Liatris spicata and Echinacea purpurea are both popular with butterflies. Can you see that freaky, long butterfly tongue? Liatris and Echinacea are common plants of the tall grass prairie. For more Wildflower Wednesday, visit Gail at Clay and Limestone.
It's the dog days of summer, the garden and the gardener are tired, almost as good a time as winter to have some fun. As an antidote to all the seriousness in the world of gardening and blogging, I welcome you to the 1st (and possibly last), long awaited (by me at least, as I was going to do this in the winter, but I didn't want to interfere with the Mouse & Trowels), totally unanticipated (drumroll, please) Bizarro Garden Awards.
In the grand tradition of American ripoffs "Sanford & Son," "The Office" and "Life on Mars," comes the Bizarro Garden Awards, stolen inspired by Going to the Dogs' OMG Alternative Garden Awards. Bizarro refers to the exact opposite, as in "Bizarro Superman" and "Bizarro Jerry."
Like all of the above, the original British version is superior (all right, I might be being unfair to "Life On Mars" as I haven't seen the American version, but, come on, having an American cop compare something to "Starsky & Hutch" just doesn't have the weirdness factor of a Brit saying that). While Bizarro would require these to be for the worst of something, we're ignoring the strict letter of the law, so to speak, to allow for best ofs as well.
To borrow and paraphrase another Seinfeldism, they're the awards for the rest of us. Nothing official here, no sponsors, no prizes, you can make up your own nomination categories, nominate as many as you like. As I'm from Chicago, vote early, vote often; you can even vote for yourself. These awards are about fun; any mean-spiritedness will result in your immediate ejection and you will not receive the commemorative nose hair clippers and statue of Victor Mature.
Here are a few categories to kick things off:
Plant You Love to Hate
Favorite Plant You Can't Grow
Worst Plant Name
Worst Weed
Worst Bug
Worst Neighbor
Gardener Most Likely to Get a Nasty Comment From PETA
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: gardener you'd most like to come to your house and cook for you
Anyone Can Host: gardener whose house you'd most like to visit for dinner
Gardener you'd most like to party with
Garden you'd most like to party in
Best Gardener Who Doesn't Own a Computer
Favorite Dog
Favorite Cat
Favorite Chicken
Cutest Kids
Mad Hatter - gardener who looks the best in a hat
Best Garden Hat
Best Garden Shirt
Hoe d'culture - favorite garden tool
Extreme Hoarders: gardener with the best tool collection
While touring gardens is great, the real reason for going to Buffa10 was the people. I could have gone to Buffalo last weekend for Garden Walk if it was just about the gardens. No, I went to Buffalo to see old friends and meet some new ones. It was a delight to talk gardens, watering restrictions, families, and architecture with bloggers from across the country. I thought I was doing better at taking pictures of people, but I still didn't get a shot of everyone. (Mea culpa, to all I missed or of whom I didn't get a publishable shot.) I should have listened to my mother and taken a photo of all the tables when everyone was sitting down at lunch or dinner, but I was having too much fun. Next time, I promise!
Here are Kathy and Cindy in a more formal moment. This shot of Kathy is very similar to one posted by Diana of Sharing Nature's Garden.
While having a garden bloggers' get together come to your town is nice, it's better to travel to one, where you can share in the camaraderie and discussions at the hotel at breakfast and in the evenings. See you all next year!
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Next time on Mr. McGregor's Daughter: Introducing "The Bizarro Garden Awards"
Do you ever sometimes feel like it will never rain, like the storm clouds make a detour to avoid your garden? I've had that feeling recently. After nearly two months with rain every day, the rains dried up two weeks ago. It's rained nearby, as the above photo shows, but not at Squirrelhaven. It's been sunny skies and temperatures in the 90sF. I can't keep up with watering the zucchini,
and a couple of the fruits shrivel on the stem when I had to be gone for 36 hours. Things are starting to look ratty.
The 'Merlot' lettuce has turned bitter,
and cracks have sprouted faster than weeds.
Despite watering this area, the ground gapes.
Plants are starting to show signs of stress
and distress.
It's cloudy now. I can only hope there will be some rain.
While I loved the color and fun of the urban gardens of Buffalo as part of Buffa10, the garden that moved me the most was out in the country, the garden of Hosta experts Mike and Kathy Shadrack. (My review of Mike's book, written with Diana Grenfeld, is here.) According to Mike, the property is nicknamed "Fallingwater East" because of the stream that flows under the house. view of the stream from the Shadracks' deck
While the other bloggers indulged in tea and crumpets, or toured Kathy's sunny garden or Mike's Hosta dell, I found myself exploring the woods on my own. I started off in the area where Mike grows some of his larger Hostas interspersed with ferns and wildflowers.
a Maianthemum (Smilacina) of some sort (Kathy of Cold Climate Gardening has identified it as Maianthemum canadese)
the falls
When I asked what was off in the woods to the other side, Mike responded, "Just some ferns and logs." Hah! Hardly - more like a sea of ferns, nestled among the roots of majestic beeches.
I had never been in beech woods; the woods of Northern Illinois are mostly oak and hickory savannas. It was awe inspiring to be surrounded by unsullied, smooth beech trunks as far as I could see, pristine, without buckthorn or garlic mustard. I was transported to the timeless and eternal. In a transcendent moment, a shaft of sun highlighted the leaves. My eyes welled up, and I was glad I was the only one who wandered in the woods. But, I wasn't alone. I turned and saw someone coming down the path toward me: it was Christopher, from Outside Clyde, who clearly loves nature and wildflowers as much as I do. He wasn't moved to tears because he lives surrounded by this kind of beauty in the mountains of North Carolina and is used to it.
Before I embarrassed myself, I left the woods and rejoined the other bloggers in the shady Zen garden.
