Why I Oughta...

We have a pair of Limelight Hydrangeas that are set just to the south of the front edge of our front porch.  They're kind of tucked on the side of the house - right at the 'wrap-around' section of the 'wrap around porch'.  They've done remarkably well - better than other hydrangeas we have right in front of the porch.   They throw off A LOT of green during the Summer.  Here's what they looked like in July of 2020 .  And what they looked like in the previous October showing off all the blooms drying out . I've always been confused about pruning hydrangeas.  Do they bloom on new wood?  Old wood?  Do you prune them to the ground?  Do you prune them back to buds?  Two buds?   Last year, I confirmed (to myself) that Limelight Hydrangeas bloom on 'new wood' .  Which means, I can prune them back pretty hard and they'll still flower.  Here's what they looked like last Spring after a prune and recovered with new green growth .  You can see that I

The next up in my purchase(s) at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale is one of these Chocoholic Black Snakeroot (Actacea 'Chocoholic' ).    The sign from the sale is below, but for the short-hand reason for why I bought it?  It flowers in Full Shade.  And, like it or not, I'm a shade gardener.   This snakeroot grows to 4-5' tall and a three-to-four foot spread.   The description from the sign reads: Bronze purple foliage is a welcome addition to the shade garden.  Rich mauve-pink flowers lighten to white as they age.  Forms a dense, upright clump.   Below is a photo of the full plant showing the current height and clump size.   I haven't thought about Snakeroot before, but when I saw this one flowering, I couldn't pass it up.   The ball-like flower buds have started to explode into white flowers.    The Chocoholic Version is one of many versions of Snakeroot.  Walter's Garden thinks highly of this cultivar : This lovely native cultivar adds wonderful textur

Yesterday, I posted photos of both of the Munchkin Oakleaf Hydrangeas flowering and today I have a couple of photos of the traditional variety that are also flowering in their first year.   There are five of these 'traditional' (aka. non-Munchkin) Oakleaf Hydrangeas that I planted in early June 2020 .  Those seven are the most important aspect of solving for - and planting out - " Priority Area #1 " in our backyard.  In the photo at the top of this post, you can see one of the conical flowers from one of these hydrangeas.  Lime green small flowers followed by bright-white blooms.  Below, you can see two of the five traditional shrubs.  (are these shrubs?)  On the left is one with multiple flowers.  On the right, the foliage is a little bit lighter color, but you can see a couple of flowers starting to emerge.  Here's a closeup of one of the flowers.  Also note, the brown spots on the bottom leaf - that was present when they arrived (these were a bday p

After taking a full year off, our back stoop rhododendrons are blooming again this year with beautiful purple flowers. Both shrubs (these are evergreen...which always amazes me) are pictured side-by-side above, and there are individual (slightly larger) individual photos below in this post. The last time these flowered was when they were planted in May of 2018 .  In 2019, like all of our flowering trees/shrubs, the buds appear to have been killed by a cold Winter. On the left (above), is the Southern one.  On the right (above), is the one to the North of the stoop.  The southern one is larger in both dimensions - taller and seemingly wider as it has some branches that are spreading out a bit more.  It has taller blooms and - at this point - more of them.  The northern one is more compact, but has what seems like deeper green foliage.    I applied Wilt-Pruf to both of these last Winter and...frankly....I'm not sure if it helps.  Seems like it is one of those things

I planted a pair of common lilac shrubs in our yard back in Spring of 2018 on the fence line of the southside of our property.  Back when we lived in Elmhurst, our neighbor Greg had a hedge of lilac that bordered our property that produced some big, fragrant flowers.  Nat always liked them and said that we should be growing some lilac.  Although they weren't called for in our plan, I found a couple of small lilacs at Home Depot and stuck them in the ground.   They were small, but I planted them fairly close together.  And didn't really think much about them since then. You can see where these are planted in this look at priority area #1 . Last year, they didn't do much. This year, they're set to be in year three of their cycle:  sleep, creep and leap.  This year could be the leap. The tips of the very ends of the tallest limbs are in the photo at the top of this post.  They're beautifully tight, two-toned buds of green and purple. Below, you'll see

