Driftwood Redo

I find this time of the year so sad. Most of my flowers have bloomed and when they die off, I have little to look forward to for the next few months.

In anticipation of this, I moved a few of my deck canna containers to the main gardens. I nestled them among the foliage and it has now grown tall enough to hide all of the containers.

This driftwood garden is one example.

See the big canna leaves behind the driftwood? No? Here is a close up:
The green striped leaves are Tropicanna Gold; the dark-striped leaves in the back on each side are the original Tropicanna. These are my original cannas and I still think they have the most interesting foliage coloration. If all goes as planned they will all shoot up big orange flowers in slightly different shades.

I moved one of my begonia/creeping Jenny conainers in a crevice of this driftwood. It sits perfectly in a V-joint of the driftwood. I get more pleasure from this container here than when it was inside the milk can further down the path.
Here is the backside where you can see the container.
I will show you pics later when (and if) they blooom.

The Yellow Calla Finally Bloomed

Remember the area next to the main arbor where I was hoping the yellow callas would bloom with the white trumpet (Easter) lilies?

Well, one bloomed yesterday. See that bright spot of yellow up there on the top?


The only problem is that the Easter lily now looks like this:
LOL. Just my luck. It would have been great if they bloomed at the same time, but they did not. Now I am waiting to see what happens with all of the other plants in that container....remember....I am thinking this container is full of pink starburst dahlias.... one of my favorite dahlias. Since I don't see any buds, my guess is they will not bloom with the lilies on the right side. Darn! I was a good plan. Unfortunately it's not panning out.


I have been on vacation since Tuesday. On Tuesday I worked my butt off in the garden. I have had no energy since! For the past two days, I've played around with flower arrangements and tablescapes, did a small bit of interior cleaning, but I have not gotten any major work done other than meet with contractors.

We have had three contractors here in the past two days. Each meeting is 1 to 2 hours. I am so sick of going over the same details with each on!

Remember that dining room wall paper I removed? That is what started it all.

It seems the contractor who did the dining room, took a few shortcuts. He put the wall paper right over fresh drywall without priming/painting it first. There is no way I can get that glue off. In order to paint that room, I need a couple of skim coats of drywall over the entire room.

I also need a wall of cedar board removed in the living room, then drywalled, some hardwood floors installed in the hallway, new windows throughout the house, six new inside 9-panel doors, new concrete steps/railings on the outside, a new sidewalk, and once that is all finished, new carpet throughout.......

A couple of days ago, I walked out into my garage and found a box from
CC. Whoo Hoo...my ants arrived after all!

Yesterday morning I went out and picked some ditch lilies for a centerpiece for the steak dinner we were having. I used some of the ants on the table:
Later in the afternoon DH came home from work, walked into my computer room, where I was making this post, and said, "I need to go to Home Depot and buy more of that ant spray."

I gave an incredulous look and said, "You mean the ants are back?" Just a few weeks ago we had sprayed and gotten rid of a ton of small ants inside the house. The thought of doing it all over again was not appealing!

Then he said, "Yes, there are ants all over the dining room table!"

LOL. What a fun table!

With daylilies the centerpiece only looks good for one day. Here it is this morning:
What a mess!

Tonight I am going to a Bellamy Brothers concert. They sang, "If I said you have a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" I love that song!

Shasta Daisies Make Great Centerpieces

There is no shortage of Shasta daisies in my yard. Shastas are pretty low maintenance...that is until they die and you have to cut them all down. To my eyes few flowers drag down the looks of garden more than a big clump of dead Shastas. But for the next week or so, they will look all fresh, white and pretty.

I will enjoy them in a few bouquets like this one I made a couple of days ago:
I used one of these flower tower vases:

The vases makes it very easy to arrange the flowers. All you have to do is cut the stems the same length and stick them in.

I also used one of my denim handbags as a vase! It was the inspiration for a full table setting. I did a post about it over at Tablescaping.

In addition to all the Shasta dasies, I also have a lot of yellow daylilies blooming right now. This end of the main arbor garden is almost all yellow.

Last Tango in Zoey's Garden

This one is called 'Kentucky'--a soft pumpkin color with cinnamon speckles.

I spent over 5 hours in the garden yesterday. I was out there shortly after 6:00 a.m. when I waved to my neighbor as she left for work. About noon she came back, stopped at the road, rolled down her window, and said, "Are you still at it?" I could not believe it was already noon.

I got involved in a lot of plant moving. Remember I wanted to move that big yellow daylily under the spikes of ligularia, the 'Rocket'? Here is where is was:
I moved it over a few feet and now it's right under the Ligularia.
I like it so much better in this spot. Of course it's never as simple as just moving one plant....no, no, no....I had to fill the hole from the daylily.......but with what? I decided that I needed another lavender plant. I have two in this area--one at the head of the garden and one on the side.
Can you see them? The hole is directly across from the side lavender plant.
Another lavender would form a perfect triangle. So I wandered around the Ponderosa until I found a lavender plant in one of the deck gardens. Within minutes it took a shovel ride to its new home on the opposite side of the yard.
It's pretty scrawny now. Hopefully it will survive and get big like it's new friends.

