Colors of Bedford
Today in the Northeast, we’re expecting unusually warm weather with temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s! We've also had a couple days of good rain and the gardens are just exploding with color.
The scenery changes rapidly from day to day, week to week, especially this time of year with all the glorious late spring blooms. If you follow my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48, you’ve seen some of the recent photos I’ve shared - the verdant allées, the lush green paddocks, the flowering trees - everything is growing so beautifully.
Enjoy more photos and the colors of Bedford.
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- This is such a lovely time of year here at Cantitoe Corners. There is so much color to enjoy in the gardens. This is my terrace parterre outside my Winter House kitchen, servery, and porch. It shines with bold green boxwood and bright golden barberry.
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- Here’s a closer look at the hedge of golden barberry. The deciduous shrub is compact, adaptable, very hardy and shows off striking yellow foliage all year-round.
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- Behind my long carport not far from my Winter House are the apple espaliers and these blooming “Miss Kim” Korean lilac standards. The upright, compact lilac blooms later than others extending the season with pink and lavender flower clusters.
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- The little flowers are not only beautiful but amazingly fragrant!
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- Down the carriage road adjacent to my long and winding pergola, I have a stand of distinguished bald cypress trees. The trees are leafing out with gorgeous green more and more every day.
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- This is the white garden outside my Winter House. In the back are two grand weeping katsura trees. Cercidiphyllum japonicum f. pendulum has pendulous branches that fan out from the crown and sweep down to the ground. In the lower corners are the topiary viburnum – I love these trees with their gorgeous white blooms.
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- In front of the the Winter House garden, I have planters filled with beautiful succulents – If you like growing plants, but don’t really have a lot of time to care for them, I encourage you to consider growing succulents. With their fleshy leaves and interesting shapes, succulents are easy to maintain and make excellent container specimens.
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- Here is another viburnum. Most viburnums flower in spring. The sometimes-fragrant flowers range from white and cream to pink-flushed or wholly pink. Look at these pretty spherical blooms. Most viburnums grow in any moderately fertile, moist but well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade.
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- And here is another viburnum in front of a beautiful dark burgundy Japanese maple.
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- Another popular May bloom – these classic bleeding hearts. Dicentra spectabilis is a genus of eight species of herbaceous plants with oddly shaped flowers that look very similar to hearts. These flowers are native to eastern Asia and North America. The flowers have two tiny sepals and four petals. They are also bisymmetric, meaning the two outer petals are pouched at the base and curved outwards at the tip. They are shade loving woodland plants that bloom in the cool of spring and stay in bloom for several weeks.
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- The hellebores still look beautiful. They are widely grown for decorative purposes because of their love for shady locations and resistance to frost. It is common to plant them on slopes or in raised beds in order to see their flowers, which tend to nod. After the first year, when the plant is well-established, hellebores are very resistant and require little upkeep.
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- The ferns are also showing off wonderful green color. A fern is a member of a group of roughly 12-thousand species of vascular plants that reproduce via spores. These are ostrich ferns.
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- It’s hard to miss the alliums with all their beauty. The purple alliums are so prominent right now. Allium species are herbaceous perennials with flowers produced on scapes. They grow from solitary or clustered bulbs. Alliums come in many sizes, from inch-wide heads to large ball-sized bloom clusters. Alliums are among the most carefree bulbs you can grow, blooming in a wide range of colors, including purple, white, pink, and even yellow.
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- Camassia leichtlinii caerulea forms clusters of linear strappy foliage around upright racemes. Camassia is a genus of plants in the asparagus family native to Canada and the United States. It is best grown in moist, fertile soil, and full sun. Both lighter and darker shades of blue look so good growing together in the pergola garden.
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- And look at this pretty clematis – one of the first of the season. Clematis are among the most decorative and spectacular of all the flowering vines. Clematis is a genus of about 300-species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. The name Clematis comes from the Greek word “klematis,” meaning vine. Clematis are native to China and Japan and are known to be vigorous, woody, climbers.
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- This is a white and green variety of Ornithogalum. It has multiple green-gray flowers per stem, each etched with soft white on the outer petals.
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- Spanish Bluebells, Hyacinthoides, are unfussy members of the lily family, and native to Spain and Portugal. They are pretty, inexpensive, and good for cutting – they add such a nice touch of blue.
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- And popping up above the green foliage are the columbine flowers. The columbine plant, Aquilegia, is an easy-to-grow perennial that offers seasonal interest throughout the year. Its flowers come in a variety of colors, which emerge from dark green foliage that turns maroon in fall. The flowers are also a favorite to hummingbirds and may be used in cut-flower arrangements as well.
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- These are the leaves of Rodgersia pinnata – a genus of flowering plants in the Saxifragaceae family. Rodgersia are herbaceous perennials originating from east Asia. The common name is Roger’s Flower. Rodgersia pinnata features wonderfully textured, mid green foliage, the perfect backdrop for the bright red buds that open in late spring and the pink feathery blooms through summer.
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- Also in my flower cutting garden – beautiful irises popping up everywhere. Iris is a genus of 260 to 300 species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, which is also the name for the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris.
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- And here’s one of the first poppies of the season. The colorful tissue paper-like flowers look stunning both in the garden and in the vase. Poppies are flowering plants in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. They produce open single flowers gracefully located on long thin stems, sometimes fluffy with many petals and sometimes smooth.
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- I’ve planted several American horse-chestnut trees around the farm. These two are at one end of my Boxwood Allee. Aesculus hippocastnum is a large deciduous tree commonly known as the horse-chestnut or conker tree. It’s easy to spot by its showy bright pink flowers.
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- This is just one of my many amazing tree peonies, which are blooming right now. Tree peonies do not die back to the ground in autumn. Like a rose bush, tree peonies drop their leaves and their woody stems stand through the winter.
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- And still… some beautiful daffodils.
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- And all the azaleas are looking so gorgeous.
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- The recent weather has done well for the gardens – everything looks so green and lush and full of color. I can’t wait to share more photos from the gardens in June – stay tuned.
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