Each Little World

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I added Penstemon 'Dark Towers' to the garden late last September so I didn't really have a sense of what it would look like until now. It's a lovely color combination and the dark foliage knocks back the sweetness factor that pinks and lavenders so often bring to the garden. Plus those airy stems mean that you can see through this plant which otherwise would have been a problem since I planted it at the front edge of the bed. 

Alstromeria 'Inca Ice' is supposedly hardy to Zone 5. I have high hopes for this plant as I am in love with it. This just went in this spring and our long cool, gray spell of weather has kept it from putting on much height. But look at those luscious flowers. 

The peril of pairs

I have two different gardening friends who grew a pair of lollipop lilacs (Syringa meyeri grafted onto a standard stem) on either side of the walkway leading to each of their front doors. One pair of trees were pretty evenly matched in size and shape, though I always assumed it was partly because of the pruning skills of that gardener. The other gardener's pair grew so unevenly that she started over hoping that the second time would be the charm. No such luck. 

I always think of those lilacs when I pot up my pair of Hosta 'Abiqua Drinking Gourd' that spend the garden season on the deck. When I dug out the two clumps this spring I noticed they had a different number of stems, so I cut them apart to make two plants with the same amount. I thought that would be a guarantee they'd be a matched pair.

I always put the pots on either side of the deck bench. One gets a bit more sun but the pots are too heavy to casually switch locations to remedy this condition. These photos show it's obvious the two Hostas are growing at different rates. It drives me crazy, but Mark just laughs at my distress. 

It's a good reminder of the dangers of planting any permanent pairs of plants! Don't do it unless you can live with the potential disparities in size and shape. I will live with the Hostas, but I'm not taking any more chances trying to create other perfect pairs.

Wordless Wednesday

Plants in pots

Though my garden has plants in containers, I would not characterize them as container plantings. I always liked the late Christopher Lloyd's collection of one plant per pot massed outside the entrance to his house. Thus I always put a few pots by my front door, too. But Mark is not crazy about this look so I can't be as dramatic as Lloyd always was at Great Dixter (below).

This year I dug up a Canadian Hemlock that needs a new home as the centerpiece of the front display. But it is losing needles on a couple of small branches so I am not sure if it can stay in a pot too much longer.

I always seem to have a Hosta or a Heuchera that can live in a pot for the summer. This spot is fairly shady which works well with all these plants. I am also letting a seedling of the Carex 'Bunny Blue' that I recently pulled out grow on in a pot. I figured I can control one of these in a pot as long as I don't let it escape into the garden. The Heuchera flowers go so well with the pink Astilbe 'Nicky' that it looks like I planned it. In fact, I can't quite figure out what I was thinking when I bought that Astilbe and it doesn't have a permanent home as a result. 

The plants that I put in the rock wall make a nice transition from the front door to the steps up into the garden proper. It's all rather restrained, though you can no doubt see how perfect this space would be for a Christopher Lloyd-type display!

Another container sits on the curved limestone wall that Mark built many years ago. This one features Hosta 'Frances Williams' and a self-seeded fern. They greet you at the top of the steps.  

At the far end of this same wall is a matching Mark Skudlarek pot containing a Korean maple (Acer pseudosiebolidiana), the last of many I've bought at the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Sale. Though it's 40 inches tall (100 cm), it is hard to photograph but easy to see as you walk through this space. 

This tree is a few years old and has been growing in a pot in the shade each summer. Thus it is very narrow which is a look I love. One of these days — or years — I will have to find a permanent home for it. But I'm not in a rush to move it as I enjoy it waving in the breeze above my head as I pass by.

There are a few plants in pots on the deck but that's another story — or two.

In a vase on Monday: Roger Banks-Pye: Nos. 1 and 2

Roger Banks-Pye was the interior design director for the decorating division of of the famed British firm, Colefax & Fowler. I first learned his name when I found the book pictured below at a second-hand book store. I loved much of his design style, but what really stuck with me was Banks-Pye's philosophy of decorating with flowers. I actually wrote down a few of his statements and still refer to them.

