Remember My Sled full of Persian Shield?

Today I removed the Persian Shield and put it in a big pot to overwinter in the basement.
It's really getting big, isn't it?
This will be its third year in the basement. I give it a little bit of water once a week--just enough to keep it alive. All of the leaves will fall off. It will make a big MESS and look like a sorry example of its beautiful self. But by next June it should leaf out again and start to look lovely. I think it's worth saving because I could never buy one as large as this.

I cleaned the sled with soap, water and bleach. I am thinking of bringing the sled inside the house and putting a Christmas tree in it. So don't be surprised if you see this old sled again in about an month!

I decided to try to overwinter my two pots of Purple Fountain Grass. From what I have read it's a tough plant to successfully overwinter without a greenhouse. Has anyone overwintered it?

I am expecting that the grass will go dormant and I can hold it over until spring with no water.

When I planted it, I left it right in the black plastic pots that I bought it in and just buried the pot inside my barrels. It was pretty easy to dig the pot out of the barrel. Then I cut it back and

dipped it into a bucket of soapy water in hopes of getting rid of any bugs.

After it dried, I just stuck it in the crawl space. It will sit there until next May when I will pull it out with the other overwintered plants and begin to water it.

It is dies, it dies. I thought it was worth a try since it took such a small amount of effort.

I worked pretty hard today and have almost everything done for the winter. I have a few containers of dahlia tubers drying out in the garage. I will bag them up in a few days and then I can forget about plants until next May.

I must say I am glad to have it almost all done!

Tango Lily Fuzz

Thanks to a comment by Priscilla that directed me to a forum where they were talking about the "white stuff" on their Tango lilies (thanks, Priscilla), I now believe this is normal. Every one of my new Tangos have it, so I am not worried. The plants seem healthy. . . can't wait to see the flower!

Last night I went behind the rockwall and cut down more Sweet William for my vase.

I toss shovels full of it back there when I am weeding. Sometimes it looks nicer behind the wall than in the actual garden area in front of it! I have certainly received my money's worth from the 4 packets of Sweet William seed I planted about 20 years ago. I have never had to replant since. I made sure to leave some to set seed. Sweet William is a bienniel, but once established it just keeps reseeding, so it always comes back.

Here are a couple of container comparisons one month apart:

Canna container on May 23: I dug up an astilbe and stuck in in front (a few blue forget-me-nots came with it). June 23: The astilbe is in bloom. What has really impressed me is the size of that dahlia in the back. It's almost ready to bloom. I have never had dahlias bloom this early. If I remember correctly, this one did not bloom last year at all. It must have saved it all for this season.

Here is my sad sled planter after the cold spell in early June. I thought perhaps I had lost the Persian Shield in the middle.
It lost nearly every leaf.
But now it's coming back nicely.

Those two 'Century Red' celosia are really bugging me in this photograph. I need a third one. More blooms should be coming soon and then I will like it much better.

Very Weird

Today the battery was not dead.
I added the latest border to the top of Let It Snow (which I have named this quilt) and I really wanted a picture of this stage. So I put the battery back in the camera and gave it a try. Voila!

So here is where I am with the quilt:

I worked all last week during the evenings on the three bottom snowmen.

Now I just need to add a bit more - maybe a foot all around and it will be big enough for a good blankie to wrap up in to watch TV. I like them big enough to really snuggle into so no part of my body is exposed to the cold winter indoor temperatures when I lie down to watch TV. I have no idea yet what that last border pattern will end up as. I can see I really need the blue/white stripe on the bottom. I hope I have some of that left!

My poor Persian Shield plant. It and the four hibiscus trees live in a litte room in the basement during the winter. The basement is warm enough and there is a large window in this room so they get just enough light to survive. Barely survive.
Look at this poor thing. I forgot to water it last week.


I think there is still hope.
The same thing happened last year and look how it came back. It's amazing how tough these plants are.

Making a Floral Arrangement

I start my flower arrangement by preparing the wet foam (be sure to use "wet" foam, not the stuff you use in dry floral arrangements as it won't absorb water).
I like to put the foam in the container and fill the sink full of water and let it soak for about half an hour. That is long enough for the water to be fully absorbed by the foam. (The foam fits snuggly in this container, so I don't worry about using tape to hold it in)


While it's absorbing, I go out and gather the flowers.
I stick them in water, too, so they absorb as much as possible before I arrange them.
I actually picked the silver Artemisia last week, but never made the arrangement. It's been sitting in water on my kitchen counter since then. Artemisia will last forever; even without water it will dry and stay silver.


