Plant: Helleborus "Oriental Hybrid" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/16/06 Blooms: Early March Notes: Planted in front garden originally. This is a strong, healthy plant. Bloomed for the first time in spring 2008. Moved to the back garden 5/26/08 where it will get more shade and provide a nice evergreen anchor for that area. It is doing very well in its new location. The blooms last for well over a month.
Plant: Hardy Primrose Mix Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 18 Planted: 9/29/04 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Planted six more on 5/7/05, then six more on 9/27/05. One plant produced yellow blooms September through November 2006. These are mostly evergreen in our area (zone 5) and are thriving. The blossoms are brightly colored. I highly recommend these plants.
Plant: Creeping Phlox "Emerald Blue" Source: Park's Gardens, Meijer Quantity: 3 Planted: 5/23/07 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Planted three from Park's Gardens in spring 2007. After five days, two of the three plants were completely dead, but the third survived and is doing fine. Its bloom is pale lavender. Added two more from Meijer in May 2008. All three are doing well.
Plant: Bergenia "Perfecta" Source: Seasons Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 10/9/05 Blooms: Early April Notes: This plant's nickname is pig squeak, because of the sound the leaves make when rubbed. We do love the colorful
foliage and the fact that the foliage remains all winter. This didn't produce any flowers in 2006, probably because it was in a full sun location.
Moved to a shade location in fall 2006, and it rewarded me by blooming very well in spring 2007. Only three bloom stems appeared in 2008, but it did well again in 2009. Moved to the far back garden in August 2009, and split these into 10 different plants.
Plant: White Bleeding Hearts Source: Frank's, Lowe's, Sundown Gardens, Meijer Quantity: 6 Planted: Spring 2002 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Purchased from various places in 2002 and 2003. These are a nice base plant for clematis. Their foliage is pure green, not tinged with red like the pink bleeding hearts. In 2008, they suddenly started to struggle, so I added another from Meijer in May 2008.
Plant: Pink Bleeding Hearts Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 4 Planted: 4/16/04 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. These come up bigger and stronger every year and are really pretty. In fall 2006, we moved these to the far back garden in the shade where they could take up lots more space, and they transplanted well. They were much happier back there and grew larger each year. Removed them when the evergreens in the far back garden grew enough to need the space, but two came back strong in 2009 anyway so we moved them to a mostly shady place in the back garden in spring 2009.
Plant: Tiarella "Candy Striper" Source: Wayside Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/9/06 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. This plant has very cool coloring on its foliage and tiny white-pink blooms. Moved from back to kitchen garden 7/8/06 where it has a cooler location and seems quite happy, as evidenced by the fact that it bloomed for several months. I really like this plant. One wasn't doing well after a particularly wet 2009 spring, so I removed it to make room for the mouse plants.
Plant: Mouse Plant (Arisarum proboscideum) Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/26/05 Blooms: Early April Notes: Two plants appeared to die fairly quickly, because they are planted in the kitchen garden in an area with heavy clay soil and lousy drainage. The remaining plant was moved to a better location on 6/25/05, but didn't survive. However, the two plants that seemed to die right away sprouted again in 2006, three sprouts appeared in 2007, and a bunch of sprouts and a couple of blooms appeared in 2008, so it's finally established. The blooms are incredibly tiny and adorable -- a 1/2" half-cream, half-brown ball with a 3 " long brown tail.The blooms appear at the same time as the leaves. There are a few more of them every year, so I'm glad to have something that thrives in the the very worst spot in my garden. These had formed a thick 12" mat by May 2009, so I split them into a much larger area covering the kitchen garden's dead zone and they are doing fine.
Plant: Iberis "Autumn Beauty" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Planted in back garden by dwarf Oriental lily Miss Birma. Only one survived its first year but it is slowly spreading and doing fine.
Plant: Trillium Source: Lowe's, Henry Field's, Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 8 Planted: Fall 2003, Blooms: Late April Notes: We planted two white trillium and two red trillium from Lowe's in fall 2003 and spring 2004. Only one of the plants developed a flower bud in 2004, then again in 2005, but both times, the bud withered. In 2006, one of the red ones finally bloomed! I planted three more from Henry Field's in spring 2006 (white, purple, and yellow) but I can't tell how many of those survived yet until all of them bloom and that hasn't happened yet. So far, some of them are red and some of them are purplish red, so maybe the purplish red ones are the purple plant I bought. Transplanted one to a different section of the spa garden in 2008, and another in the spring of 2009. Both plants were not in bloom so it may be years before we know what they are, but the foliage matches the red ones.
Plant: Salvia "May Night" Source: Sundown Gardens, Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 10 Planted: 4/16/03 Blooms: Late April Notes: Planted four plants from Sundown Gardens. Was eaten alive by slugs before we learned
to control them. It is thriving in a full sun location. I shear off the flower stalks several times a summer and it immediately reblooms so it is bloom all summer long. Planted six more 4/25/05 from Bluestone Perennials which exploded into huge, healthy plants, but removed them in fall 2006 to make room for new plants. Moved the original plant to the far back garden and split it to make two plants, but gave the smaller of the two to my cousin in May 2009.
Plant: Polemonium "Stairway to Heaven" Source: Spring Hill Nurseries Quantity: 2 Planted: 6/18/07 Blooms: Late April Notes: These plants were sent as a substitution of "Brise D'Anjou." I'm not a big fan of substitutions, but the plants are healthy. New foliage has a pink tinge, which is pretty. Blooms are tiny, pale blue.
Plant: Columbine "Biedermeier" Source: Allisonville Nursery, Menards, Meijer Quantity: 4 Planted: 4/3/04 Blooms: Late April Notes: Biedermeier columbine come in a variety of colors,
so we weren't sure what to expect when we bought the first four from Allisonville Nursery. The flowers
turned out to be a mix of pale, light, and medium pink, and light
blue. We've added two more from Menard's and tend to have 4 - 6 at any given time. In 2005, one of the varieties had the tiniest blooms I've ever seen on a columbine, but it didn't come back. I replaced it with another one with small blooms from Meijer. Since I love the small purple variety the most, I deliberately let those blooms go to seed and deadhead the others. Moved these to the back garden when we redid the front garden in July 2009.
