My Cottage Garden

Strange Blog Title

2011-10-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

I don't have any new pictures to share today. But one of my fellow bloggers pointed out to me that my last post on their 'blog rolls' show a post about a CBC blog about facebook 'rape pages'. For those who aren't Canadian, CBC is our national radeo and I didn't mean for that to show. I was reading the blog of one of my favourite CBC shows (a showed called 'Q') and I guess I clicked on something and somehow that blog got linked to mine.

It's not showing up on my posts in my dashboard at all, so I can't get rid of it. I don't believe it has anything to do with a virus though. I've run a virus check and everything seems to be okay.

Sorry for the inconvenience and I hope no one was bothered by this.

Diane

Me and My Bright Ideas!

2011-10-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

October 6, 2011

I see that something has made a nice lunch out of one of the narcissus 'Tete-a-Tete' bulbs that I wrote of in my last post. So much for my theory that the squirrels/chipmunks wouldn't bother them.

I will take the advise of Jennifer of Three Dogs in a Garden and I'll dig them up and plant them deeper!

I'll keep ya posted! (Wish me luck...)

Why don't you go over to Tootsie's Blog to see what's going on on other gardens!

Happy Gardening.

Bulbs and Last Blooms

2011-10-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

October 2, 2011

It's the beginning of October and I find myself wondering where the time is going!   But time marches on and the gardening season is slowing down. Here in Zone 4, we've had a few nights of light frost already. Those first frosts killed off my basil and tomatoes, and started turning the peony leaves that glorious red colour of fall.

We have pine needles and yellow leaves falling and that wonderful fall smell in the air.

One lovely job in the fall is to pick out and plant new spring bulbs. Since so many of my crocus bulbs of 2011 turned into chipmunk and squirrel food, I decided to try more daffodil bulbs this year.   I picked out some called 'Dutch Master', which are large and tall, a bag of mixed coloured ones 'Halo Cups Blend', and a bag of the adorable, dwarf 'Tete-a-Tetes'.   I am also trying some 'Delft Blue' hyacinths....I haven't grown them before and am not sure how they will do, so I am only doing a small grouping of three for now.

Narcissus 'Tete-a-Tete' Daffodils

Narcissus 'Halo Cups Blend' Daffodils

other lovelies

TThere are still a few things blooming in the garden now. The 'King Arthur' delphinium has given me one last, late bloom. The 'Autumn Joy' is turning darker. I love the way it starts out as pink and turns into this lovely dark burgandy. And the fall asters are always a delight, but the flowers aren't as bountiful as they usually are, and I think I probably should divide them in the spring.

last blooms of Delphinium 'King Arthur'

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Aster Michaelmas Daisy

Today, the weather is supposed to be nice, and I'm looking forward to an afternoon of cleaning up and doing some final weeding!

Happy Gardening.

Absentee Blogger

2011-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

September, 20, 2011

Hi Friends, Follwers and Fellow Gardeners,

I enjoy reading all your comments to me and really appreciate them. I've been really busy with some family issues (all sorting themselves out now) and haven't had any time to read your blogs.

I am really looking forward to getting caught up on my friends and follower's blogs and commenting back.

I'll be back soon!

Happy Gardening,
Diane

Red Ants!

2011-09-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

September 9, 2011

One of my favourite fall perennials is fall asters. I have, over time, separated and replanted mine, so I have about six of them, in different gardens. Late this summer I noticed that just one of them was looking very dry. I didn't think all that much of it, and just started giving it extra water. It seemed that the next time I looked, the plant was completely brown and crispy. See the photo below:

I checked closely and noticed the mulch was all dug up around the bottom of the plant and the soil seemed really sandy. The sandy soil was full of red ants! The only thing I can think of is that the sand was from below the soil, and something to do with the brick retaining wall. There is no sand to be seen anywhere else.

I did some 'google research' for humane ways to get rid of red ants. There are many ways, but I decided on the 'pour boiling water on the ant hill' approach. I also decided to pull up the fall aster and disgard it. I hope that was the right thing to do. The ants seem to be gone.

This is what the healthy plant, about six feet away, looked like at the time. It should be in full bloom shortly, so I'll post a photo of it again soon.

If anyone has had a similar problem, advice, or a comment about this, I would love to hear it!

Happy Gardening, everyone.

FF Last Week of August

2011-08-25T16:51:00.000-07:00

August 26, 2011

We are officially in the last week of August. Where did the summer go? The nights are getting cooler and the days are getting shorter. The garden still looks nice, although a recent all-night rain has the phlox looking a little ragged.

The rudbekia below is in it's prime this week. I'm not sure of the name of this one, as I got it from my friend, Rita. It's such a happy little plant and I love the way the buds look when they unfurl.

Rudbekia coneflower,
but I call them Brown-Eyed Susans

I wasn't sure what this one was called. It was given to me by a friend. Thanks to Alison at Bonney Lassie, it has now been identified to me as Malva sylvestris or Mallow!

Malva sylvestris

Below is a lovely 'Perennial Lobelia'. Rita gave me two, this white one, and a pretty blue one (not shown). I was surprized and delighted to see that the white one has all kinds of little seedling plants growing up beside it. At first I thought they might be weeds, so I'm really glad that my inner voice told me to let them be. I have enough to give a few to my garden club's plant sale next spring.

Perennial Lobelia with pink phlox

The 'Stargazer' lily. No explanation of this plant required. It's just plain beautiful and smells wonderful. My husband says to leave them on the outside of the house though. ;)

Lilium 'Stargazer'

Check out some really great garden blogs at Fertilizer Friday. I'll leave you with a look at my backyard border. This picture was taken last week, before the rain hit. It's the same garden shown in my last post 'Wordless Wednesday', but taken from the opposite end.

Happy Fertilizer Friday and Happy Gardening!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-16T05:19:00.000-07:00

August 16, 2011

August Back Border

Kew Gardens, London, England

2011-08-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm doing something new. I don't usually post about anything other than my own garden, but my blogging friend, Beth, is doing a fun travel theme party called Travels Near and Far, at her blog Beyond the Garden Gate.

In 2008, my best friend and I went to England. We had a wonderful time wandering around the streets of London, visiting historic places, browsing through fancy stores and museums. And gardens, of course!

For today's post I thought I'd show some photos from Kew Gardens, the Royal Botanical Gardens in London.

The Nosegay Garden
I could never explain what a nosegay garden is as well as
the following sign. I hope it's not too small to read.

the Formal Garden
As I understand it, these very structured gardens
were meant to look especially lovely, when viewed
from an upper window.

a pretty water feature

the Rose Arbour
I loved it here.

a better look at the roses climbing
on the arbour

Below is a photo of a lovely cottage which is on the Kew Gardens grounds. It was built for the royal family, in the 1700s. It was used for the family of Queen Charlotte for things like picnics. You can't go into the inside, but there are pictures and more information on the website here: Cottage.

I was really sorry to have just missed English Bluebell season - I could see the spent blooms just positively everywhere around this beautiful cottage.

Queen Charlotte's Cottage

Check out Beth's post Travels Near and Far out when you have a chance. She has wonderful pictures of a trip to New York City in today's post.

Happy Gardening, everyone.

Fertilizer Friday 'Flox'

2011-08-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

August 12, 2011

Happy Friday, everyone:

I'm a little busy today, but I wanted to post and link up toTootsie's Blog for Fertilizer Friday .

Today I'll just post some quick shots of the perennial phlox that's blooming right now. The phlox is really the 'mainstay' of my August border. I look forward to them all summer long.

Of the below photos, I only know the official name for the first two, 'Blue Paradise' and 'Bright Eyes'.

Have a great weekend of very happy gardening!

Glorious Colour Time in Zone 4

2011-08-04T19:40:00.000-07:00

August 5, 2011

back border with pink and red perennial phlox
in the foreground

First of all, Happy Birthday to my Mom (Muriel) and my niece (Shannon)!

Early August is a lovely time in my garden. The daylilies are still going strong and in a few short days, all the perennial phlox will be blooming at once.

