Why I Oughta...

I planted a tiny, native Pagoda Dogwood tree back by the fire pit area last Fall (October of 2021) .  I decided to protect this with a ring of chicken wire because I feared the dang rabbits would destroy it all Winter.  This was the first Spring and it leaf'd out really early.  See the photo below for the very interesting lined foliage that is adorned on all the tips of this tiny tree.  NOTE: This is the tree that leaf'd out the fastest of any tree in our garden.   I took this photo in mid-May, but posting in June of 2022. So, call it mid-May for this tree reaching full leaf-out.  Some of our other trees have broken buds, but none are full.  (London Planetrees, Ginkos, Walnuts, Catalpas, Kentucky Coffee trees haven't broken bud just yet.) I'll water this in during the heat of the Summer with hopes that it grows up and out to provide a little bit of layering and screening back by the firepit.  

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.  

I've covered a bunch of the shrubs ( hydrangeas ) and perennials ( Ivory Prince Hellebores ) that I brought home from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale already here on the blog.  But, we also bought a tree from that same sale.  I've bought a tree each of the years that I've attended the sale including this Emperor 1 Japanese Maple tree last year .  And this Red Fox Katsura tree from 2020 .   This year, I've prioritized shrubs in the landscape, but I included a couple of tree items on my 2022 to-d list .  #7 was to plant more trees (and measuring them), so this new tree checks that box.   I keep thinking about that advice I came across in April of 2019 related to planting trees .  The proverb is below : That means planting small trees that - over time - can grow into something meaningful.  I've done this recently with a Ginkgo tree (well...two of them, but one snapped in half ), so I figured another Ginkgo would be interesting.   I brought the Babe to the sa

There are some plants that I've bought at various nurseries that seem to have done well and others that don't make it.  Then, there are the plants and perennials that I've bought at the Morton Arboretum plant sales.  I'm pretty sure that aside from some Huecheras that I planted in full Sun and were trampled by workers building the house next door, just about everything that I've brought home has worked out well.  The first time I went to the Morton sale was in the Fall of 2020 - they had a Fall Sale due to COVID - and I brought home some new-to-me perennials.  The first of those were three Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria - or Lungwort - that I planted in our backyard in late September 2020 .  They survived their first Winter and emerged for their first Spring a year ago - in mid-March 2021 .   Ever since, they've just performed and had some nice growth along the way.    The last time that I showed these were in Fall of last year when they put on some new, post-Summer g

Earlier this week, we had some snow fall overnight.  And flurries flew during the day.  It didn't last long, but the temperatures have hovered around freezing all week and I keep hearing people talk about how we're experiencing a "late Spring" this year.  The grass has green'd up, some of our ornamental grasses (the feather reed grasses) are up, tulips have pushed foliage (but no flowers) and I'm seeing some buds swell on our shrubs.  And, I keep going outside to do little garden tasks, but I haven't taken on any large scale ones.  Planting a few things, cleaning some parts of the garden up.  But, mostly....waiting.  Waiting for the weather.  Some of our perennials are moving ahead - despite the temperatures.  I see hosta tips (some cultivars), Brunnera tips and (as I posted yesterday) even peonies. But the trees?  They're still bare.  I wasn't sure how *normal* this is:  to have no leaves at all on any of our trees in mid/late April.  I don't

Depositing a photo here in the [ garden diary ] of the mid-bed-planted trio of Amsonia Butterscotch that I planted earlier this Spring after buying them from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  These three plants are planted in between a row of Fanal Astilbes and some Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  These are/were billed as being "garden stars" during the Fall , so I thought I'd share what they look like in early Fall.  You can see them below: They're just starting to turn from green to yellow, so we're getting to that 'show', but the fine-nature of the foliage is certainly striking.  I'm excited to see these continue to grow up and out.  I planted them widely spaced , hoping to see them each get about 24" tall and 2-3' wide.   Excited to tuck them in for the Winter after they put on their show and sure hope they come back in Spring for year two.

Last month, I posted about an interesting hosta that I came across at the Growing Place called Brother Stefan hosta.  In that post , I referenced a Rob Zimmer column in the Wisconsin Gardener that highlighted a few OTHER 'interesting' cultivars of hostas that mentioned a hosta that I've seen ALL OVER various big box garden centers and, without much thought, I simply dismissed.  I dismissed it because it seemed very popular.  But, Zimmer calls the Abiqua Drinking Gourd 'One of the true giants'.  Well...that has me interested.   Source via WisFarmer.com So, when I found myself at one of the Home Depots this past weekend, I picked up a trio of Miscanthus sinesis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses .  I also found these Abiqua Drinking Gourd hostas in the 50% off section.   Well, they *had* to come home with me.  Below, you can see the label: And, here, below, are the trio of these hostas in their nursery containers: What is the description of these?  New Hampshire Host

Earlier this Summer, I was poking around The Growing Place shade section and saw a hosta that (more than) caught my eye:  'Brother Stefan'.  It feels really interesting - corrugated of sorts.  They describe it (on The Growing Place sign) as 'puckered'.   I'm filing this under the [ plant dreaming ] tag - as I now am going to be thinking about adding it to our backyard.  Here, below, is the Brother Stefan hosta and if you zoom-in, you can see the sign I mentioned above:   The folks over at Walters Gardens have a listing up for this hosta, too.  From that listing, I see this list of really nice characteristics.  Some highlights: "large sized".  Check. "moderate growth rate". Check. "most spectacular hosta they have ever seen".  Check. "thick leaves".  Check. "slug resistance".  Check.  "tall".  Check.  "perfect focal point".  Check. "shade garden".  Check.  Oh, my.   New Hampshire Hostas c