Mar 29, 2006

Spring in Virginia

  • April 1 - 2 April Fool's Day...and the joke was on us as it rained heavily the night before and it was time to travel back north. We also traveled back in bloom time...by Connecticut, the fantastic daffodil yellows were nothing more than tightly folded buds.

  • - 30 - 31 I spent a good part of my time helping clean up winter debris in my daughter's front yard and visiting local shops. I have yet to find any small speciality nurseries in this area. I was also very disappointed to find that an especially pleasing (to me) planting at a local shopping center had been removed and the area paved over since my last visit.

  • March 29 - An automobile trip from Roanoke up the Blue Ridge Parkway constructed during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Shad <Amelanchier spp. were blooming along the hillsides in the understory. In a few weeks tulip trees Liriodendron tulipera along these same hillsides will be magnificent. Spring receeded the further up into the mountains we traveled. More microclmates!

  • March 27 - 28 - Spring is a bit more advanced here in Roanoke nestled in the bosom of the Blue Ridge Mts. Pansies and tulips everywhere...the predominent pansy colors are blue and gold which make a fantastic show. Blossoms on Bradford pears nearly spent, but weeping cherries and crabapples (Malus spp.) are in full bloom. Some yards look ethereal with clouds of white blossoms. Rain and cold late on the afternoon of the 28th. Will this destroy all the ethereal blossoms?

    li>March 26 - Travel day to Roanoke. Snow on the mountain tops and hawks, buzzards and other raptors very much present.

  • March 25 - Visited Ashlawn - "country home" of James Monroe, 4th president of the U.S. - just a stone's throw from Monticello - now owned and operated by the College of William and Mary. Daffodils bloming in the formal garden and Hellebores (Lenten Rose) blooming in sheltered spots of the cultivated landscape. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)the size of a small shrub blooming inthe sheltered kitchen garden; nearby is a fig with roots still covered by a straw mulch. English boxwoodBuxus sempervirens shrubs and hedges very prominent.

  • March 24 - Visited the University of VA (Thomas Jefferson's University)in Charlottesville today...frost effects were visible...on the full blooming camellias Camellia spp. tucked into corners of the Pavilion Buildings around the Lawn in the heart of campus - Jefferson's Academical Village. Gardeners were hard at work in the Pavilion Gardens getting them ready for seasonal visitors. I found beautiful white-flowered quince Chaenomeles spp. shrubs in one of the gardens. It is amazing, to me, to think that the concept and implementation of these gardens goes back to the 18th Century. Over the years, these gardens and enclosing serpentine walls were reconstructed through aid of the Garden Club of VA. These gardens and several others at the University are open to the public.

  • March 23 - Charlottesville and our first look at this academic town that is home to the University of VA and UVA Medical School. The temperatures dipped to about 25-degrees-F....last night. However, the cool temperatures did not seem to hurt the early tree blossoms. The Purple-leaf Plum Prunus cerasifera is in full bloom and stands out in full bloom as street trees or planted in front lawns. The flowering Quince Chaenomeles spp is present in full bloom - both orange and pink blossoms - mainly in shrub borders or at driveway edges. Some of these plants may grow into small trees or large shrubs. There were many which hadn't been well pruned lately which leaves them looking shagging, unkempt and lacking in plentiful blooms.

    I might also add that a favorite pruning technique around the C'ville area is topping or pollarding trees. On certain kinds of trees this looks good creating a "pollarded look." But I draw the line at using this technique on Bradford pears, which have a lovely ovoid shape if left alone, and on purple-leaf plums which, to my way of thinking,look silly pollarded.

  • March 22 - I first noticed that spring is creeping northward at the PA-Maryland border...where forsythia Forsythia spp. was in full bloom and daffodil plantings along the Interstate were just starting to flower. Glorious patches of yellow keeping us company in our drive south. By the VA line, we saw early flowering cherries Prunus spp. and Bradford pears Pyrus sp. in full bloom. Weeping cherries Prunus subhirtella 'Pendula'sp. were just starting to break buds. In the woods red maples Acer rubrum and redbuds Cercis canadensis cast a red haze over the landscape.