Garden: I Gave in to Temptation

I gave in to temptation and bought plants for my front garden bed.  I chose an annual Pennisetum setaceum rubrum to fill-in for the Miscanthus that I'd planned to add.  And I sprinkled some annual Salvia, "Snow Nymph", throughout. 

Front Bed corner grouping.

See--I AM Veruca, after all!

Garden: Just Call Me Veruca

I think this must be the time of year when it is MOST frustrating for me to be a gardener.  On one hand, I love looking for new seedlings...seeing the burst of fresh, new growth...appreciating the plants that have returned or increased...seeking out first blooms, like these on the columbine.  

Columbines with sword fern and alpine strawberries.

On the other hand, my patience is used up already.  No longer is the approach of fall or dead of winter an excuse for visual shortcomings of the garden as a whole.  Things have been growing for a while now.  I begin to fret about the overall effect.  I don't want to see bare earth or big gaps where lazy giants (like Joe Pye) still sleep.  Nope. I want to see a complete, balanced composition like the one I have been nurturing in my imagination since last summer.  

If I were feeling rational about it, I guess I would come to terms with the fact that this is the time of year when the garden has growing pains--teenage gawkiness.  Knobby knees.  Cracking voice.  But I am NOT feeling rational about it--I have a tremendous urge to salve my (visual) discomfort by buying a lot of plants to fill it up NOW.  I did last year. By this time last year, I'd probably made frantic phone calls to a dozen small vendors who advertised plants that I wanted.  I'd driven to every promising nursery within 100 miles.  I'd placed numerous online plant orders.  And I'd loaded up on annual fillers.  Inevitably, plants played musical chairs for a while as growth happened and many of the extras that I'd bought were eventually relocated to the green waste bin.  

I'm trying to do better this year.  I haven't really changed the garden since the big shake-up last Spring.  I know the number of annual salvias and "Diamond Frost" Euphorbias it took to soften the edges and to fill in the gaps. I'm trying to do the mature thing by waiting until the time is right to buy (with restraint) from this list.  It's hard, though.  Frustrating! Just call me Veruca.

But anyway, do you want to see what is going on at present?

Generally speaking, the back garden is looking fuller than the front.  Woodland-y plants dominate in the shady and moist-to-swampy back garden.  I call this the Arbor Bed and it features Astilbes, Hakonechloa, Darmera peltata, Persicaria polymorpha, Alchemilla, and Eupatorium cannabinum.  Around the back of this planting are some Brunnera macrophylla--I've been appreciating their blooms for a while, now.  Although I'm awaiting a lot of growth, I feel OK about this bed because the major players are all present and the ground is mostly covered up.  

"Arbor Bed"

Even further 'round back, the Enkianthus is blooming.  I haven't seen any hummingbirds visiting it, but a lone bee did crawl inside one of the bells while I was taking photos.

Enkianthus

A couple of Jack-in-the-Pulpits are planted around the base of the enkianthus.  I think they are sited oddly--what was I thinking?--but maybe they will look more integrated once the shrubby things have grown up around them.  Or maybe I should move them just down the way where they will be neighbors with the hostas and Asarum europaeum.

Arisaema

I just planted this deutzia in the backyard planter.  As it matures, I hope it will sprawl under the nearby shrubs and drape over the planter wall.  Such a beautiful and refined plant!  I just love the sprays of unopened flower buds--like strings of beads.

Deutzia gracilis "nikko"

Out front, the first iris is blooming.  This one must have been mislabeled or maybe it was a freebie, but I know I never ordered it on purpose.  Wouldn't you know--it's the most vigorous one. Soon, the blooms of this iris will be joined by those of "Cantina" (purple with a brown sheen) and the all-brown "Gingersnap".

Unknown iris

The iris share the same bed as the geum and the Ajuga genevensis--this has been an effective pairing and has been full-looking and blooming well for weeks.  Just behind them, though--gaps.  Bare soil.  I'm waiting for some baby grasses and myrrhis grow up and claim their real estate.

Ajuga and geum--starting to get a little tired, but still looking good following weeks of bloom.

