Why I Oughta...

I have a couple Shredded Umbrella plants in our shade garden in the backyard. That's their trade name, but their scientific name is Synelesis aconitifolia and they're prized for their upright foliage that resembles - as you might have guessed - a 'shredded umbrella' in the garden. I bought them up at Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin from Roy Diblik after fellow garden designer Austin Eischeid gave a talk at Northwind about his shade garden and included the Shredded Umbrella Plant. I tucked two of them in amongst some Epimedium.  That first season, they went dormant early.  I assumed they didn't make it.  But, they came back last year.  Same thing:  early dormancy.  I figured the worst. So, imagine my delight when I see this unique foliage (below) peeking out of the soil this Spring: I'll post an update after this leaf's out later this Spring.  I'll include it on my shopping list the next time I head to Northwind.  

At the end of March, I posted a photo of a clump of closed-up buds that were emerging from the soil and talked about how we've 'inherited' these Virginia Bluebells from our neighbor - both by division/sharing and by naturalization and spreading under the fence.  Now, three-plus weeks later, the Virginia Bluebells have leaf'd out and showing their green-and-light-purple foliage while we wait for the little blue and pink flowers to arrive.   Below is a look at the same clump of native Virginia Bluebell - ahead of its flower arriving - that I showed in March.   And, in the photo below, you can see this same clump on the bottom right of the photo.  But, you can also see the other, smaller plants that have naturalized from under the fence.  There's that one random tulip bulb back there, but otherwise, just these Spring Ephemerals.   The other Spring Ephemeral that is naturlizing via our neighbor's garden is Bloodroot .  She was nice enough t...

A couple days ago, I showed how we planted two new, bareroot Disneyland Roses (Floribunda roses) in the sideyard along-side the three existing Disneyland Roses .  In that post, I talked about how I was hopeful that the three legacy roses would come back this year - despite a TOUGH 2024.  They had leaf-drop, pests (sawfly larvae) and disease.  So, I wasn't sure if they were going to make it. But, Spring is the most hopeful time in the gardening calendar.  And, that's because there are signs of rebirth all around us.  These Disneyland Roses are the latest case.  All three legacy roses are showing signs of life with red-ish tips and green growth.    Below are some photos showing the three legacy roses and their new, seasonal growth: And more good news is that the two recently-planted bareroot Disneyland Roses are *also* showing new, seasonal growth with red buds emerging on the green canes.  See below for a top-down view of both of these new p...

Sedum groundcover is something that I've added over the past few years - some of it works, some of it is a work-in-project.  In walking around the beds this weekend, I noticed the pair of Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum' that I planted in Fall 2023 are doing the best of all of the groundcovers.  These are IB2DWs, down by the sidewalk.  You can see them in this post from a year ago .   They're tucked in near some legacy tulips - that you can see both of below.  Tulips on the right - just foliage.  And, right down the middle of the photo, there are two clumps of sedum that are putting on Spring growth: These put on small yellow flowers in mid-Summer.  Here's a photo from June 2024 showing the flowers .    One of the big changes here is the expansion of this bed in the past 12ish months.  These were, when planted, adjacent to lawn.  Now, they're surrounded by mulch.   Groundcover continues to be something I'm going to fo...

Another sign of Spring:  one of (at least one of) the Brookside Geraniums has emerged from the mulch in the square bed next to our backdoor stoop.  These are growing in the shadow of the Spring Grove Ginkgos.  Planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale , this will be their third full growing season.  They're the only Geraniums that we have growing, but that might be something I'll add this year via the same Morton Arboretum sale. Below is the green foliage emerging in late March 2025:  

I have planted zero Crocus bulbs.  Yet, I have a couple of Crocus flowers that have shot up this Spring.  See below for one of them.  I've begun to think about a 'bulb lawn' - vs....where I used to be:  a perfect lawn.  This naturalized Crocus might have pushed me over the edge in that direction.

