2011 new additions / early blooms

I feel like I've been absent from Dave's for a while - sorry! I've been doing a lot of sewing. (I'm starting a small charitable business where I design/sew handbags, and give 1/2 the profits to a local shelter for abused women and their children). So, I haven't had much time for gardening.

Anyway, I added a few things to my cottage garden this year. I added some yellow yarrow, sempervivums, dianthus and some small sedums to the front of the garden. I've also ordered some butter and cream siberian irises & coreopsis moonlight to add some more yellow to my mostly blue/pink/purple garden. It's now almost completely perennial. The only annuals I have this year are those white begonias under the tree. I plan to add more pics to this thread as different stuff starts to bloom.

Blooming now are:
lupines,
columbine,
allium,
dianthus
yarrow (but these might be blooming earlier than normal b/c they are new from the nursery)

It feels good to be digging in the dirt again!

you can see the additions and the yarrow better in this shot (oh, and scabiosa is also blooming right now)

Here's a close up of the yarrow, lupines and allium

and while I'm showing stuff I've added, this is a different bed, but I added some Geum "Totally Tangerine". I'm loving it with the lupine, but I'm not sure how it will look with the other stuff that will be blooming later. I'll keep you posted :)

Wow! Beautiful... I am having serious season envy! LOL!

Elsa, Zone 11!!!! Can't even imagine.

Lovely, well designed garden pgt.
I love the frothy silvery blue green leaves in the front as well as the blue color added by the low hanging branches of the evergreen.

We are in the middle of Winter at the moment, although not as cold as expected... The thing for me with zone 11 is, that many of the flowers I just love (lupines, aliums, peonies, tulips to name a few) just don't grow here in Pretoria. Tropical plants go crazy, but I am a cottage garden lover...
Then again, I'm no good with really cold weather, so I get my fix at DG, and enjoy our weather... LOL!

Stunning garden there, pgt. I love that geum with the lupine also.

Lovely garden. I particularly like the cranesbill with the lady's mantle. I always looking for good combinations for texture. Love your geum "Totally Tangerine". It's a beauty.

Loving that "Totally Tangerine" Geum..I hope "Mrs. Bradshaw" starts growing more and make a good show. Is that Geum new this year? Mine is still a WS seedling. It has rained so much that I can't seem to get the rest of the seedlings planted, so they are still sitting in the cut off milk jugs or have been transplanted to a 4 in. nursery pot until I can get them planted. I bet that Geum of yours would look great with the yellow yarrow or a yellow daylily or snapdragon or even yellow zinnias or dahlias.

I found the Geum "Totally Tangerine" at a local nursery - I bought 5 plants b/c it was so beautiful, and then looked it up online to get more info about it. Here's some info if you are interested.
http://www.planthaven.com/pdfs/Geum%20Totally%20Tangerine%20(PVIS).pdf
It is totally sterile, so unfortunately, I won't have seeds to share :(
It's supposed to bloom for a long period, so I'll you all know how it does.
Thanks for the compliments!

That border looks absolutely lovely. And I love the orange Geum. The only Geum I have is Blazing Sunset but it is only getting ready to bloom now.

red poppies are starting to bloom in my raised bed.

Oh, poppies and lupines. I love that combination. Are those perennial poppies?

pgt, BEAUTIFUl pics!

I have such garden envy, pgt......it's killing me to see your pictures - I just want to sit back in your gardens and soak them in and study your color/plant combos. Stunning, stunning, stunning.

I love how perennial gardens continue to shift and change over time. Here are some more pics from today (one week later than my pics at the start of this thread)
allium is finished
but now we have some johnson's blues just starting to bloom
lady's mantle is blooming
our roses are starting to bloom
salvia is blooming
irises are blooming
yellow foxglove is starting to bloom.

clematis and poppies. I was worried about how the pink and red poppies would look together. But I think that the orange geum helps to tie them together.

a closer view of my poppies

this garden from my family room window:)

our strawberry patch is getting some berries.

I try to plan and plant my flowers for my VIEW, I love yours!

PGT..what are the small orange/salmon flower with the lupines and red poppies? I have orange poppies blooming today and I walked around to the back to take pictures of my minature yellow rose bush, full of buds just opening and found the pink campanula that I planted in back of the sunroom has two blooms opened today. Yeh! I WS it the first year so that would have been Jan. 2009(or 2010 ?) It is first time it has bloomed and it hasn't grown that much in a year. May need to be transplanted elsewhere, you think? It gets the morning and early afternoon sun. The "Becky" daisies have been blooming for a few weeks and the rain and their own height has them flopping down. Guess it is time to cut them back? Will they rebloom this year if I cut them back 6-12 inches? Guess I need to either get rid of those tall ones and plant some medium height or buy some type of wire fencing or a wire plant frame like you put peonies in?.

Thanks for the compiments everyone!! Makes me feel good :)

Pippi - the small orange flowers in that bed are Geum "Totally Tangerine".
If your campanula is getting lot of sun (and it sounds like it does), I'd give it another year to see how it does. Most perennials don't really flourish until their 3rd year. Are your Beckies getting enough sun? Mine don't seem to flop in a bed where they get ful sun. I don't get much reblooming on my Beckies after their fuirst flush of flowers. So, I don't know whether you'd get more blooms. Good luck!

