Bogturtle's Garden- May 20 to end, 2023

 



Three similar Honeysuckles are blooming here. This one seems to have the largest flowers. I was not successful in introducing this plant on the first effort, but it has exceeded expectations. Lonicera tellmanianna, Tellman's Honeysuckle, is thriving on the lattice that surrounds the pool deck, mixed in with an equally vigorous climbing Rose called 'Winner's Circle'. The other two are L. tragophylla, the species from China, and the highly promoted 'Mandarin'. Mandarin may be just L. tragophylla or a hybrid including tragophylla, and any relationship between L. tragophylla, Mandarin and Tellman's is a mystery to me.  But they sure are similar, scentless and not recurrent in bloom.


Taken with my little finepix camera with my zoom option across the pool deck from where we park the vehicles. Tellman's Honeysuckle to the left and the climbing Rose 'Winners Circle' to the right. 


Iris tectorum.



Tellmans Honeysuckle and Winners Circle Rose from behind the deck.

Fascinated by the Colorado Blue Spruce, but never really interested in the beautiful trees that get so large. But here, the dwarf form called 'Thume' just fits in the border, showing the same amazing color.


The old red Rhododendron, of the very hardy group called the ironclads, and named 'Nova Zembla'.


The pink Knockout Rose named 'Blushing Knockout' is coming into bloom. It was also severely pruned down to a foot from the ground, and, other than a small bit of browsing by Deer, it has come back wonderfully. I did spray with repellent, and it has worked, sorta.


This is the exceptional Rhododendron called 'Francesca'. The old 'iron clad' red Rhododendron was among the first plants introduced here, but it is not as great a plant as this. Some may not prefer the more cranberry red of the shrub shown, but Francesca does not grow as rangy and does not require judicious pruning, and the flower trusses are larger. The older, vastly better known, cherry red 'Nova Zembla' should have the new growth or candles shortened by half before July 4th, to keep it dense.


Given to us by the man who sold us this property, this old sort of German Iris called 'Ribbon Round' is surely surpassed, now, with new and similar offerings. The only Iris germanica sort blooming this year. Two pots of small rescues are behind the deck in the propagation and rescue area and there is room in them near this plant, now that I have weeded the little perennial area. My work crew will not get to it for the simplest of reasons. They don't exist. 


Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler' is fully in bloom, to the left. And Lonicera 'Mandarin' is fully bloomed, on the right. Certainly seems just a re-named L. tellmaniana, although the actual genetics probably is available somewhere. Certainly, the planting of these vines to surround the little swing seat, is a roaring success.

Still beautiful, to me, this planter has not developed as I imagined. The 5 other Foxglove plants have not grown and bloomed as the one has. And, while I am happy with the plant, I do recall those on the path at the Botanical Garden called Longwood Gardens. They were about 5 feet tall, and en mass. My tallest is approaching 3 feet. The planter also contains a number of Oenothera missouriensis, if I have that name spelled correctly, which should bloom in a month or so. 


Geranium sanguineum 'Alba'. Usually a dark reddish or purple red,(magenta) I think. Given the unpleasant common name of the 'bloody cranebill', with all true Geraniums called 'cranebills'. As most know, the summer geraniums are properly called Pelargonums.  But, of course, I would prefer this white. The nice thing is the species is low growing, like a tall ground cover perennial. 

The massive white (pinkish white) Rhododendron chionoides that grows in front of the bedroom windows. Planted, I think, the first season we got here. 


A Southern Gray Tree Frog, to my knowledge. Singing for weeks around the covered pool. Only when I moved the cover a little to work on setting up the filter system did I find this one. How this species differs from Cope's Tree Frog, or the Bird Voiced Tree Frog, in appearance, are not things I know. Seems opening the screen door, with its creaky hinges, is close enough to the call of this Frog to get them going. Do hope attracted females don't lay eggs, as once happened. How to rescue the thousands of little tadpoles is really problematic. 


The native Wisteria and the clone 'Amethyst Falls'. W. macrostachya or Kentucky Wisteria.  Much smaller racemes of flowers than the famous oriental kinds. Mine was planted by the pool deck, as I thought it would look nice on the lattice fence around the pool. But it grew and grew and disappeared, except at the top of the 30 foot Holly tree against the fence. At least one branch did grow on the fence, towards the South, and that bloomed with two clusters, one shown here.  No reason it should not continue and get better and better. 



Quite determined to post photos from the Month going with the title of the blog, often with the plant looking the same, better, and hopefully, not worse. 
But here is a photo from several years ago of the Honeysuckle growing on the old cedar tree where we park the vehicles. Also called 'Mandarin' yet different from the other bought with the same name growing back on the swing. The flowers shown are smaller, later and with redder parts than either L. tragophylla, L. tellmanniana or the 'Mandarin' back there. 

So here is 'Mandarin' this year, and definitely much deeper red orange than any of the other Asian species or hybrids. 


Probably a European species, Lonicera periclymenum may bloom recurrently, and has a beautiful scent, unlike many another species recently mentioned. Those seem odorless. L. periclymenum grows mixed in with other vines on the corner pole of the pool deck fence nearest where we park the vehicles.


Another photo of our native L. sempervirens 'Magnifica' that also grows in the tangle on that corner pole. Scentless, and likely only to produce scattered bloom later on into Fall, it once was the only vine on the pole and my wife remarked that it really looked like a fireworks celebration of Memorial Day. 

A jewel of the bird world in the center of this photo. Very, very shy. So trying to get a photo is almost impossible. The Indigo Bunting, and it is hard to believe that the color is just white light being broken down by the feathers and only the blue or blue green wave lengths released to the eye.  In red light the bird would be almost black. Probably nesting nearby. The female seems to show olive green tones. The song is long and pleasant. A squirrel is squatting in the foreground eating spilled seed.Tempted to set up a trail camera a few feet from the feeder, as the bird is visiting frequently.


Still able to see its a bird with spectacular color, but using the zoom feature from inside the house, and then the snip feature on this computer can only do so much. 


Just amusing. The trail camera is a different brand and replaces one, after one of them simply quit. So getting a strange brand to take these photos, with date and time accurate, seems an accomplishment to me. Directions must have made sense to the designer but............


So easy from seed. Campanula perscifolia. And an evergreen.


Oenothera tetragona. Tetra means 4, and the 4 part stigma can be seen at the bottom of the left flower. Easy from seed and liable to take over if not limited. A particularly beautiful yellow, to me. Just nice to have such an easy perennial, that any gardener can depend upon.



Absolutely likely to take over in my perennial bed, Tradescantia virginica was purchased in assorted colors a lifetime ago. But I did not purchase a double, and yet here it is, in the very typical color. And a honeybee is visiting.


One named sort was 'Osprey', which seemed like this in coloration, but any of the named sorts are long gone.


The 'Blue Star Creeper'. One of the lowest and smallest of groundcovers, with flowers that must be about a quarter of an inch across, a pale   blue-violet of so many flowers. Always called blue in the catalogs and I guess it is. Very scattered in one area of the yard, not far from the edge of the little pool, where it was once planted. None blooming there, at this moment. Pratia fluviatilis is only one proper name given it, and no plant should ever have more than that one proper name. Loosely covering about a square yard.









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