Answers...

In a comment to my previous post, I was asked a few questions.  So, here are some answers:

Thank-you for your blog post! Your planter combos are gorgeous! Just a thought about your expensive pre-designed combo: when you consider the number of days its beauty will give you joy, its "cost per day" may not be so very expensive after all! What is the plant growing at the base of that pot? 

The plant growing at the base of my pot is chocolate mint.  I've had it for quite a few years and I love it!  It doesn't really taste that chocolate-y, but I enjoy picking a leaf or two to eat as I walk by.

And what kind of mulch do you use? 

My mulch is sold as "soil conditioner." It is small pieces of pine bark and when worked into the soil, it helps break up the clay a little.  I like using it as a mulch because the chunks are smaller than regular mulch and I think they look less "mulch-y."  It also breaks down a little faster and adds a healthy layer to the soil.

Your herb pot is gorgeous too! Do your herbs overwinter in that pot, or do you buy them new each spring (or start them from seeds)? 

I buy the herbs new each spring.  I plant Johnnies in the pot for winter and new herbs in the spring look much fresher than ones I have tried to overwinter.  It may not be as frugal, but it sure is pretty!

 Also, what is the diameter of your herb pot and how tall do the herbs in the back usually grow to?  (I'm trying to figure out how to do something similar with what I already have.) 

 The pot is about 20" in diameter and the basil is about 20" tall.

Is your tobacco plant poisonous to the touch, as in did you have to wear gloves to plant it? 

No, the tobacco plant is not poisonous to the touch; I didn't have to wear gloves.

Is the wall next to your herb pot fairly recent? I would love to see what you have in that bed.... 

The wall is a couple of years old.  It has a Buddleia planted in it.  And at the base of the Buddleia is Dianthus.  When the Buddleia blooms, I'll post pictures of it.

Have a beautiful day!

Today in the garden...

Well, look what my dear little chickies left for me today! There's an egg from each of them. I guess they like their new nesting boxes.



Today in the garden it is about 100 degrees. Way too hot. But next week should be cooler.


My Bat-faced Cuphea has really taken off. I read that it can be used in hanging baskets and I can see why. I like the way it looks with the Morning Glory vine and Cypress vine. The "dog" lived here before I did, so I let him stay on the deck. I am not sure what he is made of, but he is very heavy.



A few weeds are a good thing, right? At least the bumble bee thinks so.



My Salvia 'Black and Blue' doesn't seem to mind the heat. There were 2 small bees, maybe orchard bees, on the flowers as well as the large bumble bee. If you look closely, you can see the large bee and one small bee. Click on the picture for a larger view.



The Geranium 'Rozanne' looks so nice and cool in the shade. Very refreshing.



I can't believe that this butterfly let me get close enough to take this picture. Normally they don't like paparazzi. The blue on the Swallowtail's wings is just about the same color as the blooms of the Buddleia 'Blue Chip.'


Have a beautiful day!

Crown rot...

Normally I don't like to put depressing stuff on my blog, but sometimes there are just garden realities. And this is one of them. My Buddleia 'Lochinch' has succumbed to root rot. So today I had to dig it out. I also dug out the soil around it and then spread a couple layers of thin clear plastic over the area to solarize it to hopefully kill the fungus in the soil that causes the rot.



I wonder if this particular cultivar is more susceptible to root rot because a couple of year ago, another Buddleia 'Lochinich' also died from root rot, but I haven't had trouble with my other Buddleias. Or maybe these two just happened to each be in a place that didn't suit them.


Since it is sad to see dying plants, I will end on a prettier note. How about this Morning Glory on the deck railing? Not much phases it. And the kitties like to sleep under it.


Have a beautiful day!

Spider Flower and Butterfly Bush...

So, in the same Wanna-Be Hummingbird Garden bed that I wrote about yesterday, there is also a beautiful Buddleia. This Buddleia is 'Lochinch,' and it is one that I grew and loved in California. Its leaves are more grayish than the 'Nanho Blues' that I have.




Unfortunately, I think this particular bush is succumbing to crown rot, so I am not very happy about that. But, while I still have it, it is lovely. I enjoy looking over the edge of the deck down into it.



Spider Flowers and Morning Glories have reseeded near it, too, and I think they make such a pretty color combination.




Yesterday, just after the hummingbird that I didn't get a picture of flew away, another creature showed up and I was able to get a picture of it. In fact, I've read that sometimes this insect, the Clearwing Moth, is mistaken for a hummingbird.


Have a beautiful day!

Erigeron, etc....

So, this past week-end we went down to Atlanta to visit friends and when we got home, I discovered that my garden had taken the opportunity of my absence to get a little carried away. I think it should have asked my permission first, but, no. Plants just started blooming on their own, without my supervision. How audacious.




This Erigeron (I'll have to find the plant tag to remember the rest of its name) doesn't bloom for long and it looks a little raggedy, but I like it. Not front of the border stuff, but I'll keep it. (I looked it up; it's Erigeron 'Prosperity.')




My 'Moonbeam' Coreopsis - I guess it should be Coreposis 'Moonbeam,' but I always say it backwards. O.K., so technically Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam' - anyhow - has started its cheerful blooms. It's kinda funny: in California, I could not get this Coreopsis to grow and now here in my North Carolina garden, it is the only Coreopsis with which I have had success.




Beautiful blue Bachelor's Buttons are blooming. How's that for alliteration? They reseeded themselves from last year. Hooray for reseeding annuals. Well, except for the weedy ones.




