Super Plants

Had a (non gardening) co worker a few years ago who just moved into a different home. It was a primarily shady yard, and they could tell it had been fashioned into a garden, even though it was winter when they moved in, they could see there were lots of little plant markers in the yard with names on them. It was soon discovered that the previous owners were of my ilk, i.e., "plant maniacs"! When Jim wrote down some of the names and showed me, i immediately recognized most of the variety names ~ they were all Hostas!

Spring arrived, as She always does, and the Hosta, along with many other perennials, awakened from their Winter sleep. It was not long before Jim came in to work and asked me if i wanted some (or all!) of these Hostas, because they wanted a low maintenance yard. Now, much as my heart leapt when i heard "Do you want these plants?", i did the right thing and told Jim that if he wanted a "low maintenance" yard, NOTHING would be LOWER maintenance than those Hostas! Especially established, well taken care of Hostas! i told him not to mess with them. Alas, (she says, grinning evilly) they still did not want the plants, so i borrowed my husband's truck (WITH the husband) and made a couple of trips there to load up said truck! Jim and his wife did decide they liked several of the plants, and wanted to keep them, but still let me cut divisions from those, also. It was a situation ALL plant maniacs hope to run into at least once in their lifetime! AND it just so happened that we had cleared out a space that Spring under the flowering Crabapple, and it was a perfect spot for Hostas! i believe i came home with at least 25 plants that year.

But I digress ~ my description of my SuperPlants list *** 1) Comes back reliably every year 2) Does not need pruning or shaping 3) If they DO flower, it does not take a lot of time to deadhead them 4) Looks good throughout the season 5) Needs little or no cutting down before winter and 6) Is NOT invasive!

A small disclaimer ~ there are no plants that are NO maintenance! Once in a while your Hostas may be eaten by slugs, moles dig up your Poppies, the deer wipe you out, and the most well behaved plant may absolutely LOVE the spot you have it in, and takes over your yard! But ~ dem's da rules, folks!

1) So Hosta are the first on this list. Very cast iron plants! i even have shoved a division of Hosta through a piece of Styrofoam and floated it in my pond with the roots floating free, and they thrived, even after i left them frozen in the water thru the Winter!

2) Next are the Sedums ~ they can grow in sandy or poor soil, can take hot sun, some are tiny and creeping, some are upright and can be 3 ft tall,

and it's very difficult to PREVENT from thriving!

3) Hardy Spring bulbs are very carefree, although some people make more work for themselves by cutting back the leaves sooner than they need to (or braiding them ~ what's with that?) If you wait until the leaves dry out, they will easily come off when tugged.

 

4) Heucheras ~ i love these guys! Compact, a great variety of colors, looks good (a lot of them THROUGH a zone 5 winter). See my "Collectable Plant" post about Heucheras for more photos.

5) Poppies ~ Comes up in early Spring, blooms, fades away. No problem.

There ARE more! Will post soon.

True Blue, Baby, I Love You....

  

i think i speak for the great majority of gardeners when i say that we are constantly looking for blue flowers. Real clear blue - not purple, not bluish purple, not violet - BLUE. Unfortunately, there aren't many fitting that classification!

                    Grape Hyacinths(Muscari "Valerie Finnis ")

When you read many plant catalogs, they will describe ALL the Grape Hyacinths as a "Clear Blue!" color, but i don't understand it - they are very definitely PURPLE! Just like in the photo below (and even looking all over the 'net for this picture, almost all varieties were shown - as blue). Valerie Finnis is the only one i've found that REALLY is blue.

There are two blue flowered plants i have not yet succeeded with - one is the Himalayan Blue Poppy (Meconopsis), which really wants the cool, moist summers of the Pacific Northwest, and the Corydalis 'Blue Panda', also another one that doesn't like our hot summers - but I'll keep trying!

Glory of The Snow (Chionodoxa )

The first blue of the year (actually, the Scilla {below} blooms when the Crocus bloom, but the flowers are so tiny and delicate that it's easy to nearly overlook them) 

 

The tiny stripes on the above blossoms are a subdued baby blue

 

Pulmonaria (I think it's "Blue Ensign" - unfortunately, i lost the tag) blooming right now - even though the buds are pink, the open flowers are EXTREMELY blue!

...And one more.... the pretty blue forget me not-like flowers of the Brunneras....

