A Fall Favorite: Tricyrtis Hirta

Every year at the end of October, we host a huge party. Our garden is packed with kids and adults and pizza and pumpkins. I always spend the first few weeks of the month stressing about the state of my garden -- filling in the holes, deadheading, raking, mulching -- only to find again and again that no one really notices. Not the children trampling the perennials to hide in the shrubs nor the adults cutting through the lilies to get to the bar.

This year will be different. I will straighten things up but I will not purchase new plants. Most importantly, I will rope off the garden with stakes and Christmas lights so I don't go insane from the foot traffic in the garden beds.

Here is one of my fall faves:


My toad lily (tricyrtis hirta) was a welcomed surprise last week. I had given up on it -- it dried up last fall, turned brown, and was gone by October. This year I saw some foliage but never expected much. What a pleasant surprise!


Now while it won't win any awards for it's size and health, I am just thrilled that the wetter weather agreed with it. My plan is to leave it here for another year, pay closer attention to it's moisture, and check on it again next October.

Stay tuned this week for more of my fall favorites!

August Garden Blogger's Bloom Day

Thank you Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting GBBD! Please visit her website and check out all the wonderful gardens!

I dreaded going out to the garden this morning knowing that I would find few post-worthy blooms. And yet, when I took the time to overlook the drooping hydrangeas and brown patches, I found some gorgeous flowers.

My favorite flower right now is this mystery hosta that I got from my mother. It is intensely fragrant and seems to be the hummingbirds' favorite as well. I have them planted all over since they tolerate sun fairly well but have most of them outside the kitchen window by the patio. Since we've had cool weather recently (what a blessing) and the windows have been open, the kitchen is filled with their wonderful perfume.






Here's a rundown of the August bloom action ...

My mystery sunflower -- it stands about 6' tall with multiple blooms on each stalk

The phlox is still hanging in there.

The scarlet runner bean won't stop! It's incredible!

My garden stalwarts -- what would I do in August without these little soldiers?

The blue haze by the patio is actually this caryopteris "Longwood Blue" which I love, as do the butterflies and hummingbirds.

Mandevilla climbing up a birdfeeder pole.

Melanpodium

The weeds are growing nicely.

Sedem Autumn Joy

Is this Costa Rican Salvia? It's been here a few years and I've forgotten what kind it is ...

Wild, unruly campanula -- it lives in the alley since it can't behave itself.

The glads are still going strong, this one is just starting to open. They are just lovely.

Where's My Plant Mojo?

Hard to believe, but I've been avoiding the garden. With the remarkable exceptions of today of yesterday (beautiful temperatures and low humidity), August has been the typical hot and humid. The city of Richmond has begun voluntary water restrictions and the river is low and mucky. Our favorite kayaking spots are drying up.

Instead of spending time in the dry yet mosquito-y backyard, I've been busy with knitting and food, only stepping into the garden to water the most vulnerable and harvest seeds.


The Knitting -- see details here. That's the lovely Kindness Girl as my model!


The Food -- besides all the canning we've been doing, I've been making delicious chocolate ice cream with cream and eggs fresh from the farm


The Seeds -- I wish I knew this sunflower variety, maybe Velvet Queen?

Now, with some cooler days, I'm back in the garden, trying to clean things up a bit and looking for my plant mojo. I know it's around here somewhere ...

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - July 2008

It's my first Bloom Day post! In my enthusiasm, I photographed every living thing in the garden. Then I had to cull. Here are the blooms that bring me joy right now. This is how I'm "praying with my eyes" and with my nose in regards to the jasmine and lilies!

I've been received some intense aromatherapy from the white oriental lilies and the jasmine by the patio. The late evening perfume is delicate yet powerfully affecting.

I found a little zinnia poking out of the crocosmia -- when will the crocosmia bloom? Must I wait much longer?

This Pentas was one of the plants I bought when blueberry picking to fill in spots after my manic culling of the ugly. I wonder if it will survive the winter since I'm not technically a zone 8, but some zone 8s winter over for me. It will be interesting to see what happens since I like having it here.




I find playing with the whites and greens so soothing in the mid-summer Virginia garden. When temps rise to over 95 degrees, the variegated foliage of the yucca and the simple whites of the phlox and the hydrangea paniculata are like a tall glass of limeade.

