A Study in Contrasts

Autumn Light & Color - Part 1

2011-11-12T20:03:00.002-05:00

The past few weeks have gotten away from me even more quickly than usual. Between launching a new website at work and trying to plan at least the basics of our wedding, the days have completely flown by. (And yes, we finally have a date! August 4th!)

I haven't spent much time outside this fall, which is a shame. I love the slanting rays of light that pick up all of the beautiful reds, like the brightening maple leaves and the flower stalks of the nearby miscanthus:

Light colors at their feet, like the 'Frosty Curls' and 'Beetlemania' carexes, and 'Purple Dragon' lamium, really highlight the reds:

As I bent to find another view of the low-angled light playing in the maple leaves, I discovered a bonus:

'Party Dress' Japanese anemones are still blooming! I just love this messy yet delicate mix of anemone, miscanthus, and a veil of red Japanese maple leaves, all anchored by the yellowing foliage of 'Northern Halo' hosta:

A few more posts of fall color are yet to come... before it all disappears under a blanket of snow! Any of my other northern neighbors have things that are still blooming in your garden?

October: Big News, Little Blooms (GBBD)

2011-10-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe that I took these photos more than a week ago already... and yet the garden looks so different now, just 7 days later. Cold weather and chilly evenings have started to take their toll, but all of what you see in these next few photos is still in bloom:

Blue caryopteris and 'Black & Blue' salvia provide a nice habitat for George the Giraffe

When backlit, the flower spikes of 'Hameln' pennisetum positively glow

Acapulco agastache is a reliable late-season bloomer for me... if only it still looked this vibrant!

A larger (re)bloom on my African daisy (Gazania)

Cool-toned Russian sage flowers separate the self-sown 'Lady in Red' salvia, front, and 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth

VERY late this year: First blooms on the pineapple sage

Cool+Wet=Reblooming 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort

A surprise rebloom on my (unnamed, but probably Jackmanii) clematis

Last but not least, the big news: Steve and I are engaged! We had gone ring shopping together more than a month ago, but I was still very surprised. I wasn't sure which ring he had ultimately chosen out of the 2 or 3 antique rings I liked best... and I definitely had clue that he had already spoken to my parents to ask for their blessing. I didn't quite comprehend when he dropped down on one knee on the beach and reached into his pocket during an afternoon walk at a beachfront park... but, luckily, I recovered in sufficient time to stammer out a "Yes!" and a huge smile. Needless to say, we are both very excited!!!

Not nearly as excited is this old girl... can't you tell? Sister knows that once we get married and Steve moves in, she's going to have to endure his torture... but secretly, I think that they both enjoy running each other around the backyard, chasing the little yellow tennis ball and tugging at sticks. And, although he doth protest with a, "Really, dog?" here and there, Steve scratches Coco's belly readily enough when she rolls over at his feet and presents it.

So I'm thinking that they will be just fine. :)

A Few September Highlights

2011-09-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so it's not all bad in my garden... there are a few areas that I am enjoying, now that they've been a little cleaned up. (4 GIANT bags' worth of cleanup, and counting!)

First and foremost are the two chimney tile planters--these chimney tiles were my best garden trashpick ever, by the way, and I think that my back still twinges with the memory every time I look at them. Both were planted with 'Vodka' wax begonias and other complementary colored and silver plants. The sunnier one features a combination of lantana and 'Silver Falls' dichondra:

'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth and Japanese bloodgrass make nice surrounding companions, along with various small-textured herbs.

The shadier planter is much tougher to photograph, due to the unnamed brugmansia, 'Black Lace' elderberry, and peach tree that tower above it. (Okay, and due to my lack of camera skills.) But it features 'Gartenmeister' fuchsia and this silver lotus vine:

That silvery leaf encroaching on the lower right side of this picture is collard greens, by the way. I didn't realize that collards would be so pretty, or I would have placed them a little more prominently among the veggies!

Speaking of veggies, I kind of wish that someone had warned me that tomatillo plants have genetically ingrained plans for garden domination. My SINGLE plant is scrambling over 2 different tomatoes, a blueberry bush, an elderberry, a rhododendron, eggplant, and much more. You can see it above--and hovering over the sunny tile planter in some of those shots, too.

Last but not least is my native honeysuckle, lonicera sempervirens. I can't talk enough about how awesome this plant is, how long it flowers, and how carefree it is. And every time I stop to admire it, I think about how I first admired it in the garden of the lovely Annie in Austin... which makes me smile.

I'm trying to be more positive about the garden, so if I can successfully dodge raindrops I promise to find a few more photos and post them later this week. (Thanks again to everyone who left kind words of encouragement for this cranky gardener!)

At Least Someone Enjoys a Messy Garden

2011-09-19T21:32:00.000-04:00

Confession time: My garden is a total, absolute WRECK. I'm neither kidding nor exaggerating... it's so bad that I refuse to take photos to post on this blog. Rather like how, when I was 60lbs heavier than I am now, I refused to let anyone take any pictures of me... I prefer to have no documentation of my shame!

How bad is the garden? Well... lets just say that yesterday I filled up 4 of those supertall brown paper garden waste bags with stuff that I didn't want to compost. (I also refilled both compost bins with things that were OK to compost, plus the last of the shredded leaves from the previous autumn.)

And, after all that effort... it's still not photo-ready. *sigh*

Well, at least this guy likes a messy garden. More places for him to hide--and, ultimately, to find dinner:

(He didn't seem to be too excited about my cleanup, by the way. Or maybe he, like my garden, just doesn't like the camera right now, either!)

More blogging soon... after a little more cleanup!

The Best Watermelon I (N)Ever Grew...

2011-08-25T19:16:00.000-04:00

Isn't it a beauty? Bigger than any of the ones I grew last year, and still growing! I didn't have a hand in planting it, however, I was just smart enough to let it grow. Ma Nature decided to seed this watermelon next to the driveway and remind me who's really the top gardener around here. (As if I could forget!)

In the end, I still win--I will get to enjoy its deliciousness in a few weeks. :)

Color vs. Texture: Which is Your Favorite Type of Contrast?

2011-08-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

I posted a LOT of silvery shots yesterday for the August Foliage Follow-Up, so I thought that it might also be interesting to show the only two non-silver photos that ended up on my hard drive after my foliage-focused garden tour. After uploading the photos, I realized that they illustrate two very different types of contrast that I play with in my garden: Color contrast, and texture contrast.

Mega-watt color contrast:

Green 'Chubby Fingers' sedum, dark 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga and golden creeping jenny mingle amiably on the edge of the driveway garden. In a closeup photo like this, you can see some textural contrasts as well... but in the grand scheme, when you are viewing the garden from normal height, these small-scale groundcovers all provide a similar, fine texture for the garden floor.

Textural contrast:

'Hameln' pennisetum, sedum spurium* and oakleaf hydrangea. All three plants feature a medium shade of green, with reddish/brownish accents in their flowers, stems and leaves... but the oakleaf hydrangea leaves are bold, and the fine-textured sedum and grass differ in leaf shape for additional textural interest.

Foliage contrast is much more obvious, of course. It's like the tight minidress that flaunts a woman's assets and leaves little to the imagination. Textural contrast, to continue the fashion analogy, is more like the dress that looks demure from the front but is (surprise!) completely backless and drop-dead sexy. I enjoy using both kinds of contrast in my garden, along with some plant form contrast thrown in for good measure. (And a few areas of low contrast, too, to give the eye a place to rest.)

So what kind of contrast do you all employ in your own gardens? Do you tend to steer clear of all contrast, or do you find that one type of contrast is more pleasing than another to your eye? I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this... particularly as a have a few garden areas to revamp in the coming year!

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*Note: At various times, I have purchased 'Voodoo', 'Fuldaglut' and 'Dragon's Blood' sedum spurium, and each has been moved and transplanted so often that I have no idea which one(s) are in any particular area of the garden. They are much easier to tell apart in the springtime when their foliage colors are strongest--during the summer, as you can see above, they mostly fade to green. 'Voodoo' tends toward a chocolate or grayish red color, 'Dragon's Blood' to deep red, and 'Fuldaglut' often has a glow of bright green on the centers of its red leaf tips in the spring. I would recommend any or all of them for planting, if you are so inclined.

A Silvery Foliage Follow-Up - August 2011

2011-08-18T23:40:00.000-04:00

Each month, when the Foliage Follow-Up rolls around, I walk around in my garden and take pictures of anything and everything that catches my eye. Back inside, I scroll through the new photos to look for a common thread--and sometimes make a second trip out for even more photos that fit my chosen theme.

This week, no additional trips were necessary: The "Silver Foliage" theme came through loud and clear, with frosty plants making an appearance in all but two of the pictures! Silver-foliaged plants are usually hardy, drought tolerant, and shrug off the heat of the summer... so it's no wonder that they are putting on a great show right now. Here's a quick roundup of a few favorites:

One of two silver lotus vine I have planted. This one (also shown in the first photo) began life in a hanging basket and now lives in the urn along with purple alternanthera, 'Vista Burgundy' salvia, celosia and a red spike.

Powdery blue sea kale leaves hold their own against the bold foliage of the oakleaf hydrangea.

'Silver Falls' dichondra bridges the gap between 'Bandana Cherry' lantana and the red Japanese bloodgrass.

You knew this was coming: A photo of my latest obsession, salvia argentea (a.k.a. silver sage).

I like dusty miller in general, but my inner plant snob only seems to remember the many ways it is usually abused in yards around here... and urges me to buy something (anything) else.

This year, we were able to compromise and plant 'Silver Cascade' (above) along with 'Blue Daze' evolvulus, a feathery magenta celosia, and a coleus that looks an awful lot like 'Wizard Pineapple' but came as part of an unnamed multipack.

Two silvery plants in this photo, to end the silver streak: 'Purple Dragon' lamium sprawls out from beneath the Japanese maple, and short fountains of 'Frosty Curls' carex comans froth up between 'Beetlemania' carex, 'Ivory Prince' hellebores, and various heuchera.

Hope you enjoyed the silver rush here in the August Foliage Follow-Up. For more great foliage from around the world, check out Pam's August Foliage Follow-Up over at Digging!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2011

2011-08-15T21:51:00.002-04:00

'Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis, heuchera, and oakleaf hydrangea

August is always an exciting, but bittersweet, time in the garden. It's exciting to see the late summer bloomers, like the Japanese anemone and the pineapple lily featured above, return. And it's always fun to see where the tall verbena decide to reseed themselves.

Verbena bonariensis, stretching from a tiny driveway crack to mingle with the urn plantings

At the same time, may of the tropicals hit their second wind:

Unknown brugmansia, a cutting from the botanical garden a few years back

And it's always fun to see how well the drought-tolerant annuals have fared. In the front yard, that means the usual snapdragons, portulaca, and 'Black and Blue' salvia, along with the new-to-my-garden "Mexican sunflower, a.k.a. tithonia.

Salvia gauranitica 'Black and Blue' in front of a blue caryopteris

Unnamed orange-flowering tithonia, emerging from red sedum.

(Highlight provided by 'Sun Power' hosta.)

In the backyard, the drought-tolerant 'Vodka' wax begonias are joined by a different variety of lantana than I usually plant, and a surprisingly drought-tolerant fuchsia:

'Bandana Cherry' lantana--the flowers on this are so variable in color that I'll definitely choose a different variety next year.

The surprisingly resilient 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' fuchsia triphylla and 'Vodka' wax begonias, both currently overrun by lotus vine foliage.

The bittersweet part of August comes with the knowledge that there are mere weeks left of the growing season. So many good intentions and best-laid plans have come to naught, so many missed opportunities have passed me by. There's nothing to be done about it now, though, except enjoy the last big flush of the native honeysuckle agains the neighbor's house and the blue sky... while I still can.

For years now, Carol at May Dreams Gardens has been hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on the 15th of every month. To see what's blooming around the world right now, visit her August Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post here. Or scroll down to see the rest of my own August bloom list. Happy GBBD!

