Monday, May 31, 2010

"They give out good coffee here when it is cold & wet out" Written on Feb. 11, 1944 WWII

This is a post card that my father, Carmelo Guglielmino sent home to my mother, Rose on February 11, 1944.  On the back he wrote, " They give out good coffee when it is cold & wet out."
The card is entitled, " Mission Completed."  American Red Cross Clubmobile "Somewhere" in Great Britain.

This is a picture that was found in an envelop of my dad, center and other men.  He wrote on the back "Sept. 1944 England."
The following pictures were in that same envelop.  This one says Holland Oct., 1944.  My dad might be the man on the back left, but these pictures are grainy and I am not sure.  He was in Holland. 
This picture is marked  with his handwriting, " France  Dec. 12, 1944."  I know that it is pale, but it shows how many places his unit, the 907th  101st Air Borne Division, was moved to in such a short time.
"Bastogne Nuts Dec.25, 1944" written on the back in his hand.

A similar photo from the same envelop had no inscription, but the snow is all around, and it looks like it was taken at the same time, in Bastogne.
This memorial Day, our family, the Guglielminos wish to thank all service men and women who served our country, and to those that handed out, and hand out today, "Good Coffee" to our brave soldiers.  Thank you to all.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Hostas of the Jarvis House Garden Large, Medium, Small & Mini

We might as well start with the largest Hosta that grows in the Jarvis Garden.  The award is taken by a variety known as "Sum & Substance." 
It is hard to get the enormity of this plant without seeing it first hand in the garden.  Photographs really do not relay how huge this plant can become.  This one is in a very deeply shaded area of the garden, and had been growing there for several years.
I broke apart one clump last fall and planted several small roots.  This came up this spring.
The blue Hosta which measures the largest is the "Sieboldiana Elegans".
 The terracotta flower pot next to it is very large and the Sieboldiana dwarfs it.
I think that these are the only actual variety names that I know, except for 
this little guy, "Golden Tiara."   I use it in cement pots too.
I partnered these with a New Guinea Impatiens plant. 
 This is a large curly variety, and has the surface which resembles Seersucker fabric.
The leaves turn upwards which is a nice feature.
 A tryly beautiful Hosta
which I found at a roadside stand.
Another larger Hosta is this pale blue,
it grows quickly and is easy to split for a boarder.
Halcyon is a tall growing steel gray blue Hosta.
I may look like one of the others pictured before, but make no mistake, the growing habit of this plant is very different.
A  Hosta which resembles the Halcyon in its height and habit is this one with yellow and deep green foliage.
It is growing in a very dark and wet corner, but It seems to love that environment.
This variety is small and light yellow green.
I am starting to make a boarder around a Rhododendron bush.
Another small Hosta is this blue.
It makes a very tight mound and is beautiful with other contrasting small leaf Hoatas.
The small Hosta next to it is colored green with a lovely blue edge.
It also makes a very tight mound.
A very large leafed variety is this Hosta
which I used at the end of a Hosta boarder.
I saw this last week at a roadside farm stand.  It has a creamy yellow boarder and very shiny dark centers.
I planted it underneath the Quince tree where it is very low and wet.  Yellow flag Iris are behind it picking up the edge color of the Hosta.
This is a very small variety which is partnered with Sweet Woodruff and Pachysandra, under a Rhododendron.
This is a medium leaf, which is near
a really strange new Hosta.
It has a cream halo around a deep blue green leaf.   This Hosta grows upright and large.  I only have this one, so I treasure it.
In the Fall, I will separate the two plants, but for now I hope that it will grow strong and tall.
These are the mini Hostas that I planted underneath the split leaf maple out front.  
That was the only way I could find them in the wiles of the Jarvis Garden.
The smallest one.
If you can identify any of these varieties, e-mail me, but for now,  I just enjoy their differences. The hunt goes on.  There are thousands of Hosta types!

Friday, May 21, 2010

May Plants in Bloom at the Jarvis House Garden

Most of the Peony plants at the Jarvis House Garden came from my mother's garden in Nassau County.  This is the largest pink .  I keep the extra buds on the plant so that the blooms don't get so large that they are drooping on the ground.  Even with the wire cages, these are heavy when they get wet.
This is a very large deep fuchsia bloom that was purchased from a catalog years ago. It took many seasons to get this plant to put out blooms, but this year there were many and the wire cages helped to keep the flowers erect.
The Jarvis Garden is located in a very wet area.  These Yellow Flag Iris love the environment, and spread easily.
I planted them at the base of a Quince tree which is in a swampy low area.  They can grow in standing water, so this clump did very well and is about three feet tall.   The leaves last all summer and are very beautiful even after the flowers fade.
Today the large deciduous Azalea, which grew in a tree-like form,  bloomed.  It is a late blooming plant that has been out front for almost thirty years.  
I partnered it with the ancient large boxwood shrubs that I brought from my mother's garden.  Over time it grew so tall,  that I should have planted it elsewhere, but I cannot bear to try to transplant it for the fear of it not surviving.
The boxwood are probably around one hundred years old.  They are very happy here, but several were lost when I transplanted them about thirty five years ago.
They are mostly shrub, not so many roots.  Over time I have introduced others around the garden, but they are always small plants.
All of the gardens are lined with common Hosta.  I got this idea from a neighbor who planted boarders of Hosta two houses away from mine.  Their leaves are wonderful for keeping weeds down, and  lawn mowers can skim right underneath them and create a very neat boarder.
  It has taken me all the years that I have been here to split and divide the Hosta so that all boarders are trimmed.  It was a great way to use my obsessive compulsive energy.
Way out back the Carolina Allspice bush is putting out its wooden like flowers.
This is an unusual shrub, but its blooms can add to a quirky variety to the garden.
This is a "Knock Out" rose which I planted in a sunny spot two years ago.  It did so well that I purchased several others last fall and am waiting to see how they do.  In the interim, other colors were developed, so I now have one that should be an orange-red.
This is my split leaf maple which I have grown from a seedling that came from a usual red leaf maple.  At the time I didn't realize how it would spread out horizontally.  Last Fall, I trimmed this tree so that my car could get into the driveway.  I hated to do it, but now you can actually see the beautiful nature of its limbs, and miniature Hostas and other tiny specimen plants grow underneath.
A faithful and easily propagated plant is this perennial Geranium.  It has a mounding habit and can cover odd spots,  It has fleshy roots that can be divided and started in other locations, and it loves to d roop over rock boarders.  The spiky leavs are interesting as well and the blooms continue for months.
These are the leaves of my fig tree.  I am lax about wrapping it over the winter months, so its figs don't get a long enough season here to ripen.  Relatives had this plant in huge pots on wheels, so that they can roll them indoors in the fall.
This plant came from my mother's garden and was  cutting from her father's garden.  I have given babies to my sister and to my cousin.   I guess that this shows that I was lucky to have parents who loved to garden.