Why I Oughta...

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 a photo of our Disneyland Roses showing off their last round of bloom s for the year and talked about how nice it is to have some of these colorful flowers this late in the season.  I suppose...it sort-of makes up for the fact that Spring seems to last FOREVER around here and the flowers don't begin to pop-off until August.  2024 has been the season of the dahlia in our garden and it seems that I 've called for 'a lid' on the dahlia season for weeks now .  The plants have been producing fewer blooms each week - starting in October and I assumed they were drawing to a close.   I wanted to extend the season as best I could, so in mid-October, when we were facing a hard frost on a couple of nights, I protected the dahlias with some frost covers .  It appeared to work - and they kept on blooming.   But, starting in November (when the weather turned cooler), I stopped watering the dahlias and began to think about my plan for trying ...

I have a couple of colonies of Angelina Sedum planted in the small, rectangular beds on either-side-of our back stoop that started as a volunteer and have survived over a number of years.  Last Spring, I planted a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos in the beds and transplanted the sedum from one side to the other .   This particular Sedum has been pretty tough.  Tolerant of our (previously Zone 5b) now 6a Winters.  And some foot-traffic.  This year, the timing of the VERY cold weather was paired with a few-days-prior arrival of a few inches of snow.  That meant that there was a natural snow blanket for insulation when the temps dropped below zero.  Look back at these photos from a few weeks ago showing the Spring Grove Ginkgo silhouette .  Plenty of insulation.  How did this Angelina Sedum do with winter?  Below are a couple of photos showing the post-snow (still some to melt) condition: And...while there is still *plenty* of Winter remai...

This is the second Winter that we've had the young(ish) Triumph Elm Tree in our front yard and that means this is the second season that I've used a paper tree wrap around the bottom few feet of the trunk - all the way down to the rootflare - to protect the trunk and bark from Wintertime sun scald.  Here's a link to a post from last November (2022) where I talk through scald and why I was choosing to wrap the tree. Below is a photo showing the wrap in-place this year:

Every Fall, I've gone about protecting our Disneyland Roses (Floribunda Roses) from Winter using an insulation method of laying Fall leaves around the bush.  Typically, I take a small ring of chicken wire and create a ring.  Anchored by a bamboo pole, I erect the chicken wire ring around the rose and fill the center with leaves that I pick up off the lawn.  Some of those leaves are chopped up with the mower, some are just raked up and piled in there. This post from November 2022 shows how I set up that Winter Protection for roses last year .   H ere's another post showing Fall 2020 that shows similar chicken wire rings and leaves that I used to overwinter the crowns of our Disneyland Roses. That system seemed to work just fine.  It wasn't elegant, but (*knock on wood*) I haven't lost a Disneyland Rose yet.  But, my roses are starting to get large and unwieldy.  That has made the chicken wire rings more challenging every year.  So, I went of...

A quick check-in on our small grouping of Hellebores - Lenten Roses - in the backyard here in the garden diary.  These are planted in a small colony of four.  The last time I showed these was early December when all four were still green and leafy .  As I've mentioned in a few other recent posts, we had a VERY cold period of weather right around Christmas where we saw sub-zero temperatures with no snow cover for insulation.  That moved just about everything in the garden along to their final dormancy stage.   When I was out this past weekend looking at the Hellebores (one Sally's Shell, three Ivory Prince ), I noticed that there was a change that you can see in the photo below:  The Sally's Shell Hellebore has taken on mostly brown and dead foliage while the three more-recently-planted Ivory Prince Hellebores are all still winter green: These are some of my EARLIEST bloomers and typically have the first growth that requires protection from late Winter...

I've told this story before:  All the way back in 2018, we had some Lemon Coral Sedum in one of our patio containers .  One way or another, it managed to migrate from the container to the little, square bed next to our back stoop.   And, in a surprise to me, it managed to overwinter in that spot underneath a bed of snow.  I've since left it there and it has spread out each subsequent year.  I had not - up until that point - really thought much about groundcover.  But, then I saw this bed planted out front of the entrance of the Morton Arboretum in 2020 .  That inspired me to plant a mass of Lemon Coral Sedum up front in our front porch beds in 2021 .  It turned out really nice and created a carpet. With the success of the volunteer sedum in our backyard, I thought that I could replicate that growth and split up the front porch sedum and transplanted it in various spots - including IB2Dws and behind the large, Norway Maple in front.  A...

