Springtime Awakenings!

16 Mar '07 2:34 am

Another wonderful set of springtime flowers! They're gorgeous and colourful, dear Liza and thanks for sharing! Enjoy your spring gardening! Very Happy

16 Mar '07 7:29 am

Thank you, Jacqueline dear! Yes, indeed, I enjoy gardening under the Spring sun, although the actual work for the moment is really hard..I have actually started gardening since January - not so often, but although the temperatures were warm for the season , only now I experience lasting sunny days. On Saturday things will change again , and I have had enough of that depressing rain so far! Until last Saturday, it had been raining for 3 weeks non-stop! Awful for mind-body-spirit!

16 Mar '07 7:44 am

Inspired by this springtime thread, I've just purchased my first batch of spring bulbs - yippee! Click, click, click - how easy! And I'm off to the bulb farm later today, too - I'll try to forget what I've mail-ordered, so I can be doubly surprised.

Thanks for the inspiration, Liza!

19 Mar '07 11:04 am

Hi Liza, long time no see! Seeing your spring flowers have me itching for spring to come to my garden.

Your close ups are always beautiful but I was especially intrigued by one showing some pinkish stone steps curling around a flower bed full of a low-growing purple flower. You obviously have some 3-d to your garden and have made some very aesthetic choices of paving. I'd love to see more shots showing how you've solved your grading changes and overall shots showing how you've laid out your bountifull garden. (I haven't forgotten the pictures you took of the butterfly 'flocks' that visited you that time!)

I've been working the last couple weekends to put in more annuals and perenials with composite flowers to appeal to the butterflies. One such plant I've had in the garden for years is one that is supposed to come from Greece. I wonder if you know Trachelium caeruleum, which is also called "Throat Wort". A good nursery here is Annie's Annuals, which I think you'd really like too. She mostly sells whole sale but also sells to the public. I've copied her url so you can take a peek at her website:

http://www.anniesannuals.com/info/ohouse/default.asp

I've been posting more photos at the Fick'r site that Jacqueline uses, under the same "serialplantfetishist" name. Some day I may yet figure out how to post pictures the way you do here at Moosey's.

Happy gardening, Mark

19 Mar '07 1:38 pm

Oh heavens, Mark, what I'd do for such a nursery nearby! However I mustn't wish too hard: the only reason I can afford my garden is that I live out of reach of temptation and work too hard to spend time spending money on it! And besides - uncommercialised and unsung, we have some of the most exciting true nurseries (as opposed to plant parks) in the country in our area. But the focused presentation of mature good quality plants...WOW!

I'm downloading images like fury - especially as I am getting names for flowers I find in 'meadowmixes' but have never identified! Thanks! Go shop for me!

Jack

20 Mar '07 9:05 am

Hi , Mark! It is so nice to hear from you again!

I read your post very carefully! This Trachelium Caeruleum is such a beauty! But I think its mother land is Spain, although half of its latin name has a ...Greek meaning : "trachelium"= "trahelos"= neck in Greek. So! Trachelium Caeruleum means "he/she who wears a...sky-blue neck" ! And it IS a lovely sky-blue flower! I have not the huge luck to grow it, though, like you, because it grows in zones 9-11 and not 6-7, which is ours, here in Belgium. I know, that this plant happily self-seeds, so you are twice as lucky!

Now. The purple plant you like in our entrance garden, is a rockery perennial plant , and it is called Aubrieta.It also exists in blue. Yes, it is easy and lovely, and forms beautiful carpets.

I visited this excellent site ! I love the fact, that each plant is accompanied by its botanical name and a clear photo! You are so lucky! I searched there for Aubrieta,though, and they do not have it. Maybe, you have to search in a nursery with plants for rockeries..

Concerning Flickr, I will look for you there, O.K.Concerning the photos of our garden, I will try to see , if there are any available in the way you want them, O.k.

Until next time, happy gardening!

P.S. Can you, please, send me your own special link in Flickr , in order to find you there? For example "http://www.flickr.com/photos/marksgarden/...." . Because I cannot find you with the name you gave me.Thanks!

20 Mar '07 4:33 pm

Annies is a real fun nursery to visit, Jack. I will definitely go back there and shop for you, better than blaming my own lack of control. I'm lucky not to have too many other vices to compete for my scarce dollars, but I can really splurge on plants as my wife would be quick to tell you. Annie's has a reputation for growing alot of South African bulbs and other plants from seed. It must be great to find all the plants you fancy just growing out in the fields. I've gotten some nice california native ferns and other plants up at my father-in-law's place. He lives between Point Reyes National Seashore and the adjacent Tamales Bay State Park on the coast, north of San Francisco.

Thank you Liza for the language behind the Trachelium caeruleum. I wonder if the "neck" origins has any relation to its popular name "throat wort" since it was thought to have medicinal value. Please don't let me put you to any trouble over my curiousity to see more 'lay-out' shots around your garden. I'll bet if I dig deeper into your earlier posts I'll find some myself.

Here is the url for my pictures at flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/serialplantfetishist/

-Mark

20 Mar '07 4:42 pm

Liza, I noticed that I have a photo of Trachelium caerulium growing through 'Yellow Wave' phormium at Flickr. If you choose the group called "Garden Tour" it is the 4th to the last photo in that batch.

I'm afraid I copied some of these from the files I created at Photobucket which had been decreased in file size to post at Moosey's. These appear out of focus when viewed at a larger size.

Happy gardening!

-Mark

20 Mar '07 7:59 pm

Hi, again, Mark! I did see your garden tour and enjoyed it so much, although , as you said, certain lovely photos are not so clear. And I saw Trachelium, too. I had no idea of its therapeutic capacities! One thing is clear , though : "neck" and "throat", are almost the same thing, and Thrachelium seems to bloom around its own throat in a beautiful sky-blue colour! I would love so much to find this plant. Maybe, I should search in the Plant Finder of Royal Horticultural Society's link...

21 Mar '07 2:33 am

Hello again Mark,

I just took your virtual Garden Tour and again I am so impressed with your lovely gardens. It is truly a shame that my daughter moved last year from San Francisco to Los Angeles. We usually visit her about once per year, so if I had met you sooner, I might actually have had the opportunity to visit you in real time and space. I will just have to be happy viewing your beautiful garden on the web. I am just happy to have found you.

Springtime Awakenings!

Anniesannuals

Trachelium Caeruleum and other lovely things...

Glad you enjoyed Annie's

Picture of Trachelium c.

Garden Tour