• Garden maintenance - Our Garden - Plant problems

    Pink Simplicity Roses doing better this year

    July 15, 2008 - By 

    After seeking input last year on getting my Pink Simplicity roses to bloom better, I decided to do two things this year: Give them a lot more water. I’ve been putting a soaker hose on them for an hour or two once a week, sometimes skipping a week, but trying for once a week. I’ve been doing this since early April, when they first began leafing out. I also opened up some drip emitters that I had shut off before, because I had thought back then that they were getting too much water. This advice to give more water came…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Lavateras in the backyard are doing GREAT

    July 10, 2008 - By 

    These pink flowers are Lavatera tauricensis (see an earlier post with info about the name being in doubt). I transplanted them to this backyard flowerbed in spring 2007, I think. Now that they’re established, they’ve grown well and are flowering like crazy. I love this plant, because it keeps flowering all summer long, even when it’s producing seeds. I’ve given away a lot of these seeds, but people seem to have quite a bit of trouble getting them to germinate. I’ve done it before, but it did take some work and patience.

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Other stuff blooming recently

    July 8, 2008 - By 

    Siberian Iris and Dianthus grationapolitanus, both from June. This Dianthus is a very small and slow to grow. I’ve lost a bunch of them and only have a few left. Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue.’ The salvia is awesome and will rebloom repeatedly when cut back. The geranium probably needs to be moved to full sun, because it’s leggy and weak in the shady spot I have it in. ‘Pink Simplicity’ rose and Dianthus deltoides ‘Brilliancy.’ The dianthus is doing quite well — I have perhaps 10 of these. I will write another post about the roses,…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    Fourth of July rose fest at my house

    July 8, 2008 - By 

    One of the things I love about my Ruby Meidiland roses is that they bloom profusely right around the Fourth of July. They make a nice foreground to the flag that hangs on my house behind them. You can’t see the flag in this photo, because it was taken on June 29th, but the blooms are still there this week and it looked really cool with the flag. You can also see my front flowerbed here, which is growing nicely after all the rearranging I did last fall. Here’s a closer shot of the rose blooms.

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    A cool blue Larkspur

    July 7, 2008 - By 

    Just look at this Larkspur — doesn’t it seem to have an iridescent shine to you? And it’s so BLUE! It’s tough to find real blues in flowers. I admit this looks just a little more purple in real life, but this photo was not “photoshopped” or adjusted in any way (besides resizing). It does have an intense blue color in the garden. These are offspring several generations after having the ‘Rocket’ variety of Larkspur in a wildflower mix in my backyard. I can’t be certain that they’re still ‘Rocket’ since some plants along the way could have been cross-pollinated…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    ‘Ville de Lyon’ Clematis

    July 7, 2008 - By 

    My ‘Ville de Lyon’ Clematis has now been in the ground for four years, and it’s true that they are slow to establish. The one on the other side of the arbor finally died all the way this year. Previously, it was only “mostly dead” (wasn’t that a line from The Princess Bride?). But this one is doing quite well! I was worried for a while that it wasn’t competing with the birch tree roots very well, but it seems to have found its niche in this spot. This photo was taken on June 22nd, and it flowered pretty much…

  • Great plants - Our Garden

    ‘Nearly Wild’ rose

    July 7, 2008 - By 

    This is Rosa ‘Nearly Wild’ – a very cool small rose that I planted up among my aspen trees. This one is only about 18″ tall, and it’s been in the ground for two years now. These photos were taken on June 22nd, when it was in full bloom. Its blooms have faded now, but I believe there will be more waves of them soon.

  • Our Garden - Propagation

    Rooting willow cuttings

    July 7, 2008 - By 

    When I pruned my Blue Arctic Willow this spring, I took some of the branches and stuck them in a bucket of water. They root very easily. I have asked a few neighbors if they want some of these starts, but no takers so far. I think they’re a cool shrub. I’ll plant several of them along my back fence line soon, although it may not be a good time to do that with all the heat we’re having now.