A Visit To The Garden Center...

I find it is SO much better for my wallet if I avoid anyplace that sells plants. Especially the local garden center (overpriced, but very nice selection & good specimens).

Look at this beauty: Erin Rachel Hibiscus (Monrovia).




At $40 (an annual here) it stayed there & I'll enjoy the picture...




So Chloe picked out her garden chariot led by me and we were off to find some Muhly Grass (like the ones that FaireGarden has growing in beautiful washes of purple... See her blog post here).




There had just been a thunder storm through the area so we found puddles of water on lots of plants - especially in the pond section of the garden center...




I unfortunately did not find the grass I was looking for, but did find a table of really nice cone flowers...
(I love this pink orange color...)



Which I believe to be my favorite plant in my garden this year... ahhh...Cone Flowers!
(whitish coneflower - how wonderful! It's not pink, purple and green...)




Every year something catches my heart and just makes me so happy...
(I love the dark stem on this one! Vertically nice interest...)




It may have to do with how well they are doing in the garden...
(how sweet are those little petals and huge head?)



Or the colors, textures, & shapes...
(this picture does this orangy red no justice... it's delicious!)




I have always wanted globe thistle too (but ask myself - is it a mistake... I don't know this plant well enough - is it safe to put amongst the others?...)




So until they are planted, they sit here in my overgrown hosta bed... I like the height they add to the area. Maybe I'll add some of the "from seed cone flowers" (which there are a ton of this year) here and the new ones will go into where the deer tend go avoid them... Need to make this purchase worth wild and get more plants from these from the potential seeds.




Happy Tuesday Garden Party! It's Tuesday & I'm posting on time... See miracles (and teething babies up at 3am - my little Riley) do happen...

And Dave, I promise to not go to the garden center again until they are having a really good sale and I have these plants thriving and seeds abounding... (Chloe thought they were SO pretty and we just had to have them for our garden... And I did use my birthday garden gift card & monies - Thanks Krista & Teren!)

-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

Mosaic Monday June 27, 2010

I am going to attempt to contribute to Mosaic Mondays hosted by Little Red House...

I have always loved looking at all the contributors and their wonderful creations and themes that they focus on. 

These images were all taken by me with my Cannon point & shoot camera or my iPhone over the last few growing seasons... The Iris in the middle is my favorite picture this year so far - taken in late May 2010.

Thanks for stopping by!

What The Deer Have Left For Me...

These are what were to be cone flowers... (picture taken last week)


And there are already more potential blooms...


But I can't complain because the seed heads from previous years have given our garden a plethora of new cone flower plants...


And as I watered them all this morning I was noticing how there were areas that the deer go to time and time again, and other areas they avoid.



It could be a number of things:
1. They eat the ones that are easy to reach first (the ones towards the edges).



2. They don't like certain plants in the garden and the cone flowers protected by those plants are safer.

3. Totally coincidence and they were scared off by something before they got to them.

I will make sure to keep this in mind as I think about moving some plants around in the garden: barriers and feeding zones...

So here are some other pics I have snapped:



Beebalm...



A poppy plant... I spread poppy seeds every year and if they show up - I'm delighted!



Red Admiral butterfly on Milkweed.



I haven't seen these flowers in years (ID?) The deer usually devour them. Maybe the Cats Mint deterred them.



This red daylilly usually is a goner too, but managed to survive to bloom...



St. John's Wort...


Hydrangea... Amazing how a little extra watering make these gals plump those flower heads right up.



And a new area that I planted this year with Russian Blue Sage, Cone Flower, Hostas, and Nastursiums... Hopefully will help mask the huge retaining wall that holds up the side of our front lawn.



And of course, my little garden helper that "makes the flowers happy" by helping her mom water them. Even in PJ's after eating breakfast outside:
"Look mommy, the flowers are happy!!! And the hose got me wet... Oh well!"

- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

Pollination Week...

Right now it is Pollination Week (June 21 - 27, 2010) it occurs during the last week of June every year. See this website for more details...

