Each Little World

Keeping cool

I grew up in houses with no AC. Of course, we never had weather as hot as it is now getting. Luckily our house today had AC already in place when we bought it. Before then, I made do with more traditional methods of keeping cool. 

I bought this rather large fan when visiting my sister who lived in San Francisco. It didn't fit in my suitcase so it sat on the empty seat next me to me on the plane ride home. Those were the days. 

This one is from Africa though I no longer remember which country or tribal group. 

This is another large fan but I have the same style and pattern in a small size as well. 

Too bad I'm not into the Barbie hoopla as this would be perfect for a pink party. 

I have folding paper and fabric fans and tiny Chinese paper fans encased in metal that open up and the metal pieces are a sturdy handle. Fans like these were available everywhere when I first moved to Madison. Over the years I've downsized my collection but I still have enough fans that I've put them out for guests to use at summer parties.

The sky was dark when I began writing with thunder rolling through. But the sun has come out and another chance for rain has passed us by.

IVOM: Heucheras vs. Heucheras

There are Heucheras and then there are Heucheras. Some disappear quickly and are never missed. Others last so long and well that I've turned them into swaths of ground cover. Some barely flower and others are suffused with blooms. Most of my Heuchera successes are from my early gardening days. They've been divided and moved so many times I no longer have a clue as to the names of most of them. Despite having a lot of plant id cards, I've never really been able to figure out who's who among these oldies. 

These days I look for villosa hybrids and steer clear of most new "hot" varieties. When I'm trying a new variety I don't really want to buy more than one for starters, but it seems they hit the market and disappear so fast it's hard to find them again if you do want to add more. New plants seem to be following the "fast fashion" model.

The leaves on this variety start out almost purplish and become more green as the season progresses. This is the unknown Heuchera with the best flower count of any I've ever grown. I look forward to it blooming each year which is not something I do with most Heucheras.

No. 2 favorite. Dark foliage that holds its color in western sun. Lots of flowers but I like these stems as part of a mixed bouquet rather than as the stars. 

One of the early purplish introductions that has survived and been divided. 

H. 'Pinot Grigio' has lovely pastel foliage that is pinker or redder depending on location. Nice flowers as well, though not as many as I'd like. 

My alter-ego vase filled with the pink stems of the Heuchera in the first picture. 

Not only does each plant produce a lot of flower stems, the stems themselves are packed with tiny flowers. 

She thought her display was a little bland and sent me out for a bloom of Gladiolus murielae aka Peacock Orchid.

Gardener gardens

Our recent rains coupled with reasonable temperatures have kept me out of the house and away from the computer. I dug out three Hostas on Tuesday and replanted chunks of them to complete unfinished areas of the garden. Did the same with Maidenhair ferns. Moved a young Rodgersia and spread out some Iris germanica. The front garden is laughably out of control as I am ignoring it while the road work continues. I am a tired but happy gardener and I'll get back to blogging soon.

This is Hydrangea quercifolia 'Pee Wee'; one of my last purchases from Song Sparrow in 2019. Size-wise it's reached its 4' x4' size in a mere four years rather than the eight suggested. I plan to move it this fall as it's hiding too much of the other plants in this area. It was eaten almost to the ground by rabbits in its second year but clearly that didn't slow it down one bit.

In pots on Monday

. . . and every day.

I saved two fancy-leaved Begonias that I bought last summer indoors over the winter. I ordered some annual Begonias to complement them and potted them all up by the front door. Alas, the bright Begonias in the back pot are not doing much while the ones in the other pot have overtaken the original Begonia.

I added a pot of an unknown Heuchera and a Japanese painted fern to support the big pots. At some point I put a vase of the clippings from my shredded umbrella leaf in the rear and potted up a crown of my favorite fern on its way to a new location. 

Before the recent rain, I potted up all my unplanted mail order plants, including Clematis 'Lime Close' and a big Epimedium, as a way to keep track of them and water them more easily. The garden is full of yellow flags marking things that have been newly planted and need water.

