More DC Open Gardens on September 25th

Remember last May’s Open Days tour in DC, sponsored by The Garden Conservancy? Well, mark your calendars again, for Saturday, September 25th, when five more gardens will be on display as our local Open Days events draw to a close.

Four of the gardens are in the District of Columbia; the other one is in the Woodside Park neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland in close-in Montgomery County. Here’s a little preview of  the gardens.

Landscape designer Corinna Posner has two gardens on the tour – her own and one next door to it. A wooden arbor and gate connect them. Corinna’s garden  is overflowing with juxtaposed colors, textures and foliage, all informed by a European design sensibility.

Corinna Posner's back yard garden is a visual feast.

Her neighbors’ garden is smaller in scope but full of wonderful stone walls that are both functional and aesthetic. The designer left the owners plenty of space to play with annuals in mixed beds, and even the shady parts of the garden have mixed plantings that set off the stone work beautifully.

The shady side of the Kendig-Dumont garden with its dining terrace and raised planting beds.

Elsewhere in the District, visitors will be able to explore the delights of a private garden on Benton Place, N.W., where a tropical border in the garden shines its brightest in the fall;

and to wander through the developed part of a 2.5-acre garden that belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Robert Duemling, near American University. The Duemling’s gardener grows most of the thousands of annual plants on the premises either from seeds, plugs, or cuttings, and the borders change every year.

A view of the "turret" wing of the Duemling house from one of the lower terraced areas.

One of the mixed borders, filled with shrubs, annuals, and perennials.

The final garden, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, is nestled in a wooded neighborhood on a lot with a number of level changes. The designer, Mary May, has turned the challenges presented by the site into an opportunity to create a number of garden “rooms” around the house, including a variety of seating areas for small gatherings as well as a lower level of mixed border plantings. For now, a view of the front yard, taken last September, will have to set the stage.

The front terrace of the Hester garden, one of the beautiful gardens scheduled to be open in the DC area on September 25th.

For more information on each of these gardens, including their addresses, visit the Open Days website. Admission is $5 per garden, although the Posner/Kendig-Dumont gardens count as one (what a bargain!) for purposes of the tour. Gardens will be open, rain or shine – hope to see you there!

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An Arboretum Rose Garden

Grandiflora Rosa 'Wild Blue Yonder' at the Morris Arboretum

In between visiting Out on a Limb and the Summer Palace at the Morris Arboretum two weekends ago, I spent some time in the Rose Garden. Given the lateness of the summer and the horribly high temperatures the Eastern Seaboard experienced this year, I didn’t expect it to look like much. Fortunately, I was wrong.

OK, I have to admit that the roses weren’t prolifically blooming, but they had been carefully deadheaded and here and there beautiful flowers caught my eye. I’m usually not one for multi-colored roses, but the grandiflora rose ‘Wild Blue Yonder’ shown above was quite eye-catching, with hints of blue in some of the older blossoms. I have a soft spot for grandifloras since they bloom for such a long period, even if their individual blossoms aren’t huge.

What I enjoyed the most, however, was drinking in the overall slightly blowsy, high-summer feel of the garden and seeing what companion plants had been placed in it, to complement the roses. There was the obligatory central-splashing-fountain, attracting children and adults alike,

but my eyes kept returning to fennel plants in flower, rising up around Cotinus  branches whose dark color provided the perfect foil to the golden and gold-brown tones of the fennel.

Fennel flower heads in bloom

In addition to the fennel, there was a great blue salvia in bloom.

A strong blue salvia complementing some of the late-season roses in bloom at the Morris Arboretum Rose Garden

In the nooks and crannies of the stone walls at the entrance to the garden were sedums and other rock-garden types of plants, softening the stone and giving visitors more details to notice.

Trailing sedums in the Rose Garden

The overall views were pretty impressive.

The entry steps to the Rose Garden, flanked by stone retaining walls, with Perovskia and red roses in the foreground.

The "wide" view, with grasses, perennials and roses still going strong.

At the rear of the garden, tucked away in a corner, there was a small gazebo, through which you could admire the stone pots planted with simple white annuals, which helped define the boundaries of the garden.

