Why I Oughta...

It might be time to add coverage of my 'collecting mantra' to include plants and hostas.  You know the line that I tell myself at garage sales and estate sales .  Thanks to COVID-19, my days at garage sales and estate sales are limited.  So, too, are my trips to the Hardware Store.  But, on one of them, I did wander into the outdoor section of the garden center and saw a relatively inexpensive hosta that caught my eye.  You can see it above - and it looks totally ordinary, right?  It was just $4.99, but that's not the (only) reason I bought it.  The price was/is attractive, but the variety was the real draw here.  It is labeled as an Empress Wu Hosta.  See the tag below:   A quick trip around the Google Machine and I find something that shares the name Empress Wu, but in every instance, it is prefaced with the name Shadowland.  I went to the source - Proven Winners - because that's where the tag is from and they, too, label it Shadowland Empress Wu Hosta.  The

A few days ago, I posted some photos of the teardown Hostas that I had planted around our hose bib outside our kitchen window and talked about how it was time to remove and relocate one of them to make room for the rest that had grown up and out.  I decided to yank the 'middle' of the three along the house out to start and divide it.  In the photo at the top here, you can see the gap that now exists with the largest of the hostas pulled out.  I plan on taking the Hosta on the left of the photo and moving it out - to space these out a little bit. In that post , I mentioned that there were a few locations that need hostas including our front bed, by the screened porch, priority area 2 and 3.  So, where did I put them?  None of those spots. I ended up dividing that one Hosta into four smaller ones - and put a series of three of them just to the East of the 2nd largest Oak tree on the South Side of our lot.  You can see those below.  I wanted to put the third one around t

List of 20 "great shade plants" via Garden Design - story here . I've written many a post about shade gardening and how my mother was a 'shade gardener' and therefore I, too, am a shade gardener.  So, whenever I come across a piece online about shade gardening, I pay attention.  I recently saw this Garden Design story that highlights 20 plants that do well in the shade .  Their list of 20 includes four trees, ten flowering plants and six foliage plants for shade - and it is those that I think are worth posting here for my reference.  Six Foliage Plants for Shade: 1.  Hostas 2.  Coral Bells 3.  Ferns 4.  Caladium 5.  Coleus 6.  Japanese Forest Grass The companion to this list of great shade plants is this slideshow that talks about shade garden design .  Posting this, too, as part of my landscape inspiration collection. 

I planted two different ferns on the northside of our screened porch earlier this Summer.  That post with the full details can be found here in the garden diary .  One of them (Autumn Fern) was planted on the left of this transplanted hosta and one of them (Japanese Painted Fern) was planted on the right.  If you look back at the post when I planted these , the hosta in the middle wasn't there yet and we didn't even have our mulch for the season, so I planted these in some clay. They both immediately sufferend.  Dried out.  Figured they were dead.  Only thing I lost was the two bucks apiece, I figured. Well, on a recent walk around the screened porch, what did I discover?  That both of these ferns have made a comeback of sorts!  They're both green, and have shoots popping through the mulch.  Amazing!  You can see their little beings on the far sides of this photo.  Incredible, right??  Well, maybe not to you, but this is an incredible sight to me.  Hey...thanks, Audr

I've written about hostas on the blog here than maybe any other plant in the garden.  And I've even disclosed why I think I love these things:  my mother and her willingness to toil year-after-year in our super shady, forested yard where the only thing that grew were hostas.    Today, I'm sharing this photo of some hostas that are blooming these spectacular white sets of blooms just in time for the fall season.  I took this photo back in August, but just getting around to posting it now, so if I look back at the garden diary in the coming years, note to self:  August photo.  These are simple hostas - not variegated or particularly large.  I also know where they're from:  In the last few weeks before we tore the old house down on our lot, I went over there and dug out a bunch of hostas that were in the front yard and just kind of threw them down in the backyard - in an area that I thought was past the far-reaches of the construction fence.  I put them down in the s

Back at the end of June, I posted a photo of the bounty that we took out of a yard in Downers Grove ahead of their teardown  that someone we're close to was undertaking.  (We didn't just glom on to the plants!  We were invited!)  Along with the hostas and peonoies and irises, I also grabbed a ratty-looking Raspberry plant.  Or at least, I was pretty sure it *was* a Raspberry plant.  I stuck it in the back of our property and promptly forgot about it.  Fast forward to this week and here's two different evening harvests.  Not a ton of berries, but after the transplant shock, I'm surprised we got any at all.  Not to mention getting scarfed up by the critters that run through our yard on a regular basis.  There are a few dozen more emerging/white-ish berries that will ripen soon, too.  So we'll be at it for a while it seems.  But, with just one plant, we'll never be in a position to fill pint after pint like some folks. Like the rest of their 'teardown&

