This Summer's Planters

Jason over at Garden in a City was discussing the planters he made this summer. He didn't sound too pleased about his and was asking what we had success with this summer. I must admit right off that I didn't fill all of my pots this year. First it rained so much I was not inspired to get out between rains to plant much. Then it got hot and I was away from home quite a bit so it all worked out.

If you look out the patio doors you can see most of my planters are specimen plants. The specimen plants mostly have to come inside for the winter. They are years old. Good friends that hang out here all year. 

One of my favorites that won't be coming in this winter is this pot with the Golden Lime Begonia and Gartenmeister Fuschia. The Golden Lime Begonia has about taken over. There is actually another plant in there but it isn't even visible from this vantage.

You have to come down the path toward the patio to even get a glimpse of it as you can see. I am going to remove that poor little grass, actually it is a creeping Broad - leaved Sedge 'Snow Cap', and plant it in the garden someplace. I had visions that it would be my spiller in this pot. It didn't creep over the edge of the pot much at all. It seems that this pot was all about the begonia.

Most of the rest of my pots are tropicals. Like this night blooming Cereus,

'Black Truffles' Begonia,

Pteris Cretica 'Roweri' with and under planting of 'String of Pearls'. The minature hostas in the pot in front of the Roweri stay outside all winter. They are quite happy doing so. This pot holds what was actually one plant that I divided this spring. 

Then there are the Orchids, Rabbit's Foot Fern, which have to come inside.

The planter behind the Rabbit's Foot Fern doesn't come inside. It has some Carex Hachijoensis 'Evergold', a tiny Holly start and some unnamed tropical vine that has grown great guns this summer.

You can see where I am going here. I have several pots that I consider outdoor pots that have small plants that will remain outside. 

While I love annuals and I say they do add a lot of color to the garden and especially in pots. I just don't have a whole lot of them.

I do have several spots of marigolds. I know don't squench up your nose. Jason makes a good plea for their addition to the garden. They are stalwart.  

So before you diss these little beauties . Remember 

they don't mind being ignored whether in a pot or in the ground as I use them. They mix well with others.

They give you a shot of color where all else fails. 

 They just don't give up.

Do you have any pots you are particularly pleased with this summer? Or do you have any stalwart plants that others might not appreciate?  Do share.

Staghorn Split

 You see I have this huge Staghorn Fern that I have had for quite a few years. I am not even sure when I received it from my Sister as a gift. The first mention of it in my Garden Journal is in 2004. Then it was small enough to be dunked in a bucket since it sat in a stainless steel basket.

It has been sitting in this planter for many years. Growing on itself.

If you look into the top of the plant you can see there were at least 3 big plants.

And if you look closely into the middle you can see a tiny start just inside the lip of the shields.

You can see how it is growing onto itself all around the shields.

I have been thinking about different ways I could mount this plant. Finally I came up with a plan. I wanted to find the right limb to attach this plant to. 

I found the limb I thought would work. My DB helped me bring it home this spring. It has sat on the patio all summer.  I haven't been able to work up the courage to split this fern. Today I decided it must be the day. My DB cut the limb to fit into the pot. I stuffed it into the pot anchoring it with potting soil.

When it came time to split the fern couldn't bring myself to use the saw on it. Luckily it easily split into two plants when my DB and I each grabbed a side and pulled. It was actually getting so heavy it was about to fall into two pieces anyway. This is one reason why I was spurred on to remounting the fern.  I decided to be happy with two plants and not saw a third piece off.  I mounted the two on the limb.  It will have the rest of the summer to acclimate to it's new digs.  

I won't rest easy about it until I see it perking up after a good rain. I must say I like the more natural look of the fern on the limb. It looks sculptural.  It has plenty of space to grow now. I hope it is as happy about it's new situation as I am.

Thank you Kylee and Fiskars

I want to thank Kylee and Fiskars for having this give away. I WON!! 

As luck would have it my old, and I mean old, Felco No7s are not working quite like they used to. You see this old clipper was purchased in the late 90s and they have been real work horses in my garden. I have replaced springs, sharpened blades etc...

They are similar to this new Fiskars Power Gear 2 in that the pull side swivels when you trim to give you more umph in your cuts. Unfortunately the swivel on the Fleco has stopped swiveling. When I saw the give away on Kylee's blog I certainly wanted a shot at winning them. 

