This white and blue combination is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'--Beardtongue--and Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice'--Bluestar--, a cultivar of Amsonia tabernaemontana that has been selected for its dwarf size and peacock blue flowers as well as its brilliant yellow and maroon fall foliage.
Amsonias are a very useful, carefree garden plant that tolerate many conditions--wet, dry, sun, shade. They have various leaf shapes and heights, and are a wonderful plant for massing and texture.You can find these in gym beds, beautiful anytime of year, blooming in early June.
Virginia Sweetspire--in this case Itea virginica 'Merlot'--is a wonderful four season shrub that is an important design element in the Staircase Garden. It forms colonies and prefers moist conditions, so we have placed it on the uphill side of the sitting walls and near boulders where water will collect. This generous plant offers dense red twigging in winter, lustrous green leaves that turn brilliant red in fall, and fragrant creamy white flower racemes--"spires"--in spring is a wonderful nectar plant for butterflies and a great plant for massing and stabilizing banks in the garden.
The second plant in this white and white color pairing is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'--Beardtongue--a signature plant throughout the Native Plant Teaching Gardens. Its burgundy basal leaves are semi-evergreen, and in late May, clouds of white flower spikes can be seen in many gardens. Allowing these spikes to form seedheads and drop seed has created great drifts of plants that form a sturdy groundcover.
By covering as much soil as possible with plants, there is less space available for weeds so that less mulch is necessary in the beds, conserving labor, money, and all of the fossil fuels necessary to transport mulch. It also reduces the opportunity for weed seeds that may travel within the mulch to be brought into the gardens.
The harlequin red/orange and yellow flowers are Aquilegia canadensis--Columbine. They are a great hummingbird and butterfly attractor and have large reservoirs of nectar. They are also the only food source for the larvae for the Columbine Duskywing butterfly, Erynnis lucilius, a little green caterpillar that will eat the lovely fine-textured blue green leaves but not the flowers; Columbine leaf miners will also eat the foliage, and you can sometimes see their tracks across the leaves. Columbine will set seed and spread itself around in gardens in a charming, unpredictable way. The plants go semi-dormant in the summer.
Columbine grows in woodland ledges and rocky outcrops in nature and enjoys moisture in the spring and dry conditions in the summer. It is not easy to transplant, but can be planted from the dried seed capsule in mid-summer. I let it grow wherever it wants to be!
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| chrysogonum virginianum |
Chrysogonum virginianum (Green and Gold or Goldstar) is a compact, lush groundcover that grows in partly sunny to shady sites. It has clean, green foliage and abundant bright golden yellow flowers. Chrysoganum blooms heavily in mid spring and sporadically throughout the rest of the growing season. Look for it in the Staircase Garden around the boulders at the top.
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| Fringe Tree and Wild Geranium |
On the north side of the Middle School, on the south side of the Dining Hall/Gym, and in the Picnic Glade, and by Admissions, Chionanthus virginicus, (common names: Fringe Tree, Grancy Greybeard, Old Man's Beard) is blooming. "Chionanthus" comes from combining the Greek words "chion" and "anthus" to make "snowflower".
A spine of Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium) runs up the slope beneath the Fringe trees next to the Middle School--the geranium is a shade loving plant that will be happy in the shelter of the taller perennials and shrubs that will fill out and bloom later in the summer and fall. If you look closely, you will also see some tiny iris--Iris cristata--intermingled with the Geranium.
Look for the peacock blue of Amsonia tabernaemontana 'Blue Ice' (Blue-star) under the trees against the wall of the Dining Hall/Gym, another fun color combination for this tree.
This cheerful wildflower is Stylophorum diphyllum. The common names are Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy, and Poppywort. It loves to grow in moist woodlands and freely seeds where it is happy. It is planted in front of the Lower School by the bridge.
It was quite a surprise to be worrying about sunburns while gardening on April 17, the Friends School version of Earth Day. It was supposed to be cold and rainy. But a group of 12 Friends Middle School students spent the day weeding, preparing beds, mulching, and planting seedlings at Boone Street Farm an urban garden that's part of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore City, and many of us turned a shade of red from the hot sun.
We not only helped four of the Boone Street Farm staff prepare the beds for the summer crop, but also gave the place a bit of a shine for their own Earth Day celebration on April 22. One special treat of the day was our partnering, unexpectedly, with some neighborhood children who have taken interest in the farm, and decided to help out and join us for lunch. If you are interested in supporting Boone Street Farm, you can purchase their produce at the Waverly Farmers Market (under the Farm Alliance of Baltimore's tent), or you can contact them to join their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
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| Rain Garden by Little Friends |
