Tag: Hostas

Not without a bloom

When I started our gardens here, I wanted to create a place where one set of blooming plants rolled into the next.  Crocus to daffodils to hyacinth to tulips to asian lilies to irises to … It was a great idea but my husband was not crazy about the look, especially as things died off and we were left with a few … sunflowers!  It was also busy, and it looked like a giant mess as the siberian irises gradually took over a large part of the garden.  So I dug them out and gave them to my mother-in-law who had space, along with, regrettably, some daylilies that I had put in front and didn’t look so good there.  Then I started to build the gardens we have today.

Along the way I also discovered that no matter how many crocus, daffodils, and hyacinth I planted here, they would only come back one, maybe two years.  Believe me, I planted hundreds, en masse, and they just don’t thrive here.  Some don’t even come in one time!  So, I decided tulips are enough.  Some stay (I have one patch of purple tulips that has come back 14 years)

and some come back every year as greens (not too exciting).  Once again this fall I bought a bag of tulips, and have already picked out the spot for them.

After the tulips come the clematis (from the original garden).  Then come the asian lilies (some original, some newer) and then the hostas, the weigelia (original) and the ninebarks (newer).  Then come the daylilies for months, followed by the sedum, with the hostas blooming throughout.  Continuously blooming are the shamrocks and the hibiscus.

They bloom even when they are brought in mid-October, and go well into December.

In January I head off to the garden store and get a watch ’em grow garden, which blooms into March, and somewhere in Feb the amaryllis blooms.  In late Feb the hibiscus starts up again along with a little bit on the shamrocks.  And then in April, as the hibiscus and shamrocks are lightly blooming, we are moving outside again.

This progression has run through my mind lately.  Yes, I am sad the daylilies are done and the hostas are wrapping up, but truly we are never long without blooms in our “garden”.

Onward

My cloud photo reminders (This day in 2017, 2016 …) are kind of tough to look at right now.  I had three huge ‘Touch of Class’ hostas that bloomed about this time of year, cheering up the garden after the daylilies finished blooming, and drawing the hummingbirds and bees.

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Something got them over the winter/early spring.  Only one came back, and that one is about 1/4 of the size of previous years.  I am sad.  But I used that space for more daylilies this year, some of which were seeds planted directly in the ground.  I also used some of that space to add the two new ‘Hush Little Baby’ daylilies I enjoyed so much.  And I took the opportunity to buy another ‘Rainforest Sunrise’ hosta to put in that space.  I am fairly in love with those, similar to my affinity for ‘Blue Mouse Ears’!  Multiples, multiples.

So onward and upward – gardens evolve.  Which leads me back to the ‘Rainforest Sunrise’.  Could there be a more beautiful leaf?  And combined with the purple scapes and lavender blooms, no wonder they draw the attention in the garden this time of year.

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I think I “need” an arch of them, similar to the arch of ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ that bloom so profusely in early summer.

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Saturdays in the garden

I cherish and protect my Saturday mornings in the garden.  The work week may be hectic and even stressful, but come Saturday morning, it’s garden time.  I may go to the farmer’s market, and/or go for a walk, but I need Saturday mornings as down time.  And today is Saturday!

I have come to like a tidy look.  It’s not everyone’s preference, but for a modestly sized garden like ours I can keep up with trimming daylily stems and hosta scapes.  This morning there was a bunch of that.  And then there’s the inevitable weeds and tree sprouts.  “Pampering the Garden” is a lot of fun, but the best part is when it’s done.  There’s nothing like sitting in a peaceful garden.

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Soon I also need to decide whether to harvest the hosta seeds from the Aureomarginatas.

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I’m leaning toward no, and just trimming them.  Despite losing 5 hostas this spring, I don’t have much space to spare.  It was a bit crowded in the back and side gardens last year.

We’ll see.  Maybe give it another week to decide.  I’m definitely trimming the other hostas as soon as they are done blooming 🙂

Do any of you have experience with harvesting and growing hosta seeds? How did they turn out?

 

Mid-August

Today the last ‘Hush Little Baby’ bud bloomed, and the last ‘Purple D’ Oro’ daylily on one of the 3 plants bloomed today as well.

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It happens every year.  I’m not surprised.  But once again, I’m not quite ready.  The daylilies are winding down.  I already miss their profusion of color, even on the same bloom.

This time of year, especially, I have to remind myself to stay in the moment.  The lilies are still blooming.  They are not done yet.  Then there will be the gorgeous ‘Rainforest Sunrise’ hosta scapes, and the sedum’s slow progression of color, and if we’re lucky and get a long fall, the hosta leaves will even put on a color show.  But for today, lilies.  Gorgeous lilies.

