Gianna's Garden

If there's anybody on this planet that's more talented then my friend Gianna at designing container arrangements, I have yet to meet them. Gianna is the Queen, hands down, best container designer ever.

Anybody who lives on Long Island is lucky, you can go to Main Street Nursery in Huntington village and pick her brain any time.

I'm even luckier, Gianna (and her equally talented husband Rich) live up the street from me.

These first two shots are a patio garden on the roof of their garage. You can't imagine how delightful it is to sit up here with a cool drink and just soak in the amazing colors and forms all around you.

Today I stopped up there to congratulate their daughter on her graduation from High School. Like an idiot I forgot my camera so had to resort to my phone camera. On a recent trip to Chicago I raved about my phone camera and I still love it but I've decided I still prefer my point and shoot (press "here" dummy) camera better. The big difference is I can manipulate the point and shoot photos better.

While I'm familiar with most of the plant material (I'm just more of a perennial gardener), I'm not going to reference the various plants here. The composition of colors, textures and massed containers are all so amazing to me.

This container is my utmost favorite and I can't believe how lousy the photos came out. I will most definitely get back there with my other camera. Hopefully we have an overcast day real soon.

The amount of stunning pots filled with tropicals is mind boggling!

There's even a little fish barrel complete with fish. If I remember correctly from last year, the driftwood is to protect the fish from local predatory birds or raccoons.


Last shot for today. I took quite a few more and will post some different ones on my other blog Melanie's Perennials so if you like what you see, stop there for yet more!

All for naught?

Recently I was asked to make a container for somebody. The container was to have a $50 value and would be raffled off at a luncheon. I do so love to put together things like this and was quite excited about the task.

Unfortunately I did not have an empty container to use so I ran to Home Depot and picked a simple plastic pot for $9.99. After all, if I spent more than $50 on the container, potting soil and plant material I wouldn't be making much of a profit.

While at Home Depot, I also bought a Chrysanthemum since the only request I had about the pot was that it be "seasonal". I knew I wanted to put the Phormium in the container (the tall spiky plant that wholesales for $23 a pot but I have lots of it and thought it would be exciting for the winner) and I started gathering other things that I hoped would combine well.

The variegated Liriope, Lamiastrum and Sedum were all here in my sales area and all looking wonderful right now. Before planting the container I arranged them on the ground to see how I wanted them to end up. I knew the value was well over $50 but what the heck, my creative juices were at work.

I don't usually work in my driveway at the back of my car but I was worried that the planted container would be too heavy for me to carry. It was a good thing I thought of that! (oof)

After filling the bottom with potting soil I started adding the plant material. The Phormium went in first and got a small haircut (I trimmed out any stray leaves). By the time I had added most of the rest of the plants I realized that the Sedum wouldn't fit in and also didn't add much to the arrangement so at the end it was left out.

Just as I predicted, this pot was at the uppermost limit of my lifting capabilities. It was one heck of a "heave-HO" to get it in the car but I was so happy with what it looked like. Off to drop it off, I had to bring a wagon with me so I could just drop it down into the wagon and pull it in to the luncheon.

I decided to stay until after the raffle just in case the winner didn't have the strength to lift it into her car. Sure enough the winner was in her late 70's or even early 80's. An older man had come to pick her and her friend up. He assured me he could handle the pot until he tried to lift it. It didn't even budge off the wagon. Ah ha, I knew I'd be needed to help them get it in the car.

As we got to their car I realized a big problem, they had an old sedan and although the pot was brand spanking new and perfectly clean, they refused to place it on the back seat. With another heave-ho we got it in the trunk. As I walked off I heard them say that once they got home they were going to take each plant out of the container and split them up between the two women. The winner only cared that she got the $4.99 Chrysanthemum. CRUNCH, the trunk was closed down on top of everything. Was it all for naught?

This morning when I sat at my computer I planned on putting a post on my blooming Cimicifugas on this blog and a post on the container on my Melanie's Perennials blog. Unfortunately I mixed things up and reversed the two subjects so if you want to see the lovely Cimicifugas in bloom here, you have to click on Melanie's Perennials.

Off to split Hosta...

Cynthia's Garden

Cynthia is my neighbor directly across the street. She and her husband Rich moved in last year and I have been in heaven since then. I finally have a neighbor who understands the need to garden. Many a Saturday I have looked across the street to see Cynthia out there in a slicker during a downpour, swatting gnats while wiping sweat from her brow, or hauling around huge loads of compost. It sure makes me feel better since I'm usually doing the exact same thing!

No pictures of Cynthias garden would be complete without "the crew". On the right is Riley, in the middle is Boomer and on the left is a frequent family visitor.

