Wood Water Garden

  The new climbing rose has finally gotten strong enough for its flowers to hold up their heads.

 One of my favorites, the violet of last spring and summer disappeared everywhere else in the yard but reappeared in this pot next to the pink geranium below. One of the color combinations I like best in the garden - purple and yellow.  This rosebush is doing well this year and has over a dozen blooms at the same time. It must like the used coffee grounds I've been putting around its roots.  The rose petals are a deep pink with a pale underside that gives the flower a velvety, lined look and feel.   This pink geranium has done very well outdoors in the sun and heat. It spent the winter months near a basement window and had only a few leaves at best.

The plant has grown into a small tree. It is covered with tiny, fragrant white flowers in the spring. Now, the afternoon sun highlights the new, pale green leaves.

The first hibiscus to bloom in the yard - this scarlet beauty is perfect.

My neighbor's violet Rose of Sharon peeps over the back fence. Can't wait for these hibiscus buds to open up. The saucer-sized flowers are red. I also have white ones with red centers in another part of the yard. The New Guinea impatiens likes it in the shade. My attempts to grow tomato plants in a container yields these modest results. My own Rose of Sharon tree in full bloom. A "clutch" of daylilies livens up the backyard.

I love the pale butter yellow of the rose, the pink edging, and the fragrance. I planted this rose bush some years ago before I decided I should save name tags to be able to identify plants later on.

The only flower on this plant, which is about 2 1/2 feet tall, the violet and purple cleome is striking against the green background when you see it during the day. I took this photo with a flash at night. The plant is almost twice the size of a baseball.

I took the picture below of the Japanese Lion's Head Maple last November, when the dark green leaves had turned a bright copper. This tree is partly shaded by an oak and a mulberry tree, and seems to do well. It's only about 6 feet tall. The lion's head maple was a chosen in 2003 as one of the Great Plant Picks of the year. Click on the pictures to see the mounded, crinkly leaves in detail. The Shishigashira, fall and summer, is thriving under the shade of taller trees, surrounded by a ground cover that keeps its roots moist. For a website that has interesting details on the Sacred Lion's Head Maple and the importance of maple trees in Japanese culture, see the website: http://www.paghat.com/lionmaple.html/ Click here for more pictures of the Lion's Head Maple.

The daylilies are beginning to bloom. This unusual variety came from upstate New York, where I got it several years ago at a wayside gardening store. The climbing rose bush was pruned back mercilessly after its blossoms faded,and it has begun to bloom again. Maybe the mild spring weather and the rains has fooled it into thinking spring is still here. Hopefully, there will be many more buds in summer.

 

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  Overlooking the river, July 4, from someone's else garden.

  The river behind someone else's back yard, where a smalll sailboat and motor boat are moored.

Groundcover fills up this pot in a friend's garden, on a sunny July 4.

Since these are not in my garden, unfortunately, I had a hard time figuring out if they were asters, zinnias, or marigolds. Thanks to Google Images, I found out they are ZINNIAS!! Lovely flowers, which I must add to my own garden come spring.

  Ground cover in my backyard has grown thick and vibrant under shade trees in a moist area that would also be good for iris and plants that like their feet almost wet.

  Another plant that likes partial shade, astible has different colors than the purple shown here. I have seen pink, pale yellow, and almost white.

  A pink climbing rose being held up by the green metal trellis is lolling its head. The full flower isn't supported well by the thin stem. I hope that the older the plant gets, the stronger and thicker the stems will be. I planted it last summer.

  I put some of the astible in a small vase next to a Lucky Bamboo plant that's anchored in pebbles in a glass vase. It's been doing well without direct sunlight but with a lot of southern light. A trailing ficus plant is on the shelf next to the window. They say plants do best in a south window.

The entry below was made June 2007 from Book Bird Dog, my first blog, and gets the most hits from readers. I have included it here to start this new, Mostly Gardening blog, Wood and Water, which will be about plants, homegrown and in the wild. Acer Palmatum Shishigashira An ojishi in my backyard!! I bought the unusual maple many years ago (it was expensive! and there were only two in the lot). It's now about 6 feet tall and trying to get taller. I took a close-up shot of its unusual leaves this spring. You can see the leaves curl one on top of the other and give the impression of a shaggy lion's mane. A few of the stems are showing new growth. The tree sits in a shady spot under a large overhanging oak, and only gets sun part of the day. But it seems to be thriving and is not at all straggly. Here's what I found about the history of this cultivar: "After 125 years in cultivation, the famous Lion's Head Maple is still acknowledged as one of the best and most unique