An Aerial View

Once or twice a year I remember to go upstairs and take photos from our bedroom windows. I love to look at these photos years later and see the progression of the gardens.

This is the view from my front bedroom window. I can see straight up the driveway. The funny thing is I rarely look out my bedroom window, I guess I'm outside more than I'm inside!

My daughter Emily has a better view, she can't see all the way out to the street but she has a more sideways view of the front perennial borders that flank the driveway.

My bedroom has windows that look out the back of the house too. Here's the newly opened swimming pool. Still too cold to swim in but who cares, at least it looks lovely!

At the front of the swimming pool is my little rock garden. If I could change one hardscape location here in my yard it would be the pool and patio area. It's just so big, rectangular and of course, smack dab in the middle of the yard.

I zoomed in on the back shade border with my adorable shed and my neighbors hideous white vinyl fence.

One last look at the opposite corner where I make my black gold (compost of course!).

If you look carefully you can see Calie-the-wonder-doodle taking one of her many laps around the pool patio.

This evening I took lots and lots of photos. The next week is chock full of gardening plans. My local garden club is hosting a flower show this Friday and Saturday at the Historic Kissam House in Huntington Village. I've got a ton of things to get ready but at least I've got lots of photos and ideas to share with you when I find a moment or two.

Shave and a haircut...

Today's Perennial Spotlight is focused upon a charming little creeper, Cymbalaria muralis which is known locally as Kenilworth Ivy.

These sweet little plant was given to me many years ago by a neighbor, just a little slip that I had in a pot near my garage. A piece escaped from the pot and rooted by the door. When I was looking for plants that would grow in my rock wall, I removed a piece and tucked it into a crevice out back.
Over the past four years the Cymbalaria worked it's way around the corner of the raised bed. It doesn't like the sunny spots, just the most shaded corner of the wall so I really didn't have to do anything to contain it.

Yesterday I decided that it needed a haircut. It looks so lush and healthy here but it was hiding some of the elements of the rock wall that I really like.

See, now you can see the boulder that we worked into the plan.

It was really simple to cut back the Cymbalaria, I just used a basic pair of scissors. The whole area took less than an hour and I also added lots of compost and top dressing to the bed at the same time.

Rather than cut too much, I left some areas with little tufts of Cymbalaria. I know that it will grow back again soon. Look at what I found underneath, a nice little Sempervivum rosette that will now get some much needed afternoon sun.

I think I'll pot up some Cymbalaria and add it to the sales table. Don't you think it's sweet?

In Bloom

With so many things beginning to bloom here at Old Country Gardens, I just don't know where to begin. There's just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I'd like to do in the garden.

Here's a little peek at what was blooming this morning:

I'm so glad I moved these Iris siberica from a shade bed where they were struggling. I was only able to save a few small pieces but they've responded wonderfully in their new sunny locations and I foresee huge swaths of white blooms in years to come.

The little white Rhododendrons I rescued after a flower show many years ago have grown and grown. How nice to capture a shot of them in bloom.

Another shrub blooming today is the Physocarpus opulifolious 'Nugget'. What a great foliage color too!
The pink Symphytum is chock full of pretty pink flowers that just hum with all the big fat bumblebees that visit them. When it's finished blooming I'll hack it back and it will rebloom nicely.

Hardy Geranium cantabrigiense 'Cambridge' on the right has mixed nicely with a simple Nepeta mussini (cat mint).

Thalictrum flowers are so delicate that you need more than one or two to make a statement.

And for the hall of shame, look at this lovely little Rhododendron that's been tortured for two years in this pot. Maybe I"ll finally find a home for this baby.

Back to the garden, I'm in the middle of a little project and will take lots more photos when I'm done.

Hens and chicks and chicks and chicks

On Wednesday my friend Kim called me with a hot tip. A local nursery had pots with Sempervivum (Hen's and Chicks) just exploding out of them. Needless to say I got in my car immediately and headed over there.

They only had three varieties to choose from, a red named 'Pilioseum', a heavily webbed varieties named 'Cobweb' and a green variety that I didn't purchase. Kim was right, the pots were literally exploding with hens and chicks. The price on these pots were $9.99, if you wanted to spend a bit more you could get even larger pots for $11.99.

