A trouble-free ground cover that I added to the garden decades ago, my Lamium clone looks its best in cool weather, so by mid-spring, it is a lovely blanket of green and white with attractive pink flowers. In autumn, before the first frosts, it again looks fresh and lively.
This plant is very forgiving—I don’t water it in the summer on any regular basis and I accidentally mow it fairly often in the spring. It doesn’t seem to care about any of that and just keeps covering the ground and looking great.
My future plans for this plant are to peel off some rooted divisions and pot them up for giveaways and sales.
We have one golden chain tree that grew from a seed dropped along the north fenceline of our property. It was already a spindly tree when we moved in, so it is likely at least thirty years old now.
I’ve always liked these trees, but they are just SO invasive that guilt comes along with that admiration. I’ve kept the one along the fenceline and I potted up one of its seedlings that I keep outside the greenhouse. I also have a smaller seedling in with my bonsai baby pot plants. And then there are the myriad seedlings the original tree has spawned underneath that I have to keep digging up!
My future plans for these plants are to root any extras out as they pop up from seeds, and to care for the bonsai-bound and patio pot trees to keep them alive and blooming for years to come.
Herbaceous peonies are considered easy and tough, but my first attempt at growing them failed miserably. A friend gave me some starts as a thank you gift many years ago. They survived for many years, but did not thrive. They weren’t in full sun and I think that caused their ultimate demise.
Two years ago, I decided to try again. I ordered a half dozen hybrids from Gilbert H. Wild and planted them in the memory garden. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But despite competing with the huge Douglas fir tree for water and nutrients, the peonies have done well and two of them actually bloomed this year.
The flowers are a little too double for me, but they are showy and I like peony leaves as much as the flowers. They are very different, so they stand out all the time, but especially in the autumn when they color up beautifully before they drop.
My plans for these plants are to keep feeding them and watering them as much as I can. I’m anxious for the other cultivars to bloom–I think there are a few single-flowered types, which I really love.
This golden hop vine came into our lives when we added the pond and the woodland garden. We planted it on a trellis/arbor over the viewing bench twenty years ago and it has gotten more and more boisterous every year since.
Hop vines are pretty coarse for small gardens, but this one, with the lighter chartreuse new growth and nice autumn color paints some nice scenes at different times of year.
Future plans for this plant include trying to stay on top of its rampant growth and propagating it for sales and give-aways by ripping off starts with roots attached in the spring.
I only have one Phalaenopsis at the house, but in the last many years, I’ve taken many under my wing at my various offices and kept them alive and gotten them to rebloom. So, there are about six of these moth orchids at my workplace that I’ve been able to keep alive during work .
There must be something about the temperatures and the lighting in the offices I’ve worked in that please these plants because they grow easily and well. And when they are happy, they bloom for up to four months a year.
I may need to find a new home for these plants in 2020 as our office environment changes and we downsize. I’m bringing a bunch of other houseplants home and these orchids may follow suit to hopefully find a perfect home on a shelf in my new home office window.
Every perennial “chrysanthemum” I’ve tried in the past has died out the second year. But this gem from brother Tim has grown really well for me and survived five years now in pots and directly in the garden. I’m not positive of the cultivar name of this–the petals seem too narrow for “Sheffield Pink.” Regardless, it is pretty and fun every October.
In 2020, I took about a dozen cuttings of this plant. Despite spotty care and watering, they rooted well and I’ve potted them on into four-inch pots. Some of them are even blooming. I will keep them in the greenhouse overnight and then plant some out in various holes in the garden next spring.
The common name of leadwort doesn’t do justice to this ground-hugging perennial. The plant is pretty, but unassuming for most of the year, but then as autumn arrives, some of the most beautifully colored flowers on the planet burst forth.
I’ve had this plant on the edge of the orchard garden for twenty years and it doesn’t disappoint. The trick is to remember to look for it during its season when everything else in the garden is shutting down.
My future plans for this plant are to keep it weeded, watered and fed and possible divide it to spread it around to some more visible places in the garden.
I’ve never been a big fan of African violets. This plant arrived without an invitiation. I had ordered another plant from Hirt’s online catalog that was an outside perennial and when I unpacked the order, there was a sad little African violet in there instead of the hardy perennial. So, this plant started out as a disappointment, but it has climbed up the favorites list to a safe position.
The great things about this plant are that it is easy to grow and adaptable–it doesn’t seem as fussy as some Saintpaulias I’ve known. It also is not shy to bloom. And lastly, it reproduces well through division and leaf cuttings. So, my original plant has expended to at least six.
The challenging things about this plant are that it grows too fast, so it fills out smaller pots so fast I can’t keep up with repotting. Also, sometimes the leaves start looking anemic for no apparent reason–they turn yellow and crisp up. Mostly, the challenges are mine and not the plant’s. I haven’t perfected my African violet growing game just yet.
My future goals for these plants include staying on top of their potting needs and light requirements and hoping to get some show-quality blooming plants in 2021.
I remember discovering salmonberries on fishing trips with my late father near the Cedar River. Added to the native garden in April 2020, I just have one of these shrubs, but I anticipate it will grow and spread prodigiously–so there really is only room for one. The plant is only about two feet tall right now, so it has some growing up to do and spreading out, as well.
Future plans for this shrub are to keep it lightly fed and appropriately watered to speed it along to blooming and berry production.
I’m taking a break from Plant-A-Day postings to capture some thoughts on the greenhouse activity and how this year has gone.
I spent a few hours yesterday moving clivia and cymbidium pots into the greenhouse for their six- or seven-month stay. There are about fifty clivias and eight cymbidiums. Happily, the plants seem to have done well in the new place I summered them, on the west side of the new native plant garden. Because I took the time to clean them up, top-dress them and fertilize them with Jobe’s organic fertilizer spikes in the spring, all of the plants looked healthy and robust.
The clivias produced about 25 flower spikes in 2020. I’m hoping for more in 2021, given how healthy they appear right now and that more of the seedlings are approaching blooming size.
I was having stern thoughts about the cymbidiums as I moved them into the greenhouse. They take up a lot of space! And last year, they didn’t bloom at all. But as I looked them over, I saw a flower spike forming at the base of one of the plants, which is great! I will get them some diluted orchid food and see if I can’t coax more of them to bloom. The ones that don’t bloom will be given away in the spring.
The more tropical seedlings were moved into the house today, too. I have some palm seedlings and three coral bean plants that won’t survive a winter down to 40 degrees. I moved them into a window with LED lights–hopefully, that will be warm enough for them. The coral beans are looking weak and sad. I am hoping this is due to low temperatures and they’ll add more growth while back in the house.
Some highlights in the greenhouse this year:
Orchid blooms, including Pleione, Coelogyne, and Masdevallia.
Lots of clivia flowers, some in wondrous, interesting colors.