In addition to Hostas, there was the Jack-in-the pulpit relative Green Dragon,
Arisaema dracontium,
and mosses.
On the hillside was the now familiar combination of a large Hosta and large Alliums.
Even with the Alliums in seedhead, this still works. There were other beautiful plants in the sun, but I was drawn back to the shade.
and to wild plants. Spigelia marilandica (Indian pink)
an Asian Arisaema
Mike and Kathy were wonderful hosts, and Elizabeth and Jim outdid themselves in getting us this private tour for Buffa10. It's a special place I'll never forget.
The theme of this month's Picture This photo contest at Gardening Gone Wild seems to have been picked with Buffa10 in mind. Judge Rich Pomerantz is looking for an image that conveys a theme or design scheme or unifying principle, which I'd be hard pressed to find at Squirrelhaven. I found that inspiration (among others) in the magical garden in the woods of Mike & Kathy Shadrack. Mike's a Hosta expert; you can find my review of his new book at Carpe Geum. The image above is of Kathy's sunny garden on a hillside, backed by beech woods. I hope to post more about this visit. I was so moved by the beauty of the setting, I doubt I can convey it in words and images.
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Stay tuned for the new, exciting Bizarro Garden Awards - coming soon!
July in my Chicago-area garden is when the interest shifts from the woodland garden in back to the nanoprairie out front, and this year things are ahead of usual. Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) dominate the nanoprairie, with tall wands of Liatris spicata just coming into bloom, Prairie Dropseed (Sporabolus heteroleptsis) with its popcorn scented flowers in front of the wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) and the neglected Malva 'Zebrina.'
Fountain bed, across the walk from the nanoprairie
Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' and Callirhoe involucrata blooming, with tendrils of Wisteria macrostachys creeping in.
The excessive rains of May and June have all but dried up, and some plants that had become accustomed to receiving daily moisture are beginning to show the effects.
Overview of the back
That's a purple cabbage in the container on the patio.
The raised bed Heuchera 'Citronelle' and balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) showing double and single blooms.
The other end of the raised bed: Campanula 'Samantha,' Hydrangea quercifolia (Snow Queen) nearly done blooming, and Geranium 'Gerwat' (Rozanne).
Across the path the Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) are rather tattered, while Campanula persicifolia 'Blue-eyed Blonde' is still going strong.
Next to the Campanula more Rozanne, with Phlox 'Laura' and Hosta 'Winfield Gold.' Lobelia 'Monet Moment' is about to begin its moment.
Moving along to the right: Six-foot tall 'Black Beauty' Lilies, Phlox 'Starfire,' Hosta 'Candy Hearts,' Hemerocallises 'Grape Velvet,' and 'Super Purple,' and more coneflowers.
The long border looking back towards the Hellebore bed. Heuchera 'Raspberry Ice,' Campanula 'Sarastro,' in the foreground, with more coneflowers and Campanula persicifolia 'Telham Blue' in the background.
On the south end of the long border is the big shot of color I see from the kitchen window: Phlox 'Nicky,' hovering over Geranium 'Blogold' (Blue Sunrise), with Violas. I really don't like the yellow with those purples, and, throw in Hemerocallis 'Woodside Amethyst' towering over it all just out of frame, and you have a sickly color mess. I'm not sure if the daylily has to go, or if replacing the yellow Violas with purple ones would fix it. But the Violas are doing so well! (whine, whimper)
Next to the daylily is one for Joseph of Greensparrow Gardens, a groundcover Geranium, and the best performer of all, 'Bob's Blunder.' That's 'Merlot' lettuce and sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) poking up through it. I'm not sure I like it with the daylily either. Maybe it's time to play horticultural musical chairs, and swap one of my dark daylilies in here.
Let's turn from the color mess to the right, under the Heptacodium. Hosta 'June,' Astilbe 'Pumila,' and off in the distance, Hemerocallis 'Little Grapette,' which got banished there to be replaced by 'Woodside Amethyst' (see above).
Looking back the other way, Aquilegia vulgaris "Heart of Gold" (I named it in Buffalo under duress), is the only Columbine still blooming, but it shows no sign of stopping. Beyond it is Hosta 'Maui Buttercups.' Behind both of them is something very special. The one, the only (literally, in my garden this year) Papaver Paeoniflorum: the peony-flowered poppy, which is a seedling from the black one I grew last year. This one is ruby rather than dark purple. Behind that is something even more special. This is for Frances of Fairegarden:
She sent me some lily seedlings last year, and this one bloomed.
While we're on the subject of lilies, here's a closeup of the extremely staked 'Black Beauty.'
I need to design some sort of sculptural support for these, as they're nearly in the stratosphere this year.
By contrast, the vertically challenged Lilium 'Cobra' makes a good foil for Eryngium 'Jade Frost.' I still haven't found a home for my new Eryngium 'Sunny Jackpot.'
There's not much excitement in the woodland garden now, unless you're a wildflower lover and you like white.
Aralia racemosa, which is much more showy in fruit.
The very showy, Actaea racemosa:
And now, a collage of fun things: Top left, nodding prairie onion, Allium cernuum, which is endangered in many places, but is a bit of a pest in my garden. (I should start selling the bulbs.) Top right, a volunteer hybrid Geranium that decided to rebloom. Bottom left, Clematis 'Evisix' (Petit Faucon), just because I love the color. Bottom right, Phuopsis stylosa, sent to me by Nan Ondra from her garden Hayefield. It smells like a skunk, but that's a good thing, because the deer won't touch it.
As should be evident, I couldn't have done this post without the input of other bloggers, who have not only shared plants, but have inspired and supported me. Go support some other bloggers by visiting Carol at May Dreams Gardens and click on a link to check out a Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post on a blog you've never visited. Happy Bloom Day!
