MySecretGarden

U.S.A., Washington State. USDA zone 8b. Sunset climate zone 5

Final Post of 2015


Champagne is cooling down, clocks are counting last hours of the year, so I'll be very brief and,
looking back at 2015,  mention only three things related to my blog and garden:

1 - On the blog, I finally arranged the majority of my posts about visiting beautiful gardens of the world in one, long overdue  Page: "Gardens of the World".
Now, I and interested readers don't need to sort through the blog's archive to find a certain garden.
I do actually reread those posts and relook the photographs.
I'm glad I took a lot of pictures to capture the plants and the bones of the gardens.
Very often, I see details in the pictures which were not noticed during the walk through those big outstanding gardens.
Among my favorite gardens to revisit are: Sissinghurst Gardens,  Lawrence Johnston's Serre de la Madone,  Villa Cipressi Garden on Lake Como, Arundel Castle GardensHidcote Manor Garden and many others.

View toward the Terrace (Cutting) Garden
Picture taken on December 29, 2015

2 - Another thing to remember in 2015 was a feature about our garden in Garden Design Magazine.
Thank you all who left nice comments about it on my Facebook page!

Picture taken on December 29, 2015

3 - It'd be too time consuming to describe the garden throughout the year. That is why I'll tell about only one event that was absolutely unexpected, joyful, and also gave me a good lesson.
In spring 2014, I found out that my only Melianthus major 'Antonow's Blue'  (Honey Bush) didn't survive the wet and relatively cold winter of 2013-2014.
Attention! Not the last winter of 2014-2015, but the previous winter! I even put a note in my Plant List: "Died -  winter 2013-2014".
It's a border plant in our zone.  In one of the posts devoted to Melianthus (Melianthus Major in My Garden), I mentioned that my plant never bloomed but nevertheless, was loved for its architectural look and its beautiful big bold leaves.
With border plants, it's nice to have  them even for a few years, but anyway, it was sad to lose it.
Somehow, I didn't dig out the dead plant. Euphorbia and hardy Fuchsia grow close to it and camouflaged the black 'stump' of the Melianthus.
By the end of summer 2015, in August, I was doing some garden cleaning, and I got a surprise that almost caused me to shed a tear.
I noticed a fresh green growth around the 'dead' Melianthus base.
Very fresh, very green and very alive (see the picture below)!
After looking dead all year 2014, going through another wet winter of 2014-2015, spring and summer of 2015, it started to grow from its root!!!

Picture taken on August  30, 2015

Thank you, Melianthus for not giving up, and thank you Tatyana for not digging it out and disposing of its roots and dry black base!
I gave the plant an extra layer of compost in late fall and hope it'll reclaim its space in the front plant bed.
Long live Melianthus!
The lesson I learned: Give a plant a second chance and don't rush into saying Good Bye to it. Patience, patience, patience!


Returning to the blog, it was interesting to see that the most commented posts of 2015 were:
My Shade Garden Tragedy and Revival  and
2014 Garden Memories and 'Picture This' Contest Update.
One post is about an unfortunate and sad event in my garden, while another is about a happy uplifting event with regard to one of my garden's photographs-winner of the contest.
For me, it's a reflection of the nature of our blogging community. Gardeners are very generous, compassionate people. They support and cheer you up when you are grieving and congratulate and share your joy when you are happy.
On this optimistic note, I finish this post.
I thank all of you together and each of you individually for your support, encouragement and friendship through the year!
Have a wonderful, peaceful 2016!
All the Best to you, your families and your beautiful gardens!


***Copyright 2015 TatyanaS

Merry Christmas All!




M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S    A L L !


***Copyright 2015 TatyanaS

My Garden Through November

The following pictures show the transformation of my garden in November.

This is the beginning of November picture.
By now, the maple lost its leaves, but surrounding huckleberries will stay forever green. 

The dominant color in the garden is and will stay green.
Some yellow, some red - that's it.


The bean tower in the Kitchen Garden went down first.
Then, three Abyssinian Bananas were cut down and moved to the garage.



Parsley is still going strong. I love this plant!


There is no more space for Hydrangea bouquets inside,
so some flowers are left to decorate the garden.



Grapes change their color before other plants.

Grasses will be cut down in late winter or early spring.

This Abyssinian Banana is already in the garage.

Organic pumpkins from our friends' farm added some fall color to the garden.
A couple of them are eaten already, while some are cut and frozen.

November 4th. Japanese maples try to tell the rest of the plants that it's already fall!

Deshojo maple seen here from the window, skipped its pink stage.
I'm wondering if its color depends on the temperatures.




Terrace (Cottage) Garden, above, looks appropriate for the fall,
but there are still some pretty blooms inside it:

Platycodon grandiflorus (Balloon Flower)

Calla lost its shape at the end of summer, but look at it now - big, full and beautiful again!
 The yellow shrub behind it is Black Currant.
Below, the leaves on the Black Currant are gone, but the Calla is still green and very alive:


Ginkgo biloba leaf  snuggled in Calla's leaf:




Second part of November

Abutilon 'Windcliff Coral' loved cooler weather

Campanula poscharkyana 'Blue Waterfall' has been blooming non-stop

Dichroa fibrifuga

Edgeworthia papyrifera




Fuchsia is hardy in our zone. Above is Fuchsia Hawkshead,
below - Dollar Princess.



