Introducing myself

Hi! I just joined DG about a week ago. My darling husband dug up part of his precious lawn so I could put in a fragrance garden. I won't know how successful I am until summer time. Right now it looks pretty barren. I have planted beared iris, garden phlox, lavender (looks rather sad right now), pinks, butterfly bushes, a primrose lilac (very small - will be years before I get blooms). Also, lots of oriental lilies (casa blancas, stargazers, yellow stargazers, white stargazers, dizzy, pink paramount, etc.) Veronica Sunny Border Blue, and the following roses: Margaret Merril, Betty Harkness, Welsh Gold, Darlow's Enigma, Tess of the D'Urbevilles, The Poet, Midnight Blue, minature roses Scentational, the clemantis, Betty Corning.

I have planted a "host of golden daffodils" and some especially fragrant ones, including: - Double Poet's Daffodil and Thalia.

Any suggestions, etc. would be very welcome. My zone is 6. I have included a "before" picture - in anticipation I can offer something more interesting this summer :-) The new garden is along the wooden fence to the back yard and along the back fence.

Welcome! Sounds like you already have a wonderful list there. Maybe one of the fragrant Viburnums would do well...Clethra..Sweet Box (needs shade) ..others will chime in I am sure.

Actually, I have a viburnum ordered:

VIBURNUM x burkwoodii MOHAWK : Viburnum, Shrubs
VIBURNUM x burkwoodii MOHAWK - 5-6' - Plant 5' apart. zone 4-8. A hybrid cross with V.carlesii yielding intensely fragrant pink/white flowers from reddish buds in the spring. Superb disease resistance, and glossy foliage. Leaves take on a warm orange-red hue in autumn.

It will just be a baby for a few years, but by 2012 my garden should look great!

Oh, I can see Jasmine growing all over that fence! And, every fragrant garden should have at least one Gardenia Bush! And, how about some fragrant Lavender?!

Can't wait to see your photo's this coming summer!


Lin

Hi Lin
I am not sure Jasmine can grow here. I have ordered a gardenia -but it will have to be put in a large pot and brought indoors during the winter. I have planted lavender - but the place I ordered it from sent it barerooted and half rotten - so I am not sure how many will survive this wet winter. However, I have found out how to remedy this and give the lavender more drainage. This spring I will dig up the survivors, and dig down below and line the bottom with gravel.

I will certainly send photos but this is a work in progress - so I don't expect anything spectacular for a few years ! Currently, I am trying to figure out how to grow sweetpeas until other things fill in.

Michaela

Seandor, Lazy S Farms has a jasmine, jasmine x stephanense, Stephan's Jasmine, that they say is hardy to zone 5 http://www.lazyssfarm.com/Plants/Vines/vines.htm . It has small pink blossoms and a light, but sweet jasmine fragrance, and beautiful golden-green jasmine foliage. http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/80118/index.html . I am growing it on one of my front porch posts (sheltered, eastern side of the house, AM sun, precipitation limited by a slight overhang,) and it's doing quite well. It's still green, and we've hit single digit temperatures. :)

This clone is supposedly thriving unprotected, north of me, in zone 5a on a chain link fence.

-Joe

I had never sown sweet peas and they are soooooooooooo easy to grow. I put some in containers and they came up in about a week (kept it watered well twice a day). We just experienced two below freezing nights and they did just fine.....getting bigger all the time...( I didn't knick or soak, but we normally have a warm climate for winter)..they smell so yummy when they do bloom.

I'm from UK, and it got pretty cold there - but it didn't stop the Jasmine blooming, and the Passion Flowers - very nice in Autumn (Fall) when the orange fruits hung on them then seeded themselves, I dug those up for friends. Also Camelias in spring. I used to plant crocus in my lawn, by the time the grass grew and needed cutting the flowers had finished so it was OK. The crocus and the Forsythia coming into bloom told me spring was on it's way. Good luck with your planting, what kind of soil have you there? The Garden was quite small compared to what I have now, just in front of the hollow wall was a rose bed and the wall was filled with Impatiens and Polyanthus. That's the passion flower hanging all over the Garage.

This message was edited Jan 21, 2007 1:24 PM

Wow, I'm impressed! I hope you post pictures as it all grows in. I love newly planted beds!! You made good planting choices too!

Gorgeous second pic too!

I hope I have something to photograph! I can hardly wait for spring - still 6 weeks until the daffodils . . .

Laughing, I'm excited too! My daffs were trying to poke thru last month, so I hope they use that headstart to come earlier!

Yes . . . I had some poking through too. I was worried because there was no snow cover. Now I can't wait for the snow to disappear.

My early daffodils bloomed in January and then froze to death along with my Hellebores booms.......so now what?

Gosh . . . I sure hope some of them will bloom for you. I wonder if the people on the bulb forum would know?

Well the ones that bloomed will certainly not bloom again until 2008...I just cut the limp flowers off my Hellebores yesterday. Our December and January were like May. It was ridiculous.

Aaww, lLevilyla, that's too bad. Such a disappointment. We wait all year for every one of our plants to bloom.

I had to peek at my crocus. Nope, still covered with snow. It won't be long tho!

I wish the snow would melt too. I'd like to just walk around my yard, but there's nothing to look at yet. Just ugly snow.

First blossoms in the garden :-)

Here are the daffodils

Beautiful! Love the curved bed!

Moss phlox. One of the first plants we dug from a ditch and brought home. I've had it since 1981.

