How Does your Garden Grow?

[celticnoodle]

Since we have a thread dedicated to wildlife, I thought it might be nice to dedicate one to our plant friends. So what's blooming or growing in your neighborhood? Are there any trees with beautiful leaves or interesting shrubs?

This week on my walks I've noticed:
Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin)
Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea)
Oakleaf Hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia)

Beautiful pictures and plants!!

I so love Magnolias. I miss them too, tbh. So many of them in the area where I grew up.

We have a HUGE lilac 'tree/bush' that is getting ready to bloom. It is a different variety of which I have no clue to who it belongs--but it blooms late--always in late June. Much longer after all the other lilac trees have bloomed. The aroma is heavenly! I will take a picture of it later, when it has bloomed. Unfortunately, I am also allergic to it, even though I absolutely love it. So, when it is in bloom, I have to admire it from afar.

 

[BodhiSeed]

Beautiful pictures and plants!!

I so love Magnolias. I miss them too, tbh. So many of them in the area where I grew up.

We have a HUGE lilac 'tree/bush' that is getting ready to bloom. It is a different variety of which I have no clue to who it belongs--but it blooms late--always in late June. Much longer after all the other lilac trees have bloomed. The aroma is heavenly! I will take a picture of it later, when it has bloomed. Unfortunately, I am also allergic to it, even though I absolutely love it. So, when it is in bloom, I have to admire it from afar.

Thanks CN. Do post a photo of your lilac bush when it blooms if you can - it sounds lovely.

 

[WolfyJames]

I really love my new place, but the sole issue I have with it is that the windows are set to north and most plants prefer sunny light from south, so not much grow here. The very few plants I had have died. I was planning to have a little garden on my balcony when I moved but my enthousiam has since died when I realized that my windows are north. I've been reading a book about houseplants and I've been making marks about those who prefer little light.

 

[BodhiSeed]

I really love my new place, but the sole issue I have with it is that the windows are set to north and most plants prefer sunny light from south, so not much grow here. The very few plants I had have died. I was planning to have a little garden on my balcony when I moved but my enthousiam has since died when I realized that my windows are north. I've been reading a book about houseplants and I've been making marks about those who prefer little light.

You've probably already run across these, but I'll add the link just in case:
http://paulsplants.blogspot.com/2011/12/low-light-houseplants.html
I've had luck with small pots of bamboo indoors too (not the "curled into a spiral" kind though).

 

[WolfyJames]

You've probably already run across these, but I'll add the link just in case:
http://paulsplants.blogspot.com/2011/12/low-light-houseplants.html
I've had luck with small pots of bamboo indoors too (not the "curled into a spiral" kind though).

I saved the link on my Pinterest. Thanks!!!

 

[BodhiSeed]

Flowering shrubs and ferns: Mop-head hydrangea, Rose of Sharon, Christmas ferns. The color of the mop-heads depend on the soil type. In strongly acid soil (pH below 6), flowers turn blue. In alkaline soil (pH above 7), flowers turn pink or even red. In slightly acid or neutral soil (pH 6 to 7), blooms may be purple or a mix of blue and pink on a single shrub.

 

[Chiska]

My little hydrangea is almost red - it is planted on top of an area full of decayed cedar and hemlock trees. The logs are under about 1 foot of soil that is comprised mostly of decayed bits of cedar and hemlock trees. It is part of the garden I created for my 4 Guardians.

As soon as the sun returns, I will take some pictures!!!

 

[BodhiSeed]

Would love to see it! Most of our mophead hydrangeas are blue here because we have such acidic soil. Yours sounds lovely.

 

[MandMaud]

My gardening is indoors. Occasionally I give thought to whether it would be fair to move one or two pots so that others can use the draining board for draining things on. Then I stop giving any thought to that idea.

Outdoors, there may be enough brambles this year for apple n bramble crumble - none of my doing though! The peony is buried, the apple tree is far too big for its spot, and most of the front is shaded by my neighbour's very inconsiderate trees. The back is always shaded except a couple of hours first thing in the morning.

Moving here 14 years ago, I had no interest in gardening - this has changed! - and the estate agent's description of this was "paved for ease of maintenance". Not easy when the paving has lots of small beds, the size of a single slab removed, which the previous owners had annuals in = time-consuming! I'm letting the weeds and some stonecrop stolen from neighbours' walls gradually turn the paving into rockery... At the back, it's all paved. Most of the small beds are extremely shallow too, I think they paved over builders' rubble. Around the apple tree there's a lovely big bed, but it's so overgrown that the peony is barely visible.

However I have some self-seeded hellebores (which apparently do NOT self-seed ) and some euphorbia and sedums (stonecrops) that I love, and a white rose that is special though I don't know why. And the peony. And lots of plans.

Oh, and rosemary, though it's doing much less well since my ex moved out; I've heard rosemary won't grow where a woman "wears the trousers", maybe it's that!

 

[BodhiSeed]

Oh, and rosemary, though it's doing much less well since my ex moved out; I've heard rosemary won't grow where a woman "wears the trousers", maybe it's that!

That's funny, I always heard it was the other way around. I hope you do find a way to create a garden - I thought using the stonecrop was an excellent idea. We've been flooded twice here, so most of the topsoil has been washed away. I've made raised beds for perennials and use flower pots for seasonal annuals now.
One of the plants we have here that "self-plants" itself on the limbs and trunks of oaks and pecan trees is the resurrection fern. When we have periods of no rain, they look dried up and dead, but as soon as a storm rolls through, they look green and healthy again.