Tuesday View: The Tropics 8.2.16

Aug3

Finally I’m back for a real visit with Kathy’s Tuesday View meme. After two weeks away the tropics have taken off here and the heat (and now rain!) have really brought everything to life.

In the view today is damp soil, overcast skies and plenty of humidity. The cannas have exploded along with just about everything else and exuberance is the word of the day. How do you like the ferny green lump of kochia (summer cypress) just in front and to the left of the olive-green planter? I love it btw

My biggest fear when I left was that my new bananas and precious castor beans would just pine away waiting for rain, so two days before we left I added an extra line to the drip irrigation system and set up a few drip emitters to some of the most precious plants. Good thing I did since this bed was the only part of the garden where lush greenery welcomed me back from our midsummer vacation.

I have blooms on my ‘Carmencita’ castor bean plant. I love the bright red seed pods and I hope they stay that way for a while… and the leaves aren’t too shabby either!

I’ll try not to go on too much about every single plant. Here’s an overview of the farther side of the bed, beyond the path to grandma’s pool 🙂

The purple of Verbena bonariensis has nearly taken over large swaths of the bed. I’m fine with that but the old flower stalks on the salvia ‘Caradonna’ just irritate me to no end. I’m sure no one but myself notices them, but there’s a good chance I snap this week and pull them all out!

The old red leaved cannas are nearly as tall as me now and will likely break the six foot mark by next week and I love that. In no time this will be a garden you look up to 🙂

My poor planning skills are often saved by horticultural volunteers. Here the chartreuse froth of blooming fennel mixes in with a pale green nicotina and of course more Verbena bonariensis. You can’t even see the dahlias which are supposed to fill this space.

You may have noticed a few of the sunflowers which peek out of the far corners of the border. After relentlessly weeding them out through the spring I finally let a few of the latest sprouts in the hard to reach spots go on with their lives. I love them of course, and I’ve already seen the goldfinches stopping by to check on the seeds.

Sunflower with a few long-horned bees making themselves at home.

New to me this year are the bees which can be found on each sunflower bloom. I’m sure they’ve been there every year but after I found the long antenna interesting I realized they’re not the regular honeybees. According to this face book group >click here< they are either a type of sunflower bee or most likely a type of long-horned bee, both of which belong to the solitary bee group which includes some of the hardest working and most effective pollinators out there.

I’m leaning towards long-horned bee for these two, since they both share the almost comically long antenna, but I have no clue as to which species. Apparently there are more than a few!

Something new to me which I came across while investigating bees is that these solitary bees are much less aggressive than their colony-forming cousins due to the fact they have no hive to defend. They only sting when handled roughly and are considered more docile… although I’m not sure who did this investigation of insect manhandling. I’ll take their word for it though and skip starting my own investigative bee-bullying program.

Oh and one more thing. Solitary bees are fine feeding on nectar from a wide range of flowers but the individual bee species is much more specific in where its pollen comes from. It’s called oligolecty, and if you want to add that one to the vocab list it describes bees which specialize in collecting pollen from a limited palette of flowers, often only one species.

A usual I’m as surprised as to where this Tuesday view went but it’s been an interesting ride for me and I hope it’s at least been somewhat interesting to you as well. If you’d like to expand on the visit stop over at Words and Herbs and check in with Cathy to see what the other Tuesday views are up to. There’s always plenty to explore!

That wasn’t smart 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3

Aug1

Well I really racked them up this weekend. My favorite nursery, Perennial Point, was having a customer appreciation weekend and all plants were on sale for 30% off. A dead garden will make you weak in the face of temptation and I guess I blinked.

Not smart version 6.0: The garden was bone dry and I couldn’t even take care of what I had. Weeds are having a field day, the lawn is dead and other plants are dying left and right. I just bought home several delicate, nursery-perfect plants which probably haven’t even broken a sweat their whole lives and I’m planning to throw them into this nightmare.

Three big ticket items followed me home, ‘Plum Magic’ crape myrtle, hypericum ‘Red Fame’, and daylily ‘Bubblegum Pie’.

