Lullaby of Spring

Forgot to post a photo of the first 'Lullaby of Spring' iris.



And here is one in the evening light, which is magical.


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Heuchera

I really love heuchera. Not quite as much as I love hemerocallis, but it's a really close second. While hemerocallis is all about the flowers, the thing about heuchera is, it’s all about the foliage.

Or is it?

Lately, the many new hybrids coming out are paying as much attention to the flowers as to the leaves. So my goal is to obtain and plant beautiful heuchera whose flowers are as showy as their foliage.

Last year there was ‘Hollywood’, ‘Gypsy Dancer’, and ‘Snow Angel’.

‘Hollywood’ Heuchera (from last year)



‘Gypsy Dancer’ Heuchera



‘Snow Angel’ Heuchera (from last year)



This year I have purchased ‘Mocha Mint’, ‘Cinnabar Silver’, and ‘Petite Marbled Burgundy’ for their flowers.

‘Mocha Mint’ Heuchera



‘Cinnabar Silver’ Heuchera



‘Petite Marbled Burgundy’ Heuchera


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

This post is for Kim (Blackswamp Girl), my fellow heuchera enthusiast.

Annual Trip to Canning

Yesterday we made the once-yearly trip to Canning Perennials.

Shopping at Canning Perennials



(By the way, not shown in the photo above are 3 more daylilies, another large echeveria, and another heuchera.)

Last year I thought that I would have no new daylilies any more. However, I forgot that Canning always has plenty of "NEW" plants in their catalog every year, including daylilies. I tried to limit myself to 5 new daylilies, but I came away with 8.* Can I help it if my husband encourages me with, "We only come once a year. Make sure you get everything you want. Remember, we won't be coming back." (Is he not truly wonderful, indeed?)

One of the 8 was 'Wayside King Royale', which is one I already have, but the label looked different from mine and it was one my husband himself was urging me to get. The label showed a big, dark, lush flower. Maybe it will be different from the way this one looked in a photo from last year:

Wayside King Royale, July 2006



My two favourite finds, however, are not daylilies at all, but PINK echeveria.

Echeveria 'Perl von Nurnberg'



Echeveria 'Krinkle'



And this is what they look like planted in my stone-look container with echeveria 'Black Prince' (on the right) and sempervivum 'Hey-Hey' (on the left). There are some other echeveria that I don't know there too. They came from my Wal-Mart planters.

Echeveria and Sempervivum Planter



Now for some other garden photos. Someone was asking how tall Lewisia flowers grow, so I took a picture that shows more of the context of the plants.

Lewisia Plants in Context



The flowers grow on stems about 12 cm (4 in.) long that grow out of a rosette of leaves similar to a sempervivum. The flowers are thin in the centre because the stems grow from the outside edge of the plant.

Another beautiful recent bloomer is my 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort (Tradescantia), one of my favourites for its combination of chartreuse foliage and rich purple flowers.

'Sweet Kate' Spiderwort



Here is a picture of my little fairy girl ornament. She is very photogenic.

Little Fairy Girl Ornament



And finally, though I am not terribly crafty like many garden bloggers are, I was not liking the colour and texture of this new Buddha ornament I got for the garden (not from Canning -- it's another Wal-Mart special). So I bought some spray paint and changed the look. He used to be a smooth grey, now he is a textured sand colour.

Brand New Buddha Ornament Improved with Textured Paint


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

---
* When it comes down to it, I really got only 6. It turned out that in my haste I had picked up two of the same. (I gave the repeat to my mother.) Also, I would not have picked up 'Wayside King Royale' myself because it is the same as one I already have in my garden. So, the hemerocallis I chose to purchase were:

• Dominic
  
• Ed Murray
  
• Flamboyant Eyes
  
• Lady Fingers
  
• Raspberry Swirl
  
• Someplace Special

I would have liked to get some others from the catalogue, but I was limited to what was in stock. (Maybe that's a good thing!)

Containers And Mulch

Well, the Monday of the long weekend (Victoria Day in Canada) was a productive one in the garden. My husband, Mr. Wonderful, made it his project to put down the black mulch in the back garden beds. The front is not yet done, and we don't have the brown mulch for the slope yet, but still -- the beds look amazing. One thing about black mulch is that it makes the colours pop.

