Tropical Paradise

No photos to share yet. My mom has internet access and a computer but not the photo program I use with my camera.

Sunny Florida...NOT. It's truly tropical here. Bands of rain and wind come whipping through and then a break with hot sunshine. Before you can dry off the rain comes through again. Of course, as a gardener I understand how much they need the moisture down here so I've got a smile as my umbrella.

Right now it's raining sideways, we'd like to go out for dinner but will have to wait for a lull in the storm before we make a run for the car.

This morning we visited a nature/bird sanctuary and saw baby alligators. That was before we got caught in a downpour but I still got some photos before the rains came.

Tomorrow we hope to visit a local Japanese garden. Cross your fingers for me and hope that we have beautiful weather.

Till tomorrow,
Melanie

Behind bars

Phooey. It's raining outside and this picture of my labradoodle Calie shows just how I feel.

Yesterday's weather was glorious but I had no time to get out in the garden. Today I don't have the time to get out there either but I can't even dream about it with this weather. Of course I know the garden appreciates the rain so I'm only grumbling a little bit.

As a teaser though, I'll leave you with this photo:I took this picture last summer in Germany but I chose it here today as a tropical image. Tomorrow morning long before the crack of dawn I'll be on the way to the airport to catch a plane to sunny Florida.

My mom and I will have almost four glorious days together, we plan on lots of walks and visits to various nature preserves. I promise to bring my camera and come back with oodles of photos.

Maybe when I wake up here next Tuesday morning it will feel like spring outside :-)

Think green,
Melanie

Cutting back the grasses

Yesterday was the perfect day to spend cutting back the grasses in the garden. Although the weather channel said the temperature was in the high 40's, the bright sunshine made it feel much warmer. Still, you don't want it to be too warm when cutting the grasses, they can be quite sharp and it's nice to wear long sleeves and still be comfortable.

Rather than show photos of dead looking grass stumps, I've chosen the fall shots of these grasses. The first grass was the easiest, the various clumps of Hakonechloa (Japanese Hakone Grass) only need household scissors to cut them back. I like to vary the tools I'm working with so I don't end up with one massive blister.

The clump of Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light' seen behind my spring cherub was the hardest to cut back. Due to it's location, I used a pair of hand held felco pruners. The palm of my hand is quite sore today.

This clump is boxed in on two sides with stone and concrete patio so it's become quite dense. Hopefully I'll get to digging it up and dividing it this spring.

The Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus' (Porcupine grass) was actually quite easy to cut back even though it was by far the largest clump in the garden. I used my husbands new bypass lopers and it only took about ten minutes to clean this out.

I really love this grass. When it first begins to grow, it doesn't have the markings on it. It's not until it gets at least chin high that pale yellow bands start to appear.

The final clump of grass that was cut back was the Molina 'Sky Racer'. It's another grass that I just couldn't live without. The foliage on this grass stays quite low but the blooms shoot up in the sky to form a a thin veil that you can still see through. I used the Felco pruners on this one too, it wasn't very difficult to cut back at all.

Like the other grasses in the garden, this one is due to be divided this year.

BONUS! If you are wondering why I was using hand held tools instead of attacking all the grasses with lopers, well it's because I was looking for treasure in the garden.

My diligence was rewarded, in total I found 6 praying mantis egg cases in the grasses. I've cut them off carefully and stored them outside, in my breezeway. I sent an e-mail to the school offering some of them to any elementary school teacher that would like one. We'll see if anybody takes me up on that offer.

I never did get around to planting peas although I did ready the pots that I plan to plant them in. Today looks like another great gardening day so I hope to squeeze a few hours in out there before the afternoon and evening meetings begin.

Happy digging,
Melanie

It's Green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In keeping with today's theme, I thought I'd post a few green photos. It was either that or images of me planting peas (something I might get to later today).

These four shots are slides that were taken years ago and then scanned into my computer. They don't have the clarity of today's digital images but I think they still get their point across. As Kermit the frog knows, even green can be beautiful.

