When plants become a collection

Creating a garden starts out as an innocent pursuit. You just want a pretty patch of flower or vegetables that flows and looks beautiful at least three seasons out of four. But there is that one plant that outshines the others. It outperforms them by looking great or by being the big, bold bright spot that everyone comments on. And you start doing a little bit of research on what it really wants, because let's be honest, you got lucky by plunking it in the right place. And the next year it is even more beautiful. And you want more. More. More. More.

You are hooked.

This is how plant collections start. At least this is how mine have started and most of them have snuck up on me. I don't set out to have a "collection" of a specific plant, I just really like them and suddenly have a whole bunch of them (and often, a lot less money in my bank account).

My first plant collection was clematis. The very first clematis I planted was Mrs. N. Thompson and I didn't plant it right. But she defied the odds and was still a looker. The second one was Ken Donson and he was like the crack dealer on the corner: gave me just enough to get me totally hooked.

Mrs. N. Thompson was my first clematis.

 

Guernsey Cream is a favorite that does well for me in a good amount of shade (note the fern and hosta friends it has).

Ken Donson was the clematis that really sucked me in.

 

Once you decide you love a plant you start searching out different cultivars: the usual suspects you can find in your neighbor's garden just won't do. You search out specialty nurseries who will sell those unusual cultivars and, you hope, send you better plants than you can pick up at a local nursery. You're really in trouble when you start buying books on a specific plant and scope out plant-specific online forums.

Since Ken Donson came into my life I've added 12 more clematis. Fourteen plants is a drop in the bucket to collectors of some kinds of plants (talk to the host people who often have more than 1,000 cultivars growing in their yards) but I still think of clematis as my first real fascination. And oh yeah, I have five more ordered for delivery this spring.

The only thing that keeps me from seriously collecting Japanese maples is cost and the fact that many of them are marginally hardy here (see the sad tale of my lovely Kamagata maple). I only have two (Orangeola and Acontifolium), but that doesn't mean I don't scope them out every time I look.

Acer japonicum 'Acontifolium'

 

I probably have more different varieties of heucheras and heucherallas than any other plant, but that's probably more because I just really like trying new ones (and there are a lot available through the Yahoo co-op). I have a lot of hostas for the same reason, a handful of roses (which I should just give up on because I don't do roses well), and I've tried just about every new echinancea that comes on the market (with limited success, by the way; they just seem to lack longevity here).

Echinacea 'Summer Sky'

I might have gotten just a bit carried away with the hostas a few years ago when I had 50-some of them growing out in pots waiting to be planted in the garden.

 

I'm not sure hydrangeas qualify as a collection or fascination for me, but as you know, I do love them. Limelights are, of course, the star here, but I also love my climbing hydrangea, my new Little Limes, Incrediball and even my old-fashioned Annabelle. Oakleaf hydrangeas are stunning shrubs, but not one I've had a great deal of luck with. I also have a Nikko Blue which is a full-on zone 6 plant but she's bloomed for me in the past and I won't give up on her.

Nikko Blue hydrangea

 

I feel the pull of new collections, too. I've recently developed a fascination with tree peonies (again, a plant that requires a great deal of patience. What is with me?) The world of conifers is amazing, but it's one I feel I really need to study before delving into because in many cases it requires a healthy space requirement (and even on 1.3 acres space is a precious commodity). And the charming little Ginko 'Gnome' that I ordered on a whim last year got me totally excited about Gingkos as well. Plus, there's that whole toad lily thing that I learned last week I'm totally missing out on. We'll just have to wait and see where my wandering obsessions lead me to next.

Do you have any plant collections? How did you get started with them?

 

 

Falling for a great performer

 

One of the new plants in the garden this year that has really thrilled me is heucherella 'Redstone Falls.' I got three of these through the Yahoo Co-op as plugs and they are all over a foot wide now. The coloring in their part-sun location is a gorgeous combination of terra-cotta, orange, yellow, green and a hint of red.

