In The Pink

Wood anemones are a favorite around here; especially the blues. However, pinks are nice too; this is Wyatt’s Pink.

A New Volunteer in the Garden

No, I don’t have any human volunteers to help me pull weeds. But, I have an interesting volunteer plant that I’ve been watching since June of 2008.

I posted a photo of this patch of leaves on a garden forum last summer trying to determine whether or not is was a weed. Most felt that it was a weed. However, I thought the leaves resembled verbascum, so I left it alone and have been watching over it ever since.

The verbascum ‘Southern Charm’ that grows in my garden is not supposed to seed. Therefore, I began to question whether or not my mystery plant was verbascum. Still, I was patient and waited.

Last week, the plant suddenly started growing. Soon, it took the form of two plants in my butterfly garden. Both are salvia nemorosa varieties ‘Caradonna’ and ‘Marcus’ - both have purple blooms. I posted a question on a salvia forum to ask how to tell which one was the parent. Before a person could answer my question, the plant sprouted a bloom overnight.

From the green stem color, I was able to determine that ‘Marcus’ is the parent as the ‘Caradonna’ has dark, almost black stems (and grows twice as high). There are now several of these welcome ‘Marcus’ offspring sprouting up in my butterfly garden. These plants are loved by butterflies and by hummingbirds.

Salvia nemorosa ‘Marcus’ is a short 12″ high salvia that will bloom off and on through the summer with deadheading. It is blooming early this year, probably due to the 90°F temperatures that we’ve been having over the last week. This salvia is rated for zones 4-8 and is deer and rabbit resistant as well as drought-tolerant.

It took a year of watching and waiting, but now I’m glad that I didn’t pull out this mystery plant. Time reveals so much.

When you’re weeding a garden, how do you tell the difference between a weed and a wanted plant? I’ve always heard that if you see the same seedling all over your garden, it’s probably a weed. If you see a seedling that’s unique to one section of the garden, it MAY be a welcome plant.

Story and photos by Freda Cameron

Gardening News, Magazines, Travel and My Blog

A New Volunteer in the Garden

No, I don’t have any human volunteers to help me pull weeds. But, I have an interesting volunteer plant that I’ve been watching since June of 2008.

I posted a photo of this patch of leaves on a garden forum last summer trying to determine whether or not is was a weed. Most felt that it was a weed. However, I thought the leaves resembled verbascum, so I left it alone and have been watching over it ever since.

The verbascum ‘Southern Charm’ that grows in my garden is not supposed to seed. Therefore, I began to question whether or not my mystery plant was verbascum. Still, I was patient and waited.

Last week, the plant suddenly started growing. Soon, it took the form of two plants in my butterfly garden. Both are salvia nemorosa varieties ‘Caradonna’ and ‘Marcus’ - both have purple blooms. I posted a question on a salvia forum to ask how to tell which one was the parent. Before a person could answer my question, the plant sprouted a bloom overnight.

From the green stem color, I was able to determine that ‘Marcus’ is the parent as the ‘Caradonna’ has dark, almost black stems (and grows twice as high). There are now several of these welcome ‘Marcus’ offspring sprouting up in my butterfly garden. These plants are loved by butterflies and by hummingbirds.

Salvia nemorosa ‘Marcus’ is a short 12″ high salvia that will bloom off and on through the summer with deadheading. It is blooming early this year, probably due to the 90°F temperatures that we’ve been having over the last week. This salvia is rated for zones 4-8 and is deer and rabbit resistant as well as drought-tolerant.

It took a year of watching and waiting, but now I’m glad that I didn’t pull out this mystery plant. Time reveals so much.

When you’re weeding a garden, how do you tell the difference between a weed and a wanted plant? I’ve always heard that if you see the same seedling all over your garden, it’s probably a weed. If you see a seedling that’s unique to one section of the garden, it MAY be a welcome plant.

Story and photos by Freda Cameron

Gardening News, Magazines, Travel and My Blog

Blanda But Not Bland

Anemone blanda is such a retiring little plant that it gets lost pretty easily in a crowded garden. However, Anemone blanda ‘Ingramii’ (shown at top) has no such problem; its blue is the deepest yet brightest of blues. This particular selection of blanda is native to southern Greece; it begins flowering before other blandas, and also stays in bloom the longest; it’s been blooming here for almost a month now. For comparison, at bottom is a more ordinary blue Anemone blanda.

More April blooms

Chilean Rock Purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora)- just keeps performing better and better each year, in the ground and in pots. Love it, love it, love it, and soooooo easy to propagate.

Byzantine glads (Gladiolus byzantinus)

Chinese Ground Orchids (Bletilla striata) just beginning to open

Geum

Not pictured but blooming now… and totallly worth mentioning: Queen’s tears (Billbergia nutans)!

More April blooms

Chilean Rock Purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora)- just keeps performing better and better each year, in the ground and in pots. Love it, love it, love it, and soooooo easy to propagate.

Byzantine glads (Gladiolus byzantinus)

Chinese Ground Orchids (Bletilla striata) just beginning to open

Geum

Not pictured but blooming now… and totallly worth mentioning: Queen’s tears (Billbergia nutans)!

New Additions to Sweet Garden Chicago

Carex buchanananii
or Fox Red Curly Sedge

Click to enlarge

My trip to the garden center last week put another big dent in my wallet. Judging by the

number of people there buying plants its hard to believe there’s a recession going on.

