Cold Climate Gardening

I took a stroll around the garden, and this is what I found . . .

• Double pink columbine (Aquilegia hybrid). This sowed
  itself by our main door in a crack in the concrete where the steps meet the
  final pad. It must be very happy there because it comes back bigger and better
  every year despite getting trampled on every year. Truth be told, I don’t
  really care for the washed-out purply pink color, but I just can’t pull out a
  plant with so much gumption.



• Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) Just starting in
  various locations. Love the evening perfume from this.


• Pink arabis–almost done.


• Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum) various
  places. This crept in with some peony roots I was given.


• Blue flax (Linum perenne) Just coming into its own.
  This is a gorgeous true-blue color. It tends to die out (for me, at least) but
  always sows enough seed. Usually blooms with the tulips but is starting a
  little late this year.


• Dianthus ‘Tiny Rubies.’ Cute and fragrant. Lost it the
  first time I had it. Seem to be able to keep it since I amended the soil with
  grit.


• Coral bells. (Heuchera sp.) Got this from a friend back
  in the days before there were so many different kinds to choose from. This has
  scarlet-red flowers (i.e., leaning towards orange) that look great but clash
  with the purply-pink Tiny Rubies close by. Oh, well.


• Lavender creeping phlox. From a friend.


• A red columbine that I got from a friend. I think it is the
  wild Aquilegia canadensis. It is, as I hoped, blooming at the same time
  the purple-leaved smokebush is at its reddest, but there are so many weeds you
  can hardly see it. Sigh.


• Perennial Bachelor’s Buttons aka Mountain Bluet (Centaurea
  montana) A perennial garden standby. Blooms anywhere except where I want it
  to, which is right behind the armeria.


• Sea pink (Armeria maritima) Grew this from seed. It
  looks nice but almost dies out on me every year. Lifted it last year and added
  grit. Looks like I need to add more grit if I want it to stay. It stands
  to reason that a plant that grows naturally near the sea would want a sandy
  soil, but it’s hard for me to judge how sandy. I unfortunately pulled a
  lot of seedlings when weeding around it. A real pity, because it is a nice
  spring bloomer and I would like to have more.


• “Pot-luck” pinks. Dianthus seed I got from the
  now-defunct North American Cottage Gardening Society seed exchange. These
  two-year-old plants have mucho buds on them. The single flower blooming was
  redolent of cloves. Could be a very nice week coming up if it ever stops
  raining.


• Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) The only survivor of
  a “wild” seed mix.


• Vinca minor


• Narcissus poeticus


• All the lilacs are on the wane but still fragrant. An
  especially long bloom time for them because the weather has been consistently
  cool but not cold.


• Purple-leaved smokebush (Cotinus coggyria ‘Nordine
  Red’) This is just coming into leaf, not bloom, but I love the ruby-red color
  of the new leaves.


• Johnny-jump-ups (Viola tricolor)


• Joan Elliot bellflower (Campanula glomerata ‘Joan
  Elliot’) A great purple. If you have a longer growing season than I do, try
  deadheading this plant faithfully. It forms new buds in autumn, but the weather
  turns too cool for it to actually flower a second time. I think I read that
  certain Oriental cultures grow this as a food–they eat the root. (But please
  get confirmation of this before eating it yourself.


• Globeflower (Trollius sp.) A beautiful buttercup
  yellow. I have two plants, both from my friend Bub Morse. One was a division or
  self-sown plant, the other was one she raised from seed. I have since read that
  globeflower is supposed to be difficult to start from seed, but Bub didn’t seem
  to have any trouble. She gave me 3 seedlings, only one of which has
  survived.


• White violets


• Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) My sister Joanna
  bought this for me on impulse. It was on clearance at either Walmart or K-mart.
  I must have put it in a good spot, because every year it just gets better.
• Solomon’s seal. From Bub. Not variegated, unfortunately.


• Forget-me-nots. (Myosotis sylvatica) Some of it is
  ‘Victoria Blue,’ which is a deeper color but doesn’t seem as floriferous or
  multi-branching as the basic strain. Maybe it just needs a second year to do
  its best.


• Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) In it blue-purple glory.
• Aquilegia ‘jjh970746′ This is the columbine I just got from
  Paradise Gardens Rare Plant Nursery. The blossoms are not as big as
  teacups, unless we’re talking children’s doll teacups. The blossoms look like
  my passalong granny’s bonnets columbines, though the foliage is smaller and
  more reddish in color. Regarding this, Judy says, “I’m sorry. I have had about 35% break to smaller size flowers in the ones I dug & potted for sales here as well. (So much for my thinking they were isolated enough). Refund/credit, your choice.” Of course I want to try again. Flowers as big as teacups! Oh my!


• Chives (Allium schoenoprasum) Just starting to flower.


• Double narcissus poeticus. Sometimes called Plenus, or
  Gardenia narcissus. This sometimes has blasted buds, but when it does bloom it
  is spectacular.


• Pulmonaria ‘Spilled Milk’ Near the end of its
  blooming

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