This obsession of mine with all things horticultural has got to be careening
outa control about now......As you walk outside my nook door, the first
thing you smell is warm honey......the pink Buddleia that I bought in Grand
Haven three years ago at the nursery down the road from my MIL's house
finally took off this year and the blossoms are I-KID-YOU-NOT......well over
a foot in length. They start at the tips of my fingers and are as long up
to my elbow crook. I took a picture because it just didn't seem possible.
These things exude the warm honey smell and I see some of the Artillery
butterflies have gotten the scent and are supping with abandon. Later I spy
a deeply blue one and a monarch hovering over the tops of these monsters
with giddy ecstasy.

The other thing you smell when you round the corner are the goofy looking
seven foot Asian lilies that look like the leafy necks of yellow headed
giraffe's. My dragon lilies are now gone and the Shenandoah and Shiloh and
Yellowstone trumpet lilies are winding up, but now it's what I consider
summer as the daylilies are cranking out more and more blossoms every day.
My old
fashioned triples are opening now, I shared a huge piece of one to a couple
I met at work. the thing had settled into the loose worm soil and made three
distinctive clumps. I gave them the whole plant. In the hole I plugged in a
salvaged pinkish daylily I saved from an abandoned house. It's hard to
plant in this bed as it's packed with narcissus bulbs. I really must lift
this whole bed someday and narrow the sides to workable widths. Anyone with
a
whip and stern looks and patience with my persistent reasoning as to why we
shouldn't move these around would be gladly appreciated......g

Phlox towers above the leaves of other perennials and I seem to have two
colors. A nice pink one that sits at the back of the front bed, and I see
the pale white pink one Mary Emma gave me a piece of years ago and always
returns for me laughing at my absent-mindedness as I NEVER remember to whack
it back before it sets buds, has thrown a daughter in the middle of the
chaos of the
extension part of the beds. The birds have given me my annual returning 5-6
towering sunflower trees. Squire has already spotted their huge leaves and
is kvetching about them already.

I didn't lose all my poker plants, but the pots I bought to replace them
still sit patiently waiting for me to take a machete and make a path and
plunk them into the hole where the older ones were. I've taken to using the
shovel backwards to pry a loose spot for a rooted plant next to the
landscape timber and then shovel dirt over the roots to cover it. I've
planted about nine daylilies this way, and where the lemon balm had
reseeded, I pulled it out, along with the toasted roots of the Artemisia
that languished under the Salix bush and moved all the loose soil over and
the spot was perfect for the 3 gallon pot of Wide Brim hosta I got weeks ago
that sat patiently in the pot waiting for the perfect spot to open up.

To say that I am deeply rooted in gardening madness is an absolute
understatement once again. The cashiers in the garden center have taken to
looking at
the corner where the Rubbermaid box sits that holds the sign plaques and
just next to the tropicals in a little niche next to the chain link fence
and shake their heads and tell me I really AM terminal! My comment
reflecting what Zhan said awhile back that I need a twelve step program for
addiction to perennials has gotten around and whomever comes out to run the
registers tells me this with a whacky smile on their faces. And the word
that I am more than knowledgeable about the plants has spread to the ones
who love to plant and have their own flowerbeds and I find myself teaching
them as I pick out or point out plants. This is getting outa hand-- LOL

Orange Montbretia's have teased me all spring, the support rings with the
squares seem to have done the job, the leaves haven't flopped over and now
the stems with the bird like blossoms are upright instead of lying around
above the leaves. I will have to put another support ring in there next
year since it does work. Lets just hope my Lowe's carries them next
year.....I sold all the rest to other gardeners for that specific purpose.

I dug up the daughter Helianthus and plunked it into the western Colorado
bed where it drooped and sulked and now has discovered loose rich soil under
it's toes, it's now pulling itself up and looks like it will survive. I hope
so. This seedling is far more healthy than the actual transplanted piece I
put in the same bed a few years ago that flops about acting like a rude
child who won't stand up during a tirade.

Today's heat and humidity didn't deter me as I had pots of spring plants to
plug into holes or lose them. A bleeding heart, two columbines, a pink
Astilbe, reduced at the spring season's end and snapped up by me for a
quarter or half dollar. All went in the seriously shady side yard now. The
mother
pawlonia has grown a major shading limb that stretches across the whole
center side yard. Add to that the cedar tree that sits on the opposite side
of the chain link fence and the healthy as a horse mimosa that shades the
old tomato boxes turned flowerbeds..........and the pawlonia daughter with
the maple seedling that keeps begging me not to remove it. But alas, it's
way too close to the house now. How could I have not seen it?

My desire for a maple in my yard or woods has fallen on the maple fairies
ears
and they have blessed me with more than my share, but the best specimen of
course is the one not six feet from the deck. When she grows bigger her
shade will absolutely dominate the yard and impose on the deck. She has to
go and now before I have to use a chainsaw on her to cut her down. It's
hard. I don't think she would transplant.....hmmmmm maybe if I wait until
after fall and her leaves have turned I could rootball dig her up and put
her in the woods.........we'll talk about this endeavor later.