Thanks to my dear friend, Rita, I have many different colours of phlox, from white to dark purple, and all the pinks in between!

Check out Tootsie's blog for links to many other beautiful garden blogs at
Fertilizer Friday.

double rudbekia, double shasta daisies, and 'Blue Paradise'
perennial phlox

white coneflower with rudbekia

'Bright Eyes' perennial phlox coming along

echinacea white coneflowers

hemerocallis red daylilies with 'Annabelle' hydrangea

liatris purple gayfeather

Hudson flirting from under the
red perennial phlox

I'll post more pictures of the perennial phlox in a few days. They are just about to be at their peak.

Happy Gardening and Happy Fertilizer Friday, everyone!

Can July be Almost Over?

2011-07-31T10:06:00.000-07:00

July 31, 2011

I may have to demand a recount of the days! Seriously though, as time does seem to march on, July was a wonderful month of blooms. It was relavitely hot and dry, but things in my garden seem to be well established now, and the roots seem to go deep into the ground to find the moisture.

Since I last posted, the perennial phlox have started to open, as well as the 'Pandora's Box', 'Catherine Woodbury', dark burgandy, and red daylilies. The liatris is starting to open and the rudbekia is coming along.

Today, I'm posting some photos of the side and front beds of the house. I didn't get my camera around to the back yard until the sun came out a bit too strongly for photos, so I'll get to that tomorrow!

front bed with orange daylilies, dogwood, and 'Invincibelle' hydrangea
the main items that show here

'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea
(Proven Winner plant - Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

'Annabelle' hydrangea

side border

dark purple perennial phlox behind
the 'Shirley poppies'

Hollyhocks, Rudbekia and More Poppies!

2011-07-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

July 21, 2011

Greetings from hot, humid Ontario. I'm going to be taking a week off from blogging - time for family to visit us and not much time for the computer. I'll be back to the computer in time for Fertilizer Friday next week though, and expect by that time the phlox will be out and the back border will be full of colour!

Here is the backyard border this week. Spirea, hydrangea, daisies, monkshood and some daylilies are on the go:

backyard border July 19

Meanwhile, in the side border, my love affair with 'Shirley' poppies continues. I now have a white one, and pink and white one, and a darker (almost red) and white one blooming. My learned-brother tells me to be prepared to 'weed them ruthlessly' next spring:

'Shirley' Poppies

A lovely addition to the garden this year, is this beautiful double rudbekia that I given by my friend, Paula. She brought down three different divisions of her rudbekia about a month ago, and I planted them in three different areas. This is the first one to bloom. It's just a gorgeous two-toned double:

double rudbekia

And last, but not least, for today's post, is my first real showing of hollyhocks. I really want to have the old-fashioned single ones (next year's project) but I love these double ones:

Alcea rosea Hollyhock
'Chater's Double Pink'

Until next week, everyone, happy gardending! I look forward to catching up with reading and commenting on your blogs then.

Favourite Hostas

2011-07-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2011

I love hostas! I have a fair bit of shade here, so I have about twenty different varieties. One was here when we bought the property (the 'Gold Standard') but most of the rest of them were purchased, either at garden centres or from a school fundraiser. Sadly, I don't know the names of the fund-raiser ones.

These are my favourite four. I think they are my favourites, because they all are always very healthy looking and not bothered by slugs.

'Blue Mouse Ears'

'First Frost'

'Gold Standard'

'June'

Shirley Poppy

2011-07-17T04:59:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2011

Poppy 'Shirley Double'

I've discovered Shirley poppies! My brother has grown them for years, in his zone 1 garden, and I have always admired them. For some unknown reason I never tried them until this year.

They were so worth the wait!

I sowed the seeds, directly into the garden, in early May. The seeds are so tiny, that I ended up with really dense patches of little seedlings, so I took my brother's advice and 'thinned like crazy'.

I will deadhead to prevent them from self-seeding overly randomly. I have very thick shredded cedar mulch in the bed, but I have a feeling they might just grow up from that, if left to their own devices.

I hope to collect some seeds and plant them where I want them to grow. I'll check with my brother on that though.

Blooms for Friday

2011-07-15T03:54:00.000-07:00

July 15, 2011

Happy Friday everyone.

I was away for about five days, and found a few more things blooming when I got back. It's amazing to see how much things can change in our gardens after only that much time. The shasta daisies are getting into the full swing of summer, as are the rose campions.

My back border is full of buds on the daylilies. And I can look forward to the perennial phlox in the weeks to come.

Here's what's going on today:

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snowdrift'
double shasta daisies beside 'Neon Blaze' spirea

allium just starting to open

side border with white rose campion lychnis
in foreground

little back steps garden with
magenta rose campion lychnis

Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' daylily

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snow Lady'
dwarf shasta daisy

back border with lots of green

There are links to wonderful garden blogs at May Dreams Gardens. It's fun to see what other gardeners have blooming on the 15th of each month. I'm also linking up with Tootsie over at Fertilizer Friday today.

Feedjit! (Vent)

2011-07-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

I always want to reciprocate when people take the time to make a comment on my blog.

But I really hate the 'Feedjit' feature that I see on blogs, leaving a little calling card telling the world that a 'visitor from (and my town's name)' has been there. If I wanted people to know exactly where I'm from, I'd let them know.

Sometimes you can click on the Feedjit widget and remove your IP altogether (in which case I'll leave a comment) but often you can only remove yourself from having your city or town's name left in the future (the first visit will remain.)

Does anybody else feel this way? Just a little invaded? Or is it just me?

FF for July 7

2011-07-08T04:58:00.000-07:00

July 7, 2011

I'm joining up with Tootsie over at Fertilizer Friday. Today, I thought I'd show some overall shots of my beds at the front of the house.

The front shrub bed, is one I put in last spring. I know next-to-nothing about shrubs, but I'm learning. In here I have a red-twig dogwood, a drarf snowball bush, an 'Invincibelle' hydrangea and spruce shrub. The spruce shrub is the only thing that we left from the messy-overgrown evergreen shrubs that were there before we lived here.

There's also a shot of the front and side of the house. You can see the perennial border that I've shown 'closer-up' shots of before.

My little hosta bed is in the backyard and I have different hostas in there.

And my 'Annabelle' hydrangea that is (cleverly) hiding our cement well cover!

Happy FF Everyone!

hosta bed

front shrub bed

front and side border

little bed to hide the well cover

Tuesday in My Garden

2011-07-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

July 5, 2011

It's the beginning of July and lots of things are starting to bloom. My first daylily is out, the 'Stella d'Oro'. Looking around at the various gardening blogs, I can see that this is a very popular one. It seems to be one of the earliest to bloom and is compact with a lovely gold coloured flower.

Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' Daylily

My delphiniums are really thriving, I'm happy to say. I planted four 'King Arthurs' (striking purple with white centres) last spring. All had a few small blooms last summer, but are doing fantastic this year. I also planted some of the 'Astolat' ones at the end of season last summer. I was intrigued by the tag colour and wasn't quite sure if they were pink or maeve. Turns out they are somewhere in between, also with white centres, and they are really pretty. They are just starting to open.

Delphimiun 'King Arthur'

Delphinium 'Astolat'

Also blooming for me right now are my evening primroses (which I love, but really keep them confined to a small area, lest they take over the world), Sweet Williams from my Dad's garden, and both my magenta and white lychnis (the white lychnis seeds were sent to me by an Oregon master gardener, who is a computer-friend, with the instructions not to plant them too close to the magenta ones - otherwise they can cross pollunate and all be light pink next year).

Oenothera Evening Primrose

Sweet Williams

Lychnis Coronaria Rose Campion (magenta)
Monkshood in back

Lychnis Coronaria Rose Campion (white)

Format, Font and Flora!

2011-06-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

June 30, 2011

First of all, about the new colours: I've been playing around with some new designs for my blog. I realize that the writing is more difficult to read on the black background and I've made the font a little bigger to see if that helps.

I'm still not happy with the ease of reading, but I don't have a lot of time to work on this today....PLEASE HAVE PATIENCE WITH ME, I'll try to get this rectified before my next post.

