Why I Oughta...

My first (ever) Ikebana arrangement was just two sprays of Disneyland (Floribunda) roses stuck into my flower frog.  That was back in June .  It wasn't, well....great.   But, as they say...the only way you get better at something is by doing it again.  And again. So, I'm doing just that:  making my second Ikebana arrangement with a Lisianthus, a leaf(let) from a Dark Side of the Moon Astilbe and a spray of Sun King Aralia.  In a vintage McCoy cereal bowl.  Below is a shot of it: In this case, I have a subject, object and secondary stuck in the kenzan (flower frog). The subject is supposed to be the tallest stem - so I'm calling the chartreuse Sun King leaf the subject. The object is "the queen".  That you place in the front/center.  That's the Celeb 2 Metallic Blue Lisianthus. And, the Dark Side of the Moon Astilbe leaf(let) is the secondary.  

I recently cut that pair of purple flowers off a dahlia plant in our backyard and brought it inside to put in a vase in the kitchen.  These were the second round of blooms that I pulled from this plant this growing season.   Back in July, I posted a roundup of some dahlia blooms that I had cut and brought inside including Burlesca, Blue Wish (Waterlily), Wizard of Oz, Creme de Cognac and a couple of 'mis-marked' dahlias that were sold/labeled as one thing, but once they bloomed were wrong including Rip City and what I called at the time a 'single dahlia'.   It was this purple-flowered dahlia.   Turns out.... I don't think it is a "single dahlia" after all.  (or maybe it is and I'm wrong in the case I lay out below.  That *could be*, because I'm still learning....) I was poking around the Longfield Gardens site and came across a class of Dahlias called " Peony-Flowered Dahlias ".  Longfield has two listings .   One of those lis...

Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the mid-Summer update on the 36 Titan Halo Lavender Blue Annual Vinca that are planted down by the sidewalk in the Island bed.  I talked about how they had grown slowly the first two months - all of June and July - but have recently put on some size.  A little too late for my taste, though.  At least down there where they're supposed to provide some curb appeal. Further back, in the front porch bed, I also planted Titan Halo Lavender Blue vinca plugs.  I planted 76 of them in the newly expanded bed .   In 2025, I planted 64 vinca plugs .  They were bedding vinca from the big box store.  Nothing special.  But, by the end of July they had created a carpet of color.  Branching out and filling in.  And continuous flowering.  They were great .  So great that I went ham on annual Vinca this year.   With...what I thought was a 'better' vinca.  At least, bigger and bolder. ...

Back in June, I planted 36 tiny plugs of Titan Blue Lavender Halo Vinca in a mass planting in the (mostly) front of the Island Bed down by the sidewalk.  I grew Annual Vinca in the front porch bed last year and in addition to planting more there this year, I also decided to give it a try down in the Island Bed.   The 36 plugs were tiny when they went in .  And, maybe I spaced them too far part.  But, after all of June.  And all of July, they're finally starting to put on some size and fill-out the space that I gave them.  Not all of them survived, but I'd say that the great majority of them have made it to August.  I'm not sure, but I think a few of them might have been over-watered (vs struggle from drought).   Below is a as-current photo of the Titan Halo Vinca.  I recently watered them, so they're a little 'tipped over' from the weight of the water.  But, this gives us a sense for spacing.  And color. Turns out, 36 isn...

August, already?  Yeeesh. The heat is here, but for the first time (for me as a gardener), so, too are the Lisianthus. As a cut flower in our garden.   That means that I'm learning something new.   The garden continues to reward patience.  In this case it is patience to see the blooms change color.  To their intended color.  Turns out, that's just what Lisianthus does:  it changes color as it blooms.   Back in Spring, I bought some Lisianthus Metallic Blue (Celeb 2) plugs from Garden Club .  They arrived a bit early (my fault), so I potted-them-up and tried to keep them alive for a month-plus until I could plant them outside.  They went in the newly expanded Saratoga Ginkgo bed in late May .   All eight plugs survived the first month indoors and have made it to August in the ground.  I protected them from rabbits with a little chicken wire cage , so I'm not sure if the rabbits would have gotten to these. And...

Another day and even more dahlias cut off their stems.  And, these are cut deeply as the experts suggest one does early (is it still early in the dahlia-growing season??) for more prolific-blooming plants later in the year.  *Cue the Sheryl Crow* This mixed dahlia arrangement (below) includes Ivanetti, Wizard of Oz, my first Great Silence (decorative) dahlia and the two semi-cactus/cactus "surprise" dahlias.  A dark one and a bubble gum pink one.  This is (maybe?) my tallest set of dahlia cut flowers in a vase since I've grown them.  There are also a significant number of buds that came with those long stems. Here, below, is a closer look at the first Great Silence Decorative Dahlia .  This one is mostly uniform in color with a pink/peach hue.   I bought two Great Silence tubers back in November of last year.   And, put them through my usual Spring dahlia program (starting them indoors in pots, moving them outoors) and planted two Great Silen...

