We have a new mascot for Tiger Way Gardens! If you know whose mascot it really is all I am saying is it's a tiger-wildcat!
Just below our mascot is a bunch of daylilies just about to pop. Did you know you can eat daylily buds? I eat a few every year. One of these days I really need to prepare some stir fry with them for Mr. Fix-it. He likes to eat what we grow and flowers count.
Some of the daylilies are beginning to open up. It's daylily time in Tennessee!
Allium 'Millenium' is beginning to open up. I really love this allium as it is not a self seeder and looks cool all season. Check the link for more information on this great perennial. I have noticed it is showing up in local nurseries just recently. I purchased my starts in Ohio.
Hydrangeas are by far my favorite shrub. I have a lot of hydrangeas here in Tiger Way Gardens of all types. Here we see 'Annabelle' hydrangeas and 'Sikes Dwarf' oakleaf hydrangeas in a foundation garden.
Gro-Low Fragrant Sumac (Rhus aromatica) is also located in the foundation gardens. I love native shrubs and this one is a good one that deer leave alone. I have my shrub growing on the outside of the large foundation gardens as a deterrent to the deer and so far it's working. And NO! This sumac is not poisonous to anyone like poison sumac or poison oak or poison ivy! Rest assured, touching the leaves will not leave you with a nasty rash. This is a suckering shrub that stays less than three feet tall but will spread to eight-ten feet. It blooms with yellow flowers very early in the spring then the berries appear. The berries are eaten by wildlife. It grows quite well in dry shade and does even better in the sun in good soil. I also have the native Rhus aromatica growing right next to the hybrid Gro-Low and that one is also a nice shrub, but it is much taller. This native shrub is a great replacement for some of the invasives people buy at local non-informed nurseries. Use it instead of barberry or burning bush.
Astilbes are making quite a nice show this year. I really need to divide them and spread them around.
Some of my hostas the deer haven't found yet are getting quite large. It's nice to see that in the garden!
The fence garden is filling in. This location gets the run off from the house and has been difficult for me to develop since it is in an out of the way spot, but I persevere and my efforts are finally paying off. There are berries growing on the black chokecherry bush and soon all those rudebeckias that my friend Eddie gave me will be blooming brightly. I'm excited to see them all! Birds will flock to them. Speaking of which, we have a pair of bluebirds nesting in the birdhouse in this garden. At the base grows a great clematis that was stunning in bloom. This garden is also filled with Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). I ordered and planted about 100 plants last summer. This is a photo of one about to bloom below. I am really surprised the swamp milkweed is doing well as I have had no luck with growing the 'Soulmate' cultivar of this very same type of milkweed.
Gingko 'Jade Butterflies' looks pretty when up close. It hasn't grown even an inch in three years I don't think.
Our wild area in a corner of our backyard contains three huge 'Carolina Moonlight' baptisias and several wildflowers. Notable among the wildflowers are the American Columbo you can see in the background. They are the tall spiky candelabra looking plant. The bloom has gone by now but the stalks remain for the seeds to form on. The seeds are the shape of sunflowers but without the shell. The plants that are blooming this year will die since this plant is a monocarp. It's a really unique plant!
American Linden (Tilia americana) is a new addition to the garden last summer. I purchased this one and also the European linden (Tilia cordata) and both trees are doing great. The American one is blooming beautifully. It is not really the bloom that is so great for me as it is the white bracts that hang down like leaves. They make the tree stunning and a stand out! I've seen mature ones in Hopkinsville and oh my did my heart ever go a racing! As a bonus this tree is native and my honeybees should really love the blooms.
Native swamp milkweed just about to bloom. These plants had tons of monarch caterpillars on them late last summer.
I have a special hosta garden since the deer ate all the hostas that were out in the gardens. So far they have left this lovely and relaxing garden alone.
The Butterfly Garden (formerly the Prairie Garden) is coming into its own. This side of the Butterfly garden is brand new this spring. It is really looking good with Coreopsis 'Sienna Sunset' (peach color), and 'Moonbeam' yarrow blooming together.
The other side of the Butterfly Garden has been weeded and mulched. It is also doing quite well and attracting the pollinators. Our goal at Tiger Way Gardens is to garden naturally for the pollinators and to raise our own food. So far we are doing pretty well as the years fly by....
in the garden....
