Anticipation

Over the river...

And through the woods...

Step through the door...

(Stay tuned, there's more!)

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - February

Today is my first contribution to "Garden Bloggers Bloom Day". A great big thank you to Carol at http://maydreamsgardens.com for letting me know about this event. As I understand it, on the 15th of each month garden bloggers photograph what is blooming for them that day.

I thought for sure that I would not find any blooms as I walked around our chilly garden this morning. While I didn't find anything actually blooming, I was pleasantly surprised to find some plant material worth photographing.

While the crocuses and the snowdrops still have a chance to sneak up and surprise me, the first flower bud visible is on the stand of Hellebores out front. This one clump of Hellebores gives me the most wonderful bunch of seedlings each year. Two years ago it was almost decimated when the oil delivery truck backed up through this bed (OUCH) but it is finally starting to fill in that spot again.
Here you can see lots of little black berries still on the Liriope. These berries must taste awful or must be poisonous because we have tons of birds and bunnies look for nibbles around here.


More Hellebores, this one looked so nice with the sun shining through and the crispy brown oak leaves. I also love the way the Hellebore foliage looks in the summer when they are finished blooming.


Lots of Sempervivum (Hens & chicks) in the garden. They look so frozen right now. This one here turns a deep red once the season warms up but for now almost all the varieties have this grayish greenish coloration.


Here's another Sempervivum, I didn't bother to copy down the names for this post as they don't look like they will during growing season. While their fuzzy webs aren't visible in the winter, the light frost gives them a similar appearance.


More buds here on the Pieris japonica by the back shed. I can't wait to smell them when they begin to bloom.

The Silene armeria seedlings are everywhere, just carpeting the ground. This year I think I will have to pot them up and share them with friends. They're not at all invasive, one year I almost lost them. Now I leave them be so they can seed about to their hearts content. A simple pass with a cultivator pulls them out any undesired location. To see what they look like in bloom you only have to scroll down to my Valentine Pink post and see them combined with the Edelweiss.

So, no pretty eye candy today but who cares...my daughter Lauren is coming home for the weekend! Homesickness has struck again and she's taking a bus and a train to get here. I've got to stock up on some of her favorites and hang her bedding outside so it smells like "home".

What's blooming for you today?

Ode to Bleeding Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ok, I doubt this is an original blogger topic. I'm guessing that many of you garden bloggers out there will be posting some kind of photo with Bleeding Hearts in them.

First of all, the botanical name for bleeding hearts is Dicentra. There is Dicentra spectablis which I grow in pink and white and the smaller, more delicate Dicentra eximia which I have in white and probably red (somewhere). Today I'll break my rule about using botanical names since the nickname fits so perfectly here.This photo is a lousy shot of some foliage (daylily perhaps?) and the lovely blue/green cut leaf of Dicentra eximia. I don't know if I still have red bleeding hearts in the garden, I can't wait to find out!

When my Dad was alive he loved to be outdoors and putter around his garden although nobody would call him an "experienced" gardener. Dad had the largest clump ever of these little bleeding hearts in full sun. The only thing Dad added to the soil was his grass clippings and you should have seen the worms he had (they were like hot dogs).

For years in my own garden I had a monster clump of Dicentra spectablis (the larger bleeding heart) growing in full sun along my gravel driveway. The spot was the lowest in our property so it always got the most moisture and it was amended every year with manure. I finally dug that clump out and divided it. It would stop you in your tracks when it bloomed but because it was so large it created a huge ugly spot in mid summer.

I really had no intention of following the herd and writing about bleeding hearts today but something happened that changed my mind. Last night I was cruising by here when I stopped suddenly. My daughter Lauren, who is away at college in Pennsylvania actually left me a message on my Valentine's Day Pink posting. Not only did she leave a message but it was gardening related! I tell you, the earth almost moved under my feet when I saw that :-) Anyway, Lauren loves bleeding hearts, we've always grown huge clumps here so this Valentine's day I dedicate my bleeding heart post to her and of course my husband Don who puts up with all my idiosyncrasies and my younger daughter Emily.

The white bleeding hearts grow quite happily here too. Most fortuitous for me, they also self sow (although not as readily as the pink variety). In early spring when they first break through the soil the white variety has a much lighter green foliage than the pink bleeding hearts have. It's easy to differentiate the two and know in advance what color the seedling will become. I don't always try to save the pink seedlings but I separate out every white seedling that I can find. Come Mother's Day weekend when we hold our plant sale, these bleeding hearts sell out before we even officially open the door.