Not smart 6.1: I don’t like daylilies, don’t ask me why I would buy one. The leaves look horrible in late summer, the old blooms look like soggy tissue messes which need daily cleanup, and the name ‘Bubblegum Pie’ is insanely dumb. The flower on this one is fat and fleshy and overdone with way too many ruffles. There’s nothing graceful or elegant in the flower but I’ll plant it near the one daylily which came with the house (and resprouted after I thought I sent it to the compost pile) and the other species daylily which I grew from seed (Hemerocallis atissima, a tall and graceful night bloomer). We will see how it does.

Look at the fruits on Hypericum inodorum ‘Red Fame’! I’ve seen these used in flower arrangements and never thought it might do well in the garden, so we’ll see if it does. btw the crystalline glisten on the leaves is something called raindrops, yeah it took me a few minutes to recognize it as well, apparently we used to get a lot of it back in the day.

Not smart 6.2: I bought a Hypericum ‘Red Fame’ which I think is cool with its juicy looking bright red fruits and according to what I’ve read may tolerate drought just fine, but I also bought a crape myrtle. Crape myrtle are not hardy here and even at 30% off this one still wasn’t exactly cheap but somewhere deep down inside I seem to think someday a miracle will happen and one will survive. Maybe fourth time’s the charm….

Three new caladiums and a new coleus. Buy one get one free on annuals since no one bothers to buy annuals on the last weekend of July… no one except me apparently.

Not smart 6.3: I bought more annuals. Tomorrow is August 1st and the days for annuals are numbered and I should be focusing on limping through the summer and getting ready for fall gardening rather than wishing for another June and July. Plus I seem to remember telling myself (you wouldn’t remember since Iwas talking solely to myself) that I had too many coleus last year and I should let some meet their maker when frost came. Now I’m adding more?

Caladium ‘Pink Splash’ which I managed to overwinter from tubers purchased last year. At least that was smart. Also smart is the healthy, dark-leaved Eucomis (pineapple lily) grown from seed supplied by Nan Ondra. I’m hoping it will be big enough to bloom next year!

Not smart 6.4: I already have too many caladiums for a reasonable Pennsylvania garden, but if you hang on for another minute I’ll tell a quick caladium story. It used to be I could overwinter them with ease and even had some survive for more than 5 years, but then my luck changed. Dead tubers would greet me each spring and I wasn’t sure what was wrong. Short story even shorter last winter I tried keeping them completely dry in their pots and in a warmer spot and lo and behold they made it through perfectly. Logical next step is to take advantage of any good caladium deal which you come across and then be immensely disappointed when they go back to dying next winter…

White caladiums and a pot of mixed tubers which I found on clearance. The spotted one is my absolute favorite.

Pristine white caladiums filling a terra cotta planter in the high shade of a southern garden is tasteful. My mixed, gaudy plantings in reused plastic nursery pots are not. But I digress, and will leave you with one last glimpse of my new daylily.

The disgusting daylily ‘Bubblegum Pie’ with all its offensive frills and flounce. It really is too much of everything and I’m positive this will be the one and only daylily I ever purchase for this garden. Since I have it I might as well plant it, and I might as well even spare a few shovelfuls of my precious compost on it. The pot has three fans already and I can only imagine three or four deliciously overdone stalks next year filled with more of these flowers!

Not that smart 6.5? A few days ago I ordered some iris through the Historic Iris Preservation Society’s annual fund raiser. That’s innocent enough, but now that the sale has wound down I noticed a posting on Facebook looking for volunteers to take in leftover rhizomes and grow them on for a year before sending them back for next year’s sale. I’m wondering where I would put 10 or 20 more iris 🙂

It rained by the way. An absolutely amazing soaking rain which stretched out for hours and got into many of the driest nooks and crannies of the garden. I’m quite pleased and know it will be a good week and wish all the best for yours as well.

Thursday’s Feature: Cyclamen purpurascens

Jul29

It’s time to get back into the saddle. I’ve enjoyed telling the woeful tales of drought and loss in my garden and appreciated the kind words, but it’s time to stop the shameless pandering for sympathy and suck it up. I’m sure most gardeners will agree that there’s nothing better for a poor attitude than a new plant, so I ordered a couple iris, planned a trip to the nursery, and I think I’m good 🙂

So first things first I’m joining Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome for her Thursday’s Feature and highlighting one of the little treasures which don’t seem to care much about a few sunny days and a bit of heat. This week’s plant is that hardiest of hardy cyclamen, Cylamen purpurascens.

