Why I Oughta...

Back at the beginning of September, I posted some details about planting a bulb lawn and took a photo of a set of bulbs at Menards that included some short-stature (in height) crocus flowers and other Fall-planting bulbs/corms.  I'm looking for short early-bloomers and after doing a little bit of research, I found that three crocus flowers were right for me.   I ended up buying one package of Ruby Giant, King of the Striped and Romance.  Here, below, is a photo of the bags.  35 + 25 + 35 = 95 crocus corms. #13 on my 2026 to-do list was to get some bulbs in the ground : 13. Plant fall bulbs. For my first few gardening seasons, I was pretty good about planting fall bulbs. Alliums and tulips, mostly. But, I got away from it. Get back to it this Fall. And…Try a bulb lawn in front. Yes…a bulb lawn. Or, at least a patch of bulb lawn as an experiment. A bulb lawn.  Doing one would require WAY, WAY, WAY more bulbs (corms).  Less than 100 is like dipping my to...

I was supposed to have two Crichton Honey tubers in the garden this year.  I'm certain that I have one.  The one next to the pizza oven.  I labeled it as dahlia #1 in my 42 tuber planting map .  I bought two Crichton Honey tubers from Bonny Blooms.   The other one is at spot #12 along the sideyard .  But, that whole bed has been suffering the past few weeks from a terrible infestation of Spider Mites.  So, I'm not seeing ANY blooms.  And, I'm not sure that it is Crichton Honey.  At least yet. But, the pizza oven version?  Have a look: And, in addition to being real (and spectacular), they're certainly popping off right now with blooms and blooms. Apricot blooms.  Almost orange.    I think they say "pumping out blooms" in the trade.  That checks out. While my time right now is spent with my little snips cutting off flowers for arrangements....I am hoping that all this above-ground plant happiness that I'm seeing means...

Dahlia cut flower season 1 rolls on with my first (ever) white dahlia bloom.  A first (for me) Tsuki Yori No Shisha (Semi-Cactus) Dahlia white bloom that I cut on long stems.  This is planted IB2DWs, sort-of under the Bald Cypress tree along the driveway.   See below for the flower and a couple of secondary buds that I cut-off when I took this bloom.  (I hate this part of the dahlia cut flower season when I end up sacrificing so many flowers in service of seeking longer stems.) Below shows the two sacrificial buds on either side of the big bloom.  My experience says that dahlias don't *REALLY* open up once they are cut, so those two will stay semi-closed buds.   Tsuki Yori No Shisha (Semi-Cactus) Dahlia Bloom Longfield Gardens has a listing up that includes this description : This stunning semi-cactus dahlia was bred in Japan and introduced in 1953. Its delicately fringed, snowy white petals give the big, 6 to 7" flowers a frilly look that w...

I previously posted a photo and details of our first Wizard of Oz Pompon dahlia bloom from our backyard and talked about how it signaled the coming bloom season.   With mid-July arriving, a bunch of the dahlias are beginning to really pop-off.  This post is going up in mid-July, but these photos are from July 6th.   First up is Burlesca.  One of the Burlesca dahlias planted in the "South Sun Wall" (also known as the sideyard garden) has the first few blooms fully opened .  Despite my hesitancy, I keep trying to 'cut deeply' the first few flowers to try to compel the plant to put out taller stems.  In this case, the first two came as a set.  See below.   These are hard to describe color-wise.  They are pink.  Sort-of.  They're also purple.  And a little peach down the sides.  Longfield says : " This adorable little dahlia may look pink at first glance, but what makes Burlesca so special is the way it also pu...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a Phlox Cherry Caramel bloom and talked about how that was the first bloom on one of the non-dahlia cut flowers that I have been trying to grow this year.  Today, I'm posting a photo of my second cut-flower (non-dahlia) that has bloomed: a single Didiscus Lacy Blue .  I ordered a rack of plugs of Didiscus from Garden Club (Farmer Bailey ) that arrived earlier than they should have (my mistake, not theirs) and I ended up first potting-them-up into larger pots and then, eventually planting them in the ground.  All eight plants went into the Island Bed in the front yard .  I wasn't sure how attractive they were going to be to the (dang) rabbits, so I encircled them in some chicken wire cages to protect them from being nibbled/gnawed. This post is going up in July, but these photos are from late June - about two weeks ago.   I had my first bloom open up on one of the Didiscus plants.   They're about the size Silver Dol...