Banks-Pye believed "in making flowers an intrinsic part of the smaller decorative scene rather than a louder solo statement." Though I sometimes make those loud solo statements, I most often make tiny bouquets to put in the bathrooms or on the kitchen window sill which fit into his philosophy. Banks-Pye liked things like parsley in silver cups. Alas our spell of hot weather caused my parsley to bolt, so I turned to variegated Lemon Thyme which is doing wonderfully well this year. It doesn't always make it through the winter in our zone but it did so last year. 

If you look closely you will see that this little silver mug is engraved "Mark." Yes, it is my husband's baby cup and not looking too bad after 70 years! I don't think I've ever put flowers in it in the past. Or I certainly haven't done it often enough to remember. But it makes a rather sweet little statement.

Banks-Pye also thought that small containers should hold disproportionately large flowers. I decided I would give that concept a try as well. I picked another silvery container; this time a mint julep cup that is not suitable for food! I put a tiny kenzan in it for stability and to hold the flowers in place because I thought that big flowers might tip over a small container. 

After looking at it, I decided that this arrangement needed something else in order to meet Banks-Pye's criteria, so I added another flower and a trailing piece of foliage. I think it is a better example of his concept this way. 

To see what other gardeners are snipping and arranging in vases this morning, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this weekly meme.

 

Hay foot, straw foot

When my sisters and I were young, our mother used to read us a Wonder Book called "The Make Believe Parade," written by Jan Margo and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. 

It was a very simple story about children dressed up as a policeman, a fireman, a teacher, a nurse and so on, all marching off to school in the rain. They said "hay foot, straw foot" — meaning left, right — to keep in step. To this day, when it rains I always think "hay foot, straw foot" and picture those kids in their costumes and rubber boots. It amazes me to think that I still remember that phrase and story so many years later. 

It rained 1.36" last night giving us a total of 2.07 inches of rain so far this week. Last week's total was 5.03 inches. Very "hay foot, straw foot weather." Mark said he would rather be having a little too much rain than drought. He's right but I haven't been able to do much in the garden but weed and deadhead as the ground keeps being so wet. On the other hand it is certainly looking lush!

Alas, I don't still have a copy of the book. I found these images on the Web.  

 

An unexpected effect

The longer I garden the more some days feel like I'm going in circles. You plant little tiny trees and watch them grow up into a lovely garden feature and then one day decide they have to go. An hour later they're gone and you're not quite sure what just happened. But then slowly you see the larger implications of the change you've just wrought.

Our front garden has five of the original trees planted when the house was built in 1954. We added a grove of 5 River Birches and assorted shrubs and evergreens. You can see how shady and enclosed the area is.

I've always loved the feel of walking around the west side of the house with this old Arborvitae towering above me. 

Such a tree marks a very definite line between two gardens.

But removing the European spindle trees completely changed the experience of going from the front garden to the back. Now you go from shade to light and from closed to open. If feels very Frank Lloyd Wright in the way he always designed low, enclosed entrances that transitioned into great open rooms.  

We have big ceramic platters by our front and back doors and across the back of the house. Since I knew there were a few more sitting in the basement, I suggested to Mark that we add them to the newly exposed space where we'd taken out the trees. Like most of the ceramics in our garden these are by local potter Mark Skudlarek except for the far left one which is by Michael Schael.

Our garden has few areas that are symmetrical or have matching pairs of plants or features. 

This area was no exception with Epimediums along the fence and different plants along the house side of the area. 

This space has always been intended to be the formal entrance into the back garden. Mark still plans to build some kind of Japanese-influenced "gate" at the end of the path just this side of the downspout extensions. I decided that this space should now have Epimediums on both sides of the path to become the one formal, mostly symmetrical area in the garden. It seems a fitting concept to lead into the main garden. 

