How about some photos of individual plants we like in the cottage garden? Zinnias grow well here in the hot summers of the midwest US.
Susan
Favorite Plants in the Cottage Garden
This pale pink foxglove blooms at the same time as the white Valerian. So far, I have not been very successful at getting the foxgloves to reseed and bloom each year. I tend to have to add a few new ones each year to keep them going, but think they are worth it.
Common Betony is an old fashion plant I have grown for many years.
I'm not familiar with betony. I like it! How tall does it grow?
Mrs Moon's Pulmonaria blooms very early and tolerates the dry part shade I have it in fairly well.
I think the type of Betony I grow is Stachys officinalis. It is from the same family as Lamb's Ear but does not spread so aggressively. Mine grows about 16" tall when in bloom. It blooms early in May , then can be cut back and will bloom again later. Foliage is only maybe 8" tall when not in bloom. The Romans used it to treat headaches and many other medical conditions, and in the Middle Ages it was thought to serve as protection against witchcraft.
This message was edited Nov 10, 2006 9:48 AM
Here is a close up of Valeriana officinalis, It is about 3-4" tall in bloom and blooms in May for me. It is an herb that is still used in sleeping aids today. I think it smell somewhat like vanilla.
You said the magic word - vanilla! Anything that smells like vanilla is instantly a favorite of mine. I love the Betony, too, and was not familiar with it. Will have to look into it.
Lincolnitess, you have some great looking plants there - looking forward to seeing more.
The scent is most noticable in the evenings. Not real strong, but just a pleasent scent that drifts across the garden. Here you can see the foliage of the Valerian along the fence line. The blooms are not fully open here. The foliage is maybe 18" tall after the flowering stalks are cut down. Stays a nice green the rest of the summer.
This message was edited Nov 10, 2006 10:02 AM
Lincolnites, Thanks for the info!
Gorgeous Susan. Love the Betony
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/102075/
You especially caught my attention with the comment that Mrs Moon's Pulmonaria likes dry shade as I have a woodland area I'd love to develop. Problem is of course, that there are so many tree roots the understory plantings are frequently dry.
I would say Mrs Moons just tolerates dry shade. It would be happier with more moisure. Sometimes in the summer it can look a little rough. I think I really have it in too much sun besides having lots of tree roots in the area. Golden Creeping Jenny is another plant that seems to do well in this location for me even though it is dry.
I grow lots of hybrid daylilies, but do have one of the species daylilies that was sent to me by a member of DG. It has the very simple form that fits well in a cottage garden and rebloomed for me this year better than most of my expensive daylilies. It is Hemerocallis middendorffii var. esculenta. The color just glows in the sunshine.
lincolnitess: I found seeds for the common betony at jl hudson (http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/SeedlistSI-SZ.htm), but they say it grows to 3', whereas you indicated yours is half that height. Do you think you have a special cultivar? I need relatively short plants in my garden. . . . .
Same thing with the valerian -- they say it grows to 3' to 5' (http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/SeedlistU-V.htm), but you indicate yours is very short.
This message was edited Nov 10, 2006 6:49 PM
That Valerian is beautiful, I wonder if it likes unbearably hot and humid weather.
One of my faves is Phlox. It is a real performer in my garden.
The Butterfly Ginger is a must...the smell is heavenly.
Justfurkids... Mrs Moon's Pulmonaria is a great plant! I have mine growing at the base of a limbed-up pine tree, only gets sun in the spring when the leaves are off the other trees across the street.
That's beautiful, what a pretty shade of blue.
Here is the same pine tree with the columbines blooming there hearts out.
Pink and blue are always a winning combo, very nice.
Mrs Moons is a definate add to my wishlist then. Thank you ladygardener1 and Lincolnitess. :-)
I am begining to amend the soil there in the woodland shade part of the property so I will try it. Susan, funny you should mention Creeping Jenny as I just bought some today - impulse purchase from HD as I stopped to get more seed starting soil for more daylilies. I also got 2 camelias.
