Why I Oughta...

In the middle of last Summer (July 2023), I planted a pair of dark foliage shrubs - Eiffel Tower Black Tower Elderberries - along the fenceline about mid-way back .  Looking back at them when they went in, the were short and compact.   Now, 15 months later, both of the shrubs are doing fine - putting on some vertical growth and doing their 'tower' thing.  They're not...however...black.  See below: This season, they're up over the top of the fence (you can see in the background), so they've bulked-up height-wise.  I cut these back to about 2' off the ground this Spring and I'll do that again.   According to the description, they're supposed to 'age to black', so perhaps that's still coming?  (I doubt it).  

Another note to self about Fall Planting:  just look at this Royal Purple Smokebush.  Talk about 'easy'.  I put it in the ground late last year - very late - at the end of October .  And, have mostly forgotten about it.  Today?  It is more-than-doubled in size and is doing its dark-foliage thing.  I watered this a little bit this Summer and was always struck by the SOUND watering it made.  The foliage is different than other leaves and has water run-off of it almost like tyvek.  The house wrap.  Weird comparison, I know.  But, that's the best I one that came to mind.  Water sort-of 'beads' on the leaves and then drops down to the mulch.   Here, below, is how it looks currently at the end of August: We didn't get any of those 'clouds' of seedheads (yet), but that's ok.   This is probably 15-to-18-inches tall right now, so it has plenty of height left to grow into.  That means it will get us a little bit of screening along the property line as it matur

I planted the third Emperor 1 Acer palmatum via the Morton Arboretum plant sale this Spring.  I brought it home in a small one-gallon container - and like the other ones - netted it with tulle to protect it from cicada damage .   The tree suffered a little dieback, but otherwise has been just trying to survive the summer heat.  Unlike the Emperor 1 I posted about two days ago , this one is in full shade all the time.    Now that we're back from summer vacations, I'll try to baby this one with a little bit more water than it has been getting and hope to put on some new limbs before dormancy arrives this Fall.

In late Spring/early Summer 2023, I planted a small (1.5 gallon) Emperor 1 Japanese Maple - Acer palmatum in what I call the 'kitchen curved bed' .  Right behind/amongst some Fanal Astilbes.  By last Fall, it was showing a little bit of new growth and put on new foliage .  A good sign.  This Spring, it was one of a few trees that I wrapped in tulle - to protect from cicadas.  Doing that, wasn't great for the tree and damaged some of the tips of the tree along the way.  No big deal because the trade-off of a few broken small branches vs. the tree getting killed by the cicadas seemed worth taking. This was also a spot where I did a 'garden edit'.  Moving a border of Ajuga Chocolate Chip in and widening out the front of the bed this Spring.   I removed the netting more than a month ago and today, the tree is rebounding a little bit.  Below is a look at the current state of our second Emperor 1 Japanese Maple: Looking forward to this one filling up and out and providing

Last Fall, I planted a three-pack of Penstemon Midnight Masquerade in the conifer garden IB2DWs and talked about how I needed to keep going (out of my comfort zone) with flowers.  There was a lot to like about these perennials - they're drought tolerant, can handle heat and humidity, full of dark foliage and bloom purple and white flowers.  When I bought them, they were past bloom-time, so that flower part was taken on faith. This Spring, I marked their reemergence for their first Spring in early April when new foliage clumps came back from dormancy .   I topped this part of the bed with some big box mulch (not leaf mulch...) and mostly moved on in the gardening season.  Until this week.  When these things started to bloom.   Have a look at my three one-year-old Midnight Masquerade Penstemons ( or Beardtongue ) with their showy light purple and white clusters of flowers: This spot is full sun and is part of what I've always called the 'hard to grow' section.  The thick

One of the hidden gems from last Fall's planting sprint is going to be the three Midnight Masquerade Penstemons that I bought at the big box nursery end-of-season sale.  I tucked them into the IB2DWs Conifer garden - along the property line.  And, they didn't do much last year before going dormant.  But, they appear to be semi-evergreen with the foliage sticking around in some form all Winter.  This Spring, they have put on some new growth that is purple and green.  See below for the current state of these three natives:  This spot is loaded with biosolids, so I'll need to top the bed off with mulch this Spring to avoid some of that turf from coming back and/or to suppress weed pressure.  And, cleanup the back edge of that bed while I'm at it.   I'll also be watching these for height - with their plant tag saying they'll get 36 to 40 inches tall, so that back-of-bed location might be perfect. 

