Pincushion Flower in Red

This Knautia was here when we moved in. The pincushion flowers are lovely and the first flush is gorgeous, reaching its peak when the plant itself is a compact little mound. But that is the best of it and athough it probably last longer than I would admit, it is very short-lived when compared to the rest of the gardening season when I have to deal with a plant that is a complete disaster.

It is weedy and can get really leggy. It can be cut back and will produce a second flush but it is pitiful to see. By fall, it will be flat and sprawling. To top that all off, it self-seeds voraciously and the seedlings are splayed out and squat.

It is resilient. I will give it that. It will grow anywhere and stretch to reach the sun. In the nursery, it blooms as high as the delphinium. Of course, if I ever weeded the nursery, all thse blooms would come tumbling down!

I've yet to find the permanent spot where I can tolerate it but I keep moving it every year, still looking. This means that I now have Knautia everywhere .

Backyard Views

The back yard has gone through the most changes since we first arrived here. The day we moved in, the middle section was a big, dead circle that had been sprayed with roundup to create a turn around for the school bus. A turnaround that the school bus could not get to through the bush.

It then became a much larger garden than it is today. We built the firepit and my intent was to build a quarter moon shaped garden around the edge of the middle section. That was almost complete when we thought we were going to move. The real estate agent thought the garden might be too big so it was dug out until there was just a small border garden along the parking area of the drive.

Now, I just plant as I go, I have no plan and there is no vision of what the whole thing looks like when it is done. I am finding this approach much more fun. It always seems like that garden is incomplete because there is no real start or finish but that doesn't seem to matter to me anymore. Nor does the pallet of brick that I have been meaning to move for 2 years now :)

Daylily begins...

'Stella D'Oro' was my first experience with daylily and I have to say... she didn't make me fall in love. In fact, for a long time, it was her fault that I didn't like daylily. Then Linda introduced me to 'Frans Hals' and the love story began. What a guy, he was slendor and elegant with dark, rich colours. Everything 'Stella' wasn't. She is short, squat and that particular shade of whatever its called that isn't really orange and isn't really yellow. Over the years though, 'Stella' has really grown on me.

She is reliable, long blooming and her odd colour compliments either yellow or orange and works with purple, white and - even more oddly - several shades of red. Another of her advantages is that she sits shorter than all of my other daylily so she works really well on the edge of a border. Today, I would recommend 'Stella' as a wonderful addition to any garden.

From Linda's Garden

This is the phlox that I still have left in my garden from Linda's garden. Somehow, I planted it with the only other two white blooming plants in the sun gardens. Cerastium is in front of it and baby's breath is beside it. The phlox is not as hardy as the others so I am going move them, or at least one of them. Although there is only one stalk...

...it is full of flowers! 'David', right?

Rose, 'J.P. Connell'

This 'J.P. Connell' rose was a gift from Judy and is my first yellow rose. It came to me in a bag and I transplanted it to a pot while I got its' permanent spot ready. I was told it was a climbing rose so I planned to put it on the second trellis next to the 'John Davis' pink climbing rose. It is very fragrant and I thought the pink and yellow would look pretty together off the front deck. However, looking it up this evening, I discovered it is an explorer shrub rose. It will not have room to grow between the trellis and the deck. This means I need to find a place for the 'J.P. Connell' and decide which of the climbing roses will climb the second front trellis. All the climbing roses I have are in shades of pink. I think I may still have an unplanted 'John Davis'. I could plant them together, one on each trellis. I'll have to give that a think.

First Sign of Fall

Our first sign of fall has shown up in the garden. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is in full bud. Won't be long now before we will be watching the forecast for frost warnings overnight. I heard today that we are supposed to have a dry, warm September. That would be nice.

