Why I Oughta...

A couple weeks ago, I potted up a number of stored and newly purchased Dahlia tubers in one-gallon nursery pots .  All of the stored tubers (Melina Fleur Dahlias) from last year were stored over-winter in Saran Wrap in the garage and a few of them were already showing some growth/sprouts of new growth off the tubers.  That lead to some of them moving fast to show new foliage - above the soil - with new shoots of life.   See below for a few photos of the tubers growing new green growth.   After these put on a couple sets of leaves, I'll move them out of the basement and into the screened porch.  There, they'll get A LOT more light and a tiny bit of wind (when I open the windows) and can continue their growing process.  Once they put on another set of leaves out there, I'll begin to harden them off by putting them outside for an ever-increasing amount of time.   That means they'll be in the porch for 4-5 days, then begin to harden-off for ...

At the recent Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant sale, I bought a new Climbing Hydrangea for our backyard.  This one is in a one-gallon container and priced at just $28.  Here, below, is the sign from the sale that includes a couple of photos and a description showing it can reach thirty-feet tall and can tolerate part shade and/or full shade.  The scientific name is Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris.   Here is the climbing hydrangea in the nursery pot with the small wooden trellis supporting the vine.  I'd say the vine is 18" tall from the soil-level: Climbing Hydrangea Below is the plant tag from the pot that says:  "Showy white flowers in summer.  Self clinging vine." This is our second climbing hydrangea.  I put one in the backyard by the firepit in 2023 .  At first, the vine was doing well.  But, last year it suffered a setback.  Here's a post from September of 2024 when the vine had declined .  I'm not sure if it was...

In the Fall of 2023, I planted a pair of Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea shrubs - one in the front yard and one in the backyard.  The one in front didn't come back this year, but the one in back leaf'd out and is now on its second full growing season and doing well.   I was drawn to these during my Japanese Maple phase and when I saw another one at the Big Box nursery recently, I decided to bring it home to add a new, different color and texture to the front yard Island bed. These are dwarf-like shrubs that has lace-leaf or fern-like foliage.  Here's what First Editions says about the Matcha Ball shrub : Forming a perfect round ball fern-like leaves cover Matcha Ball® in a fresh shade of green, much like Matcha tea. When the leaves first emerge in very early spring, the leaves and petioles have hints of red and orange-peach that ultimately mature to green in the summer and yellow in the fall. The photo at the top shows off those orange-peach color.  Here, below, is...

Last year, I planted three Inferno Coleus in the Island Bed in our front yard - the first time I've used Coleus as a bedding plant.  By the end of the season, I wrote this post praising coleus in mid-October .   I learned to like them so much that I included "use more coleus" as my #6 item on my 2025 to-do list .  My plan for the island bed was to extend the bed (done) and plant it full this year .  Part of that planting is to use a sun-tolerant coleus in front of the trees (Ginkgo and Korean Maple) and behind the (planned) perennials.   I found these striking "sun coleus" at the nursery and decided to buy two six-packs of them:   The tag says they're named Crimson Gold Versa Coleus: Here is what Ball Seed has to say about Crimson Gold Coleus : Versatile coleus variety thrives in sun and shade. Long-lasting, deep red leaves with golden-green edges pop as landscape or garden component. Well-branched, vigorous habit. With twelve (12) plugs in-h...

After finding a falling for a new (to me...at the time) fern, I planted three Crested Surf Japanese Painted ferns in the backyard in 2021 .   They had a hard-time getting established, so I wasn't sure if they were coming back those first few seasons.  Now...in their fifth season, I'm seeing them push through the thick mulch layer with fronds unfurling in early May.    See below for the three Crested Surf ferns that are planted in a triangle: Similar to other things, I'm thinking that I planted these too far apart.  These, too, should be [candidates for dividing] this Fall.  

A quiet workhorse in the shady understory part of our garden are the three Queen of Hearts Brunnera that are planted along the front border.  They went in during the Summer of 2021 and I haven't thought much about them since .   Below is a photo showing these shade-loving perennials in full bloom with their delicate blue flowers on the tips of 'sprays' above the silver-lined foliage.   Looking at this cluster (now), I think I planted these too far apart and should have pulled them closer.  Perhaps one way to rectify this gap in the middle is to think about dividing a couple of these this Fall to add one-or-two more plants.  Marking this as a [candidate for dividing] for later this Fall.