Do you want to increase the plants in your garden or share a favorite one with a friend!

Recently, I read a fantastic article in our local newspaper, the Rochester Post Bulletin, that I am sharing with you today.

Robin Fruth-Dugstad, who heads up our local college Horticulture Department, is a regular contributor of gardening articles to our newspaper.  She always has such good information and this one is a clip out an save one!

I'm not shy about splitting a perennial and just dig right in.  But not all the pieces survive well because I am not aware of  "what method works best for the various perennials!  This will enable me to be more successful!   

This article covers all the successful ways to divide the various kinds of perennials!  I saved a digital copy as well as a printed copy and I am laminating a copy so it will be handy  right on my garden bench!  

Door Prize from a few years ago!

Yep, that guy won me another door prize several years ago at a Spring Open Garden event held by Shades of Green Hosta Society of SE MN!  We have some nice events in that organization!

She is a lovely all white statue of a woman in a long dress holding a flower and always perfect in one of my flower beds all gardening season!  By fall she is almost hidden by the flowers.   I thought she looked especially charming the other day when I was deadheading in that area!  Indeed she is a fun reminder of that day in Cindy's gardens!

Door Prize!

My lucky husband, Denny, won a door prize at our Founder's Day Event last week!  He is lucky at winning those, which is why I make sure he comes with me and joined that organization also!  A big thank you to whoever donated it!

They had some companion plants among the hostas in the prize selection, which was great!  So, he picked out (with my help, of course) a Pink Turtlehead perennial!   I had just the spot for it, part sun along the fence directly in back of our house.  I planted it where I could easily see it to enjoy, just outside the windows in our bedroom and  my office!  Also, it had lots of appeal to me  because  it blooms this time of the year.  I had added a dwarf variety earlier this year, which has grown quite well for a first year planting!

Familiar with Turtlehead or 'Chelone'?

Information on Turtlehead click here!

The new one I planted this spring!

The door prize!  

Hosta Party Time!

Note:   Just click on the above "gray title" to open this in full color!

Our Shades of Green Hosta Society of SE MN is 12 years old now!
Yes, I am a charter member and still enjoying this group as well as promoting growing hostas!  I may have run out of room for space for Hosta growing conditions, but not my enjoyment of having those plants in my garden beds!  And most of all I've not run out of space in my heart for the special people in this organization!  I'm not sure which I treasure the most, the hostas or the friends!  

Each fall our "founder", Cindy, invites us all to a "Founder's Day" event, which becomes a very fun social time!  It features a "Pot Luck" lunch (gardeners are famous for their cooking), plus door prizes, a silent auction of hostas and companion plants plus a active fund raising auction of special plants!  Then there are the beautiful grounds to enjoy and their new 'event center' they have developed!

Not a hosta, but a companion plant! 

 A pair of them flanked the door to welcome us!

  

Hi! I'm back!

I'm back!   So many of you have asked me to continue my Over The Garden Gate Blog...because they've been missing them!  Finally, after getting a call from Iowa this Saturday, asking me again....  I decided to reactive my blog!   OK, Bev!  

What happened?   I don't know how to explain it, but I think I just ran into a time period where I just had run out of ideas and inspiration and never got around to another posting!

Recently my husband and I made a big change in our lifestyle by selling our little red cabin on German Lake in Southern Minnesota.  This change means we will be spending 24/7 at our home in Rochester, Minnesota for nine months of the year!   I will have some time to become involved again in my Over The Garden Gate Blog!  So, here goes... once again!

What's been happening lately in  my gardening adventures and activities?  I began my fall garden clean up yesterday by pulling out a forest of maple trees that have sprouted from the spring seed event of our neighbor's tree!  I had been keeping up with them thru the summer, but had recently fallen behind!

I noticed many of the summer annuals and perennials are winding down their blooms but a few have just begun their bloom season!  So, I took the opportunity to do a bit of cutting back and admiring my first ever planting of Morning Glories!  I have three huge trellis that Denny had built for me, which allow space for two clematis on each one.  I finally gave up investing in clematis along side the garage due to not being successful in treating them for a disease where they die back mid year and eventually disappear.  So I am looking for plants to replace the clematis on those trellis!  Any suggestions?  It is a sun in the morning and shade in the afternoon area.

I decided to try Morning Glories for a new experience on the trellis that receives the most sun.
I planted 4 started plants and after a slow start they grew and grew and grew.  In fact, they have been trying to come thru the porch and were aiming at the sliding door into the dining room!  It has kept us busy redirecting and pruning the aggressive vines!  Much to my delight and surprise it turned out to have white blooms instead of the blue and they are huge, about 5 inches across!  Yep, I think I'll try them again next year but reduce the count to two plants!