| Posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006 - 11:41 pm: |   
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May 18, 2006
Went to mom's and dug up a bunch of the yellow daylilies and a huge clump of the 'Sammy Russel' daylilies, too. Also nabbed a little bit of one of her hosta.
Went to Lowe's and got her a 'Picardy' clematis to replace the 'Rosemoor' that isn't thriving for her. While I was there, I picked up two quart sized 'Sunray' coreopsis. They are really pretty and I put them inbetween my 'May Night' salvia. Perfect.
I headed out to HD in Lake Geneva yesterday morning and I found 'Rosy Lights' azaleas! I have been looking all over for them and finally gave up...figures :) I grabbed two 3-gallon containers. They are looking a bit worse for wear, but were still blooming and new leaf growth is all over the place. I planted one in full afternoon sun, northwest corner of the house and the other is on the north side of the house but will get morning and late afternoon sun.
Here's the one I planted towards the back of the house.
Got my arch from Costco the other day as well. I put it together last night and put it out on the corner of the lot. It looks really stupid right now because it is just this arch in the middle of all this grass. I am going to go a perennial bed around it as well as climbing 'Henry Kelsey' roses on the arbor itself. I ordered them from High County Roses in Utah. They should ship next Monday and be here by next Thursday. They won't be huge, but should bloom this year anyway. |
| Posted on Sunday, May 21, 2006 - 05:51 pm: |
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May 21, 2006
Busy weekend. I pulled up the sod for two new beds at the base of the driveway. I'd forgotten how much work that is  After getting all the sod out, I aerated and tilled the soil, then planted 5 clumps of the yellow daylilies I got from Mom's, 1 clump of 'Sammy Russel', and the 'Karl Foerster' feather reed grass. I took some 'Autumn Joy' sedum clippings from Mom's that I am going to try to root (I know they are supposed to be the easiest to root, but I haven't had much luck before when I tried). If those root I will add them to the bed. I also want to get a coreopsis (I like 'Sunray') and stick one there as well.
Bed in progress:
Both beds after completion today:
They don't look like much right now, but once the daylilies start to grow in, it will be pretty lush there. The grass will probably grow to about 3 or 4 feet this year, and larger next year. Once the sedum is there, there will be nice fall color, plus the flowerheads will stay on all winter as well as the seedheads from the grass for winter interest. The coreopsis will add all summer color, too. All of these plants have very good salt tolerance so that shouldn't be an issue.
I finally planted my flat of verbena and begonia, so they should start to grow and bloom soon, adding some needed color inbetween the small stuff I have at this point.
My astilbe are *finally* coming up. It took them awhile to get going but they are starting to really grow now. You can't really see them in this picture, but they are there (look for the small reddish foliage). I took this mostly for comparison purposes later in the season.
I used the rest of the unknown yellow daylily clumps to line the north wall of the garage, in front of the redtwigs. Low maintenance and perfect for areas like this. Again, not much to look at now but I like to take comparison pics.
The Knockout roses are starting to bloom. These are the larger ones I got from Lowes. The small ones I got from ebay should be about this size next year.
About the arbor...
Here is a picture of how it looks right now from a distance. Kind of stupid, as it is just in the middle of nowhere.
Today I started to pull some sod out of the bed I have planned around the arbor. I wanted to at least get it started so when the grass gets cut I know where I am at (I had painted the lines on the grass). It's a work in progress and I will tweak it as I go along, but basically I plan on mirroring both sides of the bed to an extent. I have two clumps of zebra grass and I want to put one of them directly behind the arbor and eventually have it grow up as a backdrop for a stone bench that I will place directly under the arbor. Either that or one on each side of the arbor (I am leaning more that way I think) and they should still grow up as a backdrop for the bench.
I am thinking either fairy roses or more Knockouts on either side of the bed and various perennials.
Like I said, I was busy this weekend :) |
| Posted on Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - 09:17 am: |
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May 24, 2006
If I ever decide to do another bed like this, slap me, ok? 
It took me 10 hours total to pull the sod and then about an hour and a half to plant everything. Then I decided I did not like the placement of the arbor, so I pulled it up and moved it slightly. I am much happier with the placement, but then I had to move a few plants. It's all done now :P
The list of what is planted there:
Boltonia asteroides 'Snowbank' (Starflower) (2)
Sedum spectabile 'Neon' (Stonecrop) (4)
Leucanthemum superbum 'Alaska' (Shasta Daisy) (2)
Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus' (Zebra Grass) (2)
Coreopsis verticillata 'Zagreb' (4)
Coreopsis grandiflora 'Early Sunrise' (4)
Nepeta x faassenii 'Blue Wonder' (Catmint) (4)
Liatris spicata 'Floristan Violet' (Blazing Star or Gayfeather) (2)
Centranthus ruber (Valerian) (6)
Hemerocallis 'Sammy Russel' (Daylily) (7)
The plants are small, so it looks really bare right now, but some of these are HUGE perennials (like the Boltonia) so it will eventually fill in nicely. I also want to put in a Knockout Roses next to the Zebra Grass, so I have left a spot for them on either end of the bed.