Monrovia’s “perennial of the year ” -Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ had me from hello. Drawn to evergreens I couldn’t resist Pinus mugo ‘pumilio ‘. I love Hemerocallis and found a new cultivar of Stella d’oro named ‘black eyed stella ‘ and a red repeat bloomer ‘pardon me‘, Nepeta x faassenii ‘walker’s low, Euphorbia polychroma, Silene uniflora ‘druett’s variegated’, Thymus vulgaris ‘aureus’ and Wisteria macrostachya ‘Blue Moon’.

The Fox Red Curly Sedge is a “striking clump of reddish-bronze that makes this evergreen perennial a good choice for foliage effect in borders…” so says its label. People either love it or hate it. I love it.

I thought I had a small garden until I had a blank slate to fill and I’m still not finished.

I’m not going to reveal my planting scheme until May 30 when Chicago Spring Flingers will see it for themselves. I’ve got to get crackin’ cause this month is almost gone.

New Additions to Sweet Garden Chicago

Carex buchanananii
or Fox Red Curly Sedge

Click to enlarge

My trip to the garden center last week put another big dent in my wallet. Judging by the

number of people there buying plants its hard to believe there’s a recession going on.

Monrovia’s “perennial of the year ” -Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ had me from hello. Drawn to evergreens I couldn’t resist Pinus mugo ‘pumilio ‘. I love Hemerocallis and found a new cultivar of Stella d’oro named ‘black eyed stella ‘ and a red repeat bloomer ‘pardon me‘, Nepeta x faassenii ‘walker’s low, Euphorbia polychroma, Silene uniflora ‘druett’s variegated’, Thymus vulgaris ‘aureus’ and Wisteria macrostachya ‘Blue Moon’.

The Fox Red Curly Sedge is a “striking clump of reddish-bronze that makes this evergreen perennial a good choice for foliage effect in borders…” so says its label. People either love it or hate it. I love it.

I thought I had a small garden until I had a blank slate to fill and I’m still not finished.

I’m not going to reveal my planting scheme until May 30 when Chicago Spring Flingers will see it for themselves. I’ve got to get crackin’ cause this month is almost gone.

Have No Sphere? Grow Alliums

I’ve admired alliums for years, but have deliberated on how to use them in the garden. There are different colors, heights and bloom sizes. One allium, appropriately named ‘Globe Master’ has blooms that are ten inches across!

A cottage gardener friend successfully inspired me with her plantings of alliums and irises. Last fall, I planted allium aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’ (zones 4-10) with iris x hollandica ‘Rosario’ (zones 4-9) in several groupings around my garden. This is the first bloom season and I must say that I’ve totally fallen for this combination of Dutch irises with alliums! Of course, my plantings need a few more years to mature and fill in the space that I’ve allotted, but I’m already convinced that I must have more alliums.

I have planted several groupings outside the fence since both the Dutch iris and alliums are deer resistant. I have sown annual seeds along the areas with the intention of hiding the fading foliage of these bulbs when the annuals bloom later.

‘Purple Sensation’ is a wonderful purple (see smaller photo of same allium that was taken in dim light versus the bright sunlight in the photo with the iris) with blooms that are four inches across.

Inside the cottage garden, I have planted the irises and alliums with my Knock Out® Roses. To hide the bulb foliage when it begins to fade, I had the idea that a mass planting of hardy geranium ‘Rozanne’ (perennial) would do the trick.

Well, the rabbits feasted on the geraniums over the winter, so I have only three tiny little plants left out of nine. The plants are tiny (they were large last year) because the rabbits ate them down to the ground. What I don’t understand is why the rabbits haven’t touched my geranium ‘Brookside’ that are planted along another path in the cottage garden. Of course, the rabbits know that ‘Rozanne’ is more expensive than ‘Brookside’ and they have exquisite taste when it comes to plants.

On our Sunday walk through Sarah P. Duke Gardens, there were even more alliums and combinations to inspire me. I’ll be watching the performance of my ‘Purple Sensation’ and start putting together a wish list for planting additional alliums this fall.

Story and photos by Freda Cameron

Gardening News, Magazines, Travel and My Blog

End of the vegetable growing season

This weekend I cleaned out my small vegetable patch, and except for a cherry tomato plant that continues to produce and the white Vidalia anions everything else ended up in the compost bin.

This was another disappointing year for my tomatoes plants; the fruits were small and few.

I tried onions for the first time and as you can see it was a bust. I planted the onions around Christmas and so far all I see is one onion. (My farming ancestors are probably turning in their graves)
I am not giving up, tomorrow I am heading out to my local library and check out any book I can find on vegetable gardening in South Florida.

On the positive side the herbs are doing well and probably will last for another couple of months.

Ssssolomon's Seal

Solomon’s seal is another of those plants that I really like best when they are just coming up; patches of them look like twisting snakes rearing out of the ground.

The Unfurling!

There are few things more fascinating than to be able to watch and record the unfolding of the beauty of flowers in its various stages day after day. This Spring I had the good fortune of watching and clicking the various stages of the Alpinia Zerumbet flower right from the bud to bloom. This plant is a native of India and has – as told by wikipedia – spread to Brazil and other areas.


The transformation from bud to bloom happened in a matter of a week, so I didn't really have to be very perseverant in getting the successive stages on the camera.



I guess it will continue to look good for few more days, and after that I am not quite sure what its fate will be, because, although the internet tells me that it bears lovely looking fruits after this stage, but my past experience has not been very good as the flowers tend to fall off.