Summer Blooms 2014

I would think so. Lovely garden area, however.

Love your color sense Pam. I was laboring over the plantings that are easily viewed from our window and decided something similar about using white to make things pop as well as to blend the colors. The chartreuse and yellow shrubs and hosta just don't wake up the red and red-tinged tree and the other shrubs until I add more white. So the possible solution is more white in the remaining hosta. After that, I think it might tolerate a few Brazillian verbena with a purple globe like flower on a very tall stalk. Can't fill with many strong vertical lines here because the double file viburnum and the maple are supposed to move the eye horizontally and then vertically, as I see it.

How far away are your red trees and shrubs? I have a Cotinus way in the distance. I made the mistake of too many purples and blues, which will be great if I can find something bright enough to energize the big picture. White doesn't do it at such a distance. I had a deep red peony (pic 1) that was wonderful, now I miss it and everything looks flat. I moved some yellow/orange daylilies there last fall (2) but I can see already it's not enough. I have a brighter one I think should work. It's earlier blooming so will pick up some of the slack until the red Monarda, Phlox, pink Platycodons, etc, finally get going.

I found hand picking the LLB to be easier when armed with the correct tool. Their defense mechanism is to drop to the ground when disturbed making them difficult to find. I bring a paper or styrofoam cup with me. hold the cup under the beetle to be disturbed and flick it and it will drop into your container. They can then be dispatched with greater ease. If you try to get each one on a plant individually without a container you will always wind up losing some.
Martha

Pam, the gardens are looking awesome! Mine are OK, the lily garden in the back of the house looks the best right now.....thanks, Martha!

This message was edited Jul 14, 2014 8:03 AM

I think the question about red pertains to mine? I'm still planting and planning so all are not in yet. The main reference point is supposed to be the acer 'Gingerbread' which has a rather reddish trunk and is supposed to have orange or red fall folliage. I planned a twelve foot radius for anything of size, then added the spread of each shrub or mini tree. Cotinus is going to be pollarded (is that a word?) so it added another five feet for its radius on the theory that I can keep it small (why use diameter if you always have to divide by half?). Corylus Red Dragon isn't right yet so it moves closer to the bottom of the hill with plans for it to spread quite a bit but it may have to tolerate a few hours of shade. I thought I'd try ninebark 'Summer wine' in a pot for a few years, but the burgundy pot looks rather somber. since our house is sided with California redwood the red is clearly desirable. I got it balanced in the front yard having the JM as a red focal point, but this is a bit trickier. I'm trying to keep all the red so it looks like it's in the same outdoor room with the reddish prunus trees drifting off a bit. There is a hot colored garden on the hill to the right and to the left a cooler set of colors with yellow and gold contrasts. and a fair amount of tall white perennials. Clearly the main color to center everything there is actually green as ilex opaca and spreading piceas also anchor the shasta viburnum. Here's earlier this summer. The preexisting hydrangea on top has been reduced is quite a bit.

Good idea Martha.

My so called 'hot border' is in the shade. yellow-gold daylily is hiding the astilbe "Fanal" so it should be moved to the back.

My lilies did good this year.I do not think that my area experience the beetles and wasps as others did , just one of my lilies turned brown and the flower never opened.The pink lily is about 15 years and my Dianthus that I received last year Mother"s day did well this year too .

Lilies look beautiful......you would know if you had the red lily beetle....the entire lily would be eaten!

Yes, you wouldn't have any foliage left by this time if you had the LLB's.
Martha

Rosemary, your red combos sound wonderful. You must be covering a large area. I look forward to seeing how it grows.

It's been raining so much the last couple of days I couldn't spray again before we left.. I'll be back out there Friday afternoon though. The Asiatics are toast, but I have to save the Tigers and Casa Blanca's.

Thanks Pam. the area always is larger while I'm trying to add soil and plants, but the entire yard is only half an acre. House set close to the road though and a pie shaped plot that gets wider in back. I love to see examples of successful gardens, so keep on posting! I also like the public planting in Peterborough NH, and happen to have found their planner's blog--The Gardener's Eye.

Fingers crossed for all the lilies.

burgundy and orange are my colors for this year.
Martha

I would love to see your colors posted in pictures, Martha. Monet colors creep into mine with orange through the mardi gras sneezeweeds and a few lilies.

I looked at an interesting large-leafed hydrangea today called Lady in Red--very red branches. No purchases here until the rest of the design settles and stuff i have is planted.

My hydrangeas are just green so far, with the exception of Endless Summer which has a whopping 2 blooms on it.....I'm hoping the Cityline I wrapped in burlap will get at least one bloom this summer....Here are some fav DLs blooming right now......

Does anyone have Hydrangea Little Quick Fire? The colors sound interesting- white, ending red in the fall. I'm about to pull the lilies out of my big barrel and replace them with it. I do like white there in the summer, but I'm sick of dealing with the RLB's. Also, the Lilies crowd out most anything else, so at best I get 2 flushes- Asiatics then Orientals, and that's it.

I'll put the Lily bulbs in pots and stick them somewhere out of the way. If they bloom, I'll tuck the pots in where they'll be seen. That's what I used to do, when I had a much smaller garden.

If I get the Hydrangea, I don't plan to put it in the ground for the winter, then move it back in the spring. It says hardy to zone 3, so the barrel may be big enough for it to survive. If not, I'll have to decide whether to treat it like an annual, or do something else.

Pictures are from last year.

Too bad about losing the lilies. I don't know that hydrangea, but I did get Bobo which is small with white mopheads that would look nice in a container.

