Bogturtle's Garden- Feb. 1-15, 2023

 

Prunus mume, the Japanese Apricot, has just a few flowers open, but will surely be in bloom in the next few weeks. 

Every year I wait for this unique photo opportunity. No Sun, and that makes so much difference. But the blooming, despite the season and the snow, always impresses me. Hamamelis 'Rochester' again. 

Hamamelis 'Robert'.

As almost a tradition, I have used February to post the evergreens on the property.  Above is the Sedge 'Baby Blue'. Slowly increasing in the areas where it was planted. To the right is the leaves of a Lenten or Christmas Rose, Helleborus species. While we are close to the ocean, apparently islands actually between the bay and ocean are warmer. A Christmas Rose is already in bloom in the front garden of a restaurant in Ventnor, NJ.  Mine are not really even showing buds.

This photo shows evergreen groundcovers, admittedly stressed by Winter. To the right is the dark purple Ajuga genevensis, to my knowledge. It will have the most common blue-violet flowers in a few months. In the middle is the kidney leaf shaped 'Ginger' or Asarum europeum. For reasons I cannot state, the Genus seems to now be Hexastylis, not Asarum. And then, to the upper and right, is the ubiquitous Periwinkle, with designs to take over the planet. Amazingly, members of the Genus Epimedium, that I have planted here, absolutely win the the turf war with the Periwinkle. Just grand.

Shown a little while ago, this is the Nandina domestica form that has never bloomed or berried, here. 'Harbor Dwarf'. And on the lower left is Epimedium nivia, I think. It is looking better  than many other forms, here, as it goes into February. Generally, several patches just get string trimmed down, both to get rid of their ugly tattered leaves and to prepare of Spring, when the cloudlike low flowers come. 

This is, perhaps, the smallest form of Mondo Grass, Ophiopogon japonicus 'minima', probably. Interesting to me that even this has not escaped the grazing of the Deer. 

This is the smallest of the Euonymus, to my knowledge. Slowly increasing in the rock garden. Such a tiny plant, it must be protected from encroaching neighbors. I believe it to be E. fortuni 'kewensis'.

The evergreen at the top is Juniperus rigida, the Japanese Temple Juniper. 

This is Kerria japonica 'Alba'. The Genus is unusual with the green bark and, perhaps, it does some photosynthesis in the Sun.

The lattice that prevents us from clearly seeing the side of the pool from where we park. But now even the lattice is almost totally buried in assorted evergreen vines. The large leaves plant is Clematis montana.  And the Bignonia capreolata, or Crossvine, with smaller leaves, is thriving on the pole that is at one end of the pool deck. 

The colony of Arum italicum is thriving in the main perennial area between where we park and the pool lattice. 

A Coopers Hawk, I believe. This may be the one that visited where we throw kitchen leftovers, for the trail camera out by the barn. No way to know. Or if it is descended from the pairs that had nested for many years in the woods. Never did check exactly where, but they are noisy, and the young pestered the adults for many days, following and making noise for days, all over the property. The adults were quite done with nesting by that time. 

February 6th. The first of the Winter Aconites.  An inch wide happy, lemon yellow bloom.  I may have planted 6, as that was the smallest quantity available. I was unsure they would grow or bloom. Always forget to order more, as they have lived, hardly increasing. More may come. 

The first of hundreds of little Crocus thomasinianna, 'Tommy Crocus'.

Smaller and less impressive than the sorts that come in so many shades and colors. Those don't continue here for years, while Tommy Crocus multiply and show up where I never planted any. Tommy Crocus do come in shades from white to dark amethyst, even while one shade was planted years ago. 

Nothing new, but the photograph does show why Hamamelis or Witch-Hazels are usually best shown against a dark background, like these three Carolina Hemlocks, Tsuga carolinianna, I think. The copper colored one is H. 'Jelena' and the more sparsely blooming yellow is H. 'Wisely Supreme'.  The Japanese Maple, in the planter, is the sort called 'Bihou'.  All reaching for the light that mostly comes from the right, what with the woods. 'Bihou' seems quite copper toned, itself.

Taken with my iphone 7, the photo may be replaced by a clearer one from my little camera.

Don't recall all I have said in the past, of course. Lonicera fragrantissima, the Chinese species, has a species name meaning exceedingly fragrant. A sweet lemony smell, but I have not smelled it. Maybe having Covid, but maybe not. At any rate, once again, it has what is probably translated from the Chinese, the name 'Breath of Spring'. Honey bees have been buzzing around, usually any time the temp is over around 50F with the Sun out. One is in the photo.

Lichens are amazing. A species of Alga, making the food by photosynthesis, with a Fungus dependent, but tending to gather moisture for both partners. Often singular species of both, only found it this one partnership.  This is Usnea,'Old Man's Beard'. Another sort grows of the fallen twig also. To my knowledge, the plate shaped structures produce particles carrying cells from both partners, to be carried the wind.

I was wrong  to call this yellow Hamamelis 'Angelly'. It is'Pallida' and has a weak but pleasant odor I have not detected this year. 

The trio in full bloom. 'Rochester', 'Pallida' and 'Robert'.

I knew another group of Winter Aconites were over by the lattice that hides the potting table from view.