A Lull in Bloom

This morning's weather conditions were perfect for photographs. We had a light rain in the early hours and it's still damp and overcast. Try taking photos in these conditions instead of in full sun and you should be quite pleased with your results.

Right now my garden is going through a lull. There are so many plants filled with buds but not that much in bloom today. As I walked the neighborhood last evening I saw many stands of bearded Iris in bloom, I think I have to make an effort to increase my plantings of them.

First photo shows the buds on my Siberian Iris. I think they are so beautiful even before they open up.

The Alchemilla mollis is all beaded up with rain drops and the buds are just beginning to emerge.

The driveway Daisy is full of buds and continues to drive me crazy.

Stepping back you can see why this unknown type of Daisy drives me nuts. It keeps seeding into my driveway and never in my garden. Even when I gently move young seedlings it slips right back to the other side of the border. AAARRRGGGHHHH. Still, it's too lovely to rip out.

Digitalis are everywhere here and they are shooting skyward now. They are one of my favorite blooms in the garden and I can't wait until they are massed all over the place.

The Symphytum 'Langham's Pink' is blooming away. It's funny, the first set of leaves always are filled with little holes. After it's done blooming I cut it back hard and the new leaves are much nicer.

The white blooming Astilbe has the most lovely light green foliage and the buds are just now popping up.

Hooray, it looks like my pairing of the Dicentra (Bleeding hearts) and Amsonia is going to work just the way I hoped for.

Baptisia 'Screaming Yellow' sure lives up to its name. By the end of the week it should be just a mass of bright yellow flowers. Wish I knew how to propagate this baby.

And finally, lots of buds and lots of blooms opening too on the Geranium cantbrigense 'Karmina'. The hardy Geraniums are really starting to bloom and I will try to get more photos of them.

Sure hope this lull in bloom ends soon.

Sunday Bloomers

Yesterday we spend every possible moment outside working on the yard. Don spent hours pulling out all the weeds that had grown in the cracks of the pool deck here. I played with my Sedums and Sempervivums removing all the empty or sickly pots.

The furniture is set to go and we can now eat outside as a family. I think the pool will wait another week or two depending upon the weather.

Alliums abound in the garden. I am very thankful for them because it seems there is a lack of flowering material right now. While the garden is green and lush, it has paused between early spring bloom and the deluge of perennial peak season.

As the Geranium's begin to put on their show I will be out there documenting as many as possible. This is a new comer, Geranium 'Philippe Vapelle'.

Two of these stunning yellow/white azaleas have sat here in pots for 2 years now. I just can't decide to place them and really have to make a decision this year.

More Alliums, this time white. I don't save their names but this one isn't 'Ivory Queen' which is somewhere out back.

My neighbor had a plant start growing along the fence line and she left it. It has turned out to be Elaeagnus angustifolius (Russian Olive). While I wish she would trim it back so it was a bit more shapely, the scent is just heavenly!

Look what's growing out of the crack in one of my walls. How cool is this!

The Iberis (Candy tuft) is still blooming although it's lost it's compact shape and is moving into leggy territory. Then again maybe it's gotten like this because it has become Calie the Wonder-doodle's favorite hunting ground? Just after I snapped this photo a little chipmunk came racing out of the foliage near Calie's head and she didn't even realize it. Silly dog.

The Nepeta mussini is blooming away like a blue wave. I adore this plant.

Finally, another peek at one of the purple leaved Geraniums in the back shade bed. I believe this one is Geranium maculatum 'Espresso' as the leaves on 'Victor Reiter Jr.' are more finely cut.

Off to move more compost. The pile still looks the same but the garden is starting to look better.

Still doing history...

I've been running into a little difficulty here. Namely, not enough time! Yesterday I tried to move as much of that mountain of compost (it still looks the same). When I had time to take photos it was during full sun and the shots were lousy. Still waiting for the right conditions so I can take more current photos.

This time we're transported back to 2003. Do you like my wheel barrow? It was second hand when we got it 22 years ago. I'd say that's one well used wheel barrow. I didn't like the fact that it had AL painted on it when we got it so I sponge painted it. I think it looked lovely at the end of the evening when I dead headed the daylilies.

Ah ha, must have gotten my gazebo in 2003. I quickly learned a lesson here. The wrought iron gazebo that looks charming in the store looks very different in the garden. As charming as it it, it tends to disappear from view.


Here's a shot of my gazebo from another angle, it's in a different spot now but I'm still not happy with the way it's set in the landscape. Maybe if I put a stone floor and plant some evergreens behind it it might pop more.


2003 was a big year as the stone wall around our pool was installed. The white chain link fence was still around the pool itself, yuck. Smart me bought my husband a saws-all with extra blades for Christmas that year. Bye bye chain link!

Guess my shade garden was really growing by leaps and bounds that year. I do miss this SUV as it really held so much but my new CRV get's much better gas mileage.