Plant: Columbine "Music Mixed" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 9 Planted: 4/27/06 Blooms: Late April Notes: Planted in back garden originally, then moved to the side garden in summer 2006 to make room for a patio extension and they thrived therel. The plants are small and the stems are short, but the blooms are large and beautiful. This mix contains blue/white, red/white, pink/white, and red/yellow flowers, and the blue/white blossoms are the earliest. On 6/20/08, we moved the blue ones to the far back garden and the pink one to the front garden. Our neighbor's hawthorne tree drops thousands of seeds into our side garden, so there was no way for these to go to seed and still be able to scrape up the thousands of hawthorne seedlings we get each June, so off they went to better locations. Dozens more seedlings appeared in spring 2009, so as those bloom and show which color they are, they're getting moved to the other locations as well. So far, we've moved 6 or so blue/white ones.
Plant: Columbine "Remembrance" or "Swan Violet and White" Source: Avon Gardens, Vail Villager, Greenwood Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Early May Notes: These plants are dark violet and white. They are extremely
beautiful and difficult to find. The original four plants from Avon Gardens didn't come back in spring 2006, so I replaced them with three more small plants from Vail Villager through eBay that were doing well until an intense heat wave hit. I planted seeds from Vail Villager in spring 2007 and let the few blooms we got go to seed, since I can't bear to not have these in my garden. I bought four large plants from Greenwood Nursery in 2008 and planted them in two additional locations. The plants arrived in terrible condition with rotted blooms, leaves, and stems, one died within a few weeks, two died the following spring, and one produced pale lavender blooms instead of dark purple. Moved the last remaining plant up front to join the one in the kitchen garden on 3/22/09. As of August 2009, only one sickly plant survives.
Plant: Columbine "Dragonfly Hybrids" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/25/05 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted in back garden. The colors are very similar to McKana's giants -- yellow, purple/yellow combination, and orange/yellow combination. No blues at all, which was disappointing. These plants filled in quite well. In summer 2006, I moved the three yellow ones to the kitchen garden where the blooms look more at home and discarded three plants due to lack of space and interest. In 2008, the two plants left created many seedlings, but I foolishly pulled them all thinking these two plants would last forever, but I only have one now. This year, every seedling will be allowed to live.
Plant: Tradescantia "Sweet Kate" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/16/06 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted in far back garden. Strong, healthy plants. The foliage is bright lime green, and the blooms are bright purple. Blooms briefly on and off all season before the rabbits eat the remaining buds. One didn't survive the winter of 2007 - 2008 and I pulled another in spring 2009 when the evergreens behind them grew over them. The remaining plant is big, healthy, and more than willing to create new baby plants.
Plant: Lupine "Tutti Frutti" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds, HCMGA Quantity: 5 packets Planted: 3/23/07 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in far back garden. Doing very well and two .bloomed for the first time in 2008. Planted three more packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added a small plant from Hamilton County Master Gardeners Association in May 2008. Continued to bloom into late June. Planted two more packets 4/22/09.
Plant: Lupine "Rose" Source: Meijer Quantity: 6 packets Planted: 3/23/07 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden in 2007. Only one plant came back in 2008 but it didn't bloom. Planted two more packets of seeds in spring 2008, but again, only one plant came back in 2009. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. Finally, in May 2009, these bloomed for the first time and they were definitely worth the wait. They're gorgeous and perfect in every way.
Plant: Lupine "Blue" Source: Meijer, Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 6 packets Planted: 4/12/07 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden. None of the seedlings came back in 2008. Planted two more packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added three Russell's Hybrids blue shades plants from Bluestone Perennials on 6/2/08. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. Bloomed for the first time in 2009.
Plant: Lupines "Russell Hybrids Mix" Source: Van Bourgondien, Altum's, Meijer, Spring Hill Nursery, Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 12 Planted: 4/10/06 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: I purchased six from Van Bourgondien and one from Altum's in 2004, but they didn't survive. Planted six from Meijer, six from Spring Hill, and three packets of seeds. One plant returned in 2007 but died in 2008. One seedling form 2007 survived the winter. Planted another two packets of seeds in spring 2008. Added three plants from Bluestone on 6/2/08. A record eight plants survived the winter. It's a Lupine Miracle! Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09. I have several different colors of blooms in 2009.
Plant: Lupine "Lulu" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 5 packets Planted: 3/23/07 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in far back garden at the start of a week-long rainfall, hoping the moist soil would help the seeds germinate. They did fairly well since this area doesn't get as much afternoon sun, but only four plants came back in 2008. I planted three more packets of seeds in spring 2008, but only one plant survived. Planted two more packets in April 2009, and two more in July 2009, and let every bloom go to seed, but there are no signs of seedlings yet. I'm hoping to see some in 2010.
Plant: Lupine "Scarlet" Source: Meijer Quantity: 3 packets Planted: 4/12/07 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted two packets of seeds in back garden in 2007. Not doing well but one plant came back in 2008. Planted a packet of seeds in May 2008 in the side garden, and moved the one remaining plant there too, but only the plant survived the winter. Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors 4/18/09 and some are still alive.
Plant: Columbine "Russell's Hybrids Yellow Shades" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/2/08 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in far back garden. Only the biggest one survived the first winter.
Plant: Lychnis "Flora Pleno" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/20/07 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted in back garden by Iris Sugar Blues. Doing well, but rabbits keep eating the flower buds its first year. Two didn't survive the winter of 2008 but the third is healthy and bloomed for the first time in 2009. The blooms are bright pink and very eye-catching.
Plant: Delphinium "Dark Blue" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 4 Planted: 9/22/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden. Only one survived the winter of 2007 but it is healthy. Planted three more 6/2/08. They're all doing well now.
Plant: Delphinium "Knights of the Roundtable" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 11 Planted: 9/18/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: All six came up in fall 2004, but only two returned in spring 2005. Added two more purchased from a nursery, and both did well. Planted 3 more from Spring Hill on 9/17/05, but none of those came back in spring 2006. More flower stalks appear in August and September. Moved the remaining two plants to the back garden where they get more sun on 9/2/07, since the magnolia next to them was overpowering them, but only one survived the transplant/winter. So, after all that, I have one blue plant, but it is doing very well now.
Plant: Penstemon "Red Rocks" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in far back garden. Started blooming two weeks after it was planted. One didn't survive the first winter, but the other two are healthy. The rabbits don't eat this and it's a pretty little plant, so it's a keeper. This one inspired me to try a couple of other cultivars.
Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Giles Van Hees" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in back garden. Started blooming two weeks after it was planted. A few of the blooms in 2008 had split tops which were interesting. This blooms all summer and the bees really love it. This is my favorite of my Veronica plants.
Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Goodness Grows" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Originally planted in back garden by flowering almond bush, but the tulips planted under them blocked their sun early in the season so they got leggy. Moved them a few feet over to their own little plot of land where they don't have to share their dirt, then moved them again in August 2008 into the kitchen garden where they won't be sitting right next to the blue balloonflowers, which are the same height and same color. They're struggling in 2009, but look like they're going to make it.
Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Icicle" Source: Lowe's Quantity: 6 Planted: 7/4/07 Blooms: Mid-June Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. They're very healthy plants and seem to tolerate heat and drought quite well. They bloomed all season and they turned into giant plants their second year. Moved to the back garden in August 2008 where they make a nice contrast to the colored flowers around them. They're really healthy and flower vigorously but they're tall and floppy and I hate that.
Plant: Veronica (Speedwell) "Royal Candles" Source: Lowes Quantity: 3 Planted: 7/19/09 Notes: Planted in back garden. These look like they're the same size as Veronica "Giles Van Hees" so I'm hoping I'll love them just as much. They look gorgeous in front of Echinacea "Pink Double Delight."
Plant: Eryngium (Sea Holly) "Sapphire Blue" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/20/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in back garden by Delphinium Knights of the Roundtable. This really is just as blue as described, and the color is really cool. Disappeared at the end of summer 2008 and I didn't think it was coming back in 2009, so I planted three of a different cultivar in the space, but then in early May, it started to appear. It's growing very slowly so I'm not sure what it will do yet; only a couple of leaves in 2009.
Plant: Eryngium (Sea Holly) "Blue Hobbit" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Notes: Planted where Eryngium Sapphire Blue was last year. I hope this one lasts more than one season. Doing very well. There are a few little leaves from last year's Eryngium popping up in the middle of these three. The bees absolutely love this plant. At any given time, I can count nearly a dozen types of bees and flying insects feasting on the blossoms.
Plant: Daylily "Happy Returns" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 8 Planted: Spring 2002 Blooms: Early June Notes: These are terrific, reliable plants. They bloom forever and produce many flowers. This is a larger, paler offspring of "Stella d'Oro." They were our first daylilies and paved the way for the others we have.
Plant: Daylily "Little Business" Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 3 Planted: 3/29/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These are a nice, compact daylily with loads of color, like a red version of "Stella d'Oro." They're probably my favorite daylilies since they bloom the most early in the season.
Plant: Daylily "Stella d'Oro" Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 5 Planted: 3/29/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These are very small, but great bloomers all summer.
Plant: Daylily "Destined to See" Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 3 Planted: 5/1/04 Blooms: Mid-June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. These do not have the purple edging or the purple color shown in the catalogs, but they are beautiful anyway. They are more of a maroon-pale peach combination. The plants and blossoms are large.
Plant: Stokesia "Mary Gregory" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/16/06 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in the back garden. Very healthy plants. The butterflies love this one, and so do I. The blooms are nice and big and the plants are sturdy. Moved one plant in August 2008 to give it more room. These are spreading by underground runners and I'm trying to keep them under control.
Plant: Stokesia "Purple Parasols" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Mid-June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden on top of hyacinth bulbs. The rabbits leave these plants alone, and the blooms are big and pretty.
Plant: Santolina "Ericoides" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/1/06 Blooms: Early June Notes: Very healthy plants. The foliage on this plant is very finely detailed and quite interesting. The blooms are even better -- they start out as tiny yellow pinpoints at the tip of each tiny branch, but they slowly expand over many weeks into dime-sized yellow blooms in the shape of half a pompom. The plants got so large in one year that we moved them to a different location in the far back garden. Their second year, they got pummeled by rain and looked really floppy instead of globe-shaped. Discarded two and moved one to a less-crowded part of the far back garden 8/30/08 where it is very happy.
Plant: Astilbe White Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 2 Planted: 3/29/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix, but separated into different categories here to show the difference in colors.
Plant: Astilbe Red Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 1 Planted: 3/29/04 Blooms: Mid-June Notes: Originally planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix. Moved to back garden in spring 2008. This is a very healthy, easy-care plant.
Plant: Astilbe Pink Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 1 Planted: 3/29/04 Blooms: Mid-June Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Purchased as part of a color mix. Moved to the corner of the kitchen garden 7/13/08. Yes, the dreaded corner where things go to die. My hope is that this plant is healthy enough to handle the lousy conditions there.
Plant: Lavender "Hidcote" Source: Lowe's Quantity: 6 Planted: 7/4/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in back garden. I've tried lavender before with disastrous results, so I am hoping to have better luck this time. They are thriving and the first plant bloomed in August 2007. They are growing quickly and so are the thuja and Norway spruce behind them, so I moved one to a different location 6/29/09 and removed the rest 8/30/08.
Plant: Shasta Daisy "Fiona Coghill" Source: Park's Gardens Quantity: 1 Planted: 5/23/07 Blooms: Late June Notes: Arrived as an 8" stick without any leaves, but slowly grew leaves and produced one lovely bloom in 2007. I found these at Lowe's in early July -- huge specimens in full bloom in gallon containers for just a few bucks more than I paid for this. Originally planted in far back garden. The blooms are quite pretty, but the plant wilts easily in afternoon 90 degree heat, so I moved it to the kitchen garden with morning sun instead. The plant was large and healthy enough to split into three plants when I moved it in spring 2008. Split and moved again in late 2009 to the far back garden. They're doing well, but I wish I didn't have to stake them.
Plant: Echinacea "Razzmatazz" Source: Wayside Gardens Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/21/05 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted one in back garden in spring 2005. The roots were rotten when we planted it and it died immediately. Call me stupid, but I tried again in the fall and ordered another one, which is doing much better.
I'm very pleased with it. The blooms last for well over a month and it blooms through fall. It is more established now but it still gets floppy in the rain and is susceptible to some sort of powdery disease. Doing very well in 2009.
Plant: Echinacea "Primadonna" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/2/08 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing well. Needs staking.
Plant: Echinacea "After Midnight" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/27/09 Blooms: Early July Notes: Planted in back garden by Muscadet lily. Doing well.
Plant: Echinacea "Pink Double Delight" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/27/09 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. Doing well. This is described as being like Echinacea Razzmatazz except better, so I was interested, but when this one came along, Razzmatazz retaliated by having its best season ever.
Plant: Echinacea "Coconut Lime" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/27/09 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in back garden by Easter lily. Doing well.
Plant: Echinacea "White Swan" Source: Lowe's Quantity: 1 Planted: 7/19/09 Notes: Planted in back garden by delphinium.
