Each Little World

IVOM: More pots

The last time I used this little blue and white bulb bowl from the Metropolitan Museum of Art was on Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in 2013. When I saw two small pots of about-to-bloom Muscari at the grocery store last week I couldn't resist. Blue Hyacinths and the similarly colored "grape hyacinths" will always come home with me when I see them.

I pulled the bulbs out of the dirt, washed them off and put them in the bowl. I was feeling very Dutch with this combination of flowers and container! I went looking for my other blue and white container with lots of openings in it. Turns out the blue and white brick is meant to hold flower stems and not bulbs. The bowl holds 5 bulbs, only half of the number I brought home. 

Thus the others got plopped in a little cachepot from the late Johannsens Nursery, once a mere five minute drive from my house. This container is one of 5 that I bought one year at Easter along with a number of different succulent plants to put in them.

All of the flowers are sending up a second bloom. I put the one container right next to where I sit most evening so I can enjoy both the flowers and the fragrance up close. 
As the flowers keep blooming it seems as though the bulbs are shrinking. One fell through the hole and had to rescued before it drowned. Maybe it's just that they're out in the air and not protected with soil. Or maybe it's just a fluke. 

The bulb bowl has lots of small openings perhaps meant for baby bulbs; who knows. It did occur to me, however, that I should try putting big leafy flowers in the bulb openings and fill the small holes with the delicate stems of spring ephemerals. We'll see what I can do come spring when there's more in my garden than snow. 

New for 2023

After last year's crazy amount of plants ordered online, I have tried to be more restrained this year. I've made a conscious attempt to think about what would work in the garden in terms of light and space and not just what interesting plant I want. Here are a few of my choices.

I have been growing Carex siderosticta variegatea for at least 25 years. It is a garden workhorse that requires little work from me. I ordered this new variety — 'Echigo-Nishiki' — from Plant Delights as it has much more white in the leaves than the straight variegated. Plus the white is described as 'frosted.' I am really looking forward to adding this to my garden. Zone 4, light shade.

(Photo by JLBG taken at Walters Gardens, MI)

Carex conica Snowline is another variegated Carex. This one is very fine textured with white edges on dark green leaves. The majority of my Carexes are solid green foliage and my shade areas need a bit of perking up which this should do. Z 5, supposedly can withstand tree roots which would be a real bonus. 

(Salmon Creek Photography via Digging Dog Nursery)

Plant Delights Nursery offered a few Lycoris for my zone that were more attractive to my eye than the typical pink Lycoris squamigera aka Naked Ladies. Though the bulbs are pricey, I ordered three Lycoris caldwellii 'Sky Over Sky'. Though this is a Z6 plant, I am hoping the fact that it dies back and can be heavily mulched will get it through our winters. 

(Photo from Missouri Botanic Garden website)

Lycoris incarnata 'Blue Pearl' looks different in every photo of it that I've found. Its blue tones should be a nice compliment to Phlox 'Jeana' and pink autumn Anemones. 

(Photo by Juniper Level Botanic Garden)

Filipendula 'Red Umbrellas' is smaller than the native variety and has this striking red veining as well. I probably don't need any more pink flowers but I am getting this for the foliage. So I am not going to worry if it never flowers. And it's Z3! 

(Photo from Digging Dog Nursery website)

The alphabet garden

Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin often talks about plants in terms of the alphabet. Though we have only 26 letters in our alphabet, he notes that we come up with an endless variety of words and ways to use them.

Thus 26 different plants would give you more than enough garden options for a lifetime. Since I keep a record of all of my plants on individual index cards, Diblik's concept sent me looking at my alphabetically-arranged list of perennials. Here's what I discovered:

• There are no plants under "F." Instead I use "F" for my many, many ferns. 
• I have a mere 3 plants whose name begins with "K" and only 2 under "M."
• I have no perennials whose names begin with "N" or "O" or "W, X, Y or Z."

As for the other letters of the alphabet, some have a number of different plants listed. Others are almost exclusively one group as the following letters show:

B is for Brunnera

E is for Epimediums

F is for ferns

G is for Geranium

H is for Hellebores and Hostas

I is for Iris

P is for Primulas and Peonies

T is for Tricyrtis and Trilliums

What this little exercise did was to let me quickly see what plants I favor over others. I was not at all surprised as I know these are my favorites. It does suggest, however, that I should use this list as a quick way to see if I have enough variety in terms of size, texture, season, color and all the characteristics that make for effective plant groupings. An easy task for a winter day that will help me when I hit local nurseries come spring.

Stars of the 2022 garden

My gardening friend Erin Schanen, The Impatient Gardener, just posted a video on her YouTube channel about the plants she considered award-winners in her 2022 garden. She has a bigger garden than I do and grows annuals, veggies and trials a lot of plants.

But she gardens in southern Wisconsin like me. So I am always interested to see what's doing well for her. Watching her video made me look back at my gardening year to determine what plants are on my awards list.

Here are a few plants — in no particular order — that performed well for me from the get-go in 2022. 

. . .