I'm really loving all of the new heucheras and heucherellas that are being developed (many by Terranova Nurseries), but you do have to be a bit careful as to placement of them. I've found that many prefer a good amount of sun, although others tolerate—no, demand—shade. Clearly I hit the nail on the head with where Redstone Falls ended up.

Moving Day

There are so many garden chores that escaped me earlier this season since I was busy basically redoing our entire backyard (including this path and these walls) so one of the many things that needed attending to was some plant moving. Sadly it seems like the worst of the heat is behind us (90 degrees? I'll take it. PLEASE.) so I thought it was safe to start moving things around. I never like to wait too long to move things because I worry they won't have time to get established before the temps drop dramatically. I'd rather have to baby them a bit more in the beginning than take the risk of losing them later.

The target of most of the moving was the fringes of a garden I created four years ago or so that served as a holding bed for things that didn't have another place.

 

As you can see, it wasn't exactly stunning to look at. The first thing to get moved was the Nikko Blue hydrangea that you see in the middle, which was moved to that location before the house renovations last year. When I dug it out, it was actually two plants. I think a branch rooted itself awhile ago and actually that part of the plant is nicer than the mother plant. This hydrangea, which blooms on old wood (that often freezes out over winter), isn't a great performer. But a couple years ago it gave me five gorgeous light blue blooms and I fell in love with them enough to keep trying.

 

I moved the two plants to the west side of the house where I've never really had anything great growing. I'm hoping that a protected spot by the house might help keep those buds safe. And in the front I planted a 'Let's Dance Moonlight' hydrangea that I got through the Yahoo co-op a couple years ago and have been growing out in a container. (By the way, do you like how I can't even manage to take the shovel out of the garden before I take a picture?)

The next thing that needed to happen was to get rid of a potentilla shrub I've been chasing around for NINE years. And what you'll be interested to know is that I didn't like it to begin with. My extremely sweet and well-intentioned mother-in-law took me plant shopping shortly after we bought our house. I didn't have the faintest idea what was already growing in the yard nor did I have a clue what my gardening plans were, but I was reluctant to pass up free plants. So we went to a nursery and my mother-in-law asked an employee what was deer resistant and I came home with three potentillas. Two of them (thankfully) died (and that may or may not have something to do with how I "cared" for them) but one just kept on going. I moved it once, and still hated it, so I finally moved it to an empty space. It never bloomed again and got rangy and unattractive. But for some reason I had a hard time throwing away a plant I really didn't like. Well, no more. It had to go. And I think a far more noble purpose for it will be serving as compost several years from now.

After I freed myself of that monkey on my back, it was time to move a couple of hosts that had also been relocated last fall before the renovation. I blogged about the process of moving them here, and I'm happy to report they handled the move wonderfully and looked great this year.

 

I divided both Blue Angel and Paradigm (just into two divisions) before moving them to the back yard where they are flanking the east-facing stairs off the deck. I didn't cut the foliage off them, but I may if it starts looking shabby.

And then I filled in the newly cleaned out area with more hydrangeas I've been growing out in pots: two Incrediballs and one Invincibelle Spirit. I hope they do well and fill in that area that until now has been just a storage spot.

The back side: What a difference!

I inadvertently took all off last week off from blogging but in a second you'll see what I've been up to. I've been busy, busy, busy working on the back yard (which is really the side yard but for whatever reason we call it the back yard). And it wasn't until after work yesterday when I snapped a few photos that I realized:

1. Holy smokes, somewhere along the line this turned into a really big project, and

2. What a difference from nine months ago.

 

Here's what the house looked like September 1, 2010:

And here's what it looks like today:

 

That's some kind of after, huh? In the past six weeks or so, I put in the stone path (which leads to our detached garage), the stone retaining walls on either side of the path, and all of the plantings to the right of the path and the little bit you see in the foreground on the left side of the path. I'll give you a closer look at some of the new gardens, which are pretty bare bones, later this week. My goal for this summer was to just get the framework in, so I focused on getting in trees and shrubs. I filled in with many of the perennials I had around from buying sprees and some of the things I have purchased through the Yahoo plant-buying co-op.

