The Shakespeare Garden

Yesterday my daughter Emily and I took the train into New York City where we met my Mom. Most of my life has been spent in the suburb of this amazing city or in the city itself. I've been to Central Park dozens of times but had never seen this area. There are still many parts of this beautiful park that I have not yet explored.

Here's a shot of Mom and Emily overlooking one of the many charming bridges that one always sees in movies filmed in Central Park.

The first thing that struck me was the peaceful calm that comes over you as you enter this magical place. At one moment you are standing on the streets of New York City, a protest group marching past you, police lights flashing, road barriers and then flash, with a few steps you are in a whole new world.

There were no sounds in the park other than the laughter of children and lots and lots of sneezing. We kept laughing, as we ourselves were sneezing, it's definitely pollen season here.

Look at these beautiful rustic fences and the espaliered trees. Do you see throngs of humanity? We didn't. In fact, we were amazed at how uncrowded we felt. We've been to Old Westbury Gardens and Planting Fields Arboretum on Mother's Day and one could hardly take a photo of a flower without getting somebody's leg or pocketbook in the picture.

The whole visit was so soothing. There were signs posted around that this is a "quiet zone" which means no audible music and no loud cell phones. Look at all this luscious greenery.

I wish I had taken a better photo of this area, it just had me in total awe. There was a sea of Camassia bulbs, Ferns and Hosta. Kim, I know you are reading this and when I was standing there I wished you were with me. This was in a spot that had quite a bit of sunlight and I'd be surprised if there were many underground sprinklers if any at all.

Kim and I both are crazy about these plants but I never would have thought of combining them. As soon as my Camassia blubs are finished I'm going to pair them with ferns and hosta too.

There were drifts of Galium odoratum (sweet woodruff) all over and interspersed in it was this charming white bulb. Any idea of what is is? I must have some!

Here you can see the Hosta just unfurling their huge Elephant like ears and the wave upon wave of Polygonatum (soloman's seal).

The red tulips were about finished, our heavy rains on Friday probably helped them along but in another week or two the many types of hardy Geraniums will take over with a whole new bloom season.

As we left the park on the East side we had to stop and admire the blooms on this tree. I'm pretty sure it's a red bud but then again, maybe not?

Hope you liked the tour, I know I can't wait to get there again some day.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

This morning the garden is shining after the heavy rains we received this past week. Our forecast is for more rain to begin tomorrow but today is glorious. My Camassia's are in full bloom, aren't they delicious? They really are supposedly delicious, the American Indians ate them.
This little woodland phlox has been in my garden for years. I don't remember it blooming well in quite awhile but this year it appears quite happy.

The colors in the front shade border are really popping. Unfortunately there's a big problem here. Right in the bottom is Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate'. I've posted before about how she likes to scatter seedlings that revert to the invasive blue tradescantia. See them all around her? I think some tough love might have to go on in this area today.

I'm so happy with this little planting group. There's a sweet primula, lots of Polygonatum humile (dwarf solomon's seal) and a darling Hosta 'Tea and Crumpets'. This morning I'm going to go out and play a bit in this spot and thin them out a tiny bit so everybody can shine.

The bigger solomon's seal is just perfect right now. They were very popular at yesterday's sale. I was told that a local nursery was selling pots the same size as ours but they were priced at $19.99. Our pots were priced at $7.

Many people came in and exclaimed over how cheap everything was priced. It felt good to be able to share with everybody at a time when everybody's wallet is suffering from high gas and food prices.

A tiny little Epimedium in the front shade bed is shining away. I had a better close up of it but I wanted to to see how small it is by looking at the size of the pebbles at the base.

Hosta 'Sagae' would be my number one choice if I was doing a large landscape with one Hosta. It is so very elegant to me with it's upright vase shape.

Here's the house with the border primed and ready to burst into bloom. I took this photo in the evening yesterday, just before sunset. If you look at the largest window, my living room window, you'll see a tiny white dot.

