Why I Oughta...

Back in the late Summer of 2022, I tried to get a couple of flowering shrub cuttings to root.  One of them - a Limelight Hydrangea cutting managed to get established that first month and put on some growth .   Ever since, I've kept it in a container and somewhat protected - both during Summer (in the shade) and Winter (buried in the ground).  Last Fall - October 2023, I upgraded it from a quart nursery container to a one-gallon nursery pot .   This year, I put the small container shrub in the shade of the understory bed and mostly neglected it.  It put on foliage and then....recently....it put on its first-ever blooms.  Four of them.  Two opened up, two more on their way.   See below for a peek: How nice to find this little treat.  Something I've neglected has FOUND A WAY.  It does, however, appear to be a little 'leggy', so I'm thinking that I'm going to give it a haircut to bring it down in size and try to stimulate a li...

100-or-so days after planting a 5-gallon Climbing Hydrangea ( Hydrangea anomala petiolaris ) back by the firepit, we're seeing some real upwards leader growth.  Or...what I plantsmen call "aerial rootlets".   We have this climbing, flowering vine going up a Hackberry tree and the R O U G H bark sure seems to be helpful in giving those aerial roots something to grab on-to. See below for the current mid-Summer form of our Climbing Hydrangea:  There are a few, sparse blooms on it this year, too.  So, that's kinda nice, right?   I'm hoping that this will wrap around (and not injure) the tree, so that it can be viewed from all angles. This also has me wondering:  where else could I plant one?  I've long talked about espalier'd trees along the garage, but maybe this is a better answer there, too?  Or...what about both? Last year, I saw one of these at 50% off the end-of-year sale at the Growing Place .  I'll have to pop back over there again...

Back along the fence, behind the large colony of Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion is one of my first flowering shrubs - that has NEVER flowered :  Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea .  Part of our plan is extending the current row of Oakleaf Hydrangeas with another few flowering shrubs that sit in front of - and in between - the Green Giant Thujas .   In order to plant the new flowering shrubs (I ended up finding another Oakleaf Hydrangea variety), I needed to move the Tuff Stuff Hydrangea.  It never has grown much in size (nor...flowered), so I knew I could tuck it into some smaller spots.  I opted for moving it right next to the other non-blooming hydrangea - the Everlasting Revolution - closer to the border of that same bed.  See below for a photo showing the location of the newly transplanted (and slightly larger) Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea: With that out of the way, I can move on to planting the pair of Snowqueen Oakleaf Hydrangeas. 

Last year, I started to think about a climbing hydrangea in our garden.   I came across one in two of the places I turn to when I want to get educated:  Hinsdale Nursery and Erin the Impatient Gardener .  I was sketching out what I wanted to do with the firepit area and included (in my thinking) one that could climb up a Hackberry tree back there.   Last fall, I found one at The Growing Place - the tag read: Hydrangea anomala petiolaris .  I've had vines like these on my mind for a few years, but haven't pulled the trigger.  Until this Spring.  Nat's Mom - who has gifted us a bunch of plants including all of our Disneyland Roses - gifted us a climbing hydrangea.   I knew it would go back by the firepit.   #15 on 2023 to-do list was to 'upgrade the firepit area' - so this goes towards helping there.  Here are a few photos showing the vine below. When it arrived, it was just starting to come out of dormancy. ...

With the flip last week on Daylight Savings Time, it means that I now get a little bit of post-work garden time.  It isn't dark when I close my laptop, so that's kinda nice.  With the calendar being mid-March, I'm now trying to find garden tasks that I can take on while balancing the guidance of *not doing too much cleanup* too early.  One of the tasks that I decided to do this past week was a look at some cleanup in the front yard - including pruning some of my hydrangeas.   In past years, I have done what I'll call a 'light' pruning - lop'ing off the thin branching, but mostly leaving about 2/3rds of the shrub intact.  After watching some YouTube videos and working up the courage to go at them pretty hard, I decided to give theses a harder prune this late Winter. First up, the pair of (larger) Limelight Hydrangeas on the side of our front porch.  Here's what they look like right before pruning - all of the flower heads still attached (photo below) wi...

