Has something like this ever happened to you? I planted some ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata) in the fall of 2010. The following spring there is no sign of it. I assume they didn’t make it through the winter. All through 2011 ironweed seemed as absent from my garden as coconut palms. Fast forward to this summer. I saw some tall weeds …
The last time I went on the Evanston Garden Walk was in 2007, and I swore I wouldn’t go again. What stuck in my craw was that the event seemed to show off the gardens of people who were not gardeners, but who hired a pricey but very nice local garden center to produce an …
I like daylilies, but I am not a fanatic, like some people I know of. I don’t belong to the American Hemorocallis Society. I don’t use up my garden budget buying the latest cultivars. My enthusiasm for daylilies is more episodic. Every few years I think to myself: what this border really needs is some …
The milkweeds in my garden are blooming their hearts out right now. Some of these are fragrant, and they give the air around them a honey/vanilla scent. I love these plants for the colors, the scent, the unusual shape of the flowers, and the (mostly) easy cultivation. Right now I have three kinds of milkweed in bloom: Swamp …
Thanks for the rain, but could you turn up the AC? Friday we finally got a decent amount of rain, and I’m giving the soaker hoses a rest. However, it’s brutally hot and humid, and temperatures are supposed to stay in the 90s all week. I try to take a lot of breaks and drink …
So where do you come down on the issue of native versus exotic plants? Seems to me there are three camps one can belong to. The first argues for gardening exclusively with natives. The second says that it makes sense to include natives in the garden, but it would be a mistake to exclude all the wonderful exotic …
So I had what I thought was a brilliant, original idea. Grow Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) in front of ‘Jackman’ Clematis (Clematis jackmanii). I love both plants. Jackman Clematis are widely esteemed for being smothered with rich purple flowers. Cup Plant, on the other hand, is not too common as a garden plant. Mainly it …
Succession of Blooms. In case you were in any doubt, the flowers in my garden as well as the calendar will tell you that we have crossed the line from Spring into Summer. The Columbine, Penstemon, and even the Salvia are done. Now the Swamp Milkweed (the white Asclepias incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’ the red/pink straight species) have begun blooming, …
If your purple coneflowers look like this, go get your shovel. The first Purple Coneflowers just started to bloom a few days ago. I saw that on one plant the flowers were discolored and the ray flowers were undersized. I have lost a number of Purple Coneflowers to the viral disease Aster Yellows in the past. However, the symptoms …
My Asiatic lilies are approaching their peak. I ordered 50 lily bulbs eight years ago and planted them around the dripline of an old eastern red cedar that I had limbed up. This was a silly thing to do, I later realized, as the lilies struggled with the competition from the cedar. Eventually I removed the …
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