Today in the Curb Beds

I have been looking at old blog posts to figure out what some plants are, and to show co-workers some I have available for them.  I was amazed at the amount of growth since my last post, so I took more photos, even though it was a bit sunny.  I love this time of year!  We could get down to 32 tonight, so I hope everything comes through that OK.

We are starting at the west end of the front yard, looking north and east.

I didn't get very many of my irises thinned last year.  The ones that are blooming, sure are putting on a nice display!

Jupiter's Beard will be blooming soon.  The buds are colorful.

Some of the salvias have buds on them.  This is 'caradonna', I'm pretty sure.  When I went to check on the spelling, though, the flower spikes in the images looked taller than what I remember these to be.

That little mystery rose I rescued from the sale table several years ago has gotten much taller and wider than I thought it would.  I am not a rose grower, but I hope the cutting back I've done on the plant is an OK thing to do.

This is facing more north.

There are several varieties of perennial geraniums along the curb.  Most of them have some blooms open.

We are heading east, still facing north. 

I love these irises!

The bergenia,  or pigsqueak that I moved last year because of the tree having to be cut down seems to like its new spot.

Geum, 'prairie smoke' is one of my favorites.  It is native to our area, and the ones I transplanted into the new planting area are doing fine.

Going a little further east, there are some bare spots I am working on filling.  A neighbor girl told me the other day that the geese remind her of her and her brother when they are fighting.  I had to laugh, because I've never seen them fight.  They are always pretty sweet to each other whenever I see them together.  I told her I did put the geese together so it looked like they were interacting.

I cut my lavenders back, but this one, between two kinds of asters, either needs more trimming, something to hide it, or maybe it needs to go on the compost pile.   Still, I will feel bad if I have to dig it out.  I do have some other lavenders that are doing very well, though.

This geranium, 'samabor' is one of my favorites.

We are at the east side of the bed, facing north and west.

I don't remember the name of this geranium, but the leaves are different from the others I have.  I like this plant.

The winter savory, shown at the bottom of the photo, is at a good size for cutting to dry.  I don't use much of it, but like to have some on hand.

We are now facing south and west.  I spent some time this weekend cutting back some asters and goldenrods, like Tracy DiSabato Aust recommends in her book, The Well Tended Perennial Garden.  I have been doing this (when I remember) for a number of years, and like the results.  The aster in the corner is a New England one that gets very floppy and diseased if I don't cut it back a time or two in the spring.   There is also one across the sidewalk, and every summer, they try to take over the sidewalk.

Oh, here is a better view of the geese, or are they ducks?  The liatris and milkweed are doing well.  I am finding a number milkweeds in areas I don't want them, farther from where they have ventured in the past.  I remember reading in a post I wrote last year, that they seem to stay pulled, so that is my hope.  I want to be able to have a nice stand of them for the monarchs, and not have them take over the whole yard.

This is heading back west.

The two primroses I planted a couple years ago are blooming for the first time.

The daylilies sure are getting big!  I'm glad they aren't blooming yet, because I'm not sure what 32 degrees would do to them.

The grape hyacinths are finished blooming.  I am so ready for spring to continue, but it's a bit sad to think that a number of flowers are finished for the season.

The last of the tulips are still kind of pretty.

This is the first coneflower bud I've seen this year.

We made it back to the west again.  The blue bush clematis is pushing the trellis over.  I better get that fixed.

I am tickled that it has buds.  I hope they will not be harmed by the cold tonight.

Looking to the east, it looks pretty promising for some nice color this summer.

While I'm at it, I decided to show the area on the east side of the sidewalk.  The area is smaller, and won't need as many photos.

I've mentioned that there are some plants that are on both sides of the sidewalk, and others that are similar sizes or shapes.

Do you think I like to take photos of my yard?