Yesterday, I walked through an exploration of an area in one of my beds that calls for a mix of Tardiva Hydrangea and (now) an upright evergreen layer .  That requires the moving/transplanting of four Lilac shrubs that have never taken off due to shade.  My #1 backyard priority for 2022 is a focus on shrubs and being deliberate about buying and planting them - versus say...perennial flowers.  I've talked about buying and adding a series of Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs in various spots, but there's a segment of our landscape plan that is directly adjacent to yesterday's Lilac replacement area that calls for a mix of hydrangeas and evergreens.   Here's a look (below)  at this 18-20' area that is bound on one side by the Kwanzan Flowering Cherry tree and on the other by a large (2nd largest on our property) Northern Red Oak tree.  You can see the tree here in this post showing some winter/snow damage .  That Oak is on the right.  In Yellow is a ...

Having locked-in my 2022 priorities for the yard and garden last week , I have begun to think about the practical implementation of the first item on the list:  Shrubs.  A discussion of some of the shrub needs were walked thru earlier in March in this post that laid out a list of needs and included a reference to adding three Tardiva Hydrangeas.  Back in 2017, I included a look at that part of the beds that called for these Tardiva Hydrangeas here .   With all that background out of the way, I think it is useful to look at the current conditions of this portion of the bed AND my current thinking in terms of deciduous shrubs based on some pointers from others.   To be sure, this is NOT a 'clean slate' situation.  I've planted things there that NEED to be relocated. First, I have four Lilac shrubs planted along the fenceline.  Two common Lilacs ( planted in 2018 ) and two Nocture Lilacs ( planted in 2019 ).  NONE of these have worked here...

We have a pair of hydrangeas that are what I'd consider somewhat exotic.  I say that because they're not something you'd come across at your normal Big Box nursery - like Limelights or what-have-you.  These were given to us by Nat's Mom as an anniversary gift back in 2017 - our first late Summer/early Fall in our house.  The two of them are a Tuff Stuff Mountain Hydrangea .  And an Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea .  They were both planted in 2017.  And I've posted about them over the years - where they've grown a bit, have survived, but NEVER produced any flowers.  I recently transplanted the smaller one - Everlasting Revolution - to be closer to the front of the bed due to its small size. Tuff Stuff Mountain Hydrangea - Has never flowered.  Always a bit bigger than the Revolution. Planted October 2017 June 2018 - first Summer .  Appeared to grow on both new and old wood. August 2018 - survived the first heat wave during the first Summer. S...

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos of the Prairie Winds Totem Pole Switch Grass that I planted in our front porch bed.  While I was over there taking those photos, I noticed that our Limelight Hydrangeas were in bad shape.  Ut oh.  These things have always been so very happy and have performed so very well in their spot.  But, this year, something is wrong.  Bad wrong.   They have flowered (profusely), but when you look at them, you can see that they've dropped A LOT of leaves.  Here's a photo of the pair of them below.  Notice the curled, brown leaves on the ground.  Here, below, is a closer look: What is so hard to figure out is that the TIPS of the plant are seemingly happy and growing.  Below, shows some of the new growth: I'm guessing that the Spring drought has given these some trouble and they're showing water-related stress, so I'm planning on soaking them both with the hose a couple of times this week to see if I can g...

This is the third in a series of four posts based on the garden things that Nat brought home from Costco recently. The first one was a set of Frances Williams hosts for the backyard .  The second was two packs of Bressingham Blue hostas that are destined, too, for the backyard.   3rd post.  first two hostas.  Today is another shade-loving perennial that pairs well with hostas that we got started with last season.     And that would be astilbes.  Here's the bag of six Gloria Purpurea Astilbes (below): And, here's the back of the package showing a 20" spacing requirement and saying they get about 24" tall.   As I mentioned earlier, we started with Astilbes last year - buying 12 of them and planting them in June .  Timing was off and some of them suffered some transplant and drought stress, so I'm not certain how many made it, but it isn't all twelve. The area where we planted them - on the southside in front of some new Oak Lea...