Zoooooom in with the zoom lens and here we can see Calie the wonder-dog (labradoodle) watching my every move out the window. She has a much better view now that my husband trimmed a foot off the top of the hedge.

Now I'm off. My daughter Emily and I are taking the train to New York City (about an hour ride) where we'll meet my Mom. We're having lunch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and then walking through Central Park. I'll be sure to have my camera with me and hopefully have some nice photos to share here tomorrow.

Melanie

SOLD OUT!

(The van I rented was saved for the smaller plants, lots of Sempervivum and adorable things like them. I was worried that people wouldn't like them but they sold like hot cakes at 2 for $5)

This is a half finished posting. (now finished :-))

We are sold out.

By 1:30 there were slim pickings

At 2:30 we loaded the last "left over" 20 plain green hosta into the rental van and declared

SOLD OUT
(At the last minute Ronnie was able to get us a big box truck. Thank goodness because the van I rented was a joke. It would have taken us 10 trips with that little thing. Here's part of the floor of the box truck, with Hosta and almost 200 pots of Daylilies)

Thanks to all of you, those who came, those who worked, those who bought and those of you who sent all those good wishes.

When I get back in the house later I'll add some photos to this post.(This was the double rack in the box truck. It was chock full of Sedums, Liriopes, and mini daylilies)

Plant Sale 2008? It was a smashing success and we broke the bank!

Plant Sale - NEWS FLASH!!!

(Photo from Plant Sale 07)

NEWS FLASH!!!

A few minutes ago, as the rain poured down, a truck drove down my driveway. Ronnie Pasquini of Pasquini Landscapes just offered a huge donation of top quality perennials.

Not only are they already potted up, he will personally deliver a full truck load tomorrow morning directly to the sale.

Plants he mentioned were Ferns, two types of gold Hosta, Lamium, Lamiastrum, Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and more.

Do you believe in "pay it forward"?

I do.

In the middle of the night

I learned several important things tonight.

First of all, I learned that if you try to take photos of Hosta at 10:00 p.m. in the dark with only a flood light shining, every moth in the neighborhood will dive bomb your head.

Secondly, I learned that when you least expect it, an angel will step forward and deliver big fat juicy clumps of Hosta at the last minute. These luscious clumps just arrived and will spend the night in our breezeway.

We are under severe flood warnings for tomorrow. 2 to 3 inches of rain plus more in many areas are expected along with strong winds. There's even a special warning to expect basement flooding. I just finished moving as many pots as possible under some kind of shelter. Tomorrow is the last day for me to prep everything for our big plant sale on Saturday. I have my husbands white water rafting outfit (slicker and matching pants) waiting for me to wear. Still, for the first time ever I might be potting in the garage.

The last lesson I learned tonight was a tough one. I had to run to the school to speak to the band parents about the sale and give some instructions. I was running late and ended up not cleaning my nails nor even remembering to change out of my muck shoes. The meeting was half over when I got there.

I talked about the plant sale. A parent asked if it was ok if her son worked the afternoon shift instead of the morning shift. I didn't understand what difference it would make and then realized she was concerned if her child worked in the afternoon and we sold out by 11:30 that he would not get credited at all. I assured her that no matter what time we sell out, children that arrive for the afternoon shift would get full credit just as the morning shift students.

My phone just rang, quite late for here. It was a friend who was at the meeting and she told me that the whole time I was speaking there were several parents snickering and saying "she actually thinks she's going to sell out...she'll be lucky to sell half that stuff".

I'm heartsick...

but I'm also a gardener and I'm one of the most optimistic people I know. My mind is still whirling trying to come up with other plants I could dig at the last minute. My mantra is, "it's for the kids".

It can be dark in the middle of the night.

Here's looking at you...

On Tuesday I saw this Hosta when I was leaving the home of one of our garden club members. It struck me as such a odd sight, I was thrilled that I had my camera in my bag.

In my own garden I have been noticing Hosta that are getting that "donut" shape. Lots of ring but no jelly in the middle. That was my thought when I took this photo.

