Silene regia 'Prairie Fire' (Royal Catchfly)

The plant that most people have asked me about this year is Silene regia 'Prairie Fire' (Royal Catchfly). It's cardinal flowers are one of the favorites of the hummingbirds. Remembering how it fell over last year and had lots of broken stems, I staked it well this spring. It responded well and grew twice as tall!

Last year's most asked about plant was the Dierama pulcherrimum (Angel's Fishing Rod), shown in foreground of the photo (it has finished blooming).

A new hardy fuchsia - 'Sunshine'

I have about 20 varieties of hardy fuchsias, mostly small varieties that fit well into the garden - and are not bullies. Sunshine is a new plant I got this summer and still have in a pot. A sweet name for a sweet little fuchsia!

Hardy fuchsias (VH or H3) do well in our western Washington climate. I have most of mine planted in the ground, which provides more cold protection than pots. Fuchsias like water. Most hardy fuchsia varieties like to be in the sun. The varieties with yellow/chartreuse leaves, like Genii and Golden Herald, prefer part-shade.

Brugmansia - Angel's Trumpets

Posting photos of some of my Angel's Trumpets taken today. I also want to remind you of how poisonous all parts of the plants are. We should wear gloves when touching the plants, such as when plucking off dead leaves and spent flowers (and/or wash our hands after touching plants).

They get watered daily from a drip system we set up, but I often need to give them extra water, as they are very thirsty plants. They are also heavy feeders.

Hosting garden gatherings

I hosted the Burien/Des Moines Master Gardener clinic group for a potluck meeting on July 23. Tonight I host the Marine Hills Garden Club for another potluck. I'd better go finish my tidying up to get ready!

August 20, I will host "Garden Gals", the Chinook District horticulture study group for a lunchtime potluck and our annual planning meeting.

Of course, we have friends and family over regularly for fun times around the pool. All these gatherings motivate me to keep the garden in shape!

Pollinator pics of the day - bees

My favorite photos of bees this year - bees in Coreopsis verticillata 'Zagreb' and Alstroemeria:

Now I'm headed out to do some deadheading. I'll cut some flowers to bring inside. I'm looking at some lovely peach dahlias that will make a nice bouquet.

It's a nice time for gardening. Most of the tasks are easy - wandering around deadheading and picking the occasional weed and watering containers. I always say I'm going to plant fewer containers but end up with dozens. At least we have most of them set up with drip irrigation this year.

I continue my ongoing battle with crabgrass, which I am hand-pulling in my little lawn (maybe 800 square feet).

More pollinators: hummingbird and bees

A couple more photos taken today.

Bee in delphinium

 Bee in penstemon (under a banana leaf)

 Hummingbird feasting on hot-lips salvia (a current favorite)

 Hummingbird waiting for a mate on the scarlett runner bean vine

Butterflies! Western Tiger Swallowtail and Mourning Cloak

I got my first pictures of these butterflies in my yard today. I'd seen them before but didn't have my camera. Here are a few of the photos I just took.

The mourning cloak is "puddling" - getting minerals from the mud next to the stream.

Staking staking staking!

The heavy rain we've been having was beating down some of my plants. In between rain showers, I've been staking them back up. I needed so many stakes I had to buy more.
The alstroemeria are blooming nicely, but they had quite a pounding from the rain.

I love my potting area / garden shed!

The thing I had that held tools was pretty wobbly, as evidenced by it falling on me and a tool cut my head. So this inspired John to make something to hang tools on the wall. Since the walls are solid cement, he had to drill into the cement to mount the tool rack. Then he helped sort through stuff and dispose of old chemicals and other stuff we don't use. After I did some additional tidying up, I took this photo.

You can see my worm bin on the right. My tool storage rack is along the back wall.

Landscape Design Award

I was awarded the Landscape Design Award by the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs for my "red, white, and blue" flower bed. This is the bed next to the spa.

The photos and description below are from my application:

The objectives of this garden bed were to have an attractive flower bed to appeal to people sitting nearby on the patio (or in the spa) and to attract hummingbirds and bees (to support pollinators). In addition, we didn’t want plants too tall to block the view or create much shade.

The Choisya ternata ‘Aztec Pearl’ and Heuchera ‘Crimson Curl’ provide evergreen year-round structure, along with the garden art. The fuchsias and agapanthus are attractive well into the fall.

While several of the plants were still small, I filled in with annuals, as shown in the photos. In 2012, I planted white wax begonias along the eastern edge of the bed, and I planted red snapdragons in empty spaces throughout the bed. I also had a pot with a Brugmansia (Angel’s Trumpet) sitting on one of the boulders. The plants have now grown enough so I no longer need to fill in with annuals.

Award for "Gardening for Pollinators" Essay

I received a first place for horticulture essay from the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs for my paper on "Gardening for Pollinators". See the December 6, 2012, blog entry for the content. I also received a 3rd place award for the plant list that goes with the essay.