My primary clue that things had gotten a little out of hand while I was gone was when I looked out of the office window and saw the first Buddleia flowers. This Nanho Blue bush grows right outside the window. And if you read somewhere that it grows to 4 feet tall, uh, don't plan on that. Mine are at least 6 feet tall.


Have a beautiful day!

Pruning Buddleias...

Today some of my Buddleia's received my attention. I had already pruned a few of my bushes, but I finished the rest of them today. They are starting to put out lots of new growth, so it is time to get them pruned so they can put their effort into producing leaves and branches that won't get cut off. And so they can make lots of flowers for everyone to enjoy. Last year, I purposely underplanted this bush with bulbs and sedum, so when it got pruned it wouldn't look so pathetic underneath it. I think my plan worked.

{Buddleja davidii var. nanhoensis 'Nanho Blue'}

Tiger likes to sleep in the dappled shade that the Buddleias make, so, of course, he was under one of the bushes I started to prune. As I worked on that bush, he moved under a different bush. But, poor little guy, I had to prune that one, too. I saved some of the large branches and "made" a bush for him to take his naps under until the real bushes fill out again. (Please don't tell me you haven't, at some point, done something a little inane for your pets.)




I actually had another motive in saving Buddleia branches: they are filled with Praying Mantis egg cases. So, not only am I doing Tiger a favor (and he probably won't even go sleep under my fake bush now), I am helping to perpetuate the Praying Mantis population of my garden. I did put other branches with egg cases in several different places because the Praying Mantises will eat each other, as well as all kinds of other insects.


Have a beautiful day!

Snowy vignettes...

Today is cold and dark and drizzly. It is the kind of day that makes me think that winter will last FOREVER. Even the snow doesn’t seem very pretty, only frozen and dreary.

{Vinca minor}

Yesterday, though, in the sun, the snow appeared much more cheerful. My little hummingbird wind chime stood out in all the white. A couple of years ago, I decided it needed more color, so I added the glass beads. I did have it adorning a pot, but I redid the pot and it has been in the ground for months now. It hangs on small shepherd's crook sort of thing.



Now here is a cozy way to spend the winter, completely oblivious to all that is going on while waiting (and waiting and waiting) for spring to come. I have lots of them all over the garden. If you don't know what this is, leave a comment for me and I will tell you in a comment, so be sure to check back.

{Buddleja davidii var. nanhoensis 'Nanho Blue'}

Of course, you knew I would put in a photo of my ever-joyful Johnnies. The snow and chilly temperatures don't bother them a bit. Oh, that I could feel the same way.

{Viola tricolor}

Apparently, Tiger likes Johnnies as well as I do. Maybe for a different reason, though.


Have a beautiful day!

Coming up...

Not too long after we moved here, I bought tulip bulbs and daffodil bulbs. I had read that the moles will eat the tulip bulbs, but not the daffodils and that if you plant tulip bulbs inside a ring of daffodils, it will deter the moles. So I tried it. I created an oblong circle of red tulips surrounded by two types of daffodils. That spring we had pretty red tulips and cheerful yellow daffodils. The next year, some tulip plants came up, but didn't bloom and the daffodils came up and did bloom. Then the next year, of course, no tulips. Not because of moles but because these tulips don't naturalize. By this time, I wasn't maintaining that area, so grass grew back over it. Every spring, the daffodils come up through the grass and every spring I tell myself that I will dig up the daffodils and put them in a true flower bed amongst my perennials. And every spring the daffodils come up yet again through the grass. Well, maybe this is the year I actually will get them dug up and put where I want them.





As pathetic as my peony bed looks, red leaf buds are starting to form. This is another set of plants that need to be dug up and spread around. I would like to have my peonies scattered among my perennials and not in just one area as they are now. There is a story behind my peonies, too, but I will share it another time.




These daffodils were on the property when we moved, just in a different location. I put them here under a buddlea last year with a sedum ground cover so there will be something interesting when the buddlea has been cut back.




Poor hyacinth. It got stepped on before I realized that it had come up. I hope it will forgive me and continue to produce a beautiful pink fragrant bloom.




You might notice the sunflower seeds among my irises. Right after it snowed several weeks ago, I threw sunflower seeds out in the snow for the birds. I guess the birds didn't find them.


Have a beautiful day!

Colors of Winter...

It is too cold to write. It is too cold to take pictures. But I am forging ahead any way. (I was just informed that if I was a sculptor, I could forge a head.) I braved the freezing temperatures and the frigid wind and ventured out to capture the colors of winter.

{Buddleja davidii var. nanhoensis 'Nanho Blue'}

I think of winter as being a grey, colorless time of year. Except for my Johnnies, of course. But the past few days, I have been noticing subtle colors.

{Hydrangea macrophylla}

These are definitely not the bold, dashing colors of summer. Or even the sweet, enchanting colors of spring. They are wise, subdued colors, beckoning closer inspection.

{Gaultheria procumbens ‘Red Baron,’}

The leaves of the Creeping Jenny trailing over the edge of an abandoned birdbath have bronzed.

{Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea'}

Shifting shadow patterns have sun-burned the camellia's leaves.

{Camellia}

One lone periwinkle bloom hangs on despite the cold.

{Vinca minor}

The underside of the leaves of one of my coral bells shows an astonishing purple.

{Heuchera}

Sunlight glows through the new leaves of one of my pitcher plants.

{Sarracenia}

Delight! Oh, delight! I was thrilled to discover a bud forming for a bloom to come in spring.


Have a beautiful day!