Cutting Gardens Part II

staci,
thanks for the helpful peony hints. :-) unfortunately franklin does not like to eat bugs. LOL i'll have to give it a try anyways. :-)
hi tippy & ivy,
i grew up with poodles. they each have a personality of there own. :-) but then don't they all. :-) it is nice to have a doggie that likes to be with you in the garden. he is also the social greeter and has to say hello to everyone who passes by. so i have gotten to know more neighbors than if left to my own devices. :-)
i'll e-mail you about my gardens. i've already highjacked this thread enough. LOL
debi z & franklin

I took KD, our chocolate lab out to garden with me over the weekend. I was planning to replant the bed at the end of the driveway. She stays in the yard, so I left her out for a sec while I got the wheelbarrow. When I came back she had left me a big stinky heap dead center of where I was goign to be working. Lovely. Even after I cleaned it up I got a nice whiff every time the wind shifted. I love my dog, but there are some limits :)

Stacy

Tippy leaves presents everywhere! Lucky he is only a little guy!

I am anxiously awaiting my Peonies, Clematis and False Indigo opening! I know you can cut Clematis, but not sure about Indigo. I also have old roses getting ready to bloom for the first time this year- I don't know if I want to cut them or not. Louise Odier, Crested Moss, Fantin Latour and Quatre Saisons- all pink. I can't wait! I selected them for looks and then scent. I haven't seen one bit of disease or pests on them yet. (as opposed to my other poor roses that are attacked constantly and by everything.) I also have some new roses that are supposed to be good- "Good Old Summertime". Yellow , to replace the dead yellow unknowns that looked great the first couple years then went rapidly downhill.

Oceangirl, You must be pretty busy right now! I looked at your diary entries and you house and garden are so nice!

I'm especially jealous of your vViburnum Onadoga(sp?), your Wisteria, and your Viburnum Carlesii (I have a 3 year old that just bloomed for the first time, but only 2 blooms!).

We also seem to have a huge number of small caterpillars, green ones, and some that look like gypsy moths but smaller. I am nervously watching....

i'm lucky with franklin, we take him out in the morning for his "morning constitutional" and he goes in the same place every day. even if he misses the a.m., he'll head over there later on. :oP good doggi :-) BUT the doggi next door gizmo, he's a little doggie too, comes over and does his poops in our yard. not always, but a lot in the winter time. i'll find his poops in my garden bed that runs the length of the driveway during spring clean-up. yuck! picking up your own dogs is bad enough. LOL well at least she comes from next door and cleans the ones he leaves in the driveway. well most of the time. my dh got sick of seeing them and took the shovel and was flinging them over the fence into there yard. LOL gismo also gets the cheaper food with more fillers and frqnklin does not. well you dcan definately see a difference in the size of there poopies. eukanuba dog food wasn't lying when they used to advertise this.:-)
ok ok i'll stop telling stories about poopies.
debi z & franklin :oP

debi_z, you are too funny! Please post pics of your garden here, don't worry about hijacking. I would love to see your garden- without poopies. ;)
Ivy, thanks, I really have been busy. I'm jealous of your old roses! Smart way to go. I want to hear all about them.
My viburnums are pretty new but I hope they do OK. Onadoga looks a little unhappy since the hot weather came. I have to go water her again.

Poopy (Whoops! I mean poppy) Queen Alexandra

To prepare flowers from the garden for arranging they should go through a process called hardening off. Fill a large container with enough water to cover the flowers including all the foliage. The water should be room temperature or close to 75 degrees. Weight the flowers down with something to keep them submerged and allow them to soak for several hours. Remove them and firmly shake the water off of them. This will get rid of the insects, prevent any drooping and allow your flowers to stay beautiful for many days longer. This is how people prepare flowers for flower shows. As a sometimes judge, I can assure you that there is nothing quite as startleing to a judge as leaning down to an arrangement and having a large spider jump out at you. Jessamine

Oceangirl, you are too hysterical! I like to pick flowers, not poopies! Unfortunately, I have to pick the poops before I start in on the flowers, every day.
I think you and I are on the same wavelength or something. Your poppies are so beautiful! I tried to raise a flat of Poppy "Coral Reef" (looks identical to Queen Alexandra!). 5 germinated,3 died and I have 2 miniscule seedlings to show for it! They are literally less than an inch! So I bought 5 BIG plants through the mail and planted them, but they didn't bloom this year. Sigh :(
Go with old roses! I am a big fan all of a sudden. No problems with these.

Jessamine, THANK you! I never knew quite the right way to do this.
I have one question, though. It's probably silly but.... do you put them in right side up? I assume you do or it might damage the plants, but then I thought you could lay them down sideways easier.

