Summer Views from 2016 Quick Garden Tour and Update

I don't intend to recap every single thing that happened to my yard this year, but I will post a collection of photos in case I want to look back at them during the winter, or have them to compare to future photos. Here are some of the major events:

1. My epic battle with the rabbits continued for months, and I'm trying to make peace with the fact that they will eat some of my plants, and that's okay. (trying to convince myself).

2. My hardy pampas grass grew to record heights, I can't wait to cut it down this winter and get the official measurement.

3. My emerald green arborvitae in the back yard got a weird disease and partially died, had black fronds, then grew back, and actually put on some good growth.

4. I had 2 out of 15 or so Surprise Lillies bloom this year, which was a surprise indeed, I heard they don't like being transplanted.

5. I had a short Japanese beetle scare a few months ago and had to spray my birch trees. The spray seemed to take care of them, I only had to use 1 bottle. 

6. My mail order purple coneflower 'Magnus' came back to life and actually flowered!

Front yard Summer 2016

Emerald green fighting off a disease, it seems to be winning. The mail order phlox around the base is taking well and should be nice in the Spring.

Late summer back bed, not much blooming but things are definitely getting bigger. I'm liking the idea of a back bed that is more filled in with plants touching or overlapping and blooming at different times.

Back bed island earlier this summer. Birch trees put on a lot of healthy growth, can't wait for them to do it again next year, they are super healthy in spite of a Japanese beetle scare a few months ago.

Back bed late summer 2016 - Purple Dome is about to flower, blue fescue is looking good against the pink rock.

Early summer view of the utility box bed, Shasta daisy did great this summer, but the Russian sage is getting a little unruly, I cut a bunch out and replaced it with my first try at Gaura 'Dark Pink' which I'm hoping is hardy in this zone. I moved the PowWow Wildberry cone flower to the back because it's really too short to hide the boxes anyway.

What's Waking Up? March 23, 2016

Here in Noblesville, Indiana I've got lots of sleepy plants just barely waking up for Spring. Here's a photo tour of what's going on... if you just glance at my yard from the sidewalk you'd miss it, but if you get down on your knees you can definitely see things happening. I'm "that guy" walking around my yard with my iPhone taking pictures of mulch...

Hosta 'Blue Mouse Ears' survived the winter after being planted later in the season last year (September). Can you see the eyes? No? It took me a little while to find them myself. Ok, I'll admit I dug down a bit to spot them and then covered them back up again to keep them warm.

'Wee One' dwarf lavender with new green on old pale blue stems

Lots of new and thick looking culms growing from my 'Green Panda' bamboo Fargesia rufa

Hosta 'Patriot' going strong, still a good 2 weeks ahead of last year

'Annabelle' hydrangea waking up with green coming out of plump buds. They will form new growth and bloom on new wood this summer - but I am trying something different this year by leaving more old growth above ground instead of cutting them down to the ground completely.

Purple cone flower 'Prairie Splendor' by the utility boxes - this is the one that had a disease or something last year, it never formed real blooms and it got all wonky looking. I was kinda hoping it would come back normal this year if the disease died off over the winter. On second thought, based on photos, it looks like this one has Aster Yellows disease and I should rip it out before it spreads to anything else. Sorry little guy!

Shasta daisy Leucanthemum × superbum 'Becky' coming back after being transplanted in July

Pruning Annabelle Hydrangea Higher this Winter

I decided to prune my Annabelle hydrangea a little higher up this winter, hoping the woody growth from last year will help support the stalks in the wind. It's a bit of a trade off, because although the new stems will be taller and therefore higher in the breeze, the base of support is woody and stronger so maybe they won't blow over quite so much. The new buds should also promote a bushier appearance (in theory). I'll check back in this spring and see if my plan worked. In the meantime, my dogs do love chewing on the twigs sticking out of the ground!

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' cut a little higher up, above the 2nd set of buds on each stem

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' pruned and standing in snow

Here's a look back at how low I pruned them last year, you can see that they only have 2 buds per stem because I chopped them all the way to the ground. We'll see if they bush out a bit more this year.

And It Was All Yellow...

I have that Coldplay song Yellow stuck in my head as I look at all my plants turning yellow and ugly and getting ready for winter. Yuck. I'm fine with my plants in winter, especially looking forward to my Northwind switch grass contrasting against the snow - but the slow transition is not so great. Most of my plants don't have a good fall color, at least this year. It's all sort of yellow brown.

Ruby Falls weeping redbud -  Cercis canadensis ‘Ruby Falls’

Hosta 'Sum and Substance'

Annabelle hydrangea

River birch

Northwind switch grass - Panicum virgatum 'Northwind'

Liriope muscari 'Variegata'

My fall yard leaves something to be desired...

