Orchid Experiment

I've had a Lady Slipper Orchid for three years now. When I bought it at Ballek's, it was blooming.  It hasn't bloomed since!  I took it out of the pot this past week.   When I separated the growing medium from the plant roots, I had three plants.  So I potted them up in three separate containers and will place them in three separate locations.  Which one will bloom?

 

This is similar to the original bloom. 

I found the photo and some tips for caring for it on this web site.

I also bought some orchid plant food!!!

 

Yes, It Is Still January!

 

The planters and the arrangements are covered with snow!

 

And my new orchid that is blooming is losing buds

as the house becomes cold overnight!

 

 

Yes, it is still January...

for all the hope we try to express

to the contrary!

 

January Jardiniere Arrangements

A new year, an old project--completed!  Before Christmas, Sara wanted to plant evergreens in her matching pots at the back door.  Weather and other holiday-related stuff -- and a full-time job as Mommy to a 10-month old -- got in the way of accomplishing that.  On a nice day in January, Sara created the arrangement on the right with cuttings from her yard.  Together we tried to replicate the design in the other planter on the left.

 

As the light was waning on a late winter afternoon, we hurried to complete the second arrangement with White pine, Scotch pine, cotoneaster and some maroon-leaved azalea cuttings.  Her azaleas won't be affected because they are mature and overgrown and abundant with blooms each year.

 

Nice job. Well done!

Something to enjoy the rest of winter...

 

 

November Snow Ends a Disappointing Garden Season

It's not really a day to sit on the garden bench and contemplate.  I did take a quick photo of the snow today which officially ended the garden season for me, at least.  It has been disappointing overall. The Knock-out Roses never performed well.  The groundhog in the spring kept the balloon flowers from growing, never mind blooming.  The Endless Summer hydrangea did put forth many large, blue globes of bloom until the hard frost.  The butterfly bush was filled with purple spikes through the early fall even though the butterflies were gone by October.  The azaleas turned a nice bronzy color, but the peony leaves just wilted away instead of turning bronze in the fall sun.
A couple weeks ago, I went out to cut the perennials back but the daylilies were still green--and still holding their sword-like leaves upright and verdant today, even covered in light snow.  I'll have to clip them again some day soon when the morning sun warms me and beckons me out to perform this final garden chore.
Perhaps next year, my garden will pop with red Knock-out roses, white balloon flowers and blue Nepeta on the Fourth of July. For now, I'll just need to celebrate patriotic Veteran's Day with the russets and browns of fall--and a few touches of green reminiscent of summer.

Late July Garden Inventory

The rainy, humid and hot weather has broken; the July full moon, called the Summer Moon, has passed.  I was able to get out into the garden last evening to clean out and take stock of what has gone past and what is still in its prime.  I took out three plastic bags of plant material including daisies, hollyhocks, daylilies, and the old-fashioned bleeding heart.  The daisies grew chest high this year but have passed their first and hardiest bloom.  The hollyhocks had gone to seed so I sprinkled the long stems and pods around the back of the garden after cutting them down and threw them over the fence for the birds to finish picking through for seed.  The daylilies look half way through their season as many stems still have buds but others are finished.  The bleeding heart goes yellow this time of year and can be cut back to the ground.

Here is a visual record of what I found this evening in the garden bed.

The Balloon flowers look great with regular deadheading.

They show a variety of stages of bloom per stem.

 

The stems of the Blazing Star or Liatris mimic the deck post which supports them,

their stems are not straight or strong, perhaps due to the rain.

 

 

I waited a long time, but I couldn't get this busy bee to look at me.

 

 

The frog rain gauge recorded 2 and a half inches this week, but it seemed like much more.

 

There were a variety of lilies for Lily to experience her namesake flower.

 

The Cleome or Spider Flower successfully self-seeded, but not the Cosmos in the same area.

Maybe the sparrows which feed on the ground there were too thorough this year?

 

The Black Eyed Susans or Rudbeckia are in their glory now.

 

As are the Kopper Kong hardy hibiscus!

 

The Sneezeweed or Helenium is just blooming.

It remind us that pollen season is ahead!

 

The direction vane was almost lost in the overgrowth of daisies, but

clearing out the area allowed the other flowers to show their high summer colors.

 

I haven't seen many butterflies on the Buddleia or Butterfly Bush this summer,

but my days in the garden have been few due to extreme heat and rain.

Maybe I'll catch some butterflies to photograph in August?

 

A few daisies, some Black Eyed Susans, and a hydrangea

make a bouquet in situ in the later afternoon sun.

The best kind of bouquet--no cutting, no vase, no arranging.

 

So the garden looks as fresh as the few daisies that are left

after a good "space clearing" in the late July flower beds.

 

With some good fortune--and weather,

the rain gauge frog could exchange his umbrella

for a yellow yarrow bloom

as August approaches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Bouquiet of the Season

 

After 3 official heat waves, 4 tornadoes in the past week, record rain in the past few weeks, and thousands of garden pests including bugs, bunnies, deer and a groundhog--

I finally had enough blooms to cut for a bouquet.

First of the 2013 gardening season!

Renewing the Front Bed for the 4th of July

It's hard to believe that it's been five years since we moved to South Hollow. The front walk plantings have struggled for years with construction debris and rocks prohibiting their growth, blizzards that caused all the snow of the driveway to be dumped upon the adjacent shrubs, and a lack of rain during drought (despite my waterings) and a surfeit of rain during the several hurricanes we have weathered.  The "final straw" was the landscaper taking a hedge trimmer to the small-leaved ivy that I have cared for when it was broken by piles of snow and ice and pruned carefully when it was actually growing to preserve a natural look.  When the landscaper was done with his trim, it looked like a topiary mushroom top--and I had endured enough. 

When my son visited recently, he dug it out--easily. It was still in its root ball after five years.  I bought a Gold Thread Cypress Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Filifera Aurea'--approved by the Landscape Committee as a shrub that will grow here.  We shall see.  Its advantages are a golden color all year and a soft, threadlike foliage texture.  I added some daylilies Hemerocallis 'Stella de Oro' which reflect the yellow and green of the cypress.

 

The Creeping Jenny Lysimachia nummularia 'Goldilocks' and the Euphorbia graminea 'Diamond Frost' in the planter mimic the color and texture of the cypress.  The Tango Pink Splash Bravo geraniums and the Diascia hybrid Flying Colors 'Trailing Antique Rose' add a splash of complementary color to the scene.  The 'Rhythm and Blues' petunias on the other side of the planter add contrast.  All in all, it's a much more pleasing welcome to the front porch.

 

On the front step another planter holds Fidelity Dark Red 'Samba' geraniums and a hummingbird whirligig which my granddaughter loves to touch. She also likes to watch the wind blow the American flag which has been there since Memorial Day, through Flag Day on June 14th, and now salutes the Fourth of July this week.