A couple of weeks ago I posted some photos of wildflowers blooming in the garden and noted that others were on their way. Today's short post contains some of those others. For participation guidelines for joining this Saturday sharing of six things going on in our gardens, see Jim Stephens’ Garden Ruminations, the gathering point …
The wildflowers are coming up! Six of the most prolific here in the garden at Highland Lake, Alabama, are my subjects this week. 1. The first is my favorite---rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides ), a native, woodland perennial. Wonderfully delicate, and really rather tiny, it is easily overlooked among winter's left-over leaves and pine needles. To illustrate …
1. I'll begin this week's six, which is mostly images, with one of those shrubs that typically announces the beginning of spring: forsythia. There are several forsythia bushes throughout the garden, but none of them blooming quite so vigorously as they have in the past. 2. The Lenten Roses or hellebores (Helleborus spp.), too, are …
I realized today as I sat down to post a quick Six on Saturday that I haven't posted one in 2024! My focus has been on writing a series of guides for a tour of English gardens and Roman sites I'm leading with a colleague in June. Also, the weather here in Blount County Alabama …
There is not a lot of color, much less flash, in today's six. But there is a lot of hope because the focus is on flourishing of plants that suffered badly in the uncharacteristically cold and unusually sustained Alabama temperatures last December and March.  1. First comes three small native anise plants (Illicium Parviflorum) that started …
1. I'm beginning my six this week with a photo that announces what makes all the others worthwhile, viable even---rain! This photo was taken of a Gerbera daisy that was nearly dead due to lack of appreciable rain for over a month, but powered through with one healthy flower. 2. Another plant flowering now is …
Today's six come from a drought plagued and slightly neglected garden. I don't have an irrigation system, other than a link-several-hoses-together and drag them up the hill system. So, anything that is not close to the house has to be self-sufficient. Here, then are a few natives that had the fortitude to hang on and …
It is a little late on Saturday, but it is still Saturday---just enough time to get in some photos of what's of interest in the the garden today. Before doing that, though, I want to remind folks to visit the hub of our Six on Saturday theme, Jim Stephens’  Garden Ruminations, to find guidelines for …
I know that it is just as hot or hotter in other areas of the country and around the world as it is in Alabama. But successive days with the heat index, sometimes even the air temperature, hitting 100 degrees Fahrenheit is just plan oppressive. It certainly limits one's time in the garden. One of …
A few photos and an update for this week. It has been a week---in fact two weeks---of storms interspersed with hot, humid, sunny periods. The combination of rain and sun has set the stage for some good flowering. A few of the most striking appear below. 1. The gerbera daisy in the featured image is …
After Eden 