The opening slide has been shown here before. It's an amazing combination of Hosta, Sanquinaria canadensis (double bloodroot), Asarum europeaum (European Ginger) and an Epimedium.

This image is a simple close up of an Ipomoea, most likely the variety 'Marguerite'.


Here's an unknown Hosta with a single mutation in the center.

And finally, lots of green but contrasting foliages with the Hemerocallis (Daylily) on the left, Alchemilla (Ladies Mantle) in the center and the Coreopsis (tickseed) on the right.

Ok, here's hoping it warms up enough out there for me to get out and do some planting :-)

Melanie

Bleeding Hearts by Color

Dicentra spectabilis, more commonly known as Bleeding Hearts is a perennial that I just adore. My gardens are filled with them, they bloom for such a long time in the spring. The only downfall is that their foliage dies off when the temperatures get hot so you are left with a large "dead" spot in your garden. It takes a bit of experementation but eventually you will find companion perennials that will fill in that spot later in the season.

One of the most cool things about bleeding hearts is that you can tell what color they are as soon as they start pushing out of the soil. I wish other perennials were this easy to identify!

The first photo shows the emerging shoot of a pink bleeding heart.


This is what the blooms will look like later in the spring. Aren't they magnificent?


Here you can see the color change in the emerging shoots of a white bleeding heart.

This photo was shot exactly one year ago. Aparently we are a bit behind last year as I haven't seen this in the garden yet.

Going through three years of perennial photos it was amazing to me that I could find lots of photos of the pink Dicentras but this was the only photo I could find of a white Dicentra. I grow lots of both of them so I will have to make an effort to take some better photos this year.

If you've ever wondered how to divide a Dicentra spectabilis, scroll down the right side of my blog and click on "How to Divide Perennials" under the catagory "Labels". You will see what the root system of a bleeding heart looks like. They are quite different from most perennials and so I used to think they were finicky. The truth is that they divide easily as along as you divide them early in their growth stage. In my experience, they immediately take off and bloom like nothing ever happened to them.

Another note I would make about bleeding hearts is that they appreciate more sunlight then I was led to believe. If you live in a warmer climate (I am on Long Island, just east of New York City), you might have a different experience. Here though, I've grown bleeding hearts in full sun and they grow quickly to epic proportions! The ones in the shade bloom as well but take much longer to clump up.

Off to spend some glorious time cleaning up winter debris,
Melanie

Hicks Flower Show

Yesterday's trip to the Hicks Flower show here on Long Island was the perfect cure for the late winter blahs. The smell of the air alone was enough to invigorate a gardeners soul.

Hicks is an old nursery, over 150 years old, still run by the same family. It's perfect for the main stream gardener, excellent for families with children. They have a wonderful selection of containers, and also one of the largest selections of organic products for gardeners.

What they are not, is a place to hunt for perennials. You'll always find one or two there that are perfect but a long time perennial collector probably wouldn't fill a wagon there.


What grabbed my attention there was the large planters filled with many tropical (house) plants. Last year I filled many of my own planters here in the garden this way. Rather than using lots of flowering material, I chose to use tropical plants that had interesting and contrasting foliage.

There was a large crowd there and I only felt like snapping quick photos so there's no artistry involved in these shots. Still, I hope you can see what I mean about using foliage plants.


This container was lovely. Later when I get a chance to photograph the plants that I brought home with me I'll show you what the chartreuse plant is that's in the foreground.

A container like this would look great for a party but really isn't practical for a whole season in the garden. At the back is a Hydrangea and a Mandavilla, neither of which would really look great in this setting in another month or two.

My very favorite container was the first photo at the top of this post. I fell in love with the plant that looks like a big bow (to me) but I didn't see it for sale nor did I find it's name.

Kim and I also found the perfect containers for our dish gardens. Later this morning I'll take photos and share them here.

Hunt for Hypertufa

This morning my friend Kim and I will go on a hunt for hypertufa containers. Kim is the flower show chairperson for the Nathan Hale Garden club and one of the classes in the show will incorporate dish gardens. Ideally, we'd like to find 4 matching hypertufa containers for this class.

