Blog entries

3 - 2010-09-05 23:00:10 -

Louis Raymond — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:00:10 +0100

"Hurricane" Earl? That wimpy storm was all wet. The only excitement here was watching how fast some potted plants grow. No really: I laid many of the larger and taller container plants on their side the day of the storm, and righted the last of them this morning, 48 hours later.

Some of them didn't take that lying down. Storm or not, whatever their position was that day, their mission remained, unchanged and uninterrupted: to grow up toward the sun as fast and far as possible.<...

The Mound that Could: Thread-leaf Mulberry

Louis Raymond — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 13:00:05 +0100

If they aren't about dried-out-and-keeled-over, September garden are about size, flowerpower, bright color, and a certain desperation on both plants and gardener: Frost comes in October, so it's now or never to reach full size, show us your fancy flowers, do what you've been saying all season that you'll do.

And then there's this quiet and industrious oddity, my thread-leaf mulberry.

Louis Raymond — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 13:00:10 +0100

Crocosmias are one of the perennials we all wish were hardier. Only 'Lucifer' is reliable into Zone 5, and many of the others are Zone 7 only. (Including Crocosmia aurea, of this morning's post, with it's extraordinary spider-orange flowers.)

'Distant Planet' has the short petals and almost trumpet-like flower shape that's more typical of crocosmias.

"Red" yucca though? Come on, guys: take a look: The flowers are, clearly, pink at best, salmon at worst.

Whatever the hue, Red Yucca's in bloom in high Summer, so in my b...

Surprised again: Lycoris chinensis

Louis Raymond — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:00:06 +0100

Are "surprise" lilies still a surprise even when you've had them for years, blooming in August just like they bloomed last August? (Can a surprise be annual and at the same time every year?)

But this Surprise Lily is, truly, a surprise: I had thought that its tiny tuft of leaves this past Spring, no more enthusiastic than it was last Spring, meant that the lily wasn't happy and was probably transitioning over to that big Compost Heap in the Sky.

But no. All of sudd...

Scratch & Sniff: Lemon & Almond Verbenas

Louis Raymond — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:00:06 +0100

I've posted on how I finally figured out how to grow an attractive lemon verbena, not just a fragrant one. But even a scraggly one is a joy to brush up against, let alone to pick a leaf and crush it in your cupped hands to inhale all the more of the suspiciously-powerful lemon fragrance.

The flowers, though, are entirely forgettable.

Like in this picture: The chrome-leaved raspberry (Rubus cockburnianus 'Aureus'.) The heavy purplish strap-leaves of the eucomis. The rigid, dangerously-sharp white-and-green architecture of the agave.

Sky-high, Big Personality: Helianthus maximilianii

Louis Raymond — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:00:05 +0100

After yesterday's pause for the subtlety, discretion, elegance of my Black-and-White (well, green-and-white) Daphne houtteana, I for one need a compensatory slap-in-the-face of big, bright, and bodacious.

Here's a shot out over the Mixed Border. It's as high as I can reach and higher: I'm standing on a chair and holding the camera overhead even to get this overview.