Fatsia - Spiders web - looking much happier with much better/true to form variegation this year for no apparent reason!
More ferns and irises as Acer buddies, but this time at our neighbors koi pond in their backyard. We exchange plants all the time, especially native blooming perennials. I just came home with a couple of new ones that I didn’t know about. Hope they like our yard too.
A new fern that I noticed earlier this spring has vibrant light green color, but the rachis and stipe are bluish-purplish dark green. It is almost certainly derived from my Athyrium ‘Ghost’, which is right next to it. I plan to move this volunteer next to my ‘Beni tsukasa’, I think the color combination will work well in spring.
Here are a few Acer buddies I snapped a few days ago. It's somehow always less easy to make these posts, because I can't always remember the name of the plant (although I'm pretty good about the maples, heh), so I look it up but it's not on the list, try and find the bill, put in on the list, etc. Oh my. Rhodo 'Calsap', first blooming and lovely color. There are 3 planted there, which should make a nice clump. Meant to stay small. This is Cornus × kousa (or perhaps now × rutgerensis) 'Stellar Pink'. It seems rightly often planted, as it's one of the best of the new Dogwoods I've seen. @Nik that's 'Nicholsonii' just behind it. This is a group of 10 Azalea japonicum 'Bengal Fire', blooming for the first time, a bit trepidatious but getting stronger. Not sure if I posted this before, not a new pictures. Azalea mollis 'Golden Flare', sadly orange. Maybe it will turn yellow later, but for now my plan is to put a white azalea nezt to it, to offset the orange. When we were at Borde Hill, they had a long line of 7 or so Rhodo 'Horizon Monarch', which stays under 2m, framing a path and some trees. I had a credit from a wrong delivery (Faasen's Black, turned out to be a sycamore maple), so I used it on 4 of them. Here is one at Borde Hill.
Himantoglossum hircinum, "Orchis bouc", "Lizard orchid". The stem of this one was bent by a branch of bamboo from the neighbour's, but it's beginning to flower. There are many around in fields or wastelands, several in my garden. Today, and a photo taken 10 2008 showing a tiny white spider : Ophrys apifera, "Ophrys abeille", "bee orchid". Much less common here.
PS : for those interested, I added some more pictures of wild orchids in France there : https://forums.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/threads/wild-orchids-in-loiret-france.104484/
Some may call them weeds, but whatever they are (I have no ID for them), they manage to grow in one of the most inhospitable areas of our yard, and provide a nice splash of yellow for about 2-3 weeks this time of year. Pollinators love them too. There is also a wild rose of some kind up there, which the deer love (despite the huge thorns) and keep trimmed into a nice round bush.
A couple of good buddies doing their things over the past month. @AlainK , Ze Larch surrounded by field buddies (=weeds!) in flower, and various maples of course. @dicky5ash finally got a few pics of C. hongkongensis in bloom. This is about a week ago, the blooms still green. Not only a spectacular bloomer, but also because of how late it is, and how long it lasts. This tree was surprisingly undamaged by hail, too. I picked up this beautiful yellow Columbine at Borde Hill in England, amazingly it's going in for a second flowering, pushing up through A. beurgerianum ssp. formosanum (both in pots). Will plant the Columbine in fall, don't know what to do with the Trident, which leafs out in Feb. Probably wait until larger to plant. -E
Do animals count? Not as graceful as Japanese red-crowned cranes, but charming in their own way… (Pictures from the beginning of June)
Kousa dogwood, which I planted in early spring last year, appears to be recovering. (Pictures from last month). It sulked all of last year, and is not out of the woods yet, but it looks much better this year. Deer don’t seem too keen on it, in contrast to C. florida or C. mas young plants in the yard, which they devoir whenever they get the chance. I have to look up C. hongkongensis, have not come across it in the US in person, I hope it’s available online.
devour, not devoir I have lost the option of editing my own posts… or completely forgotten how to do it
:°) I'm so happy to see one thriving "free", in the ground. It's faring much better than my potted ones. Depending on where it is, you will be able to plant maples to be shaded, and enjoy the beautiful colours of the leaves when they turn to gold in Autumn... @Nik : I don't know in what post you mixed "devour" (dévorer) and "Devoir" (Duty, or as a vb, must, to have to - even ought to or should !) but : If you can't fix it, don't pester the webmaster, blame it on Micro$oft and Crowd$trike ! (best joke of the day... ;°D)
I love the kousas. There are so many great cultivars, some excellent pinks, and they're much healthier, here anyway, than C. florida. They hold flower longer, too. I had 'Satomi' but in a spot that was too wet, and it drowned. I do have a nice C. capitata, which is meant to be hardy, to plant this fall. @Nik, not sure C. hongkongensis would be hardy for you. Funny you don't get the "edit" button, I wonder if there's a script you're not allowing; I use Noscript and am pretty careful, but I allow everything except google-analytics at UBC. @AlainK indeed the larch is really thriving, it's found a nice upright form and is bounding up. It's out in the far NW corner of the new part, and should make a really nice accent tree, sheltering 'Paldiski' among others. -E
I see : I must have some "rights" that you don't have. Whatever : a spelling mistake, or a lapsus(*) can't cause harm. So, no harm done anyway... :-) (*) lapsus : a slip of the tongue, a term which everyone uses here, common French. We're closer to the latin frontier than you half-celts, half-saxons, and half french you are, huh huh... ;^D
Found in Paldiski, Estonia, near Kalingrad, and thought to have been a result of radioactive fallout: A. platanoides 'Paldiski'. I don't have many pics of it.
Oh my !... Just goes to show that something can live out after nuclear fallout. ;^) Shall we ? I'm sure we would. We can ! The earth can only mean something if we the stupid mankind can live on it. Once again, I'd like to be in the mood of these guys when I was 18, and I still hope we all can make this earth better.
They're not maples, but we have a place in France where twisted beech (Fagus sylvatica var. tortuosa) can be found : https://verzy.fr/les-faux
