Why I Oughta...

One of the plants that I picked up at this past year's Morton Arboretum Plant Sale - BUT failed to post about when I planted - was this decidious shrub called a Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin).  I tucked it in back by the fire pit and mostly forgot about it.  Below is a snapshot of the sign from the sale that I took back in April and you can see that it has a Forsythia with yellow Spring flowers.   Below is the plant tag showing that it will grow up to be 6-12 feet tall and 6-12 feet wide.  And will handle partial shade: Below is a photo showing what it looked like when we brought it home with green leaves on woody stems.  It was about 15" tall from the soil-level. This was, clearly, not on the plan.  But, we still bought it, on a whim. The REAL reason that we bought it was that the lady at the sale told us about the Spice Bush Swallowtail, a butterfly, that relies on this plant during the caterpillar stage .  What's not to like about that, right?...

While the calendar is now showing January 2023 and my focus in the yard and garden is on the year ahead, I still need to do a full and complete rundown of how I did out there in 2022.  I've done this a number of times over the years - posting an early draft in the Winter, a full list in the early Spring, typically a late-Summer/early Fall check-in and then...finally a 'season scorecard' at the end of the year.   This post is going to focus on those 'Season Scorecards'.   Here's my 2019 'Season Scorecard '.  12/17. 70% complete. Here's my 2020 'Season Scorecard' .   22 of 25 complete . 88%. Here's my 2021 'Season Scorecard '.   17.5 completes. 2 semi-completes. 5.5 not-completes. 70%. This is the final 'Season Scorecard' for 2022.    I completed an Early-Fall check-in on the list in September and at that time, I found: 6 in green . 24% complete. 12 in orange.  48% mixed or incomplete. 7 in red.   28% not started ...

A few days ago, I shared a mid-Winter update on my Staghorn Ferns and mentioned that I was going to share a separate post on the lone Elkhorn fern that I mounted in October .  First thing though....I'm pretty sure that the name "Elkhorn Fern" is probably misplaced.  This is likely just a variety of Bird's Nest Fern, but that's ok.  And...not the point - right now.   This is a six-week update on the Elkhorn since mounting. And, it hasn't been pretty. Below is a look at the current state.  Lots of brown.  And lots of unhappy fronds.  But, a really nice cedar mount.   Not great.  See below: Not great - at first glance.  But...upon closer inspection, I can see some new, small, thin fronds.  New growth?   One note that I've observed in the past six weeks.  This Fern requires more water, more frequently than the Staghorns.  

Currently, we have three Staghorn Ferns and one Elkhorn Fern (More on the Elkhorn in a separate post) that have been sitting in our basement windows trying to survive the long, dark Winter.  Two of the Staghorns are mounted to boards.  And one continues to be in the container that it arrived in from the big box nursery. First up, the one in the container.  This is the oldest Staghorn and seems to be doing fine .  Not great.  But, fine.  The shield frond is the original one that is now brown and dried out.  We have a few antler-shaped fronds, too.  See below for current state. This can use a repotting and/or mounting this Spring. The next Staghorn Fern is the original fern mounted to a pine board with a large knot hole in it.  I posted about this one in August when I talked about it suffering .  How is it doing today?  Not great.  But...I *think* it is growing.  There are some small, new, non-antler-shaped fronds that have ...

I've told this story before:  All the way back in 2018, we had some Lemon Coral Sedum in one of our patio containers .  One way or another, it managed to migrate from the container to the little, square bed next to our back stoop.   And, in a surprise to me, it managed to overwinter in that spot underneath a bed of snow.  I've since left it there and it has spread out each subsequent year.  I had not - up until that point - really thought much about groundcover.  But, then I saw this bed planted out front of the entrance of the Morton Arboretum in 2020 .  That inspired me to plant a mass of Lemon Coral Sedum up front in our front porch beds in 2021 .  It turned out really nice and created a carpet. With the success of the volunteer sedum in our backyard, I thought that I could replicate that growth and split up the front porch sedum and transplanted it in various spots - including IB2Dws and behind the large, Norway Maple in front.  A...

Earlier this week, I p osted some photos of our four (current) Hellebores in the backyard and talked about how our plan called for even more in the borders in a few areas .  As I wrapped up that post, I mentioned that there were (now) a few perennials on my 'plant wish list' and that I should do a proper post showing the mix of trees, shrubs and perennials that I have on this standing 'want' or 'wish' list.  That's what I'm doing here:  taking that first list and add shrubs.  As part of my 2023 garden planting, here's my current (as of early December) standing plant wish/want list below: Perennials, groundcover and grasses: ( previously posted - but I added a few more here)  1. Hellebores . Up to 16 more. 2. Even more Autumn Ferns and Ghost Ferns . Probably want to replace (gasp!) my Ostrich Ferns. 3. More Hakone Grasses - Japanese Forest Grasses . 4. Pulmonaria ground cover . 5. Pineapple Lily bulbs . 6. A couple of Disneyland Roses for IB2D...