Check out these two Hosta. 'Blue Angel' on the left and 'Sum and Substance' on the right. Last summer they easily pushed through the fence line. I'm going to have to get out there and take a photo of this spot today for comparison to see how much larger they are 5 years later.

I was so wowed with this daylily seedling of George Rasmussen's that I was guesting in my garden. It just blew me away and rightly so. In 2006 it won the President's Cup at the American Hemerocallis Society national convention right here on Long Island. At that time I called it "banana split" but it has since been named to 'King's Golden Treasure'.

Ok, hopefully today I'll get some better photos. One thing for sure, I'll be shoveling compost till the cows come home.

A Blast from the Past

This morning my husband asked if he could take the camera to work. There's a Blue Angels air show today at the airport right by Don's office and he wants to take photos.

My mom suggested I go through some old photos and post those and as I was going through my files I came upon one titled 'Garden 2001'. These photos were the earliest digital photos I took. They were shot with an Olympus camedia that had a whopping 1.3 megapixels :-).

As I went through the photos it struck me how different my gardens look today and yet how similar too. The opening shot shows one of my favorite daylilies back then, 'Jeanne Fitton'. It still is a favorite which is amazing in the fast moving daylily world. Not planted in the same spot but still much adored. I have so much of that bluish leaved Sedum telephaeum 'Ruprectii', I need to move it near 'Jeanne Fitton' as they really play nicely together.

This Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba' is still in this spot although it's been divided at least once. The purple alliums are there too although I don't know their name.

Myosotis (Forget me nots) are not in this spot any longer and neither is the Cerastium tomentosum but they have both been reintroduced to my garden last year and now I need to plant them together again!

Another bleeding heart, this one is Dicentra eximia 'Aurora' and it has not survived in this dry root-bound area. Looking at this photo I'm filled with plant lust and must find this cultivar to put in my better shade garden.

A dwarf Platycodon (Balloon flower), not in that spot either now but I do believe it's in another spot along my pool patio.

This statue was photographed in Saratoga Springs New York and I wanted it more than anything I had ever seen before. Although I saw it for sale once thereafter, I did not purchase it as I realized that I'd also need to purchase a bridge. Both troll and bridge are still on my wish list....sigh...

A little vignette in front of my breezeway. This old patio is now covered with lovely stone pavers but all the elements in this photo are still here scattered around the garden. Even many of those stones are now in my sedum/succulent area.

Another incredibly beautiful daylily, 'Tune the Harp' has been divided often but still grows in my garden. As for the Campanula punctata in the back drop, I couldn't get rid of it if I wanted too. Good think I like it :-)

My daughters Lauren and Emily were quite serious about grooming daylilies to enter in the Long Island Daylily Society flower show. I still have them here (the girls) but they're not quite as into the garden as they were back then.

As a closing shot, this was my cottage garden and it made my heart leap with joy when I stood there and gazed upon it. This bed had to be removed when we did the masonry work in front of our house but I still can close my eyes and see the beauty that was there.

Until today I didn't realize that I rarely look at these older digital images.

How far back do your digital images go? Do you look at them often?

Veggie-tables

Do you grow vegetables in your garden? Today I plan on planting tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. The weather has not cooperated much for warm weather plants but has been perfect if you are growing a cool weather crop.

These photos were taken two weeks ago so I know things are much further along today. This is Paul's vegetable garden. Paul is my friend Kim's husband and he has really been bitten by the gardening bug in the last few years.

Last year they moved to a new home and garden. The property layout is stunning but there really was no place to put a vegetable garden. Then Paul had a fantastic idea. He found these amazing tables, potted up all his veggies and placed them along the nicely sheltered south side of the garage.

I'm most interested in watching Paul's potatoes grow. Kim told me yesterday that they've added 4 more inches of soil since these photos were taken and the plants are spilling out of the barrels.

How ingenious is this! I just love the idea of growing potatoes in large plastic garbage bins. They are high enough that you can pick off any munching creatures without bending over. The potatoes should be a breeze to harvest too.

By now the warm weather vegetables should be planted too so I need to drive over next week and take some more photos. I'll try to stop up the road at my friend Gianna's house too as her husband Richie has been planting his veggies in pots for years now.

Guess where I'm going to plant my tomatoes today. Yup, pots here for me too! I was hoping to get some photos this morning but it's been spritzing out there so that will have to wait a bit.

Off to get muddy...

And the winner is...

There are two Viburnum plicatum shrubs in my yard. One is planted in rich soil where it gets watered often. The other is in a tough spot, more shade, more tree competition (including Black Walnuts, Juglans nigra) and no water during dry spells.

This is how the Viburnum in the tough spot looks, it's just as amazingly beautiful as the one in the great spot. We put it over the spot our two kitties Olive and Muffin are buried.


