The walkway garden has been quite nice this year with a couple of summer additions. There are a few plants that are spent though, and it's time for a refresh.
My bananas (Musa basjoo) did pretty well this year, even though they got little water. We had a mostly rain-free summer, and I don't remember watering these more than one time... if I did at all.
I want to talk about a wildflower that is a boon to the late summer/early autumn garden today: Eupatorium serotinum or "Late Boneset". Most people call this a weed, but I think its multitude of small white flowers is beautiful!
I have more questions, some of which I actually need answers to. Let's start with animals.
Last weekend we attended a small wedding held at a unique location: Soulard Station. Once a Sinclair gas station back when historic Route 66 was the road through St. Louis, it has been renovated and is now a wonderful small event space surrounded by surprisingly lush gardens.
One of the new plants I bought this spring was Hibiscus 'Kopper King'. I thought its coppery red foliage would look great at the end of my "prairie" bed, where the 'Grosso' lavender used to be.
Somehow I was actually aware of the calendar this month and can actually participate in this month's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!
When I'm out and about I typically don't have my DSLR with me, so it's down to the phone camera when I see something that needs to be snapped. Fortunately phone cameras are getting quite good, and as the old photographer adage goes "the best camera is the one you have with you", so I don't hesitate to take shots of something that interests me even a little bit.
Last weekend while I was cleaning up the pond, I realized there was something weird about the Petasites japonicus plants I have at the water's edge. No, not that they bloom with (or before) the crocus and daffodils -- that's a bit strange but not unusual for these plants -- that's what they do.
I have some photos left from my greenhouse visit of last weekend, showing off a couple of plant families with which I'm not very familiar.
If you've been reading my posts for a while (thanks!) you probably know that I like to try a few new plants every year, whether in the veggie garden or in the ornamental beds.
Last summer was the first for the new beds along the driveway. This is where I had lots of spring-flowering bulbs, and once their blooms faded I planted several different annuals. It was a big success both in terms of spring blooms and summer interest, and I'm excited to see what happens this year.
Speaking of emerging blooms, what better way to give you a nice taste of the onrushing spring than some nice, cut flowers?
Remember the Amarylis bulbs I talked about a few weeks ago? They're almost ready to bloom.
This is the last of my "plants I miss" posts, but it starts out with one of the first perennials I grew, 'Sweet Dreams' Coreopsis.
Yesterday I started looking at plants I once grew and now miss. I have another one today, but this one is a bit different.
During the dreary days of winter I spend quite a bit of time going back through my garden photo archives. Not only does it give me a taste of what I'm missing from the spring and summer, but it reminds me of what I had done in the garden in years past.
It's early December, and I'm amazed by the fact that some plants are still green and healthy. Maybe it's because I haven't grown them for a few years so I've forgotten how cold-tolerant they are, but the snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus) are looking better now than they have all year.
Well, the freezing temperatures have held off long enough that two of the Senna alata plants in my yard have started to flower!
Last year I grew cannas for the first time, starting with just a couple of 'Tropicana' rhizomes that I got in a trade and adding a mid-summer bargain with Canna 'Paton'. This year due to the expanding nature of Cannas I had more Tropicana and Paton plants -- I think the number of 'Paton' in my yard tripled -- and I added Canna 'Wyoming', the "regular" green-leaved canna, and this Canna indica 'Madeira':
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