Happy Day when when this baby came in the post directly from Fiscars. Thank you again. I have already cut several bouquets and I must say the Fiskars is very light weight and of course sharp as could be. I will have to get used to the new grip after so many years using the old one. I hope that the Fiscars works for as long as my old one. 

I will give them a real work out as soon as it gets a bit cooler here. There is a poor little cypress that needs rescuing. I am sure I will have many tales to tell with the new Fiscars by my side. 

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - July 2015

July is the time of the Lily here at Greenbow. Tall garden lilies...

Daylilies .

The medium Hostas are blooming up a storm, 

to the tiny minatures blooming. 

Of course lilies aren't the only things blooming. We have some tall garden phlox. 

This coneflower is my newest one. It is named Cheyenne Spirit. I sure hope it reseeds like they say it does. 

This is your typical coneflower that is spotted around the garden. 

There are a couple of shrubs blooming now. The Beauty berry is sporting lots of blooms and bumbles collecting the nectar. I have a hard time getting pictures of bugs with my new camera. I can't  seem to get the hang of this new camera. Grrr

The other shrub blooming is the Clethera.

The ever reliant butterfly weed and dragons tongue perscaria is abloom. 

And if you are up early enough you get to see the datura blooming. 

For more blooms than you can imagine go to Carols May Dreams who hosts this monthly bloom meme. I hope to see what all is blooming in your garden. 

Labyrinth

Have you ever had an area in your garden that you just don't like and you can never think of what to do with it?  I had one of those spots. It was actually the front garden. You see I don't like to be out in my front garden so I haven't done much to it over the years. We live by a road that has a lot of traffic and it is full sun. I am very sensitive to sun so I can't be out in it much. So this part of the garden has languished these 20 years I have lived here.

Oh yes, the area around the driveway and to the East of the drive I have tried to plant a barrier between the garden and the traffic.

 On the West side of the lot I have done not much of anything.There is this big patch of zoysia grass.  I have nothing against zoysia grass. Actually I like zoysia. I hear you all gasping. First of all it makes a thick carpet wonderful to walk on barefooted. Secondly I sort of like the way it goes to sleep during the cold months and turns that straw color. It is always exciting when the weather begins to warm the zoysia begins to come alive as if by magic it becomes a lovely green carpet for spring to enter. Yet to look at a sea of zoysia is quite a bore, so boring I don't have a photo of the carpet of zoysia before implementing my idea to make it interesting and to create something I have often coveted.

What could that be you ask...a walking labyrinth. I have always admired these low lying sculptures in the garden. Every time I would come upon one I wondered where in my small garden I could put one. The labyrinths you see in public gardens are always so large. I couldn't see it in my garden until last fall.  I saw this photo of a labyrinth. I am sorry I can't give it the proper acknowledgement since I have had this photo since last year sometime and have forgotten where I found it. It is a public garden someplace in the US. EDIT: You can see the story here about my inspiration. Thank you Jean for reminding me where I saw this.

Of course to get to this point  you need a gardening crew. While I can see things in a picture and in my brain it doesn't always come out on paper or on in this case on the lawn like I want it. I had to enlist my Dearly Beloved aka Garden Crew to advance my idea.

After drawing on paper, measuring, mulling it over in my brain and not seeing it on the lawn my Dearly Beloved took all the left over paint on our shelves and drew me a picture on the lawn. 

Then I went to work. I discovered that pushing a mower through the zoysia is a little more difficult than it looked. 

This is how it looked last fall. I actually did it too late in the season to get the grass into shape as it had basically stopped growing. Just the painted lines in the lawn made quite a stir in the neighborhood. Neighbors stopped to ask what in the world was going on. 

This spring we went at it again. We mowed down to a clean slate. I couldn't quite make it turn out like I wanted. I was about to give up when one day I came home from work and the Garden Crew had been at it. What a difference it made. I have to thank my Dearly Beloved. He is always my rock, my help mate, better than any garden crew I could hire.

Here are a  couple of pictures as it is now. 

It has come along quite nice. All I need is a totem or small bench at the center. 

All the comments and questions have been interesting. People we don't know have stopped to ask what... why... do you believe in crop circles...? To me a labyrinth is a tool to get to the center and finding self or questions answered if you take enough time. I guess if and when they see me walking in the gloom of dawn or dusk I will forever be known as the crazy old lady walking in circles and I will be at peace in a sea of zoysia.