For the past few years, I've been a 'stick to the plan' gardener.  That plan was a layout/design, but it was also a plan in terms of sticking to plants that I know and understand how they'd perform.  It also was VERY limited on flowers.  I've talked about foliage gardening and thanks to our deep shade yard, I've mostly had foliage plants over the years. But, this #FallPlanting season, I felt a little moved to step out of my comfort zone and decided to buy a couple of things at the various end-of-season sales including a number of new (to me) flowering perennials.  The first one that I put in my cart was 'Midnight Masquerade' Penstemom or Beardtongue.  That's the 1# container at the top of this post.   It is a Proven Winner and here's what Walters Garden has to say : This Penstemon will help fill the gap in your lineup for a taller, attractive foliage option. 'Midnight Masquerade' produces a sturdy clump of deep burgundy purple leaves. The

Around the corner from our house is a Acer palmatum that is planted near the sidewalk.  It is a mature tree that was planted many years ago and has grown up tall-enough to be able to sort-of walk *under* the canopy of the tree as it reaches out over the sidewalk.  I was pretty sure it was a Bloodgood based on all observable factors including the (normally) dark red foliage.  But, this week, I was stopped in my tracks by some of the colors on the leaves. I had to take a photo: Does Bloodgood get these green margins in late Summer?  I know that sun exposure does different things to different Japanese Maples.  But, this is just something else, isn't it?  I really loved seeing this and while I don't know how long this will last, knowing that it takes place in late August/early September is a nice little nugget of info on my Acer palmatum journey. I look at Mr. Maple's 10-for-10 things each week and I see these photos of really striking foliage.  That look almost out-of-this-wor

Last Fall, I planted a Lemony Lace Elderberry that we bought at the end-of-year sale at The Growing Place basically on a whim .  I've come across Elderberry shrubs before, but I didn't have them in our plan.  But, a quick Google search of the Lemony Lace Elderberry had me intrigued, so I brought it home.    This Spring, the Lemony Lace Elderberry has become a star in the garden.  F rom the purple buds that first emerged to the BRIGHT foliage in a dark spot in our garden, it has really impressed me.   So, when I came across something called a dark-foliage Elderberry that was called Eiffel Tower Black Elderberry, I was intrigued.  Here's the tag for the Eiffel Tower Elderberry: Just like with the Lemony Lace Elderberry, I went off to looking on the Web for details.  The Missouri Botanic Garden has this to say about the Black Tower Elderberry : It is an upright columnar shrub with dark stems and large serrated leaves that emerge celery green and mature to burgundy to almost j

Dark foliage is something I've been chasing for a number of years.  I'm a foliage gardener.  And that mostly means greens.  Light greens.  Dark greens.  Glossy greens.  Dull greens.  But, starting last year, I was turned-on to the idea of being deliberate about dark foliage.  Guessing it was Erin the Impatient Gardener who talked about dark foliage.  I included it on my 2022 to-do list.   And have done a few things in recent years: purple heucheras , a Chocoholic Black Snakeroot , and t his silvery Coral Bell that I planted late last Fall and hasn't quite emerged just yet.   So, when I saw that sign (above) at the Morton Arboretum Plant sale, these were the FIRST things in my box.  I grabbed three of them.  Should have bought even more.   I stuck them into the southside bed -  behind the Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria (I moved these closer to the front of the border last Fall ), and sort of weaved in next to some Summer Beauty Allium.    Below is a photo showing their initial si

The way that I think about gardening is that you have to have a systemic approach to planning and planting that is paired with a secondary, supplemental approach to zhuzh'ing things during the growing season.  That systemic approach means trees and shrubs and even perennials.  (I need to do more evergreen shrubs....just a self-reminder.) But that supplemental zhuzh'ing is something that I've mostly done through division and some bulbs.   I suppose that's the difference between a landscaper and a gardener, right?  A landscape gets it all planted and is satisfied.  A gardener will work the garden all year long.  A plantsman?  That's for another post. One of the things that I've talked about over the years is how to use annuals in the landscape.  The only place that I've successfully planted them is out front in the porch beds.  In the back?  Nothing. Last year, I included the idea of using shade annuals and dark foliage .  But, I really didn't move on it. 

Back in 2019, I transplanted a dark read Coral Bell perennial that I had in our urn container into the bed on the side of the garage and didn't think much about it.  It survived that first Winter and grew to a nice size.  Last Spring, I decided to divide it up into three plants.  This is an area of deep shade, so after dividing them, I didn't water them too much.  But, by Fall all three of them had survived .  Fast forward to this Spring and all three are showing new, dark red (maroon) foliage in the long, linear bed along the garage.  You can see them below: This photo - while posted in early June - was actually take in early May before I mulched the beds.  One of my 2022 to-do items (#16) was to design with dark foliage .  These certainly count as dark foliage.  Another item (#12) continue to divide plants.  These are too small (right now) to think about dividing them, but I'm thinking they'll go on a two or three-year schedule.   2019: Planted in container. Transpl