Why I Oughta...

After coming home with some peonies from Trader Joe's a few weeks back, Natalie asked me why we didn't have any peonies in our yard?  After all, we had a bunch of them back in Elmhurst that had established themselves enough to flower pretty productively every year.  Here's a look at some of them from 2015 .  That forced me to get outside and try to find the various peony plants that we have on hand and to start to chronicle them here on the blog.  These photos are a few weeks old, but sharing to start the diary entries on these. First...let me remind you all (and myself) that we still have the most important peony plant out in Foster Care in Naperville.  It grew pretty well last year and I'm thinking that it has likely flowered this season.  Time to move it, soon, I believe.    But, this post isn't about fostered plants.  It is about the five peony plants that we currently have on site.  The first one is above and was the only one that flowered.  All of thes

The last time I covered our fern and hosta(s) that have been fostered by Nat's Mom in her garden out in Naperville was October of 2017 when the hosta had ridden out the hot summer and the fern had died back for the year.  That post is here .  The photo above is one I took recently when we took a trip to Naperville.  You can see that both the hosta and the fern are HUGE.  They've been there for two full growing seasons - and this is their third.   The hosta again has some tip burn, which is disappointing, but it does get some decent sun due to the Bald Cypress that is located close leafs out later than most trees.  The size of those two are the good news.  The bad news?  The tiny Hosta Venusta that I planted back in 2016 doesn't look like it survived this harsh winter.  According to this post , one of the best times (besides early Spring) to transplant hostas is early fall - so I'll look to taking this one in September or so. My experience with transplanting

Nat's sister sent us this photo of our 'fostered' peony plant that is in Nat's Mom's garden out in Naperville that we planted in 2015.  As you can see, it has grown up quite a bit and seems to have recovered almost completely from the harsh transplant.  It is even blooming with two small blooms, but more importantly, the green foliage looks quite strong.   I posted a photo of this same peony emerging last Spring , but didn't followup with another post.  The peony struggled and didn't flower last year, but I knew it would take a few seasons to recover. That's the good news.  The bad news?  I'm going to take it back this September and restart that recovery cycle.   The foster care, has indeed, worked, but now that we're ready for this beauty, I'm eager to bring it home.  About a week ago, I posted about how the Sarah Bernhardt variety was starting to emerge this Summer (after planting this Spring), so I'm already thinking about

For the first time in a while, we spent an afternoon out in Naperville with Nat's parents.  And that means that I took some time to wander in Nat's Mom's garden where I marveled at the size and span of her hydrangeas but also was able to peek at the plants that she is fostering for us.  Above you see both the giant hosta on the left and the dried out ostrich fern laying on it's side on the right.  The fern ran it's course and dried out.  That is normal.  The hosta is nearing the end of it's season, too, so that's why you're seeing some dried spots.  Critters are the likely cause for some of the missing pieces of leaves.  The last time that I checked in on these plants was early this Spring.  Here's a photo of the hosta emerging from the mulch .  Here's what this hosta plant looks like when it is a bit further out of the ground but not unfurled quite yet .  Love this time of year.  So much to look forward to and so many gardening expectations

Last month, I posted about a few of our 'foster' plants out at Nat's folks' place in Naperville including the giant hosta that had emerged this Spring and Nat's Great Aunt's peonies and the miniature variety of Hosta Venusta that came back to my surprise.  But, there was also a big bunch of Ostrich Ferns that we transplanted into foster care.  Just about a month ago, on May 2nd, 2016, I posted this photo showing the ferns emerging from the ground  and in June, I posted this photo showing the giant Hosta and the Ostrich Fern all unfurled in their full glory.  They were doing so well last year, so I never thought for a minute that they wouldn't come back this year. That photo above is what they look like now:  they've not only sprung up ahead of last year's pace, they're also big, vibrant and strong.  How nice to see them doing so well.  I'm not surprised, because a few years back, we divided some of our ferns and gave them to Nat'

