Other 2026 Garden Endings

 There was a hard freeze at least once while I was in Kentucky. The gardening season is really over unless I manage to do a little weeding in the rock garden.

However, here are a few final bright spots. This is the 'Forbidden Fruit' hosta. I love how yellow it got.

I was really shocked to discover there is a 'Firefly' Heuchera still blooming!

And, not in any flower bed... one self-seeded marigold insisted on blooming. But in general, the marigolds just aren't working for me.

I'll close with a sort of report on the Moon Garden. I had hoped to bring in some of the annuals to propogate them. Well... the deer pulled the frosted Gazania right out of the ground and ate them. I put the new hosta and the dogwood in prison before I went hiking. They kicked off the fencing and chewed the dogwood, but I think it will be OK.

I didn't manage to get any of the white petunias in the house to root and propogate for next year. Not in the moon garden this year, but I was hopeful they might be next year.

However, the dusty miller were not dead. So I have split them, and we'll see how they do in the house over the winter.

Today was busy. I managed to edit a bit. Then I spent the afternoon doing errands, one of which was to choose a new Medicare plan. What a hassle! But I think I've done it. Then I had a Zoom meeting and a flurry of communication after that.

See It's All I've Got

Moon Gardening in the Rain

 I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish today in the Moon Garden. I thought I had till about 4 pm before it was going to rain. Ha! The rain started at 1 pm, so I just kept working. As it turned out, we didn't get nearly as much as the forecast said-- less than 0.2 inch. But I got things done.

This is probably all the plants that are going to go in the Moon Garden this year with the possible exception of some from my other gardens that I might split. In other words, I have to stop buying plants for now.

Long shot just for reference. Yeah, it doesn't look like much.

What I wanted to do was get the plants that were still in pots into the ground, and move the variegated Miscanthus grass to it's actual location. It was a darn good thing I didn't wait any longer to move that because the roots had started to dig right in. So here it is, moved, with the other things I planted early showing beyond it. This is one of the plants that will get tall to add a vertical dimension (and wide).

You can see the Guara at the end of the row. It has continued to bloom and look great. It's supposed to get about a foot taller, which will be perfect.

Right now, the best of the low plants in this row are the 'Frosty Kiss' Gazania. I'm hoping I can keep some of those over the winter. My grow light came, so hopefully the winter plants will do better this year.

The 'Steal the Spotlight' Hosta went in the ground. The rain speckles make it look a little funny. The blueish hostas look that way because of a waxy coating on the leaves, and the water temporarily messes with that.

Here's the plant I said that I bought at 60% off. I've waited to show you because it didn't look good when it came. That's not the grower's fault. I'm pretty sure it sat in a hot warehouse or truck overnight. The leaves were withered and burned. However, it's a shrub, so I got it right in the ground and have been watering it like crazy.

It's an 'Ivory Halo' Dogwood. This will also get about four feet tall, and add another vertical dimension in the garden. The twigs are red in winter.

Here's how it looked the day it came. The browned edges of the leaves don't show as much in the picture as they did for real.

Here it is after 2 1/2 weeks of babying. I think you can tell that there are a bunch of new leaves that are much healthier. I think it will be OK. I emailed the company after it came, just in case it didn't recover.

Last goal for today was to get some of the white Deadnettle that I also have in the front garden moved out here to the deepest shade right on the north side of the trunk of the tree.

The color of all these pictures is off a little because of the dark sky and rain, but you can get the idea. Most of what will happen for the rest of this season is continuing to dig up the grass, maybe move a few more of the free plants I can split from other gardens, and build the bench and level up the "nook." I think I have some more broken blocks coming to continue to work on the paths too.

Plants I want to get:
Hosta- "Dances with Dragons"
Santolina
A couple kinds of Artemesia
Heucherella- 'Cracked Ice'
Sedum ruprestre- 'Silver'

There are others on my potential list, but these are top priorities.

So, I got this done before it started raining hard. Also edited a bunch, did some volunteer stuff and watched a movie.

See Bonsai Apple Tree is Getting Friends

Holland Centennial Park Gardens

 I thought I showed you some pix last year of the gardens at the park where the Art in the Park vendor event is held, but apparently not. They are very nice!

The gardens are dedicated to L. Frank Baum because his family cottage was nearby, and it is believed that he wrote a fair amount of The Wizard of Oz while at the cottage. The book is a frame covered with 6000 plants. It is taken inside every winter.

