Red Red Rose

Today I planted another Morden rose bush, a second Morden Ruby. This one is in full bloom with numerous gorgeous red roses and has a lot of healthy leafy growth. I found it on sale last week and I couldn't resist it!  Even my husband thought it looked gorgeous!  The Morden roses are all hardy (zone 2 or 3) and were cultivated for our prairie climate. Most of them are disease resistant and they stay a relatively small size, ( about 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall.)

My Morden Blush rose bush, the first one that I planted in 2007, has flowers on it today! I find that so exciting to see the first roses pop open! They are a pale baby pink. My Morden Centennial rose has plenty of buds ready to open, too, which I'm looking forward to, but I'm disappointed in my Winnipeg Parks rose bush. Few buds so far!   I had to cut off a lot of the shasta daisies which were falling over and shading the rose bushes.  I think another shot of fertilizer might be helpful, too.

The Hansa rose bush that was already here next to the house when we moved in 4 years ago is doing tremendously well!

The columbines are doing so beautifully now, pink, yellow and white blossoms cover the plants. These plants will grow well in shady conditions. Columbines don't like to be moved once they are established, however. Columbines, like lupines, have a long tap root and they don't do well when they are dug up and moved.  The 'old' plant will look great for 3 or 4 years, but then they often die back so it is important to let some seeds reproduce new little columbine plants to replace the old ones that die back.

My 'Angel bed' is one of my favorite flower beds. The lupines are blooming excessively there this year and the monkshood (aconitum) and delphiniums have fat buds and are going to bloom soon, too. The pink Lavatara and the portulaca have both started to bloom now.  (Portulaca is like a tiny succulent cactus plant and I love the tiny double blossoms they get all summer long!)

Weeding Day

Yesterday was weeding day!  I'm ashamed to admit that there were an astronomical amount of weeds in the vegetable garden.  We usually put grass clippings in between the rows to keep down the weeds, but we had so many dandelions this year that we were reluctant to use that grass, so the weeds went wild!

We finally got another huge 900 pound bag of poplar mulch from the"Mulch People" but the weeds needed to be removed first. My helpful husband and I spent a considerable amount of time on our knees hoeing the chickweed at close range and removing as much of it as possible. It amazes me how resilient some weeds are! Even a tiny root of chickweed left behind in the soil and it will sprout up again!

It gave me a good chance to see up close how much some things have grown! The potatoes are growing well as well as the tomatoe plants and the spaghetti squash plants. The zucchinis are still very tiny and I don't know if they will amount to much. The rhubarb plants are HUGE!  I have made a pan of rhubarb squares, 2 rhubarb crisps, 3 strawberry rhubarb pies and today I made another pie, a rhubarb crumble which will be for dessert tomorrow when our friends come for dinner.  There is still loads of it left! Good thing I like rhubarb! I'm going to make some jam early next week.

We actually got our first red tomato off one of the plants and had our first feed of swiss chard and spinach in a salad at supper yesterday evening!

After weeding was done, I spread the pile of grass clippings around as many of the rows as I could and the whole vegetable garden looks so much neater now.  It's not completely weed free, there are still some around the strawberry plants, but over all it looks 98% better. 

Fat Buds

 As I do my daily tour of the garden, I am thrilled to see not only the plants that have burst into bloom but the ones with the fat buds. I love the anticipation, the suspense of waiting for them to open! It is much like the feeling a person gets just before Christmas when you know it's almost here and that you will soon get to open those presents stashed so lovingly under the tree....

What has fat buds and is about to bloom in my flower beds?
The peony closest to the house has HUGE buds!
Two of my four rose bushes, the Morden Centennial and Morden Blush!
The delphiniums
The dark purple lupines
The aconitum (Monkshood)
The lavatara annuals  (I love their pink cup-shaped blossoms!)

The pink sage and the white sage has started to bloom (the blue sages have been blooming for 3 weeks already!)  The pink perennial baby's breath has tiny buds and several of them have popped open to reveal miniature pink flowers.
The marmot continues to nibble on the gazanias in my rock garden, but so far leaves the ones in the lower flower beds alone.  I sprayed the Green Earth Animal repellent on them ( and on  many other flowers) in the hopes that it will deter the little 'So-and-so'!  Not sure if rain takes away the effect or not. Should check that out online, I guess....

