SUMMER 2013 #2

Bill, are you moving that giant Joe pye?

Looks good! I need a guy to work with me :)

I will be at the end of the season

LOL.... I thought you were volunteering to work for me :)

funny jen

Pics 1 & 2, before and after: 3 Little Lime Hydrangeas have been patiently waiting for their spot to be cleared of 2 favorite daylilies and lots of junk.

Pic 3, the rest: Across the back, grasses, Phlox, Japanese Aster, Perennial Sunflowers (a rampant self-seeder and 2 runners. I hope I won't be sorry!). Middle: a long arc of daylilies, very early to mid-season, some bi-colors. I tried to stagger the colors in clumps across the bed. To the left and behind them, Siberian Iris. The plan for the front is dwarf iris, sedums, other lovers of hot and dry.

Pic 4. Prevously each large clump was one type, each blooming at different times..

Pics 5, the long view: Lots of blues, lavenders and purples should knit everything together, at least that's the idea now. Another work in progress...

Haha. After this weekend, I need someone to carry me around!

Looking good! I love Little Lime. In one year mine looks like it's been there forever.

I love blue in the garden too.

I learned something this weekend about chimney bellflowers-- they were prominently displayed in pots in the atrium at the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum. Because they can grow 5 to 6 feet tall, flopping is a potential problem. I think I'll grow them from seed in pots (and support them) so there is a late summer garden color element while I'm waiting for more shrubs to fill in. They are usually treated as biannuals this far north. They can be blue or white. The other thing I'm planning is lots of dwarf Russian sage in front of the taller stuff.

They are gorgeous... When do you start them, and when do they start blooming?

Wow, Pam.....garden looking super! Hard work, but worth it......

Thanks! Gets better all the time... I'm not done yet!

Very nice, Pam! Great transformation you are doing there! Well worth your hard work!

pumpkin blossom, Morning glory

Odd that my reply to Pam never posted. Hudson seeds sells Chimney bellflower seeds. Their instruction only says to plant before last frost or plant in pots. I tried to talk to a greenhouse person at the Gardner museum, but it was a Sunday and there was noone around.

I like the idea of a big wand of blossoms this time of the year that is not a sunflower, phlox or hibiscus, though there's nothing wrong with them, either.

Thanks, il check it out!

You're welcome. We garden folks have to stick together.

I'm losing patience on having this font issue unresolved. So hard to read and if you expand, you then have to toggle constantly to read a post. I notice that fewer people, threads and posts are evident. I think they are ok with losing us oldtimer members in favor of the folks that never knew it used to be so much better. 😒 I may follow Allison, Boojum and the many folks that used to be here but are now only on ATP. Sad.

This morning it is 42 degrees and gorgeous here. I had one of the best days of the year working in the garden yesterday. I know I overdid it, but I will be back out there this morning to clean up a few more gardens.

Hope you all have avlovely gardening day as well!

Louise, there are other issues on the site that haven't been resolved, which does still irritate me. Significantly enough, about 60 of my last journal entries are probably permanently messed up, but not enough courtesy to reply and tell me so to encourage reentering them. It is only the NE forum that keeps me subscribed now.

It's out to work in the garden! To all a happy gardening day! The to do list is growing here as I am replacing Cherokee princess dogwood with Appalachian Spring, and preparing a weeping redbud for near the future waterfall site. Little honey hydrangea deserves its spot in a finished bed extension before winter.

Sobering here how much I need to grow things because I know from my job that there seems to be a lot of social upheaval, including the suburbs. Noone knows if it's partly result of the Marathon bombings, but the lockdown area was in my court district. I can't tell you the bizarre stories from people who were unstable to begin with. Some cases have made national news. So, the patio and fountain aren't going to happen this fall because of battle weariness.

I'm sorry that things are not going well. I stay for NE & the Equines which my DD is on (Jumper 2).

