Sweet, sweet woodruff

Galium odoratum doesn't sound half as nice as the nickname Sweet woodruff. This darling little woodland plant winds its way between stem and leaf with a charming habit.

For some reason though I haven't quite figured it out. I have sweet woodruff planted in my front garden (the one featured in the last post) and some years it looks wonderful there and other years it almost dies out.

Two parts of my back yard shade garden have nice stands of sweet woodruff. In fact, one area has so much of it that I've been taking pieces out and potting them up. I just adore this little darling and was surprised to see a 4 inch pot of it for sale yesterday for a whopping $6.49.

Yet another part of the back shade bed, only 50 feet or so away I have a stand of sweet woodruff that just limps along.

Right now my guess is that it needs soil that is rich with compost and doesn't tolerate dryness in the summer. Could that be right? The spots it thrives in are spots that the sprinklers reach and the spots it struggles in are dry locations.

Do you grow sweet woodruff? What's your experience with it?

Double the Blood Root

Sanguinaria canadenses, that's quite a mouthful for this small, elegant perennial. The nickname is a bit easier although not very attractive, Double Bloodroot.

A number of years ago a gardening friend offered me a piece of double bloodroot. I turned him down. I didn't even know what it was but I wasn't interested in the name. A year later he gave me a piece and told me to just put it in my new shade garden.

The next year this amazing thing bloomed in my garden. It was the most ethereal white bloom, very fleeting, only open for a few days. The good news though was that the foliage was exquisite too so it really added so much to the shade garden.

As the years went by I couldn't understand how he had so much to share with me since my little piece of double bloodroot increased at a snail's pace. A few years ago I finally learned that there is a vast difference between dry, unammended shade and moist, rich, compost filled shade. I crossed my fingers and moved a tiny piece of the double bloodroot.

The first photo was taken last year. The second photo was taken this morning. The flowers only open when the sun is out so that won't happen for a few more hours. I think you can see what has me all excited, my double bloodroot has doubled!

Just in case you are wondering what the foliage looks like, it's the leaf in the top right corner of this slide. Underneath it is a dwarf Epimedium, top left is a small golden Hosta and bottom left is Asarum euoropaeum (European Ginger).

The Ginger has done a nice job in several spots in my garden and I'll be potting up a few of those later this afternoon. As for the Double bloodroot, well, I'm a bit greedy and think I will wait one more year before putting any in a pot. What I might do is dig out a piece or two and move them to another prime semi-shade location so I can have even more double bloodroot.

We're expecting a prime gardening day today so I need to get up, get ready and get out!

Rudbeckia fulgida - Black Eyed Susan

One of the most well known perennials is the Black Eyed Susan. The only problem is, which black eyed susan do you have? You see, this is the problem with using nicknames instead of the botanical name of a plant.

Most often, the nickname Black Eyed Susan is referring to Rudbeckia fulgida. There are many different types of Rudbeckia, fulgida is a true perennial, ranging anywhere from 2 feet to almost 3 feet tall (under a meter).

If you look beyond the cheerful blooms you will see just how ratty the foliage looks at this time of year.

Still, ratty foliage or not, Rudbeckia fulgida is a highly valuable plant in the garden. First of all, it has a wonderfully long blooms season for a perennial. It begins blooming mid July or so around here and is still blooming strongly the first week of September.

Another thing I really like about Rudbeckia fulgida is that at this time of year it invites flocks of Goldfinch to the garden. They love to eat the seed heads so I don't remove those dead blooms.

You must keep in mind that if the birds are eating the seed heads, they are also scattering many of them about in the garden. Rudbeckia fulgida self sows itself all over the place. Not enough to be considered invasive but I'm sure I've given away or sold at least 500 plants in the last 7 years.
Another type of Rudbeckia that is fairly popular right now is the German hybrid Rudbeckia nitida 'Herbstsonne' (that means autumn sun). This type of Rudbeckia can grow as tall as 6 feet (two meters) and will flop about a bit if it's in an open, windy location.

