Wildflower Wednesday September 2012

Welcome to my Wildflower Wednesday post, to see others go to Clay and Limestone, hosted by Gail who has lots of lovely blooms in the Aster family.    Not much blooming in the native category in my yard now, we still are waiting for the rainy season to start, it's very dry.  The Fireweed has finished and is about to blow.   The Chaste tree blooms make a nice purple-

The Pearly Everlasting is past its prime-

The Kinnikinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, has bright red berries-

Lonicera ciliosa also had red berries-

And for some edible berries, a little past prime, some Berberis (Mahonia) nervosa-

and finally, some Salal berries.   I'll have to get some picked and make some gelatin with them.

Happy Fall!   Hannah

Foliage Follow-Up September 2012

Here is my first contribution to Foliage Follow-Up, to join in the other posts go to Foliage Follow-Up, hosted by Pam, who has a lovely silvery garden on display, and Mangaves, and Yuccas, oh my!  My more mundane plants include this group of variegated plants; Lonicera nitida, Vinca major, and  Zebra grass, Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus'-

Another grouping is Oreganos in various colorations; I love how tough they are, these are on a very dry ramp that gets almost no summer water-

My contribution to silvery is these small leaves of a Hebe pinguifolia 'Pagei'-

Another grouping of silver is this Hebe pimeleoides 'Quicksilver' with Santolina, accented by a Sarracenia leucophylla x rubra-

For some cool green with magenta highlights, a Cut-leaf Japanese Maple draped by a Schisandra vine-

Another combination of variegated Elaeagnus ebbingei and the burgundy tones of Berberis thunbergii-

And here with other plants added, a Nandina showing some fall color, a Bird's Nest Spruce, a weeping Mulberry, and some variegated Phalaris, which can overtake the weeds in a difficult area.

Enjoy your autumnal foliage, Hannah

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day September 2012

Welcome to my GBBD post, for more photos of what's blooming now from all over go to May Dreams Gardens hosted by Carol.    Nearly Fall, and the garden is very dry from our usual nearly rain-free dry season.  Fortunately, there are plants that can take that and even go on to bloom.   One of those that is exuberant is Agastache rugosa, one has even achieved 4' in height, having escaped the munching deer-

I started 5 Agastaches from seed last year but most did  not return, I hope this one, which grows on steroids, will do well next year.  It's disappointing that a non-native did better.

A plant that comes up towards fall and spread by itself is Anemone japonica, this one is slightly bi-colored, more visible from the back-
Another one, so dainty and cheery, and don't you just love flowers that take care of themselves...

Some of my most successful seed-grown plants are Achillea.  Here is A. millefolium 'Colorado', now 2 years old and making a nice clump, I should have dead-headed so maybe I would be getting more rebloom now.

The blossom up close has small florets-

but a wonderful surprise this week was blooms on my Achillea sibirica 'Love Parade', just grown from seed this year, which is an unusual soft pink and has larger florets on its smaller inflorescence, taken at the same distance away-

The foliage is also different, more with a ripply edge than the ferny foliage of most Achillea.  The first to bloom is in a very poor dry hardly watered location, too.

I started a couple of more 8/5, A. millefolium 'Cassis', a cherry red, and A. clypeolata, which will be a large silvery-grey foliaged plant with abundant yellow blooms.  The internal debate is whether they can make it through winter if planted out now.  I may plant part out as an experiment.

A few roses, mostly of the ground cover designation, are valiantly blooming, here is a spectacular red, Red Ribbons by Kordes.   Faun, Sea Foam, Lavender Dream, and Baby Blanket are some more of my favorites in this category.

And the ever irrepressible Betty Boop-

A final seedling success from last year, an Echinacea I hope will make a clump next year-

I hope you are resigned to the end of summer, part of me says Yes but the vegetable gardener part says NO!!

Here's one reason why- the lovely Eggplant Kamo in a pot-

Happy Bloom Day!  Hannah

Cooking with Cucumbers

This year deer got into my bed and ate all my squash plants when they were just starting to bloom.  I was heart-broken and went off to HD and bought a gallon pot with 5 crookneck squash, my favorite.  It's been a couple of months and now the new plants are blooming and setting fruit, so I will get some squash very soon.  If you have never had home-grown crookneck squash you don't know what a buttery nutty treat you are missing.

Anyway, with a dearth of squash, I have to cook my abundant cucumbers.  Tonight I made stir-fries with them.    Here are some of the ingredients, but the cucumbers I cooked were really yellow North Carolina Pickles, which yield heavily.  I used them all up in cooking and didn't want to go pick more for a photo.  Also pictured are a great stringy non-fishy-tasting seaweed, Elephant Garlic, raw Turmeric tuber, fresh Shiitake mushrooms, and raw Ginger-

I peel and cube the cucumber, saute in water with the other ingredients above, I don't mind chunks of ginger and turmeric so I just chop them, as well as the garlic and mushrooms.

