Each Little World

GBBD: 9.15.2023

Too little rain, too many days in the 90°s and now too cool and cloudy. It means a lot of flowers are half fried and many are not yet blooming. But the road work is nearing an end and it's pleasant gardening weather, so I'm not really complaining. However, as a result of the weather, I did decide to just use this recent vase as my Bloom Day offering.

It is filled with sprays of the massive Thalictrum 'Splendide', Agastache 'Blue Fortune', Anemone japonica 'Max Vogel' and the first flower of Tricyrtis 'Togen.'

Also in bloom in the garden are Anemone japonica 'September Charm', Kirengeshoma palmlata, Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy', multiple varieties of Heuchera and Geraniums and swaths of Calmintha nepeta ssp. nepeta.

The more pleasant weather has seen me working in the garden for hours at a time: Watering, weeding, pruning, deadheading and working on beds where I ripped out half the plants last fall and need to get them replanted to my new design before the weather cools down too much.

IVOM: Flowers for Rich

I put together these two bouquets last week for a memorial celebration. Since they were for someone who was a big fan of Piet Oudolf and the Lurie Garden, that made it easy for me to know what kind of display would have appealed to him. I went to the Lurie Garden website to see their summer plant list and discovered I am growing a huge number of things on their list. 

This first vase was suggested by an image one of my sister-in-laws texted me and is more contemporary than I often do. I really like the simplicity of it and have to remember the less is more concept in the future. This has Alliums 'Millennium' and 'Summer Beauty', Seslaria 'Autumnalis' (autumn moor grass) and foliage of Heuchera 'Palace Purple'. I used the foliage of Byzantine Gladiolus for some dramatic contrast. The vase is quite tall and is by Midwestern potter Dolorus Fortuna.

This antique Chinese vase is short and squat and made a nice unmatched pair with the other one. More Alliums, Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta, Thalictrum buds, a few stems of flowers from Heuchera and Hosta 'Halcyon', a large branch of Astilbe 'Chocolate Shogun' foliage and a dark Begonia leaf.

This list of blooms pretty much comprises what is in flower for August GBBD, other than some Agastaches and Phlox.

IVOM

Sometimes one flower is enough. Though I usually steer clear of big fancy daylilies, I couldn't resist 'NIght Embers.'

IVOM: Ashes, ashes

Mark goes out multiple times a day to photograph the project on our road. Usually he's just checking to see if they're doing something interesting or something he hasn't seen before. Recently he and a neighbor were watching the excavator when it exposed this stash of old glass containers; possibly an old ash pit. 

Lots of them were broken . . .

but some were still intact. 

When the crew realized the guys were interested in the find, they gave Mark and our neighbor a few of the bottles. 

Mark cleaned them up a bit and left them on the deck where I discovered them.

I cleaned them up some more; mostly just removing dirt. There's a lot of marks that may never come off and we decided to enjoy the patina. 

The greenish bottle in the back left in the photo below had a cork in its neck when it was dug out of the road. The bottle in the center back says "Valleyview Dairy /JJ Collins" while the one on the right says "Lavoris" in raised letters on the shoulder of the bottle. The bottle in the front left is a pint milk container from the old Kennedy Dairy, whose building still stands on West Washington Ave. in Madison. The other two small bottles have no markings. 

It seemed obvious to me from the moment I saw them that these old bottles were perfect Monday vases.

I thought about putting them on the limestone steps outdoors or sitting on a silver tray on the gray pebble paths. Then I remembered this chrome bar cart. 

I liked the contrast between the old and new glass. The flowers include large 'Summer Drummer' Alliums, small 'Millennium' Alliums and an unknown Hosta flower. 

Van Engelen bulbs says Allium 'Summer Drummer' is the tallest and also the latest blooming of the large Alliums. In my garden the paper covering started to come away from the flower heads on July 4th. This is what they currently look like. Very atypical flowers but in a group in the garden they present a light and attractive effect given their size and height. 

IVOM: Heucheras vs. Heucheras

There are Heucheras and then there are Heucheras. Some disappear quickly and are never missed. Others last so long and well that I've turned them into swaths of ground cover. Some barely flower and others are suffused with blooms. Most of my Heuchera successes are from my early gardening days. They've been divided and moved so many times I no longer have a clue as to the names of most of them. Despite having a lot of plant id cards, I've never really been able to figure out who's who among these oldies. 

These days I look for villosa hybrids and steer clear of most new "hot" varieties. When I'm trying a new variety I don't really want to buy more than one for starters, but it seems they hit the market and disappear so fast it's hard to find them again if you do want to add more. New plants seem to be following the "fast fashion" model.

The leaves on this variety start out almost purplish and become more green as the season progresses. This is the unknown Heuchera with the best flower count of any I've ever grown. I look forward to it blooming each year which is not something I do with most Heucheras.

No. 2 favorite. Dark foliage that holds its color in western sun. Lots of flowers but I like these stems as part of a mixed bouquet rather than as the stars. 

One of the early purplish introductions that has survived and been divided. 

H. 'Pinot Grigio' has lovely pastel foliage that is pinker or redder depending on location. Nice flowers as well, though not as many as I'd like. 

My alter-ego vase filled with the pink stems of the Heuchera in the first picture. 

Not only does each plant produce a lot of flower stems, the stems themselves are packed with tiny flowers. 

She thought her display was a little bland and sent me out for a bloom of Gladiolus murielae aka Peacock Orchid.

In pots on Monday

. . . and every day.

I saved two fancy-leaved Begonias that I bought last summer indoors over the winter. I ordered some annual Begonias to complement them and potted them all up by the front door. Alas, the bright Begonias in the back pot are not doing much while the ones in the other pot have overtaken the original Begonia.

I added a pot of an unknown Heuchera and a Japanese painted fern to support the big pots. At some point I put a vase of the clippings from my shredded umbrella leaf in the rear and potted up a crown of my favorite fern on its way to a new location. 

Before the recent rain, I potted up all my unplanted mail order plants, including Clematis 'Lime Close' and a big Epimedium, as a way to keep track of them and water them more easily. The garden is full of yellow flags marking things that have been newly planted and need water.

Turns out the watering is drawing thirsty critters who are digging the little plants out and flipping their roots up into the air. Luckily I've discovered most of that activity before I'd lost more than one plant.

I put my Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Parsley and Mint in this wide pot and raised it up so the rabbits couldn't reach things as easily. Everything has been growing like crazy since this photo was taken. Rosemary is planted with the pot of Calla lilies above. Other than the mint, those herbs are all annuals here. 

I spent time last week weeding the Carexes that cover the slopes in the back garden and removing a few where a shrub was encroaching on them. I want to replant them elsewhere and so popped them in pots, along with a few Bergenia that a critter flipped out and another mail-order plant awaiting its home. 

I decided to plant a few Calla lilies this year as I am always taken with them when I see them as cut flowers. Turns out I like them less as a plant. 

I might like the Calla Lilies if they looked more like the photo on the bulb package. And if all of the bulbs had sprouted. Luckily they weren't expensive and growing them was one more garden learning experience. 

IVOM: Deadheading

A good twenty years ago I planted Allium sphaerocephalum, the Drumstick Allium, and I've been trying to eradicate it ever since. That's the kind of experience that can turn you off a plant forever. However, I decided it was time to try again and I've been much more satisfied with my Alliums this time around. 

I learned my lesson, however, and have removed most of the seedheads from the garden. I've left a couple because they do offer such a great contrast to every other plant; even at this late stage. 

I know a lot of gardeners spray paint them and use them as holiday decor. I am going to keep these as they are. But I think I may pop them into the evergreens I put around the big plate by the front door. I've added all kinds of natural and unnatural items to that display over the years and these seem like an excellent possibility — if I can keep them safe until winter. 

These seedheads are all from Allium atropurpureum. The artwork is by our friend Chuck Bauer.

Bulb surprise

For years, I've had great luck with bulb orders; I've usually received exactly what I ordered. So it is very frustrating when you discover six months later that what you ordered is not what's currently blooming in your garden. This saga all began with Lilium asiaticum 'Forever Susan.' I planted 'Susan' after admiring her in a friend's garden.

When I discovered how overpowering she was visually, I planted some Lilium asiaticum 'Landini' (below) across the path to calm that intense color down. 'Susan' is so prolific I've given bulbs away. I've bought 'Landini' bulbs four times from three different sources. It just doesn't seem to like my garden as it only lasts a season or two. 

My latest attempt to add more 'Landini' resulted in this lily. 

No idea of its name and it's much larger than 'Forever Susan' and looks out of place compared to my other lilies. Maybe if the 'Fusion' lilies return (below), I should forget the dark color and stick with orange on both sides of the path.

Or maybe I should complement 'Susan' with a different flower altogether; something like Digitalis ferruginea, the rusty foxglove.

Then again, the surprise lily looks rather nice in a bathroom bouquet with my new shower curtain. You have to look closely to see the dark red Astilbe blooms; they almost fade into the fabric design.

(I dragged a green stool into the bathroom to be able to take this picture).

IVOM: This and that

Our former garden was sunny with a brick patio laid in gravel. The pinks adored that patio and seeded around madly. I miss those lovely little flowers and planted this one — 'Bath's Pink' — last summer.

The other flowers are from my oldest Heuchera; no id of course. But it never heaves out of the ground in winter and has multitudes of flowers. It's been divided over and over again.  This vase was a popular style when I first began gardening. I decided it was time to use it again or kiss it goodbye.

I intended this grouping to be more of an Ikebana style. But then I aded the Geum 'Totally Tangerine' and the dark Heuchera leaf on the left and it seemed a bit heavy for my Ikebana intent.

It did turn out to be a perfect way to use a few Hellebore flowers that had gone to seed and were drying on the plant. Plus I got to enjoy my first Geum flower in a bathroom bouquet which means it got a lot of attention.

IVOM: End of May arrangements

I made a lot of spring bouquets this year, but never any with my early Peonies. So I clipped a couple of the last ones to put in this rather Asian-feeling container. I put a little "frog" at the end to hold the flowers but it made the basket tilt.

I decided to add a dwarf 'Cherry Garde' Iris to pick up the color in the interior of the Peony. 

Alas, I waited a little too late to cut these. They barely made it through the night.

I spent a couple of years getting rid of Lily of the Valley that had colonized a major area of our property. But it is such a lovely flower and has so many memories for me that I planted them again.

The mercury glass vase is decorated with Dianthus. I planted a few varieties with white flowers this spring and hope to put them in this vase next year.

I planted this variety — Convallaria majalus 'Hardwick Hall' — for its historic association and its decorative foliage.