I don't have many recent pictures of pollinators in my garden, so I pulled up some pictures from the last couple of summers...

I rather liked how the body on this Cabbage White Butterfly was still and the wings were moving...

Check out those pollen pocket filled legs baby... Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

And the skipper sucking out the nectar with its proboscis. 

The Monarch Butterfly on a Zinnea...

The close up of the Zinnea and its pollen anthers...

And the Skipper again...

I think it is SO cool to see how every flower is so different and how it rubs its pollen off onto the insects that land on it to feed (notice the white right above the skipper's head).

And our official State of Delaware Butterfly: the Yellow Tiger Swallowtail. I've seen a lot of these so far this year. They are pretty territorial too - with other Swallowtails, not just the Yellow ones...

Pollinators can be more than insects too - I just tend to take pictures of the insects on flowers because that is where my eye and camera tend to go. And for some reason now, I have the song from Grease (the movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John) stuck in my head... you know it: 

"Reproduction, Reproduction... Put your pollen tubes to work..." It's in there with all the character voices singing it too... Sorry if I got it stuck in your head now too...

And if I were really good, I would have posted this on Tuesday, but seeing as how it is Wednesday, almost Thursday, I better get it up there that this is my post for Garden Party Tuesday too!

June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day 2010

Tuesday June 15 happened to be a double blogging day, and I missed it (on vacation with hit and miss internet)...

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, June 2010

and

Tuesday Garden Party

Here are some pictures of my garden at home last week... 

Ah, the hydrangea have started to bloom... I love the soft colors of these! Have a lot of them for cut flower displays...

Can't remember the name for these. Like them, have spread their plethora of seeds... Pink and purple ones are around the garden adding vertical interest...

Hens and Chicks starting to spread... But I never have new plants, even after they do this and get lots of little flowers. Weird!

The lavender blooms are starting to open... I want to make some lavender wands (click here)...

This new-to-my-garden perennial has just rebloomed for a second round...

The new-to-my-garden Magnolia tree has blooms that are old now and some that are about to bloom...

The "floppy Iris" as I call them are just about finished...

The nastursiums are growing fast and are already putting out orange and yellow blooms! I have planted them in vast numbers this year for cascading effects on the various retaining walls we have...

Should be an interesting month of blooms... Lots still peeking up through the dirt!

-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

The Mysterious Iris Reveal

It has been three summers since I bought this Iris. On sale 50% off, past bloom time... No idea what the bloom looked like, but liked the texture of the plant.


So here is a series of peeks as it started to open...


I really liked this stage...


Those purple veins - quite insect wing-like...


And wha-la... A few days later, the floppy bloom...


I sure hope they grow on me. I think I was spoiled by the iris from next door, and the other ones in my garden. I think this has too much white for my taste...


But who knows - I may grow a bit and start to like them more...

-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

Plant ID Help Needed...

I try to maintain my garden & our almost acre of shallow woodland backyard in a way that helps the local flora & fauna. I pull invasive plants, limit exotic plants & plant for the creatures that live around here.

So I need some help and advice. If you can help ID some of these plants that are taking over the areas where the woods meet garden or grass. Really I want to pull them all out, but I am curious about them and their potential importance.

Here are pics I took this afternoon...








Above: young, no flowers until next year invasive garlic mustard plants (will pull!)







Above: I can't stand these ground vines, the way they lay roots and establish a new plant constantly...



Above: Wineberry: pinkish fuzzy sharp prickly stickers covering the stems of this one. Not nice (as Chloe would say).















Above: thought this was the mustard invasive plant. The seed heads are the same but the leafs are different shapes. Maybe the mature plants have varied shaped leafs...







This next one (the triangle-like one) seems pretty cool though and not quite as invasive as the other ones above...



Any help with ID would be greatly appreciated…
*August Update*
More invasives that I have discovered in and around my garden (while searching on the web for local resources through the National Wildlife Federation):
Japanese Stilt Grass
Japanese Barberry

Plant Invaders of Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas

-- Pictures Taken & Posted From My iPhone