These two photos were taken at Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, New York. Hypertufa is a mix of cement, peat-moss and sand. The containers look like they are solid concrete but are actually light enough to be able to move around.

I've read dozens of articles on how to make hypertufa but just haven't had the time to put together all the ingrediants to try it here.

Our hunt will take us to Hicks Nursery which coincidently is opening their flower show and spring exhibit today. I can't wait to get back and share some fresh photos with all of you!

Wish us luck on finding the right containers.

Melanie

Have you ever divided a Hellebore?

Last year was the first that I had Hellebore seedlings bloom. It was so exciting to see their different faces. The bees had done the pollinating for me, I did not hybridize these.

As you can see here, they were a nice size last year. This year I expect to have them double in size as they were planted in a nice rich soil.

One Hellebore that I bought about 5 years ago has grown to enormous proportions. I've never read or seen anything that talks about dividing a Hellebore. The plants that are available for sale in pots are quite large and robust so I would guess that they do pot up well. I wonder if those are seedlings that are potted up or if they were divisions from larger plants.

Many years ago a garden friend gave me two plants of Hellebore foetidus. She warned me that they would sulk when planted in my garden. True to her advice, they never became robust but as they went to seed, their seedlings took over and became large healthy plants. I have moved very young seedlings and noticed that they don't mind this at all. But as for actually cutting into a large clump, well that's something I'd like more information on before actually trying.

Melanie

Spring scene

It's cold and rainy outside. So, if I can't have spring out there, I'll make it be spring in here.

It might not be much but this little vignette set up on my kitchen counter is the first thing I see when I come in the door.

The Primroses were just being unloaded at Main Street nursery when I was there on Friday. The yellows smelled heavenly but I just couldn't resist this color combination, even though it doesn't have any scent.

Unusually warm temperatures this past weekend did a great job of melting much of the snow around here and today's rain is finishing it all off. Saturday I got to do a little clean up in one of the front beds and found foliage on the Colombines and Nepetas. By the end of this week I hope to be able to find some of the Dicentras (Bleeding hearts) popping up.

Melanie

Then and Now

On the 15th of February I went out to the garden and shot some pre-spring photos. We had a fairly mild February and I was sure spring was just around the corner.

As you can see, the buds on the Hellebores were already full of promise.




While the sempervivum were quite shriveled, I knew that a few weeks of milder temperatures would perk them up quickly. This one is 'Oddity', the only sempervivum I can readily identify without any name tag.


The trough is filled with grayish sempervivums. They will turn all kinds of lovely shades once they get a little bit more sun and warmth.


Sedums in the red wagon are lush and full, just waiting for spring. They call to me begging for an overhaul this year. It's a task I look forward to, hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can get to it later this month.


Alas, winter was not ready to let go of it's hold. Last weekend while I was up in our state capitol advocating for our schools, Long Island was walloped with a snow storm. This photo taken this morning is five days after the snow, finally we've had enough melt to see the tops of some of the plants. With temperatures forcasted to be quite mild for the next few days, I expect all the snow to disappear by late Monday.

Another thing to note here is that this spot is still in shadow. With the tall evergreens surrounding our property, the winter sun has little chance to reach the ground.

I'm sure it's only weeks from when I'll be posting photos of the most beautiful, lush sempervivum. For now though, I can only sit here at my computer and look at last years photos.

As for the Hellebore in the opening shot, it's still under snow but being ever the optomist, I know I'll be out there soon taking more photos.

How long do perennials bloom?

When I was doing quite a few gardening lectures, I was often asked why perennials don't bloom as long as annuals. I had to explain that my understanding is that they bloom for a shorter time span because they need to conserve energy to return again the next year.

Most likely there is a much more scientific answer for this question but in my own garden I have had some perennials that bloom for a very long time and it seems like many of them don't reliably return. Hellebores though are quite hardy here.

This photo was taken last year on June 9th. You can see that the Hellebore was in full bloom. I couldn't find a photo of when the Hellebore began blooming but I'd guess by late March if not early April it was blooming. Since it certainly didn't stop blooming a day or two after June 9th, I can pretty much bet that it bloomed for over 3 months. That's an incredibly long bloom season for a perennial!

