Making some changes

I've decided I'm going to move this blog over to share space with my Mommy Blog. I just don't post enough over here to keep it "open." I've already exported all the posts. I just need to delete this blog. I thought I'd give fair warning to any followers. All two of you! :) I hope to get some gardening posts up soon over there. I have pictures from last year that I need to post! Thanks for tuning in.

The Butterfly Garden

Just a quick post of pictures from a week ago.  

My first attempt at a small succulent garden!  Hen and chicks and a couple of others I don't know.  So cute!

I think I picked up this Agastache "Black Adder" last year from Santa Rosa Gardens.  Agastache is known more commonly as Anise Hyssop, because it has a scent of licorice (you know, anise.)  It's a US native and supposedly drought tolerant.  So far "Black Adder" has done well with heat and drought, unlike my experience with Agastache foeniculum (at least, I believe that was the one I had.)  It was very droopy in hot, dry weather, so "Black Adder" is an improvement in my garden.  It grows only to 2-3 feet tall and slightly less wide.

The Knockout Rose has made gardening with roses in the Deep South a lot more fun.  No, most of them don't have a scent, but I can live with that because of its black spot resistance.  They've performed consistently well for my Zone 7B garden.

I just can't praise the Almighty Echinacea enough!  This is Echinacea purpurea "White Swan."  I love the daisy like flowers more than I can say.  They are pleasing during the day and night!  They're doing so well (and are soooo easy!) that I can't understand how I managed to plant Evan's Animal Garden without them!  So, I will definitely be adding some in sometime this year.  Because Evan's Garden is across the creek from the house, it's nice to have colors that will pop.  That way I can enjoy them even when it's too hot to go out.  "White Swans" grow to about 2 to 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

"White Swan" is an old garden favorite.  "Kim's Knee High" is a newer edition.  It is also Echinacea purpurea.  But it's a bit smaller than the Purple Coneflower.  She can fit in nicely near the front of the border at 1-2 feet tall and wide.

I moved a lot of things around last year to make a nice, twisty garden path in my Butterfly Garden.  I was clever enough to place a few Lavenders along the path, so that I would brush up against them and smell that Heavenly scent!  They bloomed like crazy recently and the bees were very, very happy.

Justin got me some of those Topsy Turvy planter thingies for Mother's Day this year.  I planted some tomatoes and basil and hung them up the other day.  I decided to use some Miracle Gro Moisture Control soil.  I didn't realize until days later that the packaging says don't use the MC garden soil in containers.  Anyone have any idea why?  I don't plan on removing it, unless it has harmful ingredients (the label looked like all normal stuff to me!)  I'll read the directions beforehand next time!

After some early heat this year, May turned out to be a pretty lovely month!  Plants are blooming all over the place.  I'm afraid with all of these summer things blooming now, that we won't have anything in bloom in June or July.

The Daylilies are clearly enjoying the weather.  They've been blooming their little hearts out for weeks.  The above Daylily is "Paper Butterfly."  It has HUGE blooms!  The plant is probably no more than 12-18" tall, but a good spreader.  And they have some random re-bloom throughout the season.  One of my favorites!

This is one of the white Hydrangeas I got at Easter a year or two ago.  Last year one was slightly blue and the other slightly pink.  But this year they are both white.  Big, beautiful blooms.  I accidentally cut the plant back to several inches above the ground in late winter.  I do this with my H. aborescens, and got pruning happy.  Not sure what the species is of this Hydrangea, but the pruning didn't seem to bother it.

One of the Drift Roses I picked up last year.  This one has coral blooms.  Very pretty.  It hasn't gotten as big as my pink ones in the front yard, but it was purchased later AND gets less sun.  We'll see how she'll take off this year.

The "standard" Echinaceas always impress.  The newer cultivars aren't always as tough or as long lasting. This is Echinacea purpurea "White Swan."  I love the daisy like flowers.  Love them!  Tough, heat and drought tolerant, pretty flowers...what's not to love!  I know some folks have issues with reseeding, but that has not been a problem for me at all.

Another beautiful daylily!  I bought this one last year during a mid Summer sale.  I wanted some more red in the garden.  Unfortunately, I don't know the cultivar name.  The plant is probably around 18-24" tall, with the flower stalks going taller.  I love having some taller Daylilies to give more height to my sometimes one dimension garden.

