Working combos

And this combo pic is horrid (I am still taking most of my pics in very low light in May unless it is on the weekend, so most are pretty blury) but it was a wonderful surprise in one of my outlying areas. Ajuga reptans and forget-me-nots. Will NOT be planted anywhere in my main gardens as it would take over in a heartbeat, but I have areas at the edges of my world that I have tossed a lot of my invasive stuff to fight off the buttercups and blackberries. This was a wonderful surprise result along my gully last spring.

Rarejem -- lovely pics. The first makes me actually feel the heat of the sun, the second is soothing, and I like the blue on blue combo of the last one. May poach that for an area under a honeysuckle where I already have ajuga started (with room to roam). I'll just move some of my volunteer forget-me-nots and let them intermingle as they like.

Bonehead, The blue is just a wonderful combo and I would highly recommend it. I had planted the ajuga to control erosion and buttercup on a wild edge of my yard. I also have forget-me-nots everywhere, and I am constantly pulling them out of the gardens, but just don't have the heart to compost because I really love the wave of blue in the spring, so I find myself tossing them here and there around the edges of the garden where they can run rampant without crowding things. Pretty combo by pure luck!

Holy cow, that red & orange bed is a knockout. That one I might actually try to replicate. (Duplicate? Are they synonyms?)

a combination in 2 parts: Rose 'What a Peach' with an orange tiger lily...

with Meconopsis spicatum, not captured in the previous shot:

Julie your orange combo is incredible!

Everything is simply ravishing. peach and orange, dark and light blue, green and gold, red, orange, pink and yellow, burgundy, lime green and dark purple......all the colors are a boost out of the winter doldrums.

another shot of red:

Julie - the red grass is Imperata, aka Japanese Blood grass.
It spreads (stoloniferous) but slowly, very slowly. Easy to redirect or eradicate, grows in a variety of locations.
Ribbon grass is horrendous: i avoid grasses that want to rule the world.
Some of my faves are the panicums, Carex & this one, Molinia caerulea 'Strahlenquelle':

Tell me more about these grasses that want to rule the world. I would like to introduce some to my lower pond area in an attempt to comingle natives and exotics (as it were).

another young area i am anxious to see fill in:

Bonehead - go for the Ribbon Grass. It's quite pretty, but a MAJOR spreader.

Katye, you have such amazing pictures. I was afraid to plant the Japanese blood grass because I had heard that it is stoloniferous. It is good to hear that it is not extremely aggressive. Maybe I will give it a try somewhere.

Holly - Imperata is so easy to deal with, if you want to move it, or reduce its size.
I'm going to be moving some to this area to replace the Hakenochloa (a red one) that my dogs feel they must eat. All the hake's are going into uber-protected areas.

I think I'm going to look for some dk red tulips for this combo, too. Even though I look forward to the Heucheras leafing out, this is in need of more colour.

bonehead, I have some ribbon grass that you can have, if it's what I think it is (anyone know the Latin name?). It's about a foot high & white striped. It is in a shaded bed covered with vinca & appears to be quite well behaved there, given that it still remains 3 clumps rather than a half-acre of nonsense.

Hel. Loraine Sunshine - this is an exceptional plant, and kicks out a floral display for a long time. The variegated leaves have an "iced" effect on any hot colours you put with it.
I will be looking for more of this - only negative is that it flops when rained upon. Hard to find good-looking short supports. wish i knew how to weld - I could have loads of fun.

Phalaris (predominance of white in the striping) - loves moist areas, but will grow in drier ones. If your soil is rich & loamy, RG will rule. Bigtime.
Others have told me that it was well-behaved, for a while - sort of like Ajuga.
I would consider growing it in a container, like the mints!

well....here's a lot of Cupheas. Another fun Z9 sub-shrub; great for containers. Lots of colours & they have little ears.

OK, yeah, that's what I have.

Going through my massive seed collection in front of the fireplace right now. So much of it is obsolete now. I used to need to "dress up" ugly property lines & driveway edges & whatnot, but now what am I going to do with 1,000 packets of alyssum & sweetpeas & marigolds & calendulas? This place is SO about the perennials.

Summerkid, that would be wonderful. We always ran cows on our property but have been bovine-free for a couple years now, and it is opening up HUGE new vistas for me. I'm trying to gently tame my woodland areas, introduce selected ornamentals into the native areas, and invite natives into my yard. Change is good.

Plant them - scatter the seed & let it come up where it does best. Perennials are just part of the show - annuals are incredible fillers that flower over a longer period here, due to the cooler temps. Sweetpeas - well, I grow as many as possible every year. Calendulas & marigolds do exceptionally well here & look fantastic planted en masse, if you've got the space.
I'm not a big alyssum fan, but everytime I've see it grown, it performs on & on & on.
But - I'm into shrubs, so i view the whole scheme differently. Let me grow something I can sit under!

My son has been taking an iron-working class in high school. The thought crossed my mind that he could make custom plant supports. Tell me your ideas, with measurements, and I'll see what he can do next trimester when he has the class again (if the teacher lets them do their own thing). The first tri he took the class, he had to make the stock beginner projects, and I am now the proud owner of a set of fireplace tools though I have no fireplace.

Holly - In my search for really fun functional garden art, a la "supports", I have close to 100 ideas. It's frustrating for me - I love 3 dimensional art; it's where i thrive.
That being said, I'm sure you've seen some pretty cool tuteurs, or obelisks. Generally, they run about 5 - 7' tall, which is too short for many vines. I've wished someone would make an obelisk that is 2-3' wide & tall. Think: Peony support. If it looked good without any plant adorning it, it could be left in place all year, and contribute to the "bones".
You must understand though, I was terribly influenced by Alice in W'land & throught the Looking Glass. I want a giant wire Pumpkin (8') that I could grow clematis on. you could walk through it or have a sit on the bench underneath it all.
I'll stop now - I can see all this in my head, but no one else can!

adding: 2-3'wide & 2' tall. Support for those perennials known for floppiness.