It appears that we have a confused rhododendron in our backyard.  Nat told me that one of our two rhododendrons were flowering out back and I didn't believe her.  Wrong time of year.  I went back there - and sure enough - she was right.  A small purple flower had emerged from one of the buds that the shrub has been setting as it heads into dormancy.  This same thing happened last year with our Chanticleer Pear flowering tree out front - it flowered in early November .  Back to the rhododendron, it appears (for now) that there's just one flower, so I'm not concerned.  This story claims that it isn't that rare for them to flower in the Autumn.  I'll return to these shrubs before the Winter sets in with a Wilt-Pruf application like I've did last year . 

In all of the [garden diary] posts I've made here over the past three seasons, I seem to have failed to inventory most of our front yard shrubs.  I've posted photos of the buds on some of our hydrangeas , but have skipped over the rest.  Over the course of the next few days, I'm attempting to put down some entries here so I can reference them in the coming seasons.  First up is this Little Henry Sweetspire.  It sits in a little bed right beside our front walk adjacent to our driveway. We had it put in by Green Grass as part of our initial landscape plan and haven't thought much about it over the past few years.  There were three small plants here when we started and now you can see that it has grown and matured into a nice sized shrub.  It has some long, leggy shoots that have emerged this season as well as some underground shoots that seem to be more rhizome-driven. I have read online that we can take one of these rhizome spreaders to create a new plant - and t

On the right is the southern Rhododendron and on the right in the image collage above is the northern stoop one.  They look different, don't they?  The one on the left is larger, taller, has less broned/curled edges.  And it also kinda looks a little brighter green, doesn't it? They looked different last Fall, too, when I applied Wilt-Pruf to one of them as a test .  And again this Spring when they came out of Winter .  What was most interesting to me is that NEITHER of these flowered this year.  Not a single flower.  Last Summer they flowered beautiful pink flowers .  See this post for the flowers , but also note how tiny they were last year.  They're really filled in that space more this year. They both set buds in the Fall, but just like our Flowering Cherry Tree and Saucer Magnolia in the front, we ended up with no flower show. The hard, cold Winter - including a long Polar Vortex - is likely to blame for those buds not blooming this year. These Rhododendrons

Last year, I added two common Purple Lilacs to the southside fence line to our backyard in a couple of spots that were called out for hydrangea plants in our plan.  I deviated from that plan because Nat always loved our neighbor's Lilacs in Elmhurst and wanted to try to replicate that in some way here in Downers.   The first two (commons) get about 12 feet tall and can take a prune .  My expectation is to get these to grow *up*, but pruned back to make a bit of a hedge.  They were small when we put them in and they're small today. Nat mentioned that she wanted to add even more lilacs to that spot and so after looking at the plan, I found two more hydrangeas that we can swap out for lilacs.  And after a little bit of research, I found this other variety called "Nocturne".    These are later blooming - to extend the Lilac season - and are similar shaped .  The leaves are a bit different, but the most important part is that extended blooming season.  You can see th

Back in December, I posted about an experiment that I was conducting with the application of Wilt-Pruf to one of our Rhododendrons that are located on either side of our back stoop.  Wilt-Pruf is an anti-transpirant that I bought to use on our fresh-cut Christmas Trees, but I also learned can be applied to any evergreen in an attempt to help it get through difficult Winters.  Wilt-Pruf is a natural product made of pine oil and creates a clear, almost flexible coating on the leaves and needles.   I sprayed it on just one of the Rhododendrons and figured it would be useful to compare the results.   The photo you see at the top is shows both of them on top/bottom.  The plant on the top is the one that had Wilt-Pruf applied.  The plant on the bottom was left bare.   The results?  Hard for me to say if it did anything, frankly.  I think the one that was treated has less spotting on the leaves, but maybe that's just random?   Thus, I'd say the experiment is incon