Earlier this year, I ordered a bunch of plugs from Farmer Bailey/Garden Club and I've documented my (learning) journey with them along the way.  From ordering them to having them arrive too early (Self-inflicted) to potting-them-up to keeping them (some of them) alive to planting them in.   Part of my 2026 to-do list was to 'experiment with other cut flowers' and these plugs were a bit part of of my answer to that challenge.   Amongst the plugs were an eight-pack of Phlox Cherry Caramel .   These faired the worst of all of my selections with four of the eight making it to planting-time and the other four withered while they were in the small pots.  I planted the four in different spots:  two in the pizza oven bed, one in the front island bed and one IB2DWs down by the sidewalk. They're all on different growing schedules with some already growing larger than others.  One of them has even bloomed.  I'm posting this in early July, bu...

I posted two different sets of photos and details of the dahlia tubers that I've stuck in the garden in various spots.  First was 17 tubers.  Then, a post showing 15 additional ones .  That made my total:  32 dahlias in the ground.  25 new (to me) or trialing with 7 legacy dahlias (Melina Fluer x 3, Ivanetti x 2, Sweet Nathalie and Wizard of Oz). This post is going up in mid-June, but back in late May, I added six more dahlias to three spots in the garden. These six, plus the previous 32 = 38 dahlias in the ground.  So far.  Here's an annotated plot of the locations with the latest ones in green:   South Sun Wall 33. Pooh This is a spot that I've grown Melina Fleur each of the past two seasons.  Last year, these Pooh dahlias got pretty tall, so being close to the fence might give me more support options. Under The Elm 34. Blue Wish This was the largest of the dahlia plants left in my home nursery (my patio), so in it went.  Without rabbi...

After a few years of lackluster peony growth, last Spring I finally saw some positive improvement in the flower output of the two colonies that are dotted around our garden.  I've moved the peonies into those two colonies based on sun conditions.  The first one is in the IB2DWs bed where I have a couple of plants.  And the second is in the "kitchen curved bed" in the back where I have three more.   Below are some photos showing the red tips emerging from the mulch.  These photos are from April 6th.   I've done similar "Peonies are Back" posts over the years.  Here is that post from April 2025 - one year ago .   Last year, I cut and preserved the blooms at the "marshmallow stage" and had peony flowers for Nat's birthday in July .  I'll do that again this year.  

Mid-December, the first of our two Amaryllis bulbs - the Flamed Amadeus - was sending up its first flower buds .  Now, three-ish weeks later, the flower petals are opening up and starting to put on a wintertime flower show on our counter.   Below are a couple of photos showing the first two flowers to begin to open with a third on this stem following right behind.    These are billed as being some of the 'largest Amaryllis blooms', so my expectations are high.  The stem isn't too tall, so there's no toppling-over (yet).   This stage of these 'double amaryllis' (when the petals are still unfurling) is interesting as it appears crumpled in the center, but standing proud on the perimeter.  You sort-of get that double opening experience in one bloom.   We're well past Christmas now and that means the decorations are coming down and the wintertime-induced seasonal depression begins to creep in.  This pop of countertop color is a goo...

Last week, I posted about how there were a few Disneyland Roses that were still popping-off outside .  A couple days ago, I decided to cut them off and bring them inside to stick in a vase.  Who doesn't want Disneyland Roses for Thanksgiving, right?  I don't totally understand how (or why?) these are blooming, but I'm happy to take the flowers.  At the same time, I fear that these tender parts won't harden-off before *REAL* winter arrives.  But, in the end...does that really matter?  In the past, I've cut the canes down to under a foot in the Spring and the new growth comes out of those canes.   Here, below, are a couple photos of the Thanksgiving Disneyland Roses.  These are dark pink.  Darker than they are most of the growing season.   Here, below, is a look at some of the posts I've written about my experience with Disneyland Roses via this Google Search widget:

The season REALLY *is* winding down now.  And the colors of the Melina Fleur dahlias are changing color to be much more middle-pink with little yellow appearing aside from the center seed head.  These three went out the door to folks all at the same time.  They each have some Dusty Miller, Arkansas Bluestar and some fern fronds in them.  Each of them are in thrifted or recycled jars (mason or jelly).  My rough count shows that these are (around) the 40th arrangement of the season.  A few with roses, but mostly these ball, pompon and decorative dahlias.

While I haven't stopped 'deadheading' the dahlias, I *have* stopped cutting any blooms off the Disneyland Roses in the sideyard.  I'm hoping that they'll handle the frost and Winter, despite the late-season growth.   Like the dahlias, they're POP'ING OFF right now.  Here, below are some photos showing the blooms (in various stages) of our Disneyland Roses (Floribunda Roses) on a few plants.  I last cut some of these about 10 days ago and put in a vase ( post here ).  Since then, I've left all the rose hips on the ends of the stems in an attempt to allow this plant to run its full growing cycle before the frost arrives.