Southold Historical Society Garden Tour: July 9, 2005

When the batteries for the camera recharge I'll add photos of the compost bins for you, Mitch. Hope you liked the statue for the gnomes but I fear the invasion of more and more pigs!!!!!!!!!

Oh, pirl--the whole thing is stunning! I'm so glad you mentioned this thread in the perennials forum; I would never have known it was here. I love all the personal touches--little things to discover, beautiful sculptures, and that dynamite obelisk. You surely did find a "keeper" in Jack, and I imagine that he thinks the same about you. My father used to hybridize daylilies on a very small scale, and I have one of his in my garden--a beautiful red. He died in 1987, but I figure he's watching me from somewhere to be sure I take proper care of that plant!

kneff - that's so nice to hear, about your dad's hybridizing and the plant you have!

From one of our crosses I ended up with just two seeds. They are almost identical except one is rounder and one is more wide open. Since I look just like my mother, my reaction on seeing them flower was "Mom" and "Me". I'll take a photo so you can see and if you ever want a Mom and a Me to go along with Dad I can send them to you.

Thanks for the compliments on Jack's obelisk! He worked long and hard and it came out exactly like the picture I had in my mind. We're both very happy, thank God, and intend on celebrating many more happy days and happy anniversaries together. He is my dream.

Arlene

Pirl - I just found this - what a fantastic tour of your gardens! Well done!

Thanks! We enjoy gardening, as you might have guessed.

Thanks for the invitation to your garden tour...it is absolutely fabulous!

Thanks levilyla and here's a close up of the ventusa hosta, on each side of the cast iron piece we bought on Cape Cod, in June. I just love it and thank you for sharing it with my secret trader along with all of the other plants that you shared and that now live, happily, with us.

Dont you just love cast iron?

Can't get enough of it. We love going to New Orleans, Coglan's or Coghlan's Gallery. Walls of cast iron and pots and wall decor - it's so fabulous. I've also picked up pieces along the way. Actually picked up two posts from an old cast iron fence here in Southold, from a long lost homestead. I'm sure they date back to the 1600's or 1700's.

Arlene and Jack, I'm almost speechless. This has been an overwhelming pictorial tour, starting with your extraordinarily inviting courtyard. Your daylily beds are incredible, your container plants are perfect, and your combinations of colors and textures are inspired and inspiring. Even the vegetable garden is beautiful, and as you know, Arlene, I think vegetables are usually a total waste of garden space.

All of your garden art, ranging from the sublime to pure whimsy, is fabulous. I think 75154's suggestion of a St. Peter statue is apt: entrance to heaven and all that. Thanks for giving me this most enjoyable tour.

Zuzu - you get it!!! To good to true... now to get back to my compost - to dark oh well off to bed early....

Arlene, I love reading all the compliments about yours and Jacks wonderful gardens. Hopefully someday I will see them in person, and get to sit there with you and Jack, until then I will see them through the wonderful pictures you share.
Thanks so very much my friend :)

Janis

Arlene and Jack;
My heart and soul have been warmed by the generous sharing of your photos and expressive thoughts. What a pleasure it is to get to know people like you on Dave's Garden. I feel I have been truely blessed.

Deb

Arlene, I'd love pieces of Mom and Me. I need to dig and move Dad--the area it's planted in has become too shady over the years and I'd be happy to send you some of it. It's a nice red in the more traditional thinner petaled style (I'm sure there's some botanical term for this, but I don't know it). I'm going to remove some of those !#%!*! rudbeckia that are hogging the few sunny spots in our yard and give Dad a happier home.

Zuzu, 75154, Woofens and Deb - WOW! You all made it worthwhile to wake up this morning. Such great words for us and our gardens. I truly doubt we'd be able to ever do it again so it doubles the pleasure and I thank you all.

Kneff - Can I ask your real name? Sure, you can have a piece of Mom and a piece of me. Now, if that doesn't sound wild and crazy then what does? I'll take more pictures and even post them here but first we're off to deadhead some more. I've been up an hour and out there but needed that cup of coffee.

