Combo I Really Like

Unfortunately by the time my snow-in-summer blooms, the poppies are nearly done.

This is the only clump I have left.

I just got a call from my son. He is on his way home (he lives 250 miles away). He called to tell me they stopped at a nursery to buy plants.
Like mother, like son.
LOL

"Off with their Heads!" I say, "Off!"

Unlike many, I don't find the dying allium heads swaying in the wind to be beautiful. At least not in the front area where these were.

They may find their way into an indoor arrangement. I need a different big arrangement to put on top of the dining room china cabinet.

We shall see....

The Weed Saga Continues

I think I found another of the same weed like the one with the big fat horseradish-looking root.
Thank you all for helping me to identify it. I am going to let this one flower so I can find out for sure what it is.

Annie in Austin and Sandy thought it might be comfrey. I goggled it and it does not seem to be that one. Sandy also suggested centaura, which I have in another area and went out and compared the foilage. Quite similar but not the same.

I am inclined to think that Kathy might have something with her suggestion that it is a relative of evening primrose . . . Oenothera genus. If little yellow flowers appear, we might have it identified.

I know you will all be waiting with bated breath to see the bloom.


The specimen on the left is the new one in my garden. On the right is a primrose I nabbed off google images.

My Son and My Only Grandchild

Her name is Allie.

Isn't she adorable?

She's spoiled rotten.

If Kristopher goes inside the house, she lays right down and cries until he comes back out.

(I am a terrible Grandmother. I don't let her in the house.)

DH just came and told me we have frost warnings again tonight. We had them last night but I did not know until I was ready for bed and I just left all the plants out. Luckily it did not frost.

I don't think I can luck out twice, so I am off to lug plants to the garage.

Someone remind me what it is that I like about container gardening..............

Cruel, Cruel Mother Nature

Frost Warning Tonight from 2:00am until 8:00 am
The plants that were easy to carry went into the garage
Everything else was covered in old sheets, blankets, drop cloths.
I really should not have to do this on June 10th

Take a Vacation While You're in Blogland

"How?" you ask.

Go visit Pea's blog.

She has posted the most wonderful slideshow of Niagra Falls.

I've never been there, but I feel like I have now that I've seen her slideshow.

Thanks so much, Pea, for sharing that with all of us.

Ugly Period

My garden is pretty ugly right now. I've found that there's no way to avoid these awkward transition times.

The beautiful purple spring blooming ground covers have faded and the summer bloomers have not yet begun. We have not had rain in over a week and the grass is turning brown.

It's always such a let down to see it go.









I do have one new bloomer -- Snow-In-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum).

This was one of my very early seed successes.
If I can grow it from seed, you know it's easy to do.

Snow-in-Summer is so named because of the very white flowers that completely cover the fuzzy silver/grey foliage on this 6-inch high ground cover. It truly looks like a low mound of newfallen snow.

The only care this plant gets is a good weeding in early spring. Weeding is no easy chore, because just like creeping phlox, this plant forms a dense mat.
It can take a good beating, though, and digging underneath to release the grass/weeds does not seem to bother it at all.

It's very drought tolerant. I never water it and it's been coming back each spring for the past 15 years.

I would not normally be walking through my garden in flip flops because I am way too concerned about a snake or other insect touching my flesh. I had just given myself a pedicure and was waiting for the polish to dry so I ventured out (around the edges of the bed only).


Remember the ipomea pots I saved from last year? Those lovely large pots that were hanging on each side of my arbor?
Well, it's been a good 4-5 weeks since I brought them out and they have just begun to emerge.

At this rate they won't be large enough to put out for another month.
So are they worth saving ?

Without a greenhouse, not really.
I have had to lug them in out of the garage during the entire month of May.
Way too much work for something that will not even be presentable until my garden season is at least half over.

If you have an area to hide them for the first two months, then I guess they would make a free change of scenery later in the season.

Osteospermum 'Orange Symphony'

I love this orange daisy with the violet-blue eye. It's a prolific producer of blooms and is a Proven Winner. However, it has one annoying little habit that is really beginning to bug me.

It closes up whenever there is an overcast day or the sun moves direction.

