Sunday, January 22, 2012

Picture Contest- Week 9-January 22, 2012- garden wish list

Welcome to week 9 of the Sixth Annual Mears Garden Picture contest. Winter flies along as do the pumpkins.


I was going to write about how I’m tired of winter. That didn’t seem right however. It just got here. There really isn’t that much snow. And it is already nearly the end of January. The days are really longer at this point.

Instead I am going to talk about my garden wish list. You should have one. They go so well with garden catalogues that arrive daily.

To start with I suppose I should tell you what I mean by a wish list is. On one level it is a list of plants I want to acquire or add to my garden. It is also a list of which plants I want to do better. Finally it is a list of plants where I want to increase the numbers.

With this as the criteria here is a partial list. Maybe I will look back at this post in October and see whether these items need to be added to the “carried over into the next year” wish list.

I would like to have more sunny annuals. Last year I did not have that many annuals. I would like to grow some California and Iceland poppies. I would also like to grow moss roses. I love moss roses. One year, many years ago, when we lived on the farm outside of Grinnell, (1971-76) we had almost unlimited sunny space. I mean we once grew 144 tomato plants. Well, we had grown moss roses the previous year. If you know moss roses they have lots of flowers and that means lots of seeds, which can mean lots of seedlings the next year. Well I sat out in the garden for hours carefully transplanting these little plants. By the time I was done we must have had 30 square feet of only moss roses. It was glorious. Colors were good back then too.
If I want sunny annuals I will have to carefully manage the sunny areas available.


I would like more columbine. I find these “perennials” only last a few years. You need to have them reseed themselves to keep them going. I have lost most of the interesting varieties. I really like and am going to get the Colorado state flower that is blue and white. Here is a picture from our trip out there a few years ago.

I would like to try some hepatica. This lovely little spring wildflower has promptly died on me in my efforts so far. Gardeners have to be prepared to have plants die on them. The issue sometimes becomes how many times are you prepared to start over with a particular plant.

There is an Oriental lily called Annika that B and D lilies just told me about. It is a double flower that is mostly white with green strips and red specks inside. I think I would like that for its uniqueness alone. I don’t have any green Oriental lilies.

There is a pasque flower that was in the contest earlier this year. The one in the contest was purple. I also have a red one that I showed you at the time. Well there is a white one too which I would like.

That’s it for now. If you have the time tell me in comments or email what might be on your wish list.
Let me get to pictures.


The results of the voting showed a big winner in Week 8. That was the peony. The full voting was
Peony 29
Lily 14
Fall crocus 11
Iris 6

Here is this week’s contest.
With this first picture I give you color. Somehow color is more needed when the outside view is white and grey and little changing from day to day. This is the scrambled inside of probably a Monsella tulip. This particular flower was particularly complex, hence this wonderful picture. It is really nice if you fill most of your screen with it. The picture was taken on May 7.

The next picture is a close-up of Epimedium Sweetheart. I have fallen in love with Epimedium. I have been growing them for 6-7 years. I have quite a number of varieties, as you will see in the bonus section. They are shade perennials that bloom in the spring. I have found them quite vigorous. They are starting to spread so I will soon have divisions to share. As with so many plants, just when you discover there are many varieties you learn that there are even more varieties.
They are tiny flowers as you can imagine and a low down to the ground. The pose even more of a challenge than photographing hellebores.
The picture was taken on April 24.

The third picture is a close-up of an anemone, this one sylvestris. It blooms in the spring and looks like its fall cousin. This picture was taken on May 7. In the bonus section there are side-by-side pictures of this flower and its fall cousin.

Finally there is this perfectly symmetrical Asiatic lily called, I think, Tinos. It struggles along for me wishing it had more sun. This bulb is perhaps 5-65 years old. This picture was taken on July 4. Normally Asiatic lilies bloom in June. This last year was a rather late year as we had a cooler than normal spring. I should add this to my wish list and then plant it in more sun.

That’s it for now.
Tell me what you wish for.

In the bonus section first here are the two anemones for comparison.


Next here are lots of epimedium pictures. Come to the garden in April and see their display.
Here the full plants

I like this next picture a lot. It is from 2010. Sometimes I will use a picture from a previous year in the bonus section. This really shows you how tiny these flowers are, since you have some idea how big bluebells are.






Here are more individual flower pictures.

I really like this picture from 2010 a lot. It shows how small these flowers are, since you can see the epimedium with the bluebells.






Aren't they wonderful.
Philip

2 comments:

Catherine Woods said...

The epimedium you have, Philip, are indeed splendid -- such a delicate little bunching of flowers! And yes, variety! For some reason, they remind me of the columbine a bit. And I didn't know that columbine perennials only last a few years, but this explains why the oldest of my grouping of four did not bloom last year. I'll be doing something about this come spring planting!

I'm with you regarding sunny annuals -- they come in so many varieties and colors and here in CO -- and in particular in one of my flower planting areas (a bed, large pots, hanging baskets, and window boxes sitting on a ledge) -- we get a lot of sun. So that's where I plant my annuals, interspersed with ground cover perennials native to CO. I walk alongside this particular part of my garden every day and in the summer, it gives me great pleasure!

Judith said...

unrelated: Peter Malcolm Keene Crossett, 1/22/12, 7 lb 10 oz. Well, not unrelated to me, but will distract me from growing flowers this year.