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A life's work in the garden, my gardening idol

Category: Garden | Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:51 am

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We've been to visit a gardening friend who lives a bit further north. She's 75, and she's been gardening for most of her life. Her property isn't a lot bigger than ours, but it's got a very nice slope. Nobody knows how many plants she's got. She's been seed trading all over the world, and has made lots of international connections and good gardening friends. Some of them visit her every year, driving from Holland, Germany and from all over Norway. It's always a thrill to visit her and see what's new this year. Here she is:



Not only does she collect rare plants for her own garden, she's also very good at propagating and she sells her surplus. This is good for us! But bad news for our lawn. *lol* We managed to restrict ourselves this time around, mainly because many of her babies were already sold out. I owe her lots of thanks and admire the woman to the degree of worship. She was widowed last Christmas, but told us she finds comfort in her plants and all her gardening friends. I invite you for a walk in her garden. Click on the photo to start the slide show:



It's fairly full of plants, but she's still got a small piece of lawn where the grandchildren can play. Here are some close-ups of some of her blooms. I couldn't include all, and don't know the names for many of them, but I find them all lovely. Another slide show:



I wish I could have brought all Stewbies with me to her place. She loves meeting plant-crazy people, and is so kind and friendly one just has to become fond of her.



Last edited: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:51 am

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The times they are a-changing

Category: Garden | Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 8:39 pm

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I looked at the border overview photos from this spring, laughed, and ran outside to get some new ones. Just look at this:

Big border to the west:






The most eastward western border:





The big border to the east:













Got some blooms here and there too.

Edelweiss bud:



Ligularia przewalski. We use it as a summer hedge:



Lilium hansonii has started:



Those Oenothera have really big blooms for such small plants:



Busy bee:



Sempervivum flower. I find them pretty:



Maybe more blooms will come since it's beginning to heat up again outside.

Last edited: Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:35 pm

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Hosta madness part III

Category: Garden | Posted: Tue Jun 17, 2008 3:41 pm

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I've saved the ones that are very small and not much to see for last, and those that I either can't remember the name of or have been given a name for but don't quite believe it. *lol* Well, here we are:

Northern Lights, it's just a baby but will be very big one day:



Mountain Snow, baby too, also a big one:



Inniswood, supposed to be coppery as the season progresses, and a big one eventually:



This is Pilgrim, a fairly small hosta, but sweet:



Abiqua Moonbeam, another that's going to be tall and wide:



Twilight, can't remember why we got it in the first place:



Revolution, this one is so pretty with the green specks in the white center:



Brim Cup, fairly small but lovely:



H. sieboldiana, blue with purple blooms, and big:



Some kind of aureomarginata, or so I was told. Good at spreading out, and rather tall too:



Zounds, another that's going to grow very big, and very yellow:



Wolverine, young still, but pretty:



This is Snow Cap, we need to move it, it gets too tight where it is:



This is Cherry Berry, a mini with reddish stems:



Gold Standard, not very big nor very yellow, but will be in time:



Golden Tiara, a medium-sized sweetie:



This is either a H. crispula or some kind of H. undulata, but could be something else entirely:



Can't remember what this is, and can't find it in my book. It's medium sized and has a nice leaf colour:



This is the one everybody's got, but can I remember it's name? No. It starts out with ivory streaks, then goes a bit white before turning all green at the end of summer:



I was going to say that's it, but suddenly remembered two-three more out there. They're nothing much at the moment, though, so nobody is missing anything.

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Hosta madness part II

Category: Garden | Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 2:03 pm

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It's raining very hard outside, and that bodes well for most of our hostas. They like wet, but not standing wetness or bog conditions. This rain will make them grow big, and hopefully the sun will come out and give them colour later.

This little sweetie is "Vanilla Cream". Not much vanilla there as of yet:



"Red October":



"Snowflakes", a hosta that is really good at spreading out:



I think this one's called "Pearl Lake":



"Christmas Tree":



"On Stage":



Hosta sieboldiana "Elegans", it's big, blue and beautiful:




This one's called "Striptease":



"Frances Williams", another big one:



"Minuteman", still young:



"Whirlwind", also very young:



This is "Great Expectations":



We've still got a few more out there.

This blog entry has been viewed 942 times

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Hosta madness

Category: Garden | Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 4:04 pm

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My husband got bitten by the Hosta bug about five years ago. At the time we had six or seven of the more common Hosta types. By the last count we're up to 40, and my dearly beloved has a wish list longer than my arm. I've run out of creative ideas on how to mix hostas in between other acid-soil plants. Now it's all about how to mix plants in between the hostas! Here are a few of our plants:

Minima, smallest we've got at about 3-5 cm/ 1-2 inches:



H. fluctuans "Sagae", tallest so far at 70 cm/2,3 feet:




Some minis and small ones, this is "Geisha":



"Remember Me":



"Stilletto":



"Blue Moon":



"Island Charm":



"Sultana":



"Haydon Sunset":



Some bigger ones, this is "Blue Boy", looks exactly like "Blue Cadet" so we gave that one away:



"Spilt Milk":





"June", she'll get more yellow with more sun:



"Fire and Ice":



H. undulata:



H. undulata "Mediovariegata":



H. tokudama "flavocircinalis":



A couple of big ones I just can't recall the name of:





Hostas are fairly trouble free perennials. They sprout, grow, bloom, die down and that's it really. I remove the dead leaves either late autumn or early spring, fertilize twice during spring/early summer and divide them if/when they grow too big or they start to revert. This is what reverting looks like:

"Revolution":



H. undulata "Mediovariegata":



This is not our hosta, I just wanted to show it because it needs dividing every nine months! "Dream Weaver":



I could show lots more, but I guess you're sick of hostas by now, so I think I'll just leave it be.

