedium Sweetheart and the bluebells. Good choice. That epimedium is going to be one of the first epimedium to get divided in the future.
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For the bonus pictures this week there were just so many choices. Here are lots of little iris. The flower for most bearded iris comes in threes. There are three parts that stand up, three parts that fall down and three parts in the middle. The view from above in the first picture gives you a good idea. Much to my surprise I found a flower that had four parts. Of course, having pointed that out to someone, I was then shown this other little flower with five parts. Who knew?
The iris are just such a wondrous collections of color combinations.

The last set of pictures gives an idea of the sheer quantity and diversity in the garden at the moment.
There is the hybridized dog tooth violet, or trout lily, or erythronium. The phrase “get more” comes to mind. I didn’t plant any tulips last year. I am finding there certain bulbs just persist, showing up often by themselves, as their companions have disappeared.
The trillium is a wonderful clump of the grandiflorium. It is big enough that I discovered several plants in a nearby bed where none had been before. This is to some extent what you try to achieve.