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Friday, February 29, 2008

Garden Basics - P - U


"P" is for Perennials
Plants that will live through our crazy freeze thaw cycle like this lovely Hellebore

"P" is also for Photo
Sometimes we are sucked in by an awesome photo and then realize the camera was an inch away from the bloom. This is Thalictrum aquilifolium. A similar photo had me order this plant immediately but it took a few years of patience (and a good macro lens) before I saw this.



"Q" is for Questions. Questions are important, like how the heck did they get that bicycle on the tree? (Quickly followed by the most popular phrase of "I want that!")


"R" is for Roots - The good, the bad and the downright ugly!

"R" is also for rocks. Here on Long Island we need to import our rocks. With today's fuel costs, they are going to cost quite a bit more bringing us back to "M" for money.


"S" is for Sun - Be honest with yourself about the amount of sunlight a garden gets.

"S" is also for Shade and Semi-shade. Don't fight the shade, there are a host of amazing plants that will grow in your shade beds. (Anybody need some purple Perilla?)

"S" is for Shrubs
Whew, there are many S words! A lovely Hydrangea here, I picked it up at the end of a flower show, it was going in the garbage. It was one of those Hydrangeas that had been forced into bloom for Easter, it was day glow pink when I brought it home. Two years after growing in my acidic soil it is the most glowing white imaginable.

"T" is for Trees (now that was an easy one!) This is the breathtaking blooms and foliage on my Cornus Kousa 'Gold Star'.

"U" is for Under story plants. What an amazing array of plants there are that will gladly grow under taller specimens.

That's it for this part of the alphabet, stay tuned once again as I finish things up tomorrow.

Hopefully everybody enjoyed last night's first gardening class and maybe we'll have some new visitors here :-)

Till later,
Melanie

12 comments:

Frances, said...

Wow to that golden star dogwood, what a looker!

Frances at Faire Garden

garden girl said...

your gardens and your photography are just breathtaking and inspiring!

Unknown said...

This is great fun! I missed the earlier post (doing deadline stuff here to pay the bills) so I'll go back and have a read. I like the bicycle art too!

Robin's Nesting Place said...

I enjoyed this immensely. Great pictures!

Carol Soules said...

Enjoying your garden alphabet very much! What wonderful pictures and the accompanying script is quite fun. How did your class go? Well, I hope!
Carol
terranovadesign@blogspot.com

Aunt Debbi/kurts mom said...

Your photos are so nice. I love the bike in the tree.

Gorden + Planten said...

Great photos! Greetings from Germany.

Melanie Chopay said...

Hi all, thanks for taking the time to visit me here :-)

Frances, yes that dogwood is amazing! It was a gift from a friend who always picks out the most beautiful specimens for my garden.

I figured lots of people would like that bicycle, I took photos from every angle to show how it was actually constructed. It will make a fun future post.

Carol, I think the class went well, I've asked for a different classroom as they gave us an art room and everybody had to sit on high stools at drafting tables but otherwise it was such a nice group of people.

Yeah Germany! The land of my gardening inspiration !!!

kjohnson said...

Great pictures, Melanie. The bicycle made me laugh out loud. I agree with frances that the dogwood was spectacular. Was the picture of the rocks taken in Cold Spring Harbor on 25A?

Kathryn

CanadianGardenJoy said...

melanie .. this was a great way to tweak garden interest for newbies !
I loved the bike and the tree "accident" .. like the Halloween witch and the door type thing .. too cute .. hubby thought so too !
My inspiration is the Netherlands .. South Limburg province .. living there for 4 years had to do something to my little garden mind .. talk about using every inch of space available !
Joy

Marie said...

I just LOVE your photos!

Danielles Garden said...

great blog, good ideas!