Compare Sun Burned to Fresh Annabelle Hydrangea Bloom

My backyard centerpiece, a row of Annabelle hydrangea, is looking a little sun burned. However, I noticed one of the plants put out a brand new bright white bloom. It really shows the contrast between the light green and brown blooms and what the fresh blooms are supposed to look like.

Compare sun burned flowers to fresh white Annabelle bloom

Hello there new Annabelle blossom

I was encouraged to see this new growth in the middle of summer, and even a new bloom. I removed some spent flowers by dead heading and hopefully this will trigger some new growth in the other plants.

Burned Brown Sun Scorch on Annabelle Hydrangea

I love my Annabelle hydrangea row in the backyard, but unfortunately I have shitty clay soil and direct South-facing full sun until my river birch get big enough to provide some relief. I think eventually this will be a nice dappled shade berm next to my dry riverbed, but for now I've got to deal with sunburn on my nice white fluffy Annabelle blossoms.

Close up of Annabelle hydrangea flower turning brown in spots in direct sunlight

Flowers bent over during a month of wind and rain and never stood back up all the way - lookin kinda trashy!

Flowers turning brown from burning direct sun and bad soil

Update: After further consideration, I don't believe anything is necessarily wrong with these Annabelle, but they bloomed early because of their direct sun. Now they are just going about the course of drying out - also earlier than usual - because they bloomed earlier as well. So the direct sun forced them to bloom early and now they are browning in late July and August rather than peaking.

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.

Expecting Blooms on Bloom Day

The 15th of every month is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, and it looks like I'll have some new blooms next week to mark the occasion! Here are my Annabelle hydrangea just about to pop white, and my Echinacea prpureua 'PowWow Wild Berry' coneflower already starting to put out pedals.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' blooming and will turn white in the next few days

Echinacea prpureua 'PowWow Wild Berry' coneflower just about to bloom out in the next day or so

Even Runty Annabelle Determined to Bloom

I've heard that because Annabelle hydrangea bloom from new growth, they are "determined" to bloom each year no matter what. Well, that seems to be holding true even with my runty Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' that is being out-paced by its 4 brothers. This little guy has buds even on its meager stems.

Poor little guy, he's got the heart of a champion!

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' Buds Forming

My Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' just started poking new growth out a little more than a month ago and they are already knee high! A few weeks ago I noted frost damage on some of the new leaves, and noticed that the one on the far left was coming up a runt compared to the others. Let's see how they're doing!

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' buds already forming on new knee high growth!

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' knee high on May 12 with the runt on the left

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' about 2.5 weeks apart using Before and After app for iPhone

They look about as tall as they were last year sans blooms, so I think this is about it and they should start putting out some big white globes soon. They do look a little wider at the bottom compared to last year.

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' Frost Damage

We had a couple nights down in the 33°-36°F range and ended up with some frost. I covered most of my 'soft' plants, and my newbie plants, but I didn't cover my Annabelle hydrangea that are now the size of small shrubs growing all new wood from being cut to the ground this winter.

 Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' frost damage on leaf

Brown spots on  Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' leaf from frost

Here is what the frost did to them, little brown patches on the leaves where the cells must have burst from being frozen. Kinda reminds me of a bruise, I wonder if it's biologically similar. One of the benefits of obsessively monitoring your plants on a daily basis is that you can determine that new appearances are indeed caused by the frost, and not just a coincidence of something else going on.

I also noticed one of them is kinda runty, it's the same one that I thought the fertilizer company sprayed with broad leaf weed killer, maybe it's just a runt or maybe it's running into a piece of garbage underground or something. Come on little guy!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2015

It's been a big month for my yard and since my Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post in March. It's time for a monthly check-in! A month ago I was still awaiting my first crocus blooms. Now in April, they've come and gone, and other much bigger perennials are waking up and taking off quickly. I only have a couple plants blooming - and they are both new additions that were already in bloom at the store, so that's kinda cheating.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, April 2015 - Phlox subulata 'Drummond's Pink'

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, April 2015 - Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

Other than blooms, I have a lot of progress with other plants emerging. Not just a tiny sprout here and there, but actual growth and some real movement! My much anticipated Hosta 'Sum and Substance' are finally waking up too - I guess the bigger varieties sleep a little longer because 'Patriot' has been emerging for a while now.

Now emerging - Hosta 'Patriot'

A little slow to start - Hosta 'Sum and Substance'

Moving on up - Siberian Iris

Finally awake - Echinacea prpureua 'PowWow Wild Berry'

Really accelerating now, woohoo! -  Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'