Fresh Pot of Coffee

Debbie,

I didn't see a name by it - yours is the one with the Guacomole like hosta and huechera looking plant?

Way to go Deb! Can I have your autograph? Is your website for purchasing too? If it's more informational and you want to take a shot at doing it yourself, try looking at Microsoft FrontPage. If you plan on having a shopping basket and all that - then forget it 'cause it's easier to pay someone to take care of all that.

Al's blue flower is a dwarf Iris - just like Deb said. I have them and love them. Al, my boss is also bipolar [diagnosis that everyone who knows here has arrived at]-I think the weather is more predictable.

Andy - I loved them too! My favorite is Holy Grail! Runaway!! Runaway!!

I think the name is by the 'photo's courtesy of..' Debra Corrington

Al, the name is on the left (Debra Corrington, Lexington, VA). Plants used were Hosta 'Stained Glass' - Hosta of the year for 2006, Heuchera 'Silver Scrolls' around the perimeter, Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy' - the variegated plant, Cimicifuga 'Brunette' for a dark contrast, but really didn't expand as much as I wanted it to, and Sambucus 'Sutherland Gold', the gold shrub at the top -which is partially cut out in the photo. Left the container out all winter and it's growing like gang-busters! Only plant that hasn't really shown itself yet is the Hosta, but the 'nubs' are there, just need warmer temps to get it up to speed with the rest of the plants. Thanks for looking :)
Debbie

Anita, you beat me to it!

Very nice Debbie,

Sutherland's Gold is on my shrub list for this year.

You'll love it and it will do much better in your Zone 5a. Here, it tends to fritz out with the summer heat, but puts on a new flush of fresh gold leaves in the fall when it cools down a little. Unfortunately when Fine Gardening called me to get another photo of the container in September, the Sambucus and Cimicifuga looked pretty shabby :(

OK this photo's old, but I plan on sticking it in the middle of these Diablo's -- now twice that big. It's sunny, but not real hot there.
The Mohican and Dappled willow are out of this bed now.
http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/i/8505/

Debbie, Wow! I had seen those. Didn't expect to run into one of the winners! Congratulations and good luck with your website.
Dave

Debbie, Congrats on getting published.
Andy P

Great Bed Al! I love it and the path through it too!

Thanks Anita - sort of assuming you had looked through this already

http://davesgarden.com/journal/d/t/bigcityal/1910/


beautiful day here, more plants popping up to see what's going on.

Thanks everyone :) I've actually been thinking of sending some sort of note to the local newspaper in Maine to see if they might do a write up in their gardening column, along the lines of "former resident places in national gardening contest". Kind of a in your face "I told you so" to all my so-called 'friends' who gave me such a hard time about packing up and moving to Virginia. Nasty huh?

Al, the 'Sutherland Gold' will look gorgeous there! You could also consider Sambucus 'Madonna', the gold and white variegated one. Now that is one that doesn't mind our heat and humidity. Another gold beauty that we purchased in Michigan several years ago is the 'Tiger Eyes' Sumac. We saw it at one of the nurseries we visit every year when we vacation in northern Michigan and couldn't resist. Unfortunately, another gold plant that doesn't like our weather and we're contemplating giving up and yanking it because it really looks shabby.

Been reading all your posts with your pictures and enjoying them - just wish I had taken the time to get some pictures of all our spring flowering bulbs. A couple of years ago Rick got a little carried away and ordered way too many bulbs. I don't remember how many, but I do remember the credit card bill for almost $1300!!! I have to admit it is beautiful in the spring, drifts of at least 20 different daffodils which get better every year. I think this is the 4th spring for all of these and even the tulips are still performing admirably, although it seems they get smaller every year. This has been a really strange year, weather wise, and everything has bloomed three weeks earlier than previous years. Was kind of nice, but then when the temps have dropped below freezing off and on, alot of the blooms have come and gone quickly. Our peonies are up about two feet and we're expecting below freezing temps next weekend (the 22nd) and we won't be home to cover and protect them :(
Hopefully they'll tough it out. We've had Hostas and Ferns in the greenhouses that even got frostbite in the last couple of weeks when the temperature plunged and that's with plastic covering over them!

Lots of work to do this morning getting ready for our second plant sale this weekend, so got to get busy. Keep the pictures coming, I'm enjoying them!

Al, Nice work on the paths!

Debbie: $1300??? My God!
What is the name of your business? Is there anywhere we can take a look?

Well wishes for Passover & Holy Week to all. I have Easter eggs and matzah for breakfast.
Dave

That is a lot of bulbs Debbie!
I usually wait until they are 75% off late in the year and then get them, I didn't do any last year since I knew I was going to be rearranging most of my beds this year. Squirrels are such a problems planting bulbs I would hate to put much money in to it - they don't like the allium so I have a lot of those.
I have seen 'tiger eyes' and like it, but have been wary of it spreading like most sumac.

That sure is alot of bulbs - I'd love it, but I don't know about planting them all!!! I just ordered more daffodils - One thing good about this time of the year - you can see your bare spots and order accordingly. I try to make a note about where I want to put them so I remember in the fall. Last year I took pictures to remind myself.

Great idea Anita. I always think about leaving some sort of marker, but thats better.

OK I don't normally get excited about plants from Walmart, but $7.42 for a red japanese maple. It is guaranteed here in zone5a - out of it's range a bit. So I'll try it. These things are expensive.

Wow! Great deal!

