Garden2Blog - The City Garden Home: Container Inspiration

After lunch and an information-packed presentation by Jay Baer, social media guru, day one of Garden2Blog continued with a tour of the gardens at The City Garden Home, P. Allen Smith's original Garden Home.

Some of the cool things about the City Garden Home were its story (bought for $1.00 and moved from its original location,) its modest size, practical inspiration for both simple. and extravagant gardening and hardscape projects, the raised veggie beds, and the container plantings.

Containers at the Little Rock Garden Home, and at the Garden Home Retreat at Moss Mountain Farm, were surprisingly simple - often containing just one or two plant varieties.  Pots were clustered in groups, used as focal points, and placed right into the gardens.

They defied the 'thriller, spiller, filler'  convention to great effect, don't you think?

These simple container designs could easily be duplicated by anyone, including newbie gardeners.

This is a great time of year in the Chicago area and all around the Midwest to be inspired  by container plantings.

Nurseries have their biggest, and best selections right now,

and even someone who's intimidated by the idea of planting an ornamental container garden on a patio, deck, path, porch,  or anywhere,

can take comfort and find inspiration in these simple, beautiful, effective designs.

And while you're at it, consider planting a few herbs, too!  Herbs are fantastic in containers, look pretty, smell wonderful, and will inspire and flavor your meals all season long.

Attendees at Garden2Blog 2012 received transportation, hotel accommodations, and meals at no cost. Event sponsors provided samples and product giveaways with no cost or obligation.  All opinions in this post are mine.

May Bloom Day

Happy Bloom Day from Chicago's south 'burbs, where the temperatures are summer-like, and the lack of April showers has been somewhat compensated for by lots of rain in May.

Last summer our silver maples were pruned,  and the garden's getting more sun.  Catmint is enjoying the extra sun, blooming earlier than usual here and showing bigger, brighter blooms.  This one only gets about 18 inches tall - just  the right size for this spot. 

Aquilegia canadensis (red columbines,) are still blooming like crazy, with lots of new buds too.  Deadheading keeps them blooming longer here.

This old mini-rose is liking the extra sun too.  It's never had so many buds at once.

Centaurea montana has gotten so big this year.  It's liking the extra sun too.  It will need to be moved and/or divided in the fall, because now it's too close to one of the hellebores.  

Geranium sanguineum 'Striatum' has grown a lot too this spring, and it's blooming better than ever before. 

Pale and deep purple alliums are blooming, while the white ones haven't even budded yet.

The wild geranium has been blooming for over a month.

Woodland phlox has a few blooms left.  There might have been more, except the bunnies seem to like them for dessert after their dinner of bellflowers.

Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' was trying to take over the world last year, so it's been taken back a few notches.  It just started blooming a few days ago.

Colorado blue columbines didn't come back this year, but this NOID columbine is a nice shade of blue.  I'll leave some of the seed heads and hope it spreads around a bit.

Geranium sanguinium 'Max Frei' has traveled with me through two moves.  It's finally settling in here after a few years of struggling and being moved twice.  These have been challenging to photograph in the past, but with the manual setting on the camera, and a few tweaks, I may finally have the hang of it.

Even the lamium is blooming more than ever before.

 Agastache 'Tutti Fruiti' is new to our garden this spring.  It's sold as an annual around here since it's only  hardy to zone 6.  We're 5b, but other people in our area have had had it come back in subsequent years.  We'll be letting it go to seed just in case.

Candytuft is just about finished blooming.  These will be cut back soon.  Cutting them back hard after blooming helps keep them compact and prevents them from getting all sprawly and leggy.

Strawberries started from seeds from Renee's Garden last spring are doing great!  Some of the berries are almost ripe already.  What they lack in size, they make up for with wonderful flavor.  We even had berries their first year, and this year there will be a lot more of them. 

Heuchera 'Snow Angel' from Mom's garden is starting to bloom.  I love the foliage, and the red blooms are more showy than some of the more recent heuchera cultivars.  Several other varieties of heucheras are blooming now too:  'Hollywood,' 'Obsidian,' 'Lime Rickey,' 'Mocha,' 'Guardian Angel,' 'Frosted Violet' . . .

Celandine poppies are still blooming.  After a much bigger show earlier in spring, they usually bloom here off and on all spring and summer.

The old standby impatiens are waiting patiently in cell paks on the patio table as containers are being filled a little at a time.  Peppers, tomatoes, and basil are hardening off here too, awaiting their places in our two small raised veggie beds.

The gardening season is in full swing in the Chicago area.  With our last average frost date of May 15th and no frost in the ten-day forecast, it's just about time to plant annuals and summer vegetables.

Happy Bloom Day in the beautiful month of May.  To see what's blooming  this month in gardens around the world,  please visit the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Garden2Blog - Marlsgate Plantation Tour

It was a thrill last week being part of P. Allen Smith's second annual Garden2Blog event, when 23 garden bloggers from around the country descended on Little Rock, Arkansas for two days of garden tours, socializing, design competitions, and gardening products demonstrations.

