5. Campanula 'Sarastro'
This plant just kept reblooming this year. It even formed a bud, albeit a frozen one, in time for November Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. This plant is named for a German nursery, which I suspect is named, in turn, for the Magician/Sorcerer character in Mozart's Opera "The Magic Flute" (Die Zauberflote). This is my favorite opera, which is one reason I chose to put C. 'Sarastro' in my garden rather than the similar C. 'Kent Belle.' Maybe I should do a whole "Magic Flute" themed area and get Anemone 'Pamina' to plant with 'Sarastro' (although a plant named 'Tamino' would be more appropriate), interplanted with some 'Queen of the Night' tulips. But I digress.
4. Clematis 'Silver Moon'
This Clematis has matured to yield over 20 blooms on a relatively short plant in partial shade. I couldn't ask for a better show. I think I'll reward it by getting it a real trellis on which to grow.
3. Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine'
Although I lost one of the three plants this year, the remaining two performed very well this year. Blackberry Wine bloomed non-stop from the middle of April through the middle of August, and did not go dormant after that. What a fabulous little plant, and fragrant to boot! Of course you have to practically drop to all fours to get whiff, but once in a while it's worth it. I wonder if the new chartreuse-foliaged form 'Berry Exciting' would be too over the top?
And now, drumroll please, in a tie for top honors, two similar looking flowers on very different plants: Anemone 'Andrea Atkinson' and Anemonella thalictroides.
I've already gushed about this plant ad nauseum. It just outdid itself this year in height and floriferousness. At the opposite end of the size spectrum
the diminutive Anemonella had its best year ever in the garden. I can't tell what concatenation of weather events caused it not to go dormant this year, a thing that has never happened in my garden. It started blooming at the beginning of April, survived the freeze, and kept on blooming until the end of June. In addition to this pink-flowered form, I have the standard white and a blush-colored double. Anemonella is my favorite plant; I'm so glad that it likes my garden.*Apologies to John Cusack
20 comments:
Great choices! I'm with you on 'Sarastro'; I hope it settles in as well as Kent Belle has done (I'm a sucker for campanulas). And I'm anxiously waiting for Corydalis 'Berry Exciting' to be available locally; hopefully this year.
And thanks to your enthusiasm for anemones...I'm trying again with them next year. I think it might have been too wet where I planted before. Or I might have mistaken the plant for a weed come spring. It's been done...;-)
Jodi - you sound like my mom; she's always weeding out plants that I've given her because she didn't remember planting them (that's because I planted them). I feel like an evangelist for Anemones, but everybody has a plant that they champion. I guess, for right now, this is mine. Hardly anyone around here grows Anemones. Other than at the Chicago Botanic Garden & my local library, the only gardens that seem to have them are those that got their plants as divisions from mine.
I really like that first clematis. I wonder how it would do here in the South? The 'Silver Moon' one is pretty too but 'Sarastro' is very unique
Hi Mr McGregor's Daughter,
Your top 5 are pretty cool - I've been drooling over 'Silver Moon' in catalogs for years - yours is lovely.
I've been gone for awhile and will never catch up - but would like to say that Carolyn's advice on your underachieving plants sound good - and wonder if you've considered that in a dry year you're using a lot more water from the tap, which in both the Chicago area and in Austin is pretty alkaline.
Your dogwood in ice was beautiful and your alcohol & Chocolate confection reminded me we never got around to making rum balls this year.
Planter's Palette was a favorite destination when we lived in IL - may the memories of your sister be sweet ones when you revisit the nursery. That was a beautiful post.
And as to 'Sarastro' - what a beauty - those colors pop ...or is that 'Pap, Pap, Pap, Pap'? My daughter and I used to take out the tape of the mid-70's Bergman version once a year from the local library - wish she were here and we could watch it right now!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Phillip - Thanks for visiting. I think Campanula 'Sarastro' is rated for Zones 5-8. I visited your blog & I see that you're in Alabama. If you're in Zone 9, you're out of luck with that Campanula.
Hi again, Annie! Better late than never is the motto around here. Make some Rum Balls for New Year's. I had been looking at 'Silver Moon' in catalogues for a few years b4 I found it at a sale by the Boy Scouts. Then I just had to snap it up. I think it came from Donahues in Minnesota. I've never seen the 1970 version of the Magic Flute. DH & I got a different version (live from the Met) as a wedding present, but I got to see it live once - at the Lyric Opera with Sumi Jo as the Queen of the Night. The Lyric's version was better than the one from the Met. I try to keep it down when I find myself unconsciously singing the Queen of the Night's aria about Sarastro when I'm deadheading it (I'm not a soprano).