Planted in the Fall of 2023 , a pair of Silver Mount Artemisia are emerging for Spring 2025 in the IB2DWs bed right next to the driveway.  This pair of silver-foliage perennials can be seen in this Summer 2024 post about some Zinnias .  They're called 'mound', but I think a better name would be 'cloud'.   Silver foliage is a recent garden trend, with more plants being hybridtized to be white/silver.  These Artemisias stand out in the IB2DWs bed.  According to most sources on the Web, Fall is the best time to divided Artemisia - so if these have a good growing season - these will go on my '2025 Fall Dividing Candidates' list. See below for the greenish-silver tips emerging for Spring:

My experience with clumping Allium started with Roy Diblik's Summer Beauty Allium.  Or...ornamental onion.  I have them planted in a number of spots - in the back and in the front.  But, in 2021, I added a new variety - Serendipity Allium .  They're *very* similar to Summer Beauty, but have a few improvements.   I started with three, but only two came back IB2DWs, and by the Fall of 2023, those two were big enough to begin dividing .   I took the two existing clumps and made five total.  All five came back in the Spring of 2024 .  Three in the original spot - in the initial IB2DWs bed and two more in the IB2DWs extended.  Last Fall, I divided one of the originals again.  And, transplanted the new clump further down the bed.  Leaving me with six Serendipity Alliums before dormancy .   Like other hybrid perennials, these Serendipity Alliums are an improvement over the original.  They bloom a little later and ...

 Below is a photo of the small colony of yellow daffodils that we inherited in our backyard.  They've sort-of naturalized a bit and have moved over time - but they're always in the bed behind the Northern Red Oak tree on the south side of the lawn.   The clumps of those strap-like tips are a sure sign of Spring: Last year, these were further along by early March .  And were blooming the first week of April .  We're a week away from April and these are no-where-close to blooming.  The flower buds haven't even come up.   I don't know what caused the slower-to-emerge cycle, but I'm noting it for everything else.   We had a VERY MILD Winter from December 2023 to March 2024.  So much so, that the ground was un-frozen enough for me to begin excavation of the pizza oven in February .  February!   I'll see if this two-week delay holds true to other perennials this Spring. 

Over the past couple of years, our garden has been home to a couple of Spring Ephemerals:  Virginia Bluebells and Bloodroot .   They both naturalized via our neighbor's garden.  And... my neighbor dug-up a couple and gifted them to us a few years back .   They live in the 'kitchen curved' bed amongst the Oakleaf Hydrangeas and put on a quick Spring show.  Hence the name..."Spring Ephemerals".   As I was cleaning up a little bit in the beds this week, I came across this crown of a plant that was just emerging from the soil.  See below for the buds emerging from the soil - partially covered by snow: Since these things naturalize and have been spreading, I'm NOT certain which this is - but based on some of the images online - I'm pretty sure this is a crown of a Virginia Bluebells plant.   From snow-covered trees yesterday .  To these sure signs of life the very next day.  Spring is here. 

Over the years, we've had a tough go-of-it with peonies in our yard.  I suppose you can say that we were totally spoiled when we lived in Elmhurst.  We had a number of peony plants that were very productive.  But, in Downers?  Not a lot of luck.   I have long suspect that was a result of too-much shade, so that lead me to a number of years of moving them around.  From the far back to near(er) to the house.  And then, in 2022, I moved a couple of them out to the IB2DWS bed.   And guess what happened?  We got our first peony bloom in 2023.   Or, should I say 'blooms'.  The IB2DWs peony produced a number of blooms.  And, so too, did the ones by our curved-kitchen-window bed .   Each year, they emerge in late Winter/early Spring with their redish-purple tips.  Here's the 2023 version when they showed-up in early April .   Last year, because of the production, I decided to leave them as they w...

Right around this time every (early) March, the green tips of a set of daffodil bulbs emerge from the mulch in the bed behind the secondary Northern Red Oak tree.  These were inherited - and I didn't plant them.  I've observed them over the years - as far back as our first Spring here (2018) -  and here's last year's post .  They have flowered exactly ONCE.  Just once - in 2021 .   Will they bloom this year?  I doubt it.

I was out in the backyard this week and after walking around and being bummed about all the rabbit (dang rabbits!) damage , my emotions turned back upwards when I walked over to the little colony of Hellebores we have planted underneath some large trees (Walnut and Catalpa).  All of the Hellebores are showing their new 2024 growth emerging from the soil with pink, almond-shaped buds.  Here's a few photos showing this year's growth:  Ivory Prince Hellebore Emerges in early February in Zone 6a.  As of this Spring, we had six (6) Hellebores in the garden.  I bought two (Merlin variety) at the Morton Sale and planted them along the existing four (1 Sally's Shell, 3 Ivory Prince) .   As noted in late August, both of the Merlins died .  Didn't even make the Summer.  Bummer.  My first real, true (and VERY FAST) failure from the Morton Sale.  I lost a Maidenhair Fern that I bought in 2021 that very same year, but I think that was due to ne...