Blooming this week in the dry shade beneath the weeping cherry is Cyclamen purpurascens. I like the slight streaking and chunky flowers of this one.

Besides being a hardy plant ((the cyclamen society’s website lists this plant as tolerant of temperatures down to -4F… and my own plants have easily endured -9F without significant snow cover) this plant also has the distinction of retaining foliage year round. Even now during he worst of summer the beautifully marked and mottled foliage lights up the gloomiest of dry shade locations.

Cyclamen purpurascens has the typically beautiful foliage shared by many of the cyclamen family, and the range of patterns is always amazing.

It also has the distinction of blooming now. The flowers won’t blow you away until they come by the hundreds (which I’m hoping for someday), but for now the little splashes of color are a welcome relief for summer weary shade gardens.

A more typical Cyclamen purpurascens flower with pink color and open, twisted petals.

For more expert information and growing requirements I’d recommend the cyclamen society’s website, but from my own experience I find this cyclamen to be a little fussier and much slower growing than the others and also a plant which actually seems to welcome a good freeze in the winter. Seedlings which I protected indoors really sulked until I threw them outside for the coldest months.

Mine were raised from seed, but honestly this is one cyclamen I’d have no problem buying as a plant. Germination takes a year, it’s another year before they do any serious growing, another two or so years for a bloom if you’re not the most attentive grower, and then even the seeds take over a year to ripen before you can try for the next batch. We’re not getting any younger, so save yourself a few years and buy a couple plants from John Lonsdale at Edgewood gardens. For a plant which you probably won’t find anywhere else $12 a pop seems like a bargain to me and I’m a relatively cheap guy.

When you’re done with that give Kimberley a visit and see what else is on the radar this Thursday (or practically Friday as I look at the clock). There’s always something interesting to be had and I know you won’t regret it!

Wordless Wednesday: I hate gardening

Jul27

All the phlox are fried in the potager. The grass is NOT green.

The hellebores WERE lush after a cool spring.

But I did get to see the last of lily ‘Pizzaz’ in bloom

…and drip irrigation kept the containers watered.

Tuesday View: The Tropics 7.26.16

Jul27

We returned from Florida this afternoon and were pleased to discover that the weather here was even hotter and drier than 1,200 miles South. The few scattered thundershowers which should have given the garden some hope while we were gone just weren’t enough, and overall things look completely miserable. Here’s a view from Florida since I’d rather not face Pennsylvania yet.

At least in the tropics an afternoon downpour can give some relief. Here in Epcot I liked the way these mixed cannas filled the bed, a little short of a plant for my taste, but I’m sure they’ll fill the area with color all summer.

I hope to catch up a little tomorrow, but for now it’s ok to be back and we’ll see if I can scrape together enough care to bring the garden back from crispiness. If I never post again I just want to say thanks for all the comments and friendship and I wish you all well.

Tuesday View: The Tropics 7.19.16

Jul20

Cathy at Words and Herbs takes a look at the same garden view each week and follows it as the year goes on. My post this week should be self explanatory 🙂

I think most gardeners will understand this next photo as well…

Are those nails clean!?

Have a great week!

Thursday’s Feature: The Wooly Thistle

Jul14

Each Thursday I like to join Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome and single out a plant which has tickled my fancy that week. For the most part my choices have been on the respectable side but this week I’ve gone back to the dark side and chosen the wooly thistle (Cirsium eriophorum), a plant which if anything should be kept far, far away from your fancy since direct contact will definitely NOT tickle.

Cirsium eriophorum, the wooly thistle, with its first bloom opening in late June.

Despite its cute common name, the wooly thistle is probably cursed by many a gardener and farmer throughout its native Europe. I don’t think many a gardener here or there would go through the trouble of finding seeds through a seed exchange, sowing them and nursing the plant for three years, and then briefly enjoy it’s heavily armed flowers for a few weeks until it set seeds and died… but I think it’s absolutely fascinating!

A baby picture only a father could love. Wooliness studded with purple tips and all so nicely geometrical!

