Sunday, September 20, 2015

The End of Summer

I can hardly believe that summer 2015 is gone....I did not even get to enjoy the deck ... not once did I put out the rugs, quilts, or pillows to spend a relaxing weekend at home...

I went out at 9am this morning and took this picture of the two whiskey barrel planters full of yellow daisy-like dahlias and yellow calla lilies. The callas have finished blooming, but you can still see the huge white spotted leaves.

Here are the same planters two hours later;
Everything has been dug out and placed on the back lawn to dry:
It always amazes me that those HUGE calla leaves came from one of those small croms with the white roots!

I left the other two whiskey barrels planted because the Tropicanna Golds are just beginning to throw up their bright orange flowers and I can enjoy them inside from my family room windows.

I like the spotted calla leaves with the striped canna foliage.

One of the new dahlias that I bought from Breck's has put out its first flower:
It's called 'American Dawn'.  I am less than happy with this one. It's almost the end of September and I have had only one flower which is full of bug holes...but at least it bloomed.  Maybe I will see a  better performance with more of a purple center next year.

I am hoping to get at least 3 more weeks from my garage urns and under-the-window garden of  pink dahlias.
 The Sedum Autumn Joy  really brings this garden to life. 
SAJ is such a  carefree perennial...once planted it takes almost no work.. never needs watering...just a bit of weeding...nothing more...gotta love that!

Last night I made ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner.  I took the time to caramelize the onions prior to baking and left the skins on the potatoes, then poured the roux atop:
 and baked until the taters were tender and the top was browned:
YUM! The perfect side dish to a brown sugar/mustard-glazed ham.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Breck's Order I Recently Placed

 
 Big Impact Allium - 10 bulbs  for $18.99
I ordered 5 for a total of 50 allium plants



Del Nashaugh Daffodil Super Sak - ordered 1
 
Plant all under living room window garden.
 
 
 
Muscari Latifolium - ordered 1

Plant all in SAJ garden near living room window
 
 
Odessa Calla Lily
Ordered 3
I have been wanting a nearly black calla. Can't wait to get this one!
 
Plant in containers by garage
 
 
 
Orange glory flower - 2 per order for $9.99
Ordered 2 - 4 flowers

Plant center front of perennial garden outside bedroom window
 
 
 
Muscari latifolium - 35 bulbs 
Ordered 1

 
Plant all under living room window garden with pink daffs.
 
 
The Orange glory flower and the Odessa calla lily will be shipped in the spring of 2016.

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Coleus 'Henna' & Review of Breck's order

This is the second time I have planted coleus 'Henna' in my urns flanking my garage.  I love this coleus with the bright red leaf underside.  I would plant it every  year, but I can't always find it in my small town.

 Here is the other urn where the top of the leaves is more prominent than the underside:
 I like the sawtooth edges of 'Henna's' leaves.
 
I am still giddy over the Japanese Bottle Brush shrub blooms (even though they look nothing like the "fuzzy caterpillar" pic Breck's showed). I  also had no idea the plant would be this tall as their description says up to 3 feet high) and mine is well over 6 ft.


Following are some pictures from the Breck's order I received this spring. I am linking to the order url should any of you want to order your own.  BTW, I get nothing, zero, zip, nada to talk about Breck's.  About 50% of the time I am not happy with them, so they certainly would not be paying me to post about their product. I am just linking as a convenience to my readers.

This is 'Little Blue Wonder', a dwarf sea holly.  I love it --  but I ordered 5 of these from Breck's and this in the only one that came up. 
I had planted them all across the front edge of  my small dahlia garden under the living room window.

 I am so sad that I don't have a sea of blue under the pink 'Park Princess' dahlias as I had planned.  Yikes, I just looked at my order form and realized that I paid $14.99 each for the dwarf sea hollies! Since only one survived,   it cost me $79.95 for one plant.  I better write to Breck's and request a refund.  Breck's has a great refund policy. If something is not right, they refund or replace the item.  That is why I continue to order their products.

I am loving the bold paintbrush splashes of dark red/purple in this  dahlia called 'Tropical'
 
The yellow color at the petal base looks like the sun is shining through. I am totally happy with this purchase. I planted two of these, but so far I have only seen one that has bloomed.  I am not sure if the other died or if it's just a late bloomer. 
 
I was eagerly awaiting the bloom from this dahlia called 'Que Sera'. This is what I expected it to look like (pic is from Breck's website):
 
This is what I got.

It is nothing like what I ordered! Very disappointing! Another refund request will be sent for this dud.
 
Talk about disappointing.....remember this 'White Feather' hosta?
 
I planted it in a container so I could give it special attention.
 
This is what came up:
I paid $19.99 for this!!! I almost tossed it in the compost pile.  The only positive thing I can say about it is that it did, indeed, come up white.
 
I hid the pot behind some other containers on the deck and kept it watered.  It surprised me by putting out many new leaves.  Here it is today:
 
 So it's alive and much bigger, but it's a totally blah hosta once the leaves fill with chlorophyll. I knew it would only be white as it emerged and then it was supposed to have white streaked leaves.  I guess there is a bit of white streaking, but, honestly, I would not waste the money to buy this hosta. I won't ask for a refund, because it did survive and I knew that it would only have white leaves as it emerged. If it survives the winter, I think I will be much happier next spring.
 
I still have one  dahlia that I received from Breck's that I have not yet seen a bloom.  It's called American Dawn.  I can't remember which container I planted it in, but if it  blooms, I will show you the pictures.
 
 
This post is getting way too long and taking me way too long to create so I will end it now.  I hope you are enjoying your late summer garden! 
 
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