The last time I covered our fern and hosta(s) that have been fostered by Nat's Mom in her garden out in Naperville was October of 2017 when the hosta had ridden out the hot summer and the fern had died back for the year.  That post is here .  The photo above is one I took recently when we took a trip to Naperville.  You can see that both the hosta and the fern are HUGE.  They've been there for two full growing seasons - and this is their third.   The hosta again has some tip burn, which is disappointing, but it does get some decent sun due to the Bald Cypress that is located close leafs out later than most trees.  The size of those two are the good news.  The bad news?  The tiny Hosta Venusta that I planted back in 2016 doesn't look like it survived this harsh winter.  According to this post , one of the best times (besides early Spring) to transplant hostas is early fall - so I'll look to taking this one in September or so. My experience with transplanting

I posted about some of the various hostas that we've added to our #newoldbackyard recently including the unknown varieties of what I'm calling 'teardown' hostas that came out of a yard down the street of a home that was getting torn down and the Bressingham Blues that we bought at Costco in a bulk bag .  Above are two more varieties that I scored at Menards recently and planted in the yard:  Fantabulous and Christmas Tree. Here's a page that describes the Christmas Tree variety .  And a page that describes the Fantabulous variety - which...have really large white margins and are a favorite of the folks over at NH Hostas .  Menards was (of course) running a deal and these were the two most interesting so I added them to our cart.  Turning to our landscape plan, there are a few spots that hostas are called for, but most of them are in 'to be dug' beds.  Check out the landscape plan section below.  There are Hadspen Hostas spec'd for below the

Look at this lovely little discovery that I found in our rear foundation landscape beds:  hostas are emerging from the mulch.  And these are the questionable ones that I dug out of the yard down the block right before they tore down the house .  It appears that all three of the clumps that I put down have emerged in various quantities.  I ended up planting them where they were called out in the landscape plan - along the west and southwest corners of the house - as outlined here in a post .    The plan called for 4 Hadspen Hostas so with the planting of these we've made some serious progress towards getting this bed in a spot that reflects the design plan.  Adding the fountain grasses below the bird feeders is the other/next step to fulfilling the vision and I'm hoping to get those in this week ahead of getting our mulch installed. 

My love of shade gardening is well documented here on the blog.  After all, it is what I grew up with and what my Mom was doing down on Overlook Court East.  We had a wooded lot and she cultivated - as best she could - shade gardens featuring hostas mostly.  At our new spot in Downers Grove, we too, have plenty of shade.  We were blessed with a few volunteer ferns that came with our lot and I've begun to incorporate hostas into the mix that I both have bought ( this year ) and scavenged from a tear down ( last fall ). In addition to my love of hostas, I've posted quite a bit about one of my other favorites:  ferns.  We've fostered some ferns in Naperville (which I need to dig out!), planted some ferns at Equation Boy/Man's and Vic's house before we moved out , transplanted some survivor/volunteers in our #newoldbackyard , confirmed with the University of Illinois Extension Office that we do, indeed, have Ostrich ferns , and documented them coming up over the

Last week, I picked up these two different ferns from Menards because of two reasons: 1.  I love ferns. 2.  They were on sale at just $2 a piece. So, both the Japanese Painted fern and the Autumn Fern came home with us and they're going here online in my [ Garden Diary ] so I can look back over the years. I planted a Japanese Painted fern back in 2012 in our old house in Elmhurst and documented it here in 2014 when it came back.    It never got all that large, but it did re-emerge after the winter - as long as I didn't smother it with mulch - so I figured I'd give it another go. The other one - the Autumn Fern - is new to me.  I've had other ones called "Autumn Brilliance" before , but don't think this one in particular.  They totally tolerate shade and basically require it, so I was looking for a spot that would guarantee that and ended up putting them in the little bed on the north side of the screened porch.  There's about 2'

I picked up this bag of 10 hosta bulbs at Costco recently and while I'm eager to get them in the ground, they have a specific purpose in our landscape plan:  placed at the base of the new European Hornbeams that are going in along our north fence line .  If you look at the landscape plan image in this post , you can see a series of plants at the base of the trees in the green area.  Those are Hostas.  15 of them or so.  But, if you've read any of my gardening posts here on the blog, you know that I love hostas.  They're my favorite plant.  Along with ferns .  Actually...any kind of shade gardening.  I've planted plenty of hostas over the years.  I mean...we even fostered our giant Hosta over at Nat's Mom's house in Naperville the past few years .  I also dug out - what I *think* were a few hostas out of our neighbor's yard before they tore down the house .  I'm hopeful that those will emerge this Spring.  Back to these Bressingham Blues.  They&#

I came across these Sky Pencil Holly at Fast-Growing-Trees.com (that's where the photo above is from) and I found myself going down a Sky-Pencil-Holly-rabbit-hole to figure out if we could grow these in the Chicago Suburbs (Zone 5B).  The folks at Fast Growing Trees list them to be hardy down to zone 5B.  But the team at the Missouri Botanic Garden list them down to Zone 6 .  These things are super narrow and grow perfectly upright, so they have a lot of appeal to me.  But, I'm afraid that multiple sources (besides the folks who are selling them!) are concurring about Zone 6 hardiness.   Check out the video here: In particular, I was thinking about them alongside the north property line, in front of the fence where our (eventual) walkway would direct people back.  Check out this area I've circled in red on our landscape plan.  It is a tight area that would call for something very slender, yet would provide a sense of 'entrance.  These Sky Pencil Holly woul

