First Rose of Summer

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” ~ Dale Carnegie

All of the roses are going to be in bloom shortly, but 'Chihuly'® is the first of those that were acquired prior to this year. I got this floribunda last year at The Greenhouse Effect, along with 'Hot Cocoa.' It's quite unusual and striking, because no two blooms are alike and each bloom changes in appearance from the stage of bloom you see here until it starts to drop petals. Some of them are painted, as is this one, and some are not. It owes that trait to one of its parents, 'Scentimental.' It is a Weeks rose, introduced by Carruth in 2004.


Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist. The first Chihuly work I'd ever seen was the glass ceiling in Bellagio's in Las Vegas. Stunning when you first see it, and you'll have a crook in your neck by the time you tire of looking at it, if you even do.







Then Mom and I went to see his exhibit at Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, in 2004. Various glass creations were interspersed among the flora there and I became an official fan. Nearly the entire exhibit was acquired as a permanent exhibit and includes more than 3000 pieces of glass.








The next place I saw a Chihuly was when Romie and I visited the William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2005. Chihuly presented the Clintons with an 11-foot, 1000 pound glass tree, worth $22,000. Usually his glass works are brilliantly colorful, but this one is white. If you're familiar with Chihuly's work at all, you'll recognize it as such.



Presently, there are three exhibitions in the United States, including one at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It runs from May 10 - November 11, 2007 and I hope to get there before it closes. I've not visited Phipps, so Chihuly or not, I'd like to see it.

So which came first - my love of Chihuly glass or the Chihuly rose? It was the glass, but when I saw the rose in bloom and discovered its name, I knew I had to have it. It has never disappointed me with any of its blooms and it truly is aptly named. Its brilliant - sometimes shocking - color variations are reminiscent of Chihuly's glass works.

2006 'Chihuly'®

You Just Never Know Who'll Read Your Blog

Last week, I received an e-mail from Diane Mapes, a journalist with MSNBC.com, requesting an interview for a piece she was doing on tanning. She'd run across my blog, specifically my post from May 3rd entitled "Protect Yourself." I e-mailed her back, after checking her credentials (you just never know), and within an hour, we were speaking to one another on the phone.

Once again, I'm amazed at the power of the internet to bring people together in so many different ways for so many different reasons. Over the years, I've met some of the most interesting and wonderful people that I otherwise would not have met. This includes fellow gardening bloggers, of course, but also people like my friend Kat.

Probably those that I've met through geocaching are evidence of the largest network of friends and acquaintances that the internet has made possible for Romie and me. We've attended caching events and stayed with fellow cachers in their homes, as well as being the hosts ourselves, over the last three years and we not only share this hobby with them, but like our friends here at home, we enjoy just spending time with them. Were it not for our computer and the internet, we would have missed out on knowing some awfully nice people.

The internet gets bad press from time to time, and occasionally it's deserved. But used appropriately, it opens up the world in a brand new wonderful way. I remember when we first got online, my mom said to me, "Do you really need that?" At that time, we had dial-up and had a second phone line put in that was dedicated to the internet so that our regular phone line wasn't tied up by our internet use (which was a LOT of the time). The cost per month was something like $40, which included the second phone line. Now we have high-speed wireless and no telephone lines at all.

I imagine this kind of reaction was similar to when the telephone first became available for widespread use. People had gotten along without it for years, so was it really a necessity or was it a luxuriant convenience? While I don't think my computer and being online are necessities, I consider the use of it akin to using the telephone and having a television. I can use my connection to conduct business as well as for pure entertainment, and its research capabilities are invaluable.

I've always described the internet as being a book that never ends. Probably more like a magazine, with its infinite and varied subject matter. Because of this, I can sit down at the computer and be astounded later when I look at the clock and see that several hours have gone by. It's those darn links that are the culprits! One thing just leads to another - how else could you start out reading about how to prune an apple tree and end up finding out that in 2006, your first name was the 146th most popular baby name?

Like this:

• How and When To Prune Your Apple Tree
  
• Ohio Lavender Festival
• First Ladies National Historic Site
• The US Government's Official Web Portal
• Popular Baby Names

Start with the first website and you'll find yourself at the last one by clicking on links posted on each of the listed sites. And I'm easily distracted, too, so going off on tangents while online is a way of life for me. You learn the most interesting things that way though.

And now I've gone off on a tangent in this post, so back to what I wanted to say in the first place: The tanning article has been published! And while Diane didn't promise that she'd use anything from our interview, she gave me both the lead-in quote as well as the wrap-up one at the end.

There's my fifteen minutes of fame.

And here's me in 1974, after tanning by the pool at Disney World. What was I thinking?

Finally!

After a very busy weekend spent in the garden and relaxing with family, and my internet being down most of today, I've gotten the Greater Cleveland Nursery Tour posts and pictures published.

Start your tour here!

Baby Bugs

Back in March, I mentioned the praying mantis egg sacs that we had on our bushes and trees. One of those was in the weeping willow tree in the back garden. Yesterday, as I was pruning the tree, I felt a tickle on my left arm. I looked down, to see a teeny tiny praying mantis! Measuring no more than 3/8 of an inch long, I knew it hadn't been hatched for long. Several minutes later, I came across the egg sac, and there were still praying mantids emerging...

I noticed a couple of them on my miniature roses nearby a little while later. I was thrilled to see this, because earlier in the week, I found aphids munching away on the new flower buds. I used Safer's Soap on them and I've not seen any since, but I'll just let these natural predators take care of things now. Aphids are one of praying mantis nymphs' favorite meals.

Join

The Greater Cleveland Nursery Tour

When Mom and I attended the Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show in 2005, we were impressed with the quality of the plants that the vendors presented for purchase there, and wanted to visit those garden centers to see what else they had to offer. But we hadn't allowed enough time for that, and returned home knowing we'd missed out on some great plants.

This year, we made plans to stay overnight and spend the second day in Cleveland, nursery hopping. Ohhhhhhhh...what a great idea that was! Prior to our trip, we knew we wanted to go to Lowe's Greenhouse since we'd gotten such nice things from them two years earlier, then I consulted with Cleveland resident Kim (blackswamp_girl) as to any other nurseries that we shouldn't miss. She suggested Eagle Creek and Petitti's.

I use Google Earth for planning such trips and if you've never used it, you're in for a treat. You can actually see a satellite photo of the area you're searching. Not only that, you can do a search for any type business and it will bring up all those businesses in or near the location you submit, and it will show the location on the photo and give a link to their website. I found that both Eagle Creek and Lowe's were on Chillicothe Road and there was a garden center called Breezewood in between the two. All three were within four miles of each other!

So after a breakfast at Hampton Inn in Solon (which had one of the cleanest hotel rooms I've ever been in - it even smelled clean), Mom and I began our nursery tour with Eagle Creek Growers.



Eagle Creek Growers - 18548 Chillicothe Rd., Bainbridge, OH



Just driving up to their location told us this was no ordinary garden center. It looked like a resort.





They had a huge assortment of all things gardening.

We'd never been in any kind of garden center such as this and we were duly impressed. We spent about two hours there, perusing the plant offerings as well as the decorator items they had in abundance.








'Rooms' were set up and there were items for both inside the home and outside in the garden.













I have a weakness for bright blue pots and Eagle Creek had LOTS of them. I bought a small one. Yes, only one.





They had a lovely assortment of Jackson & Perkins roses, including nearly every one I'd ever had on my want list. I got to see 'Disneyland' in full bloom, which will soon be in bloom for the first time at my house as well.







Mom especially loved this one. I think it was 'Double Delight' but I'm not sure.










They also have a farm market inside, with wonderful edible offerings of all kinds.


We both purchased some nice things here, but we knew we had to pace ourselves or we'd be making another stop - at the bank - before the day was out. (Oh, who are we kidding. *cough*MasterCard*cough*)

Next stop: Breezewood Garden Center...

