Liriope

I have a tenuous relationship with the groundcover liriope.  The only reason I still have this plant is that it is so hard to dig out - and divide - and kill.  It spreads.  It is not terribly interesting for most of the summer.  I was originally attracted to it because I thought it  would lend my garden a spare, sophisticated look - the type of look  I associate with modern buildings and art museums.

I recently had a change of heart about liriope.  My husband and I were visiting our daughter in Washington DC over Labor Day weekend.  Because the weather was good, and DC is a very walkable city, we strolled through lots of neighborhoods.  The charming row houses all had nicely tended gardens - and many of them had liriope.

    However, the liriope was not planted in perennial borders, but as a groundcover with shrubs.  "That's what I can do with this plant!"  And that is what I will do with it next spring - when I hope to have enough arm  strength to dig them up and plant them in my front borders.

What is the sound of one hand weeding?

The same as the sound of two hands weeding.  I posed this question because I had surgery on my right rotater cuff in late June.  Since then, I have been able to do very little weeding.  Weeding with my non-dominant left hand wasn't very effective, and I kept succumbing to the temptation to weed with my right hand. Bad idea.

I have learned the hard way that if I weed, I am going to regret it; either by re-injuring my shoulder, or just causing a lot of pain and soreness.  I do not want to have to go through wearing a sling for slightly under 24 hours a day for another 6 weeks.

And so I am embarrassed to show you a picture of one of my very aggressive weed patches.  Amongst the weeds you can barely make out some hostas and daylilies.

The problem with weeds is that they destroy beauty in the garden.  A beautiful garden does not confuse the eye.  Weeds obscure the plants you want to see, largely because there are usually several types of weeds growing in one area.  I suppose that you could have a beautiful garden full of crabgrass - just as long as the crabgrass was the only plant in that area, and did not take over the whole bed or border.

Despite the fact that I have not been able to weed this summer, I have one border that looks pretty good.  I designed this border a few years ago with a pretty well thought-out design.  The front is comprised of a straight line of decorative herbs planted in groups of three.  Behind these I used alternating equilateral triangles - with sides about thirty inches long - to place perennials in.  Each triangle has one type of plant.   Using a pattern consistently throughout this, or any, garden, helps the observers eye both settle down quickly, and be led  from area to area in the garden.

Early August

I always thought that gladiolus were too fussy for my garden.  They make such pretty cut flowers, though, that last year I broke down and bought some at the local Christmas Tree Shop.  I was pleasantly surprised a week ago when I noticed a pink gladiola in one of my perennial beds.  They had successfully overwintered; we had a very good snow pack this past year, and it doesn't seem that there were any frost heaves.  Normally, glads do not survive the winter.  I have a pretty rigid planting scheme in this particular border.  The advantage with such an approach is that you have good structure.  The problem is that you can go through spells where the garden needs a little more excitement.  The gladiolus did not destroy the structure, and introduced a delightful, if unplanned element.

Phlox is a flower that typically blooms this time of year.  You have to be sure to cut off several stalks early in the summer.  I like to cut off all but 3 or 5 per plant.  Unless you choose a plant that is labeled "mildew resistant" you are going to get mildew, even if you trim the plant back.  The flower is so pretty, though, and goes well with so many other flowers, that I keep it. 

Lobelia Cardinalis is a tall plant with bright red flowers,  When I originally tried to purchase it several years ago from a mail order firm, they refused to sell it to me, because it is not supposed to overwinter in the western suburbs of Boston.  Indeed, my Uncle Norm, who has a magnificent garden outside of Cleveland, Ohio, has told me that his always die out.  I have had mine for three years.  Last year I was delighted to have a pair of hummingbirds visit them each day for several weeks right around five in the afternoon.

The lobelia has just started blooming.  Sadly, I have not seen any hummingbirds yet, but I am hopeful.  After all, isn't hope a big reason for gardening? 

Hot, Hot, Hot

It reached 103 degrees last week, and everybody was wilting.  This squirrel had the right idea - cover your head from the sun!

The heat had an amazing impact on some of my shrubs.  The Rose of Sharon started blooming its head off.  This plant is so full of blooms that the limbs were weighted down by them.  Russian sage is the plant on the left side of the picture.  My buddleia  (butterfly bush) also started blooming very nicely.

One of the great joys of the hot weather is the abundant crop of raspberries we get.  Every day at lunchtime I hunt raspberries - the prickly stems seem to keep the birds away.  I brave them for this treat.  When we moved into our house over 28 years ago we had a very aggressive planting of raspberries - they will take over your lawn if you let them.  Several years ago they were attacked by a virus, and died away.  My husband was advised to plant a new set of plants in a different section of the garden - evidently the virus can remain in the soil for years.  He did, and now we are blessed each summer with these edible rubies.

I recommend raspberries if you are willing to keep them in check.  Rose of Sharon flowers can turn a funky mauve color.  Both Rose of Sharon and buddleia can get pretty big - be aware that they can take over your herbaceous border.

Hydrangeas

Anyone who has ever been to Cape Cod in the summer has most likely seen hydrangeas.  If you enjoyed your time at the Cape, you've probably thought about planting one or more hydrangeas in your garden.

The most common hydrangea has a blue flower.  I have several of these, as well as one with a magenta flower. See the pictures below for both types.  Everybody seems to prefer the blue.  The blossom actually starts out green, then transitions through blue and green and finally to a very clean tint of blue (by clean I mean not a grayed blue or a blue-violet).  These flowers can be cut.  I prefer to keep them out of water - they dry nicely, and never seem to last in water.

Three comments about hydrangeas.  First, they droop in the sun and heat.  You can restore them with a watering.  Second, be careful when you prune them.  I have pruned them and gotten absolutely no flowers that season.  My husband pruned them this Spring, and they are blooming profusely.

Third, I think that hydrangeas should be placed by themselves and not in a mixed border.  They have a great emotional and visual impact when placed alone; this impact is diminished when grouped with other plants.  The plant looks good for most of the summer and into the fall, as the blossoms that have not been picked dry beautifully.

I recommend this plant. 

July flowers

I've always been frustrated with gardening books and brochures, that don't give the whole story about a garden plant.  How does it look after it blooms?  Does it have a good shape after it blooms?  Do grass weeds grow up easily through it?
I want to give an honest assessment of plants that I have loved, and have wanted to love, from my experience with them in my suburban Boston garden.  You probably won't have the same experience with plants that I have unless you live somewhere with a similar climate to Boston's (long, cold winters, "mud" season instead of Spring, and two pretty reliably long, humid months in the summer).  I also have sandy, well-drained soil.  My uncle lives outside of Cleveland, and he has very different experiences with his plants, largely because the soil there is full of clay.  
Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) is one of my favorites.  When it blooms, it has the clearest orange I have ever seen.  The plant comes in other colors, so if you want orange flowers, make sure that is what you are getting.   Butterfly weed loves drought conditions.  Watering it will make it droop.  It blooms pretty reliably for 2-3 weeks in July.  After blooming, long seed pods take over.  It is hard to move once established, and easy to dig up by mistake in the Spring.  This plant shows up later than a lot of others, so mark it in the garden.  In the last year or two, the plant has actually spread.  I have to decide if I want to try to move the two new plants to make room for others in my garden.
Asclepias tuberosa looks great with other "hot" colored flowers, such as gaillardia.  I like to pair it with a blue flower, such as a delphinium or a veronica so that I have a nice color balance.

I highly recommend this plant.