T is for...

T is for...Tiarella, the botanical name for foamflowers. White tiarellas grow wild in the woods here, but this -- as you can see -- is pink. It grows well in a shady garden that gets only a little sun.
This is what the plant looks like.

I was going to post a photo of some white tiarellas growing wild in another portion of my garden, but it's raining today. They are "volunteers" and I have no idea where they originally came from. Some volunteers get tossed out, but the tiarellas can stay. ;-)

S is for...Scree Garden

A scree garden is a bed built to resemble the soil and rock found at the bottom of rock faces or cliffs: sandy, rocky, well-drained soil. My husband and I built this one last year on the south side of our sunroom. It had been a weedy, overgrown herb garden that looked awful most of the time.

I was surprised when I suggested that we convert it into a scree garden! Before I knew it, we had dug out all the herbs and soil, placed rocks at the bottom of the hole, then poured in gravel, then a mixture of soil and sand. I planted some drought tolerant alpine plants, then surrounded them with pea gravel. Most of the [lants survived a severe drought that summer and a cold, miserable winter. These photos show what the garden looks like 12 months later.
I can't believe how easy it has been to take care of this bed! So far so goo, anyway. And it's a wonderful place to showcse plants that ould likely get lost in a bed of larger plants.
To visit other sites celebrating ABC Wednesday, please click HERE.

R is for...

R is for...reddish blossoms and foliage in my gardens right now -- all plants in my gardens so far this year are perennials because last night we had a frost and we may have another one tonight, a full moon.

Apparently local wisdom and The Farmer's Almanac say we won't have a frost after the May full moon. Here's hoping they are correct!

For more ABC Wednesday posts check out Mrs. Nesbitt's Place by clicking HERE.

Pink-flowering Strawberries

Fragaria 'Pink Panda' is a lovely ornamental strawberry, a groundcover with rich green, toothy edged leaves.

Each plant expands its territory by sending out long shoots so is gently invasive. But 'Pink Panda' blooms early and is so pretty that I'm willing to keep an eye on it and pull out any plants I don't want.
Although 'Pink Panda' plants have been known to produce strawberries, mine never have, perhaps because they are growing in a lightly shaded site. They bloom all summer, although not as profusely as they are now.

Crabapple Blossoms

The fruit trees are blooming in town and in the countryside right now. What a cheerful sight!

These blossoms are on a crabapple tree in one of my gardens. Would you believe my husband planted this tree from a seed? Ten or twelve years ago he plucked a crabapple off a tree he admired in Downtown Toronto on his way home from work. Ha! Now it's a beautiful specimen.
The tree bloomed for the first time two years ago. Just a few blossoms the first year, but last year we had zillions of blooms. And in the fall we had enough crabapples to make jelly. Looks like we'll have another bumper crop in 2008!

Q is for...

Q is for….Quince. And just in time for Q, this bush is blooming.
This poor bush was once in another garden being taken over by an aggressive but lovely shrub rose. So my dear husband helped me dig it out a few autumns ago. Actually, truth be told, we butchered it as we tried to separate the quince roots from the rose roots. I guess the quince has forgiven us!
To see more posts celebrating the letter Q, visit Mrs. Nesbitt's Place by clicking HERE.

A blade-swallowing tree?

Does this tree have a mouth? Is it trying to eat this saw blade?
For more Odd Shots, please check out Katney's Kaboodle by clicking HERE.