Plant of the Month : Choisya ternata "Sundance"

I have written about this shrub before, but it is so versatile, prolific and exuberant and has this heavenly evening vanilla-honey scent, that I want to show more pictures. Its common name is "Mexican Orange blossom" (Mexikanische Orangenblume). It really belongs in every garden. It is at its best now, all frost damage grown over and in full flower.

Here in combination with  Cotinus coggygria "Royal Purple" (Roter Perückenstrauch). 

                                   leaning against a wall

                                     A shiny rare visitor on the flowers: Großer Rosen- oder Goldkäfer (Protaetia aeruginosa)

A second species is  Choisya x arizonica "Aztec pearl". It has smaller spiky dark green leaves, stays more compact and flowers a little less profusely. It has the same heavenly scent, so I could not resist planting it as well. On the picture it sits in front of blue-bells. 

Spring is in the Air

Spring has finally arrived in our parts, birds are singing in the mornings, trees are unfolding their leaves, flowers are emerging from their underground dormant states. Our Kurpark is full of blooming magnolias!

                                           Magnolia x soulangeana

                                               Magnolia stellata

                                    Fresh rolled up hosta are coming out of the ground and unfolding their graphic leaves.
                                    I like them best in black and white.                                            

                                            Tiny Elfenblumen in my garden (Epimedium pinnatum ssp colchicum)

This winter was so mild, that our bougainvilleas survived with leaves and we even have our first tiny blossom ! In this part of the world, the mediterranean bougainvilleas usually don't survive the winter or - if they survive in a glass house - they usually don't show colour before July or August.

  and the Nilgänse in Bad Homburg's Kurpark have seven new family members!

Plant of the Month: Euphorbia characias

This dramatic plant is a bit of an unreliable actor. In strong winters, it tends to lie like an ugly black snake, a nearly dead mass on the ground. If you  are not patient - or your gardener does not know this plant and cuts it back then -  the remainder will surely die. If you ignore it and put up with its ugliness, it may turn up its large yellow-green bright heads, when the sun starts to come out and the frosts have gone, and will rise and shine towards the beginnung of April, to present large yellow flower heads on long lanky stems. It is still not very common in Germany - I found it while visiting English gardens. It needs dry sunny soil, but - if you are patient - it will come back most springs, even if is has been lying under snow. I tried it out for the first time nearly twenty years ago. Then, I bought the subspecies  wulfenii with even larger flower heads. The mother plant died  long ago, but its offspring in the wild form is still present in our garden. Ours moved from a wall, where I planted the first specimen for protection as was suggested by the nursery, into the wild under the cedar tree, in very dry, warm conditions, and direct sunlight in spring, when the sun is still low. Lots of kindlings will come up at the most surprising places with dark green or bright yellow flower heads. The green ones are less attractive, so I removed them meticulously that they would not propagate. Now, we have only yellow ones. The wild form has slightly smaller flower heads than ssp wulfenii, but is still a very dominant and pleasing sight in the garden at this time of year.

Euphorbia characias in front of Choisya ternata "Sundance". 

Plant of the Month : Helleborus

At this time of the year another perennial dominates my garden. It is Helleborus or Lenzrose (spring rose in German) and they are not "bores" at all. Several species and subspecies grow here in abundance. Their favourite area is a very dry place unter a huge Cedrus atlanticus  where they seed freely and appear in many different shades. In early spring, we cut off most of the old leaves to give room to the flowers and the new leaves that appear afterwards.

This year we also have a Helleborus niger (Schneerose or snow rose), which strangely is called niger despite being a brillliant white (the seeds are black?) - I planted it a couple of years ago, but it appears irregularly (and never for Christmas, when it should be in flower) .

Helleborus lividans is a fresh green species (Nieswurz)  and similar to Helleborus argutifolius, which is another fine species with leaves with serrated edges.

                                        More Hellebores

 An update on the Camelllia : Mary Phoebe Taylor is now in full bloom and will hopefully stay that way for the next couple of weeks if the weather stays mild.