I Knew Which Way the Wind was Blowing...

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal') stands strong all winter long. I love the sound it makes when the wind rustles through the leaves. Switchgrass is a warm-season grass, which means most years I don't think it really gets started in Middle Tennessee until April. 

Typically, I'd probably wait until late March to cut back the switchgrass. Since March has been an unusually warm this year, I cut back the switchgrass about a week ago. 

Now I can't tell which way the wind is blowing anymore just by looking out the window to see how the grass is leaning. 

Trip Report -- London Kew Gardens (3 of 3)

And now the final batch of photographic highlights from my August trip to Kew Gardens. Enjoy!

Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah'

This looks like variegation, but I think it is the beginning of a process by which leaves yellow and then drop prematurely from Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia). I've seen the same thing in my garden, although it tends to happen much earlier in the year in Tennessee, perhaps due to heat and drought stress?

Sorghum bicolor 'Texas Black' -- this plant had some serious height, and I could see it working nicely as an attractive temporary screen.

Symphytum (comfrey) 'Hidcote Pink'

The bees were buzzing all around this Tilia kiusiana (Kyushu linden)

Other pollinators also joined the Tilia kiusiana banquet...

Love the fact that you can buy vegetables at Kew!

I was mighty impressed with this 'Cos Dixter' lettuce. Looks tasty!

Finally, here's a look at the variety and beauty of student vegetable plots at Kew. I think it would be great if more botanic gardens had these sorts of sections to show that gardening is something accessible and intimately connected to people, rather than just an abstract aesthetic exercise.

Thanks for joining me on this visit to Kew. We may be bidding Kew a fond farewell, but I'm not done yet with my travel posts. 

Stay tuned -- or better yet, sign up for a free email subscription -- to make sure you don't miss more posts on London gardens and a visit to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris!

Rolling out the Welcome Mat - Aquilegia, Fothergilla, Geraniums, Indian Pink, Salvia and More!

Thanks to my friendly camera-lending neighbor, Christian, I'm able to show you a few more photos from my early May garden - focusing primarily on the flowers you'd see in the front (and side) of the house if you stopped by to visit. This stunning dark purple columbine just showed up this year on the side of my house. I believe it is an interspecies hybrid between Aquilegia canadensis (the red-flowered native, seen in the background here) and one of the Aquilegia vulgaris cultivars that I purchased. Whatever the case, I love it!

The native Aquilegia canadensis went nuts this year - spreading, growing at least 3 feet tall and blooming exuberantly! I thought columbine would need at least partial shade in the Southeast, but these endure afternoon sunshine without any complaints in their northwest exposure. (They do get morning shade.) My only wish - that they would attract hummingbirds. They're supposed to - but I haven't seen any hummers visiting these flowers. (Of course, I've barely seen any hummers at all this year so far.)

Fothergilla gardenii, just looking amazing and acting troublefree - as usual. (That's part of a big patch of Melissa officinalis, lemon balm, crowding the fothergilla from the left side of the photo.)

This Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' is only 2-3 years old and it has grown nearly as large as the azalea shrub behind it. After this photo was taken, the center of the geranium splayed open. I'm not sure what happened. I think there's a rabbit living under the azalea bush, so bunny may be to blame. (Perhaps the rabbit excavated a nest and disturbed the geranium roots?) I'll probably try a drastic cutback (which has worked to rejuvenate other geraniums in my garden), but I'm planning to wait until the blooms are done, because (a) they look beautiful and (b) they attract bumblebees!

That same rabbit has been wreaking havoc on the three Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) plants in the front border. You can see a few stems have been nibbled here.

...and an entire Indian pink has been chomped back here. Darn you, rascally rabbit!

What amazing fuzzy purple-and-white flowers on the Salvia leucantha (Mexican bush sage), a new addition to the Garden of Aaron. Again, these are supposed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, but I haven't seen either one visiting the flowers yet. Although it's only rated as hardy to zone 8 (and I'm in zone 6b/7a), I found an inexpensive source so I figured I'd take a chance on the plants. Plus, how could you resist these Seussical blooms?

The 'Natchez' mock orange (Philadelphus x virginalis 'Natchez') seems to be doing pretty well during its second full year in the garden. It's sent up some new vigorous, healthy-looking foliage from the base and has some pretty new flowers. The flowers are fragrant, but the scent is quite faint. Perhaps that's why it doesn't seem to attract many pollinators, except for ants like the one shown here in the leftmost flower. (Incidentally, I believe Natchez is a complex hybrid, but it may have 1/4 native ancestry from P. pubescens, which is listed as native to Tennessee, Arkansas and Illinois.)

Close-up pic of the flowers on Penstemon x mexicali 'Red Rocks', another new addition to the garden this year. Red Rocks reportedly has a nice, long bloom season and is supposed to be better than many other penstemons at tolerating humidity and heavy soils.