Plant: Campanula "Blue Chip" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in front garden where they are thriving. These provide great color in the summer. There was one rogue white plant in the mix, but we removed it when we moved them from the front garden to the side of the house in fall 2006. They spread well, so they're now in a location where they can sprawl out without smothering plants nearby. Note that I don't consider them invasive -- they just sprawl well. Only three plants survived the transplant but they are doing very well now.
Plant: Ligularia "The Rocket" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 6/2/08 Blooms: Early July Notes: Planted in back garden. Doing well but didn't bloom in 2008. It did very well in 2009 and bloomed for the first time. This is a terrific shade plant because it produces such bright blooms and looks nice when it isn't in bloom.
Plant: Potentilla "Monarch's Velvet" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/6/07 Blooms: Early July Notes: Planted in far back garden in front of Iceberg roses. Only one survived the fist winter, but I suspect chipmunks instead of the weather.The rabbits nibble on it occasionally but graciously allow it to bloom. The blooms are tiny -- less than an inch across -- and appear to last only a day or two, so it's really pretty boring. Moved it over a few feet to make room for irises specifically planted to create an erosion block.
Plant: Platycodon "Sentimental Blue" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/16/06 Blooms: Mid-July Notes: Planted in back garden. Two came back in spring 2007; I think the third one was washed away by erosion. I made a huge mistake and planted these on top of crocus bulbs, so first these were hidden among the tall crocus foliage, then they were dug up by chipmunks trying to get to the crocus bulbs, so we moved them to a safer location on 5/28/07. It didn't look like they would survive, but they have come back from the brink of death. On 7/2/07, I bought another at Lowe's -- a big, healthy specimen with lots of buds on it, that can set a good example for the tiny victims struggling to survive. All three came back well in 2008. The rabbits love these but they manage to survive and bloom well. These don't appear in the spring until early April so it's easy to pronounce them dead prematurely. All of the plants grew to nearly two feet tall in 2009 -- I guess I have to cut them back before they bloom to keep their size in check.
Plant: Rudbeckia "Gold Drop" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/20/07 Blooms: Mid-July Notes: Planted in back garden among Allium Globemaster. Doing very well despite being completely smothered by the Globemaster foliage in the spring. The Globemaster foliage is completely gone by the time these start to get large.
Plant: Sidalcea "Brilliant" Source: Spring Hill Nurseries Quantity: 5 Planted: 9/26/06 Blooms: Mid-July Notes: This is billed as a minature hollyhock. Planted in back garden. Was doing very well before the rabbits started eating the leaves, which ended up killing one of them but the rest recovered. In 2008, they started strong again and the rabbits attacked them again. Since they didn't seem like they were going to get a chance to get larger, we moved one plant in spring 2008 to form a smaller, tighter grouping of 5 plants. They were finally filled in and good-sized in 2009.
Plant: Hostas Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 5 Planted: 4/25/04 Blooms: Late July Notes: Planted in spa garden, then moved to kitchen garden in summer 2005. Only one of the original five has done very well so we removed the weakest one and moved the other four to a cooler part of the yard where they are a featured dish on the rabbit buffet.
Plant: White Baneberry Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 1 Planted: 5/25/07 Blooms: Mid-August Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. Very healthy upon arrival and doing well in a nearly full shade location. The flower stems are several feet long. It dies back each winter and comes back stronger every year.
Plant: Liriope Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/18/04 Blooms: Mid-August Notes: Planted three in kitchen garden. Planted three more on 10/16/05. The rabbits like to eat these so these plants took forever to get established. but in fall 2006 they started to do well. Bloomed for the first time in 2007. It's pretty invasive because it spreads by underground runners so we had to move it to a larger location in the far back garden in spring 2008. We dug up runners in the old location for a year.
Plant: Solidago "Little Lemon" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Blooms: Mid-August Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. Doing well. This is a gorgeous plant with very bright color.
Plant: Aster "Snow Flurry" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/18/04 Blooms: Late September Notes: Planted in kitchen garden. It got eaten by rabbits its first year, but did well after that.
Plant: Christmas Fern Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 2 Planted: 9/18/04 Notes: Planted in total shade in kitchen garden. They took several years to get established, but they're doing very well now. Boring and a little scary looking when the first hairy monkey paws unfurl into fern fronds, but dependable.
Plant: Japanese Painted Fern "Pictum" Source: Dutch Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/28/06 Notes: Planted in kitchen garden, next to Christmas fern and hostas. These are thriving and are quite pretty. It completely dies back in the winter. In the spring, the unfurling foliage is dark red and blends into the surrounding soil, so you just have to have faith that it is coming back even if you can't really see it. By late April, it starts to change color and become visible.
Plant: Kiwi "Issai" Source: Henry Field's, Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/13/06 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted one in back garden on trellis with clematis. Was doing well until scorched by a heat wave, but slowly recovered. At first it didn't appear to survive a subzero winter, which is to be expected since it is only hardy to zone 6 (we're in zone 5), but it made a miraculous recovery by May. Ordered a second plant from Pinetree in spring 2007, which arrived in great condition with two vining branches. In 2008, moved to a sunnier location in the far back garden. In spring 2009, removed from a trellis and wound the vines around a stake in a different location in the far back garden. My intent is to grow the lower vines into a tree form and based on how sturdy the previous years' vines are, I think this will be easy to do. The first blossoms appeared in early June 2009 but did not produce fruit.
Plant: Lingonberry "Red Pearl" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 4 Planted: 4/26/07 Notes: Planted 3 in back garden in 2007. They were extremely small plants, so Pinetree issued a credit and a note that they were smaller than they were expecting -- how nice! Unfortunately, the chipmunks kept digging them up, so we had to keep replanting them. I finally pronounced the last one dead in July 2008. Planted one more from Pinetree in spring 2008, and it is much larger than the previous year's plants and is thriving. First blooms and offshoots appeared in August 2009.
Plant: May Apple Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds, HCMGA Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/25/07 Notes: Planted one from Pinetree in shady part of far back garden. Arrived in perfect condition and thrived until it died back in mid-August as expected. Sprouted again in mid-April. Added a second, two-stem plant from Hamilton County Master Gardeners Association in May 2008, and both are doing very well. They're very clearly two different types because of the differences in foliage.
Plant: Blueberry "Bluecrop" Source: Meijer Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/24/08 Notes: Planted in spa garden. The rabbits got to the single branch the first day it was in the ground, so it's currently not much more than a stick.
Plant: Blueberry "Patriot" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/8/08 Notes: Planted in spa garden. I tried to keep these doused in a very foul-smelling rabbit repellant until I decided I'd rather have a nice-smelling garden and buy blueberries from the store. Started to bloom within a week of planting but rabbits had gotten to the berries before they finished forming.
