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New England Gardening

This week's standout plant in your garden--7-25-07

16 years ago

Runktrun, I hope you don't mind if I continue the threads you have started.

With all the attention on new introductions, sometimes the standout plant in my garden is not only an oldie but not even a hybrid or fancy cultivar. For this week, the palm has to go to Hosta ventricosa. This hosta is medium size with shiny green leaves that light up deep shade. Very attractive just for the leaves but it's also one of the few hostas with truly showy flowers--bright purple and lots of them.

Hosta ventricosa self-seeds and from the original plant stuck in a dark, neglected corner, I now have at least twenty. And I've given away plenty. They grow densely so the flower show is really amazing for this corner--and no weed but jewelweed can get thru. I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this one plant.

If you love historic plants and gardens, you may be interested to know that this hosta, native to China and northern Korea, was one of the first to reach the West in the late 1700s. It then became one of the first hostas grown in American gardens--and one of the few til after the Civil War.

Two other things: Tho in a dark corner, the soil is good and quite moist, which it seems to like. And for botanists, maybe self-seed is not the right word. It propagates itself in an unusual way.

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Comments (11)

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Nancy Vargas Registered Architect
16 years ago
Nikko Blue hydrangea in all shades of blue and purple (yes I do have other garden areas that are not white! LOL!

Echinacea "White Swan." It is stunning in the white border.

Phlox "David" is finally in bloom.

That's all I can think of.

WG
triciae
16 years ago
Mine would be h. 'Autumn Wood'. It started blooming in my trial bed July 5 & still has a few buds left. I purchased it from Oakes two years ago. I have 3 of them & will transplant them in front of h. 'Mary Todd' this fall where I think the bright yellow of 'Mary Todd' will bring out the yellow-highlighted throat of 'Autumn Wood' nicely. Every flower has been consistently ruffled & rain has not streaked nor spotted the flowers. I don't grow a lot of daylilies because of the ratty foliage issue but this one's a keeper. It's short (20" tops) & stocky so can easily be used in the front of the border. Also, doesn't throw an excess of foliage.

Tricia
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severe hail storm Friday 6/15/07
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Greenville SC here... I feel your pain, but differently, I was in the garden laying out the drip irrigation system when the rain came howling in, my wife opened up the window and told my son and I hail was forecasted. At that moment I looked at my 11 year old son who is my co-gardener and in charge of the squash and hot peppers and at the 800+ cherry tomatoes on my 2 plants, the 4 romas and beautiful squash plants(3 a day easily) and massive amounts of hot peppers and i called him on his dedication to maintaining the garden. Without even a blink he answered "what do i need to do" for 15-20 minutes we both sat in the hail holding a tarp tight over the garden, in shorts and t-shirts, he had my panama hat on which protected his head, however he took a beating and never flinched once. When it was over the only damage was that the zuke leaves had some holes torn in them and about 50 cherries got knocked off, all in all a great save. My poor son looked like he got stung be 200 bees, you could count every hail stone that hit his body. I told him I would understand if he went inside but he said not after all the hard work we put in, he knew i loved my garden and his mom loved the zukes and maters. I had never been more proud of him at any other moment in his entire life, I calculated the cost of replanting the garden and figured it to be the cost of a new bicycle, which i took him out the next day to buy. I will never forget watching him on the couch with his eyes misting from the pain and when asked if he was okay, he said it hurt be he would get over it. That night we harvested some zukes, fried them up with onions and olive oil and ate a toast to the garden we both saved that day. I have a feeling your hail was worse than mine granite. condolences. gg
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Next to gardening, reading is my favorite thing to do. I read mostly non-fiction. This past summer I was reading about cooking, eating, and our food supply. I started with Ruth Reichl. She writes in sort of an autobiographal fashion from starting out working in restaurants ,to becoming the food critic for the New York Times, and then on to being editor of Gourmet magazine. I ended by reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. This fall I read about Blackwater because I didn't know anything about it. That got me interested in reading books about the war in Iraq. From there I started reading history books about the period from World War 2 to the present. I particularly liked reading Arthur Schlesinger's books because he seems careful of his facts and also was present for much of the history he writes about. My sister reads mysteries and her all time favorite is Agatha Christie. She loves the series by Janet Evanovich. She even got me reading the Southern Sisters mystery series by Ann George. They are set in Birmingham Alabama and are quite funny. My personal favorite fiction is the Mitford series by Jan Karon. A little mystery, a little romance.... We just subscribed to Net Flixs so we will be watching movies for awhile. We watched Good Night and Good Luck last night as well as a documentary called God Has Forgotten Us. It was about some young men who'd spent ten years in refugee camps in northern africa and then they were brought to the United States. It showed their reactions to our fleniful food, electricity, and running water. It was very sad to watch as they were so homesick for their family and friends here in the midst of plentiful material things. I also enjoy Book TV on the weekends. I learn a lot there and get ideas for more must reads. We just got a gas wall furnace installed in our basement family room. Now we will have a source of heat if the electricity goes off. We hope we won't need it but I haven't forgotten the bone chilling cold from last years ice storms and want to be prepared.
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Josh: Lol, that photo was actually one of the ones I used to clinch the identification once I had narrowed it down to either Dorset or Morich. You posted the same picture at the start of August in a different thread (link below), but then you said the Dorset were on the top. And they definitely look more like the ones on top than on the bottom. Unless you have reason to believe your initial photo back in August was mislabeled, I'll stick with the ID in the original post and say Bruce's seeds are Dorset Naga. -Don http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0817423214463.html
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Esox07 - 2017 Pepper Grow Blog
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Yah, keep trying to figure out where to plant them. I have that above ground garden that I have sworn off for peppers. But, I was planning on putting my cucamelons in there. I dont think there would be room for both. Either way, I will need to add some manure compost to it for next season. My peppers the last few years have struggled in the above ground garden. I have added some Osmocote and other chem ferts, but that doesn't seem to help much. I am hoping a few bags of the manure compost will help. Thanks, again. Bruce
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triciae
16 years ago
Oops, how could we forget about BESs in late July? What else is so reliable & easy care? In my case, they also tone down the screaming blue of the hydrangeas which as much as I love 'em can get on my nerves a bit.