I added some celery, seaweed, soy sauce, and cubed roasted chicken with pan juices, since I have company, usually we eat vegetarian food.

It can be served over rice or buckwheat.  How do you cook your cucumbers?

Hannah

Wildflower Wednesday August 22, 2012

Welcome to Wildflower Wednesday here in the PNW.  Join Gail and other native plant aficionados on her blog Clay and Limestone!

Agastache aurantiaca that I grew from seed last year is blooming again, those sunset peachy colors are my favorite.  You can tell from the shape that hummingbirds would like these flowers.

They would look nice with some Verbena bonariensis, here washed out by the camera, so far I have been unable to germinate and grow Verbena hastata, which is native.

There are bright red inedible berries on Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, I love the deep green glossy leaves-

There are white insipid mealy berries on Gaultheria mucronata, Pernettya, also with leathery glossy green leaves, which has long wispy branches in my garden.

Gaultheria shallon, Salal, has ripe fruit and a few flowers still-

The berries are also ripe on the very lovely foliaged Cascade Oregon Holly Grape, Berberis (Mahonia) nervosa.  I just bought a plant of B. repens, which is stoloniferous, so hope it will spread and be a good ground cover.

Time to pick some more berries, in addition to the blueberries and blackberries.  Yum!
Hannah

GBBD- What's Blooming Now, August 2012

Welcome to August GBBD!  To see what else is blooming in other gardens around the country and world, go to May Dreams Gardens, hosted by Carol, who just celebrated her 2000th post!  Congratulations!

Some of the Malvas are blooming now, this one takes care of itself, Malva alcea fastigata-

A surprise was first-time bloom on Alcea ficifolia 'Antwerp' mixed, grown from seed a couple of years ago, which turned out to be a black red-

A Hibiscus 'Roselle' bloom is just opening, my first success getting it to bloom in a large container also containing a Moringa tree, and Cerinthe purpurascens.  Roselle is the plant from which comes the Hibiscus calyxes used as an antioxidant and colorant in teas like Red Zinger.  I updated the photo.

I hope to keep it alive by taking the container in this fall.  Also updated.

Next to it are blooms on my Kamo Eggplant, with a Sarracenia peeking in on the right-

Also on the deck are blooming a couple of geraniums I divided last year, in one of my favorite garden colors, peachy salmon.  They will spend the winter by my kitchen sink, hopefully in bloom.

Here is a self-sown Geranium pratense, the parent was Splish Splash; it gets rather tall-

Some roses are still blooming, here is my favorite Rugosa, Topaz Jewel, now about 6' tall-

The daylilies are winding down, but some Agastaches grown from seed this year are starting to bloom, the taller ones got deer-nipped-

Another rose, a ground cover type called Lavender Dream-

The herbs are blooming but I am going to save them for another post, so here is my last entry, Crocosmia or Montbretia, much shorter than Crocosmia 'Lucifer', and one of those super tough hard to kill plants.

Looming on the horizon are several days of near 100*F temperatures, so I will be properly commiserating with the rest of the country for a while.  I'm be doing a lot of watering.

Hannah

Daylily Seedling Bed

Well, they are no longer seedlings, but are all daylilies I grew from seed.  One parent was the garish and clown-like Erin Farmer (second row).  I've long since lost my old list of the other parents.  Daylilies are fun to hybridize.  I would mark the pod parent with a tag around the blossom stem with the pollen parent's name or initials.  I sowed the resulting seeds into seedling mix and chilled them in the refrigerator or a cold garage until they sprouted.  Some people soak the seeds in a weak Hydrogen Peroxide solution until the roots start to emerge, then plant.  They can be planted out the next spring.  Here is the extensive bed of seedlings.

This bed is in a drain field so gets lots of nitrogen and water.  The daylilies are tall because Erin Farmer is a 36" daylily in addition to all the nitrogen.  They tend to be weed-infested, with horsetail reeds, blackberry vines, and thistles.  They also tend to flop, but the sheer mass holds them up in the middle.

Here you can see the Erin Farmer influence, I like the color and the white midrib stripe.

Some have the color but not the long thin spider type petals.

This one is a spider type but more of an orange color, some are gold like the throat-

 So you see what a fascinating range of daylilies you can get from seed growing.  Pick a couple of  favorites and see what you can get.  This one has some white midrib striping but with the rounder ruffled edged petals, love those piecrust ruffles!

And finally for some tropical pizzazz, a twirly spidery cluster, 

Summer is almost 2/3 over, enjoy!

Hannah