CLOSING UP SHOP

Short of getting my order from Van Fleur with literally still dozens of things to plant and freezing temperatures creeping in, I am done and ready to finish closing up shop.  

Thank goodness the weather has been hospitable.

I grew lots of plants in the Sun Garden this summer I had never grown before so I had to learn about their pruning procedures and it turns out they almost all get severely cut back:

Blanket Flower

Monarda

Bearded Iris

Helenium

Peony

Crocosmia

Lilies

Echinacea is either/or.

Asclepias should stay up "until spring".

Rudbeckia laciniata 'Goldquelle

Rudbeckia wavers from keep the seed heads up for the birds to trim almost to the ground.

I will leave them until last and see how I am feeling...

Let us hear it for tomorrow, one of the season's final days to be spent outside.
Hip hip hooray!

***
Sharing with Fertilizer Friday, Today's Flowers, Floral Friday Flowers, Very Close

REPORT CARD - sun garden

Just over one month ago I shared my detailed plans for the Sun Garden, the garden that is clearly progressing the best with its sunny location.

How is it doing? Let's take a look.

Clearly things are growing well. Lots of rain, lots of sun.

Turns out fertilizing Nasturtium promotes leaf growth not blooming. At least they are hiding the Coneflowers I planted along the edge that the rabbits kept dining on, maybe now they will get an uninterrupted period of growth.

Nonetheless there are some gorgeous Nasturtium blooms making an appearance. 

I cannot believe I have never grown these before. 

I love them.

In the centre of this crowded space (inside yellow oval above) I believe we have orange and chocolate Rudbeckia, but we will have to wait and see blooms to be 100% sure. There are loads of them and I am trying my best to gently jiggle the roots apart and transplant them in any empty spaces in the Sun Garden. 

For example in the above small clump there are seven healthy plants; where they grow extremely close together I pinch the smaller one out so as to not disturb the roots of the other.

The Blanketflower running along the north border are going gangbusters.

The yellow stand-out above is Coreopsis Roulette. A flower I thought was red with yellow stripes but apparently also comes in bright yellow with flecks of red. 

Coreopsis Roulette is seeded mainly throughout the northeast part of the garden and its wispy and airy foliage makes the blooms seem like they are floating. 

Among the volunteer plants I have found are Stonecrop, which I moved to the Alpine Garden, white Dianthus which now lives in the Moon Garden, various Sunflowers, Vinca and these unexpected Pink Petunias.  

Is someone playing a practical joke on me? I am specifically trying to rid my garden of pink.

I planted Crocosmia from corms and from plants - the plants are finishing up their blooming but some of those started 'from scratch' are just about to begin  theirs.

So how do I feel about the Sun Garden? I feel great. It continues to improve with age.  Once the Coreopsis and Rudbeckia start flaunting their flowers it is going to be an absolute riot of joyous colour.

***

Sharing with Garden Tuesday, Nature Notes, Our Word Tuesday
& Outdoor Wednesday

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - back from vacation

Of course I will have some vacation photos to share but first I want to share some of my impressions upon coming back to brand new garden beds that have been left untended for three weeks. 

After all I have never experienced anything like this before; this is my first year in a new home where I planted roughly 600-800 sq. feet , which may not be a lot to some of you, but is many times anything I have ever tended in the past (that was not wooded).

 I am thrilled with the overall result, although not everything has gone perfectly.
It would be boring if it did.

Hundreds of tiny spent brown blooms are giving the Hardy Geranium a slightly worn-out look.  I was planning on dividing it and putting half under our new cherry tree in the fall, but I suspect a good haircut would work wonders on it now.  

I may never get fruit from my black currant: it needs pruning, again; so when are the berries supposed to grow? 

Upon close inspection there are subtle differences between shades of bright yellow in the Heliopsis, but all of them veritably glow. If anything, these plants look even better than when we left.

The Crocosmia that were buds when I was leaving are just beginning to bloom. Can they really be that slow?  Good thing I think even the buds are beautiful. 

In no specific order: first impressions:

- sunflowers are getting big

- a single, blooming sunflower confirms I can expect an incredible show when 50 spread out along the fence next month!!!

- is that one a weed or a "volunteer" worth keeping?

- the grape vines need to be pushed up, it is like walking through a car wash

- grapes beginning their slow march from bright green to dull red  

- there are still a billion grapes - when do the birds come? 

- will that be how I tell when they are ripe?

- is this one one a weed or a "volunteer" worth keeping?

- Creeping Bellflower really IS that aggressive

- shockingly clear where my watering can with fertilizer hit and missed three weeks ago

- what I had presumed was a Bellflower I had grown from seed turns out to be the most fabulous blue Bachelor's Button I had forgotten I had planted. I am thrilled

- I love blue flowers

- are these ones weeds or "volunteers" worth keeping?

- Lily beetles have taken their toll in the backyard despite my vigilance  

- no sign of them in the front yard, why not?

- must kill lily beetles

- are those ones weeds or "volunteers" worth keeping?

***
Sharing with Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday Fotos and Weekend Flowers 
and of course Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday

CROCOSMIA - the three year wait

When I planted the Lucifer Crocosmia in the fall of 2009, I had not yet bothered to check what zone the Ontario cottage was, I just figured it was close to zone 6 (Toronto), so it was probably zone 5.  

Silly me.

The Crocosmia are not the only thing I planted at the cottage that was not meant for zone 4, but it is one of the few things out of its zone that has managed to not just survive, but to take off - it just took time.  Funnily enough  my neighbour in the city had a similar experience with his Crocs taking 3 years to really bloom well, and that was in zone 6.  

So maybe it is just the nature of the plant?

For the first 3 years the leaves came up with no blooms, (from about half of the bulbs I had planted). Since I like the foliage so much, I left it and let it grow up around the base of the tree with the hammock attached.  

It was interesting even if it didn't bloom.

2 years ago there were some blooms, but not many and they were scraggly, not like the vibrant ones above.

But this past summer they were there in all their glory.

Crocosmia is something I will miss now that I am in a zone 3, but I have a feeling that I may just try them one day here anyway, afterall people here say it is not so hard to push to zone 4...

***

Sharing with: Weekend Flowers on Friday, Blooming Friday, Floral Friday Fotos