Some of the New Plants

I'm still waiting for one of the plants that I bought with the gift from the Confidence Camp friends, but I need to get the rest of them in the ground, so I'm going ahead with showing you these. Here's the pile.

Two of them are Heuchera that I've never seen before. You know I'm always looking for things that are a little out of the ordinary.

The first is 'Smoke and Mirrors,' with lovely gray leaves.

And this is the one I paid full price for, but I just had to get it. Look at the spots! This is 'Midnight Rose.'

I put both of these at the east end of the front bed, moved a couple of the small blue hosta (unknown variety), and split a small piece off the 'Wiggles and Squiqqles,' that I hope will grow. I think I'm going to have to move one of the ones I planted last year to show it off better, but we'll see. This space is definitely progressing toward looking good.

Now for three new Sedums. Well, I'm trying again with the 'Blue Pearl.' I do think I've got the correct plant this time. These came from a reputable garden supply rather than an eBay seller. (Bluestone Perennials- and by the way, these came packaged extraordinarily well). It's going into the same space where I had the one that got eaten. Daffodil leaves there, but they will die back soon.

The other two are color variations of the 'Coraljade' Sedum that I've been so happy with. Here's a reminder of what that one looks like this week. It's a patented hybrid.

And what its flowers look like- the flowering season is very long lasting, and it constantly changes tones. Here is a picture of it blooming last year.

So when I found out that there are two other colors of the same hybrid, I decided to get them. This one is 'Banana Split.' Its flowers will be shades of pale yellow.

And this one is called 'Peach Pearls,' and the flowers are supposed to be a peachy orange.

Stay tuned for progress, but these seem pretty safe since their close relatives have been so successful.

I did a lot of good stuff today- editing and cleaning the kitchen in addition to garden playing. Gave the rock garden a drink.

Looking at plant records from last year, there were a lot of casualties. That doesn't make me happy, but it's all a learning experience.

See New Plants 2025

Orange and Gold

Lots is happening in the gardens! It's hard to choose what to feature, but I'll do another piece of the color wheel. This is orange and gold.

I'll start with a treat for the front garden. I promised myself I would buy one 'Inferno' Coleus this year, and I did. I had moderate success with keeping some coleus over the winter and I've also planted those amid the old daffodil leaves. Hopefully, they will be nice enough to show you the whole lineup in a while. With one of the 'Inferno' in my possession, I can try to keep some over the winter.

Now, we'll move to the rock garden. This is one of the Sedums I've had for a very long time. I bought it in 2001- S. kamtschaticum 'Weihenstephaner Gold.' It's reliable. It fills its space but doesn't get too aggressive, and has fairly showy gold flowers in early June. I've now got it established in a second location. I'll probably grab a bunch of this and try for three.

This is a Sedum that is currently very popular in gardens, but there's a good reason for that. It looks great! The foliage gets golden orange in the sun. Here it is with 'Gold Rush' (which seldom looks gold) Sempervivum, and violet leaves on the left. It's Sedum ruprestre 'Angelina.' The SunSparklers line has come out with a miniature version of it, but my unhealthy soil keeps the full-size one from getting very big, so I'm content.

If it gets less sun, it stays a chartreuse color.

The ice plant, Delosperma 'Granita,' decided to open today! More about the ice plants in general another time.

And you must have guessed that we won't make it out of this color without yet another shot of Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget.' It continues to get ever more gold, and less red.

I edited and went shopping. Managed to finish trimming around the rock garden this afternoon and got the fence reinstalled. It's rather damaged. I am its worst enemy as I trip over it constantly. It's also my enemy. I haven't taken a bad fall yet, but I probably will at some point. Now I'm working on the trimming around the front garden.

I'll be showing you the new plants one of these days soon.

See Bright Pink

Mason & Oceana Railroad Tour

The Mason County Historical Society put on a great event today. I certainly didn't think I would get to go; it cost more than I can afford. But someone kindly paid for my ticket!

