Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the location of the Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that we bought at the Morton Arboretum and planted in the backyard (southside bed, understory of the secondary Northern Red Oak tree).   I also bought two MORE Oakleaf Hydrangeas from the sale - Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas - that are also planted (now) in our backyard.  This time, however, they are in the northside bed.  These Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangas  (Hydrangea Quercifolia) are MUCH darker green than the Little Honey variety, but like the Little Honey, these maintain a compact form of under five feet tall .   Last year, when I moved the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas out from the fence, I moved ONE of them over to the south bed - in between the Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree and the Weeping Nootka Falsecypress tree .   The plan calls for three flowering shrubs planted in a cluster here and that's why I brought home two Ruby Slippers shrubs from the Morton Arboretum Sale.  

A week ago, I started posting a series of photos of the plant material that we brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  The first of those posts were these three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that are bright chartreuse in color and are dwarf (under 5' tall) in stature.  The plan called for three Little Lime Hydrangeas, but because this spot is deeper into the shade than it used to be (when the plan was built/drafted), I decided to call the audible and move to an Oakleaf variety.   I tucked these three into the area just to the West of where I dug out the Lilacs.  They get four feet tall and four feet wide, so when mature, they'll (hopefully) fill in the current spacing.  You can see the three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas standing OUT in the landscape below: Here, below, is an annotated version of that same photo showing where these are located - understory of the flowering Kwanzan Cherry tree and bordered by the Everillo Sedges and one (of th

When I did the series of posts showing off the various plant materials that I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale, I forgot to include a couple of plants that I bought.  I showed the Little Honey Hydrangeas , Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas and the three Ivory Prince Hellebores .  But, I also brought home two grasses:  Prairie dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis.  Here (below) is a look at the two grasses: And, here below, is the sign from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale where they describe Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis as "Prairie native grasss that is extremely tough. Makes a great natural addition to the home landscape with beautiful, dense and arching clumps of fine textured leaves.  Flowers have a unique fragrance." The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension Office has a page on Prairie Dropseed that provides a few more details : It was was named a Plant of Merit by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2005 and was selected

This Spring, the backyard bed (under the tree swing) is showing eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses that have emerged from the mulch.  These are notorious slow-starters (for me), so I'm happy to see that all eight (from last Fall) have come back.  Here's last year's Fall look .   That's down one from Spring when I had nine in this bed.    You can see this area in the photo below with the grasses near the border of the curve in the bed: There's a lot going on in that photo.  Tulips glowing up in the background and more.  So....Below is an annotated version of the same photo showing the eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses.  In the back (in the blue circles) are three Miscanthus sinesis 'Adagio' that I planted last Fall .  In the orange circle is the lone  Green Mountain Boxwood from 2021  that is a pyramidal form.  For some of these, this will be the third growing season, while for others this will be the second - which I'm hoping means they're

I've posted a series of times about the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that we have in our landscape and how I've been digging them up, dividing them and transplanting them to various spots of our beds to provide that notion of a cohesive design with repeating patterns of specific plants.  I started doing this last Fall and then did even more this Spring after realizing that the ones I divided last Fall were just fine.   Last week, I showed how I made eight new divisions in the backyard and planted them in various places in the backyard.  The final Karl Foerster grass that I needed to dig up and divide was this large one in between our driveway and front walk stoop.  It was left there as a hedge - but is suffering from some center rot.  It needed to be divided.  See below for the 'before'.  The two further back were divisions from last Fall and are showing some new green tips this Spring: After digging that one out and dividing it up, I put one of the segments back

Day three of running through what I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale last weekend.  Started with talking about how I prioritized shrubs and came home (first) with three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas and two Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas . #2 on my 2022 to-do list was to try to add perennials that had four-season appeal and I mentioned, specifically that I needed to buy more Hellebores .  Thanks to drafting a plan and bringing it to the sale, I'm really glad that I was able to prioritize both flowering shrubs and....able to fit in three Hellebores into the budget.   Our plan calls for twenty (20) Hellebores (Lenten Roses) in two different colonies .  Listen...I really LOVE Hellebores.  But, they're ALWAYS so expensive.  I'm talking $20+ for each one.  And, the big box nurseries never carry them.  But, I needed to - as I said - 'bite the bullet' and buy some.   We have just ONE Hellebores - Sally's Shell - that we bought in

 Yesterday, I started with the first set of plants that I picked up at the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale:  three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangea .  In that post, I talked about the sale (it is really great) and how I went in with a plan (shrubs first, others second).  I was able to (mostly) stick to my plan and brought home a total of five flowering shrubs - three Little Honey - and two Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  Again....I'll mention:  #1 on my 2022 to-do list was to focus on shrubs .  And, these two Ruby Slippers pays that off.  In my 'shrubs' post where I listed out needs, I talked about five Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  Turns out, I *think* that I really need either eight (three more) or (maybe) just five, but three more of SOME OTHER kind of dwarf flowering shrub.   Before we talk about placement, let's look at Hydrangea quercifolia 'Ruby Slippers'.  Below are the two that I brought home: Below is the sign at the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  It des