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.
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.
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.
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}}
Plants “communicate”
Thu 12 Apr 2007
The heading is “Plants communicate when they’re attached”. Could this be a typo? I assume it would mean attacked? lol Otherwise it leads you to feel sorry for all the plants out there that unfortunately can’t communicate because of their single status.
Anyway, basically it says researchers at Pennsylvania State University are discovering plants send out odors into the air attracting different bugs. If the plant is being attacked by a certain bug, the plant will release a scent to attract the attacking bugs predator.
Here is the full story
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.
No Vacancies Here
Fri 13 Oct 2006
Every fall my old dungeon like basement turns into a tropical oasis filled with tender plants & cuttings. The grow lights that had once lit the way for hundreds of seedlings, now have the purpose to overwinter all my tropical plants. I have zone denial and apparently my space perception is also off because I keep collecting more & more. It’s so easy to fall in love with tropical bloomers, but so hard to find the room to overwinter them. So beyond the basement, the guest bedroom has also been taken over and just about every other nook & cranny. Spaces are booked until at least May 2007.
Heuchera (Coral Bells)
Fri 6 Oct 2006
Heuchera (Coral Bells) are a fantastic plant to add to your shade garden. Last year I had to move my Sempervivum out of the specially made bed because there was too much shade. So happy the trees are finally growing, but this meant I now had a tiered, raised bed for something that can tolerate some shade. Luckily Coral Bells seem to love well drained soil & the shade. A few years ago I lost a couple to rot so I’m really excited about being able to grow these gems in the new raised bed.
Here is my new Coral Bell bed:
To add some interest to the beds I have also include miniature conifers, sedums, dwarf hostas (which proves to be a pricey mistake when you have slugs) and a bunch of other tiny perennial plants. I tried to keep everything smaller (except the miniature conifers)�than the Coral Bells so they wouldn’t get lost.
I think it looks pretty good. Most of the Coral Bells were given to me by my friend Terese. She definitely gave me the Coral Bell bug. I’m now on the lookout for new colors I don’t have and I never knew there were that there were Coral Bells with flowers that tilted upright. Yep, bells that don’t hang down. Very interesting little plants. The bees & hummingbirds love them.
My Coral Bell garden includes…
Heuchera ‘Amber Waves’
Heuchera ‘Can Can’
Heuchera ‘Caramel’
Heuchera ‘Dales Strain’
Heuchera ‘Ebony and Ivory’
Heuchera ‘Fackle’
Heuchera ‘FireFly’
Heuchera ‘Green Spice’
Heuchera ‘Keylime Pie’
Heuchera ‘Magic Wand’ (upright blooms!)
Heuchera ‘Marmalade’
Heuchera ‘Mars’
Heuchera ‘Mocha Mint’
Heuchera ‘Monet’
Heuchera ‘Obsidian’
Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’
Heuchera ‘Peach Melba’
Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’
Heuchera ‘Raspberry Regal’ (upright blooms!)
Heuchera ‘Silver Veil’
Heuchera ‘Strawberry’
Heuchera ‘Velvet Night’
Heuchera ‘Vesuvius’
Heucherella ‘Burnished Bronze’
new additions:
Heuchera ‘Brownies’
Heuchera ‘Peach Flambe’
Knockout Rose
Thu 5 Oct 2006
This spring I fell for a rose in a gallon pot (Lowes) that was labeled ‘Knockout Rose’. Even without a bloom on it I decided to buy it, because with that kind of name - it must be spectacular! Ok, so it was really cheap with a blue dot. When I got home I did a bit of googling. Keep in mind the best looking pictures of the Knockout Roses are from places that are trying to sell them. The .edu sites and personal pages are what I really wanted to look at. Sure enough, the sucker blooms look nothing better than your regular wild rose that the birds crap all over the place.
Now I see locally the roses are all over, like every nursery got a semi shipment of these little beauties, but can’t seem to sell them. Yeah, maybe because they are blooming. :) This morning Parks sends me an announcement that if I order now I’ll get a free ‘Knockout Rose’. I guess that’s one way to get rid of them.
Meanwhile I have mine planted next to a blue conifer. I’m hoping the two colors will compliment each other even if the blooms are so-so. I hope that in a year or so I actually find some wonderful qualities to the plant or it will be shucked in the compost.