Each Little World

Garden quirks of 2021

We began the 2021 gardening season with frost right up until the end of May, followed by temperatures hitting 90°F. in early June. So plants growing like crazy and blooming ahead of schedule should come as no surprise to this gardener. But I admit that I am a bit taken aback.

. . .

The flowers on my Kirengeshoma palmata began opening yesterday, July 21st. Last year they started to bloom exactly a month later on Aug. 21st and on Aug. 14th the year before that. 

I planted Angelica gigas last year, having bought a small plant at Flower Factory's end of season/retirement sale. I let it self seed as it is a biennial. It came up this spring in the same location and nowhere else that I've noticed. It looks like it is about to bloom again this year. I am so unfamiliar with this plant that I don't know if these are flower buds or even if it typically behaves this way. 

A few of my Epimediums, like E. 'Domino', are having growth spurts and even flowering in July. This one is ten years old and suddenly has leaves floating at 24" above the ground. See that stem rising above the rock?

This one and a few others are also sending out large and oddly misshapen leaves like those round ones that are reminiscent of the foliage of native wild ginger, Asarum canadensis. When a variegated stem pops up all green, I know to cut it off. But I am unsure whether I should remove these stems with odd leaves or just ignore them. 

It's always new and different and a learning experience in the garden. 

GBBD: 7.15.2021

Some plants seem a little behind this year while others are a couple of weeks ahead of their typical bloom date. By midsummer, much of my garden is green but there are a few things in bloom like Astilbe taquetii 'Superba' with Hemerocallis 'Lady Inora'.

I am an obsessive Thalictrum lover and added two more of the tall summer bloomers this year.  

Thalictrum rochebruneanum 'Lavdender Mist' (above and the two photos below) with Vernonicastrum virginicum 'Fascination'.

T. 'Lavender Mist' has the largest flowers of all the ones I'm growing which makes them visible at a bit of a distance. 

Astrantia 'Star of Fire' and a flowering wand of an unknown Heuchera.

Ligularia stenocephala 'The Rocket' with the end of the orange-flowered Lilium canadense.

My Lilium leichtlini keep disappearing on me. I'm down to one plant from the 10 I planted in 2014.

Learning to love orange

Back in the 1960s, I loved wearing bright colors like hot pink and orange. I remember I had an orange wool dress with white trim and a dress whose fabric was printed with big orange flowers.

But orange in my garden? I've mostly steered clear of that color other than Asiatic and species lilies. But suddenly I am noticing that I have orange in a number of long-time favorite plants and I seem to be adding more and more of that color. 

Hecherella 'Hopscotch' is a villosa hybrid which means it copes with hot, humid summer weather. i love the fact that it really holds its color all season.

I have Heucheras all over the garden. They've been moved and divided so many times that I can rarely identify them anymore. I believe this one is H. 'Pinot Grigot', planted to echo the Berberis thunbergii 'Admiration' on the far side of the Peony. Most of the orange flowers and foliaged plants are around the Tea House to complement its color.

'Amber Jubilee' Ninebark (Physocarpus) has orangish, bronze new foliage. My shrub would like more sun so its color is not as intense as it might be. The shade has also kept it a size to easily fit into the garden. I am always pruning it for shape and that produces the nice bronze color, though it means I never get flowers.  This is what it looks like at the moment; not quite as bright as when the first leaves appear.

I've been growing Spirea japonica 'Magic Carpet' for years. I love that I can cut it to the ground to keep it the size and shape I want. It also makes great cut foliage for flower arrangements.

I added Hydrangea serrata 'Mountain Madness' this year, specifically for its orange new foliage that fades to yellow through the season. The lace cap flowers are a very delicate peachy pink. I fell in love with it from the moment it arrived from Issima Nursery.

I've been growing Penthorum seloides aka Starfruit at the edge of the pond for years. But I'm not sure if it will survive without its roots actually growing down into the water. There is one small clump remaining after all the re-design work Mark has been doing on the pond edge; we'll see if it stays the course.

I don't think you can garden in the Midwest without growing daylilies. Many people like the really large-flowered varieties. I like the little dwarf types like Hemerocallis 'Petite Sioux'.

Hemerocallis 'Lady Inora' is bigger than 'Petite Sioux' but I believe she still falls into the dwarf category.

I've always wanted to have poppies in the garden. Last year I put in Papever atlanticum, a Spanish poppy that is a very bright orange.

The only orange grouping not near the Tea House is this trio by the red front door. Bowman's Root (left), Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket' and Japanese Blood Grass 'Red Baron' are at their most dramatic peak in the fall rather than the spring.

Simple effects

On a recent visit to Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, my eye was captured by a number of displays where the design concept was extremely simple. Perhaps more importantly, they were ideas they would be easy to replicate in any home garden. You know it is a good idea if they are doing it in a public garden.

A redbud underplanted with Epimediums. This must be beautiful in spring when both are in flower ahead of the appearance of their foliage. 

Boxwood balls interplanted with the herb dill.

I love the contrast of the airiness of the dill with the down to earth solidity of the boxwood. Despite the height of the dill, it does not obscure the view of the sculpture at the center of this garden. 

I fell prey to temptation on an early nursery visit, seduced by the dramatic foliage of the Coleus plants. But I never really figured out how or where to put them once I got them home.

This struck me as a perfect solution. You can admire all the various colors and patterns of the Coleus and add or subtract pots as necessary. It's an idea that would work with any number of annual plants. And it brings color and life to a major walkway that does not have available planting space.

