Begonia grandis

Today's perennial spotlight is on a wonderful plant for late summer into fall. Begonia grandis is more commonly known as the hardy begonia. Yes, it's a begonia and yes, it's a perennial here in my zone 6b garden on Long Island.

My perennial begonias are just starting to bloom now, they will continue to bloom until we have a frost, even prettier than the blooms are the wonderful seed pods that follow. I was sure I had a photo of them in my files but just spent 10 minutes looking and couldn't find one. (Note to self, start organizing those thousands of photos so you can find things!)

Here's a closer shot of the blooms, I'd like to take some more photos but right now we are experiencing strange weather. The sun is shining and casting shadows and it's raining at the same time, very odd...

Anyway, as you can see here, the blooms are typical for a begonia. What's even more exciting about this plant is that the underside of the leaves are more beautiful than the topside. They have the most beautiful red veining and when the wind catches them and them moves them about you can see their true value.

Here's one of the combinations I have in the garden, the hardy begonia and the very late daylily 'Royal Jestor'.

Those of you who read my posts often will know that my favorite garden tip is that if you want your garden to bloom through many seasons, you need to shop for plants through many seasons. Some plants just wouldn't sell in early spring, certainly the case for this begonia as it doesn't emerge from the ground until at least late May and doesn't look like anything in the pot until June.

The good news though is that it seems to be quite easy to transplant if you move it in June. This year I only had three or four for sale, next year I plan on having more. I've been moving it to different locations and if you leave those lovely seed heads alone, they will scatter a few seedlings around for you. One word of caution, leave yourself a reminder in spots where you've planted this beauty, otherwise you might disturb the area while in the frenzy of early spring gardening.

Over the next few weeks I'll try to get more photos as the seed pods emerge.

Off to see what's blooming today,
Melanie

Take a look!

The gardens continue to explode with blooms but sometimes it's the foliage that grabs you. One of the best Hosta here is 'Dream Weaver'. It's grown to a large specimen size and this year (well maybe this week) it is my favorite Hosta.

Another shade plant that has foliage which stops everybody in their tracks is this Brunnera. I'm guessing this is the variety 'Jack Frost' although it could also be 'Looking Glass'. The foliage is rough and hairy so the slugs seem to be staying away. Unfortunately this has been a banner year for slugs.

Those alliums I've been photographing in the last two weeks are really putting on a show now. I love the pink heart on this one.

Another phenominal hardy Geranium is this varitey 'Jolly Bee' which has been blooming non stop since I bought it in May. What a delightful plant.

Last but certainly not least, the incredibly bright yellow blooms on Ligularia stenocephala 'Little Rocket' which is doing a great job of settling in here in semi-shade.

Off to run a multitude of errands, I'll be back to update the sales info asap.

Melanie

Echinacea - Purple Cone Flower

The common name of Echinacea is Purple Cone Flower. I really don't know why it's called that because in my eye, the flower is closer to a dusky pink and the cone itself is definitely orange. Whatever the reason, I just couldn't have a garden without this wonderful perennial.

If the name Echinacea is familiar to you, it's because they use this plant to make a herbal product to help when you have a cold. I've never tried it so I can't tell you more about what it exactly does.

At first the flowers open very flat.

Quickly the petals begin to relax and curve downward. The cone becomes more pronounced. (How do you like the daylily 'Primal Scream in the background?)

Before you know it the petals are all the way down. The plants grow quite large and are covered with blooms in various stages so you can see many different flower forms on one plant.

Echinaceas turn me into a touchy feely person, I just can't resist feeling these cones over and over again. They apparently are quite attractive to a host of other creatures such as butterflies, bees and best of all, come autumn they bring flocks of bright goldfinch to the garden.

This year I have a new variety blooming in my back bed. I had tried one of the fancy yellow varieties there a few years ago but it died. Somehow it must have cross pollinated with the pink ones there because this year I have these luscious white blooms.

I've seen the white varieties in other places and grew them myself many years ago but they tended to limp along. This one is quite different, to begin with, it's chin high on me and I'm 5'7" so that's pretty high for an Echinacea. I'll be keeping my eye on this beauty!

One more note, Echinacea make great cutting flowers so if you have the, include a few in your bouquets.

Melanie

What's in bloom today?

Just a few photos tonight. The weather here has been on and off again, rain, sun, clouds, and then rain. Today I took a few photos, the Campanula punctata has begun to bloom. I love this plant because it's so unusual to see it in any garden but it is as invasive as can be. Still, I can't live without it.

A few years ago I tried a new Thalictrum, this variety is 'Elin'. The tag said it would grow 6' tall, it's well over that this year.


I'm not sure I'm sold yet on this photo but this is a cropped/zoomed photo of the bloom on Thalicatrum 'Elin'. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a better shot.

One of my favorite daylilies (when you have over 400 different varieties that's saying quite a bit) is 'Radiation Biohazard'. I don't know what I like better, the bloom or the name ;-)

Of course my garden wouldn't be complete without Monarda 'Jacob Kline'. It must be my destiny to only grow red monarda because I keep buying different varieties and they always turn out to be red. I've seen so many pink and purple ones growing in other gardens but here... nope, they're red. Guess I shouldn't complain, they are just stunning right now.
One last shot for tonight, Lady Luck was on my side as I caught the buds of an Alium bloom unfurling from their cover. In the next few days I expect quite a few of these to open up.

Off to bed now, my head's not in the right place to post more tonight. Hope to see some of you here in the garden!

Melanie

Picture perfect

Rain rain, go away... yet another rainy day in this incredibly wet season. I don't think I remember a spring being as wet as this one in many years.

Thankfully I took lots of photos in the past few days so here's what's blooming at Old Country Gardens.

Don't you love this arrangement? It would never win a design award but I'm perfectly happy with it just the way it is.

Newly arrived hardy Geranium 'Jolly Bee' is putting up lots of heavenly blue blooms. I'm really excited about this geranium and hope it's just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

What could be wrong with waves and waves of hot pink Silene Armeria?

Well, when your waves of Silene armeria totally hide the teeny Astilbe 'Darwin's Dreams' then a decision has to be made. Time to thin out the Silene.

The blue flowers on the Amsonia work very nicely with the Lysimachia punctata 'Alexander'. I have no idea why this variety of Lysimachia just limps along instead of taking over the world like the other Lysimachia's do. I wouldn't mind having a bit more so I could share it with friends.

Just couldn't resist these bronze Sedums. I bought some for me and some for you.

Centaurea dealbata. The buds are lovely but the blooms are exquisite. Unfortunately all the open blooms have been decimated by our rains and it looks like a few more days will go by before I get to photograph an open bloom.

Why am I cultivating a huge pokeweed? You have to go visit Old Country Gardens to get the full story.


I just couldn't resist this close up of an Astilbe bloom. For years I ignored this plant family. Even though I grew several varieties, I could never find a photo of one. This year I plan on taking lots and lots of Astilbe photos.

Thank goodness for blogs, rainy days would be so boring without them. What do you do on rainy days?

Melanie