Robert and Michael's GardenBlog - 2005 Edition, Fellsway East, West End of Malden, Massachusetts

Welcome to Robert and Michael's Gardening Page - Fellsway East, Malden, Massachusetts 2005 Edition

Well the start to this year's garden season is way different (again) than last years experience. It looks like we have only lost two plants (outside). Unlike last year, we had deep snow cover from November through March, which is a first for us in the garden's 8 years. Though we did not lose them, our large Trumpet daffodils had very little bloom, a situation reported by many other New England gardeners on GardenWeb. The overwintered banana did not make it, nor several pots of elephant ears left in pots in the basement as an experiment. On the other hand, there are more than 25 pots of elephant ears in the dining room just waiting for warmer weather.

New plants, Hellebores (red/pink/blue lady), Lobelia 'Queen Victoria', Foxglove ‘Mertoensis’, Highmallow Sylvestris (bloomed into Nov.), Blanketflower “Dazzler”, 2 Fern “Lady in Red”, 2 Abutilon “Melon Sorbet (brought in Oct to overwinter), Dryopteris Crassirhizoma buschiana, Bamboo Rufa ‘Green Panda’ (into pot) Species Daylily Lilioasphodelus (fragrant), Echinacea ‘Meadow Bright’ salmon $15 (fragrant).

Michael ordered 5 new clematis from Chalk Hill Clematis, 6 new lilies from The Lily Garden, 4 new lilies from The Lily Nook, 2 new lilies from White Flower Farm, and Robert ordered 3 new David Austin roses (which we have not tried yet in our garden) from Heirloom Roses.

Some Highlights of the gardening season for 2005 from our garden journal:

March	03.26 - Still many snow piles – Rob shoveled them to help melt 03.28 - Heavy rain
April	04.02 - Heavy rain 04.05 - We’re going to have lots of foxgloves! 04.10 - 72 out – nice! 1^st Turkistan tulips by bench 04.13 - Low of 30.2 (last day of below freezing)
May	05.12 - Low of 38 05.21 – Lilacs are great this year! 05.24 – Nor’Easter only 43 degrees. 05.25 – Leaves and branches down, storm continues neighbor’s tree down in our yard -wrecks our fence and on Glen’s garage 05.26 – Michael moved most of the damage to the driveway for removal
June	06.12 - Both mountain laurels blooming very well 06.15 – Lowest high temp of 49 degrees
July	07.06 – Last rain of summer ? 07.07 – Record low high of 63 degrees 07.08 – 56 at 7 PM – Brrrrrr! 07.09 – Passionflower Bloomed!!! From plant last year (continue to bloom all summer) – Rob very happy! 07.23 – 2 new D.A. Roses bloom Jude/Glamis Castle
August	08.20 - Found a Chocolate Eupatorium seedling in back corner – very nice surprise – and it blooms! The other passionflowers blooms ‘Purple Haze’ and Rob goes bonkers with joy!
September	09.03 – Sweet Autumn Clematis bloom is very disappointing. Michael digs up 11 potatoes – we eat them and delish! 09.15 – Rain Finally after 2+months 09.18 – Planted D.A. Rose “jude the obscure” in the ground by the poppies
October	10.01 Bulbs - 10.25 Wicked Nor’Easter 10.29 SNOW!! Record 3” 12-13” rain during month – new record!
November	3 weekends transitioning tropicals to garage for drying out/winter rest 11.19 Garden Over – Car in Garage 11.20 – 1^st bloom on Xmas cactus in dining room

Spring 2005 Crocuses taken by Michael

anemone blanda taken by Robert 2005

red tulip 2005