Lastly, here's a look at the front corner of the house where I planted Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) last spring. I think this is the 'Northwind' cultivar. This is quite a windy, exposed corner on the hilltop and many of the other plants (including a crape myrtle) that I tried here struggled with that wind. Fortunately, the switchgrass does not seem to mind the wind one bit and it's nice watching the leaf blades sway and bend in the breeze. Near the switchgrass, you can see some columbine, self-sown sunflowers, a pink-flowered Salvia greggii and some volunteer Mexican hat plants (Ratibida columnifera).

Thanks for visiting! The garden continues grow and change and bloom and grow more beautiful day by day, week by week. Stay tuned for photographic proof coming soon~! :)

In Full Swing - Clematis, Penstemon, Sumac, Sage, False Indigo and More!

Things are in full swing in the garden - bees are buzzing, flowers are blooming, leaves are expanding, plants are growing, everything there is life (except where there is death).

I apologize for the lull in posting photos. My camera is currently traveling overseas (along with my wife), but my kindly neighbor Christian generously lent me his camera so that I could capture some scenes from the early May garden.

(There are a lot of photos, so I'll split them into two posts. This post will focus on the back garden, the next one on the front and side gardens.)

Abelia x grandiflora, dwarf cultivar. I'd thought it was 'Rose Creek', but I think it was mislabeled, so I'm not sure of the cultivar. Whatever it is, it seems to be settling in nicely during its first year in the garden. I don't usually like bright yellow plants, but I like the contrast here against surrounding greenery.

My favorite plant in the garden these days is Baptisia australis (blue wild indigo). In its third full year in the garden, it has sent up multiple stalks of pretty blue flowers that (as you can see here) attract bees!

The Burkii eastern red cedars (Juniperus virginiana) are loaded with berries/cones. The branches were coated with rust fungus earlier during our wet spring, but that issue seems to have abated (at least for now) as the weather has turned drier and warmer.

Clematis 'Crystal Fountain'. We had this clematis tied up into the crape myrtle tree with biodegradable twine. The twine degraded in some rain storms this spring and the vine fell to the ground, but it doesn't seem too much worse for the wear and actually makes a rather nice groundcover. Make lemonade from lemons and all that...

Nothing too exciting here - Forsythia x intermedia 'Lynwood Gold'. But I must admit that the shrub looks very healthy. The foliage was a lovely shade of green earlier in the spring. I'm not over-the-moon on Forsythia. It's totally overplanted and the flowers seem relatively useless in terms of supporting wildlife, but I have to give it props for toughness.

What happened here!? 'Lemon Queen' perennial sunflower is not looking her best.  I need to investigate further, but my initial suspicion is some sort of fungal rot. It's not a pretty picture, but I believe gardening blogs should honestly show the good, the bad and the ugly.

Lantana camara 'Miss Huff', first year in the garden, first blooms.

Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) 'Northwind' -- This is my second year with switchgrass in the garden. I cut back the old stems myself in March. It seems to me that in a normal-to-harsh winter here, I could easily wait until the end of March or even the beginning of April to make such a cutback. The old stems look good all winter and into spring, so the cutback is only needed to make way for new growth. But that new growth doesn't start in earnest until mid-April. Cut back your grasses too early, and you have relatively unattractive stubble mocking you for a month.

Penstemon x mexicali 'Red Rocks', first year in the garden

Acer rubrum (red maple), not sure which cultivar, but whatever the name, it's turning into quite a nice little tree. As long as the deer don't try ripping up the bark again (like they did a couple of winters back), I hope it will be OK.

Fuzzy berries forming on fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica) 'Gro-Low'. The small yellow flowers that preceded the berries seemed to be a big hit with all sorts of small pollinators (probably a motley crew of bees, wasps and flies).

Salvia greggii (autumn sage), not sure whether this is 'Flame' or 'Rose Pink', but in either case both survived the winter (I was holding my breath since they're rated marginally hardy in Mid-Tennessee) and have started blooming. Last year, the autumn sage flowers attracted hummingbirds.

As with the azaleas I inherited at the front and side of the house, I feel like this ornamental sage ('May Night'?) looks good for a couple of weeks and then looks like Death warmed over the rest of the year. Still those brief bursts of beauty - especially in the Spring - have won it a place in the garden for now. The lamb's ear 'Helene von Stein' in the background looks good most of the year, including now.

Looks like there should be lots of crabapples this year on the 'Sugar Tyme' crab.

This is not too impressive, but I'm just happy that my wax myrtles (Morella cerifera) survived the winter. Although evergreen further South, they pretty much defoliated here. Then again, I probably shouldn't have planted marginally hardy plants in November. Both plants almost made it through the winter intact, but one got chomped by a deer (I presume) right before Spring arrived. This is the one that didn't get chomped. (The other is still alive, but only barely.)

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) wilting in early May. Not a good sign of drought tolerance when we're still 5-6 weeks away from the official start of summer.

As with the 'Lemon Queen' sunflower, I'm not sure what happened here, but a portion of the Hyssopus officinalis (hyssop) seems to have wilted out practically overnight. Hyssop is a fast grower, so I'll try just trimming out the damaged section and hoping for a recovery.

Stay tuned, more photos coming soon from the front garden!