Tricia
ego45
16 years ago
Not truly standout in terms of being more visible than anything else in a garden, but standout in a particular bed where it planted,
Astilbe 'Color Flash'
{{gwi:248608}}
{{gwi:248609}}

Foliage start bright salad green then getting red from buttom up as season progresses and finaly will turns into orange-red-burgundy by the fall.
diggerdee zone 6 CT
16 years ago
Wow, cool astilbe! I like the changing foliage.

I don't have anything at the moment that is a shining star. I had some gorgeous Sunrich Lemon sunflowers, but those are for cutting, (so they are cut and gone!)and my zinnias and dahlias are starting to get going, but this is the time of year I need to do some planning for.

Most people won't think much of this, but yesterday I saw a bloom that literally stopped me dead in my tracks. I had to walk back a few steps to take a closer look. What was it, you ask? Just a bloom on a hosta. But I usually pick my hostas for foliage (as most people do), and this hosta was new last year. It's Guacamole, and the bloom on it was so large and double and pure white, that it really caught my eye when I walked by. I guess I never paid attention to any descriptions/photos of the bloom before, so it was unexpected.

I do have some daylilies that are beautiful right now - Woodside Ruby, Lullaby Baby, Love Those Eyes, Ice Carnival, and a beautiful one from last years' swap that I didn't seem to label, and lots more - but the plants are all still small, so while the blooms are beautiful, it doesn't make for a grand showing yet.

:)
Dee
diggingthedirt
16 years ago
Can't pick one, sorry.

A wonderful daylily from Katy, I think it's called 'Polly Forever':

Double ditch lilie, out in the woods:

Rudbeckia, one of a zillion that are showing some initiative. The original plant was plain yellow, a Mothers Day gift from my son, who was 6 at the time. I have too many of these, but just can't make myself pull them up:

{{gwi:248238}}
sunshineboy
16 years ago
I just really enjoy this thread, seeing the pix and whats blooming everywhere.

My standout is for both beauty and smell this week. This corner of my yard wafts of stargazer lily. Can you tell my daughter just finished blowing bubbles?
mayalena
16 years ago
Love sunshine boy's lilies, and love dtd's double ditch lily. I think it is being sold as 'Kwanzaa'. So pretty, that I am thinking about willingly introducing this thug....
It faded before I could photograph it, but I had a 'Butter and Cream' siberian iris rebloom this week! It really startled me. Are they supposed to rebloom?
ML
diggerdee zone 6 CT
16 years ago
Okay, I was *finally* able to upload some pics, so here are a few of my lilies - looks like I have the same one as sunshineboy, but I can't recall the name at the moment:

{{gwi:1082893}}

Can't remember the name of this one either!
{{gwi:1082895}}

And this is from a week or so ago, but I love this so much I had to post. Hydrangea Tokyo Delight (the petals are a bit more pinkish, but couldn't stop the flash from going off!)
{{gwi:1082897}}

:)
Dee
ego45
16 years ago
Dee, first lily is a Tom Pouce, the second is a Muscadet (most likely) and I can't agree more on that big WOW when I saw a large clear white double flower on my Stained Glass (sport of Guacamole) hosta opened today. Great hosta by all counts. No wonder that it is in a top 5 in all hosta-polls taken recently.
{{gwi:1082899}}

Now I have to find a healthy June which is always in a top 3 in order to complete my 'Must have in 2007' hostas-list.
Other 3 were Sagae, Woolverine and Cabitan(mini) and they are in a ground already.
Well, somehow in my search for the listed hostas 5 or 6 other names ended up in a garden, but that is another story, right? :-))
diggerdee zone 6 CT
16 years ago
Tom Pouce! Tom Pouce! I kept on thinking "Tom Pouce" - but I swear I never bought this one, lol! Maybe I finally got around to getting it off my wish list and into my garden! And yes, I think Muscadet is exactly what that is. I don't know why I have such a bad habit of not labeling lilies. I label most every plant in my garden, but I can never seem to find any ID on my lilies.

Guacamole bloom:
{{gwi:1082901}}

{{gwi:1082903}}

Hmm, I swore that bloom was a double the other day...

:)
Dee

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