Wisteria Wizardry

Six years ago a dear friend died and I inherited a little green plastic pot of wisteria, tossed aside in her back garden. Struggling in its scramble up a bamboo stake, the wiry stems with a few yellowed leaves didn't look too promising. I brought it home and it sat in that pot for a year. I then decided to plant it in the ground and tied its tender stems in to a metal obelisk. It was happy there and started to thrive. Three years ago we constructed a cedar arbor next to the plant. As it grew I tied the now quite sturdy stems to the wood. Last Summer it crawled across the top winding its stems around as if holding on for dear life. Leaves were pretty, green and healthy, but that's all, no flowers.

Recently, while chatting with a lady gardener I was introduced to, I mentioned how I'd given up expecting flowers on my wisteria. She told me it would take seven years for the plant to bloom!

First ever blooms ~ April 11, 2009

Looking out through the greening trees and blossoming azaleas a couple of days ago, I noticed the leaves of the wisteria opening on the arbor, and there on one end, dangled two violet-purple flower racemes..........and in just six short years!!! Patience is often a requirement when gardening ~ miracles sometimes take a long time. Memories of special friendships last forever in extraordinary ways.

If you want to know some interesting facts about wisteria, including the location and amazing size of the world's largest wisteria vine, go here.

Time and Thyme again

Like most of us in the Northern hemisphere, I haven't done a garden post in a couple of months or more. My garden is sleeping. Shrubs and plants were hibernating until after Christmas when a sudden warm snap changed things. Here in the Southeast US, lack of snow cover and many days in the sunny 50's and 60's mean we do have a few plants strutting their stuff, trying to impress us.

I guess 'Thyme' waits for no man after all.............it's blooming in the sunshine and even the Sage in this same pot has a few fresh leaves...............I must create a Winter dish with fresh herbs.

Being vegetarian for more than thirty years, I have collected some great recipes including this Winter favorite, Bean & Winter Squash Stew with Chili, Mint and Cream.

Bluebell bulbs - behind the pansies - are already peeking through.

The pansies, ah the sweet pansies. How they love the chilly weather when the sun also shines. They add color to the layer of oak leaves used as mulch. Always deadhead your pansies to ensure many new blooms and spreading growth through late Spring ~ once the heat of Summer arrives, sadly, they leave us.

These bright Violas are happy in their large pot and will grow into a huge clump by Spring.

Unfortunately no hibernating hedgehogs in my garden, but I recall the real one in my childhood garden in England ~ he spent his Winter under the same hedge for years.

Interesting garden notes from the great UK Country Living magazine ~ I was happy to learn that ivy does NOT kill trees. I love the romantic look of it climbing skyward and have to admit I have some in my garden doing just that!
Yes, we must do more to protect our birds, especially in new housing developments where the land is often stripped of trees and shrubs.

All garden photos taken yesterday, January 12, 2009

What's happening in your Winter garden? Is your 'green acre' more white than green these days?

After the Rain

Thunder rolled in the distance, some lightning flashed and a gentle rain fell for a short time. Precious raindrops last evening making the garden inviting this morning. Camera time instead of having to water with the sprinklers and hoses. With cooler nights creeping closer the trees will soon start to turn. These lovely greens will change and fade into Autumn's golden shades.

A gentle Sunday morning garden. Humidity has been literally breath taking these past few days. Today should be the last unbearable one..........a perfect day forecast for tomorrow's holiday. Enjoy the fruits of your labor on the holiday.

Garden Glories

This is not my Pink Saturday post coming to you early - there will be one on Saturday as promised - however on yesterday's walk through the garden I enjoyed seeing so many pink blooms.

The mailbox bed is thriving right now in the full sun exposure. The potato vine is running rampant and may be crossing the cul-de-sac in a few more weeks unless I prune! Petunias in pink and purple, pale yellow daylilies all blooming.

The Mandevilla vine is making it's Summer climb up the gazebo.

My favorite pink geraniums in large pots along the path to the front steps of the cottage.


This week the beautiful Stargazer lilies opened - they are in pots to protect their fragile bulbs which often become dinner for the pesky voles!

The new butterfly bush by the back fence is growing rapidly - I thought it was a purple one but it decided to be pink - fine with me and the butterflies.

........and this little sweet flower means Summer eating of the best kind. This is the blossom on the French Haricot Verts - green beans extraordinaire. I spied the first few beans so perhaps a meal is imminent!

Hope you enjoyed sharing the garden update. We still struggle with watering issues here - hauling hoses and watering cans is permitted just two days a week for a couple of hours due to the drought - but it's really worth the effort, sore backs and painful shoulders, when the blossoms nod in the early morning sun to welcome bees, birds and butterflies on another hot day.

Deep Purple

As dusk falls across the garden

some flowers take on an

otherworldly look.

A favorite purple clematis climbs an old obelisk each Spring. Rusting legs caused it to fall in a recent wind, I was concerned the thin brittle stems were broken and my flowers would die. Happily they survived. I shored up the shaky structure with strong wooden stakes. Improvise in the garden. Don't toss out the old things, they bring history to the place.

Shabby in the garden works really well.

Deep purple in the thunderstorm this evening.

Puttering in the Potting Shed

I'm afraid Spring has made me giddy..............I feel the need to get out in the garden to see every little shoot emerge from the hard North Carolina clay soil, a miracle after the the long drought. I hasten from bed to bed in awe..................not just daffodils, tulips and azaleas are now in full bloom, but hostas are bursting through alongside Solomon's Seal, violets, and bluebells. Roses are climbing alongside golden flowered jasmine and bright pink honeysuckle, clematis are twining around the obelisks and buds are forming. Ivy and vinca creeping, no racing, everywhere, the hydrangeas have tiny buds already. Time has come to get out into the warm Spring air ~ the garden calls.

The center of my gardening world, my long wished for English potting shed. Built here for me several years ago, it has always been a special retreat in my back garden. When the builder left me with a basic shed I worked hard to make it mine. I painted it sage green with purple shutters. Inside I painted the floor and stencilled a 'rug' complete with sprays of roses. I hung my Mother's beautiful set of English Beswick china flying geese on the wall, and a metal chandelier from the ceiling.

The shelves are stocked with pots, garden hand tools hang from hooks, along with a plethora of odds and ends required for keeping up a garden.............twine, bamboo stakes, birdseed and watering cans. It stores Fall's dried gourds, Christmas wreaths, containers full of holiday lights, outdoor floods and drop cords, leftover tiles from the kitchen back splash, buckets and spades for the beach, bicycle pumps, brooms, a vintage clothes rack, a child's tiny table and chairs, a portable fan, a heater, Summer lanterns and candles, my necessary Barbour waxed jacket and clogs as the British always do a little gardening in the rain. And even with all this there is still room to move about - to actually pot up plants, or paint a pot.........to sit in an old wicker chair complete with flowery pillows and a dog-eared gardening book or magazine showing new ideas for one's little part of an acre.

I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning out the potting shed as it will soon be time to plant the seeds for the season. When you step inside the smell of warm earth envelopes you. Terra cotta pots tower in the corner, there are jars holding old seeds, the packets new ones. Time to buy potting soil to mix with the compost I've been preparing all Winter.



For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,

You find the tool and potting sheds which are the heart of all.

......................Rudyard Kipling...................

So, if you stop by some day soon, I may not answer the front door bell. Just walk around to the back and you will find me in the potting shed.......it's the place where gardeners grow!