This is the third in a series of posts showing off the foster-care plants that we planted in Nat's Mom's garden over the past few years that she has helped care for while we've been without a yard of our own.  First was the post and photo of the giant hosta that came up for the second year .  Then, yesterday, I posted about the peonies that look to be re-established after a rough first year. Today, you'll have to look hard at the photo above, but the green shoots sticking out amongst the scattered, dried Bald Cypress leaves/needles, are from our Hosta Venusta .   Last year, at the Elmhurst Garden Club Plant Sale, I picked up a fern and this miniature hosta .  It is billed as being one of the very few miniature hosta varieties that can actually be planted directly in the ground and come back each year.  I've had other miniature hostas before and they've never survived year-over-year - either in the ground or even in a pot that I brought inside our (unheated

Yesterday, I posted a photo of our foster-care hosta out in Naperville , but it isn't the only plant we have in my in-laws yard.  There are a few others including an Ostrich Fern, a miniature hosta and this peony plant above.  This peony plant was given to Nat by her Aunt from Tennessee, I believe and has it's roots in one of their Great Aunt's gardens from years ago.  Back in 2010, I posted this piece about these very ferns and their origin story . I've covered Nat's peonies over the years here on the blog.   You can see the full peony archive here . These are being fostered by Nat's mom and after being transplanted late in the summer in 2015, had a pretty rough year last year. Nat's mom is a pretty good gardener and thanks to her, we had these beauties survive.  We brought them over in the middle-of-summer heat (that's when we moved out!), and she got them in the ground and kept them wet as they tried to establish themselves.  I wasn't that

Spring time always brings some anticipation of watching our perennials breaking through the ground and beginning to show themselves.  Starting last year, that was occurring both at Equation Boy/Man's house (where we are living) and Nat's folk's house (where we had placed our orphan'd plants). I chronicled our orphaned hosta last year starting with their emergence and then followed up with a full glory photo later in the season. Recently, we were out in Naperville and I went to check out the fosters.  Sure enough:  they're coming back in year two.  Above, you can see the buds of the giant hosta emerging in the middle of the photo.   The smaller hostas as well as the ferns and peony plants are all coming up and I'll post about those soon. But, now the question becomes:  when do we move them?   This post indicates that there's 2 shots per year: early Spring and later in the Fall.  It looks like we'll miss the Spring window, but should we try in

Going to document this here on the blog, so I can track the changes with this succulent that is perched on top of the hvac unit in my office on the 64th floor.  This didn't start as *my* succulent.  Nope.  Someone on my team had one of these plants at her desk, but it wasn't getting much light.  So...she moved it to my ledge.  Having a bit of history with cultivating succulents from cut ends, I gave it a shot.  Cut off four little guys and planted them in their own pot. I paid attention to keeping them wet and after a bit, they took off.  Now the four main plants are huge and gangly.  They're laying over the sides of the little pot and even throwing off their own little buds near the base that are, just PRIME for cutting and replanting.  I spy four of five that I could cleve off and transplant to keep the succulent mojo going.  Off to Menards I go for a few little pots and some dirt.

Earlier this Spring, I posted about our 'fostered' Ostrich Fern and giant Hosta that are currently being housed at my in-law's side/front/back yard (I don't know what to call it.  It is kinda all of those things:  the front, the side and the back.   Weird, I know, but if I showed you the area, it *might* make sense.)   Here's the post on the ferns .  And here's the post on the hostas . The good news is in that photo above.  I took that over recently when I checked in on them and gave them a little bit of water.  They look to be THRIVING, which has me excited.  We transplanted them late last year in late July/early August and they looked terrible.  The fern, in particular looked awfully wilted and I wasn't thinking it was going to come back.  But, these are hardy plants it seems.  And that means that I'm thinking if we're in a spot to transplant them as early as next Spring, they'll be ready to go.  And after they arrive, it won't take lon