To answer Lauren's question, I did not include a photo of bleeding hearts in my pink posting only because I don't have one that I like! For all the photos I do have of them, not one of them is very well composed (as you are probably now noticing).


This little white bleeding heart with the pink tip showed up one year in a bed where I thought I only had a red variety. For many years I thought it was a unique seedling and I've been trying to increase it. Just this year I saw images online that show the same traits so now I think maybe it's a plant I just forgot I planted there. Bet that never happens to the rest of you :-)

My personal experience in growing these bleedings hearts is that they have an amazingly long bloom season for a perennial. As I mentioned earlier in this post, the larger varieties will die back in the summer heat and leave an awful hole behind which you need to disguise with later growing perennials. The eximia variety though does not lose it's foliage in the summer and I think it would actually prefer more sun and more compost than I've given it in the past. We'll see if I remember to move it around this year and do some experimentation.

Thursday's are my day to volunteer up at our high school so I'll sign off now. I wish all of you a heart filled Valentine's Day.

With love,
Melanie

It's raining, it's pouring...

It's February. After a wild evening of snow, wind, ice and a crazy drive to the high school and back (1 hour to go 3 miles and come home again) we are being deluged with rain. With all this water around me, I thought I'd make some lemonade with these lemons and post about water in the garden.

Water in the garden can have the most amazing effect. Moving water creates soothing sounds that can mask the man-made sounds that seem to fill our world. But, even still water can calm us. The photo above shows a sight I came across while touring a garden in Michigan. Not too many of the visitors even saw this water feature, it was tucked away in a corner of the garden.

When I asked the home owner about this water feature she quickly explained that it was therapeutic. She told me that whenever she went into town and the woman at the bank was nasty to her, she'd come home, walk up to this spot and dunk the manikin's head under water. Sounds very therapeutic to me :-)



There are no water features here in my own little piece of heaven other than a monstrous swimming pool and a kiddie pool for our wonder-doodle Calie. Maybe that's why I find myself so drawn to water features where ever I go, I need one of my own! This second photo was taken at Wave Hill in New York City. I don't know what caught my eye first, the amazing plant material, the charming children that were entranced by this pond or the young man that was in the pond working so hard!


I would totally be remiss if I didn't encourage everybody to go on garden tours. Yes, tours of the public botanical places such as New York Botanical Gardens or Old Westbury Gardens are amazing, but the tours I'm talking about are through smaller, private gardens. Many plant societies and garden clubs run annual and regional tours. Most of my tours have been as a member of the American Hemerocallis Society (that means Daylilies, not a blood disease). Even if you aren't crazed with daylily collectoritis you will find many things totally unrelated to daylilies on those tours. You can go to the site at www.daylilies.org and click on "Conventions/Meetings" to find a tour that might be near you. You do not have to be a member of a local club or the American Hemerocallis Society to be on the tour but be forewarned, you might want to join after the tour :-)

So, on to the photo above. I took this photo in a garden in Mississippi and I wish I still knew the name of the man who had created this amazing garden. He dug canals all around his garden (it was on a lake if I remember correctly) and in the canals he had barges with daylilies growing in them! Now that's a man who likes to keep busy.


This last photo shows a pond in Ed's garden. Ed is a coworker of my husband Don and he has the most delightful garden here on Long Island (truthfully though I took this photo at least 10 years ago). Just under Ed's kitchen window he put in a small pond. First he dug the hole, then he layered it with carpeting he had found at the curb. On top of the carpet he put a rubber liner and around the edges he put small rocks he had found.

Although it's not in the photo, there was a small waterfall so that when the family ate at the kitchen table they could open the window and hear the water. How delightful is that!

Right now the only sound of water here is rain pelting the south side of our house. I will just sit here and be thankful. When steady rain comes in from the north, we end up with some of it in our basement.

Valentine's Day Pinks

(Edelweiss surrounded by a sea of Silene armeria)

Today's post is an early tribute to Valentine's Day.

One of my favorite blogs at www.blotanical.com is Cottage Magpie at www.cottagemagpie.com.

Angela's posts are so beautiful, even the ones not about gardening just tickle the senses and warm the heart. Angela has asked other bloggers to join in and submit pink garden photos for Valentine's Day. I've never joined in on a blogging event like this, what fun!


Of course everybody sees the color pink differently, and there are so many different shades of pink. There's hot pink, Barbie pink, pale baby ribbon pink and lavender pink such as I see echoed in the above combination of Echinacea (Purple cone flowers which have no purple to my eye) and Hemerocallis (Daylily) 'Eggplant Escapade'. Hmm, that doesn't seem right with two plant names that sound quite purple but they look pink to me.


