Why I Oughta...

This Spring, I planted a pair of new (to me) Merlin Hellebores that I bought from the Morton Arboretum plant sale and stuck them in the bed near the rest of the Lenten Roses/Hellebores.  They didn't take to transplanting very well and I've now lost both of them.  See below for the photo showing the remaining four: There's always 'next year' and that's how I feel about Hellebores and the Morton Arobretum plant sale.  Will I go to the sale?  Yes.  Will I buy Hellebores?  Yes.  

I planted a treeform Doublefile Viburnum shrub out front of our front porch in a row where I lost a Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea earlier this year .  I also planted a few of these out back.  But, this one - was probably out of place - but in a spot that was mixed sun/shade.  And, in the shadow of the troubled Norway Maple tree in our front porch beds.  I watered it in and watered all of the other things up there the same way.  But, this treeform Viburnum went into decline pretty quickly and is now - officially - dead.  I yanked it out recently.  See below for the tree/shrub and the rootball that I removed: I've long talked about how it is SO hard to grow stuff under that Norway Maple tree.  But with it gone, now?  I'm hopeful that I can turn this area around.  Starting with amending the soil with biosolids and composted manure .  And cultivating the soil in this bed to enrich it even more this Winter (is my plan).  I'm hopeful that the stump grinding of the old tree will f

Last Spring - May of 2021 - I bought and planted three lime green heucheras named Dolce Apple Twist and planted them along the border in the south beds of our backyard.  I quickly transplanted some found hostas around them, filled them with ferns and a few months later added three companion (yet contrasting) purple heucheras named Palace Purple .  I interplanted these two by alternating the Apple Twist and Palace Purple.  That meant that last year....there were six coral bells (or Heucheras) in a little cluster.   This post is about the Dolce Apple Twist varieties.   These were from Proven Winners and bought at the orange big box nursery.  And, you can see in the photo below that there's just ONE left.  That means two have died and are gone.   I've long thought about doing an 'In Memoriam' post at the beginning of every Spring that lists everything that didn't make it.  I should add these to the list.  Heck...maybe I need to do a list like that in the Fall, too.  

I was walking around the front beds and - once again - I'm struck by how I've had not a lot of luck with anything I've planted underneath our large Norway Maple tree that sits right outside of our front porch.  This large tree is in decline - likely due to the construction we had when we built our house in 2016 and 2017.  I've tried to attack *that* problem by having the arborists from Davey apply a growth regulator and a liquid fertilizer last year.  And, I'm hoping that the tree is on a path towards survival.  They'll come back this year to apply a second year of fertilizer - that I'm pretty sure (based on these photos) is working .   This year though, I lost a mature hydrangea - a Vanilla Strawberry (one of four out front) and my Lime Light Hydrangeas suffered some this year - and dropped a lot of their leaves in the middle of the Summer .  Here, below, is a top-down photo showing the dead hydrangea (very bottom, middle) and the proximity to the Norway Ma

I bought a bunch of All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses - Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' last Fall and then bought a few more this Spring - both times at the Morton Arboretum plant sale.   I planted six in the back and then after extending my beds dug many of them up and transplanted some to new spots .    After a Spring drought and a tough Summer, below is what this area looks like now.  The front row has six (photo only shows five) and back row now has just two.  Here, below, is a similar shot showing all nine back in May .  Green circles are the grasses.  I transplanted the back three closer it seems. The one that is dead?  (or in severe decline). The back row, furthest to the left.   See below - the red circle shows the placement.  What's the grass look like in that circle?  This - below.  Just one tiny shoot.  I'll baby it, but I think this thing is gone. I have another one of these out front that hasn't really sprung up too much.  For now, I'm calling these thi