I bought a dozen bulbs of Gladiolus murielae, split them into two pots and fell in love. They had elegant flowers, very statuesque foliage and looked good in and out of flower.

I just ordered 3 dozen for this coming season. It may have gotten too cold in the garage where I was trying to overwinter the original bulbs for them to survive; we'll see. But I think I may be finally hooked on adding containers to my garden. 

Though I had a Geranium 'Rozanne' surrounded by Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta in my Traffic Island bed, I was never that crazy about it. I am much more pleased with Geranium 'Azure Rush' and G. 'Crystal Lake.'

Both are sprawling plants with pale toned flowers with striped interiors. They don't need any attention from me which is always nice. This is G. 'Crystal Lake.'

I love Brunnera and am growing just about every variety I have seen for sale. I don't know when or where I found B. 'Dawson's White,' but it is a winner. I moved it last spring from a shady spot with a lot of root competition from big trees. I put it in a spot that turned out to be quite sunny.

When everything around it was stressed from the heat, dryness and loss of part of the nearby tree canopy, 'Dawson's White' just soldiered on. The expanses of white on the foliage never browned until so late in the season I didn't care. 

I grew a beautiful blue Agapanthus from Seneca Hill Perennials for a good ten years in my garden. When the polar vortex killed it a few years ago I was broken hearted. I didn't think twice when Olbrich Botanical Gardens offered Agapanthus 'Galaxy Blue' for sale in 2020.

It came back again beautifully this past summer and is a clear winner in my garden. I love being able to grow it as a perennial rather than as a house plant. 

I decided to take a chance on a different variety of Hydrangea when I planted H. serrata 'Mountain Mania in 2021. I love its orange-tinged new foliage. Frankly, I adore this whole plant.

It came through its first winter with flying colors. I hope that means it will keep doing so. This year I also added Hydrangea arborescens 'Mary Nell,' highly recommended in the Mt. Cuba trials. It blooms on new wood in the shade!

I've been growing Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea' since I purchased it from the old Heronswood nursery in 2004. I moved a few plants in with some Hellebore seedlings a year ago and I am really happy with this color and texture combination.

The Luzula is very yellow when it first appears in the spring. It can take dry shade, but this group is in a fairly sunny spot and is doing so well it feels like a new plant. Sometimes the oldies are still the goodies.

Speaking of Hellebores, I planted a pair of H. foetidus 'Red Silver' in 2019, but lost one of them last winter. Missouri Botanic Garden says they may not be reliably hardy in Zone 5 but I've had good luck with another one of this type.

The good new is that the departed plant left behind seedlings.That's a first for me — and it puts this plant in the winner's circle even though it will take quite a while to get blooming size plants again. 

Late summer plant splurges

I ordered a few plants online in the middle of July when the heat was dreadful. The first week of August I went out to K&A Nursery (both locations) to get a couple of Dramm hose nozzles and came home loaded with plants. In other words, during the hottest part of the summer, I found myself with a worktable loaded with work.

I'm happy with my purchases and am getting them in the ground at a reasonable rate. The prices were great since the season is winding down. With the recent rain and temps in the lower 80°F range, I'm good to keep going. Here's a look at a little of my hauls.

This Helleborus argutifolius variegated seedling is from Dancing Oaks nursery and is listed as a Zone 6 plant. However, I've had great luck with other Zone 6 Hellebores. I don't care if this ever flowers; I bought it for the foliage. It was so reasonably priced that I think it is definitely worth taking a chance on it surviving. 

This is Athyrium 'Crested Surf', a painted fern variation. I bought this to do a version of a plant combo I saw on a recent garden tour. 

I sent for Astrantia 'Vanilla Gorilla' from Avant Gardens in 2017. It has great foliage and flowers and no problems — if you don't count rabbits. I've never seen it to buy locally until now. So I got two. Once this is planted and settles in, the pale color becomes more creamy white than yellow.

Someone posted this photo (below) on the WHPS FB page. I made a note of the names of the Clematis but not the person who shared the picture. When I discovered both varieties at K&A I was a goner. 

Clematis 'Samaritan Jo'

I've had mixed success with Ajugas but I am ready to try again with some varieties that are new to me. Ajuga 'Parrot Paradise' should be a perfect ground cover under 'Amber Jubilee' Ninebark.

I put a pair of Geranium 'Perfect Storm'' with a pair of Geranium 'Crystal Lake' near my Calamintha and Allium 'Millenium' mix at the end of the driveway.  

I also got three each of Aconitum fischeri and Digitalis 'Dalmation Peach', a Eupatorium 'Chocolate', Geranium phaeum 'Margaret Wilson' and a few shrubs. But that's another story.

PR humor

This tag was on one of the shrubs I recently purchased. Someone at the nursery was having fun.

Back from the dead

We planted our 'Forest Pansy' redbud tree, 22 years ago this month. It's a tree with big gorgeous leaves summer and fall (below). We had a lot of winter dieback the first few years which made us nervous about the tree's survival. It also leafed out later than any other Redbuds in the neighborhood. 

