Why I Oughta...

This is the third in a series of [garden diary] posts showing off some mid-November 2024 blooms.  One of them (the Disneyland Rose) is expected .  It has bloomed this late each of the past few years.  The Dahlias are a nice surprise.  Since I haven't grown them (in the ground) before, this set of late-blooms on the dahlias is a learning lesson for me .   But....this third one....this is the strange one.   See below for one of our Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea that sits in front of our front porch that is FULL of brown, past-their-prime blooms.  And...one, random, out-of-season, small pink bloom.   The shrub is a mix of contrasts:  seemingly over with blooming and showing those dead flower heads while dropping leaves.  Along with this one, shooting-tall limb that has a green top and this pink flower. What does this mean for these shrubs?  Healthy?  Just out of sync?  A weird seasonal anomaly?  Who...

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 ...

2024 is the year of flowers.  Despite these still be VERY outside my foliage gardening 'comfort zone'.  This started last Fall and continued with my 2024 to-do list with #2 - push thru with flowers . I've done A LOT of dahlias - arranged for the kitchen counter .  And, even a small set of pompon, dark maroon ones .    Now, I have a small Zinnia arrangement.  Mostly composed of the direct-sown Cut and Come Again seeds in the sideyard .  And a couple Yellow Flame Zowie Zinnias from IB2DWs .   Below is what I cut on a recent morning: I will certainly plant these Cut and Come Again Zinnia seeds - in the sideyard.  I'll also put some down IB2DWs, too.  Mark it down for Spring 2025.  

It is (barely) Mid-March and I'm ALREADY seeing our Saucer Magnolia tree (multi-trunk) in our front yard dotted with signs of pink petals that have begun to emerge from their wooly shells after a long Winter's nap.   What is MOST striking about this is the timing:  a full month ahead of 2023.  Here's a post from April 12, 2023 that shows the pink flowers at the same state they're currently in - photos below. 2023's bloom-time of mid-April was (mostly) in-line with historicals.  2022 saw the tree in peak-bloom in late April .   2024 - (so far) flowers emerged in mid-March 2023 - Mid-April peak-Magnolia bloom 2022 - Late-April 2022:  Peak-Magnolia at end of month 2021 - Mid-April 2021 : In bloom by mid-month (April). 2020 - Early April 2020 : Blooms began the first week of April. 2019 - The tree did NOT bloom at all. 2018 - Early May 2018 : Didn't bloom until early/mid May 2018. This tree was planted in 2017 , so this make it the eighth growing se...

At some point in (I think) 2022, I bought and planted a Japanese Anemone x Hybrid 'Pamina' from Northwind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin and planted it in a spot on the northside of our backyard.  Turns out, I'm pretty certain that it was the WRONG SPOT.  For this plant.  Too much shade.  You can see the sign at the top of this post that calls for "Part Sun".  It goes on to say:   Beautiful, easy to grow plants, flowering late in the season in a burst of bright pink.  Lovely in a partially shaded site.  Divide in Spring.  This plant does great with grasses and interplanted with Stachys 'Hummelo'. "Partially shaded" site is/was my problem, I think.   What do I have to look forward to - if it succeeds?  From Bluestone Pernnials comes these details - including that it is a "RHS Award of Garden Merit Winner : One of the most compact Anemone, the elegant bright rose-pink blossoms of broad overlapping petals surround whorls of b...

Last Fall, I bought and planted two (at that time) new (to me) Heucheras:  Dolce Silver Gumdrops.  They were at Lowe's end-of-the-season sale and I said that I was going to plant them in over by the Guacamole Hostas .  Today, there's just one of them.  And, I don't really see *where* I could have planted the other one as there isn't a ton of empty space around.  But that one?  It is showing up well right now - Late Summer/Early Fall with silver foliage and tiny pink blooms about to arrive.  See below for a photo of the current state of this Silver Gumdrop Coral Bells: I've had mixed results with Heucheras over the years.  Some that I've neglected have done great.  Others that I've baby'd have perished.  This one is small, but that's by design.  The listing talks about this Heuchera's size this way : Silver Gumdrop’ is a smaller scale Heuchera, the perfect size for a container. Growers and gardeners alike will be pleased that it is ...

