Why I Oughta...

This Summer, I planted three small Inferno Coleus plants in the (then brand new) Island Bed in our front yard as bedding plants .  These were (for me) the first Coleus that I'd planted directly in the ground versus using them in containers.   My journey to that moment started in Spring when I was watching a garden tour on YouTube from Justin at S&K Greenhouse .  Over the years, Justin ( who's channel is great and you should subscribe ) has visited the garden of Bruce Duncan .  Justin and Bruce have a history together (I think Bruce spent some time at the Nursery/Greenhouse), but they also have great on-screen chemistry.  Bruce also has a spectacular garden .   In that video, Bruce shows off a few different coleus that he has planted in colonies.  I went and learned a little bit about veined vs edged-leaf coleus and which one can tolerate full sun vs which ones prefer shade. I also included planting coleus as a bedding plant (among other annuals) in my annual to-do list .  

#17 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'keep going with groundcover' and that's something that I've done in little pockets all season-long.  The idea of 'living mulch' along with the ability to buy LESS wood mulch is quite attractive to me.  Not to mention the increased competition with weeds, the 'reduction of footcandles' (as Roy Diblik puts it ) and the filling in spaces.  There's, frankly, a lot of reasons to like groundcover.   Last year, I added 20-or-so groundcover plants including some Ajuga and Carex. This year, I've looked at how well the Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' has done and posted about my groundcover progress for 2023 .  Earlier this Summer -in early August - I ran a subtotal of my groundcover plantings for the 2023 season .  At that time, I totaled 30 new groundcover plants and plugs for 2023: 1  Epimedium warleyense  - Orange Queen Epimedium 3  Spine Tingler Epimedium 14  Ajuga Chocolate Chip 6  Ajuga Bronze Beauty 3  Carex Montana

I've been TRYING to do more with tropicals outside over the years.  One of them that I've had the MOST success with - in multiple years - are what I call "Elephant Ears".  Colocasia.  I've grown them in containers a few times and even had some pretty big (or so I thought!) ones like this one in 2021 .   The folks at The Growing Place sent out an email that included some new/interesting plants for 2023 and it included a look at a Colocasia .  But...not just any.  This one is "gigantea".  It is also know as the 'Thailand Giant'.   Below is a photo showing this giant elephant ear off via The Growing Place ( Source ): That sure is...something.   Pretty big.  Walters Garden has this to say : To say that this plant will dwarf any plant you already own would be putting it mildly! ‘Thailand Giant’ is much larger than C. gigantea. Its glaucous green leaves can measure a whopping 5' long x 4' wide each. Full grown plants typically reach 9ft tall,

We have just ONE hellebores in our garden - bought during the height of COVID during a 'drive-thru' trip to the Growing Place.  Our plan calls for a couple of areas with MULTIPLE (like 10) Hellebores (or Lenten Roses) , but alas...we have just one.  And, yes... I (now) am aware that buying just ONE of any plant is a mistake, but I didn't know that then .  The problem (then AND now) is that Hellebores aren't cheap.  They're $20 to $30 a piece.  When I need 20 or so, that's a big budget number.  So, I'm going to say *that's* why I have just one (for now).   That one that we DO have in our garden is called a Sally's Shell.  Planted in May of 2020 .   In early March (9th), it was beginning to emerge from the ground .  And...  It bloomed for the first time last Spring in late March .   This year, that schedule has shifted back just a bit.  This is mid-March and it still looks like it is *just* emerging from the ground.  If you look at the photos below, yo

Yesterday, I posted a [plant dreaming] post about a 'stunning' Hosta:  Brother Stefan - that I came across at the local nursery.  Today, I'm sharing another plant that found on that same shopping trip that has some congruency to the Brother Stefan hosta.  First...like hostas, I *have* a few different cultivars of this plant.  And second, it is a show-boat when it comes to foliage.  I'm talking about Epimedium wushanense 'Sandy Claws'.  Here, below, are a couple of photos from the plants at The Growing Place.  First, the foliage.  And second, the sign.  I have five (currently) Epimedium Amber Queen(s) planted already - hence thinking about this particular sport as a new (potential) addition.  I put in three last Fall and two this Spring and - so far - they're pretty slow to grow.  They're about the same size as they were when I put them in.  And, based on what I've read, that's pretty normal.  They are 'slow to establish' plants.   If yo