I keep saying that's it no more till next spring, but more and more plants keep appearing. We may need to start a 12 step program for cottagegardenaholics. :-)
carol
my favorite in the butterfly garden
Lupine, I like the leaf shape as well as the flowers, I want to grow more of these.
Susan,
I love that picture of the zinnias all mounded up (the first one in the thread) It looks like the cover of a seed catalog! What kind are they? AND do they look like that all summer? Are you growing them on a hill or anything? I really like how they mound a LOT!
Ladygardener, I like the lupine a lot, too. I grew it one year, but the plants were four feet across the second year. They took up a lot of real estate! Now I have some miniature lupine seed, but I'm sure they aren't as cool as the big ones.
Everybody has such neat plants!
Suzy
My betony may be one of the cultivers. When I searched under the plant files, there are a number listed that looked close to mine. Possible that it is the Big Betony. It is listed as 12 to18" tall.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/137/index.html
The valerian is 3-4', not 3-4", but foliage is only about 18" after blooming is done.
The small zinnias in the to p photo are the Profusion ones. Really nice and don't require too much deadheading. You can buy them in 6 packs already blooming and they bloom until frost. If started from seeds, it may be mid summer before they start to bloom. The larger zinnias are the Dreamland Series. This was my first summer with them and they did great too, blooming all summer. They do need deadheaded since the flowers are larger. I bought seeds again for this summer.
Susan
Fly_girl, The heads on that Phlox are magnificent! I can only grow the ultra-mildew resistant, so I have my choice between white and a mauve-lavender. :( Yours is so pretty though.
Al, Your wife must like military men -- all the soldiers lined up in a row, facing the same direction. hahahaha When they clump up she'll really go nuts -- they face all directions except a wall or deep shade.
Susan, Thanks -- I bought Profusion Apricot this year. By the end of the summer I was really bored with it. It faded to sort of a buffy-apricot and never seemed to change -- just more flowers LOL! This year I bought Burpee Pinwheel (I think). Hopefully it won't take 1/2 the summer to get going! The things is, I bought the mixed pack, but what I want is yours -- where the color is on a gradient -- orange to pink to red. Well, the truth is, no matter how many seeds I have, no matter how many jugs I wintersow, no matter how many flats I sow, I will still turn up at the garden centers in spring like a homing pidgeon. Sick, isn't it? Parks has Magellan seed on sale now 35% off, but not the Dreamland series. Hmm, I wonder why that would be?
There is a little garden center-vegetable market here that sells the Dreamland-style zinnias in pots for $10.00. You get 6 Zinnias - one of each color in a single pot. As bad as that sounds, they are really nice looking, and have some decent size to them. Chump that I am, I've bought them before just to have something going at the end of April-beginning of May. They are dead by the end of June, probably because there are too many growing too close together.
I probably should bite the bullet and buy a pack of every color of the Dreamland series this spring. The seeds are so expensive, I've always held off, but I think they would give me great joy.
Suzy
Iq....lol homing pigeon....me too!
That phlox is very resistant, because I have mildew issues here too, I'll try to find out which one it is.
I thought those zinnias were mums....they are beautiful and so mounded, do they get mildew?
Lupines I wish I could have here, always love their look.
fly_girl, do you spray your phlox with anything to prevent mildew? I seem to have problems with most of them. Illoquin which ones do you grow that are super mildew resistant? This is about the only one that does well for me. Not sure of it's name. Lily is Leslie Woodriff.
ladygardener1, your lupine is lovely. I want to grow more of them too next summer.
Susan
Lilies are near the top of my favorite flower list. This is Trumpet Lily 'White Henryi'.
Lincolnitess,
The mildew resistant varieties are:
Phlox 'David' (white),
Phlox 'Robert Poore' (mauve-lavender, same color as your photo),
Phlox caroliniana (only comes in the same colors as David and Robert Poore.-- white & mauve-lavender)
I am on the look out for 'Natascha' -- it looks like it might be more like fly_girl's with the eye zone and all. I just love the scent of Phlox!