Some pretty yellow Daylilies that border the Veg garden and lawn.  I don't know the name of these, either.

The Veggie Garden!  Or part of it!  Here are potatoes and onions.  And the spot where the whole pack of carrot seeds failed.  The green business to the right is the peas and lettuce that I just pulled up last week.  I plan to put in green snap beans for the summer.

And last but not least, we have Stokesia laevis.  Small plants with pretty lavender/blue flower stalks.  Native to the Southeast US.  It seems to do fairly well with the heat, but does get a bit droopy with high temps and dry weather.  Not so bad that I've lost one, though.

A Sampling from the Woodland Gardens

I'm rather behind.  I took all of these pictures almost a month ago.  Many of these plants are no longer in bloom, so I'll just have to enjoy the blooms through my pictures.  The above is a cluster (?) of blooms on the Deutzia gracilis "Chardonnay Pearls," also called Duncan.  I think in a little more sun the foliage is more of a chartreuse, but it's mostly a light green in my shady garden.  In spite of the shade, it flowered its little heart out!  Another spectacular year for "Duncan."  It's a rather compact deciduous shrub of about 2-3' high, and 2-3' in width in my Zone 7B garden.

The lovely Southern garden staple is the Camellia.  These evergreen shrubs are generally slow growers.  I've had this Camellia japonica "White Empress" for a few years, and it's still no more than 3' tall.  Apparently one day she'll be 10' tall!  And possibly as wide!

I love my little native Celandine Poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum)!  They bloomed more than a month ago, but I thought the little seed pods were so cool.  It has bright yellow happy flowers that really pop out of the woodland garden and adorn this small perennial with oak like leaves.  One of my personal favorites!

These little Bell Flowers are woodland natives.  They're not really showy, but more what I would call sweet.  I don't know the botanical name, unfortunately.  Seems like any plant with a bell shaped flower is called a bell flower!

I may have had a bloom on my Trillium.  Once.  At least the foliage is attractive!  I wonder what the trick is for Trilliums.

My little Virgina Bluebell (Mertensia virginica) was a little disappointing this year.  I mean, look at it.  It's like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree!  The other one I had didn't even come back.  I guess the heat/drought from last summer did it in.  It's a shame, because they're pretty little plants.

I've never had a big show from my Viburnum plicatum tomentosum "Summer Snowflake."  Just a few blooms here and there.  It's okay, because I appreciate the ones I have.  The one I have is no more than 5' tall, and a few feet wide.  It sounds like they can grown 10' wide!  And 6-8' tall.  Maybe she'll bloom more then!

And, of course, there are ferns cropping up all over the place.  Big ferns, little ferns.  Native ferns, non-native ferns.  And they are all lovely.

Butterfly Garden...Mostly

I dusted off the fancy camera to take some pics the other day, only to find out that the batteries were dead.  And, naturally, there were no new double A's.  So,  I got the pocket camera out to do the job.  It's my Panasonic Lumix ZS10 that I got for Christmas last year.  And really, I need to take it through the paces anyway.  I'm no expert photographer and not even a hobbyist, so any opinion is not very educated.  That being said, I think the Lumix takes nice quality closeup images of my plants.  The Pansies pictured above are finally putting on a show.  I planted them in the fall in the front yard and was disappointed (again) with no winter blooms, even though we had a VERY mild winter here.  Now that it's warming up so much (read: so early!) the Pansies will be getting leggy and it'll be time to tell them goodbye.

The neighbor's beautiful Dogwood tree.  Dogwoods have always been a favorite of mine.  Beautiful flowers in spring, and beautiful umbrella like canopy in summer.  Just...nice.

The Rose bushes are starting to put on blooms here and there.  Can't wait for the big display in a couple of weeks!  This is one of the Pink Drifts I purchased last year.

And now to the Butterfly Garden in the back yard.  I just purchased this White False Indigo Baptisia alba last year.  I had a blue one and moved it last year, and it doesn't appear to have come back.  I think I'll replace it.  I just love the blooms and the foliage.  Neat native plants that can put up with heat and drought.