Imagine my surprise when - on my walk to take the trash cans to the curb this week - I notice that there's some new, green foliage tips that have emerged from around the large Maple parkway tree in the front of our house.  "It's January 1st", I said to myself.  "What the heck is going on?" What is going on is (apparently) some of our tulip bulbs have begun to wake up and begin their 2024 growing season.  Here, below, are a couple of photos showing these confused (or, just too-early) tulips.  The first is a wider shot, the second is a close-up of the same tulip tips: Our tulips emerged in mid-February in 2023 .  This is a full six-weeks earlier.   That move to Zone 6a - from 5b - sure is meaningful, huh?   I suspect that these tips will remain just that - tips - for the next month-plus.  We haven't really had a lot of cold, cold Winter (yet), but I know it is coming in January.  

Another day, another post in the garden diary to note the spring foliage emergence.  This time...it is one of the Ligularia that are planted in our backyard - in a shady spot mixed in amongst hostas.  I don't seem to have posted about planting these, but I'm pretty sure that I planted three of them - from Roy Diblik's nursery in Wisconsin.  They seem to struggle, so I'm not sure if they'll be back or not and if they'll thrive.  At least one of them is going to give it a go this Spring - see below:  My experience with these is that they're pretty sensitive to water, so I'll try to stay on them.  And...maybe even give them another shot up front in the new bed. 

When I was just starting to garden, one of the first things that I was able to document in my garden diary was the annual emergence of peonies.  Nat's Mom planted them for us in our house.  And, those red tips were one of my earliest lessons in the garden.  I've documented the Peonies being 'back' almost every year. Here's the 'back' post from 2021 .   And 2023 is no different.  Below are a few photos of the early, red growth from these tuber-based flowers that are planted near our kitchen windows.   I moved most of our peonies HERE because it is just about the *most* sunny spot in our yard.  Besides next to the patio (hey!  That gives me an idea).   I'm not CERTAIN how many are here - at one point there were four including a white one .  These photos are from a week ago (April 6) and I see two so far:

The *other* variety of Brunnera - Queen of Hearts - is pacing right about the same as the Jack of Diamonds.  I have three of them that have emerged early this Spring with green and white foliage that is peeking through the mulch.  See below for a few 'Early Spring' pics from the beds showing this shade-tolerant plant.   All three are back for their third growing season.  They were planted in 2021 .   In the photo below....it really hits home that I need to get my yard cleaned up this week.

Last year, the Bird planted a single Carex Albicans in her little 'garden' that is a in the shady understory section of our backyard.  I didn't think much of it at the time, nor paid much attention to it.  But it appears to have been buried under some leaves this Winter.  And, when I was nosing around that section, I noticed them.  It is green and sitting next to some Wild Onions.  See below: Interesting to note how Carex Albicans have done over the Winter - I have others planted back by the firepit - which look the same.  Also a big note:  the rabbits don't pay any attention to these at all. 

That photo above shows a new (to me) bud from a shrub that I bought on a whim last fall:  Lemony Lace Elderberry .  And, isn't that the most delightful sign of Spring?  It looks....alien.  Doesn't it?  Purple and lime green, ball and fringe.  All in one package.   I had these protected from rabbits with a chicken-wire cage and that seems to have worked.  See below for the current state of this shrub: This is one to watch, since it is the first full growing season.  Maybe I'll add more of these - via the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale - as I see them there every year.  They work in 'part shade' - which has a lot of value in our garden. 

I wandered around the beds for the first time in a week recently and noticed a few things have come back for the 2023 growing season and wanted to document them - and their timing - here in my garden diary.  I'll do that over a few posts in the coming days.  First up?    Three Jack of Diamonds Brunnera that are planted in the southside backyard bed .  Below, you'll see the early, curly foliage that is coming up front the hardwood mulch: I planted these three in Summer of 2021 , so this will be their third growing season in our garden.   Here, below, is a wider-angle look at the three of these shade-tolerant perennials. They're pretty hard to see in that pic...so....below is an annotated versions;