Fall is Almost Behind Us

It was an incredibly busy summer, gardening-wise.  We had plenty of rain to keep things looking nice.  I only used the soaker hoses a handful of times.  That's not to say it didn't get hot and gross, but the plants didn't seem to mind.  Or maybe I've done a better job at selecting plants at this house that don't require much water.

I had fully intended to post before now, but life always gets in the way.  I almost completely missed the fall colors outside this week, after being sick several days.  So I decided to grab my camera and capture what was left of the color.

Can't forget to make the entry inviting!  Wreaths are an easy way to do that.

A little color goes a long way.  Lowe's was giving up these babies for $1.



I love the color red.  These mums were especially striking, and I also love how the oakleaf hydrangea (back, center) puts on rainbow foliage this time of year.

What I was trying to capture here is the yellow Maple tree in the background.  Although my little collection of sedums growing in the rocks is quite nice too.

The contrast of the golden cypress (left), red azalea leaves (middle), and dark green weeping evergreen (right) was a nice vignette.

A few weeks ago, I trimmed some of the evergreen bushes.  Not one to waste anything, I stuck the trimmings into the pots flanking my entry.  Surprisingly, they still look green and fresh.  They're also helping to conceal leggy coleus.  These are ones I picked up from Rural King on the distressed plant rack for 75 cents.  Very odd shaped, but totally cool.



The colors are still decent on the hills surrounding us.  We have three Maple trees down our driveway, and you can see one of them blazing red toward the middle of the photo.  They need friends.



The geraniums fared well this year.  Keep in mind I only planted pale pink ones this year.  I only see a few blooms of those in the photo.  All of the others came up from seed from geraniums I planted last year.  Good spot for them I guess.  I'll take free plants any day.

The lantana in this pot continues to bloom like gangbusters.  The purple heart on the other side still looks bright and fresh too.  And that blue spruce stuff sticking out the left side of the pot is just that -- blue spruce hedge trimmings that I couldn't let go to waste.  Still holding their color and shape after several weeks.  Made an excellent free fill-in after my basil bit the dust.



Roses are still going strong.

Sedum kamshaticum is starting to turn color.  It turns red, pink, coral, orange, and a bit yellow all at the same time, mixed with green. It's a wonderful 3 season ground cover.



Tyler's zinnias sure are happy.  Not that he watered them, weeded them, or paid any attention to them whatsoever after they went into the ground, but... they are hardy and were a great choice.



I know what you are thinking here... what is this photo supposed to be of, tree hugger?  Well, I couldn't resist capturing the wonderful contrast of two great ground covers that have met edges -- creeping jenny on the left, and sedum kamshaticum on the right.

A pennisetum grass (Black Moudry, I think) saved from the distressed plant section at Lowe's last year.  Blooming just fine.

This Gingko tree is one of two on our property.  It hasn't looked so good the past couple of years, but this year it started to put on some new growth and the fall color has been very pretty.  I suppose it is trying to redeem itself, as Eric keeps threatening to cut it down.  The center branch is dead, what you see with leaves on it is the only living portion.  I am game for keeping it around, trimming out the center, and seeing if that causes it to grow better or differently.



Most of the garden looks pretty good!

Moody Skies Make for Good Pictures

If there's one tidbit I've picked up from all of my hubby's tech-speak on the subject of photography, taking photos with overcast skies results in even lighting and no harsh shadows.  If you're taking photos of people, they don't squint, and if taking photos of flowers, the color is even more bright and wonderful.

It's a hot Monday afternoon, but the temperature is dropping slightly, and the skies are darkening.  A thunderstorm is eminent.  The daylilies have started to bloom.  Tonight's dinner, ribeyes grilling on The Big Green Egg, waft across the yard.  It's kind of an ideal sensory situation all around.  Also a perfect night for some pics and a post.



We lost 3 crape myrtles this winter.  The loss was also a gain -- in gardening space, that is.  It's now primarily a tomato bed.  But part of this is Tyler's garden.  He wanted the orange Zinnia and pink petunias.



I asked Tyler to pose next to the yarrow so you could get a sense for how tall it is.  It's huge and wonderful.  A Mauna Loa daylily is blooming in the foreground; pink shrub roses in the background.



Tyler is enjoying a close-up of daylily Atlanta Full House.  At his feet, the purple flowers are cousins of Lamb's Ears, a low-growing perennial that I can't remember the name of... I could dig up the tag I guess.  All I remember is that I saw them at Missouri Botanical Gardens last Spring, found them at Lowe's a month later, and immediately snapped them up.  I recall they were pricey, but the long-lasting bloom more than makes up for it.  I'm loving the rock path that I installed at the end of last summer, with rocks we found on our property.

Atlanta Full House daylily

White Swan coneflowers.  I am anxiously awaiting the day that this fills in.



Moody Skies



Shade garden in front.  Still looking crisp and nice... nothing is burned up... yet.

What's Blooming - June 17th

It's been a busy few months here.  Now that the temperature is really heating up (90 today), it's time to start sitting back, stop the mass planting, and get into maintenance and watering mode.  We had a great week of rain and everything still looks pretty fresh, but I don't expect that to last.  So, I snapped a few pics to remind me how beautiful things look in the middle of June.

