Three Different Brunnera

I haven't yet showed you the other plant I bought last weekend.

I found a cultivar of Brunnera that I don't have, and that I like. There are quite a few, but a lot of them don't have enough foliage interest for me to pay money for. Of course, there are a couple... One of the attractions of Brunnera is that the deer don't like them because the leaves are rough.

Anyway, I bought 'Variegata,' yeah... it just means variegated. But it's big and has colorful leaves. I had to pay full price even though it was badly sunburned. And it may want even deeper shade than where I put it. It got unhappy for a couple of days. But maybe it was just transplant shock. We'll see.

Of the two varieties I have, 'Frostbite' is by far my favorite. The leaves are larger and whiter than 'Jack Frost,' although 'Jack Frost' seems to be a very popular cultivar. 'Jack Frost' also gets to looking sad about this time of year. The 'Jack Frost' may eventually find a different home. It's not turning out to be a favorite of mine.

Here is 'Frostbite' today. (Yeah, something likes to nibble the edges of the leaves. Or maybe it's just the stress of the dry year. I don't really have a slug or snail problem here.)

And here is one of the 'Jack Frost.' I moved the other one to make room for the 'Variegata,' and it is not currently very happy. 'Jack Frost' is supposed to look kind of shimmery. I don't see it. What you can't tell, because I have made the plant fill the entire picture, is that 'Jack Frost' is about half the size of 'Frostbite.'

Ones I might be interested in are 'Looking Glass' with very white leaves, and 'Diane's Gold' with bright yellow-green leaves. I'm sure I'd need to order those.

Today was nuts. For starters, I realized that I've been making a critical planning error. I am leaving at the end of this week for the Wild Blueberry Festival in Paradise, MI. Then from there I go directly west to the Trail Fest in North Dakota (with Marie and Diane). This is a two-week trip with the two different purposes. I thought I needed to leave Friday. Nope. I leave Thursday!

Well, now we have my attention! Today was nothing like my laid back regular schedule of projects. It's been a very comfortable couple of weeks just working on these familiar tasks. Today I spent all morning on volunteer stuff, mostly for the NCT. Then I got things ready and did library, bank, post office, and way too much shopping. That took all afternoon.

I have a list and the clock is ticking. I'll be ready to go, but no more just drifting contentedly from continuing project to continuing project!

See Yeilding to Temptation

Most of the New Plants

 There's purple in my future, no doubt about that. But the only purple you'll see today is my nearly yearly sharing of New England Aster, growing on a roadside.

The rest of what you'll see are all but one of the plants I bought on Saturday at the Mason County Garden Club sale. Three of them will have purple flowers. That wouldn't have been my first choice, but I was specifically looking for tallish plants that would tolerate at least partial if not full shade. I came home with 6 different plants for what I would have paid for the one I was going to order. So, I'll see what is happy here. The ones I'm showing you today have all gone in the Front Bed.

The one I put in the deepest shade is 'Winky' Columbine. It will also get the tallest. This is one of the large ornamental columbines, and the flowers are purple and white. Spring bloomer.

I got a big pot of garden allium (onion), and split it into three clumps. This one, I think, will not get over 2 feet tall (there are giant ones). It went in partial shade at both ends of the front bed. Purple balls of flowers in spring.

The other purple bloomer is Lirope. This gets spikes of purple flowers in the fall. I've never tried any of this, but what the heck. It went in mostly sun with a little shade. There are two species, and I don't know which this is, so that will be next season's surprise. It gets about 18" high. I put it in a space that is kind of empty once the daffodils die back. That should work pretty well.

I have wanted to get another Brunnera. This is the 'Jack Frost' that I have and is established. The one I like best is 'Frostbite,' but oh, well. Not only do these have bright foliage, but in the spring they have tons of tiny blue flowers.

The new one isn't looking very happy yet, but it was probably only dug up last week and then moved twice. The other plants were well-established in their pots. I think they were dug earlier in the season. (and some of the plants were donated by garden centers because it's the end of the season)

My other plant for the front bed was a freebie because it was so sad. This is a 'Mouse Ears' hosta. Indeed, it had two leaves, and one of them fell off on the way home. But if the root is OK, it will be back in the spring. The leaves are small but rounded, and the color is quite blue.

In other news: I worked in the morning and part of the afternoon. I walked the summer taxes to the town hall. Total walking 4.2 miles

Miles walked in 2024: 425.1

See Purple Parade

Just Wow!

  Never in my wildest dreams did I think the rock garden would look so good in this first year after the recovery effort. The color doesn't show up as much in the picture as it does in real life. Or maybe I took the photo too late in the afternoon.

Anyway, here are some more goodies. The bronze ajuga is blooming, joining the various colors of moss phlox. It's very happy, and it spreads easily. I'm going to move some farther out from the wall this year and see if it will tolerate the sunnier place out there because the foliage is nice all season.