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Other plants also in bloom today: True blue plumbago, hardy blue plumbago, bronze fennel, 'Hameln' pennisetum, oregano, almost all of the hostas, regular Japanese anemones, lots of 'Vista Burgundy' annual salvia, everbearing strawberries, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, the orange-and-yellow gladioli that decided to resurrect themselves after several years' rest, Russian sage, broccoli (darn it), 'Purple Dragon' lamium, red pentas, red and other self-sown snapdragons, various caryopteris, achillea, and at least 4 different kinds of basils.

Cute Now... Delicious Later

2011-08-06T11:52:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure where there is anything quite as adorable as a baby vegetable... and this eggplant is TINY. (See the light purple eggplant flower hovering at the top of the photo for comparison.)

These are the delicious, never bitter, super easy to grow 'Ichiban' japanese eggplants, by the way. I fell in love with them maybe 5 years ago, and I don't foresee a time when I will want to trade them for another type. They're simply perfect.

A Lot Going On (in the Front Yard Garden)

2011-08-01T01:31:00.000-04:00

There's a lot going on in the front yard these days. Lots of color (even though there are few blooms) and lots of texture through the many, varied plants that reside there. It's finally starting to look like the drought-tolerant tapestry that I had envisioned!

I know that I have mentioned this before, but one of my favorite things about the front yard is the way that the evening sun provides pretty backlighting that just makes all of the foliage colors glow. These purple heart leaves are normally so dark that they appear to be almost flat in color, but when they are backlit, they show an amazing amount of shade variation and detail.

Even the silver sage, salvia argentea, is transformed by the setting sun. Its thick, downy leaves show off glowing light green patches and some pretty veining detail.

The salvia plants themselves offer up a nice textural counterpoint to the fine-foliaged sedums and brown grasses (mostly carex buchannii) in the front yard.

Right next door, sunshine turns the leaves of my pineapple lily ('Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis) to shades of yellow-green. You can really see the color contrast when you compare the green leaves to the burgundy ones in the background that are shaded by the oakleaf hydrangea.

And yes, once again I am looking forward to the pineapple lily's bloom! I love how the color of the stalk and buds are picked up by the rosy tint of the oakleaf hydrangea in the background. I try to tie in a few things like this throughout the entire front yard garden--it helps to keep the garden looking like a cohesive design, rather than a mishmash of randomly chosen plants.

More of a tour of the new front yard garden to come... but probably later in the week. It seems that we have more thunderstorms in the near future here. I never mind thunderstorms, but I really wish that they would cool things off a little bit. The tomatoes might be loving this weather, but my sled dog Garden Assistant definitely does NOT approve!

Swallowtails... Plural!!!

2011-07-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

I got to see a newly emerged black swallowtail on Monday morning! I somehow noticed him right before I got into my car for work, so I stopped to take a moment and admire. His wings were already fairly dry so he must have emerged before the night... but he was resting on the bronze fennel just below this, his former home:

I love the way the chrysalis looks hanging off of the gutter. I can't decide whether it looks more like a bat, all wrapped up for a daytime nap but hanging the wrong way... or some kind of cool masthead for a ship. Either way, it's very fun. (And I'm grateful that someone, FINALLY, has found the bronze fennel! *grumble*)

Edited to add: Better yet, he seems to have spread the word about the fennel! Check out who I am now happily, unapologetically stalking:

Updates (I hope!) to come... :)

Need Instant Height In Your Garden? Plant...

2011-07-20T01:03:00.000-04:00

... a giraffe. Isn't he cute?

He seems to be resisting the urge to eat through his surrounds so far, which is good. Must be that hollow belly...

Independence... from My Front Lawn!

2011-07-04T23:54:00.000-04:00

I can barely keep my eyes open as I type this, so (for once) my post should be short & sweet. This weekend, we ended up tearing out the 3ft. strip of grass that remained between my front yard garden and my sidewalk. (Because, as Steve said in regards to what little grass I had kept there: "Really... why?") In its place, I planted an entire flat of 'Salsa Burgundy' annual salvia, 2 rather large 'Hameln' pennisetums (to match a third), 2 baby lady's mantle, and various pieces of 'Dragon's Blood' and another similar red-leaf sedum.

Here are the "after" shots:

Well, "after" the planting, but before the mulching. Steve tore out the majority of the grass while I was ripping out the rest of the golden marjoram from around the purple ninebark and freeing the two pennisetums that were to be moved. In place of the marjoram and grasses, I FINALLY planted those 3 'So Sweet' hostas, a 'Black & Blue' salvia, and half a flat of scented snapdragons.

I also repotted a giant sago palm, added some more string trellising for my cukes and spaghetti squash, moved my plumeria to a larger container with a few annuals surrounding it, and assembled my 'Blue Daze' evolvulus, 'Silver Cascade' dusty miller, chartreuse coleus and hot pink celosia into a container planting. Oh, and I fertilized my tomatoes, too--which should be an easy job, except that my Gardening Assistant finds Tomato Tone to be disgustingly appetizing. So any application of Tomato Tone must immediately be followed by a fresh application of mulch to hide the apparently delicious fertilizer!

More pictures of all of the above to follow... but now, it's time for some sleep. :)

The Secret Perks of Garden Center Workers

2011-06-29T00:26:00.000-04:00

For quite a few different reasons, I have been pondering the end of my part-time job at a local garden center. I would miss the additional project money... and yes, I would miss the employee discount... but it may be time to move on to a normal, 1-job life in the not-so-distant future. That got me to thinking about how there are other perks to working at a garden center, and I'm not sure whether other gardeners are aware of them. (Warning: You all might want to go out and get a second, seasonal job after reading this!)

First and foremost, we often get to "rescue" plants... which is code for "taking plants home for free." Sometimes, we do this to see just what a plant will and won't "snap out of" so we know whether it's worth trying to rehab in our "plant hospital" and sell.

Other times we do this as more of a personal challenge. See the dahlias in the photo above? They were throwaways, done blooming and pretty battered from weeks of languishing inside the greenhouse, unpurchased. Weeks (of fresh air, watering, and TLC) later, they have glossy, healthy foliage and new blooms, and are threatening to take over the lemongrass.

When this pot of blue plumbago came in with a shipment of tropicals, it had just one small green leaf at the base of 4 or 5 long, fried brown stems. It looked worse than Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, and even I questioned my sanity at bringing home such a large pot of dead plant... but I couldn't resist the thought of a free plumbago. Fast forward two weeks, and there's so much new green growth that I almost feel like I should bring it back so the store can sell it!

And then there's the plant access. We find out about all of the sales first (well, depending on which day of the week you happen to be on the schedule) and see what's put into clearance first. And, yes, we often set aside new or choice plants when they come in. Like the pretty, new-to-me 'Silver Cascade' dusty miller that I picked up this past weekend. Or the only 2 smaller (and thus, cheaper) pots of the variegated 'Bengal Orange' bougainvillea (above) that came in, but went straight to our personal stashes instead of out to the floor.

Last, but not least, most decent garden centers will allow you to return or exchange plants in good condition within a short time of your original purchase... but those rules are a little bit more lenient for us. I have exchanged so many half-flats and 4" fancy annual pots over the years that I've lost count. Sometimes because I find that I have too many of one thing and not enough of another... but often, it's just because I see something come in that I like better. For example, I had originally bought two pots of the 'Rose' portulaca that you see above, but I exchanged one a couple of weeks later when I saw the prettier 'Scarlet' (below) make an appearance. (And no, they didn't make me show my receipt, either!)

That's probably more than enough dishing for today, so I'll end my little tell-all with this: Of all of the perks that working part time at a garden center includes... the one I would miss the most is the interaction with other gardeners. It's FUN for me to meet people like the guy who digs up 8ft palm trees every fall and stores them on sawhorses in his basement, carefully turning them a quarter of a turn every day. (Of course I think he's crazy, but I'm also very glad to know that he exists!) And I learn useful things, too--I discovered the deliciousness that is sage pesto from a customer, for example.

So there are some secret perks that come with this job--and, yes, there are some pitfalls, too. But I think that I'll save that list for the next post! Stay tuned...

And A Numbers-Challenged Foliage Follow-Up

2011-06-17T23:35:00.001-04:00

This will be my fifth post in the last 5 days. I'm pretty sure that this is a record for me, and I know that I haven't been as prolific lately as I was, say, 5 years ago when I first started this blog. But we all know that I'm a foliage-first kind of girl, so I definitely can't skip Foliage Follow Up!

My front porch is like the Twilight Zone of foliage right now. On one side of the door, you can see the bizarre coexistence of black elephant ear and variegated monstera. They have grown together such that it appears the elephant ear is wearing a clown's ruffled collar! (So much for making a serious foliage statement there!)

Below that little vignette, a more serious-looking rex begonia stands watch as the monstera slowly unfurls a new leaf. I love how the new leaves look like corkscrew twists!

And, just because I have been so enamored of it lately, I'm going to finish with a few more shots of the front yard:

The photos above all show the same area, which is along the walk leading up to my front steps. Any time I get out of my car, I face this area, so I make it a point to keep things interesting here. (And I aim for interesting backlighting, too.)

I also like it that the taller plants (oakleaf hydrangea, caryopteris, purple ninebark, switchgrass, etc.) keep part of this hidden from the street and public sidewalk. It feels like a little slice of hidden garden, which is very welcome on my busy street!

Numbers Challenged: June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2011-06-17T00:14:00.000-04:00

Lotus vine: lotus maculatus 'Amazon Sunset'

I could swear that the 15th of June was coming up this weekend... but when I opened up my feed reader today, I found a whole pile of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts from yesterday. OOPS! Here, without further ado, are some more hot-color highlights from my garden this month:

Celosia spiking up through the lotus vine and alternanthera foliage

Flowering peach heuchera--and a pretty self-sown red snapdragon

'Purple Dragon' lamium, digitalis parviflora, and a few clumps of variegated thyme

A stray heuchera spike, caught up in the dark foliage of chocolate eupatorium

And a few on the cooler side of the color wheel:

Unnamed purple clematis, scrambling through my 'Bing' cherry tree

As-yet-unplanted wax begonias at the end of a flat

Oakleaf hydrangea, the nondescript flowers of lyreleaf sage, 'Chubby Fingers' sedum

Also in bloom, but not pictured:

'Red Rocks' penstemon, 'Blue Star' amsonia, echinops ritro, 'Albury Purple' hypericum, nicotiana, 'Black & Blue' salvia, 'Caradonna' salvia, 'Salsa Burgundy' salvia, little-leaf culinary sage, 'Newe Ya'ar' culinary sage, blackberry, 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort, 'Black Lace' and 'Black Beauty' elderberries, 'Gartenmeister' fuchsia, 'Bandana Cherry' lantana, various snapdragons and heucheras, 'Zweiweltenkind' goatsbeard

To check out what else is blooming around the world--or, at least, what was blooming yesterday!--check out the June Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-15T20:35:00.000-04:00

Plant Crush: Silver Sage (Salvia Argentea)

2011-06-14T19:08:00.000-04:00

Last night, I started to make good on my promise to clean out overly aggressive groundcovers (yes, that would be YOU, golden marjoram!) and found a flagstone that I had forgotten... and enough space to plant two of my newly acquired silver sages:

I have long had a plant crush on silver sage. What's not to like? It has amazing color, large leaves covered with white fuzzy texture... it's just an amazing accent plant.

I've found it only once before, in small, sickly pots in the herb section of a random garden center. I took a chance on it anyway, but the plants never did recover. These 4" pots that we got in at "my" garden center last week are much healthier from the get-go, so I'm hopeful that they will take this time.

More photos to follow, as these guys settle in--and as I distribute the better behaved 'Chubby Fingers' sedum around them. (And figure out where #3 will live!)

Shhhh...

2011-06-13T23:44:00.000-04:00

Don't tell 'Red Rocks' penstemon that it isn't reliably hardy here.

It doesn't seem to know that I have heard from many, many people who have trouble getting it to overwinter.

For some strange reason, it's not even scared of the intimidating sea kale that you see peering over its shoulders in the photo above.

I know it's listening... so you just keep this little secret between us, okay?

