My Garden-2011 in Pictures

Inspired by Donna and her wonderful creative year-end review, I adjusted my garden collages to depict my own garden month by month. 

MySecretGarden  - zone 7b, Pacific Northwest, in 2011:

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***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS

Frankfurt Botanical Garden

If you travel to Frankfurt, Germany, I highly recommend that you plan a visit to two interesting gardens. There is just several minutes of walking from one garden to another. I visited them in May 2011. My pictures from Palmengarten  are here: The PalmenGarten in Frankfurt, Germany .
This post includes my pictures of Goether University Botanical Garden.

Botanischer Garten Frankfurt am Main is maintained by the Johann Wolfgang University. It is a botanical gaden and arboretum.

The day I was there, there were very few visitors. In most of the parts of the garden, I met no one. It was a relaxing, calm and enjoyable walk.

Established in 1763 and moved to its current location in 1931, it has an amazing variety of plants - over 5000 species. Each plant has undergone research, been catalogued and has a label.

Cental European plants are  represented here the best. Besides them, there are plants from the Mediterranean region, Asia and North America and some others.

Mixed forests, collections of berries, water, alpine and meadow plants, dune and swamp vegetation, herbs, medicinal plants may be found here.

 Above: Salvia officinalis (Common Sage)

 I love this orchid, Bletilla striata. Sometimes, it is sold as Hardy Orchid or Chinese Ground Orchid

 Above: Cerastium bierbersteinii (Boreal chickweed)

Above: Aconitum lycoctonum (Wolf's bane)

 A big part of the garden has a natural layout and looks like a beautiful meadow.

Alpine garden is absolutely gorgeous

 Above: Anthericum liliago (St. Bernard's Lily)

 Above: Galium glaucum

Above: Bistorta officinalis Delarbre

Asphodelus albus

The garden is open from March 1st to October 31st and admission is free.

Tip: In spring, be aware of the strong aroma from hundreds of blooming plants. I needed to buy anti-allergy pills after walking through the gardens. The good thing is the pharmacies there are well prepared for such type of emergency.

I join Gale at Clay and Limestone for the Wildflower Wednesday.

***Copyright 2011 TatyanaS

My Icy Winter Garden

Isn't there one step from beauty to ugliness? But stop! Why do I call it ugliness?

After the temperature went up on Thursday January 19th, our snow turned to ice.

Having similar, and even worse previous experiences when we lived in the Midwest, helped to cope with the icy situation. Winter is not a disaster, it's a season with its own features. It's us, people, who assign those features to categories good and bad. An icy storm  might be bad for us, but it's a part of  nature.

Plants are stronger than we often think. Putting aside hybrids, most of the plants are strong and resilent enough to deal with winter conditions. It's us, gardeners, who experiment with border plants. So, if some plants freeze, it's a part of our experiment, but not the fault of winter.

Now, some pictures.

This is my tree peony. Last year, It didn't bloom since March cold froze its buds. I'd prefer an earlier January freeze.

Japanese maple in front of the house. Climate in its native Japan is challenging also, so it is prepared for severe winters.

Before the ice:

During the icy time:

Astilbe is beautiful.

Before:

After:

Japanese forest grass before:

During:

Doesn't it look like a hierogliph?

This is our new Japanese maple planted last summer.

Here, it's covered by light fluffy snow:

Here comes the ice:

Joe Pye Weed heads look like snowflakes on their tall legs:

Ice made their stems to bend. I thought they will break. But, they stand straight again after the ice  melts!

Burning bush is adorable:

Usually, I was able to walk straight under this limb.

Not now, when the heavy snow bent it to the ground:

Grasses are irreplacable in winter as well as in summer!

Stipa tenuissima

Carex before the ice came: 

And after. The snow crust was pretty thick!

Sedum. I'm so glad I didn't cut it down: 

Sedum with ice:

Alder along the road:

Love the raspberry color inside the icy case:

Me and doggy:

This is Hebe 'Tricolor'. Will I blame the winter if it freezes? Nope! It's suitable for zone 9b. Our zone is 7b.

We still have snow - crusty and heavy. But, the garden plants look good. It was time when my privet and escalonia hedge looked horrible. I helped them a bit by shaking ice lightly from underneath. Well, now they look like nothing happened.

I hope your gardens are doing well!

***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS