#5 Indian Chief
My garden's a tight space...
#6 Another NOID
# Whatever - a purple ruffled NOID
# Whatever 2 -- My only JI to bloom this year was this Silver Edge, which is much prettier in real life.
Beautiful irises, beautiful friends... what more could I ask for? I'm just quickly checking in at 5:30 am my time. Catch y'all later. Diane, is your address in the thingie?
xxxxxx, Carrie
Yes, I'm in the thingie. You are too funny for 5:30 am.
What would you like in return? You might as well tell me the truth, or I'll send you some poor sad thing off the discard cart at Lowe's--and I'm sure you don't want those!!
More ordinary blue irises? Anything in the red-coral-apricot-orange range for my "Coral Garden"? Mini tazetta type daffodils? You prolly don't have those down South. Whatever... I'm too tired too care. Whatcha got? Just got a sunburn! It was too hot to wear clothes so Tania and I gardened in my underwear, She wore clothes. But now I have a burn on top of my thighs! Darn. Not Dahlias and not DL.
xxxxx, Carrie
Diane, You will be in my thoughts and prayers. Not that you usually aren't. I'm so glad that there are options for you but I know that, in the short run, you have challenges ahead of you.
Your iris are beautiful. I'm not enough of an expert to tell if the names really go along with the flowers but aren't iris wonderful? They fill the early spring when nothing else is blooming. Then the daylilies and roses and here, the dahlias after that. It's nice to have color all of the time.
Golden Tiara grows like a weed. It's an amazing hosta in that you can have a string of it in no time of you divide it regularly. I don't know much else about hostas as I haven't really grown any other but a few and I don't know the names of those.
Boy if you have to be dumb in order to plant something where it isn't the right size then --- Well, I just keep having to move things. I don't know if it's wishful thinking or not. Some things just get bigger than I thought. And figuring out how big a hosta is going to get is beyond me - I figure I'm in the ball Park. I also tend to plant too much of everything. That gets me in a lot of trouble although I'm trying to do better.
Dorothie
Diane,
I managed to get a PCA to take your coreopsis to the post office this afternoon, not really thinking that it was the Friday before a five day weekend!!!! Oh well. I cut all the top off, I think, or was that someone else's hardy geranium. I think the coreopsis will be flowering inside the box... We shook most of the dirt off the roots, wrapped them in damp paper towels, put that inside a baggie and taped it shut. Tania, my other PCA from the Dominican Republic, is learning so fast! But I forgot to mention that we should put something to fill up the space in the boxes! So it may arrive worse for wear... next Thursday. Is Monday a holiday? Or just Tuesday? I really am not the brightest bulb in the deck. You shouldn't worry about sending me anything until much, much later, months after July 10th. Unless you want to pop a little of your 'Stained Glass' in a tiny box and send it to me before your surgery...
Listen you two, my pain is manageable 90% of the time. The part about saying "DON'T TOUCH ME" was when we had a new governor who changed the Medicaid formulary without actually asking too many doctors. That was only for two or three weeks, until my neurologist wrote a letter to Medicaid. Otherwise, I'm usually only in pain if I forget to take my meds on time. So quit with the pity party, OK? Above, on June 29 at 9:30 pm, I was up late, forgot my afternoon meds, no nap, I was more explaining than complaining.
xxxxx, Carrie
Hey! Where's the party? I didn't know that we were having one!!! LOL
How sweet of you to send the plants to Diane, Carrie. I haven't been able to get myself together to send anything to anyone in a long time. Sure seems like a lot of fun. I have a daylily that I can send you Diane but when can I ship it to you? I can't do it until Wednesday - that's the 5th and I guess I can send it then but you wouldn't get it until Monday. I think that it should be OK. I know Carrie doesn't want daylilies - but maybe you do. You'll have to send me dmail with your address though.
And Carrie, I do have some antique unnamed blue iris if you want them. The problem is that everything has been divided or is new within just the last year. I've done a big revamp. Same address thing. I'm not in the address exchange as I don't take plants back because of California's laws. I just send plants to people when I like them. :-)
Carrie--Not to worry. I don't know if you sent the box Priority Mail or not, but if you did that mail moves over the weekends. Monday is not a holiday--at least not here--just Tuesday. I'll let you know when they come. You are so quick to send them!!
I have lots of Oregon iris, an oldie but a goodie, or so I am told. See picture taken their first year with my old camera. They are more purple than blue. Would that be OK?
I don't have anything in the red-orange-coral-apricot range except daylilies and dahlias, except for some new irises that haven't bloomed yet and since my name tags got all mixed up by my helper, I have absolutely no idea what anything is.
My Stained Glass is tiny because it's brand new, but I do have a new baby Guacamole and I have a Fragrant Dream I could part with. They are not part of the group that I forgot to clean my tools on, so as far as I know they would not be contaminated. See pictures.
This is the new Guacamole plant I just received not too long ago. I just found a little baby coming up alongside this one, so moved it over to its own spot, but don't have any pictures of it yet.
Editing to say I did not say the correct thing above. This is one of the hostas I purchased last summer/fall that wintered over in my big pots up against the brick wall and surrounded by a thick layer of leaves and pine straw. That's why it had time to make a little baby. Sorry. My brain is just as old as the rest of me.
This message was edited Jul 1, 2006 12:56 AM
This is my Stained Glass, sweet little thing that it is. I'll be glad to share that one with you when it gets bigger.
And this is the Fragrant Dream, the larger of the two I have.
I've never heard of those daffodils, so that must be a Yankee plant. LOL
I just remembered that I have some red dianthus and some fuschia ones. Do you like those?
These are the fuschia dianthus mixed with yellow lantana. I could send you some of that, too.
And here are the red ones.
OK, that's all the pix for now, Carrie. If you don't see anything you like, we'll keep going until you do.
I am so sorry about your sunburn!! I have very fair skin and have been sunburned so many times in my life that I now have skin problems. I know that you are very uncomfortable. That's what you get for showing off your sexy undies for the neighbors!!
Dorothie--My Golden Tiara took quite a while to get going, but it's really going now. From what you said, perhaps I should think about moving some of it this fall. I love it. It was my first named hosta. That little list I sent above was just meant to say that I have those ones that you have. Bad grammar, I know, but we're among friends here.
Since I will be out of commission starting on Monday the 10th, I think it would be better to wait to send the daylily. If you can tell me how tall it will be and what color, I'd really appreciate it. Maybe I can finally start out with one in the right place!!! My helpers are going to be moving daylilies around for me and I'll make sure to save it a spot. Actually, the more I'm thinking about it, I could have them make a spot for it and they could plant it when it gets here, whenever that is!! I'd love to have it and appreciate you wanting to share.
I picked my first dinnerplate dahlia today, the Babylon Red. I have been taking pictures of the bud as it opened, and today was the day to pick it. So I put that one, some Red Pygmy dahlias and some dark red and gold daylilies in a pretty vase and took it upstairs to my daughter. I forgot to measure the size of the flower, so will have to do that tomorrow. It's really pretty, if I do say so myself. OK, OK, since you asked, here is its last picture.
OK, one more picture. This is the fig tree that I want to put hostas under. You can kind of see where the sunny side is and where I would be putting them. I think it would be beautiful with some of those little golden ones to fill in, and I have lime-colored Creeping Jenny that can do shade or sun. This picture is making everything look very light. The dark green grass at the back of the picture just looks white. To the left of the picture the plants you can see bits of are a little patch of Lance Leaf Coreposis, some coleus that you can't even really see, and some irises that will be moved. To the right are a couple of stakes trying desperately to hold up the last of those Shasta daisies. The shade really is much darker than what it looks like here. I must have been facing the wrong direction or wrong time of day.
OK, I promise this is the last one. This was taken in 2003 and you can see how little the fig tree was. I have now joined the two beds together and the fig tree has grown to cover the whole area. The azaleas had finished blooming and I had cut them to the ground to get rid of all the dead wood. It sure looks different now.
Editing just to say that I am finally sleepy enough that I'm going to bed. So.....'nitey nite.
Diane
This message was edited Jul 1, 2006 2:07 AM
This is Heavenly Splendor. It is 28" flower is 5" EM EXT RE SEV 29 BUDS TET
And this is Beauty for a Day. 24" tall 3.5" flower EM EXT(that means extended bloom) RE SEV 27 BUDs TET
If you don't want either of them I'll understand. They are 2004 intros so they may be single fans. I haven't looked yet.
Just let me know when you want them. I'll pot them up if I need to move them. No problem.
This message was edited Jun 30, 2006 11:25 PM
You mean I get to choose? I love the Heavenly Splendor with that rich dark color. How exciting!!! I'll actually have a daylily I know the name for. LOL.
Forgot to tell you that in that last photo if you picture it in your mind, my helpers and I added good top soil and a fancy brick retaining wall, cleaned out some stuff and started adding Oriental lilies. The old azaleas have grown back and are quite lovely each spring.
Thank you so much for the daylily. I'll let you know when the boys are ready for it.
I don't NOT want DL, we have a whole wall of them to make my XH jealous, Not really, it's just that HD was dumping a whole bunch of Stella d'Oros for 75% off or something. So we started with a whole row of those and then got sick of yellow AND the long stretch between the first time they bloom and the second, so we started filling in with every different kind of DL we could find, and then last summer my DH finished the path and I no longer needed to plow through the DLs to get to the path, so the last few went in there. Were we satisfied? Of course not! Then I started trading, bartering, etc. even eBaying to find more tall things with similar foliage that would blend in until the time came to make their move. Now it has unbearded iris, crocosmia, transcendentia (i think) and early mid and late DL, "winter-hardy glads", I just don't have anything named except the Stella d'Oros.
Diane, I would be delighted to offer a few of your dianthus a home away from home if the Yankee accents wouldn't bother them too much. They're both so pretty! Whichever is easier for you...
xxxxx, Carrie
And it was the kind of sunburn where while you're out in it, your skin is all red and blotchy, but when you come inside you turn pale again. A sunburn in name only. This is how hot it was when we went to Puerto Rico - my dear overprotective husband decided NOT to have fried tourist (a local speciality).
Diane, your garden is just beautiful and I can see the potential there. The fig tree and the pines make the place seem so exotic to me. You know we don't have pines in our yards here. And if we do we are crazy. Just let me know and I will send the daylily. It's not going anywhere.
Carrie - you are just too fair to be lying on a beach anywhere! Me too. If you do want daylilies you are next on my list. Sorry I misunderstood. I'm so glad that you mentioned crocosmia. I have a red one blooming right now and wanted to get some more but couldn't remember what it was. I've started a master garden list now with all of the plants in the garden in case I forget. I'm thinking clearly enough to be able to do that now, anyway. It sounds as if you are getting some wonderful mixtures in your perennial garden. I do know how daylilies can 'eat' a path though. And the dark ones leave stains on your hands and clothes if you get too close to them!
My oldest daughter is here for a few days. She going flying with DH today and they are planning on having lunch in Sonoma at the restaurant next to the airport. Kind of a fun day together. She said that she came here to rest but she's not one to really enjoy hanging around when there is fun stuff to be done. I'm so glad that they are going.
So I have a quiet day at home alone which I relish. There is almost always someone here and it's rare that it's just me. What a treat!
Dorothie
Dorothie-
In my case, it was the electric WC creating a path between 2 DL before RRCarrie was finished. He calls it Rural Route Carrie, I call it the Path of Love and Devotion. If you send me a DL, be prepared for it to become a NOID. LOL.
xxxxx,
Carrie
OK - I'll be prepared. :-)
Carrie--I love the picture of you on the beach. You look so relaxed and comfortable. Your husband truly is a jewel. How blessed you are, even with all else you deal with.
How is your sunburn feeling today? I hate the part where it starts to itch but it still hurts too much to scratch.
I'll explain to the dianthus that things will be a little different for a while, but I think they are pretty tough. Maybe I can find a CD that sounds like a Yankee to play for them. LOL. I will send you some that have seeds forming, and you will have more next year. I know the fuschia ones have seeds on them, but I can't remember if the red ones do or not. Dianthus is absolutely one of my favorite border plants. I want to get some of every color available. Another addiction!! I'll get them out on Monday if I can and you should get them by Wednesday. Would you like some yellow lantana also?
Dorothie--Thank you for your nice comments. I do love our yard, but I am going to show you a picture that will help you understand why I am frustrated at all I can't do. The fig tree is in the center rear and you can see the Star Gazer lilies opening next to my lovely stained glass bench. I don't know why the birdbath looks so tilted. I must have been tilted, because it sits straight. Just behind the birdbath is a 4 ft tall "miniature" rose that is covered almost year-round with yellow flowers in masses, but you can't see it very well.
What we have in the very embarrasing foreground is a forest of irises and torch lilies that are finished for the year, alternating with daylilies that are almost finished for the year
and over-running everything else is mint and weeds. It's just a jungle. I can't sit down in that area to pull weeds because everything is so close together and I can't bend over enough to pull all those weeds.
The shepherds' hooks hold birdfeeders year-round and I alternate the h'bird solution with regular bird seed (all safflower seed here because the squirrels won't eat it) and hang the h'bird ones in different places. Under the eaves of the house are bird feeders with the regular wild bird seed mix because the squirrels can't reach those.
The second picture is looking from the back of the house, past more of the jungle and over the blueberries toward the opposite corner of the yard. Back there is a bed of ferns and some hostas and some azaleas. It's a big yard, but not fancy like yours.
I'm falling asleep sitting here so will talk to both of you tomorrow.
Love you both,
Diane
#2 described above, taken last year in July.
Isn't it funny how miniature roses are really full size rose bushes with tiny roses. At least most of them are. I finally found some short ones for the perennial garden. Iris foliage is very difficult to deal with. I'm trying some clematis Rooguchi to crawl in among the beds but it's new so I don't now how it will do. I do have butterfly bushes and dahlias planted in back of them and I do have a few in the perennial garden but not too many. Older daylily foliage isn't the best either. Pirl cuts it to about 2" after flowering and says that it keeps things neater. I'm afraid that I can't be that severe.
I'm so sorry to hear that you have mint run amok. that is really a problem. Worse than almost anything to get rid if you even can.
With those tall pines and the lovely lawn, it's a thing of beauty whatever you do with it. I think that you will have a good time with the hostas.
What is a 'stained glass bench'? I'm not seeing it I don't think. It must be very special.
Carrie, I have the older blue iris but they are mixed in with white ones and I don't know which are which. Do you want them? I'd be happy to send you quite a few if you'd like them.
Had a lovely day and went into the garden many times for short periods. One thing that I do love about the daylilies is that they change through the day so that each visit to the garden is different. It keeps me going back again and again.
Hope that you've all had sweet dreams.
Dorothie
Yes, I agree, also annuals change throughout the day. Yes, I'd love some lantana and/or blue and/or white irises. Is lantana perennial in my zone? (she wonders?) Diane, I know how hard mint is to erradicate. I've spent years of my life pulling it up!
I adore spearmint. I've always loved spearmint. I love cooking with it, adding it to tea and lemonade, putting it in bouquets. But either it takes over wherever I plant it or it dies in a pot. (Maybe I'm not using big enough pots?) Last year I must have been in a trance or something because I inadvertantly planted lemon balm. Did I not know it was a mint? Did someone send it to me? I now have an entire lemon balm bed, with new settlements as far as 10 - 15 feet away!
But Diane, I hope you hear what Doss and I are saying. Those pines in the background are so dramatic! We don't have any trees that tall around here. To me it looks like Maine did when I was a kid and my father dragged us up for vacations with my grandmother. I guess it wouldn't be as much fun for you, but even a mass planting would be quite effective. Unless, maybe down there, EVERYONE has that dramatic of a yard?? Re: the dianthus, just read them the Bill of Rights to get them adjusted. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.
xxxxx, Carrie
Can you dmail me your address, Carrie? Then I can send the iris.
That one "mini" rose is the only one I've had that has gotten so large. All the others have stayed small. This year I lost a bunch of the ones I had purchased in the fall and wintered over. They looked great all winter, all green and pretty, and as soon as winter was over they did a crash and burn. I have very few of them left. First time that's ever happened. That's my sad story for this year!! LOL
When we tilled the ground for the main garden (the one you've been seeing pix of), there was a mint plant. I dug it up and then we tilled. Well guess what? There was some mint I missed and I've been dealing with it for six years spread all over the place. At some point I read that mint adds good amino acids or something beneficial to the soil, so I don't pull it up until it is in my way or gets out of hand, like it is now. No one has pulled it out for nearly a year and it's making me crazy. Usually I don't mind it because I keep it under control.
I found my helpers at church this morning, just back from Scout Camp, and two of them are going to come and start tomorrow. I will give them a list and walk through it all with them and then they can just work on it whenever they want to. I don't want them to think it all has to be done in one day.
I'm just so glad they are back!!
I'll add a picture of my bench. My daughters gave it to me for a combination birthday gift and Mothers' Day gift a couple of years ago. It is concrete with the lovely stained glass design on the top. I love it. I have surrounded it with things that smell good: lavendar, thyme, Star Gazer lilies, and one particular daylily that smells good.
The tall pines are Carolina Pines and they are everywhere. They are messy, dropping cones and branches all year, and are a good source for free pine straw for mulch. They handle storms better than most other trees. From the air they are a beautiful green carpet. From down here, they are a mess of bare branches that will soon be on your lawn, as only the tops stay beautiful. The squirrels eat the cones and then drop the seeds here and there, so little teeny pine trees come up all over the place. They do add something to the ambience of a yard overall, and ours have ivy climbing up most of them, which I love. The squirrels run and play and squabble all over all the trees and I love watching them. Many, many birds nest in them and in the ivy. So they earn their keep, I guess.
I don't know about the lantana wintering over. It disappears here in the winter and comes right back in the spring. I'll send it and if it doesn't come back in the spring, I'll send some more. I'll need your address, too. Want some mint? teeheehee
Since my garden is such a mess this year, I think I will cut back daylilies, as we dig them up, and cut back the iris as we clean their area. I've got to get a handle on this whole thing. I know that by next year, it will look much better. Things will be arranged more appropriately. I can't wait!!
Talk to you tomorrow. The heat index is going to be over 100 again tomorrow, so we won't be out there for long. Maybe they can come back in the evening when it cools down some.
Diane, you weren't kidding. A read stained glass bench. And it's so very beautiful! And how clever to plant aromatic plants around it.
It seems as if the pines are a mixed blessing. People are nuts to plant them here. They have very short lives and cost thousands of dollars to take down and are always messy as you say. I have three redwood trees which are really beautiful but the drop things all of the time. Luckily there isn't too much under the trees. I'm going to try and put some hostas up there from the coop and see if I can make it a small 'surprise' garden at the top of the stairs under the trees. There are some holly leafed ferns and a couple of camellias there. And I've lived in this house for 35 years and I just noticed that there is an oak-leafed hydrangea sitting in the dark and it's actually got a big flower on it! I can't believe that I've never seen it before. I did get the sprinkler system working better this year though.
So I'll wait on the daylily. If you want it this fall, just let me know. July and August aren't a good time to ship them anyway and many people wait until fall to ship. The fans are larger then too as they've had the whole summer to grow.
I'm sorry that you lost your miniatures. Losing plants is always so discouraging. I lost hosta 'Illicit Affaire' this past winter and I didn't like it at all. Although I've only lost two daylilies ever. They are hard to kill.
When we tilled the garden last we ended up with calla lilies everywhere. That was kind of fun and we've got them reorganized but I've given so many away. Thank goodness that there were people who wanted them.
Hopefully by the time you read this you will have slept well.
Dorothie
Good Morning Dave's Garden!
It's a beautiful morning. DH is once again sacrificing his back for the good of the garden - he's mixing mortar and laying picturesque concrete 'stones' for a retaining waqll around my 'Coral Garden'.. Hey, ladies, I know you both, as I, have pet nemes for different parts of the yard. We have the "Wall Garden", 'Daylily Row', the "Coral Garden", and so on. Out back and up front are more self-explanatory. Do you think there is a tasteful way to put up permanent signs for visitors/helpers? We have several signs that say: WELCOME TO MY GARDEN!!! i'd rather say 'coral garden' or 'wall garden'.
xxxxxx,
Carrie
Diane,
What can you tell me about hollyhock 'peaches and dreams'? I see you reviewed in PlantFiles.... As you can see from this link, I haven't learned much yet.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/621639/
xxxxxx,
Carrie
Dear Carrie,
While your DH is mixing concrete, perhaps you can get some scrap tile material and make a paver (there are also kits for this) that says the name of the garden. Or you can paint it on a rock. There are companies that do special plaques but they are fairly expensive, and there are companies who sell kits to make bricks that come with alphabet stamps. I like the idea of the rock the best. One other idea would be to put a cute bird house on a post and either write the name of the garden on the birdhouse or put it on a sign nailed to the post. You could use a stencil for the letters. I love this idea
http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/
If none of those work for you, just let me know and I'll put on my thinking hat some more.
Dear Doss,
I like painting it on a rock, or stenciling it on a rock or rather a "rock". That sounds like just the right size project for Emma. She needs a home project, and she has always considered herself artistic. She is moving in with my mother this fall, to go to a better school, and it breaks my heart every time she wants to go to a friend's house because she won't be seeing them anymore!
Diane, if your mint is spearmint, I actually would like a bit! This time I'm going to try a patio container size pot. I *think* I already sent you coreopsis.
xxxxx, Carrie
Carrie--
I am sending fuschia dianthus, red dianthus, yellow lantana, a baby Hosta Guacamole, and I will add some mint. I really have no idea which it is, so if this is the wrong one, just pass it on.
Got to run. By the time I have it appropriately packaged, the post office will be closing. Hope I'm not forgetting anything.
Diane
Oh thank you Diane. And all I sent you was coreopsis....
xxxxxx, Carrie