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to create the chicken wire ring to help protect one of our Disneyland Rose bushes (They are a Floribunda Rose) on the southside of our house.  I picked - at that time - the middle one of the three to protect.  I've done this a number of years now and I'm NOT certain that it does anything really.  But...it doesn't take much effort and I'd hate to lose these flowers, so I decided to do all three this year.   That's what you see below:  all three Disneyland Rose bushes now protected by a ring of 2' tall, 1" chicken wire.  Then, filled with leaf litter to help create (hopefully) an insulation blanket for Winter.    I still have a tiny bit of leaf collection/pickup/mulching to do, but I'm hoping these 'settle' a bit so I can put more leaves in the bins. 

By last September, they were leaf'd out and looking good .  Before the frost arrived, I decided to dig them into the landscape and let them try to overwinter outside .  I covered them with mulch and surrounded them with chicken wire to keep the rabbits out.   Well...much to my surprise, these have come back.  In that September post, I talked about how there were ten Kentucky Coffee tree seedlings and one small Maple tree seedling .  I dug these up and moved them to our raised bed by the patio.  Here, below, is what they look like after a long winter's nap: By my count, there are nine (maybe ten) KCT seedlings and that one Maple that have made it.  Pretty good.   #7 on 2022 to-do list was (in part) to continue to work the seedlings . Next up on my list is to try to germinate these Honey Locust seeds .  

The past few seasons, we've had some Sedum Volunteers (or....maybe a better way to describe them is as a 'Survivor' instead of a 'Volunteer' because it has overwintered in place) in one of the small beds to the north of our back stoop where our Rhododendrons are planted.    If you look at this post from 2020, you'll see the beginnings of these Volunteers (they migrated from a container to a bed) and I was surprised to see them come back last year (2021).  In fact, based on the experience, I decided to transplant a bunch of this stuff from our front porch beds to various places in the hopes that it would survive the Winter.   Most of that stuff seems to have died over Winter.  But....the original set in back?  It seems that it might have come through once again.   Here, below, is a photo showing how some of it is green and happy. I'll monitor this set of Lemon Coral Sedum over the Spring to see if it bounces back and continues to live here -...

It was a little bit over a year ago that I posted some photos showing the successful reinvigoration of a wire vine that I had brought in from outside but had suffered some indoor, Winter neglect.  I give it a haircut to get rid of all of the dead/dry vines and it bounced back.  We kept this container in the screened porch almost the entire year - until it was brought inside in early January.  It went upstairs to our extra bedroom - which is where good plants go to die.  This vine was in great shape when it went up and it was, as expected, promptly neglected.  And dried out.  The humidity we have inside the house isn't high enough to provide the ideal environment for most container house plants.  So, I decided to bring it down and try to give it some life.  That meant that I submerged the entire container in a large bowl of water for about 45 minutes to completely saturate the soil and roots.  A day or two later, the dried, brittle fronds ha...

Dang rabbits.  They've taken a pretty big toll on my row of Oakleaf Hydrangeas in our backyard.  In the photo at the top, you can see the freshly-shorn-off tips.  This has happened on all of them along our south fence line - including the pair of dwarf ones. I didn't protect these from pests with wire cages because they haven't been hit in previous Winters.  However...I *have* had one of our other Oakleaf Hydrangeas (planted on the northside bed) get hit by rabbits previously.  I've protected that one with a cage.  Just like I've done other shrubs like the recently planted Arrowwood Viburnum .   Our history with rabbits is well-established and we've had them around the yard since we moved in.  Last Summer, we had a little litter born right next to our patio .  They eat anything they can get their little teeth into including some of my tree seedlings , Hemlock trees , Toad Lillies and even young Hicks Yews . Below, you can see a few more...