I'll only show you a few of the garden beds. There were many! This one has several kinds of hosta - big ones- a purple heuchera, and a border of begoinias.

I love this! It's a very light-colored Hakone grass with really dark heuchera.

One whole garden was edged with alternate coleus and begonias.

Mass plantings of zinneas were bright! This has a racemed hydrangea behind it.

This was also one of my favorites. This is two different kinds of coleus both in the Flamethrower series. The red is 'Adobo Pink' and the green is 'Salsa Verde.'

I did OK at the event. The weater was cool (good), but drippy with sprinkles (hard to manage books, and lower attendance). The worst was I had a stomach ache all afternoon. Only a minimal clue why. Pretty much gone now.

I am declaring tomorrow a mostly rest day.

I may have figured out how to force Facebook to post a picture. We'll see. Of course it's a pain in the butt.

See Hemlock Crossing and More

Hosta ID, Please

 
I recently found a Facebook group that does nothing but help people identify the variety of Hosta they have. They have very exacting standards for the kinds of pictures they need, but there are several experts that really know thier stuff. I have learned for sure what several of mine are.

This is the yellow-green one I love so much that has all come from two leaves and a tiny root that I stole from a planter long ago. It has been IDed as 'Golden Scepter,' although a small one. Not immature, just small for some reason.

It is in bloom right now.

This one isn't very interesting. I'd be fairly happy to replace it, but haven't done anything about that yet. Then again, there is always a place for dark green just for contrast. This has those tiny white edges on rather pointed leaves. It was IDed as 'Allan P. McConnell.' It seems to be quite normal in size. Originally a gift from Ester. It has buds now, but is not blooming yet this year.

This is 'Golden Tiara,' but it makes me smile. This clump is probably 20 years old, in this same spot, and it stumped the experts until I got them good pix of the flowers because it is unusually small. Only 'Mouse Ears' and 'Tiny Tears' of mine are smaller. Its "normal" smallest dimension is 16" tall. Mine is more like 6". I'm very happy with it being small. This one also came from Ester.

Here are the flower stalks, called scapes.

And a pretty good view into the flower.

The one I just got from Ester last month has been IDed as 'Gold Standard.' This one is also supposed to get much bigger, but I hope it doesn't. I don't have huge beds to accommodate the big hostas. It has not bloomed yet, but it seems very happy considering it was just moved here a month ago.

Another freebie from Ester. I think I have three of these. They sort of hitchhiked on the rootballs of other plants. This is 'Halcyon,' a reliable solid blue hosta.

I think I only have two hostas yet to identify. This is great! You know I love having them identified correctly. I've found a ton of hosta groups on Facebook.

Every known Hosta has pictures and a link to the registration page at hostalibrary.org. The Facebook group is simply Hosta ID.

In other news: Air quality terrible as anyone local knows- AQI was at 500. Now it's down to 195, but the temperature went up! We had a surprise rain shower of 0.2 inches this afternoon which catalyzed the shift and bumped the humidity again. Whew.

I got myself in gear and took all the metal recycling to Padnos, the returnable cans and plastic bags to Meijer and bought ice cream! Edited and started writing my columns. The yard and gardens need work, but I really can't do much of that until the humidity backs off a little. No walking- that's not a good thing.

See One Handful of Hosta

Moon Garden Plants

I'm not quite done with the Moon Nook, but I managed to get the other Brunnera in the ground, so I'll share pictures.

This is the one that was totally root bound. I actually dug it up again, broke up the roots even more and replanted it. Now it's not wilting at the end of every day like it was. This one is called 'Alexander's Great.' The root bound condition is probably why I got it marked down, but that's OK, it should be fine in a while.

The surface of the Moon Nook still needs one more block, but enough is done that I could get the placement of the Brunnera at the other end. This one is 'Alexandria.' As I think you can see, the leaves are more solid white. I've really fallen in love with Brunnera, and the deer hate them because the leaves are as rough as sandpaper.

I picked up some end-of-season Artemesia 'Silver Mound' for $3 each. They look all scraggly now, but should be fine next year. At that price, I couldn't pass them up. They are in the foreground of this shot. You've seen the other plants here previously. This is such a tiny beginning, but it counts! I'm still watering these every day, but they didn't seem as wilty this afternoon, which is amazing because it's SO hot outside. I think they are getting established.

I do need to move that grass yet this year, but there is plenty of time yet.