There's still the Harry Lauder's twisted filbert to plant somewhere special
near the woods, and those two Eastern Redbuds that replaced the red dogwood
that died a horrible death of anthracnose. All the pots around the sides
and fronts are screaming for water with this heat, everything droops
horribly during the day and you can almost hear them sighing when I water
them. I water at work, then come home and water here for the parched pots.

Squire has put his foot down and forbade me to "NOT BRING ANY MORE TREES OR
BUSHES HOME". Well, then that leaves me open for other
things................

I am obsessing about cactus and succulents and sedums again. It started
with the new shipment of cacti yesterday at work and the lewd looking one
that I had to have. I had already envisioned the elephant pot I would plant
it into. Then I dropped a spiny columnar cactus from the top of one display
that someone had precariously placed on top where it didn't belong, and
decided to take the broken piece home to root. then I bought the broken
stub for 50c and discovered when I repotted it last night that whoever
potted the cactus up originally at the nursery had just folded up and
crammed the cactus' roots up around the body of the plant, and when I
carefully moved the roots and soil from the hollows of the remaining piece,
I discovered another six inches of cactus that will now grow pieces off the
healed edges later on.

And I totally lost control when I opened up one box and there was a
replacement to the lost golden barrel I used to have that I lost two years
ago. It was mine. I brought it home and just placed it inside another nice
clay pot and left it in it's plastic one until I find the perfect soil to
build up underneath it.

Saturday an old friend sent me 19 semp babies and I gathered every small
clay pot I could find to gently plant each piece and stick in the little
tags she made for each one. Orystachys, one called Buchmerii and another
one called Keiko, special semps called Raspberry Ice, Skrocki, Joy Belle, a
little Euphorbia called myrsinites, semps with names like Neptune, Blush,
Pakardian, Olivette, Nico, Sunset, Lennicks Glory, Lively Bug and Le Clair's
Hybrid #2.

Once I got those planted I moved the bakers rack plant stand over to the
sunny spot on the deck and every planter of cacti that Squire had sitting on
the now deeply shaded front porch dog run. With the perennials now up to
the gutters the cacti were stretching their necks to get to the sun. He
never noticed until he started looking at what I put on the racks. All the
little tiny pots that I have tucked into the nailed on the railing window
box are all happy with the heat and bright sunlight, and even the Christmas
cactus are darkening up nicely as I've placed them in the direct sun as
well. I do not pamper those jungle cacti.

Potting up all those cactus I got my lions share of spines in my fingertips
and hands. Even with gloves, the lewd looking one got me good and I didn't
know it had left a nasty spine in my forefinger until this morning. Luckily
my oldest son was able to get the thorn outa my paw.........

But now there are daylilies in assorted colors of hot red, burgundy, black,
yellows, a few orange but mostly the hot or cool colors. I discovered a
nice pink one that needs moving or no one will see it. And I apparently
have a purple one with tiny flowers that defies color description. The
losses are apparent, but the successes are outstanding.

Speaking of daylilies, my old/new friend, Virginia Davis called and had more
daylilies to just give me. The lady who said she'd buy the whole lot of them
out front hasn't called back and she's getting impatient to get them all dug
up. So she walked around and chose a few and had me stop by on my way home
the other day and I brought home rich red ones, a nice unnamed fire engine
red, some pink beans she pulled up for me to make a nice mess of, a zucchini
that she doesn't eat that a well meaning neighbor has already started
bringing and I told her I loved them. I may have bitten off more than I can
eat........where's that Zucchini bread recipe?

With these newest huge hunks of plants I was frantically searching for
places to plug them in. I hate to waste a perfectly good plant. And then
the other day on the way home I came across an abandoned house that had a
flowerbed with three unusual and healthy despite the recent dry spell
daylilies and one nice hunk of
Agastache........and since I had lost my own clump of Agastache.....And as I
was digging those out, I happened to see in the four foot weeds and grass
past the bulldozers what looked like a stone of sorts and it turned out to
be a nice bird bath so I nabbed that too. I'll return to scrounge for pots
and discover the house has been 'dozed and that'll be that, but I will have
saved most of the plants and feel better about men with large machinery.

The cement pot that younger son gave me that I had originally planted the
dogwood tree into before it died, has now been replanted with blood red
coleus, white Dusty Miller, a rudbeckia called Cherokee Gold, the still
blooming blue lobelia, assorted pom pom dahlia's that keep cranking out
little powder puff blossoms in assorted colors. Another pot has marigolds,
nicotiana, and a stray dahlia or two.

Another pot has just three Toto rudbeckia's that I know will melt eventually
but I love them sooooo.

Waking with fingers swollen with spines that I missed, I went to work and oh
lordy, a customer has left me a sack with a rhubarb plant they dug and
shared with me. And then there's the kerria japonica "Flora Pleno" that the
older gentleman dug me up a piece of when we were discussing the tri-colored
butterfly bushes. And mine really IS tri-colored!!

More spiny treasures brought home to be lovingly placed in the now empty
dish pot that used to house the Lady's Mantle and Nancy lamium. I planted
both in the shade beds and since the pots were empty.............so now they
house three rat tail cacti babies, an old man cactus that left it's bite in
my palm, a kalanchole called Chocolate paws, a spiny little hawortia or
agave I'm not sure, that has five screaming orange stems with fat little
orange pod like buds dangling above the stems in total contrast. The little
succulent is warty and dark and a perfect contrast to the blossoms.