Now, to today's photos: I wanted to take some overall shots of the garden. I know I'm always intereted to see what other gardens look like as a 'big picture'. Hope you enjoy these.

Happy Gardening, everybody!

Back Border

Side Border

Front Shrub Bed

splash of color in the back border

Peony Love - "Pretty in Pink"

2011-06-27T16:09:00.000-07:00

June 27, 2011

For my money (at least in my zone) peonies are the Number One perennial for showiness. I love the way they look as a plant, the way they look as individual flowers, the way look as cut flowers, and the way they smell.

Below is my very favourite of all the peonies, the 'Bowl of Beauty'.

I bought a lovely new perennial book on the weekend, Lois Hole's 'Perennial Favourites'. In the book, she tells at what stage to cut the flowers and also how to dry them. She has a lovely photo in the book of dried peonies. I had no idea you could dry them. I'm experimenting with that now. I'll post photos later, if I'm able to accomplish it!

Happy Gardening, everyone.

Paeonia 'Bowl of Beauty' Peony

Paeonia 'Sarah Bernhardt' Peony

Cottage Garden Blooms on Fertilizer Friday

2011-06-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

June 24, 2011

Here we are on the last Friday of June. We've had a pretty much a good solid week of wet here, but one of my peonies has started to bloom and the other ones are close! I think I look forward to the peonies opening more than anything else.

I love to cut them, soak them in soapy water to get rid of the ants and put them in my best crystal vase!

Here is a little mosaic of the one that's blooming now. It's the only one I don't know the name of. It was mislabelled as a 'Bowl of Beauty' when I purchased it at a garden centre a few years ago. There are two tones of pink, and the difference in the two shades is ever-so-subtle.

Another of my favourites, that is in full bloom right now, is Salvia nemorosa Sage 'Caradonna'. It's dark purple flower stalks fade to an almost black seed head, which I leave on right until frost. The seed head looks almost as lovely as the flowers.

The hostas and ferns are really starting to fill in, beside the limestone walkway.

Ditto for my little hosta shade bed in the backyard. (I think I will ask my long-suffereing husband to trim some of the lower branches of the pine tree behind it. That way when the tree is bigger, the hostas will look wonderful under it.)

Happy Weekend and Happy Gardening to everyone! And please check out all the Fertilizer Friday happenings at Tootsie's Blog

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

June 22, 2011

Fertilizer Friday for June 17!

2011-06-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

June 17, 2011

I'm joining up with Tootsie and friends over at Fertilizer Friday. It's another nice way to meet garden bloggers from all over the world.

This is the time of year that the perennial borders seem to have a lot of lovely green foliage, and a lot of buds waiting to come out.

For colour in my borders right now, I have all my irises in bloom. In addition to the ones I have shown in recent posts, I have my Really Giant white one in bloom, as well as a purple one with white, a very dark one (almost a blackish-purple) and my favourite - a lavendar coloured one.

All these irises were gifts from my wonderful friend, Rita.

And I really cannot resist posting this photo of our little friend, who seems to live under our deck:

Happy Fertilizer Friday!

Have a great Weekend!

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

2011-06-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

June 15, 2011

I met lots of interesting gardeners by participating in Garden Blogger's Bloom Day last month, so here I am to do it again. It's a fun way to showcase what's going on in your garden on the 15th of each month. You can find out more about it May Dreams.

I have buds on a lot of my perennials now and a few more things coming into bloom. This is just a lovely time of year...what is more fun than going out into your garden after a long day of work, and seeing what has started blooming while you were away?

Papaver orientale Oriental Poppy 'Paradiso'

my side border with the Oriental Poppy against a backdrop
of blue cornflowers

Aconitum Monkshood

my little hosta bed in the shade

can't wait for the peonies to open!

one of the few annuals I bought this year
a salmon-coloured geranium in a pot my Dad gave me

Flower of the Week: 'Rita Heritage' Iris

2011-06-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

June 13, 2011

These are what I like to call my 'Rita Heritage' Irises! They were given to me by my dear friend, Rita, who got my lovely gardens off to a wonderful start by giving me many perennials out of her beautiful garden in 2008. She said that these irises were given to her, forty years before, by the woman who started HER out in gardening.

They are particularily tall and bloom early, but mainly because I have them planted against the white wall of our swimming pool, which also faces south.

I have come upon purple and white bearded irises that look suspiciously like these, in photos only, and think they may actually be called 'Wabash' irises.

But I will always think of them as my 'Rita Heritage' ones.

PS - Just so I don't give anyone the wrong impression, this 'Flower of the Week' post that I started last week isn't meant to be taken as any kind of advice or expertise or anything like that! As I mention in my 'About my Blog' section, I'm an amateur gardener who just likes to share information about my own garden.

I'm just going to pick my favourite flower that's blooming each week and kind of showcase it. Any sharing from the Blogging World is more than welcome in the comments section.

"White Choral Bells"

2011-06-09T23:51:00.000-07:00

June 10, 2011

Lilies of the Valley

More of my lilies of the valley. Just a favourite! When I was little, my Mom and I sang while we did the dishes. A little round that went:

White choral bells, upon a slender stalk,
Lilies of the valley deck my garden walk.
Oh don't you wish that you could hear them ring?
That can happen only when the fairies sing.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-08T07:17:00.000-07:00

June 8, 2011

Heuchera Coral Bells, Iris

Iris

Convallaria Lily of the Valley

Flower of the Week: Centaurea

2011-06-05T05:44:00.000-07:00

June 2, 2011

This beautiful flower is something new to me this year. I bought two of them at a plant sale last spring. This looks like one big plant now, which shows you how quickly they spread. The Centaurea, also known as Cornflower or Knapweed, is just starting to come into bloom. There are a good many buds on it, and it already looks great.

From what I read in my books, they bloom in early summer, but will also have a smaller flush of blooms in autumn. We shall see if they do in my zone.

The flowers look like little thistles, but they are soft to the touch. They make excellent cutting flowers and will do well in light shade as well as full sun. Mine are getting full sun, but I will experiment with moving some into light shade.

You might be asking yourself, should you put anything in your garden that has 'weed' in it's common name? I'll let you know about this time next year!

As I've already found out, they are fast spreaders, so they probably aren't a good choice for smaller gardens. I'm the type of gardener who doesn't mind quick spreading plants, as I have lots of room to move things to, friends to give plants to, and two composters for what's left over!

And you can't have too much blue in your garden. In my garden, anyway.

Things are Coming Along!

2011-05-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

May 28, 2011

It's a rainy day here. I've been doing some weeding and finished the garden clean up. Everything's late, but coming along nicely. The weather forecast is looking good for next week.

These are a couple of shots of the border that goes along the south side of our house. We built the bed in the fall of 2009 and put the perennials in last spring. Things are starting to take shape.

My Side Border

Tulipa 'Cracker' with some Phlox Moss Phlox

These are some shots of the limestone walkway. Most of this was planted last spring as well. This is the north side of our house and it's very shaded by a pine grove out front. My hope is that the left side (against the house) will have lots of high(ish) and colourful plants doing well in it. I have bee balm, digitalis, bleeding hearts, and monkshood here. On the right side, lots of hostas and ferns, and well as some low-growing things like lamium, violets, and other ground covers.

left side of the limestone walkway

right side of the limestone walkway

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

May 24, 2011

Muscari Grape Hyacinths

Myosotis Forget-Me-Not

Bleeding Heart

Arabis Rock Cress

Fertilizer Friday!

2011-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

May 20, 2011

I decided to join in the fun at Fertilizer Friday today. I enjoyed all the great garden blogs I discovered though the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, so I thought I'd try this. Check out Tootsie's blog all the information about it at: Fertilizer Fridays.