NYrita,
Yes, those are perennial poppies. They were grown from seed, and this is their 3rd year (their "show" year!). They are Papaver Orientale, "Brilliant" and "Princess Victoria Louise". It's been a long wait, but I think it was worth it. I'm planning to winter sow some more this winter to transplant into my cutting garden. They look gorgeous in a vase, but I hate to cut them out of a garden that I enjoy looking at.

Great view you have and everything looks so nice and green. I love the poppies.

I just planted a lot of ones called Fruit Punch poppies that I mail ordered from Graceful Gardens. I do love poppy flowers even though for some reason I didn't have them.

My cat was enjoying the view of the poppies this morning :)
Rita, I looked up those Fruit Punch poppies, and I LOVE the color! Hope they do well for you.

Love the picture, made me smile. Kitty does have a great view there.

I wasn't planning on getting poppies until I saw the picture of the fruit punch poppies there and I just couldn't resist them. I had never seen such a gorgeous color mix before. I have plenty as you have to buy one of their complete trays in order to ship although you can fill it with anything they sell. I hope they bloom this year.

Pgt, because of your pictures I just had to have Geum Totally Tangerine in my garden, and my Bluestone order should be here tomorrow. Of course I ordered a bunch more stuff too, once I saw their selections and prices,

I WS-ed poppies Princess Victoria Louise and Patty's Plum this spring, very successfully. But three years?! Yikes! I may have to haunt the nurseries for a plant or two to tide me over.

Pam

Pfg, I did get about one bloom per plant the second year (so it will be spring 2012 for you) so next year you should see some flowers. But they really put on a show year #3 (spring 2013 for you). It's a good exercise in patience! I always have the same problem as you when I order from bluestone. I end up buying more than I set out to, but I'm never disappointed once I see all those extras in bloom in the garden. Enjoy!!!!

Some more pics today.
Now the johnson's blue geraniums are blooming more, and I love how they look with the lady's mantle.
My Knockout Rose in the middle is in full bloom.
Siberian Irises are blooming and peach leaved bellflowers are blooming too.
scabiosa and yarrow are still in bloom
columbine is still blooming but starting to fade.
Morris Berd phlox is in full bloom.
(you can also see some yellow foxglove in bud behind the jb geraniums and lady's mantle.

This message was edited May 26, 2011 4:36 PM

Same garden from a different angle. You can see the yellow yarrow a little better in this pic.

close up of some of the yarrow with johnson's blues

And I had to get one last pic of my poppies in. We'll be away for the weekend, and I'll bet they'll be about done by the time we get back :(

oh, and why not. one last pic. a close up of the center-ish area of my perennial garden.

Everything looks so beautiful. It's a shame you will be missing the last of the poppy bloom as they are just so pretty.

Pam,
Are your "Brilliant" red oriental poppies more of like a orange/red color? I know last year I planted that variety and I think that is probably what I'm seeing blooming. I expected Red, not orange/red which is why I'm seeming a bit bumfuzzled. The one plant is exactly where the Red one was last year so it has to be the Brilliant, as I only WS one jug of orange poppy this January. There are metal plant markers stated red poppy on other poppy plants so it has the be the "Brilliant" I planted last year. I wouldn't think that the jug of seedlings that I WS this January would have that much growth on it or that many blooms.
Guess my memory of color is not what it used to be. LOL! Whatever I am enjoying them immensely. Can't wait to see Patty's Plum and Princess Victoria Louise bloom. You were my inspiration; that is where I saw and fell in love with the Poppies. Used to listen to my dear MIL tell about her Mother growing a field of flowers to take to market to see in Harrisburg, Pa. so I had her also in mind when I saw your poppies last year. Thanks for the inspiration. Now to get my JB or Rozanne. I WS campanula Peach-leaf but they are still in the HOS stage. Would the Fall be a good time to sow some more of them to ensure Spring blooms?

A church friend has been dividing her tall garden phlox and one she gave me first bloomed last year and I think it was a light lavender color. She doesn't remember the name of the variety as they have been planted in her garden for years. Maybe I'll have blooms in the Spring on the two she gave me last Fall. If it is the same color..so be it. I'm greatful for the donation.

I WS some yellow yarrow this January too. My neighbor had a rose colored yarrow and it became invasive but she is in her mid 80's and couldn't work in the flowerbeds anymore so she had the yard man to rip it all out and put in 3 Knock out rose bushes.
Something tells me if my Yarrow survives the winter, I'll be pulling some of the volunteers of it up like I did my columbines yesterday while I was mulching that flowerbed. But I'm sure there will still be plenty that reseed and I won't be lacking of columbines.

Pippi,
Yes, my brilliants are more red-orange than I expected them to be too. But I love them.

I haven't grown any peach-leaf bellflowers from seed (my plants came from bluestone, and I just keep dividing them). But, I think they are pretty easy to grow from seed. I would think that late summer or fall would be perfect for sowing since that's about when the seeds would naturally fall from the plants anyway.

Good luck!

Since moving from the north (northern Ohio) to my home state of Florida, I'm now in a new learning mode. Sad that most of my flowers that love and need a cold climate won't be as successful or not at all here so I will be waiting and living through pictures of your beautiful garden.

Thank you for sharing and please don't hesitate to continue to post..... those incredible pictures.

Jan