being not doing

Japonica (flowering quince) Chaenomeles japonica
In the backyard, near the corner of the house along the south fence. Flowers are salmon.

Flowering dogwood Cornus florida
Two trees, along the south fence, both with white flowers. The one at the side of the house is quite healthy, while the one in the backyard is less so, overly shaded by the neighbor’s maple. I cut the deadwood out of both of these trees this spring to encourage new growth.

Forsythia (golden bell bush) Forsythia
One large healthy plant at the back of the house, on the southwest corner of the addition. A mass of spindly unflowering ones in the northeast corner of the backyard that will be removed when we grade that side of the house.

Pieris Pieris
On the northeast corner of the house, in the front bed. Was overly shaded by the maple and cedar that was somewhat on top of it; we’ve had the maple cut back from the house and removed the cedar, so this should fill out.

Ornamental cherry (Russian dwarf almond) Prunus
At the back of the house, on the northwest corner of the addition. Rather spindly, but healthier this year as I managed to keep the Eastern tent caterpillars from devouring it.

Azalea Azalea
One white azalea in the foundation bed, to the right of the porch, which is filling out this year as it’s no longer completely shaded by the maple. One deep pink (just shy of fuschia) around the corner of the house, on the south side, just in front of the fence. I cut this one back quite a bit to encourage denser growth (and to get at the poison ivy growing up in the middle of it), and it seems to be filling out somewhat. Both bloomed in 2007, about a week or two later than others in the neighborhood. This spring, 2008, I planted two white Girard Pleasant azaleas in the foundation bed to the left of the porch.

Rhododendron Azalea
We have two plants that are destined for new homes, due to our allergies and their location. The larger is in the corner made by the addition and the main house, and has bloomed this summer. That location is slated to be graded to drain better and covered with a patio, at which point the plant will move to the yard of our friends in Virginia. The smaller plant is in the front bed to the right of the porch, behind the azalea; it’s not very healthy, and is also in a spot where we’ll be piling lots more dirt and mulch to improve the drainage away from our house. If it becomes healthier, it will also move to Virginia; if not it will go the way of the weeds.

Rose Rosa
There are four rose bushes around the backyard, three red varieties and one pink. All of them are doing better this year after I aggressively cut them back; I’m planning to let them grow all summer to see what their natural shapes are. As far as I can tell, I have a small Crimson Glory and a large Blaze. I believe the pink rose is a Louise Odier, and it’s likely that the bush by the garage is a second much smaller Blaze (red with yellow stamens and no scent).

The Crimson Glory needs to be moved to get both more space and more sun, as it’s suffering from black spot in its current location between the forsythia and the dwarf cherry. The Blaze along the fence is crowded by the flowering quince; I plan to move it just a few feet to a trellis on the south wall of the addition. For the time being the bush at the garage can stay where it is, but it will need to be moved eventually when we redo the garage foundation.

Lilac Syringa
We have one white lilac along the south fence, between the larger dogwood and the rose (and flowering quince). When we moved in, it was completely pinned to the ground by ivy; this year it produced one white flower cluster. It appears to be recovering in its current location, so we’ll leave it until the rest of the yard work is done, and then possibly move it to a sunnier location.

Lily-of-the-valley Convallaria majalis
Along the rear of the addition, under the ornamental cherry. Also along the east side of the garage, under the rose.

Crocus Crocus
In clearing out the invasive weeds in the front beds near the house, I discovered dozens of crocus bulbs. Smothered by the liriope and shaded by the neighbor’s enormous magnolia — which she removed in summer 2007 due to its proximity to the house — they’d remained unnoticed during the first two springs we were here. This spring, with the liriope cleared and a nice layer of leaf mulch covering the beds, they all sent up shoots. I created a small bed for them around the front light post and moved most of them there, where they’ll both be out of the way and provide a nice accent to the adjacent bed of later-flowering daylilies, assuming any of them survive the squirrels.

Bluebell Hyacinthoides
These are along the rear of the addition, around the rose that’s between the forsythia and ornamental cherry. Things are quite crowded in this area, so I’ll likely move these, possibly to under the maple in the front yard. This spring I also discovered a few along the north side of the yard, under the holly tree.

Spring star flower Ipheion uniflorum
Several clumps of these little white flowers remain scattered throughout the yard and the town right-of-way in front of our house. We would have a lot more, but I spent several days pulling up all the onion grass throughout our front and back yards last spring, not knowing that it produced these little flowers. Oops.

Grape hyacinth Muscari
There are two of these flowers under the maple, right at the point where the grass begins.

