Anemone Mine

Well, this is what happens when the garden gets non-stop rain for a couple of weeks: the enormous anemone! This cultivar, Anemone 'Andrea Atkinson,' generally tops out around 3 feet tall. It's now over my head. I really like this Anemone, despite its having white flowers because, even at this height, it doesn't need staking.
Anemone 'Party Dress,' on the other hand, is only about 2 1/2 feet high, yet it still flops horridly. I'm a sucker for the pink double flowers, however.

Late summer is also the time for the toad lilies. Bad name, great group of plants. The toad on steroids is Tricyrtis 'Tojen.' One of my 'Tojen' plants is over 3 feet tall, but both of them have leaves about twice the size of a normal toad lily.
The spotted beauty is T. 'Gilt Edge,' the name referring to the variegated foliage.

Requiem for a Hosta

Last summer I planted Hosta 'Striptease' in my garden. I had been wanting Hosta 'Risky Business,' a sport of 'Striptease,' for a long time. I have not gotten it because it was too expensive. (I have a hard time paying $30 for a few leaves.) I found 'Striptease' for a reasonable price at a local nursery, so I bought it. This plant has grown on me (pardon the pun) throughout the summer, especially for it's long bloom time. I was a little disappointed in the leaf coloration, but I put that down to the plant's immaturity, reasoning that it would probably color up better next year. Then, I started lurking on the Hosta forum at Gardenweb and learned the horrible truth - my 'Striptease' has the dreaded Hosta Virus X!!


Last summer I had never heard of Hosta Virus X (HVX), but, according to the Hostaholics on Gardenweb, 'Striptease' is particularly prone to it. HVX will not kill the plant or ruin its flowers, but it discolors the leaves along the veins with what looks like runny green ink stains. I dashed out to garden to look. Sure enough, my plant exhibits symptoms of HVX. This virus is quite easily spread via infected leaves or roots contaminating pruners, which, if not disinfected, will pass the virus to another Hosta. There is no cure for HVX; infected plants must be destroyed.
I will not be getting another 'Striptease.' I'm afraid to get 'Risky Business' for fear that, as a sport of Striptease,' it may also be susceptible to HVX. I guess I'll just have to search for a similar, but unrelated, cultivar.
Time to shovel prune 'Striptease.' Requiem Aeternam. Libera Me de Hosta Virus X.

Oh, Here Comes the Flood

"Stupid, stupid rain!" Duchess D'Antan
"We are now half stupid. Soon we will be completely stupid." Alfred de Musset
From the 1991 motion picture "Improptu"

It's hard to complain about rain, with the memory of the 2005 drought still fresh and local trees still suffering its effects. But enough is enough - over nine inches of rain since Saturday morning. Fortunately, my sloping ground has not flooded, but those poor people who live along the Fox and Des Plaines rivers are in real trouble. If their yards aren't already inundated, they soon will be.
My problems are limited to massive mosquito mayhem and soil too saturated to plant in. Also, the coleus in one planter look sad, leggy and discolored. On the other hand, Anemone 'Andrea Atkinson' is taller than I am, and it usually tops out at three feet! The grass is not brown and crunchy and the anemonella has not died back yet. I hope the weather pattern changes soon, I need to get some shrubs in the ground before it gets too late. Sadly, the forecast includes the possibility of rain for five out of the next seven days.

Scent and Sensibility

Scent - it's that intangible element that adds so much to the garden experience. That is especially true now, when the Phlox paniculatas and the Hosta plantaginea are blooming. The scent of these flowers pervades the air, they are not stingy with their perfume, unlike other flowers that demand a nose be immersed in pollen. I wish there was a way to capture the scent in a photo, sort of like John Waters' idea of presenting the film "Pink Flamingos" in "Odorama" (but without the bad smells).

Scent is usually far down the list in qualities I require in a plant before I include it in the garden. The priority rank is something like this:

• Ability to survive in my garden without major irrigation or fertilizer


• Attractive form or foliage and the texture of the foliage (no spikes or thorns)


• Disease and pest resistance


• Wildlife attractiveness (meaning birds, bees and butterflies)


• Scent and Flower color (not orange) are tied


• Lack of thuggishness

Whether I put flower color considerations above those of scent depends on my mood, the strength of the scent, and whether such a plant usually is scented. I don't grow any roses, but if I did, it would have to be a scented one, because a rose without a scent just isn't a rose to me.

Now, if it would just stop raining and the mosquitos would die, I could sit out on my patio and enjoy the scent of my garden. We've had over 9 inches of rain this month - enough!

