Now you see it, soon you won’t

Our yellowwood at its peak bloom

After a scorching (90 degrees) day yesterday, I set out this morning to see what damage an early dollop of heat had done to our (primarily) native plant garden in Medfield, Massachusetts. I thought I would focus on our Cladrastis kentuckyea (yellowwood), but there was so much going on, I was outside for the better part of an hour.

This afternoon, there is a carpet
of pink under the tree.

Yellowwoods bloom only once every two years. This year was the most prolific in the tree's ten-year history and, for the past week, it has been a captivating sight in our garden. But the sudden heat forced the tree to make conservation choices.  As I suspected it would, the tree went into overdrive to protect itself, which meant cutting off energy and water to its pantacles of flowers. Two days ago, there were no dropped petals. At noon, there is a carpet of pale pink. If those thunderstorms come to pass this afternoon, the yellowwood’s 2025 bloom will end a little over a week from when it began. That’s my definition of ‘short’.

From brilliant white to brown
in a day.

The maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) went from bright, white flowers to yellow-brown faded ones in a single day.  The shrub has been in bloom for two weeks and so maybe its flowering was about to end anyway; but the totality of the change caught me off guard.

But the same heat that ended flowers also begat them.  The American fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) in our back garden had what I considered a so-so bloom this year 

Our fringetree's color popped.

– you had to be standing a foot from the bloom to see it. This afternoon, those flowers are front and center – twice as large and bright as two days ago. Will they be gone by the weekend? Maybe, but they’re giving me a great send-off if they are.

The Sisyrinchium (blue-eyed grass)
was apparently biding its time.

Just as surprising, though, was the emergence of flowers where there were none in what had up until now been a cool, damp spring.  We have multiple clusters of Sisyrinchium, better known as blue-eyed grass, around the garden. I usually expect to see it sometime in late June. Well, five different clusters showed themselves today; and they definitely weren’t there on Wednesday. The bloom period isn’t that long – perhaps two weeks – and it’s a one-bloom-and-done kind of plant, in that it won’t please the eye again until next June.

Our ninebark's flowers popped
with the heat.

Finally, the heat got our multiple specimens of Physocarpius opulifolius (ninebark) to open their flowers. They’ve been at that ‘will-they-or-won’t-they’ stage for ten days or more. Well, today they did. The sign at the base of one of the shrubs was acquired this past weekend at the Grow Native Massachusetts plant sale in Lexington.  I had the pleasure to help put it together, and to work the event both days. Principal Undergardeners are assumed to be have skills most closely related to digging holes and moving rocks.  Therefore, I did my duty in the event’s parking lot. There are no small roles; only small players. Happy to have been one of them!

The 10th Summer Solstice at 26 Pine Street

In a few weeks, the character of our garden will abruptly change as sweeps of rudbeckia, monarda, betony, and daisies bloom with startling synchronicity. For the moment, though, there are other other stars, no less eye-catching, to be enjoyed. On the sultry morning of the summer solstice, I took these photos to document the garden on the longest day of the year.

Double-click for a slideshow

I start with what everyone who comes into the garden during the month of June asks about: Thermopsis villosa, better known as Carolina lupine.  As the name suggests, it is native to the southern Appalachians. Betty acquired two pots of it from the Native Plant Trust's plant shop at Garden in the Wood in Framingham, MA. That was four years ago. Based on the plants we saw in those containers, we expected the full bloom to reach four feet or so. Instead, as the photo shows, it tops out at eight feet; and its footprint has increased to about ten square feet with no intervention from us. Clearly, this southern visitor is at home in New England.  This photo shows it with two yellow companions: Achillea (yarrow) 'Moonshine' and some concurrently flowering sedum. The white blooms to the left of Carolina lupine are Hydrangea quercifolia, better known as oakleaf hydrangea.

In the rear garden, the spotlight belongs to our two Viburnum 'Winterthur', also acquired from Garden in the Wood. Amazingly, these two shrubs are not quite at their peak: in another ten days, their flowers will be almost completely cover the shrubs in white. We had absolutely no idea they would flower in such profusion - especially given they are in, at best, a part-sun environment. Amazingly, the purple-blooming sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia), just visible below the base of the triangle in front of the viburnum, was planted at the same time as the now-hulking shrubs behind it.

Out in front of the garden, passers-by always stop to ask about our now-magnificent redbud and the multiple ninebarks adjacent to it. Our Cercis canadensis 'Burgundy Hearts' took about four months to find and was the next-to-the-last specimen tree to go into the ground. Betty had a specific location in mind and, therefore, a specific form factor. The tree has been shaped to fit its triangular site and kept to about an eight-foot height. Its reddish-brown, heart-shaped leaves will not change to green until nighttime temperatures fail to fall below seventy degrees (usually in August). We have multiple specimens of Physocarpus opulifolius (ninebark) in the front garden. This one is 'Diabolo', and its purplish-pink flowers are only now starting to fade. The small shrub with white bottle-brush flowers is Itea 'Henry Garnet'. Because it is growing in the shade of a large maple tree, it has remained small.

Finally, looking from the driveway up the front sidewalk, an array of trees, shrubs, and perennials are lush and green. To the right are multiple Pinus 'Nana', which requires an annual removal of its candles to remain even remotely in it place. An array of geraniums - too many cultivars to call out - are in prolific bloom. To the left, the shrub in front is Lindera. Behind it are our Cornus florida (American dogwood), now well past its flowering, Cladrastis kentuckyea (yellowwood), which blooms every other year, and Betula nigra (black birch) which are all jockeying for space, and all looking wonderful.

Digging out the builders' crud in 2015

It is difficult to believe that in June 2015, this was a barren spot of land: nothing grew on it. We had completed construction of our 'dream retirement home' on the site. Left behind was a half acre of what could most politely be described as 'builders' crud'... lifeless dirt and a multitude of rocks compressed into a an airless mass. A landscaping company dug out the top 18 inches of the mess (945 cubic yards), and brought in a like amount of screened loam. We topped that with 80 cubic yards of mulch and began planting (primarily) native trees, shrubs, perennials, and ground covers. It is still a work in progress.