Daffodil Narcissus
Last year, there were several daffodils just to the right of the front steps, and a single flower along the south side of the garage, under the cherry tree. After leaving the leaves all summer, I have 10 buds in the front bed this spring, as well as a dozen more bulbs sending up shoots. I cleared the liriope from that bed and will leave the daffodils there, as they seem to get enough sun to flower when left to themselves.

Aster Michaelmas daisy
To the left of the front steps, at the edge of the bed that runs along the sidewalk. These were given to us by a neighbor last summer, and they’re filling in well this year. The flowers are pink.

Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea
Below the aster in the bed by the sidewalk; it was plunked here as a hand-me-down from a neighbor, and will likely be divided and moved in the future.

Daylily Hemerocallis
We have two rows of daylilies in the front bed along the sidewalk; we were given the lilies by two neighbors and created the bed last spring to house them. The top row, along the top of the bank, is the shorter yellow variety. The lower row, anchoring the bank itself, is the taller orange variety. They’re coming in nicely this year; we divided the yellow lilies and added some orange lilies that were growing up along the alley behind the garage.

Peony Paeonia
The yard came with one peony at the back of the yard along the south fence, which I believe to be either a Lady Alexandra Duff or a Bridal Veil. It was just at the edge of the weed patch in the southwest corner of the yard that I’ve spent the past year struggling to clear. The peony survived the vigorous applications of Round Up to that part of the yard (there’s a resilient patch of poison ivy nearby), and is flourishing this year, since the competing weeds and ivy have been pulled out.

Last spring I transplanted several other peonies donated by our neighbor into the stretch of fence between the pink rose bush and the original peony. They have mostly survived the transplant, but produced only one bud this spring. I’m hoping that over the next few years they will spread to create a drift against the fence and am looking forward to identifying the new varieties when they eventually do bloom.

Poppy Papaver orientale
There is a patch of poppies on the north side of the back path, just in the middle of that stretch of the yard. Last year I cut back the holly trees and let the poppies self-seed, and they’ve come up strong again this spring. We don’t currently have plans for that part of the yard beyond eradicating the ivy, so I’ve decided to just let them do their thing.

Sedum Sedum spectabile
There’s a patch of this along the south fence, previously directly under the rose bush that’s there. I moved it a little farther away when I transplanted the peonies, and put a little sprig in the front bed between the two rows of daylilies. I’ll see how it looks this fall, and I might move the entire clump to the front bed.

Spiderwort Tradescantia
A clump of this has sprung up under the bush in front of the dead crepe myrtle tree that holds the nyger feeder, in the northeast corner of the backyard. They’re quite pretty flowers, and I’d like to find a more nurturing place for them. At the moment, they’re fine where they are, but when the great grading-and-patio-creation project takes place, they’ll need to be relocated.

Garlic chives Allium tuberosum
A single clump, on the south end of the front bed, between the two rows of daylilies. These were another donation from our neighbor, and they’re quite a peppy little plant. We’ve used the chives in salads a couple of times this year, and enjoyed the flowers last fall.

Violet Viola odorata
These grow throughout the left side of the front yard, and sporadically through the backyard, both the violet and lightly striped white forms. I was told by our neighbor that they’re a sign of poor drainage, which I don’t doubt, and by a friend that they make the yard look ‘exactly like the South of France,’ which you can imagine pleased me to no end.

Lavender (’Provence’) Lavandula x intermedia
I purchased this plant at the Hard Bargain Farm plant sale in 2007 and started it in a pot. I planted it out just to the left of the porch steps, after clearing the area of liriope and mixing peat and lime into the soil first. It got a little droopy inside all winter, but it seems to be taking to its outdoor location.

Blue bugle flower Ajuga reptans
These were sparse along the north side of the house but seem to have died off when we took out the cedar.

Hosta Hosta
I’m not a huge fan of the hosta, as is evident by my classification of them as ‘groundcover’ rather than ‘flowering perennials’ which is what they truly are. Hostas are prolific in all their varieties in our town, likely due to the overwhelming number of shade trees. We had two in the back yard; I split and moved one to the north side of the house and haven’t yet decided what to do with the other.

Liriope Liriope muscari
I hate this extremely invasive plant. It’s scattered throughout the backyard and in every side bed to various degrees. I’m planning to eradicate it along with the ivy, and look forward to the day when I can remove it from the catalogue of what’s in my yard. Sorry to burst the bubble of my love for every plant under the sun: it’s just not meant to be.