Interestingly that was never mentioned in any of the glowing Proven Winner information.


For those new to gardening who are unaware of Proven Winners, I went to their site and gathered a bit of info for you:

The goals of Proven Winners are to introduce the best, most unique, high performing plants, to produce them under the highest quality standards, and to market the plants innovatively. Proven Winners plants are unsurpassed in terms of flowering, growth habit, disease resistance, and garden performance.

No other plant line goes through the same rigorous plant selection process, which takes 2-3 years and occurs at facilities in the U.S. and Canada, as well as at trial stations in Europe, South Africa, and Japan. Every Proven Winners variety is protected by U.S. and Canadian patents. What also separates Proven Winners is its viral control process, which is second to none.

Besides producing better flowering plants, Proven Winners is also credited with creating the "container gardening" craze, and making new plant genera known. Most consumers had never heard of Bacopa, Nemesia, Verbena, etc. until Proven Winners introduced these varieties.

Make the Type Bigger

To make the type bigger when reading blogs (or anything else for that matter) hold down the "Ctl" key and put your finger on the wheel in the center of your your mouse. You can make the print bigger or smaller depending on which direction you push the wheel.

Of course, you must have a mouse with the wheel in the center to do this.

Blue Iris is Purple

So what's new? Boy, I just hate it when they sell me "blue" and it's as purple as can be! Does this look blue to you?

It's partially my own fault.

I've been gardening long enough to know that there are very few true blue flowers, yet I still fall for their less-than-honest selling tactics.

I planted this iris two years ago and this is the first bloom. It almost always takes two years for a new iris to bloom in my garden. Yet some of you get beautiful flowers the next year (I'm thinking of Dianne's beauties she just planted last fall).

What's your secret?

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

As a kids, we called this flower "honeysuckle".

It seems to me we used to bite the tips off and suck out some sort of sweet liquid. . . or maybe we just thought there was a sweet nectar because of the name.

I wouldn't suck on them today as I believe I read they are poisonous.

I found a couple growing in my garden yesterday. I usually pull them out when I see them because to me wild flowers should be in the wild, not in my garden.

But I must admit, they have a quiet beauty. The one growing with the dame's rocket/phlox is very tall (I've never seen one so tall), while the one below is quite short and just peeking out of the daylilly foliage. I think I will let these two live on.

Last Poppy Post, I promise!

But I came home today and the good poppies were in full bloom. These are the ones I think are the 'oriental' poppies.

At this point, though, I just don't know what I have!
Below is a picture of the center of both the good and the bad.
Does this help anyone to identify them?








Good


Bad

Star of Persia (Allium christophii)

Just beginning to open.















and 5 days later...almost all opened


Christophii is quite short, blooming at about 1 to 2 feet high. I like that.

I have had these bulbs 3 years. The first year the blooms were HUGE - like a foot across. Each year they seem to get smaller, which I think looks better than the gigantic balls they had in year one.

I am not really in love with christophii; I like Persian blue's tight head of darker purple much better.

Though not my favorite, Christophii's airy spidery head is an interesting additon to my little blooming onion family.

Here is the Christophii with the Persian blue and another taller variety (I can't remember which at the moment).


I really need to underplant them with something that will hide their foliage. Alliums are well known for presenting scruffy foliage at bloom time.

Siberian Iris and Chives

I grow a lot of chives.

Occasionally I use them for garnish or on cottage cheese.

What I really grow them for is the cute little purple ball flowers.

Are you getting the impression that I really like round flowers? LOL

The Old Ricketty Chair

Is Back!



I had planned to toss it last year, but after DH sturdied it up a bit, I decided to give it another whirl.

It's not all that lovely at the moment, but let us not judge until mid July after it has time to fill out a bit.

Don't you just hate having to wait so long for container plants to fill in? If you ever watch the TV gardeners plant containers, they look lush and full right from the start because they don't start with 6-pack annuals. They use 4" containers and larger. It's nice to be able to do that, but VERY, VERY costly.









I did 4 containers at work this year.
Two like this



As you can see, I am not nearly as frugal with the company funds. LOL.

These big planters look pretty nice already and I just did them 2 weeks ago.