Breezewood Garden Center

Breezewood Garden Center - 17600 Chillicothe Rd., Chagrin Falls, OH


A couple of miles north took us to Breezewood Garden Center. The facade looked quite rustic and when we entered, the store had a cozy boutique feel to it.

It was smaller than Eagle Creek, but they had a nice variety of items, including clothing, jewelry, and charming garden decor items in this section of the store.



This led into the greenhouses and outdoor plant displays. The plants were lovely and healthy here, just as they'd been at Eagle Creek.


I found some that I'd been searching for, but not the elusive 'Pink Octopus' Campanula that is my personal Plant of the Year for 2007. Last year, as Mom and I visited the various flower shows and nurseries, I was on a quest for 'Blue Mouse Ears' Hosta. I never did find it, so I ended up purchasing it online along with a few other minis. I talked with the person who does the ordering for Breezewood and though she had ordered 'Pink Octopus', it was never shipped, so the quest continues.

While we were inside Breezewood, it rained. We hoped we had gotten some of it earlier back home, but we found out later we did not. We're not in an official state of drought yet, but if we don't get rain soon, we will be.




Next stop: Lowe's Greenhouse...

Lowe's Greenhouse

Lowe's Greenhouse - 16540 Chillicothe Rd., Chagrin Falls, OH

Next up was Lowe's Greenhouse, which was the impetus for our current nursery tour. It was more like the traditional garden center we were used to, but larger. It seemed to be a little more personal than the nurseries we'd just been to, and we spent a couple of hours there.


Again, lovely plants and some that we'd not seen in the other places, which is one reason we enjoy nursery hopping so much. Each place has something a little bit different than the others.


We had a nice conversation with Mary Lynn, and she was quite helpful with answering our questions.


I spied some blue pots, but was able to resist buying one. I've always told my girls, "You can never have too many white shirts," and I think now I'll have to add, "You can never have too many blue pots." I just love them.

While this wasn't the largest greenhouse we'd visited so far, it seemed like they had a more varied selection of plants that we'd not encountered in our previous gardening ventures. It was here that I made the most purchases, which included a Lewisia, a German Bearded Iris, a Wisteria that will actually bloom because it already has flower buds on it, a variegated Abutilon, an Aruncus, and a vining Jasmine.

Last stop on the tour: Petitti Garden Center...

Petitti Garden Center, Then Home!

Petitti Garden Center - 33777 Chester Rd., Avon, OH

It was now about 4:30 in the afternoon, and we still needed to go north to Avon, which is on the south shore of Lake Erie. Pettiti's has several locations in the Cleveland area, but the one in Avon is the newest, having just opened in March of this year.


We first got a glimpse of it as we traveled west on Interstate 90 and we nearly drove off the road from the gawking. We had to go past it and north a bit, then back east on a smaller road. We passed a Walmart that was much larger than ours and looked like it had a generous garden center, so even though we'd been rubbing elbows with a much higher class of greenery, you just never know, so we stopped there for a bit. I did come out with a small Nishiki willow, which I returned to our local Walmart once we got home. (There was a good reason for that.)

Petitti's was open until 8:00 p.m. and it was after 6:00 when we got there. Plenty of time to look around, right? HA! We were so naive about this place, but that changed when we walked in the front door. Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Or as the gentleman behind us said, "Good God Almighty..."


You know, I don't know if I can adequately put into words a description of this mega-nursery. It's the Cabela's of gardening. You name it; they've got it, and more. Oodles more. I wanted to promptly rent a U-Haul and load it up. And that greenhouse! The ceiling is 40 feet tall.








There was a large assortment of fountains and statuary.













All their trees and bushes were 50% off, which wasn't a huge temptation for me until I came to the Japanese Maples.





Gorgeous large specimen trees, including 'Autumn Moon' and another green one that I would have purchased, even though I'd already spent too much money. Problem was, we had no room in the van for it.



If you are ever in the Cleveland area or even remotely close, you have to visit Petitti's. In fact, find a reason to be near them. It is unlike anything we'd ever seen and though they didn't have the 'Pink Octopus' Campanula either, I think they had everything else.


We didn't find most of their plant prices to be any higher than anywhere else, nor those of the pottery, of which they had a huge selection. It's just that they have such a large and beautiful selection of all things gardening, you'll find things that you didn't know you needed until you got here.






This is just the Heuchera section:

Only the ones in the blue pots are $19.99. They are the 'New in Blue', which are the new introductions.






I'm not sure where you might use this big pot, but it was cool. A woman said to my mom, as she stood for this picture, "Either that pot is really big, or you're really short." A little of both, I think!

Just in case you're interested in purchasing the urn - $3999.99 and it's yours. Plus delivery.





They even had a pet shop within their store. I didn't notice any pets for sale, but they had everything you might need for them!





There was a Smith & Hawken section. Lowe's had a smaller one of those, too.







Just for this weekend, the Scott's Miracle Gro NASCAR Busch Racing Series Car #60 was on display in the greenhouse.


Other displays...













































We left for home at about 8:30 and we talked about what a wonderful trip we'd had. I don't think there's anyone else in the world that I'd rather travel with on a trip like this than my mom. She's always up for any kind of adventure and though she's 72 years old, she has more energy than I do (she always has). Some of my best memories of times with my mom are these gardening jaunts that we take every now and again.

We were almost home, going around Defiance and chatting away when I noticed flashing lights in my rear view mirror. I looked down at my speedometer and it read 56 mph. I said to Mom,"I don't know if he's trying to pull me over, or if he's headed somewhere else, because I'm not speeding." But he didn't go around, so I slowed and pulled to the side of the road. Yes, he wanted me. Gulp.

Apparently, we were in a construction zone and the speed limit was 45 mph. We'd both missed the sign that was posted several miles back and because of the holiday weekend, no one was working and it was dark, so we didn't notice the construction to the west of the highway. He generously let me go with only a warning and I was grateful. With construction zone fines being double, that would have likely cost me more than I'd spent the entire weekend. Whew!

We got back to my house around midnight, where Mom discovered that Romie had locked her keys in her car. She'd put them on the floor and he'd not found them, assumed she'd taken them with her, and locked up her car. She took our van home and would drive back out in the morning with the spare set of keys.

So while exhausted from all the running around and the adrenaline rush from seeing all the wonderful nurseries and the flower show, this was one of the most enjoyable gardening trips Mom and I have taken yet.

Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show 2007

Two years ago, when I was in the toddler stage of growing into a bona fide gardener, my mom suggested we go to the Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show. I'd never been to a flower show in my life, and with my new hobby obsessiveness at a fever pitch, I more than welcomed the opportunity. I was blown away by the enormity and beauty of all aspects of both the Botanical Gardens and the show, and you know how it is - there's nothing like your first time.

I don't remember what all I purchased there, but the two things that stick in my mind are my 'Sahohime' Tree Peony and my 'Clear Sky' Passiflora, both purchased from the Lowe's Greenhouse (not the national chain) vendor booth. I have both of these yet today; in fact, they are thriving.

This is a great way to start out the active gardening season. It's like going on a Parade of Homes tour - you want to come home and try to implement so many things you saw that you liked for your own gardens.

Several home and garden and flower shows later, and with much more horticultural experience and knowledge under my belt, I didn't expect to be blown away a second time when we attended this year's rendition of the Cleveland Show, but that's just what happened.

The theme for this year's show was "Rhythm & Hues." From the moment we stepped into the ticketing entrance, where giant floral specimens in test tube vases formed the musical notes on the staff...


...all the way through to the theme gardens...

The Cotton Club

The Cotton Club drum fountains - We loved these!


New Orleans Jazz


The Opera Hortensia

... we experienced the presence of music interpreted through plants and flowers in a variety of creative ways.

After viewing the outdoor displays, we went inside the main building and first checked out the specimen judgings. Mom is a horticulture judge, so she views these exhibits a little differently than I do, but neither of us enjoys them any less than the other. Here, the peonies were especially nice, but that may be because it's peony season here now.