When it comes to shrubs I'm no expert. I've only been really paying attention to them for 4 or 5 years now and haven't added too many to our gardens here. Unfortunately there weren't wonderful shrubs waiting here for us, just the usual array of poorly grown yews (Taxus baccata) and one bank of Rhododendrons in front of the house.

This is Viburnum burkwoodii 'Mohawk' which I find lovely. My only complaint might be that the catalog listed it as "more compact than burwoodii" and it is currently towering over 7 feet tall.


Here's a close up of those lovely blooms. This photo was taken last year on June 1st so I have a bit of a wait before I get to see this sight again.


Viburnum dilatum 'Erie' is the winner when it comes to shrub shape. It truly is compact, short and wide, perfect in the semi shade border.

When looking for these shrubs I considered light requirements, soil requirements (we have naturally acidic soil), blooms and highly important was berries to feed the wildlife. While I can't say I've seen enough berries to invite whole flocks of birds, I can say that I'm very happy with the choices I've made.

For those of you who were thinking that my title alluded to the local elections here, I'll just add this, apparently, like my Viburnums, I'm a winner.

Placing Plants for Maximum Impact

Foliage, foliage, foliage, it's all the rage. Ok, so you bought some plants with cool foliage. Now what are you going to do with them?

When I first tried combining foliage I made a big mistake. I chose spots for the plants strictly based on where I thought the foliage would look best. What I forgot to take into account is what conditions does that plant like. As a result, it took many tries before I successfully grew Ligularia because I kept putting it in full, dry shade.

In the opening photo you can see where I chose to plant my new Astilbe. The plants around it might not have different colored foliage but they do have different shapes or textures. There's a Pulmonaria, several Hosta, a pair of daylily seedlings I couldn't bare to part with and Liriope 'Silver Dragon' just emerging in this spot. I'm not at all sold on that Liriope, it doesn't look good until late in the season and it appears to me that there are two runner shoots appearing between my bowling shoes.


Here you can see the Astilbe in the pot. I did quite a bit of walking around before deciding on where to place it. One lesson I've learned with Astilbe is that they like more sun than shade and a nice regular watering so I need to choose a spot where our sprinkler system reaches.


A few feet further down in the semi shade border is a spot that I think was successfully planted. The foliage all combines nicely in my opinion. The only thing I'd change is the Aquilegia vulgaris that seeded right in the front against the stone. I just googled this plant as I'm not sure of it's name and came up with a hit on Frances at Faire garden. Hi Frances!

This is the spot I chose for one of those purple Ligularias. It's so dark it's hard to see it there in the middle but as it grows it should really pop against all those lighter foliaged plants.

The second Ligularia 'Osiris Fantaisie' plant went in this location. I have major dreams of that Lamium growing up to the base of the purple Ligularia. The Lamium is a slow growing one, the name long lost but I wish I could find more of it for sale.


Here's a bit closer look at the Lamium, it has a very white leaf and a lovely pink flower. Another plant that I'm just crazy about is in this photo. It's in the top center and kind of looks like an Astilbe but it's Aruncus aethusifolius.

A very dwarf Aruncus, it holds it's form looking like a perfectly clipped little ball. I get a nice amount of seedlings from the parent plant, maybe 3 or 4 a year and have learned to put them in places where they can grow on. Now I've got at least a dozen of these perfect balls in various parts of the garden and soon I'll have enough to be able to share on a regular basis.


Last year I bought this specialty Polygonatum 'Striatum' (Solomon's seal) with twisted leaves. I'll hold my opinion on this until it clumps up a bit but at least I know it's quite hardy as both plants I purchased have come back this year.


Here's a great combination area. The Hakonechloa 'All Gold', a Geranium sanguinium and that Aruncus aethusifolius. The little gold in the foreground is a piece of a Hosta I rescued from a totally dessicated root bound area.

Out front in the sun border I continue to add pieces of yellow and green variegated Liriope. This is such a great plant in my garden. The only thing I have to remember is it doesn't look like much this early in the season but as soon as that foliage starts growing it's a winner.
Several pots of Amsonia 'Blue Ice' were planted next to the various Dicentras (Bleeding Hearts). The Dicentras have already been blooming for quite some time but I hope that the Amsonias will join the show as the Dicentras are winding down and then the Amsonia foliage will fill in some of the gaps. Only time will tell if this is a winning combination.

Well, I'm off to the races. Actually, I'm off to the elections. Today is the day for our school district's budget vote and vote for new candidates for the Board of Education. I'm running for one of the openings and will spend most of the day at the voting area shaking hands and introducing myself to people. Unfortunately we are expecting a seasonly cold and rainy day so I just might look like a bay man in my yellow slicker and galoshes. At least I won't be giving up another spectacular day in the garden.

Till tomorrow,

Melanie