Visiting Margaret's Garden

I am going to try to get some plants going for the gardens over the winter. I do not have a track record of being very good with this, although I did OK last year. I'm going to try some coleus this year. Friend Margaret gave me cuttings from two different ones, a dark purple and this interesting variegated one. Look at the scalloped edges on the leaves.

She has a huge fenced garden- her whole back yard. She has vegetables and all kinds of flowers. A lot of them are tubers and bulbs she has to take in every winter. I don't have the patience for that at all. These are begonias that should only be good for one season. But she says she takes them in and every year they come back.

This is her back porch. Look at all the plants! She apologized because it's not at peak beauty. Hey, it's September. I think it looks great.

This is a really healthy Jimsonweed. She called it a moonflower. Common names are all over the map. It's Datura stramonium. Ingesting any part of the plant can cause severe altered mental states and even death. So, enjoy looking, but don't get the sap in your mouth!

There were lots of other things I could have taken pictures of, but I didn't. Oh well. These are the annuals along her front walkway. She says the petunias have bloomed all summer even without very consistent deadheading.

I enjoyed the tour! I'm glad she was home to show me. We had left it that I would come snatch some coleus from the front whether she was there or not. But I got the full tour.

I spent a big portion of the day doing errands. There weren't any big glitches with any of them, so that's good. I have a preliminary dentist appointment tomorrow.

I also edited and answered various correspondence, blah, blah.

See Margaret's Garden

And I'm Home!

Last night, we stayed with Ken and Mary near Chicago, where I visited a year ago January (link at end).

Ken is a fellow author, and Diane bought one of his fantasy books, Eclipse of the Triple Moons, for her granddaughter.

Mary has some nice garden plants.

We concentrated on driving, but had to make a couple of pit stops, of course. This is at the Welcome Center at Berrien Springs, MI. Some very nice gardens there.

We arrived at my house a little after 3 pm. Marie and Diane took on the "big sort," taking everything out of the car and figuring out who it belonged to, tallying up the money and who spent what. I went for groceries, because the fridge was bare here!

We had rhubarb chicken, rice, and corn on the cob for dinner, with Moose Tracks (of course) ice cream for dessert. Not a great picture with the sun in our eyes, but at least we will remember.

We visited a litte bit after that.

Sigh. Diane and Marie have to leave at 7:30 in the morning. They have a really long driving day tomorrow to get back to Diane's house. It would be great to have one more day together that wasn't a total rat race, but we all have lives that require re-entry.

It was a wonderful trip.

See Ice Age Trail See Stop Two - Ken

Jean's Been Weeding

Since the last time I was at Jean's house a month ago, she's been doing a LOT of weeding. Lots of her garden hill now looks nice.

She has lots more room for large plants than I do. This is right near her front entrance.

Her garden space is also on a hill, and she has stone steps with an interesting creeping evergreen growing over them. Just ignore the hose. We didn't pose the pictures.

The color of these lilies is stunning!

And 'Stargazer' lillies are always good for a show. It's no wonder they are so popular.

Oh, you want to know how those chicks that had just hatched a month ago are doing? Sure.

Laya is being a good Mom to them.

Tomorrow we'll be at Holland's Art in the Park!

Did a morning road walk. Miles hiked in 2025: 321.6

See Jean's Hobbies

Another Walk Around Ludington

 The day stared with engaging my brain much earlier than I like with a radio interview on WMOM with Bill Kerans who is the Director of the Scottville Senior Center. The interview went well, and you can see/hear it if you would like at Interview on WMOM

After that, it was still somewhat cool out, so I took another walk around Ludington, hitting some different streets from last time. You know I'm most interested in flower gardens. The porch and the one with the bench are like real-life examples of the displays at the Philadelphia Flower Show.

and

This one has great textures and colors and shapes. A little past prime, but hey, it's more than halfway through September.

Then I came home and finished straightening up before Omer got home, finished editing the How to Hike Book (will upload the revised text tomorrow), and I've made it to tired. Trying to spend a little time on the current pet project.

Yup, the boy is home.

Miles walked in 2024: 448

See True Blue Gumby II

Some Scottville Flowers

 I managed to do a few things I was supposed to today. And I walked to the Post Office.

Some of these pictures were taken last week, but they are all gardens in Scottville. Still nice color.

This is the Friendship Garden at the Scottville Library.

They also have hydrangeas in this dusky pink color.

And speaking of dusty pink, this is in the Friendship Garden. I had to look it up. I think it's Smooth Oregano, Origanum laevigatum.

This is a lovely annual garden set off nicely with the picket fence.

Well, well, still dealing in dusky pink. This is down the line in that annual garden. It's Celosia 'Terra Cotta.'