IVOM: Late August blooms

I decided to clip a few flowers to save them from the hot and windy weather we've been having. A storm was forecast so I went out as the sky got darker. Alas, the storm passed us by again. So no rain, but at least we can enjoy a bit of beauty in the house.

Our gardening neighbor grows a Kiwi vine on the fence between our gardens. It crawls over onto our side in the most wonderful way. But I tend to clip the long tendrils that want to rise up into the adjacent trees. I decided it was time to bring one of them indoors to showcase. 

I added a lichen covered branch and a wand of hips from Rosa glauca.

The Kiwi leaves started to fade quickly, but they were fun while they lasted.

The Lohan has been patiently waiting for a new bouquet.

Fennel flower heads, Kirengeshoma palmata Koreana group, Hakoenechloa grass and a large quilted leaf of Hosta 'Inniswood.'

Though I've done a lot of watering, a month without rain has caused much of the foliage in the garden to burn and begin to brown. 

A quick arrangement for the table of Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta, the flowers of garlic chives and a few Hosta blooms. 

Still no rain but at least the temperatures have moderated, so I am out to the garden again to plant some of the things that are lined up on the deck awaiting their new homes.

Serious garden re-do starts

Last August we walked through our garden with a respected local designer and then with an arborist, seeking advice on how these aging gardeners might maintain their aging garden with a little less work. At the top of the list of suggestions was removing trees that were no longer healthy and were causing problems for their neighbors. If you look carefully you can see two arborists getting ready to take down one of our unhappy Scots pines. 

We have more tree work that will happen once the ground freezes, but we wanted to get started sooner. Now I can begin transitioning the ground cover on the hills from weeds to Carex and ferns.

The crew from Tree Health Management could not have been more respectful of our plants and garden. They took two pines, a clump of buckhorns, and a big Carolina Silverbell down in small increments. That way nothing got injured in the process or in getting them out of the garden.

Those trees produced a lot of debris that was all ground up on site. The crew cleaned up the driveway and the area where they were working beautifully. Now we just need a little rain and cooler temperatures for me to do my share of the redesign. 

If you don't know where to look, you can barely tell how much was removed. But the space is brighter and more open and will let us see views that had gotten hidden over the years. 

Cherry bombs

Sunny, temps in the 90F°+ range and dry as a bone. Though I have a stash of plants that need to get into the ground, I am doing nothing but watering; trying to keep old and new alive and well.

I planted Allium 'Millenium' late last year and this is it's first season of bloom. Dense flower heads of a most attractive cheery, cherryish pink.

Angelica gigas was just put in last week. The bees have been all over it. 

A summer Sunday

We drove out into the country Sunday morning and met with the other two couples who comprise our book group. Nothing like a morning surrounded by summer flowers, barns and acres of corn as far as the eye could see. I love it when the road dips and you find yourself driving through a valley of corn.

But that bounty also brought to mine the terrible crop devastation that the derecho storm brough to neighboring Iowa. These days it is hard not to continually bump up against bad news.

We ran into a road-resurfacing detour and found ourselves on a road we'd never taken before. What a surprise to stumble across this sight.

Not the typical kind of entrance drive to most houses and farms in Wisconsin. Though I'm not sure I'd want to drive under that massive saw blade on a stormy day.

The August garden

Despite all the bright flowering perennials that are blooming in every garden right now, those are not plants that I grow. No Echinacea or Rudbeckia or Joe Pie weed for me. That means my garden is mostly greens at the moment. There are still flowers to come, but I am enjoying this quiet transitional moment.

Carex elata 'Bowles Golden' interspersed with the speckled leaves of Tricyrtis hirta 'Lemon Twist'

Tricyrtis hirta 'Lightening Strike' would never have to flower to deserve a place in my garden.

Adiantum venustum, aka Himalayan Maidenhair fern, is a workhorse, despite its delicate beauty. Here it's paired with a Hellebore from Pine Knot Farms.

Astrantia major 'Vanilla Gorilla' kept trying to revert to green leaves all summer. Finally I cut it back to the few proper variegated ones hidden at the bottom of the plant. This is my reward for giving it some tough love. 

Last summer and all this growing season, lots of money, time and sweat has gone into replacing grass that's been shaded out by trees with assorted Carexes. Everywhere I look they are settling in and looking good. I should have some nicely filled in swaths by next summer.

Despite too little August rain and way too many rabbits, there is still a lot to please me in the garden.

Small surprises in August

In August of 2018, I ordered a few plants on a late summer sale from Avant Gardens in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Imagine my delight when I discovered they had included a Cyclamen purpurescens as a free, bonus plant! This plant has performed since day one, never really going dormant during the growing seasons. It slowed down during our current hot weather but has never really stopped looking good. 

I was so happy with this little charmer that I ordered another from Edelweiss Nursery along with some other things last spring.

This second one has settled in nicely as well. Despite how it looks in the above photo, the foliage is still quite small as you can see when its contrasted with the surrounding swath of Thalictrum kiusianum.

I decided to take a chance on a couple of fancy foliaged Cyclamens as well. But I was disappointed when they disappeared almost immediately after planting. I assumed they were unhappy and died. But they both popped up again and are looking good for baby-size new plants. This is C. purpurescens ex. Lake Garda which is correctly described as having "strong markings on the leaves."

This is C. purpurescens "pewter leaf" and definitely is that. 

I am happy with my tiny collection and the plants are perfect companions to their small neighbors like this hairy lip fern aka Cheilanthes lanosa 'Mighty Tidy.' Though it will only get six inches tall, it is supposed to get a foot wide, which would be a nice ground cover.