Plant: Blueberry "Northland" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/8/08 Notes: Planted in spa garden. Started to bloom within a week of planting but rabbits or chipmunks got to them before berries formed in 2008. These two are the largest and healthiest of my blueberry plants. Blueberries were ready to eat in late June 2009 and we got to eat six delicious berries before the animals got to them.
Plant: Lupine "Red Flame" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 2 packages Planted: 4/27/08 Notes: Planted two packet of seeds in far back garden in 2008. Only one plant survived the winter. Planted two more packets in April 2009 and again in July 2009. No blooms yet but at least one plant is doing well.
Plant: Wild Lupine Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: Lots Planted: 6/2/08 Notes: Planted in far back garden in 2008 and again in spring 2009. Surviving so far in 2009. It pains me to thin them out. No blooms yet.
Plant: Red Trillium Source: American Meadows Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/2/08 Notes: Planted in spa garden among the blueberry plants. Rabbits seem to leave these alone, so I'm hoping they'll help protect the blueberries someday.
Plant: Rose Trillium Source: American Meadows Quantity: 5 Planted: 6/2/08 Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden. All of my new trillium have sprouted. Planted 2 more on 9/24/09.
Plant: White Trillium Source: American Meadows Quantity: 5 Planted: 6/2/08 Notes: Planted 3 in spa garden among my blueberry plants. Planted 2 more on 9/24/09.
Plant: Yellow Trillium Source: American Meadows, Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 6 Planted: 6/2/08 Notes: Planted 4 in spa garden. Three were from American Meadows and one was from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Planted 2 more from American Meadows 9/24/09.
Plant: Anemone "Prince Henry" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Notes: Planted in back garden. Moved twice its first season. First bloom appeared in September 2009.
Plant: Geum "Flames of Passion" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Notes: Planted in side garden. Doing well. No blooms in 2009. One plant is struggling.
Plant: Penstemon "Electric Blue" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Notes: Planted in back garden. Moved twice its first season. Doing well. No blooms in 2009.
Plant: Thalictrum "Glaucum" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Notes: Planted in far back garden. This is supposed to get really tall, but the plants were tiny and sickly looking and nearly every leaf had fallen off. Within a week, it was growing new leaves and it is doing well. This was described as being 5 feet tall, but so far, it's less than a foot tall. No blooms in 2009.
Plant: Lupine "White" Source: Pinetree Garden Seeds Quantity: 5 packets Planted: 3/23/07 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted a flat of seedlings started indoors on 4/19/09 in the back garden. Planted in back garden.
Plant: European Ginger (Asarum europaeum) Source: Wild Ginger Farm Quantity: 2 Planted: 4/29/09 Notes: Planted in full shade part of kitchen garden. Doing fine.
Plant: Pulsatilla vulgaris Source: Wild Ginger Farm Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/29/09 Notes: Planted in back garden by tree peony. Doing well. No blooms in 2009.
Plant: Penstemon cobaea Source: Wild Ginger Farm Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/29/09 Notes: Planted in far back garden in front of bay magnolia. This has thick, glossy leaves. No blooms in 2009.
Plant: Calamintha "Nepetoides" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/17/09 Notes: Planted in back garden. Arrived containing tiny blooms.
Plant: Agastache "Purple Pygmy" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/17/09 Notes: Planted in back garden.
Plant: Campanula "White Clips" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/17/09 Notes: Planted in back garden.
Plant: Stachys "Helen Von Stein" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/17/09 Notes: Planted in back garden.
Plant: Painted Trillium Source: American Meadows Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/24/09 Notes: Planted in spa garden.
No photo yet
Removed or Disappeared
Plant: Campanula persicifolia "Alba" Source: Spring Hill Nurseries Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/26/06 Blooms: Late May Notes: Sold as Ivory Peach Bellflower. Planted in far back garden near the lilacs. Doing very well, but can't bloom because the rabbits keep eating the flower buds. The first actual bloom that the rabbits didn't eat appeared in July 2008 for one day only. The same thing happened in 2009, so after four seasons with only one bloom, I removed them.
Plant: Feverfew "Virgo" Source: Select Seeds Quantity: 3 Planted: 5/13/09 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in back garden. These require staking. They're nice but a little boring and I hated having to stake them to get them to stop laying down on the ground after every rain, so out they came.
Plant: Daylily "Lavender Deal" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: Summer 2003 Blooms: Late June Notes: These were planted in a full
sun location in the back garden. They had the largest blooms and were the tallest plants of of all of our daylilies. They served us faithfully for six years, getting larger every year, until I removed them to plant smaller plants in their location.
Plant: Salvia nemorosa "Plumosa" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/27/09 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in back garden by blue lupine. These have dusty purple blooms. I don't like them because they are messy and floppy and boring, so I removed them after one season.
Plant: Grape "White Niagara" Source: Meijier Quantity: 1 Planted: 5/25/09 Notes: Planted by lilac bushes in back corner garden. This poor thing was half price at Meijer, but the existence of one live leaf inspired me to take it home, where I did some reading on grapes. Apparently, this little guy was going to be pretty high maintenance. The rabbits ate the leaves as fast as they were produced for three months, then they finally severed the vine at the base and I gave up.
Plant: Columbine "William Guinness" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/18/06 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted in front garden. These are more purple than burgundy, which suits me just fine. The stems are very long but the blooms face down and are smaller than the purple blooms of Columbine "Remembrance." By 2009, only two seedlings survived and I removed them when we redid the front garden in 2009.
Plant: Columbine "Songbird Dove" Source: Sundown Gardens, Wood's Edge Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/18/04 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted three plants from Sundown Gardens. These have cream and white blooms. Their blooms are
the largest of all of our columbines, but they are the shortest
plants. Only one plant came back in 2005, so we added another one from Wood's Edge on 4/30/05. Only one came back in 2006, but it succumbed to heat in mid-summer. I bought some seeds from eBay to sow in 2007 but didn't get any seedlings. Bought three from Meijer 5/17/08 and planted them in the far back garden but none of them survived the Great Columbine Die-off of Spring 2009.
Plant: Columbine "Songbird Cardinal" Source: Avon Gardens, Menard's, Meijer, Bluestone Perennials Quantity: ? Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted three plants from Avon Gardens. These have striking dark reddish-pink and white blooms.