Note the beautifully-carved wooden ceiling of the gazebo. Another unexpected treasure for the observant visitor!

After the Rose Garden, I headed on to Chanticleer, where I spent a number of hours that evening and the next morning taking in its own special summer beauties. Soon, a post on that – but this weekend I’m in Connecticut to see some Open Days gardens in Litchfield County, so I’m not sure which I’ll write about next!

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Child’s Play at the Morris Arboretum

Last weekend, I took a whirlwind trip up to the Philadelphia area, camera in hand. Although my primary destination was Chanticleer Garden, I decided to stop in at The Morris Arboretum, the University of Pennsylvania’s 92-acre playground. Unfortunately for me, Friday afternoon traffic being what it was, I arrived at the Arboretum with less than 90 minutes to spare before closing time (4 pm during the week, for those of you who might be thinking of going for a visit). Plopping down my $14 admission fee (yikes!), I decided to limit myself to the Rose Garden, hoping for photo ops despite the heat and lateness of the season.

On either side of the Rose Garden,  however, I stumbled across two delightful locations/installations that were attracting children even this late in the day. (OK, adults too, just not those hell-bent on photographic pursuits). The first was called “Out on a Limb.” The exhibit consists of a 450-foot long walkway suspended 50 feet above the Arboretum floor.  This permanent installation is part of the Arboretum’s Tree Adventure exhibit and was recently voted “Best Stroll Through A Forest” in Philadelphia Magazine’s 2010 contest. For a more detailed description of the exhibit and its design, click here.

The entry to the "Out on a Limb" installation at the Morris Arboretum

I was tempted to explore, but mindful of the ticking clock, I pressed on (this is a permanent exhibit, thankfully). The Rose Garden awaited. And it was beautiful – but I will save those photos for another post, lest I squander all my images here. Beyond the Rose Garden, one enters the Wisteria Walk, where a memorial bench is inscribed with the words “Honoring John J. Gatti, a man who was beauty and perfection as is this garden.” What an epitaph (note to sons: remember this)!

As I left the Wisteria Walk, my eyes were greeted by this sight:

A glimpse of the Summer Palace from the end of the Wisteria Walk

Holy brownies, I thought (not to profane one of my most sacred words, but I was astonished). What the frak is THAT?? (Yes, I am a closet Battlestar Galactica fan.) A closer view followed:

The "Summer Palace" by Patrick Dougherty

It was the “Summer Palace,” a structure of branches and twigs created by Patrick Dougherty. At least some of the branches must be willow, because as I rounded the corner to look at the palace from the rear, I saw a wonderful set of leaves sprouting from the top.

A willow branch, leafed out, rises above a small visitor to the Summer Palace.

A group of children was darting in and out of the place, hiding from each other and their mothers in its maze-like interior. One of the moms, responding to my questions, said that the Summer Palace is a permanent part of the Arboretum; Dougherty keeps tabs on it and repairs bits of it as needed. It must look awesome in snow.

So if you have children and are within driving distance of Philadelphia, or are visiting the area, don’t miss the Morris Arboretum. I’m sure there are many more areas to explore for the younger set – this visit was a revelation to me and I encourage you to put it on your list!

For more information on the Morris Arboretum, including its hours, visitor programs and volunteer opportunities, visit its website. Next week: a peek at the Rose Garden.

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In the Pink at Summer’s Peak

This time of year, many gardens in my region can look a little tired. Still, if you look hard enough, there are bright spots of color to be found. And, interestingly enough, at least three that come to mind are various shades of pink. Last week I wrote about one of them, the lotus flower. This week’s examples are slightly less ethereal but no less useful (and perhaps more commonly found) in residential gardens: Hibiscus and Joe Pye weed.

I first became entranced with the intense color of pink hibiscus right after acquiring my Nikon macro lens (AF-S Micro Nikkor 105 mm/f 2.8) several years ago. On one of my first outings with it, on a hot early August crack-of-dawn trip to Brookside Gardens, I captured this photo.

Hibiscus 'Copper King'? Whatever the name of this hibiscus cultivar, it's gorgeous.