My Favourite Late Spring View



My job was (finally) putting together my container garden at the front of the house. This year my colour scheme for the containers seems to have been inspired by the coleus Stained Glassworks Needlepoint. That is dark purple, and variegated green, yellow, and ivory. I have also added hits of hot pink to play off against the dark purple foliage.

Strawberry-type Container



This planter contains:

• sorrel (Rumex sanguineus)
  
• ipomoea ('Blackie' and 'Chartreuse')
  
• lamium (Lamium maculatum 'Anne Greenaway')
  
• a hot pink geranium ('Caliente Lavender').

I am hoping this container will fill out nicely and stay beautiful until late September. The sorrel is an unknown, though, so I've no idea how it will mature.

In my plastic urn container this year (compare last year) I am building around an 'Obsidian' heuchera that I rescued from being swallowed by phlox in the front garden. It can stay in the pot for the summer and I will find another place to plant it in the fall.

Plastic Urn Container



This planter contains:

• heuchera ('Obsidian')
  
• ivy geranium ('White-Blizzard'), blooming
  
• another geranium ('Freestyle Arctic Red')
  
• coleus (I have grown it before but don't know the name)
  
• periwinkle (Vinca minor 'Illumination')
  
• petunias (yellow is 'Prism Sunshine', pink unlabelled).

The third container is not quite ready for prime time. The dark purple dahlia and pink geranium with variegated leaves have nothing but buds right now, and there is a balloon flower that blooms later in the season (July-August). So the only real show is from the coleus.

Third Container (Waiting for Blooms)



This planter contains:

• dahlia ('Dahlietta Lauren')
  
• coleus (Stained Glassworks 'Molten Lava' and 'Needlepoint')
  
• balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus 'Fuji White')
  
• periwinkle (Vinca minor 'Atropurpurea')
  
• geranium (pink with variegated green and yellow/ivory leaves)
  
• lamium (survivor from last year)

I also took shortcuts, buying premade planters, one with herbs and one colourful one as a bridge between the end of the daffodils and the beginning of the poppies.

Filling In (Front View from Driveway)



Filling In (Back View from Porch)



As well, for heuchera lovers I wanted to point out this one that I found, 'Mocha Mint'. Heuchera are finally being bred to have both leaves and flowers that are attractive. This one is another in the small (but growing) collection of those.

'Mocha Mint' Heuchera



And finally, just for fun, my fancy brocade-leaf geraniums, now potted up for display.

Brocade-Leaf Geraniums


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Digging in the Dirt

Both our composters got filled up over winter, and with spring finally here, it's definitely time to make room for a fresh crop. So our project for today was "harvesting" our compost. We half-emptied both containers, taking the well-cooked stuff from the bottom of the containers, and aerating the rest. Then we emptied any open bags of topsoil, and old planters and baskets into the mix, along with a layer of shredded leaves. (We always save a bag of leaves in the fall so we will have dry material for the composter the next spring.)

As I've said before on this blog, I used an organic compost accelerator, which is just a powdery mix that you sprinkle over the layers of compostable material. It requires you to wet it down to get it to work, but our compost was a little dry after the winter, so we needed to add water to it anyway.



The amount of compost we removed filled several 14-inch pots, along with one large storage box.



I wish I had time for more big garden projects tomorrow -- it's the first long weekend of the gardening season, after all -- but my nephew has chosen it as his wedding day, so I'll be spending most of the morning cleaning the dirt from under my fingernails, and otherwise trying to make myself look presentable.

And speaking of presentable, compost is not exactly the type of photo people are looking for when they visit garden blogs, so here is something a bit prettier.

Unknown Late Daffodil



'Peach Melba' Heuchera



Irises Close Up


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Iris Eyes are Smiling

 
(Ooh, the title is bad and I apologize for that.)

The tulips in my garden are at their peak, and now it's time for the irises.

'Cherry Garden' Iris



I'm getting loads of dark irises this year. Don't think I'm complaining though. I'm pleased that they have done so well. And back again this year, with a first bloom four days later than last year, is my small and delicate dwarf bearded iris 'Grape Orbit'.

