View of a Different Garden

View of a garden taken through the glass

This is my new garden view. It is a garden I drew up a plan for over five years ago.  It is a very formal parterre, 30' wide by 90' deep.  It has a diamond in the center with a fountain and pea gravel walks leading from each point and around the center diamond.  On the longitudinal sides are privet, which if maintained as I do in my yard could be a nice privatizing element, but is overgrown even with my impromptu hedging efforts taking it back a foot or so about once a year.  The differences with this privet hedge and my own show the need for constant pruning of privet used in this way.

There were several poor plant choices made in the lay out of this garden, however there are also a couple plant choices which have been excellent.  Lining the pea gravel paths is Autumn Joy sedum backed with shades of blue iris.  I would say the first 3-4 years this was an incredibly good choice.  It always showed to advantage.  At this point being perennial, desperately needs to be re-divided widening the path.

Pointing up each of the centers of the corner rhomboid shapes are Alberta spruce.  The original thought was to clip them into a formal spiral.  Clipping is, however, a time-consuming activity, and has not been done.  Running parallel to the center diamond are bands of yew clipped flat in a wide curled double "S".  There are some good bones here.

Plants were massed in the planted areas.  Still, there are a large number of interesting plants here:  the large large-leaved rhododendron which bloom in large balls of bloom in the spring, the Annabelle hydrangea, sundrops, allium glaucum, pink and white bleeding heart, masses of Asiatic and Orienpet lilies, various other species alliums.  There are also pedestrian things like rudbeckia which, however, is a good choice interplanted with the sundrops providing a continuously blooming triangle.

As the long view of this garden positions the sunrise behind the fountain from my window and the fall fog will hang like a mist above this garden at sunrise it provide a view of a garden in transitional light with the dew hanging heavy on the fall-colored foliage.  The fall colors backlit in the morning sunlight is something not present in my home garden.  It is an aspect of the light I have been admiring here, however over-run "my" new garden is.

It brings me joy.

Pollinator Watch

Hydrangea tardiva 'Unique' "B'bar is open!"  Multiple pollinators feeding on the nectar included ants, flies, beetles, bees, and wasps.

Chart of bee and bee-like creatures.

I've taken on a new fascination-- bee watching.  Right now the best locations in my garden for bee watching are the hydrangea tardiva 'Unique', plants of the sedum genus, caryopteris 'Dark Knight', and New York iron weed.

As I study these different pollinators I find it more difficult to correctly identify them than you would think.  Everyone thinks they know what is a bee, wasp, fly, grasshopper, or beetle (the categories I typically break these insects into); but you may be wrong if you thought this was a bee...
or this was a honey bee...

And then there is the issue of some possible hybrids, like Africanized honey bees... I swear I saw one of these, but I could not get a photo of it.  Point and shoot got me just very blurry images showing a color pattern similar to an Africanized bee.  Waiting for it in one spot, failed as well, no matter how still and furtive I was.  All told, that bee was frenetic, angry, unsatisfied with the floral offering; a bee in need of Ritalin.

Identification of bees versus other wannabees (get it?) comes down to looking at the wing pattern and the shape and look of their eye, antennae, and leg joint-ed-ness.  (decidedly NOT a word).  What tribe, species, or subspecies and or version like Italian, Russian, German is a matter of color pattern.  (Here you would think I was talking dressings or potato salad!)   Looking at pictures side by side it is easy to say, oh yeah Italian! But as you can guess, I'm having a hard time convincing them to stand still.

Not a bee or a wasp, this black insect was nearly 2" long.

A honey bee top left,a wild honey bee center, and a wasp to the right.

Mid-August Plants of Interest

Evening Primrose grown from seed, it was open last night at 10:00 PM when I walked Cinnamon.

 Plants do not have to be in bloom to have a place in my garden.  This time of year I realize how seriously I am into foliage.

Growing tip of smoke bush 'Golden Spirit'

Sedum 'Matrona'

 This is the time of year when I realize how seriously big my collection of sedums truly is.  Just a handful are pictured here.  I really need to do an entire week of blog posts on them!

By far, my fav veronica, veronica 'Eveline'  The bee's are really working her over the last couple days, although it has been in bloom since mid-July and shows no sign of stopping yet, and I haven't deadheaded it either.

Ligularia japonica.  This needs a fancy name!  The foliage is so incredible.  This plant has only 4 leaves and really hasn't increased since I first planted it, but just this tiny amount of wow it puts out is pretty special  I think I just don't "get" ligularia.  I probably should be moving it, I just not sure where.

Sedum 'Xenox'

Ajuga 'Chocolate Chips'

A messy little group of sedums that languish by my 'Blue Star' juniper.  The color play is nice, though.

This sedum in my cactus pot I do not believe is winter hardy, sedum dasphyllum.

May be sedum 'John Creech'

A species weigelia, the bloom is pathetic.  I keep it around for the red stems and the foliage alone!

Sedum 'October Daphne'; it has a couple sports.  On the left the variegated center of a creamy yellow retaining the red edge, and on the right just the creamy yellow.  I have separated out the left sport by taking a tip cutting and there is no reversion.  I hesitate to try the right sport, thinking it may be a lethal variation.  Maybe I should get on that anyway.  It has come back this way every year for 3-4 years from just about nothing.  Maybe it is more stable than I think.