Meet Hibiscus moscheutos, or swamp mallow. The intensity of the flower’s hot pink eye, combined with the pink and white petals and the dark green leaves, was a revelation to me. The blooms, which are quite large, last only for a day, but the shrub (which is what it is, not a perennial), can grow to sizable proportions in the right site. Since then, I have used Hibiscus ‘Sweet Caroline’ and ‘Copper King’ in clients’ gardens where late-summer color is called for. (‘Caroline’ is all pink; check out red ‘Lord Baltimore,’ as well). ‘Copper King,’ which I’ve planted on streambanks of a Bethesda client’s garden, may be the same as the variety pictured above. These plants like moist sunny sites and some of its varieties are hardy as far north as Ontario. Cut them down to about a foot high when you’re putting your garden to bed for the winter and they will come back strong again the following year.

Another late-summer favorite is Eupatorium purpureum, or Joe Pye weed. For years, this American native was neglected in our landscapes, although Europeans discovered it and prized it highly. It will grow in either sun or filtered shade (and flower in both), although it prefers sun (and also, like the hibiscus, moist sites). In August its broad flower heads open up, their scent attracting bees and butterflies.

Joe Pye weed in bloom in August

Combine it with a bright stand of Rudbeckia for a nice effect in your late-summer perennial border.

Eupatorium and Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', a tried-and-true combination, at Green Springs Garden in Virginia.

I’ve also seen it grown in a median strip with purple coneflowers, doing remarkably well with no supplemental water.

Eupatorium and coneflowers sandwiched between a sidewalk and the curb in Washington DC

There are many, many more terrific late summer plants, including other pink choices: reblooming roses, Rose of Sharon varieties, dahlias, the coneflowers shown just above, phlox, and even late-summer poppies. I’ll leave it to my readers to suggest others, but for now I will stop with these imposing additions to the garden. Hope you are all “in the pink” as summer peaks this month!

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The Luminous Lotus

Lotus plants (Nelumbo nucifera) fascinate me both as a landscape designer and a photographer. They start blooming in mid-summer just when you would give your right arm for something new to unfold in the garden. And they arise out of muck and mud, looking pristine and otherworldly at the same time. The Confucian scholar Zhou Duryi once said, “I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained.”

Did you know that a lotus’s flowers, seeds, young leaves and rhizomes are all edible? (Thank you, Wikipedia.) You may have seen the dried cups, below, used in flower arrangements.

Fruit of Nelumbo nucifera

The tightly-furled buds of the flowers are magnificent,

Lotus bud and leaf at Kenilworth Gardens

as are the backlit leaves when the photographer gets lucky.

A backlit closeup of a lotus leaf at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Lotus flowers can range from 4 to 12 inches when open.

Lotus flowers open and in bud

Once fully open, their seed heads are bright yellow with tiny hairs that attract bees and other insects almost constantly. To get a shot without insects crawling all over them takes patience (often in blazing sun).

These exotic, luscious flowers need a “bed” such as a pond or other water body and three months of temperatures averaging 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit to bloom. All of the photos above were taken at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC during two field trips with my camera club in different summers. The other place I have seen them en masse is at Chanticleer, in the Pond Garden. But a couple of weeks ago, shooting a garden that will be on September’s Open Days tour here in Washington, I encountered a beautifully designed back yard setting where the lotus’ color and its leaf size and shape had been used perfectly.

The Corinna Posner Garden in Washington DC

Here, the huge leaves of the lotus provide a wonderful foil for the delicate foliage of the dissected maple behind it and the airy, spiky shapes of the other plants in the left of the composition. The garden’s owner is a landscape designer who is a partner in European Garden Design, and her garden is a marvel. Watch this space in early September for a further sneak peak at it, and in the meantime I hope you’ve enjoyed these views of the luminous lotus.

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The Lovely Snowbell

About a week ago a near-tornado roared through my area, wreaking havoc on trees right and left. It made me think about how important trees are to a garden’s structure and design. Sometimes they are there when you buy the house, providing shade, a focal point, beauty and shelter. Other times, you add them yourself, choosing what you hope will be a successful addition to the garden.

