Delikatessen

Eye candy.

Today let me take you to the Botanical Garden in Powsin, located 10 km South of Warsaw. There is special collection of rhododendrons and azaleas. Right now they are in full bloom. Looking at them is a real treat for the eyes. Paradise? Secret Garden? Heaven? After such walk eyes are full of flowers and colors... On the picture above my mom and Rhododendron luteum...

Azalea Golden Eagle.

Actually I am happy that there were some other people, because we could see proportions and understand the sizes.

I think I leave you alone with the pictures...

Just to disturb you for a moment, don't you think that combination of lavender and orange color is smashing?

More pictures of other plants will come in next posts.

Rain, little ducks, azaleas and alliums.

While Atomik is sleeping...

....some other neighbours cats are fishing... what a convenient watching place he found... do you see the red fish under Juniperus tamariscifolia growing at the edge of the pond?

Human kind decided to bike to lake and see what's new. By surprise....

We saw a little ducklings! Mallard ducks have babies!
... and plenty of them! We counted 16. Two are little older - maybe 2-3 days - this is what I think, without too much experience on growing them :) I remember that they grow very fast, so 2-3 days is long time...


Even if the weather is not sunny - it rains since few days almost without stopping - many people, even older ones like to bike, if there is only some time without shower....

On the way back we see that there came time for Crataegus laevigata 'Paul's Scarlet' to bloom. Lovely little tree...

Do you remember this beautiful neighbour's house, that I have showed you late winter? At that time we couldn't see that there is Wisteria growing. Every plant at this property seems to be in the right place - I wish one day I could photographed this garden.... Maybe it could be easier, than I think... Wisteria growing on this house looks just perfect and this gardener knows, that at certain height it needs to grow horizontally.

Back to my garden. Azaleas and alliums are in bloom... also on the right side there is Wisteria that I train to little tree...


Blooming azaleas from the left: pink Homebush, orange Golden Eagle and bicolor cream to red, double Cannon's Double.

Azalea Homebush and right next to it yellow iris is coming.



Almost black iris is coming.... Anticipation is so exciting...

Alliums aflatuense "Purple Sensation" is in its peak :)
Are they not amazing with its perfect spherical shape?


Ajuga reptans looks so lovely and makes bees happy...



Aquilegia Nora Barlow Black and its beauty.

As per request of some readers, I would like to show larger view of my garden.. This one is on the Western side of the house. If you look North, this is what you see.

If you look South - that is the view. The same apple tree from the other side - we walk along the Western bed and you come to the second tree, that is big cherry tree, visible on the picture. There is wheelbarrow standing there with cibora, that I took out of cellar and is hardening in the shadow to get to the pond....
...on the way you pass beautiful shrub Spirea vanhouttei, the amount of little spherical flowers make the branches heavy...



We come to chery tree, where the view to the back garden opens. It looks too spacious at the moment, I am not making any more planting, because one day there will be a porch build, that I am dreaming of... The rest of the garden you will see in next post :) Because we need to stop here and ....

... pinch gone rhododendrons blooms - it is time to deadhead. Rhodos and azaleas should be pinched before July 4th. That is the border date. If you don't pinch, plants put all effort on producing seeds and forming buds for next flowering season. If you pinch, they contcentrate only on growing and blooming - so it grows better and flowering is more profuse.

Pinching is very easy, if you grasp the flower at the proper place, like here... and then with one movement...


The head is gone, sparing new shoots and opening space for them to grow....

Awards, awards, tra la la la!!

Lately I think I got stuck with dandelions - that was my way to tame them :) I think every gardener needs that sooner or later, right?
While I was stuck, Victoria, a great blogger at Teachings of the Horse gave me the award!
This is always so nice to know, that out there is somebody appreciating something you pore over long hours...

Yes, it is good to have friends...
I hope, one day to see in real world, so if you are planning to come to Poland, please let me know, it would be so nice to meet :)

So my choice of blogs to award would be following...

Barbara at Abenteuer Garten - for showing us beautifully warm and different ways to look at gardening.

Yolanda Elizabet at Bliss - for cheering us up and showing in a witty, warm, friendly way all interesting things about gardening and felines, for taking us to excursions to new, great places and for teaching us how to make great potager.

Frances at Faire Garden - for wonderful, warm and witty ways to write about garden and great photography.

Laeriss at A Heart in Provence - for utter, absolute, breath-stopping and implicit beauty in pictures, that give the justice to this awesome beauty on the Earth.

Billy at Garden Wise Guy - for teaching us how to approach compositions in the garden in direct and uncompromising ways :)

I wish to keep on reading your blogs for long, long years and I hope you accept this award as a humble sign of appreciation :)

Deal with Mother Nature

Few days ago I saw this enchanting view and got thrilled at the same time. One dandelion clock is producing hundred seeds - can you imagine how many seeds will fly away from this place? I didn't have to imagine. My mind was prepared and ready - I have imagined this picture before.


One of the three fire-breathing dragons, that burn the creativity of mind is fear. Three dragons? I liked that idea :) Reading article, that I have linked, made me understand more about myself and human nature.

For last 3 years I feared this kind of view in my garden: my garden covered with dandelion clocks. My garden! That I have spend so many hours on making it a more beautiful place (in my understanding), will be taken over by dandelions? No, no, no, I disagreed with Mother Nature. She wanted them here and there - rather different places than I could think of. At that time Mr Dandelion was the King of my garden.

I decided to gently invite it to different areas, rather outside of my own garden. I used my hands to pass over the invitation :)
Here we go! One after one.. gazillions... not replanted, no. Removed.
Sometimes I was going out, seeing the unexpected dandelion clock and I had kind of panic attacs! My fear was showing me pictures exactly like these included in my post - taken in Warsaw few days ago....

Slowly I managed to remove all of them, but since 3 years I was carrying a hidden aversion or rather fear that naturally they will invade again.

Until last weeks, when I have met a group of people loving dandelions. I got curious, what do they see? I went to the meadow next to our property and took a closer look. Then I made dandelion syrup, that taste delicious! Since then I feel much better :) I am not scared to see dandelions growing in my garden - tame your enemy by getting closer to it, right?

Little sad, that now is too late for dandelion syrup... yes. If you still have a chance, try to make it it tastes great! Recipe available here :)