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The Constant Gardner Blog Index
May 19, 2008
More spring flowers

The camera is back and the garden needs it

A great many plants have come into bloom in our yard since I last posted some pictures. The stellata magnolia went by before we got pictures, but the saucer magnolia is looking pretty good. Nancy got a photo today.

magnolia_400x601.shkl.jpg

This is my favorite plant on our property, but it lost about half of its branches in successive weeks in April 2007 with a heavy snow followed by the Patriots Day wind and rain storm. The tree is a little misshapen but the blooms are still gorgeous. I have picked one new branch out of a bunch of about 10 that I am going to allow to grow to fill in the back half that we lost. It's going to be a long process.

We also like the arabis, the white mounded flower at the garden's edge in the photo.

arabis_400x266.shkl.jpg

With the common name rockcress, it is longer-lasting and better behaved than candytuft, which looks similar.

The common lilacs are just about to come into bloom at our house, and the lilies of the valley that Nancy picked are providing a great fragrance inside the house.

Posted at 01:22 PM

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Tom Atwell has written the Maine Gardener column in the Maine Sunday Telegram since the spring of 2004. He has worked at the Press Herald/Sunday Telegram since 1974, about the same time he started gardening with any seriousness.

He gardens with his wife, Nancy. She not only is the better gardener of the pair, but also knows the botanical names of plants. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Tom was born in Skowhegan, grew up in Farmington and graduated from the University of Maine with a BA in journalism. His goal each year is to have continuous compost from his three compost bins, continuous bloom in his low-maintenance garden and more fruits and vegetables on his family table than the garden pests eat in the field.



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