Tag: GBBD

GB Bloom Day in April

Cindy at enclos*ure10 Comments

I went over to the University of Hohenheim’s Spielhaus garden for the first time in months yesterday to see what was blooming in mid April.  The cherry trees that were so amazing this time last year had finished and the magnolias were also winding down.  The perennial beds were still pretty subdued, except for this very nice bit just below the terrace and wisteria arbor.

I thought this combination was great: Tulipa clusiana ‘Tubergen’s Gem’ and yellow Aurinia saxatilis ‘Compactum’. The little weeping tree above them is Sophora japonica ‘Pendula’.

The Spielhaus (play house) was built in the 1780s for Grand Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg and Franziska von Hohenheim, his mistress and then morganatic wife. It originally only had one floor and was one of about 60 folly-type structures in their “English garden” of Hohenheim Palace.

In another part of the Spielhaus garden, these small tulips were really sweet.

I loved these Tulipa clusiana var. clusiana.

I also loved the Tulipa sylvestris, although I didn’t take a very good picture of them.

I like the way they all turn in more or less the same direction.

To see the mid-April flowers of other garden bloggers, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

GB Bloom Day: snow day

Cindy at enclos*ure7 Comments

26 March 2016 Bloom Day, Stuttgart, enclos*ure

Because I haven’t really been gardening here in Stuttgart, I decided that for this year’s Bloom Days, I would make a record of the flowers of the display garden of the 18th century Spielhaus at the Exotic Garden of the University of Hohenheim, which is close to our neighborhood. 

Unfortunately, when I visited this afternoon it was snowing hard, and I didn’t take as many pictures as I would have liked. I may have to try again later this week.

Please click on any thumbnail in the gallery below to scroll through larger images. And to see what’s blooming today for other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

First seeing the Spielhaus through Japanese cornelian cherry trees in bloom.
Cornus officinalis.
The Spielhaus or playhouse,
which is part of the “English Garden” (now called the Exotic Garden) constructed by Duke Carl Eugen and his mistress (and later wife) Franziska von Hohenheim in the late 1700s. It’s now incorporated into modern Hohenheim University.
Abeliophyllum distichum. . .
. . . or white forsythia.
At this point, I was really hoping that my camera was water resistant.
Flowering Arabis ferdinandi-coburgi ‘Variegata’ or Alpine wall cress.
I believe the patch of blue on the right is a planting of Scillas.
Of course, there were snowdrops.
Abeliophyllum distichum ‘Roseum’ with hellebores in the background.
Aubrita-Hybride ‘Lavander’.
Pansies on the terrace.
Wisteria on the arbors.
Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’. . .
. . . or sweet-smelling winter honeysuckle.
A huge Platanus x hispanics or London plane tree.

You must stand still; and then. . . you will hear the infinite march of buds faintly roaring.

— Karel Capek [on the coming of spring], from The Gardener’s Year

Our garden in June

Cindy at enclos*ure6 Comments

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Today is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. I don’t have a lot of flowers, but I am enjoying some orange hawkweed, which I hope will pop up in more places in the long grass this summer and next year.

Tomorrow is Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up, hosted by Pam at Digging. If grass counts as “foliage,” this is my contribution as well.

You can read more about our backyard in Stuttgart, Germany, here.

To scroll through larger versions of the pictures, click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.

In a field by the river
my love and I did stand.  .  .  .
She bid me take life easy,
as the grass grows on the weirs. . .

— W. B. Yeats, from “Down by the Salley Gardens“

 

October Bloom Day: Washington, D.C.

Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

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On this Bloom Day, I thought I would share some photos that I took this week of the remaining flowers and various seed heads in one of my favorite gardens in the city, the Smithsonian Institution’s Butterfly Habitat Garden.

(You can see more of the Butterfly Garden here.)

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is the 15th of every month. To see what’s blooming around other garden bloggers, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.