Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Mystery Solver
Fortunately I only briefly entertain thoughts that "people" are playing tricks on me by planting stuff in my garden (well, I still say I never planted the Johnson's Blue geranium).
In the present case, the second time I walked by it I remembered I had a very tiny tuber of one of the new Thai caladiums and then recalled this is where I stuck it. The tuber was so small, and it was so late in the growing season, that I didn't have much hope it would even come up, so I didn't make a label, and promptly forgot about it. It's not in a very good spot, as it's right next to a hepatica. I possibly should dig it up and move it... if I could just find my garden trowel.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Creatures Of The Night
We sleep serenely through it all, as it is a party we humans are not really invited to, and can barely comprehend. I just know that if I think about it, even though our house sits on land that might seem empty to some, it actually is rather crowded here.
Monday, July 28, 2008
A Sliver Of Paradise
The newest preserve of the Johnson County Heritage Trust is a small pocket prairie remnant next to an old railroad right of way... one of the few scraps of our disappearing natural heritage here in Iowa.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Before And After: A Meadow Is Born...
I have occasionally alluded to working at a nature preserve. Currently I'm clearing out a meadow, removing invasive brush, preparing to seed the four acre area to create a wildflower meadow (technically an open mesic oak savanna). Already the area (seen before above and currently below) is attracting a wealth of songbirds; indigo buntings, yellowthroat warblers, song and field sparrows, goldfinches, and others. It should be nice.
Friday, July 25, 2008
What Might Have Been...
I have in my garden a Hydrangea serrata species (seen below) from the old Heronswood Nursery; tagged only with a code number, it supposedly was discovered growing in a very high area, so was thought likely more cold tolerant. Well, indeed it blooms well every year, in heavy shade with no winter protection. The flower clusters are quite modest, this being an unimproved serrata species, but it makes you wonder what could have been done with it in the hybridizer's hands. The old Heronswood is gone now, of course, and who knows about their full plant collection.
The "Walmartization" of horticulture is a sad development.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Make Mine A Double
Maybe I'm changing my mind about double flowered daylilies; this is Gemini Jack, a Trimmer hybrid which is pinkish lavender with a purple eye. Dan and Jane Trimmer's website catalog is filled with startlingly flamboyant newer daylily hybrids, many extravagantly eyed and ruffled. A few of their older introductions are in general commerce at gentle prices; I assume being tissue cultured. Gemini Jack is one of these.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I Love Daylilies
Oh, I love daylilies, yes I do... I love daylilies, yes I do... I love daylilies... (well you get the idea).
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
The Imperfect Perennial
Deinanthe caerulea, a Chinese woodland plant, has really interesting blue flowers, but also has its imperfections; the leaves are somewhat rough and coarse, the flowers are slightly small for the leaf size, and the flowers droop, so are not easily viewed. But then, nobody's perfect.
Monday, July 21, 2008
What I Learned Today...
When you're clearing brush from a meadow in a nature preserve, and a yellowjacket from a nearby nest jumps you, just brush them off and briskly retreat; don't swat them on your clothing and expect to go about your business as if nothing had happened. The smell of smashed yellowjacket on your shirt is like waving a red flag in front of every other yellowjacket in the place. Trust me, I know...now.
(Picture above of an equally disgruntled honeybee)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Daylily Explosion
What sound do daylilies make when they explode in bloom in July... maybe WOW? Here's daylily 'Total Look', with 68 buds on the plant yet to open.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sophisticated Landscaping
Friday, July 18, 2008
It's Just Frisky...
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Solving Of Small Garden Mysteries...
About this time last year I published this picture of an odd and dwarfish, leafless seedhead which had popped up in one of my flower beds, and wondered what it might be. Sometimes I think my brain is fossilizing into separate, tight little compartments, because I already "knew" (or should have known) what it was... it's Allium tricoccum, commonly called wild leeks or ramps. It seeded into my flower bed from the surrounding woods. The leaves die back before it blooms in early summer, and then it forms this distinctive, small seedhead on a naked stalk. It's actually fairly common in wooded areas around us, but it's such a modest, retiring little plant that an informal survey by me showed that 0% of people know it grows here (well, nine out of nine people I asked... perhaps not too scientific).