Zinnia's are such simple, happy flowers. I love this hot pink bloom, wish I could cut one and put it right next to my computer monitor right now!

Sheesh I'm suffering CRS today. I been really wracking my brain to come up with the botanical name for this plant and I'm still drawing a blank. Honestly, I'm giving my self a headache just trying to remember what this is. Guaranteed I hit the "publish post" button and then I remember :-)



And finally...tah dah...I saved my favorite for last. A pink sweet pea. Don't know where I photographed this as I don't think I've ever grown sweet peas. Sure makes me want to try though!

So why don't you join on in? Swing by Angela's place at www.cottagemagpie.com, read what it's all about. Then scroll down and read the comments people leave there as they will link you to more gardening sites that are posting pink flowers too.

Thinking pink,
Melanie

Baby it's Cold outside!

(Taken in 2001, this photo shows my old cottage garden.)

After somewhat balmy February temperatures (for Long Island), we woke up this morning to 8 degrees (-13.3 Celsius). Brrrrrrr! My poor plants have no warm snowy blanket on them, I hope they are all sound asleep right now.

(2007 brought us beautiful walkways (safe too) but no more cottage plants here.)

So what's a garden crazed person to do when it's too cold to even go for a walk? Visit other gardeners online! Last fall my blog was added to a gardening blog site at www.blotanical.com. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a garden funk, burnout after years of planning and participating in a national garden tour. With no posts being made to my blog and no visits on my own, my blog at www.blotanical.com lingered at the bottom of the list, almost in no-man's land.

Ah ha! Once the holidays finally barreled through here, that feeling began to creep up on me. You know that feeling...you begin to haunt the 635 section at your public library. When it comes time to check out your books you always seem to have the heaviest stack in sight! Scraps of paper begin to appear all over with mysterious words scribbled on them such as "Lysimachia ephemerum - Must have!". It's times like this I'm thankful I don't have a house keeper. She'd probably find these notes and think I have some rare disease.

At this time of year your car automatically stops at the local hardware giant where even though you know it's awfully early, you find yourself lingering at the gardening section trying to avoid the fact that it's still stuffed with Christmas clearance items.

(The view from our breezeway out to the street, summer of 2007)

Once back at home, you can't stay away from your computer. Stored in this little box that sometimes drives me insane are thousands of glorious photos of gardens, perennials, bulbs, trees, shrubs, herbs, annuals, tropicals and so much more. Better yet, you are only a click away from visiting others. Others who understand this itch you can't scratch, the need to get out in the garden and get some dirt under your fingernails.

(Luscious plants waiting to be adopted by winter crazed gardeners)

The first sign of spring around here is almost always a visit to Hicks Nursery Flower and Garden show. This morning I was sure I'd have another six weeks to wait for that event but after visiting www.hicksnurseries.com I was thrilled to find out that opening day is February 29th!

Hooray, that's not far away at all. Of course, I know that the first week of March is too early for most plant purchases. Still, the smells, sights and sounds of that show are the best tonic for this spring fevered individual. Pots of Hellebores in full bloom, seeds galore and lots of summer bulbs will come home with me. Oh yes, of course some deliciously scented Primrose and Pansies for the kitchen table come home too.

Best of all, there's always a new idea or concept to see at Hicks. It may not be the Philadelphia flower show, but it's here on Long Island and we love it. This last photo (number 5 for those of you counting photos) shows a concept that I loved at last year's show. I've already got the iron gazebo but it disappears from view in my garden. By bordering this one with moss rock and tucking those plants in, you have an instant (almost instant) garden oasis.

Off to dream about the garden, and don't forget, come visit us at www.blotanical.com. While you're there, browse around, hit the favorites and popular tabs and don't forget to click on me and say "hello" while you are there!

Thinking green...

Foliage fun

So, what do you do if you have lots of foliage but it just doesn't have any pizzazz? Add some whimsy and you will suddenly have a spot that will put a smile on your face, even on gray, lousy weather days.

I came across this woman "swimming" in a garden while on tour in Michigan. If I ever see this for sale I just have to get one for my own garden!

Bowling balls were everywhere in a garden I had toured in North Carolina. Luckily for me they were easy enough to find and I too have added bowling balls in my own garden. They sell for about $5 at garage sales around here. Just stay away from the plain black ones and look for some patterned or glittered balls.


The foliage in this shot isn't the prettiest but you can see one of my pink bowling balls. It's been in my garden for almost 4 years now, longer than any gazing ball has ever lasted.

Scratching your head about what you want to add to your garden? Surely you can find something whimsical :-)

Foliage Foes

Not all plants with fancy foliage can be considered friends.