I decided I didn't want to continue to grow arum, because it was getting too spready, and I didn't think the foliage fit in with the rest of the garden.  It is almost tropical looking to me.  Since I am gardening on the cheap this summer, so we can get our home equity loan paid off, I moved divisions of amsonia hubrichtii and yarrow to this area from other parts of the yard. They should grow and fill in the area nicely.  Also, when the daffodil foliage finally dies back, the amsonia will fill in some of that space.
 

 

I am pleased the butterfly milkweeds are coming back for their third or fourth season.  Normally, they only live a couple seasons here.  This one hosted a number of monarch caterpillars last year. It will fill in some of the space left by the daffodils dying back, too.

Here are the amsonia and yarrow.  The catmint on the right of the daffodil foliage is one of the plants I trimmed back to keep it from sprawling.

The sedum clump in the lower left is doing well.  I took a few stems off of one of the sedums in the west bed a couple years ago, and stuck them together in the ground a couple years ago.   I really need to thin the irises! 

I love perennial geraniums!  I wish I could remember all of their names.

I tried thinning the daylilies, but the leaves came out without roots.  It still looks like they need thinning.  I'll try to divide them next year when they are smaller.

As I was looking at this photo, I was thinking I saw room to expand the planting area, but then remembered that when the guy was out inspecting the painting job on the fire hydrant, I asked him if the plants were too close.  He said they are supposed to be 3 feet from the hydrant, but said if I trim back the catmint a bit, it won't be a problem.

Larry enjoys taking care of the little bit of lawn we have.  He uses Milorganite to fertilize, and goes around with his weed stick, pulling out dandelions almost every day.  I keep an eye on him when I am out, because I want to do my own weeding in the flower beds.  I'm afraid he's going to pull something that isn't a weed.  (Larry, if you read this, my cover is blown.  I've been trying to do it without you realizing it.)

There are still frost and freeze warnings in our area, but the different sources for weather have our city's lows for tonight a bit above 32, so that's a relief.  The rest of the lows for the week are not supposed to be as cold.  We will run our sprinklers in the morning just in case, though.  I was thinking that if the sprinklers are on while it's around 32, it will prevent the frost from sticking to the plants.  When I looked it up just now, I read some different things.  It sounds like we should have watered this evening, because moist soil helps protect plants from the cold.  It probably depends on the temperature.  If it gets much below 32, it won't matter, and if you water, it can freeze on the plants, causing the stems to break.  I hope wherever you are, your plants are safe from freezing temps for the season.

Can You Help Identify These Young Plants?

Even though I have been gardening many years, there are still times I can't remember what I've planted, and when the plants come up in the spring, I have trouble figuring out what some of them are.  I've been looking at photos from last season, but there are still some I haven't figured out yet.

This may be a blue lobelia that I planted.  It's not exactly where I thought I had planted it, though.  Also, I had a red root plant, which is related to New Jersey Tea around there that died out last summer, but could have just gone dormant.   I tried looking at images of these two plants, but couldn't find any young plants or other photos that were helpful to me.  I will be able to figure this one out with time, unless it's neither of the two I think it may be.

This reminds me of wild quinine, but it looks a bit different.  There is a reddish root under the plant.

I imagine this is a weed, and I couldn't get a clear photo of the little yellow blooms, but I kind of like the plant.

This plant is only a few inches tall.  I am hoping it is a Fremont's clematis, but it is much smaller than the other ones I've seen coming up, and smaller than the ones they have for sale.

I don't know if this is something I planted, or if it is a bird seed that did not get eaten by the birds.  We do have corn coming up all over the yard, but this looks different.

This reminds me of a clematis, too, and is about an inch or two tall.

This is coming up in the front yard garden.  I wonder if it's a dahlia that survived, since winter was so mild.

There are a couple of these in the front yard.  I wonder if they are a liatris of some kind.

If you know what any of these are, please let me know.  Have a wonderful Easter!

West Side of Front Yard

So far, I have posted spring photos of the curb beds and the east front yard.  After work today, I bought some native plants for the front yard where the tree used to be.  A few things in there are not native, but they are plants that are insect and bird friendly.  It was supposed to rain, but didn't.  We have had quite a cool down, and are having more seasonal temperatures instead of the upper 80s we had been experiencing.