It took me awhile to find the right place for 'Herbstsonne' but now I'm thrilled with it growing by the Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus' (porcupine grass) and Eupatorium maculatum 'Gateway' (joe pye weed).

This summer I had a few Rudbeckia volunteers pop up in my herb garden. They aren't either of the above two types so I'm not sure of the variety.

There are also types of Rudbeckia that are annuals and I've grown them in containers in this garden so these might be seedlings from them. Then again, maybe the goldfinch dropped off the seed for me as a thank you for all the food I've provided them over the year.

What ever this variety is, I find it chamring with it's shorter, more blunt petals.

How many types of Rudbeckia do you grow in your garden?

Helenium 'Mardi Gras'

A few years ago (most likely 4 years ago) I purchased a plant that I knew nothing about. It was in a large pot, at least 1.5 gallons. The tag read Helenium 'Mardi Gras' and since I knew my garden didn't have enough late summer/early autumn blooms, I thought I'd give this one a try.


'Mardi Gras' has done more than I ever expected. It grew quickly although not at all aggressivly. It never flopped, it had wonderful colors in the blooms (as promised on the tag) and most importantly, it passed the division test.

This past spring my clump of Helenium 'Mardi Gras' had grown large enough that I felt I could take a chance and divide it. I simply dug it out of the ground the last week of April and cut it into pieces with my root knife. Those pieces were planted out in different parts of the garden where they took off growing as if nothing had happened to them.


You can see here in this less than artistic photo that Helenium 'Mardi Gras' stands upright. Not one of the newly planted pieces has flopped and every one of them is chock full of blooms right now.

Looking through some gardening catalogues I see there are other varieties of Helenium too. I think it's high time I add some more of these great perennials to my garden.

As a final note, I chose to post about this plant today specifically because Hurricane 'Gustav' is hammering the Gulf coast. My thoughts and prayers are with all the folks in the path of this storm.

Ligularia - August Bloomers

In late August there are two kinds of Ligularia blooming in my garden. Ligularia dentata 'Britt Marie Crawford' has a deep purple foliage that looks fantastic even without blooms.

While the yellow flowers aren't the prettiest flowers in my garden, during these dog days of summer they are very welcome.

This is the same spot just zooming out a bit. It's taken at least five years for this clump of Ligularia to grow this big. I think they could grow faster if given better soil but there's quite a bit of root competition in this spot from my neighbor's trees.

Ligularia's need a fair amount of shade and lots of water to perform well or even survive. If you have a choice, choose the shade of a tree that has deep roots instead of shallow roots like the Norway Maple my neighbor has let seed all over.

Three years ago I noticed something interesting when weeding near 'Britt Marie Crawford'. There were a few seedlings growing with that distinctive leaf. Some were more purple than others, I weeded out the less purple ones and left the deep purple ones to grow. (By the way, the lighter green seedling will grow up to be a beautiful foxglove.)

This week I've noticed a half dozen or so seedlings popping up. You can bet I'm going to be careful when weeding around here.

The seedlings are not the same as the mother plant. They have different degree's of purple coloration but I'm not such a snob that I'd turn my nose up and ask them to leave.

Over on the other end of the same border is Ligularia dentata 'Othello'. In this first shot you can see a leaf that's been burned by too much sun and not enough water.

This particular plant has been a trooper, hanging on in a spot that the sprinkler doesn't really reach well. For that reason I forgive the few leaves that look like this.

You can see here, it's easy to just snip off the offending leaf if you feel the need.

As always, when you want a plant to reseed in your garden, you need to put up with those dead or dying blooms. Leave them be, let them dry out and they will scatter the seeds for you. You can also take the dried blooms and scatter the seeds yourself but I prefer mother nature to do the job for me. Once the seedlings are growing it's easy to pluck out a few and move them to different parts of the garden.

This weekend is a holiday one for us here in the United States (Labor Day weekend) so I don't know yet how/when/where/ and what I'll be posting about.

Have a fantastic day!
Melanie

The secret of Lunaria

One of the few plants that was growing on this property when we moved here was Lunaria. I had never grown it before and really didn't pay it much attention.

Lunaria is a biennial, meaning that it lives two years. The first year it only grows foliage and the second year it blooms and scatters seeds. If you want your biennials like Lunaria to return year after year you have to let them go to seed.


The good news about Lunaria is that it has an interesting seed pod so people tend to leave it alone until it finishes scattering it's seed.

I have seen beautiful bunches of Lunaria seed pods in other homes or for sale at garden shops but the Lunaria in my garden always looked dingy to me. I just figured I had a different type and never really looked too closely.

This week I began to clean out a bed which had the above shown clump of Lunaria in it. As I was working near it I discovered something I had never known before.

Here's a close up shot of the Lunaria. See how dirty some of the seed pods are? They are transparent enough so you can easily see the seeds inside them.

I was under the impression that there were two outter pieces and the seeds were on the inside. Now I know I was wrong. There are three thin pieces of pod. Two outside pieces and one inside one that is protected from the rain and dirt of the garden.

Cutting off the dried branches as close to the soil as possible I started to clean each individual pod. It just takes a light rub with two damp fingers. Don't rub to hard or you'll rub off all three layers. Since I suddenly realized what a treasure I had here I wanted to save every seed possible so I did this over a piece of paper so I could gather the seed and scatter them in beds that didn't have Lunaria in the past.

See how nice and shiny the inner layer is?

Finally, here's the real treasure. A beautiful bunch of Lunaria in a simple old pitcher. This arrangement will last all winter long if not longer. I made sure I placed it in a spot where the sunlight would come through the pods. How I wish I hadn't weeded out so many Lunaria seedlings over the last years.

When I first made this discovery I came running in to show my two teenage daughters. It was a true "duh" moment as they looked at me and said "mom, how could you not know this?". Then they reminded me of all the years they played with the seed pods as they were young children. Emily told me that she always got three dollars from one pod. No wonder she acts like money grows on trees :-)

Lunaria has lots of nicknames. Around here we called it the "money plant" or "silver dollars". My girls used those seed pods as money for many an imaginary game. I guess I have to thank them for the fact that Lunaria is still growing in my garden.

Hopefully now I've scattered enough seeds in various beds that next year or the year after I will have lots and lots of bouquets to share with friends.

Acanthus spinosa

Acanthus spinosa, also known as Bear's Breeches is another perennial in my garden that I know very little about. This beauty was planted out front in a fairly shady spot about 5 years ago. I'm not sure it has bloomed every year.

Doing a google search on it this morning I see that it likes full sun to part shade. Also, the photos I found on line were stunning, big massive clumps of blooms. It requires little care, at least I haven't done anything special here. Average amounts of water so it seems happy with what the surrounding perennials are getting. Also, I haven't seen any signs of pests on this plant.

In this photo I stepped back so you can see the Acanthus as it's set in the garden. I'd say this is one of my less inspired combinations. Obviously this plant can really shine if it's in the right location, I think I need to try it in more sun but I'm not sure about moving it.

Do any of you grow Bear's breeches? I'd love any tips on growing this beauty.

For those of you who read here regularly, I guess you can tell that I'm winding down. Getting ready for my trip has become a full time job and this week will be just packed with last minute activities. I will only have time for a few more posts before we leave and there won't be anything posted again until late July.

Hope you are all still here when I get back!

Melanie

Callirhoe

The other day I posted a photo about a plant but couldn't remember the name. Well here it is, Callirhoe involucrata. Now please don't ask me to pronounce this out loud, I can usually come up with a decent pronunciation but this one has me totally stumped.

I've had Callirhoe in the garden 4 or 5 years now. The same two plants, never more, never less. I bought them in a small pot and over the years I've learned little about them.

Callirhoe doesn't stand up on it's own, it needs surrounding plant material to clambor along or a rock wall to cascade down.

It has no pests that I've seen except for rabbits which occasionally find it absolutely delicious.

The flowers only open when the sun is up, they close up in early evening but the strong magenta color still makes the closed buds beautiful.

