Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted about the two packs of Gladiator Allium bulbs that I picked up at Costco recently and mused about where I could plant them.  In front?  In back?  IB2DWs?  Front porch beds?  With the recent SIGNIFICANT moves in our front yard beds - more on this to come - I thought that I should find a way to put these mid-size bulbs in that bed.  They're what I would call medium-sized in height - so they can go in a lot of places in that front bed. I was - initially - thinking that I was going to plant them BEHIND the row of boxwoods and in front of the hydrangeas.  Why behind the boxwoods?  Because they're NOT (currently) that big.  Even after six growing seasons.  Why?  Because of the Norway Maple has been crowding them out.  Both in terms of the big, thick mat of roots.  But, also...(I believe) because of light.   But, if that Norway Maple isn't there any longer, won't that help the boxwoods grow up and out?  That's the bet I'm making.   I decided to dig

October is Fall bulb planting season.  Most years around here, that means tulips.  And last year, it meant planting some new (to me) Alliums like Christophii .  This year, I'm not doing tulips up front because we're doing some work with the large (but declining Norway Maple).   But, I did pick up two six-packs of Allium bulbs at Costco from Longfield Gardens. These are Gladiator Alliums.  And they're new (to me).   MichiganBulb has a product listing and provides some guidance on where to put these : Gladiator allium stand up to 60" tall in flower beds of all kinds, and are delightful when these ornamental garden onions are planted in the back of the border. Back of the border.  Got it.  There are more clues on the back of the packaging from Longfield Gardens.  They compare these Gladiator Allium to a few other ones - including some I have - like Christophii, Drumstick and Purple Sensation. When I bought these, I didn't have a plan for where to put them.  I found th

I've planted bare root hostas the past few years and this season is no different.  In addition to the Aaron Caladium tubers that I recently planted, Nat also brought home this bag of six Longfield Gardens Sum and Substance bare root Hostas from Costco this Spring.  You can see the package showing the Sum & Substance variety below as well as a peek at the size of these Longfield Gardens bare root hosta: What are Sum & Substance Hostas? Monrovia calls them 'fast-growing' and 'Perhaps the largest and most popular of the hostas' as well as being Hosta of the Year, 2004 . What's that again?!?  These might be the 'largest' hosta out there?  I've been thinking a lot about giant or large-format hostas the past few seasons and added a set of three Abiqua Drinking Gourd Hostas last Fall back by the firepit that are billed as being a 'true giant' hosta.  Those seem to be back for the first full growing season, so they're NOT quite at matu

Earlier this Spring, Nat brought home a package of Caladium tubers from Costco that I finally got around to digging into the beds.  These are Aaron Caladiums that I'm treating as annuals as I don't anticipate digging these tubers up to store for the season.   Aaron Caladiums are described as: "beautifully refined element to add to a shady site; luminous white leaves with feathered dark green margins; a great border accent that will tolerate some sun" .  Here, below, is a look at the Longfield Gardens packaging showing the twelve tubers and the individual bags. I decided to dig them into the south bed where they can sit in front of the Fanal Astilbes that run part of the border .   You can see the disturbed soil in the photo below.   #14 on my 2022 to-do list was to work some tropicals into the landscape, so this checks part of that box.  And #16 on that list was to add some shade annuals.  These, too, check that box.  

Earlier this month, I posted a couple of things that I'd like to reference here.  First...was the post talking about 2022 Garden Trends and how - like high fashion - the trends we see in the garden center or local nursery emerge years prior at places like the Chelsea Flower Show .  In that recap post about trends, one of the design direction that was a big takeaway from Chelsea this year was the idea of 'organic ovals'.  It is one of the big, macro trends mentioned in this piece cover last year's Chelsea show .   The other thread I'm pulling at is the idea of a ' Getting to Know ' plant series that is part of my ongoing self-education.  I started by talking about Eucomis (Pineapple Lillies) and how I ordered a handful of bulbs to try in containers this Summer.   Part of these "Getting to Know X" posts is about getting myself a little more familiar with unique plants and cultivars.  Things that not everyone has in their garden or yard.   When you c

