New house

Moved to a new home last year and just updating to say I planted salvia nemorosa’rose marvel’ and gaura ‘crimson butterflies’ in the front bed. We will see how they do!

New plants for 2016

This is a housekeeping post, but if I don't do this I'll forget and stare at plants with no idea what is coming up. 

Cryptomeria globosa nana where the urn once was. 

Blue false indigo

Agastache Arizona sunset

Firecracker vine

Thuja accidentalis "fire chief" 

Chamaecyparis obtusa "nana lutea"

Hosta Autumn frost

Peony "pecher"

To do: 

Put up wire for the vines on the fence

Transplant knockout Rose elsewhere 

Move climbing roses somewhere else too

Transplant oak leaf hydrangea

Repot plumeria

Edge the beds somehow 

Just wanted to do a quick update on the garden.  Here's how my favorite bed is looking these days:

I planted some new plants!

Oakleaf Hydrangea, hooray!  Also added a Bottlebrush Shrub, although it and the Virginia Sweetspire are not looking great - a bad drought while I was on vacation may have REALLY hurt these plants.  It is not looking good.

I haven't planted it yet, but I got the Crepe Myrtle (Hopi) for the side yard, FINALLY. Its looking great, and is a

Also planted some Sunflower seeds today and 4 o'clocks. We'll see if they come up....

We had a harsh winter and I lost quite a few plants - my other David Austen 'Graham Thomas' looks like it may have croaked, and I lost one of my potted hydrangeas.  The pineapple sage did not overwinter this year although i have no idea how it ever overwintered before. Also, the plumeria's are just starting to bloom and are looking nice this year, except I'm a little worried about some white stuff I'm seeing. Hope its not fungus. Oh and both hibiscus were absolutely skeletonized this year - I'm guessing caterpillars but I never saw the culprit.

Newish Year Resolutions

Its supposed to get down to 9 degrees here tonight, and it is just frigid outside.  Perfect time to stay inside and dream about springtime.

Here are my gardening goals for 2014:

• Buy an Oakleaf Hydrangea.  I've been wanting one for years, and have dropped the ball over and over. No more! 
• Move my Irises to their new bed
• And plant the daylillies
• plant a Crepe Myrtle by the window.  This one I have been paralyzed by for so long, which is ridiculous, but I really want a myrtle that ticks all the boxes - great fall color, colorful blooms, good winter interest on the bark, and under 6 feet wide.  I get stymied looking at all the gazillions of cultivars and then don't buy anything.  
• Pink Perfection Camelia, I'm also tired of wanting one for myself and not having one...
• The biggest one ... start gardening in my front yard.  I am not sure that I will be be brave enough to try that next year.  My backyard looks ok, not amazing, and the front yard is even more intimidating to work in.  I've wanted to created big sweeping beds in the front yard for a long while now, and its not happened yet.. Will 2014 be different? Probably not.... but I really do want to start working there, so we will see.  

beautiful fall day, perfect for digging in the dirt

Planted some new plants today!

Gaillardia aristata 'Arizona Sun' 
Dianthus 'Tiny Rubies'
Baby Lace Hydrangea
Virginia Sweetspire 'Henry's Garnet'

Managed to clear out some plants I'm not in love with, mostly Creeping Jenny, which has been great as a weed suppressant while I could not garden as much as I like, but its time for her to hit the road. Picked up some amazing end of season deals on Dianthus (unknown species, so aggravating, how hard is it to do a real plant tag and not "dianthus spp.") and some Blue Salvia farinacea for 30 cents per quart sized pot! I picked up 9 salvias and 3 dianthus.  And even better, I got 5 Blanket flowers and one Soldiago 'Fireworks' for free from the trash! I was surprised they allowed me to take them home, but they did, and I plopped them in the ground by my Natchez Crepe Myrtle, which has this gorgeous yellow and orange foliage to match the bloom colors, I think it could be really beautiful next fall! 

Beautiful fall colors. These windows I got off Craigslist a while back and have been meaning to hang up somewhere. 

Gladiolus 'Halloweenie' from Plant Delights. It really DOES bloom reliably at Halloween for us. Someday I want to move it to the front yard. The picture doesn't do the glorious gaudy colors justice. It looks like a Halloween window cling, just super vivid orange and yellow tones. 

Just posting a picture of the new violas and snapdragons I picked up, so that later I can appreciate how much they have grown. Oh! I forgot that I picked up those snapdragons at 30 cents a quart and 20 cents for a six pack. Hooray for plant discounts!! In the back you can see the zinnias still blooming away, couldn't bring myself to pull them, the bees are appreciative they are still there. 

Happy Halloween!

Time for my bimonthly post!

Who am I kidding? I would be lucky to pull off a schedule of bimonthly posting.  Isn't it funny that bimonthly can mean both twice a month AND once every two months? Seems like a pretty inaccurate word, considering its sole duty is indicating time. Anyways, this is basically just a flimsy attempt to distract from the fact that I never update this blog.  

Here's a beautiful combo I saw at the NC State Fair.  I love the salvia with the cool blues of this cactus.  I would love to have something like this in my front yard, but I don't think I have the drainage for it. 

Here's my current favorite bed, although its looking quite sad, as we got our first frost, and almost everything is wiped out now.  Everything in this bed is very easy to care for, except for the elephant ears, which like to be watered regularly.  Of course, this summer, I could completely ignore them almost 90% of the time.  We had the wettest summer ever.  I can't believe how lucky we were, although it did wipe out a lot of tomatoes and strawberries.  Our farmers would probably not think we had a lucky summer, but I'll be grateful for it anyways.

Here's my 'Panache' Canna, which was a passalong from garden friends.  This is its FIRST year in my garden, and it is already monstrous! I think I planted this in November last year, and its already towering over my fence, which made the neighbors happy because they got to enjoy those luscious flowers.  This is supposed to spread rapidly, so I suppose I'll have plenty to share, a good thing in my books!

Do you think this Pineapple sage was happy I took it out of the pot this year? I had been growing this for several years in a large shallow pot, and was always amazed when it came back each year.  I'm still confused by that, I know its supposed to only be hardy to zone 8, but each year the plant got bigger, and in the same area of the pot, which made me doubt it was reseeding.  Anyways, I planted it in the ground this year and it just EXPLODED in size.  It was about half the size of that basil plant next to it when it went in the ground.  I really hope it comes back again, because I really loved seeing it.  Best of all, a new sage sprouted in the old pot, I think from some root pieces left behind?  Hope I get a second hardy pineapple from it!