WiseAcre Gardens

The Chapel Street planting is filling out now that I’ve managed a couple of runs to the perennial grower. I know it’s taking a long time but considering each round trip is over 900 miles people are lucky to get anything.

 Getting a bit closer on the left side

Now the right side

I’m growing a couple new varieties and am happy with them so far.

Coreopsis Verticillata ‘Creme Brulee’

The first is a real test. I only wished I took more when offered to try them out. The “Plantage” on Long Island is offering a new variety of Coreopsis ‘found’ in the owners garden and they’ve been busy propagating it for us lucky gardeners. Coreopsis Verticillata ‘Creme Brulee’ seems almost a cross between the broad leaf and needle leaved types.  The foliage is a very narrow leaf and the flowers are similar to ‘Moonbeam’ and ‘Zagreb’.

 The ‘Creme Brulee’ is blooming before the ‘Zagreb’ which is only beginining to bud.

Wouldn’t you agree this is a very nice?

 Achillea m. ’Paprika’

 I have avoided Yarrows since transplanting some ‘wild’ Yarrow into a garden years ago. That garden is long gone but the Yarrow has established a colony that only the lawn mower keeps restrained. I have a feeling if it wasn’t mowed it would have spread to the next town by now. But newer varieties of Achillea are not nearly as aggressive so I thought I give ‘Paprika’ a chance. It was just too hard to resist those nice red blooms.

 They are a bit floppy right now. Right after being planted they were hammered with one hell of a storm.

Geranium pratense ‘Hocus Pocus’

 I had to try the ‘Hocus Pocus’ just for the foliage. The color is a deep purple and it make for a great contrast against the light colored rock and the green of the Sedum. The flowers are nice too.

And now for something completely different!

This daylily should almost be considered a wildflower. I haven’t seen any of these sold in years but the supply around here is almost unlimited. Miles of roadside are lined with these large old daylilies. They’re quite tall often growing over 4 feet high. Unlike the newer daylily varieties these must be considered very aggressive. They’re not hard to controll but you better not forget or you’ll be up to your wazoo in them.

Ok the planting is done for now. I need to make another trip to the nursery but I’m going fishing first.

 A couple of May wildflowers revisited

Wild Strawberries

 How about a wild strawberry fly? Well that’s all you’re going to get. I’m eating the berries myself.
 Was it over a month already? Back on May 16 I found wild strawberries in bloom. Today I found the Strawberries only a day or two away from being at their peak ripeness. They were pretty sweet already but not yet drooling ripe.

Too bad they’re so small – no wonder these strawberries need a short cake. Not that any would ever make it home. The best container to use when picking is my mouth.

-

 Red Baneberry

 It’s been just over a month since the Red Baneberry was in full bloom. While some berries are still green others are close to being ripe. Both of these berry clusters are from the same spot but different plants.

And well not actually roadside they are only a few feet off my driveway. (You didn’t think I’d drive back to the spot the flower photos were taken with the price of gas these days – did you?)

Join Green Thumb Sundays

And it snapped back and hit me in the head.

I missed the last couple GTS postings. This Blue-eyed Grass and Buttercup were the last wildflower photos I managed to take before losing all sense of time.

 I didn’t get a chance to post them since I took off for Long Island to do a little gardening for a ‘friend’. You know – a little weeding, dividing and transplanting that an established garden needs. But what I found when I arrived was a major pain in the backside. The whole backyard was tore up after new cess pools were installed. And to top that off the new pool house was still in a state of unfinished limbo with construction debris laying all around. To make a long story short – I ended up spending 3 weeks instead of 3 days.

 Temps pushing 100 F. didn’t help. It must have been the heat that made me open my mouth and volunteer to do the pool house patio. I don’t do pavers! But the homeowner is more of a friend than a client and someone needed to get the ball rolling again.

 Too bad I forgot my camera. Before and after photos would have been nice to see.

 I’m back now – but burnt out. Temps pushing 100 F. in the first weeks of June didn’t help. And now I just don’t feel like doing anything but going fishing. Tomorrow I plant the perennials I returned home with and after that I’m going to go missing again for a week to recharge my batteries. I’m headed to some backwoods wilderness area to commune with nature and introduce some Largemouth Bass to my favorite lures.