I used 4 nice sized Tropicanna Gold callas and was very surprised to see one blooming already.
















The other two planters are not as full. I am going for foliage here and very little flowers. Only the calla and the Scaevola( hanging in the front) will have flowers. I have 'Ruffles' coleus and 'Purple knight' alternanthera which should fill out nicely. At least that's the plan...

The Pleasure of Reading

This weekend I read the entire novel, The Runaway Quilt, by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I read in the car, in the hotel room, sprawled on the family room sofa, gently rocking in the glider on the deck--just about anyplace I could find to sit and hold the book.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, my first thought was to grab the book and finish the last two chapters. I had to find out what happened to the babies (and I was happy that I had guessed correctly).

It's been a long time since I was so engrossed in a book.
It was pure pleasure.

I hated for it to end. (that's how I measure the success of novel...if I feel remorse that I've finished, it was a good read)

So I started reading another in the same series, The Sugar Camp Quilt. I am half done with that one.

I think there are 9 books so far in the Elmcreek quilt series. I have read only three. I should print myself a list and try to read them in their chronilogical sequence. In the book I am currently reading, I already know things about the characters that I should not know.

If you are looking for some easy summer reading, you might enjoy a book or two in this series. Chiaverini gives you enough information that you can enjoy any one of them even if you have not read its predecesor. You do not have to be a quilter to enjoy these, but if you are, the read will be greatly enhanced by the starring roles quilts play in each novel.

I had such a wonderful relaxing weekend.
And to top it all off,while crossing the Mackinac Bridge late Friday afternoon on my trip north, we saw this lovely rainbow over Mackinac Island.

I got home Saturday Afternoon

and my iris's had begun to open

Can't Wait to Get Back to Work Tomorrow

so I can rest!

Oh, my, what an exhausting day I've had. I worked outside for hours (I can't be wasting a "vacation" day relaxing) and got tons accomplished.

One of the things I did was finish removing the obedient plant from this area.

Remember I hit it with RoundUP a couple of weeks ago? Well, I missed a lot of it, so I ended up digging the rest out. Then I threw in Zinnia seeds - all red and yellow.

I am sure the Obedient plant will be making an appearance for years to come as I did not get every little piece of the root (it's nearly impossible to do). At least most of it is gone.

Who among my loyal readers is a weed expert?

I admit to knowing very little about weeds. I know which of my plants are weeds, but I rarely know which weed -- I spend too much time pulling them and have no time left to investigate what they are! LOL

Here is a big weed I pull every year


















And here is the root of the weed

Does anyone know what it is?




















How about this ligularia (the rocket) - Does anyone know what might be eating it? Slugs, perhaps?

I Planted My Vegetable Garden at 5:30 a.m.

Yes, that's it.
Just one pot of 'Big Boy' tomatoes.
One of the chefs at work started them from seed and gave me two plants.

I took a vacation day today from work so I was able to indulge in my favorite gardening time - 5:30 a.m. until about 8:00 a.m.
It's so peaceful then.
In addition to planting the tomatoes, I spent about an hour edging and weeding.

Now I have to shower to get to the dentist by 9:00 a.m. to have a crown put on.

Then I will be back home to work outside some more.

It should be a wonderful day.

Spring Phlox

My spring phlox (the tall purple stuff) began blooming this week. It's a rather weedy plant, but I like it in combination with the orange poppies. It reseeds everywhere, but I just yank it out in early spring if it comes up in places where I don't want it.

This is a view I probably have not shown you before. It shows both my large rockwall garden and the small rockwall area.

Pain in the Posterior Pine Pollen

Say that 3 times!
I have this large pine tree in the corner of my deck which provides wonderful shade












But not so wonderful

Pollen


Fortunately the pollen falls for just a few days. Since we had a good rain last evening, it may have knocked most of it down already. . . crossing my fingers that that is the case...because this stuff is a real mess.

How to Post a HyperLink

I was reading a new blog yesterday and the author was asking how to make a hyperlink in her post.

I was going to tell her in a comment, but once I started, WOW! it was way to complicated to explain in a comment. I remember not that long ago trying to figure this out myself. I would have loved to have found a post with pictures explaining it all.

