My Hosta Garden in June 2020
Summer begins soon. Here in zone 7b, the blues are starting to turn green as the wax melts away. The flowers have attracted pollinators. Truly, I love the serenity of watching Hostas grow.
Beyond Glory on the right.
Brother Stefan in a pot next to variegated Solomon's seal, poet's laurel, and Fortune's holly fern.
Mystic Star, Hushpuppie, and Pewtarware among autumn fern and pulmonaria.
Unforgettable, with possible yellow sport. Front and center is NOID, maybe Janet. Companions are liriope, Red Neck Girl lady fern, Aspidistra Nagoya Stars, and azalea.
The creek that flows through my garden when it rains, at the delta near the downhill fence.
The creek runs in my neighbor's yard about half of the year.
Comments (30)
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoI have moved into this garden. Pea Pod is the gorgeous, tiered, emerald green, cupped hosta in flower. Niagara Falls is newly planted on the left corner.
Icy Halo is the sunburnt big one. This is its 3rd year in the spot. It is adjusting and thrives on extra water. I just planted Long Tail Lights (after 3 years in a pot!) and Roy Klehm next to it. In the background on the left is a favorite, Krugerrand, a big guy.
This is the view from my front porch. I have just planted Obsession. From left to right, Parisian Silk, variegated daphne, Obsession, HD NOID, Blueberry Muffin, variegated daphne, and Rasperry Sorbet. Also present are eared lady fern, NOID fern, hellebores, and a bit of hydrangea Tuff Stuff.
Foreground is Sweet Sunshine (on opposite side of large bed from its offspring, Pea Pod photo'd earlier), with hydrangeas, Orange Marmalade, Komodo Dragon, Paradise Glory, and other hostas in the distance.
I took this pic because I have finished this garden after a couple of years of intermittent work. The green in the front is a NOID, maybe Fried Green Tomatoes. Other hostas in this pic are Remember Me (right corner), Wu La Wa, Paradise Glory, Komodo Dragon, Jetstream, Split Milk, Journey's End, Nigrescens, another Orange Marmalade, Devon Green and Goober.
The view from the creek bench. Tokudama Flavicircinalis, Waukon Water, June, Tootie Mae, Sugar Plum :), and Spartacus.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoThe bottom on the creek at the fence line. Twilight, Dance with Me, Risky Business, Gypsy Rose, Gemini Moon, Sportsball, Lime Ripple.
Sugar Plum from below.
Mystic Star with pulmonaria and autumn fern.
Hydrangea Shooting Star.
May in the month of June.
June in the month of June (7b).
Related Discussions
Growing my garden: hosta by hosta
Comments (13)Wow, this board is really buzzing! So many comments in such a short time period from such helpful gardeners! Thanks, all, for responding and for the warm welcome. I'm in NJ. I actually have that in my profile, and I'm unsure as to why it's not showing up on my posts. (I don't see preferences to show/hide it.) jadie88, I was searching for variegated Solomon's Seal last summer but had no luck finding it. And this year I decided I want to try red astilbe with some lighter-colored hostas to brighten up some areas between bushes. I don't have a lot of money to spend because I'm starting my raised-bed vegetable garden this year. But I do still need to add to my gardens out front. I planted them last spring after buying my house in the fall. The front does get sun, but it's rather uneven; the right side gets more than the left due to the sizes of the trees in front. I didn't realize how much of a difference there was until I saw how the plants/flowers were growing. The impatients on the right side seemed to triple in size, while the left side did not get much larger at all! So now I must forget about having a symmetrical look out front and get to replanting. ken_adrian, I'm not sure what I was thinking! Of course, more hostas! I can't wait to read through this forum to get more ideas and become more educated on hostas! (My mom had hostas when I was growing up, but she was amazed as well when I showed her photos of some of the varieties!)...See MoreJune 2020, Week 1
Comments (90)Haileybud, I've never heard of either of those two onion varieties, but regardless of that, yes...daylength will initiate bulbing. Onions need to be planted shallowly because they won't bulb up if planted too deeply. Generally the deepest you'd plant the transplants would be 1" below the soil surface, so yes, as they grow they will look like they are popping up out of the ground and literally sitting atop the soil, and that is normal. It was the same at our house as it was at yours---May definitely felt like April and then June arrived and feels like July. It is like we totally skipped June and I don't like this quick switch from cooler than average to hotter than average much at all. Marleigh, I don't have any oxblood lilies but grew up around them---they are tough old passalong plants in Texas, handed down from one gardener to another seem to tolerate all sorts of soil and growing conditions. I think they'd do great for you. I'm glad you know enough about computer and phone stuff to help Nancy because what I know about both computer issues and phone issues could be written on the head of a pin with space left over. dbarron, I knew if you spent any time at all on the Plants Delights Nursery website, you'd find something you wanted. I'm the same way, but I haven't ordered any crinums yet. That doesn't mean that I won't, just that I haven't had quiet time to sit and look at them. Have you ever visited the webpage of Jenks Farmer? They sell crinums too, and enabling is what I do best. Jenks Farmer---Crinum Lilies Jennifer, Congrats on learning to can tomato sauce. See how easy it is? Now you can go nuts