This is a pic before I moved the arbor. It gives a good idea of where the bed is located on my property.
Another pic before I moved it. The arbor itself is 7' 3/4" tall so this shows you exactly how much freaking sod I had to pull up.
This last picture is a comparison from before I moved the arbor to after. Excuse the crappy second pic...it was dusk and without flash the shutter stayed open too long. You get the idea, though. I took these from pretty much the same exact angle.
I still need to drag mulch off the other beds to cover this one, but I think I will wait a few days so I can recover from this. I am such a lazy ass that this kind of stuff just wears me out. I am seriously sore today.
Ow. And ow. We did have some rain this morning, so that's good for the newly planted stuff. I wanna see it grow! :)  |
| Posted on Thursday, May 25, 2006 - 03:36 pm: |
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May 25, 2006
Raining off and on today. In between showers, I moved around some stuff. In the new bed, I had two zebra grass planted but I think it will be too much for the area to have two in there. I moved one and replaced it with a 'Nanho Purple' butterfly bush, which should get to be around 4 or 5 feet tall.
I also moved 2 variegated redtwigs that I had planted on the SW corner of the house. One of them I put in the patio bed where the redbud is and the other I used to replace one that wasn't doing so well in the flagpole bed. That flagpole bed is *very* wet, and those dogwoods have wet feet. They should be ok, but I am kind of worried about the Knockouts I have planted there. It seems, though, that the back of the bed where the dogwoods are is the wettest area. It certainly did not seem that wet when I planted the KO's there last month. We have had a lot of rain lately, however.
My 'Henry Kelsey' roses arrived today, too, as planned. Nice sized plants with at least 3 or 4 canes each and good root systems. I am very happy with them. I ordered them from High County Gardens in Utah, based on the reviews on GardenWatchdog. I think they will grow very nicely. They were much larger than the little Knockouts I got from that other grower. Te HKs have at least a 1/4" cane size. The KOs had maybe half that when I got them. We'll see if these take off or not, I think they will. |
| Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 10:12 pm: |
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May 30, 2006
The first clematis bloom of the season showed its pretty little face today: Nellie Moser. It was a teeny tiny little bloom, maybe the size of a silver dollar. Very cute, but nothing special. Then it stormed and the bloom got trashed 
This past weekend was our very first "heat wave" of the season. In the upper 80's/low 90's and humid. My hydrangeas wilted and crisped. Oy. I think when I water them during their sunny period I need to water only the base. Otherwise the leaves scorch.
*Something* keeps eating the little flower buds I am getting on my tiny Knockout roses in the backyard. I get all excited to see a little bud and the next day all that is left is one petal lying on the mulch next to the plant  I have NO idea what is doing it, but the plants are very small and the buds are practically on th ground, so it could be anything. It's a testament to the vigor oe these roses that even so small they are trying to bloom.
I ordered a bunch of clematis from Bluestone today. They are having their 50% off sale, so the most I paid was $5 for a clem. Yeah, these will be small plants, but they should do just fine with a little bit of babying. I ordered Comtesse de Bouchaud, Venosa Violacea, Multi-Blue (the only Group 2 I will get...it's just a favorite of mine so I can't help myself), Huldine and Ville de Lyon, another favorite of mine. I also ordered some Colrain Red monarda for around the locust in the back.
Been storming here all day today and a little yesterday. I am happy about that because my new perennial bed is loving it :) I swear that the Henry Kelsey roses I planted last Thursday have already put on new growth. I am in the process of trying to figure out which clematis I just ordered that I am going to put on the arbor, too. It's either going to be Huldine or Venosa Violacea.
My ninebark 'Diablos' are thisclose to blooming. I expect to see them covered with blossoms by Thursday at the latest. Of course I will take pictures. I really like these shrubs. Jap Beetle magnets, but what isn't?
