I wish we could grow lupins hear but the weather is just too hot. I have three iris blooming now. Here's one.
Clematis chat continued
How lovely those photos were, Pirl! And Time, I would love to have an iris blooming right now. I cannot grow lupines, but it's not the temp....think it's my soil....and alliums are very short lived here also....
Lovely iris, John.
Thanks, Marilyn. Lupines do not want soggy soil and do want sunshine. Here they bloom in late May before the real heat of summer arrives. The alliums I tried in a big pot all died without ever having bloomed.
That's what happened to my calla lily this summer......
Those lupins are so beautiful
I can't grow calla lilies at all. Not in a pot and not in the ground. They did do fine in my wedding bouquet.
Thanks, John. They spring up from the earth in April and I collected 159 of them this past April and actually planted them all. I'll never again drive myself that crazy trying to find places for them.
Robin - did you check your calla lily bulbs to see what had happened to them?
Aren't we all the same? I planted out 300 plus bienniels and 200 plus bulbs this fall and still have these left overs. In the mean time something is eating the pansies johnny jump ups and english daisys. I can't quite figure it out . No slime tracks and not t ypical of squirrels or rabbits.
John - you do have your hands full! Are the leaves chewed or do they have holes? What is the damage?
Great pictures. The only lupines here are the bluebonnets...nice but not too tall. Like the way you are thinking about coordinating the Henrii and burgundy iris. I am still at the stage of having blooms and keeping what I have alive.
Thanks. The fields of bluebonnets are so lovely.
Henryi has been in place since '94 and I matched the iris (from a DG friend) to the center of the clematis. Here the clem is shown behind the trellis but this year it refused to bloom due to our very cool and long spring. The iris buds can be spotted at the lower right in this shot.
One of my Omoshiro i got this spring is blooming now. Should I cut it back once this bloom is gone?
Ouch! That's hard. I'd check to see if there are more blooms and enjoy whatever is there, then cut it back. No photo???
My Henrii did nothing this year too. Some of these clems are fussy. Atleast they are a bonus when they bloom and don't leave too much of an empty spot if they don't.
Hurray for you Marie!
True. The small footprint many clem's take does make it easier to take when they don't bloom.
Our montana Grandiflora bloomed beautifully this year as did a brand new Pauline but neither are the class 2 pruning category with the larger blooms so that makes me wonder about more spring warmth being needed for the class 2's to bloom profusely. Jackmanii also bloomed beautifully and it's a class 3 so it's just the 2's that failed us in the northeast this year.
If anyone in the northeast has had the class 2's bloom well this year I'd love to hear about it and see some photos.
My type 2's on the whole, did not do as well as my type 1's and 3's. The type 2's that did the best, were the ones that grow in the shade.
These clems are Guillian Blades and Minister
Thanks, Carolyn. Love your photo and the spring bounty of plants there.
My guess is that type 2 is the fussiest of all clematis.
Carolyn, my cala is still buried in the pot....in the garage right now....it had leaves, no flowers....couldn't be lack of moisture with this rainy summer we had.....
Robin
I am wondering if there was too much moisture. I do think Unless your garage is somewhat heated, I don't think they callas bulbs will survive the winter in the garage. They cannot freeze as that will kill them.
No, I think you're right....will move the pot to the cellar when my son comes....too heavy for me.
Robin
You could lift the bulbs from the pot and store them in brown paper bags. It is easier, just make sure you label your bags.
Carolyn that is a beautiful garden spot. I really like that alchemilla. I have started 20 from seed, but only one survives. once again its the heat.
I have had a wonderful day in the garden today. I reset 20 of my stepping stones and finished cleaning one of my beds for winter. We had our first frost today then it warmed up and was like a spring day. I hope everyone has avoided the snow and cold .
I have put some poultry cages over my pansies etc and it looks like whatever is eating them is now avoiding them.
John - we in the northeast are being hit with rain, hail and snow in some areas north and west of NYC. Glad to hear you got so much done while we likely stayed indoors and safe from the weather.