It was at this point that I heard from Kim (blackswamp_girl), and learned that we would not be meeting up today as we'd planned. She had a sick puppy and had to take her to the vet. Thankfully, Coco is going to be okay, and while I was disappointed that I didn't get to see Kim, we made plans to get together when she's home in July, home being about twenty minutes from my house! I invited her to come see my garden and she is going to do that, so I look forward to our meeting!

Mom and I ate lunch there, then continued our journey through the show. In this same building, there were floral arrangements that were meant to interpret different aspects of music --

Note that it says at the bottom, "Class titles are open to broad interpretation." Give a floral arranger license to practice their creativity and you get marvelous things like these:



Just outside this building were floral vignettes and a 'dining area' that itself looked good enough to eat.








There were lots of wonderful vendors selling the usual wares that you see at these shows, such as garden decor, hypertufa items, clothing, plants and flowers, jewelry, garden tools, etc. The tents are erected along garden paths and walkways, making the marketplace a very enjoyable place to shop. While I managed to escape the Botanical Garden Gift Shop unscathed, these vendors were another matter.




I bought a dragonfly garden stake, another one that says "GROW," a four foot tall decorative plant support, and a garden plaque. No plants! That task would be saved for the next day, when Mom and I had plans to visit some of the Cleveland area's larger nurseries and garden centers.





Though the show is only held every two years, a trip to the Botanical Gardens themselves are worth at least a yearly visit. Woodland walks as well as the theme gardens are overflowing with natural beauty interspersed with planned displays. You can easily spend the day enjoying what the gardens have to offer.

Herb Garden
























Woodland Walk


Japanese Garden


Wooden figure in Hershey Children's Garden

The Hershey Children's Garden was of special interest to Mom, since she is heavily involved with the creation of the new children's garden in Van Wert.

When we walked into that part of the garden, Amelia was enjoying the fountain on this very hot day and several people were also enjoying her enjoying it. Squeals of delight and splashing around in her birthday suit created much conversation and smiles among the adults, and some of us wished we could do what she was doing. One woman, who shall remain nameless, did not share the wish to 'return to nature' with the rest of us, but it wasn't me!







It was fun to see the child-sized features of the Children's Garden and also to watch the kids partaking of the many opportunities relating to nature.







The Hershey Children's Garden was the first public children's garden in the United States, opening in 1999. It's very much a hands-on place and this part of the CBG alone is worth the price of admission if you have children. As you enter, you will see this quote impressed into the concrete:

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, and mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries, and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education."

~ Luther Burbank, 1920

For the flower show, the theme in the Children's Garden was "Over the Rainbow," and you could see that theme carried out in many aspects of the garden. I suspect that these colors are present here in abundance even when there isn't a show going on, because of their brightness and cheeriness.

















I'm sure there were many aspects of the Flower Show that we missed, including the various seminars, but we still were quite happy having made the 200-mile trip and we'll undoubtedly attend the next show in 2009.

Next up: The Cleveland Garden Center Tour...

Pseudo-Gardening

I actually looked forward to this day, where I would rise earlier than normal, gather up a few clothes and my mom, and take off for points east. The last few weeks have been quite satisfying in the garden, but very exhausting as well, and we need a break. Me, from planting, hauling and spreading mulch, and watering every day because we haven't had rain in weeks. Romie needs a break from me.

Bless his loving heart, he has been the biggest help in the garden, and we could not have the lush loveliness we do without the things he does. He takes directions from me, so I try to give them in as sweet a manner as possible, though he would probably beg to differ at times. What goes on in my head comes out my mouth in quite a different manner sometimes. But that's what great about being married for nearly 32 years to your best friend - you understand each other and forgive when it's necessary. You're a team.

But back to the break...Mom came at 7:00 a.m. and we loaded up the van and headed for the Cleveland Botanical Garden Flower Show. It's held every two years at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens and today was opening day. It was a gorgeous day, and hot, hot, hot. Lower 90s and by the end of the day, we were both sunburned a bit.

I'm posting this from our hotel room in Solon, Ohio, and though it's only 9:48 p.m., I can barely keep my eyes open. So, while I hate to keep you in suspense about the garden show, my purchases, and whether or not I got to meet blackswamp_girl, I have no choice. We are going nursery hopping tomorrow, and we need our rest so we have plenty of energy for another fun day of pseudo-gardening.

Roses Scent the Noses

I used to not really care for roses. They looked nice in other people's gardens, but they didn't have that wow factor for me. You know - when you see something in another garden or at the nursery and think to yourself (or even out loud), "I gotta have me some of that!"

Then I saw 'Hot Cocoa™.' And 'Chihuly®.' And I knew I couldn't leave the nursery without them. I wasn't even sure where I was going to put them, I just knew I had to have them for my very own. They didn't disappoint me either. All summer last year, they gave me the most gorgeous blooms, one after another.

I had three roses already in the flower beds where I put them, but they'd never really amounted to a whole lot. I suppose they did, considering what they looked like when I first bought them from Direct Gardening (mistake - live and learn) several years ago. I think I paid something like a dollar apiece for 'Senior Prom,' 'Pompeii,' and 'Sutter's Gold.' Can't beat the price, but they were so small when they got here, I wondered if they were indeed roses. I couldn't hardly tell. And they've never really done all that well, with the exception of 'Senior Prom.' So I moved them to the new garden we had dug the year before and 'Hot Cocoa™' and 'Chihuly' took their places.

Shortly after buying these, I noticed 'Diana, Princess of Wales™' in the Jackson & Perkins catalog. Oooooooh, pretty. Really pretty. Being disappointed by ordering roses through the mail previously, I wanted to find this one locally, and I finally found it at Stuckey's Greenhouse in Fort Wayne. I brought it home, planted it somewhat near 'Hot Cocoa' and 'Chihuly,' and now I was officially a rose lover. I never would have thought...

'Diana, Princess of Wales™'

Later last summer, I went on a local garden tour in Van Wert, and the last stop on the tour was a garden that had oodles of roses. Most of them didn't impress me all that much, but 'Disneyland' just reached right in and grabbed my heart. I filed away the name for future reference and this year, when Jackson & Perkins had a special on some English Roses, I succumbed and bought a group of six for $45 and added 'Disneyland' to my order. Our new deck project presented me with a great location for most of these.

Last year, when Beining's Nursery opened for the season, they gave away free shrub roses to each early shopper. Mom and I went over to see what new things they had in stock, and of course, to get our free roses. We're always on the lookout for cheap or free plants. We came home with, among other things, free 'Nearly Wild' rose bushes that they'd had left from last year. They had a serious case of powdery mildew, but this was gotten under control quite easily by pruning back hard. Starting out early in the season was an advantage in eliminating this problem. Mom decided she didn't want hers, so I ended up with two of them.

I'm not sure how this happened, but after one of our weekly trips to Walmart, we were unloading the van and oh! Look there! A rose! 'Double Delight' had hitched a ride home with us.

At some point last year, I also bought 'About Face™' from Park's and it came with a free 'Memorial Day.' Hmmmm.....for someone who didn't really care for roses, I sure had a bunch of them, and I was loving them all.


Roses come with their own special set of issues, and that's why every time I bought one, Romie would say, "I don't like roses. They're too much trouble." Their reputation always precedes them and our expectations are high. Perfect foliage, breathtaking flowers, intoxicating scents. Powdery mildew, black spot, Japanese Beetles. Not a whole lot you can do about the Japanese Beetles, but following a couple of good rose practices helps eliminate the other two.

• Don't water at night and don't get water on the foliage. If they sit with water on them through the cooler nights, this gives fungus and other diseases a chance to take hold. My mom has a drip system installed in the ground in her rose garden for watering. Roses do like their water and it's best to water at the base early in the day.

