FRIDAY FINDS

I can't wait for the weekend. I have nothing special planned other than little projects here and there, including on doing more painting in the basement, but some weeks an unplanned weekend sounds like the best thing in the world.

Lots of great stuff happening online this week (well the fun stuff, not the bits that I use this blog, and others, to escape from).

Linda's gardening journals are works of art. I love them and wish I had the talent or dedication to make any kind of garden journal. This blog is the closest I'll ever get to one.

I hope we never have to replace our wood floors. Redoing floors is terrible because you basically have to move out of your house and it is very expensive. But I recall the floor guys telling me they didn't know how many more times the original floors in our house could be refinished so theoretically it could happen. And if it did, I think I'd want a floor like this. 

I think our house is around 1,400 square feet (I can't recall exactly anymore) and I can't imagine wanting a bigger house, but apparently I'm in the minority on that. 

Two real-life friends have recently launched amazing blogs that I want to tell you about.

This illustration by Madalyn Joy became this stunning outfit ....

 Cassie Sterwald photo

The first is my neighbor, who was just a kid when we moved in, but is the most stylish young woman I know (she puts the rest of the neighborhood to shame in the style department). Madalyn is a talented fashion and lingerie designer who shares her creative inspiration and process as they become her creations on Styled by Madalyn Joy.

And a longtime friend and his family recently purchased and moved into a Frank Lloyd Wright house that, until 2015, no one knew was a Frank Lloyd Wright house. It was built in 1917 as an American System-Built House, part of Wright's effort to develop houses for any income level. (Here's a story about how the found out it was an FLW house featuring the previous owners.) My friends have passionately taken on the stewardship role that comes when you buy a house like this and they are blogging about it on The Elizabeth Murphy House.

That's it from here. I hope you have a great weekend! Tell me what you're up to in the comments. 

GARDEN BLOGGERS' FAVORITE PERENNIALS

I love asking gardeners what their favorite plant is. It's an unfair question, I know, and on any given day my answer could be any number of things, but I think it's an interesting exercise.

I reached out to some garden blogging friends to see what their favorite perennial is and here's what they said.

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'Sarah Bernhardt' peony. Garden Matter photo

Patti, who gardens in Pittsburgh (zone 6a) and blogs at Garden Matter , said peonies are her favorite.

"They are one of the first flowers I fell in love with in my grandmother's garden as a kid," she wrote. "I love the way they smell and come back with ease every year. They also dry pretty well."

When I pressed her on a specific peony, she chose a classic: 'Sarah Bernhardt.'

"To be honest, I really love the old heirloom handed-down ones, though they are all wonderful. Since they are herbaceous, how about 'Sarah Bernhardt,' a very pretty and fragrant variety."

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'Green Mystique' daylily. Sensible Gardening photo

Lynne at Sensible Gardening, who gardens in beautiful southern British Columbia (zone 5) chose another garden classic: the daylily. Here's what she had to say about them:

When my friend Erin asked me what my favorite perennial was I didn’t even have to think about it. I have been addicted to Daylilies for decades and simply cannot get enough of them. I started to collect different cultivars several years ago and now have over 350 varieties throughout my zone 5 garden in southern B.C., Canada.  I love all the colors, shapes, edges, ruffles, singles, doubles and eyes. As you can see I am a lost cause. You can find great daylily growing tips and more on my site Sensible Gardening.

Daylilies are often called the perfect perennial and for good reason. Such beautiful blooms are part of strong, hardy and adaptable plants. Rarely bothered by disease or pests, available for growing in zones 2 through 9, long lasting attractive foliage, capable of growing in even undesirable conditions, what’s not to love? There are tall varieties for the back of the border and shorter types to be used as edgers or grown in containers. Some cultivars bloom in July and others wait until the fall so you can have daylily flowers for a very long season. Grow them in sun or part shade using average soil and water. Your best resource for buying daylilies is on-line sites from daylily growers. Daylilies travel exceptionally well so mail order buying is a breeze.

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Jami provide me with this gorgeous photo of a brunnera, which I think is 'Haspen Cream.' An Oregon Cottage photo

Jami, who is fortunate to garden in the Pacific Northwest (zone 8), and blogs at An Oregon Cottage (check out her great preserving recipes), chose a fantastic shade plant: brunnera. Here's what she said about it:

It’s not easy to pick just one perennial (I have favorites for each season!), but in spring it’s all about brunnera for me. I love it! It grows in tough dry shade situations and blooms its little head off for 3 to 4 months with sweet blue forget-me-not type flowers, and then stays nice and green until frost (in mild areas it’s almost evergreen). 

