Magnolia 'Elizabeth' – Barefoot Lily Lady

The Fleeting Charm of Magnolias

Spring flowering bushes and trees have such a short window of time to strut their stuff in Wisconsin. Just as they are beginning to unfurl their lovely petals, showcasing vibrant colors that attract the attention of passersby, this week’s weather is challenging them to the max with tornadic storms and an excess of ground-soaking rain that threaten to damage their delicate blooms.

To make spring gardening even more challenging, tonight’s trial will include a cold snap that has the potential to dip below freezing. A freeze will undoubtedly bring an abrupt halt to the magnolia’s pageantry of colorful blossoms. My experience has been that some of the unopened buds may survive, but her beautiful flowers will be marred by browning of the petals.

Wisconsin may not be the most hospitable state in which to grow magnolias, but the hope of enjoying their exquisite floral charm keeps this midwest gardener from giving up. Each spring, I find myself eagerly anticipating the moment when the buds begin to swell and hint at the beauty to come. Though fleeting in nature, the magnolia’s graceful charm causes me to stop, take notice, and appreciate this amazing creation of our wonderful Creator. April draws me out of my comfy chair near the window overlooking the garden and into the outdoors to nurture my garden with care. As I work, these magnificent blooms remind me of resilience and the power of God’s creation to inspire hope and joy, even in the face of adversity.

After a very long writing hiatus, I am excited to say that today I’m rejoining the Six on Saturday group! It’s truly a lovely corner of the internet, filled with passionate gardeners who share their creativity and love for gardening. Each week, many talented bloggers post 6 recent garden photos, showcasing their beautiful blooms, vibrant veggies, and inventive garden spaces. If you’re looking to connect with fellow garden enthusiasts and discover new gardening ideas, you have landed in the perfect place! Here is the link for those who’d like to come join us for a virtual garden stroll:

https://gardenruminations.co.uk/author/lairdstephens/

Sunshine Yellows in the Spring Garden

Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ beginning to unfurl

Classic yellow daffodils are a spring garden must!

“A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space — a place not just set apart but reverberant — and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.”
― Michael Pollan

“God’s yellow, in all its gloriously beautiful shades and hues, adds sunshine and poetry to even the smallest of garden spaces.”

~ Cindie Winquist, gardening barefoot in Wisconsin

A Week of Flowers 2024: Day 2

I’m joining Cathy at Words and Herbs for her annual ‘A Week of Flowers‘ meme, taking place this year November 30 – December 6. Though I’m a day late in joining her this year, I appreciate the opportunity to bring a bit of colorful beauty to our chilly December days. It’s December 1st–the sun was out today making it feel a bit warmer than the 19°F registering on my thermometer. Let’s travel back a few months and look at a few garden photos from Spring of 2024.

Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ put on a very brief show this spring. A late frost turned her beautiful yellow, tulip-shaped cups brown before they had a chance to fully open. However, I caught a glimpse of what beauty this tree will hold in future springs. ‘Elizabeth’ put on a few inches of growth in her first year in our garden, but is still much smaller than her anticipated mature height of greater than 20 feet.

I have forgotten the names of most of my daffodils, but truly love each one of them. The little white one on the left has a lovely waft of fragrance that truly ought to be bottled. The lovely daffodil on the right is a charmer with peachy ruffled cups.

This lovely tulip stood all by herself for quite a few days before she was joined by a few neighboring tulips. I smiled each time I spied her stalwartly standing her ground in my flowerbed.

If I had to pick a favorite type of tulip, it would most definitely be the Angelique tulips. This magnificent red one looks like a peony. She extends the tulip season by opening a little later in spring and her tight double petals can hold their own when brisk winds fly through on nippy days. When fall arrives, I can’t resist planting a few more Angelique tulip bulbs in anticipation of the next year’s daffodil and tulip performance.

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold, when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

A New Full-Sun Flowerbed

One major item that has been near the top of my list for several years now has been to cut down two diseased and unsightly spruce trees in our front yard. I was out pulling weeds one day earlier this summer and noticed there were tree trimmers working in the neighborhood, so mentioned it to my hubby. He surprised me by immediately walking down the street and engaging in conversation with a young man on the crew–the son of the owner of the company. A few minutes later, they came for a look-see and before I knew it we had a contract and the trees were felled by the end of the day.

Now that the spruces are down, we have a brand new full-sun garden space, and I am enjoying choosing what to plant in that space. First order of business, however, was to deal with the weeds that had gotten a foothold underneath the spruces. We also needed to relocate some of the shade-loving hostas to a more wooded location in the backyard. For the most part, I’m able to divide some of my existing sun-lovers from other flowerbeds, so I moved in a few daylilies and a trio of Allium ‘Millenium,’ an ornamental flowering onion that literally blooms all summer long.

Even with this good start, this new flowerbed was the perfect excuse for a trip to our local garden center. I knew I wanted to add a flowering tree, so Monrovia’s Magnolia ‘Elizabeth’ now graces that flowerbed. I look forward to its giant, tulip-shaped, creamy yellow blossoms in the next year or two. I’m also quite in love with hydrangeas these days, so two of them hopped in my shopping cart and now anchor the front side of this flowerbed (I really wish I had bought a third).

Inspired by Butch and Pam over at Everyday Living, whose annual plethora of gorgeous zinnia photos caused great envy, I planted more than my usual packet or two of zinnia seeds this year. My husband bought a big canister of Renee’s Garden heirloom zinnia seeds for me while we were on vacation in June. I lost no time in scattering the seed when we returned home. Wowzers! They did not disappoint. Look at all that amazing color!

If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that my sweet mother passed away in 2020 after a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s. You might spot two of her blue flowerpots in the photo above. Those flowerpots sat on the front porch of our family home for several years. When dementia took its toll, I moved her to live closer to me, bringing those blue flowerpots along as a connection point to her past. Oh, the stories she told about those pots! I planted some annual ‘Hawaiian Punch’ hibiscus in them this year and set them toward the front half of the new flowerbed. I think mom would have approved.

My Garden’s ‘Welcome Home’

Our garden greeted us with a few new splashes of color as we pulled into our neighborhood after being away for 12 days. First to catch my eye in the newly created flowerbed in the front yard was a little group of purple columbine happily dancing in the breeze.

Six on Saturday – A New Flowerbed

I am joining Jim and my gardening friends worldwide for a little Six on Saturday garden update. Wisconsin has been slow on the draw declaring it Spring, but I think it’s finally arrived. Spring has sprung in all its tulip, daffodil, and flowering tree wonderfulness. So, come along with me for a little tour of six(-ish) things happening in my garden–then hop on the virtual garden club tour bus via Jim’s blog at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/2023/05/13/six-on-saturday-13-5-2023/ and wander through a few more gardens.