I posted this same view of the 'Apricot Beauties' and muscari last year, but I love the combination so much. It's one of my favourite 'happy coincidences' that they bloom together:

Tulipa 'Apricot Beauty and
Muscari (Grape Hyacinth)

These are my shade-growing tulips called 'Firespay'. They also have the interesting habit of having more than one flower on each stem. These are the second year for these, in my garden, and I notice they are somewhat smaller than they were the first year:

Tulipa 'Firespray' with a daffodil

Some other things that I have blooming today:

Tulipa 'Yellow Emporer'

Tulipa 'Wildhof' in the foreground and 'Fringed Elegance'
in the background.

Periwinkle

Lamium bought at a plant sale, so I don't
know the variety.

The hostas are starting to come up!

'Red Lady' fern

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

2011-05-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2011

I've been seeing 'Garden Blogger's Bloom Day' posts on some of the blogs I've been following and decided to join in the fun. The idea is to make a post about the things that are blooming in your garden, on the 15th of every month. Check it out at May Dreams Gardens.

I don't have a lot blooming right now (we're getting a late start in Zone 4).

I'm delighted to introduce, appearing for the first time in my garden, these darling little miniature 'Tete a Tete' daffodils. I planted them last fall.

These pretty little dwarf irises are new to my garden as well. In fact, I only transplanted them last week. They were found in a vacant lot, next-door to some friends of ours. They had once been a part of a garden, but the house on the property has long been torn down. All that is left is some perennials that have gone kind of wild and part of the old driveway.

I'm very sure the gardener who planted these would be very happy that we have transplated them to a new home, where they will be loved and cared for. (I'd love to know the species of this, if anyone can tell me.)

Iris

An interesting story about this Rock Cress is that I bought it from a home garden sale that a lady in my community had last spring. They had finished blooming for the year, by the time I bought them, and the lady had put tags on them calling them Edelweiss. My friend, Rita, who I talk about a lot of my blog, grew up in Germany and said they were 'definitely not' Edelweiss.

When they started to bloom a couple of days ago, I went to my trusty perennial book didn't see anything that looked like them. I posted the photos on my flickr web page, and a couple of my contacts there identified it as Arabis Rock Cress. I've looked up lots of information since, about Rock Cress, and this is definitely it.

As a co-incidence, the lady I got them from at her annual perennial sale yesterday morning, when the name of the plant was still a mystery to me. I tried to subtly tell her that they didn't look like the Edelweiss in my plant books and she said that she didn't really know the name of them, just thought Edelweiss was 'the closest thing to them'.

Arabis Rock Cress

The Pasque Flower just came out this morning. It's one of my favourites.

Pulsatilla Pasque Flower

And I'm really not sure how this one got in here....

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-11T02:56:00.000-07:00

Trading Perennials with Gardening Friends!

2011-05-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

May 5, 2011

One of the things I love about gardening is trading perennials with friends. Recently I had the opportunity to trade some crocuses (which the rabbits and chipmunks are playing havoc with at my house) for some more critter resistant spring-flowering bulbs. My good friend and garden-mentor, Rita, offered me some of her puschkinia, so I thought it would be a good idea to give her some of my crocuses. (Rita has hundreds of crocuses in her garden, and not many bunnies around to bother them.)

'Prince Claus' crocuses, some with the tops eaten
off, some with the bulbs taken.

Phooey!

Digging the crocuses up.

Maybe I planted these too deeply?

Ready for the move to Rita's Garden

So I took the crocuses up to Rita and spent a lovely morning having coffee, talking, and taking a drive to one of our favourite garden centres.

The 'Prince Claus' crocuses are now safely planted in Rita's Garden and I came home with the following beautiful bunch of puschkinia (the light coloured ones), some scilla (the blue ones) and something new-to-me, chionadoxa 'Glory of the Snow' (the pretty mauve ones). All of these are tucked into their new garden at my house now.

Thank you, Rita!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T12:05:00.000-07:00

May 4, 2011

Chionadoxa 'Glory of the Snow'

This and That

2011-05-02T05:32:00.001-07:00

May 2, 2011

I don't have anything in particular to blog about today. Just feel like posting.....

This is the bunny that has been eating my crocuses. You can see he's fat one. Soon all the white will be gone and he will be a nice brown colour. Much better camouflage!

This little crocus was a suprize. It came up through a pile of grass clippings, off behind the perennial border. I had forgotten I had planted some, hoping naturalize some last fall. I guess it worked!

This little one is called crocus 'Prince Claus' - it's tiny, white and has a little purple on the outer edges.

Another picture of a white and purple stripy crocus, just cause I love it.

And this is a sure sign of spring! I brought home four bags of garden mix soil from the hardware store.

Happy Gardening!

A Few of my Favourite Things

2011-04-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

April 29, 2011

Things are slowly coming along in the garden. It seems to be at a slow pace this year, because we really haven't had the warmest of weather yet.

A ray of light, after losing the majority of my crocuses to Mother Nature's little creatures, have been these two groups of spring bulbs. The puschkinia and the scilla. I will definitely plant more of these when the fall comes!

Puschkinia (Striped Squill)

Scilla (Bluebell, Squill)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-27T02:29:00.001-07:00

April 27, 2011

Every Garden Needs a Tabbycat!

2011-04-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

This is Hudson. We adopted him from the SPCA in 2008 and was a few years old at the time. We made up a birthday for him and we say he's five!

He's nine pounds of adorable. He's super affectionate and cuddly - a real 'people cat'. AND pretty darn photogenic, if I do say so.

As you can see, he's a brown tabby, with white paws. He's named after the explorer, Henry Hudson and the Hudson Hornet from the movie 'Cars.'

He loves to be outside with me. Since I don't want him to get hit by a car or caught by a fox, I taught him to be okay with being on a harness and tie-out and he is 'supervised' when we go out. I'm outside a lot in the summer, so it works out really well.

Hudson's favourite activities, while out in the garden, include watching chipmunks, eating moths only to throw them up, and getting me to pick him up for cuddles.

Progression of the Front Bed

2011-04-24T01:50:00.000-07:00

April 24, 2011

While we all wait for the nice weather, and something new to post about, I thought I'd add a post to continue my "My Garden's Progression" list in the sidebar.

This bed, at the front of our house had river stone mulch and four cedars when we moved in. The cedars weren't in the best of shape and there was one lone hosta in there (you can't see it in the picture), but it still remains and has been identified as a 'Gold Standard'. I love it. You can see it in the front(ish) left of the third picture.

We removed the stone and the cedars and replaced the bed with better soil, some more hostas and cedar mulch.

We added the limestone walkway in the fall of 2009 and planted it up with 'walkable' plants like Irish Moss and a couple of different types of thyme. Lots more hostas were added to both sides of the garden, as well as some colourful plants like bee balm, monkshood and foxglove.

The walkway leads from our front door to our garage. We shovelled the walkway this winter, so I'm waiting to see how the little plants in between the limestone fared over the winter.

2007

2008

2009

2010

Bulb Stealer

2011-04-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

April 21, 2011

So, it's a little bit hard to stay mad at these cute little guys. They carry off the little spring bulbs (but you never know, they may just plant them somewhere else).....

We got about 15 cms of snow yesterday (yesterday's blog entry photo was just the beginning of it), but it's all melting now. I can already see some new things popping up in the garden.

Happy Gardening!

Wordless Wednesday (Sigh)

2011-04-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

April 20, 2011

Lychnis Year One and Year Two

2011-04-16T06:31:00.000-07:00

April 16, 2011

One of my blogging contacts who lives in a more northern zone than I do, was asking me about the Lychnis 'Rose Campion' and getting it to bloom every year. It's a biennial and each plant blooms once, copiously spreads it seeds, which will grow into 'year one' plants the next year, then wonderfully bloom and spead copious amounts of seeds again the year after that!

The trick is to keep some of the seeds from the flowers and throw them, unceremoniously, on the ground where you want them to bloom two years hence! The seeds keep just fine in the cupboard for over two years, so you can make sure you plants some each year.

Or you could just buy them from nurseries and plant them two years in a row!

My contact was asking me if the seeds might stay dormant in the ground for more than one winter, and this I do not know.