For the first time in a while, we spent an afternoon out in Naperville with Nat's parents.  And that means that I took some time to wander in Nat's Mom's garden where I marveled at the size and span of her hydrangeas but also was able to peek at the plants that she is fostering for us.  Above you see both the giant hosta on the left and the dried out ostrich fern laying on it's side on the right.  The fern ran it's course and dried out.  That is normal.  The hosta is nearing the end of it's season, too, so that's why you're seeing some dried spots.  Critters are the likely cause for some of the missing pieces of leaves.  The last time that I checked in on these plants was early this Spring.  Here's a photo of the hosta emerging from the mulch .  Here's what this hosta plant looks like when it is a bit further out of the ground but not unfurled quite yet .  Love this time of year.  So much to look forward to and so many gardening expectations

Just a few days ago, I posted the first snapshot of part of our design for the full landscape plan of the #newoldbackyard and discussed how I had planted one of the hydrangea plants that I had earlier last week harvested from a teardown on our block .  Today, I'm sharing another look at part of the design - this time the southernmost section  of new landscape beds that are adjacent to the rear part of our foundation.  This bed that you see above is actually already in place.  It was dug out and mulched when we did the initial landscaping, but we didn't plant anything in this spot as part of the first round install ahead of our occupancy permits being issued.  If you look closely, you'll see four different types of plants called out in this section: PJM Rhododendrons Green Velvet Boxwoods Karl Forester Reed Grasses Hadspen Hostas Of the plants that I dug out of the lot down the street (which...mind you...was invited by the owner!  She told neighbors to go ove

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

Last week, with the help of the KotBT, we went into the #newoldbackyard and dug up some holes to plant some fall bulbs.  Among the bulbs were tulips (which I'll post on another day) and alliums, which you can see above.  I planted 10 total Allium bulbs of the Purple Sensation variety. I first wrote about Allium bulbs all the way back in 2011 , when the first set of shoots broke through the mulch that Spring.  I planted those in 'secret' as a little surprise for Natalie. I then chronicled their appearance in 2012 , 2014  and 2015 . I put half of this year's Allium bulbs out back by the newly-planted fountain grasses and the other half around this large Oak tree that you can see below.  The red flag isn't related to the bulbs - it is put there by the landscape lighting company to show us where they were planning on putting some lights.  But, If you look closely, you can see a series of holes I dug out around the trunk of the tree where I placed the Allium bu

Last month, I posted about a few of our 'foster' plants out at Nat's folks' place in Naperville including the giant hosta that had emerged this Spring and Nat's Great Aunt's peonies and the miniature variety of Hosta Venusta that came back to my surprise.  But, there was also a big bunch of Ostrich Ferns that we transplanted into foster care.  Just about a month ago, on May 2nd, 2016, I posted this photo showing the ferns emerging from the ground  and in June, I posted this photo showing the giant Hosta and the Ostrich Fern all unfurled in their full glory.  They were doing so well last year, so I never thought for a minute that they wouldn't come back this year. That photo above is what they look like now:  they've not only sprung up ahead of last year's pace, they're also big, vibrant and strong.  How nice to see them doing so well.  I'm not surprised, because a few years back, we divided some of our ferns and gave them to Nat'

Last year, I picked up a few plants at the Elmhurst Ladies' Garden Club annual sale including the Hosta Venusta miniature plant that we're fostering out in Naperville ( posted about it recently here ) and what was billed as a Cinnamon Fern.  I planted that here in Elmhurst at Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house  with some help from the Bird as a "Mother's Day" present to her God Mother.  (and a little, tiny token of gratitude for having us stay in their house!)   I put it along the south property line in one of their landscape beds that had some nice groundcover and a few other shade plants like hostas.  It looked great when I planted it ( see pic here ), but it didn't do that well after the transplant.  Must have had some serious shock, because it withered and just about looked dead a month or so after putting it in the ground.  I looked earlier this Spring and didn't see anything emerging, so I assumed that it wasn't coming back and had died, u

Over the weekend, I posted this photo of a handful of 'survivor' ferns in our new backyard and mentioned that they deserved a shot at being transplanted because they're clearly hearty souls.  Having been able to thrive without anyone tending to them in years means they'll likely be easy to care for, right?  That's what I'm going to assume.   Plus the experience I've had with these ferns before make me love them. I ended up bringing out the spade shovel and dug up a few clumps of them ahead of the landscaper coming out to grade the backyard.  I ended up sticking them in with a bunch of other salvaged plants in the rear of the yard.  Here, in the photo below, you'll see them mixed in amongst the hostas that I took from the front yard as well as a few of the variegated hostas that we picked out of our old neighbor's compost bin in the back. I'm thinking that this isn't likely their end destination (my current thought is to put these on