One tip I have for you if you are purchasing Sempervivum, look to see if any are blooming. You see the long stem coming up? That is going to be a bloom stem. Many people don't realize that Semps bloom. After a sempervivum blooms, it dies. Now if you have lots and lots of chicks like here, it won't matter. But, if you choose a pot with lots of bloom and not many chicks, you might not have any babies to carry you through the next year. Still, if you are looking for one year of interest, you might want the pot that was full of upcoming blooms.

Getting them out of their pots wasn't the easiest thing. Once I slid them free I removed the soil from the bottom half. Sempervivums don't have huge root systems and don't mind being disturbed like this.

It was easy to break apart the clumps just by using my hands, no need to damage the fleshy rosettes with a sharp tool.

Isn't this a pretty little division? I really like the cobweb variety although my daughter who was taking the photos wasn't as enthralled as me.

The red 'Pilioseum' was even more crowded in the pot but it also broke apart quite easily.

When working with Hens and Chicks, I like to have a tray underneath me to catch any babies. Here I'm using an old wine box.

You can split them down to single pieces with one "hen" and her "chicks" but I had enough plants to be able to leave a few divisions larger.


Next step was putting them in the troughs I just bought. These troughs will be for sale on June 12th and 13th at the Kissam House in Huntington Village. I hope they'll sell!

Too big for their britches

Oh woe is me, too many plants trying to grow in one spot. This happens every year, either something seeds itself into a spot where it doesn't belong or I just make a mistake and plant things too close.

In this case the two Sedums were planned. A tiny little Sedum (possibly nevii) and the larger Sedum 'Vera Jameson' were encouraged to grow in this spot but the big Digitalis (fox glove) moved in. I guess I have to get in there and remove the foxglove but boy is that going to hurt.

The Hosta on the left is 'American Sweetheart', it was planted there last year. The tag said it would get 18" tall and 36" wide. Uh huh, it's already taller than 18" and I seriously doubt it's going to stop at 36" wide. I searched the web last night but everything has the same measurements. Anybody else grow this beauty? I'm thinking it will need to be moved pretty soon if I don't want them to hit the leaves when they mow the lawn.

Off the top of my head I can think of two more places where there's a serious crowding spot. In one location a lovely Ligularia seeded itself just an inch or two from a large Hosta. In another spot a Dicentra Spectabilis (Bleeding Heart) seeded next to Hosta 'Striptease'. In both cases the Hosta were late emergers and now have to fight the lush foliage of their overabundent neighbors.

Last night I typed out this same post and though I hit the send key but this morning there was nothing waiting for me in cyber space. If two of these posts suddenly appear here you'll know what happened.

Garden Talk

The title for my other blog, Melanie's Perennials, was the same as this one but the idea behind it is different. On the other blog I wrote about websites I thought my garden visitors would find helpful . Now though I'm writing about some of the things I learned this weekend.

One of the best things about having garden visitors every weekend is getting to hear what they like and don't like. Here's some of this weekend's favorites:

The opening shot is a Geranium phaeum, also known as the mourning widow geranium. It wasn't Lisa's favorite plant in the garden but she and I looked at too many for me to begin to remember which one was ;-)


The yellow variegated Sedum seiboldii variegatum is a favorite every weekend! I wish I had dozens of pots of this beauty. I do have some extra ones and did promise to pot up a few, Liz was really crazy about this plant.


Newcomers to the garden, George and Joan, were on the hunt for Hosta 'June'. While I have a nice large clump of 'June', I'm not planning on cutting it up just yet. I'll be on the lookout for more 'June' in the near future.


Carol was in such a rush that I never got the chance to show her the Iris from Old Westbury that has started to bloom. Hope you're looking Carol!

Almost everybody has to stop and admire the variegated Kousa dogwood in bloom right now. How could you not just love this beauty?

Bonnie was on a mini Hosta kick this weekend but she had to stop and visit the succulants too. How sweet is this tiny Sempervivum?

Anita brought her delightful son Craig and they hit the ferns and mini Hosta too. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to take a decent photo of a fern.

Gloria came for ferns but had to stop and admire the Hosta 'Spritzer' sitting so pretty behind this clump of Heuchera 'Caramel'.