I gave my Gardening for Pollinators presentation at the Neely Homestead Gardens on June 15, as part of their summer workshop programs.

Clematis Jackmani and Jackmanii Superba

These clematis thrive with this southern and western exposure. I usually place pots in front of them to provide a little shade to the lowest section. We've strung nylon rope (not smooth) from the upper deck to give them room to grow higher. Now we can enjoy from both levels!

The Jackmanii has a few open blooms, with many more coming. It blooms a little earlier than the Jackmanii Superba, so we enjoy the blooms for much of the summer.

Jackmanii Superba

Jackmanii

Late Spring Garden

We returned from a trip to England in May 16 to find the garden looking lush and glorious! And it looks better every day. This is such a great time for the garden: It looks beautiful, there is promise of much more in coming months, and there is not much deadheading yet.

We've spent hours in the creek cleaning out weeds and watercress. The birds are so happy to have a nice place for drinks and baths! Can you see the bird in these pictures I took today?

The kalmia (mountain laurel) is covered in blooms, and the Cornus Kousa (dogwood) is in full bloom:

I'm happy with how the upper stream area is coming along. The doublefile viburnum finished blooming vacation, but the hillside is still looking good.

 

 Rose garden:

 Perennial bed on other side of rose garden. I planted the delphinium last year and am happy to see them return so nicely.

The big garden job now is pulling out crabgrass from the lawn. We've been hand-pulling out the individual weeds. I usually start with the flowering section, then rake through with my fingers to get where each plant is spreading. This leaves the "good grass" in the lawn. We work on it for 30 - 60 minutes at a time. It will be an ongoing process - probably never-ending, but hopefully much less as we go on. Next year, I'll look into an early application of a corn gluten based pre-emergent weed suppressant.

The promise of spring

There is a lot to do in the garden in the spring! I've still been busy weeding/hoeing in all areas. I did some pruning of shrubs on the hillside. I removed a lot of the branches that were laying on the ground. They now look tidier, and it will be easier to rake out fallen leaves next winter. I removed several shrubs, as I realized that as they get larger the hillside will be too crowded. I took out several viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' - I had bought and planted too many of these. I have a couple friends who will be able to use them in their yards.
I was able to get several starts from Viburnum plicatun tomentosum 'Mariesii' (doublefile viburnum).I've potted them up and will look after them for this year until they are ready to donate.
Here is a photo of the hillside taken this evening.

My garden club had our plant sale this weekend. Afterwards, I planted annuals in pots - a lot of calibrachoas, one of my favorite annuals. I also planted three flats of scarlet wax begonias (another favorite) between the flower beds and the lawn. Instead of geraniums, I'm trying petunias in the raised beds along the driveway.

 I'm appreciating the varied colors, textures, and shapes of leaves in this bed by my front door. Hosta, ligularia, lace leaf maple, hydrangea, and choisya ternata. (And there are leaves from spent bulbs.)

Hoed the entire hillside!

John joined me Saturday for a full morning of hoeing. We got the entire hillside hoed, using our favorite hoe - the action hoe, pictured below. The maple seedlings were so thick that we had to hoe all the surface. It feels so great to get that finished, even though I have a blister.

Since Saturday, I've been going over the rest of the yard to hoe or pick weeds, clean up, and trim as needed.

I also got over to the Foundation House yesterday to prune their rose garden. I replaced four rose bushes, but should add about eight more.

Creating some fun garden art

I had fun creating some little water birds from rocks and shells. I selected rocks from the side of my driveway and cleaned them up yesterday. After they were dry this morning, I glued on the heads (from rocks) and beaks (shells).

I placed them along my little stream.

Late winter garden clean-up

I neglected my garden for too much of the winter. I went out occasionally to tidy up my close-in beds, but didn't do anything on the hillside.

I finally got out several times in the last couple weeks and cleaned up debris, trimmed old foliage, and pruned the plants that like late winter pruning. I still have some leaves to rake up and remove from the hillside. The big work ahead is hoeing or pulling thousands of tiny maple trees that sprouted from the little winged things that blew down during the fall and winter. There are so many that I'm quite overwhelmed! I'm sure that once I've spend a couple hours with my hoe and see some progress, I will feel better about the garden chores I am facing.

It does always feel good to come in after getting an area tidied up. Here are photos of some of my cleaned up beds.

Time to prune roses

It is time to prune roses. I pruned my bushes about a week ago, and I will go prune the rose bushes at the Foundation House (where my garden club meets) in a few days.

The first thing I prune is dead or diseased branches. Then I prune out crossing branches and tiny/weak ones. I look at the canes that look healthiest, and prune to an outside bud. The height varies, depending on the location of buds and the individual bush. I also remove all old leaves. I usually remove an old cane, or maybe two. And I cut inward-facing branches and weak branches.