My June Landscape

I have a lot better luck planting in containers than I do planting directly into the soil. While I haven't given up on beautiful flower beds some time in the future, I have thoroughly enjoyed the pots around my house this year.

Here's a peak at what's growing at our house:

The clematis and the knock-out roses are my old standbys. The impatiens and begonias are new additions. The petunias are an annual staple: this year I opted for Super Petunias in place of my usual Wave. The pretty orange flowers grace the pot I planted at the flower swap.

Since I took these pictures, the cannas and caladiums have decided to show themselves.

What's going on in your landscape this week?

Garden Party

My good friend Anne recently hostessed a planting party at her house. She provided the dirt, and everyone attending brought full-sun flowers and a container to plant.

Everyone had a great time and left the party with several pretty pots to take home. Most gardeners brought medium-sized pots, so we had a surplus of flowers necessitating a quick run out for more containers.

Our growing season has barely started, so there's more than enough time for some of you to plan a flower swap of your own. (I recommend having each guest bring half a flat of flowers.)

Coming Home

The last blooms on my lilac.

I haven't enjoyed my landscape more than I have this year. My flowers are all doing well, the lawn looks great and my husband planted some Oakleaf Hydrangeas in the backyard.

I still have room in a few pots, and I am dying to get one of those Drift roses I wrote about in April, so I am heading to Suburban Lawn & Garden at 105th & Roe in Overland Park on Friday to get the last few things on my list AND support a worthy cause.

Friday, from 5-8 p.m., Suburban is donating 10% of every purchase to the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired.

Here are the official details if you would like to join me:

Get your yard ready for summer with CCVI!

Another Bloomin' Fundraiser

5 to 8 p.m.
Friday, May 28
Suburban Lawn & Garden
105 and Roe in Overland Park, Kansas

View and purchase new spring bedding plants, trees and shrubs for your yard and garden while enjoying live music, light hor d’oeuvres and beverages. Suburban Lawn & Garden will donate 10% of every purchase to CCVI.

For more information, contact Jennifer Anderson (816) 841-2284 x2016 or janderson@ccvi.org.

Hope to see you there!

Purple, Spherical Flowers

I have long admired these Alliums in the boulevard of our home's association. What I did not know, was that these flowers are closely related to onions, and, as such, are referred to as "flowering onions." They come in many varieties and colors, and some are more star-shaped than spherical.

To grow them in your garden, plant the bulbs in the fall. I don't know about you, but I think these would be divine (and unique) in a bouquet.

Simple Container Planting

The other day, I was talking to a friend who wanted to plant some containers for her landscape, but didn't know where to start. I let her in on my secret:

1. Go to a nursery and find containers planted with a combination of plants you like.
2. Look at the plastic plant identifiers in the pot.
3. Buy those plants and plant them in a container.
4. (You can probably take a picture of the nursery's container if you are afraid you will forget.)

That's basically what I did with the container I planted above. It is on our front porch in full shade. I purposefully picked plants with varied colors and textures of foliage, but not a lot of blooms. (You can see one tiny purple bloom on the far right. There are three of these trailing plants in the pot that will flower.) Impatiens work well in the shade if you prefer to put more flowers in your pots.

Don't be intimidated because you think you lack creativity - nurseries, garden magazines and your local newspapers can all give you insight on how to put together a nice display.

Tulips

Tulips won't be around for too much longer, but right now they are beautiful. One of my neighbors has a breathtaking bed of tulips every year (pictured). I love the mixture of colors.

A tip for those of you who are new to tulips: they are technically perennials, but the best blooms come the first year. For a spectacular showing, treat tulips as an annual and plant every year.

Apricot Drift

I was thumbing through a landscaping magazine today, and noticed this little gem:

Apricot Drift "Meimirrot" Photo from the Conard-Pyle Co.

Drift roses were introduced by Conard-Pyle, the same company that gave us Knock-Out roses. Drift roses are groundcover varieties with a mature size of 2 feet wide and 2 feet tall. "Meimirrot" (pictured) blooms continuously all season long and disease resistance is exceptional. (Low-maintenance roses. Does it get better than that? I certainly don't think so.)

