Plant-buying spree

Today I went to the annual FONA Garden Fair (it continues tomorrow), looking for garden inspiration.  I came home with a very light wallet and a full cart.

Here's what's in that jumble of plants.

From the FONA sale:

Brunnera 'Jack Frost' - I bought one of these last year, too, but killed it.

Red Banana - another container plant for my "Tropical Paradise Patio".  One of these days (years) I'll finally get around to having the patio rebricked so I can actually use it.  Meanwhile, I'm collecting plants for it.

Meadow Rue - I might have bought one of these last fall, but I couldn't remember for sure, so here's (another) one.

Echinacea 'Sundown' - Unlike my Daffodil Desires, I actually followed through on a musing (from two years ago) to add more colorful echinacea to my garden.

Abelia - I'm missing a shrub in my front border.  This one is tiny, so I hope it doesn't get lost among the grasses while it grows to actual shrub size.

Dahlia - For a front-stoop container

Phlox paniculata 'Tequila Sunrise' - I lost my most floriferous tall phlox over the winter.  This replacement is supposed to be short-statured, so I'll have to move some things around in the garage garden to place it appropriately.  I'm looking forward to the bright color, but it will most likely clash terribly with the mostly-purple theme I have (accidentally) going on over there.

Outside the FONA sale is a space for other plant vendors.

The Melwood Garden booth had some lovely perennials, and good prices.  I bought:

Polemonium (Jacob's Ladder) 'Heavenly Habit' *- I've bought a polemonium just about every year I've been gardening here, and I always kill them.  This is the most vigorous one I've started with, so maybe this time will be different? 

Coreopsis verticillata 'Main Street' (red flowers!) - My Coreopsis rosea has been slowly disappearing from the upper garden, so here's a showier replacement

Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie'- because I can't resist a new-to-me heuchera, and I have one that's only barely alive after the winter.

From the Herb Society, I didn't actually buy herbs, but I did get:

Bloodroot - for the shady side, with the brunnera. I've wanted one of these for a long time.  No idea if I have the proper conditions for it, but I'll find out next year.


Now, my biggest barrier to success when I go all-out with plant purchases is actually getting this stuff in the ground.  I had planned several hours this afternoon to do just that.  Thanks to a poor choice of driving route (excessive traffic), I arrived home just as the skies were opening up for a nice spring thunderstorm.  I did get the Dahlia potted up during the rain.  The other plants, well, maybe I'll get to them in a few days ....



* I've just re-read the tag. This is a selection of Polemonium boreale, not Polemonium reptans, which means I can't put it in my "native-ish" garden.  Into the side yard it goes!

April 2013 Blooms

It's an explosion of spring in my yard right now (finally)!  Most of the daffs are done, thanks to last week's heat wave (I started cutting them down over the weekend - check back next week for this year's final count.), but these doubles in a shady spot are still looking perky:

This white and peach daff is all dried out, making it look quite delicate, I think.

Moss phlox is making purple mats in the back yard and in the front


garage garden

front parking strip

 

The Neglected Terrace is at its peak, with vivid pink moss phlox, euphorbia, and iberis all in flower - a rather garish carpet, but full of energy.



 

Tulips!  They are not reliably perennial in my area.  I planted some red and white ones about 6 years ago that lasted only three seasons.  This is the fourth year for these purple ones, and they've been increasing yearly (originally only two bulbs).  The yellow tulips are at least eight years old (they predate me in this location), and have sent up only foliage (no flower) for the last 3-4 years.  Kinda funny looking right now, but I'm happy to see them again.

 

 

Hellebores are still going.  I like how my newly-flowering plant on the right doesn't droop as much as the parents.

 



Giant snowdrops aren't quite giant enough - they get lost in the spanish bluebell foliage.  Bluebells around the corner (no photo) are already blooming.

More purples and blues:  Mazus reptans creeping between the stepping stones in the side yard, adorable Brunnera flowers (my first brunnera, I got it last year and never put it in the ground), and creeping phlox in the garage bed.

First flowers of the year on the green-and-gold under the Japanese maple

Lastly, not a bloom (yet), but a preview of what's to come:


irises already?  not quite, but soon

(also blooming:  white bleeding heart, periwinkle, flowering pear (nearly done), dandelions everywhere, grape hyacinths, violets also everywhere)

Check out more blooms at May Dreams Gardens.  Happy Spring!

FONA plants

One day at the end of April I took a few hours off work and headed over to the National Arboretum for the annual FONA plant sale.  I didn't go with a list, and just let myself impulse buy.  Dangerous, I know, but I didn't overdo it.

Here's what came home with me:

Abutilon - flowering maple

Dahlia 'Firepot'

White wood aster, Epimedium 'Orange Queen', Brunnera 'Jack Frost', and and Ajuga whose name I've forgotten

Showing restraint, I only took photos of the labels for some of the other plants I thought I wanted.  Maybe next time I'll get these:

Now here it is mid-May, and I don't have these plants in the ground yet.  I've put the abutilon in a pot on the front porch, but the others are still in their nursery pots.  I really wanted to get that done today, because I'll be coming home with more (free, this time) plants tomorrow.  But I was busy digging things up, not planting, as I prepared for tomorrow's plant swap.