Monday's Favorite Flower combinations #3

This will be my last post for 2013. I am selecting my favorite flower combinations for 2013 for today! Red roses are the dominant theme! I grow three different varieties each in a different shape and shade of red.
During the June Hudson Home and Garden tour, over 1000 visitors enjoyed the roses and the combinations of flowers shown here at their peak.

The red climbing rose is variety "Blaze". The bush roses are a Carpet rose variety.

The vegetable garden fence

The pictures that I am sharing today are showing our biggest garden project for 2013: the vegetable garden fence. We had been growing vegetables since the first year we moved on this property 14 years ago. 

Monday's Favorite Flowers combinations #2

There is a moment in my garden when delphiniums, white and red roses, lupines, allium, yellow corydalis and sage are all in bloom in June. Depending on how I position the camera , I get a mix of all of the above and can't decide which one is my favorite!

Purple in our garden

Royalty, wealth, magic and mystery are some of the meanings of color purple according to the various sites I visited! Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red.
There are many kinds of purple flowers in our garden. Some flowers are light  purple as mauve, lilac and lavender. Some are more blue or indigo and some are deep reddish purple almost burgundy. I will separate  the grape purple and show it with the burgundy posting.

Monday's Favorite Flower combinations #1

Here is your Monday morning jolt a color:

The magnificent Crocosmia "Lucifer" (z.5-9) with Daisies or Leucanthemum vulgare (z.3-8)

Border for all seasons

This is part two of the post "I think I am done changing this border" with a different perspective of the main garden path borders than I shared with you here. I will be less consistent in the angles because I lacked an easy marker to stand for my shots. I guess I was distracted with what was blooming at the time.

Wordless Wednesday 11_20_13

Temperature outside this morning 23F

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - November 2013

Japanese garden with Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Inaba shidare' - red foliage, evergreens ,Yucca  and Acer palmatum var. dissectum "Viridis"-  orange foliage

The fall colors had been amazing this year in Northeast Ohio, USDA Plant Hardiness zone 5b.  The temperatures had dropped bellow 32F a couple of times this month and we even had a day of snow. 
We are fighting lots of leaves that had fallen as in previous years. There were still some blooms left in November garden to my surprise. Most pictures that follow were taken between November 4 and November 11.

Foxglove or Digitalis Camelot Mix

Coneflower or Echinacea purpurea "Pow Wow Wild Berry"

Joe Pye Weed - Eupatorium purpureum

Sedum Autumn Fire

Thickseed or Coreopsis "Mercury Rising"

Rosa Knockout® "Sunny" 

Rosa Knockout® "RADrazz"

Chrysanthemum or Dendranthema "Harmony"

Tricyrtis Formosana

Hydrangea  "For Ever and Ever"

Japanese Candelabra Primroses or Primula Japonica

Geranium phaeum "Samobor" has a gorgeous foliage all summer after the bloom 

St. John's Wort Magical Sunshine or Hypericum inodorum

Folliage plants that look great all year - from left to right

Dead Nettle (Lamium maculatum "Purple Dragon"), Ajuga, Sedum "Angelina", Moss Sedum, 

Dead Nettle and Epimedium grandiflorum Lilafee

Red leaf Japanese Maple or Acer palmatum var. dissectum 'Inaba shidare'

Before and After November foliage change of  color

Green leaf Japanese Maple or Acer palmatum var. dissectum "Viridis"

Before and After November foliage change of color

Vegetable garden  view - ready to rest

Please leave a comment if you liked this post!

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day is hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at  May Dream Gardens. Visit her blog to see what is in bloom this month in gardens from many climates and countries.

A shade pathway design

This story of a shade path design all started last winter when I was critically looking at my garden pictures of every border and deciding on what projects to tackle in the spring.

The picture below shows a spot in my back border by the woods line that I always found very challenging. The native clay soil, lots of large roots of the nearby trees and a very dry area in the summers due to afternoon sun is killing everything but weeds there.

Wordless Wednesday 11/13/13

Wordless Wednesday 11/6/2013

High views of the gardens

I've been blamed over the years that I take too many pictures of plants and the gardens and less of the kids and friends. The thing is,  the garden changes so rapidly that I feel that there are never too many pictures to keep me satisfied during the cold months. This year I think that I over did it again with about 2000 pictures taken from January 2013 till November.

My  favorite new angles that I used in pictures this year are from the upstairs windows. I wish that I did it every month and see how the garden changes from that point of view. Check-out some of the high views taken early summer! It makes sense to use them when the garden has continuous flow around the property and house. It made sense to do it this year because the gardens were more mature.