• Powdery mildew looks just like that - a whitish powder on the leaves. If it gets started on any of my roses, I cut them back to healthy foliage and treat with an Ortho product. Where the roses are planted is sometimes the reason they have this. Good air circulation helps prevent powdery mildew from getting started.

I have not had a big problem with Japanese Beetles, and never had any until last year. It seemed they preferred the yellow roses over any of the others. Each morning during late summer, I would check my roses for them and if I found any, I would pick them off, bring them into the house and run them down the garbage disposal. Using traps just attracts more, and if you kill them in the garden, the scent that's produced will also attract them. Some people just throw them in a container of soapy water, which kills them, but I find it easier to do it my way.

'Memorial Day'

I learned how to properly plant roses last summer, too. Of course, I had done it wrongly years before, with those first roses. Since I'd moved those, I could plant them correctly, so maybe they'll improve over time now. In our zone, we need to plant the bud union or 'knot' about two to three inches below the surface. This helps protect it from our harsh winters. They love organic material, so I added a humus and manure mixture (purchased by the bag quite cheaply at Walmart) to the soil in the hole and mixed well, along with a small amount of Schultz Rose and Plant Food. I watered them in well before totally filling the hole and watered again once planting was completed. Then I put a couple inches of shredded bark mulch around the base.

Roses need at least six hours of direct sunlight per day, so mine are on the unshaded east side of the house or out in the open sun. I'll feed them monthly through August, when I'll stop fertilizing for the year, and I won't prune them much after that, either. I learned that we have about 18 inches of winter die-back, so there needs to be at least that much left standing by the time winter gets here.

One of my miniature roses

Last week, I decided to dig out my 'China Town' tulips. I've had them for two springs now and each year, I have been disappointed in how they look. They took up a fair amount of space behind three miniature roses that I've had forever, so I needed to find something that would take their place. How about a large rose?

I went to The Greenhouse Effect near Antwerp, because they've always got great roses and that's where I had purchased 'Hot Cocoa' and 'Chihuly.' I walked up and down the rows of large and fabulous and fragrant and colorful beauties they had and tried to narrow it down to just one that would fit my spot. Back in the corner, I found 'Topsy Turvy™' and knew it was The One.

'Topsy Turvy™'

Topsy Turvy™ is a Floribunda, and a cross of Betty Boop and Countess Celeste. If you remember, Betty Boop was on my list of roses that I wanted back in January. That must be why this one caught my eye. It's scarlet red with a creamy white reverse, and the petals open up in a swirly fashion. The identification tag says it's a 'little bouquet machine' and it already looks like it.

I got home, dug out the tulips, and prepared the hole for planting my new acquisition. As I kept walking back and forth from the planting site and the garage, I kept getting a whiff of a familiar scent. I identified it as Eternity by Calvin Klein. I do wear this on occasion, and I thought maybe I'd worn my shirt before and had also worn Eternity while wearing the shirt. I even sniffed the front of my shirt to possibly confirm this. No, that wasn't it. I finally realized it was Topsy Turvy™! Now that was just all the better. It's one of my favorite scents and now it was going in my garden!

So there you have it. I am now a rose person. I couldn't help it, it just happened.


Final tally:

• Senior Prom
• Sutter's Gold
• Pompeii
• Hot Cocoa™
• Chihuly®
• Diana, Princess of Wales™
• About Face™
• Memorial Day
• Nearly Wild
  
• Double Delight
  
• Crown Princess Margareta
• Falstaff
• Glamis Castle
• Golden Celebration
• Jubilee Celebration
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Up Close and Personal

If you haven't noticed already, I really love to take macro photos of my flowers and other living things. I'm fascinated by the detail in the details. Some of what I photograph this way are not even recognizable for what they are when you see them this close. But I'll bet you can figure this one out ...

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The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Okay, everything is finally in the ground. Bulbs, seeds, tubers, corms... Lots of bare spots in the garden with all kinds of potential just under the surface and all I need now is a little more patience. With a little warm weather and some rain, they'll soon be up and growing, but I want them now.

My mom doesn't do the seed thing. She's into instant gratification when it comes to plants. So am I, but I'm too cheap to buy things that I can grow so easily from seed, like zinnias, marigolds, and cosmos. I usually save my seed from the year before, too, so they really are like getting free flowers every year. I just get them a little later than she does.

Of course, I also get the thrill of watching them first germinate, then get their true leaves, and then really take off and fill the spot that's been alloted to them. There is a certain satisfaction in raising them yourself from just a seed plopped into some soil.

The Bible uses the mustard seed as an exercise in faith - faith in The Master Gardener and faith that a mighty plant can come from a tiny seed, but have you seen a petunia seed?? How such a tough plant can grow from something not even as big as a grain of salt is beyond my comprehension.

This year, I've planted seeds of zinnias, cosmos, petunias, marigolds, nigella, larkspur, dianthus, nasturtiums, gaillardia, gazanias, cardinal climber vine, morning glories, scarlet runner bean, malva, cleome, baptisia, echinacea, basil, calendula, sunflowers, African daisies, English daisies, violas, and a few others that I can't think of right now. Almost all have germinated and I expect the rest will shortly. All the vegetable seeds we planted are up - sweet corn, green beans, cucumbers, watermelon, canteloupe, leaf lettuce, mesclun mix, cherry tomatoes, beets, and spinach.

Starting all those things from seeds makes for a lot of waiting. But that's part of what gardening is all about. It's just that our growing season isn't that long, so when you take into account the percentage of that time it takes to grow most plants to flowering or harvesting stage, you can see why I get a little antsy while I'm waiting for them to grow up.

On the other hand, last week I heard Martha Stewart say that it takes about 13 years for a garden to become established. Goodness. That's an awful long time to wait. Makes this year's seeds seem like they'll be grown and gone by oh, about November, and that will be here before we know it.

It's all relative.

Last Frost Date

Our last frost date here is May 15-17, so I don't know why I'm so surprised at this:


National Weather Service Zone - OHZ015

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTHERN INDIANA
914 PM EDT THU MAY 17 2007

AREAS OF FROST EXPECTED ACROSS THE REGION OVERNIGHT...

A FROST ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM EDT /1 AM CDT/ TO
8 AM EDT /7 AM CDT/ FRIDAY.

A FROST ADVISORY MEANS THAT FROST IS POSSIBLE. THOSE SENSITIVE OUTDOOR PLANTS MAY BE KILLED IF LEFT UNCOVERED.


This, after tying the record high just two days ago, at 91° F.

We covered the amaryllis that I planted out last week and brought in the brugmansias, rex begonias, Boston fern, verbena, and orchids. The pelargoniums that I have on the front porch will be fine, I think. They're in a corner, up against the brick, which retains the heat of the day for awhile. I don't know what else might suffer any damage from the impending frost, but whatever will be will have to be. There's no way I can cover everything.

Maybe we'll get lucky and avoid the frost altogether. *crosses fingers*

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.

But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

- Robert Frost

EDIT: While we had a light frost and it was quite patchy, nothing was harmed. We had the same situation the next night, with the same good results. YAY!

STOMP!

Last night, Romie and I went to Fort Wayne to see Stomp perform at the Embassy Theatre. I'd been wanting to see them for years, but just never got around to going. My sister-in-law Angie asked me about a month ago if we'd be interested in buying a couple of extra tickets she had. Snatched them right up, even though they were $45 each.

The only time I've ever paid that much or more for tickets for a performance was when The Moody Blues were in town, performing with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. That was a birthday present for Romie, who really likes The Moody Blues. When we were dating, Nights in White Satin was one of 'our' songs. That was a fabulous performance, worth every penny.

Stomp was very good, also, and I'm glad we got to see/hear them. Our seats were good, being smack dab in the center of the main floor. The Embassy is a wonderful small venue, with pretty much every seat being a good one.

