My shipment of ornamental grasses arrived packaged very well and looked great, but then Haley managed to run off with one. It was badly chewed, all dirt shaken from its roots but I planted it anyway. She's such a little monster.
The List of Ornamental Grasses
Acorus gramineus Variegatus
Calamagrostis acutiflora Avalanche
Calamagrostis acutiflora Overdam
Carex elata Bowles Golden
Carex morrowii Ice Dance
Carex oshimensis Evergold
Deschampsia cespitosa
Miscanthus sinensis Bluetenwunder
Miscanthus sinensis Gracillimus
Miscanthus sinensis Kaskade
Miscanthus sinensis Little Kitten
Miscanthus sinensis Little Zebra
Miscanthus sinensis Malepartus
Miscanthus sinensis Morning Light
Miscanthus sinensis Mysterious Maiden
Miscanthus sinensis Nippon
Miscanthus sinensis Puenktchen Little Dot
Miscanthus sinensis Purpurascens Autumn Red
Miscanthus sinensis Rigoletto
Miscanthus sinensis Sarabande
Miscanthus sinensis Silberfeder
Miscanthus sinensis Strictus
Miscanthus sinensis Super Stripe
Miscanthus sinensis Variegatus
Miscanthus sinensis Zebrinus
Panicum virgatum Shenandoah
Phlox paniculata David
Of course the Phlox isn't a grass but we lost our phlox a few years ago and that particular one has an amazing aroma, so I bought a replacement.
It looks like a pricey purchase but I actually bought these last fall during their year end sale when all the grasses were so discounted it came out to only a couple bucks per grass. I opted for the spring delivery because at the time I was too busy with other stuff. I feel like a stinker because of that option I got their spring inventory at the fall price. Very happy with the roots on these wonderful plants.
My garden is now full of ornamental grasses!!
On another note: Yesterday I finished spray painting the layout for the new walk way. For days Cliff has been saying, "This is BS. Blah, Blah It won't look good." After he could visually see what has been in my head he admitted that it looked pretty cool. At this point I'm really surprised he still doubts that I know what I'm doing. tee hee hee I guess I can't fool him, but it is turning out rather well. :)
Related Links
University of Illinois Extension - Ornamental Grasses - Understanding Ornamental Grasses, How to Plant, Care and Maintenance, and Types of Ornamental Grasses.
Ornamental Grasses
Some Bloomers
It's overcast and 53 degrees right now, which is probably as good as it's going to get today. I started moving rocks around to the new beds but I got sidetracked by a few bloomers. So instead of working on the new beds, I took some pictures. I don't know if we'll see a frost so better shoot the flowers before they are mush, since the lows have been in the 30's.
Large tulips that we bought from Brecks 9 years ago. 
A miniature thrift that is in my miniature conifer garden.
Here is one of my favorite bleeding hearts with yellow foliage.
Rock Island Horticulture Club
or perhaps I should say Rock Island Horrorticulture Club? One of the many things I have learned about gardeners is just because you love gardening doesn't mean you're necessarily a wildlife lover, nor does it mean you're exempt from moronic behavior. This morning I was excited to attend the Rock Island Horticulture Club spring sale but soon I was an unwilling audience member to barbaric and inappropriate behavior. A bucket containing two mice was dumped onto the entrance and a dog was gleefully allowed to playfully, slaughter the animals.
Now I understand that mice cause havoc in a greenhouse but the disposal was so inappropriate!! News flash - torturing and killing small animals at the only entrance/exit isn't usually good for business. The lady in front of me had to look away in disgust & she made a comment about the poor mice. I can honestly say that the Rock Island Horticulture Club has lost at least two long standing customers.
Satan's Kiss & Wet Dog Smell
I started a bunch of peppers this year, but I forgot to write down a row so now I'm not sure what was written down correctly and which line was skipped. I'm sure it was the pepper, Satan's Kiss, that wasn't included ( i think) so I'll end up planting them all. Maybe once they start bearing fruit I'll be able to tell what is what by a pepper line up.
The one year I grow enough pepper plants to share and I don't have a clue what I am offering. Ughh
It's raining here and temps are starting to cool down. The dogs weren't in a hurry to come in so they are now drenched and the kitchen has muddy paw prints stamped across it. The smell of wet dogs should be bottled and used as an interrogation technique.
No More Lawn
The new beds are really starting to shape but I'm still unsure when I should start planting since we are expecting cooler temps. Every time I look into the dogs area I see something new that has been destroyed by the girls so I really think it's going to be the lesser of two evils. Frost or beagles?
Planted my new daylilies and have started setting out the tomato plants. It's going to be awhile before I can plant them but they need to start hardening off. The air is so much better than the musty basement anyway. The flat leaf parsley that I started from seed looks great. We love to cook with it but we also use it as a host plant for swallowtail butterflies. I've started so many many plants that we should have enough for both.
