Almost the Last of the Fall Shipments

I finally planted Calluna "H.E. Beale" (Scotch Heather) and Calluna vulgaris "Winter Chocolate" as well as 2 Grand Canyon Sunset tall bearded iris rhizomes. One of the Lavandula Hidcote Superior which looked a bit ragged and sad seems to be doing okay... there is new growth at the base of the plant, so I'm relieved.

The Geranium Lancastriense and are still alive and are, hopefully, settling in. The Summers Memories Mix  Hollyhock are also looking good. The one that I started from seed still has green leaves. I wonder if it will flower next year...

Achillea Oertel's Rose has also put out some more green growth... a good sign.

Now to find time to plant the Stella de Oro Daylilly!

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of the work that was done on Sunday...

Catmint, Purple Bearded Irises and Foxtails planted

Broom, Lavender and Sedum Autumn Joy

Achillea mill. Oertel's Rose in front of Ornamental Grass

Cleaned up the semi-circular planting bed too...

South side:

Echinacea Prarie Splendor and Primroses were added in the Spring

North Side:

Lavender was also added this year; the primroses look more lush on this side 

Middle of the Bed:

It's a bit hard to tell from here, but you can see the sad looking
transplanted peony between the sedum and Russian Sage

Cleopatra Foxtail Lilies

Planted 3 of the Cleopatra Foxtail lilies which came in the mail last week yesterday. I snuck in an allium bulb and planted some purple bearded irises next to them. The catmints were moved up to the front of the planting bed. It now has a more prominent place along the new path and looks good there. The broom, which never bloomed, was moved next to the new lavenders as well as the sedum which is currently in bloom.

Here is a before picture as well as my plans. I won't be planting the daylily since the catmint is taking up more room than expected. I'll post an update picture later!

Update

I forgot to mention that C and I also moved some peonies planted by a previous gardener to the half round bed in the back, in front of the garage. It was sitting under the pine tree near the mailbox and had bloomed only once after C cut down a couple of young shade (weed?) trees. I am hoping that moving it out to a sunnier area will help it to rebloom in future springs to come.

Geraniums and Lavender

Planted 3 Geranium Lancastriense and 3 Lavandula Hidcote Superiors today, as well as weeded a bit. Move 3 of the half eaten lilies to the back of the house, by the driveway. I accidentally shattered one of the bulbs while digging it out. I left the lily cloves in the front. Maybe they will grow into lily plants later.

Also visited Peddler's Village. They always seem to have nice landscaping with lot of flowers. I'm thinking that maybe I should create a new bed with salvias and some other nice low growing flowers in the front.

September 2014

This week, I received a shipment from Bluestone Perennials for some plants:

Achillea Oertel's Rose (3)
Geranium Lancastriense (3)
Lavandula Hidcote Superior (3)

Today, I was able to plant the Achillea before it started to rain. While doing so, I discovered that there was not much depth to the soil due to some underlying asphalt (the previous homeowners used the front of the house as a parking area). For now, I installed them and will come back and maybe throw some compost them later. I'll probably move the plants again later if they seem to be struggling. Some shallow-rooted plants might be a better idea.

In the garden, the Echinacea and Russian Sage are still in bloom and the Sedum have started to turn pink. There is also an abundance of weeds all around. Lots of work to do!

What's Growing - Mid-Late July 2014

In bloom and going strong

• Hollyhocks
• Catmints
• Echinacea
• Russian sage
• Hostas

Fizzling out

• Daylilies
• Butterfly weed
• Primroses

Plumeria with Its First Set of Leaves

The Plumeria (Frangipani) has finally leafed out at last!

 On June 1, 2014

On June 24, 2014

I can't believe how fast is is growing! So far, it has been out of the house for about 2 weeks and it seems to be developing well outdoors. The one leaf on the left is really long in comparison to the height of the stem. I've never seen this plant in person before, so I'm curious to know what it will look like with a full set of leaves. 

Foxy Lady!

One of the Eremurus that I picked up earlier this year from the Roberta's Unique Garden booth at the NJ Flower Show bloomed. It is really nice to see since I didn't expect them to have any flowers at all (according to the instructions, they bloom during the second year). The second Eremurus has foliage, but no bloom. I wonder how large the flower will be...

At the end of this flowerbed, is the Autumn Joy that I had transplanted earlier. Something needs to be done to liven that area during the summer. I am thinking about adding yellow-orange day lilies since they are drought tolerant and tough. The color should contrast nicely against the purple plumes of the ornamental grass.