Turns out the watering is drawing thirsty critters who are digging the little plants out and flipping their roots up into the air. Luckily I've discovered most of that activity before I'd lost more than one plant.

I put my Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Parsley and Mint in this wide pot and raised it up so the rabbits couldn't reach things as easily. Everything has been growing like crazy since this photo was taken. Rosemary is planted with the pot of Calla lilies above. Other than the mint, those herbs are all annuals here. 

I spent time last week weeding the Carexes that cover the slopes in the back garden and removing a few where a shrub was encroaching on them. I want to replant them elsewhere and so popped them in pots, along with a few Bergenia that a critter flipped out and another mail-order plant awaiting its home. 

I decided to plant a few Calla lilies this year as I am always taken with them when I see them as cut flowers. Turns out I like them less as a plant. 

I might like the Calla Lilies if they looked more like the photo on the bulb package. And if all of the bulbs had sprouted. Luckily they weren't expensive and growing them was one more garden learning experience. 

GBBD: 7.15.2023

The mini Hostas are starting to bloom. You can see from the hose that I watered at the beginning of the week, not believing we'd get any of the rain that was predicted.

I was wrong. From lunchtime Wednesday until early this morning we got almost two inches. Heavenly. 

Allium 'Summer Drummer' is the latest to bloom. Its papery covering started peeling off July 5th, but these lovely buds still have not yet opened as much as I expected. 

Hemerocallis 'Petite Sioux' is a small-flowered daylily from my first garden. I got it at a Wisconsin Daylily Society sale in the early 1990s and have never seen it to buy again. One of my absolute favorites for color, bloom size and bud count. The flowers are not quite fully opened in this image.

H. 'Lady Inora' is another small flowered variety but larger than 'Petite Sioux.' Great bud count on this one as well. The buds on this one all opened in time to get beaten up by the rain. 

H. 'Little Rainbow'

I love the Ligularia varieties with tall flower spikes like 'The Rocket'. I added another similar-flowered one this year named 'Eva Heimann.' 

Though I am less fond of the flowers of Ligularia 'Chinese Dragon,' the buds are wonderfully curious and the foliage is among the largest and most dramatic in my garden.

Asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet' has fragrant white flowers that are a nice change from the more typical pinks and oranges of most milkweed flowers. Then again, given the number of orange/peach/reddish Asiatic lilies and daylilies I have in the garden, perhaps adding an Asclepius tuberose might make sense. 

Since I haven't posted anything since last Monday, I am rushing Bloom Day a bit and posting today. 

IVOM: Deadheading

A good twenty years ago I planted Allium sphaerocephalum, the Drumstick Allium, and I've been trying to eradicate it ever since. That's the kind of experience that can turn you off a plant forever. However, I decided it was time to try again and I've been much more satisfied with my Alliums this time around. 

I learned my lesson, however, and have removed most of the seedheads from the garden. I've left a couple because they do offer such a great contrast to every other plant; even at this late stage. 

I know a lot of gardeners spray paint them and use them as holiday decor. I am going to keep these as they are. But I think I may pop them into the evergreens I put around the big plate by the front door. I've added all kinds of natural and unnatural items to that display over the years and these seem like an excellent possibility — if I can keep them safe until winter. 

These seedheads are all from Allium atropurpureum. The artwork is by our friend Chuck Bauer.

Yay! It worked.

I guess all I needed to do to get some rain was to complain in print! The radar pix all seemed to suggest yesterday's projected storm was going to slide by us again. Until it unexpectedly burst on the scene around 3 p.m. 

I went down to open the door for Mark who was out running errands and saw this workman who'd been operating a laser transit on our front lawn. He was one of the few who brought his rain jacket to work.

Amazingly the crew worked right through this cloudburst and continued until the second one arrived a while later. They got the road and our neighbor's driveway passable and then called it quits earlier than usual.

