Hello Dear Daphne

Daphne burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie'

I posted about buying the tiny Daphne on April 2009 Bloom Day blog. Last year there were a few blooms.

This year in early April, it looked like a stick. I was a little worried.
But by mid-April it was showing new growth
By May 1, a beautiful full bloom among the sweet woodruff and brunnera. I have read that this shrub may be short-lived, but for now, I’m enjoying it’s bloom and fragrance.

Bulb Sale

I can't resist a sale. When a sale has anything to do with gardening, then I REALLY can’t resist a sale.

A Philadelphia Flower Show a vendor had a “12 for $25” bulb sale. I bought 6 Casablanca and 6 Stargazer Lily bulbs dreaming of their sweet summer scent.

Cleverly, I put the bulbs in separate bags so I wouldn’t get them mixed up. Not so cleverly. I didn’t mark the bags. So I didn’t know which was which. Since Casablanca blooms white, I rationalized that the bulbs would be white.
I wanted to plant them with the other Casablanca lilies in my scented garden. I got out the bulb digger which I haven’t used in years. I tried it and then remembered why I haven’t used it in years. The bulb digger makes a tidy hole but gets stuffed with a rock hard pack of soil. I think the theory is that the digging next hole will push the soil out of the top.

After jumping on the digger several times, I gave up. I turned to the trusty shovel and dug holes for the bulbs.

I planted the six tan colored (Stargazer?) bulbs near our deck. We’ll see which bulbs are in all those holes when they bloom in July.

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Confederate Jasmine

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Trachelospermum jasminoides

The Confederate Jasmine lives in a south facing window. (See November 28, 2009 post.)

There was some leaf drop after I brought it home. It seems to have recovered very well. I cut off some of the wild growth about two weeks ago.

I would have waited to prune until after flowering since the vine blooms on old wood but it sends out shoots rapidly. You can see the return of wild growth at the top of the above picture.

And now there are blooms – delicate, white and lightly fragrant.

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Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day – April 2009

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I’ve been posting pictures of flowers blooming in my garden lately. Here’s one that I haven’t posted.

Daphnie x burkwoodii ‘Carol Mackie’

I ordered the shrub from Bluestone Perennials. It arrived in a 4-inch pot holding the promise of heavenly scent. There was a slight aroma from the few blooms. (Do all gardeners go batty over the arrival of a new plant?)

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I saw, or should I say smelled, one in a friend's garden last spring. According to Bluestone’s plant description, “Garland flowers are prized for their early spring bloom of exquisitely fragrant palest pink flowers in profusion.” It was an immediate addition to my “must have list”.

I did internet searches and found that this shrub sometimes succumbs to Sudden Daphne Death Syndrome. It also requires well drained soil. It may become infested with aphids, mealybugs, scale or fungal disease.

I bought it anyway. I can’t wait to plant it in the scented garden. The aroma is enough to make me try it more than once.

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GBBD thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden. Have a look at what is happening in other gardens around the country and around the world.

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Scented Garden

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You may have noticed that the three plants in the last “NEED” post are scented plants.

I have been working on a scented garden for six or seven years. The garden is about 10 feet wide by 35 feet long. The Daphne and Casablanca Lily will add their aroma to that garden. (The tuberose will perfume our deck.)

(Picture May 2006)

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I’ve noticed that a lot of flowers in this garden are white. I like the white theme. It’s very restful. I don’t know if this is botanically correct but it seems to me that there are more fragrant white flowers than any other color. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

White blooms:

Sweet woodruff with the tiny white flowers serves as groundcover

White Lilacs bloom in May

Garden Phlox David tall white beauty adds to the summer aroma.

On a summer evening, Nicotiana Fragrant Cloud sends a slight perfume to only the most discerning noses.

The twinkling flowers of Sweet Autumn Clematis lightly scent the air in fall.

Sweet alyssum gives off a heavenly fragrance all summer long.

Other colors: In early spring hyacinths bloom. In April Sweet Shrub’s heady aroma fills this garden and beyond. Summer scent of Lavender Grosso brushes against strollers on the path.

Daphne will add some bones to the garden and add to the spring fragrance. Casablanca Lily will enhance the late summer perfume.

I can’t wait to sit in this garden with a cup of coffee and inhale.

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(Note: Bat white-nose syndrome has been found in Pennsylvania caves. See February 27, 2008 post.)

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Plants I really NEED for 2009

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Notice I didn’t say “want”.

I’ve been thinking about these plants for several years. I have more plants that I would like to have but these three have moved into the “really must have” category.

Tuberose

Casablanca lily

Daphne (Daphne burkwoodii)

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I’m ready to shop!

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The Winter Gardener

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The Fragrant Year by Helen Van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell

Some books give you that warm, fuzzy feeling. This is one of them.

Published in 1967 as collaboration between internationally known writer, lecturer and gardener Helen Van Pelt Wilson and expert plant illustrator Leonie Bell, The Fragrant Year is full of information for a scented garden.

The romantic style created a pause from holiday stress for me. Wilson writes with a love of plants evident in her poetic pen.

Chapter 15, “Autumn Aromas”, begins –

“Summer slips so gently into autumn, and the warm lush scents of plants in full leaf change so imperceptibly to the crisp dry smell of those soon to fall, that until the one low branch on the great sugar maple above the rock ledge turns significantly to gold we are hardly aware of the slow passing of another year.”

After reading through the somewhat long list of plant fragrance classifications, I suspect my unsophisticated nose would not be able to make the distinctions. I’ll have to take the authors’ word on the nuances of fragrance.

The information is precise. The authors lived and gardened in zone 6. Varieties of plants sorted by season and listed by botanical name fill the book.

The longest chapter “Just Roses” contains rose history as well as a discussion of varieties, their growth habits and scent.

In the section “The Bourbons":

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“By the end of the nineteenth century, ’Mme. Isaac Pereire’ had become a favorite. Considered one of the most fragrant of all roses it provided pounds of petals for the potpourris then so popular. . . . Bushes grow to 6 feet and some canes reach higher; bending them down discourages bloom.”

(Photo: In my garden - Bourbon Rose, Madame Isaac Pereire, 1881)

The book provides transportation to an earlier time. Whether read from beginning to end, taken in small doses or browsed by areas of interest, it is a lovely guide to building a scented garden.
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