Pretty Porch Plantings Provide Pleasing Picture

Perfect!!

(ahem...)

We dress up our part-shade front porch with several container gardens each year. I spend weeks thinking about the right color combinations. And then... we go to the candy store (a.k.a. nursery)... and my plans get abandoned like last week's weeds. So many plants and colors and possibilities and too many ideas, it overwhelms my senses and we come home with something completely different. 

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The goods. Small but beautiful and so, so healthy. 

We've used the matched pair of blue ceramic pots for a few years and recently inherited the three others from downsizing family. The colors coordinate well, and being glazed ceramic, they don't dry out too quickly. 

Just planted. And apparently just watered. 

Two months later, and all growed' up. Couldn't be happier! 

What luck with your container gardens?

Really tiny feet

When my parents moved from their country home into a condo, the one garden plant my mom insisted on taking was her orchid. Mom is an epically avid gardener, and after 30-some years of these particular gardens, the orchids were her prize. I recall scrambling for time in the last days of moving, grabbing a shovel and a cardboard box, and digging where she said "Dig". The orchid-containing dirt clump made it to my garden where I unceremoniously shoved it into some likely ground and hoped the roots would make it.

Fast forward through a particularly harsh Wisconsin winter, I frankly forgot where I had stuffed the clump. I spotted "something I shoved in the ground" coming up, ID-ed them as the orchids, was pleased (and relieved) they survived. Now that they are in full bloom, I totally get my mom's dedication to them. I'm shocked at how much I want to just stare at these; they look too exotic to be growing in this crazy scragly wooded plot we call a garden. I wander into the backyard as often as sanely possible to just ogle them. I would be charged with harassment if they had anything to say about it. In my defense, how can you not be totally awed by this?!

Yellow Lady-Slipper Orchid (Cyprimedium parviflorum)

(Beautiful photo credit to my husband and his mighty camera - he's my macro mac-daddy)

At the right angle, it really does look like a tiny shoe. Maybe it's the size of orchid blooms that makes us think of tiny fairy-folk. On that thought, we also have orchid hats to offer. The yellow ones go nicely with the slippers, although these purpley-pink ones would work in a cheerful jelly-bean theme kind of way.

Lilac Fairy Bishop's Hat orchid (Epimedium grandiflorum 'Lilafee')

The hat size seems out of proportion to the shoes though (we could think of this for the dainty fairy with honkin' big feet - maybe she'll be a tall fairy and grow into them). Yesterday when we went to the candy store for pot goodies (we live in Wisconsin people, so think plants for the front porch containers), we found yet another orchid (I know, right?!). A Bishop's Hat in white. Three or more is a collection, so with five types in the yard, we are officially orchid collectors now. Cool.

The Orchid of Perseverance

It's a good thing, I think, to be reminded where perseverance will get you. If you are a plant in my garden, it's a requirement for survival. I generally fail when it comes to planting bare-root plants that come in the mail. The people selling plants assume I know what I'm doing and mean well. I mean well when I order them. The plants sure mean well. I like to believe they want to live.

A couple Winters ago, I had some pots stored in the garage. One such frigid pot contained the scraggly bare-root of a small, fragile-looking native orchid called an Epimedium. It was in a pot with some dirt as part of the "meaning well" journey of coaxing it to sprout, the idea being then I would plant it. It did actually sprout, and I set the pot in the garden. That's my trick for figuring out where a plant wants to live, but you could also call in procrastination. I never did actually get it into the ground. I stuck the pot in the garage with the rest of them, and pretty much forgot about it.

In the Spring when I started inspecting pots to move them outdoors, something looked weedy; it had all this unkempt leggy growth from being in the dark, and I actually thought it was remnants from the previous summer. Imagine my surprise to find it was that little orchid, persistent as all hell, not only alive, but blooming in the dark of my garage. I planted it as soon as the ground was workably warm, close to the edge of the garden. The flowers are small and deserve to be seen close up. After a season of growing, and another Winter, it is blooming again. What a treat!

Epimedium rubrum

The plant is also called a Bishop's Hat Orchid because of the shape of the flower, not owing to any divine intervention in its survival success. The persistence of this little plant turned a lot of our gardening towards native woodland species. Living in zone 5, we have a fair number of options for climate. Living in solid urban deer country limits that severely. Last year they ate hostas, lupines, tulips, columbines, geraniums, and I don't remember what else. They don't generally eat woodland regulars. Epimediums are considered ground covers (less invasive and far more interesting than Lily of the Valley). I was thrilled with the idea of masses of them in the gardens.

So... we added more. About 7 more. Three different varieties total.

Here's another now blooming, yellow flowers: 

Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum'

One more variety yet to bloom, a lavender-pink color bloom I think. If I find any more colors, I'm sure I can find room for them too.

Tree + Wind = A Big Mess

Mother Nature did some serious pruning in our yard yesterday. One of the very large trees in our front yard lost most of its crown yesterday in 50mph gusts. Of the three there, it is the American Linden (or Basswood) in the middle between a Northern Red Oak and a Norway Maple. They provide a lot of wonderful shade for the front of the house (well, they did...).

Tree crown in the yard.

We're really lucky that the tree didn't come down on the house. Or anything in the road for that matter.

Tree across the road.

The trunk looks pretty rotted through, poor thing. It was probably only a matter of time before it came down. There was another branch high in the tree I had expected to go, but it is still attached. According to the neighbors, the tree was fine until about 4pm.

What's left of the trunk. You can see the long gouge up into the branch I thought would be the one to go.

By the time I got home from work the tree was down.  I made a mad dash out to purchase a chain saw; it was so overcast, the light was fading and we had to get it out of the road. There's a streetlight immediately across the street that proved very useful. I don't recommend using chain saws at night, however. As a rule.

The front yard this morning. We managed to get it cut back and removed from the street and sidewalk last night.

We're going to see if we can find someone to use the wood. geekMan found some info online that said basswood is good for carving and making instruments, but not so much for burning in wood stoves. And of course, the rest of the tree will probably have to come out. It's like a bad tooth. It makes me sad  to lose such a mature and graceful tree. The two remaining trees will still provide a fair amount of shade for the house. The space will seem so empty though, I'm hoping we'll plant another tree. A birch would be nice...

Also, if anyone in the Milwaukee area is interested in the wood, give me a holler in the comments :-)

The Burden of Plenty

I have complained of the neglect our poor gardens have experienced over the last few years. Nearly all the rose bushes have died since no one cared to cover them for the cold Wisconsin winter. The peony bushes are slow to fill out due to several years accumulation of leaf cover. But all is not in despair.

Some plants seem to thrive on neglect though. Take the day lilies that are filling every available garden space (no - seriously - take some please). You can't tell from the picture here, but they are moving into the lawn. It's the only available remaining space. We will have to rip out quite a few, but for now I have to admit they are at least green. And they will bloom, probably all summer once they get started. I'm not 100% certain, but I'm guessing they will be the wild-type orange variety. Not exciting, but colorful anyway.

Our front garden is still suffering from what I call "chair-rail syndrome" (we've ripped out the old vine but have nothing yet to replace it).

You can see the dirt in the grass beyond the brick border - that vine had eaten almost a foot of grass already (and from the roots we pulled out, it was ready to take more). This portion of the yard gets deep shade most of the day, but there's a sliver of late afternoon sun that cuts in underneath the trees from the west. I think that's the only reason the cherry tree and the juniper here have survived. I still think a shade ground cover would be best. Right now our vote is for European Wild Ginger (Asarum europaeum). Hopefully it will fill the space well, not be too tall for the spring bulbs or the summer perennials. And hopefully it will be polite and not eat the lawn.