Weeding on the Wild Side: September 2015

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Plant Evaluations In a Vase on Monday September 26, 2015

Today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In A Vase On Monday hosted by Cathy

Now that it is fall, it is time to evaluate how various plants I grew this year have done and also make decisions about what I want to grow next year.

A small plant I'm really impressed with is Dianthus Barbarini red Sweet Williams. Usually Sweet Williams I have grown have been around 18" / .5m or more tall, but the Barbarini variety is a very low growing plant, and what is amazing to me is that it sends out a runner or side branch that makes another nice little clump of a plant to the side. It also is day length neutral unlike most Sweet Williams so has been blooming pretty much continuously since June 20. This is actually just 3 plants, the original plant with a cluster of flowers on top of the former clusters-

The camera can't seem to capture the darker tones in the flowers, but pretty anyway-

I would like to start more of them this winter and have them cover a bigger area.

The Ageratums I started bloom continually, but don't make the big heads that I've seen in the nursery-

Ursinia has been long-blooming but is a tiny wispy plant with tiny flowers so doesn't really make enough impact, I want to try direct-sowing to see if it will do better, shown with Browallia, under deer fence-

Salvia 'Lady in Red' took a very long time to bloom but is pretty, I think I would like it better in a pot so I could bring it indoors in winter and keep it for another year-

Tropical milkweed, which is called an annual here, did not bloom the first year but I did have it in pots so could bring it indoors for the winter, and it has bloomed nearly continuously this spring and summer-

I haven't grown sunflowers before, and 'Red Velvet' was not red or velvety, but did get 4-5' / 1.5m tall and blooms a lot. I read that sunflowers can make hedges at heights of 2' / 600cm all the way to 12' / 4m so I'm interested in using several next year to try to fill up some areas that tend to get weedy.

Gaillardia 'Tokajer' has been a good bloomer this year, but is rather tall and I was hoping for a low mound of flowers, but Goblin that I also started either didn't bloom or disappeared. I will try other low varieties for next year.

I took in a couple more chickens from my daughter-in-law who lives in the city, a surprise rooster from her spring chickens, an enormous Dark Brahma with feathered legs and feet, and companion little Red Yokohama joining Cocoa the Blue Maran hen.

Who's the boss?

This is my entry for In a Vase on Monday this week, take hostess Cathy's challenge to find materials in your garden to plonk in a vase, and decorate your house.

This is the last of the pinched vases I made, it is only 4"/ 10cm tall, the flowers are some aged Endless Summer Hydrangea blooms, Japanese Anemones, the wonderful old garden rose Clotilde Soupert yet again, and a Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, which is one of the flowers I remember from my South Carolina grandma's garden. I grew it from a cutting and it is a 10'+ / 3m+ tree now.

I decorated the vase with another of the pendants I made with a broken piece of a Mt. St. Helens ash ball and copper foiling,

With the pendant and moved to a different setting to try different lighting, the Rose of Sharon looks wildly lopsided here-

And with my birthstone, Turquoise-

And for latest garden delicacy, a Delicata squash, delightful to eat and even the skin is edible-

I'm still getting lots of beans, tomatoes, here with a pumpkin and Delicata squash-

In the right back is my 8' tall deer fence enclosing the garden, I had to put plastic sheeting on the outside to keep the deer from eating the bean vines I'm growing on the fence-

my eggplants are doing the best ever probably thanks to the hot weather, long Japanese eggplant Ping Tung-

Short Japanese eggplant Dewako, both from the Kitazawa Seed Co.-

and the fall greens are growing and great eating. I'm looking forward to perhaps being able to photograph the next lunar eclipse coming up Sunday evening for the feast of Sukkot. Hannah

I had a comment about problems with leaving a comment here. If you are having trouble commenting on my blog, you can send me an email at z8hannah8z@gmail.com to comment and let me know of your difficulties. Thanks! I looked up solutions on Blogger and apparently Wordpress has not updated their Open ID servers, so to comment on Blogspot blogs, you must select OpenID then enter your address, changing it to plain http://address instead of https://address.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Wildflower Wednesday Vignette September 23, 2015

Welcome to my Wildflower Wednesday post, celebrating wildflowers with hostess Gail of Clay and Limestone. I'm also linking to Wednesday Vignette, hosted by Anna of Flutter and Hum.

Today I am featuring the survivors from my Goldenrod purchases of a couple of years ago. The ones that didn't survive were the dwarf varieties Laurin and Little Lemon, and the herbal scented variety, Solidago odora. They grew their first season, but didn't return the next year. But the survivors are doing well, sending out rhizomes and blooming happily again.

Solidago sphacelata 'Golden Fleece', which has a basal clump of larger leaves-

Solidago shortii 'Solar Cascade', which is taller with a long cascading stems, which means they flop a lot, the internet photos showed wonderful clumps with flower sprays shooting off, maybe that will take a few years. I also read that it is on the endangered species list, so you might consider growing it, nexyt year I will have to try cutting it back early in the season to see if it will do some branching and be shorter-

Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks', named for flowers which seem to shoot off in many directions, it might also benefit from cutting it back early in the season-

I'm enjoying watching them increase by rhizomes but it seems like it will take a few more years to have a big clump. I would like to think the pollinators would like them but don't see many in action. The Solidago odora would have been good for making tea, I think the others could be used but might not be as tasty. My Native American Medicinal Plants book by Daniel E. Moerman tells of uses for various goldenrods by Native American tribes, for complaints such as diarrhea, colds, liver problems, as a sedative, and so forth. These varieties are not native in my area but the few natives are not available commercially as far as I know, they are short rhizomatous plants with small inflorescences. They look charming, perhaps someday I can find some.