Thanks to Steve for taking these charming photos of 'Red Rocks' while I got ready to leave for Game of Thrones last night!

My Neglected (but Beautiful) Front Yard

2011-06-11T00:35:00.000-04:00

I knew that I've been a bad blogger lately--yes, even before a friend called me out on Facebook--and I'm a little embarrassed about the neglect my poor blog has endured.

And I know that getting back to blogging requires me to make it through the long process of writing that first post. Just like getting back to gardening requires me to take a few tours through the front yard to clean up things like overgrown groundcovers.

And maybe even move a few poor plants that are being overtaken by their thriving neighbors.

Starting this weekend, my garden center hours have been cut, so I'll have almost an entire day on Sunday to devote to the garden! And I'll have a very willing assistant--who probably deserves all of the credit for the fact that I already have my tomatoes planted, since he helped me out last weekend--so I ought to get a lot of these little garden jobs FINISHED!

And maybe... just maybe... I'll even manage to blog about it. :)

Blooms from the Front Porch: GBBD May

2011-05-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

This may just be the most un-spring-like spring in all my years as a gardener. The temperatures have ventured past chilly into actual cold weather territory, and tomorrow we may not even reach 50 degrees. I don't remember a day without at least a threat of rain in weeks, and the winds today have been brutal to tulips (above) and gardeners alike.

Thankfully, bright tulips distract from dead oregano stems and countless other as-yet-undone spring chores that need attention. In another highlight, the drought-tolerant bergenia have apparently appreciated the extra winter/spring moisture, judging by their new growth and blooms:

The grass has already been mowed twice, but only because I felt as though I had to make time for that since the neighbors do. (And one of them walks this tiny dog, which I feared would get lost in my tall grass, twice a day!) Many annuals sit in several spots on the porch, waiting for a chance to be tucked into the garden:

A few plants have made it into the ground, and I'm waiting to see whether I'm going to regret planting the 'Bandana Cherry' lantana and 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' fuchsia in particular. If a plant is mobile, though, I'm not taking a chance with it this evening. All of the flats, any individual pots, and my just-planted hanging baskets are all coming into the house for a 36-hour vacation!

The photos above show you what's blooming around here today... at least, what I could shoot without leaving my front porch! The rest of my May GBBD Bloom list can be seen below, and many more blooming gardens can be seen by visiting Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

Also in Bloom: lonicera sempervirens, 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga, 'Geranium' daffodils, passalong ornamental allium, 'Looking Glass' and 'Jack Frost' brunnera, 'Purple Dragon' and mom's passalong lamium, 'Ozark' strawberries, sweet woodruff and grape hyacinths.

Springtime and New Beginnings

2011-05-09T23:27:00.000-04:00

This lovely iris is certainly enjoying its new beginning! After suffering similar winter (mis)treatment to the hosta and other plants that I recently profiled, this tiny gem was finally planted out in the front garden last spring. It seems to have gotten through our long winter just fine, and is rewarding me with more foliage and even a bloom.

I never really mention my day job here on my blog...but as some of you reading this already know, I have worked at a local ski resort as their marketing manager since graduating from college. The last 3 or 4 winters have been especially long and hard for me, with 70+ hour work weeks from early December through mid-March or later. (That seems like it should be an exaggeration, doesn't it? Even as I type those numbers out, I wonder how such things are humanly possible...) Obviously, a better work/life balance was needed.

I am happy to report that I start my new job tomorrow morning. As with my previous employment, this new position will not really be a topic of conversation on my blog...but I will say that it's a regular 8:30am-5pm, Monday through Friday, office job. As such, it fits in line with my quest for a more balanced life.

I am more excited than nervous, but I would still appreciate positive thoughts on Tuesday, if anyone can spare a few to send my way. I'm hopeful that, like the iris, I will flourish and bloom in my new environment! To quote one of my father's favorite sayings: Time will tell...

Some Plants Just Don't Need People...

2011-04-27T22:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I was doing a little cleanup in the front yard when I noticed a few sprouts of 'Sunfire' hosta were peeking out below the purple ninebark. My thoughts immediately went to the 3 pots of 'So Sweet' hosta that I had purchased at the same time but never got into the ground. As a little pang of guilt went through me, I looked to the front porch stairs where (seriously!) they had spent the winter, unplanted and exposed. "I should really get rid of those pots..." I muttered to myself.

Just before the sun set, I headed to the stairs to retrieve them. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

They sprouted! Right there in the container! All three of them! Absolutely amazing...

So I headed off to the back yard with my bundle of compostables, sans hostas. As I passed by the back door, I thought, "Well, surely the baptisia won't provide a similar miracle. I mean, those poor babies were sitting outside the door in a grocery bag all winter long! At least I didn't pay for them..."

I'm not even sure what to say about this. Obviously, some plants just don't need a comfy bed during the winter, or a gardener, even--they seem to do much better without my intervention! Hmpf!

Passalong Surprise: Double-Flowered Bloodroot

2011-04-17T19:32:00.000-04:00

It wasn't until they started blooming today that I remembered having planted double-flowered bloodroot last year. This seems like something I should have remembered planting, but the bloodroot wasn't something I actually purchased. Instead, they were a passalong from "the new guy" at the garden center where I work each spring, and they were generously offered--and hastily planted--in the midst of a hectic busy season.

When they started emerging from the ground, the ghostly outer foliage (shown above) glowed pale against the ground, making me think they were some sort of fungus as I viewed them from the nearby window.

But this morning, I finally saw the pure white blooms begin to open, and it spurred me out to take a closer look. I can't wait until they fully unfold... and hope that they feel free to make a little colony here, just like they did for my coworker Steve!

Both Pretty and Deadly

2011-04-13T21:07:00.003-04:00

Pretty to me, deadly to insects, that is! I'm taking care of my boyfriend's mail while he's out of town for work, and I just had to snap a photo or two of his blooming pitcher plant during today's visit. (Of course it would bloom for the first time ever this week--isn't that Murphy's 5th Law of Tending Plants or something?)

At this point of the year, the pitchers are just starting to come back from their semi-dormant winter state, and the nearby venus fly trap has dozens of tiny baby traps that are beginning to emerge. Steve cut back the flower stems on the fly trap, but it seems as though letting sarracenia bloom is not nearly as harmful to the plant. He didn't want to mess with it too much, though, so he did save the task of trimming back dried pitchers until after the plant is finished flowering.

We've been dating now for more than two years, so I think that this will be the second successful overwintering for both of these carnivorous plants. (Yes, I started buying him plants for his apartment the first summer that we were together. The man needed some life in there to wake up the white walls!) It amazes me that they do so well for him, but they live in a south-facing window and he has a warm, 6th-floor apartment. Both are key for these guys, it seems.

I'm more of a succulent girl than a fussy-plant kind of girl, but they're very fun plants and I'm glad that he grows them. This way, I get to enjoy them when I visit... and he can do all the work that they require! :)

A Voice in the Crowd

2011-04-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

Maybe I'm crazy, but sometimes a certain plant looks as though it's trying to talk to me. It stands up tall in the midst of the crowd, stares me down, and then finally calls out, "Hey! Can I get some attention over here?"

A few of its neighbors shake their heads and look away at its boldness...

...but the plant remains insistent. "Seriously, lady. What kind of a garden are you running here? Don't you see all of those poor tulips? They're reaching upwards, but those dead fall leaves are pulling them down and strangling them like so many drowning men."

"And those grasses," it continues disdainfully,"Those grasses are a complete disgrace. How can they even see with all of those dry blades falling down in their eyes? How long does it take to give them each a quick haircut so they look like something?"

"And look at all of my buds who are waiting her with me. We would all like to show off a little bit now that spring is finally here, but nobody notices us because you let all of last year's leaves loiter and junk up the place!"

It rolls its eye and puts one leaf to its stem in exasperation. "Next thing you know, you're going to just stop watering us altogether..."

Hmm... now THERE'S an interesting thought!

Wordless Wednesday: Red-Flushed Spring Leaves

2011-04-06T18:59:00.000-04:00

Another Spring Surprise...

2011-04-04T23:51:00.000-04:00

I discovered a wonderful surprise tonight in the kitchen! Check it out:

It's my unnamed, variegated hoya in bud! This is the same spot from which it bloomed the last time, and (luckily) I was warned not to clip it back or mess with it too much after the spent flowers dropped. The only reason that I really noticed it today was that I've been painting the kitchen white, so the dark cluster of buds seemed to pop off of the flower stem:

I'm not sure why all of these indoor plants have decided to show off lately. Maybe they feel like it's been the longest. winter. ever. too? In any case, I probably should actually look around at my plants a little bit more often, and see if any more pleasant surprises await. They are certainly taking the edge off of a spring that seems loathe to be sprung here in Northeast Ohio!

A VERY Out Of Season Flower

2011-03-25T21:05:00.000-04:00

Imagine my surprise today as I lugged an overfilled basket of laundry down the stairs and was greeted by the scent of... this:

My silly, basement-banished brugmansia has just a few leaves that are only as long as my fingers... and yet it somehow mustered up the energy to kick out TWO blooms that are as long as my forearm!

Needless to say, I plucked them both very gently and will be on the lookout for any more that decide to appear before the brug makes its way back outside for the summer, in order to nip them at the bud stage.

Right now, though, I am enjoying their sweet, delicious smell as they sit perched among the houseplants in my dining room. Their perfume is no small tease on a very cold weekend in late March!

March Reveal (This Month's Foliage Follow-Up)

2011-03-16T20:45:00.000-04:00

On the big design shows, it's all about the reveal. So, too, for my garden in March. The snow has FINALLY melted, revealing a mix of old, bleached-out foliage (because I'm a spring cleaner, not a fall cleaner in the garden) and new spring growth.

Some old foliage knows how to mix in artfully, like the fine-textured Japanese maple leaves that seem to flow through the garden in delicate streams. Others, including the cane-like hollow flower stems in the pictures above and below, just seem to plop down in ugly places and look like litter.

A few plants mix old and new foliage on their own, like these red-stemmed 'Ivory Prince' hellebores:

And others, like the sage below, mix so well that it's hard to tell at first glance which branches of the sage are dead and which are not.

Last, but not least, a photo that shows three distinctly different spring foliage looks. The bergenia, top, is showing off a dark red (and a little flower stalk--do you see it?) hue that will gradually turn a deep green by summer. 'Chubby Fingers' groundhugging sedum looks as fresh and green now as it will in June. 'Toffee Twist' carex will keep its look for the rest of the year, too... but it's anything but fresh and green!

This last photo shows one more very important thing in my garden: The little blue cap belongs to my soil thermometer. I admit that I cheat, and put it there near to the sidewalk because I know that the soil warms up there soonest! And although I do factor my "cheating" into my decision-making when I get around to planting seeds... it makes me happy to see progress in ground warming at this time of the year. That tells me that true spring can't be too far behind!

To check out some more great foliage from around the world--or let people know about your Foliage Follow-Up post--check out Pam's March Foliage Follow-Up on Digging.

A (Rainy, Wet) March Bloom Day

2011-03-15T19:32:00.000-04:00

March has been in like a rollercoaster this year, with warm sunny days contrasted with snow so wet that I felt like I was shoveling sand or gravel as I cleared off my driveway. Today, Mother Nature brought us more rain--but this of the miserably cold variety, since it's 36 degrees outside. The hellebores are always shy about showing their faces, but today they look especially cowed by the weather:

The messiest hellebore (above) is the one with the most opened blooms. Several others are showing lots of buds, and most (like this light green, one of my favorites) have a tidy burst of new foliage coming up with the buds in the midst of the clump:

In addition to the hellebores, there is a cute but tiny cluster of snowdrops blooming under the peach tree... but getting a photo of it would have meant exposing my camera to the rain. (As far as snowdrops go, these are rather unremarkable, so it would definitely not have been worth the cost to get their photo.) Indoors, the jewel orchid continues to bloom, but the bright amaryllis flowers are darkened and wilting.

All in all, this is a rather "blah" Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day here... so make your way over to Carol's and see what others have blooming in their gardens this month. I hope to have something more inspiring to post in April!