While we were driving to Ft. Wayne, Romie asked me why I wanted to see this group perform, since it bugs the crap out of me when he starts banging on the table, tapping his fingers or a pencil to some unknown rhythm in his head, or he jingles the change in his pockets. I don't know...maybe I'd like it better if he got paid for doing it.

I think it has more to do with how Stomp involves the use of unlikely objects as percussion instruments. Things like matchboxes, brooms, trash cans, paint scrapers, plastic tubes, wooden poles, kitchen sinks, plungers. Plungers!


If you've ever been fortunate enough to attend a performance by Stomp, then you know it's an interactive, noisy ordeal. And I fell asleep in the middle of it. All day yesterday, I was just out of it and by the end of my day, I was really just wanting to curl up on the couch. I didn't really sleep through any of the performance, but my eyelids kept wanting to close and stay that way, and I found myself doing the head nodding thing more than once.

But it was really a unique, outstanding, good show. Honest!

In the Merry, Merry Month of May

It's my first Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and I've got lots of blooms to show off! It seems like the garden has been popping at warp speed the last couple of weeks. Of course, it helps when you get a little rain and warm weather. We tied the record high for today - 91°. It didn't feel that warm though, because we had 15-20 mph winds with it. I can't tell if I got sunburned or windburned!

Just a few of what I've got blooming at the moment...


I had to replace my 'Diana, Princess of Wales' Rose this spring. I just planted it last year and I loved it so much, I was sad that it didn't make it through the winter. But the new one is in place and growing well. This was the first bloom on it and there are two more coming.



It was hard to get a good picture of the Geum, because it's such a unique shade of orange and we've had such windy weather and they are tall and wave in the wind. This plant surprised me. I just planted it last year, and it came back like gangbusters. It will flower all summer if I'm faithful about keeping it deadheaded. I have a red variety, too, planted with the orange. It blooms later, though. There is a yellow one that I'd like to mix in with the red and orange, so I'm keeping my eyes open for it.




I have three different Foam Flowers (Tiarella sp.), but the one that I like the best is 'Spring Symphony'. This is a great shade plant and has beautiful mounded foliage when it's not in bloom. I have found that by deadheading right after the intial bloom, I'll get a second flush.




Star of Nature (Ornithogalum nutans) is one of the very first spring bulbs I ever planted. It has multiplied to the point now where I need to dig some up and move it. The flower buds are nearly as lovely as the flowers themselves, reminding me of lupine buds a bit. I like greenish flowers so this one is one of my favorites in the spring. Sources say it's only hardy to zone 6 and I'm in zone 5, but it has no problems here for me!




I have many, many types of Columbine (Aquilegia sp.) as it's one of my favorites, and Romie's too. I planted some McKana's Giants last spring and unfortunately, they didn't come back this year. But I'm on the lookout for more, because those are so exceptionally lovely, I have to have them. I think it was just a fluke that they didn't return, because in my experience, Columbine is about as reliable as they come. They self-seed all over the place, which is just fine with me.

Since most Columbine don't flower in their first year, I just let the seed heads form after they're done blooming and I either let the seed fall where it may, or I collect it and sprinkle it where I want it. This way, little seedlings get a great start before winter, and they will flower the following year.




The Drumstick Allium looks more like a huge lollipop than a drumstick. I love the bizarre random balls of purple when they pop up amongst the other plants.




All the white Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majuscula) that I have is offspring of my Aunt Kay's. She gave me a small start about five years ago and it has spread quite nicely (and not nicely in some areas). I love the smell of it and I bury my nose in it quite regularly at this time of the year.




This is my first year for Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) blooms. I planted it last summer, after its bloom period, and while it was supposed to be red, one of the three plants turned out to be purple like this one. I love both colors and they actually look nice together.




My 'Deidre' tulips performed poorly this spring. Last year, they did so much better, but several of my tulips didn't do well this year. I'm thinking it's because of the crazy winter and spring we had. They all came up, but some of them had deformed blooms. I take that back - the species tulips that I planted new last fall didn't come up at all, and I planted three varieties. I thought those, of all kinds, would have done okay.



Always reliable, my Creeping Phlox (Phlox subulata) is lovely as ever, making a lavender and white carpet at the foot of several trees. When it's done blooming, I'll shear it off by half and it will become even more lush for the rest of the season.




Oh, the Candytuft (Iberis sempervirens)! This is becoming one of my favorites! It's thick and healthy and floriferous and I want more of it. Yes ... Candy! More Candy!




My Ajuga was a gift from my mom, as were several of my garden plants. It's never been a favorite of mine, but it's definitely a favorite of the bumblebees! I have it planted under a couple of trees and it does make a nice underplanting, forming a carpet of dark foliage and purple flowers. It can be invasive, so when it reaches the limits I've got set for it, I'll be sharing this one.




The Variegated Weigela (Weigela florida) is just starting to flower. I bought this because my mother-in-law has an absolutely gorgeous one in her yard. It's quite large and when it's in bloom, it takes your breath away. Mine wants to be like hers when it grows up.




This Viburnum was a passalong shrub from my Grandma several years ago. She gave us three of them, but only one lived. After many years of no blooms, it flowered for the first time last year. This year, it's full of them. I love the lacecap hydrangea look to its blooms. And in the fall, the foliage turns a fabulous shade of red.

Why I Mulch and Why You Should Too

Before I became a 'real' gardener, I knew my mom used mulch and I'd seen huge piles of it at the nurseries. Even the gas stations sold it by the bag. I didn't use it though and didn't see the need for the extra expense. My bushes and trees were doing just fine, thank you, and even when I went all out and bought a couple flats of Petunias or Impatiens for planting, mulch never found its way into my car.

But now I grow things like Campanula and Baptisia and Arabis and I have seen the error of my ways. Now I can't live without my mulch and here's why:

• When I apply a couple of inches of mulch to the non-planted areas of the flower beds, I have significantly fewer weeds, because it blocks the sunlight that most weed seeds need to germinate. While I actually enjoy weeding my gardens, maybe the reason I enjoy it is because I don't have that many weeds to pull.

• Mulch is organic. I use finely ground natural tree bark. As the mulch breaks down over time, it adds nutrients to the soil, especially nitrogen.

• It helps regulate the temperature of the soil. It keeps it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter and lessens the detrimental effects of freezing and thawing through the winter. It provides a natural insulating barrier from the sometimes brutal extremes the weather can bring.

• It is especially helpful during the hot dry days of summer when evaporation of moisture from the soil occurs at a rapid rate. It slows this down considerably, since the mulch itself holds moisture better than the topsoil.

• It just looks nice. Adding mulch as a top dressing is like framing a picture. I just love the look of a freshly mulched flower bed. It looks so neat and clean.

So, even though good mulch is not cheap, it's money well spent and after a winter like the one we had here this year, with temperature extremes being so ... well ... extreme, I'm glad I spent the time and money on mulch last year.

There's one more thing I like about mulch and it's kind of quirky. I love the smell of it, especially after it's rained. It reminds me of walking through through the woods. I love the smell of dirt, too. That conjures up a picture in my mind from way back, when I used to stay with my grandma and we'd take lunch to my grandpa out farming in the fields. The smell of a freshly plowed field makes me breathe deeply and smile. I told you it was quirky!

But anyway ... use mulch. You'll thank me later.

My Mother's Garden

My mom has always had the most amazing gardens, wherever she has lived, but the one she has now is the best ever.

It has good design, healthy plants, and oozes with charm. There are formal areas, yet it has a cottage feel, with just the right amount of whimsy.



Mom has incredible talent when it comes to interior design, and it carries right on out the door into her gardens.

On this Mother's Day, I want to share some highlights of the gardens of the woman that has been the inspiration for my own, and is my partner in crime when we take off on one of our many horticultural adventures.






When you approach the front door to my parents' house, you're greeted by the cheery faces of mixed colors of violas, which line the sidewalk.





If you choose to take the brick path around the left side of the house to the back yard, this stone owl catches your eye. Mom got this on our trip to Garden Fair at Winterthur, Delaware in September.