While glancing around I decided those Shasta daisies in the center had to go. I used to have a big patch of them, but removed it a couple of years ago. These are the ones that escaped.


Voila! Gone!

Now I had another big hole to fill. I decided to leave that area until I find some new plants to add to the garden. In the meantime, I brought a big container from the deck and tucked it in. I am loving that color combo of the canna 'Wyoming' leaves and the 'Capuchino' lily. There were a few other plants I moved--some iris and allium azure that were uprooted when I planted the big yellow lily and some other Shastas.

All in all I had a very exhausting, but wonderful day in my garden.

Blooming Tuesday -A Trip Around the Ponderosa

It's time again for Jean's 'Blooming Tuesday' I had such fun participating last week and I met some new gardeners. You may have noticed the new links I added.

This week I am going to take you around my yard to almost all of the garden areas I have. DH dubbed it the 'Ponderosa' because he says that even Ben Cartwright doesn't have a spread that big! LOL. Can you tell he thinks I have too many flower gardens?

This is at the edge of the woods in my backyard. If you walk through this arbor, you would be walking right into the wooded lot that we bought to keep anyone from building right next us.
I toss all kinds of stuff that I dig out of the main gardens in this area. It has gotten pretty full in just a few years. I never weed or do anything to this area.

I often think that this wild area looks better than the cultivated real garden areas!

Shot #2 is showing both sides of what I call my 'Arbor' or 'Main' gardens. These are also on the lot next to the house. I figured that as long as we paid for the space, I might as well use it for something! Most of the photos you have seen recently are up toward the main arbor where I have installed walking paths.

This is the back end where I have not yet put in walking paths. I wanted to add another path this year, but could not find any round stone pavers to match what I already have on this side. The yellow daylilies are just beginning to bloom on this side. There are also a lot of red daylilies that will be blooming within the week.

The next view is from behind the smaller arbor in the main gardens. I really need to get rid of that tree next to the arbor! I usually refer to this little garden as the 'wagon wheel garden'. There are three other small garden areas in front of the wagon wheel garden that you cannot see. This is the same area that had a blue chair in front of the wheel.

I have since moved that chair to the deck.

If you walk around to the back side of the deck, you get a full view of the rockwall garden. This area is in a makeover stage. I have been removing most of the plants. I now want only shrubs and trees in this area--looking for less maintenance.

This is an area that you hardly ever see. It's way at the end of my property line facing the woods. DH just cut the grass and you can see his lawn mover and wheelbarrow in front of the garden shed.

If you turn right at this tree, you will be on the side of the deck that faces my neighbor. Way at the end you can see the garden shed.
Right now the Shasta daisies, lychnis and more ditch lilies are blooming. The silver in the foreground is 'Silver King' artemesia. I like to use it for filler in flower bouquets. It spreads by underground runners and can be quite invasive. I like it enough to put up with the effort it takes to keep it in check.

Did you notice that star on the wall of deck?
I bought it from Coldwater Creek a few years ago to put in my dining room. I got bored with it there, so I brought it out to the deck last year.

This side is the main entrance to the deck. A couple of years ago I put hostas and liatris in the big planters that lead to the deck. I did this because it was the easy way out! They come up every year with almost no effort (and zero cost)from me. I was getting tired of planting them every year with annuals. It is a little too sunny for the hostas here. I may have to remove them as the edges are getting burn spots. First I am going to try giving them tons of water.
The bottom planter has a few pieces of Sedum Autumn Joy behind the hostas. I should either plant some SAJ in all four planters, or remove it from this side. It's off balance having it in just one area.
Maybe I will do that this week.
I climbed up in the back of DH's pickup truck to get this long shot of the same area.
I have a lot of Sedum Autumn Joy in the front yard. I moved it all there in the last year or so. I find the light green color attractive all year long and I wanted something that looked good and was maintenance free.

There is a ton more of it across the front of the house.

It's also way back in that bench garden--nothing grows well there. Even hostas won't grow well there. I've been moving all the hostas to other gardens.


So, except for 6 little garden areas, you've made the trip around the Ponderosa. Aren't you glad you don't have to weed all those gardens?

Now go over to Jean's and have fun visiting all the other gardens participating this week.

'Dot Com' Tango Lily Opened While I was Gone

We were gone all weekend on a little get-a-way with my parents. I am so fortunate in that my dear husband loves to be with my parents.

My DH is a tad older than me and only 13 years younger than my parents. He loves to be with my mom and dad. How lucky can a girl get?

We have a lot fun traveling around the state of Michigan with my non-fuddey-duddey parents.

When I was a kid, my Dad had one of the only dune buggies in town.