This message was edited Feb 5, 2010 10:58 PM

As soon as the ribbon grass pokes itself up, it will be on the move to bonehead.

So many of my annuals seem as if they would succumb to mildew or rot out here.

I didn't realize you were thinking of so complicated a support (8 foot pumpkin!), I was thinking he could make you something short and simple if they let him veer from the trodden path of set projects. It won't hurt to ask, and find out what is possible. He won't be in that class again until Spring though.

I like these cages: (look on the projects tab) http://www.oh-growup.com/

I will have to try the Jap. bloodgrass this year, it is just beautiful!

Bonehead, if Summer can't hook you up with ribbon grass, I definitey can. I have it planted in a wet garden, and although I love it's look, it is a nightmare to control there, and it would take over the garden in a heartbeat if I let it. I have planted it (rather tossed it) into some areas that I need erosion control, and then kept it in check there with a mower or weedeater. I swear it had almost turned me away from grasses for good just because it was so agressive.

Katye, Don is a marvel with metalcraft, and if you have a specific idea in mind and a way to transport it, he can make almost anything. He would get a kick out of making a giant pumpkin, but I can see it being hard to get from here to there..... Unfortunately, most of his tools are too large to transport "on location". If you had a design though... and were willing to buy the materials necessary... I bet I could sweet talk him into the labor to put it together. Something to think about....

Kayte, can you list the plants in the most recent above 'red garden' photo? Two years ago we began putting in what I call the 'wine garden' and those plants would look great in there!

Holly, I am laughing - thanks for the a.m. chuckle.
The giant pumpkin is one that would have to be made on site, & it will remain a figment of my imagination, unless i learn to weld. I can, however, take some pictures of the obelisks I have - they are too tall for the typical perennial supports, & too short for the Clems. I was thinking i could cut them off at the knees (oh my! - gangsta move!). My brain is in a continual state of design & although it is agravating, it does provide fun for my grey matter...what's left of it.
Julie - I will eventually put some of my ideas to paper. I am ALWAYS looking for vertical supports that truly work for their intended purpose. Don would probably be happier to make them for you, but if it is lucrative for him, I would insist on labour & materials. Same for your son, Holly.
We'll talk more.
Gwen, I'll take a peek at the pic & post the names. Nothing is rare, but if you are doing Wine, you simply must get yourself a wonderful little maroon-stemmed Drimys (shrub-borderline Z8) and Scabiosa Ace of Spades.
back in a bit.

Katye, with your raft of creative ideas, Don would probably be the better bet with his far greater skill and experience. When I heard you needed welding my brain just jumped at the possibility for the kid to do something useful for somebody in that class. The teacher is new this year and was somewhat overwhelmed and lacking in a long term plan. He had the kids churn out numerous fireplace shovels. But maybe he can come up with something on the simpler side of plant support....

Susy, that site had some very interesting and artistic ideas.

Maury, I had my son weld me a very simple 3-legged stand in his HS class. This may be a good project for him. I initially thought I'd put a bird bath in it, but as it turned out a gazing ball fit perfectly. It could also be done in a smaller scale as a pretty plant support.

I LOVE that support!!!

That is REALLY nice.

Thank you - I will pass on your compliments to my son. It was nice when it was pure black, but I also like it rusted. One could go either way, by either treating it or not for weather. Wish he had access to welding stuff to make me some more...

That really looks good, bonehead. What a lovely gift. I'm going to introduce both the obelisk and the spiral plant support ideas to the teacher of the iron-working class. They could team up with the horticulture class and do a great display of their projects.

Bonehead, that is a lovely stand!

Holly, I agree that introducing something similar to that into a metal working class is a wonderful idea! It would be nice to have a couple of choices for projects for the kids so that when they take the end result home, it is something that they know will be used. I still wish my woodworking teacher would have let us make napkin holders like my brother's class got to rather than the funky "cat with a box for a body" that we had to make. Still have the cat.... somewhere.... but brother's napkin holder is still in use in Mom's kitchen.

I consider myself really lucky that I have a DH who can (and happily will) make anything out of metal that I would like. He spent years structurally rebuilding automobiles, so has all of the tools and skills needed to fabricate anything. One of the things that I am really looking forward to, hopefully within the next couple of years- but the way things go it may have to wait until I can eventually retire- is having him teach me to run a plasma cutter and weld. I have so many ideas for things that I would like to make for my garden......

Julie, I can show you how to work a plasma cutter. Not much to know. All you need to remember is that a plasma cutter, once turned on, cuts a swath through anything in its path.

(Welding is one of my specialties. Such a surprise -- it's dangerous AND requires lots of power tools.)

Summer, thanks for the offer! I have acutally used our plasma cutter several times (under heavy supervision as it is in DH's shop!) but only for projects that he and I are working on, and only with his direction. I have a large sheet of steel with fairies already stenciled on that I want to cut out as "shadow fairies" for my garden, and he keeps telling me that I need to wait until his shop is emptier to do it "just so I don't hurt anything". I have been waiting for two years now, and the shop doesn't seem to get any emptier! I envy you being skilled at welding. I have so many ideas rolling around in my brain for garden art, and that is the only thing stopping me from creating them (well, to be fair, that and the time to actually fiddle with it!). We have all the necessar equip. (he even has a tig welder for aluminum, but that will be many moons off for me!) it is just both of us having the time and energy at the same time for lessons!

Julie, do you have a community college nearby? That's how I learned. That way you get all the underlying information, like chemical composition, rather than just one person's way of doing things.