I also spotted a !%*# Rudbeckia - a seedling from '92 that has survived. Must rip it out before it seeds. Sometimes we all wonder why we ever planted certain plants! Yet, I love it's cousin, Echniacea that Jack grew from seed and we have all over now!

Pirl: Absolutely fabulous gardens! I am stunned, slack-jawed, and drooling! I need a bib...

Arlene, Thank you for inviting me to come over and take a peek. I am just stunned. Everything is just sooo beautiful. I don't even have the words to tell you what I think. I truly enjoyed the virtual tour. I wish I could have been there in person. I know I would have had a ball.

I know you and Jack have put in a lot of hours and hard work to get it looking like it does. Excellent Job!!! (the teacher coming out....sorry)

OH Yeah!! I want a yard just like yours!!!!

Dee:)

Arlene and Jack, absolutely beautiful (and no flopping). What a pleasure, and a lot of hard work it must be to have a garden so beautiful. Do just the two of you care for it? I'm glad to see that you really enjoy the gardens also. Lots of times with as much area as you have, people get overwhelmed and it becomes more of a chore. You sound like the type to kick back and smell the roses (and beautiful roses they are!). Thanks for the tour. Polly

Sybiltoo: well you get my big laugh of the morning - "a bib"!!! Along with stunned and slackjawed: I'm thrilled you like them so much! I took an awful lot of photos today of our own hybrids and will post them when my energy returns: December or January!!! LOL

Actually I have to see them all first, then I'll post as soon as I can. Look for the thread, under Daylilies, Pirl's passion: Daylilies.

Dbibb - you're such a nice person! Your plants are now part of our gardens, thank you for the extra special, wonderful plants you sent! We appreciate all your wonderful remarks: yes we do work hard and yes it is worth it. Today I was up at 5:42 to go out and start deadheading, while waiting for the coffee to brew. Then Jack and I attacked and we're still around 1300 a day. Then he was busy digging out Swirling Butterfly bushes (huge!) for our neighbor, Valerie, who also received 12 daylilies last night and if my strength holds out, 48 more in the next few days. We need the space to move some of ours: they're just too tight! Now we're finally in but not before I cleared Butterfly branches, choke cherry tree branches and hosta flowers that had cut off our path in the back, under the old Colorado Spruces. Jack bombed the bee nest last night so I can work in the shade moving out more plants for Valerie.

Pollyk: so glad you joined the garden tour. The work is kind of difficult now due to the increases in the daylilies. After we give away half (LOL) it will be much easier. As far as help goes, we have each other, that's it. No hired help! That phrase always reminds me of my favorite epithet - I did have to change a few words to make it fit my situation:

Here lies a woman who died very tired
She loved her garden
Where help was not hired!

Thanks

Arlene, my kids help with other folks yards, for summer cash. You could look at it from the stand point of helping kids have a job and staying out of trouble. Your yard is extensive!

Teresa: many kids sleep 'til noon - like my granddaughter who'll be 14 next week, 7/28, the day before I turn sweet sixteen for the 4th time!

Our neighborhood has very few children, mostly retired people. The kids we do have are either 3 or 4 or older teenagers with jobs. It's not the gardening that gets to us but the heat and humidity. Every year we go through this and by September, when we're eating fresh tomatoes, we forget about the heat and deadheading, and just enjoy them!

Thanks for the good thought!

Wow! Wow! Wow! I really enjoyed the tour and you gave me ides for when my flower society comes to tour my garden next spring. I Have lots of "fairy" statues of all sizes through my acre gardens, when Kids come to visit with thier parents I let them have a hunt for the fairyies-counting to see if they can find them all. They just love it & say the funniest things in thier hunt.Maybe adults would enjoy it also with prize incentives. I saw new ways I want to use my daylilies when I divide them this fall. Thanks for the tour.
Ginger

Absolutely mind boggling and drop dead gorgeous!!! Wow!! Thanks for the tour, the spectacular color arrangements, the lovely little nooks and crannies, the lush beds of lilies....I'll have to take a second tour to absorb it all. Your efforts have really paid off, I hope that ours will, and I am so grateful that my DH is so willing to dig and fertilize and water and drag home tons of mulch and dirt so that some day our gardens will look almost like yours. I am steeped in envy at the hydrangea, ours keep freezing out, and love the blue hosta. Sigh. Too too fabulous!!