Yesterday, I shared a few photos of the Disneyland Floribunda Rose in its native environment : a flower bed in New Orleans Square in Disneyland Park.  Today, I'm taking a look at the three (more) mature Disneyland Roses that we have planted in full sun on the southside of our house.  They, too are in bloom; having just started their third flush of pink/salmon/orange flowers on medium-length stems. Below are a few photos showing these floribunda roses: This is the third 'flush' of blooms for the season. Early June - First Blooms Early August - Second Blooms Late August/Early September - Third Blooms (this post) In 2022 (last season), I was seeing blooms last all the way into early November.   It seems that this third flush of blooms is a bit earlier than 2022 ( last year, I saw them all the way at the end of September ), so perhaps that fourth bloom will be pulled a bit forward, too.  While I was out there admiring the Disneyland Roses, I also sprinkled them with ros...

Our front yard hydrangeas have never had a better year than this year.  Full stop.  They are covered with blooms.  And those blooms are big and full.  Leading to the WORST flopping that we've ever hard - even with the large Limelight Hydrangeas that have been the most productive over the years. First...the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas.  They are starting to 'turn' with pink showing up on the flowers - you can see one of them below: I've tracked this 'turning' over the years - in 2017 it started in July , in 2018 it was in September,  same in 2019  and in 2022 (last year), I only documented them when they were in full color - October.   This year it is late August when they're starting to add pink to the big, white mophead blooms. As for the flopping, it appears that the removal of the Norway Maple has changed so much up there and that I'll have to deal with them this Summer (trying to string them up) and that my pruning technique will have to cha...

On a recent visit to Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin, I found myself face-to-face with a table of Sedum plants.  Stonecrop is what some may call them.  They're NOT new plants in general and not necessarily new to me, either.  I had some inherited Sedum in our house in Elmhurst that seemed to do just fine along the driveway.  Didn't think about them much then.  And haven't thought about them much now.   We also have some Angelina Sedum that I really like in a few spots.  But, these more upright sedum?   Don't have them in our garden, but that doesn't mean I can't 'get to know' them a little bit, right? Below are signs for three:  Neon, Karl and Stardust.  The sign for the Neon variety says a lot (to me):  We've been buying Sedum since the 1970's.   Lol.  The Stardust sign is even better:  This is an upright sedum with white flowers.  Go find a spot.  Another LOL. For me, the Neon and Star...

The three Disneyland Roses (Floribunda roses) that are planted in full sun on the south side of our house are currently in the midst of their second bloom cycle of the growing season.  The first set of blooms this season were in early/mid June .  Now, about six-weeks later, we're seeing the next flush of pink/orange/salmon blooms.  See below for a look at some of the Disneyland Roses in mid-Summer: Here, below, is a look at the three Disneyland Roses (along with the pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees that are in espalier) along the side of our house: In 2022, I saw four bloom cycles - June, August, late September and again in early November .  Yes...November.   My plan is to feed these this week and then one more time (September) before putting a stop to the seasonal fertilizer for the season.  

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia Tree that we have planted in our Northern Illinois, Zone 5B suburban front yard put on a spectacular pink show this Spring with the most productive flower bloom we've had since the tree went in back in Summer of 2017.  As I've done in previous years, I've treated this with a systemic insecticide to help protect it against scale that seems to creep in/on in most growing seasons.   The tree has a nice dark color to the foliage and seems to have handled the early Summer drought just fine in our area.   See below for a current view of the tree and the full, dark foliage in mid-Summer 2023: On a recent morning when I was setting up the sprinkler to handle the lawn in front, I noticed some spots of pink high up in the canopy of the Magnolia tree.  See below for a look at those pink tufts near the tips of the tallest limbs:  A closer look (below) shows one of the blooms: What do we have going on here?  Seems like a small...