The storm took down two huge branches from my dying American beech tree, but I’ll write about that another time, hopefully later rather than sooner. Today I want to introduce at least some of you to one of my favorite trees for shade, Styrax japonicus, or the Japanese snowbell tree.

A Styrax japonicus, or Japanese snowbell tree, in bloom in my back yard in May. It would stand out more nicely in front of a dark evergreen hedge, but hey, I'm not that disciplined in my own garden.

This portion of my garden, although south-facing, gets only filtered sunlight for most of the day because of the high canopy of the many oak trees in my neighbor’s adjacent yard. Nevertheless, the tree blooms prolifically each May (even when we had our 17-year cicada plague several years ago). The blooms look like small white bells, hanging down from the branch, with the leaves perched above the branch. This habit makes the tree wonderful for planting on a slope or above a small retaining wall so the flowers are at eye level.

The tree's flowers hang down in tiers, giving a wedding cake layer effect.

A closer look at the flowers of the Styrax.

After the flowers fade, these curious little bobbly 'fruits' remain.

In my book, you grow this tree for its flowers and shade-tolerance. The bark is an attractive gray, but its fall color, while sometimes a pleasant yellow, is not particularly showy. It’s also relatively pest-free, grows quickly, and requires no special treatment. Hardy to Zone 6 (and warmer parts of Zone 5), it also comes in a pink-flowered version called ‘Pink Chimes,’ shown below at Brookside Gardens. For something a bit more different, look for a weeping version called ‘Carillon.’

Styrax japonicus 'Pink Chimes' in bloom at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland

I’ve noticed that as they age, these trees can look a little weedy and be prone to suckering – but that’s nothing that can’t be cured by regular pruning, if necessary. So if you have a shady garden and want an ornamental flowering tree that’s a bit unusual, check out the Japanese snowbell. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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The Ripley Garden at the Smithsonian

Several weeks ago, having not picked up my camera seriously in a while, I decided to make a dawn run down to the Mall in search of architecture to photograph for an upcoming themed competition at my camera club. After spending some time outside the National Museum of the American Indian, I headed for the Enid Haupt Garden, the most well-known of the Smithsonian’s garden spaces. On the way, however, a funny thing happened – I discovered the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.

Tucked into a relatively modest space between the Arts and Industries Building and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Ripley Garden is packed full of unusual trees and shrubs as well as annuals and perennials. It was dedicated in 1988 to honor Mary Ripley, who founded the Smithsonian Women’s Committee (she was the wife of the Institution’s eighth secretary).  It was designed by Hugh Newell Jacobsen, FAIA, and the Smithsonian’s Horticulture Services Division.

The entrance area to the Ripley Garden on the Mall side.

The raised garden beds are laid out in a curvilinear pattern that invites the visitor to explore and keeps you from seeing all the garden has to offer at once. They also offer the advantage -  to the plant material – of making it less likely visitors will step into the beds (which of course means the Horticultural Services Division has to climb up carefully to tend to the plants!). I was surprised by the large amount of tropical plants I saw, but presumably the banana plant shown below is one of those that is hardy in our Zone 7 climate here.

Tropical plants, including Muso and Phormium, in the Ripley beds.

An ornate 19th-century cast-iron fountain is complemented by similar benches, lampposts, and stands for hanging baskets throughout the garden.

A 19th-century cast-iron fountain is at the center of the Ripley Garden.

One of the many ornately designed wrought-iron benches, with varying designs, that offer visitors a place to sit.

My visit was in early July, not a peak time for gardens struggling with the heat of a Washington summer. But in addition to the tropicals and annuals I saw, there were other spots of color along the way in the form of lilies and Echinops, complete with bees.

Echinops with bees in attendance at the Ripley Garden.

If you’re visiting Washington, don’t miss this small gem of a garden just off the Mall. The Enid Haupt garden – to be the subject of another post – is justly famous. The Ripley Garden, however, offers much more in a small space, so put it on your list of sites to visit!

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Acres of Sunflowers

What’s more emblematic of high summer than a sunflower in bloom? Acres of them.

