No pics due to darkness

Quite a bit of progress was made this weekend on the ugly bed. DH and I installed the two fence panels. Boy, are they heavy!! And we did this with stiff winds blowing all day Saturday. Fun, fun, fun. The panel hiding the pot area was trickier than we  (I) calculated. Perhaps didn't calculate would be more accurate. I got the posts set (no cement here - my native ground is very much like cement when compacted) and then glanced up to see that the leaning tree would probably touch (hopefully, only touch) the top of the fence. Sure enough, it just made it with no room to spare - not a centimeter. Then I went looking for the old stain we used when DH built our fence. Hmm, about 3/4 of a can. Do you think I had a drop left? No. Work finished at dark on Saturday. No pictures.

Sunday I knew I would not only be planting the ugly bed, but also saying farewell to a couple of poorly performing roses. So it was "ta ta" to naked 'Archduke Charles' (China) and 'Jeri Jennings' (Hybrid Musk) who was beginning to be beset by black spot - again. So, yellow or no yellow, she had to go.

She's a beauty, but more often than not in my garden she was quite naked.

The Walters viburnum from the ugly bed moved to the Archduke's sunnier spot, and the huge fuschia went into the ground (minus the pot - I like living dangerously) where Jeri had been.

The ugly bed received three variegated liriopes along the fence and down by the shed, a big 'Evergreen Giant' liriope that had been duking it out with my second 'Le Vesuve' in a nearby bed, three 'Super Blue' liriopes, a couple of caladium bulbs unearthed in the bed preparation and finally 'Penny Mac' hydrangea. Poor 'Penny Mac' didn't even get planted before the squirrels chewed half of her to shreds. (AAARGH!!! I hate squirrels.) After blowing the oak leaves (the last of them, hopefully) into the beds it was dark. No pictures.

Had to go to Lowe's after work today for more micro sprinkler parts. I was all prepared on Sunday to replace the male and female connectors at the hose bib and the valve to the timer until I cut the 1/2" poly while extracting 'Evergreen Giant' from under 'Le Vesuve'. Woe is me, I'll never learn to stop digging when I meet resistance. My father always said my motto should be "get a bigger hammer". How true. I didn't have a straight connector so no point in doing the other repair yesterday. Today I did the two repairs, wrapping the male  and female connectors with hardware cloth. (Chew on that, squirrels!!) Turned it on for a test run...no pressure. Ran to one end then back to the other, found the problem. It was that darn shovel again. But since I had bought extra straight connectors (how did I know?), I was prepared! Fix done. System works. Night had fallen. No pictures.

Tomorrow I only have to plant the pale lavender pink impatiens and the deep pink moss roses (portulaca) which shouldn't take long. I promise. There will be pictures tomorrow.

The way we were

I went looking just now in my computer files for a photo I had taken a few years ago of a cute little tree frog nestled deep down in a canna lily...

But was surprised by something else I found - photos of our backyard in July, 2006. We moved into our new house at the end of May, 2005. We built the patio first. Then DH built the fence cedar board by cedar board, and I stained them, pre-construction. These photos show the new garden I had just completed. It would be another six months before thoughts of roses danced in my head...a reaction to everything in that bed against the fence declining rapidly. A word to the wise: shade/acid loving plants should not be  planted in alkaline soil in the sun. I definitely was not a gardener.

You can see why I planted Mrs B R Cant just behind that birdbath - full sun! A 'Limelight' hydrangea was there then in  a little too much sun. It's not full sun there anymore. The canopy of these trees has really widened. You can also see why I prefer gravel.

How things have changed. It's mind-boggling.

Oh, Jeff, whad'ya know...there's the Fatsia japonica that died (between the two trees left of center).

Blooming Clematis

There are two groups of clematis that are good prospects for the Florida garden: texensis and viticella. They tolerate heat well, but remember, though the upper part of the plant can handle sun (or some shade), the roots like to be shaded. Last year I planted six clematis vines. They didn't do much last year. Imagine my excitement when I saw that they were all alive this spring, and two are blooming now. Curiously, these two are supposed to be late blooming, summer to fall. I wonder what it means that mine are blooming now. Maybe it's been hot enough that they think it's summer. Don't we all.

Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana': Group 3, Late, Small-flowered, Texensis-Viorna Group

Clematis texensis 'Princess Diana': Group 3, Late, Small-flowered, Texensis-Viorna Group

Clematis viticella 'Venosa Violacea': Group 3, Large-flowered, Late, Viticella Group

This link will take you to the HelpMeFind clematis data base. Type texensis or viticella in the search box, and you'll get a list of plants in each group. The data base includes description, photos, comments, and vendors who sell the plant. I bought mine from Brushwood Nursery.

Back garden eyesore - Part II

Two issues to address: how ugly is ugly and how creative does one have to be to fix it.

Ugly is in the eye of the beholder just as beauty is. And, of course, it's relative. It's ugly to me because so far it has confounded my imagination and my limited experience. It's ugly because I had no recipe for revamping it. It's ugly because the plastic shed can't be painted to match the cottage-y one that's in my brain. It's ugly because all the garden magazines show pictures of plastic nursery pots in neat organization, adorned cleverly to more resemble haute couture than gardening implements, and I'd love to steal their clever ideas. It's ugly because it seemed to have no chance of being beautiful. So let's deal with the problems.

• Neutral to alkaline soil:

I have had azaleas there and a gardenia. The gardenia died, and two 'Mrs. G. G. Gerbing' azaleas were rescued in the nick of time and relocated. The native soil under my oaks trees in the back is very dry powdery sand, whitish gray in color and in places resembles chalk. The pH is in the low 7's, very inhospitable to the typical shade loving plants with which I'm familiar. In my heavily amended shade bed the 'Endless Summer' hydrangea blooms very pink. I throw soil sulfur around in that bed regularly because I do have four azaleas there (two or three others died). One good thing it that it is now irrigated so the unwettable soil seems to be conquered. My standby, no-fail evergreen has become 'Evergreen Giant' Liriope which seems not to mind my pH because it prospers everywhere I put it, but I can't fill every nook with liriope even though I love it, gracefully waving in the breeze. Hydrangeas don't care about pH, but I care about no foliage all winter.

•  Fairly deep shade until late afternoon

Since the spot in question is rather dark, blooming plant choices are limited.

• Height

I think the place needs something tall-er.

On Tuesday I circumnavigated the garden center at Lowe's three times, looking for some bit of inspiration, some plant I hadn't thought of and rejected. I found it. It's a thick and heavy concrete fleur-de-lis birdbath. Not the dainty kind but a hefty one. I liked it and the price was decent - $65. I would put the birdbath in the center and plant Flax lily around it. Or maybe something else, but the birdbath was a go when I went to bed Tuesday night.

Last night wasn't very productive due to over-tiredness, but I managed to hit upon a 5-gallon hydrangea, 'IncrediBall', on Ebay for $39.95 plus $19 shipping. Yikes! Am I that desperate? Today I called every nursery in town. One has 4-gallon 'Penny Mac' hydrangeas for $19.99. Granted it doesn't have basketball sized flowers and it's not white, but it reblooms and 30 minutes after I left work it was mine. Companion plants will have to include some that conceal 'Penny Mac's winter nakedness. I see a problem there.

OK, where does that leave the birdbath in a 6-ft diameter area with a 5x5 bush in it? My heart wanted that birdbath...how about on the gravel where I now have the potted plants? Hmm, that could work.

I also bought some variegated Liriope to plant in front of the stockade fence that will hide the pots storage. (I also bought a huge Fuscia plant that won't survive below 28 degrees so I have to "plant" it "pot and all" so it can be brought inside during cold spells. Impractical? I guess, but it's a very pretty plant for another spot.)

So after dinner I went to Lowe's to get the birdbath and fence boards for building the fence. Didn't get the birdbath. I decided to get further along before I commit to dealing with this glob of cement (two globs, really) that weighs a ton. (Secretly, I'm having doubts about it.) However, I did buy two sections of cypress fence (why build when one is already built?). One is for the other side of the shed. I almost bought some impatiens, but the colors just didn't click with me.

Well, that's basically it - a hydrangea and a fence. I hope "the plan" isn't too anti-climactic. Do solutions have to be complicated? Simple is good. I also hope I love the 'Penny Mac'. At least it was a local plant. (#1 - better survival chances, and #2 - our economy needs the money.) I do love hydrangeas, and this spot will get more sun than the other bed does, and I love the light pink I've seen in photos of it. The plant is pretty large and was a good price.