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Mr. Obscure
If I want to point out a plant that nobody else has, nobody's heard of, yet is relatively cheap, easy, and everblooming, I need go no further than Pinellia peltata. Its odd little lemony-lime jack in the pulpit-like flowers smell like ripe bananas and look like they are made out of wax. Just call me Mr. Obscure.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My Snake Rant
The scenario is all too common; people move out into the country because they "love living with nature". They first buy a riding lawnmower to buzz over their three acre lawn (that was a virgin woods before they plowed it under). A wagon is added to the mower to haul around the fertilizer, weed killer, and insecticides that are sprayed on the lawn and everywhere else. One of those large yard lights is added, which turns on every dusk, creating perpetual daylight for a quarter mile around. They then buy two large dogs which bark all night and run off most of the wildlife. Whatever critters remain are called "varmints" and if they wander into the yard they're immediately killed. Finally, some flowers are planted, and a garden blog is set up to show off this little Eden plopped down in the majestic countryside. In addition to flower pictures, the blog will show the occasional snake (right before it's dispatched), and once in a while a songbird flopping about on the lawn, disoriented and losing its feathers from chronic chemical poisoning.
In my opinion a goodly percentage of country dwelling people should have stayed in town... preferably inside, watching television.
(Picture above, taken last year, is of a beautiful prairie kingsnake on our front stoop, looking for toads.)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Let There Be Light (In Daylilies)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
And When I Die..
When I die and go to Heaven (I realize a bit of a stretch in my case), I hope that Heaven is filled with ravishingly fragrant orienpet lilies like Triumphator, seen above. If towards the end of my life, things seem as dicey as they probably are at present, I'll go with that old Irish toast; "When our life has ended, may we both be in Heaven for three days before the devil finds out we died."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Snake Emerges
Arisaema galeatum is an Asian jack in the pulpit that I'm rather thrilled to have growing in the garden; it is rated zone 7 by most; also it is native to the Himalayas and jack in the pulpits from these mountains tend to rot in the ground in climates like ours...yet galeatum has done well here for several years with no protection. The inflorescence arises from a short stalk near the base of the main plant stalk, and rapidly enlarges into a "helmet" striped with green and white. As they say, this plant is large in all of its parts, and needs to be moist in growth; a hot wind and dry soil will suck the life out of it in a few hours. I imagine it would prefer a cool mountain valley over Iowa in July, yet here it still is. Maybe it thinks it's a cornstalk.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Solitary Indian
Spigelia marilandica, the Indian pink or firecracker plant, is a very interesting wildflower from the S.E. part of this country. I moved it from our last garden in a big rush (well, actually in a Nissan pickup); at any rate at that time I just had to stick it in where there was a spot, which turned out to be in a patch of common phlox on a dry hillside. Now I know it is supposed to prefer a moist, humusy, shady area...
however, twice over the years I've tried to move a piece of this plant to such an area and both times the transplant died. Meanwhile, the original plant continues to slug it out with the phlox for a piece of hard, dry clay. I've read that Indian pink is pretty easy to grow from seed, but apparently the flowers go to seed and scatter very quickly; I guess you go into the house for a Snickers bar, and when you come back out, all the seeds are gone. It is therefore recommended that you make a little bag out of an old nylon stocking, and tie it about the seed pod. I may have to go rummage about in Liz's underwear drawer.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Oh, I Give Up!
I have taken dozens of pictures of this little weeping Japanese maple, and not one of them remotely conveys its beauty and charm, with its finely cut leaves mottled with pale green, white, and pink. When I tell you it's really lovely, I feel rather as if I'm trying to convince somebody to go on a blind date with my best friend. But nevertheless, take my word for it... Toyo Nishiki (for that's its name) might be the most gorgeous Japanese maple in our garden. However, it is also the most touchy plant I've ever seen to the sun; a mere whiff of afternoon sun crisps and browns its leaves in a most remarkable way. I've moved it twice, and now hopefully have it in the right spot on the side of a small ravine, which protects it from the sun, and allows you to look up at it, displaying this small weeping maple to good effect.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Sweet, Sweet, Sweet...
The yellow warbler sings in the morning from the deep, shady back ravine... Sweet, Sweet, Sweet, I'm So Sweet. He might be singing to the summer blooming azaleas, with their spicy sweetness now wafting down the garden pathways in the July stillness.
The really pleasing thing about these late bloomers is that their flowers last for weeks and weeks during the hottest part of the year; much longer than the spring Exbury types of azaleas. I'm trying to add one new summer bloomer each year, hoping to enjoy their fragrance from mid-June until early September.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Yah, That's Nice Too.
In sheperding visitors around the garden, I guess I'm likely to steer them to the odd, the unusual, or the rare plants. Yet these folks always instead seem to be drawn to a clump of nice, but pretty ordinary martagon lilies. Maybe this plant does have something to offer over a three inch tall plant of the Siberian spotted flopwort?
