The Case of the Attempted Coleus 2026

Today I trimmed all the faded flowers off the Seven Sisters Rose which allowed the attempted Coleus to be more visible. I think the results are the best I've managed yet, but not spectacular. The Coleus are planted among the remains of the Violet and Sweedish Ivy leaves. I trimmed some of those back so they aren't obstructing the view either.

Basically, I have 4 different ones. The solid bright one is 'Inferno' that I bought this year. There are 3 dark ones (only one is very visible) and those are 'Black Dragon.' Of the other two, one has yellow edges and a maroon center, and the other is mottled green.

This view catches all four, although the dark ones are small.

How do I feel about this? Meh. I think I learned things about keeping them over the winter and can probably do a better job of having them a bigger size to plant in the spring. I'd need a ton more to really fill in that area. And I'd need to remove the violets- probably an ok idea, and cut the daffodil stems down early- not such a good idea. Plus, I really think I'm going to dig up this whole section this fall to divide the dafs and add the alliums. Also, this area honestly gets a bit too much afternoon sun for the Coleus.

However, I could do a planter for the porch, or put them in the deep shade on the other side of the birch tree. I really do like them.

For your enjoyment, here are three other Coleus planters I've encountered this summer that I haven't already shared. The first two are a set.

This is another from the Garden Club tour.

I decided I needed a bit of a rest today. I puttered around- did a little editing, a little gardening, finished writing one of my columns, but I didn't work very hard.

Tomorrow I have to get ready for my first big vendor show of the summer (yeah, I haven't done as many this year), so I have to stick to a work list and a schedule. Then Saturday, it's off to Arcadia Daze!

See Coleus Capers

Mason County Garden Club Tour 2026

It's been several years since I was actually home when the Mason County Garden Club Tour was being held, but this year it all worked out. The stops this year were all in Ludington.

This is a special year for the Club-- it is their 100th Anniversary, and also the 24th Garden Tour they have hosted. Because of this, 4 of the 7 sites were at public locations the club maintains, and one of those had a craft you could make. I may talk about those another day, but I want to focus on the 3 private gardens.

Here is a nice walkway corner. It's edged with the Donkeytail Euphorbia and filled with a petunia planter.

This garden had mostly traditional plantings and groupings, but it was nicely done. The owner mentioned the gardners' war with the urban deer (her fencing was removed for this tour), and ironically enough, I saw a doe and two fawns just around the corner, cruisin' for a snack.

This was my favorite, and it turns out I know the owner. This is just one view of the garden... it's filled with quirky garden art, different levels, and little nooks tucked between buildings and hedges and stuffed with plants.

Now I'll show you a few of my favorite plants, or pairings of plants.

This is another Heuchera- 'Changeling'- that I like a lot.

And here is a beautiful coleus planter. Coleus is a lot like the heuchera- they come in an amazing variety of colors and shapes. But they are annuals. (You may recall I tried to keep some over the winter- I had a little success which you'll see one day soon)

This is a really nice pairing of a coleus and a heuchera. Of course no one seems to keep track of the names of any of these cultivars, which you know I want to know.

Here is, perhaps, my favorite of the day. This is a begonia from a patented series called Space Age, possibly 'Black Hole.' Of course, I can't start playing with begonias unless I magically sprout a greenhouse, or at least more space with good light, to keep them over the winter.

We did not know where the gardens were located until we bought the tickets at the start. I had thought I'd walk as much of the route as I could since the day was not blistering hot. And after seeing the map, I decided I could walk the whole thing. 4.6 miles.

Did a little editing and some cleaning up at home.

Miles walked in 2026: 223.7
Miles walked for the Onekama Challenge: 35.5

See Mason County Garden Club Tour 2018

Coleus Capers

Well, the coleus may be a moderate success this year. At first, I thought maybe it was going to turn out to have too much afternoon sun where I want to put them. They did not look happy at first- kind of sunburned.

But they have been in the ground for almost 2 weeks now, and they are getting better.

As a reminder, I bought one, the 'Inferno,' that was deep orange when I first put it out.

Very interestingly, the orange color has changed to almost a ruby red. It's really doing the job to brighten things up there, but it needs friends.

Nine of the coleus I managed to keep over the winter are planted, and a few of them are perking up. This one is doing the best. And most of them are this color pattern. It is tall enough now, and is contrasting nicely with the violet leaves.

Here's an example of the condition most are in. This is another of the bi-color ones that is brightening up and looking better, and above and left of it is one that is all dark. It will be great if it manages to get bigger. It might. The last time I tried significant coleus there, I got some end-of-season ones that were too small, too late, and they never filled in.