Suzy
The Profusion zinnia and Dreamland zinnias are both very mildew resistant. I avoid getting water on the foliage and they had very little by fall this year.
Here is Lilium henryi. It's a funny little lily I think.
Thanks Suzy. I think I tried David once and it did fairly well, but still got some mildew. I may try it again this summer. Cactus zinnias are also fun to grow, but not as compact.
I think Helenium have the cottage garden look too. I grew 4 types last summer. This one Flammendes Katchen was my favorite.
Those lilies are spectacular!
I don't spray, I spend most of my time watering and getting bugs off my butterfly weed.
I love zinnias for the butterflies they attract, I jsut wish they did better here, they are so cheery. That cactus zinnia is pretty, nice color.
Illo and lin, do you start most of your flowers from seeds?
I did start about half the Profusion zinnias from seed, but bought the Dreamland ones. This year I bought some Dreamland seeds. They are hybids, so not sure how they would do from seeds off this years plants. I'm planning on doing more winter sowing this winter and hopefully won't end up buying so much next spring.
Here is some monarda that I will need to divide next spring. Let me know if anyone wants some. I also like Purple cone flowers.
I don't grow very many roses, but do like the big cabbage flower blooms of Abraham Darby.
I've never figured out how these small buds open into such big flowers.
fly_girl,
I have an unusual circumstance - I grow about 800 named daffodils. I get a late start on annuals because of the 6-weeks they need to ripen their foliage. Because these are very rare &/or very expensive bulbs, I can't irrigate or water in the summer or they might rot.
For over 10 years, all I had was shredded hardwood bark mulch over them. Texas doesn't know what brown and flat truly is! LOL! Then I started throwing out 'Golden Guardian' marigold seed over the top of the plants in late April, and they are really, really pretty if you have a big area of them and want to give something absolutley no attention. (Like a vacant lot) I had that for maybe 5 years. Then I thought some blue Salvia 'Vicotria' would be pretty with the orange, and I've had that for the last couple years. The Salvia needs a little irrigation, but I think it will be okay for the bulbs. The Salvia self-sows and sometimes comes back from the mother plant. The marigolds will steamroll right over anything in their path, weeds or Savia, makes no difference to them, so I had to make sure I didn't sow the marigolds too close to the salvia.
The soil for the daffodils is really, really good...great, if I may brag. This past spring I decided I was going to put annuals and self sowing annuals over all the daffodils, but POPPIES were going to figure heavily into it. I was going to make a cottage garden.
The short answer is yes, I grow from seed, but no, not everything. Just things I can't buy from the garden center or can't afford in the quantities I need. I also grow a lot of Cosmos Bright Lights in front of my ultra-tall Trumpet Lilies. I love orange and white together. I also grow Sundial Hybrid portulaca over the tops of my miniature daffodils. That area has all been changed, too, but I have to admit I am *still* looking for a home to plant over 54 little baskets of miniature daffodils somewhere in my garden beds!
Lincolnitess -- BigCityAl has some great Helenium, too. I am convinced I need a red one with a dark center, but of couse I don't. I *need* things that bloom in May-June, but I am sooo easily sidetracked by a pretty face! Al says they don't sell well at the garden centers, at least in his area, or at least it's easy to find them on sale, which I thought was interesting. Did you know 'Leslie Woodriff' won Best of Show at the North American Lily Show this summer? The guy who grew it said it had 29 blooms on the stem! He had a great story about how he got that stem to the show with the flowers intact. (The stem would be 4 1/2-5 feet long)
Suzy
Suzy, Why not just divide the pot with the six plants in it? Or buy two or three, and plant the pinks together, and then the reds, the orange and so on. That sounds like a good deal to me. I bought Nicotiana that way this summer, HD called it a color bowl. They bloomed even after the first frost nip, unfortunately I didn't get a snapshot. I'm too impatient for seeds.
Lincolnitess - Lovely rose, and I'm not a rose person either. We have to move a climbing rose. Any idea when or how to do that?