Next: allium caeruleum!
http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS217US218&q=allium+caeruleum
Donna
Finally, blooms in my garden!
pgt and lovetropics - Beautiful gardens! I love the color schemes.
My own garden has a similar look to pgt's right now. I even have salvia blooming right behind some 'Johnson's Blue' cranesbill, just like in the first photo. Here's a photo (not a great one) of the garden in bloom today. It'll be more yellow/purple/pink/white later as the rudbeckia, echinaceas, and phlox paniculata start to bloom. I didn't plan it this way--it just worked out when I started choosing the plants and colors that I liked and putting them in the ground last spring. :)
Next year I'd love to build another bed across the walk from this one with complimentary color scheme. I really like the combo of blues and oranges with some white highlights.
pgt.....I love your flower beds and I am in love with your fence.......Makes a nice back drop to all the beautiful flowers and plants.....just lovely.
Paul from Alabama
Pretty flower bed KaylyRed, may I ask what the bright blue flowers in back are? and the tall purple stalks in the backround? May Night salivia?
Paul from Alabama.....
Pam, I like your blues, and I like Donna's alliums, too, they are on my (really really long) list.
The bright blue flowers are Delphinium x belladonna 'Bellamosum' (I think. I'm pretty sure they're not the 'Magic Fountains Mix' they were labeled as when I bought them--I think a tag got switched.) The tall purple stalks are salvia. I lost the tag and I'm not certain of the variety, alas. They could be 'May Night,' though.
Paul,
Thanks for your compliments. Lucky for me, the fence came with the house. I really like it too. It's called a shadow box fence, and looks good from both sides. It's pretty old, and I like the way it turned gray with age.
Kay,
Your garden is really pretty. I bought a hummingbird feeder for mine that looks just like yours at home depot. It looks like there are a few of us who have very similar taste.
Great gardens, everybody. Lovetropics, those must all be desert flowers, I'm not familiar with them. Great colors! I love the blue wall.
Pam, you're a natural born gardener! Hard to believe you're a beginner. Your art background (and lovetropic's too) really comes into play in your gardens. That's the one thing I don't have, an eye for what goes well with what. I love the idea of Lady's Mantle for the front. Your garden is simply beautiful.
Karly, your garden alongside your house is lovely.
Pam
I found a good pictire of white Japanese anemones in the fall, to give you an idea of their impact. This is in September. They stay in bloom for weeks. This is anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'. It isn't pink, but September Charm and Alice are. There is also verbena bonarienses, salvia cocinea snow nymph and double petunias, among others. The latter are grown from seed. Gardenong need not be expensive. They also bloom through the fall.
Donna
And like you, Pam, I like color echoes. I just don't bring the skill to it that you do.
Donna
My start was in grasses, and then everything else led from there. I love things that bloom in the fall. I once read that if you plan your garden around fall, you will always have something nice. It took me years to figure it out. You're already there.
Donna
Beautiful, Donna!
Donna, your gardens are beautiful! What are the pink cup-like flowers in the second picture? So very, very pretty and natural looking.
Gosh!! All the pictures on this thread are all so beautiful. Please keep posting more pictures everyone.
Kaylyred--I have same trellises that you have. We must think alike!
Carrie and Staceysmom, you're sweet. I've been at it for ten years. That's what makes Pam's achievement so remarkable. I realized that if you are going to talk to people about garden design you need to give them a frame of reference by showing them what your taste (and biases) are.
Staceysmom the pink flower is a platycodon (balloonflower) but in an unusual color - 'perlemutter' or mother of pearl. I found it in a JL Hudson seed catalog. It is pink but with a darker pink thread in it. I've never seen it in a garden center. Talk about a non-maintenance plant! Once established, it is permanent, because it's very taprooted. And if the rabbits get confused and bit off the tips, it regenerates! I have it in the pink you see, white and also blue. I like to create an "echo" by repeating the same plant in different colors in different parts of the yard.
