Pruning Class

Earlier this week, our friend Julie tipped us off that one of the garden centers was offering a class on pruning. J signed us up, and tonight we went.

Pruning is in the category of Great Mysteries for me, along picking locks, wearing makeup, and playing bridge. Our instructor was a very non-threatening person and she went over the basics.

J and Julie watch a demonstration

It seems to boil down to  a few simple rules. Use a sharp, appropriately sized clippers. That makes sense. You don't want to want to use clippers that are too small to do the job, or ones that just crush the stems. Another thing is to use alcohol to clean them between plants. I never thought of this before tonight, but of course you can spread diseases from one plant to another with your clippers.

She talked about when to prune, and how to know where the new growth would come. It was interesting and useful. And it made me think about one of my bucket list items - becoming a Master Gardener. Maybe it's time to get serious about making that happen.

Garden Report - Peak!

View from the side garden

This has been an extraordinary gardening year, for a couple of reasons. We started early, with an exceptionally mild winter and spring. It has been dry, so even the things that are in the wetest part of the garden, but don't have any business being there are having a good year. And the youngest part of the garden, is three years old now. So things are well-established and ready to be divided.

Beautiful day lilies!

All the day lilies are are blooming now, including my favorites, the spider shaped ones. I think we must have 15 different day lilies represented. Last year I did an arrangement of all the different day lilies in our gardens, and it was an amazing assemblage, if I do say so myself! When Joanne is home again, I think I'll reprise it!

I love the color of this one.

From now on until Fall arrives, we will mostly be pruning and deadheading. I have a couple of echinacea to plant -- red ones! And two cups and saucers, blue of course, too. I'd love to add a garden to the front yard, and another on the side of the house. But I suspect those will be a very hard sell to Miss Joanne, who is much better at stopping to smell the roses than I am.

End of May Garden Report

With our mild Winter and extremely early Spring, I guess the garden is about a month to six weeks ahead of where it "should" be. Well, there aren't really any "shoulds" in gardening -- it is what it is. And this year it's early.

Tree Peony, bachelor buttons, and the white climbing rose

Our mature tree peony has 20 blooms on it. It is amazing. I can't wait for the two we planted this year to get on with it. This picture shows our fountain - an anniversary gift to each other about five years ago - the climbing white rose, which is loaded with blooms, some of the bachelor buttons, and the tree peony.

Newly painted bench in the meditation garden

Every year there is some sort of building project that seems to need to be done. This year's project is the garden bench in the meditation garden. Joanne bought this a few years ago. It's one of those metal and wood benches you see everywhere. I guess we have had it about four years. A couple of years ago it started to look pretty beat up, so she took it all apart, sanded it back, and polyurethaned it. It was difficult because the metal parts of the bench are cast iron, and they are HEAVY! We always wrap the bench up with a tarp and bungie chords. But this year, when we unwrapped it, it looked terrible again. J wasn't really looking forward to taking it all apart again. She decided that this time she should paint it. So when John and Nic came up for a few days, John helped her with the project. He was really wonderful. You can't imagine how much easier a job is when it's a young (strong) guy helping you! I love the way the bench came out, and I think I'll like it even when the paint starts to look "old". I tried to talk J into distressing the paint, to speed the look along. But no luck!

Clematis "Crystal"

The clematis are coming along this year. I think we will probably buy a couple more to help them get to the level of coverage we want quicker. J says she is a little disappointed, but I figure it will take a few years, and it has only been 2 really. J's favorite clematis is one called "Crystal" - it really looks like a lotus, I think. The picture isn't a very good one. The color of the clematis is a very very pale blue, almost transparent.

I hope you are having a wonderful time in your garden too!

May Garden Report

Petunias. I love this color combo.

Well, Miss J was off to South Carolina, helping with grandbabies last week. While she was away, I worked like a demon in the garden. As a result, I am now to the part of the gardening year where I describe our state as being, "almost finished." Almost finished is some kind of weird gardening calculus where you get closer and closer but never actually finish. My list of "to-dos" includes:

• Feed the roses (we have 9 bushes)
• Move a day lily
• Buy and plant 1 or 2 tree peonies (depends on if I can convince J that we really need 2!)
• Plant some small black-eyed Susans so I have more flowers in the fall
• Weed
• Cut back the spent tulips
• Tie up the spent daffodils
• Plan 30 little zinnias that will grow to 30"
• Buy and plant some smaller zinnias
• Move the birdbath
• Unwrap and set up the fountain
• Buy and install 8 -12 bags of mulch
• Deliver the bachelor's  buttons I dug out to our neighbor

And that's just this week's list! 

April Garden Report

We are enjoying a very early spring here in Rochester. Well, I guess I should modify that statement a little. Here is Rochester, we enjoy good weather very very much. But we always have that sensation that a meteor is speeding towards earth when we do. There is just that little bit of, "Oh wow, we are going to pay for this!" in the back of our minds.  My garden, however, has no guilt, and just blooms it heart out when the weather turns warm.

From what we refer to as the "plum tree".

Last Fall I put in about 150 new bulbs, mostly daffodils, but also some tulips, allium, and lilies. I put in 50 tulips -- a lily form tulip -- in front of the house. They are going to be the last of the bulbs to bloom, I think, because it is shady and cool there. That's ok with me. I like the blooming season to be spread out throughout the season. Most of the bulbs were daffs because I decided I wanted to represent all of the eight different types of daffodils in my yard. I get my bulbs from Zimmerman and McClure, by the way, and their stuff is absolutely the best! You can find them on the web here. Be sure check them out.

I won't tell you how much this cost.

Most of the daffodils were something like $6 for 6, but this one -- my absolute favorite -- was a lot more. No, I'm not going to say. Go look it up for yourself. I love the way the white petals have yellow at the centers. It looks like either the cap is reflecting on the white, or has somehow rubbed off on the white. The effect in person is stunning.

J's favs

Joanne's favorite this year are the daffs with peach colored cups. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like those, so I didn't plant very many. But I'm going to add another dozen or so this year. Also, I planted these outstanding peach tulips that have yellow at the base of the flower. I think a bunch of those with the peach and white daffodils would be just amazing. I'll be doing a bouquet next spring, you can be sure!

I got about 100 of the lily form tulips, and as I said, only about half could go in front of the house. So I have them spread about. I got an assorted group. I love the two-tone jobs. When they open up all the way, they are just spectacular! J seems to like the traditional shaped tulips better, but I am pretty fond of these.

Robin's nest in our climbing rose. Sweet!

One exciting thing to share with you -- a mama robin has built a next in one of our climbing roses. I saw her going back and forth yesterday evening, caring in bits of grass and such. I can't wait until the eggs are laid. I want to climb up and take a picture of the eggs in the next. Of course, I'll have to be very careful and will abort the mission if it seems to distress the bird at all. So sweet! This rose is an extremely prolific bloomer. I can't wait until the nest is wreathed in blossoms!


I hope you all are having a lovely spring, and will be able to get yourselves out into the garden soon!