Michigan Bulb Co order

Here’s another order to help fill up my beds and my insatiable need for more. Michigan Bulb Co usually offers a one cent sale and their selection isn't as exotic as some, but they have a good selection of plants and fair prices.


This order was packed liked they care. I love it when a nursery uses extra packing to protect their plants. I'm not crazy about the 'peanuts' but the Hydrangea is the only plant that received this treatment. The box was slightly damaged in transit on one end, and I expected to see some internal damage as a result. Everything inside was unaffected which attests to the care they put into the packing material.



Everything else came in plastic which completely encased the plant. The leaves are very healthy, when I looked at the roots of several of the plants at random they are very well-developed and healthy as well. This protection scheme is one of the best so far.



Dianthus Maiden Pink.
Grows to 6” tall and 12” spread. Loves neutral to alkaline soil which is any clay area so it should do marvelously here in the Utah valley.

When I search for Maiden Pinks I get info on a long list of plants called Maiden Pink. For instance, Zing Rose, Flashing Light, Confetti, Brilliancy, etc. The catalog I ordered these from just calls them Maiden Pinks so I don’t know which plant from this long list this one is. I can eliminate some of them because they are white but the others are all bright pink to rose-red to crimson-red. So it will be a mystery. This photo from the internet calls it Maiden Pink.

Dianthus in general confuse me. Some people call them carnations, pinks, Sweet William. I wonder why so many cultivars use the same generic name. Most other flowers are pretty specific with their names.

Campanula Glomerata. Commonly known as Bellflower.
Here’s another plant whose name could get you a wide variety of cultivar. When I search for Campanula Glomerata I can get Clustered Bellflower, Clustered Bellflower Joan Elliott, Clustered Bellflower Superba, Campanula Glomerata Caroline, etc. Some of these plants look so similar that I don’t see how they can be differentiated. Some are blue, some are white. The catalog I ordered this one from just says Bellflower. It is beautiful though, regardless of the name.

Hydrangea Annabelle.
Now this one is very distinct in its name, size, shape, color etc, so that when you ask for Hydrangea Annabelle you know exactly what you are going to receive. The white blooming heads are over 10” in diameter (sometimes up to 12") and bloom no matter how they are pruned. This is my kind of plant. The perfect beginners shrub.
I just learned that this shrub can live up to 50 years! I never thought about how long a specific plant lives I just figured that they always leave seeds behind to continue their line.
There are several categories of Hydrangea, this one is a “smooth”.
This is the one shrub I want most to grow. My Grandmother had one of these and it was HUGE! I have my doubts as to whether or not Utah is the correct climate for it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Veronica Red Fox.
Aka Speedwell. Flowers from June until September 15” tall by 18” spread. These are quickly becoming some of my favorite plants. They are very widely grown because they compliment so many other flowers and they attract bees like crazy. I have three other Veronica varieties, all blue, so I am looking forward to seeing these rosy-pink spikes. They say these are not as invasive as other Veronica but I'll probably add more, just in case they are not.

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Springhill Nursery order, part two

Received the Dianthus Desmond that was back ordered.



This completes the order from Springhill for this year.

The plants look to be in very good shape. Can't wait to see these in full bloom.


at maturity

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Built new bed

Finally got this bed built. I have been planning this bed since we had the deck built two months after moving into this house in 2004.



Anyway, just finished it today and now I will need to have some soil delivered. It’s 14 ½’ long by 4’ front to back do that’s 58 sq ft. times 9” deep, so that’s, where’s my calculator, 522 cu ft. What? I must have done something wrong. D’oh! I mixed feet with inches. Try this again. 14.5’ x 4’ x .75’ = 43.5 cu ft. That sounds more like it. Wow, I used to be pretty good at math. Good thing there’s the internet to show me how. I found help at Do It Yourself.com.

Other raised beds I have built in the past I used wooden stakes at the corners. They have held up pretty well but this time I opted for metal strips at the corners









and to hold boards together.

Hopefully the weight of the soil won't push it apart at the seams.





I already have plants ordered for it,
Monarda (Bee Balm) Scarlet, an herb,


Hardy Lavender, also an herb,


Geranium Birches Double,




Daylily Stella de Oro,










Delphinium Blue Butterfly, a dwarf at 14" tall,










Phlox Blue Paradise,












and Dianthus Maiden Pinks.











