Hackberry Trees, etc, #3

wonderous. Every single flower is so magical.

I love that song, Christi. Yes.

Hi Joann, beautiful blooms you have there....love the OP.

I'm waiting for three more plants to bloom so I can ID them.

Got a whole new crop of hackberry trees in the garden just since yesterday. aaarrrrggghhh.

I believe we started with Sharon seeking something good about the hackberry tree. Well, I would say tenacity is a desirable trait in some areas. This seed certainly has that as it develops in any kind of soil or weather. Nothing, nothing deters it. Now if some botanist would just try to find how it does this so it could be incorporated into other crops, he could literally feed the world. Pulled up the cabbage..cabbage loopers got 'em again. If I use Sevin Dust it is super dangerous to the bees and I have a bee and butterfly/bird garden. Sure don't want to endanger any of those beautiful creatures. Just have to buy cabbage at the store. The squash are just now getting started and they have borers. Again the solution is Sevin. Not gonna do it. Have to keep the horticultural soap nearby so it can do what it can.

I just weeded till it got so hot I thought I would fall in a dead faint, and found a tiny little blue flower in the grass. I know it is blue eyed grass, which I have never had, so how did it get here? And there is only one tiny little bloom. I wish It would spread, but I am afraid to move it, so the mower guy will surely mow it down,
what a dilemma...

Sorry about your hackberries, Christi...
But at least they stirred up enough controversy we gained a new group of gardening buddies.
Back to the weeds...a neverending chore. Now what am I do do with my one little stalk of blue eyed grass?

Yard crew came to cut the web worms out of the tops of the pecan trees. Before I knew it I had told them it was ok to trim the red oak tree. Well, it won't need pruning again for a long, long time, plus my pocketbook is a little flatter. It is hot here, too, Sharon. First day of June has brought with it our true summer weather. Water the hanging baskets 3xs a day.

Got to go pick up my neighbor's disabled step son from work. But I needed a cool break anyway. He is 50 years old and has the mind of a 7 year old maybe, but he has a summer job every year at KY State Park picking up trash on the grounds. he loves his job, and whenever I pick him up, he describes every morsel of trash he has picked up that day. I try to talk with him, but I find it difficult to talk about trash. Tried at one time to teach him the names of the trees, because there are many, but he can't learn them, however he can recite statistics and batting averages and football scores going back 50 years. So we have a hard time conversing.

Thank goodness it's only about 5 minutes driving time....

savant?

Yes. Exactly savant.

Today it was friendship, his dad was friends with Bob, and David misses both. He said he had lost his two best friends when they died. Then he said friends was not a good word. I asked him what was a good word, and he said family.

He doesn't speak plainly, but I can usually understand.
He wanted to know if I had anything for him to lift today, he likes me to call him so he can help me when something is heavy and I can't lift it. I didn't, but will think up something for him to do someday soon.

He really is much loved in this little block of older people.

He is seeking a reason to BE. We all need to be needed. Not surprised that you are his "family". Obviously since his two best friends died and left him (in his mind) that is not a good word. If he has a friend, they will soon be gone. How sad. I often remind myself how blessed I am in that I don't deal with a child that is not able to deal with the world. And then, who of us is able to deal with the world.

Went to my so-called sewing room (used to be Kelly's bedroom) to iron and got side tracked re-folding the heirloom quilts I inherited from my mother. Seems like everywhere I go in my home there are reminders of those I love so dearly. It's a good thing. And I am very,very,very easily side tracked.

xoxox
Christi

Sharon, Christi and JoAnn,
Got computer back yesterday and got it going today! Mac shop seems confident problem resolved, but if problem reappears, son, Tim, can have this computer (much more tech savy than us), and following the advice, we will get a new computer.
Sharon, just read your Ivy article - charming as ever. I don't want to tempt fate to reply because our server has just changed and have had resurfacing server related E-mail problems. Dave's newsletter comes in by E-mail, though don't think it's relevant to responding to an article.
Hope all the pets good.
Charlie

Great to see you, Charlie, you were sorely missed. Don't you just hate computer problems? Mine was acting wacky last night and I realized how I would suffer if anything happened to it.

I have finished weeding all my front beds, one large one in the back, and half of another large one back there too. I still have my 2 side beds to do, and by that time it'll be time to start over. What did you do this summer, they ask?? I weeded my life away, I'll answer.

And it is getting too hot to get out there, up in the 90's now, and sweltering. And I am having to water a lot. Whyever did I think I needed so many flower beds. But my daylilies are beginning to bloom and it is very cheerful out there. I'll try for some photos today.

Hope you all are well and I know you are busy, treat your computer kindly Charlie, we don't like when you are missing.

Sharon great to hear the action. We're actually lucky with temperature,
fair bit of rain - good planting annuals still. 'To weed, or not to weed?'
OK - 'To weed'
clementine columbine, Biedermeier behind.

