The Shape of Things

In this time of a global pandemic, work at the nursery has been crazy busy. We are so slammed with customers who find themselves with time on their hands. Naturally gardening emerges as a choice activity. The irony is that all of us who work there do not have time to tend our own gardens. We are not staying home like the most of the world, as the nursery business is open open open. I'm not complaining, though; I'm thrilled so many are turning towards gardening. It's healthy. It's productive. It's calming. It's re-affirming. If we all did it, it would be a much happier planet. 

 I am so exhausted that writing a blog post has not been in the cards for me lately. But I thought "No,  I need to stop and enjoy my own garden!" - so taking a 20-minute tour, I went where my camera took me. At first I just responded to shapes, so I thought of a post all about shapes in the garden. But I got lured into flower colors and, lo and behold, I have a bunch of miscellaneous images. No worries, I'm scrambled, you're probably scrambled, so let's just be scrambled and appreciate nature.

This is the early April garden, mostly in photos. Very few words this time.

THE SHADE GARDEN
The shade garden, Veronica 'Georgia Blue' edging more and more of it as I keep adding this, one of my favorite plants to an area where it does so well. 

 Epimedium 'Sulfureum' flowers rising above the old foliage. This is one epimedium I don't cut back at all, it usually looks pretty darned good.

 Unknown Epimeduium given to me at a plant swap by Lance of Garden Riots.

 Orange flowers of one last Epimedium, E. warlyense.

 Heuchera americana 'Green Spice'

Syneilesis aconitifolia x palmata from the nursery. New this year. 

 Fatsia j. 'Spider's Web'

 Lonicera n. 'Briloni' with Oxalis o. 'Klamath Ruby' taking over.

I've decided to decorate all the stumps. I've gone a little nutty.

 My first ever Pieris, P. japonica 'Flaming Silver'

 An amazing bloom show on Osmanthus delavayi.

 Bright new growth of Dicentra s. 'Gold Heart'

A very good illustration of the difference between Oxalis oregana and Oxalis oregana 'Klamath Ruby'. Can you guess which is which?

 Uvularia perfoliata, merry bells. This is its second year in the garden. I love this plant.

 Saxifraga x geum 'Dentata' and beautiful new spring growth.

 PLANTS FOR SUN
An odd plant that is supposed to be a climber (but the squirrels have chewed it sufficiently down that it has no chance) - Ercilla volubilis.

 Grevillea lanigera 'Coastal Gem'

Tetrapanax papyrifer

Sempervivum species, lost the name. 

Veronica armena. 

Hebe 'Karo Golden Esk' 

This falls under the category of "shapes" - round tulip ones, that is.

 Bright chartreuse foliage of Philadelphus 'Aurea'. This has the BEST fragrance when in bloom.

 File this one under "shapes" too, shapes of the artichoke persuasion. Oscar the Agave parryi var. truncata.

Newly planted last fall, Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus 'Beni Kin Mokusei' came from Almost Eden. So far it's showing signs of being happy by putting on new foliage growth. Very excited for this to establish.

Armeria maritima 'Victor Reiter', a favorite rock garden plant. 

The first mason bee of the year! I literally watched him come out of his cocoon and land here to dry off. So cool! 

So we have a list of chores, wishes, to-do's, that kind of thing. On it was a small path project that I figured would be completed sometime in the summer or fall. FM must be going crazy at home because he started on this two days after I mentioned it to him.

FM says: I don't mind small projects that feature good exercise. It's this or paint the bedroom, re-tile the bath, enlarge the hallway, service the car, polish the airplane, ride the space missile, explore the moonscape, other stuff. Ha! This year is devoted to simple improvements. Last year was the hoophouse behind me! 

Give it some gravel and call it done. Thank you, FM! I'm thrilled! 

And here is where we HOPE to spend more time this year. So far between the cold weather and me working like a dog, it hasn't happened.

I truly hope everyone is healthy at home and, if you can garden, that you are able to engulf yourselves. I feel for people who have no nature outlet, those of you who live in apartments or cities where there is no chance to get close to nature. That's why I'm continuing on with blog posts the best that I can so that maybe a little bit of distraction and nature may enter your lives. It is my sincere hope that the silver lining of all of this is that we can simplify our lives and go back to a more natural rhythm and maybe grow some of our own food as well as flowers. It is a good skill to have. I can hope.

That's a wrap for this crazy week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you SO much for reading and commenting, we are - as they say - all in this together. The gardening community certainly is. 

Oh, and thank you to all the nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, paramedics, grocery store clerks, delivery people, mail carriers and volunteers. You are the glue holding it all together. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.