Creeping and the Beauty of Space

The beauty of space is that there are actually places, not that far from my house, that I never get to. The south side of our shop is one such place. It is out of the way, surrounded by bush and the graveyard of things slightly in need of repair but possibly useful in future has only grown since we arrived.

There is a cast-off rack there, that at one time held canoes and one time held wood. Now it sits and waits for a new use, surrounded by pallets and the odd bit of firewood.

Our place is full of Virginia Creeper. Both the dark green all the time variety and the more stunning fall turning variety. Sadly, all the fall turning variety was planted away from the house originally. I have spent years moving it in to catch views of it from the windows. I thought I knew where every patch was.

Imagine my surprise to find fall turning Virginia Creeper on the south side of the shop! Majestic and beautiful, doing just what it was designed to to - making that junk pile look awesome!

 

Just look at those purples!

All my new Iris

 

Remind me about this picture next spring. I will take pictures to post of them all in flower. It's hard to believe but there are more than 12 new varieties there! And enough of each that they should all show up.

Dahlia in October

dahlia 'Preference'

There isn't a whole lot blooming now in my garden but all of the dahlia are still going strong. In the afternoon sun, the bumble bees are sluggish and swarming over them. Every morning I look out to see if they've gotten frosted off yet. A couple of years ago, they lasted till Remembrance Day but I suspect it will be sooner this year.

Limelight!

 

I love lime leafed plants. Actually, blue leaves and variegated leaves are just as welcome in my garden but don't tell the lime plants that. They think they are special. And this year, they are.

When I had my late summer iris exchange, I picked up a couple of lime leafed beauties from a friend and these plants come with added benefits! The lime leafed Lamium is hopefully going to join the variegated leaf variety in my garden to become everything I ever wanted in a Lamium. I love Lamium. It has so many uses. However, the traditional dark green varieties that flower dark pink, light pink or white, multiply like weeds and are almost impossible to control. Definitely impossible to showcase! If this lime leafed variety can match its traditional cousin in duration and repeat flowering but manage to contain itself at the same time, it will be one of my new favourite groundcovers.

Then comes Columbine. How pretty are Columbine flowers? I am constantly on the hunt for Columbine in colours I do not yet have, always examining the flowers. Now I have a reason to examine the leaves! This little pretty inspired me to dig up and rearrange half of my lower boardwalk garden bed. With luck, it will all come back in the right place next year.

 

It only had to snow once and I am already thinking about spring :)

Fall has definitely arrived!

Today was cold. Not cold enough for the football fans to show up at the game, they are a hardy bunch! Too cold for me to be in the garden putting it to bed. So instead, I stayed inside, went through garden photos and thought of warmer days. Like this one where the garden dogs are lounging. Tuk is happy on snow or grass but I think Summer prefers grass any day!

 

Lots of Lily Blooming Now

 

Oriental White from Kelly, growing in the slide garden. This one is about 12 inches tall. lol.

 

Lily 'Madrid', my favourite lily in my garden and I have it in the nursery, in the drive garden and in the sun garden.

 

Lily 'Northern Dazzle', growing at the front lower level and in the back sun garden.

 

Lily, 'Northern Carillon', growing in the sun gardens and blooming for the first time. All the Northern series lilies were added just last year.

 

Lily 'Stargazer' has been growing in the bird sanctuary for a few years now. Still not sure how I feel about this one. It's pretty but it has a really strong lily scent and if the patch gets too big, I can't walk by it without wishing it was smaller.

 

Lily 'Northern Star', my favourite of the Northern series added last year. At least, it is my favourite so far... still waiting for Northern Sensation to open.

Sharing Iris

Nova and I had an iris exchange and LOOK what I got :)



Unknown Pale Blue (dwarf)

Boo (dwarf), originally from Hazel's Garden

Possibly... Stepping Out

 

Cherry Garden (dwarf)

Baby Blessed (dwarf)

Batik

Blue and White (check scent)

I can hardly wait until next year!

Sharing with Linda

When Linda and I first met, she did not garden. She lived in a high rise apartment with a balcony that did not lend itself to gardening and she traveled a lot. She was always sufficiently interested and polite when I tried to drag her through my garden but there was no connection to plants. Then Linda got a house. The house came with a yard. Suddenly, Linda was almost a more avid gardener than I was. And she learned fast!

The benefits for me were huge. Now my best friend is interested in my main hobby which opens up whole new topics of very long conversations! The excitement of suitcases full of dirt when we travel back and forth because what gardeners do not share plants?!

Here are some of the beauties that Linda has shared with me over the years and have managed to survive in my zone 3 garden.

Alpine Columbine, blooming in my bird sanctuary garden.

 

Lungwort blooming with the Alpine Columbine.

 

Linda's Mom's pinks, blooming in my sun circles. I have a lot of plants named Linda's...

 

Spiderwort, blooming in my slide sun garden. She also sent me 'Sweet Kate' but I was not able to help it survive the first winter. I have tried 'Sweet Kate' since and it did not come back the following year. I am not very good about protecting things. They either survive our winters on their own or they don't. I don't think 'Sweet Kate' likes -38!