There are other perennials that bloom for a long time here on Long Island, I'll have to look through my photos and see what pops up. Right now though, I'm looking forward to seeing some Hellebores, Crocus and Galianthus (snow drops) appear any day now. Last year I shot a photo of a crocus bloom on February 20th.

What perennials do you find have a long bloom season?

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?

Symphytum "Langham's Pink"

Brrr, it's freezing outside so there's nothing better to do than sit here and go through some lovely photos taken last spring. One plant caught my interest quickly, Symphytum 'Langham's Pink" also known as comfry.

Now some of you might be groaning out loud since comfry is considered invasive by many people. I don't have any experience with invasive varieties, this pink version is extremely well behaved. I've been growing this beauty in my garden for about four years now and in all three spots it has stayed in a clump.

Here you can see it along with some of it's neighbors. The Coreopsis verticilata 'Zagreb' growing next to it is at least as vigorous a grower. The same goes for the lovely, silvery Stachys byzantine (Lamb's Ears).

Finally, here's a close up shot showing what a nice contrast there is between the foliage of these two plants.

This spring I'd like to divide the Symphytum. I've never done this before so I do hope that it's a simple dig and then chop. If you have any advice, drop me a comment here. Many times it's not HOW you divide a perennial but WHEN you divide it that makes all the difference. For instance, the Coreopsis get's divided extremely early in the spring. If I divide it after it's three inches high it just flops all over and looks lousy for a year. Divide it early and you'd never know it was cut.

By the way, after the Symphytum finished it's first bloom season, I cut it back hard and put the cuttings on my compost heap. About a month later you will be rewarded with another flush of bloom and the cuttings will have already decomposed. What more could you ask for!

Off to put on another layer of socks.
Melanie

Technology

Good morning,

Nothing like a fresh new day. My rested brain thinks it has figured out how to access those smaller images.

Hope you like today's image. Geranium sanguinium and the lovely silvery foliage of Stachys byzantine (Lamb's ears).

I've deleted my test posts from last night so I don't bog down anybody on dial-up.

Right now we are covered in a fresh blanket of white snow so the only gardening going on is photo manipulation.

Weight Loss Tips - 1

Ok, now many of you are probably asking how does the title "Weight Loss Tips" fit in with my garden blog theme here. Well for one thing, I really look forward to working in the garden this spring. For the first time in years I have more energy than I know what to do with and you can bet I'll be focusing some of that new found energy into my garden.

For the past week I've been hounded by weight loss spam every time I log on to the internet. These ads are combined with before and after photos that basically look like somebody first slouched over and stuck out their belly and then stood up straight and sucked their gut in as far as possible.

No photos here, at least not for now. What you'll read here (and hopefully once a week or so) is what worked for me. Bear with me, this post will be a bit longer as I lay out the ground work.

Here's the background, no holds barred. Last year during winter break (February 2008) I decided I was sick and tired of the extra weight I'd been carrying around. Most of the people who know me did not think of me as fat at that time. I was wearing a size 10 in pants, sometimes I squeezed into an 8 if it was labled "curvy fit". By the way, that "curvy fit" really means "hey, you should be buying the next size". When I was married at the early age of 23 I was 123 pounds. As my age crept up into the 30's, so did my weight and by my early 40's I followed suit and found myself weighing in the low 140's. So how did it happen that by the time I was in my late 40's I was no longer in that 140 range?

I was never one to step on the scale. Truth be told, I'd rather go to the dentist than confront the number on that little thing. It took two weeks of "dieting" before I had the nerve to get on that scale. Holy cow, it said I was 162 pounds and I knew I had already lost a few pounds by then. Did that motivate me? No way, I went into a funk and ate my way to happiness for another month. Great, now I was up to 165.

