The little white azalea that grows in the moss/Japanese/shade garden just at the edge of the front deck post. Yesterday I cleaned up this vigorous little plant and weeded the stepping stones next to it that lead under the deck. There are ferns and a big hosta near it. I let the Welsh poppies self seed in the area.
The Davey Tree guys did a severe pruning on the fig tree. It is now starting to leaf out. In the Spring the bulbs beneath this tree put on a fine show. Now there are dames rockets, foxgloves and a tall maltese cross lychnis growing in the bed. I weeded this area while weeding the stepping stones and doing a through clean up around the rhodos.
The French lilac was spectacular this spring, and very fragrant. Recently I dead headed the lilac as high as I could reach, taking out dead branches. Next year it will need to have its top lowered so that it can branch out more and perhaps have even more blossoms than it did this year.
The hyperion rhodo that is by the front post of the deck. I have weeded it and pruned any obvious branches and taken off the old blossom heads. I have dug out the weedy hings that used to be tri-colored and smelled like oranges when bruised. I dug out the purple hellebore that was taking over the rhodo bed. This now gives the primula veris a little more space. I gave the rhodos and azalea a bit of peat moss.
Close up of the hyperion rhodo.
I had 3 rhodos growing in the space where I now have just 2 left. I moved one in the winter time with its whole wet root ball, to behind the old garage in the woodland. I have been giving it compost and old leaves for mulch for a few years. It is looking so much better this year. I have mixed up the names of those rhodos. I am calling this one Lee's dark purple. Not that any of them are purple, but it is one of the names I have in my old garden journal (from before my computer)
So this is now Lee's dark purple in the woodland beside the old compost bin, from which it gets a good feeding. I trimmed back the pin oak to two stems and cut off all the branches below the roof line of the old garage. This pin oak was very tall with wide branches that were sweeping the garage roof. It has lovely Fall color. I don't really want to lose that color in the woodland. So I will try to keep it shorter and the branches off the garage roof . Its too bad to lose its elegant, tall spreading shape. It was at least 30 feet tall when I had Davey Tree guys take it down. The other branches are sumac limbs. The sumacs do not live very long. They tend to form clumps. So, I am taking the old ones out, as they are falling over the fence and the douglas fir tree. I have a pile of branches that do not fit into the green bin, so will have to wait another month to be removed. With all the weeding and pruning going on, they may have to wait even longer. I pruned the old lily of the valley shrub, too, so that added to the pile. The big fern by the compost bin got cleaned up also. The woodland area needs more cleaning up yet. I am throwing some of the Autumn leaves at the back of the woodland and under the Japanese cedar. Its quite dry under there, but the blue bells are getting smothered, or dug out ... slowly I am winning the war of the bluebells.
This is my newest rhodo Orestrephes. I put it between the house and the deck stairs. It is to replace the camillia that grew there. I had Pat take that down because it was beginning to bump the kitchen window. He left a bit of a stump with branches. That part of the camillia is now looking like it has variegated leaves. There ferns around them that I keep cut back. Now the Rhodo is finished blooming and given a bit of peat moss, and is dead headed. The foxgloves are growing up in front of it. The bees and humming birds seem to like them.
These are the other 2 rhodes from the original planting. The names I have are Royal Purple and Catawbiense-Boursault Purple. Neither look purple to me.
Close up of the Wisteria blossoms in the Western red cedars.
More of the Western red cedars in bloom. On the right side we see the fire thorn in bloom. Earlier this Spring I gave it a good pruning to a lower height and cleaned up the sides of it.
More of the wisteria in the Western red cedars. The wisteria is cut back to ground level in its original spot at the corner of the cutting/herb garden. It has developed a long branch that grows along the ground and this branch sends up twining shoots up into the trees. Apparently it will not hurt the cedars. I do have to keep on eye on it and cut off its shoots as there really could get to be too many,
This is the little Japanese red maple growing near the pond.
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