English bluebells, surrounded by columbine (alpina), alliums (must be 'Purple Sensation' or gigantea - which? - hybrid?), phlox, helenium, globe flower, giant bell flower and rose. - need to do some moving/reducing of plants in time!
Tallamy book - not pro ivy.
Off to finish with annuals.

Ha! Now how did I know Tallamy would not be pro ivy!!!

Great blooms, by the way.

I have lots of daylilies blooming today, most of them old noids, because they came from different places over the years. But I love them, even if they have no names.

Three different ones here, and I don't know a single name, think I'll name them myself:
Great Grandma Combs (the golden orange)
Uncle Bill (red)
Miss Erma (salmon)

Now they are named....Ha!

They are beautiful, Sharon. After all this time as a subscriber to DG I still don't know the names of anything. Not unless it came to me by accident. Should I be asked what plants/flowers I have.....There are green plants, red flowers, purple flower, yellow, etc.

I love all of them. Today pulled up two that I finally recognized as weeds. There is one that is very large and I am waiting for it to bloom so I can tell whether it is a keeper or not.
It is oddly familiar so it must be a weed.

I sold all of my vintage hats at a garage sale. Whaaaa.

You are just going to have to get a new one or two, Christi....

Lovely daylilies Sharon.
Like idea of providing one's own names.
Lot less stressful than trying to keep tabs on everything.
Just trying to craft a response to the Tallamy book.

Alliums.
Useful when not a lot of other things blooming.

Columbine.
Know it's either a Biedermeier or a Winky, but can't make mind up.
From pictures, maybe a difference in shape of seed pods. (?)
German-type tall iris not in bloom yet.

Very pretty, Charlie, I've missed you and your photos.

New daylily here....

Lovely Sharon. A very delicate pink.
Why is it that your pinks come out so much better than mine?
Is it camera quality? Attention to, or local, lighting? ?
A pink as light as that would certainly come out as white in my pictures.

Charlie, not sure, but yes, I do pay attention to lighting. I think it is the art teacher in me maybe. Actually the bloom was a very creamy color this morning, and by tonight it had a lavender cast to it...sort of like 'moonglow' or pink in the moonlight, hard to explain.

It was a little dark and cloudy today and I was dodging raindrops to get the photos.

Here's another, see the raindrops?

Funny how things are so quiet when Charlie is gone for the weekend.
I have been working night and day fighting weeds, and have just now won the battle.
YES!!!

Thanks Sharon - took pictures, not in bright light (been a bit overcast recently)
- they may have better color (well at least some of them). Intuitively, one might think that bright light is best, but it does not seem to be so.
Rained a fair bit at cottage, but was pretty busy.

Carol planting deck boxes.

Working on parking area.

Got back.
Iris (yellow - from Carol's deceased Grandma's cottage near Timmins (way up north)). Think they are 'Honorabile' (a French iris, 1840), apparently common in the U.S.. As said, Carol's mother's family were from the U.S. and it is probable that Grandma Dodge took them, from the U.S., up north.

Columbines, Japanese primula, Jacob's ladder, globe flower, alliums and forget-me-nots.

Also from our garden today - Iris graminea
(graminea means something like grass-like).

My turn to fight weeds here!

Hi Charlie, great photos...
Sorry I can't linger, but stormy here and lights are flickering. I am writing between flickers, so more tomorrow...

Hi Sharon,
We were lucky same thing did not happen at cottage. Some lightening down here, last night. Several years ago, nextdoor neighbours' house was hit by lightening and it 'fried?' his computer.
Better go carefully yourself - hear from you when it is safe.
Charlie

Jacob's ladder, German catchfly, alliums and iris (not out yet).

Siberian iris.

My favorite iris - got when iris bed at a North Toronto public garden was terminated about 30 years ago. Never had the name.

Some of annuals been doing.

Oh my goodness, Charlie, how beautiful. What is that black weeping thing on the far right in the last photo? The contrast is wonderful.

Lovely gardens, and I have that iris, too. Very old and also one of my favorites.

I had no idea Sharon, but you inspired me to look it up. I think it is Purple Fountain Beech. It's tall and narrow, with purple leaves. It may be that the leaves get greener later on in the growing season.
I'd like to know more about shrubs and trees. Was asked to plant a couple more shrubs at this address (round side). Been looking at garden centers locally and surprised at how few native shrubs were there (I think). I don't accept the automatic desirability of large canopy trees on small properties, particularly at the property line (shades out neighbors). Tallamy himself has 10 acres. But I do agree with trying to use as many native plants as possible.
Have to send a reply on this matter.

I am not as knowledgeable about shrubs either. I do know a little about our native trees, though. And I particularly know what grew in the mountains of my hometown. Shrubs, no, I have to ask about them.

I am trying to decide where I want a hydrangea right now. My neighbor has 3 beautiful ones.

Envy envy envy...