Why I Oughta...

Last Fall, I planted a pair of variegated sedums -  Sedum kamtschaticum 'Variegatum' down by the sidewalk as a drought-tolerant groundcover .  They managed the conditions of the Winter and emerged this Spring.  I posted about them in March when very little else was growing in our garden .  They had been eaten a bit by the (dang!) rabbits, but otherwise were in good shape.  Today - in early June - they're putting on some yellow blooms.  One of them (the one on the right) is a bigger clump, but they're BOTH beginning to flower.  See below for a few photos.  Just above them are the recently-planted Dusty Miller annuals (that are being invaded by some turfgrass that didn't get properly smothered.   It looks like I didn't post about those (yet), so I need to get them into the [garden diary]. They're likely candidates to divide in a few years - once they've spread out a bit.  

Both the Amber Queen and Spine Tingler Epimedium are in bloom this week.  Yellow, Jester-hat-shaped flowers on tall, needle-like stems, these are strongest blooms that we've had since this slow-growing cluster of groundcover went in the garden.  The Spine Tingler variety is just one-year-old (planted in 2023 ), so it is nice to see the blooms on those.  Below are both - first the Amber Queen, then below the Spine Tingler.  

Right around one month ago today, I posted photos of the inherited daffodil bulbs that were showing their annual strap-y foliage that had emerged for the year .  Today, they're in bloom.  Well... *some* of them are in bloom.   Below is a look at the colony of daffodils and a close-up of the yellow bloom that are on these.  (Note: to the top, right of this photo is the pile of material that I excavated for the pizza oven and tried to smother with arborist wood chips .).  By my count, I see just six flowers this year.  More than 2021 .  This spot in the garden has not been addressed yet, so I see NO reason to do anything other than enjoy these yellow blooms.  For now.  

Yesterday, I posted some photos showing the French Marigolds that I planted as bedding plants in our front porch bed/border and mentioned that some volunteer Dusty Millers arrived to change the look of that curved bed.  Last year, I planted 36 small Dusty Millers in front .  As annuals.    They're hardy down to Zone 7 - by all accounts .  But here in Zone 5B?  We had a bunch of them come back for year two.   When I say a 'bunch of them', I really mean a BUNCH OF THEM. I planted those French Marigolds across the front of the bed.  And today?  I can't see half of them.   See below for the current state of this front porch bed and how vibrant the Dusty Millers - planted in 2022 in Zone 5b - are today: There are French Marigolds under there.  Somewhere. See below for a peek at the edge where the Marigolds run into these.   Dusty Millers are grown for their white, ornamental foliage.  They provide a little Medite...

Back at the beginning of the month, I posted some details and photos of our front yard annual plantings including their inspiration from Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.  At the time, I planted (only) a series of Dusty Miller white annuals and talked about how I'd fill them out with a few other colors and flowers.  After doing a little bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to just see what struck me at the big box garden center.  I ended up coming home with purple and yellows.   Purple petunias.  24 of them.  And Yellow Zinnias.  18 of those.  I planted the purple petunias in between each pair of the Dusty Millers.  And planted the Zinnias in a row *behind* those - closer to the house/boxwoods.  Below, you can see what they look like right now, immediately after planting.   Here's a look at the yellow, flowering annual zinnias: And, here below, is the purple petunia: I'm hopeful that they'll fill-in and what I call 'get bushy'....

I've written about a patch of volunteer (I should have called them "inherited") Daffodils that live under the Northern Red Oak tree back in 2018 when I speculated that they were (indeed) daffodils .  But, that they never actually flowered for me since we lived here.  This patch of green shoots comes up every Spring.  There are like 16 distinct patches that sit in between the fence and the large Northern Red Oak tree that have put green shoots up that have an onion-like look and smell.   I've wondered WHY they haven't bloomed - could it be that they are too old? Or not enough light?  I haven't removed the foliage of these in previous Spring seasons in the hope that they'll collect enough energy to put off blooms the following year.   But this year?  We have *some* flowers.  Have a look at the photo below showing off some yellow flowers.  Pretty great!  Not all of them are even showing buds, but we'll get a few more this season...

 This is the first season of this trio of Amber Queen Epimedium (Barrenwort) in our yard.  I planted it late this season - in September - and mulched it in ahead of winter with wood chips.  The grouping is just to the west of our largest Catalpa tree and with the wood chip mulch, I feel like I've protected these as best as I can before their long winter's nap that is coming. Here, below, is what they're looking like in early November: I'm quite hopeful that they'll do ok this Winter as they've shown NO SIGNS of stress after being planted.  They haven't shown much in terms of growth, but I'm thinking that they're satisfied in terms of water as they prepare to head to dormancy.  Fingers crossed that come Spring, we'll have three come back and put on their first yellow-flower-show in the Spring.

This post is about the 10th variety or cultivar of plants/trees that we bought at the Morton Arobretum Fall Plant Sale .  At the very bottom of this post, you can see a list of all ten of them - including one tree, two varieties of grasses and a some shade-tolerant plants.  That list now includes another shade-tolerant plant called Amber Queen Barrenwort.   This is an Epimedium - the first we have in our garden - that is described at Walter's Garden like this : A dazzling unique Epimedium that will catch your eye-it certainly caught ours! Epimediums are uncommon in the market and in high demand. The airy, delicate-looking flowers have bright yellow spurs with orange-red centers, looking light orange from a distance. Flowers are produced along the length of the flower stems, which are up to 24" long. Bright green leaves have a blush red color close to the crown. ...Epimedium are one of the few plants capable of surviving in dry shade. Although slow to establish, matu...