Most every Fall, I've planted bulbs of some variety.  The last few seasons, it has been tulip bulbs in the front and back beds.  But, I've also planted Alliums over the years including these Purple Sensation bulbs in 2017 and 2018.  This year, I'm going to be digging in a little bit of both - including some Tulips that Nat bought at Costco and some Alliums that both she bought (at Costco) and some others that I ordered online.  I'll post about the tulips in the coming days, but first up are these Pinball Wizard Allium bulbs that came home from Costco.   This is a pack of five - and because I bought other types online, we stopped with just these five, despite knowing that you're *supposed* to plant bulbs in big masses.  The package (below) shows a little child's head next to some MASSIVE purple Allium flower heads.  The listing at Longfield Gardens shows them as a pack of two , but, they're the *full* bulbs, while the ones at Costco come as a pack of five,

Right at the end of August, I shared a photo of some of the bare root hostas - Bressingham Blue hostas - that I planted this year in a new bed.  Seven of the eight made it and have emerged this year.  Right around the same time, I planted nine Frances Williams hostas in a different (new) bed.  Frances Williams are variegated and have a yellow margin - so I put the bare root plantings in the bed with my other variegated hostas .  I planted these before anything else emerged.  And, I'll say that *these* were VERY.SLOW to emerge from the ground.  Here's the place they went in the ground in April .  So, how are we looking on those nine plants now? Here, below, is a look at the plantings from two different angles: And, here, below, is an annotated version of one of the photos showing - by my count- eight of the nine have worked out. Now...it MIGHT be nine for nine.   And that's because the plant in the circle farthest to the top/right has what is actually three little hostas e

Yesterday, I started a study or inventory of some potential hostas to think about digging up, dividing and transplanting during the month of September.  There are a bunch of candidates to think about in the backyard, but there are some that are most certainly on the no-dig, no-divide list.  At least this Fall.  I'm talking about some of the bareroot hostas that I planted earlier this Spring.  S tarting with these (below) Bressingham Blue hostas that I planted back in late April .  That post lists eight in the planting. But, today?  I see seven total plants that have withstood the Summer heat.  Two in the bac krow and five across the front of the border.  Below you can see the different sizes of the various Bressingham Blue hostas that have survived: Some are, clearly, larger and most established than others.  I've babied these with water for most of the Summer, as they're planted adjacent to one of our new trees.  I'm thinking that seeing these grow up and out is a goo

Just yesterday, I posted a couple of photos of some newly emerged Frances Williams Hostas that I planted as tiny bare root plants from Costco . When I was out there taking photos of those new plants, I remembered that I had previously planted some bare root hostas - and wondered what their growth trajectory looked like.  So, I went over to the north side of the screened porch and found a grouping of three of the Bressingham Blue hostas that I planted as bare root plants in Spring 2018. That means that what you see in the photo above - a trio of Bressingham Blue hostas - grew like this: 2018 - Planted as bare root.  First growing season 2019 - Second growing season. 2020 - Third growing season.  I included a photo of these in a post in June 2020 . Note, the tops of the foliage reached the line where the foundation hits the house.   2021 - Fourth growing season.  Photo above.  You can see that they've grown in height and width.  And (in this photo) are starting to produce their flowe

In what feels like a totally different gardening season - but was just late April - I planted nine Frances Williams bare root hostas in our yard.  They were part of a bundle of bare root perennials that Nat picked up from Costco that included some Bressingham Blue Hostas and some purple Astilbes .  I'm posting this in early July, but the photos from this post are from mid-June (hence the blog post title being June 2021). In terms of success, I saw (and posted about) many of the Bressingham Blue hostas that came up (not total 100% success) and how most of the Gloria Purpurea Astilbes not only emerged from the ground, but also flowered in June .   But, up until the middle of June, all but ONE of the Frances Williams hostas were nowhere to be seen.  Close to the trunk of the Northern Red Oak (tree swing), I had one of these variegated hostas emerge and put out a nice little package of foliage.  Here's what that first one looks like: But, when I took a closer look, I see a bunc

