While some say I have a green thumb, the truth is that I am only motivated and persistent. That is to say, I am a trial and error gardener. Impatient with science, I try things and fail often but what succeeds I keep and expand upon with enthusiasm. In this way I turned my first tentative caladiums into a large tropical backyard garden in Texas that prompted drivers on the other side of our privacy fence to drive into our neighborhood, knock on my door and ask, "What is that lovely tree growing in your backyard?" "Pride of Barbados," I loved answering and handed over a seedling as a bonus for their trouble.
One of the great attractions when I purchased my Virginia home in October ‘08 was the beautifully landscaped perennial gardens in front and back of the house. Last year, as documented here, was an ongoing adventure seeing what cropped up each month. The plan installed in 1996 was amazing as there is a constant show throughout the growing season. There were, however, a couple of mysteries to me. What is that tree in the corner of my front yard? It looks like a dogwood but it didn’t bloom at all last year. Also, I wondered what that healthy prickly shrub in the backyard (another bird favorite) was until one day, while weeding, I discovered a tag still wired to the trunk that identified it as a pyracantha bush. This shrub was not like my climbing pyracantha in Texas tho’. It didn’t climb and it produced no berries and hence no cedar waxwings in the Fall.
This Spring, however, answered these two gardening mysteries. The backyard shrub is covered now with white blossoms (and I hope later berries for the birds). In front my tree is tentatively blooming and, taking a magnifying glass to my landscape plan, I discovered that the corner tree was planned to be a Kousa dogwood. Why no blossoms last year? My theory is that the last owner, with a new baby in the home, had little time for pruning at the proper time. When they put the house on the market they probably clipped everything back to neaten things up for show. Dogwood, pyracantha and my small azaleas all suffered untimely pruning and therefore didn’t bloom last year. My gardening friend Karen tells me that the rule of thumb here is that if it blooms before June you prune after the bloom. Makes sense to me. K Q:-)
Wonderful yard, as usual. I remember that Pride of Barbados! Often think I will drive over and see if it is still there. Since Amanda lives in Pearland, it's not too far of a drive from her house.
Posted by: Marie | May 08, 2010 at 02:49 PM
Laughing as we too had "garden mysteries". I'm so glad we decided to wait a full year before diving in with yank and pull activities.
Your four season garden will be stopping traffic soon if I know you at all!
Posted by: jill | May 10, 2010 at 11:45 AM