It seems that spring may actually appear someday, if the birds have anything to say about it. I've been hearing them more and more twittering around the house outside. My wildlife knowledgeable daughter, Melanie, tells me that what I've been hearing are birds that have stuck around all winter and are just now getting frisky and argumentative about nesting sites – house sparrows and finches and juncoes and pine siskins and starlings and, of course, the little black-capped chickadees.
So, especially gratifying is the brand-new call I'm hearing – con-ka-reee – of the Red Winged Blackbird, pictured at the head of this page in the lovely photo by Ryan Houston of Highland, Utah. That would be the male red winged blackbird, staking out the best nesting sites for the females who follow when the weather warms a bit. This would be down below us, in our small pasture that borders the Cub River. The Redwings are the very early harbingers of spring and, as Melanie points out, they are always pushing the envelope. There is still way too much  snow on the ground right now, which in some places measures a foot and a half deep, so there are, inevitably, some casualties among them.

Thalictrum 'Splendide' (Meadow Rue)

Thank heavens, then, for flower catalogs while I wait impatiently for warmer nights, and not only for the emergence of the garden, but for the sake of the vulnerable birds struggling to adapt.

Satisfying especially are the online flower catalogs. To the right is an Internet  closeup of a flower cluster of Thalictrum 'Splendide' from Wayside Gardens (click on the photo for the catalog page). I've ordered three plants of this meadow rue for the long border in front of the south orchard. This is an airy looking plant that grows to some forty inches high, with the blooms floating well above the foliage down below. I hadn't a clue how this would look in the garden (so often flower catalog give only flower heads) and so searched for – and found – a good photo of a complete plant here, and was immediately sold on it.

I decided on a planting site between the stumps of a cherry bush border that we'd cut back to less than a foot above the soil line. The cherry bushes were looking more and more depressed and colorless. These tall plants will fill in until the cherry bushes come back into their own (if they come back; we're not sure of this). And back there behind the roses, lilies, and  scattered clumps of white feverfew and mingling with the pink hollyhock mallow farther back, they should make a gentle, pinkish-blue screen. An added advantage is that the plant can tolerate some shade – in case the cherry bushes actually do come back for us.

Oh dear –

Looking out the window I see snow coming down sideways from the east. I'm not surprised, the forecast called for it, though it did mention that it might possibly be simply rain. I wonder how the birds feel about this. Probably more sanguine than I do.

Scabiosa caucasia 'Ultra Violet'

I have several butterfly-attracting scabiosa plantings of pink and light blue, but this deep violet blue from Wayside Gardens was so spectacular, I couldn't let it pass me by. (Click on the photo for Wayside's catalog page.)

The blooms are described as rich azure. Scabiosa's bloom time is late spring through autumn. It does well in zones 4 to 9, so it should be fine here in Cache Valley. In fact, Lewiston which had been smack in zone 4 when we moved onto the farm 40 years ago has actually moved up to zones 5 and 6. As the scabiosa plants we have already, this one is low-growing (the foliage is eight inches high, the flower stalks taller), and it spreads up to 2 feet wide. The foliage is described as gray-green and neat.  It needs full sun and well drained soil. Best of all, it grows well in low-humidity climates which certainly describes DragonGoose Farm's hot, dry summers. Our other scabiosa plants do well here. I hope this deep blue variety will do well, too. I suspect that the flower heads, being so very dark blue, would do better with a bit of shade during the hottest part of the day, so I've decided on a planting site which enjoys partial shade.

Digitalis purpurea 'Candy Mountain' (Foxglove)
I decided to add this plant to our collection of foxgloves because of its unusual upturned flowerets. Not to mention the promise of ultra-sturdy stems to help the flowers stay that way. The stems are described (again, in Wayside Gardens) as 20-inches high, opening as digitalis usually does, from the bottom up. Also, the blooms are supposed to continue intermittently, with careful deadheading, all summer long. We'll see how that works out. None of the others I have here bloom past their summer show. They could use enriched soil which is well drained. Well drained is not a problem in our sandy loam, but I think I'll give these new plants, and all my foxgloves, extra fertilizer this year.

Actually a biennial, previous foxgloves here, like our delphiniums, tend to die out after a few years and need to be replaced. Also, they can't be left thirsty. Foxglove is poisonous to deer and rabbits. We don't have rabbits here, but we do have deer in spades. They continually make their way into the garden despite an electric fence and a gate whenever (1) the gate is left open overnight, and/or (2) the fence shorts out – a branch drops on it, or a deer blunders into it and breaks an insulator. This happens all too often.

Foxglove flowerets are attractive to hummingbirds. This upturned variety should make collecting nectar dead easy for them.     

Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice' (Summersweet)


We had a clethra on the edge of an east hill that we lost to one of our droughts, so I've decided to try growing it again. I've ordered three of these from Park's (click on the picture for Park's page on this shrub) in order to make a good sized clump that I can enjoy. I intend planting it in the brick herb garden area serviced by our round-the-house sprinkler system since the plant must not be allowed to dry out.  It can also stand the partial shade there. In fact, the area is bathed in sun during early midday, so the relief of partial shade during three to five o'clock, the hottest time of day here, is all to its advantage.  Best of all, the spot is right outside the study and I'll actually be able to enjoy it.

Summersweet, also known as Sweet Pepper Bush, is a native American shrub that can stand just about any kind of soil as long as it gets a good bit of moisture. This particular Clethra, 'Ruby Spice', was discovered in 1992 as a sport of C. anlifolia 'Pink Spire', and looks to be a much darker pink . The plant is densely branched and rounded and is described as having extremely fragrant rose pink flowers. The flowers start blooming in July and keeps going until the end of August –  a feast for both butterflies and bees.



Well, spring is almost here. If only the weather would cooperate now ....

Best wishes,

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Photos from Wayside Gardens and Park Seeds online catalogs and by photographer Ryan Houston (photo_for_you@hotmail.com)

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