SUNY Farmingdale

What could be better on a cold winter night than to go through photos of lush gardens? It's a fridgid 14 degrees outside but this topic is doing it's best to warm me up.

One of my favorite places to visit on Long Island are the trial gardens at the State University at Farmingdale. There are 9 or 10 distinct different garden rooms/themes there to see, one more spectacular than the rest. It's a hidden jewel, few people know where to find it. As you drive past the parking lot there's not much more than these gates to see.

If you are lucky enough to to stop and park your car, all you need to do is take a peek through the bars and you'll find yourself transported to another world.

Andy and I visited the garden this past September, it had been a few years for me and I was thrilled to find a whole new addition with vegetables and a wild spill of cutting flowers.

Zinnias are so easy to grow and so beautiful. We grew one solitary Zinnia here last summer, I expect to grow lots and lots more this coming year!

When touring a garden of this magnitude, it's hard to find one single thing that just rocks your world. This time though it was an easy choice, those big Dr Seuss like tufts are Cyperus papyrus 'King Tut'. Although I took a dozen photos, not one does them justice, I am in love with them.

One of the first gardens you will walk through are very formal beds but the plant material is cutting edge tropicals surrounded by perennial borders.

Of course there is a silver garden, it's such a restful place after walking through a riot of color and textures.

My happy place is the tropical garden room. I think I could sit there all day. Give me a foggy day like this and I could take hundreds and hundreds of photos too. The plant with the long red blooms is Amaranthus 'Love lies a bleeding'. It's so cool!

The tropical garden is not large but every single inch is planted. September is the perfect time to visit this garden, just before the plants are brought in to the green houses for the winter.

The color and foliage combinations don't stop, there's something amazing no matter which way you turn. It's hard to grasp all that surrounds you.

The rustic arbor and goldfish pond have been there since my daughters were young. It's still just as magical as it was back then.

If you  make your way to the back corner of the gardens you'll find a shade garden filled with wonderful plants that just thrive in our Long Island conditions. I love the combination of this fern and the Asarum (ginger).

Although it wasn't rose season this part of the garden was still lovely. We'll have to make a point to go back this May when the roses and peonies are in full bloom.

There were plenty of autumn perennials to see such as this Aster. I'll take a guess and say it's 'Alma Potschke'.

One last photo, a riot of yellow blooms. If you live on Long Island or are coming this way for a visit, try to get in to see these gardens. You won't be sorry!

melanie

Heartbreaking Beauty

Yes, that title is correct, "Heartbreaking Beauty" not "Breathtaking Beauty".

Today was a tough day in the garden, it's that time of spring where the plantings all begin to meld and you realize that all of your creative designs have come together. Unfortunately for me today it was also a day where many of my hearts desires have come crashing around me.

While my garden did little to ease my mind, it did keep my hands busy as I puttered around and took photos.

I've worked for years on this corner of my garden, it took my breath away to see how everything finally came together.

Here's a shot just a few feet closer, you can see Claus, my garden gnome where he is quite happily surrounded by an explosion of hardy Geranium and Symphytum blooms.

Up closer still, you can see the Geranium cantabrigiense 'Karmina' just beginning to go wild, behind it is an iris that has long ago lost it's name but certainly not it's beauty. The backdrop of blue is Centaurea montana (also known as Bachelor's Buttons).

The opposite corner of this bed is almost as much of a work of art. Hosta 'Sagae' dominates in the center (only planted there last year) along with the fantastic gold of the Hakonecloa 'All Gold'.

These two plants will put on this show from now until autumn. Romantic woes aside, who could ask for more?

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?

Hidden gems

Today's plant combination is one that didn't catch my eye during the growing season. Maybe my eyes are so starved at this barren time of year that they see things differently.

This photo shows a corner of the garden where I have quite a few plants of Alchemilla mollis (Ladies mantle) alternating with Nepeta mussinii (Cat mint). In this last spot though I also stuck in a little piece of Sedem 'Purple Emperor'. I really like the combination of the fleshy Sedum leaf against the soft fuzziness of the Alchemilla leaf. I think this combination would pop even more with a darker purple Sedum such as 'Postman's Pride'.

Right now I'm so incredibly thankful that I shot so many photos of my gardens and plant material last year.

Off to look outside to see if anything is thinking of coming up soon :-)

Unexpected Combinations

Today's feature combination is one that moves around from year to year.

In the bottom left corner is the lovely perennial Oenothera speciosa. This variety of Oenthera took me a few years to learn to appreciate. The blooms are lovely, more pink than this image shows. One possible problem with this plant is that it travels underground and spreads quickly. At first I was worried about it but it really pulls out quite easily and once it starts blooming it's love at first sight. In my garden while it spreads quickly it doesn't seem to choke out other plant material but instead winds its way around them.

The plant in the top right corner is one that can be seen in many combination photos from my garden. It's the annual (or possibly biennial) Silene armeria. The nick name of this plant is Catch fly because of the sticky bands across the stems that actually trap insects. If left to seed it will reward you with lots of lovely babies across the garden. This year for the first time I will make an effort to pot up the seedlings early in the season and offer them for sale since I've rarely seen this plant in any other gardens around here.


Here's another photo of the Oenothera that shows the coloration better. Just a foot or two further in the garden now combined with Stachys byzantina (Lamb's ear), another great combination.

Behind the scenes, this morning I've tried a new feature on my Picasa 3 photo program. Finally I can add text to an image and I'm looking forward to being able to incorporate the plant names in the photos.

I've also been reading quite a few gardening books and magazines lately. Have you been reading too?

'All Gold'

This morning was overcast, damp and cool. Perfect weather for a garden walk-about. This one little bed in my garden is on the side of my pool and is often neglected. There shouldn't be any daylilies in this garden. The way the surrounding trees shade this bed, the daylily flowers face the sun at an angle that's almost impossible for the viewer to see. On the other hand, other perennials shine here.

In some earlier posts I've raved on about Hakonachloa 'All Gold'. Well, it's still got me raving, especially when you are in this part of the garden.

The first combination that caught my eye was this nice contrast between the Alchemilla mollis (Ladies mantle) and Sedum 'Purple Emperor'. This is the only Sedum I've never made more of, it never really thrilled me and has taken a few years to clump up. Now though I think I'm going to cut off two or three stems.

Here you can see why I'm so crazy about 'All Gold'. It is just such a fantastic combination plant. This photo shows it with Nepeta mussinii and a self sown Astrantia seedling on the left.

Just a foot away is the most beautiful blue Columbine but I almost missed it as you can see that a Salvia verticilata seedling has almost engulfed it.

Geranium cantabrigiense 'Cambridge' is just stunning as it spills over the wall. Last year somebody dug a big hole in this area and I was so afraid this lovely plant would suffer but it's come back like crazy.

Ah ha! Here you can see that this 'All gold' needs some better companions. Daylily foliage and a rock? Nope, I've got to do something here.

Ahhh, much better. How do you like this pairing of 'All Gold' with Geranium sanguinium? I love it!

Another hardy geranium. This one is Geranium 'Claridge Druce'. Ok, now who was walking through here and crunched all this foliage?

"Woof - not me! What makes you think I was in the garden?"

Calie got her summer cut this week, my family is so mad at me for doing this but her coat was so long and she would get matted every time she ran under the sprinkler. Oh well, it will grow back again.