Montgomery County's McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management area attracts photographers like me in mid-summer when acres of sunflowers are in bloom.

A couple of summers ago, a camera club colleague of mine shared a photograph with the club that stunned us. A panorama, it showed lines of sunflowers, stretching for miles, and it hadn’t been taken in Tuscany. Instead, the location was within driving distance in our own county – the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Poolesville, Maryland. Seems that every year, the county plants acres of sunflowers to lure doves for hunting season (kind of sad, actually, at least in my book), which appear after the flowers are mowed down in September.

I’ve been out to the fields three summers running, including last weekend. Photographing the flowers takes sensitivity to light conditions and exposure,  and has given me an appreciation for what a difference the sky and light can make in the success or failure (so to speak) of my images. The photo at top, for example, was taken on this year’s trip. I was there at first light but because the sky was hazy, I had to work very hard in processing the image to bring out any color in the sky at all, and brighten the yellows of the sunflowers. So for the most part, I stuck to images that didn’t show the sky, like this one.

This year's flowers were pretty much at eye level, which helped me photograph them without catching "dead" skies.

Last year’s photos are probably the best of the lot. Amazingly blue sky with puffy clouds set off the color of the flowers perfectly, and they were taller than this year, so I had to shoot upwards (not having thought to bring a ladder).

A tall sunflower with a perfect sky behind it, from last summer's trip to McKee-Beshers.

I also got a few images without the sky, like this one that reminds me of a mother and child duo:

An open sunflower with another one ready to bloom just behind it.

The sunflowers are planted in rows that run north-south but their heads turn towards the sun.

The rows look pretty cool from the back as well as the front.

Here are my two favorite images from the 2009 trip, one cropped from the other.

A group of sunflowers rising high above ground level.

Cropped from the image above. I like the graphic feel of the single sunflower against the blue sky and clouds.

One of the things I do with my photography is to make blank note cards, which I sell or give to friends. Here’s an image I’ve used in a “pano” card, from 2008:

As a card, this is cropped a little differently, more like my "slice" headers.

The sunflower is the state flower of Kansas. It’s also practical, tough – and beautiful in bloom. I don’t grow them in my garden, but I’m glad the county makes up for that lack of foresight on my part. Some day, I hope to make it to Tuscany to photograph them there, but until then, I can always find them just up a county road.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *

And now, it’s time to announce the winner of the custom header design I offered several weeks ago. My son Adam chose the following piece of paper, from the four entrants, and here’s the winning slip:

And Jean is the winner!

Congratulations to Jean of Jean’s Garden. I’ll be in touch with her to start work on the design soon.  Thanks to everyone who entered!

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Heavenly Hydrangeas (Part 2)

An unknown variety of lacecap hydrangea peeks through a fence in Washington DC

Last week I wrote about “mophead” hydrangeas that I grow in my garden. This week is let’s look at some “lacecap” varieties.  From a design standpoint, I love using this kind of hydrangea in woodland-style gardens for a more natural look; somehow the mopheads look out of place. Many clients I meet haven’t made the acquaintance of these  kinds of hydrangeas, and sometimes I gain a convert or two from people who didn’t think they liked hydrangeas at all.

Technically speaking, there are at least two kinds of lacecaps. Hydrangea macrophylla has two “sub-species,” the lacecaps (with “composite” styles of flowers) and the “mopheads” with globose-headed flowers. (A valuable guide to hydrangeas is the reference book Hydrangeas, A Gardener’s Guide, by Toni Lawson-Hall and Brian Rothera, to which I am indebted in trying to explain this distinction).

The blooms of Hydrangea 'Lanarth White' in my garden

I’ll begin with my favorite. Hydrangea ‘Lanarth White’ is a stunning lacecap in my garden. I grow two of them in front of three dark, tall cherry laurels next to my deck. Except for this year, when the snows hit them hard, they have a fairly upright habit, since their flowers are lighter and airier than the big mopheads’ blooms. This hydrangea is more sun-tolerant than most, and easy to find in the trade. Its’ tiny fertile ‘true’ flowers, grouped in the center of the corymb, are blue in my soil and provide a nice landing platform for insects looking for nectar.