As I've mentioned earlier on in this foliage thread, some plants with beautiful foliage can be horribly invasive. What's invasive for me might not be invasive for you but when you hear a number of gardeners moan "Oh why did I plant that in my garden", you know that this one is a problem in many locations.

Pacysandra is a love it or hate it kind of plant. For almost all my gardening life it was a "hate it" plant for me. Only in the last year or two have I found the desire to try it in the right location (such as under a tree where I can't get anything else to grow).

Interwoven through the Pacysandra is Aegopodium variegatum which has several nicknames such as Bishop's weed or Gout weed. My second year at this house a garden club member brought me a huge plastic bag full of Aegopodium as a house warming gift. Thankfully my gut instinct kicked in and I put the whole thing in the trash barrel. I'm not saying I haven't seen successful, even beautiful plantings of this plant. I just don't think it's well behaved enough to incorporate in a garden that is not confined by many feet of hardscape.

Sometimes you come across a foliage plant that could be well behaved but looking at it just makes you cringe. Yes, we all obviously have different tastes in things but some plants just aren't meant to be (at least not in MY garden). I love Ligularias and highly recommend them in most cases but this spotted variety just sets my hair on edge.

Thick fuzzy gray foliage such as you see here on this Salvia argentea is another "love it" or "hate it" trait. This one would be a "Love it" for me but I've only tried it once and did not have any success. It could be that I put it in too moist a spot or incorporated too much manure in the soil. It seems to me like this plant would like a leaner, well drained spot in full sun. If you have luck growing this in your garden please leave me a comment telling me what it likes.


Last but not least, another spotted leaf here. This one is on a Begonia, there was no tag to tell me the cultivar name. It just seems to me like somebody tripped as they were walking by and splattered a bunch of paint on this plant. Begonia leaves can be beautiful on their own with their thick waxy green finish. In other words, you won't find this in my containers.

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll wrap up my foliage thread with some fun foliage shots.

Spotlight on Perennial Foliage

Today I'd like to expand my foliage topic and shine the spotlight on specific perennials that I rely upon to add dimension to my garden. When reading about my experience with these perennials please keep in mind my growing conditions here on Long Island. The conditions in your garden might be quite different. Here in South Huntington we are a zone 6b garden even though most of Long Island is zone 7a. Snow cover cannot be counted upon (we've had none this winter) and yet even with many days well above the freezing mark, our nights dip well below freezing so there's a constant freeze/heave/thaw cycle going on.



In this first photo we have the blue/gray foliage of Dicentra eximia (Bleeding heart) and Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny). My first inclinations with Bleeding hearts were always to plant them in the shade. Yet when my Dad was alive, he had the most stunning border of Bleeding Hearts in a spot that received full sun shine all morning long and they were glorious! Bleeding hearts have a very long bloom season for a perennial and the foliage on this type doesn't go dormant once summer arrives.

Spread about like a lovely skirt is the golden glow of Lysimachia nummularia. Now this is why I want to you note my growing conditions here because I don't know how this plant behaves in other zones. For a few years creeping jenny spread it's way around enough that I began to worry if I had let a monster loose in my garden. Then ZAP, either a harsh winter, or a long cold wet spring and suddenly there was no more creeping jenny here. So my observation is that 6b is the edge of hardiness for this plant (unless perhaps thick snow cover gives it protection). This year I will be on the look out for more creeping jenny since the color makes for amazing contrasts and it's tiny roots make it very easy to pull from unwanted areas.

Photo number two shows some of the true stalwarts of my perennial borders. At the top left corner is the ferny leaf of Coreopsis verticiliata 'Zagreb'. While there are other verticiliata varieties to choose from 'Zagreb' is the only one for me. Some people don't like the color of it in bloom, it's a strong yellow/gold, not soft and buttery yellow. But the big selling point for me is that it doesn't flop at all and is wonderfully vigorous in it's growth habit. I can always count on 'Zagreb' to look perfect and a simple shearing when its bloom season is done brings it right back into shape.

Peeking up in the center here is Liriope muscari variegata, another great plant. If you have bunnies that frequent your garden, they do love Liriope so you might want to have some red pepper flakes on hand. One year I put a ring of milorganite (fertilizer sludge) around the base of the plant and not only did the bunnies stay away but the next year it was three times the size! Liriope blooms too, very simple lilac stalks in the autumn.

Spilling down along the belgium block is one of my many sedums. I've lost the names of the earliest varieties that were added to my garden so I can't pinpoint this one. One of these days I'll go visit the wonderful site at www.sedumphotos.net and see what jogs my memory.

