fall planted bulbs are abloom!

I don’t need a calendar to tell me it is spring. With temperatures in the 70's, there are new blooms to enjoy every day. Among my favorite flowers right now are crocus, grape hyacinths, daffodils, and my favorite deciduous magnolia, the Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana).

Perennial Crocus grow from corms (like a small bulb) planted in the fall. Their grass-like foliage and petite flowers won’t grow taller than 5”, so use them in the front of a planting bed. The white and purple varieties nicely offset the electric orange central stigmas. The spice saffron is obtained from the fall-blooming cousin of this plant (Crocus sativa).

Grape Hyacinths (Muscari) received their name from the spikes of blue flowers that resemble a bunch of grapes. This perennial, grown from a bulb planted in the fall, is even more petite than the Crocus. It’s perfect companion is a yellow daffodil, King Alfred for example, planted in alternating clumps/drifts.

Despite it’s observed commonness, the Saucer Magnolia is truly a thing to marvel. I first noticed this tree while going to school in Athens, Georgia. One specimen in particular (pictured in Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs) located out front of the AGD house on fraternity/sorority row is particularly memorable.

Its canopy of tulip-like pinkish-purple flowers is “one of spring’s greatest spectacles” according to Dr. Dirr, and I’m inclined to agree. This deciduous magnolia is a real show-stopper, with an attractive multi-trunked habit. But, since it’s just a one season wonder, I would plant this only as a specimen or focal point of a spring garden and not in a group.

This weekend marks seed planting time for my lettuce, carrots, and Swiss Chard! Another landscape project I hope to start is installing a stone border that wraps around all the planting beds against the house. Aside from aesthetic benefits, the border should also help slow the spread of Bermuda grass into the planting beds.

And speaking of grasses, if you haven't already cut back landscape grasses such as River Oats (Chasmanthium), Sioux Blue Indian Grass (Sorghastrum), Sweet Flag (Acorus) et cetera, do it now, before the new shoots emerge!

a word about Crape Murder

I saw something on my street this weekend that I’ve seen hundreds of times before, and it still gets me every time; someone cut their Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia spp.) trees almost to the ground. Maybe murder is too strong a word, since more often than not they come back very much alive. However, there is no need for this plant cruelty and aesthetic nightmare.

Some people feel this is the best way to maintain these trees. Other Crape murderers feel they bloom better with this treatment. Conversely, with proper (sometimes yearly) pruning, a Crapemyrtle specimen can take on the loveliest of forms. And with time, your Crapemyrtle branches will develop into the most wonderful example of mottled bark you have ever seen (see photo). Here's a link to some helpful information regarding proper pruning techniques for Crapemyrtles:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/C944/C944.htm#Pruning

Crapemyrtles are wonderful small to medium-sized (15-25’ in height), non-native, summer-flowering, deciduous trees. They come in a variety of colors ranging from white to pink, to purple, to red, and every shade in between. Some varieties even have nice fall color on their fine textured foliage. Crapemyrtles come in a variety of shapes; more formal specimens have only a single trunk, others can be multi-trunked.

My favorite examples of this tree are in Georgia. The Founder’s Memorial Garden at The University of Georgia in Athens, and gardens throughout the Savannah/Charleston area immediately come to mind. This photo is a particularly old and refined specimen located at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C.

Dumbarton Oaks is a beautiful (once private, now public) garden to visit if you’re ever in the Georgetown area of D.C. It was designed by the first female landscape architect, Beatrix Jones Farrand, through the patronage of Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss. It is a real gem!