Finally, with no pants fitting me I decided I just had to get back on track. There are so many weight loss tips and products on the market but all I could think of was something I overheard at the pool at the Kings Point senior citizen developement in Delray Beach Florida. There was a younger man there with a body builders physique who was speaking to two women. He told them that his opinion was that somebody should NOT try to lose weight by working out. Working out builds muscle and it also makes you hungry. His idea was to try to lose the weight first and then start toning your muscles. Ok, but you still have to figure out how to lose that weight. Still, the thought of no working out sounded good to me so my next step was to figure out how to cut those calories.

If you are like me then you've read hundreds of weight loss tips and articles. I can't even count how many times I've read that you should eat a big breakfast, a medium lunch and a small dinner. I'm not a breakfast person but I thought this might work for me so I started making myself a big healthy breakfast. I measured 3/4's of a cup of Fiber One (bran) cereal into a bowl, added a lowfat yogurt and splurged on what ever berries were available in the supermarket. Yum yum, that was a delicious breakfast. Lunch was always a salad of some sort with lots of protein and dinner was our usual dinner fare but smaller portions. Did I lose weight? Nope, not really, maybe a few pounds over 3 months but nothing to write home about.

Maybe the big breakfast concept works for some people but for me it just stretched my stomach and I continued to want to eat all day. The good news though was that I had stopped gaining weight and managed to get into the high 150's which got me back into a few pairs of pants. Do I think this type of diet would work in the long run? Yup, it would but I wanted to lose weight now, not 2 years from now.

By May 2008 my motivation was kick started and I found myself looking more seriously at my eating habits. My biggest weakness came around 4:00 in the afternoon and continued until 6:00 pm. We were late dinner eaters here, usually eating as late as 7:30 pm. My problem was I was hungry long before that and nothing was safe when I began grazing my way through the kitchen. So I made a huge decision, I would no longer eat dinner at 7:30. Dinner time for me had to be when I was hungry, even if it was 5:00 pm. Luckily, with only one daughter left at home, this was something that I could manage since Emily spends most of her evenings at the high school at after school activities. Also, my husband Don is not a big eater and he was fine with not getting dinner many nights or just heating up something I had cooked earlier.

I began to cut things out of my diet. No alchohol unless I was at a party or dinner occassion. No bread, that meant no bagels, no toast, no sandwiches or anything like that. I didn't cut out the carbs all the way, I still had pasta (smaller portions) and potatoes when they were on the menu. I just cut out the bread.

The big breakfast just wasn't working for me and I switched back to my old standbye. Two cups of coffee and a slimfast meal bar. This is my number one tip and I truly believe the reason my weight loss began to really work. Today I still have the same thing every morning. It fills me up and I don't get hungry again until about 11:30 am.

Ok, I'm going to end this here. Be assured there are lots more tips coming. One thing I forgot to mention at the beginning of this post is that for the last two weeks my weight was 125 pounds and I've actually had to make an effort to put a few pounds back on! For those of you who are math challenged, that's a total weight loss of 40 pounds!

Now don't forget, this is what worked for me and I'm not a dietician or anything like that. I'm a stay at home mom and gardener.

So to wrap things up, the tips in this post are:

1. I didn't work out while trying to lose weight. I did move about though, walking is something I've always loved and once I lost some weight I swam daily but nothing super strenous.

2. The big breakfast didn't work for me. I'm much happier with a small breakfast and decided it's ok to eat lunch at 11:30 if that's when I'm hungry.

3. Late dinners are a killer. Rather than graze for two hours in the early evening, I ate dinner then and didn't eat later in the evening.

Stay tuned for more diet tips and of course, more gardening posts (once this darned snow goes away).

Poinsettia Guilt

Poinsettia. Nothing says Christmas like the Poinsettia.

The new colors available are amazing but even the old stand-bye red will warm your heart.

Poinsettia's are so easy to grow, that's the problem with them. You see, after Christmas, after New Year's, after all the holiday decorations are packed back in the attic, you find yourself left with a bright red plant.

Now don't get me wrong, I like the color red, my kitchen has lots of deep red accents. But a red plant that screams CHRISTMAS? Nope, this just doesn't fit into my decorating scheme. Ha! That sounds like my house is a showcase out of Better Homes and Gardens but it isn't. I just can't seem to get used to this plant being in my house right now.