Downloading it onto the computer the first thing that struck me was the way it looked like lots of little eyes peeking out of the foliage. Does it look like that to you too?

This was an immaculate garden and it seemed like almost everything was in a perfect ring. This was the Astilbe.

Of course when I got back home I found no perfection, just lots of Old Country Gardens tumble (that I so adore). I wish I had pulled that silly dandelion before taking this photo.

Plant sale craze is in full swing, sorry for the sporadic posts. I'm off again to buy a mini-blind to cut up for more tags.

Till later,

Melanie

Do you do Daylilies?

There's something about being a plant collector. Something that we can be oh so proud of when we are surrounded by similar collectors and yet somewhat embarrassed about when with less understanding folk.

I began gardening as many people do, with vegetables and a few simple flowers. Then I was bit by the perennial bug. I was hampered by a limited budget but I tried hard to get my hands on all kinds of perennials. One day a woman at work gave me a hybrid daylily and the fever took hold of me.

The opening photo is of a darling little daylily named 'City of Sin'. I don't know what it was about being a daylily collector but it drove my life and the lives of those around me for more years than I care to count.
Finally though the fever broke, there was a light at the end of the tunnel and it wasn't this luscious 'Starlight Serenade'. I never totally gave up my perennials and slowly but surely they called me back to the mainstream gardening world.

It's taken me years but I think I've finally found a balance in my garden between daylilies and perennials. One thing about daylilies though, they increase like the dickens and you have to do something with them.

It's one thing if you have a big clump or two of a beautiful plant like this 'Tuscawilla Princess' but what happens when you have 450 different varieties? Ok, they don't all clump up at the same speed and time but chances are that every year you are going to have 50 - 75 clumps that need to be divided.

I will always be grateful to my daylilies. Through them I've met a world full of wonderful people. Now that I'm less active in the daylily world, they continue to give to me by allowing me the chance to share them with others.

'Paper Butterfly' seen here is one of the first daylilies to bloom in my garden. Isn't it lovely?


If I could have more of one daylily it would be this amazing 'King's Golden Treasure'. This daylily bloom is the size of a dinner plate and was hybridized right here on Long Island by an extremely talented man by the name of George Rasmussen. I would love to have drifts and drifts of this shocking bloom interspersed with clouds of Rudbeckias.

The deep purple's are fabulous but for some reason I couldn't find one decent photo. 'Bela Lugosi' is much richer than this photo shows. I'll have to work on taking better photos in the future even though I will be in Germany this summer while it's daylily season in my garden.

If you had told me I'd fall in love with a brown daylily I would have laughed at you. That is, I would have laughed before I grew 'Brown Witch'. This photo doesn't do this daylily justice, it just glows in the garden.

There's lots of award winners such as this 'Custard Candy' that do so well here on Long Island.

Check out these pie crust edges on 'Embroidery Plus'. Guess it was well named :-)

Whether they're big, medium or small like this adorable little 'Laura Abdallah' they're all beautiful in my eyes.

Best of all, most of these will be available this Saturday at our Plant sale. The information is on the sidebar for any local readers to check out.

Oh don't run out and buy a plane ticket here, 'King's Golden Treasure' won't be on that sale table and I haven't yet decided to divide up 'Brown Witch' because I couldn't stand seeing people snub her.

So what about you? Do you do daylilies?

Perennials in Containers

When I have a bit extra money, I like to buy concrete containers for my garden. The best thing about these types of containers is that I can keep them out all winter and not worry about them cracking or breaking. My oldest pair is 22 years old and I love them as they are all aged and mossy.

This container is one of a pair. I've had them for 3 years now but the color of the concrete is still too white and new so I moved them to a shady location in hopes they moss up quicker (I've also heard buttermilk would help the process).

When I got these containers I put a small Hosta and a small piece of Astilbe in each pot. That was it, I left them alone for three years other than an occasional watering.

