Why I Oughta...

In my Fall Planting sprint last year, I planted a pair of Agastche 'Blue Fortune' perennials in my mixed bed IB2DWs .  These were sort-of tucked in behind some Hakeonechloa All Gold Grasses and in front of a row of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  Roy Diblik - up at Northwind - talked up Agastache, so when I saw it on close-out, I grabbed two.   They mostly just hung out in the background all Spring, but in the past week-or-so, they exploded with some blue/purple bottle-brush like blooms standing tall and proud.  Below is a photo showing the blooms and overall height of the plant: They're billed as being great for pollinators and true-to-the-description, when I was out there looking at these on a recent morning, they were being buzzed-around by some insects.  You can see them if you look closely: More of this, Jake.  Fall planting will be here soon enough. 

#2 on my priority list for 2024 is to 'keep going with flowers' .  That means...pushing through my discomfort around blooming perennials and annuals and planting things that I haven't in the past.  This year, that means that I am expanding a little bit out from what I *do* know and what I *do* like.    Last year, I had a small patio container that mixed some salmon-colored zinnias and Euphorbia .  It was great and I was able to cut from the Zinnias all through the late Summer/early Fall.   This Spring, I cut out a new bed on the southside and planned to spread some Zinnia seeds around (more on this soon) to serve as a sort-of cut flower garden bed.   But, I also went further with flowers this year by planting some dahlia tubers.  So far, I've planted six Melina Fleur Dahlia tubers (that I started indoors) .  Three in the sideyard, three in the front porch bed (where the Disneyland Roses were last year).  And, I put in three Orange Nugget Dahlia tubers in that Zinnia b

Last Fall, I planted a three-pack of Penstemon Midnight Masquerade in the conifer garden IB2DWs and talked about how I needed to keep going (out of my comfort zone) with flowers.  There was a lot to like about these perennials - they're drought tolerant, can handle heat and humidity, full of dark foliage and bloom purple and white flowers.  When I bought them, they were past bloom-time, so that flower part was taken on faith. This Spring, I marked their reemergence for their first Spring in early April when new foliage clumps came back from dormancy .   I topped this part of the bed with some big box mulch (not leaf mulch...) and mostly moved on in the gardening season.  Until this week.  When these things started to bloom.   Have a look at my three one-year-old Midnight Masquerade Penstemons ( or Beardtongue ) with their showy light purple and white clusters of flowers: This spot is full sun and is part of what I've always called the 'hard to grow' section.  The thick

A couple weeks ago, I posted some photos of the (very few) Lilac blooms that we were seeing on our flowering shrubs this year and mentioned that while I had two varieties, one of them - the Nocturne Lilacs - had never bloomed.   Even after being transplanted to a more full-sun location.  So, imagine my delight when I was out in the garden and noticed these dark purple tightly-would flower buds on the tips of some of the Nocturne Lilac tips: These are a couple weeks behind all the other Lilacs in our neighborhood.  But...a quick poke around the Web reveals that the two-week delay is EXACTLY by design .   The late blooming lilacs bloom about two weeks later than the common lilacs and include the Preston hybrids. They are fragrant, robust plants that can be more tree like and resistant to powdery mildew. ‘Nocturne’ is a profuse bloomer with deep violet buds opening to a lilac-pink lightly scented flower. Extending the Lilac season - love that.    "Deep violet buds" reads right,

One of the hidden gems from last Fall's planting sprint is going to be the three Midnight Masquerade Penstemons that I bought at the big box nursery end-of-season sale.  I tucked them into the IB2DWs Conifer garden - along the property line.  And, they didn't do much last year before going dormant.  But, they appear to be semi-evergreen with the foliage sticking around in some form all Winter.  This Spring, they have put on some new growth that is purple and green.  See below for the current state of these three natives:  This spot is loaded with biosolids, so I'll need to top the bed off with mulch this Spring to avoid some of that turf from coming back and/or to suppress weed pressure.  And, cleanup the back edge of that bed while I'm at it.   I'll also be watching these for height - with their plant tag saying they'll get 36 to 40 inches tall, so that back-of-bed location might be perfect. 

A few days after my last post about new flowers, I'm picking back up on fall planting list - with something way, way, way out of my comfort zone:  Echinacea.  I have no coneflowers.  I have little sun, but that's not the point.  I've been way out of my element with echinacea with little understanding of the entire world.  But, let's get uncomfortable, right? I found and bought one (a single...yes...I know...that's a mistake) Pow Wow Wild Berry Coneflower.  I saw this on the side of the container: And went online. Walters Garden sold me with these details : This variety is incredibly impressive for a seed grown Echinacea. It’s no surprise that it is a 2010 All America Selections winner. In our trials, we noted how floriferous the plants were. Each stocky, relatively short plant carried a bouquet of fragrant, 3-4”, deep purple-pink to near-magenta flowers on stiff, branched stems. More branches result in more flowers per plant and a showier display in the landscape.