The Columbines are still blooming their little hearts out!

Another purchase from last year!  I'm so glad all of these plants made it, considering the very hot and dry summer we had last year.  I bought this peach colored Foxglove Digitalis from Santa Rosa Gardens.

Blooms of Heuchera 'Vesuvius' and Centaurea Montana (called Bachelor's Buttons or Cornflowers) intermingling.  Of course, I have two of those Heucheras, and the blooms are different colors.  I wonder which one is mismarked.  One of these days I'll look into it.

Pretty blue blooms!

I got a big chunk of these Irises from a friend in trade several years ago.  She may have told me what they're called at the time, but I don't really remember.  They've spread and been divided a few times, and give me lucious blooms in spring.  Just...beautiful!

And here's the progress of the lettuce and my sweet peas in the Veg Garden.  I just recently planted onions, strawberries, and carrots (seeds).  I hope to get some potatoes in the ground soon, although I know it's getting kind of late.  In a "normal" year, I think this time would be ok, but with temperatures already like that of May or June, I'm afraid I may have waited a little too late.  We'll see!

Spring has Sprung

I keep thinking I'll look back at the photos of this time last year and compare them to what is blooming this year.  We've had such a mild winter that I hardly think it's fair to call it winter at all.  It seems like more flowers are blooming and trees and plants are leafing out earlier. 

I purchased this Columbine "Swan Pink Yellow" (I think!) from Santa Rosa Gardens last year.  Gorgeous!

Here's the Tiarella I moved a couple of weeks ago.  It's putting a few of those frothy blooms on.  I'm pleased at how well it looks, considering the heat and lack of rain already.  I'm not pleased that I'm already having to consider heat and possible drought conditions.

This isn't a great picture, but this is what is planted at the end of our driveway to welcome us home.  I pruned them last year to a manageable 4 feet or so. 

Closeup of the white Azaleas.  Just stunning.

Dwarf Lorepetalum "Snow Muffin."  These white blooming Lorepetalum shrubs don't grow taller than about 18 inches.  But they do spread horizontally. Mine are a few feet in diameter.  I pruned them back pretty harshly last fall and was rewarded with the best blooms I've ever had!

Another blurry picture.  I suppose I need to get out my fancy camera for closeups.

Lorepetalum "Purple Diamond."  These Lorepetalum grow to 4-5 feet tall and wide.  I prune mine probably to around 4 feet.  "Purple Diamond" keeps more of the purple color leaves throughout the summer rather than fading to green like many other varieties.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

A bit late.  Again.  Well, at least I'm posting at all!  But with the weirdly warm weather, there's a lot going on in the garden! 

I actually took these photos on March 1st, so many of these trees are starting to leaf out.  This is the latest addition to our tree family.  It's a Japanese Magnolia called "Jane."  It's only 5-6 feet tall now, and will eventually go over 12 feet. It lost its leaves in the heat and drought last summer, so I'm glad it has decided to come back. The flowers are lovely and slightly darker than some other Japanese magnolias (also called Tulip Magnolias) around.

A lovely orange throated Daffodil my mom shared with me.  I have several of these that I divided and moved so that they now circle around the bottom of Evan's tree.

Sigh...Camellia!  I can't remember what the common name is, unfortunately.  She's a beauty, though!  I've had this one for a few years, and it's still rather small.  Camellias tend to grow slowly, I believe.  Once they fill in they are spectacular!



Here's a little volunteer Corydalis lutea.  I just dug it up (it was growing on the stairs down to the backyard), and moved it into the butterfly/hummingbird garden.  I love the foliage and the dainty yellow flowers.

I purchased this lime green heuchera last year.  I moved a lot of things around and planted some new stuff in the butterfly garden.  I "installed" a bendy path.  It's not complete, but I love having a project!

I seem to have a lot of these solid white Daffodils.  I don't really feel like one can have too many Daffies. 

I've started some lettuce and sweet peas in the Veggie garden.  Hopefully we'll have more rain and less heat this summer and more success in this garden!

The Royal Star Magnolia.  This is also a Japanese Magnolia.  We planted this tree in 2007 honor of Duncan's birth the previous year.  It's growing nicely and puts on a lovely spring show.