I have a whole order of daylilies that I want from Hem Haven. I've decided that the back bed in front of the privets is going to be my daylily bed. I want the following:
Alpine Mist
Dragon Dreams
Eye to Eye
Dragon Heart
Elsie Crockett
Gingham Maid
Good Fairy
Janice Brown
Some of those I had at the old house. I know for sure that I brought over a few varieties, but I am only sure on two: Siloam David Kirchoff and Trahlyta. There are three more daylilies that have come up that are mysteries until they bloom. I really hope I brought 'Strawberry Fields Forever', but who knows? I guess I will find out when they finally bloom.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is the sleep year for everything. |
| Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 03:32 pm: |
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June 12, 2006
I had written up an entire entry the other night and I forgot to post it before I turned off the laptop. :(
Anyway, just been puttering here and there. I moved a few things around, planted a few new things, etc..
I moved around some of the variegated dogwoods. I dug up the ones I had planted on the SW corner of the house, shovel pruned one since it was doing poorly and I had no place for it, and planted one of them on the back bed next to the redbud. The other I just moved over a bit so it will fill in in front of the gas meter to hide it.
I also dug up the KOs I had planted in the Locust bed. They were doing very poorly and I realized it was because of the soil being too wet there. So I planted them up into some small pots to get the roots going again, and hopefully they will wake up and I can plant them elsewhere. I think I will plant one of them in the arbor bed, but I am not sure where I want to put the other three. I am sure I will find a spot eventually. Either that or I will give them away to a neighbor.
I also figured out what has been eating the flowers off my KOs in the backyard. Or should I say "who" has been doing it: Guinness, the Wonder Dog. I caught him in the act, and I was most unpleased. There's not much I can do about it though, I can't block him from the roses and he eats anything edible. So...sigh. Maybe once they get larger and thornier he will leave them alone. |
| Posted on Monday, June 26, 2006 - 10:29 am: |
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June 26, 2006
Mostly quiet on the garden front. The plantings continue to grow.
I think I have a dud of a fairy rose. It gets buds but they are weird and so far i have not had any blooms. At first I thought it was from bugs, but I have sprayed and it's not. I am giving it the rest of the season but if I don't see flowers by the end of the summer it will be shovel pruned next Spring.
The arbor bed is growing. Most of the plantings have doubled in size and I can see some blooms getting ready on some of the plants. This is their sleep year so I don't expect much.
My Forever & Ever hydrangea are starting to get blooms. They are coming in pink, so obviously I have akaline soil. I like pink :) I might try to add some rhody food to the ground and see what that does, too.
The KO rose I moved to a drier spot seems to be recovering, and the starter KOs that I potted up are getting lots of new growth. I'm disappointed that the areas I wanted to pl;ace them are too wet, but I will find some other alternative. I did plant some Petite Wonder monarda and siberian iris in that too wet bed, so I will eventually have some color. I've also got some daylilies I need to get into the ground as well. Daylilies amaze me. The clumps I planted about a month ago are already throwing up scapes. These only bloom in July, but when they do bloom is is quite a show.
I need to get my Autumn Joy sedum planted in the driveway beds. I have been rooting them inside for a little over a month and they have decent roots now. I am putting them in a very dry area that is a pain to water, though. We have been getting rain for the past three days so I should have planted them when I wanted to last Friday. Oh well. I'll get them into the ground soon enough.
I am waiting impatiently for the daylilies I brought with from the old house to start putting up scapes. I don't want to order anymore until I know what I have.
That's about it for the moment. |
| Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2006 - 05:04 pm: |
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July 5, 2006
I have scapes on some of my daylilies. I know all of what has scapes except for one, so that one will be a surprise when it blooms. I hope it's Strawberry Fields Forever, but I don't know if I really brought it with when I moved. I guess I'll see in a week or so :)
I found my very first Japanese Beetle on Sunday (July 2). I haven't seen any since, but grrrr! I despise those things. The best part will be getting the tweezers, picking them off the plants and watching them drown in a bucket of soapy water. Mwahahahaha! 
I found some powdery mildew on my F&E hydrangeas today. Very annoying, but probably my fault since I was overhead watering and it's been perfect mildew weather. I sprayed with Neem and I hope that will take care of it. My "mildew-reistant" Petite Wonder monarda are absolutely *covered* in powdery mildew, too. Those got sprayed as well. What a pain. They are very pretty in bloom, but if they are going to be such prissy plants I will shovel-prune them.
Things are slowly growing along. The variegated dogwoods (Elgantissima) are not anywhere near as vigorous as the non-variegated dogwoods. They were all planted at the same time last fall, and the non-variegated have taken off like ganbusters while the variegated are just sort of lollygagging after them. I guess I expected them to grow a bit faster. At this rate it will be 4 years before we have good hedges of them. |
| Posted on Friday, July 07, 2006 - 11:05 am: |
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July 7, 2006
Some garden pics.
My F&E hydrangea bloom. The plant itself is still very small, so I hope it will get taller as it gets older. The flowers are gorgeous, though.
