Iris at Frog Hollow

A burst of colour.... I rearranged my garden last fall as a lot of you who follow me know. I've been waiting to see how its going to look. Did I achieve what I envisioned?

I most certainly did..... I'm happy with the results so far.

This is the Iris positioned in front of the red Rhododendron. It also ties in the yellow Iris and the red Rhododendron.. Its also a group of "three" yet all different!. 

This bed was part of the Monochromatic... its now celebrating life with brilliance and it has more changes to go through yet!

You can see part of the "disappearing Monochromatic"

This Rhododendron actually looks "redder" in the garden..This is the mature plant that I found back in the woods on our garden. I wanted it to be somewhere where I could enjoy it. 

I have a lot of these Iris.  Would love to find someone to share with or trade.

If you live close and wants some... let me know!

Love the intensity of this blue. It provides a real "pop" of colour.

I throw in the yellow ones to give some contrast with the light purple and to bring the yellow in the purple ones out.

These beauty's are up on the berm and will be moved to a new home once they finish 

blooming.

I put this white Iris in a position where I can see it looking across the length of the pond from the deck. 

A pretty pastel shade. 

this is only the start of this show as its actually a good 6 x 8 foot area of this Iris.

looking through this clump of Siberian Iris you see the yellow creeping jenny and the "Chuhuly" rose...

I'm excited to see the first bloom..

I waited for this clump of Siberian Iris to bloom hoping that the orange Rhododendron would still be blooming.... well there are two blooms still holding on and a lot of orange petals on the ground...But, I did get sort of the effect I wanted. It would of been better without the hard rain through the night last night!  There are possibly other Iris that I haven't represented here and a few that have yet to bloom so I will show them another time.
Thank you for stopping by today. Frog Hollow welcomes all curious and interested people for the simple exchange of a smile!
Word of warning..... I usually am very careful to wear safety glasses when I weed in certain areas that have a vicious weed I do not know the name of which when seed sets disperses its seed at the slightest touch...also, I wear them when I'm working around one particular ornamental grass that is incredibly sharp and stiff. I did not last night and I'm paying the price of a cut on my cornea.. It is incredibly painful. Remember that not all species we love to look at play nice. Take care of yourself.
I'm hooking up with Fertilizer Friday over at Tootsie Time. Have a fantastic weekend.

Embracing Monochromatic drama

I was recently asked to design a Monochromatic garden.....I wondered about that because Im normally a very bright colours  type of person.  Then I walked out into my garden which just a couple weeks ago was full of bright coloured tulip,s daffodils and other spring flowering bulbs and shrubs... As I stood looking at which bed to start weeding in first I realized that the colour scheme has certainly changed for the moment in my garden. Something I've tried to achieve so that its always changing but this is the first year of seeing all of last years work rearranging and changing the design of this new garden.

The same colour started popping out of the landscape every where my eyes darted.

Any where from  the lighter softer shades right up to the deeper brighter tones...

different intensity's and hue of the same colour everywhere... I remember going out and picking up this colour on purpose thinking I needed more of it in my garden.....

I've even bought pottery bird houses....

Ahhhh.... here's a brighter more usual colour for me to choose....

I love the colour of this Iris I found up on the berm. It might be stretching the monochromatic a bit depending on what you blend around it from the rest of the palatte and a great way to go from an area of Monochromatic  colour into a bed with  brighter colours.

the softer shades blend so harmoniously  however and work perfectly closer to the area's where we sit 
 with the brighter bolder colours in the beds further away.

 even this lupin has turned out far more pastel then I thought it was suppose to be!

This grouping of Aquilegia also has that pastel soft monochromatic look to it. Plus, I added that new

dinner plate flower that just happened to be the right colour's

Last year I bought some large pottery pots and just look at the colours I chose!

Some how the theme from the twilight zone started playing in my head until I stood back and looked at all the other colours that are actually spotted throughout the garden and spreading rapidly as each new perennial adds to the excitement of discovery with each mornings  walk through the garden. 

Thanks for walking my monochromatic garden.....I'll be standing back and looking at the full picture and embracing it just like we should our every day lives rather then dwelling on the parts that seem to stand out and stare us in the face when we are focusing on the little things in life.....

What colour schemes, themes  have you tried in your gardens.... What worked? What didn't? Some times we learn more with the failures!...Its all part and parcel of being a gardener.

Have a fantastic week.

