Month: June 2017
Wild Blue Indigo and Bumblebees
June is a blue month in our garden. And perhaps my favorite blue flower for June is the Wild Blue Indigo (Baptisia australis). This is such a great plant: it’s beautiful, tough, and low-maintenance. Give it time and it will create a substantial presence, around four feet tall and wide.
Tomatoes in Part Sun?
You’re not supposed to grow tomatoes in part sun, everybody knows that. But I’m performing a little experiment. I wanted to grow tomatoes in containers on the back steps, along with some herbs: sweet basil, Thai basil, mint, chives, and parsley.
My Two Favorite Roses
My two favorite roses are blooming right now. ‘Cassie’ and ‘Sally Holmes’ are both shrub roses with fragrant white flowers. In our garden, they both keep their foliage disease free without sprays of any kind.
Why is Honest Abe in Our Garden?
Some people keep a Buddha statue in their garden. Others have St. Francis. For us, it’s Abraham Lincoln. Not a Lincoln statue, actually, just half of a bookend set I found online.
Solomon’s Plume, an Underused Woodland Native
Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum racemosum) has a lot in common with Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum). In fact, Solomon’s Plume more often went by the common name False Solomon’s Seal. Canny native plant sellers saw correctly that this undermined the woodlander’s appeal, and so they promoted an alternative. Either way, my point is that you are much …
The Summer Containers Are Planted
The front containers have just been sitting around for a month or so, containing nothing but ripening Tulip foliage and the Sweet Alyssum ‘Easter Bonnet Lemonade’ which I used to underplant the Tulips. I’ll let the Sweet Alyssum age in place while the new plants fill in. Speaking of aging in place, it’s funny that …
Virtue Rewarded and a Grass Divided
So the bad news is that once again there are Fourlined Plant Bugs (FPBs) in the garden.
More Partners for Golden Alexander
In a recent post I noted that ‘Walker’s Low’ Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii) combines nicely with Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea).
Behind ‘Blue Ice’ (Clematis)
This is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Clematis in our garden. After a short-lived Clematis wilt scare, ‘Multi-Blue’ has performed beautifully, its best year ever.
Could Sleep-Planting Be A Thing?
There are two mystery plants growing in the Driveway Border. Actually, two specimens of one species. They could be really big weeds, but my best guess is that they are Green Headed Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata).
gardeninacity 