Just yesterday, I shared a photo showing a six-week update on some bare root hostas that we picked up at Costco this Spring.  On that same shopping trip, we bought some bare root Astilbe plants - these Gloria Purpurea purple varieties that I planted underneath the larger Chanticleer Pear Tree in our backyard.   I arranged them around the trunk of the tree and hoped for the best.   Here, below, is how they look now - with (by my count) four bare root plantings up with green leaves and the two on the right side showing off their first flowers.  The package said there were six, but I'm not sure if I planted them in five groups or six.  I believe there should be one - that hasn't come up - to the left of the tree trunk. Seeing them packed in with a hosta in front and a hosta in back makes me realize that there is too much going on in this little area and I'm thinking that I need to remove both of those hostas and transplant them somewhere else to allow for these Astilbes to b

Welp, I've made my first gardening mistake of the season.  Back in March, I talked about Nat buying these Frances Williams Hostas , I said that I wanted to plant them next to a few Guacamole Hostas that I bought last year.  But, guess what?  I forgot that plan and instead stuck them around the large Oak tree with the swing.  Womp, womp. Here's a look at the holes around this tree that I planted these bare root hostas.  I put them here because (in my head) the plan called for hostas around this tree and I remembered that I transplanted a bunch here last year.  I thought these would look good next to those white variegated ones .   Oh well.  Guess we'll just have to see what kind of germination rate I get this year and move them around next year.  Also, 

Yesterday, I shared the planting of eight bareroot Bressingham Blue Hostas in a new bed in the backyard.  I had previously planted two others by the screened porch .  That's 10 of 18.  Going down my list, the next spot for the balance of these looks like back by the Yew Hedge.  From my planning post: 1.  Priority Area #2 for 2021 .  Calls for 8.  Done.  Posted yesterday . 2.  Hicks Yew Hedge corner.  Calls for 6. 3.   Screened porch corner.  Calls for 2.    This one is done already . That area calls for six Hadspens, too.  Here is showing these six (in blue) in relation to the previous eight (in green) per the plan: And, here's where they're going in - spreading to the north of the northern-most Hicks Yew. These are deep shade but likely have the BEST soil on the property.  I used wood chips last season to mulch in the yews and create the fire pit area, but this year they'll get a proper hardwood fine mulching.  Same thing, though:  Think I can beat 50% success rate on

Six weeks ago, Nat came home from Costco with some bareroot plants including 18 Bressingham Blue Hostas that I intended to put into the yard as soon as I could this Spring.  Bareroot season comes at you fast and I wanted to get them in right away.  But, the order of operations got in the way.  And, I had to wait to plant these until after the final edges of the beds were set.   I've planted these very same Bressingham Blue Hostas in 2018 .  I actually don't know where those ten went nor how many of them have made it.  I'm assuming that some of them are along the north side of the house, but I'll take a closer look this Summer when they all come up. As for these 18, I planted two of them already outside the screened porch .  Leaving 16.  In the post where I talked about buying these, I mentioned a bunch of spots where these COULD go.  I ended up convincing myself that the three places to start with these were: 1.  Priority Area #2 for 2021.  Calls for 8. 2.  Hicks Yew

Yesterday, I got started planting.  With the big Elephant Ears bulbs that I tucked into some containers and a trial in a bed.   Today, I'm posting about how I made my first move with the bare root perennials from Costco - planting some of the Bresshingham Blue hostas .   In that post from March, I wondered where to put all of the hostas. Here (below) are a few of the places that I mentioned back in March of places I could tuck them in.  And...called out with the red arrow - where I started my planting this year:  on the corner of the screened porch:  Our plan calls for Blue Hostas (Hadspens) paired here on the corner of the house: Here (in the photo below) are the tips of the two bareroot hostas that I tucked in around the drain pipe below.  I'll keep an eye on these to see if they mature enough this year to put on a show: