New Plants for Me

On Thursday my friend Kim and I went out to eastern Long Island and visited two great nurseries. The first one was new for us, I had heard they had a nice selection of new perennials and sure enough, there were plenty of beauties for us to choose from.

The second place was the Peconic River Herb Farm which is worth a trip at any time just for the beautiful site and scenery along the Peconic River. Kim and I have been there before a number of times and decided that they aren't quite ready for the season yet, many plants we hoped to see were not yet on the tables and other plants looked a bit frost burned. Still, we managed to fill our wagon as usual.

Friday morning I skipped out of here while it was drizzling and managed to get a quick wagon full of plants at Atlantic nursery before the skies really opened up. Since the rain never slowed down, I spent the afternoon pulling the new arrivals into my breezeway for a photo shoot.

Maybe it's a phase but I'm really tired of all the labels and tags in my garden. The daylilies really do need those name markers but I want to do away with all the rest of the tags. The only way to remember what is what is to have some good records and a digital camera seems to be the perfect solution here.

Only one Sedum caught my eye in all these places and what a charmer it is!

Foliage was the key and almost every plant I bought had great foliage. Unfortunately blogger is giving me a hard time this morning uploading images so I'm just using a few here to get the message across. This is Ligularia 'Osiris Fantaisie' and I can't wait to add this purple foliage to my back shade border.


While I was taking the photos I had to keep shooing Calie-the-wonder-doodle away. She kept trying to step between the camera and the plants. At one point I went inside for paper and a pen and when I came out I found she had snuck her way into the photo shoot area.

I'd better run and get dressed. Do you remember when I posted about that lovely woman who came to shop but I mistook her for somebody else and gave her work to do? Well, Chris is coming over in a few minutes and we are going to play outside with some of the new plants. Hooray!

Shopping Spree!

On Friday my friend Kim and I went to our favorite nursery. We lost total track of the time, I'm guessing it was a few hours that we rambled about deciding on which new lovelies to buy.

One of the first things on my wish list were variegated Iris. Obviously other people had this on their list too because there were only three pots left, I took two and Kim got the last one.

When we got to the Sedum section I picked up one pot after another and announced "already got it". Kim is a good friend, I don't think she rolled her eyes once. It appeared I had every one already until I came to this 'Diamond Edge'. I can't say it totally wowed me but come on, I already had every other variety :-)

Kim must have wanted me to get this sweet little Pulmonaria because she kept pointing out how darling it looked. Since Kim has a new garden that is almost all full sun, she couldn't get it for herself. I took the hint and got it and I'm so happy I did!

This Aruncus didn't have a tag but it didn't stop me. I have many clumps of the dwarf Aruncus athusifolious and it's such a wonderful plant. How could I pass up a chance to try another variety. The sign at the nursery said it will grow 5 feet tall, how cool is that!

Amsonia 'Blue Ice' jumped in my cart when I wasn't looking. I've been growing Amsonia ciliata for a number of years and can't say I love it but this baby still wanted a chance to change my mind.

Campanula persicifolia 'La Belle' also called me over. I haven't had too much luck with many Campanulas here, I think it might be our acidic soil but the peach leaved varieties do well and this pot was just chock full.

Astrantia 'Snow Star' was brazen enough to bring a twin along, two pots came home with me. I don't know what it is about the Astrantias, I've been growing them for years and they've never gotten any larger but I keep trying and trying with them.

Symphytum, yes, no groans please. This variety didn't have a tag, it was low growing and had pink buds with white blooms. There is a sign with the name at the nursery, at least I have a reason to have to go back again :-)

Two new Epimediums for me (Kim got them too)! 'Orange Queen' was just too fantastic with orange blooms and how could we possible turn up a chance to grow 'Shrimp Girl'. After looking at the size of these plants and seeing how much they were I decided to change the price of my jumbo pots to $7.


Oh how hard it is to walk past the hardy Geranium section. I could take one of each even if I already had it in the garden. There were so many to choose from but we both couldn't say no to Geranium sanguinium 'Tiny Monster', Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle' (had this one once before but didn't give it enough sun), and Geranium 'Brookside'.

The Hosta section is like the Sedum section, I can walk the whole row and say "got that one" but I came across a new arrival of 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd' which I had lost the first year I was growing Hosta. Hooray!

Finally, as you can see in this photo I definitely don't have enough Sempervivum yet so I bought four more varieties. I'll save those photos for another post. I thought I was very restrained because they had so many new varieties and I really wanted them all.

Ok, now it's time for bed. Every muscle in my body aches. Today I potted up at least 100 pots and tomorrow is my last chance to pot up the last 100. A few new gardening friends are supposed to come over and help. I'm so happy, hope you all don't mind learning how to pot up Daylilies because that's what's on the planning board.

For the rest of this week the posts will be geared to the Plant Sale we're having on May 10th. Bear with me, I'll be back to my usual garden craze after Mother's Day.

Melanie

Are you a One by One?

When you purchase plants for your garden, how many do you buy? Do you buy one of any given variety? Do you buy them in odd numbered lots ? Or do you fill your wagon with only one type of plant?


Up until the last year or two I was a one by one. I'd only buy one of any given variety and grow it on in hopes that I could increase it and divide it in future years. Looking at the plants in my wagon last year I can see that I only bought one of these unusual Polygonatum (can't find the name of the variety right now).

Sometimes it's the price that keeps me from buying more than one of any variety. Other times it's knowing that while I could squeeze one more plant into my straining borders, three would be too many.

Some plants seem to require more than one pot planted in a single site. I've been buying different varieties of Astrantia each year for 5 years now and still can't say I have a single area where they call out and say "look at me". As much as I love the individual bloom, I rarely find myself looking at them in the garden.

Going through my photos I could only find two examples of Astrantia even though I know for sure I have white and pale pink varieties. As you can see in this photo (besides the weeds there) when you step back only a foot or two, the Astrantia really doesn't "pop" into view at all. This would be the ideal example of the need for 3 or 5 pots of the same variety to be planted in the same location.

Tradescantia 'White Doll' is a favorite of mine. I wish I had a better photo of it, the incredible whiteness of the blooms seem to blur on my camera. 'White Doll' is a wonderfully behaved plant, it's never sent out seedlings nor underground runners into the neighboring plants. It clumps up instantly, enough that I've been able to divide it every few years to share with other people.

The best thing I ever did with 'White Doll' was the first time I divided it I planted all five divisions in the same area. Now when I dig a piece and divide it I always put one division back so there's still five plants forming a group.

Of course when it comes to Sedums and Sempervivum I only need one variety. They are so easy to propagate that I consider it a waste of my money to buy multiple varieties.

On one of the gardening lists I belong to there is a witty writer from the Netherlands named Gerrit. Just this weekend Gerrit posted about PPD (Plant Purchasing Disease) aka PAS (Plant Aquiring Syndrome). It's good to see that I'm not alone in the world but that others also share in this raging sickness.

Unfortunately, Gerrit has found that the only medicine that keeps this monster under control is Mucho Dinero and like the pharmacies in the Netherlands, the pharmacies on Long Island have not yet received any shipments of this product.

Tonight I'm giving a lecture out in the Hamptons. While I will see many other gardeners who have found the miracle drug Mucho Dinero, I'm afraid my paycheck will only be enough for a quick fix.

So tell me, when you buy plants do you buy them one by one?