While common brunnera is nice, (though it maybe reseeds just a bit too much), ‘Jack Frost’ is well-behaved and it’s variegated leaves practically glow in it’s preferred shaded location. All this with no special treatment other than an annual layer of compost and watering in the summer. What is not to love?

Here's 'Jack Frost' growing in my garden at the beginning of its second year.

Last year I great this 'Silver Hearts' brunnera and it was truly metallic silver! If it overwintered well this will be my vote for my favorite brunnera.

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Lovely Greens photo

Tanya at Lovely Greens, who gardens on the Isle of Man (lucky girl; Tanya, we're all coming to visit!) came up with a fantastic choice that I love because it's so unusual.

"My favorite perennials are perennial fruits like raspberries, blueberries and thornless black berries," she wrote. One could hardly argue with that.

One of the things she said she likes best about them, other than the delicious part, is how easy they are to propagate from cuttings. Tanya has a fantastic tutorial on the process on her blog.

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Garden Therapy photo

Stephanie at Garden Therapy, also from Vancouver, British Columbia said she's a fan of lavender and not just because it's beautiful. "There's just so much you can make from it," she said.

Stephanie said she prefers English lavender. In my zone 5 garden (Stephanie is in zone 7/8), I have had good luck the past couple years with 'Phenomenal' lavender (affiliate link). Whatever kind of lavender you grow, check out Stephanie's suggestions for all the things you can do with it.

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It wouldn't be fair to put all these folks on the spot if I didn't chime in with my pick for a favorite perennial. There are so many on that list, but for all around performance, I think I have to go back to the top one on this list: Alchemilla mollis, aka Lady's mantel. It's nothing fancy, and it will probably never stop you in your tracks, but it is a great performer. Year after year it just does its thing with absolutely zero attention from me. I clean it up when the flowers fade, and a little bit in fall and that's it. The flowers are one of my favorite to add to bouquets and offers great front-of-the-border texture.

So now, dear readers, I turn it over to you. What's your favorite perennial?

Here are some other favorite perennial picks from gardening experts

Richard Hawke leads the plant trials program at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Here some of his favorites. 

And here are even more picks from great garden bloggers.

Catching up in a few other gardens

I hate to leave you hanging on garden posts while I'm stuck in kitchen renovation land. Plenty of the country also got a thick blanket of snow recently so I think we're all a bit fed up with spring's punctuality problem. It snowed at our house a bit over the weekend too so I didn't exactly get my garden chores done to write about.

Anyway, there is a lot of great stuff going on in garden blog land so I thought I'd help satisfy your garden itch by offering up a few here.

Steve's illustrated seed packets. Steve Asbell photo

Steve from The Rainforest Garden (who so nicely shared his favorite shrub on this blog) is giving away packets of seeds that feature his illustrations. Enter here.

Shawna Coronado featured Steve Bender aka The Grumpy Gardener on her blog. Steve writes a blog for Southern Living magazine and also wrote the book Passalong Plants. You can get a peek at his garden in Shawna's post as well.

LaManda Joy

Don't miss this inspiring story and interview with LaManda Joy about the The Peterson Garden project that created a huge organic victory garden in Chicago.

And if you're looking for a cute Easter project, check this out to see how you can make an Easter basket fairy garden.

And lastly, Debbie Roberts is offering some tips on how to select a tree for your garden. This is timely for me as I've been poring over Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs for weeks now trying to figure out what to replace some of the trees we lost (or will soon lose) thanks to our late winter storm.

Hopefully soon I'll have a real-life garden story to write but for now we remain firmly entrenched in the throes of winter.

Expert garden bloggers share their favorite shrubs

When I first started creating the garden at our house, my first garden as before I just had a balcony to put containers on, I ran out and got every perennial I thought looked interesting. Of course I've learned so much since then and the beautiful thing about gardening is that you can correct your mistakes. One of the most valuable things I've learned is the beauty of a mixed border combining perennials, shrubs, annuals and even, occasionally, trees.

Shrubs are so key to good garden design because they offer structure and interest that you just can't get with perennials.

I love asking fellow gardeners what their favorite plants are. Last year I asked some great garden bloggers about perennials, but this year I tried to pin them down on shrubs. Here's what they had to say.

