Not Red White and Blue

This is not the first time I've attempted a porch planter, but I can't find that I blogged about it before. One year I had a rather nice looking collection in this old ice cream maker, but I don't know when. The link below is one year that I put some house plants outside for the summer.

So, I thought I'd do red, white, and blue. Betsy gave me a geranium which I assumed would be red when it bloomed. I bought a white petunia, I bought one of those very cool dark blue petunias with white spots. I put them all in the planter with some dangling sedum.

The blue petunia died. I really don't know how that happened since they are all in the same planter and were all watered at the same times. And apparently, I didn't even take a picture of it. That makes me sad, but maybe I can get another one next year.

The geranium has turned out to be pink! So pink and white it is.

One of the years that Loretta was here, I put almost all the house plants on the deck and added some railing planters. That was green and leafy and nifty. It doesn't look like I blogged about that either. O well.

Today the humidity was nearly unbearable. I don't function well. I worked my little summer job this morning, shopped, cleaned up the kitchen, walked 2 miles on the road this evening.

Miles walked in 2026: 250.5
Miles walked Onekanma Challenge: 62.3

See Porch Plants

Life is Good in Color

Just thinking this morning that Life is Good! I was in my chair with a cup of coffee, doing my wake-up computer tasks. The deck door is open. The sun is shining, but it's cool yet with a light breeze ruffling the quaking aspen. House finches with their bright red-purple heads are enjoying the bird bath. I took my morning "walk" to visit the gardens and see what flowers might begin blooming today.

The rock garden is beginning to explode with the yellows of so many sedums, but this picture I took today has to be the color winner. This is a Red-spotted Purple Admiral on the Creeping Thyme

But back to the yellows. The taller stuff is the Sedum Sexangulare, but there are bursts of the still-blooming Sedum 'Weihenstephaner Gold' to the right and one Ice Plant 'Granita' to the left.

This is the Bloody Cranesbill with Dianthus 'Kahori.'

This one has a whole lot of plants. The purple is Creeping Thyme, Sedum sexangulare to the left, the 'Kahori' is beyond that. Just in front of the thyme is the patch of Sedum 'Atlantis' that is slowing getting bigger. A small patch of dark 'Dream Dazzler' Sedum and more Bloody Cranesbill is on the right.

This one was from last week. The variegated Vinca was still blooming. Now it's trying to spread runners to take over the world. I've been giving it severe haircuts. More Bloody Cranesbill to the right. It is also getting shaved on this pass through the garden.

I haven't mentioned this pink flower yet this year. This is the 'Siskiyou' Primrose. It is fairly nifty, although it, too, is willing to spread everywhere. I've currently let it take over two spaces until I get something else to put in the second space. More Sedum sexangulare. And just starting to bloom on the far left is the Sedum elecambeanum.

Finally, color in the sky last night. Very intense, and making even the clouds in the east turn pink.

In other news: I did all the usual things, plus laundry, and put a piece of decor back on the wall that keeps falling off. Yeah, me. Josh stopped by. He's looking good.

See Mostly Current Colors

Mostly Current Colors

Another post with combinations of color.

This is the two purples in the driveway bed. The iris are mostly done now, but what a show! The other purple is Meadow Sage.

In the rock garden, The Dianthus 'Kahori' is in the lower left, Bloody Cranesbill at the top, and the Creeping Thyme is starting to bloom purple at the lower right.

This one was a few days ago. The Moss Phlox is just about done now, but this is phlox with the Variegated Vinca in front of it.

This is also in the rock garden, and it's more about texture than color, but it's part of why I love the Pasqueflower so much. It starts blooming in early April, and now in June we still have the showy seed heads.

And I'm going to share one more shot with a Poppy in it. This one does a better job of showing the various colors of foliage behind the Poppy and the Fleeceflower. I like that there are enough interesting plants to have a depth of field to the color.

It turned out to be a rather unproductive day. Just never got moving, really. I finished cleaning the edges of the front flower bed and watered it. Edited. Mostly read a book.

Tomorrow, I need to be out the door by 8:30 in the morning. Stay tuned!

See Fresh Color

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

Pink and White

Today we will switch to pink and white, specifically, light pink and white.