So here comes the guilt part. You can stop watering it and let it die a slow, painful death. You can imagine it needs more sunshine and put it out on the breezeway and forget the fact that it's the frozen tundra out there. Instant death sounds so much better than a slow death but I just can't make myself do it.

The other day I posted to a daylily listserve I belong to and posed this same question. What do you do with your Poinsettias? The reply I liked best came from a woman who suggested watering it and ignoring it until spring. Then take it outside and plant it in the garden where you need to fill in a hole (or in a container with other foliage plants). The leaves won't be red then, but it will grow big and lush and fill in a spot that was barren. Come fall when a heavy frost settles down, it will die but it will have lived on for one more glorious season.

Now I only need to find blinders to wear every time I walk through my living room. Or better yet, maybe I'll move it to my daughter Lauren's room since she is away at college. Hmmm, I think I'll do just that!

Just "me"

Here we are, the end of January with the dull dreary days of February barreling down upon us.

So where have I been? I've been here, not on my computer but here, in my house and up at the school.

What's new you ask? Well, it appears our desktop computer has finally passed out for good. I have my photos saved on an external hard-drive but haven't moved them yet to this laptop. Since I'm known to be technologically challenged, it might still be awhile before I get photos back up here. At least I'm not chomping at the bit to take lots of photos these days, right now everything is white or dirty gray outside.

My first inclination was to title this post "the new me". You see, there have been some big changes in our lives and more changes yet to come. People around here who know me personally have noticed one of the changes. Over the last year I lost a total of 40 pounds. I really didn't have 40 pounds to lose though so I find myself with the unusual task of having to put 5 pounds back on again! So when it comes to the physical me, maybe there is a new me but I find the old me is still right there, under my skin.

This June will be our 25th wedding anniversary. It will also be our last wedding anniversary. Read between the lines if you will. The biggest change yet to come? Chances are this coming growing season will be the last one here in this garden. So here's another "me", not "us", just "me". The garden is something I just can't really think about, it just seems to be hiding in a corner of my mind, waiting for spring before it begins to set down roots and grow again.

Being a gardener, I think I'm an eternal optimist. While I know that any house I can afford in this town will be a tiny cottage, I have dreams of a magazine-like cottage garden with white picket fences and lots and lots of cutting flowers just cascading over rough walkways. Hmmm, maybe I can think of gardening after all.

Hopefully this tentative sticking of my big toe in the water's of the world wide web will lead me to jump back in. I've put up all the comments many of you left me on my blog but will only begin answering new comments for now.

Hugs to everybody,
Just "me", Melanie

Columbus Day

Whew! Columbus day weekend and our marching band home show are finally behind us. Now there's just a bit of breathing space and a wee bit of time for the garden.

Here's a lovely shot of one of the old churches on Main Street in our charming village of Huntington New York.

Looking up Main Street, we were waiting for the big Columbus Day Parade to begin!

And here they come, the most amazing, incredible, Walt Whitman High School Wildcat Marching Band. Hooray!!!

Ever wonder why?

Why? Have you ever seen a plant growing in a garden that you used to grow years ago? Do you ever wonder "why aren't I growing it now"?

In my very first, very beginner-like garden I grew a large patch of Chelone. I'm pretty sure I didn't know how to pronounce it back then since I'm still not sure of how to say it today. The nick name around here is false turtle head.

Back to the story, I had this big clump of Chelone. I thought I was the best gardener in the world because it was just thriving! Then I tried to dig a piece out of the ground. It had roots like I'd never seen before, they just twisted and turned and went all over the place. I was freaked out by those roots and have never grown it again.

How silly is that?

Last week when we visited Stonecrop I saw this nice clump of Chelone. Oooohhh, I wish I had a nice clump of Chelone in my garden. Look how lovely it looks even now in early fall.

I do have the white variety in my garden, it doesn't seem to be as fast growing as the pink variety. In fact, I don't remember seeing it bloom this summer but I was away much of July. It will be interesting to see if come spring I've matured enough to get past those weird roots and buy a pot of the pink Chelone 'Hot Lips'.