Late Lupin

I love so many things about Lupin. The way their umbrella leaves fill the space in my garden. The bottom up opening of the flower petals. The colour change the flowers go through from opening to seed. My favourite characteristic of Lupin has to be the way one or two will pop up at the end of the season just when I think they are finished. Two seasons ago, a friend brought me a small tray of unlabelled Lupin she rescued from a compost heap. She thought one might be yellow and one might be purple. All my Lupin to that point were varying shades of pink. This is the first of her gifts to bloom. It looks white but I think I can see a hint of yellow there. I hope it has enough time to go to seed before frost. Lupin are slow to get to the dry seed stage. Probably their only flaw.

Patience Rewarded

Isn't she pretty? Three years ago, I planted 6 bareroot poppy. Three were 'Royal Chocolate Distinction' and three were 'Miss. Piggy'. They were planted together and I am sure would have looked awesome blooming side by side. It was the last year that I planted bareroot plants because even as I dug and buried, I had very little hope I would see plants. They were really such pathetic little things, as were the coneflower roots that I planted the same year. In all, I planted 15 bareroot plants that year and I have yet to see any of them with this single exception. She popped up out of nowhere this year and I immediately cleared everything away from around her in an effort to save her. Although I would say she was well worth the wait, I am still not planting anything bareroot. It was a long wait. My next thought, of course, is that I hope her seed is not sterile...look for the update next season.

Coincidence Gone Right

Sometimes Linda and I think the same. This red daylily came from her garden, a division I brought home last year. I had thought I brought one red daylily from her garden but as it turned out, there were two varieties that were red. Since I thought I only had one variety that was red, I expected this to be 'Stella D'Oro'. I planted it with my other 'Stella D'Oro' in a patch. My first stroke of luck was that I planted the two of these at the back of the patch since they are taller than 'Stella D'Oro'. My second stroke of luck was that the golden yellow in this variety matches the 'Stella D'Oro' quite nicely. Apparently Linda thought so too because a few days ago I noticed that one shoot coming from the middle of this plant clump was, in fact, a 'Stella D'Oro'. When I mentioned to Linda that I have no idea how one got in the middle of the other she told me that she knew how... they are planted together in her garden too! I must have gotten a bonus root piece.

Deadheading

Normally, I am quite good about deadheading... honestly. Even in this year of mayhem for my garden, I have managed to keep most things deadheaded. Of course, the reward is more flowers and a longer blooming season. I missed shearing down this patch of pinks when the first flush was done. As you can see, I still got a second flush of flowers but look at all those seedheads. The reward for not deadheading is more plants next year. Funny thing is, I can see myself standing in this very spot next year asking myself where all the pinks came from!

Roses!

As much as I hate to see the iris end, it means the roses have started! The 'Therese Bugnet' is the earliest of my roses and started with the iris but 'William Baffin' (above) had its' first open bloom yesterday. Today it is full. 'John Cabot' and Marilyn's rose opened along with it. All the others are in full bud and I expect to see more varieties open over the next few days. There are several reasons I love roses. The scent, the colours, the abundant blooms and the fact that they will flower now right through until fall. What more could you ask of a flowering shrub?

A Pair

Every so often a plant pair in my garden turns out to look exactly as I had planned it to look. My 'Therese Bugnet' roses and Siberian Iris are a perfect example of this today. I had to wait three years for this show. This is the first year the iris patch was big enough to have this impact against the three rose bushes. It was worth the wait and I couldn't be happier with the result. They provide a spectacular view out my dining room window that I appreciate several times a day.

I fell in love with the Siberian Iris in the neighbours garden and planted it before I even knew what it was. The buds made me think of bird of paradise and it buds for a long period to enjoy. Then when the blooms opened to be a totally different colour than the buds, I was immediately smitten. I still am.

Another Collarette - Dahlia 'April Heather'

'April Heather' is an apricot-pink collarette with a pale yellow collar. She is very dainty and quite pretty in the garden. The plant grows to 4' with 4" flowers. Due to the late planting, she did not put a big display on for me this year. We have frost forecast for tonight in my garden so this will likely be the only shot I get of her single bloom. All of the many buds remaining will wither on the stalks with frost. Next year, I will be planting her in the new front bed, much closer to the house.