Who knows if I’ll replant the seeds once mama thistle is gone, she is a bit of a hostile presence after all, but she’s very welcoming to the bees and ants which swarm the flowers. She’s also very popular with a group of weevils which have poked their noses into the wool and I’m sure laid eggs while nibbling the flower buds. Weevil grubs eating thistle seeds is probably not the worst thing to have and even with them there will likely still be more than enough seeds produced.

The spines are just as vicious as they look 🙂

I will completely understand a less than enthusiastic review to this week’s choice. Please feel free to just smile politely and then later shake your head, I’ll understand.

Cirsium eriophorum today with its fat wooly flower heads.

Please also feel free to visit Kimberly and enjoy what she’s selected for this week. I hear it’s a delightfully pure Shasta daisy, and I’m sure it’s far better suited for vases and placing behind the ear than this thing!

Gratuitous phlox

Jul13

I don’t have nearly as many of the tall garden phlox (Phlox paniculata) as I’d like. The photos are misleading without the big picture so here’s the big picture with a wider view of the potager (complete with freshly trimmed hedge). A couple (4) in the front bed, and a dozen or so in the back bed is not a lot of phlox.

Mid July and most of the garden phlox are nearing their peak. Can I call them a favorite flower? I feel like I do that to something new every other week.

We’re just going from one phlox to the next here. No commitment.

Phlox ‘dorffreude’… I think that roughly translates to town’s joy?

A few cooler nights have deepened some of the colors and although I don’t know the names for several of these it doesn’t matter as far as enjoying them goes.

This random seedling gets a pink tint when the temperatures drop.

But the dry weather has them all a little miserable, and unless they get watered every few days the leaves and flowers wilt and the spider mites procreate.

Another random seedling which opens pink and then fades. Note how bushy the plants are… that’s thanks to this year’s frequent deer, woodchuck, and rabbit nibbling.

The next few days promise more dry, clear skies with temperatures into the 90’s (32+C) and the garden will be on its own as we go off traveling.

The dark purple ‘Nicky’, starry eyed ‘Laura’ and an unknown salmony red passed on from a friend. A threesome of color.

Of course there’s always the pretty yet troubled one. Phlox ‘Brigadier’ has a great reddish color yet doesn’t bloom well, is losing stems, is a magnet for mites, and resents every dry spell… but I can usually just get her a drink and she’s ready to go.

Phlox ‘Brigadier’ with ‘Cabot’s Pink’ in the back.

I guess when you’re jumping from one phlox to the next you’re bound to run into problems but I’ll admit I’m a phlox addict and don’t really want to change. When I was out at the nursery last week there were about six new ones which I had a chance at and they all looked like a fun time (even if I already have a few waiting at home) but I said no. It will be a hard enough time staying faithful this winter when it’s just me and the computer and the great online phlox source, Perennial Pleasures. They’re like a Craigslist for hooking up with new phlox and I’m sure I’ll click on something I shouldn’t.

Tuesday View: The Tropics 7.11.16

Jul12

This week I was a little late in the day with my photo so it’s full of artsy backlighting. A good effect for soft lighting, but not the best to see what’s going on in a Tuesday view.

The tropical garden at about 7 in the afternoon.

One thing which you will likely notice is the pile of grass trimmings and the wheelbarrow. It was a busy afternoon in the bed and much of this was the result of the bed’s new designation as the Tuesday view. Who would have suspected joining in with this meme would be the motivation needed to buckle down and make some of the changes I’ve been thinking about for the past few years?

Not exactly tropical, but the color of the rose ‘black forest’ is hot enough to fit right in. This is already its second flush of bloom and other than a few holes chewed into the leaves (most likely from some annoying beetle) it’s almost perfect. Last year this plant was potted on the deck, still great but much younger and smaller.

Change one: The variegated miscanthus ‘Cosmopolitan’ had too much of a head start on the new plantings so I went ahead and cut it down to about a foot high. We will see how this works out since I’ve never tried it before, but it’s grass right? I suspect just like a scalped lawn it will send up plenty of new shoots, and in the meantime the cannas and dahlias will be able to grow upwards in peace and lay claim to their own airspace.

