Why I Oughta...

For years, there's been a plant that I spot in other gardens that I always admire, but don't have planted in my own garden.  It is (dare I say?) common.   It has a lot of features that I'm drawn to:  fuzzy and (occasionally) white/grey foliage.   I'm talking about Lamb's Ear.   You see it everywhere, too. Everywhere, but my garden. However, I recently came across something new (to me):  A cultivar named "Little Lamb".  Here are the small containers of Little Lamb on the nursery table: Little Lamb Lamb's Ear - Stachys Byzantina - on the nursery table. Proven Winners describes it : Velvety-soft, greenish-silver leafy plant stays compact and is great for edging, border gardens and containers. "Stays compact".   That part, I like.  The small container lists it as a 'groundcover'.  See below: High Country Gardens says : "Fuzzy, silver leaves make a splendid groundcover and weed smother." But, they go on to brag on it even...

Dahlia season started early in 2026.  With a single, pink bloom of a Wizard of Oz dahlia.  This post is going up two weeks after I snipped this bloom.  So, dahlia season started in June 2026. Last year, my earliest blooming dahlia was Wizard of Oz with a bloom exactly one-year-ago today .  It was productive all the way until (at least) mid-October.   This year, I planted two Wizard of Oz tubers.  #20 and #40 on my full list .  One of them - in the Pizza Oven West bed has bloomed .  Sort-of in the 'crotch' of some of the stems.   The blooms on Wizard of Oz Pompon dahlia are pale pink with yellow centers.  This is such a welcome site as we enter the heat of the Summer: Wizard of Oz Dahlia - pale pink bloom with yellow centers. When I say that this first bloom grew in the 'crotch' of a couple of stems, the two photos below shows what I mean.  The first photo is from a couple of days before I put it.  While the second pho...

You've heard of Chocolate Chip.  And Burgundy Glow.  But...I came across something new (to me) at the big box store:  Princess Leia Ajuga.  It is green and white and has foliage that appears to be in-between sizing (in-between the smaller Chocolate Chip foliage and the broader Burgundy Glow foliage).  Below are the quart-sized plants for $7: Here's what Wayside Gardens says about Princess Leia : Ajuga Princess Leia is an evergreen perennial offering year-round interest. A highly popular plant, Princess Leia quickly creates a striking and colorful carpet of uniquely patterned, variegated green and white leaves that's blanketed in whorls of deep purple flowers in spring. Nectar-rich, the flower spikes are extremely attractive to bees. Star Wars in the garden?  What's not to like about that? I can think of two dozen spots for this groundcover in our garden.  

I planted a very small, native Pagoda Dogwood tree in our backyard in the Summer of 2021.  Five years ago .  It was from a municipal native tree sale and was just a foot tall. Over the five years, it has grown up and out.  But, where it is planted is a little bit out-of-the-way.  Well...it is out-of-the-way now because the Weeping Redbud (Lavender Twist) bounced back after what I thought was it dying out.  That weeping Redbud has come back as a multi-trunk tree and has put on a bunch of size.  That means that this Pagoda Dogwood tree is now tucked in *behind* the redbud's foliage.  That doesn't diminish the Pagoda Dogwood, though.  Just makes it a little bit harder to see. I most recently covered this tree this past Winter when I posted a photo of the structure .  Each of the last three growing seasons, I've pruned this tree after it was done flowering.  2023 pruning , 2024 pruning and last year, 2025 pruning .   In each case...

The Dark Side of the Moon Astilbes that are planted in a row in the 'nook' garden behind the Weeping Nootka Cypress tree are blooming.  Well...*some* of them are blooming.  These are sort of just THERE.  Not thriving, not declining.  They're dark foliage plants, so I'm sure rooting for them.   Below is a photo showing the main group of these (there are a couple others that are split by the contorted Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree that is planted in this bed) with one tall, pink bloom and the other bloom (to the left) about to open up: This post is going up in mid-July, but this photo is from late June.  Just like last year, when I posted about these in July, but as a 'later-post' from June .   These were planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum annual Arbor Day Plant Sale .   This border needs some additional plant material in front of these.  There is some ajuga, but it sure seems like it could use more.  

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a Phlox Cherry Caramel bloom and talked about how that was the first bloom on one of the non-dahlia cut flowers that I have been trying to grow this year.  Today, I'm posting a photo of my second cut-flower (non-dahlia) that has bloomed: a single Didiscus Lacy Blue .  I ordered a rack of plugs of Didiscus from Garden Club (Farmer Bailey ) that arrived earlier than they should have (my mistake, not theirs) and I ended up first potting-them-up into larger pots and then, eventually planting them in the ground.  All eight plants went into the Island Bed in the front yard .  I wasn't sure how attractive they were going to be to the (dang) rabbits, so I encircled them in some chicken wire cages to protect them from being nibbled/gnawed. This post is going up in July, but these photos are from late June - about two weeks ago.   I had my first bloom open up on one of the Didiscus plants.   They're about the size Silver Dol...