What's something that is pretty common in gardens around here that I've lacked?  Salvia.  I've picked-up-and-put-down dozens of Salvias over the years.  Why?  Because I wasn't sure.  Wasn't sure about anything Salvia-related.  Size?  Will they flop?  Are they too tall?  And more questions like that. But, when I found a couple of containers of May Night Salvia at the end-of-season sale at the orange store, I whipped out my phone. What did I find? From Monrovia : Tall spikes of indigo blue flowers top compact mounds of soft, green foliage. This showy perennial is excellent for mixed borders, flower beds and patio containers. From Walters Garden : This award winning salvia is a top performer in the landscape. Dense spikes of deep violet-purple flowers are produced in early summer and will continue longer if deadheaded. Bluestone Perennials says : 1997 PPA Plant of the YearOne of our favorite Salvia. Spikes of the deepest blue begin in late May and continue through th

A couple of seasons ago (Summer 2021), I planted three Allium Serendipity in the IB2DWs bed after being influenced by Erin the Impatient Gardener .  I've had Allium Summer Beauty in the garden since the beginning and Serendipity felt like a nice improvement - at the time.  I mostly just ignored them.  Until this Summer.   When I noticed that they were, indeed, an improvement over Summer Beauty. Why? They bloomed a little bit later.  And for MUCH LONGER .   Fall is the season for dividing perennials, so I picked up my shovel and got busy. Here's the before - two nice-sized clumps of Allium Serendipity: I took those two and made five total plants.  Why five?  A hedge, of course.  I split one in two - in the hopes that those two larger clumps had a better chance of survival.  If I killed the smaller clumps by dividing them too late, or not watering them in enough, or having them heave this Winter...at least I still had what I started with:  two clumps.   I put three of the Allium

Putting this in my garden diary:  waterslide (ruffled) hostas put on short, close-to-the-crown purple flowers in mid/late August.  See below for a photo of the current view of the three Waterslides that we have in the backyard.  I planted the f irst one of these in 2020 from the Morton Sale and added the two others from the orange big box store in 2021 .   Compare this mid/late August bloom time with some of the other varieties like these dark-green Venticosa hostas that bloomed with dark-purple, but very tall blooms in late July .  Having a mix of bloom-times is something that I need to continue to work on - with the ideal being a true four-season garden.

Back in the Summer of 2021, I planted three Serendipity Allium - Ornamental Onions - in the IB2DWs bed along with some other blue/purple plants .   I'm pretty sure that I saw someone on YouTube talk about these as a close cousin to a plant that I love (and have planted in a lot of places) - Allium Summer Beauty.  The foliage of Serendipity is different than Summer Beauty - perhaps you'd describe it as more 'strap-y'.  But, the concept is *mostly* the same. As I mentioned in a recent post, I was away from my yard and garden for more than a week recently and when I came back, I felt like I was 'seeing' or 'discovering' some new (to me) things about growth and bloom-time.   That idea - bloom-time - is what this post is about and why I'm posting this in the garden diary.   Here, below, is a peek at the two (remaining) Serendipity Alliums IB2DWs - in full bloom this late in August.  Note...there are just two of these Alliums left, one has died. Compared

Back in Spring of 2021, I planted some new (to me) bareroot purple Astilbes from Longfield Gardens after bringing them home from Costco - sort-of...on a whim.  Where I put them (on the northside, under the large flowering pear) ended up being too crowded.  Which lead me to attempting to dig some of them out and transplanting them last Fall .  I dug out three of them and tucked them in behind the red-bloomed Fanal Astilbes on the southside.  My thinking (then) was that if the Fanal Astilbes were happy here (and...from what I understand, Astilbes have a reputation for being finicky and hard to get established), the purple ones would like it over there, too.   I pretty much forgot about them as the foliage is pretty similar to the Fanal variety, so before they bloomed, they all.looked.the.same. In the photo below, you can see the three Gloria Purpureas that are purple in color.   The Fanal blooms are spent, but the purple blooms are just getting started.  A nice sort-of sequential bloomi

Our Indiana Street purple Iris is blooming (again).   I posted a photo showing the pointed foliage tips emerging from the mulch early this Spring .  And now, we're getting a purple flower show on the side of our front porch.  The Iris came from my Sister who dug it out of her (and our...for two years) neighbor Wes' garden before it was destroyed by a teardown.  Wes (and my sister and us) all lived on Indiana Street.  Hence...me calling this our "Indiana Street Iris". We don't have too many flowers in our garden and I think I've been conditioned to think of irises as a flower that would be in 'your grandmothers garden' and something pedestrian.  (note...I also don't know the difference between Siberian and Bearded Irises...) I suppose I put them in the same category as Daylilies.  Something that I'm sure is fine for YOUR garden, but not something I need in mine.   I'm not totally sure why I feel that way.  But, I'm starting to think diff