SUNY Farmingdale - The Rockery

This past Thursday was not the first time I've visited the Horticulture gardens at SUNY Farmingdale. I've been there well over a dozen times so it was most surprising to me to find myself in love with an area that didn't excite me too much on previous visits.

The difference wasn't in the garden itself, the difference was me, my taste and desires in gardening right now.

The Rockery (as Dr. Iverson called it) begins at first with a small rock courtyard showcasing a few shade plants that have charmingly worked their way into the cracks and crevices of the stone walls and floor.

A few steps later though you come across the most wonderful, secret, shaded grotto just filled with a treasure trove of shade plants.

The predominant color here is green and yet it was as exciting to me as the long perennial border and the riot of color in the summer garden.

The day was damp and cool (what else has been new this season) and the plants were in prime condition.


I didn't think to take an overview of the whole area but it wasn't much larger than what you see here in this photo.
The contrast of the Hakonachloa (forest grass) against the gravel was magnificent.


There were lots of large rocks that you would swear were put there by Mother Nature and not by the diligent staff and students at the university. More plants were showcased in the cracks and crevices. I just loved seeing the Asarum europeam (European Ginger) in the garden. It's become a big favorite of mine.


Look! I did find a flower, although the garden would have been awesome even without this little beauty.

The perfect garden needs the perfect ending. How's this as the path to take you up and out of the rockery and back to the "real world".

SUNY Farmingdale

Today I met a few women from my garden club and we were treated to a tour of the horticultural learning gardens at SUNY Farmingdale University.

This first shot was taken at the entrance gate.

Although we were there for a short time, I think I'll break down the visit into three posts. This first post is just to share some of the awesome images I brought home with me.

The plant material was grown to perfection, even with the never ending rain we've been getting this season. I love this combination of the dwarf Aruncus athusifolius and the Pulmonaria 'Mrs Moon'.

I didn't take a photo of the name tag for this so I'm not sure if it's a Heliopsis or a Helianthus (I always get them mixed up). Behind it is Physocarpus (Nine bark).

Another combination that blew me away is Astilbe 'Deutschland' and the variegated Symphytum 'Axminster Gold'.

Sheer luck! How's this for a shot of a butterfly on Stachys bloom? I can't believe it came out this clear as it was in constant motion.

Centaurea macrocephala is something I've tried by mail order but I need to get myself a large one of these so I get to see it grow in my garden.

Papyrus in the entrance garden. This garden is planned to peak in late summer, I hope to get back and see it then.

Clematis and a Rose, sheer heaven.

Finally, the blue on this little bulb Brodiaea laxa 'Queen Fabiola' is just Fabulous! I think I'll be looking for this beauty for my own garden.

The next post will be either about the structure in the garden or the shade rockery. Both were just awesome.

Crabby Claws

Iris ensata, Japanese Iris are blooming in my garden right now. I used to have more varieties, now there are 4 or 5 different ones. A few years ago I didn't remember to remove the seed pods from one of them and it went to seed. There are two seedlings out there, one I forgot photograph because the other one is really strange.

What kind of form is this?

Here's what a Japanese Iris should look like, aren't they beautiful? Nice and graceful, amazing buds even before the flower unfolds.

The pale blooms on 'Gracius' are just as stunning even if they are a bit less lush.

I love the stripes and color breaks in this one.

So what do you make of this? Should it stay or go? I think it's really weird and don't particularly like it but maybe there's an unusual form classification in the Iris world? If so, I think I'll call it 'Crabby Claws'.

In your eye!

Tonight I'm sitting here at my laptop with a very achy back. I was cropping and editing some photos I took today when I zoomed in on this shot of a Astrantia (masterwort) blooming in my garden. I had such fun cropping and zooming that I decided to play with a few more images. So here's some up close and personal shots of things in my garden.

The white Astilbe in my shade bed is pristine white. I grow two white varieties, this one has dark green foliage and I wonder if it's Astilbe 'Deutschland'.

Geranium 'Jolly Bee' against the Hosta 'Aristrocrat'. What a combination!

Plain and simple, Coreopsis 'Zagreb' is so easy to grow and I love it so much better than 'Moonbeam' that flops all over the place.

Spirea 'Little Princess' has a new leaf on life. It clashed something awful with another plant growing next to it so I took it out and moved it to the woods where it promptly died. There was a small rooted branch left in the old spot and now there's a perfect shrub there again. The clashing plant up and died a year later so I'm happy to have this beauty back again.

Just can't get enough of the shade loving Japanese fern (Athyrium niponicum 'Pictum')

Thalictrum glaucum blooms are as tall as me but with all the rain we've been getting their flopping all over the place. Tonight I finally tied them up and had to shoot this closeup.

Yet another Filipendula bloomign in the garden. This one has a finer cut leaf and a deeper colored bloom. I have to hunt around for the cultivar name.

And last but not least, daylily 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' blooming it's first bloom and if you take a look at those amazing buds you'll know it's going to bloom like crazy!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a bicycle. It was a happy bicycle, it lived in a beautiful neighborhood on the north shore of Long Island. One day the bicycle owners decided they no longer wanted this bicycle and put it out at the curb for the garbage men to collect.

Luckily a woman spotted the bicycle before the garbage truck arrived. She remembered her friend wanted an old bicycle for the garden and this bicycle looked like it might be perfect. She was a good friend, she loaded the bicycle in her car and brought it to her friends house.

The bicycle was placed in a lovely section of the garden. It's new owner place a nice straw basket on the handlebars and a birdhouse on the back carrier.

Within days a little wren came and made a nest in the birdhouse. Soon the bicycle was home to a clutch of baby birds. It was happy.


This is what a baby wren looks like (the one on the right :-)) the first day it left the birdhouse. This particular birdhouse has been an excellent shelter, raising many, many wren babies.