Donna
Donna,
Can you tell me how long the balloon flower blooms? Does it bloom early, mid or late summer or all summer? Also, does it spread much?
Thanks,
Sherry
I have a LOT of balloon flowers in blue - mine spread slowly, although I deadhead them pretty regularly to prolong blooming. I find even the emerging foliage (now) to be attractive. I'm sure if I assisted them more they would spread more. They bloom for I'd say a month, all of a sudden I can't remember! But for us, it's quite an event when they bloom - we have a tiny little city lot, with one of this and one of that, and my DH comes home one day with oh ... 25 balloon flowers that he got for half price at Home Depot! They're a border! to a walkway! Way too tall for a border, if you ask me, but he didn't, he just planted them. Ahh. . . love. :-)
Donna, your gardens are beautiful! I love the backdrop of ornamental grasses. Some day I'll have a big island bed with room for a look like that. It's gorgeous.
carrie,
Ahh...love...you're too funny!
How tall do your balloon flowers get? I bet your walkway is so pretty..
Sherry
18" 2 ft? But they're right up against the path, and occasionally one will fall onto the path and get "popped"! If I can ever find a picture of them blooming, I'll post it - it's pretty spectacular. The other 11 months of the year we have a very drab ranch with a tiny tiny garden.
Carrie
Yes, post the picture if you find it. I'll try to think of something that blooms a long time and will make a short border. Oh yeah, seems like I'm always looking for that same plant. LOL And even a tiny garden can be very beautiful! ;o)
Sherry
Sherry,
If you deadhead balloonflowers (which you can do by removing the upper section of the stem - it isn't necessary to but off each individual "balloon") they will start blooming in July and continue into October. Mind you, it took me years to figure it out. But mine don't spread!
Donna
Donna, I have a JL Hudson seed catalog on the way. I have to get me some of those perlemutter platycodons. I really like their soft pink color. I will have to also get me some of the white. Thanks for the info.
Hehe...here's that salvia and 'Johnson's Blue' I was talking about. I'm a goof, but I was just amused by how similar it looked to pgt's first post. (Well, duh! They're the same plants.) *rolls her eyes at herself*
Donna, beautiful grasses. And your I love your salvia/jb geranium combo (wink). What's the pretty pink geranium next to the blue? I think I may need to add some of that to my garden. I also really like your anenomes. I've got to stop buying plants, though. My husband is going to kill me when we get our credit card bill. And, you're wrong - you are a VERY skilled gardener. Your gardens are just gorgeous.
Thank you, EVERYONE, for your compliments on my garden. It really makes me feel good.
Took another picture today. Same garden, just a few more blooms than the last pic I took.
Oh, Pam, VERY pretty!
Carrie
Pgt - The pink geranium is...I don't know. I have guessed that it's plain ol' G. sanguineum. It's a bit more compact than the 'Johnson's Blue,' in my opinion. JB gets a bit leggy on me and I always end up cutting it back a good bit after the first bloom.
Here's a link to what I think the pink stuff is.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/199/
By the way, I love that last photo--so pretty and plush. I love a beautifully filled in garden like yours. Mine's not there yet.
Is that scabiosa (closest to the camera)? And are the short guys in the front blue clips campenula? My blue clips (in another bed) are doing nothing at all. The foliage is barely an inch tall, and they haven't spread one bit. I'm a little disappointed with them. Yours look so nice! (If that's actually what they are.)
And those foxglove are to die for. Gah! I gotta get me some foxglove. Makes me feel like moving some of the stuff in my front bed around and putting foxglove next to my delphiniums and going for a packed-in cottage garden look.
This forum is delightfully bad for me. All these beautiful gardens make me want to head to the nursery and go shoppin'!
Kayly,
Yes, that is scabiosa closest to the camera.
And, I cheated. The short guys in front are lobelia (an annual).