The pair of Limelight Hydrangeas that sit to the south of our front porch are just about hitting their stride this season.  They're tolerating the heat and are presenting a pleasant shape and nice color. This pair has consistently performed the best of *any* of our originally installed landscaping.  I've tried to keep tabs on these over time here in the garden diary. One year and one month ago (Early Summer 2019) - They were just getting started for the season. October of 2019 - they bloomed and were drying out.  And just 45 days ago - getting started on the growing season. This pair has put off some HUGE blooms the past few years and I've tried to tend to them with some late Winter pruning in an attempt to give them some shape.  You'll also notice some rocks on the left of the photo.  Those are new this season and were placed there to try to control some erosion as there is a downspout pop-up located in this bed.  That plentiful source of r...

Yesterday, I posted photos of both of the Munchkin Oakleaf Hydrangeas flowering and today I have a couple of photos of the traditional variety that are also flowering in their first year.   There are five of these 'traditional' (aka. non-Munchkin) Oakleaf Hydrangeas that I planted in early June 2020 .  Those seven are the most important aspect of solving for - and planting out - " Priority Area #1 " in our backyard.  In the photo at the top of this post, you can see one of the conical flowers from one of these hydrangeas.  Lime green small flowers followed by bright-white blooms.  Below, you can see two of the five traditional shrubs.  (are these shrubs?)  On the left is one with multiple flowers.  On the right, the foliage is a little bit lighter color, but you can see a couple of flowers starting to emerge.  Here's a closeup of one of the flowers.  Also note, the brown spots on the bottom leaf - that was present when t...

A couple of weeks ago, I posted some photos of a series of Oakleaf Hydrangeas that I planted in "priority area #1" - that included both traditional and a pair of "Munchkin" variety.  I've been trying to get these plants to get over their transplant shock by watering them pretty frequently.  And now, we've been rewarded with some year-one flowers on both of the Munchkins.  You can see one of them in the photo above - that shows off a series of flowers. And below, is a close-up of the other one - further to the West - of the flowers that are opening.  They're a really nice lime color right now that ( based on the nursery tags ) are likely to be turning a bright white. With the heat of the Summer coming on - coupled with some travel to Wisconsin - I'm thinking that I'll have to add a new soaker hose to these along with a timer to make sure they don't take a step backwards.

This is an early June look at a pair of hydrangeas - on the left is the smaller Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea.  And on the right is our Tuff Stuff Hydrangea.  At the bottom of the photo are a couple of still-nursery-potted Fanal Astibles that I put on the soaker hose to keep from drying out. The last time I posted a photo of these two hydrangea was last September (2019) , when they were still green and happy.  They did NOT flower last year.  In terms of size, the Tuff Stuff is/was bigger in September - after a full season of growing - but not by much.  So, I'm hopeful that we'll see that one continue to grow up. Before that, I posted a photo of these two in August of 2018 . And right about two years ago, I posted photos of both the Everlasting Revolution (it was barely green) and the Tuff Stuff (has always been *ahead*).  They were planted in October of 2017 and were shipped to us by Nat's Mom as an anniversary gift.  They were small . ...

This pair of Limelight Hydrangeas put our a great show each Summer and Fall.  I posted a photo of them in October of 2019 when they were weighed down with tons of flower blooms .  And here's a photo from the previous Summer - just a little bit over two years ago - when these were greening up for the Summer.  These are located to the south of our front porch. I gave these a pretty hard prune in the late Winter and they're responding (seemingly) well this Spring.  Limelight Hydrangeas bloom on "new wood" , so that's a big part of the reason for the hard prune.  I gave both of these a heavy mulching this Spring - their first in two years - and they get plenty of water from our gutter run-off, so I think I've set them up for success. 

