Garden Pics: 'Postcards from the Garden.'...#7

This is what's happened to every foxglove I've ever tried.

It is a cool lily, but if it's that noxious, I think I'll stick with callas!

the1pony- I guess that is why it is near the patio. Almost worth the smell of carrion.

lol..... I don't know about that. I think that the farther away from the patio the better! i had a voodoo lilly just appear in my yard one season. In fact I had to have it ID'd here on DG as I'd never seen anything like it before. I had no idea about the smell of them and I was out working in the yard down wind of it. I seriously thought that something had died in the yard and I went around looking for whatever dead critter was in my yard. It's still there, but now I don't work down wind of it.

lrwells50- I don't think it is particularly noxious --- just smelly..........but it is so bazaar in appearance makes it worth growing

Funny I was in North Seattle today wandering through a little local pea patch and soVeone had put a dracunculus in with their flowers. It was such a nice touch!! Shelly I can't believe you had one just show up!

Yeah, i agree completely. I figure that it either a) came in as a seed in the pot of another plant b) a bird brought the seed c) it has been there since the houses that were in the area were destroyed in the early 1950's

Took a load of stuff back to our green dump today. Took the 'work cart.'

Stop at my favorite place for a breather. The river was running fast as usual, sounded so pretty going over the rocks.

Went back up by the dry (right now anyway) river bed to see what was happening. I can't believe these come up where there was water a couple of months ago.

Of course the soil would be super rich!

The blackberries are blooming like crazy. Looks like a good crop this year. Berry cobbler coming soon!

A different view of the river. This is the Willamette Coast Fork that runs behind our place.

neat pictures Sally. the setting there is so nice and peaceful! I love your 'work cart' lol. I want one of those!

We're the fourth owner here in the park. Our friend moved out and we bought it from her. I use it a lot in summer. My neighbor volunteered to take my stuff back with his, but I said no thanks, I'd miss out on my break.

Yep, I agree. I want every excuse to go for that ride too!

This was a surprise to see yesterday. My Poker primrose did not form a point. Very strange looking.

All the other seem just fine and growing normally. The goofy one is up in the top right in this photo.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 3:37 PM

Sally what a beautiful place you live in. Going to the green dump seems like the reward after hard work in the garden!

Beahive that's a strange one!

definitely strange. strangely enough.... still pretty

I took a few pics this weekend, but didn't have the energy to post until today.

RC, You have a big project going on! Looks familiar actually...we still have a couple of places that look similar. Really nice when they are done though! Your clem pictures are great...I especially like the close up!

Irwells, I can't imagine an unhealthy foxglove, and I love your Oleander! My inlaws have a really nice one in Arizona, and they keep threatening to yank it out because of the mess. I think that Katye is absolutely correct about zones being based on the lows and not really taking into account the average temps. I am a daylily freak, and so many of the flowers I love I can't grow true to color here because we don't get hot enough.

Pony, I love your dahliah!

Willow, I can't believe all of your lovely rhodies. Blue Ensign is my favorite of this batch, but you have so many lovely ones it is amazing!

Azorina, your voodoo lily is really cool! What an interesting addition to the garden. If it smells that bad, I wonder how dogs would react to it? Maybe something cool to roll in?

Sally, What a beautiful drive to the green dump! It's not very often that you can enjoy such beauty and run an errand at the same time!

Bea, What a funky primrose! It looks kind of like a platypus! I have always admired the pokers, but had one that bloomed for one year and then disapeared, so I haven't been inclined to try them again. Your grouping makes me want to reconsider!

My Saturday morning was spent working on the road with the neighbors...one of the disadvantages of living on a non-maintained hill. When I finally got to start on my own projects, the first one on the list was getting my daylily seedlings in the ground.

NOTE TO SELF: No one in their right mind needs to start 300 daylily seedlings, no matter how interesting making the crosses is!

One of my deck peonys popped this weekend.

A cool poppy triangle.

I love foxglove bellies!

We had a wonderful rain on Saturday night..not too hard, but soaked the seedlings good.

Gypsy Dancer is starting to bloom, and the rain on the bud was beautiful.

Not a sign of the mountain Sunday morning. The view was still gorgeous though!

My milk thistle has grown by leaps and bounds in the last week.

And the last one for now....the sunlight streak on the foothills under the cloudcover last night fortold of a better day today.

Sally_OR-Great pots!
RJ your pics are wonderful but in person your garden is even more spectacular as well as PNWgirl's! But what are you going to do with 300 day lily seedlings? Your energy is enviable!
BeaHive- Love your Poker primrose especially the goofy one.
Great pictures from everyone!
Looks like it is off to the nursery for more stuff with all these ideas in mind!
(I just found a coupla spots to fill!)

