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

Rock Garden Reds

The Dianthus 'Brilliant' from the old rock garden started blooming today. Most of it is this deep rose-red color.

Some of the same plant isn't as deep a red. No idea why. And so far, none of the white 'Arctic Fire' has showed up this year. Had some in 2024. I was gone last year, so I don't know if they bloomed.

And this is the Dianthus 'Eastern Star.'

I also discovered that some of the 'Red Mountain Flame' Ice Plant are opening. The Ice Plants don't seem to like my rock hill. But it's alive.

It has been hot and muggy miserable today. We are supposed to get thunderstorms tonight and the next couple of days. That's probably OK. I need to seriously get busy on some overdue project needs. I actually started working on one of those today in addition to editing. Spent about an hour on it. Not nearly enough, but getting started is often the hardest part for me.

And I figured out why the last plant I ordered hasn't arrived... I forgot to push the order button. haha. Now it's on it's way.

See Orange and Gold

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

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

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

Sedum Successes

I think I already said that Sedums are the "backbone" plant of a dry rock garden. Well, unless you want cactus, but this is hard enough to weed already without adding prickles.

I just counted, and over the life span of the rock garden I have tried at least 44 different Sedums. Some are great successes, some not so much. Today I'll show you six that I'm very happy with. The criteria for making me happy today is that they are spreading well, are both interesting and visible this early in the season, and have a variety of foliage colors.

First up is 'Dazzleberry,' one of the SunSparkler series. This started as two tiny sprigs from a mail order in 2023. I love the color of the leaves, and it's grown and spread quite well.

This is a puddle that Jean gave me last year. It's about doubled in size. This is S. kamtschaticum 'Variegatum.' Not particularly fancy, but it will have reliable yellow flowers, and I'll be happy if it spreads as much as it suggests it will because I can use it to replace some of the really weedy sedums I have way too much of.

This is 'Ezawe.' It's not very happy in the first location where I put it, but the chunk that I moved here between rocks and in full sun is doing well. This is low growing and tiny. But I like how it fills between rocks.

This is the one my friend Betty gave me a couple of years ago. It's now gotten big enough that I'm pretty sure it's 'Vera Jameson.' This makes me really happy because I had one long ago that died. It took a couple of years, but it seems to be filling in better now.

The last two are both SunSparklers. These are technically hybrids, but I'm calling them sedums. The 'Lime Twister' is hugely reliable, spreading to make low mounds of light green and pink. I've split it several times and have chunks started in other locations. Here it's showing off with the Blue Fescue grass.

And the 'Lime Zinger' is a darker green, and it mounds up higher. I'm not sure you can tell the height in this top-down view, but I wanted to show how nice it looks with the Moneywort. Oh, and it looks like you get a litte mound on the right of S. hispanicum 'Pinkie.' This spreads all over the place, and I also have one that is much bluer, but I can't find its tag right now. It must be in my "to do" pile. I'm not sure if they stay separate varieties in the garden because the little balls just roll all over and then a patch appears out of nowhere. But they fill in small spaces nicely.

We just had a little pop-up thundershower that wasn't predicted at all! I had to go grab tools from where I had left them. It barely registered in the rain gauge, but it must have felt good to the plants after another day over 80°.

Very hot again today. I did errands and stuff and a little bit outside in the morning. Managed to keep moving fairly well, but I'm so far behind on so many things that it's crazy.

I think another time, I should show you some of the Sedums that haven't been such a big success for me. It's not always clear why they don't thrive on my hill, but it might be interesting.

See SunSparkler Sedums

2026- Rock Garden Report #2

I suppose it's pushing things a bit to have two rock garden reports in the same month, but so much happens in the spring that I am going to do it anyway.

This first round of color with daffodils, grape hyacinths, and moss phlox is winding down, and we are entering the next phase with the geraniums blooming, the sedums coloring up, and some of the dianthus starting to bloom.

This is the front view today.

And on May 3.

So the thing about a rock garden is that they are usually meant to feature low-growing plants, so you aren't going to get bright, splashy long-distance views. What I'm hoping for with that kind of vantage point is a mix of areas of foliage color and sometimes larger swaths of things blooming.

Here's the top of the garden today.

And on May 3

I think you can tell that I'm beginning to get a patchwork of various contrasting colors. But the best things are always going to be the tiny details I can share.

Here's a really tiny detail! I THINK the donkeytail Euphorbia has finally produced a couple of babies. Can you see them?

I'll help you out!

The 'Blue Star' juniper has a broken section. I suspect a deer stepped on it. I hope it fills itself back in. I really love the way it looks- so tidy and mounded with the blueish color. I went back to the place I got this on sale last year, but they don't have any of them this year at any price.

And I'll show you one more thing today. (I'm saving the sedums to focus on another time or two- they are the backbone of my dry rock garden plants.) This is 'Cerise Queen' yarrow. Yes, it gets tall, but I am trying it in this space beside the retaining wall. Tall is fine there, and I need something tall enough to hide the cable that holds the wall. As I've learned by trial and error, the spaces by the wall get pretty hot in the afternoons. But this was planted from seed last year, and it looks like it's going to be ok. The name should tell you that the flowers will be a shade of red.

Several of the dianthus did not survive- bummer. A few other plants that did survive are VERY small. We shall see.

The Confidence Campers gave me a gift card at the end of camp. I've decided to spend that on plants, which is why I've ordered a few. And I think I'm going to go buy that other Heuchera.

Today was the first truly hot and humid day of they year. I melted into a puddle of non-functionality in the afternoon. Got to the post office 8 minutes after it closed, so I guess that will be on tomorrow's list. I did get the gardens watered, so they are happy. My body has to adjust to temps over 80. Maybe I can get a few things done this evening.

Took a little walk in Scottville. About 1/4 mile. I don't think that even counts.

See 2026 Rock Garden Report #1