Marie had put back a heavily variegated African violet for me that came in
yesterday and since the leaves were almost completely white with startling
purple ruffled flowers, and I haven't killed the other one yet I bought in
February, I got it too.

Cobweb sempervivums and another strange one that has hairs on the ends of
the points of the leaves was added to the booty and there I had to stop.
Next week when the lilies are thru blooming and we mark the pots down to a
dollar I want to be able to get a few pots to plug in amongst the other
stuff. I can ALWAYS find a spot for an Asian lily. And I haven't seen any
sign of the lily beetle so I think I'm safe so far if I get a few pots of
them. No one liked the pale orange cream ones and they're about three foot
tall. Perfect for the front of the bed since I have decided to cut down
some of the invasive Korean Spirea that is intent on eating the whole
eastern bed and has jumped into the Frakartii aster bed. That will never do
so come next two days off and I will do some much needed pruning and
pulling.

During a wander into the woods I came across my first example of a poison
ivy vine mature enough to have berries on it but low to the ground on a
sapling. I didn't hesitate, I grabbed the two inch stem and pulled it and it
snapped. Then I realized what I had done and picked up a handful of dirt and
"washed" my hands in it and I swear, so far I haven't broken out. But then
maybe all those cactus spines have given me immunity or the poison ivy feels
sorry for me and didn't work on me this time.....g I don't deliberately
push Mom Nature's poisonous plants. I respect them most times.

Finding the Lucifer crocosmia's in the woods box has told me they would
prefer to be ignored to bake and do whatever they want to do. These are
quietly accumulating in number, I'll take them all.

The Black Knight butterfly bush now shows me I can whack the thick branches
back and not lose too many flowers if I act in speed in the next two days.
But the pirkle one that tried to conquer Mary Emma's back yard is loaded
with so many flowers and masses of butterflies I fear their wings will lift
the bush off the ground, so this one won't get trimmed. And lighting the
north side of it below in the rank and mucky goo are the Bengal Tiger
cannas returned and glowing like neon leaves. I still need to wade into the
muck and pull out the invasive blackberry cane that has woven itself amongst
the green "Indian shot" cannas of my dad's that I have a clump of next to
the
Tigers.

As I climbed the shaky steps between the topped and quite dead jack pine
trunks to the upper terrace, I see the red and yellow Scotch broom has been
sipping from the growth cup. It's twice the size it was this spring. And
tucked against it are the dark leaves of the Sand Cherry and on the other
side of that squishing it is a very very healthy Beauty Berry bush that is
covered in row after row of teeny fairy blossoms whose airspace is choking
with teeny fliers making sure this year is an eye popping one for the
berries.

I turned eastward and went under the deck that rises above me to the patio
slab that is in front of the downstairs laundry and basement door and where
the steps come down from the deck towards the east too, but at the bottom of
the steps beside the little pad of concrete, I have tucked in two double
althea's and they took off in growth themselves last year and this year
remembered what they were doing last and have loaded themselves with so many
buds that are larger than my thumb. Two double purple ones and one
breath-taking pink one that looked like the ruffled skirts of a summer frock
stopped me cold in my tracks.

Next to them is the tri-colored buddleia and it truly does have three
colored blossoms on one bush. I saw a white, a blush pink and a deep purple
on it....and next to that across the concrete steps that lead down to the
unused shed, the weird attempt at putting a box against the rounded slope
under the black walnut tree where I have a Sum and Substance hosta, some
rampant Ajuga, successful but slow to take off Lilies of the valley and the
ever persistent money plants that I pull out. I think this is where the
other pot of Wide Brim and Limrock Ruby coreopsis will settle. I think
they're both tough enough to survive. I just have to remember to check on
watering it while it settles.

And lordy, as I had climbed the shaky steps that Squire had built for me
long ago leading down to the next to last level, I had turned around to look
at all the work that lay around me and just needed doing and saw to my
amazement my "shit house rose" had gone berserk this year and was enormous!
I almost missed the splendor of the mock orange when it bloomed this year.
It
just about slipped past me but I had gone to the north end of the high deck
and looked over the railing and seen the bush was covered in blossoms and it
had drawn me to her. Next year I will allow any branches it lays on the
ground to root for more of these beauties that are hardy and don't need
pampering.

I stood looking at the althea's, my other true Southern sign it's summer and
turned to climb the steps and there was Rose. Sitting like dawgs do on
steps, front paws on the steps below and her big butt on the steps above,
smiling at me and panting. She was hot and wondered how long I was going to
be and had watched me from her perch the whole time. She's taken to going
quite insane for me when she sees me pick up the camera. This is yet another
indication to her that I am either leaving or at least going outside and
she's all for it. As I trudged up the steep steps, I noticed that the
Virginia Creeper had decided to weave thru the back of the steps and attempt
to grab the railing.