Kylee writes the excellent blog Our Little Acre and gardens in northwest Ohio. She has a handful of garden cats who hang around, chickens and an adorable new granddaughter. And in April, the book she co-authored with another fantastic garden blogger, Jenny Peterson, will be published. Indoor Plant Decor is going to be the bible of indoor gardening.

Here's what Kylee picked (see what a good job I did nailing her down to one? I'm such a pushover):

Just like last year, I've had a difficult time paring my favorite down to just one. Erin wants to know my favorite shrub and I just couldn't come up with just one! So, I narrowed it to these three: 

Proven Winners photo

• Physocarpus opulifolius 'Coppertina' - I wanted this from the moment I first heard about it, but had to be patient, because I didn't find it locally until a few years ago. It was every bit worth the wait! Its foliage color is beautiful when mature, stunning when new, and it always looks good, you know?  It's hardy in Zones 3-8 and it's not picky about soil pH.

Monrovia photo

• Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy' - When spring comes,  it shows up with bottlebrush white blooms that remain while its corrugated green foliage finishes leafing out. Then in fall, it turns an absolutely thrilling shade of orange.  When the sun hits it then, it fairly glows. This shrub was discovered here in my home state of Ohio by the great Dr. Michael Dirr, whom I had the opportunity to meet last month! Oddly enough, it likes acidic soil and we have alkaline, but it does just fine for me. (Rhodies, azaleas, and blueberries don't do well here, as a rule, since they too, like acidic soils.) Hardy in Zones 5-8.

• Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' - Though it's pretty nondescript for most of the year and can be susceptible to powdery mildew, I would still be sad if anything happened to it.  What it does in spring makes up for all the rest of the season.  Its blooms are the most heartbreaking shade of pearly pink and the centers are real works of art if you look closely.  In time, it will grow quite large, unless you keep it pruned so it can remain a large shrub. Ours is currently very much in shrub form. It likes a fair amount of water, so we planted it in the wettest part of the yard and it seems happy there. It's very showy when blooming and is hardy in Zones 5-9, as well as being deer-resistant.

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 Anyone who has read this blog for long knows that I love Genevieve's blog North Coast Gardening. Even though she gardens in a very different part of the country from me, she always manages to speak to gardeners in any zone and she is always my go-to source for gardening product reviews.

Here's Gen's pick:

Photo courtesy of Genevieve Schmidt

Parrot's beak, or Clianthus puniceus, has been making my heart flutter for the last few years. I mean, just look at those blooms! They're a solid 2-3 inches long, come in large clusters, and you can choose from the regular coral or go for red (pictured) or white varieties.

A lot of plants with such splashy flowers have lackluster foliage or a rangy habit, but parrot's beak shines here, too. The leaves have a lush, fern-like appearance that fits in around water features, tropical-style plantings, or really, nearly anything. And while it makes a great stand-alone shrub, it's also a natural to espalier. I have one growing against my chicken coop that only sticks out about 2 feet, and I don't need to prune it much - just a little pinching to direct the growth. They'll grow about 5 feet tall and around if left to their own devices.

Obviously, since they're from New Zealand they need full sun, good drainage, and not too cold of a climate - they're happy in zones 8-11.

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Debbie is an expert garden designer and garden coach (which is so cool) in Connecticut's zone 6.  She is also a member of the Garden Designer's Roundtable, which is an incredible source of inspiration and information. She blogs at a Garden of Possibilities.

Here's Debbie's beautiful pick:

Photos courtesy of Debbie Roberts

While it's impossible to pick just one favorite shrub, I have to say purple beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma) is right at the top of my list of favorite shrubs. Even though it does have an interesting shape with its almost horizontal branches, for most of the year it's fairly quiet and unassuming. But in the fall, when many other shrubs and perennials are looking a bit tired, purple beautyberry puts on an amazing show. Small purple berries drip from the branches. The shrub seems to glows in the sunlight. Here in my Connecticut garden, the berries remain on the shrub after the leaves fall off so it's not unusual to find the little purple berries dusted with snow in the winter.

Purple beautyberry likes a spot in full sun to partial shade and average garden soil and it seems to be deer resistant, at least in my garden (knock on wood!)

