Iowa Herbaceous Perennial Conference

Iowa State University holds a party for us garden geeks every year with great speakers & ideas. It's an all day affair on the Ames campus Saturday ,November12. You can still sign up. Cost is a little pricey.

Llilyfan, anahi, twinlakeschef and I will be there to learn & gab all day. Great chance to catch up with some "facetime". If you need Master Gardener hours, this is an interesting way to go. And we all got a free gorgeous big peony root last year from one of the speakers!

Wanda...that sounds like it would a lot of fun! And I hope lots of the UMW members will get to go and meet you guys. (Wish I could do stuff like that...but...) :-(

Thanks for extending the invitation!

~julie~

Wanda - thanks for passing the info! I already have plans this Saturday (art workshop in Mineral Point, WI), or I would consider it. Could have easily stopped to pick you up, Julie.

Jody

Sue(llilyfan) and I are going up tommorrow to party and stay overnight, but thanks for the offer.

I should have given you earlier notice--I've had my nose to the grindstone at work lately.

Mineral Point you say? Hmmmmm that's not that far.......!!

MG - go to www.shakeragalley.com they have awesome workshops there. I think they may still have openings in some workshops. I went with my sister and sil this past spring to the Garden Getaway they have every year. Had such a good time I plan to go next year.

Jody

The Perennial Conference gave me loads of new ideas about garden design --some I liked & some I disagreed with. A speaker gave us info on his beeding programs for Coral Bells and other shade plants, Asian gardens and more. It was fun & informative.

Wanda...if you start some conversation about what you learned, how about posting a link for us here in this thread? We'd love to read about your adventure.

~julie~

Good Conference (other than the tornado scare at the end) and great to hug both Wanda and Sue.

The Iowa round-up is soooo far away.

Well, one speaker told us to limit your garden to 3 colors that are opposites on the color wheel. Oh , and to carry the color wheel with us to the plant store so we pick the "right pink". Fat chance at this house!

I DO repeat plant forms across my borders as a design element. I DO mix and match heights & textures for interest. I DO plan for maintentence & seasons. And I put in ANY COLOR that pleases my eyes & re-arrange until I get it right! Limit colors in my garden? Not in THIS lifetime!

I have a bed that is full shade and every year I have put the fancy coleous in there.

After seeing the presentation on Huechera and Tiarella I think I might try that for a while; it would be nice not to have to replant that bed every year.

Guess that's the main new idea I came away with. Now to go about finding the ones they showed us. LOL

Wanda said:

Here! Here!

I've been reading a lot about the "3-color" design principle...and my only problem is trying to decide WHAT 3 colors I want to live with! LOL

So I decided to use them all and "let God sort them out"! (Now that I think about, I guess that's what happens anyway. hehehe)

TLC...I have a large area of shady beds on the north side of my house. Huge White Pines less then 20' from the building create an area that is almost solid shade. For the past two years I grown impatiens and hypoestes (Polka dot plant) to cover the ground. I've also got Hosta, Heuchera, Lamium, ferns (of all kinds), periwinkle and Tiarella planted there. Granted all of the above would do much better if there was a little more exposure. But so far, they're still alive and, to me, that's what counts.

Of course, if it weren't for the coleus I'd have very little to focus attention on. But I'm definitely beginning to feel the need to fill those beds with things I don't have to replant. (I'm thinking "ROCKS!" LOL)

~julie~

Julie,
It seems I waste time and money on areas I would like to look nice but aren't really that important. So if this will eliminate one bed to redo every year . . . time can be spent on the important plants.

I could never choose just three colors to work with in my garden. I would have to have a different color combo in separate areas of my yard, and I really don't like that look either; at least not here.

*sigh*

I'm not sure I even have the ability to actually plan a flower bed in such a way. Everything I have in my garden now, I've gotten in bits and pieces from donations from my mom and grandma, and then I fill in with stuff I see that I like when the online places have sales. Probably the only bed I've planned as far as color or anything else goes is on the south side of my house, where I've planted oodles of pink tulips, but I need to plant other things for the rest of the year after the tulips are done. There is a burning bush/tree and three other bushes (I don't know what they are) and the tulips are around all those.

It's funny how it all turns out okay (usually). If it doesn't, I just move it. LOL.

Move it? Move it? Gee, i long ago decided that charts of plants would never work for me--too messy with all my rearranging! I have a database for each major plant group (lilies, iris & daylilies), named beds & metal garden stakes to keep track. My goal is constant color & variation of forms. If I don't like it this year, you can bet it will be somewhere else next year!

Well, I am way too lazy to *plan* my garden. If something catches my eye, it goes in. If it doesn't do well, it get's moved,,,hopefully Before it dies. If I don't like where it is, it get's moved,,,,eventually.

I started out by making a *map* of the gardens,,,,well,,,guess what,,I don't have to tell a bunch of gardener's how long that lasted,,,now, it's metal marker's with nightmares of someone coming in and moving them all around,,,,

As far as color, the more, the better in my book. I couldn't choose 3 colors if it meant free plants for life. Nope,,,,couldn't do it.

