Category: Old-fashioned plants

Bleeding Hearts Come Full Circle

The bleeding hearts are going to seed. This is a plant that scatters its seed a little, but is easily controlled. They are very nice around potentially leggy things like roses and lilies.

A red bleeding heart with seedpods that are nearly full sized. The clump of debris hanging over the seedpod on the left is a cluster of elm seeds. Photographed on June 14, 2019.

A month ago today, the bleeding hearts in the full shade of the house were in bloom; the red bleeding hearts started blooming a couple of days earlier. With even a little sun, the soil warms a little faster and plants bloom a little sooner. Continue reading “Bleeding Hearts Come Full Circle”

Editing the Hosta Border—Deadheading and Tidying

The bluebells were the splashy stars of April, but by mid-May, they are winding down.

The mature bluebells have no pink left. The two thin white lines are all that remains of two fertilized flowers—these are the pistals. Photographed on May 14, 2019.

They go fast at this point. Continue reading “Editing the Hosta Border—Deadheading and Tidying”

Roses and Other Traditional Garden Plants

Oddly enough, despite the fact that I have been nattering on about mostly native plants since January, I love many of the traditional plants you would find in any perennial garden, and this is their peak time. I am a very laissez-faire gardener however, so the plants that I am writing about are sturdy, hardy, and reasonably well behaved.

Roses: Morden Blush

I love this rose. It’s a shrub rose, only lightly scented, but a lovely pink, and a dependable bloomer. Besides, it’s hardy to zone 3, -35°F. We are in zone 6, but we have had a couple of truly vicious winters this decade that this rose survived, completely unperturbed. It is one of the Parkland Series of roses that were developed by the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) at Morden Research Station in Manitoba. Yup. Manitoba.

This tough rose is blooming, despite living in a huge planter box with little supplementary water in June—mostly what has spilled over from filling watering cans for potted plants.

Morden Blush. These flowers were all new the morning they were photographed, except the paler one in the center. They fade to a very pale shell pink as they age. Photographed June 28, 2017.

Continue reading “Roses and Other Traditional Garden Plants”