As I got up to Rose and had to tell her to get going, I noticed the end
lookout point of the deck was hilarious. You first see an old iron grill on
an iron pedestal loaded with assorted pots of cacti. Crammed tight. And
over the railing, Squire has tried to hang an area rug to let the rains
rinse it, but all it seems to do is give the cats a cushy spot to lie
stretched across. The old iron grill is in the corner of the deck against
the massive trunk of the dead jack pine that I have screwed a huge bike hook
into and from that hangs the larger Thanksgiving cactus. On the railing you
see the plastic narrow window box that has little heads peeping out of the
rim of all the smaller pots of cactus and succulents. And next to the end,
tight is a homemade pot that looks like a tree trunk that I made years ago
planted with a spiny cactus that has red flowers and leaves poking out the
tips.

There is a huge pot with three tomato plants growing under the grill and
around the pot is a dogwire cage I rigged around it and the tomato's have
realized their toes are free of the little pots and are taking off. My
experiment of letting the vining plants drape down towards the ground just
might work if I secure the vines to keep them from breaking when the winds
blow hard. To pick tomato's from the ground below on the vines that cascade
downwards will be kinda neat.

Then there's the picnic bench that serves and has always served as another
pot shelf. Inside a large plastic tray are the many little clay pots
planted in little semps, and along the eastern side to the left is a tub
with a non blooming iris I suspect is a Louisiana that Zhan gave me but it
has flat refused to bloom for me. It has lived thru the winters but it just
won't bloom. I am baffled as to how to make the damn thing perform so I can
see what color the flowers are and since it stopped blooming, wild violets
have taken up residence with the leaves and rhizomes of the iris. On a deck
a story up off the ground. Go figure. And you wonder if there really ARE
fairies...at this ridge there are, by the hordes. Working overtime. With
tiny blisters on their fingers. Cursing me for my insisting on planting
every vacant or appearing to be vacant spot of earth.

Thru the dark part of the deck is the jumbled mess of my potting table and
an old school desk that houses another huge plastic tray that is home to six
pots of assorted Corydalis I got from Roots and Rhizomes in the late spring.
I'm pot growing them first to establish them better since they arrived in
TWO INCH pots.

And past that is the old butcher block shelves we kept when Squire did a
renovation of a GNC in a mall back in Nashville we used for record album
shelves for the longest time. The albums have since been put on wooden
baker's rack shelves Squire and I found at Lowe's three years ago for $30
you
put together and at least one of the two heavy and clunky shelves wound up
out on the deck against the wall with assorted pots on the three levels.

Just past that next to the potting table on the support timbers I've nailed
wire baskets and inside them are nursery clay pots housing two rather unique
shamrocks. Well the name just flew outa my head so I can't tell you their
proper name, but I bit back in the early early spring with Logee's and
bought the red leafed one and two silver and green ones one for me and one
for Mary Emma that blooms yellow flowers all the time, potted up hers in a
clay pot and cheap soil and her's hasn't stopped blooming or growing. Mine?
Mine died and the red leafed one never showed it's head. So I called them
and they finally replaced them and I duplicated what I did with Mary Emma's
and mine's doing pretty good so far. And the red one is just making buds
for me. The picture in the catalog was bright yellow flowers against blood
red heart shaped tiny leaves. I can't wait.

Well my hands are throbbing from the spines and dirt and general abuse I've
given them these few days. And it's now past the two days off and I didn't
get to plant the redbud trees let alone clean up the side porch of the
clutter. But that is another day. I appreciate you're letting me ramble.
The rains have moved in with Tropical storm, Bill giving the parched plants
a good drenching for a couple of days. My towering trumpet lilies are now
dropping their petals and the daylilies are cranking out their last hoorah's
and I see way too early anemone buds and know the blister beetles will hatch
soon and defoliate them if I don't watch carefully now.

The Japanese beetles are assaulting the Loosestrife, which is fine but with
these days split up, I find no time to pluck them and let them fall to their
deaths in soapy water. And with that many munching on these loosestrife, I
know the emerging buds of the disco belle seedling someone gave me last year
will be decimated along with the tender petals of the Cumberland River
hibiscus if I don't watch them. And they're munching the 4's leaves which
means they should die of indigestion or so the article I read awhile back
indicates. That it's poisonious to them. And the 4's are blooming, those I
haven't pulled up. And the Joe Pye are setting buds way too early, it
should be doing this in August. The Helopsis is making buds and the
Helianthus is already blooming, and the fall asters that get almost five
foot tall are already popping open. This is one strange summer.........

Thanks for allowing me to share all these moments in my garden with you.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking English
Mountain where we're being soaked by the tropical depression from TS Bill,
in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset Zone 36

Wow! Haven't been on the newsgroup for awhile. Great to see you're still
out there going flat out. Keep up the good work.

Bill C.
Coastal New Brunswick
Half way, exactly, between the North Pole and Ecuador
Perennials going great. Annuals, who's had time?

"madgardener" wrote in message
.. .

is it me or has my post completely disappeared? madgardener
"Bill C." wrote in message
...
Wow! Haven't been on the newsgroup for awhile. Great to see you're still
out there going flat out. Keep up the good work.

Bill C.
Coastal New Brunswick
Half way, exactly, between the North Pole and Ecuador
Perennials going great. Annuals, who's had time?