The lilies that I planted last year does not appear to be making it through. It looks as if something had eaten to top of the stem where the flower should be, as well as several leaves. It could be insects. In any case, I won't be planting oriental lilies again since they don't seem to work well for me.

The strawberries are not doing very well either. There was at least one berry with sooty mold and some of the berries were looking very sad. I cut them all away, hoping to do better. One problem with the hanging baskets is that since I can't see into them because of my height, I don't know if anything is wrong with them. I'm contemplating taking the strawberry plants out and planting some flowering plants instead.

Plumeria At Last!

Finally signs of life! I was giving up hope on my plumeria cutting, but was happy to see new growth at the top of one of the stalks:

Checking the bottom of the pot revealed two root ends growing out from the drainage hole. Yay!

Bowman's Hill Flower Sale 2014

Yesterday I visited the sping flower sale at Bowman's Hill Flower Preserve and came away with some plants:

• Polygonatum Biflorum (Solomon's Seal). I brought a few years back from the same place. It seems to be doing well, so I thought I should buy two more.
• Asarum Canadense (Wild Ginger). I planted this underneath the sad looking azalea which still hasn't leafed out. 2 plants. 
• Anemone Canadensis (Canada Anemone). I planted this by the back door. It is supposed to be a vigorous spreader and sounds like just the thing to cover the empty space in the shaded back area where it seems difficult to grow anything. 1 plant. 
• Trillium species (Trillium). At $15 a pot, this was the spendiest of the lot. I only brought one since I'm not too  familiar with it and am not sure how well it will do, but the flower on their sign seems nice.
• Stylophorum diphyllum (Celandine Poppy). I was not expecting to purchase these and have never heard of them, but their pretty yellow flowers caught my eye as we drove by them along their driveway. I'm planning to plant these in front of the ferns by the back door. 3 plants.

It was really nice to visit the Preserve and see some of the spring flowers growing in their native environment. Anyone who is interested in gardening should get out to see some gardens as they are extremely useful in determining how a mature plant will actually look once they have filled in. I enjoy pouring over plant catalogs and imagining how the ones I like will grow in my garden, but their focus is usually on the flowers, fruits or vegetables. Nothing will give the gardener a real sense of size and habit as well as visiting a garden. Better than that, visit at different seasons when it is possible to see how they look during different seasons.

I also FINALLY planted the Lady Fern after soaking the bare roots for about 2 hours in water. It is in the back near the large stacked rocks where the ivy used to be. I moved the ivy to the new hosta bed, hoping that they will trail over the broken retaining railroad ties. The Tennessee Ostrich fern is currently soaking in a basin of water and will go in the back since they are expected to become very tall. I brought both varieties as bare roots from Home Depot earlier this year, so hopefully they are still alive. I'm not sure how the astilbes are doing. There may be signs of life from one, but the other two roots are not doing much of anything.

Since C moved the large clump of catmint from the front of the house to the space along the road, there was room for more plants in front of the house. I really enjoy going outside and picking fresh thyme for cooking, so I thought that it would be even better if I could also pick some fruits and vegetables as well.

I move the blueberry plant which was planted in a container by the back door to the front, where it can enjoy more sunlight and planted two hanging baskets with strawberries. A trip to Rutgers' annual spring flower sale yielded a Roma tomato plant which is now in the ground next to two spots of Bonnie sweet basil.

Along the road, there are some leaves which look different from the weeds that normally grow there. I hope that it is one of the foxtail lilies. There should be two, but if only one grows, I will still be happy since they sat around the house for a while before they were planted.

Spring Planting

Planted 3 Sarocococca humilis "Fragrant Valley" by the big bed next to the back door, as well as 1 Gaultheria Creeping Wintergreen. The Hydrangea macrophylla "All Summer Beauty" is now a few feet away from the propane tank in the back and takes up the empty space near the downspout.

Tristan strawberries were planted into 2 hanging baskets. There are 3 plants in each basket.

Lenten Rose "HGC Jacob" was planted near the backdoor in the bed on the other side of the bathroom.

Two azaleas were moved to the area behind the house close to the wild daylilies. The white azalea was tossed out. There was a funny little wormy thing which caused me to worry about its condition. In addition, when I snapped a stem to check if it was still alive, the core of the stem was not green.

Spring Rush

April 26, 2014

Cut ornamental grass in the driveway area.
Divided sedum, Autumn Joy and moved some to the bed along the road
Planted Evening Primroses, Echinacea Prairie Splendor
Creeping phlox
Moved a large hosta from under the pine tree to the back door area
Divided catmint, although it is looking pretty sad


April 27, 2014

Put out Lupine Sunrise under the pine tree near the mailbox (also added extra seeds in case the transplant does not go well)
Planted Rocky Mountain Penstemons near the lupines
Also planted one Foxglove

Two hostas are emerging from the ground by the pine tree. Right now the shaded area is pretty moist.
Peonies stems have come up. Planning to move it into a more well lit area probably in the front of the bed.
Planted Grecian Windflowers Anemone blanda next to the lavenders which do not look like they are coming back.

