planting under the pecan tree

Yesterday was my day to go in late to work, so I was out in the yard early trying to get some things done. I got the whole place watered first, then set to work on a little planting. I planted hosta 'Orange Marmalade' back under the pecan tree between the Teller Red hydrangea and the astilbe. Then I planted the golden spiderwort kind of between the hosta and the hydrangea, but set back a little. The hope is that the spiderwort will spread out and fill in that area, kind of making a (20" tall) ground cover in this area. It has little blue/purple blooms and is supposed to bloom all summer.


I cut back some of the junk privet near where the 'Orange Dream' Japanese Maple is so that it shows up a lot better. It is still a tad close to the hydrangea, but until I can get the shack repaired/torn down/whatever I want to leave the junk privet in place to block the view of the falling down shack. Speaking of privet, several of the largest privets are in bloom right now. While it is pretty, blooms mean seeds and seeds mean more of that garbage in my yard. It is never ending...

Once the planting tasks were complete, I felt compelled to tackle the grass a bit more. My yard is being taken over by plantain weeds. I picked an area in the shady part near the fence and pulled as many plantain weeds as I could for about 2 hours. My fingers are still red and sore from this. Then, I spread Black Cow (my bag is sort of waterlogged, so I need a new bag) over the newly seeded area, spread shade grass seed and watered well. I really wanted to get this done yesterday as the forcast was for several days of rain and I figured that would help get the grass seed off to a good start. My *latest* plan for the grass is to pick fairly small area each month and weed it and seed it in the same fashion. I'm hoping by sticking to a pretty small area, I can maybe get it watered well enough with the hose while I'm doing my other watering and will be able to get grass to grow. I'm going to get some of the sod and seed soil to spread over the bare areas before seeding, as that seemed to work well in the two area where I used it last year.

Today (Thursday) it was supposed to rain all day, but was just cloudy until late afternoon, when it finally did rain for a few hours.


Hydrangea 'Together'

trip to Atlanta

I went down to Atlanta this weekend to see my friend act in a play, but of course I hit a few nurseries while I was there.

First up, my mom had wanted 'Blue Mouse Ears' hosta and found it on ebay, but I told her not to bid on it because we would just buy it locally. Sure... so, no luck finding it locally and of course it wasn't on ebay anymore. So, I decided that as Mother's Day present I'd get it for her. A quick web search turned up Bloomin Designs, a hosta and other plant nursery north of Atlanta, pretty much on my way down to my friend's house. I got in touch with them and though they would not be open on Saturday, we made arrangements for me to pay for the hostas, then pick them up while the nursery was closed. I was able to walk around for a little bit and all I can say is WOW, I really need to go back and bring my mom, because I pretty much wanted one of almost everything. I also was a bit scared when I saw how big 'Elegens' and 'Guacamole' can get. I think I may have a few too many 'Elegens' in my yard currently... They will make lovely gifts. While at Bloomin Desings, I also got 'Orange Marmalade' which we had both fallen in love with from its photos.

Since I was in the Atlanta area, I also stopped by the Pike Nursery out on Pleasant Hill Rd. Pike is unfortunately in bankrupcy currently, but they have been bought out or something. I did notice that there was a whole section that had been full of plants when I was there last fall that is now empty. Still, I did find some good things at reasonable prices. I initially got a mini hosta 'Sitting Pretty' and some black mondo grass (decent price and I needed at least one more for the area I've got planned). Then while I was walking around looking at things, I saw two Japanese Maples in the neatest octagonal boxes. I thought that I would like a box like that when my 'Tamukeyama' gets bigger, so I took a closer look. I was looking at 'Orange Dream', which just so happens to be the one other Japanese Maple I really want (after realizing I had a red dissectum, a regular red and a variegated one, the only thing really left was orange). Then I looked at the price. Wow... I will not repeat it here, but considering the tree was as tall as I was... However, due to the size of the tree, I was sure there would be no way I could get it home, so I left without it.

Once I got to my friend's house, I told her about my shopping trips and the tree and she said if it wouldn't fit in my car, we could get it in her van and figure out how to get it to my house later. We didn't go back on Saturday, because we had to meet friends for dinner, then the show, both of which were lots of fun. Sunday AM we headed out to Pike again to look at the tree. While there, I picked up a second mini hosta 'Golden Prayers' and also an Ostrich Fern that was marked $2.00 instead of $12.99 because it looked like someone was trying to kill it. I selected one that looked like it had some healthy but not yet unfurled fronds and will hope for the best. Of course, I got the tree, but not before triple-checking the price. I was even MORE amazed when we were actually able to fit it in my car. WOW!!



I got back home around 2 PM but was totally exhausted, so pretty much all I did was pot up the two mini hostas. I'm going to look for a really special pot for 'Blue Mouse Ears'.

Today I was still worn out and didn't do anything this morning. I regretted that decision when I came home to wilted tomato plants and had to hurry up and do a bunch of watering before my yoga class. Tomorrow I'm going to try to get up early and water the front porch plants.