The pink geraniums are blooming now. These are much more tidy than the conquer-the-world, bright pink Bloody Cranesbill. This is Geranium cinereum. This first picture isn't focused as well as I'd like, but I think you can still see the brighter veins in the new flowers.

In the past couple of years I made an effort to get about three patches of this going so it would be more balanced in the rock garden. They are all blooming now. The camera doesn't pick up the pink very well, but these look nice from a distance.

The other spread of light pink is the Fleeceflower, Bistorta affinis. As I tell you every year, I really don't like this plant much, but it has agreed to make this large patch of color, so it gets to stay.

So much for current light pink. Now on to white. I have clumps of this in various places. I think it was on the property when we bought it. It's considered pretty invasive, but mostly it just barely hangs on for me. I managed to get a clump to come back in the driveway bed. I won't mind if it grows. Ornithogalum umbellatum, Star of Bethlehem. I'm going to try to get some going in the rock garden. It should tolerate the sun.

Most of the Star of Bethlehem is down in the not-reclaimed "big bed," so I think I'll move some of those bulbs. The other white plant blooming down there is a whole patch of this double pheasant-eye narcissus. I have no idea where this came from, but I managed to get a bunch of the bulbs in the same space.

I do like how long the daffodil season lasts with all the different kinds I have. I think this is the last one though.

Today, I worked hard to finish the first weed-through of the rock garden. It kept feeling like rain all day, but nothing happened, and the radar is blank. I think I'll need to get the hose going and water it tomorrow. That will make it look really nice, and with the weeds temporarily gone, you might get a rock garden report tomorrow.

Whatever was making the computer wonky, I guess all it needed was re-booting because it's been fine today, which is really good.

I thought I was going to do a bunch of errands today until I realized it's a holiday. So I spent extra garden time! Oh, and I staked the iris! Knew I had bought a box of more stakes last year. Couldn't find them. Looked in all the places. Then started looking in all the places again. There they were!

See Blue and Purple

Things Change Fast in the Rock Garden

I'm about half way on the first weed-through of the rock garden for this year. Pretty sure there are a few more casualties, but the next round of blooming has begun.

This is the variegated vinca. I rip it out by the bunch and try to keep it trimmed after it blooms because it's so agressive, but I really like the large pinwheeled blue flowers at this time of year, and the light-colored leaves are nice all season.

Also in the category of attractive nuisances is the Bloody Cranesbill. I've railed against this plant a lot in the past, and will continue to do so. But I'm trying to hack it out except for a few places. This is the plant that pretty much covered the entire rock garden before I reclaimed it. It's just starting to bloom.

This is just starting. It's the 'Morning Star Deep Rose' Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima). I bought it off a markdown table last year, badly damaged, but it's looking promising now! Stay tuned.

The donkeytail Euphorbia is just about done, but I thought I'd show you a closeup of its actual tiny flowers. You can see the new growth for next year in the blue-green leaves. Supposedly this spreads easily, but so far, not for me. It's readily available, so if it really doesn't spread, I'll probably buy another.

And I just can't resist showing you the Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget' again. It is still changing. I really like this two-toned phase. The older, smaller one is doing similar things but it doesn't seem to get any bigger, and the colors aren't as vibrant. Perhaps I need to move it a bit. I haven't got to that space in my weeding yet.

Today, I felt fine. Not sure what that little blip was about yesterday. Worked on most of the projects.

Oh, and I ordered a couple of plants today. Half off, but the shipping still makes them expensive.

See Rock Garden Details

Invitation to the Hike

One of my favorite pieces of light classical music is Inviation to the Dance by Weber. It's under 10 minutes long, and you can hear it on YouTube if you want.

Another of my favorite things is to receive an invitation to a hike that would not normally be available. This hike takes place on a private trail in Hamlin Township. That's about all I should say. But I was invited by one of the property owners to hike it with her as a guest.

For starters, the drive in to her home was spectacular.

One of their homeowner members has restored/built this trail. One end is anchored at Hamlin Lake. Always worth a view on a sunny day.

The trail is completely in woods, some if it gorgeous. Most of it, actually.

One section passes through some higher land where selective cutting was done, leaving this great treeline against a perfect October sky. Yes, the trail even has a moderate amount of topography.

This tree is one of my friend's waypoints. The pileated woodpeckers have turned it into a swiss cheese tree.

