Next Round of Sedum Bloomers

This is one of my favorite rock garden plants, Sedum ellacombianum (now a Phedimus- guess I need to sort out what the new genera mean). I've had some of it in my rock garden since the very beginning, although recently a friend, Deb, gave me more of it.

It mounds up nicely so it's not invisible and the leaves have a nice greenish-yellow color. When it blooms it's covered with bright yellow clusters of flowers. It consistently looks good throughout the season. I do try to deadhead it when it's finished blooming, but that's not too hard since the flowers are clustered.

The other one that's in full bloom has two different looks. I'd been misidentifying it for years because the leaves usually turn deep red in the sun. So I thought it was 'Pork and Beans.' But last year, I wised up to the white flowers. It's Sedum album- album means white. And I think 'Pork and Beans' is larger. You can see the nice contrast between it and the S. ellacombianus side by side.

However, in shade, or occasionally even in sun, the leaves stay green. This is the same plant.

This little creeper is now everywhere in my gardens and yard. And it all came from one small pot long ago.

In other news, I managed to get outside for a few minutes this morning before the heat started blasting. Then I edited and all that stuff. Started a nasty project in the basement this afternoon. I've been saving it for this week because it's cooler down there than upstairs. Got it to the first stage and made a store run for parts, and then stopped for groceries too. I need cold pop and ice cream to get through this week. Open windows and fans are my friends.

Maybe I'll try another short round outside this evening. There are plants that need to go in the ground.

See More Sedum Fun

Critter Day

How about some recent critters in my world?

This is the flicker that has been hanging around the deck. He comes to the birdbath, walks on the deck floor and perches on this bar. I've never had a flicker come so close to the house before.

One of the days we were out doing trail work we found this clean painted turtle on the trail. It's quite a ways from any water. Seemed a little odd, but a nice find.

Another visitor that is usually closer to water. This is a female Common Whitetail dragonfly. She was posing on a rock in the rock garden. You can see a male in the link below.

And here's quite an oddity- a black cat calmly sauntering through the driveway. I have no idea where it lives. I haven't seen evidence of a feral cat in our broken outbuildings lately.

I worked in the morning and had a Zoom meeting in the afternoon. Managed a few minutes in the gardens, but don't expect a lot from me this week. I don't do heat well. Mostly I sipped cold drinks and read a book. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. I have a couple of jobs I can do in our basement where it is cooler.

See Critters at MatthaeiI

Moon Garden Beginnings

It stayed clouded over quite a bit of the day which allowed me to spend more time outside than I had anticipated. That meant I finished getting at least the first space in the Moon Garden dug up and planted, which includes the "entrance."

And look at this nifty stepping stone I got from a local artist, Matt Borema, to be at the very beginning of the walkways! It has the "tree of life" motif on it.

These are most of the plants I have so far. I suspect a lot of them will get moved eventually, but it will be easier to water if most of them are near each other for now.

This group has a variegated Miscanthus (the grass). It will get huge and can not stay here more than this year, but I have to decide just where it should go because I suspect I'll have one chance to move it somewhere. I could have ordered the Hakone grass I wanted. But it was very expensive, and not all the variegated ones are so white. Many are quite golden, and when you order, you can't actually see the plant. This wasn't very expensive and I picked the whitest one to bring home.

I got two things that are annuals because most of those are marked way down by this time of the summer. There is a Dusty Miller, and a 'Frosty Kiss' Gazania. I'm going to try propogating some of these over the winter. At the worst, I won't succeed, and at best, I'll have more plants for next year.

The little one on the left is Greek Mountain Tea. Betsy brought me this one. The leaves will get whiter and fuzzier. I was not familiar with it at all, so this will be fun to watch.

On the other side of the walkway are things I have lots of. The four plants you can actually see are Lamb's Ear. I have a ton, ton, ton of that- all spread from one sad end-of-season plant a few years ago. But it's perfect for many filler spots in a moon garden.

Behind that maybe you can see some tiny stalks. Those are common yarrow I dug up out of the yard. These are the wild ones with white flowers and the usual feathery foliage. But the flowers last a long time, so I think it will work well, and it spreads easily. They will get almost 2 feet tall.

Despite how much Lamb's Ear I now have, this is the first time one has bloomed for me. I'm much more interested in the foliage, but a flower is always fun too. (This is by the driveway.)

Now for a focus on another of the plants I bought that you can see in the first grouping. This is a Veronica (Speedwell) called 'Snow Candles.' I cut off quite a few of the flowers that are fading and it's getting some new ones. I'll probably trim it some more in a couple of days.

Basically, when I was cruising the greenhouses the other day, if I saw something on sale that was on my moon garden list, I bought it. I was surprised to find some things I thought I would have to order. Finding them locally saved me, on average, about 50% (factoring in shipping).

This was a surprise find- again 50% off for end of season annual. I'd never seen 'Frosty Kiss' before with the white foliage. One of the flowers opened today.