But in case they do, the second picture is what the year one seedlings should look like when the snow is off:

Lychnis 'Rose Campion' Year One
(those little seedlings in the middle, will grow and bloom year after next)

Lychnis 'Rose Campion' Year Two
(will bloom grow tall stalks and bloom this year)

Rose Campion blooming beside Evening Primrose.

The lychnis that I have always grown is a beautiful magenta pink. It's just one of my very favourites and was the first one of my plants that my husband ever commented on.

A friend of mine from Oregon sent me some seeds for white Rose Campion two years ago. She is a Master Gardener and she told me to plant it as far away from the pink ones, as I could, as sometimes they will cross-pollinate and all become 'light pink'. I planted half the seeds when I got them (in 2009) and the other half of the seeds last summer (2010), so I should have my first flowers this year and every year after.

That's according to my 'master plan' anyway!

Happy Gardening.

I like rabbits and squirrels, but.............

2011-04-13T14:22:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2011

Some kind of little furry snaped the fresh growth off of some of the crocuses. Tough as the crocuses are, they bloomed anyway, but as you can see in the foreground, some of the flowers don't have tops! (You can see the damage in the three flowers at the front left side of the photo.)

I have sprinkled some blood meal around all my spring bulbs now. That's the only remedy I know of, that seems to work. I have to replenish if often, especially after it rains.

If any gardeners out there who read this know of any other tricks to get the critters away, I'd love to hear it!

Rita's Spring Garden

2011-04-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

April 9, 2011

Those of you who followed my blog last year, know about my dear friend Rita. She is my garden mentor as well as friend. Rita has taught me many things about gardening perennial flowers and given me many, many divisions of her beautiful treasures.

This is a mosaic of photographs I took in her garden yesterday.

The First Bloom Arrives!

2011-04-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

April 8, 2011

One of the happiest times of the year for me, is the day my first flower opens. It's like a celebration of the first day of the season. Today my first little 'Remembrance' crocus opened.

Special photo credit to my long-suffering husband for shading the crocus from the sun, with his body, so that I wouldn't have to find the patience to wait until late afternoon to take the shot!

And next up.........

My backyard perennial border (aka my pride and joy) is still pretty much dormant. (This is the border seen in my blog's header.) I'm sure there's lots going on under the ground though! In a week or so it should be dry enough for me to start cutting off the dead stalks, cleaning up the stalks that I cut back to ground level last fall and left on top of the crowns, and also the leaves and pine needles.

By that time, I will no-doubt find all kinds of interesting little things poking their heads up.

Until then, happy gardening!

Welcome Spring 2011!

2011-04-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

April 2, 2011

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my 2011 Garden Blog. I've been excited to start posting again. A few people asked me why I didn't continue blogging over the winter, but my garden is literally under a thick blanket of snow during those months.

We've had nice weather during the last couple of weeks (getting up to plus five or so celcius during the day but going below freezing during the night.) We still have a fair bit of snow, especially in the shadier areas.

The photo to the right is of the very first growth in my garden! They are a couple of crocuses coming up and I bet it won't be too long until they are blooming. I have planted snowdrops in the past, but they never come up, so the crocuses are always my first blooms. This garden is the little bed we have around the pool. It faces south and has the white side of the pool behind it - so definitely the place to plant things that bloom early.

This photo is what's left of the purple coneflowers! (The same purple coneflowers shown in my last post of 2010.) I used to cut them 'down to ground level' in the fall, until I read on someone's blog that you should leave the seedheads for the birds.

I'm not sure who that blogger was, but it was great advice. Behind the empty pod are the sedum 'Autumn Joy' which I just leave because they are pretty.

See you in the Spring!

2010-12-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it is officially winter and my garden beds are insulated in a blanket of snow. I'm going to work on some improvements for my blog over the winter. Any suggestions would be most welcome.I look forward to documenting my garden's progress in 2011 and will start up again as soon as I see the first sign of spring.

I'm going to end my 2010 portion of the blog, with what I have on the front of a t-shirt! Lots of good advice can come from reading t-shirts, right?

ADVICE FROM A GARDEN 

Cultivate lasting friendships.

Sow seeds of kindness.

Listen to sage advice.

Don't let the little things bug you.

Be outstanding in your field.

Take thyme for yourself.

No vining!

Late Summer Bloomings

2010-12-05T02:43:00.001-08:00

It's December, and I'm just posting some photos of my August and September flowers. We have a couple of centimetres of snow on the ground now.

This is my border in August. You can see some of the different colours of perennial phlox here. What I love about them, is that they don't all bloom at exactly the same time - so I have a lovely array of colour from mid-July right into September.

The 'Michaelmas Daisies' or fall asters put on a great showing in the later summer as well. I started out with just two of them in 2008 and have divided them twice already. Love them. Couldn't resist posting this picture of Hudson posing in front of them.

This clump of fall Monkhead (I'm not sure the exact variety, as they were a gift from Rita) bloom much later than my other ones. They have a tougher and sturdier stalk, but otherwise look very similar.

And one of my very favourite later blooming plants is my white coneflower.

...And the Rest of the Daylilies

2010-08-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

August 20 - So, I've been really absent from my blog. Summer got really busy, so I am very much behind in blogging about what's going on it the garden.

These are the rest of the daylilies. The bloom on the last one has faded. I actually divided the ivory one (that's shown directly below) and it was the first time I divided daylilies. I gave half of it to my friend, Rita, who has given me most of the plants I have - but she didn't have this particular variety.

Sharing is the nicest way to get new plants, don't you think?

This is a very special daylily, that I transplated out of my Aunt's garden last fall. I didn't measure it, but I believe the flower was a medium size. Not quite as big as the 'Catherine Woodbury', but bigger than 'Pandora's Box.' It's a stunning ivory colour.

The small and lovely 'Stella d'Oro' daylily. A bright and goldy yellow.

The name of this large daylily is not known to me, but it has a dark burgandy flower with a yellow throat.

The Daylilies are Here!

2010-07-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

July 14 - I am in my glory at this time of the year. Each morning (and let's be honest, every noon and night), I walk around my garden, deadheading, seeing what needs staking, but most importantly looking for what has come out in bloom since the last time I checked. Everything seems to be all coming out at once. The last few days have seen the appearance of seven different daylilies.

All except the two orange ones were gifts from Rita's garden.

These are my 'Catherine Woodbury' daylilies. I'm not really sure what to call this colour. I've seen it described as 'salmon' but it's almost a mauvey-pink, with lovely yellow in the centre. The flowers are quite large at 5 1/2 inches across.

'Missouri Beauty' daylilies. These are also really large flowers and a lemon yellow colour. I love the way the flowers only live a day, but there are always new ones to take their place. The lovely flowers are also about 5 1/2 inches across.

These are my two orange daylilies. They are slightly different. Some people call these 'ditch lilies', I guess because you see them everywhere - including seemingly growing wild.

I once read that they fell off the wagons of pioneers and grew where they fell. The bottom one, which I call my 'Cottage Lily' because it came from my family cottage, I'm growing in a pot on our deck. It looks great there and I will bury it, pot and all, in the compost pile for the winter.

This is the other large-flowered daylily I have in bloom right now. The name is unknown to me. I'm not sure the photo does the colour of it justice - but it's very much a golden yellow, with a burgandy throat. They are quite striking en masse!

These two are my little daylilies, about 2 1/2 inches across. Again, I don't know the name of the red one, but the cream one with burgandy centre is the darling 'Pandora's Box'. It is just the sweetest little thing. I adore it.

Rita's Garden

2010-07-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned my dear friend Rita on the blog before. She is the dearest lady, whose garden I stopped to admire one June day in 2007. After we spoke for just a few minutes, Rita invited me to come over again to give me some of her plants. We have become good friends and she has given me many delightful perennials over the last couple of years. But even more wonderfully she shares her knowledge and love of perennial flower gardening with me.

The picture above is the garden in Rita's front yard and this one is her side garden. Rita has a different kind of garden than I do....she has her perennials placed in long rows, with straw in between, to mulch and walk on. Because she mixes up the perennials, her garden doesn't give the impression of being all straight lines. Quite the contrary, her garden is a place of beauty, where one can walk through and admire everything close-up.