OK, ugly wasn't really all that ugly, and I think a toad has enough creativity to have figured this one out. Now how strong does one have to be to put up a fence? Maybe boards would have been better.

Back garden eyesore - Part I

My back garden looked pretty good last May 2nd, the day of my open garden. I won't exactly say it's been downhill from there but almost. There have been many changes to this garden since then. Roses are bigger, roses are gone, new roses have come, plants have frozen back and not returned as promised, and some unsightly stuff is now visible that was hidden. The eyesore is a very small part of the whole but a very ugly part, and I feel it has a large impact on the feeling of this garden. It hurts my feelings every single day.

I think you'll be able to feel the garden if I can place you in the garden. So imagine you're the little man in the Google Street View. Keeping in mind, of course, that nature and this gardener have made some changes. Take your time. I'll keep quiet except for directions.

From the house look north

 Walk out behind the bench, turn around and look toward the house.

Turn to the right and walk west just a few steps, look back to the house.

 Walk forward, looking to the right as you go.

 Keep walking to the corner of the house and turn to the left. Now you're facing east.

 

 Walk toward the bench, stop at the stepping stones and look right.

Walk past the bench, turn left at the potted plants and do a 180. You're looking south. The future eyesore is on your left.

 Step back a little and look left at the tidy, well hidden storage area.

 Look right at the shade garden, my pride and joy - foliage texture and color.

Pivot left a bit, walk back toward the house, stop next to the pots.

Look to the left at the nice bamboo screen, Mona lavenders and a Walters Viburnum in a shady grotto under three oak trees that only gets late afternoon sun.

Turn right toward the house, bear left and stop under the rebar arbor.

Turn around, the eyesore is behind Louis Philippe and Fortuniana (climbing the oak tree on the left).

Look to the right. The shed is the end of the road, er, gravel path.

Turn around, look south toward Reve d'Or and all the way at the end is Maman Cochet, Cl.

Bear right, then look left under the arbor.

Now go back to the red bench, sit in the shade, and I'll get you an iced tea. Sweet or unsweet?

While you sip your tea, I'll tell you my problem. No, better yet, we'll fast forward, and I'll show you my problem... So much for bamboo screens. It lasted six months. And Mona Lavender doesn't like freezing temps - at all.

Isn't this embarrassing?

Can this ever be a pretty part of the garden? Stay tuned to Part II. I think I have a plan.

Audacious deadheading

In my small garden I believe the days of timid (and quick & easy) snapping of spent blooms are in the past. Yesterday I took pruners in hand and set out to limit at least some of the expansionism of my rose bushes in the front garden. Turns out most of them were full of thrips so the timing was good, and now there are no flowers left, except for 'Le Vesuve'.  In the process I discovered a very cool thing about polyanthas.

I have always struggled with how to deadhead these cluster-blooming polyanthas (I'm not sure but modern floribundas might work the same way), not wanting to remove any growth or future blooming from my young plants that I desperately wanted to be bigger - soon. I have two 'Clotilde Soupert's, 'Lauren', 'Softee', 'Anda', 'Cal Poly', 'Etoile de Mai' and 'Sweet Chariot'. Most of the time their clusters have two main stems, one coming off at an angle with a small leaf at the base.  Sometimes I would just grab the cluster as though I was shaking hands with it and pull it through, stripping off the flowers, and sometimes I would cut the cluster stem but never far enough to remove the unsightly leftover stems or ugly naked clusters, fearing budeyes were there. Yesterday I found that these plants are amazingly consistent. Looking back along the cane from the cluster or from the occasional single blooms, past the small leaf at the base of the angled bloom stem, the next leaf always had a leaf bud sprouting from the budeye. That's where I cut. Sometimes that second leaf was a pretty long distance from the cluster, but I cut there anyway, knowing that any extra cane I left would simply die and turn brown and ugly.

Beautiful rose bush: 'Clotilde Soupert', bred in 1889 in Luxembourg by Soupert & Notting

The result of my audacious deadheading was a beautifully shaped bush ('Clotilde Soupert' is the prettiest evergreen plant I know) with no ugly pedicels sticking up (left behind after snapping off only the flower) and no naked clusters waiting to turn brown, AND by removing at least 8" of growth I believe I went a long way toward keeping them a manageable size for my increasingly packed garden. Of course, the negative side of this practice is the time and effort it demands. Oh, well, no such thing as a free lunch - even in rose gardens.