Try these plants along pathways, hillsides or at the front of a border. They are Hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 5-9.

Are you already envisioning these beauties in your landscape beds? I know I am.

Planning Your Spring Garden?

Scaevola 'Whirlwind Blue', a Prairie Star Selection
Photo from Cornell University

If you are already thinking about what to plant in your garden next year, head on over the the Prairie Star Flowers site for recommendations about the best plants to grow in our area.

From the Prairie Star site:

"The Prairie Star collection consists of annual flowers of great vigor and spectacular bloom throughout the entire summer growing season. To be included in the Prairie Star list an annual flower must perform at the highest level for a minimum of two years in the university bedding plant field research trials conducted by K-State scientist, Dr. Alan Stevens. Prairie Star annuals have the vigor to grow like crazy and bloom like crazy under lazy gardener care. It is the “WOW look at those flowers” list."

The list is extensive and varied. It's well worth the time it takes to go down the list.

Flower Market and Organic Farmer's Market in Leawood

Photo courtesy of Ian Britton.

A new mixed use development in Leawood, features a Flower Market on Thursdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. In addition to the flower market, the event includes story time and gardening classes for little ones.

Because the flower market is outdoors, September 24 will be the last date in 2009. If you make it out in the next two weeks, let me know. I am anxious to visit, but I'm not sure if I will make it this year with my work schedule.

If you enjoy farmer's markets, you should check out Park Place on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. They have a KC Organics Farmer's market featuring organic vegetables, baked goods, bread, honey, fair trade coffee, etc. This event just started August 5 and will run through October 14. I will sneak down there for a preview and let you know what I find.

Visit www.kcorganics.com for more information about the organization.

P.S. Be sure to visit the Paciugo Gelato when you are finished browsing. I was there last weekend and it was delicious!

Wildflowers

I spent some time in the country last weekend. I was enchanted by the flowers growing along the road. Sunflowers abounded as well as delicate pink and yellow blooms.

When I was school-aged riding the bus to school, I would covet the flowers growing spontaneously along my route. I longed to gather bouquets for our table at home.

What a treat it would be to save a little corner of my landscape for wild, native flowers just like these!

Cypress Vine

Photo from Powell Gardens, because I didn't take a picture of my grandma's. If you haven't been to Powell Gardens, check it out.

My Grandma has planted some Cypress Vine in your back yard. She has it growing up a trellis. I did a little research--this plant is a great attractor of hummingbirds and will grow up almost anything. It is also a quick spreader, so it takes a firm hand to keep it in check. I have neither a trellis nor a firm hand, but I am thinking about begging some seeds off my grandma to give it a try, anyway.

Grandma's Garden

When I was home last weekend, I snapped a few photos of my grandma's garden. I love her approach to gardening--it is very wild and natural. She doesn't worry overmuch about weeds. She just has fun with it.

These pictures are from her garden in AUGUST. Imagine what it looks like in the spring!

Grandma uses a lot of containers in her garden. Most of the flowers pictured above are actually planted in pots that are situated close together. Grandma uses a lot of geraniums and petunias in her garden.

I love this combination of geraniums and greenery.

Grandma plants flowers inside her fenced in garden, and also along the outside of the fence. This is one of the "outsiders." It reminds me of poppy mallow, but is much taller. Also, the petals on the bloom don't appear as cupped as the poppy mallow I am familiar with--I will have to ask Grandma to discover its name!

KSU Research Center

Yesterday, I took a tour of the KSU Turfgrass Research & Extension Center. We were on site for a meeting, and the researchers were kind enough to guide us through some of the field trials.

In addition to turf (grass) field trials, they also do floriculture field trials. I took several pictures that I will share with you over the coming weeks.

If you would like to visit the center, they are having an open house tomorrow. You can learn more about the open house here.

To start you off, here is a Zinnia--Benary's Giant Wine--that was growing as part of the full sun annual field trials.