This blog entry has been viewed 1011 times

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How does she do it?

Category: Garden | Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:56 am

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Went to see a friend yesterday. She's found out that she wants to grow palm trees and cacti outdoors. In Norway. It gets cold here! I was awestruck by her new setup:



Everything is looking so good in that garden:






Her Acers are prettier than many other people's flowers. Well, maybe not, but lovely anyway:





I thought that blue Rhododendron was gorgeus, but of course that one was just for starters:





She's got some really lovely orchids too:





And a tree peony, P. lutea:



The foliage colours are astounding. I've never seen a dark Heuchera with pink spots before:



The darkest Ligularia leaves I've ever seen:



She's got ferns:




Her fish are happy in the pond:



The woman's a true inspiration, with all the unusual varieties combined with the more common plants. Her use of grass and ferns in between everywhere gives her borders an airy quality. I asked her how many different hostas she had growing. She had counted about 100 in autumn, but was afraid she'd lost some over winter. More about those later.

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More like treasure hunting

Category: Garden | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:00 am

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I'm moving dirt today. Lots of it! I'll be moving dirt for days to come. This is all part of reclaiming the north side. We made a very nice border there, but due to several circumstances and my husband's bright idea to store lots of dirt from elsewhere in the garden right there, things are a bit... well... I won't say that!

Anyway, I've been digging away at weeds, and I found several small spring-flowering iris rhizomes, a Tradescantia, some Notholirion bulbs and some iris bulbs as well. And here I was, thinking the more tender plants had been moved already. I'm glad I found those, though. I've also found a plethora of big, fat worms. I carry them to the big western border, put them in and ask them kindly to go to work.

And this is how I spend my day: Three shovels of dirt, sift through for weed, roots and stones. Three more shovels, sift, until the wheel barrow is half full. That's heavy enough, thank you very much. Move dirt to designated spot. Dump dirt. Repeat twice, then have a ten-minute break in the hammock. After a couple of breaks, have a longer one inside the house where it's cool. Temps outside are now just past 25 deg C/77 deg F, and that's very hot for this area. I bet Toni is laughing her head off at me if she ever reads this. *red face here*

I have to confess that my kind, loving husband is getting a few not-too-kind nor loving thoughts thrown his way, but by the time he gets home I'm probably too worn-out to chase after him and dunk him in the children's pool. Lucky chap, he just don't know it.

Well, I'm done with my long indoors break now, so it's back outside for me. Shovel, sift, roll, dump. Shovel, sift, roll, dump.

This blog entry has been viewed 518 times

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The hedge monster

Category: Garden | Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 10:31 pm

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When we moved in 12 years ago, the border hedge was three meters tall, that's nearly 10 foot. The neighbour wanted to trim it, so I asked him to start on his side, and I'd follow up on our side. Only thing was, we didn't have an electrical hedge trimmer, and the hedge is about 38-40 meters long, that's 41-43 yards. So I took what we had, a chain saw. Since I'm short, I had to lift it over my head in order to get the proper height. The cutting part was easy, I just walked slowly, chain saw above my head, all the way from one end to the other. The cleaning-up part was far worse! The hedge is a kind of Spirea that blooms white in spring and looks good when untrimmed with the hanging, blooming branches.




It's got lovely scent too. Right now we're arguing with the next-door neighbour about that hedge but I think I've told you all about that before. I just wanted to show the hedge. It starts where I'm standing and goes all the way to those tall trees in the distance.

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Border overviews

Category: Garden | Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:56 pm

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We've got three flower borders that look nice, and three more that look like disaster areas. They're up for a change, and I'm not showing them, but I'd like to share the other ones with the Stewbies.

This is the big border to the west. It currently holds 12 peonies, a multitude of Aquilegia, lilies, primroses, crocus, Arisema, iris and other assorted bulbs and perennials of all sizes and flowering times:



This border is further to the east, but still on the west side of the house. It's two years old and everything in it is still small. The top is the herbs area, but also has a magnolia and a peony. Further down are 14 auriculas. In between we've got sedum, sempervivum, Oxalis and other small alpine perennials. Nearest area has Monarda, Haquetia, lilies, grasses and geranium:



Then it's the south-and-east monster, where the acid soil plants live. We've got roses, peonies, hostas, more hostas, lilies, larkspurs, trilliums, ferns, astilbe, meconopsis, woodland anemone, primroses, rhododendron and some evergreens and more besides.

Starting on the southside:





Looking eastward:



Furthest east:



And looking north:



It looks kind of boring now, with nearly nothing growing, but at least it shows the area we've got to play in. I hope you liked the tour.

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Spring flowering Primula and a bit more besides

Category: Garden | Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 7:48 pm

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I adore my early flowering Primula. They are colourful, they've got a lovely fragrance and they ask for so little but give me so much pleasure.

One of the Primula auriculas:



A double one with a white edge:



This one has a funny colour but I like it all the same:



These two were survivors from last year's indoor primrose shopping spree:





I've got three different Primula denticulata and I'm on the look-out for the pinker and more purple ones:







Another absolute favourite is the Fritillaria meleagris. I let them self-seed and have a big clump, but only one is blooming so far:



My last two Pulsatillas. I need to re-stock, I've lost a blue, purple, yellow and pink one.





The blue Anemone nemorosa:



I'd be lost without my spring flowers! It's still early and there are lots more under way out there. I greet each one by touching them, just to make sure they're for real maybe. Yes, I've probably got some diagnosis, but I'm happily ignorant and let's keep it that way.

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