'Mme Abel Chatenay', always so beautiful, was not this spring. Her flowers were fringed in brown and didn't last long at all. The problem? Her first attack of thrips. So disgusting. So all of her flowers and buds are gone, too, in an effort to rid the garden of these teensy beasties. You can spot the infested buds by the brown stains on the unfurled petals. She's getting pretty big, too, so it was an opportunity to downsize and shape her up just a bit.

Since they are smallish plants, my three 'Hermosa' bushes are planted closely in a triangle for maximum impact. I've been deadheading them this way since last year since reading that being part Bourbon they benefit from this trimming and will be bushier and less spindly. Some of the plants did not end up as a 'pretty bush' like CS did, since they had already become a little spindly, but I have the hope of pretty bushes when they fill out after this more intensive nipping. Like pruning azaleas after spring bloom, they respond with new growth and more leaves. Even though these were also showing new growth at the budeyes, sometimes I went past the first one, trying to make them a little more compact and symmetrical.

The three 'Hermosa' bushes with the bright green leaves are at the back along the sidewalk and driveway. This is in August, 2009, and I was struggling to keep leaves on my bushes without much success. It turned out the problem was lack of water. I was watering by hand every other day after work. Now I have a micro system that runs every morning for 30 minutes and uses less water. The twiggy thing under the tire is one of the 'Clotilde Soupert's, really suffering. A 'Red Ruffle' azalea is in the middle, and 'Souv de Francois Gaulain' is at the bottom.

Same camera position today, a year and a half later. You can't see the azalea, but it's still there. SdFG with the blue-green leaves is at the bottom, taking up much more space. Hopefully, you can see the 'Hermosa's sticking up at the top, and CS minus all her flowers is to the right of the tire. 'Lauren' and 'Sweet Chariot' are in pots at the bottom corners.

In getting rid of the infecting flowers and buds I've read that we're supposed to put them in a sealed bag and throw them away with the trash because they fly and will move on to destroy other flowers. When I had removed them before, that was what I did. However, this time I had a very large reusable 'debris bag' made of tarp material that was full of trimmings of all sorts that I would normally dump at the curb for the garden waste truck. (No, I could not drag two bags behind me in the baking sun. I'm not that organized and don't think that far ahead - maybe next time. Having one bag with me at the start was unusually well planned for me.)

So...what could I do with these awful bugs? I found some old ant & roach spray in the garage (we have tubes-in-the-walls pest control, so we no longer have to spray for the nasties.) I sprayed the contents a lot and folded the top down and stood my handy pick-ax on it. Handy? I failed to put it away when I dug the driveway bed. I'm so terrible, but it worked out well this time, except that I stubbed my bare toe on the blade the other day. Ouch!! I might give the bag another dose of roach spray before I put the contents out at the curb next week. Surely they will have died cooped up in that bag with those poison fumes, don't you think? OK, let's not be dumb. I googled and found that Permethrin kills thrips. I'll go read the Raid can........YES, it has it!!

To sum up, knowing where to cut my rose bushes is a huge relief and makes my new, more demanding task simpler at least. Probably doing a bush or two in an evening won't be too difficult, especially since it's only once every six to eight weeks, and while I'm at it, it will be exhilarating realizing that I know better now what I'm doing with these roses. Little by little, they say. Fortunately, old garden roses don't care too much if their gardener is less than brilliant.

The garden centerpiece, 'Le Vesuve'. Perhaps you remember him after pruning. Well, he is again bulging at the brick borders of this 6-ft diameter bed. He's probably 4-1/2 feet tall. It just occurs to me that he makes me look brilliant. Now you know the truth!

After the rain, much to do, no time

My apologies for being incommunicado this week. I was spending hours and hours doing genealogy research with my sister. Since she's in Ohio, 'with' doesn't have exactly the normal meaning, but we have fun 'together'. Can't do everything. Must always choose one thing, leaving another thing(s) undone. Is there really such a thing as multi-tasking??

