Looking good, Pam!
Clematis in shrubs
So sweet, Hagley Hybrid bloomed! She climbed up a peony and gave me 3 lovely flowers, on the last weekend I'll be at the garden until mid-September.
The other nice surprise is that C integrifolia Alba has a few buds. Sadly I'll miss the actual display, but I'm very happy that it's happy in the big barrel with the lilies, and that it's growing the way I hoped it would when I bought it.
Pam
So pretty and I love the way Alba trails over the barrel. I wanted that type of look with my whiskey barrels and they did not do well. I think they are in an area that does not get enough light. At this point in time, I will heel them in for the winter along with a couple other that I bought. It has been too hot and too hectic to try to figure out where to put them.
I finally put coleus into my barrels with some dahlias and the barrels look good now. I have decided that I want to put coleus in them every year.
Very nice, Pam. Like Carolyn, I love the trailing habit of Alba.
Carolyn, I got the idea from you last spring. At first the Euonymus Alata on either side of the barrel were shading everything too much. They were huge and out of control. The landscape guy was supposed to prune them into globes like he did last year, but instead made them flat-topped and left them just as wide, so they still seemed right on top of the barrel. I had a young kid help me for a day, and had him really thin the shrubs out so now they look woody and ugly. Sigh... But the barrel gets much more light now. Next spring I'll take one more good whack at them and hope to get them into a size and shape that will work.
Pam
Your whiskey barrel looks far better than mine did. ^_^
Thanks! We'll see what happens next year...
The other funny thing is that this weekend I've been in the Hamptons for a job and had the occasion to go to the north fork. I've looked on line at WalMart for the self-watering pots you, Pirl, raved about but they were not available.. So tonight I decided to check out your store in Riverhead and -viola!- there they were! So now I have 9 11" and 2 16". I hope I like them when I get them home!
Pam - we're due to get a Walmart Super Store near the LIE but still on Route 58 but it may be another year or two. Right now the Riverhead store is 22 miles from us. Maybe it's good because I'm not so tempted to run in on a whim.
My point with those self-watering pots is NOT for the beauty of the pot but to get the clematises off to a great start. I check the water level almost every day. Some have roots coming out the bottom already! I don't care how unattractive or boring the color of those pots are - my object is to get the strongest, healthiest root system possible. It's all temporary anyhow since the clem's will get planted in the garden.
As I looked up Bill's caladium site to be sure of the spelling of Grey Ghost, I ran across another site that said Grey Ghost is not good for containers. Oh, really! It's terrific, full, beautiful and great for hiding clematis stems. They love the self-watering pots!
For anyone who hasn't seen these pots, here is a photo of the label. An 11.5" pot can easily hold two clem's or 2 or 3 Japanese irises.
The pots and I finally made it back to the garden after weeks spent traveling hither and yon... 6 1/2 weeks, to be precise. When I was last here, August 6, many things were just getting started: tomatoes, various phlox, a clematis or two, to name just a few... Now they are finished. Even some of the sedums are done. It's fall. Very sad.
There was one lovely surprise, C Jackmanii is blooming its head off. And a few others are still present: the Colocasia is huuuuuuge. Verbena bonariensis is exuberant, and the Monarchs are loving it.
Pam
It is a nice surprise. I can feel Fall in the air, can't you?
Right now, I have Star of India blooming and a Huldine that I put in last year. I was going to cut everything back this year to see if I could get more flushes - I never got that far. It has been one thing after the next since July with DH's health.
Sorry about your DH. I hope he is OK...
Pam - sorry you missed so much but glad for Jackmanii's blooms for you. It's an "old reliable" for a reason. Late spring and autumn it is glorious.
Carolyn - fall is in the air! It's 58 right now and I love the breeze coming in the window as I sit here. Sorry to hear of your husband's health issues and hope he'll be better very soon.
Thank you both. I appreciate it.