Why I Oughta...

2024 was the year of the dahlia around here.  I went A LOT further with dahlia tubers in 2024 than I've done in the past - including pre-ordering them, starting the tubers indoors, planting them in the ground, trying to prune them/cut the flowers at the right time/place and....most recently....attempting to overwinter some of the tubers - both in Saran Wrap as well as in the ground. Since the pre-ordering thing went so well this past season, I figured while Longfield Gardens was having a sale on their Dahlia tubers, why not order a bunch to arrive in Spring. Last year, I ordered Melina Fleur and Cornell Bronze .   This year, I ordered three varieties:  Maarn Ball Dahlias Sweet Nathalie Decorative Dalias Pablo Decorative Border Dahlias. Below is a screenshot from my order: They arrive in April, but I'm already thinking about where to grow these Dahlias.  The Pablo tubers were a 'bulk order', so I will have a good-sized colony of these (if they're successful...eek...

'Tis the season for winter, evergreen mixed arrangements around here.  I've made a couple of 'big' ones that ended up at each of our folks houses and some that ended up at neighbor's houses.  A few day ago, I posted a pair that went to my sister's houses .  And, back close to Thanksgiving, I posted a photo of the first one that I put together for our own kitchen counter .   A couple weeks later, that initial one needed a refresh, so I pulled it apart.  And, Nat found this little vintage planter with a wreath on the front that I filled with some floral foam and stuck various evergreen branches to make this arrangement you see below: This has Thuja, pine, fir, boxwood, Alder and painted Birch branches.  

I planted some Green Giant Thujas back in the Spring of 2022 and....now...coming up on three years later...they are starting to have 'presence' in the garden.   Perhaps it is because everything else is in dormancy.  Or...more likely...because these have put on size - height and width.   See below for the three along the southside of the property.    I'm now thinking of putting a few more of these in the backyard - come Spring 2025.  Screening trees along the back sides of the garden - including adding even more along this same fenceline.

Each late Winter, I prune up the pair of Greenspire Lindens that are formal in shape via espalier.  They need a bunch of pruning along the top level of the horizontal cordon.  There are waterspouts EVERYWHERE.  And, this year is no different.  With these trees recently dropping their leaves, the structure has been exposed and I can see all the top-growth from that top level.  See below for the pair of trees: Come February, I'll dormant prune ALL of those off and bring it back into shape.  

The Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas on the southside of our backyard in the 'kitchen curved bed' are holding on to their greenish/purple-ish leaves this late into the year.  Below in the photo you can see a number of them lined up along the back/middle-back of the border that are droop'ing, but...holding their large leaves: Also note...the leaf litter in the photo all across the beds.  I've cleaned these out a handful of times, each time trying to cut up the leaves with my mower and blowing the scraps back onto the beds.  

Once I posted the structure of the front-yard Spring Grove Ginkgo tree , I figured I should include the back stoop versions (there is one on each side) in the [garden diary], too.   Both of these have a one-year head start, but are showing a bunch more height than the front-yard tree.

I put together a pair of evergreen arrangements for my Sisters that include a bunch of foraged materials - including Thuja, Spruce, Boxwood and Yew clippings as well as a little bit of euclalptus and some branches from both Magnolia and Alder trees.  The vases are, of course, thrifted.

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the small Skylands Spruce in our front yard island bed.  Today, is a photo showing its companion:  the Spring Grove (dwarf) Ginkgo tree that was planted this season, too.  Unlike the Skylands Spruce, the Spring Grove Ginkgo tree is naked right now; it dropped all its leaves earlier this Fall.   And that's revealed a STRIKING structure.  Pointy and sharp.  The branching provides a bit of 'Winter interest' with a handful of main branches and dozens of short, straight secondary branches emanating like spikes.  See below:

The small Skylands Spruce tree that went into the 'island bed' in our front yard has a number of cones clinging to the tips of some of the upper branches that have sort-of 'unfurled' and grown the past few weeks.  The cones - once tightly wound - are now a little bit more 'open'.  See below for a photo of one of the cones.  Note the chicken wire ring to keep the (dang!) rabbits from gnawing away the tips of this tiny tree: 

Yesterday, I posted photos of how I'm attempting to overwinter some Dahlia tubers in the ground and in a couple of those pics, you might have peeked at the chicken wire cages next to the piles of mulch on the dahlia tubers.  Those chicken wire cages are full of fallen leaves and are set on top of the three Disneyland Rose crowns along the southside of our house. See below for a couple of photos showing how I set up the ring of chicken wire and filled it with mulched-up leaves: These roses struggled this year, so here's hoping this little bit of extra Winter protection is going to help them get through the cold.

Yesterday, I posted about my first experience with trying to dig up and save dahlia tubers using the "saran wrap method" .  In that post, I talked about how I decided to leave a couple of tubers in the ground to see how they would do.  We're in Zone 6a/5b, so dahlia tubers are *not supposed* to survive our Winter.  But...because of the unique setting, I thought I'd give it a shot.  By 'unique setting', I'm talking about what I think is a small, potential 'microclimate' that exists on the side of our house. By 'microclimate', I mean...an area that is slightly "warmer" than the rest of our garden.  I'm not talking a huge difference.  But, I suspect there's some difference. Why?   Well...experience, mostly.  And, the Disneyland Roses.   I had Disneyland Roses up front and along the side.  The three in the front...lost their first Winter.  The three along the house?  All have survived. What makes it unique?   Fi...

2024 was the season of the dahlia in our garden.  And, it is also going to be the 'season of trying to save the dahlia tuber'.   We garden in Zone 6a/5b.  That changed earlier this year when our neighborhood (yes...neighborhood) was reclassified from USDA Zone 5B to Zone 6A.  I wrote a post about that change earlier this year and talked about how less than a mile away, the listing was kept at 5B, but our spot was upgraded to 6A. According to Longfield Gardens , you can overwinter dahlia tubers in Zone 8 to Zone 10, which means that our climate is far too cold to keep these tubers in the ground from freezing to death.   That means that I'm faced with a choice:  dig them up and try to save them.  Or...leave them in the ground and (VERY LIKELY) lose them to Winter.  I say "VERY LIKELY" because....there's a TINY chance that the tubers survive our Winter due to one (or more) of a couple of variables:  We *could* get a very mild Winter....

Yesterday, I posted the details of the first of our two Christmas Amaryllis bulbs - the Double Dream Amaryllis .  Today, are a few photos and some details of the second one named Exotic Star Amaryllis.  This one is also one of the 'larger', individual bulbs from Wannemaker's vs the ones you find in the 'kits' at big box stores.  History tells me that these *usually* do better than the kit bulbs.   NOTE:  Last year, I had a dud - a Samba Amaryllis never grew a flower stalk .   The Double Dream is named appropriately - as it is a 'double amaryllis' - with two layers of petals in the bloom. The Exotic Star is a 'single amaryllis' with one layer of petals.  This one stuck out - when looking at the boxes on the shelves.  (There are also something called 'Spider Amaryllis'.  I grew a variety named La Paz Amaryllis last season .  They're different, but quite striking.) Longfield Gardens describes the Exotic Star:   "The flo...

As is the custom around here, we planted some Amaryllis bulbs in small containers in the time right around Thanksgiving.  We picked this one up - the Double Dream - at Wannemaker's.  Below is the bulb set in the soil and below that is the plant/bulb tag showing the fully-grown pinkish full bloom of the Double Dream Amaryllis.  

2024 is one of the years where our large, mature Red Oak trees aren't holding their leaves late into Winter.  This year, they've dropped MOST of them already - by December 1st.  I've posted about these two backyard Oak trees - the Tree Swing Oak and the southside Oak - over the years - documenting how much foliar marcescence takes places.   This year - here are a couple of photos showing the canopy of these trees on December 1st:  mostly bare. Here is December 6, 2019 - when the Oaks were holding TONS of leaves .   Here is November 23, 2020 - when the trees (both of them) had dropped all their leaves . Here is December 2, 2021 - when the tree swing tree was holding leaves .   Here is November 22, 2023 - when they were FULL of brown leaves .  

