Those Effing Rabbits!! Decapitated Dusseldorf Pride

I'm seeing red, I'm steaming right now! I feel powerless against them, and yet I'm forced to slowly watch them devour my garden bit by bit. Every morning I wake up and enjoy a cup of coffee outside in the cool spring air and I inspect my garden, only to find teeth marks and decapitated flowers. I think it's all just the same rabbit. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I blame my neighbors for not planting anything. Nothing! My back yard is a beacon of deliciousness. Can you blame the rabbits? They would be happy to come from all corners of the neighborhood to feast on my tasty variety of offerings - when what is the alternative? Overgrown juniper bushes and crooked solar powered LED lights? I probably sound like a huge garden snob right now but I don't care, I'm a target.

Rabbits decapitated every last flower on my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

My EverLast^™ Lavender Lace Dianthus 'KLEDG13146' wasn't safe, they systematically stripped every flower from 3 plants side by side, working their way down the row.

Now it's personal, you don't mess with the perfect radial symmetry of my 'Tiny Pearl' lily

Dear Rabbits, Urine for a Surprise

Even though my yard is brown and drab all winter, it is a relative oasis for rabbits compared to the houses around me. All my neighbors have a few small juniper shrubs from the builder's original landscape package. I'm the only house with any kind of soft tissue perennials that should be coming up this spring.

That scares me a little because the rabbits definitely have me on their feeding trail right now. I let my dogs out at 3am only to see two large rabbits make a dash for the fence. Even with my 9 inch dog fence around the base of the aluminum fence, they jump over that and squeeze through mid-air. The rabbits are bigger than the dogs!

They've worked some of my plants down to a nub this winter. The only things they haven't touched are the woody plants like bushes and trees, and the lavender for some reason. They scalped my Dusseldorf Pride down to a painful looking nub, like looking at a starfish with all its legs cut off.

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' with hungry winter rabbit damage

I'm thinking about moving to heavier ammunition. Predator urine all around the house and maybe even some moth balls on the side yards (where the dogs can't get them). I'm not sure how my dogs would react to wolf urine in the flower beds, but I 'found' some free large mammal urine earlier tonight and already started spreading that around the yard. I don't know if he's much of a predator, but this is chemical warfare now.

The other plan is to make a chicken wire cloche (I just learned that word) or more like a dozen of them to cover my emerging plants. These are freaking expensive! My mom also suggested maybe just wadding up some screen over the plants and weighing it down with rocks - it doesn't necessarily have to be formed onto a fancy frame like that as long as the plants aren't crushed. 

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2015

I've still got some color on this gorgeous Fall day! The weather has been dry and sunny, not as wet as last year. That means more watering to be done for the trees and relatively new lawn, and nice clear nights for stargazing.

It's the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, so I thought I'd submit my day-late post since I have the day off on this beautiful Friday.

Let's see what we have today... My hardy pampas grass in the corner of the yard is doing great in its first full growing season. It put up one massive stalk with a wonderful feathery plume on top, and there are 2 more much shorter stalks going up. One of the smaller ones bloomed just the other day. It's odd to see one 9 foot and two 4 foot stalks, but I guess it just couldn't muster the energy to make these as tall as the first.

Smaller bloom on Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass', see taller one here

Next, the all-star of my Fall garden has been the New England aster 'Purple Dome' - the flowers are maturing and drying up a bit, but from a distance the purple color is still a nice touch. I noticed the pollinators started arriving once the flowers had matured a bit rather than right when they opened.

Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome'

Other honorable mentions to go Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' for blooming for a second time in their first year (I just put them in this Spring). And Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night' that has been sputtering out but still holding color after dead-heading a few rounds of earlier blooms.

Finally, my Russian sage 'Little Spire' is doing a great job hiding the utility box in the front yard, but also provides a great hiding place for rabbits - so I have mixed feelings at this point. At least the purple flowers add some color to what is becoming a big messy brush patch.

Russian sage 'Little Spire' getting a little brushy

It's also worth mentioning that my linden tree out front still has a good amount of yellow leaves on it. This time last year it was completely bare. After 1.5 years of no growth, I'm hoping to see some action this Spring since it will have had plenty of time to get its roots in order.

Dusseldorf Pride Encore Performance or Just Confused

I've already commented about the long bloom time of my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' and now it seems this adorable plant is putting out one last bud as sort of an encore performance. It's almost September, what the heck! So cute.

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' - One last bud before saying goodnight for the Fall

Update 9/10/2015: A few more buds coming out, this thing is really confused! Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

Speaking of "I can't believe it's still flowering" check these out:

Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night' - August 25, 2015

Lavandula angustifolia 'Wee One' - August 25, 2015

Real Staying Power: Annabelle Hydrangea and Dusseldorf Pride

My Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' are already in full bloom, and have been the entire month of June. They are supposed to bloom June to September so I'm wondering if they will have the staying power to make it through the heat of July and August.

Similarly, my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' have been giving and giving all summer, and may be sputtering to a finish now at the beginning of July. I bought these from the store this year, so that may be affecting the true bloom time, but nevertheless they have been producing flowers from April 6 to July 2 and they still have a few buds emerging.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2015

Happy 15th of the month and Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day! It's so nice to have a monthly check-in that I've created a Bloom Day tab in the navigation bar. I don't plan to use this day each month as an inventory of every single plant in my yard, but I would like to highlight the ones that have got my attention.

This Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is also extra special because I have a Ruby Falls weeping redbud arriving by UPS this afternoon! I've had my eye on this tree for a long time and I can't wait to give it a home (and hopefully it likes clay soil more than my poor Japanese maple).

Lavandula angustifolia 'Wee One'

My dwarf lavender "Wee One" is blooming. I have two of them, both ordered from High Country Gardens. One is doing great and the other is just okay - it's still alive and putting up new shoots but had about half the stems die back. It'll be fine!

Next up, my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' is doing amazing! I've been dead-heading the old flowers and it's putting up so many more! They just keep coming! It's amazing especially because they come out of this little lump of what looks like grass, it's like magic - how many blooms are hiding in there?

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night'

Itea virginica 'Sprich' Little Henry

Lilium 'After Eight'

Ok, so I like to note that all of the things I have in bloom above were bought and planted this Spring, so they are not growing from the ground up. Everything below, however, was planted last year and has grown from the ground - which gives a much better indicator of true bloom time here in Indiana.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' - plants are now above the knee and have buds forming!

Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’

New Addition Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

I saw these Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' at Lowe's when I was buying some topsoil and I was lusting over them for the rest of the day until going back on Monday. They're also known as Pink Thrift, and the plant tag said Dusseldorf Pride Sea Pink. They're a coastal plant with grass-like leaves and deep pink pompom flowers on top. They remind me of Dr. Seuss stories because of the pompom flowers.

Pink pompoms floating over grassy leaves: Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

I'm using them as part of the border in my backyard bed. I didn't want just a straight row of different plants, so I arranged them in a triangle and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Now I just need more plants!

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

When I took Chris to the garden center he got a little landscaping fever, and was going up and down the rows of trees looking for a flowering tree that would stay small enough for the backyard bed. He really liked the Weeping Pussy Willow [Salix caprea 'Pendula']. For some reason he doesn't like the tree from my wish list that I've been eyeing all winter, the Ruby Falls Weeping Redbud. At least he's giving his opinion on the landscaping instead of just leaving it as my thing.