I start with the Artemisia because it's the bottom filler plant. I am using Persian Shield for the second filler. I think fillers are the secret to making a pleasing arrangement.

I decided to stick a bit of spiderwort in the center. I've never used spiderwort in arrangements before, so this is an experiment.



Then I just fill in flowers. I work loosely in three's arranged in a triangular shape and I began with three of the purple phlox because they were the largest flower. Next I put in three of the purple coneflower, which are the intended focal flowers. I just add until I am satisfied.


Here it is at the point of my satisfaction


Yes, it is very precariously perched atop the deck railing.
The early morning lighting was not good on the table where I was working.
I kept thinking, if this falls off, it will serve me right. LOL. The things I do in the name of blogging.

I Moved One Plant

I watered a few plants tonight and decided (spur-of-the-moment)to rearrange a few containers. I thought I would just pull the Persian Shield over because the color went well with the canna leaves.

Once I grouped these front containers, you can clearly see that the big hibiscus tree needed to go.

So I moved that out and then I did not like seeing the pot the Persian shield is in. So I looked around and decided to pull a begonia over to cover it....not too bad, but now I needed a bit more of that red begonia color a little higher up.

The birds left their nest so I could move that planter over.......
Geez, all this because I moved a pot of Persian Shield .........................LOL

Here is where I left it for tonight

I can't guarantee that it will be that way tomorrow.

Persian Shield Then and Now

Remember the Persian Shield I overwintered in my basement. This is what it looked like in April. I was wondering if it was worth the effort to save it.








Here it is now



I've decided it is worth overwintering.
It gives me a much bushier plant than I would otherwise have if I had purchased a small 4" starter this year.

Strobilanthes Dyerianus

Now that's a mouthful, isn't it? LOL.
I just call it Persian Shield.
Other than my 4 hibiscus trees, it is the only plant I tried to overwinter in the basement.


It looks a little sick, but it did survive with almost no sun and just a small drink of water once a week.

I should look like this

I am feeling pretty confident that it will after a few weeks of warm sunshine and a few treatments of miracle grow.

I am really liking the foliage contrasts in this arrangement -- Persian Shield, variegated morning glory, dusty miller and coleus. These are two pots side by side. Wish I had more time to blog, but have to get to work.

Barrel Progress

This barrel is filling out very nicely. I am quite happy with the brilliant red celosia--not so happy with the small orange and yellow celosia. As you can see, they are too small for the more aggressive plants and are getting overrun. I will remove them this weekend while I can still salvage them. I am also not very happy with the Persian shield (in the back center behind the red). Supposedly it is fast growing, but it has barely grown at all in the past 4 weeks.

Old Doll Cradle

I just planted this old doll cradle two nights ago. I have a coleus in the back, Persian shield in the middle and a variegated morning glory (ipomoea nil 'Sun Smile') in the front. There are a few Dusty Miller on the side, which need to grow a bit to be seen better. The morning glory was a hanging basket, but after hanging it and living with it for a couple of weeks, I decided it needed to be lower so that I was viewing it from the top. The flowers get lost in the foliage as a hanging basket.

Persian Shield and Dusty Miller. The shimmering purple foliage of this plant should be set off by the silver gray undergrowth. Persian shield is relatively new to my area and this is the first year I have used it. It is said to be very fast growing and prefers semi shade. I have planted three of these in different combos.

Barrel Plants

Last night I was too tired to finish my post. I wanted to tell you what plants I had planted in the barrel:

Persian Shield (back middle - should get 3 feet tall). A foliage plant with purple leaves & silver veins. I have not grown this one before.
Celosia -Red foliage plants on each side in the back. They will get red spikey flowers
Celosia - orange and yellow spikey things
Osteopernum - purple daisy
Calibrocha - It is a tiny yellowish petunia- like flower spilling over the edge. I believe it is also called million bells.
Sweet Potato Vine - planted two of these - -purple foliage
Scaevola aemula: Blue wonder, Escabola, Fan flower - Trailing purplish thing in front (I planted this at work last year and it was beautiful)