I have three more stalks rooting. I think one is rotting, not rooting, but I may have two more to put out in a couple of days.

Seen from any distance at all, the only one you can see is the 'Inferno,' but hopefully that will change as the season goes on.

The thunderstorm yesterday evening dumped another 1.2 inches of rain and there were high winds. We're supposed to get one more round of that tonight, possibly with damaging hail. I have staked the tall lilies that are in bud. I'd hate to lose them, but it could happen.

I did projects, I edited on both manuscripts I have in house, I did a little deadheading and weeding, but it's awfully wet! Not surprising.

There are so many jobs I need to do, it's pretty hopeless no matter what. And the lawn needs mowing again. But I can only do what I can do.

See Orange and Gold

The Indoor Plants

It's astonishing, but I can't think of anything interesting to blog about!

I edited, I did computer stuff, I shopped, I filled the veggie tray using my new chopper (it looks beautiful), but how many times would you readers find the same tray filled with the same vegetables interesting? I started to look up a little bit about the next generation in the genealogy, but as I suspected, there isn't much to find. I may have to get that DAR membership to learn much (which would be easy except for the dues because Granny and Mom were both members- so I don't have to start from scratch to prove anything). It was this generation's son-in-law who fought in the Revolution, and gives me the right to belong.

I played my game (but I MAY be able to be calmer about it.) They've added many layers of events because the really top-level players need things to do. So there's no way mid-level players, such as I, can explore all the lands. So I can just pick what I want to work on and try to meet my own goals.

It's fun. The current quest is to assemble a skeleton of the "Loch Dess" (not a typo) monster. You have to get some of the bones from an Inuit who was making oars of the ribs, a dog who wants to keep some of the bones, and a clown who is charging people to look at the skull. You have to go find the things these people and the dog want to trade for the bones. Along the way, there are rewards you can get, resources to collect, etc. And you have to keep your home station operating in order to have enough energy to do all this stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you really don't want to see a lot of screenshots of a game you aren't playing yourself.

How about the plants I'm nurturing in the house over the winter? Still not too exciting, but it's the best I can do today. I am attempting to keep a bunch of Coleus going. I brought in the 'Lemon Coral' sedum and the 'Sea Urchin' sedum. I have one sprig of 'Blue Elf' sedum, the wandering jew, a tiny aloe that manages to live but not thrive, and a whole bunch of the Aloe squarrosa which is a houseplant. I'm still trying to give several of those away if you are interested...

Remember the cleaning/sorting project I mentioned in September? Well, the point of that was to make space on a table where I can keep these plants for the winter. I think that space gets enough light to make them happy. And it doesn't matter if some water leaks onto the plastic cloth or the junky table underneath. In my dream world, I have one of those earth-sheltered greenhouses attached to my kitchen door by a breezeway, so I can keep plants and grow vegetables over the winter. Meanwhile, I have a rusty folding table and an old plastic tablecloth. It works.

Tomorrow is going to be nice again. I have a plan to do something more exciting than grocery shopping.

See Last Hurrah, Rock Garden 2025

Visiting Margaret's Garden

I am going to try to get some plants going for the gardens over the winter. I do not have a track record of being very good with this, although I did OK last year. I'm going to try some coleus this year. Friend Margaret gave me cuttings from two different ones, a dark purple and this interesting variegated one. Look at the scalloped edges on the leaves.

She has a huge fenced garden- her whole back yard. She has vegetables and all kinds of flowers. A lot of them are tubers and bulbs she has to take in every winter. I don't have the patience for that at all. These are begonias that should only be good for one season. But she says she takes them in and every year they come back.

This is her back porch. Look at all the plants! She apologized because it's not at peak beauty. Hey, it's September. I think it looks great.

This is a really healthy Jimsonweed. She called it a moonflower. Common names are all over the map. It's Datura stramonium. Ingesting any part of the plant can cause severe altered mental states and even death. So, enjoy looking, but don't get the sap in your mouth!

There were lots of other things I could have taken pictures of, but I didn't. Oh well. These are the annuals along her front walkway. She says the petunias have bloomed all summer even without very consistent deadheading.

I enjoyed the tour! I'm glad she was home to show me. We had left it that I would come snatch some coleus from the front whether she was there or not. But I got the full tour.

I spent a big portion of the day doing errands. There weren't any big glitches with any of them, so that's good. I have a preliminary dentist appointment tomorrow.

I also edited and answered various correspondence, blah, blah.