The event kicked off with a tour of the opulent Marlsgate Plantation home and gardens located in Scott, Arkansas, about 15 miles southeast of Little Rock.  The  home was built in 1904, and over the years had fallen into disrepair.  It was restored by David P. Garner, Jr., a long-time friend of Allen's, and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

Visitors are greeted by a pair of these large-scale urns on the front porch.

The cherubs reminded me of our baby granddaughters back at home.

David Garner, the hilarious, flamboyant owner of Marlsgate was a wonderful host.  

We were allowed to wander at will through the house and gardens.  The Greek Revival home is filled with eye candy for antique lovers.

The dining room table was set with refreshments, including petits fours and meringues.

At 5' 8" even I would need a ladder to climb into this bed!  These gals are standing, (NOT kneeling) on the floor.

All that crystal was starting to make me a little nervous.  It was time to head outdoors and visit the gardens, which hopefully would be a lot less fragile.

The gardens are designed as a series of "rooms."  Some of the borders are informal,  like this one.

Meandering paths run throughout the gardens.

There was lots of interesting statuary like this,

and several formal garden rooms, like this classic boxwood garden,

and this one with its lovely arbor entrance.

Another of many examples of fine sculpture.

The solarium is a gardener's fantasy. 

As we headed down the long front walk back to our bus, I was startled by the largest, most beautiful,  most fragrant magnolias I've ever seen.  As over-the-top as Marlsgate is, the first and last things I saw - the cherubs, and the magnolias, were among the most memorable (not counting David, of course, who could never be forgotten!) 

Attendees at Garden2Blog 2012 received transportation, hotel accommodations, and meals at no cost. Event sponsors provided samples and product giveaways with no cost or obligation.  All opinions in this post are mine.

Wildflower Wednesday

These are buds and teeny-tiny blooms of Cornus sericea, commonly called red-twig dogwood.  They're on one of many branches cut and used with evergreen boughs and pinecones to decorate containers last winter.  Most of the cut branches are leafed out, and even rooting.  Some are blooming, and they'll be left until next month when it's warm enough for summer annuals.  A few will eventually be planted along an open section of our back property line.  At maturity they'll be about six feet in diameter and ten feet tall, enclosing the last open border in our back yard.  In the part-sun, moist-soil conditions they like, they'll be fast-growing shrubs, so it won't take very long.

Red-twig dogwoods aren't known for showy flowers.  They're known for their branches.  Green spring through fall, they turn brilliant red as the leaves drop in late fall, and they stay red all winter. They're fabulous against the snow, and beautiful in winter containers. The branches in our containers were cut from a dogwood in our backyard.  They went straight into the pots with the bottom six inches or so poked into the soil.  To give them their best chance at rooting, they were cut fresh from the shrub immediately before potting.   They got no special care over the winter.  The evergreen boughs insulated the soil and helped keep it moist.  A few weeks ago when the weather got hot and dry, the evergreens came out and I started watering the dogwood twigs, keeping the soil evenly moist to encourage rooting.

Before the pots are filled with annuals, I'll carefully dig up the rooted branches, and transfer to them to gallon-size nursery pots. The pots will be placed in an out-of-the-way mostly-shady spot over the summer, and watered regularly. By fall they'll be ready to plant in the ground.  Extras can be shared, traded at plant swaps, or donated to garden club or charity plant sales. 

Senecio aureus is blooming about a month earlier than usual thanks to our extraordinarily warm March.  Migrating Red Admiral butterflies were all over the blooms last week.

The Red Admirals were loving Phlox divaricata, too.  Of course, when I had time in the garden with the camera, the butterflies were nowhere to be seen.

Celandine poppies, (Stylophorum diphyllum) also native wildflowers, are blooming behind the phlox, next to the kids.

I first spied Geranium maculatum about three years ago, during Spring Fling Chicago, at the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool garden in Lincoln Park on Chicago's north side.  Not long after, this one came to live in our garden.

After years of planting columbine cultivars only to have them disappear in a year or two, we added a few natives. Columbine canadensis keep coming back year after year, and will easily self-seed if you let them.  If you don't want seedlings, just cut back the scapes when they're done blooming.

Dicentra cucullaria, commonly known as Dutchman's Breeches, were transplanted here from Mom's woods three springs ago.  They're still settling in, and haven't bloomed yet.  Maybe next year!  As long as they keep coming back, I can be patient.

Podophyllum peltatum, also called Mayapples, came from Mom's woods three years ago too, where there's a large colony of them.  They bloomed here for the first time last spring.  This one was moved last fall to make room for a new garden path. I was thrilled to see it bloom again this spring. Mayapple blooms hide under the leafy canopy of their umbrella-like foliage.  They're worth looking for!

The wildflowers pictured are all native in Illinois, and all make wonderful spring bloomers for woodland gardens.  They not only survive, but even thrive in the root zones of mature silver maples in our suburban garden.  They provide nectar for pollinators, and endless pleasure for us.  

Gail at Clay and Limestone hosts Wildflower Wednesday the fourth Wednesday each month.  Visit her blog to see what's blooming in her Tennessee garden and find links to wildflowers blooming in gardens everywhere.