Why I Oughta...

Of the three hydrangea plants that we've put in on the south fence line of the backyard, this "teardown hydrangea" is doing the best.  Above you see it here in Early June of 2019.  Here's a post showing it in August of 2018 .  It threw off a bunch of nice-sized blooms last year, so I'm hoping that this year, it will do even better.  Comparing the two photos, it has seemed to grow larger/taller than last year.  I'll have to try to document later this Summer where this thing blooms - on new or old wood. 

Just like last year - albeit a month or so later - our Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas out front are turning.  Here's a similar photo that I posted during our first Summer in Downers with the blooms of the hydrangeas outside of our front porch .   We have four Vanilla Strawberry plants right in front of the porch.  You can see them all from earlier this Summer in the photo on this post .  What's most striking is that by June these had barely started to leaf out.  And with the red/pink color just emerging in late August/early September, these are a full month behind where they were in 2017.  We initially were going to put Annabelle's here, but after talking with Nat's Mom and our landscape designer, they decided to put these pinkish ones in the same place.  I'm really glad we went that route.  Our Annabelle's are doing way, way better - with HUGE blooms - compared to these Vanilla Strawberry variety.  But, with time and a little bit of attention, I'm thin

On the left, you can see the tiny Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea plant that I put in last fall.  I showed an early Summer view of this thing when it was barely poking out of the mulch .  This one has always been smaller and a bit behind the other one. That one on the right is the Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea that went in on the same day .  I posted an early June photo of this one, too here on the blog .  You can see the difference in these two, but also, if you look back at those posts I linked above, you can get a sense for how these have grown over the past two months.  Also, in the middle of this photo is my Weeping Cedar .  I planted this tree in May and it seems to have established itself a bit and hasn't experienced any needle drop like, ahem, other trees.  I cut off the top of the tree in this photo, but you can get a sense for the limbs that it has added and how it appears to have bulked up a bit.  Back to the hydrangeas, though.  You'll note that NEITHER of

Last October, I posted a photo of a trug of perennials that I dug out of a lot down the block ahead of their teardown and new build.  In that post , I mentioned that I *thought* that I had grabbed a hydrangea, but it was looking pretty dried out and rough.  And wasn't sure it was going to come back.  In that same batch, I grabbed some hostas and ferns.  Here's a post that I shared of the ferns that came back .  And here's the hostas .  Now, I have the final piece of the good-news puzzle:  what you see above is a healthy, flowering hydrangea that is emerging for it's first season in our yard.  I'm posting this here so I can reference it in the [ garden diary ] in the future.  This particular hydrangea has chartreuse-colored blooms and while short in stature is doing quite well without a lot of attention being paid to it during the hot Summer.  As it continues to put down it's roots this season, I'm expecting to have it get larger next season and f

Two months ago, I posted a photo of some of our front hydrangeas and they were looking pretty small.  Today?  The Annabelle's are big and blooming.  Those two that you see above are Annabelle's and they're on the south side of our porch.  These continue to outpace in both size and blooms the Vanilla Strawberry variety that we have in front of the porch that face due East. In looking at some of our neighbors, our hydrangeas are behind where some others are at currently in terms of blooms.  Might be because ours aren't as mature as the ones next door or maybe they're some other variety.  I didn't cut these all the way back to the ground, but according to this product listing on White Flower Farm , that's what many people choose to do: Because she flowers heavily on the current season’s growth (“new wood”), most gardeners cut the stems to the ground in late winter. New shoots emerge from the base and bloom the same summer. I know that's what the

This is the third in the series of posts updating some plants that Nat's Mom gifted us late last fall.  Yesterday, I posted about the Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea that is doing really well .   Today, I'm sharing the photo you see above to show the current state of the Everlasting Revolution hydrangea that isn't doing *as well*.  You can see that it is much smaller than the Tuff Stuff and the foliage is barely emerging from the mulch.  In fact, I had to kind of carve out a little hole/trench for this thing to even have a chance.  It is located about eight feet from the Tuff Stuff variety, so they're getting basically the same support - sun, water, soil.  But the difference is stark.  I've actually babied this one a bit more this late Spring and hope that it continues to establish itself a bit so we head into the Winter with a strong base/root system. I'll try to revisit this plant later this Summer/Fall to see how it has grown when the heat of the Summer hits Do