One plant didn't come back in spring 2005 so we replaced it with another from Menard's on 4/30/05. Neither came back in 2006, so we replaced them with two large ones from Meijer and three small ones from Bluestone Perennials. They're in a brutal location (in a hot, dry corner with concrete on two sides) so we lose a few plants each year. Planted three more from Bluestone Perennials on 4/28/08 in the far back garden where I'm certain they'll do much better; moved them a little further back 8/30/08 so they don't get crowded by the evergreens around them. Moved the last two remaining plants up front to join the three in the back on 3/22/09, but only one or two survived the earwigs and rotting of spring 2009 and those were gone by summer.
Plant: Dianthus "Cherry Red" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/20/07 Blooms: Late May Notes: Planted in back garden. Bright pink plant that I finally decided I didn't like enough to devote valuable garden space to it, so out it went in August 2009.
Plant: Dianthus "Firewitch" Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 3 Planted: 10/29/05 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted in front garden. Only one tiny plant came up in 2006 and it wasn't really growing, but we discovered a rabbit den a few feet away and rabbits like dianthus. It slowly recovered once the baby bunnies moved on.
Moved a few feet over in fall 2006 since the Scarlet Flame phlox surrounding it really took off, and the remaining plant did very well. Removed it when we redid the front garden in July 2009.
Plant: Creeping phlox "Fort Hill" Source: Sundown Gardens, Allisonville Nursery Quantity: 8 Planted: 4/19/03 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: This is a pink plant which spread
and thrived. It looks good all winter, too. Planted four in spring 2003 and four in spring 2004. These are the most vigorous of our phlox plants and spread the most quickly. Removed in July 2009 due to several years of getting hit by fungus.
Plant: Creeping phlox "Candy Stripe" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 4 Planted: 4/19/03 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: This is a white phlox with a pink stripe
down each petal. Tom insists on referring to these as red and white,
and when confronted with the actual plant, he defends himself by
saying "Well, they're light red and white." That's when
I explain that light red is actually referred to as pink. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.
Plant: Creeping phlox "Emerald Pink" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/19/03 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: These were eaten by rabbits in 2003 and didn't grow
as well as our other phlox, but they came back strong in later years. Planted four in spring 2003 and two in spring 2004. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.
Plant: Creeping phlox "Snowflake" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 8 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: This is a nice white variety, which we planted
in two different areas in the front garden. This is slower to spread and bloom than our other phlox, but they also look nicer when dormant and when out of bloom. Removed in July 2009 due to fungus.
Plant: Phlox "Scarlet Flame" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/18/06 Blooms: Mid-April Notes: Planted in front garden. They were very small plants but are doing well and spreading faster than any of our other phlox. These are just slightly darker pink than our "Emerald Pink" phlox, which was very disappointing. I was expecting this to look much, much darker. It doesn't match the catalog photo at all. The foliage has a red tint to it.
Plant: Tradescantia "Blushing Bride" Source: Spring Hill Nurseries Quantity: 2 Planted: 6/14/07 Notes: I ordered this from Van Bourgondien in Spring 2006, but five months after placing my order, they finally notified me that it was out of stock. Planted two plants from Spring Hill in fall 2006, but they didn't survive the winter. So, I tried a third time. The 2007 shipment from Spring Hill looked much larger and healthier than the 2006 shipment. Foliage doesn't appear until late May. There is almost none of the pink foliage that makes this so attractive in the catalogs, so this is nothing more than a boring ground cover and you know how I feel about boring ground cover. Out it came in July 2009.
Plant: Lily of the Valley (White) Source: Frank's, Menard's Quantity: 4 Planted: Spring 2003, 2004 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted 20 in 2003 and 2004. Moved four surviving plants to the spa garden with the pink lily of the valley on 5/30/04. One of the plants bloomed for the first time in 2006. These spread very quickly once they were finally established and were taking over the spa garden so we removed them in 2009.
Plant: Lily of the Valley "Rosea" Source: Brent and Becky's Bulbs, Van Dyck's Quantity: 8 Planted: 4/21/04 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted 5 from Brent and Becky's Bulbs in the spa garden in spring 2004. Planted 3 more from Van Dyck's on 4/26/05. One of the plants bloomed for the first time in 2006. Bought two plants from Van Bourgondien in 2006, but was shipped two dried twigs a month and a half late. By 2008, these were starting to fill in fairly well.
I've transplanted several sprouts to other places in the spa garden to help protect the blueberry plants from the rabbits, because the rabbits won't touch them. I gave some to my cousin in May 2009 and still had plenty left because these spread insanely quickly, and finally removed them because they're so invasive.
Plant: Columbine "Spring Magic Rose and White" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/2/08 Blooms: Late April Notes: Planted in back garden. Arrived in bloom and continued to bloom. I love Bluestone Perennials. Started out doing fairly well in 2009 but the earwigs feast on the leaves of all my columbines in 2009 and a particularly wet period in the spring rotted many of the plants, so I pronounced it dead in June 2009.
Plant: Columbine "Spring Magic Blue and White" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/28/06 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted in front yard. These are beautiful, compact plants. The phlox around them nearly suffocated them and only one remained until the spring 2009 rains rotted it.
Plant: Columbine "Nora Barlow" Quantity: 3 Source: Spring Hill Nursery Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: These have a very different type of blossom than all of the rest of our columbines. They face down and have a great pink color. If you look closely at the photo, you'll see that the plant in front has rounded, downward-sloping petals, whereas the other plants have pointed, outspread petals. I'm not sure if these are the same plant or not. After being smothered by cherry tomato plants in summer 2005, only one plant came back in 2006, so I planted six more from Spring Hill on 4/19/06.
Only three survived the 2006 heat wave, but they were fine in 2007 and 2008. These died off at the end of 2008.
Plant: Armeria "Joystick White" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/25/05 Blooms: Late April Notes: Planted six in back garden. One died, but the other five thrived. Bloomed again August - December. Very nice, evergreen plant with lots of blooms. Moved to front garden 7/8/06 where a severe heat wave promptly killed three more of them because I was on vacation and didn't water them regularly after transplanting. The two that are left are doing well. Moved to back garden and split the larger of the two to make three separate and similarly-sized plants, but only one survived that ordeal and just barely, so I removed it.
Plant: Sea Thrift "Splendens," "Dusseldorf
Pride" Source: Meijer, Sundown Gardens, Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 9 Planted: 5/02/03 Blooms: Late April Notes: We bought two "Splendens"
plants at Meijer, then five "Dusseldorf Pride" from Sundown Gardens, which is nearly identical but slightly larger blooms. Originally, slugs liked the thin stalks
holding up the pink flowers, but we got that under control. Added two more "Dusseldorf Pride" from Bluestone Perennials on 4/25/05. These were really cute and were evergreen throughout the winter. Removed them in April 2009 when the chipmunks built an elaborate series of tunnels under these plants.
