This and That

The caladiums seem to be doing well.  There were a few flower stalks, earlier this month, but I cut them off after reading that the flowers aren't that showy and are often removed to redirect energy to leaf production.

I've planted some morning glories in the trellis planter where the English ivy used to live.  It remains to be seen if that spot gets enough sun for them to bloom much, but last year a moonflower vine seemed happy enough in that area.  I'd still like to eventually put something perennial (maybe even evergreen) in that planter, but for now, I have plenty of annual vines-- and this gives us more time to weigh our options.

Speaking of morning glories, I have lots and lots of seedlings in need of planting.  Too many, really, but maybe this way a few will escape the rabbits long enough to flower!  (There's at least one rabbit living under our shed, and once I came upon a rabbit in a flowerbed in the middle of the day.  That's pretty bold!)

The giant plume ginger leaves are unfurling.  Very exotic foliage.  I like the ribbing and the red stripe down the center of each leaf.  The bottoms of the leaves are slightly fuzzy, too, which is interesting.

Oh, and on a related note, there's finally a sign of life from Curcuma 'Scarlet Fever'!  I was getting worried about that one, so I need to make a mental note that it's very late to emerge.  Now I have to decide where exactly to move it, because I think it probably would benefit from a little more sun.  Somewhere in that same area of the garden-- the semi-shade garden-- but closer to the middle or front, maybe...

Side view of the Chinese foxglove:

The insects are out in full force again.  Lots of wasps, but also bees, flies, dragonflies, fireflies, and beetles.  We're also seeing our usual many green anoles and (what I guess are) five-lined skinks (the kind with rainbowy stripes and blue-tipped tails).  Blue jays, mockingbirds, cardinals, house wrens.  Martins, hawks, crows, and the occasional vulture in the sky.  A bat or two at twilight.  Rabbits.  Squirrels (not so much in the fenced yard as outside it).  And we've been seeing a couple of foxes on the easement, a number of times, lately.  (There were also a few nights when we heard them calling very loudly just on the edges of the yard.)

This 'Blue Bedder' sage by the garage is doing better than most of the others.  Some of them returned in spring, but are looking very droopy and scraggly now.  I'll probably try cutting them back by half (or more) to see if that rejuvenates them, but I'm skeptical.  It'll probably just finish them off-- but I think they may dwindle away slowly, otherwise.

The 'Sunshine' ligustrum is very pretty right now.  I've read that some people don't like yellow foliage because they think it looks sickly.  Personally, I love the way the way it stands out from everything around it.

That reminds me, this week I moved some of the daylilies from one side of the ligustrum.  (They went to the front edge of the flower garden, on either side of the stepping-stone path to the front yard.  I was surprised what an improvement that was!  That area needs some more plants to make it feel more like a garden.  If the new daylily seedlings do well, some of them will be headed there, eventually.)

In the place of the daylilies, I put some seed-started celosia and a clearance plant-- 'Blackbird' euphorbia (a.k.a. cushion spurge).  I've never grown euphorbia before, but it looks interesting in photos-- especially when it blooms in spring.  This one's already bloomed, of course, which is why it was on clearance.  I think it will make a striking contrast with the golden ligustrum.

The pink shrub roses (unknown) have been blooming prettily.  I do wish I could ID this plant-- just for curiosity's sake.

The roses of Sharon have begun to bloom-- the single white and single purple (with red eye).

So far, the 'Pink Climador' clematis has been stingy with its flowers.  Only one bloom that I've seen.  It was a pretty one, though...

We've also had a couple of flowers on the red passionflower vine.  I think it's probably 'Lady Margaret'.  The second vine took a very long time to show any signs of life, this spring, but it finally has, so both of them came through their first winter alright.  They have a long way to go if they're going to cover their trellis, but the summer's just getting started.

The bog sage has just shot up like a rocket!  I planted it this spring, and it's already huge.  (I think the flowers are about at face-height for me.  Close to that, at least.)  I'm very happy with it so far.  The flowers are small, but they're such a beautiful blue-- a real blue.  Not violet or purple pretending to be blue.  ;o)

A few of my purple coneflowers from last year (or the year before) have begun to bloom, and I've recently planted several more plants that I started from home-grown seed, this spring.  I want to get a nice patch of these going.

I've set up a little spot for some of my succulents, at the sunny edge of the semi-shade garden.  Most of them are small, still, but I hope that by the end of the summer they will be heartier.

You can see the "succulent station" in the photo below, too, along with the stepping stones I placed to bridge between the gravel path and the front lawn.  All of this was set up very quickly and could be adjusted at some point, but I was surprised at how much of a difference it makes, already.  The stepping stones in particular make sense of the vast, empty expanse of mulch.