Back in October of last year, Nat's Mom gave us a couple of plants that I immediately stuck in the ground and then nursed through the balance of the growing season in the hope that, despite planting them so late, they would survive the winter and come back.  I recently covered how one of these plants - the Disneyland Rose - is ready to bloom this Summer here on the blog .  The other two plants included in the series were hydrangeas.  The first one I'll post here is the Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea .  Above you'll see a happy and healthy hydrangea that is quite small (like 6" tall and 8" wide), but has more growth on it than when I put it in the ground in October.  I didn't cut it down at all this Spring and that's because, according to this Proven Winner item description , it will bloom on *both* old growth and new growth.  From PW : This re-blooming hydrangea begins blooming in early summer on old wood and continues to produce flowers on new wood throu

This is a look (and post in the [ garden diary ]) of our hydrangeas in the front yard.  On the right side - under the front part of our porch are four Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas .  On the left, are a pair of Annabelle Hydrangeas.  There are also two Little Rocket Narrow Spiked Ligularia that are showing in the photo, too, but this post isn't about them. These hydrangea were planted at the same time and were the same size container.  I also gave both a hard pruning early this Spring/late this winter to be *about* the same size.  They were getting a bit 'leggy', so based on some guidance from fellow gardeners, I pruned them down to focus some of the growth into a more bush-like shrub.  But, look at the growth on the two varieties.  The Annabelle's are planted facing south.  The Vanilla Strawberry ones are facing east - from the building.  Meaning that as the sun moves across the day, the two on the left side stay in the sun most of the day while the four out fro

This is the fourth in the series of different snapshots of our emerging landscape plan for our #newoldbackyard.  The other three are here and are worth visiting to get a sense for the overall plan.   Here's a look at part of the southern fence line .  Includes a set of hydrangeas, some hostas and ferns, allium and some Canadian Hemlocks.  I got a little bit of a headstart on this section last Fall when I planted some hydrangeas that we were given by Nat's Mom.   Here's a look at part of the rear foundation planting areas.  This one is right outside our breakfast nook/kitchen .  It includes some grasses, boxwoods, a rhododendron and some hostas.  This is right where our bird feeders are located, so the grasses are perfect.  Also, I harvested some hostas/ferns from our neighbor's house down the street late last season and got those started in their spots.  Hoping they'll come back this Spring.  Unfortunately, I also planted our Disneyland Rose there, so

This fall is the first fall in our #newoldbackyard, so I've been busy with various fall plantings.  Starting with the tulip and allium bulbs, the harvested hostas, ferns and hydrangea from our neighbor's yard and most recently with a Disneyland Rose plant and a Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea - both from Jackson and Perkins.  This one above, the Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea, is the last in the series of plants that we were given by Nat's mom as an anniversary gift.   I put it in a spot adjacent to the Everlasting Revolution variety (the multi-colored one) as outlined in the most recent landscape plan documents .    If you look closely at the photo above, you can get a sense for the soil we're dealing with in the #newoldbackyard.  It isn't great.  In the Spring, I have plans to amend the soil with some organic material and till it in where the beds are located.  That might require me pulling some of these plants out and replanting them, but they'll b

In addition to the Disneyland Rose , Nat's Mom also gifted us a few other plants that were shipped this fall including this Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea that you see above.  I mentioned in the post a week or so back that the #newoldbackyard landscape design called for hydrangeas on the south property line tucked in front of a few new hemlock trees .   And that's where I ended up placing this one. This one is three posts down from the tall 6' section of fence on that side.    I planted it fairly close to the fence and if you look at the drawing in this post , it is where one of the Oak Leaf Hydrangeas are placed and I also planted another one (that I'll post about soon) in a similar location.  I've never planted hydrangea in the fall, so I'm not sure how these are going to turn out, but the nursery shipped them knowing our USDA Zone, so I have my fingers crossed that this one survives the winter. Also, if you are following along closely at home, you kn