Cynthia's gardens are all new and I'm always amazed at the wide range of plant material she boldly introduces to this piece of land that has not seen TLC in any recent time.

How cool is this Amaranthus bloom? I much prefer the nickname of "Love Lies-a-Bleeding". It's the perfect nickname.

Needless to say I was so taken by the Love-lies-a-bleeding that I had to take a photo of the blooms on the other side too.

In all the years I've been gardening (way more than I can count) I have never tried Colocasia esculanta (another cool nickname: Elephant Ears). This year Cynthia gave me two of them but hers appear to be much happier than mine.

I was so hoping that the sunshine coming through the leaf would translate well. It's as good as I had hoped for. What a wonderful spot to sit and sip your morning coffee.

Here's another pretty combination. Cynthia has Angelonia (the annual that I posted about earlier this week on Melanie's Perennials but didn't know the name) paired with this cream/yellow annual.


How do you like that, I'm stumped again with an annual name. It's a good thing one of my blogs is named Melanie's PERENNIALS :-) I thought this was Nemesia but after googling some images I think I'd better start to brush up on my annual names!

Cynthia, I'm so glad you're my neighbor. Thanks for the tour!

Herbalicious

Heat and Humidity, it must be August. So what's a gardener to do when the mercury rises and all you want to do is stay by the pool?

Let's play with Herbs!

I grow a large number of herbs here at Old Country Gardens, some are perennials, others are purchased every spring. This summer though I learned a few new things about my herbs. First of all, they are just as happy (if not more happy) growing in pots.

In fact, as potted plants they are easy to maintain, rarely needing extra care. Just a simple pinch here and there and watering if we haven't had a recent rain. Better yet, put them in reach of your sprinkler system and you hardly have to do anything at all.

In this photo you are looking at a Thymus citriodorus (variegated lemon thyme), Mentha (basic garden mint that was here when we moved in) and Mentha suaveolens 'Variegata' (pineapple mint or also known as apple mint).

Just as an aside, I do not call them by their botanical names in the garden, I'm just including those here for readers in other countries that are looking for the same plants.

My mouth starts watering when I look at this photo. There are two different basils featured here (Ocimum basilicum in botanical terms) with the solid green leaf and the variegated Ocimum citriodorum 'Pesto Perpetuo' (let's just say citrus basil).

The citrus basil is a new variety and is patented so propagation is prohibited but what I've recently discovered is that most herbs have been around forever and of course, nobody holds a patent on them. This means that you can propigate most of your herbs till the cows come home and that's exactly what I'm going to do here.

It turns out that many herbs are quite easy to propigate with simple cuttings.

In this smaller pot are three plants, Cymbopogon (Lemongrass), Ocimum 'African Blue' (African Blue Basil) and Oreganum vulgare (true Oregano). Yum, all three are excellent for those fun summer dishes.

Here's a close up of the African Blue basil, a favorite of mine. I do admit that I let it go to flower as those blooms are just so lovely.

So tell me, what herbs are growing in your garden?

Container season

Heat and Humidity, that's August around here. Actually, this year the heat has been pretty mild but that darn humidity...

This time of year I find very little energy for the garden. Thank goodness for containers, they really start to steal the show now.

Not having huge funds to blow on container plants, I tried to use plants already available to me. Almost all of my containers have Hosta in them and I'm totally sold now on using them forever more as container plants. A single flat of Impatiens gave me enough fillers to add to all the containers and I still had enough left to plant a few in the front shade bed.

A single Hosta, one impatiens and a small slip of ivy is all it took to fill this upside down birdbath base. I love how the petals of the impatiens fall into the empty container resting below. Another good idea is to put a simple water feature underneath to catch the petals.

More simple containers, mostly with Hosta. The hosta in the garden have been inundated with slugs this year but the ones in the containers show pristine foliage.

Last week I left my camera at a friends house. It was like I lost my arm, I couldn't take photos for a week! We have perfect cloud cover today so hopefully I'll get to stop at a few places and take pictures of some of the great containers I've seen in my neighborhood.

Melanie

The Garden Blues

My favorite color is blue but it's a color that we rarely consider in our garden. So many plants that are billed as "blue" are really lavenders or purples.

An instant way to add blue to the garden is to add some magnificent containers. I took these photographs on Sunday but would not purchase these containers at the the store I saw them. The prices were totally ridiculous, running from $299 to $799 per container.

Perhaps those high prices were the reason that there was still so much stock in the container section of this nursery? Luckily I stopped at another nursery on the way home and found very similar containers for a fraction of the price. I plan on going back there and will try to remember to take some pictures.

I did see this blue container there, peeking out through a skirt of Hydrangeas. Lovely! Better yet is the tropical feeling Hosta planted in the container. Hosta make excellent container plants.

