Out with the Creeping Phlox, In with the Lamb's Ear

I went out Friday night and bought six more Lamb's Ear. You may remember that I bought five earlier this spring. Three of those are planted here:

If you keep walking toward the arbor, you will come to the area I am replanting today.
It's the front of this long border. I stuck the new Lamb's Ear in the creeping phlox last night just to hold the pots upright. The phlox has grown so thick and tangled that I cannot get the grass out, so it's time to redo this area,. The silver should look nice in front of this lavender which is just about to bloom in all it's purpley goodness.


As soon as the rain stopped (about 8:00 am) I went out and began to dig up the creeping phlox. It took less than half an hour to get the first wheelbarrow load.
I am liking it already. That lavender takes center stage once that mat of phlox is gone.

I continued to work on this area for about two hours. I decided to leave some of the creeping phlox because I do love its early spring bloom. I also decided to plant the Lamb's Ear in a drift of three on each side of the lavender. I love repeat patterns in a garden and that is how I planted the first three in the photo at the top of this post.

Since I've added so much of the chartreusy green hostas in other areas of this garden, I decided to plop that same color dead center. I walked around the rockwall garden to see what I could dig up to put on each side of the hosta. I decided that two Bergenia might work. Bergenia has pink blooms at the same time the purple phlox will bloom in the spring. I also added a large Sedum Autumn Joy on each side because I wanted to repeat the big round shape that I have in a number of areas along this garden.

This is what I ended up with:

My first impression is that I love this! It's so much more interesting than having 12+ feet of creeping phlox!

I liked it so much that I dug out a few feet of phlox on the opposite side and replaced it with another huge chartreusey green hosta that used to be on the walking path on the opposite side. It was gettng so big it was obstructing the path, so I replaced it with a smaller hosta.
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I still need to put a nice edge on the new area. It started raining again about 11:30 A.M. so I had to stop for now.

I think the lavender really does stand out now.


What do you think of the change?

It's Never Been my Favorite Flower, But I am Liking it This Year

Bergenia

This plant is very hardy and likes a little shade. It is grown from rhizomes and has leathery leaves. The leaves are evergreen and by spring they can look pretty tattered. In past years the flower has been hidden in the leaves. This year there are three nicely visible pink flowers and I like it against this boulder.
This pic shows the big round leaves. Earlier in the season I removed a couple of the really tattered leaves.

I almost got rid of it a few years ago. I've had it in three or four different places and it's never done much. I think I may have finally found a spot it likes.

Here is another bergenia.

I may have to remove bergenia from my list of plants I don't really like. I am finding it quite interesting this year.

When I got home from work at 3:30 p.m. it was raining a little. About 5:00 p.m. I noticed the rain had stopped so I bundled up and went outside. I was shocked that it was really warm out there--too warm for the long sleeves I had on. I decided I'd spend 30 minutes removing grass from the phlox. Once I got to working, I spent over an hour. It was quite pleasant (except for the bugs that are coming out already).

I am hoping to spend a few more hours weeding this weekend.

I Found Tropicana Black

and used them in the 4 planters I do at work.

I planted these last week. It was too early as a couple of the plants have already suffered from the cold. I knew I should not plant King Coleus, cannas or sweet potato vine yet, but I did it anyway. I mentioned to the boss that if it should get in the low 30's at night, he may want to have someone cover them. Then I left for the weekend.

Of course, nobody covered them. (I really knew nobody would. Since it wasn't my money, I was not all that worried about it. I did warn him.)


Luckily the damage was not severe. If we do not get another really cold night, it will recover.


The cannas suffered just a bit.


The three planters I did at home were fine over the weekend since my tender plants (cannas, ipomoea) were tubers under the soil. I am waiting to plant the majority of my containers until next week. I will be off all week, so I can devote lots of time to designing containers.

I couldn't believe it this morning when I saw these tulips already dying off. It seems like they just opened! I think they look so neat when the inside shows like these two.


Ah, but look what's coming right behind them....big orange poppy buds!


I thought this little primrose grouping was kind of pretty this morning. The plant with the large leather-like rosettes of leaves with the pink bloom in the back is bergenia. It never really gets big and beautiful for me. In fact, I don't even know why so many people rave about it. I find it blah on its own, but I like it planted with the primroses.

Bergenia in Bloom

I must admit that I am not in love with this plant. Many people rave about it, but as yet I have not been overcome with the same emotion.
The leaves do stay green, but really they are not that beautiful. A hosta leaf (in my humble opinion) is much more lovely.
I guess I should have picked off the brown-edged leaves. In fact, I did pick off some a few weeks ago, but I see I missed a few.
Maybe they just need to get bigger to look better?