Japanese Maple 'Butterfly'

Japanese Maple 'Butterfly'
Originally uploaded by iechris

Newly purchased 'Butterfly' Japanese Maple. This was also purchased from Mystic Farms at the Farmer's Market Spring Festival. I don't know much about Japanese Maples, but had never seen a variegated one before and just fell in love with this little baby. This is a small recently grafted plant and it is looking good. Since purchasing the maples, I've been doing some reading and it looks like I made some good choices. I've now seen more pictures of variegated Japanese Maples and I think 'Butterfly' is the prettiest.

Tamukeyama Japanese Maple

Tamukeyama Japanese Maple
Originally uploaded by iechris

My newly purchased 'Tamukeyama' Japanese Maple currently living in front of the water heater hut. It is sitting in its nursery pot, inside a fiberglass pot.

Spring Fest at the Farmer's Market

Went today on day 2 of the Spring flower and plant sale at the Farmer's Market. There was a lot of so-so, seen it everywhere stuff, but I did find some treasures!

I was looking for a new rosemary to put in the pot with the sage and thyme and after talking to the lady who was selling lots of neat herbs, she recommended I get an oregano for the pot, so I ended up getting a variegated oregano. While there, I thought about Golden Rain rosemary and a pineapple sage, but didn't get either at the time. I also got a phlox 'David' for the perennial bed, where I had planned to plant an 'Autumn Joy' sedum. I already have a sedum on that side of the bed and all the 'Autumn Joys' I've been finding have been in HUGE pots, so I went with the phlox instead. Later in the day, we went back to the Farmer's Market and I got the Golden Rain rosemary, but they were out of the pineapple sage. I can't believe she sold that many that quickly, but the place was a ZOO!!

On the return trip, I also picked up a 'Dolce Creme Brulee' huechera to complete one of the porch pots. Right now its color is on the green side, but I'm hoping once it is in the sun and starting growing out some its color will improve. After the first trip to the Farmer's Market, we went up to Country Boys, were I got a few other annuals to round out the porch plants. We also went to K-Mart where I got a really big hanging basket of purple double impatiens. We stoppped at Lowes to see if they had any cheap hanging baskets that I could repot for the front of the house and I found some annual dianthus. It looks nice and I hope it will keep blooming all summer.

While at Lowes, I found that they had finally gotten in the Forever and Ever 'Together' hydrangeas. All the plants they had were already blooming, but I was able to find one that looked like a decent plant and didn't have all its buds open already. This one is supposed to stay 2 X 2, so I'm planning on keeping it in a pot. I'll need to hit it with aluminum sulfate to keep the blue color though. I also took another look at their 'Peppermint' hydrangeas and I'm really starting to wonder if the tag was switched in the plant I bought and it was just a regular plant with the 'Peppermint' tag in it, as so far the blooms do not look right. ARGHHHH....

My big expense at the Farmer's Market was on Japanese Maples. I've been thinking about getting one for a while and a farm called Mystic Farm was there and had really nice maples at a good price. They had these giant Tamukeyamas that were just incredible and were $300. If they had taken credit cards and I knew where I wanted to put it... They also had it in a really nice $60 plant that I REALLY thought about, but I ended up getting a smaller $30 'Tamukeyama' that we all thought had a nice growth habit. While I was trying to decide, someone I know came by and he turns out to have a bunch of Japanese Maples and said that cultivator I was picking was a good one and that the plant I had picked out was nice too. I also saw this little tiny $15 plant called 'Butterfly'. 'Butterfly' has more maple shaped leaves and they are variegated.

While I was paying I happened to mention that I didn't have much room for maples as all my room is taken up with hydrangeas. Susan (one of the owners) said they had hydrangeas too but didn't bring them because they weren't blooming. I asked if they had '...Paul Doumer' and she said no but that they did have 'Nightengale'. I said I had cuttings, but they had died and that I was looking to replace mine and said I'd email them in a few weeks. Well, on our return trip to the Farmer's Market, I decided I just HAD to get one of the $10 'Bloodgood' seedlings they had. These are seed grown, not grafted, so they might not be exactly true, but he said they are super hardy and I could just toss this small plant in a hole tonight. I also made arrangements for them to bring a 'Nightengale' hydrangea to the show tomorrow and I can pick it up on the way to work.

Once I was home I had a ton of work to do! I planted the phlox 'David' and lambs ears in the perennial bed, added the oregano and a parsley to their respective containers, potted up the rosemary and potted up the Endless Summer hydrangea I had grown from a cutting last year. I also ended up repotting the 'Butterfly' Japanese Maple into a small ceramic pot, using pretty much solid composted pine bark with just a sprinkling of soil on the top like Chip said. It was semi-traumatic for me, as it was hard to get it out of the pot and then the potting soil part started to fall apart, but I'm hoping it was NOT traumatic for 'Butterfly'. The other two were placed inside pots on top of some mulch, still in their nursery pots. 'Bloodgood' is living behind the daylilies and 'Tamukeyama' is living over on the corner of the house where the water heater hut is.