Joanne McKinnon Garden Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Perennials’

Found a new Canadian source for Geraniums, Rockwood Gardens They are part of Brecks Ltd. I bought my Alba Rugosa from them years ago. The hedge is still going strong.

Out of the five geraniums offered, four are on sale. One I’m considering for my own garden, Raspberry Star. The other, Espresso is only 6.99.  I use hardy geraniums at the front of my rose beds.

Mme Hardy

Made a small change on the Mme Hardy page in the Rose Collection Richters Herbs are sold out for now, but they will be available from Hortico by 14 October, 2009. According to them they are hardy to zone 3.

The link to Richters Herbs will return when they are available again. They are a good reliable source. The roses must be ordered early for next spring shipment. They arrive bare root at the right time for your zone.

On Hortico roses can be searched by section, hybridizer, collection or recommendations. If you live in the UK, Mme Hardy is available from Peter Beales roses

If you are planning on adding this classic rose to your own garden, you will need to place your order early. Richters Herbs ships worldwide.

Bought this rose from a nursery in Plantagenet, Ontario, called Quenneville. I only visit once a year, in June. They also have a stall at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market during the summer months.

Normally, I would bypass a floribunda. I prefer old fashion looking roses. The shades of this one caught my attention. It was planted in a raise bed with plenty of aged compost and the base was covered with a cedar mulch to prevent mud from splashing the leaves. Turned out to be a good idea, got more rain than usual in July. Rainbow Sorbet also showed a good resistance to blackspot, even now with the cooler weather. Still blooming this late in the season, also earned it a few more points.

You can read more about this rose in Rose Collection

Surprise daylily

I ordered a Canadian Border Patrol hemerocallis last fall and got this instead. Been getting lots of surprises lately. Searched the AHS Daylily Cultivar database in hope to find the lineage for Border Patrol but it’s not included. So far, my best guess is Wild Horses by Trimmer introduced in 1999. It’s sold by the same online nursery but the photo included in the description is not an exact match to mine.

Update: Found the best source of photos of any Dan Trimmer daylilies. He and is wife Jane have their own site: Water Mill Gardens And mine is not a Wild Horses. Now I’m back to square one.

When I lose a hybrid tea, I try to remove the understock. Last year I lost a Blue Boy growing next to an aggressive William Baffin explorer rose. In the same bed I also have a Red Carpet rose so I wasn’t sure what sprouted in between the two roses, so I let grow and waited. To my surprise, Dr Huey turned out to be the understock of the Blue Boy. Now it will moved to a new spot with amended soil and more sun.

I collect different types of roses. Dr Huey is my first Whichuraiana. To see more photos of my roses visit Garden Collection .

Every season, gardeners find themselves with wrongly labeled plants. In my case, it’s usually positive. So was the case with this Belladonna  Delphinium. Before I received it from McFayden I didn’t even know it existed. this group of Delphiniums are shorter and bushier than the elatum types. When it first died back to the ground, I thought I lost it. But close examination showed tiny sprouts.  The plant also responds well to moving. When it gets leggy, I lift, divide and amend the soil with shrimp compost and bone meal. This year, for the first time, I’m using fish compost. Yes, it does stink. Found this fertilizer at Costco. The smell doesn’t last long, raccoons visit my feeders but never touched any of the plants amended with the fish compost. I do apply only in the morning.

They like full sun, moist soil and some support. You can read more details about this hardy perennial on the my garden site.

Just added this Actaea next to the Siberian Bugloss. It got the corner that gets a bit more sun. I tend to water this part of the garden more often. Added plenty of compost to the soil before planting.  It will get its own spot on Garden Image site when it will bloom in late summer.

I’m hoping that it will bloom at the same time as the Clethra alniflolia.