Duchess of Albany clematis. This is her first year here so I didn't expect much. She's small but she is covered with buds right now. In front of her is one of the Knockouts that I ordered online this year. I had to move it from a wetter spot as it wasn't doing very well. It likes this spot, as you can see it really has put on quite a bit of growth.
Petite Wonder monarda. The Neem oil did work on the powdery mildew, but I can tell it will be a constant battle. Maybe once it gets more established it won't be as bad.
My hanging basket of Wave petunias. This is a very pretty basket and it adds a nice splash of color. The only thing is that baskets need water constantly.
I have more, I just need to upload them. Maybe later.
Oh, yeah. Found another Jap Beetle today, this one was on my petunias. Soon I will be out there with the bucket of soapy water... |
| Posted on Thursday, July 13, 2006 - 02:54 pm: |
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July 13, 2006
Some pictures of stuff in bloom today.
The unknown yellow daylilies are starting to bloom. Not all the fans have scapes, but plenty of them do.
These are ditch lilies. Looks like they are doubles.
Astilbe. Visions in Pink.
First bloom on Duchess of Albany. I'm pleased. She's a cutey.
One of the containers on the porch. Very happy with how these are looking. It was a spur of the moment throw together and I like it a lot. Marigolds and purple fountain grass.
One of my unknown daylilies in the back is ready to bloom, too. I think by Saturday I should know what it is. Woo! |
| Posted on Sunday, July 16, 2006 - 10:20 pm: |
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July 16, 2006
Holy heatwave, Batman! It was hot, hot, hot here today. In the mid-90s, humid and sunny. Perfect day to be planting trees.
We planted two Bradford Pears. I really dislike pear trees because they are so weak-wooded. However, as long as they aren't planted right up against the house, or even close to the house, I think they are pretty trees. These were 40% off at the local HD, so I picked up two of them. They are pretty tall and very upright. This is looking at them at the back of my house.
Duchess of Albany is starting to hit her stride. I love the way these flowers look.
Triternata rubromarginata is starting to bloom away, too. Although it is only 2 feet tall and the blooms are about an inch across, there are a lot of them.
Zagreb coreopsis is starting to bloom, too. These are small clumps, just planted this year in the arbor bed.
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| Posted on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 - 02:58 pm: |
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July 18, 2006
For some reason, I did not post that one of the mystery daylilies finally bloomed. It turns out that it is 'Eye to Eye'. It actually bloomed on July 14.
Today, 'Trahlyta' opened up. We had some wicked storms last night but they didn't affect the blooms.
Today is nicer than it was yesterday. The temp is in the low 80s and the humidity is down.
All in all a nice day. |
| Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 11:23 am: |
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August 7, 2006
Haven't been posting for a while, but that's par for the course with me as summer comes on.
The past week here was awful. Temps in the upper 90s and very high humidity made for heat indices in the 110's. Not fun. I mostly stayed inside with the occasional foray out to water the stuff that the sprinklers don't usually get.
For some reason, our parkway trees (esp. the maple and the oak) are not handling things well. The maple is browned out and holding leaves and the oak is starting too. We've dumped a lot of water on them in the past few days and I hope they at least drop the leaves and go dormant.
All of my F&E hydrangeas have big pom-poms of pink blooms. They look nice. While they didn't grow very tall this year, they did bloom well. Hopefully next year will see more growth.
The variegated dogwoods aren't growing as fast as the regular dogwoods. I find that interesting. The regular ones have really taken off and are pretty big, at least 4 feet tall already.
The heat last week made my Henry Kelsey roses really take off. I don't expect blooms this year but the canes have grown quite a bit. |
| Meig Posted on Friday, July 13, 2007 - 11:49 am: |
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July 13, 2007
It's been awhile. As usual I am all gung ho for the first couple of months and then I lose my 'zilla for the garden until the next spring. So here it is, 2007 :)
I'm very happy I have some journal entries from last year because it has helped me to figure out some mystery plants this year and also to realize that some other things died off that I hadn't even realized. I think some of my "die offs" were actually caused by my husband and a can of weed killer, but we won't discuss that ;)
I've been doing a lot of work outside this year. We had gotten quotes to do handscape edging around the mulch beds, raning from $10k to $18k. Needless to say, we decided to do the work ourselves. It's not brain surgery but it is hard work. I've been working on it since early June and I've gotten five beds done. I am 3/4 the way complete through another bed. We have 3 mulch beds after this one, with one of them being the huge bed that wraps around the house and has several elevation changes, and then we have seven tree rings to do.
So, onward to the pictures!