Lost  the label for this pink one.



Scilla peruviana

The very last Japanese Anemone

Some Hydrangeas' leaves gave quite a show in late November. 




Clematis on the arch shows just a hint of yellow color:


The same on the second arch - Clematis montana just touched by yellow.
Burning bush is on the left.



This is the very first Japanese maple that we planted in our garden.
It has grown quite wide and threatens to gulp neighboring plants.



Hydrangea Endless Summer never disappoints me

Magnolia


All my Japanese Aralia plants are blooming. One of my favorites. 




This Japanese maple is supposed to be a bright red color.
It was bright red when we bought it.
Last year, it never turned even brown as its leaves fell off green.
This year, it changed color, but not exactly as it was supposed to.
I hope, next year we'll see it in its full beauty.








These are the latest November pictures:






Is it summer? fall? Looks like both.






If I remove all the leaves and cut all the brown, the garden will be summer-green.
We do live in the Evegreen State of Washington, don't we?
I am joining Helen's End of Month View

***Copyright 2015 TatyanaS

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

I'M GLAD TO SEE YOU!

Labels

Abyssinian Banana (4) Actaea s. (1) Agapanthus (1) Agressive plants (1) Alaska (8) Amaryllis (5) Aquilegia (1) Aralia (4) Arizona (1) Arundel Castle Gardens (1) Autumn (47) Bainbridge Island Gardens (8) Before and After (8) Berry (4) Bird Houses (1) Bloedel Reserve (1) Blotanical (3) Blue Poppy (2) Book review (1) Botanical Gardens (3) Bouquets (9) Butchart Gardens (9) California (3) Calla (1) Canada (2) Chanticleer Garden (1) Clematis (4) Coleus (1) Colonial Gardens (7) Conifers (3) Containers (22) Corydalis (1) Dahlia (5) Dan Klennert (1) Desert Landscape (1) DIG (1) Dogs (14) Dry creek bed (1) Duris Cucumber Farm (1) Elandan Gardens (2) End of Month View (12) England (16) English Gardens (2) Euphorbia (1) Eze France Exotic garden (2) Fall garden (19) Far Reaches Farm (1) Favorite plants (52) Favorite plants. Tree Philodendron (1) Fences (2) Foliage (7) Formal gardens (1) Foxglove (14) France (4) Frankfurt Botanical Garden (1) Front Garden (5) Fuchsia (8) Garden decor (3) garden design (1) Garden elements (48) garden rooms (1) garden structure (1) Garden Tour (1) Garden works (15) Gardening Tips (4) Gardens of nature (11) Gardens to see (113) Gardens to see (tours) (25) Geraniums (2) Germany (5) GH Garden Tour (7) Giveaway (4) Giverny (2) Gossler Farms Nursery (1) Grasses (8) Great Dixter (3) Greenhouse (2) gunnera (4) Hampton Court (1) Hawaii Garden (1) Hellebores (8) Herbs and Vegetables (22) Heronswood (7) Hidcote (1) History of gardening (11) Holidays (25) Hops (1) Hosta (4) Hydrangea (7) Illumination (1) Italy (12) Japanese maple (14) Kew (4) Lakewold Gardens (22) Lavatera (1) Lavender (3) Leucosceptrum stellipilum ‘Ogon' (1) Little and Lewis Garden (1) Lobelia tupa (2) Meconopsis (2) Melianthus major (2) Minter Gardens (1) Missouri Botanical Garden (1) Mount Vernon (1) My Garden (150) My Open Garden (4) MY PICTURE OF THE DAY (80) Neighborhood (9) NPA Open Gardens (13) NWFGS (29) Old Goat Farm (3) Orchids (1) Oregon (4) PalmenGarten (2) Pampas grass (1) Peony (6) Perennials (59) Plant ID (9) Poppy (5) Problem areas (3) Recipes (2) Rhododendron (5) Rock garden (2) Romneya c. (2) Sarah P. Duke Gardens (2) Serre de la Madone (Lawrence Johnston) (1) Shade Garden (20) Shayne Chandler Garden (1) Shrubs (11) Sissinghurst (9) Sky Watch (1) Slope garden (6) Slugs (3) Spring/Summer garden (141) Stachys (1) Succulents (9) Summer/Fall garden (74) Texas Arboretum (1) The Garden of Great Depression (1) Tree Peony (2) Trees (36) Trips (81) Tulip Festival (16) Uncategorized (7) Vegetable garden (4) Vegetables (1) Villa Cimbrone (2) WA (114) Weigela (1) Wells Medina Nursery (1) White garden (3) Wild animals (21) Wild flowers (16) Windcliff (1) Wineries (1) Winter and winter garden (54) Wordless Wednesday (31) Yang's Garden and Nursery (6)
Copyright 2009-2022 TatyanaS, MySecretGarden Blog



*