"madgardener" wrote in message
.. .

"madgardener" wrote in message
...
is it me or has my post completely disappeared? madgardener

Mad,

Nope, its still there. I'll paste it below in case you can't get it back.
If you don't see it, one possibility that I've seen other posters encounter
is having clicked their own addresses accidentally onto their own 'blocked
sender's list'.

Bill C.

This obsession of mine with all things horticultural has got to be careening
outa control about now......As you walk outside my nook door, the first
thing you smell is warm honey......the pink Buddleia that I bought in Grand
Haven three years ago at the nursery down the road from my MIL's house
finally took off this year and the blossoms are I-KID-YOU-NOT......well over
a foot in length. They start at the tips of my fingers and are as long up
to my elbow crook. I took a picture because it just didn't seem possible.
These things exude the warm honey smell and I see some of the Artillery
butterflies have gotten the scent and are supping with abandon. Later I spy
a deeply blue one and a monarch hovering over the tops of these monsters
with giddy ecstasy.

The other thing you smell when you round the corner are the goofy looking
seven foot Asian lilies that look like the leafy necks of yellow headed
giraffe's. My dragon lilies are now gone and the Shenandoah and Shiloh and
Yellowstone trumpet lilies are winding up, but now it's what I consider
summer as the daylilies are cranking out more and more blossoms every day.
My old
fashioned triples are opening now, I shared a huge piece of one to a couple
I met at work. the thing had settled into the loose worm soil and made three
distinctive clumps. I gave them the whole plant. In the hole I plugged in a
salvaged pinkish daylily I saved from an abandoned house. It's hard to
plant in this bed as it's packed with narcissus bulbs. I really must lift
this whole bed someday and narrow the sides to workable widths. Anyone with
a
whip and stern looks and patience with my persistent reasoning as to why we
shouldn't move these around would be gladly appreciated......g

Phlox towers above the leaves of other perennials and I seem to have two
colors. A nice pink one that sits at the back of the front bed, and I see
the pale white pink one Mary Emma gave me a piece of years ago and always
returns for me laughing at my absent-mindedness as I NEVER remember to whack
it back before it sets buds, has thrown a daughter in the middle of the
chaos of the
extension part of the beds. The birds have given me my annual returning 5-6
towering sunflower trees. Squire has already spotted their huge leaves and
is kvetching about them already.

I didn't lose all my poker plants, but the pots I bought to replace them
still sit patiently waiting for me to take a machete and make a path and
plunk them into the hole where the older ones were. I've taken to using the
shovel backwards to pry a loose spot for a rooted plant next to the
landscape timber and then shovel dirt over the roots to cover it. I've
planted about nine daylilies this way, and where the lemon balm had
reseeded, I pulled it out, along with the toasted roots of the Artemisia
that languished under the Salix bush and moved all the loose soil over and
the spot was perfect for the 3 gallon pot of Wide Brim hosta I got weeks ago
that sat patiently in the pot waiting for the perfect spot to open up.

To say that I am deeply rooted in gardening madness is an absolute
understatement once again. The cashiers in the garden center have taken to
looking at
the corner where the Rubbermaid box sits that holds the sign plaques and
just next to the tropicals in a little niche next to the chain link fence
and shake their heads and tell me I really AM terminal! My comment
reflecting what Zhan said awhile back that I need a twelve step program for
addiction to perennials has gotten around and whomever comes out to run the
registers tells me this with a whacky smile on their faces. And the word
that I am more than knowledgeable about the plants has spread to the ones
who love to plant and have their own flowerbeds and I find myself teaching
them as I pick out or point out plants. This is getting outa hand-- LOL

Orange Montbretia's have teased me all spring, the support rings with the
squares seem to have done the job, the leaves haven't flopped over and now
the stems with the bird like blossoms are upright instead of lying around
above the leaves. I will have to put another support ring in there next
year since it does work. Lets just hope my Lowe's carries them next
year.....I sold all the rest to other gardeners for that specific purpose.

I dug up the daughter Helianthus and plunked it into the western Colorado
bed where it drooped and sulked and now has discovered loose rich soil under
it's toes, it's now pulling itself up and looks like it will survive. I hope
so. This seedling is far more healthy than the actual transplanted piece I
put in the same bed a few years ago that flops about acting like a rude
child who won't stand up during a tirade.

Today's heat and humidity didn't deter me as I had pots of spring plants to
plug into holes or lose them. A bleeding heart, two columbines, a pink
Astilbe, reduced at the spring season's end and snapped up by me for a
quarter or half dollar. All went in the seriously shady side yard now. The
mother
pawlonia has grown a major shading limb that stretches across the whole
center side yard. Add to that the cedar tree that sits on the opposite side
of the chain link fence and the healthy as a horse mimosa that shades the
old tomato boxes turned flowerbeds..........and the pawlonia daughter with
the maple seedling that keeps begging me not to remove it. But alas, it's
way too close to the house now. How could I have not seen it?