There definitely are some true blue perennials in the garden, I snap them up whenever I can. This is a Playtocodon, a balloon flower and it's a double variety.

Hardy Geranium 'Rozanne' is blue although my camera has changed the color to a lavender. It's been blooming for two months now and I'm extremely happy I finally bought it this spring.

Hydrangeas come in different colors. Many times you will buy one that is one color only to find it change color completely in your garden. I have one variety that was pink in the pot, turned chartreuse the next year and settled down as a deep blue.

The color of your Hydrangea blooms is dependent upon the type of soil you have. Here on Long Island we have acidic soil which tends to turn most Hydrangeas different shade of blue. Sometimes though if you plant your Hydrangeas close to the foundation of your house you can get them to stay pink, another trick is to add lime to the soil. As for me, I prefer the blue ones anyway so don't do anything special to change the color.

On Sunday I went to Plant Field Arboretum. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, most of the gardens were not at their best, either before bloom or in most cases after bloom. It was a whole different scenario here in my own garden which is just bursting with color right now.

This photo shows a Lace cap Hydrangea combined with Fallopia japonica. It was a stunning combination!

Here at Old Country Gardens a much simpler combination of Platycodon and Daylilies but still just as beautiful.

Do you have blue in your garden?

Potting Troughs - Part Two

I'm going crazy!

Ok, I admit it, I have a problem... I can't help it, I just can't stop playing with these amazing little succulents! Now that I've found a great source for hypertufa troughs, I just know it's going to get worse.


Not all the plant material I bought for the troughs are succulents, there's one or two other things I couldn't resist such as this dwarf Cotoneaster 'Strieb's Findling'.


There's also the Fiber optic grass (Isolepsis) that I can never resist even though it's not hardy here in my zone 6b garden.


Sedum nevii is another plant that I think I've bought before but I just had to try again.

One of my favorite (ok, that's silly, they're all my favorites) is this little Sempervivum 'Baronesse', just look at the webs!!!

Here's the first planted trough, isn't it sweet?

Here's another planted trough. This one looks a bit skimpy next to the first one but I've learned from past experience to leave some space for the semps to fill in.

This trough was planted up on Friday. I'm not sure yet about the Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knock-out' in the center of the trough. I hope they beef up quickly.

Under construction as I write this is a large shade trough. It's got a Hosta 'Pixie Power' slated for the center, and a teeny weeny Hosta 'Baby Tears' for the upper corner. I'm not sure about the rest of it though, I did get my hands on some amazing colored Ajuga's that might be perfect.

Sometimes it's the container that inspires me, other times it's the plant material. This combination of Cotula squalida 'Platt's Black' and Sempervivum 'Icicle' had me in rapture.


I didn't want to add a color that would take away from the two of them so I decided to go with some added textures. The Sedum nevii and the Fiber optic grass fill that slot nicely.

It's not planted yet, I'm not 100% sure on the fifth sempervivum. I have a bronze colored semp that I need to look for and try in this spot too. By the end of the day today though it will be decided and planted up.

The crazy thing? I spent all this money on these containers and plants and justified my purchase on the idea that I would sell them and make a profit. Now though I can't possibly imagine how I could let these go.

What do you think? Sell them? Make more of them? Cover my whole property with wonderfully delicious succulents?

I'll have to think this over, maybe if I walk around a few nurseries today I'll find some more...I mean I'll clear my mind and make a decision :-)

Going crazy,
Melanie

Potting Troughs

Today at Old Country Gardens we're going to have some fun!

This week I purchased a number of beautiful hypertufa troughs. Hypertufa is a mix of cement, peat moss and sand. They look and feel like concrete but they are just light enough that I can lift them.

There's two different sized rectangular ones here, I've already potted up the smaller one and it's just darling (photos to follow). This larger one will be a bit of a challenge, I don't want to fill it all the way, I'd like the plant material to fill in over the season.

The round container is getting me very excited. I think I'd like to mound the soil in the center and find a cool stone to use as an "outcropping" in the planting.

I've purchased all kinds of cool plant material and also dug many different things from my garden so I have no idea yet what will get planted.

If you are in the area you are welcome to come by and watch me work.


Of course we'll also be open for sales. This week I dug some of the plants that customers have been asking for such as Convallaria (Lily of the Valley) and a few small pots of Asarum europeaum (European ginger).

Best of all, we have lots and lots of pots filled with glorious ferns. The japanese painted ferns came from my own garden, the huge pots filled with other ferns are from Fox Hollow Farms.

Then there's the mini hosta, but that will have to be a post on its own!

Off to play in the fog and mist,
Melanie