Hello to all. I am new here as well. I'm a beginning gardener with more hope than knowledge, but I try to read a lot. I actually tried gardening a few years back, but had nothing but shade at my old house. This home has lots of sunlight just about everywhere with just a few lightly shaded spots. My passion is fragrance, fruit and flowers, in that order. On the successful side-- I planted two apple trees (Sundance and Pixie Crunch from Gurneys); a combo asian pear tree, two cherry trees (Rainier and Royal Ann) all from Raintree Nursery; blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and a combo "fruit cocktail" tree (for the kids) from DirectGardening. All but the raspberries and a few of the blueberries are doing extremely well. Also planted a pawpaw which had been doing great until hubby hit it with the lawnmower.

Not having so much luck on the fragrance front. I planted a Buckley's Quill mock orange that has been a huge disappointment. Beautiful flowers--NO SCENT AT ALL !! I am bitterly disappointed as I recall the scent of mock orange to be among my all time favorites. I killed two Kleim's Hardy gardenias and my viola Etain's have only minimal scent. I planted saponaria rubra plena (Bouncing Bett) from Flowerscent Gardens (what a dear man--so sorry he's closing shop). They bloomed last year (first year in) but didn't have much scent at all. Also planted a deutzia corymbiflora which is known for pretty flowers more than scent, but that looks dead this year. I have a large white peony that was given to me, not sure of the variety, but it smells fairly nice. Needs crazy amounts of staking or the blooms hit the dirt, though. I have one small lilac that smells lovely and two huge ones with no scent at all. These were all present before I moved here.

I could use some encouragement and/or advice, especially regarding my mock orange. I'm in Zone 6 and have heavy soil that doesn't drain well during prolonged rains, but I've tried to lighten it up with peat moss and compost. Other than that, I think my situation is pretty decent--lots of sunlight, good breezes due to a hilltop location and not too many pests. Japanese beetles are about the worst, but traps seem to keep them under control.

Could also use some help with figuring out how to coordinate plantings so that blooms are coordinated in both time and color grouping. I'm concentrating on my front of the house beds to keep a nice curb appeal.

Thanks for listening and again, hello to all!

Hi Natasha_cupcake!

Flowers, fragrance and fruit here :)) I wish I had room for more fruit tho!

You really have to look plants up to get what you want. I planted Mock Orange, Innocence, in 2003. It's just starting to get enough blooms to smell up close. You could trim the one you have to grow in a fountain shape and get another that will have fragrance.

I adore Bouncing Bett. I've had the single and double, but due to no room to spread, had to get rid of it. I love the spicy candy smell.

I'm not zone 6, so maybe someone else will have bloom time help. I go out every day and write down which plant is blooming and which bed it's in. It's one way to help me move plants I already have, around for bloom and color cordination.

Mock Orange taken a few days ago.

Thanks Billy! The pic is beautiful! I had been thinking about trying the mock orange you suggested. I believe it's Philadelphus x lemoinei "Innocence" as the correct nomenclature? I want to make sure that I don't get another non scented variety. I was also thinking of getting a Philadelphus Manteau d'Hermine which is, I believe, a lemoinei cross that is a lot smaller. I don't have room for the larger one near my windows, doors and walkway, so I wanted something close by for the aroma. The larger one will have to go in an island bed in the front lawn that I don't necessarily walk by every day.

I love your suggestion of writing down what's blooming and where on a daily basis. That sounds like an excellent way to figure out where to move things for an optimal "show". I'm going to give it a try!

Here are the gardens now :-) You can see the arbour in the background.

Here is another picture :-)

Another shot :-)

Here is what is offering beautiful scent right now : Yellow stargazer

Dizzy the lily

And Pink Pearl.

Other fragrant plants include lemon balsam, hyslop (sp?) Golden Jubilee, Blue Wonder catmint (I LOVE THIS!!!!) and the garden phlox are starting to bud.

Lavender is growing (1st year) and some of the plants have sent spikes of flowers.

Natasha, that sounds right. I researched them for fragrance before I bought one. This one smells nice, but not strong. It had one really long stem and I cut it back last fall so it matches the others. So far it's a kind of slow grower. I planted it in 2003

Seandor, I love your beds!!!!!!! I also love the colors and I adore oriental lilies. I don't have a yellow one yet, but I will! I do have dizzy and was thrilled with Acapulco this year. It was covered! Muscadet is gorgeous too.

We just enlarged this bed, so it needs to be filled in.

Billyporter - I don't have Muscadet - yet (lol). I love the layout of your garden :-)

You will probably end up with it :))

Thank you! All my beds are in the process of being reworked.

Muscadet.

Acapulco.

Lovely Girl.

Not fair! Not fair! Now I want some of each! lol

Your lilies are extraordinary, billyporter.

Thank you :)) I love them too :)) I want more!!

Stargazer.

My stargazers are new this year . . . haven't bloomed yet.

I keep reading how wonderful the cat mint is and I'm almost afraid to order it in case it's just like the common cat NIP that grows wild around here. So, I end up with Salvias to feed the bees and butterflies.

I had to look at your beds again. They sure filled out nicely.

I also have Nippon, but it is pretty drab and didn't do so well this year. Aubade is a shorter one and the rabbits ate the potential bloom off this spring. Except for Mona Lisa, that's all the Orientals I have. I just love them tho!

Casa Blanca.

seandor.....did you paint your fence or was it like that? in thread :

http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3755769

i really like it ....

sticks_n_stones, thanks for noticing. Yes, DH just painted the fence about 2 weeks ago.

It's one of those moments where, when the job is done, you think "Why didn't we do this before?" The painted fence looks so much cleaner - and really is a great background for the flowers. :-)

Seandor.

sean ...i love it..; what kind of paint is it and what color is it? yes, it is a very clean nice look.....did you paint both sides? ; did you have something that inspired you ....ie another picture you were inspired by?....i am feeling sorta scared about doing such a HUGE undertaking....and if it is a mistake it will be a big mistake....