and expand to canned tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, salsa, etc. They're all easy. For most veggies like beans and peas, we prefer frozen fresh from the garden to canned. I like their texture better when frozen, and I like not dealing with the big old heavy pressure canner. The things I like to can mostly are those that can be canned in a boiling water bath, like tomato products, jams, jellies, and some fruit products. They are quick and easy and even when the BWB canner is completely full of filled quart jars, it isn't nearly as heavy to lift as the much heavier pressure canner. I am completely over lifting the heavy pressure canner and have no intention of using it any more, but I hang on to it in case I change my mind. I used the pressure canner a lot in the 1990s, but not so much since then. Of course, having 3 freezers helps. Green beans must be pressure canned or can develop botulism, which is invisible and doesn't give up an odor to alert you. A decade or two back a nurse who thought she knew how to can green beans canned them in a BWB canner and poisoned herself and her child. Well, probably it was 2 or 3 decades ago because it might have been even before we moved here in 1999, but I never have forgotten her and her child....as an example of what not to do. Fortunately our power almost never goes out, and it has only been out for 'a long time' once since we moved here. That was just a year or two ago and it was out for almost 4 hours. Still, we have a generator so we could keep the freezers going if the power went out. My grandmother froze her green beans and they were mushy. I loved her green beans....mushy, cooked with lots of onions and black pepper and enough bacon drippings to make them taste divine. They were true southern green beans and I adored them. I never could cook mine down long enough to get her texture though, and by the time I had questions about why, she was gone. So, one day when I was sitting with my favorite uncle, a very talented gardener himself, discussing gardening and preserving food, I complained that I couldn't get my frozen green beans the same texture as Mamaw's. He just grinned real big and said "I bet you are blanching your beans before you freeze them" and I confirmed that I was. He said she never blanched hers and that was why they were mushy. Well, who knew???? One of these days I'm going to freeze some without blanching them first and see if they give me green beans like Mamaw's when I cook them. Amy, Have fun with the grandkids! We have been enjoying ours so much once they were allowed to come over again. Do you like your bottom freezer? Our previous refrigerator had one and I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but I think the whole freezer part of that refrigerator was a lemon and we'll never buy that particular brand again. It constantly melted down and defrosted itself just spontaneously here and there, ruining everything in the freezer compartment if you didn't catch it on time. After that happened several times and no one could explain why or fix it, we were done with that thing and bought the one we have now. Of course, with Tim being a pack rat, he has that big old fridge sitting out in the garage and one of these days he is going to fix it and use it out there. Sure he will. When pigs fly. He's really bad about hanging on to stuff like that to repair because, surely, it must have some good years left, (ha ha) and yet he never does anything with them. If Chris is lucky, our detached garage/shop will burn down spontaneously shortly after Tim and I die so he doesn't have to deal with his father's lifelong junk collection. Rebecca, It is your choice with the onions but they are not well and truly mature until the leaves have completely turned yellowish-brownish and withered and died. Until then, even with limp necks, the leaves are still sending energy/nutrients to the bulbs and enlarging them. Some gardeners just don't care and harvest them just whenever they get ready, but for maximum storage, they do a lot better if allowed to fully mature before being harvested. They're your onions so you should do whatever pleases you. Why is Fatboy still alive? Is there nothing that can kill that little beast? I guess Audrey is not a squirrel hunter? Pumpkin is a squirrel hunter, and he tries, but the squirrels elude him every time. We had a chicken disaster overnight and lost one of our few remaining hens. Tim closes up the chicken coop when he comes back from taking Jersey and Jesse for a walk after dinner. The timing of the walk works out perfectly as the free-ranging chickens usually are still out when he leaves to walk the dogs, but have put themselves up in the coop by the time he gets back, so he just takes a minute to close and lock the door. Sometimes I even ask him "Did you remember to close up the coop", when he comes inside but just asking the question annoys him because it seems to imply that I think he might forget to do it. (We are happily married, I swear. lol) So, during the night, the 2 dogs who sleep downstairs in Tim's office started having a barking fit, which is not that unusual. They'll bark if a skunk, coyote, bobcat, fox, coon or possum wanders by or whatever, but they'll stop barking if you tell them to hush. They woke me up, I went into the office, hushed them and they looked at me like I was nuts and starting barking and carrying on as if Godzilla was stomping around outdoors. I cautiously opened the front door and peered outside and couldn't see or smell anything, but heard a chicken screaming (in that way that a chicken screams as it is being carried off in the mouth of a predator) and the rooster hysterically