There's Lots More

Note: I wrote the following two posts in mid-June, but failed to publish them. They are a bit out of date - see tomorrow's NEW post - but the pictures are good. Enjoy!


I wasn't kidding yesterday that it's more than I can share. We now have thousands of yellow daylilies, Monarda, hydrangeas, clematis, mandavilla, Asian lilies and even calla lilies in bloom - and that's just the back yard. The purple river looks like it may re-emerge as the perennials re-bloom, and the Shatsa daisies are ready to pop.

Monarda - These were a gift from a former boss of Mitchell's. They are a lovely shade of purple - more like cerise - and the bees and hummers love them. There common name is Bee Balm. Apparently the smell is a sort of bee tranquilizer and calms them down. I've never been stung around them and they are usually filled with bees... so maybe that's correct.

Mandavilla - of course this is an annual, but one Mitchell particularly loves. Mother gave us the plant in May and it is flourishing. We have used this same obelisk for several years. This variety is a velvetty deep pink, not really red as I first thought.





Clematis - This is the oldest and most established clematis we have - and we have lots. It has grown on this iron trellis for about five years. The flowers are a dull orchid, so not the prettiest we have, but them come back year after year in a larger clump.





Asian lilies - Some years ago I planted many, many Asian lilies - I just love them. They first summer they were lovely, and the second year the rabbits ate 90% of them. This is one that survived. this year it has nine buds on a five-foot stalk. It's just gorgeous. Next year I'm going to plant more - rabbits or not rabbits.




Calla lilies - These are special. If you check the books, you will see that callas don't winter here - but these do. I bought a package at Big Blue Box about five years ago and they have made it thru all those winters. Now I have ten clumps of callas. Not all of them will bloom this year, but maybe next year... They are a prettier shade of pink than this photo really shows. I cut these and brought them into the house today.

What's Up in the Garden

Note: I wrote the following in mid-June and didn't post it. Even tho it's a bit out of date now, the pictures are pretty.


It's that Gemini part of the summer - just hot enough that some days you just don't feel like doing anything but sitting on the bench to enjoy the lushness, and not yet so hot that you have the blahs.

It's also the time when something blooms daily. I hardly know where to start to show or tell. Today, let's just stick to the pond. I planted a number of iris last summer and had one little bloom, but this year they just keep coming. More open daily in two shades of purple - that was a freebie since I didn't have a clue what color they were when I planted them.

The water lilies bloom periodically - both yellow and pink - and the best part.... the Richmond Spider daylily started blooming this week. It is the most gorgeous daylily that I have ever seen. Technically, it's a "red" flower, altho it's really orange. Even I can't call it "red", as much as I would like to. There are big clumps on both sides of the pond. For the next couple of months they will bloom prolifically with seven-inch blossoms. What a gorgeous sight.

This has been an odd weather week for gardening. Monday thru Wednesday we had 80's and scattered showers all day - more scattered some days than others - and about 1/4 inch of rain each day. Thursday it started to warm up and was major league humid and by Friday we were in the upper 90's. In other words feast or famine for both water and sunshine. Hard on the gardener, but not so bad for the garden.

The monarda 'Raspberry Wine' is gorgeous and way tall! The butterflies are everywhere and we keep looking for a hummer or two. Haven't seen any in our yard yet, but are told that others have. The feeder has been up for several weeks, but only the downy woodpeckers and chickadees are drinking there so far.

While the river of purple is currently between bloom flushes, we had a lake of yellow all week - the miniature day lilies 'Happy Returns' - bloomed like troopers everywhere and by the end of the week we had completely bloomed out. Sometime this coming week I have several hours of deadheading to do to get the old stems cut back for the next flush of blooms to start. The 'Richmond Spider' lilies continue to bloom and will be with us for several weeks. There are miscellaneous tall yellow daylilies starting to bloom all over and a couple of neat "black" daylilies I picked up from Andre Viette last summer. They are a deep, deep purple and an interesting contrast to all the yellow. Makes me wish that one could bring daylilies into the house, but unfortunately they live up to their names - even when they are not cut.

A lovely clematis 'Jackmanii' made its first appearance this week, too. It grows on a trellis on the side of my garden shed. Of all the clematis varieties we have, it is really my favorite. The cone flowers are coming into bloom, and the alstroemeria - another love - have started, too. Most of them are a dark yellow 'Sweet Laura', but this morning I found one little clump of a gorgeous cerise, named Staprioxa' (sold as Oxana Princess Lilies).

The big job this weekend has been spreading mulch. I should have done this in April for several reasons: 1) It would have been easier when all the perennials were just little fellows peeking out of the ground. Now I have to do it all by hand and move everything aside as I go. 2) It was hot this weekend and I have had to do it in little bits, so it's not done. 3) It would have been better for the plants to have had the mulch earlier to help shade out the weeds, and I would not have had to pull so many. In other words, if I had done it on time, it would have been easier and better.

I am generally happy with the garden and the weather, tho. We've only had a few really humid days and so far none that were hazy, hot and humid. We're getting enough rain that I have only watered twice which is nice, so let's hope it holds!

You Say Tomato, I Say Tomaato

Well, actually you say Bermuda Grass and I say wire grass. The local gardening guy in the RTD often says that if you love the way your lawn looks with this southern bent grass, you call it Bermuda, but if you hate having to constantly pull it out of your flower beds, you call it wire grass. I would be the latter.

One of the few garden jobs that I truly hate is weeding out the wire grass. I have worked diligently to get good quality ground covers established in nearly all our beds so that they will make it unpleasant for the wire grass. You do know, don't you, that part of the role of ground covers is shading out the weeds and making it easier for them to just go somewhere else. Most of the beds are in pretty good shape, but the large bed in front where the oak used to rule is the worst one I have. Last week I sprayed with Round-up, so that this morning I tackled the remaining grass. There's only one way to do it - hands and knees with a good digging tool and lots of elbow grease. Fortunately, I had less than a quarter of it to do, and two hours later it looked really good.

That's the sort of maintenance that can make gardening less fun, but then one has to look on the good side. It looks great when it's done and I normally only do it once a year. That particular bed is in bad shape now because of taking down the oak. The falling branches and pieces of trunk made holes in the ground and gouged out small plants, so I have a bit of clean up to do, but by spring it will look much better.

The new plan for this space is to encourage the mini-St. John's Wort to fill in to cover the rest of the ground. There are two volunteer dogwoods already growing there - one nearly in the center and one more toward the center of the yard - which we are leaving. [If you look carefully, you can see the larger one "above" and just to the right of the planter in the photo.] Our experience at the old house was that in five years we had a decent-sized, blooming dogwood, so we hope to be as successful with these two. The one we transplanted into the boomerang last September has grown nearly a foot already, so we have reason to be hopeful. For the short term I am planning to put some good dirt from the compost pile in the gouges and then get a small load of mulch to cover. That will help impede the grass.

For the very short term, I've put a huge urn on the tree stump and filled it with summer blooming flowers. This one was actually in the back yard, but not getting enough sun. Did a bit of damage to the fox glove when I moved it - hence the drooping stems. I keep hoping they will straighten up, but they'll be pretty when they bloom anyway.

One other small problem we are watching: both dogwoods have mildew. I have already started a weekly spraying with copper sulfate (Andre Viette says that is the way to go.) It is only in recent years that dogwoods have gotten mildew, and the younger ones can be killed by it. Ours are only two years old, so I am watching them. Am also spraying all the garden phlox. It's also very susceptible.