First Seed Swap Of 2010 - How It Turned Out

Why do i swap seeds? Partly because i like to get something for relatively nothing - yes, i do a little work to prepare, but i'm still not handing anyone money for what i get. It's also partly for something to do during the "worst" time of the winter; that is - when it's STILL winter, but you want it to be Spring so badly that it's almost a physical pain.

But a day like today reminds me of why i really do it. It's certainly not wanting to crowd into a roomful of people and having to wait several minutes at times just to MOVE 3 feet! It's because of what kind of people they ARE - gardeners! Almost everyone had the same look in their eyes - here we all are(the day after a snowstorm), surrounded by seed packets, seedlings, plants, plant paraphernalia, and although we do know a new season is very near, an event like this reinforces that promise. Did anyone complain about being crowded? No. Everyone was pleasant, considerate and smiling. We were all given paper grocery bags, and as we collected packets, bags or cups of what we wanted and put them into our bags, several of us could be heard commenting that we felt like we were collecting goodies at Halloween!

Didn't take my camera, but this looks close to our swap - just add about 50 more people into this picture!

Because this, 20 days before the first day of Spring, was a happy day for all of us!

Some of my "take" today, laying in a large cast Tobacco leaf i just finished. That package of black radish seed touts, "Popular Snack With Beer and Dips" - although i got nothing against beer, radishes sure wouldn't be my first choice as an accompaniment! i now have seeds of Resurrection Lily, "Rose" and "Cherokee Purple" tomatoes, an "experimental" variety of snap bean, and "Rattlesnake Master" Eryngium. Plus quite a few red Canna rhizomes that i promised i would get for my friend Diana, who is still recovering from cancer treatment, and, as a result, probably hasn't got the best of immune systems and i'm sure wouldn't have wanted to get into a crowd like that!

Three Mile Island Amaryllis

My office is connected to a bank building, the same bank i worked at for twenty years (1985-2005), so i'm wandering over there/thru there daily - i just tell everyone i'm an alumni! Still know almost everyone there, and i'm familiar with the whole area, including the security guards. One of them works the day shift, and is a buddy of mine. Since he likes to garden, too, we talk plants a lot.

Another friend of his in the building gives him a cool plant for Xmas every year, this year it was this Amaryllis trio of bulbs in a shallow dish full of river rock. Well, i know how Amaryllis grows, it sends up a flower stalk before the leaves appear, and has 4 blooms that last quite some time, after which the leaves come up and help build up the bulb's strength for the next year's blooms. If you're REAL lucky,one bulb may have TWO flower stalks.

Anyway, he placed this tray at the guard station (note the "Please check in with Security" sign in the pic), and the bulbs started to shoot up their flower stalks. All 3 were sort of short, as i remember Amaryllis, but the flowers were nice and large. But, i could see secondary flower stalks appearing on all 3 bulbs, so i thought that was gonna be nice.

Strangely, though, a THIRD flower stalk started to appear on all 3 bulbs! I had never seen THAT before! Each succeeding stalk would grow a few inches taller than the previous one, and my friend finally had to design a support for it (and talked the building's maintenance men into fabricating it!)

At the present time, there are now so many stalks and leaves that we can't be sure, but there may be more flower stalks coming!

I guess that the person who gave him these also bought one for herself, and hers only had one flower stalk apiece! So where THESE bulbs came from is a mystery, but a very interesting one!

Delicious Daffodils

Daffodils, by far, are my absolute favorite flower! They're the "official" flower of my birth month - March- so that may be a reason i'm so attracted to them. Actually, it's about daffs being the first large blooms to show up around here! i like collecting different forms and color combinations - no expensive bulbs - the brand new varieties i can't afford today will be plentiful and reasonably priced in a year or two (same goes for Hostas!).

I just plant a few "new to me" varieties each Autumn. There are white, yellow, and orange flowers, and even more colors and shapes of the corollas (the center cup ) - pink, red, small, large trumpets, split, ruffled, double ( the doubles have the most fragrance).

Here's a tiny one






...Take a walk around my garden to see how many others i have!










Here's a peach and white form

Most of the "pink" corollas are orange at first and fade to a pink in a day or two.

All Daffodils are Narcissus, but not all Narcissus are Daffodils!

(All Daffodils, Narcissus, and Jonquils are in the genus Narcissus).







Nothing says "Springtime" like Daffs glowing in bright sunshine!

Last but not least, a split corona form



Hope you liked this little tour! :o)