Earlier this year, I ordered a bunch of plugs from Farmer Bailey/Garden Club and I've documented my (learning) journey with them along the way.  From ordering them to having them arrive too early (Self-inflicted) to potting-them-up to keeping them (some of them) alive to planting them in.   Part of my 2026 to-do list was to 'experiment with other cut flowers' and these plugs were a bit part of of my answer to that challenge.   Amongst the plugs were an eight-pack of Phlox Cherry Caramel .   These faired the worst of all of my selections with four of the eight making it to planting-time and the other four withered while they were in the small pots.  I planted the four in different spots:  two in the pizza oven bed, one in the front island bed and one IB2DWs down by the sidewalk. They're all on different growing schedules with some already growing larger than others.  One of them has even bloomed.  I'm posting this in early July, bu...

A reader posted a comment on my pos t from May about the troubles the Arctic Jade Korean Maple was having and how it wasn't leaf'ing out .  They asked, not about the Arctic Jade, but about my first Korean Maple:  The Northern Glow.   My journey with Korean Maples started back in Summer 2024 when I first posted  this "Getting to Know" post about the tree after seeing it at The Growing Place in Naperville.  I planted it in July 2024 in the Island Bed in the middle of the Summer.   That is tough on any plant, but I think harder on ornamental maples that naturally want to be in part sun/dappled shade/full shade.  I ended up erecting a shade-cloth structure to help get the tree through July and August without getting scorched that first Summer.  Here, below, is a photo from August 2024 showing the size of the tree and the shade cloth that I had set up: Here is a post from late August that shows the state of the Island Bed .  (It was t...

About a month ago, I posted about how I planted a small four-pack of Nicotiana Saratoga in the front of the sideyard cut flower bed.  They were plugs.  Tiny.  Look back here to see them barely visible in the photos .   The plugs went in the ground in mid-May.  Now, two months later, they're thick, full and loaded with blooms.  See below for an updated photo of these four small annuals: #10 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'keep going with annuals' . These are a big "garden win" for me in 2026. Something I should look to replicate in future seasons.  Instead of just four, I could have planted 16 of these in front of the dahlias all along this bed.   Here, below, is a before/after animation: Note to future Jake:  Plant these in more spots next year.  They are staying short and compact.  

This post is going up in early July, but I seem to have forgotten to post about this planting earlier this growing season.  I actually planted these in late May, so this is six weeks late.  Better late than never (for the Garden Diary), right? I planted up the front border of the Pizza Oven bed that was marked as one of my "Garden Edits" from a few seasons back and was the basis of my #3 Priority Project post earlier this year .  At that time, I called for twelve (12) Hakonechloa Macra grasses to fill the front border and filling in spaces in front of and behind the tree swing tree.   Over Memorial Day weekend, I bought ten one-gallon containers of the straight variety Macra grasses from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm.  And, I lined them up along the front edge from the one legacy grass stretching (almost) all the way to the front corner of the pizza oven. See below for a couple photos of the grasses spaced out in their nursery pots: Here, below, is ...

In a series of posts ( starting in January ) and then via an individual " priority projec t" post and my 2026 to-do list , I've talked myself into the idea of replacing my Oakleaf Hydrangeas in the garden.  It was, in fact, my #1 task on the list.  NUMBER ONE.   But, something changed.  I wrote about the 'surprise blooms' on these shrubs in Late June .   And, now I'm reconsidering.  I might have, well....been.... wrong. Why am I reconsidering?  Aside from those blooms.  I'm also seeing tons of foliage growth.  Even on some of the shrubs that I thought were dead from rabbits.  Here, below, is one of the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas that I thought was dead.  It is tucked in behind the peonies in the [Kitchen Curved] bed.   But, when I look closer, I see a few shoots coming out of the ground, too.  See below for two of them: This tells me that not only are the shrubs full of energy and growth.  But...also...th...

#21 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'add another ornamental maple' to the garden.  So far, this season, I've planted a pair of them:  a North Wind Korean Maple (to replace the Arctic Jade) and an Alpenglow Korean Maple under the large tree swing.  Both from Iseli Nursery. Over the years, I've moved towards those Korean Maples. Acer pseudosieboldaianum. They have performed well (aside from the Arctic Jade).  They're more cold-hardy than Acer palmatums or Acer shirasawanum or Acer japonicum. But, the pull of the traditional Japanese Maples is still strong.  When I came across an Orange Dream Japanese Maple that was priced...ummm....right, I brought it home.   Also note... I still think about the full-moon maples like this one , too.  Below are a few photos showing the foliage, the tree form and where I planted it (in the back edge of the "Kitchen Curved" bed). The leaves in Summer are green with red(ish) stems: The tree has a low-graft and is about ...