Speaking of 'holding leaves' (yesterday...I posted a photo showing the espalier'd Lindens holding their leaves), the row of Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams that we have planted along the south property line are doing what they always do in Fall:  hold their leaves late.   The term for trees that hold their leaves DEEP into Winter (when they're all brown and dry, but still clinging to the branches) is named foliar Marcescence.  These aren't quite to that state, but based on previous seasons, we'll see these trees brown-out soon.  Then, one or two of them MAY drop their leaves immediately, while others may hold onto them until Spring.   You see this with Oak trees - quite a bit.  They'll hold some of their leaves all Winter .   Here's a post showing what the trees looked like in February of 2023 - still holding small, crinkled, curled-up leaves that late into the Winter .   And here's a post from one-year-and-one-...

Most of the trees in our yard, but for the Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams have dropped their leaves.  That's normal.  But, there's another set of trees that are holding their leaves late this year - these two Greenspire Lindens that are in a horizontal Cordon espalier form.  You can see them with their mix of green, orange and yellow leaves this late in November: When the leaves eventually drop, they'll reveal the structure underneath.   And, from the look of it, they'll also reveal A TON of vertical waterspouts on the top level of the espalier.  

Last year, I made my first few Winter arrangements featuring a mix of foraged materials and some store-bought highlights.  Last year, I leaned heavily on evergreens and ecualyptus with the only pops of color coming from either red Dogwood branches or crabapples that I foraged from parking lot trees. Here's the first one I made last year in a vintage Santa ceramic pot .  And, here's what I called V2 - that was more upright and I put together in a Goodwill thrifted vase .  I used some foraged curly Willow branches to give that one A LOT of height.    I also bleached pinecones for the first time and I liked how those turned out - the sort-of 'stood out' or had more contrast against the green needles.  And, I even started to give them away - here's one I gave to my sister .   With all of the dahlia arrangements that I worked on this Summer, I felt emboldened to go a little bit further with my 2024 Winter (evergreen) arrangements.   Last yea...

I spent a long time thinking and planning and (eventually) buying and planting a full hedge of (at that time) small Hicks Yews across the back of our yard back in 2019.  I planted twelve 1# pots in the Summer of 2019 and they've had (now) six growing seasons ('19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24). I picked these because they're shade-tolerant.  And, evergreen.  And, narrow/upright.   But, I was hesitant.  Why?  Because...well...Yews have a bad reputation.  Ask any gardener my age if their parents had yews in front of their house when they were growing up and the answer is:  yes.   I was hesitant to use Yews because of what I had grown-up with in the garden.  Everywhere you look in suburban gardens, people have been using Boxwoods.  And, I have, too.  Boxwoods here.  Boxwoods there.  But, after some hemming-and-hawing...I opted for these $5.00 Hicks, upright Yews for the hedge.    I came across this 'undu...

In the Fall of 2021, I was on a "Hicks Yew High" - where I planted these tiny shade-loving evergreen shrubs all over the backyard.  I put six of them in the south bed with designs to 'replicate' the undulating hedge from the back border .  Here are the six in winter when the contrast with the snow shows how small they really were in January of 2022 .  In Summer of 2022, I did a 'garden edit' where I pulled out some Lilacs and replaced them with some Green Giant Thujas.  At at that time, I also relocated three of the Hicks Yews .   Three remained.  Set on sort-of 'an angle'.   I set up my wine barrel 'water feature' next to them.  And, haven't thought about them much at all.  (that is the wine barrel that I've turned over for the winter in the photo...) Have they grown?  Yep.  The photo at the top shows their current state.  I'm hoping that - with time - the gaps will close and a small 'hedge' of sorts appears here....