How Does Your Garden Grow?

[gardengloves]

After one on the coldest, wettest, snowiest winters ever on the northeast, plants are coming up in great shape.

What''s coming in your area?, how is your garden, houseplants, deck plants, doing?

First up was this magnolia in early April. Please post pictures of your plants, gardens, orchids, etc...

 

[gardengloves]

these rhody''s survived the great deer banquet, up in April..

 

[gardengloves]

These purple allium came up a bit smaller, used different bulbs this year .... but they are in bloom and it isn''t even May....

 

[gardengloves]

and these iris about to burst open... showing blue tips..

 

[iheartscience]

Oooooh your garden is gorgeous! I''m actually in the middle of a landscape makeover in the front of my house and have no idea what to plant! Maybe you can help me decide what to plant?

My husband and I started taking out a weird low brick wall/flower bed border in front of our house and we''re going to replace it with a dry stacked slate wall. We have a row house so it''s a small yard out front and I want to make it gorgeous! The only plants out front (besides the dandelions and clover) are these weird bushes that have no flowers on them. The leaves are kind of thin and they get reddish. As far as I can remember from stalking the house before we bought it, they don''t flower, either.

I did get some gorgeous (pre-made) hanging baskets from Home Depot that I LOVE! That''s what spurred me to start redoing the tiny yard out front, actually. I don''t have any pictures, though-I''ll have to take some tomorrow and post them! They have white geraniums, tall grass and little orange and purple flowers.

 

[lulu]

Well, I planted two new arborvitae today, but I''m resigned to burlapping them before we go to Florida next winter. I also love allium-particularly the drumsticks.

It''s very dry in Michigan and I''ve actually watered twice --the first time I ever watered in April.

 

[packrat]

This winter kicked ass for a lot of insulating snow early, before the ground completely froze, so everything got a nice soaking as it melted. Our stuff is coming up fantastic, even tho April turned out to be super dry-only a couple April showers for the May flowers! Our stuff won''t start looking filled in and great for a little while longer tho. It''s still early here.

 

[FrekeChild]

It grows brown...then again, we are in a desert...

 

[Rhea]

Our little seedlings are doing well. We have potatoes, strawberries, rosemary, and sage outside in pots on our patio. Inside we have tomatoes, basil, parsley, and coriander, sweet peppers, and chillies that will need to go out into larger pots later. We only have a patio and a very small area against the apartment outside.

Your garden is beautiful! Do you grow any veg or is pretty flowers your thing?

 

[ladyciel]

In an Aerogarden.

I recently replanted it with 6 basil and 1 parsley. The basil grows like weeds, which is awesome since we LOVE fresh pesto....

As awesome as the aerogarden is for fresh herbs (I''ll probably always keep at least one going) I can''t wait until we live somewhere we can actually have an outdoor garden. Yours looks to be doing pretty well, in spite of all the challenges!

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 5/2/2010 5:13:11 AM
Author: Addy
Our little seedlings are doing well. We have potatoes, strawberries, rosemary, and sage outside in pots on our patio. Inside we have tomatoes, basil, parsley, and coriander, sweet peppers, and chillies that will need to go out into larger pots later. We only have a patio and a very small area against the apartment outside.


Your garden is beautiful! Do you grow any veg or is pretty flowers your thing?

I do plant a few herbs, rosemary, parsley, thyme, basil and chives, and marjoram, and basil. The parsley has be planted each season but comes up so abundant that I bring huge batches to work for colleagues and dry some for winter. My husband has a strawberry patch and wants to grow tomatoes and grapes like his grandparents, so that will be new all consuming project. Thanks for the nice comments.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 5/1/2010 9:52:23 PM
Author: lulu
Well, I planted two new arborvitae today, but I''m resigned to burlapping them before we go to Florida next winter. I also love allium-particularly the drumsticks.


It''s very dry in Michigan and I''ve actually watered twice --the first time I ever watered in April.