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Christina Salwitz is a home gardening training specialist. That's a lot of words to say that she doesn't garden FOR people, she teaches them to garden, which seems so appropriate for an activity that derives so much of its enjoyment in doing it, not just appreciating it. She gardens in Washington state and blogs at The Personal Garden Coach where she posts amazing photos that will have you clambering to get into the garden, tips and tricks, book reviews and more. She is also the co-author of the new book Fine Foliage, which celebrates the beauty of foliage over flowers. You should see some of the amazing foliage combinations presented in the book. It's stunning. She is also a member of the Garden Designer's Roundtable. 

And because with a book hot off the presses and a booming coaching business she's a busy lady, so Christina cut right to the chase:

My favorite “lately” has been the Bountiful Blue Blueberry. It has SUCH amazing foliage color, evergreen, turns a lovely soft plum tone in winter, AND an incredible amount of great fruit. What’s not to love?!

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Steve Asbell is an incredibly talented gardener, blogger and artist who is lucky enough to garden in Florida (at least I'd consider him very lucky at this time of year). His blog, The Rainforest Garden, is about "taking a healthy dash of botanical style and incorporating it into your life through decorating, crafting, cooking and yes, even gardening." His illustrations are not to be missed. He also has a book coming out in early 2014. Plant by Numbers has tips and recipes for creating a carefree indoor garden with 50 artistic living arrangements with houseplants, ranging from tried and true Dracaenas to up-and-comers like mistletoe cactus and bromeliads.

Steve is writing about one of my favorite tropical shrubs:

Photo provided by Steve Asbell

Dwarf Bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’)

For those of you growing in zones 9-11, dwarf bottlebrush has everything you could possibly ask for in a shrub. First of all, it’s one of those rare bushes that stays small without much maintenance, with tight whorls of velvety blue-green leaves that stay attractive throughout the year. Most folks however, grow it for the fire-engine red ‘bottlebrush’ flowers that glow in the sunlight and bring hummingbirds in droves. All of these great features are reason enough to grow the plant, but the reason it gets my vote is that it is incredibly drought tolerant and thrives in the hottest and driest spots in my garden. If you live in zone 8 you can grow dwarf bottlebrush with protection, or just grow the larger varieties since the cold will keep them in check. In northern zones, dwarf bottlebrush’s small size and admirable drought tolerance makes it a winner for container plantings.

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Linda from Each Little World is a great blog friend whose garden isn't all that far from mine, but I still haven't seen yet. She is blogging less frequently than she once did but every post is insightful and interesting. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll see more of her garden as spring approaches, especially because big changes are in the works in her garden: a large tree that was the foundation of one of her shady beds fell in an early winter storm so she'll be figuring out what is next for that part of the garden. Her photos, often taken by her talented husband (and gardening conspirator) Mark, are stunning and look like they've been lifted from the pages of a lovely gardening book. 

Here's Linda's pick:

Dwarf Alpine current makes a long, low hedge curving away from the nearby apple trees in Linda's garden.
Mark Golbach photo

If it were May or June, then I'm sure I'd declare Doublefile Viburnum my favorite shrub. It's definitely a show-stopper and is always the center of attention when it blooms. But shrubs in the winter garden need to stand-out in a different way than summer plants. At this season, Alpine currant (Ribes alpinum) makes a much needed statement. I grow both the straight species and the dwarf variety ('Green Mound'). 

They take well to pruning, creating strong horizontal lines in the garden: green in summer; almost black in winter. Some years, they make a strong presence in the winter garden; other times only the top of the hedge peeks out of the deep snow. Because they become so densely twiggy they have not been broken like so many other garden specimens during the heavy snowstorms we've had in recent years. It's a shrub that's well-worth a second look, and it's usually readily available at most nurseries.

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Erin here: I'm overwhelmed by all the great shrubs that garden bloggers love. Some I've never heard of and others I had written off but now I'm anxious to try (Fothergilla and Alpine current, I'm looking at you). But I thought it was only fair to share my favorite shrub, which I know will come as no surprise to regular readers. 

Plant touchers unite!

 Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' is hardly flashy anymore in these days of super-improved shrubs but to me, one of the best things about shrubs is that they are often the lowest maintenance plants in the yard. That's important to me.