This was an historical tour of Mason County with the primary emphasis on the Mason & Oceana Railroad. We began by traveling in buses to visit several places along the line that ran from Buttersville to a bit past Walkerville. The first stop was at Buttersville where I've showed you a bit of the old grade before. But today we heard much more about the village and the mill, and salt mines, and railroad yards.

This is some of the old grade as it approached the mill- it's the brown stripe near the water. I've shown you some of this before at Conservation Park.

We were visted by several historical figures. Horace Butters told us how he started the mill and what a busy place Buttersville was at that period of history.

Then we went to Pleiness Lake. There we were visted by John and Eleanor Pleiness who owned a blacksmith shop on the shore of the lake.

The railroad didn't have a regular stop there, but the line was about a half a field away. It followed that line of trees you can see.

Then we went even farther southeast to the former village of Fern. This is what's left of the school.

And George Yoke told us how he was injured working on the trains, and how he eventually died as a result of the injury. He also told us several other tragic tales. All that land you can see behind him was once the village of Fern. The railroad ran through the town.

We made one other stop, then returned to White Pine Village where we were served quite a nice dinner and saw some additional media about the railroad and the mills it served.

And that's enough for one day!

Plants Along the Trail

I met up with some members of the trail chapter this morning to meet and train a new volunteer in a low-key way. That all went well. Walked a portion of my section of trail as part of this. It's quite clean- we flipped some sticks out of the way and trimmed a few berry bushes. That's about it.

There were some plants in bloom. I was not aware that there was Bunchberry (Ground Dogwood), Cornus canadensis, in my section of trail. But here it is! Nice find.

There is always a ton of Starflower, Trientalis borealis, in the dry woods. I do think this is the best picture I've ever gotten of it though. Usually, the bright white flower just gets all blown out.

Some of you will think this is the best find. It's a pink lady's slipper orchid, Cypripedium acaule, but it's a very dark pink one. Kind of unusual.

But I'm really partial to this shrub. I know that it grows in the bottomland hardwood swamp along the railroad berm in my section. But I never get tired of finding it. It's not technically rare, but one doesn't find it too often. The leaves are large enough at this point that it was easy to spot.

It's done blooming, and it has already set seed.

The name comes from the flexibility of the wood. It's extremely bendable. See link below for more pictures of the whole bud/flower/seed cycle.

The mosquitoes were impressive. Dan and I chose to leave the deep woods and walked out along an old two-track that I'd never gotten around to exploring. Not too interesting, but now I can say I've done it.

And since I drove right past one, and near a second, garden center, I stopped and looked at plants. Yes, a couple more came home with me. You'll see them in due time.

Not all miles today counted for NCT. Miles walked in 2026: 171.2
NCT Hike 100 Challenge: 58

North Country Trail, Lake County 1.8 odd miles, and another 1.5 old road/dirt road/snowmobile trail. Total 3.2 miles.

See Leatherwood

Bright Pink

Today we will focus on bright pink. First, the two best successes. This is the Dianthus 'Kahori,' purchased in 2023. It has continued to spread by at least a third each year. Look at it go!

The other one I'm quite happy with is the Sea Thrift 'Morning Star Deep Rose.' It is just loaded with flowers.

The other Sea Thrift is struggling. It is a smaller plant, but it only has one flower so far. Last year it had two. This is 'Dusseldorf Pride.' I think there might be too much clay in the spot where it is. That edge of the garden needs some soil amendment. The leaves look like the other one. This close view of the flower came out pretty well, so I'm using it.

Now for the weird one. This is the Bloody Cranesbill geranium. It doesn't look this color at all in real life. It's pretty much the same color as the Sea Thrift, but the camera doesn't see it that way. I tried to get a better look inside a flower. This is blooming all over.

Final show-off for the day is the 'Firefly' Heuchera in the front bed. This is about the only heuchera flower that I think is worth bothering with. The color is lovely and contrasts with the green leaves.

The temperature and humidity were much better today! For my outside work I concentrated on trimming the grass on the edges of the rock garden and cleaning out the spaces between boards in our wooden sidewalk. I'm not quite done but made good progress.

See Pink and White