Category: African gardens

My bargain dahlia

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment

It’s amazing what you can get at Costco.

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I bought a fairly cheap bag of dahlia tubers in mixed varieties there last spring. Then I left it sitting next to my desk until September, when I finally planted the (by then) shriveled-up tubers.

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They came up strong, nevertheless, and this light yellow and burgundy one surprised me; I didn’t remember anything so nice on the photo on the bag (which I had tossed).

The others were more ordinary:  a couple in yellow with just a bit of burgundy streaking, three in solid burgundy, and one in yellow with orange streaks (sent right to the cutting garden).

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I put the burgundy- and yellow-flowered plants in the center of the long border along the lower lawn.

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Their bi-color streakiness will go well with the red, yellow, and green tropical foliage of the plants pictured above* and with the yellow and green variegated gingers below on the left.

Growing behind the dahlias and blooming all the time is a shrubby Hypericum, possibly H. perforatum or St. John’s wort.

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The dahlia plants as a whole are not very pretty at the moment, mainly because I didn’t stake them early enough. I’ve planted two shrimp plants** up front to hide their legginess

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. . .eventually.  There’s one in front of the gingers too.  I should be able to maintain them at about 2′ high.

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I think the whole yellow and burgundy arrangement will give some drama to this center section — once everything grows a little more.  Those gingers will get at least 12″ taller.

down the border

Above:  looking down the border to the left to a pink and burgundy (dahlias) section –also still in progress — then yellow, purple, and, at the end, red with some pink and blue/purple around the edges.

Click any of the photos for a larger look.

*I think a croton and a coleus.

**Justicia brandegeeana.

Bloom Day + one: burgundy sunflowers

Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

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Our garden, May 16, 2013.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is the 15th of every month. To see what’s blooming in other garden bloggers’ gardens today, check out May Dreams Gardens.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail to see full-size images.

A perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence!

— Allen Ginsberg, from “Sunflower Sutra“

 

Wordless Wednesday: canna leaf and sprouts

Cindy at enclos*ure1 Comment

canna with sprouts/enclos*ureOur garden, April 22, 2013.

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canna with sprouts 3aThe seeds are probably from the pictured Pyrethrum daisies (pictured), which may be feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium).

Our garden at work

Cindy at enclos*ure5 Comments

I’m in Washington, D.C., where it looks and feels like winter, except for the ten gorgeous tulip magnolia trees blooming in a little park across from this Starbucks.

I’d give you a picture, but the camera of my Kindle, on which I’m rather laboriously typing, is not really doing them justice.

So, I thought I would show you a few more photos of the garden back in Kigali — set up for a recent event at our house: a reception and then a concert by the folk rock group Dawes, all on behalf of the U.N. Foundation and its program “Nothing but Nets.”  (This is a diplomatic residence.)

In the first slides, you can see the terrace and the tops of the tents down on the lower lawn.  Then, there are  couple of pictures of the tents being set up.  There is just enough grass so that they don’t need to put tent stakes in the flower beds.  A final shot shows the reason for the tents:  it poured rain during the concert.

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Nothing but Nets is a global campaign to raise awareness and money for the fight against malaria. It began in 2006 when Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly challenged his readers to give $10 each to buy anti-malarial bed nets. To date, six million have been distributed in Africa with the $40 million raised.

The U.N. was represented locally that evening by UNHCR, its refugee agency. There are 55,000 refugees in Rwanda, mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They live in four camps, and Nothing but Nets has been distributing nets among them.

Dawes was terrific; you can hear a couple of their songs here and here.  The group will soon be going on tour with Bob Dylan.

Our garden: March going out

Cindy at enclos*ure6 Comments

I’m going to be traveling for the next few weeks, so I wanted to leave you with some snapshots that I took this morning of the lower lawn area.

(Pictures of the upper lawn are here).

The long lower lawn from the south end.

The borders are filling out, and I’m starting to see more blooms.  Most of the plants were put in in the last eight months — many of them in the last couple of months, including some purple coneflowers that I started from seed.

(To see a garden plan and some “before” photos, click here and here.)

Above and below, on the right side:  the flowers will be — in about 6′ to 12′ sections — 1) red with some pink; 2) purple with some pink and white; 3) yellow and blue; 4) pink and some burgundy; 5) yellow and some burgundy; then a section of green, burgundy, and yellow foliage; 6) (way down there) pink, orange, and white.

Our Kigali garden/ enclos*ure

Next month, I’ll show the borders closer up, section by section.

There are also a number of plants with variegated or burgundy or bronze foliage interspersed throughout.  Everything just needs a little more growing time, but it’s been raining almost daily this month (we never really had much of a winter dry season), so I’ll see a lot of change when I get back.

Below is the lawn from the other end.

From the other end of the lawn.

Below are the borders on the other side of the lawn.  The photo just below shows what will be a mostly yellow section at the base of the retaining wall and a yellow and blue section above (with a little white, pink and purple).

A yellow section of border in front of the retaining walls.

Below, the goldenrod is blooming.

Goldenrod in bloom.

Below:  the steps and retaining wall borders from the other direction.

The steps and retaining walls.

Above: in the lower border, on the far side of the steps, you can just glimpse a little of the lamb’s ear that I grew from seeds from my parents’ garden.

Below: yellow lantana, pink gerbera daisies, blue evolvulus, yellow crown of thorns, ginger with yellow striped leaves, and a giant white rosebush.

Lantana, gerbera daisies, yellow crown of thorns, and a giant white rosebush.

The vine Cleodendrum thomsoniae var. delectum growing on plant supports in a bed between the retaining walls.

Above and below is a Clerodendrum thomsoniae var. delectum vine growing on plant supports in the upper bed between the two retaining walls.  You can also see the top of one of four burgundy-flowered sunflowers that are coming up in this mostly red (with some pink) section.

One of four burgundy sunflowers coming up in a mostly red-flowing area.

Finally, below is a baby wild mullein coming up from seed from my parents’ Virginia garden.

Wild mullein from seeds from my parents' Virginia garden.

The bright blue flowers are Evolulus ‘Blue Sapphire.’

I’m looking forward seeing the garden with fresh eyes when I return.

New York City is on my schedule.  Of course, I will walk through the High Line, and there’s a show on Impressionism and 19th c. fashion at MOMA that I want to see.  Any other recommendations for NYC in April?

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