A closer look at some of Rita's beautiful delphiniums. In front of the delphiniums are her 'Missouri Beauty' daylilies.

And a sample of the beautiful beebalm that is at it's peak.

And last, but not least, Rita's beautiful poppies.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of this lovely woman's garden.

Hosta Delight

2010-07-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

July 8 - I love hostas!

Since I have a lot of shade in my front yard and part of my backyard I have room for a lot of them. I have about twenty different types so far. I tend to like the ones that have white or cream edges (margins), but I am trying to mix some plain or two-toned green ones in for contrast.

These are some of my favourites:

Hosta 'June' - Gold coloured leaves with blue-green margins. It seems to be quite resistant to slugs. It was one of 'Mark's Choices' at the Home Hardware store last year and I've been quite pleased with it.

Hosta 'Lancifolia' - this was a gift from friends and it has lovely shiny leaves that are fairly slender. It has a medium-green coloured leaves.

Hosta 'Queen Josephine' has medium green leaves with a lovely ivory coloured margins.

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' - this is a really tiny one, plain green roundish leaves. It's kind of adorable mixed in with the larger ones.

Hosta 'Gold Standard' - this is the only hosta that was on our property when we bought it. It's also the only hosta I'd had before (at our old house). Since I couldn't bring my hosta with me I was very happy to have this one. You can see a little damage to a couple of the leaves. I'm wondering if a little rabbit had a bite or two.

Hosta 'Longissima' is the name of this one. I looked it up on the hosta libray website and the ones there are solid green. I got this one from a member of my horticulural society, so this must be a different variety of "Longissima'. So far it is small so I'm not sure how big it will get. It's a lovely contrast to the others, because the leaves are so narrow.

Hosta 'Krossa Regal' - mine is quite small still, but these ones have an interesting feature that they grow up in an upright position. On the side you can see one of my little gophers that our niece bought us years ago.

Garden Happenings in Early July

2010-07-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

The shasta daisies are starting to bloom now. This is my favourite because it's a double-flowered one. It's called 'Snowdrift'.

These 'Snow Lady' shastas are my dwarf ones. I had two of them, but somehow there is only one this year. Everything else is the garden came through the winter intact, so it's a mystery.

Blue Monkshood behind the Lychnis. Blue and pink is my favourite garden colour combination.

This little Crane's Bill geranium is blooming in my front shade garden. It was a gift from a friend's garden.

My Blue Peachleaf Bellflower is also blooming in the shade garden. It was also a gift, planted last spring, but blooming for the first time now. It's quite a delicate blue shade and quite lovely.

Varmits!

2010-07-02T17:42:00.001-07:00

July 2 - Something has been digging and chewing in my garden!

I'm not really sure what it is, but we have squirrels and rabbits around our place. Something dug up crocus bulbs (and left a few of the outer bits, so I know they ate them) in several places. They also chewed the green pepper plants, leaving only about an inch of the stem to remind me they were there.

I filled in the holes and sprinkled some blood meal around the areas of concern. So far the varmits have not returned!

PS - I said 'varmint' and my husband said it's 'varmits'. I looked it up on google and both are correct - it's a matter of where you are from. (English lesson for today.) ;)

What's left of two of the green pepper plants. (No worries, we have four more!)

Backyard Border

2010-07-01T01:18:00.000-07:00

June 30 - This is my backyard border taken from our deck. This is the same border shown in my blog's header. It's difficult to photograph from the front with my camera. The border backs onto the creekbank so you are looking at lots of trees behind in. Sometimes I entertain the idea that it would look really nice if the border had a bit of a decorative fence behind it (white picket or split rail cedar).

There are buds on almost all the daylilies now and they will be the next thing to pop. Right now, some of what's blooming:

From front to back: Dwarf Shasta Daisies, Evening Primrose, Lynchnis, Perennial Sage and Monkshood.

And what I call 'Dad's Sweet Williams'. These are from seeds my Dad collected for me from his garden, before he and my Mom moved into a condominium apartment. They smell wonderful and are very special to me. I think next year I will let them to a bit more wild in the empty spaces between the perennials. They seed themselves quite profusely, but are very easy to transplant from one place to the next in the garden or into a friend's garden. And easy to just pull out and put into the composter if you have more than your garden can hold.

What's Blooming on the Last Day of Spring!

2010-06-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

This is the second year for this peony plant. It was mislabeled as a 'Bowl of Beauty' so I don't know the name of them. The flowers are doubles and the outer petals are just a slightly darker shade of pink.

I love the Evening Primroses. They were one of the first perennials that I had. The next-door-neighbour at my first home gave me some. I like the way the flowers close up at night. They remind me of big buttercups. They tend to get a little bit scraggly by the time they have finished blooming, but I read recently that you can trim the top third off the tops afterwards to make them look a little neater. I'm going to try that this year.

I planted this 'General McMahon' peony in the fall of 2007, the first year we were here. This is actually the first time it has bloomed and I'm quite delighted with it. The blooms seemed to be unusually slow to open. It's funny how some peonies take longer to get established than others.

This is one of the two hydrangeas I planted in the front bed this spring. It's called 'Twist 'n Shout'. (Great name, eh?) It's supposed to bloom all season and is one that will be pink in alkaline soil and blue in acidic soil. The soil in most of our yard is acidic, because we are surrounded by evergreens. The soil where this is is a nice garden mix though. I didn't know what to expect - but I love the pink!

Our former neighbours came for dinner last summer and brought some small perennials in a basket as a hostess gift. One was these Peachleaf Bellflowers. They have come up wonderfully and are the most beautiful and delicate shade of blue. I've never had these before and they are quite lovely. They are in the bed by the limestone path, against the house.

'John Cabot' Rose

2010-06-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

This is my 'John Cabot' rose bush. It's part of the Canadian 'Explorer' series, which is a group of roses that were specially propagated for our more harsh climate. (Hybrid roses can be grown here in Zone 4, but take a lot of special care for the winter and even then don't always survive.) The flowers are smallish, similar in size to rugosa roses.

The 'John Cabot' is a climbing rose, but I do have it in my border. Last summer I staked it as best I could but I just read that if you cut it back it can be grown as a bush rose. I'm trying that this year, because I think it will be better in the border that way.

Explorer Roses

Ghost (Garden) Story

2010-06-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

There is a sort of ghost town in my area. It was a large farm area in the early to mid part of the last century. The buildings have all been taken down now and the land is used as an animal sanctuary.

I was wandering around in there in the early part of April and I noticed some daffodils blooming. Nearby, I found some daylilies coming up in the middle of a grassy area. I realized that these perennials were from someone's long-abandoned garden.

I went back the other day, to see what else I might be able to discover and was quite pleased to find the perennials that are photographed below. All of them were just growing 'wild', in the grass, on rocky ledges, and in the case of the dianthus, just growing next to the road and into the gravel shoulder. You would never know where a garden had been.

Isn't it an amazing how incredibly tough these little plants are? I've already transplanted some of the dianthus to my own garden, where I will give it some tender loving care. I will transplant a bit of the other things as well.

I like to think that the gardener who planted these would like that.

What I have photographed, so far, from the top down is:

Dianthus (rockery pinks)
Chives ('Gone Wild')
Snow-on-the-Mountain
Sedum

Some Colour in the Backyard Border

2010-06-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

June 9, 2010 - This is what my backyard border looks like today. The 'Brilliant' Oriental poppies, perrenial sage 'Caradonna', and two types of irises are blooming. I don't know the names of the irises, I just call them my 'periwinkle blue irises' and my 'purple edged' irises.

The blue irises and the 'Caradonna' Perennial Sage (Salvia nemorosa)are shown below.

Mystery Plant Identified (Puschkinia)

2010-06-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

I noticed this little surprize blooming in a clump of fall asters in my back border this morning. The wider leaves you can see in the picture belong to the fall asters, but the very skinny ones belong to my Mystery Plant.

