I just got an email that their 50% off sale has started. Yippee!
Bluestone Sale
Wow, I got in with the buy $100 get one free sale. I guess I should have waited!
Lately they've been doing Friday specials, 50% off certain plants. I got a couple of goodies from my wishlist last week. :-)
Nice, like what?
Heuchera Miracle and Monarda Clair Grace. I'm getting 3 of each. I just love sales!
Nice! Mondardas are good if you don't mind them crawling through your garden. They're pretty easy to remove if they get in the way though. I have Raspberry Wine. I could be crazy but I actually think it smells like raspberries!
I already have a red which has naturalized here and ther around the edges. I put some in with Siberian Iris and Asters, quite wonderful as long as I keep an eye on the balance. The new pink are going along the edge of some naturalized fern I pushed way back last fall. Let them fight it out, lol!
Haha...garden bullies are fun to pit against each other.
Yes :-)
I pitted galium odoratum against a variety of fall blooming anemones for this year. The anemones had all winter to establish themselves so we'll see who wins :)
They are doing that sale every Friday with new plants. I just fell a victim.
I pitted bayberries against anemones against salvia verticillata. They fought to an awesome draw. I'm not sure how the Digitalis Husker Red survived!
Then I added saponaria bouncing bet. Any one of these would have taken over the entire bed. These pictures were taken over a five year period. No one won, no one lost. What fun it was! I'm trying to do the same thing in my new home. The great thing about it was that it was right out front and never looked bad.
Looks great Donna! How was it moving and having to do everything over again?
Surprisingly, not as difficult as I thought it would be. People were foreclosing all around me so I saw the handwriting on the wall and did a short sale. Because I put the house on the market in April, I kept working on the garden until the house sold in September to some younger people who were a bit overwhelmed by the garden but adored it - and the house. But what that meant was that I had time to take things. I only took two of my roses (they are not that expensive, and develop quickly). So instead of bemoaning the loss of my shade trees, ornamental trees and grasses, I started digging up most of my lilies (58), taking cuttings of perennials, and in some cases, portions of plants that had expanded (epimediums, heucheras, and small shrubs, like a deutzia Chardonnay, a variegated Japanese Kerria) and potting them. I even took some young peonies. I took anything that was hard or expensive to replace and could spend the winter in a garage. But that was the year of the late, warm fall. I was putting plants in the ground in December.
Then I took advantage of every sale I could find. I also got plants from great suppliers like Plant and Gnome. The three Deutzia Codsall Pink in the first picture were $10.00 each, plus $10 shipping (The Charles de Mills rose was from Forest Farm). The viburnum plicatum Pink Beauty shrubs in the second pic were 3 for $40 (and he sent a 4th not in the picture) plus $10 shipping. I got 3 foot oakleaf hydrangeas for a similarly ridiculous price.
Then I got wonderful gifts. The red peony in the 3rd picture is Kansas. It had never bloomed properly at home, so I dug up half of it, put it in the ground and it bloomed! The Bevan's Variety geraniums were gifts. So were Nepeta Six Hills Giant and Joanna Reed.
I grabbed 50% off sales from Bluestone to get some of my favorite plants for almost as little as years ago. I found great and reasonable suppliers like Romence and Hallson Gardens (thank you those who took the time to review them!) Many of these will give you as much as 25% off if you order early. I went nuts at the Old House Garden sale last fall as he prices went down 10% a day, and ordered five white martagon lilies at 40% off (and got 8) and his very inexpensive peonies.
Five viburnums are coming in spring. I have been here only through two winters, but I will have 25 roses when my orders come in the spring.
Now, let me tell you, this is my great indulgence. I don't get manicures or pedicures and I don't buy lots of shoes or clothes and thank goodness I don't need to dye my hair, and I grow my own veggies and some fruit, so I splurge on - oh yes! - gardening. I thought my heart would break when I had to give up my garden - it was the result of many years of development. But it was also mature. I had 5 12 foot lilacs. I was putting touches on things - adding perennials, more bulbs. Now I get to do it all again, at much less cost than I could have imagine - and faster! And without the mistakes. I also got my master gardener certification, and am now working two large English style gardens (yes, people are actually paying me to romp around in big English style gardesn with tons of peonies and roses and nepeta).
So it worked out, and life is good. And spring is finally here!
Sounds great! Where was your home before? I always dread the thought of moving. We've been in our house for 4 years and thinking of having to start all over again is terrible to me. I do like the tidbit you put in there that you get to do it all over again without the mistakes....oh boy do I get that :)
In my defense though, I had a blank slate when we moved in and have spent tons of money making it how I like it. I think this will be the last year that I spend tons of money. My wife and I are saving for an addition so I'm sure if we get to that point, there will be more landscaping to do.
Like you though, I don't have any other things I really spend money on, just gardening.
It was in Lake County, Illinois, noted by Forbes for being one of the ten worst places to live in the United States (we were number 9) because of extremely high taxes ($11,200 on a 2,000 square foot house) and a 29% foreclosure rate.
Full sun. I lived there from 1998 to about 3 years ago. So I had a mature garden.
Yes, it was hard to leave it.
Donna, if I ever get a blank slate, I'll come to you for recommendations, especially on the tall grasses.
Actually, I bought some today from Bluestone, 50% off, Pennisetum Hameln. It's a short one, sounded nice. DH planted a few clumps of something very tall years ago. I'm trying to do a mixed border in that section with daylilies, perennial sunflowers, volunteer phlox, sedums, etc, hopefully to naturalize together. I think the shorter grasses will help tie the whole thing together. I already have a few P Karly Rose, but needed more of something.
Ha! I bought the pennisetum too. I used to have the classic pennisetum alopecuroides, but it is less available.I had about 8 of them. They are large, but lovely. I removed at least 70% of my lawn and had beds with grasses, peonies, roses and perennials in them.
Miscanthus Gracillimus is the classic beauty. Only 30 inches across at the base Here it is in July (pic 3), and when it blooms in October (pic 4).
A grass I adores seems to be gone: Bluttenwunder, here in September, 60 inches across at the base. That was 8 gracillimus in pic. 3. With the big B, you only need ONE! Watch out for the very popular silberfeder - it flops. Beautifully, but it takes two feet off the height.
I had at least 60 grasses, most of the about 8 different kinds of miscanthus, but also prairie dropseed, feather reed grass, and pennisetum. I really based my garden on them. Call on me anytime!
What gorgeous pictures! And what a nice mix, really lovely. I've seen lots of your garden pictures, both old and new, but this is the first time I'm seeing so many of just the grasses.
These are my two oldies in bloom (1). Pic 2 is the area I'm working in. Pic 3 is a longer view. I love the shagginess of the tall grasses with the trees in the distance, and hope to keep a little of the wild feeling that bed had when it was a mess of weeds. Edited wild, lol...
There's a lot more in there than it seems in that pic, and some real thugs-- Aster Jindal, for example, which runs, and Helianthus Laetiflorus which does the same. I also have H Maximilian, not a runner, but vigorous nonetheless. Can't wait to watch the battle,
Wow, what a gorgeous garden space! I so envy people who can bring their creativity to a large space. I simply packed it in, but I had no vistas. What fun you are going to have!