Today I went to Mobot's site to learn more about this plant. It is part of the Malva family and can grow as far south as Texas (Pauline, are you taking note?). Also, it likes dry to medium soil so I'm guessing it would also do well for Gail in her stony Tennessee soil.

This plant is native to America, I wonder if any of you folks overseas seas have it in your gardens?

If any of you have tips on how to propigate this plant, leave a message. I remember hearing it seeds around but I don't have any seedlings here that I know of.

Flowers for Gail

This post is for all of you but most especially for Gail. Gail is a fellow blogger who lives in Nashville Tennessee and always finds the time to leave nice comments here.

Gail's blog is Clay and Limestone and one of these days I'm going to get to Nashville and we are going to go for a nice long walk. The name of Gail's blog says it all, she has some pretty tough soil conditions to work with.

Yesterday I had a photo of a watering can that was filled with volunteer seedlings. Gail had inquired about them and I answered that one was Silene armeria (catchfly).

You can see in the top photo that it can handle just about anything, seeding itself into a crack in my south facing brick patio.

Silene armeria was given to me many years ago (at least 20 years) by a co-worker when I actually had a "day job". Carmen gave me a little slip in a 4 inch pot. Who would have thought that I'd have waves and waves of this happy plant all over my garden today.

While Silene armeria combines wonderfully with many plants, this Iris isn't the best combo but I wanted to show you something that would give you a size comparison. It's hard to plan combinations with this plant as it's an annual and you never know exactly where it's going to seed.

There have been times that I've weeded my Silene aremeria to the point that I thought I had lost it. Now I just leave it be as it never seeds into the lawn or becomes a pest.

One thing I often forget is that Silene armeria makes a good cut flower. Yesterday I made up several small arrangements to put in my house since it was just too hot to stay in the garden.

Today I'd like to stop at Michaels Craft store to pick up a few more cheap bud vases so I can have little nosegays in every room. If I manage to get this done I'll try to remember to take photos.

Stay cool, it's going to be another sweltering day here on Long Island. At least I now have a fan blowing on my while I type which makes a world of difference.

Foxglove Fantasy

This morning is the calm before the storm. It's cool, damp, overcast and perfect garden weather. The storm on the horizon is not a rain or wind storm, tomorrows forecast is for temperatures to soar to the mid 90's (35 celsius) and stay there for several days. Many of my poor spring perennials will surely suffer.

Right now our biennial Digitalis purpurea (Foxgloves) are bursting into bloom all over the garden. Luckily, I remember to let these beauties scatter seeds everywhere so I always have a large population of them. To be honest, I actually weed out many of them just before they begin blooming as I have too many of them!

In this opening photo I wonder if you can see the mutant scape coming up on this one plant. It's super fat and yet super thin. As it starts to bloom I will need to take more photos.

Here's a stepped back view of this area, you can see all the bloom scapes just beginning to open up their glorious flowers.

Further along in this part of the garden all the blooms are of a similar color. I try to remember to cut back the darkest purple blooms and only let the white and pale lavender blooms go to seed. The dark color though must be dominant as the majority of blooms are always dark purple.

Behind the biennial variety of Digitalis is the perennial sibling Digitalis lutea. It has pale yellow blooms and with the heatwave that is coming, I expect them to open up any day now.

I wish the perennial variety was a bit more prolific, I'm only up to three plantings of them so far.

In the herb bed are these huge white specimen. I could stand there for hours staring at them.

As a closing sneak peek, here's a Tradescantia (spiderwort) that just began blooming. I have no idea if this is a named variety or a seedling that popped up but the flowers are larger than any other in my garden and their color is wonderful.

So many gardeners have told me that they cannot get their foxgloves to reseed or reappear in their gardens. I guess my advice is to not cultivate the area near them or cover it with too much mulch. By the way, past experience tells me that they grow like crazy in a garden heavily amended with composted manure.

Do foxgloves grow for you?

