Picture This

These are screen shots from my phone of what this flower identification (Picture This) app does.

Super easy to use.

Can take photos on the app, or use pictures already stored on your phone.

It will identify plants from a leaf too, it does not have to be a bloom.

I think $20 a year.

This (below) is one of two things I identified for a neighbor. The other was a Lilac identified from leaf only.

Rose of Sharon - clump/bush style - pictures not from my yard

These pictures are from around my neighborhood. And since I did not include people nor the house, I think they are okay to post.

Theses bushes are several different Rose of Sharon plants planted together, note the different colored blooms.

This might be a common thing, but somehow I did not notice them until this fall. Even though I have been walking and driving by these exact houses for years.

My hedge has several different colors planted together (white, white/pink center, pink/pink center, purple/pink center. They are all singles. And on my wish list is to add additional colors types to my hedge.

bathroom shelves, version 3

I had odds and ends on these bathroom shelves for years. At the time I did it, I liked it, but it came to feel like a dusty mishmash.

And then I collected the little chairs (from around the house) and filled the area.

I do like identical collections in the yard and the house.

The white cubbies are from Target (maybe on clearance now).

But I kept looking at the space and wondering if it could be a bit more functional.

The two big cubbies hold towels (hand in one, bath in other).

The four long cubbies:
Extra bags of Epson salt
Youngest’s bathroom stuff
Tissue box
Middle’s bathroom stuff

The girls are in our tub and shower a lot. The tub is the only one in the house; the other two have showers. And when we have a lot of extra people, youngest is in our shower, so she keeps duplicates in our bathroom.

The huge canister is full of Epson salt.

I think it is now the right amount of little chairs.

I still love the dark grouping of three and it is the perfect place for it.

I added Hosta to the extra little wall in the back

Twenty Hosta added to the long bed in the back. Yes they are sun burnt. They were in a too sunny spot at my mom’s. There were three at her house. Sunday, we dug and then divided and planted 20 at our house. 

This is the view from our kitchen window. Hopefully it all thrives and makes a sweet view. 

Hosta

There are over 100 Hosta in the yard:
two in front,
several against the back of the house,
one long bed very full in the back.

They have bloomed at various times. I have not gotten pictures of most them.

Next year, I will try to remember.

I did get a picture of the two in the front, side bed.

This was one plant. I divided off a bit and made a second plant a few years ago, maybe when I planted the black eyed Susan’s.

It was not in full bloom when I took the picture, but I was afraid I would miss it. I will take another picture (hopefully) and add it.

Dwarf Joe Pye Weed

This is my inspiration piece, growing in a neighbor’s front yard:

Lower/back bed

Starting in the corner of the two stone walls,
and headed toward the driveway, the first row houses:
Hyssop
Opening Act Blush Phlox (3)
Neptune Catmint (3)
Pardon my Purple Bee Balm

Second row;
Lupine
Double Scoop Cranberry Coneflower (3)
Vernique Rose Speedwell (3)
Royal Candle Spike Speedwell


Third row:
White Siberian Iris
Pow wow coneflower (3)
Pink Dianthus (3)
Walkers Low Catmint

Fourth row:
White Siberian Iris (there are 3 total across the back)
Bachelor buttons (3)
So many balloon flowers!

Fifth row:
Balsam (Touch Me Not) (annual)
Purple Siberian Iris
Spider Wort
Virginia Knotweed
Coral bells (5)

Added later,
Across the bottom/toward the driveway
From left to right
Sweet William
(Mystery stalk)
Magadi dark blue Lobeli

And we are pretty full.

There are 3 white irises, everything else is blue, pink, dark red, purple. which I will like. The front yard has a lot of yellow (and purple and white). But there is no yellow in the back.


Not everything will survive (probably). But the only way to add something is as a replacement, so that will make it okay.

I am super pleased. And it will be very fun in the spring/summer. It is very visual from the driveway.

My across the street neighbor who has a huge perennial bed in the front, that I enjoy, came over to see it and said - very tidy.

This new lower/back bed is very orderly. And everything is planted so it (hopefully) fills in.

No one else sees the point of the little paver stones, but I need them for reference. I will map out an actual plot drawing, so I have a good visual. And the stones are vital for that, to have spacing correct enough to identify plants in the spring as they pop.