This leaves room for a shrub at one corner and I haven’t decided between a Caryopteris or a Spirea. That corner will be in all day full sun so either one will do.

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Scorecard: plants vs. me, part two

Continuing my inspection of what survived this year, here is bed B3:


This bed was nothing but grass when we moved here in May 2004 and it wasn’t in real good shape. I had a general idea of what I wanted here as soon as I saw it. The bed starts as wide as the concrete pad, at the far north end behind the cherry tomato, and then narrows in towards the fence and will gradually curve back out and circle back to the fence at the south end to form a large round area for a tree. Currently the area is 26 feet long without the large round area for a tree and will, by next fall, be 36 feet long.

All of these plants, except the Butterfly Bush and the Tomato, both at the far end, were purchased as one of those instant garden deals from Bluestone Perennials.

Achillea Angels Breath

Also known as Yarrow. This Achillea was unknown to me and I really like its small bushy habit. The typical Yarrow, see next photo, stands much taller with long thin branches ending in a ‘platform’ that butterflies like to hang out on.

Achillea Coronation Gold

This is the typical Yarrow I am familiar with. I was hesitant about planting this because I am familiar with it from my childhood in Indiana. These grew wild in the fields behind my house and I had always thought of them as weeds. They attract butterflies like crazy but still I’m afraid of it becoming invasive. There are also red varieties which look pretty good. Maybe this is a different variety than the weed I grew up with. I’ll have to wait and see what it does next year.

Arabis Snowcap

Commonly known as Rock cress, this is supposed to be a groundcover with white flowers covering it from April through June. It has not flowered for me, but then it is only one year old.

Aster Alma Potschke

This Aster is one of the New England Aster’s, (sounds like one of those blue blooded sophisticates) it didn’t begin flowering until recently and has grown pretty steadily over the summer. It’s a semi-woody plant that should be covered with bright neon pink flowers until frost. This is another butterfly and bee magnet. Love having these around.

Buddleia Black Knight

I bought this one to replace the two that I killed this spring due to a miscommunication on pruning. I was under the impression that you should cut it back to the ground in spring to make it come back more bushy. The two I had last year were beautiful so I was really looking forward to them being even bushier this year, but alas, it was not to be. This plant is suppose attract butterflies by the hundreds. I have heard that it does, but my garden is so new that the butterflies must not know it is here yet. Yeah, that must be it. I just know they will begin flocking next year. I will NOT prune it as severally as I was told to next spring. Lesson learned.

Chrysanthemum Shasta Alaska

This is one of the main reasons I wanted a flower garden. This plant, along with the Echinacea, just exudes cheeriness. How can you not be a peace with a bunch of these free flowering beauties around? I’m pretty sure that next year it will bloom like crazy.

Coreopsis Early Sunrise

Another one of my all-time favorites. Coreopsis cannot help but brighten up any garden. This is an All-American Selections Gold Medal Winner and is fully deserving of the honor. The bright yellow contrasts so well with the dark green foliage that you can’t help but demand that this be a part of any garden bed.

Dianthus Agatha

This Dianthus is one of the most fragrant of the pinks. One description I read said it was one of the modern pinks. Now, I don’t know what that means but the picture showed flowers that looked double, although I don’t think it is a true double. Earlier this year I had planted some Dianthus Zing Rose in one of the front yard beds and they bloomed a deep rich red all summer. This one didn’t bloom but the foliage looks almost ornamental grass-like. I like it so far even without the blooms.

Echinacea Magnus

Purple Coneflower. As I mentioned earlier, this is one of those flowers that no garden should be without. It is robust, drought tolerant, native to the U.S. blooms all summer through October, excellent for cut flower arrangements and it can even be used medicinally. What’s not to love about it?

Nepeta Walkers Low

Catmint. Blue-violet flowers and fragrant, low-growing and a very prolific bloomer. I was afraid it would increase my neighborhood cat problem, what with all of the bird feeders I have hanging around, but that has not been the case. This plant does attract a lot of bees, for which I am very happy. I have never seen so many bees in my yard as I have this summer. Very nice.

Rudbeckia Goldstrum

This is another of those bright, cheery plants that blooms all summer until frost. Commonly known as Black-eyed Susan because of its large velvety brown center. Bees and butterflies love it and if you don’t deadhead it the birds eat the seeds. I wish I had a large field to dedicate to this plant because it looks really great in groups.