 

 

 

Iris Sale

UPDATE: German Purple are SOLD OUT!!!

 

All the iris are done now. I am dividing three of my iris this year. If you would like any of the iris shown, please let me know at danielle@daleyprogress.com. Cost is $2/fan.

 

Iris, Blue and White (very fragrant!) 

 

Iris, Pale Yellow

 

Iris, German Purple (early blooming, blooms with tulips)

 

 

 

Groundcovers

Tricolour Sedum; summer blooming, slow spreading

 

Cerastium; spring blooming, summer re-blooming, fast spreading

 

Pinks; summer blooming, slow spreading

 

Dwarf Flax; summer blooming, fast spreading if left to self-seed

Beautiful Disaster

I think I hear an echo in here! Thought I'd show you just a little taste of what keeps me so busy that I don't post for weeks. This runs half way across the top end of our drive.

It is a mass of daisy, orange lily, weeds and the edge of a raspberry patch. I have whole sections of garden that look just like this. But if you look really hard, you will see a short, tangerine lily buried way in the back. See it?

That is the last of what used to be a huge patch of tangerine lily. It was originally here and when all the orange lily were moved out of here to allow the raspberry patch to extend, the rest disappeared. To top it off, the raspberry patch decided it would rather extend in a whole different direction, leaving weeds and more daisy in its wake. Nevermind all that bad news though, the great news is that I still have that lily. That lily is one of the many reasons why I don't get my husband to go through these 'should be empty' gardens and hack everything down with one piece of equipment or another.

Weeding Strategy

 

The flowers bloom even if you don't get around to the weeding. Just sayin'

My Monet

weigela 'My Monet'

After 6 years, I'm finally getting a beautiful show from My Monet. I bought this small weigela in 2007 with the intention of planting it my rock garden - appropriate since the size was listed as 12"x24". As I was trying to figure out where in the rock garden to plant it, I realized it wouldn't even be seen among all the round pebbles. It's leaves are mottled shades of cream, greyish green with a little pink and would blend right in. We ended up planting it with some bigger rocks as part of a small retaining wall in the front garden. This year it's full of blooms and grown to about 24"x36".

Columbine

I even love the way it sounds... Alpine Columbine. Columbine are one of my favourite plants which is a real feat considering almost all of my other favourites are bulbs or rhisomes. I think Columbine sits alone as the only perennial on that list. I kind of collect Columbine. From the double red that I shared with Linda and then promptly lost in my garden to my first, and still stunning yellow and purple. My second addition was a pretty yellow that I immediately planted right beside the first. They remain side-by-side today. When we first moved here, I found this pretty, little pink and last year I added a black that has come up but not yet bloomed this year. The Alpine came from Linda's garden and they are similar in height to the pink but have a larger flower. So far, I have two of them and Linda tells me I should expect a lot more. She made it sound ominous but I think that's all good news!

 

 

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.

Just mowed!

 

We had a running lawn mower that didn't need any obsolete parts we couldn't find - and no rain. Look at the result! The back is all finished. From the top of the drive to the secret garden is all done. Miles rocked the mower. The dogs are enjoying it as much as we are and it looks like rain might be moving in overnight. That should green it all up :)

Saskatchewan Lady Slipper

 

Linda's Lady Slipper were blooming quite a bit before mine but mine have showed up now and what a show! Mine look more like a slipper and less like a lung. I love the little burgundy twisty laces. Of course, if I could figure a way to get Linda's growing here, I would have them both!

The Maid of Orange

This iris is Maid of Orange, and what a pretty maid she is with that bright orange beard. She sits beside my Mandarin Orange azalea. The plan is to have purple blooming here with them next year.

Shared Iris

Iris come in such different colours and forms - I love their variety! These two iris both came from Danielle's garden in Saskatchewan. The last time she came to visit, far too long ago, she brought a suitcase full of plants with her!

Bloomin' Trees and Shrubs

 

The Hawthorn and the Lilac were both blooming last week. I noticed this morning that the Hawthorn was done but it put on the prettiest show this year of the two.

 

 

All of my Lilac need more sun. Every year, I think about it and find more pressing issues. One of these years, I will actually do something about it. Until then, I enjoy the Lilac blooms that do show up.

 

The Ridge

Take a few minutes walk through the woods at the back of our house and you'll arrive at the top of a hill overlooking an old quarry. Kelly started his own quarry - that man never seems to have enough dirt... or rocks. Last year he started constructing this garden. It's not complete (he has to quarry some more dirt) but it is filling up nicely. There's lilies in here and the lily beetles haven't found them yet.

New Growth

dwarf hemlock 'Jervis'

We went on a collecting spree during the summer of 2007 and bought several dwarf trees for the front rock garden. That makes it almost 6 years in our garden and this hemlock has grown, maybe, 6 inches in height. Now that it's established, perhaps we'll see it take off and grow a couple of inches this year. It's one of my favourites and is planted in the rock garden right beside the steps in the front walk.