A Sunny Corner in March

2011-03-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

This first photo is not from the sunny corner referenced in my post title... but since this bright beauty demands as much attention as Charlie Sheen, I figured I might as well give her the top billing she requires:

That amaryllis, name unknown, was "rescued" from our office last year and then promptly thrown outside and forgotten for the summer. I figured that it was probably victim of my neglect, but I brought it inside anyway and tucked the pot with its bare-looking bulb amongst my other houseplants. I was surprised to notice a touch of green, and then leaves and a bloom stalk, several weeks ago... and have been enjoying the 6"-plus blooms now for more than a week! Yay for plants that tolerate neglect!!!

More tolerant plants are stashed on my stair landing, just below a south-facing leaded-glass window. The banana plant that anchored this grouping has since succumbed to said neglect... but the agave, begonia, and rescued orchid cactus (epiphyllum) are still hanging in there. When the light hits just right, it causes the begonia leaves to glow ruby-red. Lately, though, I've been just as enamored of the backlit epiphyllum leaves:

I'm not sure whether the epiphyllum is catching my green-starved eyes because of its color, or because I'm so amused that such thick, fleshy succulent leaves can be backlit so glowing and bright. But I'm completely fascinated by the variations in green here:

In just a few months, these plants will head back outside to summer on the porch. Until then, I'll keep enjoying them inside--especially on our rare sunny days!

Foliage Follow-Up: February 2011

2011-02-17T00:52:00.000-05:00

I featured the jewel orchid in my February Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post... so why not stick with that lovely plant for this month's Foliage Follow-up, too? After all, I often pause in the morning at the top of the stairs to admire how the lace curtain makes fun light patterns on its back lit leaves:

And I can hardly feature the jewel orchid without mentioning the cute little succulent plant that shares its pot:

Jewel orchids tend to get a little on the leggy side, so I scattered some broken pieces of a tiny succulent in between its knobby knees a year or more ago, in an effort to make the pot look a little less sparse:

I love that it has grown up taller than the jewel orchid now. Somehow its spindly height seems to balance the orchid's draping growth:

A lovely starburst of murano glass (brought back from Italy for me by my friend Jessica) brightens up this little side table, along with the bold stripes of "Lemon Lime" dracaena:

The dracaena adds a little height, too, without taking up too much table space. Perfect for the little nook at the top of the stairs--and for making sure that the subtle jewel orchid isn't too overwhelmed by something else!

That's all I have for today... but if you're a fellow fan of all things leafy, make sure that you check out all of the other lovely foliage posts left in the comments at Pam's Foliage Follow-up!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - February 2011

2011-02-15T15:04:00.000-05:00

Usually, winter in Ohio means that the view out our windows is a study in brown-grey ombre. Not very inspiring, but a much better backdrop for my jewel orchid flowers than this combination of white lace curtain and white snow outside:

Luckily, when I view these flowers as I crest the stairs, the Tang-gold walls, green plants, and blue ceramic pot make a much more exciting backdrop. The colors even liven up the still-closed buds:

The tiny orchid flowers, reminiscent of snapdragons, look sweet against the striped draceana when you look down onto them, as shown here. I like how they pull out the thin white stripe between the inner and outer shades of green:

Viewed from the upstairs hallway, though, they get totally lost against all that winter white--especially on a sunny day:

The jewel orchid flowers ARE rather nondescript, so they benefit from being one of the few things that flower for me at this time of the year. (In fact, they are my ONLY flowering plant on this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!) Any other month, they might be overlooked in favor of showier blooms... but in February, they're a welcome distraction.

To cut YOUR winter gloom, and see more lovely blooms from around the world, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens!

A Reward for My Laziness

2011-02-01T23:15:00.000-05:00

This fall, I had all kinds of good intentions in regards to my new 'Brown Turkey' fig. I would pot it up in one of those huge cobalt-blue pots that I bought for a song on clearance. I would haul it all inside the garage and make sure that it overwintered happily there, to be pulled out again the following spring. I would (finally) do right by something that I planned to overwinter as successfully (and easily) as Martha, and Elliot, and so many other "real" gardeners I admire seem to be able to do. I would!

But... as you can probably tell by the close-ups of currently unfurling fig leaves that accompany this post... those good intentions wound up being more paving material for the proverbial road. I ended up carting the poor fig--still in its nursery pot!--inside on a cold December night, and unceremoniously shifted it around from kitchen corner to kitchen corner for the next two months.

I believe that it even guarded the stove for a while, until my dishwasher overflowed onto the kitchen floor... dripped down through the basement ceiling... and knocked out my furnace for a while... but that's a whole other saga. No matter who it got there, it is now happily residing in the dining room near the "plant window," and I'm getting the chance to appreciate these adorable, fuzzy leaves as they open up, one by one. So I suppose that my screwup wasn't all that bad, just for one year.

But next year... next year I WILL treat my fig tree right! I promise. Especially if it continues to delight me with yummy figs. :)

p.s. This must be the winter for "fuzzy" leaves at my house. I'm still enjoying the heck out of this fuzzy echeveria, too... and it continues to put out even more blooms:

New Year, New Blooms

2011-01-12T00:15:00.000-05:00

So... where did the rest of 2010 go? Somehow, it ended without me even being able to show this beautiful poinsettia that I enjoyed for the holiday season:

Ah well. Life goes on, and so does the garden--even indoors. Now I'm enjoying this beautiful fuzzy echeveria that has (unexpectedly) decided to grace my wintry kitchen with a few warm blooms:

Notice that rope-y thing in the left foreground of the photo that shows the whole plant? That's one of the three (3!!!) flower stalks that are budding on my little 4" hoya that hangs in the window above. I think it must like it there... and that I'm going to have some cool flowers to show in just a couple of months! It's always nice to have something to look forward to in the wintertime. :)

Foliage Follow-Up: Moody (Indoor) Greens and Mellow (Outdoor) Yellows

2010-11-20T21:51:00.001-05:00

Sometimes, design happens by accident. You leave a stray red fleece on the arm of the couch, walk by later, notice it, and find yourself thinking, "Huh. I could really use something with warm colors over there, couldn't I?"

Plants are not immune to these happy accidents, either, as evidenced by these photos showing how much fun my tillandsias are having perched in this ficus. They had to be moved last week when the plant shelf above my sink finally broke after 5 years of holding weighty plants and pots.

I really like how the colors and textures contrast, and how the placement makes the tillandsias look more like creatures than plants. (Scroll back up--doesn't that first photo look like the tillandsia is crawling up the leaves?) Since they're now good buddies, I think that these guys will be allowed to hang out together for the rest of the winter!

Outside, the Japanese maple is still flaunting lots of (now bright red) leaves, but I know that those will soon be gone. Most of the front yard is slowly but surely blanching out to a ghostly, papery beige... but I quite enjoy how the yellows mellow out along that journey.

The 'Blue Ice' amsonia is a cool, electric yellow earlier in the fall, but now it's warm and bright against the caryopteris.

'Rostrahlbusch' was billed as the showiest of the red-foliaged switchgrasses, and has been a great disappointment in that regard. But it's still a gorgeous grass in its own right, and its fresh fall yellows are welcome in the front garden with its tapestry of color and texture:

As always, check out other foliage highlights from around the world via Pam's Foliage Follow-Up post!

November GBBD: Late Post for the Latest Bloomers

2010-11-19T18:59:00.000-05:00

Life is again getting in the way... and soon, winter will be putting an end to the bloom display outside my windows. But I do still have a few things blooming in the garden, like the 'Party Dress' Japanese anemone, various grasses, tall yellow snapdragons, a few remaining calendula, and these:

'Black and Blue' salvia guaranitica

Various agastache, still blooming at the tips--although I like the spent flower color just as well.

Caryopteris continuing its airy fall show

I'm keeping an eye on all of the flowers in my yard this fall, to see whether I end up with one lone survivor who finally succumbs to winter long after the others have given up for the season. Given the photos and the short list above... anyone want to make a guess as to which flower, if any, ends up being crowned this fall? I'll let you know what happens, either way!

Dining Room Window 2010

2010-11-13T02:10:00.000-05:00

In the Spring, when I think of my garden, I think about areas with names like, "The Driveway Bed," "The Grape Arbor," and "The Front Yard." Through the wintertime, my live-plant areas have very different names. Names like, "The Landing," "The Studio," and--my current favorite--"The Dining Room Window."

In spite of the back strain, I really enjoy bringing my plants in for the wintertime, because I feel like I'm getting a chance to redecorate my entire house without spending any additional money. The pot colors, the plant colors, and the actual house decor all kind of flow together in a mishmash of color and texture.

A few of the plants are a little easier to tuck in here or there, but this year the Dining Room Window ended up getting all of the show-offs. Like this cissus discolor that I picked up for a few dollars on clearance:

When the morning light streams through the window, the cissus positively smolders. I could look at it for hours...

...but it's only in the early morning sun briefly before it slips into the light shade it prefers. For those few moments, though, the cissus is so bright that even the nearby variegated hoya kerrii, which should be a star in its own right, is eclipsed.

But both of these fun-foliaged beauties are taking a backseat right now to something a whole lot more... edible:

My first Meyer lemon! And it's almost ripe! I can't wait to taste it... and I'm happy to see that the plant is setting a few more buds, too. I was worried about the shock of bringing it inside a few weeks ago, and was almost certain that I would lose the then-green lemon, but it seems to have recovered fairly well. (Whew!)

Also adjusting well is the dark-leaf ficus that I brought in, dusted off, and set up on the "front" of the plant table, along with one of my two potted amaryllis, a paddle-leaf kalanchoe, and several other plants:

The kalanchoe spent the summer swathed in shades of silvery blue and the lightest of greens, but it colored up nicely once the cooler temperatures hit. I like seeing its bright contrast peaking through the screen of large but relatively sedate ficus leaves.

And to anchor this vignette of crazy, bold foliage? One (huge, amazing) jade plant:

Oh, I know. It looks like an ordinary jade plant... but it's not. That green pot is 13" tall and wide, and the plant itself is almost 3ft wide (branch tip to branch tip) at its longest diameter. This jade, who I affectionately call Buzz, was a gift from my friend Freddie, a retired teacher.* Buzz and his pot are very heavy, and I'm not sure how much longer I can continue to move them outside for the summer... but, luckily, he's very secure overwintering on the sturdy table base that I painted to match the plant table. (Both are trashpicking finds, by the way.)

I'm happy that I don't have to worry about that for a while... and I'm also very happy about how nice the Dining Room Window "garden" looks right now. We'll see how well it fares this winter--I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
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*Buzz grew up from a cutting Freddie rescued when the greenhouse at Geauga Lake (where she worked part-time in the summer) failed in the middle of her winter break. As she was helping with cleanup and salvage duty, Freddie found a few fresher leaves underneath the collapsed remains of the 80-plus-year-old jade plant. Her supervisor told her to take them home and try to root them if she wanted, and she was surprised to find that her efforts were successful.

Freddie took the little plantling to school with her the following year, and Buzz enjoyed winters in the classroom and summers out on her deck until she retired a few years ago. Since she knew that I have a soft spot for stray plants--especially one with "bad hair days" that rival my own--Buzz ended up coming to my house instead of to a classroom at the end of her first summer of retirement. He's been a wonderful addition to my plant family!

End of October Project Week (and Garden Photos)

2010-10-27T20:30:00.000-04:00

At work, we have to finish up our vacation time before November 1st--otherwise we lose it!--so I took this week off. My plans were to relax toward the end of the week, and get lots of projects completed during the first part of it. Dad came up Monday to help me finish walls, fix a broken storm window, repair some flooring, fix my garbage disposal, seal up some cracks in my front porch posts... the list goes on and on. There's so much I wanted to get done that I knew I would have to be as busy as this guy:

Since he was driving up his new truck, Dad also brought me this old hutch (rescued and refinished by my grandfather decades ago) that has lived in their basement for many years. I painted the inside "Gentle Sky" blue, and was amazed to see how nice all of my pottery, thrift store finds, gifts and antiques look together in it:

The glass in the other door is broken, and I'm on a mission to find some old glass (with the lovely rippling and the occasional bubble that the other one sports) to replace it. But I'm still enjoying it in the meantime! Dad left yesterday, after getting most of the "expert work" finished and teaching me many things along the way. He left me with the follow-up work, like priming and painting the newly caulked and repaired porch posts, that I could handle alone.