Just so everyone stays safe.
John - thank you. I have to say, that Lady's Mantle will always have a special place in my heart. I bought LM on one of my mother's last trips to a nursery with me. She died the following year, so LM will always have a place in my garden, no matter where I live.
We have been getting rain turning to snow - on and off all afternoon. The weather has been just raw. I still have so many things to get planted.....
How lovely to have such a connection to the plant with your mother, Carolyn.
It's been a wicked day and we had a little hail in the last few hours but no snow. I, too, have lots remaining to get planted.
The picture of the last Clem in bloom, which I think is the Omoshiro.
At the end of the season the colors can change so dramatically that identification can be rough. Mine doesn't show the central bar as yours does but considering the date it could be possible.
At any rate we have to be happy to have clematis blooms in late October, Marie.
I have 2 planted on the same trellis. So I am not sure which one it is. Neither one did all that well this year, so I am thankful for at least this bloom.
Could the other one have been Nelly Moser?
Let's hope they saved all the energy for blooms next year. Many/most of us in the northeast were so disappointed this year.
I went to Lowe's yesterdays and bought 2 Ruutel, they look very healthy, lots of bloomed away flowers on it.... They where only 4.00 each, had 8 more there but I resisted. Today I have to find a room for them, it is true that they have almost the same color az Sunset and Neobii, but if I spread them around it will look ok. I am glad you have power Pirl, it looks like lot of people in the NE are without.
I stay corrected it is Niobe, I always misspell this one.
Good buy, Etelka! We have a Lowes going up near our Home Depot but it's still about 22 miles away so though I'll hopefully get some of those great bargains I doubt it will be until spring.
Ruutel here is noticeably lighter than Niobe. I don't have Sunset to compare them. Ruutel is closer to the lighter colored photos of Vino here.
No snow, no damage and full power here. I feel awful for all those without power/heat.
On my way out now to plant Guernsey Cream, the last of the clematises except for old Belle of Woking from spring and she just may not get planted this year.
I knew that, Etelka, but you are 100% better at English than I am with your native tongue!
I hope you love Guernsey cream as well as I do.
I was sidetracked by yet more Houttuynia so I've been digging again.
My guess is that Guernsey Cream would look lovely with a total background of green, like a Hinoki cypress. Where did you place yours, John?
Mine is placed at the top of mounded flower bed which is 10 feet wide. The soil there is terrible but it was a mended with quite a bit of peat moss. About that soil. It was purchased from a sand and gravel company which has a good reputation among builders. I suspected I would get some dirt from excavations of basements. That would be bad enough. What I got I suspect is dredgings from the ohio river. I had it tested by UK and it came back 40 % silt , 45% sand and 15% clay . It is hard as a brick. Still cuernsey Cream and Jackmani do well there.
Guernsey Cream and Jackmanii must be lovely together - quite a contrast.
I never did get it planted since some Japanese irises managed to get in the soil first.
That's rotten about your purchase of "soil". At least the clem's love it. Do you continue to amend with compost for every plant you put in the ground? Recently Mark Viette, the radio gardening guy I listen to, said the more "true" compost you put in the soil the better it is for plants. By "true" I am guessing he means not a pile of trash people are prone to calling "compost" but it's a far cry from the real thing.
I always add compost when planting. Usually I do 50/50. I make quite a bit myself though I also buy 4 or 5 pick up truck loads a year. At 71 its getting a little tiring to unload them . We are in leaf season here and I will go around the neightborhood with my truck and collect bags of leaves then grind them up with my chipper shredder. This may be my last year for that.
Good for you! My husband also gathers bagged leaves from neighbors for chipping but hasn't done it in two years - he's 81.
I am ultra impressed at the truck load amounts you buy! That's hard work and very tiring - worthy of a good nap.
We have a storage container under the sink for just coffee grounds and I mix them with the compost when I'm planting. It's a nice soil conditioner.