If I can pull everything together that the yard should look really amazing this year. It has evolved into a large garden instead of a couple beds around the parameter of a large grass area.
Well, I'm going to get out there and enjoy this beautiful day.
The Move
The blog moved, I didn't but what a headache! So here I am. Aug. was the last time I posted. Wow, I can't believe that. Well, a lot has happened as it should.
I got two beagle puppies last fall that ended up being two very sick puppies. After a lot of money and heartache they finally are better and are able to eat without being ill. My bad, I actually bought them from a pet store so there is a good chance they were from a puppy mill. I know, I know I should have went to a shelter. What can I say? I wasn't actually looking for a dog but then I saw one & fell in love. Her sister was attached to tail (literally hanging from the other dog when I picked her up) so I figured I needed them both. Crazy idea because I totally forgot that the cost of food & vet bills will now be x 2. Oh well, we really didn't need that new car.
Since I have new, rowdy puppies I'm giving up a lot..well, yes a lot but really a city lot of our yard. They need a place to run and I have too many plants that are toxic to chewers so I'll be moving my garden once it's safe to do so. Now the rest of our yard will be down to a single path & the rest gardens.
So I have to combine 100's of plants that I have in the dogs yard-to be and try to come up with space for all the seeds I've started. I've tried to stick with veggies this year and maybe a few flowers. I started 6 different kinds of tomatoes & 6 peppers. I would love to do more but no space. We're going to get a deep freeze so I can start freezing more.
I'm really excited that its almost spring!! Can't wait to see green.
Humid Weather
Thu 2 Aug 2007
It’s a real muggy morning so I tried to get a lot done early. Planted the 6 boxwood bushes along the sidewalk border and pulled a few weeds. Looking through the plants I still need to plant there doesn’t seem to be many left, but at the same time I’m not sure where to put any of them. I think the rest of the annuals will be stuffed creatively in pots. Get rid of all the iris and all I’ll have a holding bed for my trees.
The blue jays are constantly begging (or demanding?) for peanuts when I’m outside, which is kind of nice. My squirrel seems to have disappeared.
Hawk victim or peanut overdose.
Little Water Feature
Wed 1 Aug 2007
I saw this old postcard on ebay and had to have it. Not the postcard, but I’m lusting the waterfall because it would look amazing running down our ravine. Won’t ever happen but the dream keeps me from thinking about my foot.
My foot has been giving me problems so there isn’t much gardening going on. I’m waiting till the weeds are waist high so I don’t have to far to bend, nor will I have to scoot around on the ball of my foot while doing garden squats. I’ll have a lot of clean up to do once I’m feeling better. Until then here is a pretty hardy hibiscus blooming that I grew from seed… not all is bad.
Baby coons & Japanese Beetles
Tue 3 Jul 2007
The biggest threat to my little oasis seems to be baby raccoons and Japanese Beetles. Oh, the baby coons are so cute but they are such curious little furballs and get into everything. They strip the leaves off our tiny ginkgo, pull the peppers from the plants and they love to dig holes everywhere ..oh did I mention pot tipping? Every morning I’m not sure what mess I’ll wake to but it’s still worth it having the wildlife. I’m surprised how many people haven’t seen a raccoon, groundhog, chipmunk or opossum in person. Now the Japanese Beetles are a bit of wildlife I could do without. What type of animal eats them? I’ll take two.
I’m still creating more beds. This is my new coral bell bed/mini hosta bed.
I’m so loving these dwarf/mini hostas but they don’t last long if there are earwigs or slugs around. I was thinking of setting out beer traps, but liquor and raccoons sounds like a bad combo. I also have gotten a few large hosta from a collector the split his. I’m not sure the area I have ready receives too much sunlight, so how silly is this; I purchased some shade cloth. Shade cloth tents, oodles of plants still sitting in containers. At any moment I expect the city to fine me for running a nursery in a residential area.
Busy Planting
Thu 31 May 2007
I’m really horrible updating this thing. By the time I get in from outside I’m too tried to update my blog, let alone update all the software I’m suppose to be doing. I guess that’s what these rainy days are for.
Speaking of rain, wasn’t last weekends storm a riot? I don’t think its rained like that for a couple years. Of course we were traveling in it. I went to Sunnyfield Greenhouse & Gardens in Galva, IL. The plant area was very nice, plants very healthy, not sure where the gardens were. I saw a couple display beds as you enter the nursery so I guess those were it. Prices were good and unlike Hornbakers the plants weren’t a tiny plug among a gallon pot of dirt. I bought a couple perennials and a few annuals for the porch. It was fun but I’m not sure if we’ll take the trip again since Wallaces & GardenTown seem to offer a nice selection. It’s not like I really need anything anyways.