Weeds are growing in the gravel and brick pathways, needing Round-Up. Little oak seedlings are still popping up, needing pulling. The St. Augustine grass on the not-mine slope to the retention area has more weeds than I have ever seen, and there's a bag of Scott's Weed & Feed in my car. Deadheads (and you know what they need) are everywhere after this first bloom was stopped short by the rain. Roses haven't been gazed upon by this gardener (a time consuming procedure) in a week. Perfect photo opportunities were missed. Tax day is less than two weeks away. Bills must be paid, leaves and oak pollen blown away. Photos downloaded and selected for blog. House needs cleaning, but it's not on the official list.

Here's some pre-rain pics.

'Lauren' was so full of buds. Can't say what she looks like now since looking at her is still on my to-do list.

Isn't 'Sweet Chariot' pretty?

The lighter pink at the top are three 'Hermosa' bushes. Perhaps you can see 'Climbing Pinkie' at the tippity top left near the post. The spots of red are 'Red Ruffles' azalea. Right under them, the magenta is 'Souv de Francois Gaulain'. The white is 'Clotilde Soupert', and the yellow is old-fashioned mustard.

You will not believe this 'Red Cascade' when his buds finally open up. He is a sight to behold.

I love this rose. I also have one in the ground in the back garden filled with buds. 'Borderer' is exactly as billed, very disease resistant, and I would go further and say disease proof in my garden.

'Tis the season for falling rose petals. This is 'LaSylphide'.

I believe this is 'Bow Bells', and I think the color is so deep because it was dusk when I was taking these pics. But she's perfectly lovely anyway.

On the other hand last week (not this past rainy week) I re-stained the concrete block patio, changing it from tan to gray, and replaced the river rock with granite gravel so now the patio is color-coordinated with the crushed granite garden paths, relieving my brain of the stress from color-conflict. I did not believe that I would be able to get this project done since it involved re-leveling many of the heavy 16" blocks that had sunk over time. So I'm praising the Lord for this accomplishment since He must have supplied the inspiration for using the tons (minor exaggeration) of tile chips (saved from previous projects) as wedges to level the blocks and since perfection only comes from Him (and it did turn out perfect). And all of my usable seedlings (those that will not become too large for my garden) are in the ground.

Voila! The patio.

These pics are of the back garden which I have noticed seems to be closing in on me with its growth. Not a bad thing, I think.

These roses are potted because I suspect that one day in the not too distant future the one on the right and the one on the left may be kinda ugly due to black spot. So...out of sight out of mind, another motto of mine. Left to right: 'Rose de Rescht', 'Martha Gonzales' and 'Baronne Prevost'.

Left to right: another healthy 'Sweet Chariot', 'Polonaisse' (red rose), walking iris 'Regina', below that 'Pink Gruss an Aachen'.

I just repainted the two largest pots a beautiful shade of teal (they're really 20-gallon black water-garden containers). Now in the bright sun they're almost royal blue. Oh, well, I won't think about that... Remember? That's 'Crepuscule' between the lamp post and the arbor. Another 'Polonaisse' in the teal pot. 'Pink Gruss an Aachen' in the purple. And walking iris 'Regina' and another daylily.

'Sweet Chariot' again, loaded with buds. She's purple, you know.

A long shot of 'Louis Philippe'. I feared his flush would be lost in the rain, but he is very slow to open this year. He's been loaded with buds for almost two weeks, and they're just starting to open. Curiously, he produced some scattered flowers early like all the others, but now he's gotten serious about it. So many things/habits to learn about these roses.

'Reve d'Or' - Her flush was waning when the rains came, and now there's little left. I had thought about taking a pic of the ground under her covered with fallen petals but never did. Now they're all brown.

Deadheading is necessary for optimal re-bloom. I'll try to get to it, because I really, really love her when she's covered with flowers. Note: mostly, visitors/family don't notice and/or mention the roses even though they're blooming they're heads off right in front of their faces. Before the rain when 'Reve d'Or' was in all of her glory, I directed Dear Son to stick his head out the door and take a look at her. His quick response was very gratifying, "Wow!"

Naturally, I don't have a full bush shot to show you. Hopefully, this one will suffice.

Not the prettiest day this morning for 'Maman Cochet, Climbing'. The rains came just as many of her flowers were almost fully opened. They're toast now, and she finishes ugly anyway, holding onto her brown crispies until the end of time. But she's still magnificent.

OK, I've given my first and best efforts to all of you sweet folks. Now it's on to the not-so-sweet IRS. Ugh!