Planted Rutgers tomato seeds and stock
Sowed a tray of Linaria maroccana Fairy Bouquet
Direct sowed stock to the hosta area
Direct sowed Sweet Woodruff Blue Suprise (packed for 2013) near the back door

Easy Breezy Plants

There hasn't been too much rain this April, but it certainly is a windy and chilly month! I'm always awed when I think about how plants are able to cope with weather that would leave me shivering in my gardening boots! [Ok, I don't have gardening boots (yet), but it seemed like such a good turn of phrase that I wanted to include it. It's not all the time that I think of these things, ya'know!]

Just for the record, here are pictures of some spring plants waking from their long winter nap. The bleeding heart and King Solomon's Seal are from Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve's plant sale. The bleeding heart has gotten bigger and looks so nice in bloom that I am afraid to move it. I should probably find another one at this year's plant sale, so that I don't have to! The Muscari in the bottom right corner of the picture has sad, droopy leaves and is not as vibrant and full-of-life as those planted by the mailbox. I suppose it has something to do with the soil. Those by the mailbox are in a drier location. I should move this little guy over there once it is done for the season...

On the other hand... the King Solomon's Seal were moved. I unknowingly left a few behind, which is what you see in the picture below. Not bad for a plant that has been disturbed. I will probably use more native plants since they seem pretty resilient for a novice gardener like myself.

Bleeding Hearts
Dicentra spectabilis
(now known as Lamprocapnos spectabilis, according to Wikipedia)

King Solomon's Seal
Polygonatum

The daylilies and quince were planted by the previous owners. There are maybe 4 scraggly quince shrubs in the thicket near the garage. It would be nice to move the quince, but I don't know where... 

Daylilies

Quince

The garden gnome is an Easter gift from my mother-in-law, R. He's so adorable and I love the unusual pose! He's in the garden bed by the entrance door ready to help me with my garden. Hm... maybe he is trying to work his magic on that sad looking Muscari in front of him... 

A Lovely Easter Garden Gnome
from my Favorite Mother-in-Law R

Springtime Mailbox Planting

This picture was taken yesterday:

Muscari and the First Daffodil

Behind the mailbox are the irises I planted a year or two ago. I hope they will flower this year :)

Flowers in April

So far, the muscari by the mailbox has come up and is looking beautiful. The daffodils are getting ready to open. I should probably plant a different variety since the ones that are currently there seem to have week stems which don't support the flowers very well. I don't have pictures now, but hopefully I can take some pictures tomorrow.

Bleeding Hearts and Jacob's Ladder

Sweet Woodruff, Hyacinth and Primrose

Jacob's Ladder

It seems that the Jacob's Ladder that is planted in an area with part shade is doing a lot better than the one planted in full shade. Unfortunately, I'm planning to move it so that I can plant 3 Sweet Box (Sarcococca humilis Fragrant Valley) in that bed. Then again, maybe I'll just plant it near the wall, since it is supposed to do well in dry shady areas where it is difficult to grow many plants. Unfortunately, it seems to be a slow grower. Decisions, decisions! 

My shipment from Park Seed came yesterday. In the box were:

• Hydrangea All Summer Beauty (1)
• Sarcococca humilis Fragrant Valley (3)
• Gaultheria procumbens Creeping Wintergreen (1)

I'm hoping to get them in the ground this weekend. 

Another sweet surprise came from Uncle L and Aunt J who surprised us with a tall Persian Lilac shrub on Easter. I've been keeping it watered and trying to figure out the best place to put it. 

Roadside Flowerbed

Today was a good day to cut back the overgrown and overwintered grasses. Some of the cut grasses were used as mulch, to be covered next week (hopefully) by some store brought brown mulch. The lilies I brought last year have made it through the winter, and I'm hoping that there will be some flowers this year.

I also planted the Foxtail lilies (Eremurus) that I brought from the NJ Flower Show. It seems to be the perfect spot for this plant. Since we are on a hill, the site should have great drainage and the area receives a heavy amount of sun during the summer. However, when I planted them, the tops were left exposed and I learned later that they should have been covered by 2-3 inches of soil. I'll need to remember to run outside and cover them up tomorrow! From what I've read, they won't bloom this year, but should definitely bloom by the third year. By the fifth year, they should really take off.

