Each Little World

IVOM: Pink perfection

Once spring ephemerals have disappeared, most of what I see in my garden is green. You have to go out to the edges to find flowers and color. 

Out there, away from the house, there are Anemones, hardy Begonias and a number of clumps of Cimicifuga racemosa. 

As you can see, the flowers are all variations on pink. I usually think of pink flowers as too sweet for me, but clearly that's not the case. 

I planted Anemone 'Max Vogel' last year but the bunnies ate the flower buds. This is the first I've seen the plant in full flower and the pink is a bit more intense than I anticipated. But the Hellebore growing in front of it helps to tone the color down while it supports the Anemone flowers. 

I adore everything about Cimicifuga racemosa: Dramatic foliage, a whiff of fragrance and flowers that are always in different stages of bloom on any given plant. I have been moving these around the garden to create a couple of focal points. 

I complained to a garden friend recently that the Begonias were all facing the sun and away from the garden path. 

She laughed at the fact that I had the perfect setup: All the leaves were growing so that I approached them from behind and got to enjoy their dramatic backlit beauty without having to maneuver around trying to get this view. Sometimes it's hard to see what's right in front of your eyes. 

September splendor

IVOM: Tea House display

After four months, our pond project is done. On Sunday, we hosted an Open Garden for friends to see the Zen face-lift we've given the pond. This is the arrangement we created for the Tea House. 

IOVM: Pruning pleasures

My spring-blooming witch hazel, Hamamelis vernalis, sent up a bunch of suckering stems that I finally got around to cutting out. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the foliage was lovelier than it ever is on the shrub when it emerges in the spring or colors up in the autumn. I immediately decided those stems were worthy of spending some time being admire in a vase indoors. 

Once that little project was done, I walked across the driveway to cut down some of the seedpods of my red Martagons, Lilium martagon 'Claude Shride'. Unlike my peachy flowered variety, these seed pods were as unexpectedly beautiful as the Hamamelis foliage. 

The pods provided the perfect companion for the suckering stems. 

One quick and easy bouquet and one that I am enjoying as much as any I've put together all summer.

IVOM: The end of August

I had my girlfriends over the other day and put together a quick bouquet for the coffee table. It sat on an antique green wooden tray with pink and green leaf motif plates and napkins with hot pink speckles. After they left, I moved it to this location. 

I mixed all the pink blooms I could find: Alluium 'Millennium', Phlox 'Jeana', Sedum 'Autumn Joy', no id Heuchera and Amenopsis macrophylla. The green glass vase, touched with silver, is by Richard Jones of Madison.

Mark and I drove out to Abel Contemporary Gallery on Friday to see new work by an artist who has a show coming next month. While there, I fell for this vase by Juliane Shibata.

I filled it with Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta, Kirehgeshoma palmata, Heucher 'Brownies' blooms and August Lilies (Hosta).

I was taken with the way the flowers that decorate the vase were loose and painterly.

No two sides of the vase are quite the same. I have a feeling it is going to get a lot of use. 

In a vase on Monday: This and that

As often as I spend time and effort putting flower arrangements together, I spend an equal amount of time creating something on the fly. These bouquets are all the result of storm damage, or damage from a careless gardener. One of my tall lilies came down during a windy night and brought a few stems of Thalictrum with it. The lily was past its prime, but the Thalictrum still had enough life left that I couldn't just compost it. 

I broke off this little Coleus stem when I was moving the big pot it's in. As I was taking it indoors, I passed Clematis 'Guernsey Cream' which has gone to seed. I love its wiry golden pods that look like jewels. They definitely added a glalm note to the Coleus. 

The seedpods were recently replaced by a broken stem of unknown Sedum. 

I picked this Sedum up at the grocery store and did not notice it was missing an id tag. It appears to be similar to the classic 'Autumn Joy' variety, but is a wonderful combination of delicate pink buds opening to pale yellow flowers. If you know the name of this variety, please put it in the comments. 

In and out of vases on Monday

There are certain flowers in my garden that I prefer to showcase all on their on. This unknown Heuchera is one of them. It is one of the few that has done so well for me that I now have about a dozen big clumps of it; all the result of dividing it over the years. 

After I cut a nice bunch of the flowers, I clipped a few more pink blooms from another nearby Heuchera and added them. It was only then that I realized why I  am so enamored of these particular Heuchera flowers: The stems are a deep rosy purple instead of the more typical green.  

A recent windy, rainy night broke a couple of stems of my lovely tall Veronicastrum 'Fascination' flowers. Again, I let it shine on its own. 

Yesterday I did a little pruning on one of my Acer pseudosieboldianum trees. I decided I should enjoy the foliage and put a few stems in a big vase on the deck. They looked a little blah on their own, so I grabbed the fading Veronicastrum stem from inside the house and added it to the mix.

I bought this gorgeous fennel bulb at the West Side Farmers Market on Saturday. It is so dramatic that I felt like I should figure out how to display it. All I managed to do was have Mark photograph it so I can remember how big and beautiful it was. 

IVOM: Spring bounty

Frost was forecast for Friday night, though it only got down to 37°F, so the garden came through in fine fettle. Saturday the low was expected to be 39°F. but Weather Bug said it was 34°F. when I checked at 5 a.m. Sunday morning. Come on; we are at Memorial Day weekend. By the end of this week we will be in the mid-80°F. when it is not yet summer. The weird weather continues.

A couple of rainy days mid-week sent me to cut flowers before the frost arrived. Aquilegia 'Black Barlow' has seeded in so many places I no long remember where it was first planted. I also grow A. 'Nora Barlow' but she always looks a little fussy compared to this member of the Barlow family.

I cut a few broken fronds of Maidenhair fern and the native Thalictrum dioucum to see how they would work as foliage in a vase. After a few days the ferns were starting to fade and curl but the Thalictrum is perfect. This is a plant that seeded in the garden and I am going to start spreading it around as it is a great filler. 

'Bowles Golden' millet, a yellow Yew, a pale Heuchera leaf and two kinds of Euphorbia fill this little teacup. 

You really can't tell the flowers are from two different Euphorbias; but the difference in the garden in color and size is striking. One is Euphorbia 'Bonfire' which is about 10" tall and the other is Euphorbia palustris which is about 3'. I was totally surprised at the similarity when I put them together. 

Peony 'Burnished Bronze' is a real drama queen compared to all the soft colors in the garden at the moment. 

She looked lovely for a few days before she decided she was done. I love watching a Peony go to seed. 

I planted these Alliums at least 20 years ago and they got shaded out. But they have started to re-appear where I don't want them: at the base of special trees where it will be dangerous to dig deep enough to find the bulbs. I cut them all for a bouquet so they can't go to seed and make the problem a bigger one. I do love their ghostly beauty along with a shadow of the big Lohan sculpture. 

I have a serious amount of planting to catch up with after a couple of weeks of too hot and too cold temps, rain and very high winds. Hoping for a few days of rational weather to get some work done in the garden. 

IVOM: Before the next freeze

We got down to 31°F on Friday and tonight's low is forecast to be 33°F, so I cut flowers for indoors all weekend. 

White daffodils are my personal favorites rather than the bright yellow ones. This is Narcissus 'Dreamlight' with the peach ruffle and N. 'Stainless' below it.

I trimmed our 'Tina' crabapple and decided to add my prunings to the arrangement. 

I bring many of these daffs indoors for bouquets since they are in the bed by the street where I barely see them. Thus I never feel bad cutting them. 

This is a mix of early Iris, Muscari and Epimedium 'Lilac Fairy' with Heuchera foliage. 

IVOM: Before the frosty weather

Last week we had four nights where the overnight low was below freezing, which meant I spent an hour covering plants to protect them. It seems to have worked.

Before I started that process, I cut bouquets for the house and two for friends who I visited. All were variations on the one I kept for my self. Interestingly enough, the star of this display, Fritallaria thunbergii, sailed right through temps down to 23°F with no damage to the flowers. 

The Chinese gentleman got to enjoy the display closeup. I cut a stem from one of my Helleborus foetidus to get something that would hold everything in place. It's the greenery in the center and its flowers are not particularly obvious here. 

Unknown daffodils and yellow Epimedium flowers add a note of color contrast.  

I really put this vase together, however, to showcase the Frits. They are a pleasure from any direction.