When we checked with Peter Moersh at Stonewall Nursery, he gave us this advice: "If it hasn't leafed out by the 4th of July, it's probably dead." Though he was joking, we took that concept to heart and no longer worried. It was always so full and gorgeous by the 4th that we often had to prune it. This is what it looked like on June 10th of this year. 

It seemed pretty clear that last year's drought and the lack of snow during the winter had put an end to this beauty. We were too busy to do anything about it right away, other than half-heartedly talk about replacement trees. But then something happened. The two lowest branches started to leaf ou — and not just with a few scattered leaves. Still, the tree looked more than a little sad with only those two branches covered with leaves. 

By the time the 4th of July arrived, the tree was sprouting new growth all over.

New foliage was on most of the main trunks and branches.

One minute I think it looks silly; the next sublime.

It seems as though the tree is going to survive after all, though it's probably too soon to count our blessings. But two things are clear. (Double click to clearly see the live and dead branch mix.)

One: That Peter's humorous advice is spot on. And two: We're lucky we were too busy to cut the tree down.

Crossing my fingers

Last weekend temps got up into the 80s followed by overnight lows hovering at frost levels. Day time temps have been chilly with mostly gray skies. We're supposed to hit 60°F. today and tomorrow and then drop back into the 50s for the next ten days.

The good news is that the overnight lows are all expected to be in the 40s, so I can plant the four mail-order shipments of perennials that are sitting in the living room, front hall and basement sink. 

A friend and I went window shopping for trees and shrubs at our fave nursery, K & A, on Tuesday. We bundled up, but we were still freezing. Here's the reality of our weather: All the perennials at the nursery were under covers and many had to be moved back into the greenhouse as we all wait for Spring to decide to stick around.

Two pots of tender bulbs on the left. First time I've tried to grow these and I'm nervous about how long it's taking for them to appear; as well as how long they've been stuck in the house. On the right are Orchids and Cyclamen: house plants waiting to go outdoors for the summer. In the middle are a mix of plants ready to go in the ground today.

I was expecting this small package of Cyclamen and Primula from Edelweiss Perennials but had not noticed the alert that I was also getting a package from Broken Arrow Nursery. Actually two big packages from them filled with evergreen and deciduous shrubs. Both nurseries sent beautiful plants wonderfully packaged. Can't wait for it to warm up a couple more degrees and then I'm off to plant and play in the garden. 

Looking for inspiration

Visiting other gardens is considered one of the best ways to be inspired with ideas for our own gardens. I find I get as many great ideas and bits of information trolling the web as I do visiting a garden in person. Here are a few online images that have recently sparked my imagination. 

I love Carexes and discovered this photo on the website of Plant Delights Nursery. I think this is a brilliant combination of color, form and texture. The grass is Carex retroflexa 'Bonnie and Clyde' but the Heuchera is not identified since the point of the picture is to sell the Carex. This image proves that two plants — the right two plants — can create a show-stopping moment. 

I have been growing bronze fennel in my garden but it doesn't do much visually for me. Nothing like this giant fennel in the garden of Dan Pearson in the UK. It went on my wish list the moment I saw this photo in the British House and Garden magazine. I am in love with plants that will tower above me. 

This is Rodgersia podophylla in the gardens at Cady's Falls Nursery in Vt. But it's surrounded by Barberries and Peonies, plants that like the sun. Rodgersias like the shade. But this image suggests they may be able to take more sun than I've been giving mine. This one looks so happy and healthy that I am probably going to move my slowpoke plant this spring. 

Author Matt Mattus has plants and ideas and information galore on his blog, Growing With Plants. In this photo of his early spring garden, he's done something it never occurred to me to do. He's put at least three different varieties of Fritillaries in three different colors around this urn filled with pansies. I've always put my Frits in different areas of the garden far away from each other. No more.

I saw this garden image on the blog of The Frustrated Gardener in the UK. Like Matt Mattus, he's another obsessive gardener sharing tons of advice, ideas and information. I grow a lot of Toadlilies (Tricyrtis sp.) and Heuchera but I've never seen them used as ground covers like this. The angle of the photo is a bit confusing because my Tricyrtis like this variety are at least two feet tall. What a thrill it would be to turn a corner and discover swaths of these plants that you could walk between.

I've planted the most floriferous area in my garden with a lot of pink, lavender and purple flowers. I wold love to add this plant, Lysimachia purpurea. It could be tucked in anywhere and would give a wonderful burst of color without overwhelming its neighbors. I've yet to find it for sale anywhere but I hopeful.

Have you got a blog, magazine or Youtube video channel that is your go-to source for ideas?

Spring meets winter

There's still snow on the ground and it's cold outside; only 19°F. (-7° C.) at noon and supposedly only feels like 9°F. But my snowdrops "in the green" from Carolyn's Shade Garden in Pennsylvania arrived in the mail just now. 

I potted them up and will plant them out next week when it's warmer. I can see snowdrops, planted in the garden in years past, poking through in the sunniest spots.

I should have some flowering blooming next week. I can't wait. That's Galanthus 'Wasp' on the left and G. 'Mrs. Macnamara' on the right.