Terri Robertson

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In a Vase on Monday: Sweet Gardenias

The guest room smells amazing today thanks to the small vase of gardenias clipped for today’s In a Vase on Monday post.

Frostproof gardenias (Gardenia jasminoides)

I’ve written before about the drought that claimed quite a few of my plants and shrubs in 2016-17. I dragged my feet about replanting shrubs in the largest front bed, but I finally got the job done this year. I opted for a frostproof variety of gardenias, which are full sun and drought tolerant. The bushes started flowering last week, and they smell ever so nice. Gardenias have a heavy, sweet scent, but it’s not overpowering.

(c) Terri Robertson, T's Southern Garden, 2018 — A gardenia in bloom. Ahhhh, breathe it in.

Colorwheel, aka Stokes’ Aster (Stokesia laevis)

The colorwheel bloom in last week’s post got a couple of comments, so this time I’m including a photo of new versus old blooms. The palest bloom opened most recently; the others have darkened with age.

“Hot Lips” sage (Salvia x jamensis)

The small white flowers tipped in red are “Hot Lips” sage or saliva. A couple of varieties of perennial salvia are shown in the photo below. I’ve caught a glimpse of a ruby throated hummingbird a few times this spring—apparently they love salvia!

Thanks to Cathy and her blog, Rambling in the Garden, for hosting the IAVOM meme. It’s helped me connect to other garden bloggers and makes blogging much more enjoyable. Be sure to visit her blog and the comments section to see what she and other gardeners around the world have put in a vase on Monday.

In a Vase on Monday: Kangaroo Colorwheel

Last week, I noticed a few garden bloggers chose fun animal vases for In a Vase on Monday. This week, I follow suit.

Kangaroo Vase

This vintage Fitz & Floyd piece is actually a toothbrush holder. As a vase, the holes meant for toothbrush handles function like a flower frog, helping stems stay in place. This is not the first time this estate-sale find has appeared on my blog, but it is its first appearance since I began posting for IAVOM, hosted by Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Colorwheel, aka Stokes’ Aster (Stokesia laevis)

The pastel, almost white bloom by the kangaroo face is the very first offering from my Stoke’s Aster this season. This perennial, full-sun plant is native to the Southeastern United States. It earns the nickname Colorwheel from the changing color of its blooms, which begin as the palest pink-purple and age to a deep mauve.

Rounding out the colorwheel: repeat bloomers

The rest of the blooms in this vase have already appeared in various posts this year, and you will probably continue to see them in my vases through the summer.

The spindly brown stems bearing tiny white flowers are heuchera ‘Mocha’ also known as coral bells.
The clusters of small purple flowers are lavender (Lavandula angustiflolia).
With a truly ice-like shimmer, the neon violet flowers are ice plant (Delosperma cooperi).
The violet, cone-shaped clusters are butterfly bush (Buddleja), and speaking of …

The butterfly bush below our kitchen window went from one single bloom last week to full-blast flowering this week. Bring on the butterflies!

More animal vases

Last week, posts from these bloggers inspired my kangaroo creation.

Wild Daffodil, hailing from the other side of the Atlantic on England’s south coast, featured zebra and giraffe vases.
In Florida, the Shrub Queen arranged native wildflowers in a cow vase and introduced us to a sweet real-life pup.
Bonney Lassie, of Washington state, has a fish vase that I adore.

More In a Vase on Monday

Visit Rambling in the Garden to see what Cathy and gardeners around the world have put in a vase this Monday. Thank you for stopping by!

In a Vase on Monday: Welcome May

This week, vibrant new blooms join the spring party and the Carolina snailseed is being super clingy.

Today’s post is part of “In a Vase on Monday,” a weekly meme hosted by Cathy on her blog Rambling in the Garden. Give her a visit to see what she and other gardeners around the world have put in a vase today. But first, here’s what’s in my vase on Monday, May 7, 2018, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Red hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria ‘Grandiflora’)

Also known as torch lily, this perennial is another purchase from the Birmingham Botanical Gardens fall plant sale in 2017. This is its first (and only) bloom, so I hope more blooms are on the way. It’s a native of Southern Africa, and from what I read, its blooms are often bi-colored in combinations of yellow, orange and red. I’m not sure if my plant will offer only yellow blooms, or it’s going to surprise me.

