Drought Tolerant

April 4, 2012

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Soft, Delicate & Strange: Red Pasque Flower

They are out early this year, especially this plant, a variety named ‘Red Bells’ that I planted last spring in my own garden — it is already on its third bloom!

Pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) is one of my favourite spring ephemerals and a wonderful perennial plant that thrives in full sun or part shade rock gardens. I have mine planted just at the edge of my dry bed/rock garden where dry pea gravel meets a slightly moister wood chip pathway and early morning shade is cast by the house. Pulsatilla is a good choice for dry spots underneath slightly shady trees as it seems to grow tolerant to drought once established.

I find the soft and delicate hairiness of this plant irresistible and after flowering the silky seed pods leave behind something to look as well as some seeds to help it spread.

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July 9, 2010

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Sea Holly ‘Big Blue’

Eryngium ‘Big Blue’ is the sea holly that was stolen from the street garden back in May. This is what it would look like now. Look at that blue!

I took this photo while visiting the garden/s of Paul Zammit and Uli Havermann. The sea holly grows in the front “yard” (the yard is all garden) where it is sunny and the soil looks to be quite free draining.

Their backyard is a whole other world entirely — a beautiful terracotta-filled world that I did not want to leave. Someday I hope to get through the millions of photos I took and post a few here.

Here’s another snap from their garden for a taste.

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July 7, 2010

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Deptford Pink

Some friends and I drove out of town yesterday to visit two farm-sized gardens. I took about a thousand photos, and yet of all of the images I could have picked to show today, I chose this one of the tiniest dianthus I have ever seen in my life. I might be on a bit of a dianthus kick. I did buy three different types this spring.

I spotted the single flower, smaller than half an inch, hidden deep among a field of mid-sized grasses and common field plants. How I noticed it — a needle in a giant haystack — is beyond me. My trusty copy of National Audobon Society’s “Field Guide to Wildflowers, Eastern Region” indicates that this plant, Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) is not a native to North American but was brought over from Europe. The common name is a reference to Deptford, England, where it was once found in abundance.

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July 15, 2009

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