And here's a photo in which I tried to capture both the first bud on the astrantia and the blooms of the Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata).  The Sweet Cicely is going to seed already.  I dead-headed a little bit.  I don't know if that will actually help to prolong the blooms on this plant.

Sweet Cicely and astrantia bud

But now...the real trouble spot--the front bed.  I held the camera at about waist height, so it a appears a bit fuller than it is.  In the foreground, the main players are: Amsonia "Blue Ice", Pennisetum "Hameln", and Sedum "Autumn Joy".  Sprinkled around are: Lobelia siphilitica, Centranthus ruber "alba", and seedlings of Ammi visnaga "Green Mist".  In the back are big gaps for the sleeping Joe Pye, the juvenile Hydrangea "Quick Fire", and a yet-to-be-acquired Miscanthus "Adagio".  I actually wrote the name of the miscanthus on a stone and placed it in the center of the spot where I will be planting it--trying to keep its virtues in mind and to prevent myself from giving away its spot to any of the other bright ideas I've had.

Disappointing front bed

Thinking about it rationally, I know that I will eventually find a M. Adagio to go in the empty spot that I am holding for it, and I know that the baby hydrangea will bulk up in the next season or two.  There's nothing to be done for the Joe Pye, though.  It doesn't make a presence until June, at least.  But I want the bed to look fuller and I want the ground to be covered up.  NOW.  

I'm taking suggestions for ground covers that might work here.  The successful candidate will be unfussy, short (<6"), will allow perennials to grow through, and won't smother the foliage on my Digitalis parviflora.  I've got Galium odorata in the same area and I'm thinking of adding more of that.  Or, maybe, some more of the Ajuga genevensis that I have on the other side of the entry walkway.  Alison, of Bonney Lassie, visited a while ago and she suggested using a saxifrage.  I'm not sure which species she had in mind, but Saxifraga stolonifera looks like a good option.

Image Source:  Wikimedia commons

Or, maybe it will be something early emerging and truly ephemeral that I can yank out at the first sign of die-back.  

Ideas?  

Garden: Small Joys of Spring

Hey, look--aren't they cute?  Well, I think they are cute.  These are Digitalis parviflora seedlings.  You can see how a couple of the seed pods broke open and spilled out dozens (if not hundreds) of individual seeds. 

The pods themselves are small, only about 3/16 of an inch in diameter, and the seeds they contain are practically dust-like.  The seedlings are correspondingly tiny.  And cute.  

Last fall, I wanted to encourage this plant to reseed so I did a variety of things: I squished open some seed pods and loosed the tiny seeds inside, I separated the pods from the flower stalk and scattered seed pods around the garden, and I chopped the stalk (seed pods attached) into one-inch lengths and chucked those pieces around the garden.  I think all the methods worked.  The method that worked best, I think, was scattering the seed pods that I'd separated from the stalk.  The resulting hillocks of new seedlings are easy to see and to identify--an important factor in my garden.  It looks like squishing open the pods and scattering the tiny seeds also worked well--there is a green haze of tiny little seedlings covering the entire area where I broadcasted the seed--but if I can't identify them before it is time to weed, these seedlings may not survive.  So, for good germination AND ease of identification, broadcasting seedpods is the winner.  

Garden: Ajuga and Geum

Hey look--they DID get their act together!

Geum rivale "Flames of Passion".  Do I spy some tiny, wee, green aphids?  I better go check.  Photography does enhance observation of the garden.

I planted this intermingling of Geum rivale "Flames of Passion" and Ajuga genevensis (blue) hoping that they would bloom together--and they did!

This planting forms the ground cover under some trees and shrubs including fothergilla, ribes (winter-flowering currant), and vine maple.  I also planted various grasses (hakonechloa and northern sea oats) and Sweet Cicely to fill-out the planting.

Garden: It's What's "Springing-Up" in My Garden Today

Well, we've had a couple of nice days in a row and many plants have decided that it is spring.  Let's see what's happening out there…

First up, we have buds on the Geum "Flames of Passion".  Given a couple more sunny days, these might be in full flower.  