I'll try to take some photos of the garden from different angles. I struggled for a long time about whether to add the half-moon shaped garden on the left side of the path (as you're looking at it now) so I'll be interested to hear people's thoughts on that.

I haven't written much about the renovation since it ended because I was just exhausted and sick of the whole project. It definitely was emotionally draining and every time I tried to blog about it, it got way too preachy and whiny, so I'm saving that for another time when I have had more time to gain better perspective on it. I will tell you this, though: Toward the end, when it became clear that we were way over budget, we gave serious though to eliminating the deck from the plan, and looking at this photo, I'm so happy we kept it. We have been eating outside much more at a table under the pergola and it truly feels like an extension of the living area.

What's happening now

This headline should really read "What WAS happening a few days ago." Blogger was down for much of the end of the week so I couldn't post this, but I hope you enjoy it now. Sorry for the delay.

Sometimes I feel like everything I write on this blog is old news because my zone 5 garden is so far behind so many of those of my readers. I can't believe that some blogs have pictures of tomatoes on the vine this week!

The situation seems to be particularly bad this year, although I'm not sure if that's because the weather really has been worse than normal or if it's because we had a lovely spring last year so things are slow in comparison to last year when they were probably ahead of schedule.

I planted climbing rose CanCan in front of the downspout in the front of the house. I was so upset when I found out there was no option to putting that downspout smack dab in the middle of the front of the house, although I have to say it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Cancan is developed by Bill Radler who created the Knock-out rose series and grows to about 10 feet so I have hopes that it will do well in this place and not eat the house.

 

Some of the daffodils are blooming. Is there any cheerier flower than a daffodil? OK, maybe daises, but daffs are close.

 

Other varieties have yet to bloom. I should have daffodil blooms for at least the next two to three weeks.

 

I was thrilled to see the wonderful purple spikes of 'Blue Angel' hosta poking up. Certainly a favorite in my garden.

 

The Serviceberry tree has fuzzy little buds getting ready to bloom. The Serviceberry trees at work usually bloom four to seven days before the one at my house does so I usually have a little warning. My mother-in-law bought this tree for us the second summer after we bought the house, so it's been in the garden for eight years now. It's a lovely little tree.

 

Dicentra 'Gold Heart' is coming up. I think everyone should grow this plant. It's just amazing.

 

The mini greenhouse is full of plants: some plugs from the Yahoo plant co-op, some from last year that I overwintered in pots heeled into the ground and, believe it or not, I finally potted up the poor amaryllis bulbs that were forgotten in the basement.

 

There are a lot of plants by the garage waiting for a spot in the ground. Three beautiful Hydrangea 'Little Lime' are waiting, along with some roses I overwintered (again in pots in the ground) and a few other random things.

 

They back yard looks like a graffiti artist attacked it. That's the rough layout for a path and new beds that I have planned. I'm not at all looking forward to doing the hardscaping, but paying someone to do it just isn't in the budget so that too is going to be a (back-breaking) DIY project. I hope to complete it by Memorial Day but I suspect that, like a lot of my DIY projects, that is a totally unrealistic deadline. (There is nothing like taking a picture of your own space to realize what a dump it looks like!)

 

And very exciting news: The cable railings are finally finished on the deck! I was going to do a post on installing these because Mr. Much More Patient did the honors, but honestly, it's a pretty high-level DIY project that is a bit more complicated than a post on a blog would cover. They are however, sailboat lifelines. No seriously, they really ARE sailboat lifelines. There is NO difference and we actually bought the materials for this project from a company that sells both marine stainless steel products and has an architectural line. By the way, if you're looking for something like this, email me for the contact information. Anyway, since Mr. MMP has experience with lifelines, he figured this out pretty quickly, but it was still a three-weekend project just because drilling all the holes and cutting all the wire took a long time. I'm happy it's finished now. All we have to do now is touch up some of the stain on the deck and pergola and install the stair lights and the deck is finished!