Thanks everyone, we really enjoy living here. I'll be making almost daily trips back to the green dump for a while. Trimmed one of mom's rhodies this morning, it's huge......two full barrels (crammed full) so I'll be going back in a little while. 4 more rhodies to go at her house, then my iris and yikes the beds need weeding again!!!

Great pictures RJ and Bea......love the poker primrose. Nice mountain shots RJ.

Of course, this is minor compared to 300 seedlings!!!

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 2:30 PM can't spell today.lol

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 2:31 PM

300 daylily seedlings?! *boggle* o.0

Fortunately, with the daylily seedlings, I was able to steal a row and a half of the family vegie garden to line them out in. And they are in a double row, spaced about 6 inches apart, so they only took up 90 feet of row space. The THEORY is that when they bloom for the first time (maybe some this fall, but mostly in the next couple of years) I will be able to evaluate them and dig out the ugly ones to compost, and move any fabulous ones into the yard. A big problem with that theory however, is that I have a hard time imagining a flower that is ugly enough for me to be able to toss the whole plant...especially from the crosses that I have used. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

The row on the left, and then the back section of the second row was my 5 hours of daylily planting. Mom kept herself busy putting in the tomatoes (front half of second row to left) and corn (right front), and then running up the hill for a shot of brandy for each of us to enjoy while we finished the task of charting all of the daylilies I planted before the dogs or the deer run away with the nametags!

RJ.. 300 seedlins. That's a big project. Happy you have the acres to plant them.


Cutter Bee's are helping with my pruning. Guess the like redbud saplings...Darn it!

Thanks RJ..... OMG, 300 seedlings! That's definitely a bit of craziness going on there. I'm sure that you're much more able to manage it than I would be able to. That's a wonderful picture of gypsy dancer. Hate those cutter bee's.

Azorina.... did you find anything good while at the nursery?

red. you have that right..those cutter bees are naughty! Love the honey and bumbles..but wasp, hornets and cutters most move on to another garden. Soon! Something is eating my green bean leaves too. It is not slug damage...could it be a beetle?. What bug eats green beans?. Not touching the snap peasand they are in the same raised bed...go figure!

Found 4 frogs today. two in this picture.

Bea, love the new frogs. RJ I still get tired thinking about the past weekend that we both went through!

RJ and PNW You guys worked HARD!! OMG, you were planting crazy! I can't wait to see your daylilys. . How did Phoenix manage with Mom being so busy? Is she still going to work with you? That white Peony is drop dead gorgeous.
Azorina, You got me hooked on the tropicals. I bought 2 palms at Costco last week, I think they are Windmill, no tags on them. And a Hardy Banana just happened to find its way into my cart at the nursery a couple days ago. How long will the palm trees live in their pots until I get them planted? They are about 5ft tall.
Beahive, you have such a beautiful garden. I truly enjoy viewing your pictures, and your frogs are adorable. I was saddened to hear about Big Mama. I miss her!
1Pony, do you live in Lakewood near Tacoma or the other Lakewood up north? Are you going to make it to our Roundup this year?

Lynn, I'm in the Lakewood by Tacoma. First I'd heard of the roundup was yesterday, and it does sound like fun! Not sure how I'd get there though, I don't trust my old junker car to take me more than a few miles from home. She's kinda scary. But maybe I can find somebody to go with. :)

I'm all a-twitter, my neighbor down the street came over and asked me if I wanted his 3 palms, he was tired of them. I have NO idea where to put them, and I've never had any before so I'm clueless on what they need care-wise, but yay for free plants! (they're kinda ratty and need TLC, anybody got any advice for me?)

Love the frog picture Bea!
Lynn... sounds like you've been planting quite busy planting a few things as well!
Pony... what a cool thing to have been given those by your neighbor! That should be interesting. Sorry, I definitely lack in the advice area for palms. There's only one kind that will grow here, marginally, and they take forever to grow.

Lynn- Palms do very well in pots. They may need to move into a larger pot this season especially if you see roots coming out of the bottom. I try to avoid disturbing the roots when replanting, (according to Cisco Morris), instead just gently loosening them a little if they need it. During the prolonged cold spell last winter I moved all my small palms in the garage until the temps warmed.(About 5 days) If you are planting them in the ground I would try to do that this month so they have plenty of time to settle in before the season ends. It seems they need magnesium to avoid the leaf ends from turning brown and to keep their blue-green color, so I use a couple of tablespoons (or a small handfull) of Epsom salts every few weeks until the color is good. They will "talk" to you. I like to use organic all purpose fertilizer as well.

the1pony- What a windfall! Palms can take quite a bit of shade or sun........they seem tolerant of either. Plant them and water them good the first year. My motto is if it is ugly.........cut it off! Be careful not to plant them too shallow.

This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 10:26 PM

a quick few from today.