Why I Oughta...

Recently, I posted a photo of the Butterscotch Amsonia that I described as 'electric' in its Fall colors and talked about how we have some oranges and yellows, but very few reds in our "Fall Show".  Besides the Acer Palmatums, the few red-colored foliage plants we have include some Oakleaf Hydrangea.  See below for a look at a couple of them turning red.  These are Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangea that went in the ground in 2022 .    There's also an Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea back there, too.  I lost one of those closer to the house this past Winter that I need to replace, so I might look into transplanting this one back up in the 'kitchen curved' bed.  

Last Fall, I discovered a quart-sized Ajuga - Burgundy Glow - that was planted in one of the kid's fairy garden was going REALLY well and I figured I could transplant it into the ground and extend it to being a perennial groundcover.  After all, I have had A LOT of luck with another Ajuga - Chocolate Chip.  So, I dug it out of the fairy garden and popped it into the bed right outside our screened porch door.   Fast-forward through the Winter and the Ajuga didn't make it.  But, the idea of groundcover over here makes a lot of sense.  But, I don't think Ajuga is right for this spot.  Just a little bit away is the drift of Angelina Sedum that is planted in either side of our back stoop.  I picked up my little shovel, stuck the blade in to make a little square and yanked out two of them - right in the middle of the existing colony of Angelina Sedum.  See below for the two spots I divided: The conditions of the bed outside the screened porch are ...

Last Spring, I took a shot on a couple of primroses at an early-in-the-season garden show.  I was pretty unfamiliar with them - hence this post titled: " Giving Primrose A Shot " from March 2023 where I figured I was lulled into a false belief that these early-blooming flowers would work in our Zone 5b (at that time, now Zone 6a) garden. We're suckers for blue blooms and the three Primula belarina 'Blue Champion' that I bought were pretty close to blue.  I seem to have ONLY posted about the blue ones, but if you look back at the photos in this post , you can clearly see that we brought home four Primulas that day;  three blue and one white one.   They went in and seemed to manage their first growing season without much drama.  By the very early days of 2024, I posted about seeing some of their foliage - despite the harsh Winter temps in the garden.   Today - about 90 days since then, they're in bloom.  And they're quite nice.  Below i...

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...

In large April, I planted a small, columnar Scotch Pine tree along the south fence about 1/3rd of the way back.   It was a tree that appears to be field-grown and was sold in a burlap ball that I left in-place.  I used a pair of scissors and cut the burlap that was wrapped/tied around the trunk so the 'top' was sort-of open.  But, I left the burlap in place and planted it that way.  I know there's opinions on which way to go with burlap, but with these small trees, I've found that they come with a big clay clump around their roots and it is best to just leave it as-is to reduce transplant stress. The tree - just one month or so old (in our yard) is already doing some interesting growth/show.  It is putting out quite a few 'candles' on the tips .  Below are a few photos showing these orange and brown and green candles.   In the photo above, you can see the cones of the Scotch Pine forming at the base of the candle. According to this post from...

I have a trio of Twinkle Toes Lungwort that I planted in the Fall of 2020 that need to be put on my Fall 2022 transplant list.  In the photo below, you can see the three spotted Lungwort in the upper right of the photo.  And...in the bottom/center of the photo a big, wide-open space in the bed along the border - right where the hose is showing up all wavy-like.  These three Lungwort need to be dug up and moved closer to the border.  Two on the bottom side of the hose, one on the top side - in the middle.  And it is something I need to do this Fall.   I have a few other things (now) on the [ Fall 2022 ] tag in terms of transplanting projects like this Pagoda Dogwood (transplant or prune??) and dividing some hostas .  Now, moving these Lungwort is on there - and something I should do in September to give them enough time before the first frost. 

Earlier this month, as part of a series of garden bed 'slices', I did some shrub exploration posts including the 'Lilac Replacement' section and the ' Northside Mixed Bed ' that kind of worked together.  They both required some upright evergreens, but the Lilacs needed to be transplanted from one section to the other.  Earlier this week, I got started by planting the upright evergreens - three Green Giant Thujas - in each section.  From there, I dug up and transplanted the four Lilac shrubs (2 Nocture, 2 Common) in the Northside bed. Before I did the planting, I removed some of the lower, but still large limbs on the Hackberry tree to make sure these were getting the most sun they could get in this spot.  Below is a look at the couple of cuts I made with my extension saw: Here's what the newly planted area looks like with three evergreens, four flowering shrubs, an existing scrub shrub and a small London Planetree (below): And, here's an annotated versi...