My desire for a maple in my yard or woods has fallen on the maple fairies
ears
and they have blessed me with more than my share, but the best specimen of
course is the one not six feet from the deck. When she grows bigger her
shade will absolutely dominate the yard and impose on the deck. She has to
go and now before I have to use a chainsaw on her to cut her down. It's
hard. I don't think she would transplant.....hmmmmm maybe if I wait until
after fall and her leaves have turned I could rootball dig her up and put
her in the woods.........we'll talk about this endeavor later.

There's still the Harry Lauder's twisted filbert to plant somewhere special
near the woods, and those two Eastern Redbuds that replaced the red dogwood
that died a horrible death of anthracnose. All the pots around the sides
and fronts are screaming for water with this heat, everything droops
horribly during the day and you can almost hear them sighing when I water
them. I water at work, then come home and water here for the parched pots.

Squire has put his foot down and forbade me to "NOT BRING ANY MORE TREES OR
BUSHES HOME". Well, then that leaves me open for other
things................

I am obsessing about cactus and succulents and sedums again. It started
with the new shipment of cacti yesterday at work and the lewd looking one
that I had to have. I had already envisioned the elephant pot I would plant
it into. Then I dropped a spiny columnar cactus from the top of one display
that someone had precariously placed on top where it didn't belong, and
decided to take the broken piece home to root. then I bought the broken
stub for 50c and discovered when I repotted it last night that whoever
potted the cactus up originally at the nursery had just folded up and
crammed the cactus' roots up around the body of the plant, and when I
carefully moved the roots and soil from the hollows of the remaining piece,
I discovered another six inches of cactus that will now grow pieces off the
healed edges later on.

And I totally lost control when I opened up one box and there was a
replacement to the lost golden barrel I used to have that I lost two years
ago. It was mine. I brought it home and just placed it inside another nice
clay pot and left it in it's plastic one until I find the perfect soil to
build up underneath it.

Saturday an old friend sent me 19 semp babies and I gathered every small
clay pot I could find to gently plant each piece and stick in the little
tags she made for each one. Orystachys, one called Buchmerii and another
one called Keiko, special semps called Raspberry Ice, Skrocki, Joy Belle, a
little Euphorbia called myrsinites, semps with names like Neptune, Blush,
Pakardian, Olivette, Nico, Sunset, Lennicks Glory, Lively Bug and Le Clair's
Hybrid #2.

Once I got those planted I moved the bakers rack plant stand over to the
sunny spot on the deck and every planter of cacti that Squire had sitting on
the now deeply shaded front porch dog run. With the perennials now up to
the gutters the cacti were stretching their necks to get to the sun. He
never noticed until he started looking at what I put on the racks. All the
little tiny pots that I have tucked into the nailed on the railing window
box are all happy with the heat and bright sunlight, and even the Christmas
cactus are darkening up nicely as I've placed them in the direct sun as
well. I do not pamper those jungle cacti.

Potting up all those cactus I got my lions share of spines in my fingertips
and hands. Even with gloves, the lewd looking one got me good and I didn't
know it had left a nasty spine in my forefinger until this morning. Luckily
my oldest son was able to get the thorn outa my paw.........

But now there are daylilies in assorted colors of hot red, burgundy, black,
yellows, a few orange but mostly the hot or cool colors. I discovered a
nice pink one that needs moving or no one will see it. And I apparently
have a purple one with tiny flowers that defies color description. The
losses are apparent, but the successes are outstanding.

Speaking of daylilies, my old/new friend, Virginia Davis called and had more
daylilies to just give me. The lady who said she'd buy the whole lot of them
out front hasn't called back and she's getting impatient to get them all dug
up. So she walked around and chose a few and had me stop by on my way home
the other day and I brought home rich red ones, a nice unnamed fire engine
red, some pink beans she pulled up for me to make a nice mess of, a zucchini
that she doesn't eat that a well meaning neighbor has already started
bringing and I told her I loved them. I may have bitten off more than I can
eat........where's that Zucchini bread recipe?

With these newest huge hunks of plants I was frantically searching for
places to plug them in. I hate to waste a perfectly good plant. And then
the other day on the way home I came across an abandoned house that had a
flowerbed with three unusual and healthy despite the recent dry spell
daylilies and one nice hunk of
Agastache........and since I had lost my own clump of Agastache.....And as I
was digging those out, I happened to see in the four foot weeds and grass
past the bulldozers what looked like a stone of sorts and it turned out to
be a nice bird bath so I nabbed that too. I'll return to scrounge for pots
and discover the house has been 'dozed and that'll be that, but I will have
saved most of the plants and feel better about men with large machinery.

The cement pot that younger son gave me that I had originally planted the
dogwood tree into before it died, has now been replanted with blood red
coleus, white Dusty Miller, a rudbeckia called Cherokee Gold, the still
blooming blue lobelia, assorted pom pom dahlia's that keep cranking out
little powder puff blossoms in assorted colors. Another pot has marigolds,
nicotiana, and a stray dahlia or two.

Another pot has just three Toto rudbeckia's that I know will melt eventually
but I love them sooooo.

Waking with fingers swollen with spines that I missed, I went to work and oh
lordy, a customer has left me a sack with a rhubarb plant they dug and
shared with me. And then there's the kerria japonica "Flora Pleno" that the
older gentleman dug me up a piece of when we were discussing the tri-colored
butterfly bushes. And mine really IS tri-colored!!

