Why don’t we walk around a little and see what’s going on in the garden? The Thunbergia Grandiflora is looking good this year. It’s really covering this 20’ section of wall well and should be filled with blooms before very long. I hope it’s going to be breath taking.
I think one of the reasons it’s spreading so well is because Jamie and I got permission from our neighbor to place this fencing on the back of her privacy fence. It gave something for the vine to hold on to and enabled us to fan it out nicely. Next year we will need to divide this plant more than likely.
We have a couple of first blooms in our garden right now. ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is giving us our very first bloom ever. It’s planted on a split rail fence in the front yard between 2 ‘Veilchenblau’ we thought the pink and purple would look good together when they bloom in the spring.
One of our Banana trees is giving us our first bloom too. We have tiny little bananas about 1 inch long. Every time a new petal opens more bananas are exposed.
The Susans are looking good. We will be dividing these in the fall, they have hole in them that needs to be filled so we’ll just move them over a little.
Jamie had decided he wanted black berry lilies in fall of last year. We’ve purchased two since that time. This one is ‘Hello Yellow’. I’ve fallen in love with these little flowers and I want to fill the new bed with them and Candy Lilies. If you happen to run across cultivars of these lilies feel free to email me the name of them so we know what to look for in catalogs and online.
‘Sound of Silence’ is rewarding us with blooms again.
All three of the Pee Gee hydrangea standards are filling with blooms. They’re going to need re-shaping after they bloom.
By far one of my favorites in the garden is this Black and Blue Salvia. The humming birds just absolutely love this plant. Last night swarms of little birds were fighting and fussing with each other over which one would drink its nectar.
I think we’ve decided on the new shrubs to replace the mums this fall. I’ll be telling you more about that at a later date. Thanks for all you ideas and the plants we chose did come from your suggestions. Hope everyone has a good week and I’ll be visiting you soon.
21 comments:
Love the vine!!!!!! Everything looks so beautiful around there!! Can't wait to see what shrubs you chose!!
That vine is going to knock you out when it begins to bloom. It was nice of your neighbor to let you attach the suports to the back side of their fence. They will benefit when the vine its blooms are peeking over the top of the fence. I hope you have a good week too.
All the pictures are lovely. Love the daylilies and the salvia. I'll put that on my list of annual salvia to try next summer. The blackberry lily is pretty. Had one years ago and lost it somehow.
Marnie
Does the fence give you more privacy? You could do that all around the garden!
It all looks wonderful, Randy. The black and blue salvia has more flowers than any I have ever seen. The birds fighting over it must be quite the sight too. You and Jamie have accomplished so much. Sitting back and doing maintenance only? There are always changes to be made, if not gigantic earth moving projects. Your rose trio sounds heavenly. Hello yellow is sublime. Ours are all just variations without names. Would you like some seeds? They grow very easily from a fall planting right into the bed. :-)
Frances
Your garden is lush looking. Irrigation is working well.
Every thing in your garden is looking so nice. Love the bed of Susans - so cheerful looking. Your hard work preparing the beds has really paid off.
What a lovely shot of Zephirine. You know, I have never seen a banana flower before. That is lovely too.
'Sound of Silence' just got put on my want list.
Your Susans and Blue Sage look wonderful.
I will not have a garden without Black N' Blue, it is a true garden work horse. I hope your Zephrin does better than mine. I got it because of its shade tolerance, but the number and frequency of blooms has been a big let down.
Lisa,
That was very nice of our neighbor to let us do that. She keeps telling us when we run out of space we can start on her yard. I told he she better be careful how she jokes about stuff like that because she may come home and find us digging up her back yard one day. LOL
Marnie,
I hate that the salvia can’t be a perennial in your area! I think you’ll love the scent of the foliage! I do.
Frances,
I find that if you snip off the spent spikes on the salvia it really makes a difference in the blooms for some reason. I need to get out there and do it again. Frances we would love some of you seeds! The direct sew is about all I’m good at and even then it’s 50/50 with my luck. I don’t know why I’m so terrible with seeds.
Mother Nature good to see you again, most of this growth is from all the rain we’ve had lately. :-)
Jan,
I love the Susans too, but I would really like some taller ones too. Any suggestions?
Sweetbay,
This is the first time I’ve seen a banana bloom in person. It’s a beautiful color, don’t you think?
Les,
I hope you check back in and read this because I didn’t see an email link on your page. I’m going to let you in on a little secret about roses that I learned a few year ago, the rest of you listen up too. One of my elderly patients taught me this; she bred champions and had over 600 rose bushes at one point in her life. Early this fall find someone that has a fire place and ask them to bag up the ash for you, the powdery stuff not the left over chunks of things. Put it around your Roses (pretty heavily) and dig it in a little and you will have incredible blooms. Now don’t expect immediate results, by the following fall you will start to notice a difference and the next spring your blooms will be incredible. I did this one year before I gave up on hybrids and spring one year later after doing it I had eight inch blooms on most all my roses. I had never seen anything like it and they just kept giving me flowers after the initial flush. I found this works well with other blooming plants too. Don’t do it every year though because the ash does contain small amounts of salt. Also, mixing three Tbls. of active yeast to two gallons of warm water per plant and pouring it around roses is suppose to encourage them to re-bloom too. It has something to do with the yeast aerating the root system that causes them to re-bloom. It’s just been too many years for me to remember the details. :-)--Randy
Wow, everything looks so great. but don't worry, you'll find aother large project for yourself somewhere down the line. My absolute favorite bloom is the banana--awesome!
Your garden is so lovely. All of your hard work has surely paid off and is most evident. Can't wait to see what you chose!
Monica,
That banana bloom is a pretty colore isn't it? I'm sure we'll find a new project or several. :-)
Tina,
Thank you. I'm really pleased with the way things have/are turning out.--Randy
Wow! Your garden is beautiful!
Your garden is so full and colorful and happy-looking Randy, but this line is too funny:
"I told Jamie one by one we are slowly completing the really large projects and within the next year or two our garden will just simply be a matter of maintenance."
If you really do ever get to that point can't imagine you being happy with maintaining a done garden....you'll probably move and start over ;-]
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
You all have such nice flowers and well manicured beds! It looks great; keep it up!
Jake
Chris,
Thanks for paying us a visit! Come back to see us again, we love to get a new reader!
Annie,
You are probably absolutely right. :-) It’s not me that wants to get to a maintenance point, it’s my back. That last injury really did a number on me and my back hasn’t been the same since. I don’t really hurt any more but when I start working in the garden my back gets to talking to me pretty quickly. How ironic that with all the lifting and bending I do, I should injure my back so severely in my sleep! I’m so happy it’s doing so well I don’t want to risk it anymore. Jamie has been having bad problems with his back lately too (he has mild scoliosis in his lumbar area), and it’s just time for us to slow down some. I’m sure we will keep working, but we will not be doing it at the rate we have been.
Jake,
Thank you so much! It’s always good to see you here!
It's all looking splendiferous! I hope the vine will indeed bloom as prolifically as you expect. I've been disappointed in the ones I've seen here: they bloom rather sparsely compared to the amount of foliage.
I'm working on making my garden lower maintenance but it's slow going!
Cindy, ours did the exact same thing last year, lots of foliage and few blooms. I'm hoping for a more decent show this year. LOL We'll see, if not, the foliage is still gorgeous.:-)--Randy
Beautiful borders in your garden! I think Phillip had some photos of your gardens?? Fabulous ... your title sure fits! Thanks for visiting me!
Carol,
Phillip is a pretty good buddy or ours. He has posted photos of our garden on more than one occasion. Thanks for the visit! :-)--Randy
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