Summer planting catch-up.

Long time no blog.

My first PG, second hydrangea. Propped.

       It's been a busy summer, gardening. I added three new hydrangeas to my collection, making ( I think) 12 in all. The new ones are Vanille Fraise and Limelight, both PG-types, and Glowing Embers, a macrophylla. The Glowing Embers is an especially good do-er, as the Brits say. Blooming since planted, and lovely colour changes. I also have three propagated ones - one macrophylla and one probably PG-type, which I managed to do, and one Anne did, macro, from scrumpings at Cotton Park or Home Hardware, I am not sure which. These are all very small so far, and as I'm not sure a) what they are, and b) if they will survive, I'm not counting them in the 12! All my commercial ones, except macrophylla "Cityline Mars" bloomed this year. Not many blooms, it's true, but a sign of things to come! And they have all put on growth.

Glowing Embers

       I got three new rhododendrons this year - One early in the season at WalMart (for which I can't find the tag), one Lepidote Dwarf "Karen Seleger" at an amazing Kent sale in September, and one from Don, who is moving one of his which has gotten too big. His is in full sun, and is doing very well, so I'm not quite sure where to put mine! The "Karen Seleger" I put in the bed beside the drive, in a spot cleared out by removing an overgrown clump of shasta daisies. More shastas went to make space for a "Coppertina" ninebark, and a couple of ecinaceas. Anne gave me a Pieris, which I put beside my one surviving tree peony, after removing a huge clump of iris.These are all in the same bed. Anne also gave me a purple-leaf birch (Betula "Royal Frost") for my birthday, which I put in front of the spruce hedge just beside the PG hydrangea above. It should be amazingly beautiful when it gets older and the bark turns white.
       Anne just gave me a "Mixed Nursery Planter" she got at Home Depot, on sale for $12.50 and marked down from $50. It had a Fagus sylvatica "Purple Fountain" (weeping purple beech), a spirea, a cotoneaster, and quite a large eunomous, all crammed into a 12 inch square plastic pot. The beech will be 30 feet x 15 feet at maturity. Naturally we have pulled it all apart and I am looking for the perfect spot for the beech - it is a fastigiate specimen, not too huge, but requiring full sun to create those purple leaves. I may have to put it below the big white pine, in the spot we're considering as an "Alpine" area. It's sunny, or at least *will* be when we take out the Norway maples in the ditch, and a couple of Pinus niger that are looking quite sickly.
       We went to Cornhill Nursery in the spring, and I bought an Amur Maple (Acer ginnala) which was blooming there at the time. After dithering all summer, I put it in the "Shade Garden", which has lost all its shade. The viburnums which have hitherto provided shade were cut down this spring, after the third year in a row of being totally defoliated by the nasty larve of the viburnum beetle. Our highbush cranberry bushes have fared a bit better, but they are related, so I expect they will go as well. I am suppressing regeneration of the snowballs with carpet. Hope it works. I really don't want them back. 

Cedar waxwings, feeding!

     The one good thing about the nasty larve was, before we cut the bushes down, a flock of cedar waxwings came and had a great feed on them. I think there were 12 waxwings in all! But, lovely as they were, it wasn't worth having these buggy specimens in my garden to attract them. We have left a few smaller bushes around the other side of the house uncarpeted, so if they regenerate, and the bugs do not, I'll leave them alone. Otherwise, I'll look for resistant varieties. There are a few, I understand.

Glorious Autumn

We've had a couple of frosts, and the light levels are lower, so the trees are starting to colour up. This is a Manitoba Maple (Acer negundo) which usually only turns yellow, so it's nice to see that it can have a more interesting look, occasionally. It, the larch and the spruce are the reason that the "rose mound" isn't doing very well any more - they are taking most of the sun, even in mid-summer, and so the bloom is getting less every year. My plan is to move the roses to more hospitable spots, starting with the more refined ones, and perhaps leaving the more robust rugosas to take over and do what they can in the matter of bloom. I also noticed quite a bit of black spot on them this year, surprisingly, since they are supposed to be immune! But I have found a couple of packets of sulfur treatment so I shall begin in the spring and keep them dosed up. I think moving the ones which are already defoliated might be the ticket NOW, and leave all that spotty foliage behind.
I've put in 40 pastel tulips, in various spots, and quite a few daffs under the maple tree. My hope is that they will come up before the bishop's weed (Aegopodium) and perhaps make that spot a bit more interesting. I think the tulips will be nice surprises wherever they come up. I put them mainly in the beds, but used a bulb planter, so it wasn't the big digging job it usually is.

 Because it's getting colder, things that have been sitting in the greenhouse must be put into the ground as well, so I have an oriental poppy (from Anne) and the two eryngeum offsets, and a couple of other things. I am planning to colonize more of the big central shrub bed to the west of the house and stick them in there. I've already moved quite a few foxgloves and blue iris up there. 
The gladioli are still lovely, and I really appreciate them as cut flowers - in the Peter Jansons ikebana vase, you can stick two on the needlepoint holder, and as the lower blooms fade, you can just shorten the stems. They last for days and days this way.
We are insulating the garage to be our cold room, so there will be a safe place to put our gladioli bulbs, and dahlias as well. And, of course, onions and carrots and potatoes! The big garage doors will be the real challenge. We are considering rigid sheets, or making a framework to hold fibreglas batts. I think the former is the easy route, but it is expensive.
Today is glorious, and I got out to take some photos (and do some watering and planting) but the colder and wet weather has been good for knitting and sewing. And cooking! We had the usual Thanksgiving get-together, but we cooked our own turkey the other day, so now we have the potential for all sorts of turkey-leftover meals. Mmm.