I have some special plants and I'm happy to give them extra care but there just isn't time for a garden full of diva plants. Some of them just have to manage more or less on their own. And that's just what Limelight does. I prune it in very early spring or late winter every year (some years more than others), I sometimes throw some compost or organic fertilizer at the base of it (but sometimes not) and I make sure it gets a good amount of water (I have a soaker hose in that garden that I circle the root zone with). And that's it. It's hardy to zone 3 (Siberia?) and heat tolerate to zone 9. The only thing to know about it is that while hydrangeas have the (often wrong, at least in northern zones) reputation for liking shade or part shade, Limelight wants sun, at least up here (I would assume it would  take a bit more shade the farther south you are). Given those few things, Limelight offers up huge lime-tinged blossoms that fade to pink and then dry to brown, where they are a welcome sight in the winter garden.

Thank you to all the great garden bloggers who participated! Now, onto the important part: What is your favorite shrub?

A check back on 2012's non-resolution resolutions and a few more

Happy New Year everyone!

It's new year's eve as I write this and we just finished up an amazing dinner of surf and turf at home. It was incredible but I'd be just as happy with just the surf.

Anyway, I wanted to pop in quickly to wish all of you a happy new year and to very selfishly and very quickly revisit a post from last year.

As I mentioned last year, I don't do resolutions. But I do at least think about some things I could improve upon for the new year. So first, I thought we'd see how I did last year.

From last year's list:
1. Blog more. Grade: D. This will be my 100th post this year (and, honestly, that's why I'm pushing it out tonight instead of tomorrow). That's seven fewer posts than last year and just 11 more than the first year I was blogging, which started in April! But I'm cutting myself some slack on this. I continue to resolve that I refuse to post just because I have to. That's no fun for anybody. So I write when I have something to share. I'm refuse to start posting random pretty pictures with no point just to meet a quota. I think this keeps everyone happy.

2. Be a better blogger. Grade: B. I think I'm getting better at this.

3. Use my passport more. Grade: A. I used it as much as I had the opportunity to this year, which was technically just once (well, once for international travel; I often use my passport as my ID when I travel), to England in August. It was the only business-related travel opportunity I had this year, and I'm happy I took it. After all, I obviously became Kate's best friend. Perhaps I'll be named the godmother of the future royal baby!

4. Bring lunch to work. Grade: C. I did really good at this at the beginning of the year but as soon as life got busy I went back to my old habits. I give myself extra credit because I now take yogurt every morning so I always eat breakfast, and that's something. It's something to continue to try to work on.

So what am I thinking about for 2013?  Here we go:

1. Read more. I used to be voracious reader. People say that all the time, but I really was. I just got a  Kindle (the paperwhite one so I can read in bed when Mr. Much More Patient is sleeping without disturbing him), so I think that will help. I've already whipped through one book and I love it.

2. Exercise. I officially give up on looking like Jennifer Aniston. I just want to be healthy. That last sentence is not true. But either way ... it doesn't come from sitting on the couch so the process is the same.

3. Blog better. I strive to make this blog better looking, more interesting and a better read. I want to give you a reason to come back every day (or every third day as the case seems to be).

I could probably go on, but let's not get crazy here. I wish you all a great 2013 and thanks for hanging out with me in 2012.

Expert bloggers' favorite perennial picks

I've been trying to deny the calling of the seed catalogs and the desire to peek at the vernal witch hazel and the warmest corners near the house where the bulbs come up first (it is only January, after all) but there is only so much a gardener can do during an unseasonably warm winter.

That's why I called on some of my favorite gardening bloggers to share with their favorite perennial. These three ladies are experienced and creative gardeners so I knew they'd bring an interesting perspective.

First up is Genevieve from North Coast Gardening. I've written about Gen before because I love her blog North Coast Gardening which is full of great tips and product reviews.

Gen's pick: Korean tassel fern

My favorite perennial is one that often gets overlooked in the shade section, tassel fern. Anyone championing it would have an uphill battle from the start, since its botanical name is nearly unpronounceable—Polystichum polyblepharum. Say that three times fast! But tassel fern is easily the most elegant, easy-to-grow plant I know for shade. Its foliage has a glossy sheen that looks great against pretty much any shade shrub, and the rich green color softens rock walls or other strong hardscape elements. It's even evergreen! You can buy it at Plant Delights if your local nursery doesn't carry it.

Isn't that fern lovely? And evergreen would be lovely! Plants Delight lists it as being hardy to zone 5b (which more of us are in now that the plant hardiness zone map has been adjusted) so I'd definitely love to try it. By the way, if you really do want to know how to pronounce some of those tongue-tying plant names, check out Fine Gardening magazine's pronunciation guide.

