Garden photos of '09.....#6

I will take either or both

thank you sooooo much!

I have a jade it has never bloomed how big does it have to be or how old
mine is about a foot tall and about three years old and no blooms
any secret into making it bloom

mona

We have a friend whose cats used to play hockey with jade plant leaves, they would nip one off & bat it around. The plant was in the kitchen, but I never saw it bloom.

I think they only bloom when perhaps root bound and have cool nights and the right amount of light. Ours don't bloom in the house, but the older ones always do in the greenhouse. Nothing that we do. Patti

My DD#3 has one she has had for over ten years.
It always spent the summer on the deck in full morning sun and lite shade PM.
It got so big she had to put it on casters so she could roll it out of the house for the summer.
It would bloom every year.
I think she still has it but its beyond controle and stays where she put it a coupla years ago. Its just magnificent.

Patti, your greenhouse is amazing! I think that I could live in there. In fact, I know I could because it's larger than my last apartment was! And a lot prettier too!

Those are good baby plants Willie!

Jo Ann, your DD's plant sounds wonderful.

side view

For those who follow the PNW hellebore thread, you'll have seen this and maybe some others, before.

This has a just a hint of red in it that isn't obvious in the picture. But, it's a great black flowered hellebore

this hydrangea has been sitting on the porch all winter as I trying to grow the witches broom out on it a little better before trying to take it off of the plant. This is one of the odd branches.

as is this as well.

this is what the "normal" part of it looks like.

Take at the hellebore nursery again.

.......

and the last for now.

Beautiful RC
Is the Hydrangea "Lemon Wave"?

Thanks.

ummm.... I think that it is... But, I'll have to check the tag. It might also be 'variegata' though, but I mostly think Lemon Wave.

that hydrangea looks pretty

Well, it has a lot of potential to be. And it should be some day!! It looked sort of funny last year because it's a pretty young plant and half of it (3 branches) grew about a foot taller than the other half, the side that's the witches broom. Maybe I'll get a good picture of it this year before I try to do something with the broom part.

Isnt it only 3 am your time?

Yep, I'm still going to bed though. :-p this cold has me taking naps now. Sleep for three hours, up for three, and repeat until I have to be at work.

It just got light out here. At least its dark and you can close your eyes and not see outside

Here is my Lemon Wave Hydrangea.
It was new in June and this is a pic taken in October.
I love the leaves,they werent very encouraging about blooms.OK with me.

Wow - cool hydrangea leaves, Shelly!

Redchic01, That would be cool if you could get a whole bush of that leaf. How do "brooms" work? I see many Japanese Maples listed as a "broom".

Ge1836 that is a nice 'Lemon Wave', mine was struggling last summer. I love variegated leaves, especially white and green ones. Some of the gold ones tend to look sickly, but not all and I do like plain golden leaved plants too.

I have been wanting 'Little Honey' that golden leaf Oakleaf Hydrangea and now I think it would look good with my planned Japanese Maple bed. I found this article which is inspiring along with seeing Redchic01 photo's of the hellebore. I first fell in love with the carex when I saw a picture of Victor's pond.
http://awaytogarden.com/10-thoughts-on-successful-underplanting

I would love to achieve the look with JMaples as the trees. I am getting some Hamamelis that should be nice in the planting for some fall foliage color and winter bloom color and I have the J maples, hellebore, heuchera, primrose and hosta coming from coops and hopefully ferns from one too. I will plant those along with some carex and some cool pale yellow siberian Iris that I ordered from PollyK along with other species Iris and ferns that I have on order. I think this bed will be the first bed I ever was able to design in my mind and plant the majority of it all at once rather than over years. It seems to be growing rather larger than I had first thought. Bring on the rented rototiller! My poor DH isn't going to know what hit him! Patti

Dont trust those husbands. They have a tendency to mow your stuff down.

Also if you need help, watch the 'yard care' workers.A friend who had here lawn mowed, found the people slashing the daylilies. 'Well, they're just weeds'. She is in a wheelchair & can no longer garden.

You know my kinky mind..... Not that I would do it BUT - handcuff them to the lawn mower or weedwacker. Put a shock dog collar on them ( I prefer Innotek ) turn it up to 10 and if they go to close press the controll button

Beautiful link Patti.
Carex is going on my wish list.
The golden leaf plants will look stunning against the JM's
Cant wait to see the finished garden.

Thats it I am outta here! Go shopping!

We don't have the lawn mower guys do anything to the beds except help me mulch it in the spring. I have only lost 2 little shrubs that the cages blew away into the woods and they didn't know they were planted there, my fault completely. But I would love to be able to have a little help even if they did some damage, but that isn't going to happen. I am thinking of getting rid of the lawn service too. But as they use one of those big stand up things, they do it very quickly and we don't water the grass, so it burns up by Aug. More beds less grass is good. Patti

Warm enough today to uncover crocus:

sherri that is an awful lot of detail?

I dont know? My dog is still alive and well.

Nice to see some bare ground, DP

Thanks Patti and Victor!

Jo Ann, that's a nice looking lemon wave there!

Sherri that collar idea is great!! lol

Patti, a "witches broom" is where a tree/shrub shoot out a branch that looks different than the rest of the plant, usually variegated, smaller growth, or contorted. So, when someone notices this, they'll try to get a plant out of just that one odd branch by taking it off of the parent plant. It then has to either be grafted on to standard rootstock, which is what they do with Japanese maples that are "brooms", or they try to get it grow roots of it's own. In the case with most hydrangeas, the cuttings usually root fairly easily with rooting hormones. However, plants that have very little green foliage on them often have a hard time rooting, so I think I'm going to try layering with this one so that I'm less likely to loose it. Anyhow..... if it works the whole bush would someday look just like that one branch!! That would be soooo cool!

actually if regular growth shows up just pinch it off to promote the look you want

Look buds on the pear tree (along with papa cardinal)

What a great photo!

Yeah, that's sort of what I was doing last year, but i really want it on it's own roots so that it can be it's own individual plant. Then maybe others could some day get the plant as well if it works!!! But, I'm very hesitant to pinch off all of the parent plant because the broom has soooo little chlorophyl in it that it might not function on its own. it'll have a better chance of that when it's a little larger. So, I've been leaving some of the host plant to help with photosynthesis until the broom is more likely to be successful by itself. Then hopefully I could share it with some of you!!

Definitely a great photo Jen!