I love each of your choices but that clematis is dreamy. Do you suppose it could survive the minus 27 we had last night, and often through the winter (purely rhetorical -- I'm sure it wouldn't survive :-D). I actually like letting a clematis sprawl out across the garden like a showy ground cover. That white anemone is lovely too but then I have a weakness for white flowers.
Happy New Year!
Diane, Sand to Glass
Diane - thanks for visiting! Silver Moon is hardy to Zone 4, I think it probably would survive -27F if it was under a foot of snow. Open ground? Probably not. Fortunately for me, the coldest it has ever gotten around here in my lifetime was -25F. I hope I never experience that again. You must be made of hardier stuff.
Thank you so much for your list of top favorites! I've got to take note!!! :-)
Happy New Year - 2008!
Shady Gardener - I'm sure all of these would do well for you. This isn't a list of my favorite shade perennials; I could never pare that down to just 5!
Fantastic Anemones!
I wish I knew what I was doing wrong because I've planted corms twice for them and never got so much as foliage.
Maybe I'll just break down and buy the flowering plants this year.
I love ALL your choices! And that's it - this year I'm getting some corydalis.
Like Jodi, I have a "thing" for campanulas. I don't think I've ever met one I didn't like and there are so many varieties out there.
Mr. Brown Thumb - as you live nearby, don't bother buying any Anemones. I'll happily give you some of mine. If I don't divide them regularly, I'll have an all-Anemone garden. I'll e-mail you about it this Spring, when it's time to do the dividing.
Kylee - thanks for visiting! So are you going for the restrained 'Blackberry Wine' look, or the all-out Wow of 'Berry Exciting' Corydalis?
How about both? :-) Actually, whatever I can find. I might have to visit Chicago. Actually, I plan to go to the Botanic Gardens this summer (second visit), so I'm sure I'll check out some garden centers. Which ones would you recommend?
I have never ever seen an anemonella before--very cute! I'd say more, but am off to do some google searches and find out more about this lovely plant...
Kylee - my favorite nurseries are not near the Botanic Garden, but here goes. For conifers, the place with the coolest stuff is Rich's Foxwillow Pines in Woodstock, IL. Woodstock's main square is worth a visit on its own (it was the standin for Puxatawney, PA, in the movie "Groundhog Day"). Another great nursery, The Planter's Palette, in Winfield, IL, is just down the road from a gem of a public garden, Cantigny Garden & Museum. Finally, the best nursery in the Chicago 'burbs, in my opinion, is The Growing Place. It has 2 locations, Aurora & Naperville, IL. Both are further from the Botanic Garden than the other 2. I've been to the Naperville location only, but I'm sure the Aurora location is the same.
Kim - you're in trouble now! Some of those double Anemonellas are pricey - & oh so addictive!
Hey, I have something you need to go with 'Sarastro': Euphorbia palustris 'Zauberflote'. I originally got the seeds from Chiltern Seeds. If you're interested, I'd be glad to send you some seeds (if I can catch them), or a couple of seedlings.
Nan Ondra - I've never grown Euphorbia; the only 1 I've ever seriously considered is E. corollata (which Tony Avent calls "Redneck Baby's Breath"). Does E. palustris need moist soil? If so, I'd better take a pass. If not, I'll take you up on your offer.
Seeing where it puts itself here, I'm inclined to think that it does best with moisture, but I'll check around and let you know.
I like all of your choices. One that makes me want to get out and plant right now is the cordyallis. I have a yellow variety and it bloomed and spread all around the garden. Now it won't bloom. I wonder what that is all about?? I might try this one.
I also like the way you let your box go. I like plants that have that free spirited look.
Nan - thanks. I might be mistaken, but doesn't the term "palustris" refer to meadow or swampy ground?
Lisa - I can't imagine why the yellow Corydalis stopped blooming for you. Supposedly, that kind is a no-brainer around here. I've never grown it, so I can't compare it to 'Blackberry Wine.' If you do get it, give it some afternoon shade. Formal clipping just doesn't work for me. I guess I'm just too free-spirited. :^D
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