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.
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.
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.
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.
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............
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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