Continuing on around the house, you see the gazebo that Dad constructed shortly after they had their home built.


He also made two chairs that sit in the gazebo, as well as a porch-type swing. There is a 'coffee' table and this all gives the feel of an outside room, which is so popular in outdoor design these days.



All around the inside of the gazebo, there are sayings that Mom had painted there by her cousin's wife, Krista.

To the left of the gazebo stands an armillary, surrounded by a circle of stepping stones, each uniquely imprinted with names and sayings by Mom's friends and family.

Directly behind this is a triangular raised bed, where Mom has what I call an 'orphan garden', containing an assortment of growing things that otherwise don't fit in with the regular gardens. This could be anything - annuals grown from seed, perennials, or herbs. Right now, you can see a beautiful dark red peony in full bloom, and this is a permanent resident of this garden, of course.



Speaking of peonies, Mom has several herbaceous types as well as some tree peonies. They are all just beginning their season of bloom, and while they're all lush and lovely, my personal favorite is her 'Shima-nishiki' tree peony.

She got this when we went to the Cleveland Flower Show two years ago. We will be going to the show again this year (it's only held every two years) and I'm hoping to find one of these for my own garden.



Behind their house, there are several separate gardens, including a rose garden.


She has some English roses and a couple of Weeks® roses - 'Chihuly' and 'Hot Cocoa.' I have these two roses in my own beds and they are two of my favorites.


Mom lost her 'Chihuly' to our weird winter this year, but she loved it so much she replaced it. I had the same thing happen with my 'Diana, Princess of Wales,' and I replaced it too. Sometimes a flower is so beautiful and brings you so much enjoyment that you're willing to put out the money again, just to have it. These two roses are just such flowers.



Under one of the trees, Dad laid paving stones and created a small patio area, on which Mom set a small table and two chairs. She also has a small working chandelier that usually hangs from the tree above the table, but she hasn't put it out yet for the summer. This table setting really has a cozy feel under the canopy of the tree.















Under that same tree, you can see a wood and metal figure that Dad made. I think Mom had seen one similar to it somewhere and took a picture to show Dad. He can pretty much make anything that my mom dreams up and she's always dreaming...













More images from Mom's garden . . .

Pooped

I just want to say that I'm exhausted. My neck hurts, my back hurts, I'm filthy dirty, and I'm tired. My hands hurt, my feet hurt, and well, what doesn't hurt? Oh, and I'm tired. Have I mentioned that I'm tired?

It was the Kniphofia that did me in. Have you ever tried to dig up and move established Kniphofia?? Don't. Just buy new. It's not worth the digging, the tugging, the digging deeper, the tugging some more, and digging yet deeper. Imagine an octopus that is buried in clay and wants to stay there.

It's moved now, even though I can't.

Seriously.

Remember the Amaryllis!

Since Thanksgiving, we have had an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum sp.) in bloom every single day. I don't time it like that on purpose, it just happens like this. Of course, it helps that I have many, many Amaryllis bulbs, but still. If I would try and plan for them to do this, it wouldn't happen, you know. It's one of the Murphy's Laws of Gardening.

But the last of the blooms are in their prime this week. Even that is good timing, because this week, I started taking all of the rest of the bulbs outside and planted them in the ground for the summer. There, they'll gather strength between now and September for next winter's indoor blooms.

So, I look back fondly on Amaryllis days, and another enjoyable season of blooms. They really do help me make it through the long winter.
La Paz

Picotee (also above)

Dancing Queen


Royal Velvet


Rilona


Piquant


Red Peacock


Blossom Peacock


Misty


San Remo


Papilio

There were others, like Lemon Lime, Emerald and Red Lion. There was Apple Blossom, too, except that it only produced foliage for the second year in a row. I've yet to see that bulb bloom. And then there was Pink Floyd that clearly wasn't Pink Floyd, but looked more like Misty which had bloomed earlier.

While it's irritating to have one bloom red when you were expecting white ('Christmas Gift'), the truth is, you just can't not like an Amaryllis no matter what color it turns out to be.

So now, all but Red Peacock are enjoying their days in the sun, beefing up for November, when the show begins all over again. Actually, the bulbs that my friend Kat gave me when I visited her in Florida in March, are putting out new foliage and not knowing whether they had bloomed yet when I pulled them up, they may surprise us with blooms in a month or two.

Princess Peony

Two years ago, when my mom and I went to the Cleveland Flower Show, we both bought a Japanese tree peony (Paeonia Suffruticosa). She already had a yellow one at home, which she loved, but now she was smitten with another. 'Shima-nishiki' stole her heart and threatened to do the same with everyone that came into contact with it that day in May when we first set eyes on it.

'Shima-nishiki' means 'Fire Flame' in Japanese and it is aptly named. Its bloom is red and white striped and as she carried it to the car to take home, it commanded the attention of just about every one that passed by. Mom overheard two women talking as they were admiring the peony - "You knock her down and I'll grab the peony and run with it." It really was just that eye-catching.

And of course, there was only one.

But there was a beautiful pale pink one that I knew I could be happy with. I didn't own a Japanese tree peony at all, so I was pretty excited just to get one, no matter what color it was. It was called 'Sahohime' which mean 'Princess Saho' in Japanese. I bought it, took it home, and planted it in my Japanese Garden.

While peonies can live 50-100 years and are very hardy souls, transplanting in the fall is preferable to spring. And you likely won't get any blooms the first year after planting. It just takes awhile for them to adjust. But Japanese Tree Peonies are a little different, in that they many times do bloom the first year. They have woody stems, unlike garden peonies, and they don't die back during winter, so you shouldn't prune them unless you want to control growth or change the form. I made sure to plant the 'knot' a couple of inches below soil level (because I live in a relatively cold climate) and mulched really well up around it that first winter.

Despite the TLC I gave it, I didn't get any blooms the following summer. Lovely lush foliage, but no blooms. Mom's 'Shima-nishiki' bloomed though. Figures.


This year is different. I came home from work last night and The Princess had flowered for the first time for me. Three blooms now with the promise of two more. The petals remind me of Oriental Poppies, in a way, with that tissue paper look to them. The pale pink color coupled with the multiple layers of petals and having been just kissed by a spring shower elicited oohs and aahs from me, one after another.




I now present to you, 'Sahohime'. . .






... and taken about 1:00 this afternoon, fully opened ...


I wish you could smell it, too. This is really just about as close to floral perfection as it gets!

EDIT: A picture of my mom's 'Shima-nishiki' tree peony is here.

Taking the Easy Way Out

Seed-in-a-Blanket. It wasn't the name that caught my eye, but the picture on the front. As I was strolling down the aisle at Menard's, I recognized the beautiful blue bloom as one that I attempted to produce last summer and failed. Baby Blue Eyes. Nemophila menziesii. I planted the seeds, kept them watered, and got nothing. Just like with the poppies.


But I really love the delicate wildflower look that Nemophila has. Its bloom reminds me of blue flax, which I also love, and which didn't return this year after doing so well last year. I like the veining in the petals and the white eye zone. So when I saw the picture on the front of the box, I had to check it out.





Seeds are embedded in a special wood fiber mat. Germination is guaranteed. Easy peasy. A little more expensive, but if it gets me those pretty blue flowers, it would be worth it, so I bought a box. Besides, it's always fun to try something new.



I planted them today, with my ever-present garden helper Max, and it really was easy. There were six green seed mats in the box, and you could use them as they were packaged, or you could cut them into little squares.



Since I wanted to plant them with Buttercup Daisies (Sundrops - what is the botanical name for these anyway?), I cut them into eight squares each.

You lay them out however you want them, and in my case, I left enough room in between the little mats for the Sundrop seeds. Once you have them put down, you water them and the seed mat kind of disintegrates. You had better have them where you want them before you water them, because you won't be able to move them after you do. You're not supposed to cover them with soil, but I needed to cover the Sundrop seeds a little, so I scattered a bit of mulch over those.

