Frances Willard House Museum
1730 Chicago Avenue Evanston, IL 60201
A National Historic Landmark, in Evanston
Current Garden Pictures
We lost the better part of one week's work in early June when we had a near-record heat wave, with temperatures in the 90's for three days. Following that, there's been a ton of weeding and mulching of garden beds. Not entirely exciting, but it definitely helps make the gardens look more presentable, and the mulch will pay its rewards over the hot days of summer by keeping moisture in the soil and suppressing weeds. And as it breaks down, the mulch will help nourish and condition the soil. But we do have a few pictures of pretty plants, too.
Here's the garden bed in the northeast corner of the back, cut to shape, some donated plants added, and mulched.
This is a picture of one of the peonies in the bed (probably Paeonia lactiflora, but I need to confirm that).
And this is one of the Bearded Iris (Iris germanica).
Beyond this garden bed in the top picture is a shrub that I didn't know. I can now state that it is a native of China called Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis).
I was also able to finally identify the 3 small shrubs in the Cottage East gardens as Slender Deutzia (Deutzia gracillis). This is actually a picture of one that my wife and I saw on one of our walks.
And finally, we found one wonderful but lonely variegated Great Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum commutatum) stuck in with a weedy patch of violets, lily-of-the-valley, and goldenrod. I know these pictures are small but you might be able to see the small white flower dangling down from the underside of the leaf. We will be carefully transplanting this specimen to our little woodland garden under the chestnut in the center of the Back.
Previous Pictures
May 30, 2011
May 16, 2011
May 2, 2011
April 23, 2011
April 9, 2011
Here's the garden bed in the northeast corner of the back, cut to shape, some donated plants added, and mulched.
This is a picture of one of the peonies in the bed (probably Paeonia lactiflora, but I need to confirm that).
And this is one of the Bearded Iris (Iris germanica).
Beyond this garden bed in the top picture is a shrub that I didn't know. I can now state that it is a native of China called Beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis).
I was also able to finally identify the 3 small shrubs in the Cottage East gardens as Slender Deutzia (Deutzia gracillis). This is actually a picture of one that my wife and I saw on one of our walks.
And finally, we found one wonderful but lonely variegated Great Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum commutatum) stuck in with a weedy patch of violets, lily-of-the-valley, and goldenrod. I know these pictures are small but you might be able to see the small white flower dangling down from the underside of the leaf. We will be carefully transplanting this specimen to our little woodland garden under the chestnut in the center of the Back.
Previous Pictures
May 30, 2011
May 16, 2011
May 2, 2011
April 23, 2011
April 9, 2011