I wonder if they are some kind of Puschkinia. The leaves and flower shape are the same, but I've never heard of ones that are this colour. And the other Puschkinias are long since past blooming in my garden.

Pretty, though!

Ideas?

Update: Thanks to Pam, who has a lovely garden blog at http://pamsenglishcottagegarden.blogspot.com/, who looked up Puschkinias and found out that they do, indeed, come in this colour, I'm sure that's what it is.

It is exactly the same shape and size as the striped ones. Thanks Pam!

Welcome 'Bowl of Beauty' Peony and Welcome June!

2010-06-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

I bought my first book on perennial garden about twenty years ago and it had a 'Bowl of Beauty' peony on the cover. I've wanted one of these ever since. They were hard to come by back then, and when I first started seeing them in garden centres, they were about three times the price of the other peonies.

Last spring I treated myself to one, however it must have been mislabelled because it was a different peony.

I tried again this year and purchased this plant just about a month ago. It is already blooming (a lovely surprize, as sometimes peonies can take a few years to get established) and it is definitely a 'Bowl of Beauty'.

This is the one that was labelled 'Bowl of Beauty' at the garden centre. You can notice that the outer pink petals are the same shade of pink as the one above. It's a double (rather than the single 'Bowl of Beauty') and has a very slightly paler shade of pink in the centre.

Last Day of May

2010-05-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is what's blooming in my garden on the last day of May. The two irises were gifts, the purple and white one from my garden friend-mentor, Rita, and the dark purple from my in-laws' garden. The pink poppy, 'Paradiso', I treated myself to, just this spring, and am delighted that it is blooming. The lilies-of-the-valley I transplanted from our previous home three summers ago and they are just starting to take off in their new bed.

My backyard border (seen in full bloom in my blog's header) is lush with 'greenliness' at the present time. I recently read that if you intend to do perennial gardening you should 'learn to love green'. Good thing I do!

There are several things just ready to pop open in here though.

Planting Limestone Path

2010-05-30T17:40:00.001-07:00

Sorry the picture quality is a little dark here. It's a shady garden and I'm finding it a little hard to photograph well.

My plan is for this to be very natural looking and have the hostas and ferns kind of 'spill over' on the walkway, here and there. For now I have black plastic garden edging along the right side to hold the soil and water in, but I'm hoping to be able to remove it (or have it covered up by foliage) before too long.

Along the right side are several types of hostas including Minuteman, Lancifloria, Longissima, Blue Mouse Ears, a couple of ferns (Frizelliae and Lady in Red) and some violets.

On the left side, between the walkway and the house, I have foxglove and monkshood, bee balm, bleeding heart, periwinke, bugleflower, lamina, and some hostas, including June, Golden Tiara, and Gold Standard.

I love how everything looks but I have no idea if I have too many or too few plants in here. With luck I might have just the right amount.

We will see.

Plant Sale Finds!

2010-05-23T23:19:00.000-07:00

May 22 - I went to a private plant sale that a local gardener was holding at her home on the weekend. She had quite a beautiful garden and was selling some of her perennials that she had divided. At $2 each, I was quite happy to take some home with me.

I have here some foxgloves, some lamina, and some violets. There is also a kind of white-flowered ground cover that she called Edelweiss (it doesn't look anything like the Edelweiss that I've seen before), and some type of Persian coneflower. She just called it 'bachelor's buttons' - hers was blooming and it was a lovely shade of blue.

After looking them up in my books when I got home, I see that the violets, lamina and 'Edelweiss' or what ever it is, should work great with the hostas beside the limestone path.

What's Blooming in the Third Week of May

2010-05-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

'Firespray' Tulips. I found these in a mail order catalouge. They are tulips for the shade. And these are in my hosta bed, where they get very little sun....

.....I just planted this Oriental Poppy this spring, so I'm really pleased that it's blooming for this year. There's a bud on the other one as well.

When I was at Hampton Court Palace a year ago, I saw some of these blooming in a garden beside some purple foxgloves and fell in love with this colour....

...and my white bleeding heart has just started to bloom.

Our New Rain Barrel

2010-05-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

My husband has always wanted to have a rain barrel! He noticed that our city was selling them (for cost), so we picked one up. He set it up the other day. We have only had one good rain so far this month, but it filled the rain barrel completely to the top.

I used it for the first time today, and I have to say, it's just the ticket. It has a lid, with a mesh screen to keep mosquitos out of it. He set it up so that rain water from the downspout on our garage goes directly into the barrel, through the mesh screen.

The best part about it is this tap at the bottom. He raised the barrel up on blocks so that my watering can fits perfectly underneath.

We feel this is very good, environmentally. We have a well, but using the rain water saves the electricity to run the pump as well as the ground water.

Plus it's fun!

'Angelique' Tulips

2010-05-18T18:07:00.000-07:00

These 'Angelique' tulips were a lovely surprise for me. I had completely forgotten what they looked like on the Breck's website, where I ordered them from. They are the first double-flowered tulip I've ever had, and I have to wonder why I'd never planted them before.

They are also known as 'peony tulips' and that's exactly what they look like. They are a pale pink shade and they look like they belong in a bride's bouquet.

Mulching Time

2010-05-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

We found a local landscaper supply place where you can buy mulch by the half-yard. I chose the brown cedar mulch because I like the colour (it looks very natural, like earth) and the texture (the cedar is mostly shredded, with a few slightly larger bits here and there). We were able to fit in one and a half yards into our short box pick-up truck.

Boy, have I been having fun shoveling it out and putting it on the garden. Stay tuned for photos of the garden with the mulch on it. Oh, and I'm pulling out or hoeing up the little weeds that are starting to appear before I put the mulch down.

I hope this works to keep the weeds down!

Compost Time

2010-05-12T14:16:00.001-07:00

This is our first batch of 'homemade compost' (she says proudly). We have two backyard composters - both bought from our City. They work great - we just put all our vegetable scraps in, turn them over and around every so often and add water. After about a year, we have this lovely pile of nice composted material!

And here it is spread around the base of the new shrubs.

'Wildhof' Tulips

2010-05-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

May 9, 2010 - These 'Wildhof' tulips opened up and seemed no worse for the spring storm we had yesterday. Most of the snow is gone. They are a lovely shade of palest yellow. Another lovely surprize, in the colour department, as I had completely forgotten the shades I had planted in the fall.

The Weatherman has Some 'Splainin' to Do!

2010-05-09T04:28:00.000-07:00

May 8, 2010 - We had 10 cms of snow! This is kind of unusual for May, but not unheard of. It's also the reason we have a rule of thumb that we don't plant our annual flowers and vegetables until after the long weekend in May.

No harm seems to have been done to the perrennials. In fact, the hostas seemed to come up a few inches!

What's Blooming!

2010-05-04T20:01:00.001-07:00

May 4, 2010 - The first of the tulips to come out! These are called 'Apricot Beauties' and were a house-warming gift from our former neighbour, Michelle. This is the third spring for them. I understand that some people pull the tulips out after they bloom and start with fresh ones in the fall. I just leave mine in the ground and let them rebloom each year.

The muscari is in full bloom this week. I cut some and made a little mini-bouquet for the house. I just love this flower!

I was quite pleased to see the little fringes along the edges of these petals. These tulips are appropriately named 'Fringed Elegance.'

These 'Yellow Emperor' tulips are a little brighter shade of yellow and a bit taller.

Except for the 'Apricot Beauties', I ordered all the tulips from Breck's. I've forgotten what they all look like, so it's fun to watch them open.

Finished Planting the Front Beds

2010-05-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

May 2, 2010 - I added the dwarf burning bush and mock orange to the front today. Not that you can really see it in the picture. I'm hoping I didn't plant too much in here, but I'm told that I can prune everything to the size I want.

I know nothing about shrubs so this will be a learning experience for me! I can't wait to see what this will look like in a few months.

This is the other side of our front steps, and the limestone path that we put in last fall. I planted some ground covers in between the rocks, which are meant to be able to withstand some foot traffic - wooley thyme and Irish moss.

