Why I Oughta...

Four years ago - in September 2022, I did my first (ever) cutting of an existing Limelight Hydrangea and attempted to grow a new shrub in a nursery container. In mid-September 2022, I cut off a green tip, trimmed back the leaves and stuck it in some compost .   A couple weeks later, it grew some new leaves .   Back then, I was trying to grow a number of things from cuttings and seeds (like Oak trees) .  I would overwinter them by digging them into the ground and mulching them in.  Then, in Spring, I dug out the nursery pots and nurtured them along the season. A year later - in October 2023 - the Limelight cutting was growing upright.  It had two branches and was probably 12" tall .  It was also root-bound in the pint-sized nursery pot, so I up-potted it to a one-gallon nursery pot .   Two years in (October 2024), the cutting (now in that one-gallon nursery pot) flowered for the first time .  But, the plant was also probably not in e...

I added seven Montana Sedge plugs along the flagstone path in our backyard that connects the rear yard with the sideyard on the southside of our house.  There were already a handful of Montana Sedges there, so these seven were adding to the existing colony.  I posted a photo of them a month later (in August of 2026) and they all seemed to have handled their transplanting.   Now, 100 days later, in early October, they're doing their Montana Sedge thing:  Glossy green sprays of groundcover.  Here, below, are a couple of photos showing the old and new sedges.  The mature (larger) ones are from previous seasons, but the smaller ones are catching up quickly: You know what this makes me think? More along this very path.  But, also...just more in general?   The first place that comes to mind is the backyard stoops.  Under the Spring Grove Ginko trees.  Also, the island bed.  And, along the boardwalk.  

I planted a pair of Saint Martin Waterlily dahlia tubers this season and they've been (BY FAR) the most prolific dahlia that I've ever grown.  They have thrown off blooms since (at least) July and are still loaded with blooms on the tips of thin, but fairly strong stems.  But, those stems are different than most of the rest of my dahlias.  Most dahlia stems (in my experience) are hallow.  Like straws.  But, Saint Martin stems are far more thin.  And, if they're straw-like, the straw is super small.   These also have smaller and different texture leaves on the flower stems than most of  my other dahlias.  We've had some rain this week, so that means when the dahlia plants are full of blooms (and buds), they tend to get weighed down.  Saint Martin is almost folding in half in parts.   That lead me to cut a bunch of them while they're opened.  I also grabbed some Crichton Honey, Brown Sugar, a lone Blue Wish dahlia blo...

Last year, I made my first wreath.  A winter wreath .  That hung on our front door.  I used a grapevine wreath as the chassis.  And, used the 'pre-make piles' of materials process.  The material included Magnolia leaves and Silver Dollar Eucalyptus from Trader Joe's.  And some foraged evergreen material including Cypress branches and springs of Green Velvet Boxwoods.  It turned out pretty good.  And, even survived the Winter.  My original post went up in December .  And, I posted a photo of the wreath all the way into March (at the end of the season) and it held up .   Despite today being the last day of September, I'm already thinking about Winter containers, cut evergreen arrangements, Christmas crafts (like pinecones on a stick) and...wreath making.  I have been poking around on floral wholesalers to see what it takes to buy eucalyptus (including Silver Dollar, Seeded and even red tinted stems) and Magnolia bunches in b...

The biggest perennial star of the garden RIGHT NOW is (by a long-way) Anemone Lucky Charm.  It is planted (now) in two spots of the backyard (after I transplanted a couple of patches earlier this year).  Here, below is what the flowers look like right now:  full of pink flowers with yellow centers and covering a lot of ground: I bought these from Northwind Perennial Farm a few years ago .  I'll grab a clump of this colony and try to do a Fall transplant of this to a few other spots of the garden.  You know...in the name of REPETITION.  Right?  Not to mention, they're pretty lovely to see in bloom this late in the season. Here's a VERY SIMILAR post from right around one-year ago showing the same flowers .   I also need to replace the Garden Ghost Artemesia up front in the Island Bed.  Might this be a better performer?  

Dahlia cutting season is moving quickly these days. After waiting to cut anything for a while due to trying to cut them for the girls' Homecoming corsages, we're now flush with blooms.  On a recent morning, I went out and snip'd off a number of blooms.  That will BOTH drive more blooms to arrive, but it also has the secondary benefit of removing some of the weight on the tips of the stems.   Below are a pair of cut dahlia stem arrangements.  These are cut from the front Island Bed, IB2DWs, sideyard and both sides of the pizza oven bed.  They feature Brown Sugar, Milena Fleur, Crichton Honey, Rip City (not Rip City), Wizard of Oz, Tsuki Yori No Shisha (Messenger of the Moon) Notably, Tsuki Yori No Shisha is a fimbriated dahlia.  My only one (that I can confirm). But, perhaps the (NOT) Rip City dahlia is fimbriated, too?   Counting down the days until our first frost.  Hoping for a late October arrival.