Aquilegia

I have very happy childhood memories taking the blooms off native Aquilegia or Honey suckle as we called it...You bit off the little balls on the tips. They tasted like honey! The native plants did not seem to get as many blooms per plant as the species we now buy and were a very deep bright red with yellow centers.

I love the fact that because I'm always weeding and removing some in the spring, its like a new painting every year with the strokes of colour moving around the bed and until they bloom I don't know where the colours will be.

stepping back you get a better look of how the colours swirl together amongst the Hosta's, Iris, and peony.

after seeing some of these on Pinterest I wanted to make some... I bought the plates etc that I need and just have to figure out how to drill through the depression glass..My friend found this one and brought it over. I figured it would fit in great with this bed...What do you think?

I love the look of this brighter colour. I will keep a look out for a few different ones to add to this bed. Although that is part of the problem with weeding them out in the spring. You might not always know which ones you are discarding. So this year I'm going to try to tag at least one of each!

Rhododendren 's on Memorial day.

Enjoy a walk around my garden looking at the Rhododendrons on this Memorial Day weekend.

Its amazing what a few days of 90 degree weather followed with rain off and on for two days will do for a garden. The Rhododendrons are bedazzling jewels against all the different greens of other perennials waiting patiently for their turn to be the lead act in this summer play.

I braved the squads of mosquitoes attacking in strike forces not once but twice trying to get photos I could use in between the on going waves of rain.

This white Rhododendron is a huge ball of white blossoms. Quite beautiful.

This small orange one was bought last year. Orange is one of my favorite colours and I love how it really "pops" in this bed newly mulched.

This shrub will only get bigger and more spectacular with each passing years growth. Planted in front of it is a huge clump of Siberian Iris purple/blue colour that I think is going to look spectacular. They are actually just about to bloom. Im hoping that they bloom while this intense orange is still on show.

This one is opening slower and actually looked more purple then it turned out. Its a goal of mine to find some of the purple ones I saw last year in the garden of John Migas. I have a vision of creating a Rhododendren walk like I blogged about in his garden. With all the spruce having to be limbed up around here its created a great place to plant them.

This plant is suffering. I did give it some special fertilizer but I'm wondering if it will be enough. Its like it has leprosy for plants!! It keeps dropping off bits and pieces of its outer branches..If you look at the yellowing in the leaves I would think it indicates a lack of nitrogen or something so I Im hoping that the fertilizer will help!... I love the apricot tinge it has and the speckles which I remember my entomology teacher saying is plants way of acting like landing lights and directing bugs in so that they get their pollen collected etc.

Do you have favorite Rhododendrons...what colour or species are your favorites. What do you like to plant near them to contrast and show off their best features...
Thanks for stopping by and virtually visiting... I'm glad you aren't actually here to suffer the mosquitoes too but on a positive note...both the bats and the frogs will be enjoying them!
By the way.... anyone have any suggestions on how to stop the incredible itching I have all over my body!!!  I can not stop scratching!  Is anyone else out there finding this year a bad year for bugs?

I hope that your weekend was wonderful and that you took time today to think about how this freedom we have certainly did not come free... I hope you gave thanks for those who gave it all and for all those who gave.
Work has been crazy busy this week again as homes are really selling....Therefore, I have to cheat and link in with this post rather then a new one I had planned!
Have a great weekend everyone.

Tootsie's been busy too!

Tree Peony... debut

Its Fertilizer Friday over at Tootsie Time which I love to link up with since I moved from Alberta only last year!... 

While trying to out run the mosquitoes the other night taking pictures of the Rhododendrons I almost missed that the Tree Peony had bloomed during the day after all the rain from the two nights before and several waves of rain during the day...I do have irrigation but the rain water being positive charged always works wonders on a garden.

This is the Tree Peony that I got from a friend who was moving. Its the first one I have owned and this is the first time I have seen it bloom so a wonderful surprise as she was unable to tell me what colour it would be. There is a second one that was given to me but its much smaller and very unlikely to bloom this year. Obviously I do not know which species it is...Anyone out there confident enough to give me a name for this beauty?

This bed is filled with Aquilegia of several different species and colours. Love how the dividing and moving and mixing of the Hostas in this bed has turned out. I'm liking this look far better then groupings of 5 or 7 of the same species as it was.  A very good friend of mine loves hers to all be the same in straight lines. Our gardens are very different and we love each others garden. As gardeners even if it isn't how we would do it in our garden we can still appreciate and learn from others design styles.