The other non-serrata lacecap that I grow is ‘Lilacina.’ This one tends to get tall and leggy so periodically I take out some of the largest canes in an attempt to keep it in scale.

Interestingly enough, its blooms begin as pink, then change over to the blue you see above. Here’s one of the initial flowers.

The initial color of 'Lilacina's' blooms in my garden is pinkish.

Apart from the Hydrangea macrophylla lacecaps, there are the Hydrangea serrata varieties, native to the woodlands of Japan and Korea.( These are also sometimes listed as H. macrophylla subsp. serrata.) They stay smaller and are reputed to be more cold-hardy, although this is a matter of some debate among experts. My personal favorite in this group is ‘Blue Billows,’ shown below.

'Blue Billows' in my back yard, with ferns and a variegated boxwood in the background.

The blue color of its flowers is quite intense at the beginning. Shown with Hosta 'Pineapple Upside Down Cake' and autumn fern.

Finally, I have a few of the newer Japanese imports – one called ‘Purple Tiers’ and another called ‘Diadem.’ Their flowers are smaller and the infertile ones closer together. If you plant these in your garden, place them where their subtle, delicate beauty can be appreciated, for the flowers are fleeting.

The small, delicate flowers of Hydrangea serrata 'Diadem.'

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Heavenly Hydrangeas (Part 1)

Hydrangeas from my garden, given as a present to two friends celebrating their wedding last week.

Most people would not use hydrangeas as foundation plants, but I am not most people. This is a tribute to one of my favorite shrubs, which grace my north-facing front yard in foundation beds (interspersed with cherry laurels for some evergreen staying power in the winter) as well as beds on the east and south sides of the lot. I have half a dozen or more kinds of hydrangeas on my property, and this year some of them seem to be eating the house, thanks probably to the good start they got during Snowmaggedon and a wet spring.

In a post several months ago, I picked this photo as one of my favorite shots of my garden (and it still is).

My front yard in early summer morning light

Behind the bench you can see two Annabelle hydrangeas, but I will confess that they are there primarily because a friend recommended them as remarkably drought-tolerant. She was right; despite the competing roots of my old crabapple tree, the Annabelles soldier on without supplemental water.

But I prefer the Hydrangea ‘All Summer Beauty’ shrubs next to the house, because of the differing shades of blue and pink they provide as grace notes to the otherwise muted shady palette of my north-facing front yard. Yes, they look like sticks in the winter, but I don’t care. Right now a huge one is in a holding bed in back of the house while my steps and stoop are being rebuilt and we will see if it survives. Here are some of the flowers as it started to show color in the spring.

'All Summer Beauty' as it starts to color.

And here it is in early summer, bowing under the weight of its enormous flowers.

One of the reasons I decided to write this post, however, is to talk a little bit about some of the hydrangeas I grow that you may not see every day. Let’s start with the mopheads. First is ‘Nigra’, whose black stems and pink blossoms make up for the fact that it isn’t particularly vigorous. I grow it primarily for the stems, next to an aging daphne in front of my bench under the crabapple tree.

Hydrangea 'Nigra' has black stems that set it apart from the other hydrangeas I grow.

I grow another hydrangea called ‘Forever Pink,’ primarily as an experiment because our soil is so acidic (I wanted to see if it would stay pink). Maybe it should be renamed ’95% Pink’ for this area.

In our soil, 'Forever Pink' has a purplish cast to it but is still a knockout.

Then there is ‘Blue Danube,’ which I think is really my favorite. I bought it years ago, via mail-order, from Wilkerson Mill Gardens. Unfortunately, the last time I checked, they didn’t appear to be carrying it any more, so if I want more I will have to resort to cuttings. I have two specimens, growing in part-sun, part-shade in the back yard, and I can’t believe the colors and the shape of the individuals florets.

'Blue Danube' is my favorite mophead hydrangea.

In my next post, I’ll share my favorite lacecap hydrangeas with you. But before I close, I would like to invite those of you who love photos of hydrangeas to visit Britt Conley’s blog (The Photo Garden Bee), where she has a recent post with some absolutely gorgeous photos.

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