Butterfly bush (Buddleja)

We planted a butterfly bush under our kitchen window last year. True to its name, it attracts lots of butterflies. It’s covered in green buds this week, which will soon turn into dark violet-purple blooms. Although not fully bloomed, this one was far enough along to demonstrate its color.

Ice plant (Delosperma cooperi)

I also featured this succulent ground cover in my IAVOM post on April 23. It’s really doing well this year, so you will probably see it in my arrangements throughout the summer. Look how the petals shimmer in the sun.

Carolina snailseed (Cocculus carolinus)

When looking for vase ideas today, I was taken by how these young shoots of Carolina snailseed twisted together to achieve verticality. It reminds me of Jack and the Bean Stalk.

Thanks for dropping by my blog today, and don’t forget to visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for more IAVOM posts.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified the Carolina snailseed as English ivy (Hedera).

In the Garden with Betty

This week, I sipped lemonade with my friend Betty in her garden. She has some lovely things in bloom this April in Alabama.

Betty wore a wide-brimmed hat and greeted me in the driveway. We used to work together, and she advised me when I began gardening and landscaping in earnest. I’ve mentioned her before in this blog, though not by name. She’s the friend who suggested loropetalum as a privacy border and who told me that dogwoods in bloom should look like floating clouds.

When I asked if I could write about her garden, she suggested timing our visit with one of her showiest April displays: purple irises blooming in front of a Crimson Queen Japanese maple.

When she bought this tree, it was small enough to carry home in the backseat of her four-door sedan. She’s nursed it through two droughts. “Only in the past couple of years has it really taken off so that this time of year it is really gorgeous,” she said.

The irises are passalong plants from her younger sister, a master gardener. Her sister helped teach Betty about gardening when she first moved into her house. Now Betty is passing along her knowledge to me–what a nice way for things to come full circle.

Here are a few other highlights from my visit.

“Souvenir de la Malmaison” Rose

Betty purchased this rose from the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas. Its name comes from the Paris home, “Malmaison,” of French empress Josephine Bonaparte. “The Russian emperor came to Paris to visit, and he saw this rose in her garden and named it,” said Betty.

From bud to gracefully aged bloom, the flowers of this antique rose look pretty at every stage.

Betty noted the blackspot, a fungal disease, on the leaves. (She said she forgot to spray the rose with anti-fungal solution before it leafed out.) The blooms are so pretty, I barely noticed.

Blue Pin Flower or Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa)

“I like things that are perennials that will come back another year and I don’t have to replant them” said Betty, whose goal is to have something in bloom at all times, spring through fall.

This cheerful blue pin flower is a prime example of a hard-working spring perennial. I also like how the creeping Jenny in the background fills in the bare spots between plants.

Clematis

Seeing clematis thrive in this sunny location at Betty’s house confirmed for me that the clematis I planted at the base of my fence does not get enough sun. I must find a new spot for mine because these flowers are lovely.

After the garden tour, Betty invited me to stay for lemonade. We chatted on the back porch enjoying the view and soft light of early evening.

When I left, she sent me home with a pot of pink muhly grass (an extra patch dug up from her yard) and two of her favorite gardening books, Founding Gardeners and The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf, on loan. I will find a sunny spot for the pink muhly grass, and I hope to show off its blooms late summer or fall.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed this post. I’ll close with one more photo of the irises and Japanese maple–because, frankly, I could not choose a favorite.

Walk in Kaul Wildflower Garden

Take an evening stroll with me through Kaul Wildflower Garden, one of more than two dozen gardens at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

(c) Terri Robertson, T's Southern Garden Blog, 2018 — Red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) stands almost as tall as the longleaf pine sapling behind it.

Alabama’s state tree is the longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), and many young specimens grow along Kaul Wildflower Garden’s trails. This strong native tree is resistant to both disease and hurricane-force storms compared to other pines in the Southeastern US. I must also say that the young trees look a bit like Cousin Itt from The Addams Family.

I especially love the shady areas of this garden, where ferns and bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), with its distinctive leaf shape, thrive.

A special mid-April treat for me was the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) on the cusp of full bloom. The light was a bit low for a photo, but the end result looks like a pink firework against a night sky.