Now, for the super exciting one (to me, anyway). I paid full price for this. I hunted up the palest blue hosta I could find that was actually available to buy anywhere. (Yes I know 'White Feather' is almost pure white, but it can also be tricky to keep happy, and it's not white all season.) Anyway, I LOVE this. It's called 'Steal the Spotlight.' The undersides of the leaves are extremely pale. I'm leaving it in the pot for a while to develop some better roots, and I don't have the space where it will go dug up yet.

The deer are partial to hosta. So, except when I'm showing it off, it's currently in prison.

I ordered another plant today too. About 60% off and shipping wasn't outrageous. This is a good time of year to get cheaper plants if you aren't too impatient for a "finished" garden.

In other news: I did my little summer job in the morning. Thankfully the laundromat is air conditioned. The afternoon was pretty much a bust. It's 85° here with 70% humidity. I managed to keep breathing and read a bit. That's about it. Went to the library and the senior center briefly. Qualifying seniors can get $25 of free produce, so I signed up.

See Moon Garden Beginnings

Front Garden Report 2026- #3

The Front Garden is turning out so amazing! I have a lot to share.

First is the general view of the west side. This never fails to make me smile.

And of one part of the east side. I had to take a picture of either the part in sun or shade this afternoon. The shaded part only has greenery right now since the blue Globe Bellflowers finished blooming, so here is the part that has afternoon sun.

There is quite a lot to talk about right now. Let's start with Astilbe. I have one pink one and three white ones. These were some of the plants that cost me 10¢ each a couple of years ago, so I can't complain. But despite being where they should be happy, I've never had much luck getting Astilbe to thrive. I'm thinking about replacing them with other things if I find something I like better. They are OK, but they should be bigger and fuller.

The pink one is 'Rheinland.'

And the white one is 'Bridal Veil.'

I have one new hosta here. Betsy gave me a multi-clump of 'Hacksaw,' which is fun with narrow scalloped leaves. (Small Halcyon behind it- I just moved several of those this spring too)

And speaking of hosta- the 'Tiny Tears' are in full bloom now. A whole lot of this bed is edged with it.

I'm still trying to get this patch of white Lamium (Deadnettle) to fill in better. As you can barely see, it has white flowers too, although I'm much more interested in the white foliage.

Finally for today, the 'Landini' lily bulbs I bought on closeout at the end of 2024 are really looking great! I thought these would be more maroon based on the pictures, instead of the almost candy-apple red. In fact, most of the pictures of it on-line are much deeper- from maroon almost to black. It's possible they aren't getting quite enough sun as they are in almost total shade. Nevertheless, I really like these.

And the flowers are huge!

I've been working sporadically at putting a broken brick edging around this garden to make it a little easier to mow around, so I don't have to do as much hand trimming. You can see the Seven Sisters Rose in this shot.

There are still things that need to be moved around, and one section is pretty much a "weed patch" of bellflower and dwarf Solomon's seal. I'll continue to work on replacing some of that with other things. Additional plans for this year are to buy one Heucherella I want, but most of my upcoming plant purchases will have to do with the Moon Garden.

Here's a news flash! I was outside just after dark last night and saw... FIREFLIES! I don't know when the last time was that I saw any here.

In other news: I edited, walked a mile on the road, did some housecleaning including getting some of the recycling ready to take to where it has to go. My special hosta came today. Stay tuned. It came bare-root, but looking very healthy. It's in a pot and should be nice and perky in a couple of days.

Humidity not too terrible, so I kept moving pretty well.

Miles walked in 2026: 196.1

See Front Garden Report 2026- #2

Front Garden Report 2026- #1

A lot has happened in the front garden beds this year. Several of the new plants went in various places, and I moved some things and split a couple of plants.

This is the west section, the one that is more established. I tried to get a picture from a little different angle to show all of it that's behind the rose bush better.

There are 8 different Heucheras in there (7 of them healthy- I really should just give up on the other one- it's still 2" high after 30 years), 6 or 7 different Hostas, 3 different Brunnera, and a few other things, but those are the primary last-all-season foliage colors.

That was a top down view. The little walkway I added last year is right at the bottom of the picture, so here's a different angle to show what's between the walkway and the house, which is 'Krossa Regal' Hosta, and the Japanese fern which the woodchuck ate last year, but it recovered completely.

I need to reduce the size of the patches of the two rather blah and small hosta. They are nice fillers, but now they have filled too much.

