Almost a Week Late for Wildflower Wednesday

I didn't get a post done last month for Gail's Wildlflower Wednesday, but planned to for January, so I am going to go ahead and do it, even though I'm late.  I seem to be late for lots of things.

Even though the winter has been very mild this year, that doesn't mean there are any blooms yet.  There are a few hellebore buds, but they are not wildflowers.  It was almost 70 today, so I enjoyed taking foliage and seed photos after work.

I can't think of the scientific name for this native heuchera, but it was quite small when I planted it, and I am pleased with its growth.  I'm thinking the leaves were green in the summer.  

I've shown the wild quinine in almost every WW post.  I had never heard of it before last spring, and I am excited to see how it and the other one I planted grow.

This is helenium hoopseii, which is a native variety of sneezeweed, but in looking to see its range, found out it's not native to Nebraska.  Still, I got it from our arboretum.  It prefers to be moist.  That must be why I planted it near the Culver's root and another plant that likes moisture, too.  It looks happy so far.

The seedheads of the Joe Pye weed look pretty against the blue sky.

The rattlesnake master seedheads also look nice with the blue sky in the background.

The pasque flowers are one of the first spring flowers to come up and bloom.  I forgot to check to see if the ones I planted in the front yard are starting to come up yet.  I am excited to see how well they do.

It sounds like this winter has been mild in a lot of places.  I wonder what affect that will have on the plants and critters in the spring and summer.  I just hope that whatever comes up now, will not be harmed by colder weather that could yet come.  We need more moisture, too.  I suppose I should get some water on the new plants out there.  Some of the spots are bare dirt.  I hope the little roots are OK under there.

Behind the Blog Title, in a Hodge Podge Way

Yesterday, I found time to visit blogs in my sidebar.  While catching up on a few blogs, I came across a post written by Shady Gardener telling the story about the title of her blog.  She was joining in on a meme started by Monica, from Garden Faerie's Musings  and Bren, from BGgarden from December 5th.  If there was a prize for the most scatterbrained blogger, I'm pretty sure I would win it.  I clicked on my link, "blogging" to see what I'd written already about my blog title, and found out I had written two posts in October for my blog turning three years old.  One of my most recent posts was done because I had come across Catherine's from A Gardener in Progress post about her third blog anniversary, and I thought I had forgotten to write about mine in October.  Oh, my!  Well, I have also written about my title, but I am going to again, because I had fun going through old photos and wanted to post them.  I decided to show some changes in the front yard over the years of blogging, mostly from the views of or from the corner, since that is how the blog got its name.

Hey, I just went to my very first post, and here it is:

It's time for bed!

I have been thinking about starting a blog to help me keep records of my gardening exploits and to help me make plans.  I finally got it set up after an hour and a half.  I am slow and sometimes have trouble making up my mind.  I just want to get this done to make sure it works.  If you buy a new car, you don't just leave it parked, you need to drive it!  

Part of what took me so long, was the names I was choosing for my blog were not available.  My choices were:

1.  My Corner

2.  My Corner Lot

3.  Corner Gardener

4.  Corner Garden

Each of these had variations with my name, but I couldn't use an underline symbol or apostrophe in the address for the blog.  Here I was, so tickled that I'd thought of the name for my blog very quickly after realizing I'd have to have a name, and I had to think of something else.  

Then, when I was writing about me, I didn't realize it was going to be on my blog page, I thought there would be a link to it.  I may go in and change that tomorrow.  Well, here I am, blog!  We'll see if I keep you up.  

Looking back, I wish I would have put more thought into a title, but, since we live on a corner lot, I got stuck on that.  I had even thought of playing with, "My Corner of the World" but didn't think of a variation.  A number of people have come to my blog doing a search for corner gardens.  The garden is on the corner of the street, not in a corner between structures.  Sorry searchers!

This photo is from May or June of 2008.  I have already done a post about the painting of the fire hydrant.

This is from the other direction, in June.

I've shown this, taken the first week of June before, too.  This is the only time we've rented a sod cutter.  It was harder than Larry thought it would be.  I was tickled to get this new area to plant.  It started out to be for large annuals, but there aren't many places left for them.  I do have some great self sowers in there, though.

The photos are in order by date, but I forgot to write the dates down as I was exporting.  I'm thinking this was early July, 2008.  The little area to the left of the sidewalk had been put in after the neighbors across the street had to have their water main replaced a few years before this, which involved digging in our yard.  There were some tense moments deciding how large the area was going to be.  It was smaller than I wanted, and larger than Larry wanted.  Still, the next year, he offered up the area on the other side of the sidewalk, so it would be symmetrical.

I was pleased to find a red crocosmia, that I planted on the back left corner in this bed, but it did not survive winter.  It is hardy one zone warmer than ours.  It sure was pretty that year, though.

 

 This must be from August or September of 2008.

 The next ones are from April of 2009.  I had used mini blinds to mark where I planted things in the new bed so I wouldn't plant over them.

From the other direction, you can see the old shape of the curb planting area.

This is July of 2009.  The different varieties of perennial geraniums did very well against the curb.

We had gotten plenty of notice that we would need to remove plants within 18 inches of the curb, and that we would be given 2 weeks notice before the work was to begin.  I probably did more than one post about all of this.  It was a very good experience, considering all the worrying I had done.  I had taken the plants out ahead of time, so they wouldn't have to be moved in the heat of summer, and replaced them with rose moss plants.  The work took place in August.

I moved the rose moss to other places, which I was glad to be able to do.  Most plants wouldn't survive such a move in the heat.