What is trying to dominate:
The white shasta daisies, of course!  They are everywhere! They are quite beautiful but they have been spreading out and starting to shade the plants around them more and more. I have been cutting stalks of white daisy flowers regulary and filling up vases in the house, but it is time to get ruthless.

(My husband actually laughed when I said that to him... ("It's time for me to get ruthless with the daisies!"I said.)
"You?" he replied.

He knows me quite well and knows that I try to find a new home for most of the plants I dig out even if it's a shady location among the trees in the ravine next to our house. He knows that I scoop insects out of the dog water dish when I see them helplessly flailing about.  Well, I think every little act of kindness and thoughtfulness helps create a better world.  I even rescue the wasps and give them a second chance if they mistakenly find their way into our kitchen and I see them rattling against the window panes trying to escape...  My theory is that any thing I rescue is not going to come back to sting me or do any harm in my garden. I believe that 'what goes around, comes around', for the most part anyway...

So now maybe you have a better understand of why my husband laughed at that statement.
But I meant it in all seriousness and I usually follow through on whatever I commit to!

Besides, the daisies are making it difficult for my saponica (soap wart) to grow, (did I mention it has little pink flowers on it now, too?) as well as shading the roses, the nibbled gazanias and the pansies. (Did I mention they were blooming) And soon the daisies will be going to seed! Then if even merely 1 /100th of the daisy seeds grow, I am in BIG trouble next year, so removing more daisies is an absolute necessity and has to be done soon.

And THAT is no laughing matter.

Lupines, Columbines and Gaillardia

The lupines have started to bloom in my garden and so have the columbines! These perennials only bloom for about  4 weeks and it is really exciting to see their first blossoms of the season open!

My first columbine is a pretty pink and white variety. The flowers are 3 dimensional and remind me of underwater sea creatures for some reason.   I also have some yellow and white columbines and a pure white one. Some of them are growing in my wild flower bed at the far end of the yard, but this year with all the rain we have had, the grass has grown really tall in that bed and is trying to take over. It will have to be clipped or much of it removed, not a job I look forward to...

(One more thing to add to my 'To Do 'list, Lol!)  Yes, the war with the grass roots and the infernal dandelions never seems to cease!

Columbines (aqueligia) are easy to grow and the flowers also come in blue and a deep burgundy. They prefer some shade, but will tolerate full sun.  Butterflies are attracted to them. The plants get old after about 3 years and it's a good idea to let them seed themselves and start some young ones nearby, the same as lupines.

Lupines have interesting foliage and beautiful tall spikes on flowers in a variety of colors. The leaves are compound leaves with 5 to 7 long 'fingers' on them. The lupine of mine that is blooming is dark pink and the other one in the same bed seems to be purple (judging from the color of the buds so far.)

Lupines are short lived perennials. The plants only live 2 or 3 years and then stop coming up. That's why it's a good idea to let some of the lupine flowers go to seed. That way they will produce new little babies in close to the same spot as the 'old mama' and you will always have lupines. They have a long tap root that grows deep into the soil and so they do not like to be moved once established.  (And neither do columbines for that matter.)  Lupines are members of the pea family and they take nitrogen from the air and return it to the soil, making the soil richer (which is called 'fixing nitrogen').   They are poisonous to animals (sheep and cattle) if eaten in large quantities.

At this time of the year you will often find perennials on sale for a song!  I'm a sucker for a bargain and I bought 2 Robinsom red daisies (also called red painted daisies) and planted them in my wild flower bed. The leaves are very ferny and delicate looking. Not sure if they will actually bloom this summer or not, but as most gardeners, I have enough patience to wait till next year to see them bloom.

I went looking for a coreopsis today, but ended up coming home with a stunningly beautiful healthy Morden rose ( yes, another one!) with beautiful dark red blossoms on it.  I have no clue where I'm going to plant it yet, but my patient husband bought it anyway. (Patient gardeners need to have patient husbands... :)

I also bought a $2 Veronica which gets blue tufted flowers; "Almost free!" as my husband says.  If need be, I'll move some annuals to make room!  Realistically, who knows if they will even survive the winter and amount to anything, but I'm always willing to try.