I so glad you said "cottage garden", that was the look I was going for when I planted the garden. But sometimes I think it looks too contrived to be be a cottage garden.
Thanks again for the compliments.
Pam.
I love the pink & blue combinations. Gorgeous!
Karly,
By the way, almost all of my ornamental grasses came from Milaegers in Racine - a 45 mile drive, but worth it! They were doing a "buy 12 grasses, get 6 free, buy 6 grasses, get 3 free, buy 3 grasses, get one free". It reduced the price per quite large grasses to $2.50 each. I don't know where you are relative to them (Wisconsin is a BIG STATE) but if you can go there, you'll love it. The plants are worlds better than those I can get in Illinois, and less expensive.
Donna
I really do have to check out Millaeger's. I hear about it, but so far haven't taken the time to drive there. It's about an hour drive for me. We have a nursery here that's practically in my backyard (well, it's 3 miles or so away, but who's counting?) and that's my home away from home. Ebert's is my favorite place to be in all the world. But their prices are a bit higher than some of the other places I've visited. Still, their plant quality is second to none, and I save gas. ;)
Another great greenhouse on the north side of Milwaukee is Minor's. It's in a somewhat iffy neighborhood (not the worst, but not the best, either), but their prices are very good and their plant selection is nice. But I imagine that would be a stretch for you all the way from Grayslake.
Karly,
Thank you for the garden references. Actually, we consider Milwaukee to be a hop, skip and a jump from us. We always fly out of Milwaukee's fabulous airport, avoiding O'Hare. We've been to lots of Milwaukee Bucks games (shhh!) and we saw Steely Dan and others at Summerfest.
Pam, that last picture is just outrageous. You have to be one of the most talented and inspiring gardeners whose work I've seen. Look at the responses you're getting and the ideas people are sharing. It's this forum at its best.
And using annuals isn't cheating! It allows you to change your palette from year to year. Sometimes I'm not sure what the predominant color will be, because of the relative success of the annuals. Some years are predominately pink, some blues, and some purple. Fun!
Please keep posting pictures everyone!
Donna
I've been following this thread -- lovely gardens! -- and am popping in to ask Donna about Milaegers. Looked in Go Gardening and couldn't find it there. Maybe I somehow missed it, but if it's not listed it would be great if you could add the entry and review it. Sounds like a great resource.
Also, I agree with you completely about Milwaukee airport. It's a gem.
Donna:
I love that picture with the grasses as a back drop... My heart is tender when it comes to ornamental grass.
All of the pictures are just beautiful. you all have such a natural eye for placement of your plants... Just so nice for everyone to post.
I sure enjoy seeing what others are up to.
thanks for sharing
Janet
HI Wickerparker,
I think Milaegers may be in the wrong place. It used to be mail order. Tell me what you think:
http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/430/
Donna
pgt.....lovely border.....I liked the pinks, purples and blues....liked the foxgloves, the salivas, liked'em all.......
People been telling me forever, why don't you grow 'Johnson's Blue' geraniums?....I give up, after seeing you folks the way you got'em in your gardens, I'm going to be the proud owner of 'Johnson's Blue' geraniums......:)
I'm just beginning to understand now what it is this enabling ya'll always talking about.................:)
Paul from Alabama
Thanks, Paul.
I've also heard that Jolly Bee and Rozanne are nice Geraniums that are similar in color to Johnson's Blue. I've heard that they don't get as leggy, and bloom for a longer period of time. I don't have any personal experience with them, but you might ask around to see what those who have tried the different kinds like the best. I didn't do much research - I just bought the first blue geranium I saw from an online catalog that had cheap bareroot plants last spring. But, I must say, so far, I love my Johnson's Blues. They barely bloomed at all last year b/c they were so young. But I love the airy look that they have this year. Good luck Paul. Sorry to be an enabler!
Ah, I see, Donna. And your review there is really thorough and helpful. I guess it is in the wrong place, though, if they're not doing mailorder any more.