I'm thrilled as we got 1.35" of rain which has the garden looking lovely this morning. It's green and cool and calling me out to weed. 

Weather report

Went out late this morning — a little after 7 a.m. — to get some watering started. Since the temp is only supposed to get into the low 80s° today, I thought I would also plant a few things that have been sitting in pots for weeks. Managed to get a Heuchera and an autumn fern in the ground before I had to come in. It's only 10 a.m as I write and the temperature is already at 87°F with humidity in the 70% range. 

Despite endless watering the plants in the entire front garden are coated with grit and dust from the street construction. It was lovely having a four-day holiday weekend with no noise or dust. I watered out there in particular hoping to clean the leaves as well as give all those plants a drink. 

This is what the deck looked like the last time it rained. It wasn't heavy enough or long enough to get any water through the tree leaves and into the ground. We've had rain forecast for days and days and it just passes us by. We're currently 6 inches below normal. 

I know it's summer and supposed to be hot. But I am quickly wiped out with the kind of high temperatures we've been having. I've spent way more time watering than planting, weeding or fine tuning the garden so far. OK, rant over. Maybe today's predicted rain will materialize.

Ferns

I love ferns. Large or small, native or not, I can't get enough of them.

This is Cheilanthes lanosa 'Mighty Tidy' aka Hairy Lip fern. Eventually it's supposed to spread into a foot-wide clump. But that is going to take so long that I am not worried that these two are planted too close together. They're in my so-called rock garden which gets sun and great drainage as these ferns require. Almost every plant in this bed is a quirky dwarf and I need the tags to id them.

I have had terrific success with our native maidenhair ferns as well as the Himalayan variety. So I decided to try Adiantum aleuticum imbricaturm, the dwarf western maidenhair fern, which is also found in Wisconsin. The fern in the center left is a no id variety. What I really love is this mix of ferns with Carex morrow var. temnolepsis 'Silk Tassel.' This Carex is at the top of my "must get more" list.

The autumn fern, Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance,' emerges latest of all the ferns I grow. I always leave last year's fronds in place so I know something is actually planted in that bare spot. 

When they are most autumnal looking I can see them in this view from inside the house. The yellow flag marks a newly planted shrub that needs watering. 

I just realized that the spores on the back of the fronds of the nearby Christmas ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides) are the same warm cinnamon color as the autumn ferns. A happy accident rather than planned planting. 

Now I'm thinking perhaps I should add a couple of these Digitalisferruginea into the mix.

Or perhaps the Digitalis should go by the Tea House where they'd nicely echo the 'Mrs. R.O. Backhouse' martagon lilies. 

Bulb surprise

For years, I've had great luck with bulb orders; I've usually received exactly what I ordered. So it is very frustrating when you discover six months later that what you ordered is not what's currently blooming in your garden. This saga all began with Lilium asiaticum 'Forever Susan.' I planted 'Susan' after admiring her in a friend's garden.

When I discovered how overpowering she was visually, I planted some Lilium asiaticum 'Landini' (below) across the path to calm that intense color down. 'Susan' is so prolific I've given bulbs away. I've bought 'Landini' bulbs four times from three different sources. It just doesn't seem to like my garden as it only lasts a season or two. 

My latest attempt to add more 'Landini' resulted in this lily. 

No idea of its name and it's much larger than 'Forever Susan' and looks out of place compared to my other lilies. Maybe if the 'Fusion' lilies return (below), I should forget the dark color and stick with orange on both sides of the path.

Or maybe I should complement 'Susan' with a different flower altogether; something like Digitalis ferruginea, the rusty foxglove.

Then again, the surprise lily looks rather nice in a bathroom bouquet with my new shower curtain. You have to look closely to see the dark red Astilbe blooms; they almost fade into the fabric design.

(I dragged a green stool into the bathroom to be able to take this picture).