Why I Oughta...

This is the seventh in the series of plant varieties that came home from the Morton Arobretum Fall Plant sale from last week.  The previous six - including some Japanese grasses, coral bells, a couple of hostas and some other shade plants can be found at the bottom of this post.  I bought these bright Evercolor Sedges based on the recommendation of the staff at the Arboretum.   From the sign at the top of this post, they describe these as having a 10-12" height and 16-24" spread.  But, also, they call out Full Shade - which is a key for me.  The rest of the description reads: Leaf blades are long, thin and arching, with a golden yellow hue.  Adds a burst of color to garden beds, borders and containers.  Mounding habit adds texture to many garden areas, especially when mass planted.  Best color in locations with morning sun.  Below is a photo of the front and the back of the plant tag - where they call this out as a Japanese Sedge.  Walter's Garden compares it to other, si

 The sixth variety of plants that we bought at the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale is a set of five Coral Bells.  Specifically, DOLCE Cherry Truffles Coral Bells.  These aren't the FIRST Coral Bells that we have in our landscape as I planted one (not sure of the cultivar) in a container in 2019 and transplanted into a foundation bed in the Fall.   By August of 2020 (a little bit over a year ago), I checked in on the plant and it seemed to be doing well.    In that post , I mentioned that the best practice is to divide these things every three to five years.  2019 = year one, 2020 = year two.  Next year is year three.  Come Spring, I'll take a shot at dividing it.   Here - below - is the sign for this variety - DOLCE Cherry Truffles Coral Bells from the plant sale. The description reads: Beautiful bright red, heavily ruffled leaves form a low, mounding habit.  In Summer, the bright color persists, maturing to a rich mahogany red.  Dark burgundy stems hold light pink flowers and da

The next up in my purchase(s) at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale is one of these Chocoholic Black Snakeroot (Actacea 'Chocoholic' ).    The sign from the sale is below, but for the short-hand reason for why I bought it?  It flowers in Full Shade.  And, like it or not, I'm a shade gardener.   This snakeroot grows to 4-5' tall and a three-to-four foot spread.   The description from the sign reads: Bronze purple foliage is a welcome addition to the shade garden.  Rich mauve-pink flowers lighten to white as they age.  Forms a dense, upright clump.   Below is a photo of the full plant showing the current height and clump size.   I haven't thought about Snakeroot before, but when I saw this one flowering, I couldn't pass it up.   The ball-like flower buds have started to explode into white flowers.    The Chocoholic Version is one of many versions of Snakeroot.  Walter's Garden thinks highly of this cultivar : This lovely native cultivar adds wonderful textur

One of the plants that I've been chasing for a while is a Japanese grass.  I posted a 'dreaming post' back in January of this year featuring something called "All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses ".  I wasn't the only one in our house that has had a little bit of plant lust as Natalie had snapped a photo of a neighbor close to Randall Park that has grasses in their yard and she said:  "I like these" when she texted me the photo.  So, imagine my delight when I went to the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale and came across a bunch of these All Gold Grass - Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold'.   The sign you can see below carries this description: A vigorously growing, all gold version of the Hakone grass.  A cascading habit makes it perfect for the landscape or container.  Spreads slowly through rhizomes.   I ended up buying quite a few of these and have plans to put them in both our front (side) yard and the backyard.   Here's what one of them looks li

The third variety of plant material that I brought home from the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale last week is the second cultivar of hosta.  And it is (maybe?) even more unique than the Waterslide one that has ruffled edges.  This one is called Praying Hands Hosta and according to Walter's Garden , it is "unlike any other hosta."  It also was "Hosta of the Year" in 2011.   Here - below - is the plant tag that shows the height being 14-18" and the spread being 12-16".   Here - below - is a look at the plant that I brought home.  It is really interesting looking.   If you looked closely at the photo of my Linden trees that I posted a few days ago, you might have viewed this hosta at the base of one of them.  I've been watching the sun/shade patterns of that area to see if it is the right place to plant this hosta.  I'd like it in a spot that can be viewed and highlighted - so underneath those trees feels good right now.  I'll do a shade stud

A little over a month ago, I posted a photo of the pair of soil tests that I was planning on conducting for my lawn - both front and back - from SoilSavvy.  These tests require you to take a composite set of soil plugs and combine them into a little tray that you ship off.  When SoilSavvy's lab receives the samples, they run them through their system and then send you off this analysis.   I ended up doing one test for my front yard and one for the backyard.  This is a little different in approach than I did last year, but I'm thinking this is the best way forward.  First, a quick review of where things were last year .  This year, the results show higher levels of just about everything aside from Boron.   First up, the front yard.  The N-P-K analysis shows that the Potassium is below the target area.  Surprised?  Not really.  Milorganite's N-P-K is 6-4-0 - so I haven't added any Potassium to the yard this year.   The Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur are all off the char

 The last time I shared a photo of our pair of Cordon Espalier'ed Greenspire Linden trees was back when I gave them a hard prune in July of this year .  Two months later, the trees have shown some new growth and are filling out the levels of the horizontal cordon.  I've decided to go with four levels and you can see those four levels starting to stand out in the updated photo below. After the pruning/shaping that I did earlier this Summer, I'm now seeing some direct response in the form of new light-green growth.  Check out the photo below for a closeup showing some of the new growth: In both trees, the second from the bottom set of horizontal branches are the strongest/most vigorous.  Followed by the top level - which I think is a reaction to pruning off the apical meristem.  The bottom level is the newest to emerge and to be trained.  If you look closely at the espalier wire system behind the trees, you can see that the lowest level isn't the same as the rest.  It is