As you can see, today was a beautiful fall day, and the garden was lit up with fall color that made the primer coat look even more pale and boring by comparison! So I gave into temptation and took a bunch more photos to share... you can see them below. I hope you all enjoy them, while I go back to even more painting. (This time, the kitchen/cabinets and trim around the big picture window... argh! :)

From the front steps, the feature corner bed is obscured by 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass

From the other side, the slanting sun brings out the warm greens and silvers of this same bed. This "elephant ear" kalanchoe will have to be dug out and brought in soon.

So will this Mexican/Cuban oregano, which has happily sprawled across miniature carexes.

More of the miniature carexes (left) with the fall tones of a peach heuchera and 'Purple Dragon' lamium.

Turning slightly south, the bright spears of 'Golden Sword' yucca pick up the fall colors of 'Hameln' pennisetum and 'Blue Ice' amsonia nicely.

And I love the color and textural contrast between 'Hameln' and my oakleaf hydrangea in the fall.

Last but not least: A pineapple lily update. In the past month, my 'Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis has put up some new foliage... which will soon die back until it emerges again (I hope!) in the spring. As long as this doesn't stress the plant too much, I hope it does this every year--I love the fresh burgundy rosette against the older, greened leaves. :)

A Late and Tired October Bloom Day

2010-10-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

It has been busy--very, very very busy--at work lately. All work and no play leaves this gardener feeling as washed-out as my poor passionflower seems in the cool pre-dawn light:

She probably feels a little overworked, herself, because she's carrying that side of the driveway bed almost single-handedly in the bloom department for the month of October. Further down, the chocolate eupatorium blooms against the yellowing 'Sioux Blue' sorghastrum nutens:

A few stray alpine strawberries and self-sown verbena bonariensis are blooming in that little strip, but the majority of the interest there is in leaf shape, texture and color... and most of that is as cool as the temperatures have been lately. There are a few exceptions that warm up the garden, though. Like this hot-blooded canna lily:

And the amaranth, which looks cool in the shadows, ignites with warm reds when touched by sunlight:

Pretty soon, the only shades of color in the garden will be grays and browns... which will make the indoor blooms seem even sweeter:

That's all of the photos for this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (and Foliage Follow-up)... for more posts on these great topics, visit the links!
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Also blooming in my October garden: Random tomatoes, various basils, Russian sage, tall yellow snapdragons, calendula, my variegated tall sedum, two other cannas, native honeysuckle, two kinds of pink anemones, two kinds of agastache rupestris, caryopteris, pennisetum, 'Black & Blue' and 'Lady in Red' salvias, cimicifuga/actaea racemosa, brugmansia, 'Vista Purple' salvia, 'Rotstrahlbusch' panicum virgatum, my Meyer (improved) lemon, 'Bonfire' begonia, 'Dragonwing' begonia, and more than a few weeds...

A Red October

2010-10-10T16:23:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I cut some browned flower stalks from my 'Lady in Red' salvia with the intent of sowing seeds from them in the spring. As I read more about saving seeds from this particular salvia, I was a little bothered by the mentions of the color not coming true from seed... particularly because multiple gardeners commented that their seedlings bloomed in some shade or another of ~~ugh, pink~~ the color I like least in my garden!

I decided to table my decision on the salvia seeds until this spring, but I wondered if the plant would just reseed on its own in my garden. This week, I noticed that 'Lady in Red' has already given me a few answers to that question! Here, a properly red seedling mingles nicely with 'African Blue' basil, sweet potato foliage, and brussels sprouts:

This was a great spot for a pop of red--I'm going to have to remember how good these guys look together next spring! A few more seedlings that haven't yet bloomed chose this less fortunate spot under the peach tree, where my double bloodroot has recently retreated back into the ground:

It looks like at least the one on the right in the grouping above will be a slightly lighter color, unfortunately. I may just have to sow the salvia seeds I saved in pots, and then let them grow large enough to see the bloom color before I plant them.

Those seedlings that do not show up red will get composted, because I typically don't light too many lighter colors in my garden... but I have to admit that the light yellow snapdragons that I planted this year were the perfect way to brighten up this spot:

They are mingling with the purple-tinged foliage of eggplant, left, and the bright gold of 'Golden Delicious' pineapple sage. I grew the golden sage in a much shadier spot than normal this year, because it was touchy for me in full sun in the past, and it has responded by putting out tons of lush, bright leaves. (No blooms, but that's okay--I don't like the red-yellow combo there anyway.)

Another plant that is typically thought of as full sun, but that does better for me in more shade, is the canna lily:

I'm very stingy with the watering, so it's no wonder the moisture-loving cannas are happier in more shade. I think that kind of balances things out for them. Behind, you can see one of the self-sown 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth that self-sow here every year. I always let the amaranth sow where it wants, and never bother to move the seedlings when they show up... but I'm kind of hoping that these two mingle again in the future. The colors play off of each other very nicely.

As you can also see in the photos above, there's still plenty of sunlight to enjoy this afternoon... so it's time to go back outside and take advantage of it! Hope that everyone across the country is having a similarly beautiful, sunny fall weekend. (Everyone except Gail that is--she keeps saying how much they need rain there in middle Tennessee, so I'm hoping that some found her!)

Late Fall, Evening Sun

2010-10-07T22:44:00.000-04:00

I love the way the late day slants of light pick up different hues in my front yard as the sun retreats westward. I feel kind of funny labeling this as "Evening Sun," though, since I took these photos right after work and it was more than an hour before sunset. Ambient light is nice and all, but all of my direct rays are blocked by the houses and trees across the street at a certain point in every sunshiney day... so this is my version of evening sun.

In the backyard, it reaches just to the edge of the house, stopping where the succulent-planted broken birdbath, plumeria, and potted bamboo spent their summer. (All were meant for other locations, but never made it further than this while I was evicting the houseplants. Oops!) Sometimes, a few rays sneak through this loose arrangement and ignite the Japanese bloodgrass:

But the main evening sun show is in the front yard, in the very topmost corner where the driveway meets the sidewalk up to the front porch. Here is where chunky, undulating sea kale leaves burn a warm bright green AND a cool light blue:

And dance dizzyingly with ponytail grass:

(And nicely divide the fine textures of grass and agastache, when viewed from the porch steps:)

It's also where the "blue" in 'Black & Blue' salvia shows up... but only in the slanty light. Otherwise, the "black" hues would prevail here:

It's supposed to be a gorgeous, sunny fall weekend here in Northeast Ohio, so I'm looking forward to taking more than a few sun-kissed photos! Hope that you all are able to enjoy a lovely weekend as well. :)

A Rainy October

2010-10-05T23:29:00.000-04:00

Even the bright riot of colors in the backyard...

... can't hide the fact that it's been a rainy, dull, drab October. There are still some flowers--and lots of interesting textures--going on in the garden, though, so I feel as though they warrant a post. Here's a rundown of what's still putting on a show:

Variegation on this ginger brightens up the front porch. It's been so windy that even the ginger hasn't escaped the rain.

The rain has been rough on the in-flower grasses. Here, a panicum in bloom bends all the way down to kiss the miniature sage at its feet.

The pennisetum has fared a little better. Probably because it's smashed in between the caryopteris and oakleaf hydrangea, and they help prop it up. (Yay for my laziness--it was supposed to be moved into a more spacious home this spring!)

Passionflower vines haven't seemed to notice the chill. But they're the tropical variety, so I'm sure that they will soon begin to complain.

Looking tropical, but not, is the spent eucomis flowerhead. I think Craig or one of my other favorite bloggers mentioned liking the spent flowers better than the blooming ones... and I agree!

Another round of 'Red Rocks' penstemon blooms lights up the silvery foliage of sea kale.

The stipa/nasella tenuissima (pony tail grass) his turned brown at the ends, but is still a fairly fresh green in the middle.

Last but note least: The citronella geranium and the blue agave look like they're huddled up together for warmth on this rainy day. It's the end of summer, and I STILL haven't gotten tired of the texture of this agave against the old brick of the porch. I think this is a record for me.

Hopefully I will have a few better, warmer photos to share with you all at the end of this weekend. It's supposed to be 70 and sunny, and we won't get many more weekends like this so I definitely plan to enjoy it! Hope you all have a wonderful week ahead of you, too!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - The Nighttime Edition, with Bonus Action Shots

2010-09-16T00:01:00.001-04:00

Deliciously fragrant brugmansia--this one a passalong from a friend at the botanical garden

As I haven't made it home before dark at all this week (a combination of too much work, and too little daylight in the early fall) I didn't get a chance to take any pictures for today's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

'Acapulco' agastache, bleached by camera flash, fronting blue-foliaged sea kale. Lurking in the depths behind is an oakleaf hydrangea.

I have a mental note of all of the flowers that are blooming here, though, so I'm posting a list... along with a couple of (terrible quality) nighttime shots of blooming flowers, and two bonus "garden action" shots at the end:

Shrubs, Grasses, Vines & Perennials: 'Albury Purple' St. John's wort, 'Rotstrahlbusch' switchgrass, lonicera sempervirens, Russian sage, 'Grosso' lavender, one lone Japanese anemone, 'Acapulco' agastache in two colors, 'Hameln' pennisetum, 3 kinds of oregano, peppermint, spearmint, and hardy plumbago (yes, still!)

Vegetables, Annuals, Tropicals: bronze fennel, 'Bonfire' begonia, passalong brugmansia, purple heart, yellow snapdragons, 'Black & Blue' salvia, 'Lady in Red' salvia, 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, portulacas, passionflower vine, 'Vista Purple' salvia, various basils, 'Dragonwing' begonia

Not much... not by my usual September garden standards! So I'll supplement my list with a couple of bonus "garden action shots":

Yes, they are doing what you think they're doing.

And afterward, the one on the right looked rather embarrassed at having been caught in the act:

Hope you all have an exciting, adventurous, Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

Early Fall Weekend

2010-09-11T17:43:00.000-04:00

I've been busy harvesting in the garden this weekend, as you can see from the photo above. The surprisingly zesty 'Italian Roaster' peppers (the long red ones on the right) are going ganbusters, but all of my bells are disappointingly small and thin-walled. But the tomatoes and eggplants are doing just fine in spite of this summer's drought. The colors in the (old, trashpicked) sturdy trug above sort of remind me of the foliage colors in the mixed veggie-and-ornamental garden:

That photo was taken from a crouching position in front of one of the clay tile planters, which you could see dead center if it weren't obscured by bloodgrass, purple basil and portulaca. The swirls of plant colors in this area even look cool when viewed from above:

And here's a fuller shot from the front, so you can get a better sense of what all is going on here. Bloodgrass, basil, cabbage, tomatoes, salvia, amaranth, oh my!

I thought that this might be the first summer without my beloved 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth, because the seedlings were so late to emerge. But they came up eventually, and now tower over my head in spite of the cutting back I did in August:

Speaking of slow starts, my tropical purple passionflower vine FINALLY began to bloom this week:

It is now making up for its slow start adding color through the artemisia:

And all across the fence:

A slightly less wanted bloom is this:

At first I thought that this explosion of purslane in my garden came from the common weed, and a dry summer... but this looks like the progeny of one of the fancy, large-flowering 'Yubi' portulacas that I have had in the clay tile planter for the last few years. The individual flowers are the same size, but they aren't nearly as floriferous as the true Yubis. Bummer.

Well, it smells like my latest batch of roasting veggies is about done, so it's time to post this and get back into the kitchen to cut some more tomatoes. Hope that you're either getting all of your gardening chores done this weekend, so you feel both tired and satisfied...

... or that you're enjoying your trip to wherever the wind decides to take you:

Either way, have a wonderful weekend!