Spent the rest of the weekend with family that flew in from California.
Garden is really popping with color.
Poppy Bloom
Tue 15 May 2007
It rained this morning so I’ve been out pulling weeds from the wet earth. Amazing how the little buggers seem to grow overnight when we get rain. My poppies are starting to bloom and Gary’s poppies are blooming after three years of sitting there. The picture doesn’t do it justice. The flower blossoms are huge. Thanks Gary! :) I can’t wait to see what other colors open up but orange is my favorite.
Terese’s peony has been blooming like crazy too. It’s one of my favorites as well.
Thank goodness I didn’t plant the two near each other.
I’ve been pretty busy planting all my plant sale finds and packing up plants for friends. I had to dig up one of my new maple trees because it started stressing for no apparent reason. I didn’t find a pest at the roots so I’m not sure what went wrong. I’m keeping it in a container until it shows improvement and then I’ll probably plant the container in the fall.
I received my lilac order of 5 different lilacs that say they need something like 15 feet of spacing except the dwarf variety. What a joke. I’m not sure what I was thinking but surely they’ll stay dinky until we move? Might have to bonsai the little guys.
One of the neighborhood children has discovered that their favorite toy is their dogs squeaky toy. Imagine listening to three hours of that while gardening. There is also a new puppy in our neighborhood, cute little hound dog that sounds like a sea lion or walrus barking.
So we’ve decided the perfect location would be an acreage in between a cemetery with no available plots and a public library.
Snake House
Thu 3 May 2007
We have a snake living in one of our birdhouses. Kind of cute, I guess.
I’ve been busy planting as much as I can, ignoring that in 2005 we had temps in the 20 & 30’s. It’s easy to get ahead of myself with the warm temps we’ve had.
I bought a few plants at the Rock Island Horticulture plant sale last weekend. It was one of those times when I went in thinking that I really didn’t need anything, but left needing a uhaul. Ugh, my family’s packrat tendencies are not in my home, but they sure show up in the garden. Now I’m lugging pots of stuff in and out the garage until I find space.
I’m hardening off the flats of flowers I started from seed and digging up volunteer plants that have self seed. I can’t kill them knowing somebody out there is actually buying the same thing. I’m going to give them to a plant sale or send them off in ginny’s package. Yeah, I haven’t done that yet. {{{blush}}}
I was notified by a nursery that they are sending the lilacs I ordered last fall. huh? Must have been a full moon. Otherwise I have been very good with the online spending. After the rest of the local plant sales are over I won’t be purchasing anything more for the garden. Now trading is another story.
Quad Cities Plant Sales
Fri 27 Apr 2007
Attention Q-C peeps!
The Times has listed the dates and times of plants sales around the Quad Cities area.
Plant Sale Dates & Times
Time to buy more plants. {{drooling on keyboard}}
You can call him Harry
Wed 25 Apr 2007
So my little squirrel loves to pose, right? While gardening, I’ll often look over to see him in the most adorable spot. Sitting on a rock, peaking out of some flowers or begging with those cute brown eyes. I thought I would take advantage of his adorable self & shoot a few pics.
It turns out he is also one of the most uncooperative animals I have ever photographed.
But he is magical. Not only can he levitate his body, but he can also make a 2lb bag of peanuts disappear. I’ve changed his name to Houdini.
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Weather here is wonderful. :) Yeah, it’s raining and it’s awesome. I was afraid I would have to gripe about a drought since we were 2 inches short for rainfall, but it’s been raining buckets. This is exactly what all my plants need. I bet the hostas will really start to come up once they get this needed drink.
New Roses
Tue 17 Apr 2007
The last couple days have been absolutely gorgeous with the highs in the 60’s and 70’s so I’ve been out weeding and planting a few cheap roses I bought at Farm & Fleet. For $1.99 I don’t care if use them as annuals. Hopefully they will come back next year, but that’s really cheap for blooms. I picked up Queen Elizabeth, Angel Face, Sunny Delite, Camelot, Red Gold, Intrigue and John F. Kennedy.
Besides planting I’ve been doing a lot of ripping out. Naturalizing bulbs that I got with a Brecks sampler five years ago have been taking over my flower beds. I must have dug thousands of them and there are still so much more. Meanwhile I have this little black squirrel that follows me around everywhere and one of these days I’m sure he’s going to hop onto my back. I am at fault for offering it a peanut a couple days ago and I guess in return he’s decided to become my pocket pet. lol And I thought I would become one of those crazy old cat ladies. I call him my rat.