I never noticed the blue hue to the tulips until looking at this picture. I do have some Hostas with blue leaves and Im thinking I should put some into this grouping.

Another Iris opened up today too! Several more of the newer ones are very close. Its exciting to get home each day to see what is waiting to greet me.

I actually took this picture for the Lupin...But all my eyes see in this picture is the beautiful wine colour of this Heuchera. I think its "purple palace" but again it was a huge clump that came with the home. I've split it in several pieces and moved them around to contrast with other perennials bringing out the best in both!

So out I went to take this picture... The garden is getting very lush . I am seeing a lot of the same green in this picture though. I've got a lot of different foliage texture and plant forms as well as the different bloom types and colours. But, I'm wondering if I took a black and white picture would it all just blend as one!..... I can't remember who told me that trick. Have any of you ever tried that or is it taking it all just one step too far?
The garden is teetering at the very moment of incredible bursting forth with colour..like a fireworks display. The birds and frogs providing the accompanying music.  Its worth braving the mosquito's to see what is new. I'm actually wondering about getting in a "bug man" but,,,,,, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be very "green" of me or do the birds and frogs any good...not to mention the bats!
As Im writing this the skies have opened up again and rain is coming down good. It might be the best time to go out and mulch. Perfect timing for all the farmers who have been out planting the fields with corn. Or the gardeners who've planted their veggies!
What are your plans for this Memorial day weekend? I might try to build a new something something for my garden.... stay tuned!

taking Springs changes further.......

Another couple weeks have sped by in such a blurr I'm left feeling like a movie segment where they have fast forwarded a scene of a very busy highway at night....Do you know what I mean? Where all you see is the steady streak of white headlights and red taillights.... It's been a fantastic couple weeks with daughter number two here and her other half Jason. We've been able to squeeze in quality mother daughter time. This has included trips off to other towns enjoying walks, shopping and meals. Its also included us joining the "Funky Buddha" hothouse yoga.... Yep! Its awesome to work my body to that extent again. All I'm saying is thank god for muscle memory because I thought I would have my butt handed to me on a plate! 

Tulip time is now over and all the vender's have long since gone home. The tulips are fading fast though we do still have avenues that obviously had the late blooming tulips planted. At Frog Hollow the lashing of rain through out the past couple nights has taken care of what blooms I had clinging on for dear life! Work in the middle bed has continued and I certainly have embraced the change.

Luckily I took advantage of a mail offer for 100 hostas..unlabelled of course and no way to know exactly what your getting. I originally ordered them for the outside beds to give it some distinction. I have now decided that planting them under the limbed up spruce would be far more advantageous.

The order arrived..a big box of four bags of 25 mixed bare root hosta

some of the chunks were a fair size and quite a few were actually smaller then the small one on the bottom left!

The instructions said to soak them for a minimum of six to eight hours.. What surprised me is just how many of them sent out shoots in that time... by the time I started planting them I was able to see the "eyes" on all of them.  I went into the bare empty area where I had pruned up the limbs and decided to transplant my Sambucus canadensis or golden elder to add some brightness. I put in a couple Hellebore's, Dicentra and Heuchera's. Then I took the hosta and placed them around. I tried to look at the "eye's" and determine which were likely to be the same and not place them all in the same area. They were actually quite different looking so it will be very interesting when they actually leaf out.

I traced out a pathway where I wasn't going to plant making it easier to get in here and weed without stepping out into the beds. Then I decided to take rocks I had found at the back of the acreage and use them to mark out the pathway clearer. I'm sure I will add to this somehow. 

I'm still carefully mulching the original outsides of this bed having let the self seeded starts grow bigger. I likely will not mulch this area letting it have the year to grow and see if I like how "random" unknown species look or if I want to move some! I'm also thinking that adding some ferns along this walk would be a nice contrast in texture. I have lots of other ideas too that I'm not ready to reveal... stay tuned..

/This was a full days work...My reward other then satisfaction was to be eaten alive by mosquitoes and some other critter that have left huge welts. Not at all very flattering to look at when Im doing the hot yoga. However, I do believe that the sweating actually helps get rid of the itch! Have a fantastic week. Whatever you are going to do, do it with all your heart and soul. Give thanks for all you have and please pray for the family's who have again this week lost so much in the EF5 tornado in Oklahoma.

I'm going to try to link up with a couple different mid week links... a year ago I didn't even know what that meant...

http://www.clayandlimestone.com/