Stroke That Plant! Part One

While taking the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway home to Richmond a few weekends ago, I stopped along the side of the road to check out this little woodland wetland. This is what I saw...

Wowsers! I only wish I could identify this for you right now. Alas, it is past 9:30 p.m. I am tired and do not want to go digging for the answer this very moment. Tune in later for the scoop on this sexy plant.

Mr. Frost Nailed It

In honor of springtime in Blacksburg...sleet, temperatures in low 40s, winds at 15 mph with gusts to 30 mph... but we'll all forget how miserable it was today as we frolic in the sun on Saturday...

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.”

- Robert Frost
Excerpt from “Two Tramps in Mudtime"

Muscari latifolium - no fuss, no muss.

The more common Muscari armeniacum (Grape Hyacinth) has delightful wee grape-cluster flowers, but all that FOLIAGE...it's like a green mop (physiologically speaking, that's an awful lot of leaves to produce such a little flower).

May I introduce you to Muscari latifolium - cute two-tone flower, and just one leaf per flower stem. Now that's efficient. You can get 500 of them for $140 at Brent and Becky's Bulbs. Or 10 for $4.30. Eh, go for the 500.

Stephanie at work helping get kid's butts off the sofa

Badly worded title, but you get my drift. By working with teachers-to-be through the national Project Learning Tree program, she's influencing future educators, who will in turn make a difference in how a child perceives and interacts with the environment.
Program's motto "Helps you learn how to think, not what to think, about the environment."
Good stuff.

Long time no post!

Our posting drought endeth NOW. Sorry for interruption. Spring's been a bit busy around here, but we don't want to lose our loyal blog readers (all five of them!)

Spring is coming, dang it!

Just a quick post to let you know what's blooming in the Garden:






Some Helleborus foetidus located along the Trident Maple Allee...















Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane'
located near the small pond...










and some more Witchhazel, located under the pines in the Meadow Garden.






Check back for more soon!

Ripley Garden at Smithsonian Sustains Damage from Inauguration Crowds

Some unfortunate news from the good folks at Garden Rant regarding the Ripley Garden in D.C. - the lovely domain of upcoming Hahn Horticulture Garden Winter Seminar speaker Janet Draper (Feb. 26).
Follow this link to the Garden Rant blog.

Below: spiny Solanum quitoense at the Ripley, one of Janet's favorite "annuals from seed".
photo h. scoggins