Before we left for our trip, I threw some old Scarlet Runner Bean seeds in the alley by the gate. They are running for sure now! Over the spent astilbe, the roses with black spot, and the struggling clematis. I'm going to do this every year, the spots of red are a nice focal point all the way in the back of the garden.

Rosie is growing these cosmos in her garden. As with the runner beans, these are old seeds from the basement fridge. What an incredible orange color.

The giant rudbeckia are a good 5 feet tall. No staking needed yet. I can't wait for the goldfinches to start flocking.

The globe thistle is fading, but it is still one of my favorite garden plants. Gorgeous in the garden and in flower arrangements, it's worth the staking. Thanks for visiting and hope you enjoy the pictures!

Mid-Summer Mania in the Garden

I love returning from a trip ready to incorporate new discoveries into my daily life. After this trip, I brought home: a newfound love for cultured milk, cloudberries, and black currants; a determination that our family needs to camp more often; and the will to overcome my dislike of hardboiled eggs. I also returned with a more objective perspective on the garden.

The most arresting outcome of this new perspective is that I am actually making changes. I am removing the ugly from the garden. Old scraggly mums ripped up. Blackberry lilies that had naturalized to the wrong places torn out. And the native daylilies banished to the alley.


I am taking back prime real estate. I tucked some perennials and some annuals into the spaces that opened up and I'm just thrilled with the changes.



Why is it that I wasn't ready to act during October, November, or February? Why am I full of executive energy now that it's the worst time to transplant?* I should be simply weeding, watering, and deadheading.

And to top it all off, I've decided to transplant ... hydrangeas. Hmm. Now let me see, prudent? I think not. (However, I felt a bit vindicated after reading Susan Harris' admission that she also will give in to the urge to transplant during mid-summer.)

Here are the hydrangeas in the spot where they get full sun (they didn't when I planted them, but a neighbor cut down some trees and now, sun).

One has been moved (I'm watering it often with a soaker hose) and the rest will go soon.

The spot will become full of native wildflowers and grasses. I'm combing through the book Wildflower Gardens and hope to have something spectacular here next year -- full of mid-summer beauty, bees, and butterflies. Maybe something good will come out of my mania ...

*Full Disclosure: I was transplanting then. I just never stopped. I can't stop. I'm always moving things, ripping out, tucking in ...

I Take What I Can Get

I know it's been a while since my last post -- and I'll admit there hasn't been a lot of gardening here. I've been content with some watering, weeding, and deadheading early in the day and surveying the garden for likes and dislikes in the evening. The rest of my time has been spent finishing up the school year with the kids, completing some knitting projects, and preparing for our family trip to Norway next weekend.

The garden is in a lull right now. The purples and pinks and whites of spring have given way to varying shades and textures of green and lots of yellow. I try to avoid yellow (it makes the summer garden feel hotter to me), but many of the flowers that do well in our hot, sticky summers are yellow or orange. Hopefully, in a few weeks my Costa Rican salvias, Oriental lilies and Russian sage will be providing some respite to the incessant yellow.

I do have a non-yellow spot in the garden -- the hydrangeas. Now, I am not a big fan of the blue. I like a pink or purple hydrangea. In previous years I've added lime to the soil around them in order to get them to tend away from blue but to no avail. One year, when I added lime throughout the summer, I was able to get some purple. When do I add it? How much? I could never quite figure it out and so this year, I did nothing. And look ...

Macrophylla Buttons N Bows

The blooms start off white pink,...

move to pinky/purple,...



then settle on blue.

I'll take it. I'm not sure if my pictures capture the pretty variations of color, but I quite like them.

Spring Fever

These days after I wake up and throw on some clothes, it's time to grab the dog and head out to the garden to see what new exciting things have popped up overnight.




I arrive at school to pick up my children late with catkins and inchworms stuck in my hair and mud patches on my jeans. My hands are always dirty.


I wander the patio before bed to get one last sniff of the lilacs before I sleep and I'm up by 6:30am to see if more blooms have emerged since sunrise.



I have big and little jars of flowers all over the house and everything is covered with yellow pollen dust since I refuse to close the windows. The heat will be here before we know it and I want to enjoy the air while it is pleasant.

I love spring.

The Early March Garden

Pretty things in the early March garden ...