As for the number one, most popular plant this weekend? The Heuchera 'Caramel' you see in this last photo. If I had 100 of them, I would have sold all 100 of them over the past month. Unfortunately, I only have the three I planted in my garden last year...Lucky me!

What's your favorite?

Melanie

Potager

When I typed the word "Potager" in google, I found a number of definitions, all of them basically the same. A potager is a French styled, country- kitchen garden. In other words, a vegetable garden. What makes it different than any basic vegetable garden is that the plants are not simply planted in rows.

I've seen some beautiful vegetable gardens, the only one that would officially fit the description of a Potager is at Stonecrop which is in Cold Spring New York.

Our garden club went there to see their alpine and trough collections. I had no idea they had a potager there and was totally blown away when we stepped into this area.




Visiting Chanticleer in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania area, I saw some beautiful vegetable gardens but I wouldn't classify them as a "potager". This row of Asparagus sure was beautiful but I don't have a crew of gardeners to help me maitain something like this.

As I went through my photos for this post I was surprised that I didn't have more that showed pretty vegetable gardens. In fact, I had no more photos of vegetables at all!

Here in my own garden I have an area that has undergone a few changes. It started as a seedling bed when I was hybridizing daylilies. The daylily seedlings were grown in straight rows and other than during daylily bloom season it was very blah.

In 2006 we were a tour garden for the National convention of the American Hemerocallis Society (that's daylilies) and I totally changed this area. It became an herb garden that also incorporated spider-style daylilies.

Over the past two years I've been moving the daylilies out of this area. Just over the fence is a grouping of Black Walnut trees (Juglans nigra) and they emit a toxic product (jugulone) from their roots and my daylilies just don't grow well near them. Other plants though seem to grow just fine there, it's a trial and error kind of thing.

On Wednesday we had two yards of aged horse manure dropped off here. This weekend we'll be moving loads of it to this spot in our garden. I'll be moving out and potting up those spider daylilies for sale and we'll back fill the garden with the old manure.

Guess what I'll be planting?

Did you guess vegetables?

This just might be the year that I finally have a potager!

Melanie

Potting Troughs - Part Two

I'm going crazy!

Ok, I admit it, I have a problem... I can't help it, I just can't stop playing with these amazing little succulents! Now that I've found a great source for hypertufa troughs, I just know it's going to get worse.


Not all the plant material I bought for the troughs are succulents, there's one or two other things I couldn't resist such as this dwarf Cotoneaster 'Strieb's Findling'.


There's also the Fiber optic grass (Isolepsis) that I can never resist even though it's not hardy here in my zone 6b garden.


Sedum nevii is another plant that I think I've bought before but I just had to try again.

One of my favorite (ok, that's silly, they're all my favorites) is this little Sempervivum 'Baronesse', just look at the webs!!!

Here's the first planted trough, isn't it sweet?

Here's another planted trough. This one looks a bit skimpy next to the first one but I've learned from past experience to leave some space for the semps to fill in.

This trough was planted up on Friday. I'm not sure yet about the Salvia lyrata 'Purple Knock-out' in the center of the trough. I hope they beef up quickly.

Under construction as I write this is a large shade trough. It's got a Hosta 'Pixie Power' slated for the center, and a teeny weeny Hosta 'Baby Tears' for the upper corner. I'm not sure about the rest of it though, I did get my hands on some amazing colored Ajuga's that might be perfect.

Sometimes it's the container that inspires me, other times it's the plant material. This combination of Cotula squalida 'Platt's Black' and Sempervivum 'Icicle' had me in rapture.


I didn't want to add a color that would take away from the two of them so I decided to go with some added textures. The Sedum nevii and the Fiber optic grass fill that slot nicely.

It's not planted yet, I'm not 100% sure on the fifth sempervivum. I have a bronze colored semp that I need to look for and try in this spot too. By the end of the day today though it will be decided and planted up.

The crazy thing? I spent all this money on these containers and plants and justified my purchase on the idea that I would sell them and make a profit. Now though I can't possibly imagine how I could let these go.

What do you think? Sell them? Make more of them? Cover my whole property with wonderfully delicious succulents?

I'll have to think this over, maybe if I walk around a few nurseries today I'll find some more...I mean I'll clear my mind and make a decision :-)

Going crazy,
Melanie