2014 Garden
July 14, 2014 by Sherry
My garden survived the polar vortex winter! :) Some photos from this spring and summer (you can click on any of these photos to view larger):
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Garden beds and gazebo
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coleus bed
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hosta in secret garden
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roses on fence in spring
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secret garden, forest grass and hostas
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annabelle hydrangea
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invincibelle spirit hydrangea
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potted cordyline, gomphrene and dichondra, caramel heuchera
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fresh look celosia grown from seed
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patio beds
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creekside border, mixed
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creek border
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double delight coneflowers
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celosia, mixed
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cheyenne spirit coneflowers grown from seed last year, got even bigger and better this year!
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cheyenne spirit coneflowers
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denver daisies
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red banana in a container, taller than the obelisk!
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elephant ears, veronica, hostas, sunpatiens
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annual salvia, petunias, ornamental grass
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pinky winky hydrangea
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bubble gum supertunias in hanging containers
Posted in flower gardening, Garden, Gardening, Photos | Tagged annuals, coleus, coneflowers, flower beds, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, gazebo, perennials, seeds | 6 Comments
Good to hear from you! Yes the winter was insidious. Froze most of my roses to the ground, same for hydrangeas. I only have 2 hydrangea blooms in the whole yard! Roses are pitiful this summer, 1/2 the size. But perennials are GR8! Love that dbl delight echinacea of yours!
Hi Jim! It’s good to hear from you too.
Oh, this past winter…. I hope THAT doesn’t happen again.. lol
Sorry to hear about your roses and hydrangeas. My roses are fine, but I also had my Endless Summer hydrangeas freeze to the ground for the first time ever. They came back from the roots, and are almost back to original size, but not a single bloom on any of the three so far this year. My Annabelles and paniculatas are fine though.
We didn’t have any snow cover of course, and that first week of January, it got colder here than I ever remember it being — getting as low as SEVEN degrees one night! My plants are not used to that — I even lost a few butterfly bushes (and they were at least semi-evergreen here), lost all my agastaches (probably due to winter wet instead of the cold), lost all the mums including the ones that I had for years, lost a big potted crape myrtle and an angel’s trumpet.. and also, the black grass I loved so much did not return. I replaced it already though. :)
That double coneflower is dependable, have had it a few years. I am loving those Cheyenne Spirits though, it’s unreal how big and pretty they are this year, and they started blooming earlier than any other coneflowers I have, I think they started at the end of May. I’ll have to divide them next spring for sure.
Let’s hope none of us have another winter like last year! Thanks for visiting, Jim.
-Sherry
Oh wow, sorry about all your losses! We had a deep snow cover for most of the winter through to about April (ugh!). I know we got to about 0-minus 5 a few times by my thermometer but the fact that virtually every rose froze to the ground tells me that at ground level it must have been -10F or colder. Only two climbers seem to be thriving this year, Rose ‘Aloha’ which I prune to 2′ ever year in Spring to keep it as a 6′ large shrub and Old garden Rose ‘Zepherine Drouhin’ which had an incredibly massive late spring bloom. Pruned it post-bloom for the first time since planting. Oh, Rose ‘Cape Diamond’ was unfazed too. Super duper hardy. I forgot that I planted a hydrangea from the Endless Summer series called Twist and Shout but it’s blooming well. I planted it 1/2 way back in a border now surrounded by tall phlox and gloriosa daisies so it sort of disappears in the bed. As it grows I will make sure to remove the other perennials to give it room to stretch it’s limbs.
I’m very very surprised about the mums. I assume you grow “hardy mums”? The ones from the Mammoth series and Global Warming series seem to be really vigorous. And of course the Old Time stalwarts that have stood the test of time. The one I have from the Global Warming series is called Purple Mist and is so drop dead gorgeous I have to put it everywhere. Perfect large deep purple flowers with the bright yellow button eye, tall and very vigorous. I also grow very successfully Sheffield Pink. Equally vigorous and floriferous. It’s so pale that it goes with everything.
You know, everyone loves the Cheyenne Spirit coneflowers. Wildly popular. I haven’t jumped on that bandwagon yet. I planted some White Swan last year (heard this was a hybrid that some say comes true from seed) and not one came back. That caused me to stop buying coneflowers until the ones I have really start to take off. This year the common purple coneflowers are really taking off. So, I’m happy. DoppleGanger hasn’t “double deckered” yet. I see it is trying but maybe next year.Supposedly takes 3yrs to mature. But bright red “Sombrero’ is stunning and my jaw drops every time I take the garden tour. Medium height, maybe 2′ and went from a plant to an incredibly vigorous clump.
I think we’re paid the price the last few years with terrible winters. Time for a nice mild winter.
Jim
Jim, I bet your climbing roses were gorgeous this spring.
Your twist and shout is a lacecap, isn’t it? I know that will be beautiful. I have a variegated lacecap but have had to move it around a couple of times so that has slowed it down. I’m hoping I’ve found a permanent place for it now.
Yes, I do grow all hardy mums, and some of those that I lost this year were 7 or 8 years old! I had some Sheffields too (loved those!) I think all my plants were just acclimated to mild winters, and they just weren’t used to a freezing cold winter like we had. We’ve been spoiled with very mild winters here for so many years — year before last, I had “annual” begonias come back from the roots, a fuchsia survived in a hanging pot and sprouted back from the roots, I had an Angel’s Trumpet in a container that came back every year…. until this last one.
I’m going to look up those Purple Mist Mums you mentioned, sounds interesting.
Oh, the Cheyenne Spirits have definitely lived up to the hype here, they are the most vigorous and floriferous coneflowers I have ever had. It’s interesting, as the blooms fade on them (after a VERY long time), they fade to a soft pinkish purple just like the old Magnus coneflowers. They sure are deep reds and oranges when they bloom though, so pretty.
I hope we both have a nice mild (short) winter this year… :)
Sherry your pictures are all breathtaking, I can’t imagine the amount of work all of this takes…
Yes if we have another winter like this last one I think I’d just hibernate till spring… Started out with a huge ice storm that left 2 out of 3 people from the middle of the state down without power for two weeks… The storm hit about a week before Christmas, then we had 18 inches of snow fall which kept the power out… weeks and weeks of minus 14 and minus 18 degree temps where you could feel your lungs freeze if you weren’t careful… Now this summer has been the coldest on record too… Yes I think i’ll just hibernate this winter….
Hi Spider,
Good to hear from you! Thanks, glad you liked the photos. It IS a lot of work, but I enjoy it (mostly). :)
Ooh, sounds like you had a terrible winter. The cold is bad enough, but to be out of power too? That’s just too much, and it always seems worse when it’s around Christmas. Those temps sound awful! I’ve never been in temps that cold and can’t imagine. Especially with no electricity.
I’m so hoping we go back to a more ‘normal’ winter this year, and I’ll hope that yours is mild as well. (btw– I DID hibernate all winter! lol)
We’ve had some pleasant weather this summer too, a couple of weeks we had beautiful weather with temps much lower than normal. Right now is -not- one of those times though, it is SO humid here it’s hard to breathe outside. The temps are just about 84, but the humidity is around 80+ percent right now and it’s been this way for days… and we’ve had a lot of rain and storms this past week. I can take the higher temps much easier than this humidity… it’s always something isn’t it? lol