Ginger and meezersfive: Thank you for your wonderful to read words of praise!

Actually nothing anyone could say today could be more thrilling than the nod of my daughter's head when she came over. She just said "Well?" and I said "Charlie?" and she said "Yes" and I cried and cried and cried. SHE AND HER HUSBAND WILL BE HAVING THEIR FIRST BABY ON MARCH 21, 2006 - THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

I'm so thrilled. She's been through so many difficult years and deserves every good thing life can offer. She's beautiful, talented, kind and a great mother to Megan, almost 14, and Toonie the cat.

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, the "Charlie" part is because I knew they were trying and once in a while, when she'd say "Guess what?" I'd say "Charlie?" - meaning a baby and now the dream is coming true even if they name "Charlie"
Martha!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! ~ Suzi ♥ :)

I'm still crying. Every time I say "Charlie" I start crying again. Thanks, Suzi!

You'll have Dmail shortly :)

I am so happy for you congratulations :)

Hugs Hugs for all, and prayers for an easy pregnancy and very healthy Charlie or Martha LOL

Janis

I wonder if it could be Charlie and Martha!

LOL my sis has Justin and Jacklynn, December 23 2004 :)

Wow! What a terrific Christmas present they gave each other! You sent me a photo of your hubby and Justin, right?

yea got one of Jackie somewhere I'll Dmail it to you :)
The twins were 35 weeks 6 days when they were born (after 24 WEEKS of bedrest) and came home at 12 noon on Christmas day :)

Pirl,
I read about your tour in another thread so I searched and found this thread.
I am VERY happy I did :-)
Have to admit I spent almost 1 hour ,reading,dreaming and looking at your stunning gardens.Your gardentour was so well planned ,so extremely organized that everything must have been a sheer pleasure to see !

Your daylilies are breathtaking mixed with other perrennials,not to mention the beautiful roses,your husbands
obelisk and so many other things that caught my attention.Wish I could have been there.
Well deserved Congratulations on beeing choosen .Thank you for your tour,it was a pleasure :-)
Brigitte

Wow, Arlene. Talk about crowning touches: First the grand success of your gardening efforts this year, and now a grandchild (or grandchildren in the case of twins). So happy for you and Jack.

Arlene, really outstanding! (And you've certainly come a long way for someone who wasn't sure how to post pictures, congrats!) Thank you so much for sharing this with us, I wish I could see it in person!

Beautiful....just beautiful.

What a beautiful Garden you have. I can see much love and hard work has been done. I would love being able to take a tour in person. I feel with all your wonderful photos that I have in some ways. Thanks so much for sharing your garden.

Congratulations, Arlene, on the new grandchild-to-be! Both of our daughters-in-law are expecting baby girls (but only one each!) in October, so I know how pleased you must be. Right now they each have a two-year-old, so all the cousins will be close in age. The only sad part is that they live in Denver and Park City, and we are in Michigan, so getting to see them often enough is difficult.

Went to the nursery today to get some painted ferns--just can't seem to get that dry shade garden right--and came back with the weekend's work in my van. I don't know how you manage to deadhead so many daylilies. I only have about 30 and can't keep up.

Kay

Pirl,

Finally found the pics of your garden. I kept hearing about the tour but somehow didn't know where "it" was. Absolutely STUNNING garden. I can't imagine the time it takes to keep it up, but 'keep it up'!

Congratulations, Chopd

Brigitte - thanks for dreaming of the gardens while you took a virtual tour! The lady who helped me, in the store, with the brick boxes is named Brigitte. She taught German, in a nearby town (my daughter lives there) for over 20 years. What a sweetie. I'll see if I have her photo so you can meet the other Brigitte who made our gardens even sweeter.

Here we are: Brigitte and I.

Zuzu - thanks for the happy thoughts. I'm still crying tears of joy for them. So very happy! Jack's happy for them, too. He really loves my Kathleen and refers to her at parties and get togethers as "our daughter". I'm happy to share her with him! How lucky can I get?