I took this photo before moving the daylilies, but they're at the end of the stepping stone path, flanking it.   As you can see, there's plenty of room for more plants, in this part of the garden.  I probably won't do much more planting before summer's end, though...  Maybe in autumn I'll have some things to plant or divide... Otherwise, it can wait until spring.

Musings, Including "Mass-- or Pass?"

Now that we've reached early summer (by the thermometer, if not the calendar), I'm trying to take a step back and evaluate the garden's progress.  What's doing well?  What needs improvement?  Should anything be moved (when cooler weather returns)?  I'm trying to visualize what flower beds will look like down the road, too-- at least two or three years from now.  What can I do this year (or the next) to set us up for success?

Since most of our daylilies are still young, they haven't had a chance to "clump up", so they're more impressive in macro/close-up photos than from a distance.  (There's usually only one scape per fan, with just one or two blooms open at a time, and many of these daylilies only have one fan at present.)  Also, since I had no way of knowing what most of the flowers would look like when I placed the plants, the color placement is pretty random.

It's possible that in years to come I will try to mark the daylily clumps when they bloom, then wait until autumn to dig them up and rearrange them by color and/or bloom-time.  I still haven't decided about that, though... For one thing, it sounds like a lot of work. (g) For another, I'm not so sure that I don't like a random scattering of color, for the most part... (Not surprisingly, I also like scrappy quilts and crocheted afghans.)

In my opinion, most daylilies go together pretty well, and our entire garden is very much "a little of this, a little of that", anyway-- which brings me to a subject I've been thinking about off and on for the past year or so.  Mass plantings.

I look at photos of gardens with huge drifts of a single plant-- a single shade or color of bloom-- and it's impressive.  That gardening style translates well to film and photographs, I think, and you see it mentioned so often that you begin to think that maybe that's how you're "supposed" to garden, these days.  However, as someone with a relatively new garden (at least, counting since I started putting more effort into it), the oft-touted "mass planting" method has its drawbacks.

--Expense and Risk.  
Depending on the plant (and the numbers purchased), mass plantings can be expensive-- a risky investment, if you're not sure that the plant in question is going to be successful in your particular garden.  Of course, cost may be less of an issue if you are careful to select something that either can be easily started from seed or multiplies quickly from just a few plants.  In that case, you may have to wait a while for the planting to achieve that full, luxurious look of an established garden.

Also filed under "Risk":  When something (pest, disease) comes along and wipes out all/most of a particular type of plant in your garden, it can be heartbreaking-- even more so if you have a huge planting that is suddenly demolished.  Even if it's not quite that drastic, every so often there's a year that's just not good for certain plants, and they under-perform.  Diversifying your plantings ensures that not all your eggs are in the same basket.  If one plant just staggers along this year, maybe the species next to it will thrive.

--Limited Options for Placement.
Like most people (I imagine), I'm often uncertain of how a new plant will do in a given location in my yard or garden, so if I do have multiples of a plant (or can divide one pot before planting), I'm tempted to try the same plant in two or three different spots--  not all grouped together.  In a few months (or a year or two), I'll have learned a lot about how the plant performs under different circumstances-- valuable information for future purchases and plantings.  (And unless all locations were equally successful, I can then move any "transplantable" plants to the most promising places available-- which would be a good time to start a miniature mass planting, it's true.)

--Limited Options for Variety.
Some of us garden mostly to create pleasing landscaping; some of us garden because we love to learn about, admire, and collect different plants.  However, surely most of us are doing at least a little of both.  I know I am!  I want my garden to beautify my home's outdoor spaces, but I'm also interested in trying many different plants, because it's just fun to have a diverse garden.  As much as I'm loving daylilies, for instance, I wouldn't want to have only daylilies.  Even with plenty of room for a large garden, practically speaking, I'm still limited for space.  I might still expand my flower garden with new beds, but at some point, I will have to practice restraint, because I need to stay within the bounds of what I can (and will) maintain.  With limited space, mass plantings of just a few kinds of plants effectively removes opportunities to play with a larger variety of plants.

--Limited Bloom Period.
Unless the mass plantings are of plants that look interesting all through spring, summer, and fall, large swaths of the garden may become dull (or even unsightly) after the blooming is over.  At least with a more cottage-style garden, there's usually a succession of bloom.  When one plant is done for the year, its neighbor may be ready to put on its own seasonal show.  (Of course, with careful plant selection, mass plantings can be attractive for month upon month.)

It all comes down to personal opinion.  Personal aesthetics.  Which pros outweigh which cons for each of us.

I think I'll always be a little of a hodge-podge cottage gardener, because I like to try out a lot of different plants on a limited budget (and within a limited space).  Also, I enjoy the look of really full, busy gardens.  What they lack in grandeur and elegance they make up for with charm and a sense of intimacy.  You can't take the plantings in all at one glance.  They reward a slow stroll and a closer inspection with new discoveries.