See Margaret's Garden

Conservation Trail - Not All Paved

 Today's miles were tough only because it was impossibly humid. We got out early enough to beat the real heat, but it didn't really matter. About the first third was still paved trail.

After that, it was still the rail trail, but it was a grass surface. Nice to walk on! Our only real complaint was that the grassy trail had no benches. We walked and walked til we found a place we could sit for our break.

Some cute little white mushrooms looking like scarecrow hats.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 307.4. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 40.1

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Shimerville Rd. to Forest Rd. 7.1 miles

BONUS SECTION: Ann's Garden

We went to host Joyce's sister's garden the other evening. It was beautiful! Come along.

She has waterfalls and ponds. This one has pink lights in the water.

This one is even larger and has blue lights in the water.

Container gardens on the steps are always nice with a number of different coleus and other things.

I really like the gooseneck loosestrife.

But the garden phlox and daisies are spectacular too.

The new one to me was a large bush called sweetshrub with big flowers. It's supposed to be aromatic, but I didn't smell it. Next time.

I'm in the very last stages of getting How to Hike the North Country Trail ready. The final check of the pdfs just happened. If I can stay awake, I'll upload them to the printer tonight. If not... tomorrow.

See Peanut Line and Stella T. Rex

The $1 Marigold

In mid-June, after I finished the hike, I planted a dollar's worth of marigold seeds. I figured whatever I got would add a spot of color. Well, they did. It did. I got one, one spot of color!

The impatiens haven't recovered from being eaten a second time. That was probably asking a lot. Well, they were practically free, and the foliage looks better than weeds.

Here's one more gazania. They are doing pretty well.

The tiny coleus that was absolutely free because it was an accident in one of the other pots didn't get big, but neither did it get eaten.

I never did show you the plant I bought for the rock garden, but it wouldn't stand the sun. It's this vareigated ajuga. I really like the looks of it, and it's quite happy in the shade. The bronze one will tolerate the rock garden, but not this one!

And finally, I wanted to show you the flowers of one more hosta. I have no idea what variety this is, it was free long ago. Ordinary green leaves with narrow white edges.

But it's another one with pretty flowers. The blooms in the above picture are past their prime. But when you look inside the blossom, they are neat.

As you can see, a lot of that bed did not get weeded for the second time. I may have time to do one more fall cleanup after I get home in October, but right now I'm focused on getting ready to head for New York.

More NCT work and some house cleaning today.

See How Are Those Annuals?

Cathie's Garden

I needed to run out to Cathie's house on another errand, but a side perk of that is that I knew she has a very nice garden. This was the first time we'd actually met, although we've been conversing via Facebook. She took one of my least attractive house plants before I went hiking. It's still really leggy, but it's very happy.

She has a whole patch of red Crocosmia. I tried to grow this once with no succes. It looks best in a mass planting like this one.

She also has a few stands of hollyhocks. I prefer these, the old-fashioned single ones. For a while the double ones were hugely popular, but I'm glad to see more of this kind now.

The deck planters are phenomenal! They are mostly Coleus and Bidens 'Stellar Blanco.' (white star). I thought at first they were Bacopa, but the leaves aren't right. You don't want to run into the wild Bidens species in the fall. They are the classic "stick-tights" with the two prongs like devil's-horns! I think the other flowers are a petunia.

I loved the hot color palette of her front bed. And what I really like is the little solar fountain she has in the birdbath. She says the birds love the splashing. You can barely see it squirting in the picture, but it sent water almost 2 feet in the air. I think my bath is too small for this, but it's definitely cool!

She must spend every minute gardening. She also has a pristine vegetable garden, all fenced about 10 feet tall. This is only maybe a quarter of it.

Now for my favorites. She is actually growing a lemon tree. I had no idea you could get away with that here. These are the flowers. Behind these, there were very (very) tiny lemons forming on the faded blossoms. Actually you can see one just to the right and below the center.

This plant was new to me, or at least I never noticed it enough to learn the name. It's a Petunia relative, Calibrachoa from central South America. The red and yellow together is stunning! This planting can also be seen in the picture with the birdbath.

Last night, my brain was just racing with ideas for my current project. I decided it was stupid to lie still and try to remember everything I was thinking of, so I got up and turned the comupter back on. Worked until 5 am. Slept until 10:30. That was fine, since we were having a thunderstorm anyway!

I also got a calendar widget installed on my desktop. That was WAY more difficult than it should have been. The Google one is apparently no longer available. I finally found one I like, although I haven't managed to customize the categories yet. I can only take so much frustration in one day.

See Margaret's Garden