Last year one of my new acquisitions was 3 blanket flowers (gaillardias) which look like short daisies with light green leaves. My favorite variety is called Arizona Sun and that's exactly what the flowers look like, yellowy red suns!  They also remind me of our orange 'Arizona cat' who we rescued from an abandoned home in Arizona 2 years ago. We named the cat Phoenix and he is the biggest cat that I have every had ( and I have had many over the years!)

Gaillardias are quite drought tolerant once established. That has been an attractive feature for any plant around my flower beds, up until this year at least. (This spring and early summer we have had more rain than most people in this area can even remember!)

 Gaillardias are very slow to make an appearance in the spring, though, so it is a good idea to put a plant marker there once they die back in the fall so you don't accidently dig them up.  The wait is well worth it!

annual gazanias, pink dianthus and gaillardia -Arizona sun 2009

Happy Summer 2010 & Clematis

second summer we were here, a General Sikorska, which gets large dark blue 3 1'2 inch flowers and a Ville de Lyon which has a bit smaller pink flowers.  The General Sikorska grew much faster and more prolific, and had far more blossoms than the Ville de Lyon, altho Ville's pink blossoms were gorgeous!    I thought it might have been because the General got a little more sun because of the trees nearby seemed to create more shade for Ville de Lyon, although they are both located in the same bed, up against the house on the south east side.  The Ville de Lyon only lived for 2 years and last summer it did not make an appearance at all.  What a disappointment!

General Sikorska in full bloom -2009

I went to PJ's Plantation (a local greenhouse) looking for a replacement and ended up with a Jackmanii. I 'ran into' a little old lady there who raved about her Ville de Lyon! It seems she has had it for many years and it outperformed all the rest.   But the greenhouse personal told me that Jackmanii is known to be hardy and grow well, so I thought that seemed like my best bet.  It had a couple of dark purple blossoms on it at the time, but nothing very impressive.  I planted Jackmanii in the same location as the Ville de Lyon had been in, up against the house facing south east.

General Sikorska on left, Jackmanii on right... early June 2010

This spring I was pleasantly surprised to see  the Jackmanii burst from the ground first and grow like gangbusters up the trellis! It beat the General Sikorska  coming out of the ground by 3 or 4 days and it is about 20 inches taller already than the top of the trellis!  But the General does have a lot more shoots and many more leaves on it now and I think it will also get a lot more blossoms in the end.

I am a sucker for a little plant that needs some TLC and this week I fell for that again. I found a small Alba Luxuriana clematis which is supposed to get 3 inch white flowers (eventually). It looks like it will do well once it gets established. It has a lot of tiny healthy looking leaves and a couple of new shoots on it. I planted it in the space between the General and Jack. I'm looking forward to the day, a few years from now, when all three plants will grow together in a profusion of leaves and stems with blue, white and purple blossoms intertwined! :)

The bad news for my tall "Jack-in-a beanstalk" clematis is that I read on Alba's tag that the first summer you should cut back the clematis to the second set of strong shoots.  So I am heading outside now with the scissors to do just that! The race goes to the strong, not to the swift Jackamanii!

Marmot Woes

Livingstone daises- gone! Gazanias', chomped, Pansies ignored! Calendulas- return visit! Is more Plantskydd going to help???

I'm pretty sure it's that cute, but hungry little Marmot and his mate who are eating the flowers that I planted in my rock garden (right up next to the deck railing).  I had planted some Gazanias there which had started blooming  and had lots of other fat buds, as well as some dark blue pansies and a pink Gaura.  I sprayed Plantskydd on most of them, but must have missed 2 gazanias. Those 2 gazanias were chomped down to twigs!  The rest were nibbled on.... The pansies and the Gaura were left alone.

Gazanias

marmot varmint


(There are some perennials there, too, clumps of white daisies in full bloom right now (nothing eats them!) and 2 large unpleasant smelling, but attractive looking Blue Sage plants, as well as a maltese cross, an echinacea coneflower and 2 liatrises. More on them later).

Blue Sage


I knew it wasn't a 'Deer Job" since they don't come up to the top of the rock garden that close to the deck. I dug out the 3 worst looking Gazanias and replaced them with new ones. I put the 3 little stumpy ones in pots on the picnic table. They are still alive, but will take a couple weeks to grow back if not longer. I'm hoping at the very least that they will grow in nice and bushy!