Here's the moneywort, Lysimachia nummularia again. I can't believe how happy it is since it's never done anything before except be scraggly and barely survive. Near this patch, it's found a place to hide itself in a crack between two rocks and that looks especially nice. I hope it does more of that. You can just barely see a sedum friend beside it. That is also a sedum that I didn't think was going to survive. I bought it last year, and it was not very happy. But I guess it just needed to get better established. Soon, I'll do a sedum picture day, but I want some of them to get a little bigger first.

And I have two more daffodils for you, but I think these will be the last different species for this year. The first are some tiny Tete-a-tete in the rock garden. Another one I did not know was still alive.

Now, we'll move out of the rock garden. I should have pictured these yesterday before the rain. But I still have some Pheasant-Eye Narcissus. These came from my childhood home.

The 'Stewartsonian' Azalea was a bit stressed from being transplanted when it was in serious bud, so some of the buds just withered. But enough of them opened that you can see its color. This is now planted near the forsythia and the Flowering Quince (that doesn't often flower, but the bush is looking the healthiest it ever has, so there's hope). I like it. I used to have a sand cherry there, but it died.

But this is the real stunner. I had no idea these would look so great together in the spring. This is the 'Frostbite' Brunnera and the 'Peach Flambe' Heuchera. I'm pretty sure the 'Jack Frost' Brunnera has died. But I'm seriously liking the Brunnera that the deer won't eat. Their real beauty is later when the leaves get big and are colored. These ones will be mostly white. I'll probably get another.

Much was accomplished today. I only have 86 miles of campsites done, but I'm pretty sure I'll get to 100 yet this evening. And huge progress happened on other fronts. Stay tuned.

See Much Nicer Than Expected

Old Flower Friends, New Flower Friends

 I'll start with the new flower friends. This is the very newest. Sue gave it to me for my birthday! It's an Azalea, variety 'Stewartsonian,' with deep red flowers. I'll take its picture again when more of them open. She said the color I got was pot luck, but I like it.

This isn't actually the flowers. These are mostly grown for their foliage It's one of the Heuchera I bought last year, and it's really happy. The variety is 'Peach Flambe.' I like this a LOT. It will add bright color all season.

This is one of the two Brunnera I bought last year. This one is 'Frostbite.' The other one is either dead or not up yet. There are a lot of things not up yet, so who knows. I'm so happy to see it bloom. I knew the flowers were small; it's more of a foliage plant. The leaves will get very big after the flowers are done, but I love the delicate blue for spring.

Now for the old friends. I show you these most years. However, last year I divided and moved most of these, so I'm happy to report that I now have multiple puddles of all of them.

First is the traditional English Primrose. Three clumps in bloom! It was quite breezy when I took the pictures.

This is the Cowslip Primrose. It seems to be very very happy for me. There are three puddles of this now, also.

And I also split the purple Corydalis, possibly 'Berry Wine' variety. Both clumps of it are blooming.

It's pretty early to be digging around yet- too easy to cut plants that aren't quite emerged. But I need to get my fencing up. The deer love azaleas, so it will have to go in prison, and I now have netting for the front garden and the rock garden. I think I'll need to get those up next week.

I worked on the book today, and spent some time with Cathy. We took a tiny walk. Did about 90 miles of campsites and some editing. Might do more yet tonight.

Total miles hiked in 2024: 210.9 of which 70.6 is North Country Trail.

See A High Probability of Naughtiness

Yielding to Temptation

I spent all day at the vendor event in Ludington, and it was a busy day. The traffic was steady, the weather was great. I did well. That does mean that I'm pretty tired. Constant interactions with people. Another full day tomorrow.

Lots and lots of dogs at the event. I saw my first giant schnauzer. I didn't even know there was such a thing. There were two beautiful vizslas, always a favorite of mine because of Maggie. Two retired and rescued greyhounds were handsome and chill. They were much calmer than some I've known. Too many small dogs to count, and one puppy pug in its human's arms.

But what I'm going to share is that I gave in to temptation and bought a plant yesterday. I had to go to the garden section of the store to get a hose mender, and that was my downfall. I looked at plants, and that was "all she wrote." There was Brunnera, (Brunnera macrophylla) very reasonably priced, and one came home with me. This is the variety 'frostbite.' Supposedly, the deer won't touch these because the leaves are very rough. It's sometimes called Siberian bugloss or false forget-me-not (the flowers bloom in early spring and look a lot like forget-me-not). But it's usually grown for the leaves. Like hosta, there are many color variations. I know for a fact you can pay a lot more than I did for unusual varieties. But I can try out a bargain one in my garden. It's very pretty.

That's all that happened today. It was plenty for one day.

See Better Than Expected