Why I Oughta...

Last week, I talked about being a "Fall Gardener" and shared a photo of the Butterscotch Amsonia that was/is popping off in our backyard right now.  The front yard has a different early November - Fall Show - star:  this combination of Saratoga Ginkgo and Little Henry Sweetspire.  You can see them contrasting each other below - with the Little Henry popping off in Fall red and the Saratoga Ginkgo's strap-y leaves turning a bright yellow.  The Saratoga Ginkgo is sort-of 'tucked in' amongst the Little Henry, but it is starting to put on some height (finally) after being planted in May of 2022 .  This is the 3rd full growing season for this tree and it (now) requires to be formally staked - something I should do this Winter.   I posted a similar photo exactly one-year-ago showing this combo .  The leader growth on the Saratoga Ginkgo is noticeable when you look back.  The Little Henry Sweetspire is FAR MORE red this year, too.   In fro...

Fall 2023 is (now) going to be a moment that I'll look back on and think about sedums.  Sedums as groundcover have been on my radar since the success of the volunteer Angelina Sedum that started in our backyard and I've transplanted in a number of places.   The past few weeks have featured a few Sedum that have gone in - a Chicks and Hens Hopewell and a pair of Voodoo Sedum - all of which are IB2DWs and are part of my growing groundcover collection.  When I was at The Growing Place, I came across another new (to me) sedum:  Sedum spurium 'John Creech'.  You can see the sign above in this post.  They say:  A fantastic groundcover.  Distinctive, spoon-shaped leaves.  And it forms 'an extremely tight, dense mat that weeds don't have a chance '.   Who is John Creech?  From the Missouri Botanic Garden listing, they say :   John Creech, former director of the U.S. National Arboreteum, reportedly collected this plant at...

Today, September 23rd is the first, official day of Fall.  And I'm also seeing the first signs of foliage turning seasonal red with the clump of three Little Henry Sweetspires out front showing red at the tips.  See below for a photo showing this set of shrubs (it really is one shrub at this point, right?)  Supplementing this shrub - with groundcover and/or layered plantings should be something I consider for 2024 as this area has been left as-is since the day we moved in.

Tracking for the [ garden diary ] as well as the 2022 to-do list a couple of applications in the garden.  First up is iron. Fast-acting iron. Chelated Iron . I applied this to the rhododendrons by the back stoop and the Little Henry Sweetspire out front.  Below is a photo of one of the rhododendrons where I peeled back the mulch and sprinkled the pelletized iron.  I applied this iron to both. This is the product that I've used the past two seasons . (below)  Next up are the Disneyland Roses.  This is the second application of rose food to my three Floribunda roses.  This is the second application of the season.  The first was in mid-May .  In the photo below, you have to look closely, but if you do, you'll see the granular fertilizer. 

Early Sumer is peak Sweetspire season.  We have a trio of Little Henry Sweetspire (Itea virginica 'Sprich') planted in a little border by our front walk.  I posted a VERY SIMILAR photo almost exactly one-year-ago when these were in bloom in June 2021 .   Below, you can see the peak bloom season for these flowering shrubs.  And, you'll also see the Saratoga Ginko that we planted last month peeking out in the middle . Last year, I applied some fast-acting iron to help darken these up and if I have that bag on hand, I'll do the same this week.  These were planted in 2017 as part of our pre-move-in landscape planting.  That means they've had five growing season with 2022 being the sixth.

I've covered a bunch of the shrubs ( hydrangeas ) and perennials ( Ivory Prince Hellebores ) that I brought home from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale already here on the blog.  But, we also bought a tree from that same sale.  I've bought a tree each of the years that I've attended the sale including this Emperor 1 Japanese Maple tree last year .  And this Red Fox Katsura tree from 2020 .   This year, I've prioritized shrubs in the landscape, but I included a couple of tree items on my 2022 to-d list .  #7 was to plant more trees (and measuring them), so this new tree checks that box.   I keep thinking about that advice I came across in April of 2019 related to planting trees .  The proverb is below : That means planting small trees that - over time - can grow into something meaningful.  I've done this recently with a Ginkgo tree (well...two of them, but one snapped in half ), so I figured another Ginkgo would be interesting....

Here, below, is a look at the pair of Little Henry Sweetspire (Itea virginica 'Sprich') that was planted back in the Summer of 2017 when our house was built.  This shrub puts off these lovely, white flowers that have a really nice smell and the foliage puts on a show all year long.   This sits in a bed tucked in between our front walk and the driveway and just kind of keeps performing without much care. The last time I posted about these Little Henry's was back in September of 2019 here . I water the front yard during the Summer heat, so this shrub likely gets a little bit of that benefit, but I haven't fed it directly - to date.  But, I've noticed that the foliage is a little bit light green - not dark green currently.   I mentioned on Monday that the Rhododendrons seemed to need a little bit of iron , so I went out and picked up a bag of  this fast-acting Iron soil supplement from Menards  to see if it will make it happy and darken things up....