Today I popped out those plants. They had grown all together and the only way to get them out without damaging the foliage was to roll those containers onto their sides. The "plant balls" slid right out, kind of like getting a big muffin out of a muffin tin.


Here's a close-up of one of my plant muffins. The Astilbe had already leafed out but the Hosta was still tightly furled.

One simple starting slice with my trusty root knife and the pieces almost fell apart (well, almost, with a bit of elbow grease). Here you can see them, the soil was nice and black and still crumbly (it was compost, not potting soil).


I was able to cut each Astilbe into three large pieces and each Hosta into three large pieces too. At the same time I had a nice size chunk to put back in the pot while those other pieces were potted up for our sale.

The Hosta variety was Hosta fortunei Aurea marginata and the name tags were still easy to read. The Astilbe is a lovely tall lavender one that I've had in my garden for years.

This is what the Astilbe looks like in bloom with daylily 'Mokan Butterfly'. This photo caused these two plants to sell like hot cakes last year. I don't even care that I don't know the Astilbe name, it's so beautiful and increases so well that I never want to be without it in my garden.

Off to bed, tomorrow is a long day. Tonight I was carrying a platter of weisswurst and Hamburgers in from the grill and tripped while coming in the door. Rather than drop the meat I twisted my back and landed on my knee cap (hard tile floor). All the while a little voice was shouting in my head "Save the Hamburgers!". I already know I'm going to be stiff tomorrow but mmm dinner was delicious.

Hijacked!

How to you say "I'm sorry" to somebody you hijacked?

Oh woe is me, I think I hijacked somebody today. I was expecting one or two people to stop by and help me with some plant sale things. Somebody was supposed to drop off five clumps of Hosta (they never arrived). I also knew a delightful woman named Chris (a student from my class) was going to stop by at some time to check out the plants for the sale.

Well, my fried brain thought that Chris was here to work when the poor gal was probably just here to buy. I barely let her get out of her car before I handed her some gloves and steered her over to the potting area. Two minutes later she was stuffing daylilies in pots as fast as I could divide them. Not a single complaint but my head kept telling me something was wrong.


At that time another woman arrived. This woman has come here several years now and buys like crazy. I have a secret suspicion that her goal is to grow everything I grow because she buys almost one of everything I have potted up (unless she bought it last year).

Poor Chris, every time she picked up a pot to question me about the plant the woman would take it immediately and add it to her pile.

Most of the plants weren't labeled or priced yet, the photo above shows the bloom on the Stokesia seedlings I had potted up. I don't remember if Chris got one, the other woman surely did.

This hardy Geranium was given to me years ago. One day when I divided it I found a name with a tag but I'll be darned if I can remember that name since then, all I remember is it was a persons name, not a word like "Orion". It seeds nicely in semi-shade and I know Chris got a pot of this one.

(Oh wait! Hooray!! I just checked out a Geranium site and as soon as I saw the name I knew it, this is Geranium oxonianum 'Claridge Druce'.)


There was only one pot of Polygonatum humile and I made sure Chris got that too. Calie had just knocked it over earlier and we had plopped them back in the pot.


This is Centaurea montana. Both Chris and the other woman chose these plants even though they started wilting in the pots. We had such a nice misty morning and all of a sudden the sun came out full force. Almost everything was wilted and I mentioned that the plants would be happier in the shade. Chris took my hint and moved all of her choices to the shade but the other womans poor plants started to look like spinach that was in the frying pan too long.


It wasn't until Chris left that I realized I had hijacked her. I am so embarrassed, I can't believe I made her work here. I've got to think of something to make it up to her. She was really admiring this Hosta 'Whiskey Sour' but I only have a small piece in my garden.


Maybe a pot of Corydalis and a pot of Iris cristata? I forgot I potted up a few of these darling Iris and they were tucked in a shady corner. Also a piece of the nice Epimedium that's finishing up out front. I promised her a piece of that as soon as I get to digging it.

What a way to start out a new friendship.

Boy is my face red (and it's not a sunburn either).