2010 Tomato Harvest: A Review

2010-08-29T13:52:00.000-04:00

As usual, I grew a variety of funky tomatoes this year. Some, like 'Black Krim' and 'Cherokee Purple' can be considered old standbys by now... and others, like 'Lemon Boy,' 'Great White,' and 'Big Rainbow' were new varieties, grown in an attempt to get my boyfriend on board with my tomato mania. (He's gone from "not really liking tomatoes all that much," to "liking them roasted, or fresh as long as they aren't too tomato-y." Baby steps!)

Top to bottom, and left to right within rows: Big Rainbow, Cherokee Purple, LaRoma Gold, Great White, Brandywine Red, Black Krim, Lemon Boy

So I can remember what to plant again, and what to pass by, here's my 2010 tomato review:

------------------------------

Black Krim: Still my absolute favorite, taste-wise--rich and almost smoky. (So good it never needs salted!) Better production on this year's plants, so I am definitely saving seeds from this plant.

Cherokee Purple: Second only to 'Black Krim' in flavor, but usually favored over BK in my garden for its bountiful production. However, my CP plants produced terribly this year, and the vines seemed all-around wimpy. That will teach me to be so lazy about seed-starting that I have to buy plants--thankfully, I still have last year's seeds to use for 2011.

Big Rainbow: I usually like the sweet tomato taste of striped tomatoes, but 'Big Rainbow' was a big letdown. It was so... bland. Like when you pick a melon too early, and it's juicy but has very little flavor. I tried salting it to see if the flavor enhancement would help... and just ended up feeling like I was eating watery salt. Definitely won't bother growing this one again.

LaRoma Gold: If you're looking for a super-sweet tomato for canning and sauce, 'LaRoma Gold' would be perfect. This was a great producer, even though it only received sunshine until about 2pm and then was in shade for the rest of the day. Note: It rapidly outgrew its caging system and toppled over into a horizontal position, which makes me think that it may be a different golden plum tomato--'LaRoma' is supposed to be a more compact plant. (In its defense, LRG barely missed a beat during that fall and continues to ripen tomatoes as if nothing happened.) I'm still undecided as to whether I am growing this again, simply because I prefer "rich" over "sweet" when it comes to tomato sauce.

Great White: This was a nice tomato--a huge beefsteak that ripened to a creamy ivory color with a hint of yellow and faint pink streaking on the blossom end when ripe. (Note: it somehow looks yellow in the photo above, but ivory is a much better color description.) 'Great White' is definitely a sweeter tomato, but still with a robust tomato flavor. I saved seeds and will plant this one again next year.

Lemon Boy: The non-tomato-loving boyfriend's favorite, this tomato is on the sweeter side but with a hint of lemon-y acidity that balanced out the sweet very nicely. It's a great snacking tomato, and a good size--not as large as a beefsteak, but large enough for good sandwich coverage when sliced. I'll plant another one of these next year, both for snacking and so that I have a tomato that both of us will enjoy.

Brandywine Red: I bought 'Brandywine Red' purely because I started to fear that my eclectic tomato choices were a little fancy, and a good solid red tomato might keep me from seeming too elitist. I'd never grown it before, but I'm now convinced that 'Brandywine Red' is what 99.99% of the population envision when someone says, "tomato." Deep red, perfectly tomato-shaped, balanced in terms of sweetness and acidity, and having just the right amount of flavor without being "too rich." I think that BR's might be my new go-to red tomato type.

Red Zebra: 'Green Zebra' tomatoes have a lot of zing... sadly, 'Red Zebra' tomatoes do not. These were small, heart-shaped tomatoes with pretty streaking, and they would probably look beautiful in salads. But the flavor didn't do much for me, so I just let Coco have at harvesting them whenever she wanted a snack for herself... and I probably won't bother with them next year. They were just okay.

------------------------------

Just so I have everything in one post, I want to say a little something about the cherry tomatoes I grew this year, too. 'White Cherry' was amazingly sweet--like pretty ivory candy tomatoes--and I will probably try to grow two of those next year, just so I have enough of them to snack on in the garden. 'Sungold' packed a lot of zing into tiny, round, golden orange fruits... but somehow they failed to capture my heart. I think I'll go back to 'Yellow Pear' instead. 'Black Cherry' was my biggest heartbreak, though... the fruits were not very dark and really just reminded me of those grocery store cherry tomatoes in terms of flavor. Based on internet searches, I'm pretty sure that I either did NOT have a true 'Black Cherry' plant, or that mine came from some inferior strain of the plant... so I'm going to give it another try, from a new source, in 2011.

And with that, I'm off to roast some multi-colored tomato sauce, to help stock the freezer for this coming winter. If you have any suggestions on tomatoes you think that I might want to try next year, please feel free to leave those in the comments. I'm always on the lookout for a new, awesome tomato!

And The Thief is Caught!

2010-08-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

Steve was on dog duty while I was visiting the other side of the state to see my little brother off... and he sent me this cell phone photo during his morning visit:

Subject line: "Thief!"

Accompanying message: "Caught Red-Pawed!"

Yellow-pawed, actually. That is the first 'LaRoma Gold' to ripen. I imagine it was delicious. :)

Running and Shadows

2010-08-27T11:18:00.000-04:00

Running has been the theme of this summer. Not literally--while I have no problems sprinting after an errant pass on the volleyball court, running just for the sake of running is just not in my nature. No, I mean running more in the sense of being always on the go... which I am again today.

The first blooms (ever) are showing up on my passalong brugmansia

So before I start my quick run to my parents' house, to see my brother off on his cross-country trek to his new home in New Mexico, I thought I'd take some time to appreciate the front garden in the morning. Much of it is cloaked in shadow since it faces west, but those plants that are bathed in sunlight are really set off nicely by the depth of the shadows.

This self-sown portulaca blazes at the foot of the cool 'Black & Blue' salvia, surrounded by purple salvia lyrata

My 'Black & Blue' salvia is visited by hummingbirds daily

'Red Rocks' penstemon are supposed to be very touchy in my area, but they (and the sea kale) seem to like my well-draining sandbar of a front garden

This spring, I replaced a horribly broken lavender with three different 'Acapulco' agastaches --they (like the lavender) still give off a wonderful fragrance when you brush past them, but keep the feel a lot more airy and open

Looking up from the sidewalk, the "late summer" section of the garden is starting to shine

(Literally, in the case of the 'Golden Sword' yucca)

The first blooms on my caryopteris are starting to break, and 'Albury Purple' St. John's Wort is offering some new foliage in a nice contrasting color

On the other side of the caryopteris, the 'Hameln' pennisetum that I failed (again) to move this spring glows like a handful of sparkles in the slanted morning light.

And with that... I'm hitting the shower and then the road. Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Strange Tomato Damage

2010-08-20T17:03:00.000-04:00

Off to Put-In-Bay, where I plan to play a lot of volleyball tomorrow (hopefully)... but before I head out, I thought I'd post pictures of some strange tomato damage that I found this afternoon in my garden, in the hopes that my fellow gardeners could try to help me figure out the cause. Here is the state in which I originally found the tomatoes as I walked around the yard:

These tomatoes were at least a foot off the ground--way too high for something small like a mouse. It almost looks like the damage was caused by something that may have other large teeth, but have fairly flat teeth across the front. Either that, or this particular animal is a very careful eater, because the gnawing is fairly even across the face of each tomato:

I asked my gardening assistant for her opinion, but she had no idea what it could be, either. In fact, she was so ~~guilt stricken~~ disgusted by the sight that she had to avert her eyes:

I know the feeling. Oh well, at least she was kind enough to oblige me by eating the rest of the tomatoes, so they didn't go to waste. In fact, they were gone in a flash of black and white fur...

... and white teeth, carefully hidden to make sure that I didn't notice how straight across they are in the front. Hmm...

Foliage Follow Up: Orchid (Sort of) Themed

2010-08-16T20:42:00.000-04:00

My friend PJ sent me a few pictures via cell phone yesterday, showing his dad's amazing orchids. Full, lush, and very happy living outside... in Miami! While I will confess to a little bit of orchid envy, I thought that I would show a few "orchids" of my own for this month's foliage follow-up:

The jewel orchid, haemaria discolor, is grown primarily for its foliage--velvety, striped and reddish brownish burgundy in color--but I enjoyed its tiny white flowers this winter, too. Currently, it is summering outside on the front porch, where the nearby orchid cactus has decided to cozy up to it.

Really, this is probably not a true orchid cactus, in the epiphyllum family, but rather something in the nearby disocactus family.

No matter where it botanically belongs, it's beautiful. And I have been calling it an orchid cactus for so long that the habit won't die anytime soon. I really like the contrast between the velvety jewel orchid leaves and the tough-looking orchid cactus leaves.

Both "orchid" pots have other plants mixed in. Above, you can spy part of a rat-tail cactus that shares the cactus pot... and below, an unknown, tiny succulent that I rooted in the jewel orchid pot to cover up the bare earth around its stems.

This grouping is fun to look at from many angles:

And I couldn't pick just one photo to show you, so I decided to post them all. Here's one more gratuitous shot:

Hope you enjoyed my "orchid"-themed Foliage Follow-Up. For more great foliage shots, visit the comments on Pam's Hot & Steamy Foliage Follow-Up and visit the links there!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - August 2010

2010-08-14T22:46:00.001-04:00

The crazy summer continues here, with our early spring warmup causing at least one big surprise for my August Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day:

My toad lilies normally bloom in September... sometimes October... but NEVER (until now) in August! I captured this first bloom on Thursday night around sundown, and more have followed. They're beautiful--and frankly, I was happy to see this plant reemerge after a really tough, dry 2009--but definitely on an accelerated schedule.

When I checked last year's GBBD post, I was surprised to see that this year's Japanese anemones, shown above, are at about the same fullness of bloom now as they were in 2009. They started earlier, and it has been another tough, dry year, so I had expected them to be closer to "done," I guess.

More typical August bloomers include squash blossoms:

This 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth--which is so tall, I have to crane my neck to take its photo:

Orange butterfly weed, which I keep in bloom by deadheading it religiously:

Peppermint:

'Hab Gray' Sedum:

'Empress of India' nasturtiums, just beginning because they were sown so late:

'Black and Blue' Salvia (with 'Acapulco' agastaches blooming in the background):

Pennisetum, with caryopteris just starting to bloom (at its tips) behind:

The Dragonwing begonia that I overwintered, then added to the mixed monstera container this summer:

And a few more things, like self-sown red snapdragons and orange calendula, a few different thymes, a couple of hostas and heucheras I haven't gotten around to tidying up yet, 'Albury Purple' St. John's Wort, an abutilon, 'Vista Purple' salvia, Russian sage, hens & chicks, and bronze fennel... plus the annual red salvia and portulaca that I have in my clay tile planters. And of course, the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, basils and oreganos are still blooming strongly, too. (In spite of my best efforts to keep those last two in check!)

To see what else is blooming in gardens around the world today, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens!

Things I've Learned This Week

2010-08-13T00:52:00.000-04:00

When figs look like they're wrinkled and dying...

... they are actually ready to eat, fresh, and delicious:

The best way to show off deep purple elderberries is with an underplanting of something bright and silvery:

Which I need to keep in mind next year when I plant more of these awesome 'Bull's Blood' beets:

Some garden mysteries solve themselves, when you peer under ginormous leaves...

... to find rapidly growing (are there any other kind, really?) zucchini resting on a bed of thyme:

But as soon as one mystery is solved, another appears. Like when one of the 'Purple Cherokee' tomato plants that I purchased this year turns out to be... some kind of a plum tomato, but which one?

I've also learned that when you grow funky tomatoes, you have to do research on when they should be harvested. 'Green Zebra' and 'Black Krim' can still have greenish "shoulders" when they're ready to harvest, but these 'Great Whites' do not:

And the blossom end will turn yellowish, to give me another clue. But I'm really looking forward to trying their purported sweetness that it's hard to wait for them to be ready! In fact, it's been such a long vigil for these supposedly tall snapdragons that they gave into fatigue and are now laying down on the job:

Speaking of laying around, some of the more brazen tomatoes--like this 'Big Rainbow--turn their noses up at even the most fun tomato cages I could find (they're bright red!) and prefer to stretch out across the nearby shrubbery instead:

Other veggies need to be watched, too. Like 'Gretel' and 'Ichiban' Japanese eggplants, whose fruit multiplies at night when you're not watching. Sort of like gremlins.