I found this "lane" along a row of Norway Spruce pleasant, although there was too much contrast for the camera to take a good picture.

The other end of the trail ends at the road, and then we walked back to her house.

I've included this picture of a past-prime geranium from her porch because it is Marie's favorite color!

Worked on projects, went for this hike. Yada, yada.

Miles hiked in 2025: 418

Private trail in Hamlin Township. 1.8 miles

See Color in My Kingdom

Rock Garden (mostly) Report- June 2025

June is bustin' out all over!

This is going to get too long, but it will be the last garden post for three weeks. First, to keep the same reference views going for comparison, here are the top and bottom of the rock garden. The far side of the bottom section has more rocks and fewer plants for two reasons. Some of that is as new as last summer. Also, when I built the first part, I didn't put in enough rocks. I've been contemplating if I should try to fix that. Not a priority.

Sure has filled in from last year! Of course a lot of that is the Bloody Geranium which I rip out by the shovelful when I get something better to put in its place.

Before you get bored and leave, I want to show you the Lewisia again. The lower clump has never stopped blooming since April 25 when I planted it. The upper clump is reblooming. The dark patch in the middle is Sempervivum 'Black,' and I hope the Wandering Jew above it (not hardy) starts to get larger soon. Sedums and Vinca in the foreground.

Let me show you the Lewisia up close. It is stunning! You may recall I tried one of these long ago, and it didn't live. I sure hope these decide they are happy because right now they are my favorite rock garden purchase of this year.

Here's another success and survival story from the original rock garden. This is Sedum kamtschaticum 'Weihenstephaner Gold.' It was almost as robust when I recovered the garden in 2023 as it was originally, but it didn't bloom that year or last year. It's going to this year!

I'll miss the full bloom, but I'm just happy to know it's happy again. In fact, I even split off a chunk and put it in a second location last year. Look at those nifty flowers.

Dianthus has continued to be one of my best-blooming genera. Here are two that also looked good last year. This one is 'Kahori' which tolerated my disturbing it a lot to remove grape hyacinth bulbs that were under it. Still a couple more to dig out, as you can see.

And this one is 'Eastern Star' with foliage friends

Not everything is a success story. Two years ago I bought a 'Coral Reef' Dianthus. It got chewed severely that fall. Looked like it might recover last year. All gone this year. I never even took a picture of it. Oh well. A couple of weeks ago 'Olivia Wild' was half price, so I've added that to the mix. I like the dark bands on the petals. Shown here with 'Dream Dazzler' sedum and some of the Bloody Geranium.

Speaking of the geraniums, here's some of the Bloody one with the pink one which may be cinereum. They do look nice together.

The pink one really has nice detail seen up close. And it's not nearly so invasive. It's also shorter which is good.

The creeping thyme is also blooming. It looks nice with the 'Oddity' Sempervivum. It's another plant that you have to rip out by the handful or it will take over. But I'm getting good at ripping.

Thought I was going to miss these blooming. Nope! They started today. This is the 'Siskiyu' primrose. This is another plant that goes nuts spreading everywhere. But it's easy to rip out where you don't want it. This was one of last year's favorite purchases. 'Lime Twister' sedum behind it.

I can't stop until I show proof that the two Ice Plants that overwintered are starting to bloom. This is 'Red Mountain Flame.'

And this Ice Plant I bought at the Garden Club sale last fall, and I wasn't sure it was going to make it. But here is 'Granita' orange. It's surrounded by Sedum sexangulare, another plant that I really regret. It's only redeeming factor is that it fills in around other plants well. It's getting ready to have yellow flowers which are nice. I will miss those. But its ability to fill in means that you have to keep ripping it out all the time. And after it blooms the long stems are ugly and have to be cut. (Not as bad as Sedum acre- I removed all of that one!)

I have to throw in one picture that isn't the rock garden. For several years now, I've either had the salmon poppy bloom or the red-orange poppy bloom, but never in the same year. Look what happened! I thought they wouldn't open for me to see before I leave, but here they are. And that dumb pink fleeceflower just keeps looking good for weeks while the poppies only last a couple of days.

Speaking of leaving... I have just a few little packing things to do and wash the dishes. Better get at it. Tomorrow morning, I'm on my way east! This is really going to happen.

See What's In Full Bloom?