If you have an opportunity to visit Kaul Wildflower Garden, you’ll find many plants growing in abundance, but I encourage you to keep an eye out for the oddballs, such as the drawf crested iris (Iris cristata) below. You won’t have any trouble recognizing it as an iris; it’s just smaller. It’s endemic to the eastern United States, which means you won’t find it anywhere else.

Another sighting on my walk was the red flower below, which I believe is a scarlet catchfly (Silene subciliata). I spotted this plant only once in the garden, but it was close to the trail.

There are also habitat-specific plants, such as the statuesque pitcher plants and stonecrop in the next two photos. Stonecrop is so named for good reason. Here it makes a home on a small boulder.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to see at Kaul Wildflower Garden, much less the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. And of course, its offerings depend on the time of year. For now I will close with the masses of yellow flowers blooming in the bog and surrounding area. Based on the leaf shape, I believe the plants are butterweed (Packera glabella), but I am not positive.

As usual, I used inaturalist.org software to help me identify plants to the best of my ability. If the iNaturalist community of citizen scientists corrects any of these IDs, I will update this post.

Thanks for stopping by!

In a Vase on Monday: Sense and Sensibility

I began this post with the most sensical intentions. Then my sensibilities took over.

It’s been a while since I’ve read Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (or watched Emma Thompson’s movie adaptation), but my takeaway from the story is that we need to embrace a balance of both qualities in our lives. I relearned that lesson this week.

In a Vase on Monday is hosted each week by Cathy on her blog Rambling in the Garden. I missed it last week, and I was determined to be “sensical” and work ahead so my post would be ready first thing this Monday. However, I got distracted by my sensibilities. It was warm and sunny. The birds were singing, and the breeze was rustling in the trees. I decided to do my arranging outside.

Just when I was about happy with my arrangement, the breeze shifted all the stems. I moved inside. Once again, I had everything photo-ready, and I made a snap decision to go outside for more bellflowers. I was outside no more than 30 seconds when I heard the crash inside. So much for being sensical.

One of our cats, Chester, had taken down the small table I use when photographing flower arrangements. The vase was in pieces on the floor. The irony was not lost on me that just two weeks ago I wrote about exercising caution when it comes to cats and plants. I suppose I had it coming.

I cleaned up the broken pieces of pottery, salvaged the flowers from floor and started again. Without further ado, here’s what’s in a vase on Monday April 22, 2018.

Purple Bearded Iris (Iris germanica)

I thought my purple irises were not coming up this year, but it turns out they were just on a different timetable than the white irises. Snipping the stems released an aroma like slicing green onion tops for a salad.

Autumn sage (Salvia greggii)

The leaves of this evergreen herbaceous perennial offer a heavenly, lightly sweet scent year round. It’s just beginning to flower and will continue through the year until first freeze. I purchased mine last year at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens fall plant sale.

Dalmatian Bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana)

I planted bellflower last fall as a perennial ground cover in a terraced area of the backyard, where it gets part shade. It’s just now beginning to take off, and I love its tiny blue-violet blooms.

Ice Plant (Delosperma cooperi)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, hardy ice plant is a succulent ground cover that can take the sun on full blast in the front yard. The blooms shimmer in the sun, giving the plant an “icy” look. This is another Birmingham Botanical Gardens plant sale purchase.

Lavender (Lavandula angustiflolia)

I planted lavender in my sunny front yard last year, and it has done well. I’ve divided it successfully and now have two plants.

English Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Thyme and I have a checkered past. I’ve killed it as a houseplant on several occasions. Most recently I killed lemon thyme in an outdoor pot (I’m not sure why but most likely because I left it out to overwinter). Elfin thyme looked terrific between the patio stones, but the environment was ultimately too harsh in the summer, even with lots of shade. I have, however, had success with regular garden thyme outside year round. It might not be the obvious choice for a flower arrangement, but I like effect of tucking in a couple of wild, graceful sprigs.

Vase

The vase that survived this post is a Waterford posey vase (a gift from my parents on some birthday past).

Thank you for stopping by. To see what other gardeners around the world have put in a vase on Monday, please visit Cathy’s IAVOM post and don’t miss the comments below it.

Correction: The original version of this post misidentified the autumn sage (aka salvia) as “Hot Lips” sage. I have both varieties in the same bed, and I mixed them up temporarily.