I'm sorry that both of you have serious issues with the site....my only problem is I have to keep moving the post to the left because of the icons on the left side......having said that, I don't feel the other site is great either......hard to not communicate with the folks I've been friendly with for the past 4 years......

Hope they resolve it before more people leave, I have no issues other than all the empty space on both sides is just silly looking

Monarch cat on Milkweed
this guy let me get pretty close
rebloom on Stella DeOro
Heliopsis with roses

The site has improved now, except for the white space on the right. For ads? I don't get them. But 'over printing' has disappeared.

Viceroy

I'm glad to hear some things are improving for folks in the site. I hate to be such a downer.

I've been looking for Monarchs but have seen Swallowtails. I had a cute flirtation this morning with a juvenile or female hummer. Really small and cute, it seemed to watch me water after I finished planting a fleeceflower bush in a particularly tasty area. If I moved farther away it flew closer, if I moved back it moved. I'm not used to seeing them sit so still and for it to go on for a good ten or fifteen minutes. My luck was not to have a camera ready.

I got a few shots of blossoms to share and will post within the week.

So glad to see the monarch cats, I haven't seen a single monarch yet this year, and usually have collected a bunch by now.

I'm not comfortable on ATP. Before it became possible, I asked a question about posting pictures from my iPad and Dave was quite dismissive. I can't see that it's better than here, where at least they're approachable. So I'm staying put.

I saw a hummer yesterday, too bad no camera nearby. I must have interrupted it, because it flew up and hovered above me before taking off. I've seen lots of Swallowtails too, but no Monarchs yet. There are a lot of big black butterflies around, does anyone know what they are?

Pics are this weekend's project.

So beautiful, do you have any full sun area available for Japanese irises?

I managed to work with several sites, but hate it when things are messed up. I am glad that it is finally clear here.

Red Spotted Purple
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/540/

Nice photos! Haven't seen many butterflies at all this year, & only one hummer.......not seeing any migrating warblers either!

Little birds keep flying into bushes. I wish that they were not so quick & I could see what they were.

Mittsy, I have a couple of hotspots (relatively speaking). The section with the tall grasses is one of them. Those shots are deceptive, they were taken late in the day, and the sun had dropped behind the trees.

As far as the Japanese Iris go, right now they're in pots near where I'm planning to plant them, and they are growing well there. There is irrigationalready in place, I just have to move a few things around to make room. I've been waiting for fall, but it seems to me the weather has already changed so I'll be starting next weekend. One clue that the time has come is that Anemone September Charm started blooming today.

I don't have that one, Pam....what color is it? I have a pretty pink blooming now, but the white one hasn't started yet.

It's a soft pink. I'm delighted to see it this year, I've lost a few anemones along the way. A Robustissima returned as well, also pink. I think I was planting them in marginal situations before and they didn't like it. Odd, because I've seen them naturalize in the strangest places. I hope these do, but if not at least I still have some!

OK Pam, I'll be offering you some to choose from as soon as I can check again on what's still available.

I love the anenomes that bloom now.....bring some life to the gardens......

Mittsy, I have a batch of iris from you already, and they are doing very well. They've been in pots all summer, but will get planted within the next two weeks. I'm not taking anything extra this fall, as we are going to be away for several weeks. We're not leaving until early October, but what with one thing and another I only have 3 more weekends (extensive) in the garden. Yikes!!!

OK Pam, I am downsizing my collection of 52 to less than half. I've already sent to the botanical garden so the rest will go into this weekends central NY plant swap.

Some summer color here. The magnolia bud happened this week for the first time on thie tip top of our grandiflora, planted last year. The parents were Brackens and Little Gem, and it smells heavenly.

Beautiful blooms, but especially like the Magnolia. We once went on a GDO quilt shop tour and I made the driver stop the car so I could take a picture of a Magnolia tree in full bloom. The rest of the occupants were Floridians and they didn't get it, but to a New Yorker, WOW!