Many years later the bicycle was still in the garden, still holding up the birdhouse. The straw basket had rotted away and unfortunately there was only a metal basket to place on the handlebars.


Along came another friend. One of the best parts of gardening are the amazing friends one makes with other gardeners. This friend had found a straw bicycle basket waiting at the curb for the garbage truck. She knew it would be perfect for the bicycle. She was a good friend, she picked up the basket and brought it over to the bicycle's home.

The bicycle's owner went out to put the new basket on the bicycle. She brought along a shovel because there was a large poke weed right in front of the bicycle that was driving her crazy. As she got near the bicycle she heard that sound, cheep cheep cheep, the birdhouse was filled with wren babies. She decided that the poke weed and the basket could wait for a week or two until the babies could fly.


Two days later the owner went out to check on the baby wrens. Horror of horrors, the bird house was not there!!! Carefully creeping around the garden bed the owner saw the birdhouse was laying upside down on the ground. Worst of all, three huge squirrels were trying to get in the birdhouse while a tiny wren was frantically dive bombing all three squirrels.

The bicycle was sad. The owner was mad! She started to flap her arms and loud sounds came from her as she chased those nasty squirrels across the neighbors yard. (Upon reflection, she hopes that nobody actually witnessed her loss of composure.)

She carefully lifted the birdhouse from the ground. As she slowly turned it upright, the baby wrens started cheeping up a storm! Hooray!!! They were alive and well!

Only minutes had passed when the owner saw the wren arrive with a juicy green inch worm. Breakfast time for the baby birds.

The wrens were happy. The bicycle was happy. The owner was happy. The pokeweed was happy too.

The end.

Centaurea nigra - Where did you come from?

In yesterday's blog I wrote about a perennial that has stolen my heart. There were two perennials that were amazing in the garden. This is the second one.

The strange thing is that although I always tell people to catalog their purchases with lots and lots of digital images, I can't find a single image of this beauty. In fact, I don't remember buying it but it's such a large healthy clump that it certainly isn't a volunteer.

I grow other Centaureas so I know what plant family I'm dealing with. Doing a little googling I'm pretty sure this is Centaurea nigra. Now I just wish I could remember where I bought it because I just have to get me some more! (Kim, do you think I got it at Agway? Did you get one??)

Melanie

Filipendula 'Kakome'

Oh no, I think I've fallen head over heels, madly in love with a plant in my garden.

Our lousy cool wet morning slowly turned into a beautiful day. As the weather improved, we started having visitors come to see our open garden. It wasn't until the mid afternoon that I really noticed this plant and then I just couldn't stop visiting it!

One of the first blogs I wrote was about this plant. It was a mystery plant to me, I bought it at a local nursery at the insistence of a gardening friend. Luckily she remembered the name, Filipendula 'Kakome'. (That post is the second to last post under the label "Plant Profile")


When I first planted this in my garden I had no idea what kind of conditions it would need. I planted it in extremely dry shade. Since it's a semi-shade, moisture lover, I'm thrilled that it survived in my garden. While I noticed it before, it wasn't until I moved a piece into a sunnier spot near our sprinkler that I saw what this baby could do. This photo is of the piece that's still in the dry shade area.

Here's a photo from the back side of the sun border with the Filipendula in the lower left corner.

Tonight as I downloaded my photos on to the computer I realized that I took nine different shots of this bloom. I guess I was totally smitten ;-

It looks like cotton candy with little pearl tufts rising above it. Sigh... what a dream flower...

Oh yes, there was another new flower that blew me away today so stay tuned, I'll post about it tomorrow.

Melanie

And the winner is...

Well how's this? I spent the last three days with the wonderful women in my local garden club. First we set up our flower show, then we exhibited in our flower show, I sold plants at our flower show and today at the end we broke down the flower show.

Talk about exhaustion!

The good news? I took home a nice amount of first place ribbons including my first ever "Growers Choice" award and the "Horticultural Excellence award" for one of my trough gardens (I entered three in the show, all three won first place in different classes).

This photo shows me at my sales booth, we should have taken it after I first set up and the booth was loaded down with plant material. The good news though was that at the end of the show I had very little plant material left!

Tomorrow we are hosting an open garden here. Cross your fingers and wish me better weather. I've been soaked through at my sales booth for three days in a row.

Melanie

I got mail!

Yesterday when I went out to the mailbox, I found a surprise. There was a small package waiting for me. I knew immediately that my shipment from Squaw Mountain Gardens had arrived.

You can see how small the package is by looking at the standard sized scissor next to it.

Now I wasn't expecting a huge package by any means, Squaw Mountain Gardens specializes in Sempervivums, Sedums and so on.

Opening the package I was in for another surprise. The box was filled with little paper bags. I had never seen plants shipped this way.

Looking inside the paper bags I found the Sempervivum (hens & chicks) that I had ordered. In all cases there was more than one plant in the bag, sometimes there were quite a few in there!

I suddenly realized that a strong gust of wind could take those bags and scatter the Semps all over the patio. It was time for action and I quickly made up a bunch of pots for those new babies.

Planting instructions were in the box and they were wonderfully clear.


I simply pressed the rosettes against the soil, I didn't bury them. This part literally took a few minutes in total. Not one little chick was allowed to escape. There's a tiny one here near the bottom lip of the pot.


Don't forget the name tags! Some of the varieties I ordered because I couldn't resist the name such as this cultivar 'Legolas'.


Apparently when I was looking at the photos on the website I must have been taken by the cobweb varieties because almost all the ones I ordered were webbed.

Here they are all potted up. I can tell you that I am absolutely thrilled with the shipment and would highly recommend this company for those of you looking for new Sempervivums for your trough gardens.

Melanie