New Growth

dwarf hemlock 'Jervis'

We went on a collecting spree during the summer of 2007 and bought several dwarf trees for the front rock garden. That makes it almost 6 years in our garden and this hemlock has grown, maybe, 6 inches in height. Now that it's established, perhaps we'll see it take off and grow a couple of inches this year. It's one of my favourites and is planted in the rock garden right beside the steps in the front walk.

Blue Gentian

This is truly one of my favourite flowers and the best of the gentians. It took me 3 years to find it after seeing it in another garden and well worth the wait. I have this small patch in my rock garden - very slow growing. This shade of blue isn't very common in flowers.

gentiana acaulis

I also have one of its cousins, crested gentian, which doesn't bloom till September. While more prolific, it's not nearly as striking.

Heaths in Bloom

My heaths were swarming with bees all day so I decided to tidy the rock garden on another day. Some bloom late summer through fall, others later in the spring, and these two together early spring. Heathers and heaths are best planted together in groupings because you need to keep the soil much more acidic than other plants like.

Green and Pink in January

It was so nice and mild a couple of days ago so I grabbed my camera and went for a stroll around the garden. One of the things that I really appreciate about my rock garden is that there are many things that stay green all year round, even when covered by snow. These photos were taken on January 3rd.

This season has been so mixed up with mild weather most of the fall. My Dutch iris keep growing and they're about 5 months too early. My Hall's honeysuckle is full of buds. And the buds on my spring blooming heathers are starting to pop about 6 weeks early.