The best 'show' yet has taken place this past weekend on our Saucer Magnolia tree with pink and white blooms all over the tree that was planted in 2017.  It was REALLY SHOWY this year and it doesn't appear that we lost hardly any flower buds at all this Winter - which....was super mild cold-wise.   The tree - in the photo below - really put on some mass the past few growing seasons and now stands out in the front yard and even obscures some of the house from the sidewalk as you walk by in Spring.  This will leaf-out soon, but for a few days (from April 13 --> April 17), this thing was P E A K.  Also...that dark green lawn looks pretty great this time of year, too.  

Pink flowers are on their way via our front yard Saucer Magnolia tree (multi-trunk) and it appears that 2023 will be another year of pink blooms this Spring.  Many of the buds have broken and are showing curl'd-up pink flowers on their tips.  A couple of photos below show the current state of this tree in mid-April 2023 in Zone 5b - Northern Illinois.  This tree was planted in 2017 , so this make it the seventh growing season (six full, one partial) and it was planted as a six-or-so-foot tree in Summer 2017.  Here are the buds that have opened: I'm reading these blooms as an affect of what I'll call a 'normal winter'.  Either it didn't get TOO cold, or it didn't get TOO COLD, TOO LATE - to kill the flower buds. This appears to be on a similar schedule to last year - when it was in 'full bloom' in/around April 22nd .   The history of this Saucer Magnolia includes one year of no blooms - 2019.  Summer 2017 : Planted as a small, multi-trunk tree. Ear...

I bought and planted a pair of Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale this Spring.    Here's the location and lay-of-the-bed where they went in . I've had trouble with Oakleaf Hydrangeas being eaten up by dang rabbits in the past, so I decided to ring these in chicken wire to protect their tender shoots this Summer - their initial growing season. By last month - the end of June - they both were showing the beginnings of tall, pointy blooms .  Three weeks later?  They're starting to earn their name by putting some color on those blooms.   See below for a look at the pink that is emerging in mid-July on these flowering shrubs: I don't want to jinx myself, but (*knock wood*) so far, so good when it comes to the chicken wire.  These have seemingly avoided being decimated by the dang rabbits and leads me to believe that I REALLY need to wrap all of these in wire this Fall ahead of Winter.  

I added another (existing) perennial down in the newly created bed by the sidewalk that has been a troublesome spot for growing anything since we moved in.  After cutting out the small bed, I added some Lemon Coral Sedum then installed a Panicum Shenandoah Red Switchgrass last week .  I mentioned that I was going to put down some other things this Fall in that post and today's photos show off the new addition:  a pink Bee Balm.  Officially:  Pardon My Pink Monarda didyma (Bee Balm) - which I kept in a container all Spring and Summer in the backyard.   You can see it in the photo below (Bee Balm in the bottom left of the bed): I held on to the plant tag when I planted this in the container, knowing that I was going to be digging this into the beds at some point.  Below is the front of the plant tag showing it takes Full Sun: Below, is the back, where it says to tuck it into the 'front of your border'.  Done and done.  The only issue ...

Last Summer, I planted a series of seven Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  Two dwarf versions and five normal ones.  These were contemplated as part of our existing landscape plan and I planted them along the fence on the southside in the bed closest to the kitchen nook window.   Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas are officially named Hydrangea quercifolia 'Alice' (thanks Roy Diblik) is described by NC State Extension office as a shrub that puts on a white flower show that fade to pink.  From their post : Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Alice' is an erect rounded decidous shrub with showy white flowers that appear in early to mid-summer. As the flowers age they fade to pink. This shrub will reach a height of 5 to 8 feet tall and wide at maturity. Plant 'Alice' in the full sun to partial shade in moist well-drained soil. Mulch this plant in the summer to conserve soil moisture.   Like all hydrangeas, it needs to be pruned immediately after flowering as flower buds are produced o...