I'm hoping to have hostas all along the right side of the walk, and maybe some ferns to break it up. I'm hoping it will be a nice contrast tot he bleeding hearts and monkshood on the left side of the path. So far I have about seven hostas there, a 'Lancifloria', a 'Longissimo', two 'First Frosts', two 'Wide Brims' and an unknown variety that my friend, Karen, gave me.

Pasque Flower

2010-04-30T13:11:00.001-07:00

April 30, 2010 - The pasque flowers are in lovely shape today. I hadn't seen one of these plants before, but the former owners of our home left two of them on the property. They are also known as 'pulsatilla vulgaris' which seems a kind of ugly name for such a lovely flower!

My brother, who lives in Manitoba, told me they are called 'Prairie Crocuses' there and are actually the provincial flower of Manitoba.

I really look forward to these every spring. I love their fuzzy little parts, just beneath the flowers.

Planting Shrubs in Front Beds

2010-04-26T09:18:00.001-07:00

April 25, 2010 - We added some shrubs to the beds at the front of our home today. These beds were the same as the side one I showed yesterday - tall cedars in river stone mulch. We kept the two low spruce bushes in the bed under the large window (that you see in the photo on the right) and three new shrubs. One is a special hydrangia, which will bloom pink, no matter what the soil conditions. It's called 'Invincibelle' (I love that name) and is a special Breast Cancer Awareness plant. We also planted a silverleaf dogwood called 'Elegantissima' and a holmstrup 'Pyramid Cedar' in the corner. I'm hoping there will be room for a dwarf burning bush behind the hydrangia. The nursery hasn't received their burning bushes yet.

The photo on the left shows the garden under our two smaller windows and in there we planted an additional homstrup cedar. We are also waiting for a mock orange bush to put at the far end of this bed. In between the cedar and where the mock orange will go, are hostas, bleeding hearts and monkshood, all just starting to come up.

Starting the Side Bed

2010-04-26T09:17:00.002-07:00

April 24, 2010
This area is a new bed for me. When we bought our home, this area was filled with river stone (as mulch) and there were five very tall cedar trees growing in it. They were nice, but were unruly!

The retaining wall that held it all in was in need of rebuilding, so when we had that done, the landscapers took out the cedars and stone and replaced it with lovely garden soil for me.

My big project for this summer is to make a lovely perennial border in here. This is the start of it.

The spring bulbs I planted in the fall are starting to come up. On Saturday, I planted the first of the perennials....'King Arthur' delphiniums, pink Oriental poppies, globe thistles, a peony, and purple irises (from my husband's parent's garden).

More to come in the following weeks!

Saving Perennials from the Contractors

2010-04-26T09:17:00.001-07:00

Saturday, April 24, 2010 - My great friend, Brenda, and I went to see what perennials we could save from the renovations going on at her new home. She and her husband are having an addition put on their home and some of the existing gardens may be trampled or worse.

We located a bed that a former owner had, at one time lovingly cared for, but that had become neglected and badly overgrown with weeds, during a rentors tenure. We found many old iris rhizomes, many of which were growing into each other for lack of space, with the roots of periwinkle vines tangling through and wrapping themselves around. We were able to save young rhizomes and good sections of the periwinkle. We also found some wonderful lungwort and muscari growing. We moved some of the plants to a safe place in her grass and others to my garden, where I will tend to it until Brenda is ready for it. Great mounds of large yellow daffodils were transplated, in their clumps, were also transplated.

The best part is I get to keep some for my own garden. (Thanks Brenda!)

More Gifts from Rita!

2010-04-26T09:16:00.001-07:00

Friday, April 23, 2010 - I went to visit my good friend, Rita, today with the purpose of giving her a hand in her garden. (And going to Tim Horton's for our usual tea and treat.) She advised me that the only help she required today was for me to help her thin out the spring crocuses and scilla, which were starting to invade her pathways. Oh, and put them into pots and load them into my car!

Rita is the most wonderful friend, always willing to share her beautiful perennial flowers, wisdom and experience. She's a true 'kindred spirit' as Anne Shirley would say.

Paula's Periwinkle

2010-04-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - This is some new periwinkle for my shade garden that runs between the front of the house and the walkway. I've been looking for things to use as ground cover and my newest friend, Paula, offered to share this lovely periwinkle with me. So far it loves it's new home!

Bluebells, Daffodils and Other Spring Delights (April 2010)

2010-04-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

April 4, 2010 - These little scillas (also called bluebells or squills - I never know which is the common name) came up in the clumps of larger perennials given to me by my friend, Rita. They are sweet and delightful little things. I see more of them coming up everyday.

I only have one of these, and I identified it from my perennial book as a puschkinia (or striped squill). According to my book it's a 'close relative of the bluebell and it's strange that it's so rarely seen'. It sprung up in a clump of fall asters, given to me by my friend. I'm curious to see if it will multiply for next spring. It's about four inches tall, about the same as the scillas.

At first I thought this was a scilla, until I noticed that there was only one flower on each stalk, as opposed to several, as the scillas have.

April 14, 2010 - My daffodils came up today. I don't know what variety they are - I bought them through mail order in a bulk pack. They are gorgeous and seem invisible to the squirrels and rabbits. They bloom for a very long time.

On April 20 I noticed that there is a white scilla hiding among the blue ones! These two came up (again as a surprize) in a little clump of daylilies that was a gift from Rita last fall.

Crocuses (March/April 2010)

2010-04-17T14:40:00.001-07:00

March 25, 2010 - The first blooms of 2010. They are my 'Delft Blue' crocuses. We had a very early spring (three weeks earlier than last year).

The slightly paler, 'Remembrance' crocus, came into bloom just a fews days later.

April 15, 2010 - These pint-sized beauties, 'Prince Klaus', were quite a surprize to me, as I didn't realize they would be miniature crocuses when I ordered the bulbs. They look great in little clumps with their white centres and a touch of purple on their outer leaves.

2009 - Garden Pictures

2010-04-17T14:15:00.002-07:00

My pride and joy - the back border in July of 2009. It's meant to be as much of a 'cottage garden' garden as I can make it, and for me, that means large clumps of colour and kind of messy but organized at the same time. It still needs to fill in the empty spaces, but it's getting there. In here I have shasta daisies, phlox, daylilies, irises, peonies, coneflowers, evening primrose, sweet Williams and many others. I'll post all the things as they come out in the 2010 part of my blog.

The pool border at the end of July. Sweet Williams, evening primrose, lavander, purple coneflower and fall asters live here.

The little backstep garden, near the end of the summer. 'Catherine Woodbury' and 'Pandora's Box' daylilies, scabiosa, and 'rose campion' lychnis.

The front bed, planted up with hostas, delphinium, bleeding heart and monkshood. This garden is mostly in the shade.

2008 - First Summer: Getting Started

2010-04-17T14:15:00.001-07:00

Removing the river stone and a couple of the cedars.

Planted up with some hostas.

Wonderful gift of perennials given to me by my wonderful friend, Rita.

Expanding the garden, with Rita's gifts and a trunkload of perennials from good friends, the Bells (no photo of them before planting).

Back perennial border finished for 2008.

Border built around the outside of the pool.

Little back-step garden, after the deck was rebuilt. Many of the perennials left by the former owners were returned to this bed. Others moved to better places elsewhere on the property.

2007 - When We Moved In

2010-04-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our home in the late summer of 2007, this was the only garden with perennials on the property. There were some lovely plants in here (bugle flower, scabiosa, pearl everlasting, and a pair of gorgeous pasque flowers). We rebuilt this deck in 2008 and most of these plants have been moved elsewhere on the property into new beds.

This is the bed at the front of the house when we moved in.

The beginning of my back border: That first fall, I started making a perennial bed along the back of the yard. I planted a climbing hardy rose (the Explorer series 'John Cabot', a peony, and a couple of 'Neon Blaze' spireas. My plan was to increase it bit by bit over the next five years, so that eventually it would go across the width of the backyard. As you can see, if you check the photos from 2009, it only took two years, thanks to friends who gave me many perennials.