Serenity in the Garden

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips.   Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

The “meadow planting” style of gardening that is so popular now includes plants from various German breeders. Of course you can plant the original native species to help our pollinators...  Click on the links in the captions for more information. Karl Foerster bred tall, hardy plants suited to the northern European climate.  He  called grasses “Mother Nature’s hair”  and one of his best known and popular plants is the strongly vertical  Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster’ (a form of feather-reed grass). Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass Karl Foerster feather reed grass in background. Sedum Matrona on right. Ernst Pagels  developed new varieties of Miscanthus sinensis .   Piet Oudolf was a friend of Pagels and uses his plants, among others .  Pagels developed Miscanthus sinensis 'Malepartus' which looks like Pampas grass but blooms in midsummer so people in cooler climates can enjoy the bloom.  Hoffman ...

I must admit I first discovered  Drumstick Allium  when I could not find any other allium bulb to buy... It was late fall and I had waited too long to buy the popular Globemaster Alliums... What to DO? I bought the Drumstick bulbs and was thrilled at the result. These purplish - red blooms are small - 1" -and oval shaped.  They bloom in my part of the world in June- July  atop wiry 24" - 30" tall stems and wave in the breeze... They make a superb cut flower (which you can dry to be an 'everlasting').   THEY ARE DEER RESISTANT.   Drumstick Allium bouquet - Martha Stewart Photo Drumstick Alliums look fantastic tucked in the early summer flower border...You can add these small bulbs easily in the fall around clumps of established perennials such as Globe Thistle ( a great combo) Artemesia, Yarrow, Nepeta and Agastache.  They peek out around these plants and are a delightful a...

I must admit - I love Tardiva Hydrangea. Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva' is a loose, carefree shrub that defines exuberance. It is one of the panicle hydrangeas that received a 2010 Cary Award for Outstanding Shrub for New England Gardens. It adapts easily to many situations, blooms  late  in the summer which extends the garden season into October and can be pruned as a small tree if so desired. Tardiva is known for its long, lacy white flowers. They are tinted a pale pink which become darker as the season progresses. This hydrangea can tolerate half shade and is disease resistant. I prune Tardiva in very early spring, leaving just a few buds on the stem - this ensures larger flowers on stiffer branches. Tardiva hydrangeas fit in well in a woodland theme garden as well as in classic mixed flower borders. They make a great screen in the summer and are striking when planted in a mass planting.  They also make a wonderful dried cut f...

The colors of Little Quick Fire flowers in the fall The outstanding Quick Fire® Panicle Hydrangea can grow to be as high as seven feet tall...But what if you have a small outdoor space, such as I do?  Try Little Quick Fire®  hydrangea! the compact Little Quickfire Hydrangea It grows to only 4 feet tall and has long lasting flowers with excellent fall color...and best of all, it is more cold tolerant than most other hydrangeas. And you can grow it in a pot during the summer... Proven Winners has a winner for sure! It starts out with white flowers in late spring which then darken to pink in summer. And by fall, the flowers are a light red. You can cut them and dry them for winter displays indoors. My favorite thing about Little Quick Fire® is that the leaves turn a fiery orange in the autumn.   It loves morning sun and shade in the afternoon. A little protection from winter winds is helpful. Make sure to mulch around the base to protect...

photo courtesy of  Purdue Plant & Pest Diagnostic Lab The Smoke Bush rules in June and July!  I planted a red-purple leaved variety of Smoke Bush ( Cotinus coggygria ) in my small front yard years ago and it has been a constant eye catcher from the beginning.  It makes the front of my house extra-ordinary in early summer. 'Royal Purple' Cotinus As a result, I use the oval purple foliage of Cotinus in many of my landscapes - it makes a great backdrop and is also a sturdy specimen shrub...and it is DEER RESISTANT. The Cotinus species is a rounded, bushy shrub that is happy and hardy wherever you plant it.  Known as Smoke Bush due to the 'smoke-like' appearance of its delicate flower clusters in summer,  it can even be used in a planter.    Both the varieties of smoke bush - green with flowers and the red leaved variety  - are in this planter The burgundy leaves of the 'Royal Purple' S...

'Blue Paradise' Little Bluestem courtesy of Proven Winners   Deep wine purple fall color. When the American Horticultural Society decided to create a large meadow at their headquarters, River Farm, in Virginia the first plant they seeded was  Little Bluestem.   ( I wrote about this earlier but have added to it. ) Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm  They applied 100 pounds of Bluestem seed. The Latin name is  Schizachyrium scoparium or  skiz-ah-KEER-ee-um sko-PAR-ee-um. Why was this the first plant they seeded? Because Little Bluestem is a NATIVE, wonderful, durable, upright,   clump forming grass that is eminently suitable for 'meadow making'. 'The Blues' courtesy of the  Battery Database Little Bluestem is native to almost all of the United States and parts of Canada. It is found in  45 of the 50 states, making it the most abundant of all native grasses. It is drought and flood-tolerant, can gro...

Check out  'Ideas for a Fall Garden'  on gardendesign.com. I share some ideas I have used in my landscape projects.  Please click on the article name above for some great end-of-the-gardening-year ideas for your garden. from gardendesign.com The Garden Design website  is a virtual compendium of ideas for your landscape.