Salvia East Friesland

I have seen this called Meadow Sage, it has the typical purple spikes associated with salvia but is more compact. Last year I planted a couple Salvia Plumosa in one of the front beds and it became lanky and unsightly, this one is not supposed to do that, which is why I was willing to try another salvia. It is very fragrant and attracts bees by the dozens, always a good thing.

Sedum Autumn Joy

Sedum is also called Stonecrop. Someday I’m going to find out where these names come from. This plant surprised me. I am familiar with sedum from when I was a child, my grandmother always had sedum growing around her roses but they were short and I always thought of them as succulents and therefore more like a cactus without the spikes. I learned that this is known as an ‘upright’ sedum which explains why it is so tall. It looked more like a broccoli stalk than a true flower plant, but when the top began turning pink and then red it really began to come into its own. I’m planning on getting a few more of them.

Thymus Pink Chintz

This is creeping thyme. I’m a bit disappointed because it hasn’t ‘creeped’ as expected. It is commonly used in between paving stones and I don’t have very many pavers yet but thought I should be ready. I planted a flat of them after seeing a picture of it in bloom and was told that it can be walked on so I thought it would great to help combat my ‘creeping weed’ problem. It doesn’t seem to want to do anything so it’s another one of those plants that I have to have patience with.

Veronica Blue Carpet

I have always had a thing for spiky plants. Some psychologist will probably tell me something I don’t want to hear about it, but anyway, Veronica is one of those plants that has such a variety of beautiful blue flowers that I just had to have some. You couldn’t tell by these pictures but they do have pretty blue flowers. I started out with three varieties but one of them just shriveled up in this very same bed as these. I moved one of the plants into a front bed where it gets afternoon sun and it is doing much better than in this bed of full all day sun, it actually bloomed. So I think I will move the others there as well.

Veronica Sunny Border Blue

This Veronica has the best color of the three I planted. Honest, I've seen the pictures. The foliage is pretty thick and sets off the flower stalks very nicely. It thrives in clay soil so it will do well here once I get it into some afternoon shade.

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May Recap

This is the first year I have grown allium of any kind and I planted two different kinds that bloomed this month. The Rosy Bells bloomed a bright reddish pink
and the the Sunny Twinkles bloomed a bright yellow, both very nice looking bulbs. They bloomed later than I thought they would. Still, it is nice to have the bulb blooming season extended in this way.

Carrots are coming along nicely, I planted two kinds, 'Danvers Half Long' and 'Thumbelina'. Both were chosen for their short roots due to our clay soil. The Danvers were put into one of the raised beds and the Thumbelina was put into a container on the deck. I wanted to see if I could grow a salad garden on the deck in containers since I have never grown plants in containers before.

The Clematis 'Jackmanii' has set some beautiful deep blue flowers on the last day of the month.

Coreopsis 'Early Sunrise' has begun to show signs of color. This is surprising since I just planted these one month ago.

Dianthus 'Agatha' bloomed weakly, but again was surprised it bloomed at all since it was one of those planted just one month ago.

Dianthus 'Zing Rose' bloomed a deep red. This one was planted last month, so I guess they are going to be prolific bloomer. I can only hope.

One of the Echinacea 'Magnus' sent out a bloom. This one is commonly called the Purple Coneflower. The plant itself is still short, as it was planted last month, and has one flower on the very top.

One of my very favorite and most anticipated bulbs is the Iris. I planted 12 and several have bloomed this month. They are yellow and blue and look very nice.

Lamium 'White Nancy', groundcover, bloomed.

Set out a bunch of Marigolds, hoping to attract beneficial insects to combat caterpillars, etc that would mean destruction of my other plants, such as tomatoes and beans. None have bloomed yet.

Primrose 'Firecracker' opened a bright yellow flower on the last day of the month.

Deadheaded roses for the first time this year.

Salvia 'East friesland' bloomed.

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More plants arriving

Received three Dianthus 'Zing rose' (3) and Echinacea 'Magnus' (3).

The Dianthus worries me a bit. I think that this hot dry climate might prove to be a bit too much for these delicate plants. I have seen them in containers around the neighborhood, but I'm putting them in one of the perennial beds in the front yard. Hopefully, with the improved soil texture they will keep watered well enough.

The Echinacea can take dry spells quite easily so it will go where I took the Rose 'Honey Perfume' from in the back yard by the shed.

The Forsythia is blooming! Beautiful yellow leaves on long arching branches.

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