It's not much now, but hopefully it will look good in the summer. 

A few days ago, I also brought a gardenia which I'm thinking of keeping in the back of the house. There are a bunch of buds on it already. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will do well this summer. 

Just Arrived! Echinacea "Prairie Splendor"

I received my shipment of 3 echinacea "Prairie Splendor" plants today. I was never a big fan of echinacea's large cones, but I had a change of heart once I saw them in Gardens Illustrated magazine. I love their cute button shaped centers and their drought-tolerance. They arrived from Jung's without pots, so I put them in plastic pots with some potting soil and gave them a good watering. Hopefully they will perk up again soon. I wonder where I should put them....

Also, most of the seeds have sprouted by now. In the future, I'm definitely not going to use the plastic covers to keep in the humidity. This year, they have done so much better without the cover and there was less damping off than in previous years, if any.

Early Risers

It has only been a week, but Lupine "Sunrise," Acroclinium Paper Daisy, and Salvia farinacea "Fairy Queen" are the first to arrive to the spring party:

Lupine "Sunrise" and Paper Daisy

Salvia farinacea "Fair Queen"

Amaryllis Red Lion's stem has now been cut down and leaves are appearing and Amaryllis "Apple Blossom" is hanging in a bit longer. I'm still trying to control the aphid problem on the Hellebore. I can't wait to get this one outside. Hopefully the aphid problem with then go away... but then again, it may not...

6 Weeks to Go!

It is approximately 6 weeks before the last frost date, so I put aside my sewing projects in order to get some of the seeds started:

Lupine Sunrise, Penstemon Strictus (Rocky Mountain Penstemon), Acroclinium Best Mixed (Paper Daisy), Petunia Double Cascade, Evening Primrose, Salvia Farinacea (Fairy Queen), Shasta Daisy (Crazy Daisy), Shasta Daisy (White Knight) and Foxglove (Excelsior Hybrid Mix).

Also finally managed to pot the Hawaiian plumeria:

Stephanotis jasmine is managing to stay alive...

Amaryllis is still going strong...

Breaking the Winter Blues

Visited the New Jersey Flower & Garden Show in Edison, NJ on Friday. Although it is not as large in scope and scale as the Philadelphia Flower Show, I like that it is not overcrowded. There were a few landscaping companies competing for best in show and various vendors, some of them plant and flower related, others not. This is my second time visiting the show and some of the vendors that were there the first time I visited, were missing for my second visit. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to call it the New Jersey Home and Garden show since there was an equal number, if not more vendors who sold products related to the home, than flowers and plants. Even still, I managed to come away with some interesting plants:

dendrobium anosmum

Stephanotis floribunda

Sempervivum Raspberry Ice?

Hawaiian Plumeria (White)

Eremurus hybrids, Foxtail Lily

On Saturday, C and I visited RareFind Nursery in Jackson, NJ for their Hamamelis and Winter-Blooming Plants Festive talk. We were a bit late due to the snow and sleet, but fortunately did not miss it and people were still enjoying the refreshments. It was a worthwhile trip and I learned about some interesting plants that I've never heard of before, some of them fragrant. Now, I'm thinking of trying a witch hazel this year. Daphnes, Camelias and White Forsythia (Abeliophyllum). We didn't buy anything this time around since the ground is still frozen out, but hope to make our way back in the early spring, perhaps in May. Saw some Skimmia japonica, which looked pretty good and was thinking it might look nice by the back of the house.

Tulip Time

It's been many months since I brought Home Depot's Parrot Tulips and Longfield Gardens' Tulipa Jimmy (which I actually picked up while food shopping at Wegmans), but I finally got around to potting them up today. Actually, I forgot whether I was supposed to plant them outside or inside, but no matter. I potted them up to admire indoors. Fortunately, they still look okay after sitting around neglected. There were green tips on most, if not all, of the bulbs. Hopefully with a little bit of TLC, they will take off.

Amaryllis Apple Blossom

Some time in November, my mother-in-law thoughtfully brought an amaryllis for me. We both enjoy gardening and love to share our successes, as well as commiserate over plants that are struggling or just didn't make it.

Amaryllis Apple Blossom is my first amaryllis and I thought it would be nice to record its progress here. I didn't think anything was going to happen for a long time and I was worried that I might have done something wrong but, once it decided to wake up, the growth was just explosive!

December 18

December 21

December 25

January 3

I am just astonished at how quickly the stem seems to have come out of nowhere. I believe it is an extra large bulb, but still... it is hard to imagine how that thick and tall stem came out of such a short bulb. Nature never ceases to amaze me! Thanks mom! :)