Is the burlap for the deer? My neighbors but up mesh cages around the arborvitae in the fall and that seemed to work. My neighbors have been trying to grow a row of arborvitae forever, but they get eaten to the core every winter, but the mesh wire worked this year.

Nothing will go near the allium, no bunnies or deer, its an onion root and they don''t like it.

 

[lulu]

Date: 5/2/2010 5:02:49 PM
Author: gardengloves

Date: 5/1/2010 9:52:23 PM
Author: lulu
Well, I planted two new arborvitae today, but I''m resigned to burlapping them before we go to Florida next winter. I also love allium-particularly the drumsticks.


It''s very dry in Michigan and I''ve actually watered twice --the first time I ever watered in April.

Is the burlap for the deer? My neighbors but up mesh cages around the arborvitae in the fall and that seemed to work. My neighbors have been trying to grow a row of arborvitae forever, but they get eaten to the core every winter, but the mesh wire worked this year.

Nothing will go near the allium, no bunnies or deer, its an onion root and they don''t like it.

Unfortunately the deer ate mine into toothpicks while we were in Florida. So in the winter I''ll do burlap or some sort of mesh. I considered replacing them with other shrubs, but I love arbor vitae.

 

[Gailey]

Apart from a carpet of blue Siberian Squill in one of my client''s gardens, nothing is far out of the ground yet here in Calgary. Some tulips, others are being really tardy, it''s been a long cold winter here.

My clematis has all started to sprout and by the end of May I will have a wall of colour.

My Aliums (Purple Sensation) are a scant 6" out of the ground.

"Supreme Sultan" German Iris is about 8-10 inches out of the ground.

I start back at work full time tomorrow, so will go and charge the camera tonight and report on stuff as it appears.

GG, your Magnolia is glorious. When I was a kid, I bought my Mum a Magnolia Stellata. It was a baby in a box at the supermarket. The last time I saw it, it was a most magnificent tree. I must check to see what zone they are. I am making a list of stuff I want to grow again when I move to Ontario. Magnolia and Wisteria are high on the list.

I have so much cabin fever, I can''t wait to get out there and get at it!

 

[Gailey]

Date: 5/1/2010 7:55:39 PM
Author: thing2of2
Oooooh your garden is gorgeous! I''m actually in the middle of a landscape makeover in the front of my house and have no idea what to plant! Maybe you can help me decide what to plant?

My husband and I started taking out a weird low brick wall/flower bed border in front of our house and we''re going to replace it with a dry stacked slate wall. We have a row house so it''s a small yard out front and I want to make it gorgeous! The only plants out front (besides the dandelions and clover) are these weird bushes that have no flowers on them. The leaves are kind of thin and they get reddish. As far as I can remember from stalking the house before we bought it, they don''t flower, either.

I did get some gorgeous (pre-made) hanging baskets from Home Depot that I LOVE! That''s what spurred me to start redoing the tiny yard out front, actually. I don''t have any pictures, though-I''ll have to take some tomorrow and post them! They have white geraniums, tall grass and little orange and purple flowers.

Thingoftwo,
In order for people to help you, can you:
a) post a picture
b) tell us where you live or at least what zone you are in
c) tell us what aspect your front garden has (north, south, east or west)
d) approximately how many hours of sun do you have on the patch each day.

Then we can help you build the garden of your dreams!

 

[yssie]

Beautiful, GG

My dad has grapes, peaches, apples, pears, every herb known to man thriving on my parents' land. I have my mum's ability with plants - absolutely none. We kill cacti.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 5/2/2010 10:38:30 PM
Author: Gailey
Apart from a carpet of blue Siberian Squill in one of my client''s gardens, nothing is far out of the ground yet here in Calgary. Some tulips, others are being really tardy, it''s been a long cold winter here.


My clematis has all started to sprout and by the end of May I will have a wall of colour.


My Aliums (Purple Sensation) are a scant 6'' out of the ground.


''Supreme Sultan'' German Iris is about 8-10 inches out of the ground.


I start back at work full time tomorrow, so will go and charge the camera tonight and report on stuff as it appears.