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Dad’s hostas

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One of Dad’s hostas

My father (unknowingly at first) got me going on hostas.  I was at their house, doing “garden stuff” and he decided that he wanted to remove the over-crowded orange daylilies from the side of the house.  We dug them out, gave them to the neighbor (who made a wonderful experience planting them with their young daughter) and we were cleaning up when I saw a few tiny hosta bulbs.  I admit, my huband had just declined free hosta plants, but I couldn’t resist.  I thought I could just do an “experiment”.   You know, just see if they grew in our garden.  So I tossed them in one of the plant pots my Dad was giving me.  And I brought them home.  And I planted them.  The next spring – Lo and behold! – hosta plants came up. 😍

My husband was skeptical.  No, more accurately, he was a tad concerned.  You see, at our house in which we raised our children, I was known to create a new garden area at will … sometimes against his wishes … while he was out with our children … buying my Mother’s Day gift. So he was rightly concerned.  We now, by intention, had a very manageable (town)home and yard and garden.  But the garden was growing.

The spring after we moved into our current home, I petitioned the association to be able to “improve the property” by putting in some bulbs.   We got approval.  I proceeded to do that abundantly.  A few years went by, and I, with the agreement of my husband, petitioned the association to expand our garden.  My petition was approved and we proceeded.  (We used the contractor who was familiar with our sprinklers … so no problems there.)  The next year, the lawn service was chewing up the trunk of our Linden when they weed whipped, and making ruts in the lawn around it with the mower.  I, with the agreement of my husband, petitioned the association to expand the garden again, to go around the tree and farther out into the yard.  We got an immediate approval, and during the work, the association president came over and said it looked very nice.  And my husband said … “Now you are done expanding.”  Why?  Well, not all those gardens that I created at the house we raised our children in were well maintained.  I loved them.  I had every intention of keeping things under control.  But we had children, and activities, and dogs, and jobs, and …. They got away from me.

So back to Dad’s hostas.  They flourished, and I fell in love.  Soon I was adding carefully to our garden, ones that had meaning, ones that were meant to be smaller (I have an entire “ring” of ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ – I love love love them!)  I found out about the Hosta of the Year and bought some of those.  (Oops! some are quite big!)  My Dad met a Hosta Masta (Master) and bought me a couple from his annual sale.  The next year we toured his garden and I was in awe!  It was incredible!!!  And he had very tastefully integrated daylilies in with his hostas.  So … I started an “experiment” of my own … We already had a few daylilies up close to the house, but what if I added some throughout the garden. And that is where I still am still today.  To keep things simple and under control, we have hostas and daylilies and asian lilies, and sedum (but that is a blog for another day).

That is the story of how Dad’s few little hosta bulbs greatly influenced the garden I have today.

My husband is now the association president (not kidding!).  He will not approve any further expansions.  So I give divisions to my friends and family and neighbors.  It’s all good!

Conflicted

I have a quandry.  Two days ago I still had flowers on our Aureomarginata hostas.  I don’t collect hosta seeds because I don’t generally want the hostas to put any energy into seed production AND (and this is a big “and” – my husband is not in agreement with any more expanding on the garden).  I think he’s right because in the fall I hand cut everything back, and it takes time and energy and multiple trips to the compost site.  But … today I looked at the Aureomarginatas and they have seed pods already.  Last weekend there were no seed pods, but today there are.

Oh bother! 😏  The bees certainly did their job.  Is this a case where doing nothing (letting them finish seeding) leads to a wonderful something?

What do you all think?

“Because sometimes doing nothing leads to the best something” – from Christopher Robin movie

There is so much going on at once right now in the garden.  The last cream daylily bloomed today.

20180809_084139-1“Twins” are abounding.  (More about that and pics in days to come).  I saw a very young (probably a baby) cardinal in our Linden tonight.  Both white squirrels showed up this morning.  (I only could catch one in the pic below, through the foggy window this morning.)

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The last bloom of the two ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylilies in one area bloomed today.  (Still more blooming in another area.)  The ‘Patriot’ hostas have finished blooming.  Some of the daylilies have started to set seed.  (More about that in an upcoming blog, or two.)  The Weigelia is reblooming.

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But the best part of today was that it was my Mom’s birthday.  I took the day off work and we spent the day together – coffee and pastry at Caribou, shopping, a movie, more shopping, and dinner.  The movie we saw was Christopher Robin.  We both absolutely loved it.  It brought back so many memories.  And the line we both loved most was “Because sometimes doing nothing leads to the best something.”  That’s how a good garden day feels.  Just enjoying “being” in the garden, and then you see this, and that, and putter around, and before you know it you are quite content.

Time to Trim

Today was the the second hosta scape trimming day of the season.  The first was a few weeks ago after the ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ hosta were done blooming. I trim the hosta scapes after the flowers bloom because I don’t harvest hosta seeds and I don’t want the plants to expend much energy making seeds.  Daylilies are another story.  I’ll probably do a post on that soon.

Our Guest in the Garden was here again today.  He supervised.20180804_183352-1

‘Patriot’ hostas

Some parts of a garden are more than just pretty.  They mean something.  They are tied to memories.  That is true of our ‘Patriot’ hostas.  I planted them during the years our son was in the Army National Guard.  My father-in-law served in World War II, my husband served in Bosnia, and our son served in Afghanistan.  We are a patriotic family.

Our ‘Patriot’ hostas have gotten large, been divided and shared with our friends and neighbors, and now they are doing well in many gardens.

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Thank you to all those who have served and those who are serving in our military.