I’m going to create a new garden in the back part of our yard with some plants I need to move. Right now I’m in lawn negotiation with Cliff. I find it a bit confusing that someone who gripes & moans about taking care of the grass can so fiercely not want to give it up. I’m trying my best to help him out.
April snow showers bring..
Thu 12 Apr 2007
…chilled tulip tips.
I think this year I’m going to be blessed with the ugliest blooming tulips ever. Snow on top of the bitter temps a few days ago have made all new growth MUSH. This only confirms my belief that a rock garden is the way to go. Rocks look good despite whatever the weather is and the bunnies have a hard time chewing them down.
The only “dirt” I’ve been able to play with is contained in a jiffy pellet. Break out the champaign, seedlings have set their second set of leaves. Woohoo! If I wasn’t still wrapping myself in blankets I might really think it was spring.
The only seeds I haven’t been able to germinate is Dandy’s Lions Tail. :( Bummer, I had a tail theme going on with the bunny’s tail grass, donkeys tail.. and all the other tails that wander my garden.
Oh my gosh I’ve gotten inspired to write more poetry for the Dear Harley, Dear Harley poem. It’s John Prine Does it to me all the time.
Enjoy the snow everyone. It will probably be 90 degrees soon.
gotta go!
Mating or Murder
Sat 24 Mar 2007
For the last couple nights I have been awaken by horrible animal shrieks that I think are coming from raccoons. It’s the kind of noise that sets your hair on end and makes the dog goes berserk. I don’t know if a predator has moved into the neighborhood, a neighbor is being a jerk, or this is the spring sounds of love.
In other news my seedlings are growing like gangbusters. I have two more trays to start and then I will be done for the season. There was a lot more I wanted to add but at this point I really don’t know where I’ll end up planting half the seedlings I have. A 5′ x 5′ section of the new dry creek bed is going to be turned into a boulder fountain. We got the idea from the QCCA Flower & Garden Show to have a water feature that recycles the water over & over, rather than a pond. I would love to have a pond someday but I can’t see keeping curious paws out of it. This way we’ll have a nice sound of a fall without the pond to take care of.
Ok imagine sunken into the ground & without the sneeze shield. I’ll have more pictures from the show as soon as I have the time.
Unthawed
Fri 16 Mar 2007
For awhile anyway. After a day in the 70’s our weather is back in the 40’s. Expecting some rain and snow but I have hopes of nice weather soon. I would really like a few in the upper 50’s with some sun, so I can cleanup the gardens a bit. I haven’t taken inventory of everything but it looks like my new Japanese Maples pulled through.
I’m going to have a bunch of plants to share this year. Anyone know of a plant swap around the Quad Cities area?
Japanese Maples
Fri 17 Nov 2006
The last order of Japanese Maples came today by USPS. I was so surprised to see how large the boxes were that I almost felt bad for our mail lady. The trees arrived in great shape and I can’t help be tickled because I really thought I would get 10 inch sticks bundled up in one package. Once planted the smallest tree ( Japanese Maple Tamukeyama) was around 3 feet tall and the tallest trees ( Japanese Maple Orange Dream) were over 5 feet. The size and health of the trees really made me feel so much better about the purchase. I’m embarrassed to admit it was a combination of a full moon & a coupon that made the shopping spree ever happen.
Luckily for me, the weather wasn’t that bad so I was able to plant them right away. I had to lay chicken wire down on the surface just incase the nursery feeds their plants with bone meal. I’ve learned the hard way that critters love to scratch a new rootball to pieces. I had an old bag of mulch around so I think they should be good for the winter. I’ll probably have to water them for a few weeks but we seem to be getting enough moisture.
One of the Japanese Maple Orange Dream will be planted near my future coral bed garden. The others were planted wherever I could find space. I really hope we move next summer before the trees grow to large, because I would like to take them with.
I’ve heard that plants find it difficult to grow under Japanese Maples. Does anyone find this to be true?
Sugarcoated Garden
Sun 12 Nov 2006
Jack Frost wandered through the garden last night, leaving every plant looking like it had been dipped in sugar.
Sedum spurium 'Fuldaglut'
Even though the cold was a bit of a shocker to wake up to, I couldn’t help appreciate the beauty.
Candytuft (Iberis Umbellata)
Heuchera 'Petticoats'
When I have the time, I’ve been keeping myself busy packaging up seeds I saved this summer. Even though it turns out to be a much bigger project than planned, it’s so rewarding to share seeds with others. I can’t imagine my garden without the contributions I’ve gotten over the years. I may not remember the botanical name of each and every plant, but I can remember everyone who shared a piece of their garden with me.
Oh! I also found large plastic cups to use for my brug cuttings. So I guess I’ll be chopping my brugs down and starting an additional batch of plants. All the other cuttings are doing well except I lost one rose. I’ll have to try again in the spring.