GG, your Magnolia is glorious. When I was a kid, I bought my Mum a Magnolia Stellata. It was a baby in a box at the supermarket. The last time I saw it, it was a most magnificent tree. I must check to see what zone they are. I am making a list of stuff I want to grow again when I move to Ontario. Magnolia and Wisteria are high on the list.


I have so much cabin fever, I can''t wait to get out there and get at it!

Gailey,

Spring is racing so fast here I wish it would slow down so I can enjoy it. I swear a few weeks ago I had an icepick and was digging stuff out of three feet of snow.

Everything seems to be coming up and opening up well before normal. When your Iris''s 8 inch shoots come up, mine will be gone!

OK, so we established that the purple ones are German Iris, but we also went to an Iris farm last year and dug up some fantastic black iris bulbs that are now coming up. Have no idea what they are called, but here is a pic with black tip showing, will post when it is up.

 

[gardengloves]

So, the German Iris''s are coming up.

Gailey, good luck with wisteria- I love it! Husband will have to build me a trellis before I can put that in, but its one of my favorites. I have nothing around to support it.

Yssie, Your dad sounds like a real gardener, it will come out in you yet!

 

[Gailey]

GG, (They used to be my initials btw!)

The good thing about Wisteria, the more you prune it, the better it flowers. The best looking ones I have ever seen is one grown as a standard tree and another one grown through a dark green holly bush. The possibilities are endless. One of our fellow Scopers has a gorgeous one. I''ll send her a FB message and ask her to come here and post it''s picture to give you some inspiration.

 

[gardengloves]

Date: 5/4/2010 9:26:57 PM
Author: Gailey
GG, (They used to be my initials btw!)


The good thing about Wisteria, the more you prune it, the better it flowers. The best looking ones I have ever seen is one grown as a standard tree and another one grown through a dark green holly bush. The possibilities are endless. One of our fellow Scopers has a gorgeous one. I'll send her a FB message and ask her to come here and post it's picture to give you some inspiration.

Gailey,

I had a neighbor in the old house, the guy who gave me the orchid that took four years to bloom, had a wisteria he grew into a tree, he cultivated it from a small plant ordered online -He loved and tended this little tree and had two freestanding wisteria trees in the front yard - when they sold the house he wanted to pull it up take it with him but his wife, a realtor, said no, it comes with the property, we can't. So the new owners didn't like it, got a landscaper, and pulled it out.

The greatest wisterias I have seen are on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum in the sculpture garden growing over an arbor. An oasis in the heart of NY. One of these days, I am going to have a wisteria.

 

[Gailey]

Here''s a little bit of German Iris eye candy. I don''t have these varieties yet, but they are on my list:

 

[lulu]

Gailey, what zone are you? We''re 6a here and everything is ahead of schedule but no iris blooming here yet. 20 miles inland they are blooming. Michigan had a very mild winter.

 

[Gailey]

Lulu, I''m in a balmy tropical zone 3b. Been in a snowstorm today. Gotta love living in the mountains!

 

[monarch64]

All I have to add is that it''s like a damn jungle here in southern Indiana. Things went from frozen and dead to lush and encroaching into the house in what seemed like 2 days. And now we''ll spend the next 4 months fighting the stuff back with weedwhackers, lawnmowers, and all sorts of fun lawn/garden handheld tools. The flowers are nice, though!

 

[Gailey]

Lets see some pictures Monarch!

Gailey woke up to yet more snow today. No gardening again!

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Oh, I love this thread!

Gardengloves, your pics are lovely!

After doing our backyard in June, we''re thrilled to see what it looks like in the spring!

This is a shot of our Crossvine in full bloom, with the Yucca and Salvia May Night in the foreground.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Broccoli, Tomatoes, Peppers, and Basil.

 

[LaurenThePartier]

My favourite - bearded iris!

 

[LaurenThePartier]

More salvia

 

[LaurenThePartier]

This is another favourite of mine; Lamb''s Ear. It''s seriously as soft as my kitten''s fur.