Visions of Flowers

I am really missing my garden. I have forgotten about all those baskets of weeds that were hand pulled, insects that like to munch on the plants, and yes, all of the deer damage that happens regardless of my methods of attack. To help during this time of waiting, the catalogs are arriving and I am making lists. Every year I plan on buying, or hunting down, certain plants but I somehow, manage to lengthen that list as the growing season progresses. I just completed my online order with Bluestone Perennials. I love ordering from this company. Bluestone Perennials is an Ohio company which is a real plus for all of us Ohio gardeners. The company is family owned and its web page states that they have been in business for more than 35 years. I learned about them when I was in Master Gardener School and I order from them every year. A big thanks to my sister Cathy who has been sending me a Bluestone gift certificate for the last few years.

Right about now, I am dreaming in color. The uplifting color of the early spring daffodils. This is my favorite type of bulb. I can’t wait to see my old daffodils come back in their glory, and my new daffodils in bloom. But for now, I will just have to create a mental image and let these soon to be flowers enjoy the cold spell. A dear friend of ours, a Master Gardener, gave us some Cool Flame daffodil bulbs and we planted 50 more Ice Follies bulbs, so the yard should be a burst of color in early April. I can’t wait!

Well, looking over my garden this winter, I just happened to notice that the deer have decided to prune my "Early Amethyst" Beautyberry" shrubs. If the deer have to pick on something in my garden at this time of the year, it might as well be the Beautyberry. These shrubs need to be pruned in late winter anyway. It is hard to pick a favorite in the garden, but these shrubs keep coming up on my list. I feel in love with them while visiting our local botanical garden, Franklin Park Conservatory. I have a group of three now, but there may be more to come as I add to that growing list of “must haves”.

Early Amethyst Beautyberry after a deer lunch

A Snow Angel next to Sedum "Autumn Joy"

A Gardener’s Winter Retreat

I have been seeking out TV shows on gardening. Oh please HGTV, help me through this long period of waiting for spring. I look forward to watching Gardening by the Yard with Paul James on HGTV. Even the repeat episodes are a breath of fresh air, but I want more. In my search, I came upon an interesting show on Create TV which is broadcast on my local PBS station. Of course, there is the Victory Garden, which I am enjoying, but I discovered a new show called Garden Smart. I have enjoyed watching this show, and with the enthusiasm of a starving gardener, I recommend it to you. While checking out programs in my area, I discovered that there are several gardening shows out there, but you have to check to see if they are broadcast on your local PBS station. Click on the Gardening Page of Create TV to find a show that may interest you. It takes some searching, but for a hungry gardener in the Midwest at this time of year, it is refreshing.

Sunset in the Garden

I'm Wandering through the Daylilies Again!

Our Master Gardener group provides opportunities four times a year to help us meet our annual education requirements for recertification as a Master Gardener. Last month, our education took place at another wonderful gem we have in Central Ohio, Amity Abloom. Amity Abloom is located in Hilliard, Ohio. We had the opportunity to shop for an hour and then Charles and Cynthia Lucius, owners, graciously talked to us for two hours about growing daylilies. This is their third business season offering more than 550 varieties of registered daylilies in their sales beds alone. There are over 4,000 daylilies in the sales beds to view and select from. These beds are laid out in rays labeled with letters and rows labeled with numbers for specific plant referencing. Their gardens are full of: full/round, spider, double, and unusual daylilies. I did not realize that daylilies were classified in these catagories. I knew that daylilies needed sun, but was told that at least six hours a day is required. The best PH for daylilies is around 6.7-6.8. They need about 1-1 1/2 inches of water a week after the scapes emerge. Scape, was a new term for me. There are also four size of daylilies: miniature, small, medium, and large. There are early, mid, and late bloomers. This is a wonderful online source for getting your daylily questions answered published by the American Hemerocallis Society. I know I will be back to visit this wonderful resource right here in Central Ohio.
Our next mission is to create a daylily bed from our latest purchases. Oh...sounds like a new posting to me.

Here are some pictures from our visit:
(Pictures taken by our friend Connie E.)

Here we are---playing in the daylilies!

Wordle

Check out my cool garden blog Wordle. Wordle is a Java applet that allows you to create a "word cloud" from text already in your blog, in your del.icio.us account, or simply by typing, or pasting in any text you want. After your Wordle is generated, you can click on the button "Open in Window." This allows you to print your Wordle, or Save it to the online gallery. If you want to save it, or post it to your blog, you will have to go through a few more steps. I used Jing, a free download, to capture the image and save it. This program only allows you to save your image as a PNG image file. Blogger lets you upload the PNG to your Blogspot account. Check it out! It is a lot of fun to create, and you have color choices too.

2008 Delaware County Master Gardener Bus Tour

What a great weekend of discovering two new gardens in North Western Ohio. Our bus trip started from the center of Delaware, Ohio and headed Northwest to the Toledo Botanical Gardens. Were we in for a treat! We had a docent-led tour that was wonderful. The park is divided into many gardens. Since I especially like perennial and cottage gardens, those were big hits for me. The number of plants and design of the the beds gave me some great ideas. The colors were spectacular! Everything was so well marked including the trees. My husband is the tree person. He "graduated" from Master Gardener Tree School last year. I am so proud of my tree man! The Joe-Pye Weed, Phlox, and daylilies were beautiful. The stone wall in the cottage garden is amazing. I wish I had thought to catagorize my pictures by each garden that we visited in the park, but I was just taking it all in. What a gem for Toledo and admission is free!