On Friday, I posted a photo of my blue (foliage) grow light that I've set up for some of our houseplants this Winter.  These are all containers that I've kept outside during the Summer (mostly in spots with indirect light) or on our screened porch (that is enclosed) during the edges of the growing season.  One of the containers that I've had for 10 months now is my one-and-only (and first ever) Staghorn Fern.   I bought it - on a whim - from Home Depot for $10 last March .  It came in a nursery pot and despite researching how they're supposed to be *mounted*, I've left it alone.  The last time I showed a photo of the fern was in August of last Summer when it had spent a few months outside on the front porch - in shade.  At that time, I also made a move that I (sort of) consider a compromise between mounting Staghorn Ferns and keeping them in a container. There's plenty of folks who keep them in what I'll call a 'basket'.  My solve to get my cont...

During the past week or so, I've been poking around doing research into evergreens for this year and think about shrubs and trees that might work in certain spots of our garden.  While I was doing that, I thought that I should do some level of an informal audit on what is in place.  Of course, there are the Hicks yews (in multiple places), but also a couple of Junipers and just last year, I added a Bird's Nest Spruce that I left in the nursery container .   But, when I went out in the yard to have a look at what else there was, I realized that I planted another conifer that I failed to document in the [ garden diary ] this past fall:  a Mugo Pine.  When I was planting some of those tiny Boxwoods , I also dug in a very small Mugo Pine.  While I failed to post about the small Pine going in, I *did* mention it during my 2021 scorecard post .  While that's just fine, I do think this small conifer shrub deserves a post of its own.   What is a...

Well, we didn't have Christmas flowers.  But, we sure do have New Year's flowers in two of our containers.  We came home from a long weekend to find out that both the trio of Red Lion Amaryllis bulbs and the red and white striped Sunshine Nymph have bloomed and opened up wide.  The last time that I shared photos of these was on December 28th , so in just a week they went from "beginning to open" to "full bloom" that you can see below.   The Lemon Star Amaryllis (our first green-colored bulb) is at the front of the table in the photo above and you can see that it has grown to be the tallest of the flower stems (Despite being watered with the alcohol/water mix), but the furthest behind in terms of blooming.  Thinking we'll see that one open up in the next week or so. Below are a few photos that I've taken over the last few days of the Sunshine Nymph flowers.  They're quite striking and have red petals with a white stripe down the middle.  The pet...

In our backyard, we have a couple of mature (and a few smaller, understory) Catalpa trees .  I've posted about them from time-to-time and talked about how I've come around on them and have grown to really enjoy the species .  And how the Catalpa tree has become a sort-of gateway into the whole "Native Tree" world.  This Spring, we came across some Kentucky Coffee Tree seed pods at a Downers Grove park and successfully germinated them and grew some seedlings .   We're currently attempting to overwinter those tiny seedlings by digging their containers in the ground .  What I've learned from those seedlings was that the seeds required a winter rest.  Or...what they call stratification.  That means that they require a period of dormancy that comes along with the cold temperatures of Winter.  For the Kentucky Coffee tree, that happens with the seed pods hanging on the trees all Winter until Spring when they drop.   Based on that experie...

As part of my Fall planting this season, I put in a pair of Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs that were called for in our backyard plan .  I put these two near the fence on the north side of one of our beds and when I planted them, I noticed that when you read about Viburnum, it seems that rabbits like to eat them up.   Noted in the garden diary.  And solved for today. When I was beginning to overwinter our backyard, I made sure to grab a couple of cages from wire (chicken wire and grid wire) and make a little perimiter ring for each of these young Viburnum to keep the rabbits at bay.  I started making these wire rabbit-proof cages for tender plants last year and have had good luck with them .   Below you can see the two shrubs with different material cages around them - with the goal being to keep the pesky rabbits (who I continue to see hanging in our beds) away from these until they get established next season. 

Back in September, I showed off a partial flat of some viable Kentucky Coffee Tree Seedlings that I had collected and germinated from seed this Spring.   In that post, I talked about how to overwinter them and explored various methods.  With our climate (Zone 5b), it seemed that the best way was to dig them into the ground to provide insulation over the harsh Winter.  So...that's what I did.  I found a fairly sunny, but protected spot in one of our beds and dug a trench.  I put the flat in the ground, covered the seedlings up with dirt and then put a layer of mulch over the top.   Then I went in for the night.  What happened next?  The damn rabbits ate a bunch of them.  Now, these Kentucky Coffee Trees have - for a long time - a bare trunk and leaflets off of them, so I can't tell if the rabbits ate down the trunks or just the leaflets.   When I figured out what was going on, I grabbed some chicken wire and made a little ...