Moving along a little further down the driveway perennial border you will find yet more Sedum. This one is easy, it's 'Vera Jameson' and I highly recommend this plant to somebody looking for pretty foliage and something that will cascade out the front of your garden beds. I'm going to guess that the little plant coming out of the pot is a Saponaria. I say 'guess' because I think it only lived long enough for me to take this photo.

At the right you will see one of my favorite plants, Alchemilla mollis, also well known as Ladies Mantle. People are probably tired of hearing me say this but I think that having Ladies mantle in your garden is like putting up beautiful crown molding in your dining room. It makes everything near it look fantastic. This far north I have no problem growing Ladies mantle in full sun although it holds its own in partial shade too.

Finally, photo number four for today is one of my favorites. I can't take the credit for this one, Mother Nature had her say here. Just making it in the right edge is more Ladies Mantle, at the very top right corner is the tiniest shot of Achillea (yarrow) foliage. Spilling down along the curb here is yet another lost-name Sedum, this one with nice tight growth habit and yellow star shaped blooms. But the ultimate for me is the combination of the deliciously fuzzy gray leaves of the Stachys byzantina (Lambs ears) interwoven with the finely cut leaves of the Geranium sanguinium (Hardy Geranium). The bright purple blooms on the Geranium are just icing on the cake.

Fantastic Foliage

As my hunt for fantastic foliage unfolded, my first inclination was to search out foliage with contrasting colors. Purple foliage and chartreuse foliage were (and still are) highly desirable. Variegated foliage was another trait I sought out.

After adding these plants with fantastic foliage to the garden (or containers), it took a while before I understood just how diverse foliage can be. It's not only the colors, it's the shape, size and texture of each leaf that counts. Even if one were to have an all green garden, there could be incredible diversity by choosing lance-like leaves and placing them next to soft lacy foliage.

While there is such a wealth of tropical plants with amazing foliage (just look at Coleus alone), there are plenty of perennials with foliage that will blow you away. In this photo are four plants, a simple Hosta 'Emerald Tiara', Sanquinaria (a double blood root), a dwarf Epimedium and Asarum europeam. While each of these plants also flower at one point, I grouped them solely for their fantastic display of foliage.

The wonderful thing about perennials is that your one time investment will reap you a many times return in plant material. So often I see buyers here poo-poo the "common" plants like this lovely Stachys byzantine (Lambs ears). And yet, every photo I scanned that had lambs ears in it was just lovely. As the the Sedum behind it, you only need to read some of my past posts to know how much I love Sedums. One simply needs a pinch and before you know it you have another clump of Sedum to use to highlight another part of your garden.

The foliage epiphany

As a beginning gardener, I had little focus in the garden. Just being able to grow different things got me so excited. At first I tried the familiar plants, perennials such as Iris and Daisies, vegetables and herbs like Tomatoes and Basil, annuals meant Impatiens and Begonias.

Once I gained confidence and toured other gardens, the collectoritis bug bit me and I began to search out all kinds of perennials. Daylily fever almost took me down for good, at one time my garden was filled with strapy green foliage until the glory of July showered me with waves of colorful blooms.



It was on a tour one July (a daylily tour at that) where I was struck by the most amazing sight. It was a shade garden filled with an amazing array of foliage plants. I was experiencing a gardeners epiphany. From that moment on I've worked hard to add new dimensions to my gardens and my containers by searching out all kinds of foliage.

One only needs to visit the greenhouse at any local botanical garden to find the most delicious display of tropical foliage colors. At the beginning of this post you can see a simple croton, I never noticed them before my foliage awareness came upon me. Now not a year goes by that I don't add them to my shade planters.

Once your mind opens to the multitude of foliage varieties, you will find that there are so many directions to follow. Whether you are looking for hardy perennials or tropical annuals, you will find foliage with unique colors, shapes, textures and combinations of all of these.

The biggest advantage to adding amazing foliage to your garden is that you don't have to wait until the flowers open. Even if the summer is too wet to make your pelargoniums happy your containers can look great from day one right up until frost.

One warning though, don't be sold by a pretty face. The colors in this chameleon plant (Houttuynia) are amazing but if you plant this in your perennial bed you will never ever be able to get it out of there. Luckily for me I only put in one single slip many years ago, yet even now, ten years later I battle stray pieces that pop up here and there.

Stay tuned for more on foliage in the garden. This morning I finally finished scanning 100 foliage slides so I have lots of fodder to share with you. I'd also love to hear from you about what works and what doesn't work for you in your garden.