Max gets tired just watching me work in the garden.

You have to keep the seed mat moist until they germinate, which the enclosed instruction card says is about two weeks. I think this just may work, as long as the cats leave them alone. That's the biggest problem I have when I plant seeds in the garden. All that nicely tilled soil is an invitation for them to ... um ... dig. Not a bad thing entirely, but they could at least wait until I've got plants growing. Hopefully, that will be in about two weeks!

That Looks Like a Lot of Work

New garden - October 2005

It seems like every time someone sees our gardens, they make the comment, "That looks like a lot of work." Well, yes and no. Merriam-Webster defines work this way:

• to fashion or create a useful or desired product by expending labor or exertion on

What we do in our gardens is useful - we get exercise, we get to enjoy the birds and butterflies the flowers attract, we get to eat the vegetables that grow there. Both flowers and veggies are desired products and heaven knows we expend labor and exert ourselves.

• to exert oneself physically or mentally especially in sustained effort for a purpose or under compulsion or necessity

Compulsion or necessity? Not a necessity, like our 'other' work we do. Our jobs are what allow us to eat and have a roof over our heads and continue with our compulsion. Okay, my compulsion.

• to perform or carry through a task requiring sustained effort or continuous repeated operations

Plant, plant, plant. Mulch, mulch, mulch. Weed, weed, weed. Hoe, hoe, hoe. Water, water, water. Rinse and repeat.



So I guess it is work, when you look at it like this. But it just doesn't seem right to call it work when it's something we enjoy so much. That's not to say that we don't enjoy our paying jobs, but we'd rather be gardening.

New garden - July 2006

Yes, the last picture of our garden is the same space you see in the picture at the top of this post. The photo of the Monarch butterflies on the sunflower in that same garden, was taken by K.C. Angel last summer, when he was visiting from Illinois. Photo of garden putter is from Smith & Hawken.

We've Got Visitors!

On Friday, just as I was leaving the house to meet Romie in Paulding so we could go to Defiance and get more lumber for Project #1, I noticed a new visitor to the bird feeders. It was a beautiful bird whose appearance took me back to a Christmas Day of my childhood ...

It was sometime in the mid-1960s and while sitting in the living room, we heard a loud thump on the front picture window. Probably a bird; we investigated and there in the planter below, it laid ... the collision with the window had been fatal. It was a beautiful bird that we'd never seen before, but we looked it up in our World Book encyclopedias and found out that it was a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus). They don't winter over this far north, so why one was still around at the end of December is unknown.



Since that time, I can recall seeing this bird just one other time, and now here one was, right before my eyes. I grabbed the camera, knowing I was going to be late meeting Romie, but capturing this moment was a bigger priority. The Grosbeak wasn't particular scared of me, and I was able to get quite close to it.

Throughout the weekend, it returned and even brought some friends. If I keep the feeders full of seed, maybe they'll stay around all summer. I hope so, because this is one bird that I don't think I'll tire of watching, it's so beautifully marked.



UPDATE: We got a new one later today - a bluebird! No pics yet, but I hope to get a good one if it keeps hanging around. It was so pretty!

I Live in the Buckeye State

That's Ohio, for those that don't know. The Buckeye tree is very common to the entire state, and its nut resembles the eye of a deer. The native Americans that lived in this area named the tree "hetuck" based on this resemblance.

Spring bloom of Aesculus globra

The Buckeye tree is commonly confused with the Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). They appear to be identical, but a closer look will show that the Buckeye has five leaves and the Horse Chestnut has seven. Also, the seed pods containing the recognizable Buckeye seed are quite spiny on the Buckeye, while the Horse Chestnut's are more smooth.

Our Buckeye tree was given to us by my parents in 1980, as a seedling in honor of the birth of our first child, Kara.

*Buckeye seed photo from http://www.extension.iastate.edu

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Nursery Hopping

Because our oldest daughter has been bitten by the gardening bug just recently, her enthusiasm for plants and flowers is out of control. I sympathize. While mine is a bit tempered compared to last year and the year before, I have absolutely no willpower when I try to walk out of a nursery empty-handed. I just can't do it.


Kara drove to our house early this morning and we took off for Van Wert so we could scoop up some goodies at the Evergreen Garden Club's annual plant sale. Members share from their own gardens, and with most things costing between one to three dollars, even if it was common Stella d'Oro Daylilies or purple Coneflowers, bargains like that are hard to resist.

I went last year and got lots of wonderful things to help fill up our new garden at the back of our property. Two that I remember getting there are my Baptisia and Blenheim Royal Purple Iris. Oh, and the Borage that threatened to consume half of the garden by midsummer, and it's not a small garden. I actually ripped that out by the first of August. It just plain scared me.

Mom was at the sale, of course, since she is a member of the gardening club, and she was helping Kara with her choices. It was fun to watch as she went from the herbs to the shade plants to the sun plants to the ground covers, with that plant lust in her eyes. I recognized it all too well.

In the end, she spent just twenty dollars and got some lovely things like Pulmonaria, Baptisia, Siberian Iris, Violets, and several other things that I can't remember. I only bought two things: a Globe Thistle (Echinops ritro) and a Chinese Forget-me-Not (Cynoglossum amabile). I was trying to pace myself. There were other temptations in store and we were just getting started.

After we left the plant sale, we stopped in to visit my grandma. We chatted for a bit, then we all piled into Kara's car and went out to Laurie's Naturescapes. A trip to Laurie's, whether you buy anything or not, is a feast for the eyes. She not only has a good assortment of annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, and hanging pots, but lots of home and garden decorator items as well. It takes a lot of time to go through the shop there and it's best to have a go-round several times, because once is just not enough. You're sure to miss something.

Grandma got a few things for herself and bought Kara a hanging pot of Strawflowers (Helichrysum bracteatum). She thought I might feel left out, so she let me pick one out, too. I chose a hanging pot of deep purple Verbena. I'll hang it from the Washington Hawthorn tree in front of the house.

We took Grandma back home and then we went to Walmart, because ... well ... it was on the way home. They had gotten a LOT of new things in, and I picked up some annuals there for my large planter that I use on my front porch. I also got a whisk broom, which I'd been wanting for some time. It will come in handy when I'm potting things up and need to clean up around the potting area, and also when applying mulch, I can use it to 'whisk' the wayward mulch off the brick or stone edging. I couldn't find the whisk broom so I had to ask an employee where they were. Kara didn't even know what a whisk broom was, and the employee and I got amused at that, although it probably made our older age that much more apparent.

We picked up some fries at McDonald's and a Cream Slush and milkshake at Sonic for our lunches. Kara and I have healthy eating habits in common, too.


We stopped at home so that I could drop off my purchases, because Kara's car was pretty full and we still had to visit The Greenhouse Effect near Antwerp. The nursery was busy and they had oodles of nice plants, including those wonderful Weeks® roses they are known for. They had a couple that I would love to have bought - 'Moonstone' and 'Strike It Rich' - but I still have several sitting at home, potted up and waiting to be planted, so I resisted. I got my 'Chihuly' and 'Hot Cocoa' roses there last year, and they were just wonderful. I got some Coleus and Helichrysum, as well as a large hanging basket with Bacopa. Kara bought a hanging basket with deep blue Lobelia and a couple of other things.

She took me to Paulding, where I needed to pick up my car, and we stopped at Alco, where she resisted (I think she had already spent the limit she had set for herself), but I did not. I was rather surprised to see the nice assortment of annuals and perennials there, and I got a few more things to fill out my planter boxes. We parted ways at this point, and remarked that we had lots of work to do when got home, planting our purchases from the day.

A gardener's work is never done. A shopper's neither.

Spring Projects

I'm not sure why spring brings so many tasks and projects along with it, but every year it seems we have come up with new ideas for changing the appearance of our house and its landscape. I take that back. I do know why, at least in the case of our projects for this year.