Monday, July 07, 2008
Two Daylily Negatives= A Positive
I don't usually like orange daylilies and I don't usually like double daylilies; yet I like Hemerocallis 'Blaze Away'. I guess it's because the color is a rich, peachy chocolate brown with maroon flares, and because this particular double doesn't immediately turn into something looking like a wad of wet toilet paper as soon as the sun hits it. It's only negative is that the flower stalks are a little short, but in my shady garden that also is actually a positive, as the short stalks hold up these heavy flowers very nicely. Make that three daylily negatives = a positive.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Bring Me A Lemonade!
The long, languorous days of summer are here; sunny days and evening twilights that seem to go on forever. The male birds are all puffed up with pride and satisfaction as their mates sit quietly on nests fulsome with eggs. In this peaceful interlude before the eggs hatch, there is time aplenty for singing from the tallest treetops, then an afternoon snooze in the shade. Even our cats (normally a curious and lively pair) have succumbed to the season's spell. It is summer in Iowa.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Tails You Win
Pinellia tripartita 'Dragon Tails' is a variegated leaf version of this species, with the very interesting leaves showing varying degrees of light creamy green contrasting with the usual dark green portion. It is a real winner in my pinellia book.
Friday, July 04, 2008
The Gambling Gardener
Every year I buy a plant that, by rights, shouldn't be (and often isn't) hardy here. I've certainly had my share of flops, but have also added some very interesting new plants to the garden this way (I have a thriving clump of agapanthus, for example). This year's chancy choice is the pineapple lily; specifically Eucomis bicolor, from South Africa. It won't bloom this year, which is probably a good thing as it is said to smell like a dead animal (the garden has just stopped attracting buzzards from the voodoo lily blooming the last two weeks).
The foliage of this Eucomis is waxy and wonderfully spotted. Apparently winter wet is a major cause of loss, so I have it planted on a slope. This plant is usually rated about zone 7, but I am modestly hopeful.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Your Garden Wants This Plant
Your garden wants Pinellia tripartita 'atropurpurea'. You should surprise and please your garden by buying this plant for it. Of course, you could also stop over to my place and I'd send you home with a couple of pots full, as it seeds about somewhat extravagantly; I would call it a little invasive but can't bring myself to malign anything so cute.
Pinellias are, of course, close relatives of jack in the pulpits, and the inflorescence of the former does, indeed, look like a little jack, with a purple lining to the spathe and a long, upright spadix. The foliage also looks like a small jack in the pulpit plant. What I really like about this plant is the fact that it puts out a succession of blooms over several months; a big improvement over the "one and done" jack in the pulpits.
If you don't want a lot of new baby pinellias, it's pretty easy to deadhead... I never seem to remember to do this, so am going to have to go out tomorrow and pot up a bunch more little plants, which will bloom in only a year or so. I should mention the plant itself also multiplies rather rambunctiously, so if your garden is finicky about exuberant plants, maybe a nice watering can would be a better gift for it.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Secret Plant
Some very interesting plants seem to be big secrets, unknown to most gardeners; one of these is Acanthus spinosus. Is there a single gardener in zones 4 and 5 that has not wished to grow Acanthus mollis (bear's breeches)? I think not. Unfortunately its hardiness is probably at best zone 6, and a warm zone 6 at that. Well, there is a hardy species, Acanthus spinosus, sometimes called spiny bear's breeches that is almost as good; four foot tall with foot long spikes of flowers. Admittedly it's not quite as "architectural" as mollis; the foliage of spinosus is more thistle-like; more open, divided, and spiny. However, we aren't deciding here whether to grow mollis or spinosus; we're deciding whether to grow spinosus or to sulk about not being able to grow mollis.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Escaping The Flood
At top is one of her Monet-like beds, the second picture shows Tomales Bay as seen from their garden, the third picture is one of her hydrangeas, and finally a clump of Mantilla poppies.
Northern California was vibrant and sunny, but they are suffering from what may be the worst drought in history, and the skies were hazy with smoke from hundreds of wildfires.
As we flew back into Iowa in the deepening dusk, water lay everywhere in the fields, looking from the air more like northern Canada than Iowa. Another three inches of rain was in the rain gauge, the lawn looks like it would support a dairy herd, and small branches lay everywhere in the garden from the storm that passed through while we were gone; still it is nice to be home.
My computer has been dutifully churning out stored blog entries while I was gone, but I must now catch up on answering comments... the computer has not figured out how to do that. I also need to get the lawn mowed today, for tomorrow we are to have more rain.
