Is There A Reason To Look Out Your Window?

We should all have a reason to look out a window, whether it be to look at who is passing, the dawn, the sunset, the stars, a storm, but most important what we have in our landscapes should be the best reason of all. 

I went around the inside of my home the other day peering out each and every window and, to my amazement, I did have points of interest through just about every window.  I am not sure that this was a major concern when I was landscaping this blank slate.  However, I do remember thinking about the placement of the Chanticleer Pear and the Star Magnolia.  Each one of these specimens fills my view as I look from my dining room windows, the Pear straight ahead and the Magnolia to the side.  I still have some views to improve on my shade side of the garden.

As I move to the living room windows, which are in the shape of a bay, there are flowers visible from all angles.  When I pull up the sheer shades, it always reminds me of that old story The Night Before Christmas when they threw open the shutters and pulled up the sash and saw that magical scene of Santa and his sleigh.  Oh, sorry, I got carried away, but throw back your curtains, pull up your shades and see what you have outside your windows.  Is it interesting?

It's The Last Hurrah!

With temperatures in the mid 80's for the past two days the Spring garden is as a peak.  I have had to water the flopping tulips and hyacinths and the Star Magnolia has dropped most of it's flowers.

I have spent more time this year noticing the sequence and cycle of the plantings because of writing the blog and taking photos.  It is interesting to take a group of photos one day only to see how much they have changed the following day.

Many of the earlier daffodils have dried up and I will have to snap off that little bulb so they don't put energy into making seed.  Even though I have coverage from daylilies and other tall plants, I become very impatient waiting for all of the bulb foliage to die back.

Lunch At The Garden Club

The fun garden club has gone back to lunch meetings.  The no lunch situation just began in September and it was not popular.  Wow, what a difference, we could hardly fit everyone in our host home.  I was on the lunch committee today so I was very busy being a hostess.  Many people came out of the woodwork when they heard "lunch."  It was at a beautiful home build in the late 1880's, lots of remodeling, but retaining the original character of the home.

The driveway and the patio brick was from a past era, and the gardens looked true to the original time period of the home.  Our lunch was a wonderful salad of tortellini on a bed of lettuce with bread sticks and salami gorgonzola biscuits with chive butter.  The deserts were yummy, carmel brownies and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

This was a very active crowd who could barely stop talking to hear the presenter.  It is amazing what food will do!  Our speaker was a Botany major in school and has a business as a garden designer and coach.  She spoke on roses, their requirements, culture, pruning and her favorites for our area.  She demonstrated pruning techniques on a real rose bush and answered questions on fertilizing, coffee grounds (not a proponent of using coffee grounds) and protection for the winter (mulch - not rose cones).  She recommended compost as a first course when planting and then the Bayer Systemic throughout the season until August.

I am showing some of her recommendations for our (zone 5) area, but I am sure many will do well in several zones.  There were many more listed, but I just picked out one in each category.  I have had problems with the original cherry colored Knockout, but I agree with our speaker that it is still the most desirable.  The doubles grow smaller and do not have the same spreading habit as the original.  I would say the Rainbow Knockout, even though the flowers are smaller, has a similar spreading growth habit to the original Knockout.

Metamorphosis In The Garden

Metamorphosis is not only something that occurs with caterpillars into butterflies, it occurs in the garden all the time.  I began with an all sun garden under my small Pagoda Dogwood tree tucked into the back corner of my yard.  It's leaf coverage was so small that I could grow Veronica Sunny Border Blue, Cone flowers and Phlox.

Well, over the last few years this lovely dogwood, even though damaged by the Cicadas a couple of years ago, has branched out considerably.  It is no longer a sun garden back there but has morphed into a shade garden.  I really did not want it to be a shade garden, but it spoke loudly as to what it would have growing under it's feet.  I finally gave in and moved the sun loving plants and began to redesign a whole new garden.

I planted Thunder Bolt Hosta, Autumn Fern, Ghost Fern and Maggie Daley (named after our mayor's wife) Astilbe last summer and fall.  I also transplanted a large Rhodie back there from the front of the house.  They have all survived beautifully so I guess it was a good move to go with the shade.

I don't know why I fought this change as I love shade plants and miss so many of them from my other homes.  I guess I am kind of gun shy because in my old old home I had nothing but shade, couldn't grow anything that required sun.  My tomatoes grew to ten feet tall without tomatoes!

Spring Observations

Some posts ago I spoke about a scale disease I had on my Euyonmous Wintercreeper and Rhus Aromatica.  I had used an oil spray several years ago with my Hudson Sprayer on some flowering crab apples.  It was a pain to use, had to be above 50 degrees, no flowers visible and not above a certain temperature..  I did find a hand held spray bottle All Seasons Oil Spray made by Bonide.  It is easy to use on shrubs and small trees can be used above 40 degrees but not above 90 degrees. 

Take a look at Itzim Daffodil still blooming almost three weeks, not affected by the heavy rains or frost, certainly outlasted Jetfire and Tete-A-Tete.  It did say in the description "long blooming."  I will certainly dedicate more space to this one next year.

I have posted a mystery daffodil.  I cannot find it on my purchase orders from Van Engelen or Scheepers.  If you know what it is I would appreciate the name.  The trumpet is whiteish with a little yellow frill. 

Those Hyacinths (City of Harlem) and Daffodils (Sagitta) are into the flops, but I keep propping them up by putting one behind the other.  I ordered a mixed grouping of Hyacinths and got Pink Pearl and City of Harlem and I had some Gypsy from last year. 

I also lamented about my rhododendrons some posts ago that my husband wanted to fill in with a cement front porch.  We had replaced them all and I had asked for a reprieve by turning off the sprinkler in that area.  Well I guess they told him where they belonged!

The mixed Emperor Tulips are beginning to bloom peeking out of my Green Velvet Boxwoods bordering the patio.  Orange Emperor and Sweetheart Emperor are a good combination this year.  Tulips in zone 5 need to be treated as annuals.  If they come back it is a bonus, and the Emperors are more likely to return.

Just look at that Chanticleer Pear!  It is much tougher than the Bradford because it's branches grow upright and are not suseptible to the winds or ice.