'Grape Orbit' Dwarf Bearded Iris



I also have some yellow irises around and about. I'm not sure where they came from, but I remember buying some unmarked irises for a dollar during a big garden centre sell-off a few years ago, so the yellow ones are probably what I bought then. You can see one that is about to bloom near the bird bath.

Irises Near the Bird Bath



And in other exciting news (well, exciting is a relative term, but maybe it's exciting to other hardy geranium lovers), 'Johnson's Blue' just got its first bloom.

First Bloom for 'Johnson's Blue' Hardy Geranium



Oh, and I found the greatest 10-inch basket at a local garden centre. You know the 10-inch basket? That saviour of the gardener's pocketbook, a source of cheap and cheerful filler material? Well I found one that was chock full of happy, healthy, hybrid double petunias. The only one, I might add.

My Big Find: A 10-Inch Basket With Double Petunias



The last thing I want to show you is some beautiful foliage that is coming into play right now, particularly these geraniums (pelargonium) that I bought for their variegated foliage. (I haven't quite got around to potting them up yet.)

Variegated Foliage on (Pelargonium) Geraniums



My 'Mardi Gras' heuchera took a beating, so it's not the beautiful huge plant it was when I bought it last year, but at least it came back. And it still looks good.

'Mardi Gras' Heuchera



And here is another little heuchera, a solid performer from my heuchera garden under the maple. It's probably 'Beauty Colour', but it could be 'Dale's Strain' or 'Green Spice'.

Heuchera (probably 'Beauty Colour')



Oh, and I inadvertently lied to Sigrun at Hillside Garden. She posted her 'Red October' hosta and I said mine was still in the ground. I should have known better. It was just overwhelmed by all the tulips and irises in the side bed. But it's there and I took a photo. Et voilà.

'Red October' Hosta

How Does My Garden Grow?

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row

There's none of that in my garden, but on the weekend I did do some shopping at the local garden centre attached to the grocery store. This is a great time of year to go there, just when they have all the new stock in and they haven't been picked over too much. I found a great ornament that matches my buddha statue. It's the same type of thing, only just the head.

New Garden Ornament



I picked up the first of my container plants. I haven't actually planted them yet, but I'm getting a feel for how they will go together by gathering them in my favourite pot (a sphere with an angled edge -- I've looked and looked but I can't find another one like it; my mother wants one too).

Plants Gathered in My Favourite Container



The lamium at the front of the pot survived from last year. Bonus!

Many of the daffodils and early tulips are fading, while late tulips and irises are coming into play; for example, these fringed tulips.

'Blue Heron' Fringed Tulips



'Pink Fountain' Fringed Tulip



Here are some bright pink tulips in front of the irises that are ready to bloom now. You can just see my 'Snow Angel' heuchera sending up flower stalks in the bottom right.

Pink Tulips, with Iris and 'Snow Angel' Heuchera



Here are some late tulips just starting to bloom. You can also see my Holger juniper, 'Rosanne' hardy geranium, some 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga (bugleweed) just starting to bloom, and an expanse of flagstone pathway.

Late Tulips in the Backyard



Here is a close-up shot of one the tulips. I think it is a 'Black Hero' double late tulip.

'Black Hero' Double Late Tulip



As I mentioned, the early tulips are finishing now.

White Tulip Dying



These Tulips Remind Me of Fried Eggs



And, to finish up, a picture of the little fritillaria whose purple is now fading as it gets ready to give up the ghost for another year.

Little Fritillaria, Almost Finished


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Tulips

 
It's tulip time!

I like to stick to a specific colour scheme for my tulips, which is cream and purple (all shades, from pinkish-mauve to almost black). Here are some examples.

Zurel Tulips



Two Shirleys and a Black Parrot



Jackpot!



Two 'Ballade' Tulips



A Pair of 'Raika' Tulips



Closeup of a 'Zurel' Tulip



An Unexpected Orange Tulip



What Happened to My Colour Scheme?



These Flowers Are Not Fitting In



Solving the Problem



Waiting for the Vase



Tulips in a Vase


Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be used without attribution.

Yes, I solved the colour scheme problem by cutting all the orange-yellow tulips and displaying them inside in a vase.