Some Flowers in the TheGardenLady’s Garden on Mother’s Day

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Photo 1: Snowball Bush Viburnum that is in a garden overlooking the woods and stream on the property. Because this Viburnum is the focal point and the area is shaded, TheGardenLady is trying to make this a White Garden. The major plantings have “whitish” flowers. There are Korean Spice Bushes and a Fothergilla that just finished blooming. I just planted a white Hybrid Musk rose that I hope will bloom in this shady garden. Someone wrote that everyone should have a white garden. The most famous White Garden is in England, created in the 1930s by Rita Sackville-West in her garden called Sissinghurst.

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Photo 2: My front garden has color and this is the Chinese Tree Peony I bought from Cricket Hill Nursery. This year it has a dozen pink flowers. What the photo does not show is that it is surrounded by blue wood hyacinths and blue cammasias.

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Photo 3:  The path leading to my front door is planted with daffodils and pansies. Even though the plant does not last long where I live, I love pansies. To get more flowering, I plant them in the fall and they return in the spring- then die when the weather gets hot.

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Photo 4: A side garden with colorful plants. This photo shows two azaleas and a Scarlet Heaven Intersectional peony in bloom near a giant hosta. The photo does not show the dicentra, bleeding hearts and the anemone sylvestris, spring anemone that are in bloom in front. (The tree is an ornamental flowering crab apple.)

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Photo 5: Is a close-up of a Wisteria that is growing as a Standard Wisteria Tree. TheGardenLady also has one growing as a vine on a fence.

Planning for the Planting Season – A Problem with Some Gardening Catalogs

Fragrant Viburnum

It’s that time of year again. The time to be dreaming and planning for the planting season.

The first of the plant and seed catalogs arrived in my mailbox already and this GardenLady has been going over and over the plants in it deciding on what should be planted come spring. I would like to order plants from this first catalog. But Caveat emptor! This catalog leaves something to be desired: Latin names are missing. The catalog only has a common name for most plants; though they do have some trade-marked names. How can buyers be sure that they are getting what they want or if they are getting the newest plants without proper classification of plants? When purchasing any plant, there should be the genus, species,and at least the plant cultivar. This way a buyer can check out the plant he or she is buying to see if it is really what is wanted.

For example, I would like to buy a viburnum. There are more than 150 plants in this genus. The one this catalog sells is called White snowball viburnum. So Is the viburnum in the catalog I received a Viburnum macrocephalum -Chinese snowball viburnum or Viburnum x carlecephalum – the fragrant viburnum that I would love? Or is it some other kind of viburnum? The catalog says the viburnum it is selling is fragrant. But other descriptions in the catalog don’t match with what is written about Viburnum x carlecephalum.

DSC_0819 Abelia x grandiflora shrub by debsteinberg

Another shrub I would love to own is a fragrant abelia. This catalog lists one for sale. There are about 15 to 30 species of abelia, so how is a buyer to know which one is being sold in the catalog? Are they selling one of the recommended varieties?

If only the catalog would add the proper plant classification this GardenLady would feel more comfortable ordering. I think their sales would increase. Unless they are selling overstocked or outdated plants and don’t want people to know. Still, because they are offering a special coupon for the order so that you are basically paying just for shipping, people will buy. But customers still want to know what they are getting; even to just let their friends know what they have planted.

If you want to start receiving gardening catalogs in your mailbox, here is a site for you to contact to get the catalogs you want.