More spiny treasures brought home to be lovingly placed in the now empty
dish pot that used to house the Lady's Mantle and Nancy lamium. I planted
both in the shade beds and since the pots were empty.............so now they
house three rat tail cacti babies, an old man cactus that left it's bite in
my palm, a kalanchole called Chocolate paws, a spiny little hawortia or
agave I'm not sure, that has five screaming orange stems with fat little
orange pod like buds dangling above the stems in total contrast. The little
succulent is warty and dark and a perfect contrast to the blossoms.

Marie had put back a heavily variegated African violet for me that came in
yesterday and since the leaves were almost completely white with startling
purple ruffled flowers, and I haven't killed the other one yet I bought in
February, I got it too.

Cobweb sempervivums and another strange one that has hairs on the ends of
the points of the leaves was added to the booty and there I had to stop.
Next week when the lilies are thru blooming and we mark the pots down to a
dollar I want to be able to get a few pots to plug in amongst the other
stuff. I can ALWAYS find a spot for an Asian lily. And I haven't seen any
sign of the lily beetle so I think I'm safe so far if I get a few pots of
them. No one liked the pale orange cream ones and they're about three foot
tall. Perfect for the front of the bed since I have decided to cut down
some of the invasive Korean Spirea that is intent on eating the whole
eastern bed and has jumped into the Frakartii aster bed. That will never do
so come next two days off and I will do some much needed pruning and
pulling.

During a wander into the woods I came across my first example of a poison
ivy vine mature enough to have berries on it but low to the ground on a
sapling. I didn't hesitate, I grabbed the two inch stem and pulled it and it
snapped. Then I realized what I had done and picked up a handful of dirt and
"washed" my hands in it and I swear, so far I haven't broken out. But then
maybe all those cactus spines have given me immunity or the poison ivy feels
sorry for me and didn't work on me this time.....g I don't deliberately
push Mom Nature's poisonous plants. I respect them most times.

Finding the Lucifer crocosmia's in the woods box has told me they would
prefer to be ignored to bake and do whatever they want to do. These are
quietly accumulating in number, I'll take them all.

The Black Knight butterfly bush now shows me I can whack the thick branches
back and not lose too many flowers if I act in speed in the next two days.
But the pirkle one that tried to conquer Mary Emma's back yard is loaded
with so many flowers and masses of butterflies I fear their wings will lift
the bush off the ground, so this one won't get trimmed. And lighting the
north side of it below in the rank and mucky goo are the Bengal Tiger
cannas returned and glowing like neon leaves. I still need to wade into the
muck and pull out the invasive blackberry cane that has woven itself amongst
the green "Indian shot" cannas of my dad's that I have a clump of next to
the
Tigers.

As I climbed the shaky steps between the topped and quite dead jack pine
trunks to the upper terrace, I see the red and yellow Scotch broom has been
sipping from the growth cup. It's twice the size it was this spring. And
tucked against it are the dark leaves of the Sand Cherry and on the other
side of that squishing it is a very very healthy Beauty Berry bush that is
covered in row after row of teeny fairy blossoms whose airspace is choking
with teeny fliers making sure this year is an eye popping one for the
berries.

I turned eastward and went under the deck that rises above me to the patio
slab that is in front of the downstairs laundry and basement door and where
the steps come down from the deck towards the east too, but at the bottom of
the steps beside the little pad of concrete, I have tucked in two double
althea's and they took off in growth themselves last year and this year
remembered what they were doing last and have loaded themselves with so many
buds that are larger than my thumb. Two double purple ones and one
breath-taking pink one that looked like the ruffled skirts of a summer frock
stopped me cold in my tracks.

Next to them is the tri-colored buddleia and it truly does have three
colored blossoms on one bush. I saw a white, a blush pink and a deep purple
on it....and next to that across the concrete steps that lead down to the
unused shed, the weird attempt at putting a box against the rounded slope
under the black walnut tree where I have a Sum and Substance hosta, some
rampant Ajuga, successful but slow to take off Lilies of the valley and the
ever persistent money plants that I pull out. I think this is where the
other pot of Wide Brim and Limrock Ruby coreopsis will settle. I think
they're both tough enough to survive. I just have to remember to check on
watering it while it settles.

And lordy, as I had climbed the shaky steps that Squire had built for me
long ago leading down to the next to last level, I had turned around to look
at all the work that lay around me and just needed doing and saw to my
amazement my "shit house rose" had gone berserk this year and was enormous!
I almost missed the splendor of the mock orange when it bloomed this year.
It
just about slipped past me but I had gone to the north end of the high deck
and looked over the railing and seen the bush was covered in blossoms and it
had drawn me to her. Next year I will allow any branches it lays on the
ground to root for more of these beauties that are hardy and don't need
pampering.

I stood looking at the althea's, my other true Southern sign it's summer and
turned to climb the steps and there was Rose. Sitting like dawgs do on
steps, front paws on the steps below and her big butt on the steps above,
smiling at me and panting. She was hot and wondered how long I was going to
be and had watched me from her perch the whole time. She's taken to going
quite insane for me when she sees me pick up the camera. This is yet another
indication to her that I am either leaving or at least going outside and
she's all for it. As I trudged up the steep steps, I noticed that the
Virginia Creeper had decided to weave thru the back of the steps and attempt
to grab the railing.

