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

Philadelphia Flower Show - White Plants

 
I always like to find the plants with white foliage at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The choices go way beyond dusty miller and lamb's ear!

There were more than this, but a lot weren't labeled. The huge succulent garden in the entrance had few labels, but I think this is some kind of agave.



This is a border plant that looks a bit like lamb's ear. It's a Senecio. There's a genus with an incredible amount of variation. This is Senecio candidans, Angel Wings



Centaurea are knapweeds, yes like the invasive spotted knapweed. But many are beautiful ornamentals that aren't a problem. Centaurea cineraria 'Colchester White' has really white foliage.


This is a near-white succulent. This is a gasteraloe, a cross between a gasteria and an aloe. Variety 'Green Ice.'



And finally, for today at least, is an Aloe, 'White Fox.'



In other news: Busy day. I made yogurt, refrigerator soup (which turned out yummy), and whole wheat soda bread. I packaged and mailed books. I wrote a newspaper article.

See Meijer Gardens- White Plants

Meijer Gardens - Succulents 2 - White Plants

 
I love white plants. Not necessarily white flowers, but plants that are all or mostly white. Here are three from the visit to Meijer Garden last week.

First is the fairly well known Cocoon Plant, Senecio haworthii. It comes from South Africa, but is very often used in containers or indoor succulent gardens because of its stunning color and big puffy cocoon-like leaves. This one is nice and healthy.



The next two are both cacti in the Mammilaria genus, from Mexico. This one has red spines, Silken Pincushion Cactus, Mammilaria bombycina



This one is even whiter, because the spines are white too, but look at the beautiful magenta flowers! Mammilaria geminispina, Twin Spined Cactus. My guess is there are two spines in each follicle. You think?


I think I can eke one more post out of the Meijer Gardens visit if nothing exciting at home comes along.

In other news: I did moderately well at the show. It was well-organized and I made some new friends. Of course several people wanted to look at my cute little trailer. The roads were clear coming home, so that was a much nicer drive. And... can you believe? I know a small handful of people in all of Baldwin, but as I was driving through town, who should be standing beside the street waving to me but hiking buddy, Sue!

	See From Dark to White
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From Dark to White

 
There are so many things I can show you from the Philadelphia Flower Show, and some fun things have shown up at home too. It's hard to choose what to blog about next. But it's an easy transition from dark plants to white and near-white plants, so that's what you get today.

In fact, there was a garden that was created specifically as a White Garden. Here it is.



At least this garden had all the plants nicely labeled. On both outside edges is Scotch Broom, Cytisus 'Moonlight.' The plant left center with large leaves is 'Looking Glass' Begonia. Right in the center is a Dusty Miller, Centauria cineraria, and behind that with the white puffballs is a dwarf Fothergilla, Fothergilla gardenii.

There were a couple other white plants that weren't in this display, but they would fit well.



This one is Helichrysum thianschanicum 'Icicles' Licorice Plant. And I think the one below, the African Blue-eyed Daisy, Osteospermum sp. would work well, too.



I'm not sure that I would want a garden with all pale flowers, but it has a certain beauty to it. How about you? Would you use all the white plants together for a dramatic swath, or mix them with brighter colors?

See Philadelphia Flower Show 2010 - Textures for a couple more pale plants