Epimediums

Every spring I'm surprised by my lovely Epimediums. I really don't know much about them, just enough to make up one post. When you look at them you think of delicate, fussy plants but in truth they are the exact opposite.

The flowers are not long lasting and if you forget to trim out some of last years foliage you might miss half the show. The show though doesn't stop there, Epimediums have wonderful foliage and they continue to add beauty to the garden all year long.

Most of my Epimediums don't have names posted under them although this one might be named 'Orion'. A gardening friend shared a number of her Epimediums with me one fall. I really wasn't interested in them but she insisted I take some pieces and so I dug them up and popped them into plastic bags. I should know better because everything she's shared with me has been wonderful.

It's embarrassing to admit it but those bags sat on top of the ground in my shade area for a few months. One day I noticed the foliage was peeking out so I quickly heeled them into the ground. They didn't get extra compost, a handful of fertilizer, nothing special at all. Yet, the next spring there they were in all their glory with the most wonderful fairy-like blooms.

This one has a name, Epimedium sulphureum. Last year the day of the plant sale came and my mom asked me why I had never dug any of these for the sale. To be truthful I didn't know how to divide them and I also thought they'd never sell. Well I was wrong, we had this variety and rubrum for sale and they sold like hotcakes.

This is a sweet variety out front. It's in a dry, root bound, shade bed with the worst soil ever but every year it cheerfully puts out this amazing bloom. According to the descriptions I've got here it might be 'Rose Queen'.

This is the first Epimedium I ever grew. It needs to be divided desperately and I will do so in another week or two. You can see how lovely the foliage is on this variety. I won a piece of it as a door prize at a daylily meeting many years ago. Wait, actually my friend Mare won it and I immediately forced a trade on her (I had won a daylily) because the foliage was so entrancing.

This year I only potted up 5 Epimediums, you can see them here soaking up some moisture. They are quite woody and you need a sharp knife to divide them. Also, they have a pungent odor when you cut them, it surprised me. Since our season is more on time this year (last year was late) they probably won't be in bloom on May 10th. I wonder if they'll sell and have no idea what to price them. I'm thinking they'll be $5 per pot, these are full gallon pots and they wholesale here in 5 pint pots for $7.35.

Finally, here's what they look like in a pot on their own. It's hard to tell that they will be something special in the garden. As you can see by Calie the wonder-doodle's face, she's trying to figure out why I'm out there in the rain taking pictures. Calie, you need a bath and a haircut!

Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout'

Do any of you grow Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout'? I bought this plant at least 4 or 5 years ago. It was a single small piece in a 4" pot.

I just finished googling this plant and it's still for sale at many places, it's the price that shocks me. One place had it listed at $9.95 in a three inch pot.

Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knockout' really is a knockout, the foliage is just lovely and I wish I had a close up of the delicate blooms.

This is as close as I could get but I'm wondering if you are seeing what I am seeing. Where are these plants growing? While I was told this plant is a perennial, I'm still not sold on that. I can never find a clump of one plant that I think was there last year. Instead, I find these beautiful seedlings in the general vicinity. The crazy thing is they never seem to seed into the beds, they seed into the crushed shell walkway.

I tried to make this photo more attractive but had no luck. This was taken along my gravel driveway yesterday morning. As you can see, I've got Salvia lyrata seedlings by the hundreds. They are lining my entire perennial border, only once again, they are not in the garden, they are in the driveway.

There is good news. The seedlings are very shallow rooted and pop right up with a dandelion fork. Almost any other seedling plucked out of the gravel this way doesn't survive well but these babies hit the potting soil running.

For the first time I've been making a concerted effort to pot them up for our Mother's Day plant sale. If we sold them for the price that's listed on the three different catalogs I just googled, we'd be rich! I just can't imagine though charging more than $3 for these sweet babies.

I'd love to hear from other people who grow this plant. I've seen it potted up in containers (it looks lovely there) but not in too many other gardens. I'm wondering if I should treat it as a rock garden plant and move it over by my succulents. It sure would be charming popping up in and out of those hens and chicks.

Any suggestions?