Moving along to more formal arrangements, this is one of the planters on Main St. It's getting a little late for the petunias to look good, but the textures and shapes are nice.

And this planter behind the Senior Center is very attractive too. I suspect it's pots set in that box, but that makes it easy care!

Finally, you've seen one of the West Shore Bank gardens in Ludington. Here's one of theirs in Scottville. Similar, but nicer with papyrus and sweet potato vine for more textures.

Tomorrow, I have to severely wean myself off this pet project because I have other things I MUST do. Still haven't gone shopping! (just for one thing)

Miles walked in 2024: 445

See A Few Scottville Pictures

Chillin'?

 We certainly weren't chillin' as regards to the temperature. It was a hot day! However, we definitely made today a rest day. Did some laundry and puttered a bit but mostly relaxed. It was a darn good thing we didn't need to go out in the middle of the day because Marie's street was being paved! This is accomplished so much easier and better than when I was a kid. And I know that crew was a lot hotter than we were.

I'll show you more pictures from Sonnenberg Gardens today. Here is another view in the Rock Garden. I sure did like that space.

This is just a nicely-blooming garden. It was actually part of the greenhouse complex- overflow plants.

Here is another long view of the Old Fashioned Garden. You can see hints of some of the blooms between the hedges. The architecture is such an important part of the gardens, it often makes the scene extra delighful.

This is a plant combination that I thought was particularly successful. Red amaranth, Amaranthus erythrostachys, and a pink coneflower.

They had combined these in several locations, and I also really like this. It's Persian Shield Strobilanthes dyeriana, and one of the begonias, maybe 'Gryphon.' You know I love begonias. When I get to be garden queen with an unlimited budget, I'll have a Begonia garden.

And for the orchid lovers, this is an Oncidium orchid, possibly 'Sweet Baby,' but there are a lot that are very similar.

We played a couple of games, and may be ready to do something more energetic tomorrow.

See Heart of the Lakes Trail paving See Sonnenberg

Sonnenberg House and Gardens

 The Sonnenberg Mansion in Canandaigua is a 40-room house built in the late 1800s in the Queen Anne style. This house is a little older and smaller than the Stan Hywet mansion we visited in 2016. Sonnenberg means "sunny hill." It was not the name of the owner. This was the summer home of Frederick Thompson, a New York City banker. His wife Mary was the governor's daughter.

The Conservatory is the oldest working wooden greenhouse in the northeast, and it is the oldest in the United States that has not been modified. It's considered one of the finest privately owned greenhouses. The estate is now operated as a non-profit arm of the NY Parks and Recreation Department, but the greenhouses were originally private.

The estate was opened to the public in 1973, but a lot of repairs and restoration have been ongoing since that time. A number of the gardens could have used a lot of attention, but it was still worth the visit. This is the formal Italian Garden. The view was the best from an upstairs porch of the house because you could see the fleur-de-lis design of the plantings.

The Moonlight Garden featured all white flowers. Many were supposed to be fragrant. This is Casa Blanca lily.

The Old Fashioned Garden used a popular 17th Century design. There were boxwood hedges with perennial beds inside and a long pergola down the middle.

I think they are saving money on the plants and putting the fund toward restoration. Most of the plants were things you could commonly buy at a good greenhouse. I guess that's OK for now. There were a couple I did not know. This is Macedonian Scabious, Knautia macedonia. Japanese anemone was in bud, but none were open. I don't think I've seen that before either.

My favorite garden was the Rock Garden, although there is still a lot of repair work to do. First of all, this is hugely different from my rock garden. Tons of rock were hauled in to make a miniature canyon and streams. They are currently raising money to restore the water circulation system so the 500 feet of streams and pools will function. And it's big- at least an acre. This is part of the constructed "canyon." You could walk a gentle incline through the middle or go up the stairs to the right.

The central path went under this arch, then climbed and curved around to cross the top of the arch as a bridge.

At the top, there was one more level of an observation deck. It was shaded by a plant that was actually planted for the original estate. This is a climbing hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala, native to Asia. It's over 85 years old. The bark peels like sycamore. This was also new to me.

I guess if you want more pictures from Sonnenberg you'll have to hope I have a "slow news day" in the near future. This is about enough for now.

But I'll show you one orchid from the conservatory. They had a tropical room, a desert room, and orchid room, and a couple more. There was a recording playing with info, but I didn't catch all that it said. Anyway, this is Brassia arachnoidea, one of the spider orchids.

When I say "we" went to the garden... Marie and I, Marie's brothers and their wives, Melanie, and Ruth and Dan all went. It was quite a production. But I spent a fair amount of the day on my own so I could take all the pictures I wanted and read the signs.

The house was open too. I got a few pictures of the interior.

Tonight, we are at Larry and Pam's house. Working our way east.

See Stan Hywet