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Next up is the tireless Kylee who blogs at Our Little Acre, gardens in Ohio, writes for a couple gardening magazines and is the book review editor for Horticulture Magazine. She's also an excellent Words with Friends player.

Kylee's pick: Toad lily

As Erin said to me, asking me to name my favorite perennial is akin to asking me which is my favorite child. It all depends on when you ask. If it’s June, I might say Astrantia; ask me in July and August and I might say Orienpet or Oriental lilies. (Who doesn’t love their fragrance?)

Then there are ones that have such intricate features that are fascinating when you examine them up close, like my Five-leaved Akebia (Akebia quinata ‘Alba’), with its white blooms every so lightly striped with purple.  Or the Chinese globe flower (Trollius chinensis ‘Golden Queen’)—so lusciously fringy.

Akebia quinata ‘Alba’

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Chinese globe flower

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But ask me which perennial I most look forward to seeing and which one I’d miss if I didn’t have it and I’ll tell you toad lilies. Such an ugly common name for such a beautiful flower! Botanically, it’s Tricyrtis, with various species names tagging along behind.  (hirta, amethystina, formosana, etc.)

It’s not the showiest plant in the garden, at least not for most of the summer. It’s a little later to emerge in the spring than some perennials, and it’s definitely later to bloom, but that’s one of its best traits. When September and October come along and 80% of the garden is waning, Tricyrtis is putting on the best show of its life.

Each bloom looks like a little spotted orchid. There are some that aren’t spotted too, such as ‘Togen’ (often misspelled ‘Tojen’), which happens to be my favorite bloom among my collection of a dozen or so different cultivars. I like ‘Dark Beauty’ too, for its sea of blooms and ‘Miyazaki Hybrids’ for the way they bloom at the leaf axils up and down the stems.

Tricyrtis 'Togen'

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Tricyrtis 'Miyazaki'

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The blooms aren’t the only sway they hold over me. The foliage can be just as varied. ‘Lightning Strike’ is streaked, while several cultivars have subtle green-on-green spotting. And did I mention they do all this in the shade?

I think these work better as a specimen plant, perhaps because the blooms are diminutive. Seeing them planted en masse wouldn’t necessarily pack the punch that other plants do. But a few clustered here and there in the shade garden will cause you and your garden visitors to take notice. They’re generally hardy in Zones 5-8/9, maybe colder, although since they bloom so late, in colder zones the flowering time may get cut short by early frosts.

By the way, I love both of my two daughters the best.

Kylee (middle) with her two equally loved daughters Kara and Jenna.

Would you believe I have NO toad lilies in my garden? Sounds like I'm going to need to change that.

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And last but not least is Linda who blogs at Each Little World. Linda gardens in my old stomping grounds of Madison, Wisconsin, and I hope to be able to stop in and see her amazing gardens in 2012. I think Linda and her husband Mark do garden structure better than almost anyone. They have that whole "backbone of the garden" thing down.

You might be surprised to see what Linda sent to me as her favorite perennial. I didn't tell any of the contributors what plant the others were writing about (and I didn't know until they sent it either). What I love is that while Kylee focused on the beautiful blooms of Tricyrtis, Linda loves them for their interesting foliage. I have to admit. I once saw them on her blog for a Foliage Follow-up post (on the 16th of every month), and I had to ask what they were because I was so taken by the amazing foliage.

Linda's pick: Toad lilies

If I look in my plant files it’s easy to discover my favorite perennials by noting which plants have multiple listings. By the numbers, I’m currently growing 17 Epimediums, 18 Geraniums and 22 Hemerocallis, to name just a few. They’re all wonderful plants, but to rise to the level of “favorite perennial,” that plant is the one that I wait for the longest: toad lilies (Tricyrtis species). I think the anticipation of watching a clump get fatter and taller as the season stretches on is guaranteed to turn that plant into a favorite. Fall bloomers like toad lilies (I’m growing 11 varieties) are there in the garden almost from the start of the spring, patiently waiting for their moment. Even though they’re not blooming, they put on a show all season with their arching stems and bright green, gold and patterned foliage. And they keep my attention to the very end: either wondering if they will flower before the first frost arrives or basking in their beauty as their tiny orchid-like blossoms sway amidst the falling leaves.

 

That last photo makes me swoon. Yes, I'm totally sold on toad lilies.

