When I read her post, I thought she had come up with a really neat idea. We are so good at posting all the beautiful things in our garden, but we rarely share the "misses" LOL.
Choosing the "worst" was easy: our saucer magnolia suffered cold damage just as it was about to bloom and the plump, mauve, pearlescent blooms turned brown overnight. I had hoped that some of the tighter, immature buds might have escaped damage but as they opened, it was clear that all of the buds had been affected. This was quite a disappointment. After a fairly lackluster bloom in previous years, this tree had finally come into its own and was covered with blossoms ready to open.
Choosing the "best" was harder. We have so many beautiful things blooming in the garden right now. This entire month has been a feast for the eyes. But if there was one plant that really made me smile this month it was our sand cherry.
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| Once a tree, our sand cherry is now more shrub-like |
The sand cherry almost didn't survive last winter after a snow plow cleaved the main stem nearly in two and buried it under 6 feet of snow. We glued the stem and wrapped it with twine and hoped the fracture would knit. When the tree started to wilt under the demands of growth, we heavily pruned it, crossed our fingers, and hoped for the best. You can read about the sand cherry's ordeal here.
With the strange weather we've been having, I'm sure many of us have had our share of "worst" moments this month. You can see what prompted Angela to post about this and add your blog to her list at Bumble Lush.
Kudos Cathy for sharing the "worst moments." Not something that most bloggers are willing to do so it takes "guts" to show the not so glorious moments in one's garden.
ReplyDeleteMy worst moment involved a Magnolia as well - except ours not only didn't flower it no longer lives! After years of searching for one to plant in our garden we finally succeeded in getting it into the ground only to have it succumb to a very dry, and hot, summer. :-(
Awww... Stuart, thanks so much! Actually, it was Angela's idea and since she posted it as a meme, I was able to copy her lead shamelessly. But you're correct... it's the rare gardener who regularly points out the "misses".
DeleteAs for those gorgeous magnolias.... this is not the first time this particular one was a "miss", but at least it's thriving. Thanks for dropping by!
I cringe when I see what the weather did to the magnolias. It happened here in great numbers too. I too smile at Sandcherries, they scream Springtime every time I pass
ReplyDeleteSomeone blogged just this past week about a cherry tree that has a leaf like the sand cherry but a gorgeous double petaled pink bloom like my weeping cherry and for the life of me, I couldn't find that post again today when I went to reply to you! I had wondered if the tree was fragrant.
DeleteI am so sorry about your magnolias...so sad. I had a few scares because of frost but not much damage. And your sand cherry is beautiful. I have two in the yard, and I just love them. They offer such a nice show through the seasons.
ReplyDeleteWe are blessed that this sand cherry survived. The bloom this spring was truly a gift from God.
DeleteI’m so sorry about your Magnolia. The same thing happened to one of my Camellias. It had beautiful flowers that all turned brown after a period of severe frost earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteThe only positive thing about this is that while we don't get to enjoy the bloom, at least the tree survives okay.
DeleteI didn't know about this meme -- great idea -- but my garden seems to be more 'worst' than 'best' right now as many of the spring flowers die off. I'm sorry about your magnolia. I'm afraid the frost nipped my peony buds. P. x
ReplyDeleteOh Pam, I am so sorry about your peonies! I wait all year for them and I would be so terribly upset if that happened here. Our buds are still tight and still in really good shape. We are truly fortunate that things have survived as well as they have. Any chance you'll have some later blooms?
DeleteI love the fragrant deep blossoms. Can almost smell them from here. Gardening certainly teaches us a lot of lessons, letting go of failure must be one of them, I think ye are brilliant to embrace it:~)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much... we certainly are pleased with the sand cherry, which was definitely one of last year's "low points".
DeleteI love her meme and will be joining in Monday...sorry to see the magnolias were hit by the crazy weather...
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a wonderful idea as well.... I have often felt as if I was "hiding" the bad stuff, cropping it out of photos, etc. We all have those things that aren't quite perfect and we shouldn't have to be embarrassed about them. I think her idea is terrific too.
DeleteIt is a neat idea and it is interesting that it is easier to find the worst thing than the best thing. I wonder if that is because bad things happen rarely, or because when they do it is such a disappointment? It is a shame about the magnolia. Does that mean you have to wait another year before it flowers again? Fragrance is a wondrous thing - hard to imagine from a distance, even to remember.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because of the disappointment.... we were so disappointed that we lost the entire bloom. And no, it won't bloom again this year. We have to wait for next year.
Delete"Bad things" happen occasionally but they don't always impact us the way this did. For example, we may try a new type of plant and it might or might not do well and so we move on and try something else. But this is a tree that we have nurtured, loved, fed, and we love to see it blooming. It's something we look forward to year after year. We have a lot of time, energy, and emotion invested in it.
Thanks for sharing some "worst" moments as well as positive things - it's so instructional for other gardeners. The best thing about gardening failures is - there's always next year to look forward to! Love that purple foliage on your sand cherry.
ReplyDeleteSo true (there is always next year). But it also makes us a little more "human"... our gardens are not always picture perfect and that's okay.
DeleteI have always loved the dark maroon and light pink color combination of these cherries but never knew they were called sand cherries (or I forgot which is more likely)---very beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe fragrance is amazing.... it almost reminds me of night-blooming jasmine, as much for the intensity and weightiness of it. I spotted a foot tall sprout about two feet from the tree - the first I've ever seen. I am going to pot it up - I'm not sure if it seeded or if it's a runner, but I definitely want to see if I can cultivate it. Now that the shrub has finished blooming, I am going to trim it back a bit so that I can take some stress off the main trunk and hopefully give it a better chance of surviving another year. I know it's rather silly, but we've gotten so emotionally attached to this tree!
ReplyDeleteHello Cathy and Steve, i have not been here for quiet a while. When flowers are not growing in my climate, i always find them lovely, and yours are like that even at its worst...Andrea
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! I'm sure you've been busy, busy with your own gardening chores. Thanks for taking time to stop by again to remind us that you are still out there.... we need to return the visit!
DeleteHi Cathy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up with your Best/Worst. Sorry to hear about you magnolia tree. I do loves the smell of those fragrant flowers. On the flip side, I'm happy that it was hard to choose a "best" because there are so many good things going on the garden. The sand cherry looks great!
Hi there and thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI love the idea of your meme and hopefully, others will join in too! We are so good about bragging about the beautiful things (and cropping the bad things out of the pix we post), but I learn more from how people deal with the "oops" in their garden than I do from gorgeous photos, which are always wonderful to look at, but don't really help me out, outside of brightening my day (which is incredibly wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I want to learn as well...).
And sadly, I already have a candidate for "worst" for May! (And too many "Bests" to count, but those get covered under GBBD...) Looking forward to posting to your meme again!
oh no! Sorry to hear that we're not even halfway through May and there's already a "Worst" for you this month. Thank you for your kind comments and for being honest about the garden "oops." I certainly don't want to focus on the negative, but I also learn more from my mistakes. Of course, I love seeing the beautiful pictures of others' gardens as well, and I'm thankful that so many (like you!) are willing to share their tips and images. It gives me something to aspire to. :)
DeleteWe learn from our own mistakes as well... and quite often a "worst" is beyond our control, but we can learn how to deal with problems from each other. ;)
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