Project #1: The concrete area surrounding our pool has settled since it was first poured 19 years ago. That which goes for three feet all around the pool has not, because it was poured with rebar in it and connected to the pool frame itself. But the extra that we had put down for lounge chairs and our table, has dropped two to three inches below the rest of it. This is not only unattractive, but unsafe.

Last summer, when we had a family pool party, our niece, Jennifer, fell. She suffered a nasty scrape on her shin and immediate bruising, but luckily no broken bones. Our other niece, Sarah, broke Jennifer's fall, but even though there were no serious injuries, we don't want anyone to stumble over it at all.

So the plan is to build decking which will sit on top of the concrete where our table and chairs sit. This will be level with the rest of the concrete, eliminating the offset. There is one little glitch in our plan, however. The concrete at the end of the pool where the diving board is has crack and it now slopes slightly downward and ends up even with the aforementioned settled concrete slab. Are you following this?


What this means is we have an area approximately 4' by 6' where we can't put the decking, so what I want is to break away that section and lay paving brick. With that, we can slope it to match the other concrete. Also, it will match the bricked walk that enters the pool house and the one that leads away from that area.


In addition, while I was laying in bed one night, I came up with the idea of connecting the pool area deck-to-be with an existing octagonal deck around a large oak tree nearby. And that is where we are on this project at the moment. I insisted that this part be done first so that I could get the area surrounding it planted early enough for things to get established well before hot summer sets in. Also, if this part is done, I can be working on the planting while Romie is working on the other part of the decking.

Project #2: This one was not planned, nor even wanted, as happens so many times. Due to our wacky winter and silly spring, the Vinca (Vinca minor) that we've had planted in our front porch planter for years just didn't have it in itself to fight to live any longer. And the beautiful Pink Flowering Almond (Prunus glandulosa) we planted there last spring didn't make it either. First we had an extra warm December and January, and many plants put on new growth. Then BAM! Icy cold winter decided to make its appearance. Stress factor one.


Spring came in like summer and what had survived the first calamity started putting on new spring growth. Then BAM! Icy cold winter decided to make its appearance AGAIN and this time out of season. Sure, we can have a frost or two at that time, but the prolonged freeze was just too much, and many plants couldn't handle the stress a second time.




So now we have to figure out what to do with this space. I planted the Fothergilla (Fothergilla major 'Mt. Airy') that I got at the Cincinnati Flower Show where the Flowering Almond used to be, but I've got about 6-7 feet left to fill up with something. I don't think I want to go with anything as low-growing as the vinca this time, but I'm not sure what to put there. It faces west and gets lots of hot sun and wind, so whatever goes in there had better be able to take it.

Since I have two planter boxes that I fill and hang on the railing just above this area, I don't want to plant too much of a variety, or things will look too busy. I already have a lot going on to the left of the sidewalk, across from this planter, with several varieties of Sedum, a Weeping Japanese Cherry (Prunus 'Snow Fountain'), Columbine (Aquilegia), German Catchfly (Lychnis viscaria), and a Wiegela (Weigela florida 'Wine & Roses').

Time to get out the gardening magazines. Suggestions from readers are welcome, too!

Protect Yourself!

Wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

~ Mary Schmich

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. It's fairly well-known that too much time in the sun unprotected can lead to skin cancer. As gardeners, we love nothing better than to be out on a beautiful warm sunny day, digging in the dirt.

I've never been particularly diligent in using sunscreen or wearing protective clothing while outside, whether I'm working in the garden or lounging by the pool. I've always loved having a tan, and in my younger days, worked very hard at getting one. Now that I'm about to turn 50, I regret all those careless times when I got burned. I never gave it a thought back then that there might be consequences later in my life. Like wrinkles.

I have not only crow's feet, but lots of little crinkly lines below my eyes as well. I've lectured my girls about wearing sunscreen, avoiding tanning beds, and using moisturizer. They'll thank me later, if not now.

But wrinkles are nothing compared to melanoma. The most deadly of skin cancers, it's nearly 100% curable if caught in time, but if it's not, the curability rate goes down considerably. We all have moles and freckles, but if one starts changing or growing or a new one appears and doesn't look quite right, get it checked. Better safe than sorry.

About four years ago, my dad had a spot on the top of his head and my mom happened to notice it while he was bent over tying his shoes. She mentioned it and he passed it off, saying it didn't bother him and not to worry. A couple of months went by and it got bigger. She was insistent that he get it checked and when he did, the biopsy came back saying malignant melanoma. After two surgeries, one involving a skin graft, and being checked every four months, my dad is so far cancer free. If my mom hadn't insisted on him getting the spot looked at, my dad would undoubtedly not be with us today.

Romie too has had experience with skin cancer due to sun exposure. He is in the process right now of having treatment for squamous cell carcinoma on the side of his face. We were shocked when his biopsy came back positive for cancer and for a type that has potential for metastasis. But his was caught early, too.

The best way to help prevent skin cancer is to stay out of the sun, but that's not practical. So when you head out to spend time in the garden, wear protective clothing and wear sunscreen.

Kara and Jenna, are you listening?

First Butterfly

I saw the first butterfly in the garden yesterday. It was a species I've seen many times, but I've never bothered to look up what it is. Now I know. It was a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). It flitted around too much for me to get a picture of it, but it looked exactly like this one:

Photo by Steven Round

I expect to see a lot of butterflies this year. We have many flowers that attract them; in fact, our garden is a certified Monarch Way Station. Last year, we had oodles of Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) and many Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus). Probably those most in abundance were the Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) and the Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui).




Flowers and bushes that attract butterflies include:

• Aster
• Lilac (Syringa)
  
• Coreopsis
• Phlox
• Verbena
• Sedum
• Rock Cress (Arabis)
• Rue (Ruta)
• Daisy (Leucanthemum)
  
• Bee Balm (Monarda)
• Dead Nettle (Lamium)
• Coneflower (Echinacea)
• Butterfly Bush (Buddliea)
• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias)
• Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium)
• Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia)
  
  

Some of the plants provide nectar for the butterflies and some of the plants are hosts for them to lay their eggs and for the hatching caterpillars to feed upon. Some plants serve both purposes.





Monarchs are diminishing in number due to pesticides and insecticides being used so extensively, as well as their natural habitats being eliminated. They feed almost exclusively on milkweeds, which used to grow in abundance alongside roads and highways, but due to mowing practices, are not allowed to grow to maturity. Urbanization has also lessened the number of locations in which Monarchs can flourish. This is why the Monarch Way Station program is so important.




Other photos, top to bottom: Cabbage White on Asters; Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar; Monarch caterpillar; Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Happy Birthday, Kara!

I hope you have a wonderful day, my little Punkin Tayta. I can hardly believe it's been 27 years now since you were born and made me a mom. More specifically, a MoM. *wink* One of these days, you'll be having little ones of your own and you'll get to experience all the joys they bring for yourself.

Today, I want to tell you how much I enjoy sharing the love of gardening with you. You're really just a couple of years behind me in your enthusiasm for it, so a lot of things we're discovering together, just as we did with life when you were growing up. Parenting is kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of thing, and gardening can be a bit that way, too. There are so many variables with both, that even though volumes of books have been written on parenting and gardening, some things you just have to learn by experience.

I should have known that you would eventually come to love gardening. Your grandma has always had flowers and as a little girl, you helped her in her garden. She probably was the one that planted the initial seed within you, since I was too busy with other things at that time to really garden much. But we'll make up for lost time, I'm sure. Maybe you can go to one of the big flower shows with Grandma and me. How fun would that be? Three generations of gardeners turned loose amid the flowers and plants and garden decor...

Do you know how proud I am
Of the woman you've grown up to be?
I don't wanna brag, but admit that I grin
When they say you're a "Mini-me"!

~Cathy Curtis-O'Connell Ayon


I love you all the numbers!