Change two: A newly planted banana (Musa basjoo) has replaced the peony which was just taking up space here… and mildewing. When sunflowers grew up and covered it in years past there was no reason for it to bother me, but now it does so out it went. I’ve never composted a peony, it seems absolutely criminal and I’m not sure I should be confessing, but there you go. I yanked a few salvia as well.

We were gone for four days last week and the garden nearly dried out and died due to the heat. Rumor has it rain fell, but of course all the big storms avoided us. When I returned to see the pathetic state of my plants I first cursed, then cursed some more, and then decided to mow everything down and give up for the year, but after watering that evening and then the next day visiting my favorite nursery (Perennial Point), things seemed less bleak. They had awesome bananas and elephant ears and a bunch of other stuff and in my weakened state two new bananas came home with me (plus a new fern and red hot poker).

Kochia Scoparia is a new one for me. The common names are burning bush and summer cypress and I suspect I will like it, but for now keep in mind it’s listed as a noxious weed in several Midwestern states.

I didn’t need the bananas, but I did need the bananas, especially after seeing how well they have done for my brother in his zone 7 LI, NY garden. In case you’re wondering, Musa basjoo is likely the hardiest banana, and although I won’t get into all the logistics of me being the one to give him the plants in the first place, and him being completely deaf to all hints at how much I wanted one and which one could he spare… I now have one again and promise to mulch it well EVERY winter so it doesn’t die off again.

The rest of the zinnias are doing well, but I suspect my MIL was again a little heavy-handed with the weed killer here since it’s a dead spot which seems to stunt all life. She has an unexplained attraction to any herbicide which says ‘controls weeds for months’, and this in turn stunts and kills anything planted in the treated area or anything planted near the runoff area… for months.

So here we are again, all over the place on what should be a simple post. I promise to get less wordy once we get through this planting and intro phase but for now I can’t help it. Just be grateful you’re not stuck here on a visit and I’m really going on and on!

Now what do I do with this? The flower stalks of a Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) have appeared in the back part of this bed and I like it. The problem is it’s a terrible invasive in this part of the country, but only in wetlands and my garden is far from being a wetland.

If you’d like to join in the Tuesday view, Cathy at Words and Herbs follows her own view each week and I’m sure she’d welcome the company. It’s a great way to track changes through the season and apparently it can even motivate some of the less motivated gardeners into tackling a few things on the to-do list!

That wasn’t smart 5.0

Jul11

I’ve been neglecting my ongoing series regarding the stupid moves which I perpetrate in the garden, and trust me it hasn’t been because of a lack of material.

The blue poppy (Meconopsis species) is a nearly legendary sky blue flower from the heights of the Himalayas, and their amazingly perfect blooms have lured many a gardener (and photographer) into an awkwardly greedy and covetous state. The blue flowers are also well known for their difficult and fickle nature outside of any region where the thermometer rises above 80F (26.5C) and summers take on a more serious tone. Here in my Pennsylvania garden the thermometer has been going well over 90F this month, and I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming back in December when I ordered the seeds… or back in February when they were sown… or now when my last seedling is wasting away to nothing.

Go to the light little poppy. You’ve put up a valiant struggle.

I briefly debated placing a window unit air conditioner into one of the workshop windows and seeing just how long I could drag this out but then finally came to my senses. I’m sure I can kill other plants just as easily with far less trouble, so until I move North or become insanely rich I think I’ll pass on the next seed offer. Fortunately this latest stupid move didn’t involve blood and from now on I suppose I’ll keep myself happy enjoying them via Pauline blogging about the ones in her Devon England garden (I believe they’re practically weeds for her) or just enjoying the ones Longwood Gardens forces into bloom each spring.

So a lesson learned is a lesson learned, and on today’s trip to the nursery I picked up something far more sensible. Under “Growing Conditions” it’s as easy as part sun, plant 24″ apart, so I’m sure my new Australian Tree Fern will be no problem at all. Later on I’ll just have to figure out what to do with the “reaches 20 feet tall, up to 10 foot long fronds”.

Even a 10 year old can see there are too many plants on this deck, he told me last week.

We will see where this goes, but in the meantime have a great week, and may all your decisions be sensible and well thought out 🙂

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden