Each Little World

Finding their happy place

As I was walking about the front garden yesterday morning I noticed this clump of Cyclamen that had self-seeded into the gravel path right up against the stone wall. I remember seeing them before and just deciding to leave them alone. Any time I've tried to remove Cyclamen seedlings to replant, I've usually lost them. Maybe letting them alone long enough to bulk up is the answer. 

Seeing the Cyclamen in the path made me wonder how the plants in the nearby bed were faring. Only the original plant is visible and it looks good. Critters, heat and drought mostly likely have done a number on a couple of different varieties that were nearby. They had been doing pretty well but our increasingly hot summers are not helping.

Furter along the path I saw self-seeded ferns, Geranium phaeum and another tiny Cyclamen. 

The first two plants have the same patterning and are likely C. purpurescens. The next one doesn't look quite the same and I'm not sure of exactly which one it is. The last one is the reverse of the first two and is likely C. hederifolium.

I've had enough problems with critters digging these out that I've given up adding any new varieties despite the beauty of the foliage. 

Still perfect

It seems like everywhere I look in my garden I see unfinished areas. It's been so hot that I haven't been able to make myself deal with most of them. Instead, I am luxuriating in the one area of my garden that is picture and pollinator perfect.

It took a number of years and a lot of loss and learning but I finally came up with plants that can take sun, poor soil, snow, winter road salt, massive summer road construction and never slow down.

Geranium wallichianum 'Crystal Lake' is a sprawler that needs companions to thread itself through. Beautiful markings and a color that is bright without overwhelming everyone else. 

'Crystal Lake' is growing with Alliums and Calamintha and hasn't overtaken either plant. 

This little bed has clumps of Penstemon 'Dark Towers'  at the back corners and blue Hostas (probably 'Halcyon') at the front corners. In between are three clumps of Allium 'Millennium' which is much pinker than A. 'Summer Beauty' which is also in bloom elsewhere in the garden. Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta fills the rest of the space. This garden always looks like a slight breeze is blowing but it's the movement of all the bees that create that impression. 

We're not losing our gutter here, so the big machines never get too close. They have never even broken a stem in this plot. 

They still do get close. Here they're digging trenches for storm sewer pipes and moving the dirt into the nearby dump truck. Note the workman down in the hole. (Double click the photo to enlarge it.)

You get a sense of the size of the bucket with Jake, one of the crew who's about 6'3" tall, standing next to it. Jake is covered with tattoos that he's had done by artists around the world. A very friendly guy. 

Success

I won this Eucomis last summer as a door prize at a garden event. At the end of the season I put it in our unheated garage and ignored it. It looked so sad in the spring I didn't really think it was alive. But I removed the flower stalk and foliage, watered it and put it outside where it immediately started to send up beautiful new foliage. I underplanted it with a native Carex and set it in a heavy ceramic pot to raise it about critter height. Alas some big critter came along and knocked it over more than once. 

You can see its damaged leaves. I finally moved it to a new location where no one has bothered it. It also had some damage from a being outside on a couple of nights that were colder than predicted. But it just kept going.

I think this may be the variety 'Sparkling Burgundy' based on the initial foliage color and the flowers. I don't really care what variety it is. I'm just happy it survived and is blooming. This is one plant that is definitely easy enough to overwinter that I will keep doing it. 

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. 

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).

June blooms

The garden is full of lilies; Martagons in full bloom and others just on the verge of flowering. The current high temps should push the late ones open as it shortens the bloom span of the early ones. Here's a sampling. 

This unknown white variety popped up amongst my red ones a few years ago.

Martagon 'Mrs. R.O. Backhouse'. I love the way the lily buds echo the color of the foxgloves.

Martagon 'Claude Shride'

The bud count on these is amazing.

Penstemon 'Dark Tower' with Allium 'Summer Drummer', a very tall and very late bloomer. Also quite small compared to many Alliums. 

The last bulbs

I thought I had rescued all the plants I wanted to save out of my Traffic Island Garden last summer when the road work was postponed. Not quite.

I didn't realize I'd forgotten Muscari paradoxum until it appeared this week. This is a dense, dark and large Muscari that is a favorite of mine. 

I dug out a coupe of nice clumps and pulled out the forgotten orange Tulip as well. This sunny bed, with more gravel than soil, has been the best spot I've ever had for Tulips.

I just dashed out to grab the bulbs when the workmen weren't around and it didn't feel too dangerous to be working out in the construction zone. By the time that workman got back into the trench I was ready to head to the safety of my garden across the street.

I expect this raised planting bed will be a memory next week as they move closer to our house putting in the massive sewer piping. This week they ran the new gas line from the street to our house and hooked it up. I don't think those guys did so much as bend a leaf. No plant was damaged in that project. Pretty amazing crew.

Slogging along

Our cool, rainy weekend weather continues today, with the addition of high winds. We're sitting in front of the fire with coffee, computers and stacks of books. But one of us is doing better than the other.

We were up before 5 am this morning for Mark's 6 am appointment for his second cataract surgery. Everything went well, but he's currently holding a pair of reading glasses up to his good eye in order to read. He can't fit them over the big protective covering on his eye. He gets to remove the patch tomorrow and will have a set of matching eyes which will make life much easier again. For the moment, he looks like a crazy old guy!

By the end of the week I'm hoping I can move all the fancy-leaved Begonias, orchids and pots of Byzantine gladiola bulbs outdoors at last. Our living room is so stuffed with plants you can hardly move.

No matter where you go, there's a plant shoved in every little bit of space.

The good new is that new growth suddenly appeared. These mail-order bulbs arrived so early and have done nothing until now. I was convinced I had just thrown some money away. Now I am thrilled as I loved these flowers when I grew them last summer

But right now, I think I'll crawl back into bed and sleep until it warms up again.