J is for Joe Pye Weed, Eutrochium purpureum. Joe Pye Weed is one of the plants I have chosen for my new garden because it tolerates wet clay sites so well that it can be used as part of a rain garden. But that is not the only reason. Many people considered Joe Pye Weed as nothing more than a road side weed. However, nowadays we realize that this native plant with its showy tall flower inflorescences in…
I is for Irises. I fell in love with Siberian irises. A white one and a blue one were growing at our house in Heath when we bought it. They had not had any care for a couple of years and yet they bloomed looking like clouds in the sky - effortless. Siberian irises are not particular about soil or watering so I never realized how much they liked wet sites. One year I noticed a big clump of…
H is for Hemerocallis - otherwise known as daylily. This is my day for resting my typing fingers and showing you some pretty pictures. Ann Varner was one of many hemerocallis growing on The Daylily Bank. I have moved from this garden, but I did take a few divisions with me to Greenfield. And that's it for today's A to Z Challenge. Hemerocallis which mean beautiful for a day - and very little work for the…
A is for achillea, a wonderful perennial that has an ancient history. It is named after Achilles, the legendary Greek hero. He was the son of the sea goddess Thetis and the mortal king Peleus. Thetis, wanting to make her baby invulnerable dipped him into the River Styx. She had to hold him my his heels which never became wet leaving that spot vulnerable. Hence comes our saying that someone might have a weakness, an ‘Achilles heel.’ The…
On this Garden Blogger's Bloom Day in Greenfield, Mass, still boasting only a Zone 5 rating, my very late blooming pink chrysanthemums are still blooming. We have had frost, and some rain and wind, but these dependable beauties are still going. They are the only thing blooming outside.We are still not having freezing night temperatures as a regular thing, though it does get down below 40 degrees. This prostrate rosemary was taken out of a pot and put…
Herbaceous peonies are the most glamorous flowers in my garden, so lush and big, and pink, of course. I have planted mostly late varieties so that they will still have some bloom when the roses begin to bloom. That way, if for any reason, the roses are not doing what I want them to be doing on the last Sunday in June, the peonies will delight visitors who have come to the Annual Rose Viewing. You might have…
I am a day late with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, but yesterday was spent moving the last big items from Heath to our new house and garden in Greenfield. This post records what little is in bloom in Heath on my last Heath bloom day and what is in bloom in my very unfinished garden in Heath. Heath Garden These autumn crocus still blooming in all their weedy glory. They are in a bad spot for display -…
Bloom Day in Heath Bloom Day in Heath has wild asters and cultivated asters and autumn is in full swing. The photo above shows a tangle of Japanese anemone 'Robustissima', annual cosmos and Achillea The Pearl. But there is more. I will let dependable the Thomas Affleck roses that are blooming less floriferously - The Fairy, the Meidelland roses, and Champlain, one of the Explorer roses. I couldn't resist including this photo of a surprise foxglove -…
Julie Abramson now lives with a graceful shade garden, but it was not always so. Like so many of us, Julie never had much interest in her mother’s garden when she was young, but over the years she has tended three very different gardens of her own. Her first garden in Albany was cheerful. “I was inexperienced, but this garden was very floriferous. I knew nothing about trees and shrubs,” she told me as we sat admiring her…
The Heath Fair is over. Facebook is full of photos of kids going off to college and kindergarten for the first time. You can hardly get into the supermarkets for the ranks of rigidly potted containers of mums by the doors. It must be fall. Time for an autumnal arrangement. Chrysanthemums are certainly the iconic autumnal plant, but other plants can also perk up our summer weary gardens or containers. I took a tour around the area…