As I got up to Rose and had to tell her to get going, I noticed the end
lookout point of the deck was hilarious. You first see an old iron grill on
an iron pedestal loaded with assorted pots of cacti. Crammed tight. And
over the railing, Squire has tried to hang an area rug to let the rains
rinse it, but all it seems to do is give the cats a cushy spot to lie
stretched across. The old iron grill is in the corner of the deck against
the massive trunk of the dead jack pine that I have screwed a huge bike hook
into and from that hangs the larger Thanksgiving cactus. On the railing you
see the plastic narrow window box that has little heads peeping out of the
rim of all the smaller pots of cactus and succulents. And next to the end,
tight is a homemade pot that looks like a tree trunk that I made years ago
planted with a spiny cactus that has red flowers and leaves poking out the
tips.

There is a huge pot with three tomato plants growing under the grill and
around the pot is a dogwire cage I rigged around it and the tomato's have
realized their toes are free of the little pots and are taking off. My
experiment of letting the vining plants drape down towards the ground just
might work if I secure the vines to keep them from breaking when the winds
blow hard. To pick tomato's from the ground below on the vines that cascade
downwards will be kinda neat.

Then there's the picnic bench that serves and has always served as another
pot shelf. Inside a large plastic tray are the many little clay pots
planted in little semps, and along the eastern side to the left is a tub
with a non blooming iris I suspect is a Louisiana that Zhan gave me but it
has flat refused to bloom for me. It has lived thru the winters but it just
won't bloom. I am baffled as to how to make the damn thing perform so I can
see what color the flowers are and since it stopped blooming, wild violets
have taken up residence with the leaves and rhizomes of the iris. On a deck
a story up off the ground. Go figure. And you wonder if there really ARE
fairies...at this ridge there are, by the hordes. Working overtime. With
tiny blisters on their fingers. Cursing me for my insisting on planting
every vacant or appearing to be vacant spot of earth.

Thru the dark part of the deck is the jumbled mess of my potting table and
an old school desk that houses another huge plastic tray that is home to six
pots of assorted Corydalis I got from Roots and Rhizomes in the late spring.
I'm pot growing them first to establish them better since they arrived in
TWO INCH pots.

And past that is the old butcher block shelves we kept when Squire did a
renovation of a GNC in a mall back in Nashville we used for record album
shelves for the longest time. The albums have since been put on wooden
baker's rack shelves Squire and I found at Lowe's three years ago for $30
you
put together and at least one of the two heavy and clunky shelves wound up
out on the deck against the wall with assorted pots on the three levels.

Just past that next to the potting table on the support timbers I've nailed
wire baskets and inside them are nursery clay pots housing two rather unique
shamrocks. Well the name just flew outa my head so I can't tell you their
proper name, but I bit back in the early early spring with Logee's and
bought the red leafed one and two silver and green ones one for me and one
for Mary Emma that blooms yellow flowers all the time, potted up hers in a
clay pot and cheap soil and her's hasn't stopped blooming or growing. Mine?
Mine died and the red leafed one never showed it's head. So I called them
and they finally replaced them and I duplicated what I did with Mary Emma's
and mine's doing pretty good so far. And the red one is just making buds
for me. The picture in the catalog was bright yellow flowers against blood
red heart shaped tiny leaves. I can't wait.

Well my hands are throbbing from the spines and dirt and general abuse I've
given them these few days. And it's now past the two days off and I didn't
get to plant the redbud trees let alone clean up the side porch of the
clutter. But that is another day. I appreciate you're letting me ramble.
The rains have moved in with Tropical storm, Bill giving the parched plants
a good drenching for a couple of days. My towering trumpet lilies are now
dropping their petals and the daylilies are cranking out their last hoorah's
and I see way too early anemone buds and know the blister beetles will hatch
soon and defoliate them if I don't watch carefully now.

The Japanese beetles are assaulting the Loosestrife, which is fine but with
these days split up, I find no time to pluck them and let them fall to their
deaths in soapy water. And with that many munching on these loosestrife, I
know the emerging buds of the disco belle seedling someone gave me last year
will be decimated along with the tender petals of the Cumberland River
hibiscus if I don't watch them. And they're munching the 4's leaves which
means they should die of indigestion or so the article I read awhile back
indicates. That it's poisonious to them. And the 4's are blooming, those I
haven't pulled up. And the Joe Pye are setting buds way too early, it
should be doing this in August. The Helopsis is making buds and the
Helianthus is already blooming, and the fall asters that get almost five
foot tall are already popping open. This is one strange summer.........

Thanks for allowing me to share all these moments in my garden with you.
madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking English
Mountain where we're being soaked by the tropical depression from TS Bill,
in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset Zone 36

"madgardener" expounded:

is it me or has my post completely disappeared? madgardener

Remember, I keep all of your posts, so if you ever need one, just
holler!!! {{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}

--
Ann, Gardening in zone 6a
Just south of Boston, MA
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