The front garden still looks nice. Hostas and hydrangeas are starting to bloom, while Iris Pallida Variegata is winding down.

So, I had really good intentions here.  For those of you who like to do those puzzles where you stare at the page and see the hidden element, see if you can guess what's here.  It's our family monogram "S".  Note to self: Pick a new flower combination for next year, maybe something perennial, like a low growing herb.  Yellow finches thoroughly enjoy plucking the yellow petals off the zinnias, thus the reason you can hardly see the shape!!!

Incrediball hydrangea 1/3 starting to bloom.

Orange Marmalade hosta

The pink flowers are rose campion, the white is White Swan coneflower.

Sedum blooming

A type of sedum that I can't recall the name of... but stunning.

Brag picture... check out the view, and that is only a slice :-)

All plants I got from the distressed plant section at Lowe's. They don't look too stressed to me!

That's basil growing tall on the left side.

Coneflowers Cherokee Spirit (?)... the package says different color flowers on the same plant. I still say that's impossible and that it's just a mix of flower colors all put in the same pot.

Happy Mother's Day... To Me!

Most of the time, gardening requires a lot of patience, but not without reward.  A few years ago, yes, years, I purchased a Japanese tree peony from a wholesale mail order place I purchase from frequently.  It was very expensive.  The reason being that true tree peonies are grafted off wood from the Emperor's garden.  So, there are not a lot of them floating around, and the ones that are here, are quite expensive. 

You can imagine how I babied the little stick that arrived on my doorstep.  It was not any taller than 8".  I potted it, not sure where I was going to plant it, and also thinking I didn't want it to put down permanent root yet, since we had been talking about moving, when we lived at our old house. 

When we moved, I brought it with me, of course, and was thankful I had left it in a pot.  I quickly found a suitable home for it and it flourished.  This is the first year it has bloomed!  I only got one, but I'll take it.  It has been so long since I ordered it, that I even forgot what color I ordered.

If you have ever been to the botanical gardens this time of year, you may have seen these in the Japanese garden.  It completely opened this morning.  What a great Mother's Day present...

What's Blooming: April 30th

For this post, let's keep it simple.  I post a camera roll of pics with a caption. You ooh and aah from afar, and I pretend I can hear you :-)

Pansies!  This is a survivor (1 of 3, from a flat) from last fall's planting.  Not a great success rate, but in their defense, we had a rough winter.

This is Tahiti, a variety of daffodil I have been stalking for several years.  I finally saw it offered by the wholesaler I deal with and I jumped on the chance to get them. They were not all that expensive (wholesale is generally a better option), and the color is amazing.  It's hard to tell scale from the picture, but they are at 3-4" across.  I love the double petals and bright orange center.  I've had a photograph of these daffodils hanging in my house for several years, one that I made Eric take at MOBOT. For those of you locally, take a spin by Lake St. Louis Meadows and you will see literally thousands of these mass planted around the West entrance.

Lowe's never fails to have a good deal.  I got three large containers of these pure white pansies for $1.00 each.  Great early spring color that can stand up to these dipping temperatures and hold me over until I can get some warm-weather annuals.

Brunnera

The bird!  He came with me from the old house.  I gave him a fresh coat of spray paint -- Rustoleum's oil rubbed bronze finish.  As good as new.  I love the contrast of his dark bronze with the chartreuse creeping jenny.

Another daffodil I got from my wholesaler connection. I will have to look up the name of this variety, it escapes me at the moment.  Each stem produces 6-8 flowers and they are just about the size of a nickel.  The foliage is very thin and stringy like grape hyacinths, and I actually thought these were malnourished when they started emerging from the soil a few weeks ago.  Tiny foliage, tiny flower.

Baptisia -- this one is yellow.  I'm excited to see it come back after the hard first summer it endured.  It had no leaves on it by the end of August due to some insects eating them all.  I was sure it was a goner.

Coral bells

Angelina sedum.  Love how it turns a reddish color in winter and emerges with bright chartreuse foliage that will stay like that all summer.  I'm learning to focus on foliage color and texture, it makes for a MUCH more interesting garden composition.

Another bargain bin find at Lowe's.  2.5-gallon creeping phlox for 99 cents.  I got 12 for me, 6 for my friend Diane, 6 for my mom, and 6 for the neighbor.  At such a great price, I couldn't leave them.  This photo was taken last week and they are still going strong.

More Lowe's bargains... $2.00 per pot... except some nasty wild animal got a hold of these.  It's so odd to me that it would eat the foliage and leave the berries.  Hmm... I am wondering if this nasty beast was a weed eater...

Redbud trees are a little behind at my property because we sit low, where all of the cool air drops and hangs out.



Wild Sweet Williams, blooming throughout the woods. 

Wild Trillium, also all over the place.

Blueberries.  Great deal on these... I got 6 of these, 3 thornless blackberries, and 2 red raspberries.  All $2.00 each, normally $11/each.

Chives!  I have to figure out a way to show scale in these pics.  These are the tallest, healthiest chives I've ever grown.