I think I was in a dahlia-tuber-induced fog when I bought Mero Star dahlias because I never posted about them in my garden diary here and I have been listing them in my on-going tuber diary as "Metro Star dahlias".  They're NOT Metro Star.  They're Mero Star. And they're, well....huge.  (or"yuuuge", if you prefer.)  Here, below is a look at one of them: Mero Star Dahlia Bloom - big and spectacular. I mean...they're big.  And real.  And....As Sidra once said: That first photo at the top doesn't really tell the story of size.  But, have a look at the photo below showing this first Mero Star Dinnerplate Dahlia in amongst some others like Blue Wish.  This bloom is huge.  The individual petals are huge.  Bigger than anything else I've grown.   I mentioned that I must have been in a fog when I bought these because I don't remember them.  Here, below, is the front of the package of Mero Star tubers.  The packaging shows whi...

All the way back in August of 2024, I posted a "Getting to Know" post about a number of dahlias that I had come across in that growing season that jumped out to me.  Enough, at least, to write that post about.  One of those varieties in that post was Burlesca.  I'm growing those this year.   And another one was Jowey Winnie.   I bought two tubers of Jowey Winnie from Longfield Gardens this past Winter and have put them through my normal dahlia tuber program of starting indoors, moving outdoors and planting in the beds.  One of them IB2DWs and one of them in the Pizza Oven West bed.  The one in front was a dud and didn't grow.  The one in the back by the pizza oven is throwing off its first bloom.   But, is it Jowey Winnie?  Here is the bloom on *my* Jowey Winnie Dahlia before I cut it: As for why I'm questioning if this is, indeed, a Jowey Winne, let me turn to the seller, Longfield Gardens, and their product page ....

We're seeing the second flush of blooms from our Disneyland Roses (Floribunda Roses) that are planted in the sideyard (full sun) bed in mid-July.  This post is going up at the end of July, but they started to bloom right around the middle of July .  The first flush of blooms was at the end of May , so we're about six weeks apart from beginning-to-beginning cycles.  I've fed these three times this season (Right around the first of the month of May , June, July).  And, have been regularly spraying them with both a foliar insecticide and a stand-alone fungicide.  The granular fertilizer is a three-in-one systemic treatment (fertilizer, insecticide, fungicide), so they're getting treated for everything-all-together-at-once.  Or something like that.   I've fought various pests and diseases over the years on these roses .  Sawfly larvae.  Even what I think was/is some drought stress .  I tried everything.  Neem Oil.  Dusting the...

One of the new (to me) dahlias this season is blooming:  Peaches-N-Cream.  I bought two tubers from Bonny Blooms in November and they arrived this Spring.  (Note:  they arrived what I consider to be 'late' and they were...well...small.  They *were* tubers, but single tubers.  Which, I think is totally normal.  But, most of the tubers I've bought were larger.  And...perhaps less desirable.) One of the Peaches-n-Cream dahlias is planted IB2DWs.  Down closer to the sidewalk.   Because of that (previously mentioned) late arrival, I don't think that I pinched this one back like I have done with most of the other tubers.  Or, maybe because the tuber was 'small' is the reason why this isn't very "bush-y" of a plant.  Either way...I opted to cut deeply on this first bloom.  Hoping to stimulate some lower branching and growth.   Below are a couple of photos showing this beauty.  Pinks and oranges.  I proba...

The hedge of Frans Fontaine Hornbeam trees along the side of our house have continued to grow.  And that means they're encroaching on the boardwalk that is used to get from the front to our backyard along that same side.  Last year, I pruned these trees (just a little bit) to get the lower limbs off the boardwalk/screened porch.   This year, I did the same thing. Below are some photos showing the before/after and how little I took off.  Ummm...just the tip(s).  (Mostly).   On the left is the 'before', on the right is the 'after'.  I deliberately didn't take back/take-off too much as I like the idea of creating a little 'portal' to the backyard.  Hide-and-reveal. Miegakure.   Here is an animated image of the before/after portal haircut: Before and After Pruning Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam Trees Thinking about this area reminds me:   There's something hanging out there on my 2026 to-do list: plant something on the boardwalk...

Even more varieties (and types) of dahlias are beginning to bloom in the various planting pockets around the front, side and back yard.  I'll start with some new (meaning...first time blooming *this year*) and then move on to some ones that I've cut previously this season. First up is my favorite dahlia:  Milena Fleur.  The very first bloom opened up.  This was the dahlia that made me plant dahlias.  I should have planted MORE of these plants.   Next is Pooh.  A collarette dahlia that I grew last year and was a prolific tuber-grower.  I divided two plants into 17 different tubers that I started in pots.  2 to 17.  This first bloom might be the best Pooh Dahlia bloom that I've ever grown.  It has a color-quality to it that is DIFFERENT than last year. Pooh Collarette Dahlia - Red, yellow and white petals in bloom. Now, moving on to the dahlia blooms that I've cut and posted photos of from earlier in July.  First up is this ...

A week ago, I posted a 'getting to know' post about Little Lamb Lamb's ear and talked up some of its features as a groundcover.   So, it wasn't hard to 'add to cart' with a couple of small quart-sized plugs when I saw them at a 50% off sale at the Big Box store.  As for finding a home for them, I opted to fill-in a gap at the very front of the Island bed down by the sidewalk that I had previously tried to fill with some Chocolate Chip Ajuga plugs .  Some of those planted earlier this year have made it (so far) and some of them didn't.   The two Little Lamb Lamb's Ears filled the gap.  See below for them on the very front of this bed: I'll see how these do in the early days and then decide if I should bring home a few more to fill in some space and create even more 'living mulch'. I had previously planted 43 groundcover plants for the season (7 sedges, 36 ajuga plugs), so these two get me up to 45 for the season.