And I can add bulbs in the spaces I left between the pavers.

And this is from the top of a stepladder,
Taken from the side,
Driveway to the right,
Rose of Sharon Hedge to the left.

Extra little wall

On the left, against wall, Spider Wort.
On the right, against wall, Astilbe.
In front (invisible corner), crab apple tree (start).
In back left, behind wall, a boxwood.
(Far right, Liropa that I will probably move next year.)

Yes, this is the area where nothing likes to grow.
These are (almost all) replaceable hand-me-down starts, that I can get again, from neighbors.

And If I Perish

And If I Perish
by Evelyn Monahan & Rosemary Neidel-Greenlee.

Nurses during WWII.
Female greatest generation.

My mother (age 78 and a retired nurse) highly recommends it.

I sent it to Gretchen Rubin as a suggestion.

I am catching Chris

Chris Guillebeau
SideHustle

He posted 964 today.
I am on 930.

I will be current before he hits 1000.

I downloaded two new (to me) podcasts to try:

And I have a couple weeks worth of Gretchen/Elizabeth, Liz/Sarah, Do the Thing, and The Moth.

And I still have major This American Life archives.

So I will not be out of podcasts when I am current with SideHustle.

And I have several audible books in my queue.

Rose of Sharon Trees

Rose of Sharon are in the hibiscus family.

I think the only difference between a (Rose of Sharon) tree and bush is how it was trimmed/shaped.

We have hundreds of bushes.

We have two trees, whose buds are different than the hedge. I think the trees are “doubles”.

Window boxes 2019

Bittersweet

We have three huge archways. 

I moved the clematis off the first one. I pitched the wisteria off the second one (that was a tough job, massive roots, but poor plant). And I replanted both with bittersweet, which had already been planted on the third. The kids sent me the bittersweet in the spring. 

First archway. One plant thriving, three not doing much that I can see.

2nd archway (5 plants that are doing so so)

3rd archway which is full, but has never bloomed

Rose of Sharon

I will try to remember to get a picture of the whole hedge when it is in full bloom. But posting at least these three now, so it is documented. 

This hedge is almost 50’. The blooms are shades of white, pink, purple. Several hundred Rose of Sharon in this hedge. 

It runs between us and one of our (two) backdoor neighbor’s. 

On our side it is just a hedge. On her side, it is the back of a border with Hosta and day lilies planted in front of it. I missed a picture of those in bloom, will try to catch them next year. 

Speaking of Milkweed

Lysimachia clethroides, gooseneck loosestrife

This is the first mild temperature day we have had in a long time, in the 80’s with 60% humidity. 

It is super nice in the shade. 

We have had rain steadily this week. So the ground is nicely hydrated. 

My neighbor has three groupings of Lysimachia clethroides, gooseneck loosestrife. One grouping has stragglers escaping. She offered them to me earlier in the summer. But it would have been a real struggle for them to survive a transplant in the high, dry heat. I told her I would get them as soon as the weather broke. 

And I was pretty worried her husband was going to pull them before I got over to dig. 

So late this afternoon, middle helped me dig. My mom helped us plant. 

They went in the far corner of our property. You have probably never seen this corner. 

They are on the backside of a planting bed (top picture).

In the second picture they are on the right side. On the left side is MINT. Most people do not plant mint. (I also have a milkweed patch.) And like the ivy and the Lilly of the valley in the front, it will be a battle of the invasives.

Blanket flower

We looked at this pool up-side-down over a chair, on the driveway, for at least a month. 

But it worked. All the Blanket Flowers survived. They are thriving.

When my husband was planting, he packed them in pretty tightly, because they did not look good. We put up the shade and I watered very carefully. I thought at best, a couple would survive. 

I will see what they look like next year and either spread them out in that same area or move a few to a new area. 

Coneflowers - none of these pictures are from my house

Coneflowers used to be purple. 

Now they come in a variety of colors. White. Red. Pink. Green. 

https://m.brecks.com/search?keyword=coneflower&oq=Coneflower

And they also come where one plant has many different colored blooms. 

Cheyenne Spirit Coneflower (below, I took this picture at the nursery.)

