August Playground

By on Aug 13, 2019 in Summer |

The landscape is a playground in August. Prior to entering the fall gardening season the month of August puts on a show making it one of my favorite months of the year. We get the opportunity to enjoy dramatic hydrangeas and their towering panicled flowers. Blooming perennial Allium blooms are covered in bees and butterflies. The hummingbird moths are intoxicated by the Agastache. The Echinacea are brilliant and blooming. The Ornamental grasses are in their prime and dancing in the breeze, warm humid weather does not bother them one bit. The Rudbeckia laciniata ‘Herbstsonne’ reach for the sunlight. The Sedums, Succulents and Opuntia Cactus are in their prime and loving the long hot days of summer. Yes I wait patiently for the month of August to arrive every year and when it does…..it “leafs” us just too fast. Soak in every moment. Rudbeckia laciniata...

Moonlight gardening is more than a “phase” you’re going through so get “glowing”

By on Jul 17, 2019 in Summer |

I have been told I am a goal oriented, driven person, who moves quickly when there is a job to be done. I recognize the launching pad of these characteristics were embedded as a child and are not a phase I’m going through. I was born and raised in the Apollo moonshot dreamers generation, when you instinctively learned that, just like the space program in the 1960’s, three things were needed to get something done: 1) I would need a goal 2) I would need a plan (usually made up as I go) and 3) Not enough time to do it. One of my goals was to plant more white flowers and silver foliage plants for summer time enjoyment in the evening hours. As the evening skies grow dark and the moon rises above the horizon in the warm July night sky, white flowers take center stage perfect for use around deck and entertaining areas to be enjoyed after dark.  Moonlight gardens, a composition in...

Colorful Chaotic Coleus

By on Jun 26, 2019 in Summer |

Now that the weather is getting hot the colorful Coleus are about to put on a show in our containers. Coleus seems to take the approach the more chaotic the better! In hot weather they thrive. It used to be they were considered a shade only plant but with all the introductions in the past 10 years they love the spotlight and love the sun. Native to the tropics bordering the equator and with a botanical name like Solenostemon scutellarioides you’ve got to know they love summer time! Coleus were born to be in containers and put on a show. No waiting for buds and blooms these plants let the foliage do the talking. On a warm humid late June day I took my phone and snapped these random pictures of their response to heat basking in the sun. This is a Victorian parlor plant that has made a stunning comeback in popularity in the 21st century on decks and patios everywhere. Captivating...

I’m feeling Bosky

By on Jul 10, 2018 in Summer |

I like feeling bosky. No not that unshaven feeling where you have the scruffy beard of a sailor at sea. That feeling when you are aware of the changing seasons because of deciduous shrubs and trees. bosky adjective \ˈbäs-kē\ having abundant trees or shrubs Landscape shrubs and trees are wonderful at marking the seasons of our lives. You might not realize it but deep down you like feeling bosky too. Plants help people celebrate the changing of the seasons. In the midwest and the north we have very distinct and identifiable changes to all four seasons every year. For some they face it, for others they embrace it. Deciduous plants embrace the change of seasons moving from dormancy, to spring and summer blooming, to fall color and back to dormancy again. Fortunately dormancy is a reversible condition. Deciduous shrubs and trees both face it and embrace it and we are the beneficiaries of...

You Rose to the Occasion

By on Jun 5, 2018 in Summer |

Invite some royalty to your garden party this summer. The rose has long been the queen of the summer time garden. Roses have been symbols of love, fame, beauty, war, and celebration and have quite a history. From use as confetti at celebrations to a source for perfume, they “rose” to the occasion in good times and bad. A lady with expensive taste and a love for gardening and roses, Napoleon’s wife Josephine established an extensive collection of roses at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris in the 1800s. While Napoleon was out fighting his battles and making his conquests, Josephine was busy spending his money on the chateau and extensive gardens with a particular interest in roses. He was none too pleased with her floriferous spending habits but you can’t tell me he didn’t appreciate a stroll through the rose garden.  No one ever promised you a rose garden,...

Saying goodbye to Summer

By on Sep 5, 2017 in Summer |