Plant: Euphorbia "Tasmanian Tiger" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 1 Planted: 4/30/08 Notes: Hardy to zone 6, but I tried it in zone 5 anyway. Planted in kitchen garden. The rabbits don't eat this one. This is such a beautiful plant that I was happy even having it for one season. No signs of life in spring 2009 unfortunately.
Plant: Verbascum "Caribbean Crush" Source: Park's Gardens Quantity: 1 Planted: 5/23/07 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted in back garden. This was the tiniest plant with one inch leaves when we planted it, but it very quickly grew huge leaves and is absolutely thriving. The colors aren't amazing as the catalogs describe -- the blooms are fairly washed out, but it's still a nice plant for the garden. It came back strong in 2008 but there's no sign of it in 2009. I guess that's why they call them biennial.
Plant: Columbine "Black Barlow" Source: Van Bourgondien Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/1/05 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted six in back garden among hibiscus plants. The idea was that they would be tall and flowering while the hibiscus is still dormant in the spring, but instead, they were smothered while they were still trying to get established. Only one plant came back in 2006, so I planted three more from Spring Hill on 4/19/06.
They were tiny then but thrived for two years. They didn't return in 2009, but I never let them go to seed since I wasn't that crazy about them.
Plant: Aster "Thyra Viking" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/7/03 Blooms: Mid-September Notes: What's not to love about a bright pink flower named "Viking"? I trimmed these back to half-height in early summer, which seemed to produce a nice rounded plant that isn't too leggy. This was struck by some sort of black blight on its stems in 2006, 2007 and 2008, so I finally gave up on it and all of its fellow asters below.
Plant: Aster "Odin Viking" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/17/04 Blooms: Mid-September Notes: Planted in front garden.
This one wasn't thriving like its Norse friend across the garden, possibly because it sat on top of a group of daffodil bulbs whose foliage doesn't die down until mid-August so it got little sun early in the season.
Moved it to a more open space in the front garden in September 2006, and it did much better in 2007 but also suffered from the same blight as the other asters.
Plant: Aster "Alert" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05 Blooms: Mid-September Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden in 2004, and 3 in front garden in 2005. Did not bloom in 2005 since it is a favorite food for rabbits, but bloomed in both locations ever since. In the front, it's got huge and it created plenty of seedlings, but I removed it when I couldn't get rid of the aster blight.
Plant: Aster "Bonnie Blue" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05 Blooms: Late September Notes: Planted 3 in kitchen garden in 2004. This one spread via underground runners but can't seem to get taller than an inch or so because it is constantly eaten by rabbits. Planted 3 in back garden in 2005 which were not faring much better. Combined all six in the back garden to make room in the kitchen garden for other plants, but removed it in 2008 because it never really did much other than sprawl because the rabbits never gave it a rest.
Plant: Aster "Peter Pan" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05 Blooms: Mid-September Notes: Planted 3 in front garden in 2004, and 3 in back garden in 2005. Did extremely well in the front where the rabbits seem to leave it alone, but it got hit by aster blight three years in a row.
Plant: Aster "Professor Kippenberg " Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 9/18/04, 9/15/05 Blooms: Early September Notes: Planted 3 by magnolia bush in 2004, and 3 in back garden in 2005. It gets eaten to the ground by the magnolia bush, but did fairly well in the back garden in 2005. Moved it to a different location in the back garden to make room for a patio extension but it never got established.
Plant: Aster "Snowdrift" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 10/16/05 Blooms: Early September Notes: Planted in back garden. The blooms are smaller than our other asters. This plant really struggled -- one of the original two I ordered died and the other kept getting eaten by rabbits.
It wasn't getting any sun, so I moved the surviving plant to a sunnier location in the back garden to help it along, and planted two more to join it on 9/26/06. This spread quickly like a carpet phlox. It was hit by fungus in 2007 and 2008 just before blooming, so I removed it.
Plant: Columbine "Origami Pink and White" Source: Garden Crossings Quantity: 3 Planted: 5/11/06 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: Planted in front garden. Plants from Garden Crossings are always large and healthy. This is a small plant with large gorgeous blooms. Unfortunately, they got mowed over by the highly aggressive Scarlet Flame phlox planted nearby so they disappeared by 2008.
Plant: Honeysuckle "Pink Tatarian" Source: Lowe's Quantity: 1 Planted: 9/22/06 Blooms: Early May Notes: Planted in back garden.
Clematis Miniseelik was growing through it.
Grew very quickly, but did not bloom in 2007, and it developed excessive growth at the ends of each branch which I finally pruned. It bloomed in 2008. After I purchased it, I read that this cultivar is considered to be invasive, so when it started growing far too quickly and too large for the space allotted, I removed it.
Plant: Feather Reed Grass "Karl Foerster" Source: Bluestone Perennials Quantity: 3 Planted: 9/16/06 Notes: Planted in the far back garden. Did well. I think it is boring but my husband wanted me to plant ornamental grass, so here it is. After two seasons, I was able to convince him that it wasn't interesting enough to keep around.
Plant: Rose "Iceberg" Source: Park's Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: 6/2/07 Blooms: Early June Notes: After a full boycott of roses, we planted these at the suggestion of Glenda, a lovely woman we met in New Zealand. Glenda highly recommends this as the rose to try first. The first two plants we purchased in Fall 2006 arrived in great condition with several buds on them, but the rabbits ate the buds before they had a chance to bloom, and neither bush survived the winter. Ordered three more bareroot plants in 2007. One month later, the bushes were covered with leaves and buds. Glenda was right! (Note that my attempts to photograph these have been in vain. Morning, night, sunny, cloudy, flash, it doesn't matter -- I can't get the blooms to appear as anything other than washed out. Trust me, they're pretty.) In 2008, one bush had been attacked by disease and nearly died and we had tired of the thorns, rust spots, and Japanese beetles, so I decided to take these out and replace them with salvia from our front yard for a more consistent look.
Plant: Columbine "Blue Star" Source: Sundown Gardens, Wood's Edge Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/10/03 Blooms: Late April Notes: What a lovely flower. These are the tallest of our columbines and one of my favorites. The first two plants did not come back in spring 2005, so we replaced them with two more from Wood's Edge on 4/30/05. I let them go to seed to encourage new plants, but they got mowed over by the highly aggressive Scarlet Flame phlox planted nearby. Planted two packets of seeds in back garden 4/26/09.