 

Are you growing any of these? What's your favorite perennial (and, like I told the great contributors, you HAVE to pick)?

Thanks again to Gen, Kylee and Linda for participating. Your blogs are a continual source of inspiration to me!

 

 

We interrupt your gardening to give you a reason to drool

Erin over at House of Turquoise is doing a house tour of maybe the most amazing "real" house I've ever seen. You'll never believe that this is in Utah! I love damn near everything about this house, so the point where I'm seriously considering repainting the famous blue front door the same color as the one on this house: Ben Moore's Wythe Blue.

Anyway, if you haven't already seen this house, go take the tour and follow the links at the bottom to see the rest of it.

Click here for the dream tour: House of Turquoise: Day One: Dream Home Tour

Another new look

Welcome to The Impatient Gardenener 3.0. This is the third incarnation of this blog and I think it's the best yet. I hope you agree. My goal, as always is to make a place that is pleasing to look at, but more than anything, user friendly. Over the coming weeks I'll be updating some areas and tweaking things a bit to improve the site, but if you have any comments or suggestions I'm more than happy to hear them.

The design for the blog this time around was a collaboration with the talented Danielle Moss who took my vision and turned it into reality (and did all those crazy computer code bits that I simply do not understand).

If any of you are original readers of this blog I think you'll agree it has come a long way since the first version. Hope you like it!

Rain delay: A few of my favorite gardening blogs

The rain continues here, making southeastern Wisconsin just one of many places with totally depressing weather this week. At least we're not experiencing the storms and flooding that so many other areas are.

Anyway, it's putting a major damper on my ability to take some pictures of what is happening in the yard, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of my garden must-reads with you.

Here they are in no particular order:

A Way to Garden

This is the blog and website of the esteemed Margaret Roach, who's memoir "And I shall have some peace there" I recently read (good read by the way). This is my go-to spot for information on all kinds of plants, trees and shrubs. She usually has very good photos of mature plants so you get a real-life idea of what they look like. She also has a great refrigerator dill pickle recipe on her site that I used last year and loved.

 

 

North Coast Gardening

Genevieve's blog is one of the first I found and I've loved it from the beginning. Although some of her plant recommendations are specific to the north coast (California, Seattle, Portland, etc.), most of her posts are full of advice that applies regardless of where you garden. But what I really love NCG for is Gen's wonderful product reviews. She really gives things a thorough test (not the "I got this free so therefore you should love it" kind of reviews), often in a video, which is really helpful. I've purchased at least five things based on Gen's reviews and she's not led me astray yet.

 

 

Dirt Simple

I love this blog. It is written by Deborah Silver who has an amazingly cute garden store and landscape design business in Detroit. If you look at some of my container posts, you'll see some of her images. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do containers better than she does. Her blog is full of great information, but it is also a great source of inspiration.

 

 

Each Little World

Linda, who, with her husband Mark, writes Each Little World has become a friend and it turns out we have a lot in common beyond gardening, but I ELW is on my must-read list because it is wonderfully written and always interesting. And any picture of their garden has a calming influence on me. I'm serious about that; just looking at their garden is rejuvenating. I hope someday to see it in person.

 

 

Our Little Acre

Kylee has won several awards for her blog and you can see why. She has nicely written posts and beautifully composed pictures. Plus, I recently met her at the Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza and she's super sweet too! This week she's one of the lucky bloggers at P. Allen Smith's house for the Garden to Blog event and I've been enjoying her updates on Twitter.

 

 

Dirt and Martinis

I actually found this blog via Twitter and I'm not ashamed to admit it was because of the name. Drinking while gardening is something I can proudly advocate for. This blog is part gardening, part recipes and a whole lot of fun.

 

Life on the Balcony

I love this blog for it's great ideas even though it's really geared toward people gardening in apartments and condos. Even thought I have much more room to garden than some people, Fern's blog is still fertile ground for inventive ways to garden.

 

Garden Rant

This is a group of four talented gardeners and writers ranting away about the gardening world. Sure, sometimes I get the feel they might be ranting for ranting's sake, but for the most part I like them because I share a lot of their philosophy: stop being so damn serious about gardening. Plus they get a ton of "guest ranters" who have some very interesting perspectives.

 

Of course I follow many more gardening blogs than I've mentioned here, but these are the ones I make sure not to miss a post on. What do you think? Am I missing something from my list. If you have a blog that I might have missed let me know about that too!

And for crying out loud, rain, go away!