People, are storebought flowers acceptable? I just found the sweetest old fashioned plants at the grocery yesterday. I bought four bouquets and put them together---

cream and pale blue Campanulas

cream and pink Campanulas

lavender Stocks

purple Stocks

I WILL have these in my garden someday!

Hey Ivy, I think that is a very good question. You can lay them on their side just fine. I was worried about that the first time since I was using a sink that was much shorter than the flowers I needed but laying a brick on the stems and foliage didn't hurt them at all. It is a good idea to keep the leaves as flat as possible so they get water full evenly. I was also thinking that if they were trying to float they would wind up with a curve in the stem. I turned them over half way through and they were perfectly straight. It is also a good idea to cut them early in the day for the best results. I got the complete instructions from several sources but the one I remember is the handbook for the national association of garden clubs. It isn't at Barnes and Noble or Borders. Maybe you could order a copy. It is a complete course in handling flowers for garden shows and how they are judged. Glad I could help. Jessamine

Thanks for all the good flower arrangement information. I am learning a lot on this thread, Oceangirl, all the 'cutting' info is great that you've posted..

And the bulb catalogs are just coming out and I will be sure to order more Camassia...hadn't thought of it as a cutting flower but we did enjoy it in our garden this spring. They say white 'semiplena' camassia planted with peonies is a great combination--and that would be a fabulous bouquet, too...

Brent and Becky's has the semiplena I think.

I love the poppies and will try to grow them again...so far I don't have the touch. Boo hoo.

Happy gardening. t.

From my garden yesterday.

Melissa

Jessamine, thanks for the great information.
The water doesn't hurt the flower petals? I'm surprised by that- I never thought I could get the flowers wet- obviously they get rained on, but I'm going to try submerging them now. You learn something new every day!

Hi tabasco, I'm glad you're enjoying the thread. Does the white camassia bloom later than the blue? my blue is gone by, but the peonies haven't opened yet.
I'd love to try the white.

Ivy, store bought flowers are fine! I love your arrangement. I've never grown stocks but I'd like to try them. I love anything fragrant.

It took me a while to establish poppies in the garden, but once they establish they multiply every year. I let them go to seed so I will always have more. They do dissapear, for a month or 2 during the hottest months of summer- a lot of people think they are dead and maybe pull them out.
If you just plant things that will fill in the hole they leave in the garden,or plant them behind something, (and keep watering!) by late summer you should see the new leaves come back. I don't cut them back in fall.

Edited for spelling

This message was edited Jun 12, 2005 6:16 PM

Beautiful arrangement, Melissa! The peonies and salvia look really pretty together.

OG---The catalog I read said the white semi double camassia blooms two weeks or so after the blue...I find you never know until you try it, though! Could be a unique pairing if it works...haven't seen the two together that I know of...

Melissa can I steal your arrangement idea? My peonies and salvia are just starting to bloom and it's such a gorgeous combination.

Oceangirl- That picture is so vivid and summery. It almost looks like the iris is reflecting off of the poppy petals! The poppies are like silk and the iris' are like velvet.

Tabasco and Oceangirl- I have some tulips that I put in to bloom together. I got Lilac Perfection and Spring Green and dug them in deep to naturalize. They have been in for 4 years and this is the first year they actually bloomed at the same time. It was sublime! But I bet they won't do it again! Hope the Camassia- Peony combination will be more cooperative.
Valerian is starting right now as well.....migfht be a good back up for the Camassia if you can control it.

Ivy,

It is a nice combo, my favorite part though is the barely noticeable Equisetum. I thought it added a bit of whimsy. :)

Thanks, Ivy. I usually don't have such bright combinations, but I love that one. Here's one that is more subdued.

Ooooh. The poppies look like Japanese fans. I wax poetic, don't I? (I am a closet writer and DG is enabling me) Again I love the reflection of the poppies on the iris.

Melissa?!!!! I didn't see it. Thats a great touch!

Here's a different pic. You can see the horsetail better.

Very nice!

Very nice!

I did some looking up, and my grocery store Stocks seem to be "Dwarf Ten Weeks" variety. I'm still not quite sure, though. They are still going strong and smell heavenly- clovy but fresh. Not heavy.

The Campanulas are Canterbury Bells. I am definitely having these in my garden next year. The Canterbury Bells are so delicate looking, but they are still standing up straight and tall in the vase, no sign of falling apart or fading.

I looked up other Campanulas and they look like they would be great cut flowers. I think I would like to try all of them.

I posted pictures of a cutting garden I work in that were taken in March. Here is how it looks now. Sorry about the barrels. etc. (Work In progress!)