Plant: Trollius "Lemon Queen" Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 2 Planted: 4/26/05 Blooms: Late May Notes: These rebloomed in November 2006. They make a nice cut flower because they have very long stems. I had these in three different locations in the kitchen garden where they did fine but just didn't fit, height- and color-wise. I eventually removed them because they're not that thrilling and I really didn't have anywhere else I wanted to put them.
Plant: Pachysandra Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 5/8/05 Notes: These were planted in kitchen garden among our oriental lilies. They were doing well and starting to spread, but they were boring and taking up space that I wanted to use for prettier plants. If I had a need for groundcover, I'd use these, but I don't.
Plant: Shasta Daisy "Highland" Source: Wayside Gardens Quantity: 2 Planted: 4/25/05 Blooms: Late June Notes: Planted in side garden. They look like standard Shasta daisies, but they are supposed to have much frillier petals. They bloom well and only get floppy after an extremely heavy rain.
They really filled out their second year and were quite pretty, but didn't come through the winter of 2006 very well and finally died during the scorching summer of 2007.
Plant: Firecracker Flower "Pink Diamond" Source: Van Dyck's Quantity: 10 Planted: Fall 2003 Blooms: Late May Notes: Foliage appears in early winter. These looked great just above and behind the purple salvia. They had very long stems that either require staking or the support of another plant the same height.
After moving the bulbs in spring 2004, they never recovered.
2006
Plant: Centaurea dealbata (Cornflower) Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 10/16/05 Blooms: Early June Notes: Planted in back garden, where they thrived. The foliage and the blooms aren't very pretty, and took up too much garden space for not being a very attractive plant. The foliage on these plants varies from very finely detailed on one to large on another, so it's difficult to believe that these are all the same cultivar. If you like the foliage and flowers, this is a great plant because it grows easily, but I just didn't like it.
Plant: Andromeda "Blue Ice" Source: Lowe's, Wayside Gardens Quantity: 12 Planted: 4/3/05 Blooms: Late April Notes: Planted 10 at base of clematis on trellis to replace the lavender plants that didn't survive last year. Five of those died, and we added two more in September 2005. I finally removed them in September 2006, because they aren't thriving and they're competing with the clematis for soil and nutrients. In the right location, these would be nice little plants to have.
Plant: Lupine "Gallery Blue" Source: Garden Crossings Quantity: 2 Planted: 5/11/06 Notes: Planted in back garden. They were large, healthy plants, but their foliage was nibbled by rabbits. One produced flower stalks in 2006, but both died in an intense heat wave in August 2006.
Plant: Daisy "Clara Curtis" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 2 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Late June Notes: First flower buds spotted 6/6/04.Trimmed them back hard in July 2005 when they got too tall, and they immediately produced a new set of flower buds. This photo shows just one of the plants, which grew and spread extremely quickly. I removed them in February 2006 when they started to spread into my beloved clematis. They're too invasive for my taste, but would be perfect for someone wanting to fill a lot of space quickly and cheaply.
2005
Plant: Lupine "The Governor" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Late May Notes: I love these flowers and was thrilled to see them growing wild all over Iceland. They bloomed in 2004 and 2005, but the extreme heat and drought in summer 2005 killed these, unfortunately.
Plant: Coral Bells "Magic Wand" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/16/03 Blooms: Late April Notes: This was originally three plants planted in spring 2003. In spring 2004, only two of the plants remained. The third did not survive the late summer transplant. The second plant died in 2004, but the remaining plant was so healthy that we divided it into four smaller plants and replanted in the side garden. Only three of the four survived the winter, so we transplanted them again to the kitchen garden on 5/8/05 where they promptly died. It was a nice plant, and the foliage looked great all season. I would plant these again if I had a better location for them.
Plant: Gaillardia "Burgundy" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: These are more reddish-orange than burgundy. These six plants produce dozens of flowers on two foot long stems. Moved several times because they don't match any other flowers in our garden. Finally removed them because they are so large and floppy.
Plant: Peony "Festiva Maxima" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 6 Planted: 5/19/03 Blooms: Late May Notes: These did fairly well in 2003, then came up strong in 2004. After the first two blooms appeared, all other flower buds turned brown and died. Moved to the back garden on 10/15/04. We sprayed them weekly with Bordeaux in spring 2005 and they bloomed very well for a week until the buds started to rot again and we decided to give up.
Plant: Peony "Duchesse de Nemours" Source: Sundown Gardens Quantity: 3 Planted: 5/19/03 Blooms: Late May Notes: We purchased three of these, but they didn't do well in their original location. We moved the three and combined them into two, and neither one is doing very well. Small flower buds started to form, but then died. The foliage looks fine, though. Added a large, blooming plant on 5/31/04, but its buds also turned brown. We sprayed them weekly with Bordeaux in spring 2005 and they bloomed very well for a week until the buds started to rot again.
Plant: Canterbury Bells "Calycanthema Pink" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 3 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Early June Notes: Did not bloom in 2004, but foliage was healthy. It produced large, pretty blumes in 2005, but the plants were so floppy and messy that I pulled them on 6/17/05. Here's another gardening lesson I've learned -- if the plant is described as being perfect for a cottage garden, it's a messy, unkempt plant that will require staking or should be squeezed among other messy, unkempt plants. That doesn't work so well for me.
Plant: Mediterranean Pinks Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 6 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: These spread quickly and are covered with tiny pink flowers when they bloom. On 7/25/04, we moved them to a location where spring bulbs were already planted. They turned out to be a little too invasive for my taste, so I trimmed the foliage back to 3 inches and moved the plants to the spa garden where they promptly died like nearly everything else in that garden.
Plant: Columbine "McKana's Giants" Source: Spring Hill Nursery Quantity: 12 Planted: 4/10/04 Blooms: Mid-May Notes: This is supposed to be a mix of colors, but every plant but two was solid yellow. The exception is a purple/yellow combination. In 2005, I removed because I just don't like them. I'm not crazy about the pink/yellow combination, and they're too tall for the places where they were planted. This would be a great, sturdy plant for someone who likes these colors.
Plant: Coreopsis "Sweet Dreams" Source: Sundown Gardens, Lowe's Quantity: 6 Planted: 6/14/03 Blooms: Late June Notes: We purchased four large plants from Sundown Gardens and liked them so much that we purchased two smaller ones from Lowe's later in the season. This plant just bloomed and bloomed but was sometimes bothered by parasites. We moved the plants to the side garden on 5/25/04, but they didn't return in 2005.