Just yesterday, I posted a photo of some of the harvested perennials from a teardown a few doors down that I dug out of their lot .  Included in the trug in this photo is a hydrangea, a few hostas and some ferns.   I also mentioned that I was planting these 'new to us' plants in spots that were outlined in one of the plans that we received after we had two landscape design firms give us proposals for the hardscaping for the 'entrance' to our #newoldbackyard.  Here's a look at the first proposal .  Above, you'll see a screenshot of just a portion of the second proposal.  In addition to giving us some idea of how they'd approach the 'entrance' to the backyard , they also gave us a look at the entire yard and what they would plant and how they would shape the beds.  It is incredibly detailed and while isn't perfect, gives us a lot of ideas on the direction of the future of our #newoldbackyard. Importantly, you'll note that in the sketch a

That pile of stuff in the photo above might not look like much, but it potentially is a bountiful harvest from down the block.  There's a family that is tearing down a house four doors to the south of us and the lot had a decent perennial garden.  So, the new owners put out a note to the neighbors to 'come and dig' what you want/can out of the yard before the heavy equipment rolls in and everything is tossed.   I went over there with my spade shovel and this blue trug and found a half dozen variegated hostas, a few what I think are going to be ostrich ferns, and a hydrangea bush.  Dug them out, walked them home and put them in the #newoldbackyard with some water to give them a chance to survive.   Back in Elmhurst, I did the same thing a few times when homes were being torn down in our neighborhood.  On one occasion, I grabbed a few peony plants and irises and one other time when a house across the alley from Equation Boy/Man's house was being torn down, I

Part of our initial plant/landscape installation included a few sets of hydrangeas out front of the porch.  I think both Nat and I really like hydrangeas - they're pretty easy to tend to and they have a bit of 'showiness' to them.  Our #newoldfarmhouse is white, so one of the ideas that Nat's Mom had was to try to bring in a hydrangea that had a bit of color to it.   Chris Paul of Green Grass Landscaping (and my fraternity brother!) came back with these Vanilla Strawberry ones. They bloomed this first year and have good-sized white flowers.  But, just this week, you can see that some of them are turning pink.  Exciting stuff.  From the sounds of this story from HydrangeaGuide , it sounds like the show lasts all summer: It will start to produce them show stopping flowers around the start of Summer and flowers appear from white pinkish buds and open into white flowers.   The large white coned shaped flowers then start to turn pink before slowly turning a strawberr

The Annabelle Hydrangea plant that I put in a few years back is really popping this summer.  It has a partially sunny spot on the north side of our backyard landscape beds.  It is sitting right up against the fence and has filled in the spot really nicely.  We have a few 'Incrediball" varieties close to this Annabelle that are doing well this year, too.  I lost one of them two summers ago, but the other two quickly filled in the space.  *Those* blooms, while not as many as this one, are much more spectacular.  They're currently running a little big behind but will catch up by mid-July, I'd think.

Looks like our Hydrangea tree that we planted in very late May is happy with where we put it.  It was billed as a "Pinky Winky" tree with the label, but the buds sure don't look pink to me!  Guessing this was mis-marked at some point?  The blooms are linear-shaped, so it isn't something that we have around here currently - which is nice.

Last week, we stopped by a nursery in Hillside and found a nice Pinky Winky Hydrangea Tree that we loved.  The only issue was the price.  It wasn't cheap.  On Saturday, I took both girls over to Menards and while out in the garden center, I saw the same variety and about the same size, but for less than half the price.  Into the cart this thing went. Our plan calls for something like this as a way to add some height to our northern set of beds along our walkway from the garage to our deck.  I put it in the ground yesterday after I cleaned up the one sucker near the bottom and gave it a big drink. I've had mixed results with hydrangeas so I want to stay on top of this one water-wise so it has a good chance at establishing itself this summer.

Took a few days, but we finally got the rooted hydrangea "Incrediball" cutting in the ground .  Have to stay on it water-wise to make sure it establishes itself properly.  I give it a 1 in 10 shot.

Took a few months, but we finally have some real roots on a hydrangea cutting I took earlier this summer.  I clipped off the big leaves and am going to plant it outside in the next few days and watch it closely....

Sounds like all it takes is a bit of aluminum and we might be able to turn our pink hydrangeas over to the much-prized blue ones.  See the little bee hidden in the flower there?