This is the Rose Bed

View to the right of the Rose bed

Catmint and Lady's Mantle In front of the Pergola

A Pretty Siberian Iris

Another bed

Zinnias have been staked

I'm excited- we're done planting annuals at work so we got to take the extras home. I'm making my own little cutting bed now.

Someone gave me these timbers all cut to the same length. I made a raised bed on top of an old tree stump. It's going to be just for annuals, because I tend to sneak perennials in everywhere and before you know it I can't fit annuals anywhere!

beautiful job oceangirl. congrats on your new garden bed. LOL on the no room for annuals.

Oceangirl, you must work like crazy in that garden! Ir's beautiful.

In my mind's eye, my garden looks like that.... LOL

Don't be sorry for the crates and stuff. I tried to take pictures of my garden the other day and realized that EVERY picture had something in it that shouldn't have been- a hose sprawling along the steps, a bag of weeds in the background, a half dead pot of apine strawberries on the stone wall, weeds everywhere, I could go on and on. I guess I just don't see all the junk when I am looking at my garden. I have an epic vision in my head and that blots out the weeds and the mistakes...

Thanks, debi.
Ivy, yes, that garden is a lot of work!
When it was installed by the builders it wasn't done correctly, the soil wasn't prepared right and and the drainage was so bad half the plants died. They had to come back and dig about half the sections up and install more drainage, gravel, etc.
They just had to fix another area a few weeks ago. This is before we gardeners even can get to OUR work. it seems to be draining well now, so I may have more pretty photos soon.

LOL, Ivy, I want my garden to look like a magazine garden! I don't see all the junk unless I take a picture.

oceangirl,
i might just come and see that garden of yours one of these fine days. if we ever get to the cape this year, that is, before the frost. :-)
debi

Whoops, I better start weeding!
I'd love it if you could come.

I finished planting my little annual bed.

Very nice! Are the yellow and pinks zinnias? They are sweet!

I love the shape of your bed. I don't know how you got it so straight! Whenever I attempt something like that I never can get it quite right. I planted 2 Hakuro Nishiki willows near the garage, and I measured the space carefully. When DH got home, the first thing he said was "too bad they aren't even." It's the story of my life!

Sweet peas are finally starting to bloom! Isn't that ridiculous, that they start in July? They kept getting broken off by the wind in the spring. I planted some dwarfs in my window boxes this year and I highly recommend them. The smell drifting in the windows is heavenly!

My snapdragons in the pots on the deck are doing well, but the ones planted in the front are not blooming. Is it because they are in the ground? or because my DH mulched them? or because I am not giving them enough fertilizer? The colors I got from Thompson and Morgan are not what I expected. They were supposed to be vivid yellows and fuschias, but they are mostly sickly white with a splash of pink. They look faded. :( I hate when you take time doing seeds and then they are not what you wanted at all.

I bring in fresh flowers for the living room most everyday. Coneflowers seem to last a long time. I love zinnas and glads too.

I do what Pirl talked about earlier with daylilies. If I don't have a large clump of blooms,I put one in a tiny salt and pepper vase or crystal toothpick holder. I keep those by my kitchen sink for color.

I collect hosta too, so I always have nice greenery!

Bluegrass, that is a sweet idea! Im beginning to enjoy tiny vases with just a few blooms more than big arrangements.

So sorry to hear about your seeds not producing plants that flower the colour you expected. I HATE that. It has happened to me a time or two and it is SO much more disappointing than when something you buy at a nursery doesn't do as expected!

Since our garden has a great many evergreen plants/shrubs (easy in coastal Northern CA), I have a wide variety of foliage to choose from when I do bouquets. Among the more unusual are plectranthus, calla lily and canna lily leaves, azalea, variegated rhamnus (buckthorn), variegated pelargoniums of several types, yellow sage, Japanese maple and Indian hawthorn.

I was more concerned about the garden looking good year round, rather than for cutting purposes. To my delight I have found that a number of our plants are great in bouquets. My DH is counting himself fortunate because in the last three years (since we put in the landscaping) he hasn't had to buy me flowers once, LOL. I’ll post some of the arrangements I've done in the last year. This one is callas, bearded iris, freesias and cestrum.

Ehanks for the sympathy, tombaak. It's because you invested so much in the seedlings-not just money! Also, I had a plan for them to go in a certain place, to bring that color to that part of the garden. Bummer.

This one was done last Christmas. From L-R, variegated pelargonium leaves, spirea, a 'Margaret Merrill" white rose, and a spray of an unnamed dark red, single-flowering groundcover rose from Monrovia.