When I was a teenager,they both had their own motorcycles and snow machines. Every weekend they were on some cycle/sled adventure.

At 16 yrs. old, I had a summer job at the canteen of the largest factory in town and I rode to work with my helmeted waist-length hair flying in the wind as I drove in on my Mom's motorcycle!

My parents are very young-at-heart and we enjoy them so much!

While I was gone, I set up automatic posts. I thank all of you who stopped by and left a comment. If you did not post as "anonymous" I hope I replied to your comment. If you were "anonymous", then I may have answered in the comment section. I do try to respond to all commenters, because I appreciate everyone who takes the time to say something about a post.

While we were gone, another Tango lily bloomed.
This pink lily with the burgundy dotted center is called ‘Dot Com’-- another beauty! I just love these Tango lilies! It is so nice to be totally satisfied with a purchase.
Don’t you just love the name ‘Dot Com’? What blogger would not be intrigued by that name?

Dotty is growing behind these lilies--left side by the arbor.

Even though she is just a few feet away, it's a lot more shaded in that spot and the three plants are much smaller than the others.

Gotta run...can't be late for work! I have tons more pics I took yesterday, so I may be back tonight.

Ligularia -- The Rocket

Here is my one barely surviving Ligularia in June of 2006. It lived through that year, but never got very big.

It languished for a couple more years --until, I dug it up and put it in a plastic container so I could give it the attention it needed. It's a thirsty plant, requiring daily watering.

Each fall I buried the pot up against the house foundation
to protect it from Michigan's brutal winters.

It really took off this spring and I have been eagerly awaiting some of its tall yellow spiky flowers.

And here they are rising high above the 'Olina' lilies.

From another angle: I had forgotten that these flowers open from the bottom up. By the time the top is yellow, the bottom is dying. That's annoying, but I still love them.


Here is a healthy foliage shot:
Update: 7/11/10 4:00 P.M. - I just went out and took a picture. The one above is from two days ago.

You can see how the Ligularia has opened more in the past two days.

This last picture is a note to myself:


Self, I do not like the bold 'Charm Bracelet' daylily next to the more refined 'Capuchinos'. I think 'Charm Bracelet' would look more charming under the Ligularia. In fact, those two yellows together would make a mighty fine combination. I will probably be hauling out the shovel and wheelbarrow this weekend!

Out Pops ' Vivaldi'

'Vivaldi' is a pretty pink Asiatic hybrid that I planted in 2003. She is the one next to the white trumpet (Easter) lilies that I showed you a few days ago.
Look how pink the Drumstick Allium is since I posted their last pic. I must say I get a lot of enjoyment from the little drumsticks.

I see no sign of the big yellow calla lilies yet, so I doubt that they will bloom while I still have any white lilies left. Darn!

My lavender has also burst into color.


I think the deck containers will be putting out some color soon. This corner is full of green.
I am expecting loads of bright colors in the near future. You can see a few dahlia buds. There are about 5 pots of dahlias all across both sides of the back. They should shoot up another 3 feet or so very quickly and cover the entire railing, then explode with yellow daisy-like flowers. They will be the background for orange cannas and purple 'Rembrandt' dahlias. That's the plan, anyway.....
I do have a large container of calla lilies blooming on the deck.

These are the same flower as the spotted leaves that should be blooming next to the white Easter lily.

Responding to a few Comments

Every now and then I like to share some comments in a blog post. My feeling is that not very many people go back to a post and click on comments to see if their question is answered. So I like to answer questions or comment on comments that I think may be of interest to others. So that is what today's post will be.


Jody from the Daily Fiber asked a question that I bet many of you are wondering:
Zoey! How is it that your gardens are still so green and vibrant? Isn't Michigan experiencing this damnable heat wave too!!! Everything looks so serene and cool at your place. Your lilies have real Ooooooh factor! Are you planning to grow any climbers on your lovely arbor?

Well, Jody, Yes, we are getting that heat wave--we have all been complaining for the past 4 days--most of us in the north do not like days over 80 degrees! Luckily we got quite a bit of rain last week and most of my gardens are in shaded areas. We are getting a bit of rain today, too. It's still way too hot and humid!!!

The last question is the one I think many wonder about...it's unusual to have arbors and not grow anything up them!

I am trying to grow mandevilla up the arbor by the Tango lilies.

It's starting to take off,
but since it's shaded there doesn't seem to be many flowers. I am still hoping to get something that looks nice before the end of my gardening season. I have tried for years to get something to grow up the big arbor, but nothing seems to want that rocky area for its home!

Corner Gardener, Sue, has a good eye: ...I see you also grow globe thistles...
Yes, I do Sue. I love Globe Thistles. Here they are just beginning to show some color.
Very soon they will bloom in cool blue spheres.

and for Tracy, who says:... I just want to sit at your table with a nice cool drink and enjoy the scenery!

Do you take sugar in your iced tea?

Hope you are all staying cool,

Zoey