Fresh Cut Flowers

I purchased this bouquet from a local supermarket yesterday. They are from Pendleton's Country Market, a family farm growing vegetables, bedding plants, and cut flowers. Imagine growing these flowers in your own back yard. What a treat to be able to snip a few flowers for your dining room table.

Attached to the bouquet, was this fun little note:
"The night sky has been lighting up with weather related storms this week, but we're also in the middle of lightening bug mating season. Each night our yard is full of the flashing lights they produce to attract a mate..."

I remember catching "fireflies" as a child growing up in the country. What a treat to grow up outside the city!

Purple Coneflower

My purple coneflower are really blooming now. They are in the same bed as the rudbeckia that I wrote about yesterday. They are in an area that is in more sun. I got these (can you guess?) from someone who was cleaning out their garden. I can't wait until they grow a little more and provide even more color. They are a nice backdrop behind my daylilies.

This drought-resistant perennial flower has undergone breeding and now comes in colors other than pink-ish purple. You can find them in white, as well as shades of yellow and orange. Like my rudbeckia, I will deadhead them until fall to encourage continued blooming. Then I will leave any spent blooms for the finches to feed on. The gold finches love them!

Black-eyed Susans

For those of you who are faithful followers of this blog, you have probably figured out that I have gotten the majority of the plants in my yard from other people who are cleaning out their gardens. The same is true for my rudbeckia. I am not sure what cultivar they are. I can tell you that the neighborhood rabbit likes them in the early spring. They have finally started to bloom, so I snapped this picture to share with you. They should bloom for the rest of the summer.

I think the yellow flower color is a nice addition to my back landscape bed. These are planted on the edge of the bed below my redbud tree (out of direct sum, but still in a bright location). The only maintenance that I do to them during the year is to remove the spent blooms. Once we reach fall, I'll leave them in tacts to provide winter interest and food for the finches that visit.

Blanket Flower

This is another picture that I snapped in Minnesota. My grandma has this perennial in her garden. It is called Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata). I think it is very colorful and I am considering adding it to my garden here in Kansas.

Blanket flower are very hardy and adaptable. They are also drought tolerant and reach about 18-24" tall. Consider adding them to a sunny spot in need of color!

Astilbe

My astilbe has finished blooming for the season. I snapped this picture a few weeks ago when they were going strong. My husband brought these plants home last year and they didn't look very good. My husband had removed them for someone who had planted them in a full sun location and the leaves looked very crispy. We planted them and kept them watered. This spring they came back looking great - even better than the ones I had purchased a few years ago!

Since my backyard area is quite shady, I was hoping the flowers would be white. Even though they are a light pink, I think they add nice color because they are planted en masse. Astilbe does well in an irrigated, shady area - just like the one we provide.

Hosta in Bloom

I really liked this picture that I took of my hosta in bloom, so I thought I would share it. We have a variety of hosta in our back landscape area. My favorite is one that is variegated (green leaves with white edges). I believe it is 'Patriot', but I am not sure. I think the dark green with white contrast looks really nice because it is below our large pin oak. The white really stands out because the area is quite shady. (Maybe why I like this hosta in bloom so much.)

Growing up, hosta seemed to be the standard plant for shady areas. There are many, many different hosta out there. Consider checking out some of the newer varieties if you would like to add to your shade garden.

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend.

Oak Leaf Hydrangea

I really like the foliage of my oak leaf hydrangea. I have three of these shrubs growing in my landscape bed in back. They will hide my neighbor's fence as they grow (and provide a nice backdrop to my perennials). Oak leaf hydrangeas can grow 6-8 feet tall by about 4-6 feet wide. The location is somewhat protected because there is a large pin oak in my backyard that lends itself to providing shade and protection to my garden area below.

Even though this plant is often grown for its oak-leafed shaped foliage, when it gets flowers it is an extra special treat. I snapped this picture of one of its blooms. (It is about a foot long!) Bloom time is important when pruning flowering shrubs. This hydrangea blooms on new wood, so I remove last year's flowers in the early spring before it leafs out. (That way I can enjoy them over the winter!)

I highly recommend this shrub for your garden or landscape bed if you have the space. It is a favorite of mine.