I don't know that variety of hydrangea, Pam.......hardy may mean the leaves will be hardy to zone 3, but you won't get blooms if it's too cold. Even my Endless Summer only has 2 blooms on it right now.....none of my other hydrangeas have buds, even though I wrapped one in burlap.......

May I share some of the current blooms? Because of a back breaking summer last year, i think I have a few blooms to show, first looking toward the neighbor. As already said, we were lucky with lilies and I blindly went ahead and planted more this year. Just dumb luck that they survived. The DLs matured a lot this year too. This is south seas.

This message was edited Jul 18, 2014 10:57 PM

Like Martha, I like orange too. Madi Gras helenium is my wake up color on the hill. Second picture shows how the planting are creeping along the hill toward the right side with more dwarf to intermediate sized conifers planned for on top of the hill. In another area I am counting on the yellow hostas to brighten up the spot shaded by a redwood colored fence. They are solar flare, maui buttercups and pineapple up-side-downcake. Red is banned from that section.

Hello! I used to slavishly ADORE orange, and now I like it a lot. I had H. 'Quickfire'; is that the same as Little Quick Fire? Colors were constantly changing and it looked great blooming or inside in a vase or dried.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/133907/

my pictures are the oldest ones on that page, I think.

Thanks for the pictoral introduction to Quickfire, Carrie. It's very nice.

Like Little Lime compared ti Limelight, Little Quick Fire is a smaller version of the original. You've all convinced me to yet it... I think it will be perfect.

Rosemary, I loved your lilies....the first looks like Ormea which is blooming for me right now....also love Pineapple Upside Down hosta!

Ormea is lovely. Mine are missing the pink tones.

Here are 2 that are new this year....Blueberry Crush & Porcelain Doll......

Lovely. I saw blueberry crush gettled oogled over on the lily thread, also.

Now I wonder if there are different strains of RLBs or just little June bugs. Not on the lilies particularly, but in the ground as I dig and a somewhat duller red color too. Since I'm digging so much, I may be the poor man's insecticide. Not the familiar Japanese beetles either. They don't live long enough for a photograph :)

I've seen some rusty colored bugs as I dig.....don't know what they are either!

Some nice things are blooming. I think this DL is Mary Todd. Gold Band lily, an heirloom that is new to me this year. I want more but the warning is the pollen gets everywhere. Orienpet conca d'or is abundant.

Mary Todd is a deep yellow gold....one of my favs....has tons of blooms! Love that Gold Band....my Conca d'ors are just opening, too.......

The lilies are out of the barrel, H Little Quick Fire purchased but not yet planted. First I have to get rid of the Virginia Creeper that wants to fill it up with roots.

I moved the Salmon Pink DL's nearer to the Cotinus, and I like it. Now lots of things are opening up, including the center noid DL beds, and some named in other areas. The doldrums are over.

Looking good. Nice to see the salmon DL by the cotinus.

Every year I hope to fill in the blooms between spring and now but it is still a limited result. Where would we be without the pollinator magnet plants-- catnip, salvias, bleeding hearts, columbine, verbena as of this year, vervain as of this year, wild geranium and baptisia --all and more are workhorse plants I can't live without. Maybe by next year the clematis will fill a gap of flowers here too. Then there is the whole winter to cope with and a reason for red-stemmed shrubs and trees, berry trees and evergeens. Whew!

This year I gave up most of the Roses and the Lilies. This year they are missed, especially the Asiatics that should have started blooming over 2 weeks ago. However, I am adamant that this garden's goal is low maintenance, so they stay out. I'm determined to find alternatives to provide the extra magic that lights up a garden.

Clematis certainly fit into the plan, new DL hybrids bred for earlier bloom since our oldies were planted, Japanese Iris just finishing now, the Hydrangea for the barrel... I'll keep searching for beauties to pick up the slack. :-)

There is certainly no requirement to grow lilies or roses. I've purposely skipped roses.

I'm a newbie to clematis. I'm finding already that the native species clematis, crispa, is quite delicate and not all that demanding for water while it likes the shade (this pic is missing it in flower when taken). What a relief considering the big flower ones seem to be drama queen water guzzlers, but how many divas can one support in one garden?

I had an interesting visit with Susan Austin at Clematisnursery.com in Ipswich, MA. She knows all the quirks of each one, including which do well in the New England climate. A couple that I already own turn out to be very slow to flower. The ones she sold me are much more vigorous. Small flowering types seem to be her specialty, but she also has many large ones. The website has some very good tips too, like adding water absorbent crystals around the roots.

Also Pirl on the Clematis forum has a wealth of knowledge. She's on Long Island, though, a warmer zone.

DD in Ohio has a sweet autumn clematis. Excellent grower. It had to be hacked back because of winter kill in the spring, but she reports that it is doing well.

A visit to the clematis nursery in Ipswich sounds like a great idea. Glad you did, Pam. I like the water absorbing crystals, but I don't think they last more than a few years to get a plant started. I've been neglecting advice to go visit. It would be a nice trip.

My art teacher just bought a Sweet Autumn clem...they need a lot of room, but are outstanding in the fall! I like that DL, Pam......if you want to look at mine, come over......I have loads in bloom right now, all colors, I'll share any of them. I will be picking up my new pup on Sunday!

Rosemary, If you do go to Ipswich, I can highly recommend Periwinkle's in Essex for lunch. Fab clams, better than my childhood! The website says the crystals last about 3 years, which is enough time for the plant to become established. Apparently they search out the un-persnickety varieties. Susan doesn't seem to baby hers much. She has so much knowledge. I could have stayed there for hours, but DH got antsy.

Marilyn, I just got that DL, Barbara Mitchell, in Litchfield, and plan to go back for more. We're overdue for a trip in your direction, I'll keep you posted.