Here are some pictures of our memorable visit:

Master Gardeners enjoying a hot summer morning at the Toledo Botanical Gardens.



Glass sculpture in the garden
Glass Blower at work

After our tour, we got back on the bus and headed for Hoen's Greenhouse and Garden Center in Holland, Ohio. I had only been to Holland, Michigan before, so another adventure for me. Upon arrival, we were greated by the owners and then let loose to shop. Yeah, shop. There were a lot of wide-eyed Master Gardeners armed with carts. We timed our trip just right. There was a big sale going on and what Master Gardener can resist that. The carts were lined up at the register as our shopping trip came to a close. We bought four Edelweiss, a begonia, two Datura, and an ornamental pepper. What a great nursery!

Well back on the bus to Schedel Arboretum and Gardens. We needed a rest after our shopping frenzy. Walking through the main gate was only a tease for what was ahead. It is like a Disney experience for a gardener--magical. The gardens are located in Elmore, Ohio. Another new experience for us.

The entry gardens are planted taking into consideration plants, color, and design. We were told that the distance from each plant is measured to insure uniformity. There are many levels to these gardens. The lowland garden allows for growing plants and trees that usually do well in a different zone than the upland garden. There are twenty-five varieties of Japanese Maples throughout. We saw pine trees, a Cucumber Magnolia, an Umbrella Magnolia, Cutleaf Beech, Japanese Katsura, Bald Cypress and many more including bamboo. My husband was in tree heaven. The sound of water over a cascading wall, takes you to the magnificant Japanese Garden below. Oh, and there are many bridges over the water too. You are truly taken to a magical place in this garden. We had lunch at the gardens and then a docent tour led my a local Master Gardener. She was awesome! All of us learned so much about the gardens as we enjoyed our time, though brief, at Schedel.

Master Gardeners taking in the view from ground levelA great lower level view




A mature grove of Dawn Redwoods


A view of some of their Bonsai collection.

We said goodbye to Schedel. What a great garden! We know that we will be back to visit both of these gardens in the future.

Our next stop was Northbranch Nursery in Pemberville, Ohio. They were having a sale on hydrangeas, and what a wonderful selection they had. I have never seen such huge and healthy hydrangeas. They were selling them 2 for 1. I did not buy any, but the Master Gardeners went crazy. The bus was filled with beautiful hydrangeas. I bought a Crocosmia and a Euphorbia First Blush.

Well, our annual MG bus trip was coming to an end. We boarded the bus for Delaware, Ohio and off went a lot of tired, but happy Master Gardeners. The belly of the bus was full of plants.

A Weekend of Wonderful Daylilies

What a great weekend! My husband and I spent two days last weekend enjoying wonderful daylilies at two great venues. First, we spent a day in the Hocking Hills at the Lilyfest in Rockbridge, Ohio. This was the sixteenth year for this wonderful festival. Last year was the first year that we attended and we will not miss another one. The grounds of this property consist of three acres of gardens, sculptures, and ponds. The gardens were in full bloom with daylilies everywhere. The masses of daylilies in bloom, in the well designed beds, spread out over this property were breathtaking. My only wish was that there were labels identifying the daylilies. I saw so many that just amazed me. The colors and flower sizes called out to us "take my picture," and that is exactly what we did. We strolled the gardens while listening to music, sipped on lemonade from Annie's Cheesecake, purchased daylilies from Flowers of the Good Earth, one of the many garden related vendors at the festival. We also purchesed a big metal fly from Dave and Tammy Anders. I found a spot for it right away in one of my garden beds. We also purchased a butterfly house from Larry Neff. Yes, a butterfly house! It is a place for butterflies to rest and stay safe from predators. I knew just where I wanted to put it, and it is waiting for the butterflies in my garden bed right now. Well my words can't really describe the beauty of this festival, so here are some of the many pictures we took that day.

My Butterfly House
Oh yes, my garden fly!

The next day, we were off to the Daylily Walk at MarLee Farms in Centerburg, Ohio. A friend of ours, from our Master Gardener Group, and her husband operate this Daylily and Hosta farm. Twice a year, it is open to the public for a Hosta Walk in June, and a Daylily Walk in July. Designer, Asiatic, and Oriental Lilies line the property with many beds scattered throughout. The Millers have more than 600 varieties of hostas and a more daylilies than I could count. There are over two acres of gardens to enjoy and lots of hostas, daylilies, and perennials that you can also purchase. Well, what would a trip to a fantastic daylily haven be without a few souvenir plants to take home. I had fun shopping and enjoyed the walk through the gardens too! A storm was approaching, so we did not write down names of the flowers, but if you would like to know the name of any of them, let me know and I will ask Lee. I know that I will be sharing picture of our new daylilies as they bloom in later posts. Here are a few pictures from our day.

We ended our day with a downpour and a beautiful rainbow over the farm.