What native plants are blooming now for you? Hannah

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Celebrating Fall, In a Vase on Monday, Foliage Follow-up September 19, 2015

Welcome to my blog, today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sylvia, and Sandy

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Foliage Follow-Up hosted by Pam

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

This is a sunset when there was smoke in the air from the Washington fires, the center of the sun was actually the color of the surrounding ring, the camera couldn't capture it-

This week has been cooler, but the predicted rain is not showing up much. Here is my Foliage Follow-Up contribution, the marvelous Vinca major 'Wojo's Gem-

A native that grows in parts of the yard that escaped the former owner's attempts to plant grass everywhere, Mahonia (Berberis) nervosa-

And last, a river of greens that were self-sown after letting last year's plants bloom this spring for a treat for the bees, Kale, Collards, and Radishes-

I am celebrating fall by picking a big bunch and cooking up some good Southern greens, I like them with sour cream and Parmesan cheese.

Critter for today is this Vanessa atalanta butterfly that found its way into my house and had to be escorted out, don't you love the name, product I imagine of a love-struck biologist-

A quilt from the Fair last August-

Orchid Dahlias from the fair, in addition to being pretty, they had some fragrance-

My entry this week for Cathy of Rambling in the Garden's In A Vase On Monday challenge, what plant material can you find in your garden now that will decorate your home in a vase? To celebrate the beginning of Autumn, I found some flowers that make me think of summer's end and approach of fall. I wish to hang on to the roses and bright blooms of summer while the flowers that like the cooler weather of autumn are beginning to burst on the scene-

The rose is a spray of the small flowers of Ghislaine de Feligonde, a Hybrid Multiflora or Rambler from 1916. It fades to yellow then to white. There is yellow Coreopsis lanceolata, which surprises me with a little fragrance, Gaillardia 'Tokajer', Ageratum, and leaves from Vinca major 'variegata'.

I have enjoyed discovering this meme as I hadn't cut flowers much before that, so I wanted to share it with other gardeners to inspire them as well, by putting the links together.

Some flowers that are starting to bloom in preparation for Fall are Japanese Anemones, they are hard to use in a vase because they tend to droop rather rapidly-

Cyclamen hederifolium, which suddenly and mysteriously spring up without their foliage-

And hopefully soon the Asters and Dahlias.
How are you celebrating the change of seasons? -Hannah

Saturday, September 12, 2015

New Plants, Fall Roses September 12, 2015

Today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia

Floral Friday Fotos hosted by Nick V.

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In a Vase in Monday hosted by Cathy

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day hosted by Carol, see what's blooming around the world!

Tonight's flaming sunset-

I visited Tsugawa Nursery yesterday while my husband paddled his Hobie Bic pedal-powered sailboard at Horseshoe Lake. Tsugawa's was having a 1/2 price sale on perennials, so I picked up a few- Eryngium zabelii 'Big Blue', which will have steely blue spiky flowers next spring, if it makes it through the winter-

Geranium 'Orkney Cherry', a vigorous plant with little bronzy leaves, covered with little pink flowers-

Limonium latifolium 'Blue Diamond' (Statice), which will be covered with a mist of tiny flowers-

Sanguisorba offincinale 'Chocolate Tip', which has delightful little balls of flowers, and has very dense short foliage with chocolate edges, outdoing all my other Burnets-

My grandkids met us to pedal the boat-

Some Mallards happened by-

And went for a swim-

Nom nom-

And for In a Vase on Monday, and What's Blooming Now, this week I have my small wonderfully fragrant late-blooming Clotilde Soupert, a variegated red and white striped mini rose, and a small white rose with blush edges, here with fall-blooming heather Daboecia cantabrica 'Atropurpurea'-

Here on velvet-

From the white mini side-

Other flowers are blooming in my garden. In spite of the drought and increased heat, certain garden troupers continue to bloom, such as the wonderful hardy geranium, Rozanne.

The Japanese Anemones are doing their late-summer to fall blooming-

Antique Polyantha rose Marie Pavie, another late bloomer-

My Goldenrods are starting to bloom, Solidago shortii 'Solar Cascade', which is slowly spreading by rhizomes-

Also still blooming are a few more roses, like the fabulous Betty Boop-

In my container garden, a favorite combination is tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, and Browallia americana-

Also blooming are some Coreopsis, Ageratum,

Gaillardia, Dianthus, Ursinia, fall Sedums, Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow', and Scabiosa.

Promise of some other fruits yet to come, hardy Arguta Kiwis Annasanaja, they soften up very late in October. Inside they look and taste like the fuzzy kiwis but you don't have to peel them-

What is blooming and fruiting in your garden? Hannah

Weeding on the Wild Side

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