There's also a White Sage from Betsy, but it's small yet. I'll show you another day. She says it's annual here.

I have three other plants I've purchased, but they need to go in specific places. Whatever time I get to play outside this week, I'll need to work on getting them placed, hopefully in their long-term locations.

And, um... I may be guilty of ordering a specialty Hosta. I saved so much money on most of the ones I just bought that I splurged a bit.

And I have, for sure, two other plants I already own that can be split and some put here. But there's no rush on those.

I went to the annual patriotic concert this afternoon. It's always good, but this one was great! Lots of younger people involved which is sure important to the future of things like it. The instrumental music was live with local musicians, a full choir, and a children's choir.

And now they are saying rain tomorrow on top of the heat. But that's ok. I was thinking a whole week of heat without rain was going to be tough on the plants, and I'd probably have to water quite a bit. Now, maybe not.

Betsy has brought me so many plants I'm struggling to decide where they should go and get them in the ground!

See Bonsai Apple Tree Is Getting Friends

1,3,5,5, and More

I showed you the yellow lily when the first blossom opened on June 19.

Then two more opened to make 3.

I forgot to get a picture of 4, but then there were 5 all at the same time.

I wondered if all 6 would open together. But the first one faded as the 6th one opened today, so only 5 at a time. Last year, it had 5 total. So this is the best year ever. Not bad for a flower that appeared in my garden and I have no idea how. Someone must have given it to me, or maybe even snuck it into the ground to surprise me.

I promised the Mason County Multi-Use Trail Committee that I'd do some scouting for a small section of potential trail route. Cathy went with me. Except for some pieces of what might be old logging roads, we saw a lot of this sort of thing. We didn't actually connect where we wanted to because there was an unexpected fence through the M-DOT property. From the other direction we gave up at a solid thicket of buckthorn and autumn olive, and possibly another fence. I might try again on a cooler day with a pair of loppers. Anyway, we bushwhacked for 1.6 miles and it took 1.5 hours. But I did collect some useful information, I think. Quite a bit of evidence of homeless encampments, although we didn't encounter anyone.

We went back to Cathy's for cold drinks and crunchy carrots. She also had a 300-piece puzzle set up. That was perfect! We easily finished it in one sitting, and I had been sort of hankering for a puzzle. It's called "Kitchen Garden." Such a fun, plant-rich picture!

In other news, I edited and did projects. Managed to get in the gardens a bit in the morning, and again late in the afternoon. This coming week is going to be a test to have time to work or do anything outside with the coming heat and humidity. But they say it may be the hottest of the summer. I won't mind being done with that.

Miles walked in 2026: 188.2

See Color Me Smiling

More Sedum Fun

Yesterday, I said I'd looked up how many Sedums there are, and it's between 400-500. Of course, now they've added three new genera: Hylotelephium, Petrosedum and Phedimus. Most everyone is still calling them all sedums or stonecrops. But the numbered species doesn't account for all the varieties- there are apparently more than 500 recognized cultivars. So... a lot.

Not all of those are hardy enough for me to even try in my gardens. My records have 58 entries, but a few of those are repeats for a second acquisition. Not all are still alive as I pointed out in the link about Sedum failures.

But I've added three this week. I got this one yesterday. This is the one the nursery had no clue about. It's one I've previously tried, but not the variegated form. This is Sedum sieboldii (but now one of the Hylotelephium.) I'm really happy to have found it. It can get about 8" tall. Some sites say hardy in my zone, some say not.

And this is one Betsy gave me that I didn't previously have. This will form a mat that drapes all over. It's Sedum stolonifera, still a sedum. I don't know much about it, so we will watch it mature together.

Betsy also gave me this. This is Sedum hispanicum, of which there are at least 5 cultivars. I have two of them, but I think this is the basic version. She raised it from seed! It needs a little time to fill in more. This is a mature clump of the 'Pinkie.'

And then, this is the next wave of sedum to blossom. This is the Sedum reflexum (and I see they've changed it to Petrosedum). There are at least 6 cultivars of this. I have two and covet two more. This one is 'Blue Spruce' because the leaves look a lot like small blue spruce branches. Here is a side view.

It moves itself around a lot- after it blooms, those stems often die back and it pops up with new stems nearby. But it likes to get into cracks between rocks, so it often fills in spaces where there isn't much else. It's easy to rip out of places I don't want it, so I pretty much let it do its thing. Here is a top-down view, and I think you can see the little spruce-y stalks.

The garden is getting a little drink right now before the temperatures start going up tomorrow, and then I'll be going to lie down.

It's not really a secret about my tiny summer job. I'm helping with laundry and cleaning at a local resort. I spent 3.5 hours this morning vacuuming couches! I'd never thought of that as being strenuous, but I'd never done nine of them in a row before. Stopped at a store on the way home and did a tiny bit of gardening in the afternoon. Betsy brought more plants!!! But mostly... I'm beat.

See Sedum Failures