And given the fact that the Epimediums need dividing it is practical solution as well!

Just a memory

Shortly after we decided the Spindle trees had to go I noticed the tent caterpillars had jumped the path onto the ancient burning bush. That was enough for us to decide we were not going to wait until autumn or until we had help to get rid of the infected trees. Out came Felcos and the pole pruner and two folding saws and the chainsaw and multiple power cords to reach from the west side of the house back to the outlet on the deck

We were well on our way to being done with taking the trees down when I realized that we hadn't taken any photos. 

The big plastic bag at the far end of the path holds all the pieces of the canopies from the three trees. That we fit everything from all three of them in one bag tells you how denuded the trees were. We cut off branches we could reach and snipped them into smaller pieces that we piled up in black plastic bins before we dumped the bits into the bag. Then Mark cut the main trunk not quite all the way through so it hung down where we could reach the rest of the branches.

I had my trusty spray bottle of Lysol and a rag at the ready to sterilize our pruners in case we needed to cut something off of a non-infected neighboring plant.

Satisfied crew chief admiring his work.

Mark cut the trunks off just under the surface of the soil. Then he took a rock and scratched a line on the limestone edge of the drainage area to note where the tree stump was in case I want to add plants to the area now the trees are gone. At this point I don't think either of us were quite sure what the next step — if any — might be.

All ready for Halloween

Seventeen years ago I bought three spindle trees — Euonymous europaeus 'Aldenhamensis' — from the old Heronswood Nursery in Kingston, WA. The tiny plants cost $8.00 each and we planted them in a row in a narrow bed on the west side next to the house. Over the years they grew tall and skinny and made a lovely statement. 

But sometime in the recent past, they started getting some kind of tent caterpillars in the spring. As soon as we noticed the tell-tale ghostly tents on the leaves we sprayed and pruned and once upon a time that was usually all that was needed. But each year the problem has been accelerating.

This spring we didn't notice the problem early enough. Suddenly there were stringy globs of creepy little caterpillars hanging from the trees and blocking our passage down the path next to the trees. 

But when we followed the stringy trails upward we realized the trees had been just about de-foliated while we were working elsewhere. 

I said to Mark that maybe it was time to say goodbye to these trees as they were now becoming a maintenance problem just when we are trying to reduce maintenance in the garden to what we can manage now and in the future. 

We decided we would call the young man who helped Mark clean out the pond this spring and the two of them could take them down at the end of the garden season. Even a year ago I never would have suggested such a thing, but these days I am getting serious — if not brutal — about what stays and what goes in the garden. Thank goodness there are still a few plants from Heronswood remaining in the garden to keep that connection alive.

Martagons on Monday: In a vase and out

To my eye (and taste) Martagon lilies are not blooms that work well as part of a mixed bouquet. Their tall stature and sculptural shape shine on their own.

'Mrs. R. O. Backhouse' had been in the house in this vase for five days when I took this photo and is beginning to drop the lower petals.

Fading beauties

My clump of Lilium martagon 'Mrs. R. O. Backhouse' is so large that it is visible across the garden. See that peachy blotch to the left of the tea house?

Approaching from across the stream she's the dominant plant in mid-June.

Approach from the other direction and she's part of a mixed border echoing Berberis 'Orange Rocket'.

As the Bowman's Root directly in front of 'Mrs. Backhouse' loses its white flowers they turn into peachy-orange seedheads. Accidental perfection. 

The only spot where you catch a glimpse of her long stately legs is from this side path. By next summer, the Thalictrum 'Splendide' which is just visible will no doubt dwarf 'Mrs Backhouse' and change the appearance of this view.

The driveway border is home to Lilium martagon 'Claude Shride.' Last year I added 'Russian Morning' which, alas, is not noticeably different from Claude. 

To see what other gardeners have selected to put in a vase this Monday, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who hosts this eminently enjoyable meme.