Why I Oughta...

One of the 'wins' from last garden season were the three Garden Ghost Artemisia that I planted in the front yard Island Bed along the driveway .  They quickly filled-in/filled-out, provided a nice pop of white to brighten up the bed and were *very useful* in cut flower arrangements.  I bought them from Roy Diblik's nursery up in Wisconsin (Northwind Perennial Farm) and planted them along with a couple of grasses, some annuals and the Korean Maple tree.   Here's a look at one of the MANY arrangements that I used the Garden Ghost plumes in as filler flowers . The provide a tiny bit of Winter interest, but they also have stems that help protect the crown of the plants by trapping leaf litter around the base of the woody plants.  Below is a look at the current state of these Garden Ghost Artemisias planted right next to the driveway: I've talked about it a few times, but between the early snow-fall and the deliberate adoption (at least a little bit more than normal...

As I wandered around the tables at Northwind Perennial Farm, I was stopped-in-my-tracks by this silver foliage plant.  It was new (to me) and named "Garden Ghost" Artimisa.   Here's how they look in their nursery pots below: Here's a closer look at the sign below that highlights it's short height (just a foot tall) and color (silver): I tucked the three plants into the back corner of the Island Bed - behind the Medusa Allium (more on them tomorrow).

Planted in the Fall of 2023 , a pair of Silver Mount Artemisia are emerging for Spring 2025 in the IB2DWs bed right next to the driveway.  This pair of silver-foliage perennials can be seen in this Summer 2024 post about some Zinnias .  They're called 'mound', but I think a better name would be 'cloud'.   Silver foliage is a recent garden trend, with more plants being hybridtized to be white/silver.  These Artemisias stand out in the IB2DWs bed.  According to most sources on the Web, Fall is the best time to divided Artemisia - so if these have a good growing season - these will go on my '2025 Fall Dividing Candidates' list. See below for the greenish-silver tips emerging for Spring:

Last Fall, I dug up and divided the three Elijah Blue Fescue ornamental grass clumps that I planted in our IB2DWs bed and grew the colony (from three to six).  I originally planted three of these Blue Fescues back in Spring of 2022 along with a trio of Nepeta 'Cat's Pajamas' in a sort-of blue-hue'd combination planting.   These three were NEVER (to my eye) thriving, but they just chugged along over the course of two growing seasons.  Last Fall, I noticed some center rot and then read up on these ornamental grasses and learned that they need to be divided every few years to push healthy new growth .  So...I took my hori hori to them and created six grasses from three.  I put them back in the same location and just 'expanded' the colony with a staggered set of grasses.  Two of them were - at the time last fall - were TINY.   To my surprise, all six came back, including the two tiny ones.  Here, below, is a look at the six Elijah Blue Fes...