Geum "Flames of Passion"

I planted the geum in the middle of a sea of Ajuga genevensis (with the blue flowers) hoping that they'd bloom together.  I don't know…do you think it'll happen?

Ajuga genevensis (blue)

Elsewhere in the front garden, the daffodils have been blooming for a week or so.  These are "Tete a Tete".  I prefer them because they are miniature (about 8 inches tall) and the dying foliage is easily hidden by emerging perennials.  They also fare well in heavy rains that often cause the bigger-flowered varieties to wind-up face down in the dirt.   This little one has some splashed-up mud on its face.

Tete a Tete daffodil

More Tete a Tetes

A little patch of cyclamens, planted in the back yard under the eaves of the house, still looks nice.  This is a mixed planting of coum and hederifolium--for both spring and fall bloom.  I have had no trouble in getting these to naturalize in my garden so I have high hopes for these baby plants.

Cyclamen coum

Akebia trifoliata is also blooming--if you can call it that!  These blooms define "subtle."  That almost-open, chocolate-mauve bloom is the size of a baby aspirin.  Sure, they come in a raceme, but that whole grouping is less than a couple of inches long.**  Oops--did I write "less than a couple of inches long"?  I meant to write "barely over an inch long."

Akebia trifoliata

Several types of seedlings have appeared.  These are astrantias.  Many thanks to Scott for picturing these babies on his blog a while back--if he hadn't, I'd have no idea what they are.

Astrantia seedlings

Astrantia mother plant--also emerging

The sweet cicely seedlings (sowed in place last fall) are putting out their first true leaves.

Sweet cicely (Myrrhis odorata) seedling

And the sweet cicely that I planted last fall as roots are growing, too.  They are not known for transplanting well because they grow a large tap root but, honestly, these really weren't troubled at all by the move.  We'll have to wait and see how big they become this year.  

Sweet cicely grown from transplanted root

Now, here's a surprise--I didn't expect this Adenophora to come back.  I planted several plants from small pots last year and they just weren't as vigorous as I'd expected.  Nonetheless, all three are back and bigger than last year.  Incidentally, I followed the advice of Rob (who blogs at Rob's Plants) and dissected the flowers.  This led me to discover that Adenophora Tashiroi is actually a campanula.  Not that it matters (except in principle) as the main issue with campanulas is their potential thug-ish-ness and this variety doesn't seem all that vigorous.  Rob's tutorial is posted here.

Adenophora (should be Campanula) Tashiroi

However, I tend to like "vigorous" plants.  I would much rather shovel-prune and divide a bully than coddle a diva.  I may yet live to regret those words--two of my more brutish plants promise to do really well this year.

First up is the Gallium odorata (sweet woodruff.)  I planted it to fill in around the base of some shrubs and bigger perennials in the back of the front garden bed.  It's doing that and more.  Each plant sent out sprouts 18" or more in all directions--a 4" pot yielded a 36" diameter patch in one year. That's something to keep an eye on.

Sweet woodruff looks innocent, doesn't it?  All the green in the background is more sweet woodruff.

And one of my favorite plants is Lysimachia clethroides (goose-neck lysimachia).  I grew it before and it wasn't invasive at all--just healthy.  Maybe I sited it better this time around.  It looks like it's going to to need some shovel pruning.

Lysimachia clethroides

See all those red nubs?  Yup, that's the lysimachia--and this isn't so close to the original plant, either.  But how can you resist the blooms?  An established patch is so beautiful.  It blooms for a pretty long time, and the foliage looks good all season long.

Lysimachia in bloom

Here's a potential maintenance headache that I just planted--Rhus typhina "Laciniata" (Cut-leaf Sumac).  I know that it suckers heavily, but I hope I can keep on top of this trait by watching and snipping.

Rhus typhina--just planted

And, a couple more pictures of new growth…. The alchemilla is doing what alchemillas do.  I didn't cut them back super-cleanly last fall--just chopped and dropped--and it shows in this picture.

Alchemilla

And the brunneras (these are the all green variety--plain old Brunnera macrophylla, I think) are vigorously pushing up new growth and and making sprays of their small, blue flowers.

Brunnera

So.  That's what's going on in my garden.  What's happening in yours?