Earlier this Summer, I was poking around The Growing Place shade section and saw a hosta that (more than) caught my eye:  'Brother Stefan'.  It feels really interesting - corrugated of sorts.  They describe it (on The Growing Place sign) as 'puckered'.   I'm filing this under the [ plant dreaming ] tag - as I now am going to be thinking about adding it to our backyard.  Here, below, is the Brother Stefan hosta and if you zoom-in, you can see the sign I mentioned above:   The folks over at Walters Gardens have a listing up for this hosta, too.  From that listing, I see this list of really nice characteristics.  Some highlights: "large sized".  Check. "moderate growth rate". Check. "most spectacular hosta they have ever seen".  Check. "thick leaves".  Check. "slug resistance".  Check.  "tall".  Check.  "perfect focal point".  Check. "shade garden".  Check.  Oh, my.   New Hampshire Hostas c

Back at our old house in Elmhurst, we had a pair of Hops growing on trellises along our fence in the backyard.  We had both Golden and Cascade Hops and I really liked how they added a vertical element to our landscape.  In our current plan, we don't have any trellises planned nor does the plan call for Hops vine in any location.  But, when I came across this REALLY full 1# nursery container of Cascade Hops (Humulus Cascade) at The Growing Place, I grabbed it and decided to figure out a good spot for this later.  Here's what the container looked like when I brought it home below - very vigorous and healthy.  The container was BULGING - you can see it below.  And It seemed like this Hops vine was VERY root-bound.  So, it took some time to get this thing out of the container.  And when I did, I had to trim up some of the roots to get it from strangling itself.   As for the location, you can see below what it looks like after being planted for a day or two.  Within the week (after

Last Spring, while the world was pretty well shut down, The Growing Place nursery got creative and held a 'drive thru' shopping experience.  You couldn't get out of your cars, but you could drive thru the areas with the plants, shout out to the staff who would grab something for you and toss it in your trunk.  We ended up buying a few things that were part of our plan (Summer Beauty Allium) and some that weren't ( Harry Lauder's Walking Stick contorted tree ), but were things we wanted.  One of the other items we bought was our first Lenten Rose (or Hellebores).  We picked a Sally's Shell and planted it in Spring .  It was flowering when we bought it and I was careful to watch it all Summer. Notice, I said "a" Sally's Shell.  Which, upon reflection, is a very common gardening mistake:  buying just one of something .   Our plan has a couple of spots that call for drifts of Hellebores - and one of them is this season's "Priority Area #2&quo

 The folks at The Growing Place in Naperville and Aurora have recently posted a list of some "new" or at least "new to them" plants and trees that they will be carrying this season .  There are a few things that I'm seeing on the list that are interesting to consider, but one item in particular made me go and do more research.  It is all.the.way.at.the.bottom of the list they published.  Go ahead, click here .  And scroll down.  There, you'll find the Lindsey’s Skyward Bald Cypress tree.  Here's how they describe it on their site: What's that?  Narrow form?  Oh, you know me, I'm a sucker for narrow, columnar-form trees.  A quick look around the Web reveals even more details including: "fern-like needles", "very upward facing branches", "Winter interest", "dramatic symmetrical columnar habit", "showy bronze carpet".   You hand me at fern-like + narrow.  And, here (below) is what it looks like in t

Back in March, I posted about Lenten Roses (or..Hellebores / Helleborus) and how our plan called for a few of them in parts of the yard.  On the same trip that we bought the Summer Beauty Allium, we also bought ONE (1) Hellebores (or...I think Helleborus).  It is called "Sally's Shell" and you can see it below:  I planted it in the bed on the northside of our backyard - and since there is just one, it is standing alone.  For now.    Here's a little bit wider of a shot - that shows the larger tree trunk that is set a little bit 'in' the yard that shows this is planted about six feet to the West of that tree.  (also note...that at the time of this photo, I had pulled up our Automower boundary wire and spooled it here while I remade some of the contours of the beds.   The plan calls for ten (10) of these - from this one and to the left - that I'll add over time.   But, since this area falls just outside of Priority Area #2 , this

