In Bloom

My mother visited me yesterday.  She commented. You need that garden walk today!  Everything is in bloom!"

I have to say, I don't think my apple, crabapple, and lilacs have ever been in bloom at exactly the same time.

Cinnamon asks, "What should we plant n that bare spot?"

Spring at The Paine

While at The Paine, it always amazes me when I leave and realize it is on a city block in the middle of downtown Oshkosh and that it shares that block with other houses.

With all the white, blue,yellow, pink and purples; this splash of red really stands out.

I think this is Washington Hawthorne.  Often a vector of bacterial and fungal diseases, pricey, short-lived, and hard to find in retail; minimally it IS hardy for me.  I'm not sure why I don;t grow it.

Euphorbia Polychroma and Virginia bluebells

Add some ostrich fern and variegated Solomon seals to the mix

Sometime just underplanting can magically make something ordinary seem mystical.

Bergenia and Virginia bluebells

Classic

This, too. Makes me want to buy two half sphere plastic bowls and some concrete...

Because of the intimate size of The Paine's garden, it makes me feel like it is a garden I could aspire to have on my small lot.  When I look at my shrub and tree border on my alley or my hosta underplanting my white pines and my hedges I sometimes feel I have likewise created something from nothing.  I think I enjoy The Paine more because of its size, not lack of it.

More Pictures from The Paine Art Museum and Garden

Redbud in full bloom, always a treat, as we are on the edge of their zone here in central Wisconsin.

Virginia bluebells out-maneuvering dandelions, yay bluebells!

Pretty soulianga magnolia  blooming with a red leaf plum for backdrop.

A dainty mulitflora daffodil

Woodland path, with a perspective that seems much more distant.  This path narrows from four feet to about two feet in a would guess less than 16 feet.  It wides out again at the bend.  It is carefully constructed visually.

Bottlebrush buckeye (I think!)  This is so not part of the trees you see in my zone.  It looks like some magical tutti-frutti candy.

There's not a lot of sculpture in this relatively small garden.  No clue who this might be.  Handsome Son thinks "a Paine, who must have been a pain to have this head done" and placed in the garden.  (He thinks he's a life comedian.)

"Really, Mom?" 

Back of the Paine House, Handsome Son asks if chemists can make enough to have a house and garden like these.  "Maybe a small portion of the house, and then you could work on the garden."  I hold my hands making a small viewfinder for him.

Coming: More pictures from the Paine later this week.