My (dog) neighbor planted traditional purple coneflowers on one side of her house. And white coneflowers on the other side of the house.

And she now has a combination of white and light purple on all the plants.

First photo/below, there are now a couple light purple blooms mixed in with the white, one is peaking out from under on the left side of the picture.   It will be interesting to see what color they are next year.

And the color (in the former purple ones) is now watered down and white ones are appearing, so not good at all, in my opinion. I hope she keeps them, I am super curious to see what they do next year.

Another neighbor planted mums at her old house. Each plant a different color. A variety of colors, and she ended up with sort of muddy/brown no color on any of them. 

I looked on line, but there did not seem to be a clear answer on why this sometimes happens. 

I have seen beds in pictures where they have every type/color of coneflowers planted together, but I would now be scared to do that. 

Sedum experiment

Sedum is planted in a bed near the street, under the Rose of Sharon Tree.

I filled in the sedum this spring. There were several plants already there, I dug/moved/added several more from other parts of the yard, and I bought several. 

It has been interesting because tiny sedum I planted this spring are now (all) the same size as the established sedum (which has been there for years). 

And it is all getting ready to bloom. New starts do not always bloom. 

In other words, I absolutely can’t tell which plant was what. It is now all mature size. 

I like my flower beds to be very full. And I do not want to have to weed. So I want edge to edge sedum on its end of the bed. As it grew this summer, it filled in pretty well. There are just two empty places that need additional plants. 

A friend told me I can just cut a piece of sedum off a plant, stick it in the ground, and it will grow. 

We have a couple days of rain forecast. So I stuck one piece of sedum in an opening/empty spot in the first picture. And four in a larger opening/empty spot in the second picture. 

And we will see what happens.

Day lilies and irises

In case you are wondering, I am trying to document my yard.

I know almost everything growing in it (except the yellow flowers that are not daisies, in the littler bed down by the street).

I think I missed getting a picture of these day lilies (below) in bloom.

The bed of day lilies is actually a bit bigger than this picture shows.

And this year I added miniature daffodils between the day lilies, so there should be good pictures next spring. Assuming nobody (🐿 🐰) ate them.


But I did get a picture of these irises in bloom. There are clusters of irises many places in various beds.

I am not sure if I ever said - but  irises come/packaged sort of unidentified. And I like “like things together”. It makes weeding much easier. I have large beds and it makes things very pleasing to the eye. I like the style of masses/groupings.

So one fall we planted all the irises. All over the front yard. And then they bloomed the following spring. And we dug and replanted them according to color. I never remember which color is where, but when they bloom, they are all the same in each section.

Orange honey suckle, nicknamed “the beast”.

It is very good that I planted this on a very sturdy wooden swing set, years ago. Because it is now massive and very heavy.

You can see the dog rope hanging in the middle. The pup can play tug of war with herself. She also likes to dead weight hang from it by her teeth. And she also swings on it (by her teeth, jumping up and catching it as high as she can.)

The orange honeysuckle self starts all over this end of the backyard. One just happened to start right by a leg on the other side. I tied it, and it is happily growing.

These pictures were taken right as the sun was setting

 The light was very interesting.

I think you might have to click on each picture to see it. 

This is a small section of a large bed that runs the length of the driveway. You might recognize the stump and the millstone. These are the only Black Eyed Susan’s in the yard. They nearly glow in the dark, if you click on this picture. (That is the neighbor’s house.) 

You can see two flower beds in the picture. Both are near the street. 

The bed in the back of the picture very large. It has probably 20 trees in it. It is full of Ivy on the street half, then Lilly of the valley on the half on the right edge of the picture. Those two each hold their own, equally invasive. On the edge, after the Lilly of the Valley are hundreds of jonquils (in the spring) and a dozen day lilies, in the summer. 

The bed in the front of the picture has ivy near the street, a row of boxwood, a birch tree, red coral bells, the mystery yellow flower, a Rose of Sharon tree and sedum.

This is the garage window. It is a large window and a huge window box. There are six big pots in the window box. I do not put dirt directly in any of the (3) window boxes. They all have pots. There are light yellow petunias. White salvia and white geraniums in those pots. The bed is planted with boxwood and pachysandra.