The guys were awesome!  They let me dig my own dirt and put it in containers to put back in place so I wouldn't have to have anyone else's dirt.  One young man even helped me finish digging, and a couple helped me put it back.
 

Knowing this work was going to be done, and because the grass next to the curb wasn't doing so well, Larry had asked if I wanted to extend the planting area.  I was giddy, because we had argued over the size of the original bed.  When the time came he said he wasn't sure, but he ended up saying if I was going to do it, to find someone else to till it.  I called a number from the paper, and someone came out the same day!  I had to check with the curb crew to make sure that was OK with them.  Larry decided it was OK with him, as well.  The milkweed had just come up that year as a volunteer.  It sure has spread since then.

The next two must be the end of August or September.

As I was working on this post, I realized I didn't have any from 2010.  This was in June, and the next one, July.

 It is now, April of 2011.  Seeing the photos of the silver maple tree coming down brought back the sadness we felt about losing it.  It is good that it was taken down when it was, though, because we had some storms where a number of trees fell into homes.  There is a good chance this would have.

 These guys were great to work with, too.  They were very careful around the flower beds.

I think the next two were taken in June.

The next ones are from August.

I have enjoyed taking lots of photos of the house for my header photos.  I try to include Heidi and Larry with the grandsons when possible.  Oh, and the fire hydrant makes a regular appearance.  This is from September.

I think this is October.  The joe pye weed had gone to seed, but the kiss me over the garden gate was in full bloom.

Here's the first snow we had, I think, the first week of December.  It didn't last long.  A number of us have been wanting more snow and seasonal temps, hoping for a warm spring.
 

The next two were taken today in the cold.  We did get about an inch of snow a couple nights ago.

I would rather live in a more private place, with a big back yard, instead of all the chopped up places we have, in full view of the street.  When I was in my twenties, my dream was to live on an acreage, but Larry convinced me neither of us is handy enough.  I will be content, though, because I talked Larry into moving here 13 years ago.  This is the house he grew up in, and he has no plans to move.  The nicest thing for me will be that when the loan for the kitchen remodel is paid, the house will be paid for.  I am hoping to retire in the next 7 years, get the place organized inside, and be in the garden as much as I want to.  I never would have imagined that Larry would give up this much grass when we first moved here.  I can be content with what we have.  Plus, the kitchen works much better than it did when we first moved here.

Thanks for visiting my corner garden.  I know I wrote a lot.  Sometimes I read all what people say, and other times I skim or skip a little.  I'm assuming others do it that way, too.  If you didn't know how my blog got its name, now you may.  :o)

Lots of Foliage

I am still fighting a cold, so it was too cold for me to go out this morning when the light was right, but I was able to go out and get some photos of foliage for Pam's Foliage Follow-up after in warmed up a bit.  I ended up taking a huge number of photos, and, as usual, included way more than most others put in their posts.  Most of the foliage is new, that normally wouldn't be growing at this time of year, because it has been warmer than it should be.  I am kind of wondering, though, if the new growth really has been there in the past, but I didn't see it because of the leaves over them.  Since we had to have our tree cut down last spring, there aren't as many leaves on the ground.

This plant is a dianthus named, 'Wink'.  Larry was good friends with the Wink it was named after.  She passed away about a year ago.  Her husband was an agronomist at the University of Nebraska, and named this after her.  I'm thinking he hybridized it.  It's a cute little plant that has small pink flowers.

The daylilies have new growth on them.  I wonder how they will do when we get winter weather.

I think this is knautia.

The arum is looking like it thinks it's early autumn.

It seems to be normal for the grape hyacinths to green up as early as fall.  I'm thinking these did.

The perennial geraniums are looking pretty good.  I'm pretty sure they normally die back in the winter.

These are the reblooming irises in the east front yard bed.

I've shown other hellebores, but not this one yet.  I am excited to see how well they bloom this spring.
 

Candytuft:

Yarrow:

I think this is a dwarf sage.

Well, this dandelion thinks it's time to grow.

I am pleased to see new growth on one of the Zizea aureas
. 

I have been enjoying the little bluestem and switchgrasses I planted last summer.

Larkspur:

Columbine:

The crocus and daffodils on the south side of the house have grown since I posted about them coming up.

Honeysuckle:

I transplanted several 'Prairie Smoke' geums in the new planting area.  At least some of them look like they will make it.

Purple Poppy Mallow:

This may be a penstemon.

Helenium hoopesii:

Snapdragon:

Drumstick Alliums:

There is also some foliage inside to show.  The mother of thousands is a very hardy plant.

I have been showing Larry's rabbit foot fern on foliage posts for all three years I've been blogging.  He has to take it  downstairs to a shower to water it.  He does a good job keeping up with it.

The airplane plant has lots of little plants hanging from it.  These succulents were sunk in a washtub last summer.  I hope they make it to spring so they can go back out for the summer.  We take almost all of the plants outside when it's warm enough.

I've had this bay plant at least 3 years.  We had to cut it back one spring when it looked like it was going to die, and it took off again.

Scented geraniums don't do the best in the house, but this one is doing pretty well.

Two of the three rosemarys are doing pretty well.

I love angel wing begonias. 

In my GBBD post, I showed a photo of a Martex kitchen towel ad that I had on a wall in the kitchen, with the matching towels on a rack on the wall.  This picture is in the bedroom we turned into a dining room.  Can you see the foliage on it?

I am really not good at decorating, but I like some of the things I do.  The salt and pepper shakers were my mother-in-law's.  There are some differences, but most of the items on the buffet have something to do with what's in the picture.

I am looking forward to seeing what the foliage looks like on the plants next month.  Have a great week!