I wanted to take and share some photos in the [ garden diary ] here so I can look at the development of the shrubs and perennials in our yard.  I've already posted images of a few things including our Saucer Magnolia , Dappled Willow (treeform) , front-yard Cleveland Pear , some of our lilac buds , how we've added some wood chips to the far back and biosolids in testing and most recently, posted both hostas and peonies coming thru the mulch .  Here's a few items that I've covered over the years.  This is what they're looking like in mid-April, 2020. Starting with the northside Rhododendron.  This was put in the bed in 2018 and didn't flower last year.  Buds game looks strong this year.  This is the one plant that I applied Wilt-Pruf this Winter .  In the bed outside the screened porch, I planted a solitary Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass a couple of years back.  We should add more here, I think.  I trimmed last year's growth off...

As part of my 2020 planting/buying plan, I've begun to focus on a couple of areas for prioritization.  We have SOOOO much to do in regards to buying new plants per our plan that I thought it would make sense to break things up into chunks.  The first one up on my priority list is this section of the landscape plan that is visible from our patio.  It calls for seven new Alice Oak Leaf Hydrangea bordered on one side by a series of Summer Beauty Allium and underplanted with Fanal Astilbe out front.  You'll see in the image above that I've called out 3 'columnar trees' in teal.  That's based on this tree-planning post .  We have three existing hydrangeas in this area - where the Oak Leaf ones are supposed to go - including this Tuff Stuff and this Everlasting Revolution and this teardown Limelight .  The first two were planted very small and have NOT bloomed, but the Limelight one that I transplanted bloomed last year , so I want to think about...

This pair of Hydrangeas are right outside the southside of our front wrap-around porch and I've chronicled them a few times here on the blog in the garden diary.  I have, however, mislabeled them in the past once calling them "Annabelles" .  They're not Annabelle Hydrangeas.  They're Limelights.  I looked back at our original landscape plan and confirmed that they are limelights - because the blooms earlier this year were VERY lime-colored.  They're doing great with giant blooms that put on that nice lime-colored show earlier this year.  This is the second in the series of posts about our front yard plants - which have been historically second-class citizens in the garden diary over the years.  The first was this post about our Little Henrys .  Going back, you can see them coming back their first Summer in June 2018 here .  Then, here's what they looked like in mid-Summer last year.   Compact, but big blooms.  These get g...

Above you can see what I've been calling our "Teardown Hydrangea" in its current state in the Fall of 2019.  I've documented this over time here on the blog since "acquisition" to today.  Starting with the beginning, in October of 2017, I dug some plants out of a yard down the street before they were tearing down a house to build .  In that bucket of plants was a hydrangea that looked really ratty.  Dry and unhealthy.  I didn't have much faith that it was going to make it.  And...frankly, I wasn't really certain that it even *was* a hydrangea!  Surprisingly enough, it survived the Winter and came back in Spring of 2018.  By last August, it has grown a bit and even flowered with a handful of blooms .  If you look then, this was the first time that it was showing off any lime-color in the flowers - which helps point me in the direction of the variety.  They're not (at least now) cone-shaped, but more ball-shaped.  I think that mig...

Above you'll see the current state of (on the left) our Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea, (middle) our dead Weeping Cedar tree and (on the right) our Tuff Stuff Hydrangea.  This post is the same photo from just over a year ago and you can see some big differences .  Of course, the Cedar tree is dead.  Sure...that's a difference, but this post is about the size and vibrancy of the hydrangeas on either side. First, the smaller one:  the Everlasting Revolution.  Planted in Fall of 2017 , this marks two years.  It is billed as being 'multi-colored' in flowers , so this is the one I was/am most excited about.  It is about 1/3rd of the size of the other one - planted at the same time, so it has fallen behind for one reason or another.  Here (below) is a closer-up photo of the Everlasting Hydrangea.  It has never flowered or bloomed.   But it has come back both Springs and looking at this photo from a year ago , it has more than dou...