At least these types of eggplants stay tender at larger sizes. And the plants stay compact enough to allow for container growing:

Speaking of containers, I have learned that a watched 'Yellow Doll' watermelon is slow to mature:

While surprise ones that escape your notice are nearly too large to go without support by the time you see them dangling precariously over the edge of the pot:

As far as pots go, a replanting of 'Red Zebra' tomatoes in an easy-dog-access pot is already on my Gardening Assistant's wishlist for 2011. They are the perfect size to pluck and carry into the browning grass for an evening snack:

My own "Next year..." wishlist starts with more rain to keep the cherry trees from stressing out...

... and includes remembering to plant more kohlrabi, even later in the spring, as long as they'll get enough afternoon shade to make it to harvest size:

It also may involve planting at least one pale rose, like the one that I was surprised (and touched) to see waiting for me after work at the end of this very rough week:

I am amazingly lucky, to have a sweet, thoughtful boyfriend like Steve. I think I'm going to make him help me pick out that rose--probably a repeat-blooming climber, to be planted near the porch this fall--which will hopefully keep this gorgeous gift* filled with floating blooms for years to come.

* This fascinating blown glass bowl, with its many layers of clear and opaque glass, swirls of blue-black, and sprinklings of silver, was a present from Steve last month to (unconventionally) celebrate a dating anniversary of sorts. It makes me smile every time I see the light streaming through it in the morning, and I continually turn it to display new patterns and views. I still can't believe that I own such a beautiful piece of glass art!

August Surprises (Big and Little)

2010-08-02T21:51:00.000-04:00

Surprise #1: Ginormous (but still tasty) blackberries

You might wonder: What have I been feeding these things? Nothing special, really. I had some leftover Citrus Tone after having to buy a bag to keep my Meyer lemon from dropping its last fruit. It worked beautifully (and turned the leaves back to green, and caused a growth spurt and more flowers!) but left me with almost an entire bag since the Meyer needed so little. I read somewhere that it could be used on other fruit as well, so I gave the blackberries, raspberries, fig, peach and strawberries a shot as well. But I really thought it would be too late to have an effect this year yet.

Surprise #2: Canna bud!

I've grown canna before, and it's not particularly hard to get them to flower. But this is a dwarf, apricot-flowering canna that I bought on super clearance last fall, cut back, and then left in the basement all winter long. I kind of forgot about planting it for a little too long this spring as well, so it has understandably been pouting for months. Apparently I've been punished enough, and it's ready to put on a show. Yay!

Surprise #3: A baby cycad?

I was gifted with two gorgeous (and huge) pots of cycad last fall by one of my coworkers at the garden center. After they outgrew his plant area at home he brought them to his gym, where they thrived... but he had to move them out last spring due to a lengthy remodeling project. They summered in his garden and then he offered them to me. I overwintered them in west- and north-facing windows in my studio room, and then repotted them into heavier clay pots this spring. My best guess, after consulting a friend or two who are much better with tropicals than yours truly, is that the little green sprout above in an offspring... anyone out in the blogosphere able to confirm that for me?

Surprise #4: Multiple blooms on my shrubby clematis

The strawberries that surround it are edible plants, and therefore are getting a little extra water now that I see they have been stressed. (Yeah, yeah... I need to weed out the clover, too. I know. :) The clematis that is planted amongst the strawberries is appreciating the extra water--and maybe the Citrus tone that I mentioned above--as well, and has thrown out multiple blooms for the first time in its 4 years in my garden.

Surprise #5: A Visitor!

While I was watering the tomatoes and peppers after work, this mantis hopped up indignantly onto the salvia and out of the line of fire. I added insult to injury, apparently, by grabbing the camera and attempting to get a really good portrait of him on his new perch.

He obviously didn't feel like sitting for said portrait, so I moved to the other side. No luck there, either. He turned and presented me with this:

I felt a little bit like an inadvertent paparazzi, but I kept on snapping. Eventually, he turned just enough for me to take one last profile shot:

I think he only consented to the profile picture in the hopes of getting my camera out of his face, but I'll take it! I know that the mantids eat all bugs, good and bad, but I was excited to see him in my garden. They're cool little creatures, and very fun to spot.

He took up the remainder of the space on my camera card, however, so I'll have to show you pictures of Surprise #6 later in the week: My Japanese anemones have already begun to bloom! (Eek!)

Pineapple Lily Update

2010-07-30T20:47:00.000-04:00

Recent storms have cooled down the temperatures here in Northeast Ohio, and the garden seems to have weathered the heat and drought this summer with a few notable exceptions. (One will be shown below.) Things are still very far ahead of schedule, as evidenced by the Japanese anemone buds starting to color up, but the pineapple lily is eclipsing all the rest of the garden bloomers right now. Check out the individual flowers starting to open up at the bottom of the stalk:

One flower was open the other evening when I first noticed them, but a few move have since joined the show:

The individual flowers are very pretty and delicate when you look at them close up:

I like seeing the lily in situ as well. The strappy, dark foliage and upright form adds a little something to the rolling tapestry of color and texture in the front yard:

In the foreground of that last photo, the powdery blue leaves of the sea kale really steal the show, don't they? They hold up well against all of the fine-textured foliage that I let run rampant in that corner of the garden, which includes stipa/nasella tenuissima, hens and chicks, lemon thyme, and agastache:

Not holding up so well is this peach heuchera:

The other heucheras have weathered my "no watering of non-edible plants after their first year in a particular location" rule very well, but this one simply fried out. I'm going to have to figure out what to add there next year to give the spot a little bit of color, and (preferably) some rounded leaves.

Since I hate to end a post on a bummer note, here's the pretty container by my front door with monstera, asparagus fern, lotus vine, philodendron, striped bromeliad, and a dragonwing begonia that I overwintered in the attic:

That's 'Autumn' philodendron at its feet in a separate pot. This probably looks like a bad photo, but the whole container "feels" kind of whirly and swirly, so it's a fitting picture for this hard-to-photograph spot. I couldn't get all of the monstera in the picture, but I mostly just wanted to show off the dragonwing anyway--it finally recovered from its overwintering abuse and has rebounded nicely!

Hope that my fellow garden bloggers are all enjoying beautiful weather like I am today. Have a wonderful weekend!

My Soon-to-Be New Garden Table

2010-07-23T21:33:00.000-04:00

Don't tell my mother--Mom tends to be a little embarrassed by these kinds of things--but I had a great trashpicking night this week!. As a result, I am the proud owner of this cool new garden table:

My new table formerly served as a spool for some sort of wire--my neighbor 5 doors down must work with wire regularly, because he often puts spools of varying sizes out on his tree lawn during trash day. This is by far the largest one I've seen, and it's the first one I managed to snatch before someone else grabbed it up.

I really like the industrial feel, the hefty screws, and the handle cut out of the top. (Side note: I did NOT use the handle to get it home--there is only one, and trying to figure out where to put my other hand seemed unnecessary when I could simply roll it down the sidewalk instead.) But I don't like the visual "chunk of new wood" effect that the table gives now, and I want to protect it a bit from the elements. So I thought about staining it the same burgundy as the post you see in the right side of this photo:

Or maybe I should paint just the base a bright cobalt, to match the watermelon pot above? That would give me three large, round, cobalt blue things, and I like having things in odd numbered clusters. Of course, deep brown would make a good backdrop for anything, as illustrated by the fence color in the background here:

But maybe I should try a deep, mysterious purple, like the 'Vista Purple' salvia in that cobalt pot. After all, I love how Gail's fence turned out. And, like Gail with her fence, I have the feeling that a deep, deep brown--while much loved on my own fence--is not what I want here.

So how about introducing a new color across that large surface? Maybe the violet-red of the coleus in that pot, or a deep orange similar to the color of these butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) blooms:

A fresh chartreuse, like the underside of that eggplant leaf in the photo above, might also be nice. Especially if I use that on the base, and just seal the top to keep the fresh wood color. And then, of course, there's the possibility of using some kind of brick or tile to cover the base--should I even think about those options? There almost too many choices... so I guess that I'll just be living with this table for a while until the solution comes to me!

One thing I DO know: If I stain or paint the top of this new table, I'm going to use some sort of semi-opaque or translucent stain. Because in addition to the fasteners, knots, and other natural markings, this spool has been branded with a serial number, and someone had handwritten a note and some more letters on the top in thick marker, too. That's the kind of wabi sabi detail that I really appreciate, so I want to keep it somewhat visible. After all, I think it's fun to have an old wire spool as a garden table... even if I do want to hide just how I acquired it from my Mom!

Late July Invasions

2010-07-23T12:29:00.001-04:00

'Grosso' lavender, in need of a good cutback, tries to flee 'Black Beauty' elderberry

Extreme heat seems to encourage extreme unruliness, and the heat is back up to "extreme" here in NE Ohio. Temperatures rise solidly into the 90s during the daytime, and only drop down to the 70s at night. Politeness disappears in these kinds of temperatures, and invasions of personal space become even more annoying than usual.

The lower branches of red orach (atriplex hortensis) smother part of an 'All Gold' hakonechloa

Walking around the garden, I've noticed that I could flag a lot of my plants for encroachment. Some are viney plants that try to nonchalantly snake their way into another plant's territory:

Sneaky shoot from a tropical passionflower vine, weaving through the lower branches of an artemisia

Sweet potato (the edible kind) exploring a nearby potato cage

Others are more casual about invading seemingly neutral airspace as they cozy up to their neighbors:

'Yubi Scarlet' portulaca, dropping by to visit 'Opal Purple' basil from the clay tile planter above

'Black Lace' elderberry (what IS it with these sambucus?!) reaching out to touch 'Lemon Boy' tomato

And on a ballsy few, the fine art of subtlety is completely lost:

Unknown squash-family volunteer, taking up residence among the 'Caradonna' salvia

Speaking of unruly things, both my Garden Assistant and my boyfriend looked like they were about to melt last night. I hate air conditioning in general, and am salty about having to turn it on twice before August even arrives... but I caved into the puppy dog eyes. (And I'm sure that Miss Coco appreciates having it on, too! ;) Also, I'm baking a birthday cake for Steve over the weekend--not fun in 95-degree heat--so I admit that having air conditioning will definitely be appreciated by me during that task.

I hope that you all are keeping cool this weekend, wherever you are. And that the denizens of and visitors to your home and garden are less ornery than mine!

2010: The Summer of Fruit

2010-07-19T00:18:00.000-04:00

This evening, I noticed a story running on several news sites about the temperatures in June. They were the highest in recorded history across the globe, and our temperatures here in Northeast Ohio were no exception. I rarely run the air conditioning, but when they're consistently in the mid-90s for a few days with little cooling at night... well, my Gardening Assistant looks like she's about to melt under all of that heavy Malamute fur, and that's when I cave in.

Thanks to the wet spring and the hot temperatures, almost all of my fruit crops have been promising banner yields. I had to thin the peaches, and the raspberries gave me so much fruit that it was borderline ridiculous. Tonight, at dusk, I picked my first peach:

And I already found the first fruit on my container-planted 'Yellow Doll' watermelons:

Guess it's time to start figuring out just how I'm going to support those fruits, huh? They're a little smaller than a tennis ball right now, but will end up being 3-7lbs at maturity. (Imagine that there was such a thing as a "single serving watermelon"... that's how the mature 'Yellow Dolls' will end up looking, size-wise.)

On the flip side, the heat and dryness of July has really decimated my blackberry crop. On a single berry, about half of the little segments have dried up while the others mature. I still eat them, carefully, but they're not really good for making jam and such. And the birds and squirrels have been eating my grapes--partly for the juice in them, I would imagine. The 'Concord' grapes are mostly okay, as there's a protective layer of chicken wire around the arbor that I've been too lazy to remove, but 'Himrod White' is almost completely picked clean!