Front left - May 2013

Romanian Eggplant Salad

As promised earlier this month, here is my recipe for Romanian Eggplant salad. It is a success every time we make it for company or parties.

ROMANIAN EGGPLANT SALAD (SPREAD)

Wordless Wednesday 10/23/2013

Yesterday

Today

Last night we had temperatures of 33F. Still a few more pots to bring indoor. At least we got the lemon tree in yesterday! Thanks hubby! What a job to get thirty plus pots cleaned , trimmed and ready for indoor!! Thanks Alexis!
I am all sore today!

Do we have enough winter interest in our garden?

        
             I am going to share with you a few pictures I took in the last four winters and I want to ask you the following question:

Do we have enough winter interest in the garden to create a pleasing view for us and/or visitors? 

Our home in the winter

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - October 2013

 Welcome to our USDA hardiness Zone 5b garden here in Ohio, USA. As you can see, there are lots of flowers blooming in the garden:

Dinner plate Dahlia "Islander"

      This perennial Blue Hardy Ageratum has been on my mind for 10 years. I looked for it everywhere in nurseries because I saw it in a garden blooming late October and I said to myself: I have to have it! I was so excited that a nursery saleswomen brought it to me from her own garden...but it died the first winter in my garden. This past spring I found seeds online and I started it indoors. Every single seedling made it to a mature plant that bloomed and bloomed with beautiful light blue clusters! The one problem I see with this plant is that the slugs love its foliage and this year we had lots and lots of slugs.
   2015 up-date on Blue Hardy Ageratum:  Since this is a very popular post and people keep comming back to it and read it, I need to inform you that this plant was very invasive and this spring I had to pull it out of my  moist humus raised day lilies bed.  In only two seasons it quadrupled in spread and invaded even the roots and clumps of nearby plants.  It is a very SCARY INVASIVE pretty blue end of summer plant if given good soil! I will give it a last chance in a dry more shady bed by the Shed. Don't say that I didn't worn you!
2016 up-date on Blue Hardy Ageratum: Even though I pulled this plant at the end of the 2015 season in the spring the bed was filled with it again and it was a marvel in bloom. I will again try to get rid of it but if some returns from forgotten roots it will make for a nice October display.

Hardy Ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum)

Spider flower (Cleome) - reseeds itself every year

Chrysantemum "Harmony" (Dendranthema)

Rosa "Sunny Knock Out®" - such easy to grow and a very long repeat bloomer

Two varieties of Dead Nettle that thrive in this garden : Lamium maculatum "Purple Dragon" and "Aureum"

Sedum "Angelina" front with Sedum sieboldii (in bloom) tucked under Corydalis Lutea  - another great bloomer in this part shade garden

Knotweed or Persicaria virginiana "Painter's Pallette" with the very "dangerous" but pretty red seeds

Bloomerang Purple Reblooming Lilac

Red Zonal Geranium (annual in a pot)

Toad lily or Tricyrtis Hirta "Myiazaki" - Isn't this a beauty?

Hydrangea Forever & Ever® 

This Japanese Candelabra Primrose is a little confused! It thinks that is May!

Japanese Anemone or Anemone hybrida "Party Dress"

Japanese Anemone or Anemone tomentosa "Robustissima"

Pink Spider Flower or Cleome

Aster novi-belgii "Bonningdale White"

Masterworth or Astrantia reblooming in the fall

Achillea "Paprika"

Coreopsis

Nasturtium "Alaska mix"

Verbena  - blooming Summer to Fall

There are interesting foliage plants alive and vibrant in the garden:

Trailing Coleus

Siberian Bugloss or Brunnera "Jack Frost"

Solomon's Seal or Polygonatum striatum

First year for Hardy cyclamen - unfortunately no flowers this year

Autumn Fern or Dryopteris Brilliance with Japanese Primroses foliage

Two sedums in love! Angelina with Blue Carpet (Sedum hispanicum minus "Purple Form")

Ajuga Reptans "Burgundy Glow"

The foliage of Epimedium grandiflorum Lilafee turns color to shades of brown and red in late fall

Coleus "Mississippi Summer"

Virginia creeper

Yucca with Acer palmatum var. dissectum "Inaba shidare" and a dwarf topiary juniper

There are the berries, cool seeds and exotic fruits in the garden:

Beautyberry shrub or Callicarpa Dichotoma

Hemlock

Burning Bush with berries or Euonymus alatus

Meyer Lemon tree in pot

There are the fall views to take in:

And there is Halloween around the corner:

Check out other October gardens at Carol’s main Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post at May Dreams Gardens. Thanks so much for visiting today!