 

So as Al Roker would say, that's what's happening in my neck of the woods. What's up in yours?

The flower that wouldn't be stopped

Four gorgeous flowers on this 'Red Peacock' amaryllis.

Zoom out a little and you see the bulb did this all on her own. It's still in the paper bag it came in!

For several years I've purchased amaryllis bulbs from the yahoo plant co-op I'm a member of, potted them up and given them away as holiday gifts. They are really wonderful because they are some unusual varieties that people can't get at a big box store. Unfortunately, the holidays were a bit of a fire drill this year. You might recall that we were mid-construction (well, mostly we were just irritated because we had planned on being finished in November but were no where close) and didn't even put up a Christmas tree and well, the box of amaryllis bulbs was forgotten in the basement.

A couple weeks ago I found it and was shocked to find a stem sticking out of the box. I brought the optimistic bulb upstairs and planned to plant it, where it was forgotten again. Well, this bulb was not happy about being forgotten and apparently was determined to shout, "Hey, look at me!"

So that's how I got this beautiful stalk of flowers, growing out of nothing but a paper bag.

First plant delivery of spring!

I received my first shipment from the Yahoo plant buying co-op I'm a member of on Monday. I love it when a box full of plants comes. Because many of the co-ops are sold long before their shipping dates, I often forget what I ordered. It's like Christmas when I open up those little baby plants.

I didn't have the pop-up "greenhouse" set up yet so I didn't even bother to pot everything up (I grow out all of my co-op plants in four-inch or larger pots for several weeks before putting them in the garden so I can baby them a little). I just gave them all a good drink, put them in a tray and put them where all plants go ... the kitchen counter.

It's a good thing, too. There were widespread frost warnings for Tuesday night so I would have ended up bringing them in anyway.

Anyway, this order include a little bit of everything: four clematis, some sedums, a few echinacea, hosta 'June,' which is one I've been wanting for awhile, a couple heucheras and a dicentra or two.

I don't even know where most of these will go in the garden, but I always find room for them somewhere.

Grow Amaryllis, Grow!

L ast year I bought several interesting amaryllis bulbs to give as Christmas gifts. They were very well received, especially by the people on my list who don't want or need more "stuff."

I guess I was bit over anxious last year because I planted them sometime in November. I ended up giving most of them away before Christmas because they were on the verge of blooming.

In fact, here's how they looked on November 26, 2008. 

This year I wanted to start a little later, but then it seems I started TOO late. Here's how they (I mostly bought new bulbs) looked this weekend. Three of them have bits sticking out of the bulb, but that's it. Rather unimpressive Christmas gifts as they are right now. Hopefully they'll hurry up! I have them on a seed-starting mat so they are getting bottom heat and as much light as I can give them. I guess now it's just a matter of talking really sweetly to them.

No room at the inn

My co-op buying has reached epic proportions this year. Through the co-op I have access to oodles of great perennials at great prices. The only catch is that they are plugs—what most local nurseries buy from wholesalers, then pot up and grow before selling them to the public, for up to four times what they paid. I don't begrudge nurseries that money at all. It's hard work to pot up all those plugs, and care for them until they are saleable. Plus, pots, dirt, heat, fertilizer and help doesn't come cheap. But I want in on that action.

So I've started buying a lot of perennials through the co-op. It's the only way I could afford so many of them. When they come I pot them up and grow them out in this thing I call a greenhouse. They call it a Flowerhouse, but make no mistake, it's a glorified pop tent.

I've got most of what I've purchased this year all potted up and settled in. The only problem? I ran out of room in the greenhouse, so a few thing are just going to have to tough it out in the big bad outside.

Here's a close up of what things are looking like in there.

And here's the whole "holding area." The larger pots are hostas I bought through the co-op last fall. I buried them in the ground, covered them in a bunch of leaf mulch and they ALL made it. I'll plant them in the new shade bed this summer. This is also the location of the aforementioned "pit of despair." Dealing with it is on this weekend's agenda, but today was rough, and frankly, it's lower on the priority list so we'll see what happens tomorrow.