Hopefully the 'Brown Turkey' figs, pictured above, will keep enjoying the heat and will escape the critters' attention. There are a good dozen and a half right now, and I would be happy to get at least several to harvest. As always in a garden... time will tell!

July 2010 Foliage Follow-Up

2010-07-16T02:48:00.000-04:00

I seem to be spending a lot of time coming and going this month, so it seemed appropriate to show off a few of the plants from my front porch for the July Foliage Follow-Up.

At the top of the brickwork on the stairs, I have two large stone capstones that are perfect for hosting a mishmash of houseplants for the summer. Here's a shot of the left-hand side:

I really love the jewel orchid that's tucked between the orchid cactus and the twisty sansevieria. Here's a closeup as seen from the side of the stairs:

The prickly foliage on the right, behind the orchid cactus, is from a cutting of rat tail cactus that I rooted in the same pot. The tiny green foliage in the upper left is from some random little succulent that I rooted with the jewel orchid to help disguise the bareness of its base.

Behind all of this is one of two huge cycads (aka sago palms) that I was given by a co-worker at the garden center. The foliage is cool, but I really really really love their trunks, which look a little bit like exotic pinecones:

These are the things that I most notice when I'm leaving the house. When I'm coming home, the first thing I notice is how cozy the citronella plant (overwintered in the attic) has become with the monstrous blue agave:

I had actually put the geranium there specifically so that I (and Coco, and any visitors) would have a little buffer between ourselves and the thick, stiff agave spines. Luckily, the two of them seem to be happy together!

At the top of the steps, I look to the left of the doorway to check the recovery of my variegated ginger and dark-leaf ficus:

I had them in too much sun for a while, and the ficus started showing signs of sunburn. The ginger became thin and spindly--it can handle more sun, but it needs more water in those conditions. I'm stingy with the hose, so it's much easier to keep this plant happy under cover of the porch roof. Plus, the leaves look so dramatic and tropical together as you look down on them from above:

As I fumble with my keys, I look over at the crazy (crazy because I have to bring this whole mess inside in a few months!) monstera container, and admire its lushness. I also like the 'Autumn' philodendron tucked in beside it. The leaf and pot colors pick up the oranges and pinky-peaches of the heuchera and begonias in the Monstera planting, and the black river rock plays off of the 'Illustrus' elephant ears that dangle above:

That's all I've got for today's Foliage Follow-Up. If Pam has recovered enough from her Buffa10 excursion, she should be posting her own foliage review and hosting a roundup of other contributors... especially this month, as Austin has been enjoying some unseasonably nice weather! Head on over to Digging to check it all out... and have a great weekend!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2010

2010-07-15T12:48:00.000-04:00

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and inappropriately enough, my first photo is NOT going to feature a flower...

... yet! This is my pineapple lily, 'Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis comosa, which has yet to flower but shows a lot of promise now that the bloom stalk has elevated the bud out past the base of the plant. Oh wait, there IS a glimpse of an oakleaf hydrangea bloom over its left shoulder--so this photo actually DOES count for GBBD after all! YAY!

Looking around the front yard, it's obvious that flowers take a backyard to the foliage. Looking at the photos I took of the few blooms in front, my camera seems to pick up on the foliage-first theme, too:

From top to bottom: Agastache blooming in front of the sharper-focused sea kale leaves...

'Summerwine' yarrow clusters peppering a bed of grasses, heucheras, culinary sage and bergenia...

Dragonwing begonia blooms bravely peeking out in front of a variegated monstera leaf...

'Black & Blue' salvia guaranitica fuzzy against a swirl of stipa/nassella tenuissima and sea kale

Hmm... maybe I'll have better luck in the back yard. Let's head there... but not until I show the one publishable attempt (out of at least a dozen) at obtaining a photo that proves both how high my bronze fennel has become, and how bright my hanging basket of 'Bonfire' begonias blaze on the side of the porch:

Yeah, it still doesn't look any better than it did at first, even with the addition of Steve's cute blue car for contrast.

*sigh*

I have a few new pots that match the color of his cute blue car, and I got them for a steal at a local garden center. Since I want to do a whole post about those, though, I'll just show you a few blooms from one today:

This is a bloom from 'Yellow Doll' watermelon, which is growing up, over and around a few coleus and these 'Vista Purple' salvia. I LOVE the way these pots are turning out!

Most of the backyard continues the theme of mixing edibles and ornamentals:

Top to bottom: "Hummingbird sage" (it was not tagged well--so not sure which salvia this is, sorry) and various portulacas in the clay tile planter, surrounded by blooming Russian sage, Japanese bloodgrass, blueberry bush, 'Opal Purple' basil, woolly thyme and cabbage...

A shrubby clematis (2nd pic) and 'Merlot' echinacea (3rd) pop out from a bed of alpine strawberries...

'Ichiban' eggplant with its demure, downward-facing flowers and pretty leaves...

'Sum & Substance' (I believe) hosta blooming under the 'Concord' grape, with a bed of oregano at its feet.

Lest you think that the backyard is all about me, though, I want to show you that I do a few things for the butterflies, too:

These are 2 of the three asclepias I have in the backyard, in a bed that also includes drumstick allium (when those were not as spent and faded as they are above, the effect of them mingling with the orange butterfly weed was spectacular!) and fescues, serrano peppers and 'Gretel' eggplant. I wish that I could tell you that butterflies eat as well out of this bed as I do... but as with the fennel in the front yard, they just don't seem to find this table that I have set for their enjoyment! Boo. :(

I don't want to end on such a bummer, though, so let's include one last shot from the front yard:

'Albury purple' is my idea of a perfect front-yard shrub: Awesome form and foliage, colorful berries and cheery, buttery-yellow blooms on a tough plant that needs no extra TLC.

In addition to the above, I also have a few volunteer snapdragons, peppers, tomatoes, heucheras, golden oregano, blue plumbago (a month early!) and brouwallia in bloom this month. To check out what the rest of the world has in bloom, visit May Dreams Gardens, where the lovely Carol hosts Garden Bloggers' Blooms Day!

Purple Heart in Flower: Photos for Leslie & Elaine

2010-07-08T11:33:00.000-04:00

During their visit the other day, both Leslie and her aunt Elaine commented on the Purple Heart spilling out of my cobalt-blue pot in the driveway garden. Elaine had asked about its flowers... and wouldn't you know, it was covered in buds that day, but none of them were open!

Today, the first few finally made their appearance:

The Purple Heart (setcreasea pallida, syn. setcreasea purpurea, syn. tradescantia pallida) blooms off and on throughout the year for me, both indoors and out. It's pretty drought tolerant--although you can see that I had just finished watering it, by the droplets that remain on the leaves--but we get along best when it's placed in a mostly shady spot with just under 3 hours of afternoon sun in my garden. (In full sun here, it wants more water--and I'm stingy.)

Brought indoors for the winter, it usually lives on the shady end of my large plant table in front of the east-facing window. I'm going to try to get a few of these cascading stems to root in the ground, however, and see if they make a comeback next spring. A few different posters have reported on its Davesgarden listing that it comes back in zone 6a. So maybe I'll get lucky here in 6b, too? We'll see!

Side note to Elaine: Multiple sites report that this plant is usually very deer-resistant. Let me know if you want to try a division of mine next year!

No-Buffalo Consolation: A Lovely Visit & Garden Surprises

2010-07-08T00:21:00.001-04:00

Count me among the garden bloggers who are NOT going to Buffalo, and wish they were... :( My younger brother and sister-in-law (the middle child and his wife, known in previous posts as "The Apartment Dwellers") are making a big move: In August, they are relocating to New Mexico! In trying to arrange a "Sibs' Weekend" for all of us to enjoy before they leave, it turned out that this weekend was the best option for everyone... well, for everyone but me, who wanted to go to Buffalo instead.

So instead of a trip east, I'll be heading west to spend a weekend at "The River" with the fam--and I'm not really complaining, because I know that we'll have a great time, and I'll have numerous Buffalo posts to enjoy on other blogs when I return. And as consolation, my garden has offered up a few special surprises for me to enjoy this week:

Yes, that's a future bloom hidden way down in the depths of my pineapple lily! As I mentioned, I would grow this for the foliage alone... but I'm super-excited about seeing it in flower, too. I'm not sure whether it will emerge at all before I head west on my trip, but it should be in bloom shortly after I return.

Second, the "Mexican thyme" (coleus amboinicus, syn. plectranthus amboinicus) that I purchased on clearance at the garden center as much for its felty, fleshy green leaves as for the fact that you can use it in cooking, has settled in and rebounded nicely. It looked like crap, frankly, when I put it into the ground, but after some cutting back and some judicious watering, new growth is emerging:

Lastly, but most importantly, I got to have a wonderful (if brief) visit with Leslie, of Growing a Garden in Davis! Leslie was visiting family in Cleveland before heading over to Buffalo, and we arranged for her to stop by and see my garden while she was here.

I admit that I was ~~very~~ a little nervous about the visit. Working 70+ hours between two jobs from mid-April through the Fourth of July weekend does NOT reflect well in one's garden! And I knew that another gardener couldn't help but notice all of the neglect, weeds, unfinished projects, etc. But meeting Leslie was like meeting an old friend, and I felt like she understood what I was planning to accomplish with the space--and that her "Gardeners' Glasses" were keeping her from noticing and commenting on all of the weeds and mess that abounded, too! :)

All in all, I had a lovely time showing Leslie and her Aunt Elaine around the garden. (And although I was a little distracted at times while trying to keep an eye on my Gardening Assistant, who has been ornery all week due to the heat wave we're enduring, I need not have worried about Coco. She was putty--yes, putty!--in Aunt Elaine's hands, and even looked a little disappointed when I returned to the house by myself later.) Maybe some day I'll make it to California and get a great garden tour in return. Now there's a lovely thought.

I hope that Leslie and all of the other garden bloggers who are making the trek to Buffalo enjoy themselves immensely, and have safe travels. I wish I could join you... but since I can't, I look forward to reading all of your recaps next week--please post early and often!

Forecast: Hazy Sunshine

2010-07-03T16:50:00.000-04:00

On summer days when I work later into the evening, it's doubly nice to arrive at home. Not only do I look forward to dropping the cares of the day at my doorstep while I'm greeted by a joyfully wagging tail, but I get to see the front yard bathed in beautiful backlighting. Here's what I see from the driver's seat as I open the door:

I sometimes stop and look a while, sometimes marveling at all of the colors and shadows, and sometimes reflecting that I really need to cut back the overzealous bronze fennel that extends into my walkway...

... and embraces the urn where the equally enthusiastic brugmansia is planted:

Looking slightly left, I reflect on the need for some larger-leaf plants, or something else with chunky texture, to finish off this newly replanted corner:

The sea kale, with its large leaves, can certainly hold its own...

... against the 'Red Rocks' penstemon and the trio of 'Acapulco' agastache...

... but maybe I need to nestle a few more large rocks amidst the sea of pebbles and cute little hens & chicks at their feet:

As I turn and l down the sidewalk, I'm almost to the front steps...

But I'm stopped in my tracks by the gorgeous sight of 'Sparkling Burgundy' eucomis:

Pineapple lilies aren't really supposed to be hardy here. But one of Plant Delights' 2008 catalogs said that they had reports from customers that it was hardy to zone 6, so I decided to gamble. I'm so glad that I did--I seriously can't get enough of the way this foliage complements the warm tones of the heuchera, and of the bronzey foxglove spires, too, when those are in flower:

Not to mention the way it picks up the bristly forms of the grass behind the heuchera, and the clumps of foxglove foliage on the right side of this photo:

I don't mean to gush, it's just that this is one gorgeous plant! But enough of my self-distraction--there's no time for that. One of my longtime favorite garden bloggers, Leslie from Growing a Garden in Davis, is going to stop by my tiny garden for a tour on Tuesday, before she heads up to Buffalo for the garden bloggers' meet-up. And because of my many works in progress, my garden is NOT ready for its close-up, that's for sure. (Eek--time to go weed!)

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July, everyone!