Limelight Hydrangea Tree....

I counted 60 blooms on my little tree!  Love it! 

While admiring it, I noticed each flower had an ugly bug crawling around inside it!  UGH!
What to do?  Well, I posted it on Face book and sure enough got answers telling me what they are!  Soldier beetles or their other name is Pennsylvania Leather-Wings!  And they are a good insect to have around as they dine on things that aren't so nice!  So, I guess I'll keep the welcome mat out for the them!  Many thanks to my Face book garden friends!

Goodness Gracious.....

Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!

I just couldn't resist this bright eye-catching hosta at Turkey Run Hostas!  It's new home will be midst a bed of rich green pachysandra!  Oh my!

This is the one in their display gardens that caught my eye!  I simply love their display gardens so I can see what the more mature plant will really look like!

Goodness Gracious is a sport of H. Satisfaction with much showier and wider margins.  Plants produce large heart shaped leaves of good substance forming 30 inch wide clumps 20 inches high.  Light purple bell-shaped flowers emerge on 36" scapes in mid-July. 

I also have H. Satisfaction and it is a fantastic hosta! 

A snowball in August!

Yep, this is "Snowball" at work helping customers at 'Turkey Run Hostas' near Pine Island, MN! 

Ever been to a plant swap?

The garden club I belong to has a Plant Swap event that includes a fun social time each year!
 
It's a great time to chat "garden talk" with each other, get fun door prizes, swap plants and feast on everyone's good cookin' with a pot luck supper!    This year's event theme focused
on the '60's era with Flower Power'.  Some of us had fun dressing up as hippies and flower children to add to the fun!  Lots of tie dye shirts, faded denim jeans, peasant blouses, swinging long skirts, headscarves , headbands, beads and peace signs!  Indeed, 55 gardeners had a really good time!  

Centerpieces included incense and peace signs!

 

 

Add some zing to your late summer garden beds.....

Recently several gardening friends and I were touring gardens and saw some creative displays of elevated containers in garden beds, among shrubs and hosta plantings.

I recalled I have a similar container holder that I have not used the last several years since I reduced my amount of annual planted pots!  Since my friends expressed interest in having one of those type of holders, I suggested I consult with my husband, Denny, about the potential of his making some.  (He has a welder he has used to repair things and has created me some wonderful trellises.)  So, to make a long story short, he has his first batch of these awesome container holders made and we are able to make them available to area gardeners!

 


Note the prongs go into the ground
so it can be set in among plants!

 

Just in time to bring a bit of new zing to late summer garden beds or pair with your fall containers.  Also you can use these in your winter outdoor decorating!

I'm off to shop for some mum plants!  They will brighten up my hosta beds for fall!  And, ideas are popping into my head for winter!

Made of 3/4" cold rolled steel rod that is welded and powder coated to provide years of use.

Easy to use with your own existing container(s). They just need a 7/16" minimum hole in the center bottom.

Supports even heavy pots loaded with soil & plants!

 

2 sizes available now
18" & 24" height from ground to base of pot
$35.00 each

Ready for pick up or delivery now

Denny Noltee Sr   507-288-6730

boatbutt@charter.net



Going to the Mn State Fair?

Check out the Horticulture Building!  Minnesota State Horticulture Society has lots going on including several booths with gardening information for Minnesota gardeners.  One of the displays on Thursday and Friday (August 21st and 22nd) will be done by Shades of Green Hosta Society of SE MN. 

Our exhibit this year will be about the “old standard” hostas that many people have been growing in their yards because a friend gave them one, they came with the house, etc.  Susy O. has done up some great poster boards with pictures and descriptions of these hostas and Jean M. has done a brochure visitors can take with them.  We will also have leaf examples of these hostas on display!

We will also show some of the new directions hosta breeding has gone and have leaves and plants of those “new” hostas – featuring ruffled and rippled leaves, minis, etc.

 

2012 Award Winning Display

2012 Display with visitors

 


 

Raised bed gardening in your back yard?

Sharon P. has been veggie gardening in her city lot yard for years and she has always been creative in making it an attractive garden bed.  She's moved into 'raised bed' veggie gardening, which has increased her enjoyment and harvest as well.  You judge for yourself  how attractive it is! 

 

Sharon says it is so easy to plant and maintain!  No problem with our clay soil, you get to create the soil condition you want!  She had the wood framework made to the sizes and shapes she wanted, filled them with the soil and planted it this spring.  No getting shoes dirty or muddy even!   Gee, even if you only wanted some tomato plants,  a few peppers and edged it with some lettuce, wouldn't one of these be ideal!

I'm thinking one of these for my mini hosta bed would make it easier for me to tend and bring them up to a nicer viewing level! 

Contact me if you want more information!

Jean's Angel's Trumpet is making beautiful music....

No matter how hard I listened, I couldn't hear the music but the sight is awesome! 

Brugmansia, called Angel's Trumpet or Trumpet  Flower tree.

