Finally, a new post from me! Because I work as a social media consultant, I am constantly on my computer (when I’m not in my garden) and I’m always thinking about what would be interesting in my next garden post. But work, family, volunteering, work, etc. get in the way and the post is seldom written. No more promises about trying to do more posting, but honestly, I’m going to try to do more posting! Here’s a walk through my garden as of this week with comments and a few questions:
Siberian Iris 'Blueberry Parfait'
Many of you know I am an Irisoholic. I started out with bearded Iris, mostly the border bearded or tall bearded, but they are short-lived and high maintenance. I still have a decent collection, but have been slowly but surely building up my collection of Siberian and Japanese Iris. They last longer, are 1/4 or less the work and are oh! so pretty.
It's a type of Impatien??
Every time I see a handwritten ‘Plant Sale’ sign anywhere where I am driving I screech to a stop and pull in. I doubt this urge for the potential for one more good plant will ever leave me. I screeched last weekend and drove down a very long land (it’s an 18 acre property) to a small plant sale filled with interesting plants conducted by the owner of the property and her gardener. What I really wanted to do was buy the world-class horse in the pasture, but he wasn’t for sale and would be way past my wallet-capability. Anyways, one of the most interesting plant was the Impatien above. It’s perennial, its stock is almost bamboo-like and the foliage is dynamic. It’s aggressive and needs to either be in a pot or a place where you want taller, elegant groundcover. The colour you see below is a coleus underplanted. Please don’t mistake it for part of the plant.
Juassic Park coleus
Speaking of coleus, they seem to be developing them in huge sizes this year! Again, I love the coleus for their foliage and always have 3-4 pots of them during the summer.
Delmara Peltata
Hopefully I have spelled this plant correctly. This is one of those occasional plants where I only know it by its Latin name. A piece was given to me by a great plantswoman nearby, Ali, and I now have three thriving clumps. Again, it’s all about the foliage, and its also a little Jurassic, but with a softer feel than a Gunnera. Behind is the dreaded, dreaded invasive pond iris in our pond. Three seasons of wading into the mucky, gucky bottom of the pond and ripping it out by its roots and still a few plants sneak back every year.
More Plants in Pots
I am not really a pot nut, and I have enough room to plant out most new plant purchases, but I’ve been known to put new purchases into pots for the first year or two to let them grow on while I figure out the very best place for them. Like retailers, plants are all about location, location, location! Here you see a Cooper Beech tree (I know, I know it will grow into a huge tree and out of that pot in a year or two), an Acer ‘Orange Dream’ and an Acer Palmatam (sp?) all just settling in. They are handsome in their pots and perfect for this part-shade patio.
The Long Bed on Sea Soil
Gardening is a learning experience. Misacanthus Giganteum is meant to be, well tall. Same with the Nineback ‘Diablo’. But maybe they shouldn’t be THIS big. When this long bed was built four years ago, I thought, why not? I’ll splurge and use sea soil as the soil for the entire bed. Don’t get me wrong…..like most gardeners….I will always be a solid fan of Sea Soil for soil augmentation, light mulching, etc. But here’s what happens if you use it for the main soil in the bed. Most plant material has grown far past usual capability and in all this four years, apart from a bit of organic fertilizer for new introductions, I still haven’t added any more organic material. Maybe this year. Ever seen such a huge Nepeta ‘Dropmore Blue’?
Beautiful Japanese Iris
Enough said! In addition to my growing Siberian Iris collection, I am starting to add Japanese Iris. I love their structure and wider foliage. This white one has been divided twice and is now scattered throughout the garden.
Can you see them?
Three bachelor ducks visit the pond every day. There are two fallen logs across the pond (they both fell in high winds one year apart) and we left them there for the rustic look. Those boys LOVE sitting on the log and falling off, flapping around to clean their wings, eating bugs and slugs (we love them for that) and they particularly like swimming through the plankton (aerator type top of water stuff) leaving paths and eating it. They are totally undisturbed by the dogs, who mostly ignore them but they provide me with hours of entertainment. Occasionally a lady duck accompanies them, and in previous years ducklings have had swimming lessons in our pond, but not this year.
Beautiful, lacey Elderberry
Not the very best picture, but this is a rather magnificent Elderberry (I think maybe Black Lace or Sambuca). The area its planted in was formally known as ‘the hospital’ which was a spot where ailing plants were put to either recover and improve or move on to the next life. This plant chose to LIVE and its a beautiful airy addition to the area.
Next week is dedicated to hostas. Its been a great year – with the cool spring and all that rain – for hostas and we’ve got quite a collection. Hope you enjoy your garden half as much as I enjoy mine!