So here goes my attempt:

First you need to find the unique address (the url) for the post you want to refer to. You want the URL where only that post comes up, not where there are multiple posts (like on your home page).

I get this by clicking on “links to this post” at the bottom of my post. For some of you, you will click on the time instead.



The URL is here


Right click on it and click "copy"
Now you have the URL stored in your computer’s memory.

Go into Blogger and write you post.

When you come to the word or words that you want to hyperlink,

Highlight them (in my example I am using the word “here”)

Click the hyperlink button (see pic below)




When you click the hyperlink button another box will appear on your screen

Right click in the box that popped up where it says “URL”

Click paste

The unique address of the post you want to link to should now be pasted in that box

Click OK

Your done. Finish writing your post and hit publish.

I hope that someone who reads this will be able to figure it out and be as excited as I was the first time I made it work. It is so much more fun to blog when you understand how to use the tools provided.

A Few New Blooms

One of my customers gave me a few of these "Raspberry Blush" iris' in the fall of 2004. This is my first bloom.
It is a small iris (about 20" tall)--very delicate and pretty.



This beauty is one of my many poppies. This is a very large double variety, which is so beautiful -- as long as it's not windy or rainy. The large head which makes it so beautiful also is very heavy and the slightest wind/rain will make it fall to the ground.

It's thundering outside right now so it shouldn't be long before this one takes a tumble.

My favorite poppies have not yet bloomed. They are single and their foliage is much bushier with the flower stems shorter. Here is a picture:



Can anyone explain the difference to me between the above "good" poppies and the "bad" poppies below (the long curly stems with very little foliage). I got both from my Mother-in-law and she does not remember what they are.




Update: Since I awoke very early today, I had time to do a little searching and found out that these are two different species. Everything I read suggests that this:

The "bad" poppy is Papaver rhoeas, also called the Common poppy or field poppy.

The "good" poppy is Papaver orientale.

I also found this :

"Each plant is able to produce around 17, 000 seeds, these can remain dormant in the soil for 80 years or more, perhaps even as long as 100 years " WOW! You better love these once you plant them.

I never let mine seed because I don't want more of the "bad" ones. Although, as Kathy mentioned in her comment, I also find that these must spread by other means...even though I don't allow them to seed, they are spreading out in about a 2ft radius.

Unplanned Library Stop

I had a dentist appointment today at 2:30 p.m.

Just prior to going to the dentist I wacked my fingernail on my desk drawer at work and broke it (shouldn't that be a worker's comp claim? LOL).

My next nail appt. is not until next Monday. I can't go that long without a decent nail. So I called for an emergency fix. Got an appt. at 3:50p.m.

The dentist appt. was a quickie just to see if previous procedures worked (they did) and I was out of there at 3 p.m.

That left about 45 minutes between the dentist and the nail technician, so I went to the library.

It's been months since I've been to the library. I used to go every week or two.
I did not even know how to use their new computer system.

After finding an old high school friend (who works there) to help me, I finally got these books.

I've been wanting to read more of the Jennifer Chiaverini quilt novels and went there with those books in mind.

As you can see I found 3 of them and a couple of garden books.

Now if only I can find the time to just sit and read!

I did arrive at the nail salon 20 minutes early and started reading The Runaway Quilt.

On Friday after work DH and I are leaving town for the night so I can read for 2 hours in the car while he drives.

I just need a few more hours in each day.

My 2¢

Or how to make the cent sign appear in your post.

I just had to look up how to do this for another purpose, so I thought I would post it just in case someone else wants to know how.

Just hold down the Alt key and hit 0162 from the keypad, not the numbers on top of your keyboard. I don't believe it will work if you use the top ones (at least it won't on my computer)

Autumn Crocus (Colchicum) Foliage

I get a lot of hits from people who google for this, so I thought I would oblige these visitors and post what the foliage looks like in the spring.

I like it a lot.

Since I just planted these last fall, I don't know what happens next. I believe this lovely green foliage dies off and the flowers just sort of "pop up" in the fall.

Kathy, if you are still around, am I correct?
Or if anyone else knows, feel free to jump right in.

This is what the flower looks like in the fall