Kelly

"Plan"? What is this "Plan" that you speak of?

I made very careful plans last year, I even used graph paper and colored pencils. HA! The colored pencils didn't tell the graph paper about all of the cool stuff on clearance at Lowe's or Wally World. And the Graph paper certainly didn't tell the dogs about boarders and no dig zones. AND neither one of them talked to Mother Nature about the drought she insisted I needed to try to overcome.

"Plan" HA! Good one.

LOL @ mg,

We hear ya,,,

Kelly, I could have written that!!! LOLOLOL!!!

Kylee,

LOL, I think many of us could have,,,,NO way to plan a garden,,,at least in my book. I think it would be boring if you did,,,,nothing to move cause you don't like where it is, nothing to move cause you don't like the colors together,,,Too boring for me,,,I guess I like to make extra work for myself,,,LOL

Kelly

I think I just like digging in the dirt. I'm always walking through my gardens looking for something to do once the weeding is under control and the deadheading and watering done. Kind of reminds me of our youngest daughter, who always liked to clean house. What others might consider to be work, we enjoy!

Just clarifying.........

Gardening = fun
Cleaning = work

Kylee,

Yes, definitely,,,,my mistake,,,I agree 100%

Kelly

LOL

How about cleaning the garden = Fun,,,,LOL

Good one, and I agree!

LOL

Just found this thread - The entent of my "planning" is making wishlists. I do have a "grand plan" but it changes as I go. I've been thinking about having someone come out and do a cad layout for me, but that costs about $200. I'm not convinced that even if I had that, it would help me. I tend to go one bed at a time, and just owrk my way through. Somehow, though, when I see a plant I want I always seem to be able to find a home for it.

Stacey,

I'm with you, prolly wouldn't help much, as you said when you see a plant you like, you buy it,,,,save the $200.00 from the cad layout for plants,,,,,LOL

Kelly

I "plan" new rows by simply alternating plants laid out on the ground: iris clump, daylily clump, something else, iris, daylily, something else. I try to watch out for duplicate colors & vary plants in most rows for all season color. And I move them if I don't like the result. that's gardening, right?

Wanda

That's gardening,,,At least the way I know gardening,,,LOL

Kelly

Haven't actually gotten around to it yet, but I plan to use photos from garden magazines for future planting inspiration. At this point I don't have all the things planted in the photos, but as I'm buying new plants and re-arranging beds I will keep the photos handy.

Jody

Jody,
That's a great idea.

Kelly

So many of the gardening magazines give plans along with the photos. If a listed plant is something I don't like, I'll just find something to replace it. Maybe I'll get really organized this winter and put together a binder of future plantings. I'll do that right after I'm done with winter-sowing, painting, plastering, sewing window treatments, bookwork, billing, cleaning, cooking...LOL!

Jody

Jody,

LOL,,,should be by next spring???????

Kelly

Hey, god sends snow and freezes the ground to give us time to do our INSIDE activities all winter. After I sew, clean closets, paint walls, re-line cabinet shelves, etc, I feel no guilt about spending April to November in my gardens! :)

Wanda,

Same here, we have to have down time,,,I guess,, even if we don't think we do,,,LOL I also do all those things during the winter months and feel really good when I get them done.

Kelly

So Wanda,

What color are you planning to paint my living room after you finish yours? Rofl.

I really *do* need to get the painting done here tho, I can't set up my aquarium until we paint, and I miss my fishies. And I am sick of looking at the ugly garage sale paint that the sellers slapped on. I need color in a big way! I want to use the same colors we used in the house we were renting before we bought this one. The living room color was called "Tropical Splash", it was turquoise and it changed colors depending on the light. I loved the way it looked. I'll dig up a picture, hang on a sec. Ok, found one, lol.

mg

mg,
Nice color,,,Just painted my Living Room, Hallway upstairs and downstairs about 3 years ago. Big job, but I actually like to paint,,,Yes I said I like to paint,,LOL Forgot the name of the color I used,,,but also very cool,,,,changes from purple to pink to taupe to gray depending on the lighting.

One of my friends came over and asked if I had painted it,,told her well the last time was a few years ago and you have been here plenty since,,,,she started laughing and said what a nice color it was and asked why it looked different than before. LOL

Did the Dinning room last Jan. or Feb,,,deep rust color found a pic of that one. Now, I Really need to get my Bedroom done,,,,maybe this winter,,,still want to go through a couple of closets too,,

Kelly

ach,,,looks more orange in the pic than what it really is,,,musta been the flash,,,,it's darker than pic shows

This message was edited Dec 6, 2005 9:27 AM

I'm in the process of painting my living room Garnet Gem with an overwash of Cherry Plum. I say "in the process" because I have to do major plaster repair first. Also, when I did a test wall with both the wall colors and trim color I really didn't like the trim color at all. I just found my color swatch a few days ago and discovered the color number for the swatch is 184 and the number on the paint pail is 174. I don't know if I'll be able to get them to replace the paint, since it was a couple of months ago.

Jody