Love For Lobelia

Some people collect dolls, others collect classic cars. The need to collect is buried deep within the human psyche. I'm afraid I'm starting to collect Lobelias. They start blooming in the dogdays of summer, when just about everything else in the garden is starting to look ratty and tired. They thrive in partial shade and the dryness of my soil. I started with what was labelled Lobelia x gerardii 'Vedrariensis.' I now believe it is the native Lobelia syphilitica. I was expecting something more purple, but I never turn my nose up at a blue flower. My second, and solely disappointing, Lobelia was 'Grape Knee-Hi.' It died. Others have flourished. Therefore, the 3-kills rule may be ignored here.

The best Lobelia, hands down, is 'Monet Moment.' These beasties can carry a border single-handedly, they are so floriforous and long blooming. One of them is four feet tall. 'Monet Moment' is a bright pink, which I think matches RHS color 60D. This looks great with Black Beauty liles (RHS 60A), but slightly off putting next to Phlox 'Laura' (RHS 78A). This plant was brought to you by Thurman Maness.

Also from Thurman Maness is my newest Lobelia, making its debut this summer, drumroll please, 'Sparkle deVine.' According to Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, this Lobelia was named to "commemorate a splendid night in drag." It is a velvety dark magenta (RHS 71A), which looks good with both Lobelia 'Monet Moment' and the Black Beauty lilies. I think it might even look nice with Phlox 'Nicky' (RHS 74A). One would think I would be satisfied with these, but oh no, I want 'Ruby Slippers' now too. Of course I don't have anywhere to put it. Yet.

Procrastinators of the World - Unite & Take Over

Well, maybe later. I just didn't get my act together in time for August's Blogger's Bloom Day. So here it is, a day late.

The prairie garden is at its peak in August, with Liatris, Ecinacea purpurea (and one white one), Phlox 'David' and Phlox 'David's Lavender.' I just got Phlox DL last summer and I think I'm going to replace 'David' with it when it gets big enough to divide. As the garden grows and changes, so does the gardener. I have now reached the conclusion that I do not like white flowers and I do not want them in the garden. This is mostly because they age to such an amazing shade of brown. Nothing is quite as stomach turning as faded Phlox 'David' blossoms after a rain: soggy, mushy brown yuck.

In the shade garden, Anemone 'Andrea Atkinson' has just started, the Lobelias look great, and Campanulas 'Sarastro,' 'Samantha' and C. persicifolia are still plugging along. Geranium 'Rozanne' is still doing its thing, and I just found yesterday that the Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris caroliniana) started blooming. Tricyrtis 'Tojen' has also started blooming. I think I'll have to move the second 'Tojen,' it looks like a dwarf variety compared to the original plant. I just don't understand why several of the same plants, planted next to each other, can't perform the same. Why is only one of my Heuchera 'Raspberry Ice' blooming, and with three flower stalks? Why does only one out of three Actaea/Cimicifuga 'Black Negligee' have buds?

Edit - I forgot to list that Ruellia humulis, Actea/Cimicifuga racemosa and the plant formerly known as Aster divaricatus are also in bloom.

edit. 10/8/07 I may have erred in giving the Latin name of Yellow Star Grass. According to Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, Ladd/Oberle (The Nature Conservancy/Falcon Publishing, Inc. (1995)), the Latin name for this plant is Hypoxis hirsuta.

And now ... a Blog

15 August 2007

When I was little, I read "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," by Beatrix Potter. Of course I identified with Peter and his harrowing adventure in Mr. McGregor's garden. How I booed that mean monster who wanted to catch Peter. Years passed. I grew up and bought my own home and started to garden. The scales fell from my eyes as I watched rabbits devour expensive plants carefully nurtured. My anticipation while waiting for that first tantalizing bud to bloom turned to anguish, grief, then a raging need for revenge. At that moment, I became Mr. McGregor's daughter.
I no longer lust for revenge (that was satiated when I saw my dog playing with a baby bunny that she had caught). Now, I just have to take sensible precautions: Red Pepper Wax spray & deer repellant. I had thought that I would not have to worry about rabbits this year, as last winter there was a fox lurking nearby & there have been coyote sightings. Around the end of July, however, I discovered 1 rabbit in the yard. I chased it out & sprayed the repellant (the neighbors questioned "that funny smell"), but the critter is still in the yard sometimes. There just isn't anything available that it wants to eat. Ha, ha! (Sounding like Nelson from the Simpsons.) Living well is the best revenge.