Hi GPODers!

As promised yesterday, we’re back in Hingham, Massachusetts with Nancy Mellen to see more photos of her garden in spring and summer of last year. If you missed the first batch of garden highlights yesterday, be sure to check that out here: Part 1. Otherwise, keep scrolling to see more sensational blooms from the peak seasons in Nancy’s beautiful gardens.

Starting off with a close up of the ‘Hartlange Wine’ calycanthus (Calycanthus x raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’, Zone 5–9) we saw yesterday. What a gorgeous color!

‘Venus’ calycanthus (Calycanthus ‘Venus’, Zone 6–8) has creamy white flowers, but you can see from Nancy’s photo that some secret color is hidden in the center of these blooms. As these blooms continue to unfurl they reveal a deep, rosy centers.

As we saw yesterday with her collection of incredible spring ephemerals, Nancy has several North American natives that produce beautiful blooms from spring through summer. This includes the native species of calycanthus (Calycanthus floridus, Zone 4–9), commonly called spicebush, eastern sweetshrub, or Carolina all spice.

Another stellar woody native, sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana, Zone 5–10) often gets overshadowed by the bigger blooms of southern magnolia (M. grandiflora, Zone 6–10), so I’m happy to see Nancy giving it some love. Hardier than the southern magnolia, and with a usually much smaller footprint, this native tree is worthy of more attention.

A lovely hedge of Rosa Mundi (Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’, Zone 4–9) with rhododendron to left, two mock orange bushes (Philadelphus coronarius, Zone 4–8) in flower on the right, and with a Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa, Zone 5–8) not flowering yet.

And a close up of those beautiful Rosa mundi roses. These old roses only bloom once a year, but they flower profusely and their incredible color, patterns, and fragrance make that once-a-year show worth it.

Lastly, bright yellow evening primroses (Oenothera biennis, Zone 3–9) growing in with Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia, Zone 5–9) continues the stream of color past the bright Rosa Mundi hedge.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share these photos with us, Nancy! No matter how long the delay, it is always a delight to see your colorful beds and beautiful garden photography. However, I hope we don’t have to wait quite so long to see highlights from your spring and summer gardens this year!

Lastly, a reminder that we always need more garden photos to keep this blog going! Whether it’s photos of last year’s flowers, a snapshot of what is blooming right now, or anything in between, consider sharing photos of your plants and gardens with the blog. Follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.

 

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To submit, send 5-10 photos to gpod@taunton.com along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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