spring is coming

The crocus are up and gracing our front bed.  How exciting.  Spring is coming soon.  And if you look to the right bottom flower, there's a bee pollinating.  Hooray.  Makes me happy.

nestling in

The last few weeks I have been preparing the gardens for dormancy.  Shifting plants from containers into their new homes in the regular gardens.  Cleaning out containers.  Transplanting items that need to be in bigger more spacious containers.  

Today I attended to the blueberry bushes.  They are an experiment of sorts.  I didn't spend much on them when I purchased them from a box store this past May.  Now they have been moved to new bigger homes (containers).  I added a few perennials that I picked up at the garden center for $1 each. Leontopodium Alpinum Edelweiss (see whisps of green in the top photo) and Iberis sempervirems "Snow Cone" Candy Tuff (below).

Then I nestling them in with pine cones, leaf litter and pine needles from our small forest in the backyard.  The containers are really lovely; gracing the long windows of our bedroom.

Now I am ready to nestle in for a quiet late fall nap.

Hairy Balls

Yup, that's right - hairy balls.  Not trying to be bawdy here.















A hort guy's genius name for this lovely flowering plant.

At the garden wholesaler, the plant label grabbed my attention, so I snapped it up and planted one in a container.

One month passed... two months... three months...

The plant grew taller and taller - but no hairy balls.  Patience was needed.  My curiosity peeked.

A few weeks ago, as I was watering I noticed  a few cascading petite flowers hanging from the 6ft stalks.  Waxy and very delicate, it was hard to imagine where the hairy balls would appear.

Gomphaocarpus is the genus name of the milk weed plant. (Wiki says.)  Indigenous to Africa.

Big surprise today...noticed green puffs with soft hairs... I could not resist touching them.  Hort guy's having a good laugh right now.


This plants towers over all of its companion plants in the container garden.  A misfit for containers, unless it was a very large container - like a Denver Botanic Gardens container.

Unexpected Late Summer Garden

I am delighted by the Pink and Purple palette of the outdoor southwest container garden.  That location is a misnomer as it doesn't get extreme sun.  Actually, it's a rather protected and mild micro-climate with 3-5 hours of sun.

The pinks and purples were not planned, but there was some serendipity in not selling some of these containers at my June farmers market foray.  It is really such a lovely space.

Looking back at the photos from June, I am pleasantly surprised by the lushness and texture.  It's a reminder that June's container gardens will less dramatic than September's.

These photos were taken Labor Day weekend, but now a few weeks, later the cleome and the dahlias continue to bloom without hesitation.

 

The sedum and the succulents are excellent garden mates. 

The aeonium is the star in this photo. (back center jade container with rosettes).  But the agastache smells sweetly and continues to attract bees.

Will they or Won't They?

I have two tomatoes planted in containers.  Right now the fruit is still green.  I planted them around July 4th.  Their labels suggest that they should be ripe now.  70 days to be precise.

Keeping my hopes up that the warmer weather coming this week will ripen them further.  Or it might be time to find some tasty green tomato recipes.

Hot Lips and Canna

In high school, I was lucky to have a handsome and charming friend who helped me pass the time in my German Conversation class.  I didn't enjoy speaking the language that much, but the banter with him made those classes go by quickly. He used to tell me that I looked like Loretta Swift, AKA Hot Lips on M*A*S*H.  I remember thinking -yuck!  She's not very cute... and she's old!  I probably wouldn't think the same thing now.

Hot Lips is also the common name of a annual salvia that I included in one of my giant containers. It has bloomed its head off this summer. A complete whim of a purchase, along with small red canna plants.  The happy accident is that I mixed them together - not knowing the canna would be in the same color family.  Voila!
 

Textures

I am loving my garden in all the fullness of the late summer.  I want to capture it all here, so I can look at the photos in the cold days of winter! when I am looking for inspiration for my 2015 garden!

 

Texture is what I am playing with in this trio.

Coral Bells, Ornamental Oregano, Sedge, Astrilbe and Euphorbia.