My friend Cindy and I made a visit to Turkey Run Hostas the other morning and we saw much more than hostas!  Jean made sure we got a good look at her two Brugmansia trees while we were strolling thru their garden beds!  The other one is yellow, but not nearly as eye-catching as this pink one!  They are zone 10 so they are invited inside as house guests for the MN winters!  My guess is those blossoms were about 10 inches or more long! 

We did see a flock of turkeys just down the road on our way home tho!  Denny, our driver slowed down for them!

Casa Blanca...

This is my last lily to bloom each year, but I patiently wait for it because it is my favorite!  This year I was treated to five blooms.  I always cut and take at least one in the house so I can admire it up close and personal for awhile!
Casa Blanca blooms are 9 inches across.

A gardeners fantasy land in Faribault MN!

But, it is the display and gardening talents of the Koopman's that creates this world of color and beauty with the flowers God has created!

 

I can share pictures of this city garden but I can't share what it is like to stand midst all these displays of colorful plants!  That experience is beyond my words!  You simply have to experience it yourself!  This visit was my second one and I wouldn't have missed the opportunity for anything else!  The hosta society I belong to was invited there last month  and it was such fun to watch the first time visitors reactions!

 

I will share more  pictures at a later date which will include water features and garden art!  They also have an extensive collection of hostas and daylilies.

Yard art tree....

My  friend, Barb V., had the remains of an annual hibiscus tree this spring in her garden.  She decided it would make interesting garden art by spray painting it red and hanging some decorative birdies on it!

So, moral to the story.... have a dead tree...make garden art!

Dream Queen.....

Hosta snob?  I heard a rumor that someone referred to me as a hosta snob!  Hmmmm.. I do like my hostas.  Actually there is only one I absolutely won't have in my garden beds!

But, I do prefer hostas with good leaf substance to deter the herd of slugs I have.  If slugs love them, I don't!  With  so many beautiful hostas that slugs tend to avoid today,  I tend to replace those that attract slugs.  But I do feed my herd of slugs well!  Yes, I do use slug bait and when I do in a timely manner, slugs don't feed so much on my hostas!

Here is a hosta with thick leaves and a bonus of beautiful flowers!  'H. Dream Queen' can be queen in my castle any time!  This flower deserves to be in an arrangement.

 

1 begonia, 4 gardeners....

Four gardening friends went plant shopping to the NE Iowa Mennonite garden centers this spring!  All of us couldn't resist buying a fabulous begonia!  Each of us created a container using it as a focus plant reflecting our own creative styles.  What fun to compare how different they are!  Yes, we'd buy this plant again next year!  Barb also got a striking red and black one that I also want next year if it is available!



Rita's, she used 4 plants!

Barb's!

Mine!

Sharon's

Hanging basket that loves the heat and sun without daily watering....

My smaller planters that are full sun need to survive our MN July/August temps without daily watering.  Actually, they need to survive up to four days without watering!

Here's one that I really am enjoying this summer!  Succulents are the secret,  but doesn't this look cool and lush!  Love it!  It's soft and touchable also.

 

 

 

A little bench on the prairie....

Laura Ingalls Wilder's books take us back in time to a simpler lifestyle.  A stroll through prairie gardens is such a treat to me to recall growing up reading about those adventures on  the  prairie. 

Finding a place to enjoy prairie flowers at their peak isn't too difficult when you are in Rochester, MN in the summer.  A short drive to the RCTC Heintz Center to stroll along the path through their well established prairie garden will place you up close and personal with the colorful flowers growing there.  Grab your camera when you go... you'll want to have some pictures to remember.

Vegetable gardens...

My friends grow veggies, I buy mine at the area Farmer's Markets! 
 
On a recent garden tour in the Mankato area, we found two vegetable gardens fenced in with black wrought iron fencing and one with a  painted picket fence!  My friend, Rita, immediately visited one of our local big box stores for reasonable priced wrought iron fencing for her veggie garden!  She kept the shorter  "chicken wire" fence on the inside to help keep the smaller critters out and the railroad ties stayed also.

What an  amazing difference, her veggie garden is now an attractive garden bed and a pleasure to garden in!

Rita's veggie garden!
 

A large farm  garden we found on a tour!
 

My day brightener from my fisherman......

My fisherman didn't bring me any fish for supper, but he did brighten up my day with this!

 

 

Alyssum, my favorite ground cover.....

Alyssum is a staple in my garden beds!  I love using it as a ground  cover and edger as it just flows so easily around perennials and brings a heavenly fragrance to the area!  I plant it early spring, while it is still cool, and it is the last annual I pull because it stays beautiful until a hard frost hits it! 

Last year I walked into the rural garden center near our cabin and was stunned by the hanging baskets that were heavily dripping with lavender or white alyssum flowing down the sides of the containers!

So, I  asked just what kind of alyssum that was and quickly purchased a few of them.  They were amazing in my garden beds, each plant spreading at least 18 inches!

So, this year I eagerly planted several of each color available and was rewarded with scenes like this one:




 This is just two plants covering 3 square feet!
  It drapes over the block wall so well.



'Lavender Stream Lobularia'

'Silver Stream Lobularia'

'Purple Stream Lobularia'

 Later I even found a cream colored one, which had a more softer appearance!