calling out to her. The noises from the poultry were coming from south of the house.....not where the coop is located. I ran back upstairs to wake up Tim and he grabbed a flashlight and gun and ran outside.... So, we lost a chicken, and he found the rooster outside frantically searching for her. Whatever had taken her was long gone, and this morning we couldn't find a trail of feathers, so it must have been a large enough predator to carry her off easily. It took Tim a while to calm down the rooster enough to get it back into the coop, and this time he closed and latched the coop door. This means we are down to one hen and two roosters, and the hen that is left is the bravest one of the three. She has been out free-ranging around the yard all day while the clearly-traumatized roosters are hiding inside the coop. We have so much more trouble with predators than we used to, and I'm through inadvertently supplying poultry to them. After these last three birds are gone, we aren't going to get any more, even though we love having chickens. We just cannot keep them alive here as the woodlands provide too much cover for predators. I couldn't fall back asleep after all that middle of the night excitement, so today I am totally running on empty. Dawn...See MoreShow Us Your Landscape and Gardens - A Photo Thread - May & June 2020
Comments (129)Sue, i love how the lime hydrangea leaves contrast with the house. I'm currently really interested in the designing something that contrasts well with my house. Yours look fantastic. And the containers is beautiful! It's amazing how many beautiful gardens are on this forum. Thyme, the deer ate my rhododendron buds, not squirrels. Thank goodness squirrels leave them alone! Usually by now something has eaten my astilbe buds, as well, but so far I'm in for 100% flowering this year. Unbelievable! Was considering removing them if all I ever saw were munched stems. I agree with you on the Mt Laurel. Good thing you already have a husband, or surely some single gardener would agree and woo you just to get to see that every other year! Does you husband ever get jealous of the laurel? ;-) Again, so many beautiful roses. Claire, I'm always amazed at what you've managed to fit into your property. Not only is it amazing diversity, but it ll looks like every single plant is in the perfect spot. NHBabs, you have the patience of Job with your voles. I thought I had tons of voles but i've come to find out i have far more moles. I am glad as it seems they are not doing the damage voles would! There are some voles, but I don't have the damage you and others have. I wish the dianthus has lived for you. Always a delight to see your many clematis! prairiemoon, i LOVE fragrance. i have about twelve peonies planted together, and in that mass they create good fragrance. mock orange is going on the list to plant so i can enjoy the smell. After about three days of good rain, I expect my soil is rejuvenated quite deeply now. We had rain on May 18, and one downpour in early June of which I am sure some just ran off and didn't soak in, but I was still grateful. This long soaking rain was beautiful to see. Everybody I met here talked about how happy they were to see rain! Welcome, July!...See MoreHostas in my Neighborhood (June and July)
Comments (27)"i bet all of them.. were planted just after the house was built ..." Not so sure about that. Houses here were built around 1962. History says that this area used to be a woodland. When selling, the owner requested specifically that there would be an effort (from the developers) to save some of the trees from being destroyed. One of my immediate neighbors (original owner) told me that she bought the lot before the house was built. The developer asked her to mark all the trees she wanted left on her property. She believes that---even though we are across the tree from her house---we had a different developer build our house. So she does not know if the our developer did the same in regards to the trees. There is a good chance, I think, that our two sugar maples (in our backyard) were here when the house was planted. No wonder nothing grows well in our backyard! So I drove by the house with the Junes (too lazy to walk!) and saw a lady drive into the driveway. Finally saw someone outside of this property! I talked to her, but she didn't know the names of the trees. She did think the tree by the Junes was a sycamore since it sounded familiar to her. What really struck me was the she was pretty much like me maybe 10, 20 years ago. She said that they had had a landscape designer landscape their property after moving there in 2007. She thought they landscape designer would use plants that would survive under their conditions. They didn't. She also said they removed soil in some areas to improve it and planted other shrubs etc. They aren't doing well. She doesn't know why! Ha! That was me struggling to grow under trees! She said she had removed a couple of the Junes that were smaller, improved the soil (not sure how) and planted them back. They didn't do that much better. I have to wonder whether she had removed the tree roots from the hosta before replanting. From my experience, the tree roots are quite tough. Sure they'll die, but the tiny, wire-like roots are so strong. I don't think the roots can break away from the tree roots for quite some time. So here are some more pictures. Sycamore tree? with blue spruce tree Sycamore tree leaves Leaves picked off the ground (back side) top side I will continue . . ....See Moreundertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoTouch of Class next to So Sweet
Climax in bloom, near sunset. Choko Nishiki on left and Royal Standard behind.