Today I dragged myself away from the PC to do yard work. The worst 2 jobs of the year, moving the brush pile and pruning the Blackberries. The yard looks much bigger with the berries pruned, LOL.
I also noticed that my Seckel Pear tree is loaded with flower buds. I had almost given up on that little tree. It only grows a couple of inches per year and hasn't flowered in 2 or 3 years.
Andy P

I used to have blackberries, they are a workout. Andy, why do you move your brush pile? Do you mean you picked it up?
Dave

Yes Dave, One of the pitfalls of being lazy is it catches up with you....
There is a corner of the yard where I throw the brush over the 3 ft. fence, every Spring I move it 20 or so feet to fill a low spot. Kind of a 'no mans land'. Two other neighbors are filling it as well.
It was a nice day with temps in the 60s but I raised a sweat anyway.
I timed everything just right, too. As I sat with a cool drink after all was done, the thunder started. Poor Sarah hates thunder. Not much rain, just some noise.
Andy P

It was beautiful here as well - even though I was working - I got to be out quite a bit.

Thanks for the clarification Andy.

Yeah, it was a nice day and I didn't get out in the garden. I hope the weekend isn't a washout.

LOL, re the bulbs! Yes, he did get carried away. Anita, Rick planted every last one of them by himself - although he cheated a little. He 'raised' some of the beds where they were planted - used the tractor to grab buckets of soil, dropped it where he wanted to plant the bulbs, set the bulbs out on top and then another bucket of soil dropped on top of them and smoothed out. Made the task a little easier but it still took him over a week to get it done!

Al, we can buy them wholesale from one of our Holland suppliers, so that's why we ended up with so many. Fortunately we don't have much of a problem with squirrels here. Nice find on the Jap Maple, can't beat those prices. We picked up a rather sickly dissected leaf Jap last year while in Michigan - $10.00 in a 2 gallon pot, figured we couldn't resist at that price. It's just starting to leaf out and looks great. Now we just need to get the darned thing planted.

Dave, on my homepage there is now a link for website. Web guy promises there will be more completed soon but looks like I'm going to have to add my own photos via a photo gallery since I'm not willing to spend the extra money to have him do it - at this rate he probably wouldn't get it done until next year!

Andy, congrats for getting your brush pile moved. That is one huge fault of mine - I love to make 'piles', but I'm really bad about taking care of them! Whenever I start pruning and weeding in the spring, about every 10-15 feet along the driveway will be a pile of my clippings and weeds, sometimes sitting there for weeks! Used to do the same thing in Maine where the piles left would end up killling the grass underneath. A couple of years ago when I finally got around to picking up some piles that had been sitting there for a few weeks, got a nasty surprise - young black snake was taking advantage of my laziness and scared the heck out of me. You'd think I would have learned my lesson after that, but now I'm just a little more cautious when I do finally pick them up :)

Did someone say snake???

Debbie, Very pretty homepage. Web-guys slowness must really be hurting you during prime business time. Good luck with that.
Dave

I'm home for lunch and I thought I would upload a few more pics....

I cleaned out a garden that is ten years older than me and I found this little cutie today! I have never seen it before and although it looks familiar I for the life of me can't remember what it is!? I'm happy its growing!
I hope it likes it there and has babies!

Anita, your picture is so beautiful! I can't wait till my garden is doing something worth posting, for now I have the usual spring stuff coming up.

Is anyone here good at IDing Daffodils? I was wondering because I have a beauty that I would like to know alittle more about, yet again purchased and planted while I was a wee tot making mud pies and discovering garden facts like Ladybugs do bite and mom hates it when you pick her flowers roots and all. Give me a sec and I'll post that Daff...

ok here it is...
I have to run and do laundry and cook something to eat, I'm thinking Pork chops and apple sauce, maybe sum taters and gravy! Yum! Then I have to get ready to go to the "Big Orange" place of employment and wittness the murder of plants....sigh.... they do have a pretty yellow Columbine I have been eyeballing for a week... they haven't killed them yet... perhaps maybe I'll get one and see how it works out....

How pretty! I'm looking at my Breck's Catalogue and the daffy could be 'Las Vegas'

I bought two Hellebore's from the Orange'sick'le - they are doing real well!! I am very pleased with their performance!

This message was edited Apr 14, 2006 4:06 PM

ooo I was just about to take off when you posted, remind me in a few weeks and I'll dig you a couple, they need to be thinned a bit and I think you might have good luck with them, what ever they are called... they aren't blooming as well as they were a few years ago and I think they need some attention.

I miss you guys tons.
Dena

Thanks Dena - I'd love them!

Anita, another masterpiece.
What are the blue flowers in the top right corner?

GREN, The top pic may be an old Hyacinth.
We miss you, too.

I got a bit more done today.
I planted my Onion seedlings. It took almost 2 hours, to screen a couple loads of compost, hand till the 7 x 8 patch, separate 140 seedlings from the flat and plant them, water and clean up.
Then I planted some Hens and Chicks in an old pair of sneekers.
I saw this done last fall and have been itching to try it.
Andy P

Creative idea Andy. Show us a pic. Nice job on your mural Anita.
Hi Dena. I can't ID my own daffs.

I was out appreciating the things that have naturalized here, most without ever being planted. I have some pictures (you may end up being sorry you ever talked me into this pcture posting

Oops my pond. How about my chindoxia?

What's next?

Those blue 'Glory in the Snow' sure spread, don't they.
They seem to last longer than many Crocus, too.
What's the rose colored flower?
(You just wanted to show us the pond. I like the way you adjusted the water flow.)
I'll snap a pic of the sneakers tomorrow.
Andy P

Hellebore. But they aren't coming out how I cropped them??

Andy, Can you help me out? I take pictures further away because I can enlarge them after the fact. I enlarge & crop & the picture still comes onto DG like before I modified it. I'm confused.
This is impossible to see.