Here's a shot of the flowers blooming in my arbor bed. If this is the creep year, I can't imagine leap year! I need to tie up the daisies, though, they got really floppy.
Duchess of Albany. She's a monster this year and the winds pulled her down and bent the heavy trellis I had her on since I took this. I am planning on attaching some trellising to the side of the house soon for her.
My porch pots this year. I love the colors. The grass is Overdam. I'll let it winter in the pots but I don't know if it will survive. If I remember I will bring the pots into the garage.
The daylily bed so far.
I plan on extending it down the mulch bed so the entire back of the house is pretty much one long bed. It should be pretty nifty once it is complete. Right now I know I have the following in there for sure: Trahlyta, Siloam David Kirchoff, and Eye to Eye. I *think* that I also have Gingham Maid. I have an extra that was sent to me and of course I have *no* idea what it was, and I have another that I think is Alpine Mist, but I don't know for sure. I *hate* not knowing what I have planted, ugh!
Here is the bed off the side of the patio. The snowball viburnum has grown at least two feet since May. I moved the japanese pieris I had in the front of the house back to this bed in May. It really didn't care for the winds it got over the winter and there was a lot of die off. Back here I can mulch them up or burlap them and I don't care how it looks.
I replaced the pieris up front with Little Henry Sweetspire, which I certainly hope does better. I guess we'll see next year.
Another loss this winter was the Seiryu japanese maples I had in the front of the house. They just can't handle the winds were get here. I wanted something with winter interest, so I replaced it with a Contorted Filbert.
We added a couple of trees this year: a blue spruce and a clumping Autumn Blaze maple. Here's the spruce on the side of the house. I wanted it there to "anchor" that side, since it is so large.
The new maple replaces the redbud off the back patio. The redbud made it through one winter and then died this past one. As I said, I lost a lot of stuff this winter here. I didn't think the weather was particularly severe, but apparently the plants did. |
| Meig Posted on Thursday, June 05, 2008 - 10:26 pm: |
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June 5, 2008
As usual, I went post crazy for awhile and then I stopped posting.
So, what is new in my garden?
Let's start at the beginning: what didn't make it over the winter.
I lost the following:
1 redtwig dogwood
2 'Alaska' shasta daisies
2 "Early Sunrise" coreopsis
3 more Knockouts
I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought.
What is new this year:
Dr. Ruppel clem (G2)
Barbara Jackman clem (G2)
Tie Dye clem (G3)
John Huxtable clem (G3)
Comtesse de Bouchard clem (G3)
2 J&P "Lovely Fairy" roses - These were replacements for the horrible Weeks fairy roses I bought in 2006. One never made it to 2007, and the other just never took off as I expected it to. I shovel pruned it and found that it had barely put down any roots. Just not the vigorous grower that I had come to expect with J&P Fairies.
Lamb's Ear 'Helene von Stein' - I used to have some of this but I moved it and it didn't make it. My kids love how soft it is so they insisted we get some more.
2 Shasta Daisies 'Becky' to replace the 'Alaskas" that I lost. Beckys are also supposed to stay more upright as well.
1 Siberian Wallflower 'Orange Bedder' - This was
another choice by my son, and it's very pretty and fragrant. However, it looks to only be hardy to Z6 so it might be an annual here. Supposedly self sows easily though.
I ordered a ton of daylilies this year as well:
Bugs Hug
Violet Explosion
Pimiento Pepper
Elegant Candy
Wineberry Candy
A Colorado Moonfire x Pumpkin Pie Spice seedling
A Frank Smith x Solar Max seedling
Roses in Snow
Lyrical Presence
Cherry Drop
Siloam Tommy Tucker
I also got Sabra Salina as a bonus plant.
I have some more that I am bidding on, I will post them if I win. |
| Meig Posted on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 12:12 am: |
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June 20, 2008
I did win the other daylilies. The ones I won are:
Strawberry Fields Forever
Hillbilly Heart
Web of Intrigue
Hillbilly Heart was supposed to be Linda Daniels, but their plant got trampled. So they offered me a comparable plant and HH is what I chose.
I got another bonus, too: Spacecoast Sonata.
I'll get some new pictures posted soon. I have cleams blooming right now. |
| Meig Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2008 - 03:23 pm: |
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July 3, 2008
Added another new daylily: 'The Flower Formerly Known as Griff' (TFFKAG). For obvious reasons :) I am also planning on getting 'Green Gage', also for obvious reasons. I picked a large fan of TFFKAG for $11 locally, and what a deal. I can't find it anywhere else for less than $50, so I am pleased.
One more to add to the list: Shasta Daisy 'Gold Rush'. I picked it up a few weeks ago but forgot and it is starting to bloom. |