Abundance of life in a place where nothing would grow. Unruly Child on the stumps, Cathedral Windows, wild ventricosa, and ventricosa aureomarginata. Companions are camellias, Florida Sunshine illicium, and Aspistra Stars and Stripes.
The last hosta I will buy, Danubie Isla. My yard is over-full.
The back of the butterfly sun garden. I can name hostas if anyone wants to know, but this will be nice in 1-2 years.
Another project completed. This will also be nice in about 2 years.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoMontana aureomarginata with giant flower scapes
Hydrangea Shooting Star with pollinator
Tangerine Tango among hosta friends (Aristocrat, Hovercraft, Frosty Morn, Waterslide and Coconut Custard). Picture taken at twilight, which made the blues look bluer and darker.
Brother Stefan in bloom, a perfect plant.
Spartacus in bloom. This is a bigger plant than I thought it would be, but I love it there.
Sportsball among friends.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoundertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoToday, I had some time to be in the garden despite a long day at work.
Delta Dawn in flower, 2nd year plant and first year in the ground.
Here is Earth Angel, over 5 ft wide by almost 3 ft tall, and 3 years old.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoToday is the summer solstice.
Electrocution, Deja Blu, Fragrant Bouquet, and Last Dance among variegated and big blue liriope, toad lily and decaying stumps.
This area is humming with bees.
Ventricosa in flower, with Beyond Glory in pot in background.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoI did some rearranging today. I felt like the grouping around Tangerine Tango (posted earlier this week), was too crowded. Frosty Morn and Hovercraft were in the ground, and Coconut Custard, Waterslide and Aristocrat were in pots around it. Tangerine Tango was in the middle in a pot. Today, I moved Frosty Morn and Hovercraft away to the front yard. Frosty Morn had grown much bigger than expected, and Hovercraft was too open, tall, and floaty. Here is the new arrangement around Tangerine Tango, with all plants in the ground except TT.
Tangerine Tango in the mildde, in a pot. Hostas at its feet are Bulletproof, Aristocrat, Hadspen Blue, Waterslide, and Teatime
The rest of that bed includes Great Expectations, Prairie Sky (which will be swapped with Camelot, whose color I like better with the rest of the plants), Cup of Joy, Thunderbolt, Dream Queen, Dinner Mint (not seen), ferns, hellebore, and the ever present liriope.
Frosty Morn and Hovercraft have been reassigned to the front yard as pictured.
Another view of front garden, Hovercraft not seen.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoundertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoJune 27, 2020.
Lemontini on the stump. Bottom to top: Twilight, Dance with Me, Gemini Moon, Risky Business, Gypsy Rose, Sportsball (my odd Striptease), and Lime Ripple.
Invincible thriving in the ferns.
Ghost fern and Lady in Red with epimedium and wild violet at base of tree
Last weekend's project. L to R is Coconut Custard in pot, Dinner Mint, Dream Queen, and Tiny Tears in pot. Ferns are Northern maidenhair and and Godzilla.
Earth Angel and Brother Stefan front and center.
Tokudama flavicircinalis
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoJune 27, 2020 continued.
Ventricosa in flower
Paul's Glory in center of liriope with ostrich fern, with young Regal Splendor in foregroud and Dark Star in pot.
Hydrangea Shooting Star
Hydrangea unknown.
Salvia uliginosa has blue flowers.
Mousetrap
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoJune 27, 2020, 3rd post.
Pilgrim near Munchkin Fire, School Mouse, and Teaspoon.
Tattoo.
The Bar. Avocado, Cerveza, and Mojito centered around a fig tree with ginger on the side.
Foxglove reblooming.
Inniswood and Sharp Dressed Man
Young Bridal Falls in flower, with surprise grasshopper on nearby Asarum splendens.
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoLast post for June 27, 2020 (4 of 4).
Paradise Glory in flower. I hope this plant survives, because it is glorious.
Remember Me
Front side garden. Blooming Sweet Sunshine in the front.
Minipot with Picasso, Miniskirt, and Cameo.
Tokudama aureonebulosa.
Ben Vernooji
undertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
3 years ago
miles10612
3 years agoundertheoaksgardener7b
3 years agoJune 30, 2020
Lacecap hydrangeas, 3 types.
Deep Blue Sea in flower.
Flower Power in flower, with soon-to-be-blooming Mango Salsa in background. These are in part to full sun.
Mophead hydrangea. I love the blooming Sweet Sunshine at its feet, and the young Paradise Glory on the left.
lindalana 5b Chicago
3 years agovina538
2 years ago
undertheoaksgardener7bOriginal Author