Now for the east end, beyond the white birch tree. This is the part I've worked on quite a lot this year. I'll give you the plant IDs, so that will help me remember what's supposed to be where too.

Starting at the lower left and going up along that board edging, we have a 'Jack Frost' Brunnera, 'Season's King' Heuchera, 'Wiggles and Squiggles' Hosta, a small 'Caramel' Heuchera that I just split off today (we'll see if I got enough roots for it to survive), and behind that the piece of Japanese fern that I put there last year which is doing fine, but it's a little small yet.

The brighter pink Heuchera is 'Carnival Cinnamon Stick' with the 'Forbidden Fruit' Hosta behind it, and the feathery Astilbe behind that. Not sure if that will be pink or white. Maybe I'll get those labeled this year.

Next to the Astilbe is the new 'Midnight Rose' Heuchera, and going along the walkway is another small Astilbe.

Come back to center front and there is the new 'Smoke and Mirrors' Heuchera. Just above that are 3 blue hostas from Ester (unknown variety- 2 medium size and one tiny). In the middle of those is a 'Wiggles and Squiggles' I split off last week. It seems to be holding its own. And in the front with two-tone green leaves is one I just brought back from Ester. We can't seem to find the variety. The one the plant apps want it to be she says she never had.

There are some lilies shooting up and the 'Francie' Hosta in the back.

Front flower bed casualties: I've already mentioned the Icelandic Poppies. Also, sadly, the 'Winky' Columbine did not come back. I thought it was going to be ok because it had survived one winter. And I also had tried another 'Blue Clips' Campanula. Not even a hint of it. I think this is my fourth try with that one, all in different places. I think I'll quit wanting that onw. Just at the very bottom right corner of the picture you can see part of the 'Mouse Ears' Hosta. I moved it again because it seems to really want no sun at all or it gets burned. Right now it looks good, but it's so tiny it will have to have both shade and be in a visible spot. And, inexplicably, the 'Vulcan' Hosta hasn't come back this year.

I did a minimal amount of work today. My body said that after three days of intense activity it wanted a rest.

See Front Garden Report 2025- #2

The Other Handful of Hosta

Jean and I have safely made it to the Upper Peninsula and are set up for the Wild Blueberry Festival which opens in the morning. I'll begin showing you nice UP pix tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I was hoping to show you all the rest of my hosta, but I think I still missed one.

Here is one I've had a long, long time, but have no idea what variety. It was a freebie from Ester. It has never bloomed before, and I noticed just yesterday that it is getting buds. The sun was too bright when I took the picture. It's really more blue.

I really wanted to see this one bloom, and it's close, but only a stalk full of buds so far. It never has bloomed before. In fact, it's never been happy before. This is 'Krossa Regal.' It's the only variety I have that will get really big. I hope it won't outgrow this space. Look how tall that flower stalk is! I think it stays more vase-shaped rather than spreading wide, so maybe it will be OK.

This is the one I've identified as 'Blueberry Tart,' blooming.

This is Vulcan. It continues to struggle, but I suspect it will be fine in another year. I must have hit it with a tool in the early spring because it was fine last year. But as you can see, I've now marked where it is.

This is a success story only in that it has survived. I have no idea what kind it is, and don't much care because it's just plain green. But I stepped on it last year, more than once, so the fact that it's alive is good.

It's kind of a joke that several varieties of hosta I bought way back in the 1990s have completely disappeared, while some that wandered here attached to rootballs of other plants I was given have survived. That little green one isn't any of the ones I bought, and I also had a large green and white one I liked called 'Northern Exposure,' but the deer must have even eaten the root. It's totally gone.

Meanwhile, here's the other happy hosta story of the season. This is 'Loyalist' which was deformed in the spring because it was underneath a piece of wire fencing. But it's pretty much straightened out now.

I do have one other one and it's blooming, but apparently I didn't take its picture. Nothing special. Slim green leaves with a very narrow white margin. The flower is just a regular pale purple hosta flower.

So, that's 12 different varieties of Hosta, and I haven't really been trying. I think the only one in that collection that I bought for full price was the 'Loyalist.' It's also the one survivor from long ago.

I checked all the fences, and closed up my "gates" for while I'm away. Dumped fresh repellant granules in the chipmunk holes. Hopefully things will be in pretty good condition when I return home.

Let the adventure begin!

See A Handful of Hosta