Pink Livingstone daisies at edge of flower bed


At the edge of the lower tier of that rock garden I planted some Livingstone Daisies, (low growing, fleshy-leaved pink daisies), some alyssum and some calendulas (yellow daisy-like annuals which bloom most of the summer if you deadhead them.)

I sprayed Plantskyyd on the calendulas as I know they are edible for people so I figured wildlife would probably like it, too.  I didn't spray the fleshy Livingstone daisies for 2 reasons: many animals don't like fleshy leaved plants so I thought they were safe (As they had been in previous years) and also I thought the spray might damage the plants. Big mistake!  Somebody ate the Livingstone daisies right down to the ground! Nothing left!

The calendulas were 'tasted' the first night.  The leaves were chewed off, but left lying on the ground like a challenge or something. I thought maybe that would be it, but no, never trust a hungry Marmot!  It came back 2 days later and chewed off all the leaves of all the calendulas, leaving just the buds on the stems. Then the next night, it chewed the buds off and left them lying on top of the soil like accusing eyes!  Yet, the sweet smelling alyssum was ignored completely.

Back to the greenhouse, I went! I decided to skip the Livingstone daisies this year as they seem to be far too popular around here. I  bought some fuzzy leaved rudbeckia called "Autumn colors" and more white alyssum. I left the munched calendula stems in place, thinking maybe they will get a second chance to grow....  I "plantskyyded" everything in that bed including 2 Mimulus and a Minuet Wigela shrub which is trying hard to make a comeback.  (I didn't spray the perennials there - the bearded irises, or day lilies, or shasta daisies or maltese cross.)

Rudbeckia

I checked that bed regularly the last 2 days and it hasn't been touched, but I'm wondering if the furry little fiends are just trying to lull me into a false sense of safety!   Waiting to catch me off guard. Sneaky, plotting  little beasts.
 Then" bam!" when I least expect it......  Am I starting to sound paranoid???  

Persian Cornflower, and More

persian cornflower perennial

These Persian Cornflowers are beautiful purpley blue perennials,which look much like blue Bachelor Buttons only bigger. They sometimes die right back to the ground in mid summer, so it is best to plant a lot of other things around them. 

Jacob's ladder

I really like the foliage, the lacy leaves of Jacob's Ladder. Jacob's ladder gets its name from the variegated leaves with white that resembles rungs on a ladder. The tall stems with little clumps of bluey purple bell shaped flowers at the top are quite pretty. Jacob's Ladder continues to bloom for quite a while, usually until end of July, especially if you cut off the spent flowers.  I doesn't like to dry out and actually prefers a location with not too much hot sun, much like the Monkshood.

Cactus dahlia and monkshood starting to bloom

The smallest clump of my 3 monkshood is blooming first! Monkshood are highly toxic, but only if the plants or seeds are eaten.  Monkshood plant also known by aconitum, turk's cap, friar's cap and wolf's bane.  It likes sunlight but will grow in shade as well. I used to have 2 big clumps of Monkshood on the north side of my house in northern Manitoba and they grew fine there. They bloomed about 2 weeks later than the one growing at the east side of the house.  

I love this gorgeous red cactus dahlia. It is blooming early this year! I have been growing this particular dahlia from tubers for 7 years now! Each fall I dig the tubers up and store them in a bag of peat moss in the laundry room until they start to sprout like potatoes in March. Then I plant them in a pot where they grow until it's warm enough to plant them out in the flower beds.  I have another identical twin to this plant in another bed but it took a bit of frost in late  May and has only tiny buds so far.  The third Dahlia is a fire colored cactus flower, (orange and yellow), quite dramatic when it blooms ( but no sign of that so far...)

 Rudbeckia

I love the look of this Rudbeckia also called black-eyed Susan. It's called Tiger Eye. I  bought it at a green house and planted it last week. I know that's like cheating, but you need some color in your garden at the start. Not sure if it's a perennial or not, but I'm going to enjoy it for this summer anyway. :)

Another bonus is that the deer don't like them and I hope that pesky, hungry little marmot doesn't either!

(More on him coming up!)