six on Saturday, 15 March 2025

Alabama is under one of its most severe storm, tornado, and hail outlooks in quite some time. Last night, one and a half inches of rain fell here at Highland Lake, and that was just a mild prelude to what is expected tomorrow. I’m writing this post in the 18 or so hours between the storms, when the temperature could hit close to 80 degrees F (26.6 degrees C), which just increases anxiety over tomorrow’s forecast. In fact, my phone just alerted me that the Storm Prediction Center has raised Saturday’s severe weather risk to 5 out of 5 for the central part of the State—including here. So, I’ll give you a quick six for today, and hope and pray that it is all still there Sunday.

1. The rain drops on the flowering quince in the featured photo are an obvious indication of last night’s storm. This quince is the first of three that I have for today. It is also the first to bloom this year. Chaenomeles ‘O Yashima’ has generous, large, double white flowers. I guess that after the rains, I’ll be able to easily remove that invading Liriope, or “monkey grass” as it is more commonly known here, and properly mulch that bed.

2. The second flowering quince is one that I purchased at the Anniston Museums and Gardens Longleaf plant sale last year. It will need some judicious pruning after it blooms, but I’m please to see that it made it through the summer drought and winter freeze. The image on the right is of one of its larger burgeoning buds still dripping with rain, but there is enough color there is reflect its name, Chaenomeles ‘Pink Storm.’

3. The third quince in the sequence was my first. Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I purchased it–and I have no name for it other than Chaenomeles speciosa. Even though I can’t remember where I got this plant, I remember why. Its wild growth habit and flower color remind me of a hedge along a road very close to Iffley Church outside Oxford. The 12th-century Romanesque church, St. Mary the Virgin, has been one of my favorite sites since I visited it on my first research trip to Oxford in 1978. Below are images of its shape and budding today. In order to show this flowering quince’s flower shape and color, I’ve added a bloom from last March.

4. Last week I noted that the Aquilegia is looking healthy. I also wrote about pinecones, so I’m including a better photo of the columbine and another of the clump between my pinecone finial and daffodil, daylily, and iris foliage. The last image proves just how vigorous this columbine is. Some volunteers have jumped the garden to grow with wild violets.

5. The iris beds at the front of the wooded area of the garden are as full as the one above by the driveway. If all goes as it should, later this spring this portion of the garden will be yellow, dark blue, light blue, and bronze with irises, bearded and non.

6. Grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum) are popping up all over–sometime singly, sometime in small bunches. They stand out nicely among the brown leaves and the less than green grass. Other than that, I do not have much more to say about them, aside from most likely all are the legacy of a few I intentionally planted several years ago. These non-natives naturalize easily through bulbs and seeds.

Any reader who would like to join the Six on Saturday sharing can find guidelines at  Jim Stephens’ Garden Ruminations. In the comments to Jim’s posts readers will also find links to a wide range of garden types and locales.