Here is the view from the front door.  The east bed has grown a lot since I posted photos of it.

There is still a lot of dirt showing, and I was tempted to put plants in places where they would be crowded later in the season.  Larry told me he thought there was too much stuff in the area, and it looked crowded.  I took some things out, and he told me this bird feeder a friend gave me looked better in this spot.  When the plants get larger, it may get moved.

This is  heuchera richardsonii.  I like coral bells, but this native is just as pretty to me.  The switchgrass, maybe 'North Wind' will get pretty tall, and provide some privacy to the sitting area.

I fell in love with this clematis, hexapetala 'Mongolian Snowflakes' that I also got from the arboretum.  It grows to about 3 feet tall with a 3 feet spread, and is more of a bush.  I didn't realize until after I bought it that it is a native of China, not the U.S.  I will probably let it grow in this spot for the summer, and if I have moved the few other non-natives from this area, will find another spot for it in the yard.

This is the left, south side of this part of the bed. 

I am assuming the zizia aureas will grow taller, even though they have started to bloom.  They are supposed to get 3 feet tall.

I added several more wild quinine plants to the garden, and they are all doing well.

A few days ago, I was able to dig a clump of ironweed from the curb bed to add here.

 

I also moved this zigzag goldenrod from the east bed.

I don't remember what this is.  I'm assuming it is something I planted last year.  Do you know what it is?

I just checked, and figured out that helenium 'hoopesii' is not native to Nebraska, but the states to the west of us.  I don't think I am organized or enough of a purist to only grow plants native to my area.

We are heading to the west.

I am happy that the salvia 'black and blue' and agastaches I can't remember the name of have survived the winter.  These were the favorites of the hummingbirds that spent a few weeks in the area last year.  The big leaves in front are a goldenrod of some kind, and the back ones are coneflowers.

The beautyberry bushes are leafing out, as is the butterfly bush here.

I am enjoying the wild columbine. It did not seed itself around in this bed, but I think there are a few plants of it on the east side of the house.  The pansies our 4 year old grandson picked out and planted in the tub are blooming well.

This agastache, 'golden jubilee' was one of the last plants to come up.  I thought it wasn't going to make it, but once it popped up, it started growing nicely.

Purple milkweed is one of the last to come up, too.

I planted some strawberries under the bench, and am pleased they are spreading some, and blooming.  I wonder who will get the berries first, the critters, or us.  I haven't decided the fate of the lamiums and lamb's ears that were already in front of the planter before the tree was cut down.

The pitcher's clematis is looking good.  It is supposed to get up to 10 feet.

The gooseneck loosestrife in the tub survived the winter.

The peonies and lilies of the valley that were planted by my mother-in-law over 20 years ago are getting ready to bloom.  There is also some painter's pallet in this area.

I divided the outhouse flower, I can't remember which rudbeckia, my friend, Jo gave me last year, and planted 3 clumps in this bed, where I had moved most of the shade preferring plants that were in it.  The two hellebores in it survived, and I am hoping the shade provided by the taller blooming plants will keep them healthy this summer.  The small plants between the pansies are a red blooming helenium that I divided from the east bed.

This columbine was already here.  I don't remember what kind it is.  I want to check to see if it can be divided, so I can put another couple in the bed.

Here is the rudbeckia.  It will get about 5 feet tall.

I divided some liatris from the curb bed, which are probably not native.  They are pretty tall, too.

Here is the view from the west side, including the area on the south side of the fence, where I put most of the plants I got today.  I will do a post on that area next time.

I don't know if any of you are from the Dallas area, but my heart goes out to that area, and any other place that has experienced the bad storms and tornadoes.  Watching the videos on the tornadoes was pretty scary.  I can't imagine being in the midst of it.

I hope it is spring for you northerners by now.  I have gotten ever further behind in my blog reading.  Happy gardening!