Back in February, I outlined my #1 priority area for our backyard landscape to be addressed this year - the area to the south in between the espaliered Lindens and the large Oak tree.  That part of the plan called for a series of Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Fanal Astilbes, some ferns, a couple of columnar trees and a number of Summer Beauty Ornamental Alliums.  A couple of weeks ago, we went out to The Growing Place headquarters location in Aurora where they had setup a 'drive thru' situation where you could shop from your car.  This was the same trip that we bought the Harry Lauder's Walking stick contorted tree .   As we drove through the perennial section, we saw these Summer Beauty Allium.  Our plan calls for 12 of them.  But, we bought four to start.  You can see them in their nursery pots below.        Here's the tag - below - that calls out the name Allium tanguticum 'Summer Beauty'.   And here, below, is the back of the tag.  The plan

Last Summer, we visited Disneyland Paris and one of the things that both Natalie and I were struck by was the landscaping outside of Phantom Manor .  They had these trees that were all curly and the foliage looked like it was dying and twisted.  A little bit of digging when we got home turned up that the trees that we were seeing were most likely Harry Lauder's Walkingstick .  It was then that I started to think about contorted trees as a thing - and (potentially) a thing for our own yard.  I mentioned in this post about a contorted Larch tree that I thought it was interesting to consider adding to our yard.  I've been giving a lot of thought to the types of trees we should be adding - and have posted about most of them.  Getting a contorted tree was tops on my list for this season.  Well...on a recent Sunday, we took a drive out to The Growing Place in Aurora where they had their nursery set up as a 'drive through'.  You stay in your car and drive through the

A few days ago, I shared the list of bare root trees that The Growing Place is taking pre-orders on during the month of March and included on that list was something called an American Serviceberry Autumn Brilliance.   I had not previously come across that particular variety, but due to the whole 'social distancing' dynamic going on this past week, we've done a few family walks down to the park and pond near us.  On one of those recent walks, I saw this multi-stemmed shrub (or what I figured was a shrub) and then noticed the little yellow tag on one of the branches.  I peep'd at it.  And did a double-take.  It is an American Serviceberry.  Funny, right?  Having not even heard of such a tree/shrub before this week, now I've come across it twice in five days.  (Note:  I've blurred out the house in the photo just to provide some semblance of privacy here...) This specimen on our block is heavily multi-stemmed - as you can see.  It has branching very low on t

Stuck at home due to 'social distancing' like we are?  I'm sure that you're dreaming about your Spring and Summer garden like I am these days.  If you're doing any tree planning, you are likely turning to some online resources to research and buy your trees.  I came across this link from one of our local nurseries:  The Growing Place in Naperville where they list their 2020 bare root tree availability for purchase .  They're running a special on their bare root tree inventory, but you have to call them at 630.355.4000 and place your order by March 29, 2020. They say that there are "Limited quantities on select varieties." So, why would you buy bare root trees? The Growing Place lists some benefits including: What are they offering this year?  You can click here to see the full list and all the details .  But, below, is a snapshot of what is available.  Redpointe Maple. 1.25" Branched. $99 Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry. 3' Multi-stem

Every year, we attend something called "Fairy Fest" at the Growing Place in Naperville.  We build some Fairy garden stuff, have a little tea party, buy some tiny plants and then hang out with this guy in a gnome costume.  Or...a gnome.  He's pretty believable.  One of the things he tells the kids is that any garden with a gnome is going to be happier, healthier and wiser.  I kind of glommed on to that statement and have been pointing out the one gnome we have out back.  I don't think I've ever posted specifically *about* him, but I do have this photo (scroll down) in this post that shows off the current gnome that inhabits our backyard .  He doesn't have a name, but I've had him for close to ten years.  I think Nat bought him from Target and he's done a fine job making our backyard happier, healthier and wiser.   He's cast iron and has weathered being outside for those (almost) ten years and I really like him. However, you know what is bette