However, I have begun grouping multiples of plants, lately, on occasion.  Not just one here, one there, and the third one on the other side of the garden.  This is easier to do when I'm planting things I've started from seed (i.e. cheap and/or free plants).

I'd still be hesitant to purchase very many of the same plant at the same time, though.  Once I know a plant does well for me, I'm more likely to buy more of it, next time-- if I can resist the allure of something new and different, that is!

The garden is evolving as it expands-- as I learn which plants work well for me (and where).  When one plant fails or comes to its natural end, empty spots open up.

The same thing happens when I transplant things.  Last year, I had elephant ears in the spot to the right of the 'Sunshine' ligustrum.  I felt they got too much sun, so this year I moved them to a shadier location and replaced them with sun-loving canna lilies, which are just getting started growing.  If the cannas do well, they may stay right there, but if not, I'll try something else next year.

I guess no garden is ever "finished".  There's a never-ending cycle of maintenance-- but most of us are also always thinking up improvements beyond pruning, weeding, and mulching.

If no garden is ever really finished, nor is the gardener ever completely satisfied!

There's always room for improvement.  A tweak here or there...

A new part of the garden to develop, or an old part in need of revitalization...

Is it a mismatched jumble or an exuberant cottage-garden-jungle?

They say that red and pink clash, right?  Or is that a combo that's become trendy?

I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other, to tell the truth.  I'm pretty laissez-faire with color placement in the outdoors.

Besides, the laissez-faire approach is the easiest.  If you embrace a scrappy-patchwork-quilt aesthetic in the garden, anything goes.  Put plants where they'll get the right sun/water/space/soil and leave the rest to luck and fate.

...Well, maybe you tweak it a little, here and there.  A plant is moved from time to time, sure.  But it's not a strictly managed, tightly choreographed display.  A little spontaneity in the garden keeps it exciting.  (Though some might argue that too much spontaneity turns into visual cacophony and gives people a headache. (g))

Enough musing for one day. ;o)

More Daylilies (Seeds and Photos)

I've planted all the daylily seeds, now.

Following the instructions that came with the seeds, I wrapped them in a dampened paper towel, put the little bundle into a ziplocked bag, and set them aside to rest in a warm spot for a few days.  (This is the same method I've used in the past, though there are at least a few different ways of germinating daylily seeds. For instance, some people treat their seeds to a soak in a mild solution of hydrogen peroxide in water.  Others sprout seeds in the humidity of a closed plastic bag, but take pains to ensure that the dampened towel never comes in direct contact with the seeds.  Then there are those who sprout in baggies with a sprinkling of growing/sprouting medium-- perlite, for instance.  I'm sure there are more ways, too, but since I've had good luck with the paper towel method, I decided to stick with it.)

I planted the sprouted seeds in two batches.  (In between, the remaining seeds went back into the bag with their moistened paper towel.)  The second time, there were still several seeds that hadn't really sprouted, but they were starting to look a little moldy, so I popped the unsprouted seeds into a pot, too.  I doubt any of them will grow, but at least they have a fair chance.

In previous years, I've started the seeds in very small pots-- mostly yogurt cups with added drainage holes.  This time, I'd already used my supply of yogurt cups for other seeds, so I re-used some larger (6"?) nursery pots.  Maybe this actually makes more sense than the tiny cups.  The pots shouldn't dry out as quickly, for one thing, and I won't need to re-pot the seedlings quite as soon, either.

So, I put three sprouted seeds per pot and ended up with 37 of those 3-seed pots, for a total of 111 sprouted seeds.  Then there's the pot with the unsprouted seeds-- about 9 of them, I think-- crowded together into one more pot.  (I can always separate them, if more than one seedling even comes up.)

Considering that I ordered a pack of "100+" daylily seeds, I'm very satisfied with the results.  Now, I'm sure I'll lose some of those sprouted seeds, along the way.  Some might not ever put up green shoots.  Others may be weak and not survive to maturity.  There may even be an albino or two.  (I've had at least one before, and from what I've read, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to grow an albino daylily.)  But still, that's a good start.  Even with several failed seeds, you can't beat the price per plant.

Here's a photo I took a few days after planting some of the sprouted seeds.  They've grown since then, but I've yet to take more photos.  I'll try to get a decent picture this weekend.

Now for the many, many daylily photos since last post, including some plants we've seen before (but new flowers/photos).  There are about a gazillion photos, so unless you have a strong appetite for daylilies (and some of the same plant on different days), you might want to skim or skip this one altogether.

This next daylily has just bloomed for the first time in our garden.  It has by far the tallest scape (stem) of any I've grown.  The next tallest would be the solid tangerine daylily further up the page.  I used to think that one was tall, but this one is at least half a foot taller.