Last year's Hydrangeas

The Zebra Hydrangea planted last year in the back is doing great, and blooming well. Another blue, which I think was a florist plant is growing and blooming, and there MAY be a surviving Shooting Star back there. The Shooting Star in the front yard is blooming and happy, finally taking on some stature, so that's encouraging, it's been a long time with that one.

This year's new additions, the Wedding Gown, Libelle and Endless Summer Hydrangeas are pretty good sized to start with, and may just need some pruning to make sure they're nice and sturdy going into next year. (Might change out the Libelle for an Incrediball.)

Redoing the Side Yard

It's stripped. It had become completely overgrown with ivy, blackberries, and some evergreen clematis mixed in. Old plantings had become smothered, and were gone.

We pulled the stuff up by the roots. All that's left is the Birch Tree, a struggling Japanese Maple, and the stub of a rosebush, that clematis, and a rhody. If they survive, good. If not, they'll be replaced.

The privacy between us and the neighbors is also gone, that overgrowth had been a nice buffer.

So, the redoing involves recreating privacy, and NOT including anything aggressively invasive like the ivy. Originally meant to cover the fence, it grew across the sidewalk and onto the house, and if not managed, would do so again. Ivy was a mistake, not to be repeated.

The neighborhood is replete with huge blue/purple hydrangeas. They're really beautiful - AND they grow tall enough to provide privacy. They're evergreen and make a good graphic statement in the front side yard.

So the replanting includes Hydrangeas in the front - Blue closest to the street, and white as it comes in to the Birch Tree and becomes the walkway to the backyard.

There, along the house, it's hollyhocks and foxgloves for height, which won't replace the climbing verticality of the clematis, but takes a stab at some height.

Lobelia and baby's tears carpet the ground, and I will add things in as we go. Not too much right now since the house will have to be repainted soon, and anything planted will be in the way.

Not sure yet what will go on the east side of that walkway, to balance the hollyhocks and hide the fence, and be low maintenance, and not grow into the walk... letting some time go by to make SURE the ivy and blackberries are eradicated. Maybe daylilies and penstemon, with a bamboo screen to hide the fence.

Libelle

SO, planted Double Delights Wedding Gown Hydrangea, Endless Summer Blue, Libelle (Hydrangea macrophylla) Teller White, a lacecap. What to underplant, we'll see, maybe daylilies. Hostas are often suggested but they don't do well here, the snails feast on them.

It's progress. And it is fun.
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Pruning Wedding Gown Hydrangea: This dwarf flowering shrub blooms on new wood, so you can do pruning in early spring, before growth begins. Branches can be left up during winter -- as can any remaining blooms -- to add texture and visual interest. But avoid cutting back Wedding Gown hydrangea in the fall. In addition, in autumn the branches of Wedding Gown hydrangea turn a rich burgundy color, which adds an unexpected and welcome contrast to other shrubs and bushes in the garden.

Complementary Shrubs and Plants for Wedding Gown Hydrangea: Since Wedding Gown hydrangea is a dwarf flowering shrub, it makes a bigger impact when planted with several -- three or five, for example -- of them together. To complement these flowering shade shrubs, try hostas or astilbes for color and leaf contrast. Or go with other reblooming hydrangeas, such as Endless Summer, to add color contrasts.... Source: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/trees-shrubs-vines/shrubs/hydrangea-wedding-gown/

Endless Summer blooms on both old and new wood, so it's ok to cut and prune anytime... it's 3.5 ft by 3.5 ft, not a large Hydrangea.

Libelle gets up to 6 ft tall and 8 ft wide, so it should go behind shorter plants.

Hydrangeas and crocosmia

Some years ago, the Garden Tour poster featured an old garden gate, with hydrangeas and crocosmia, summer dried grass on the lawn, and a beautiful sunlit day. I commented at the time that it was funny, because in reality it was the antithesis of the purpose of the Garden Tour - it represents the unattended, left and forgotten garden, where no one has lifted a finger in years. It's charming, in its own way, and it was a beautiful watercolor - but...

Hydrangeas weren't high on my list, even as Martha Stewart brought them into vogue. Our neighborhood sports huge bushes covered in deep blue-purple mopheads, like those in the picture but prettier. The biggest problem they have is that people were coming and cutting all the blooms off, sometimes with permission to take a couple, and other times without asking. Not sure where they were selling them, but apparently there was quite a market.

I've started some successfully from cuttings, and I planted a beautiful white florist's hydrangea that came as a gift. It was small, and planted in the back of the property alongside the now-huge cherry tree, and as we're clearing, I find a full-size hydrangea loving the shade and sporting the biggest, and purest white blooms imaginable.

Couple that with my fascination with the Shooting Star hydrangea, and I find myself liking them, and as I am redoing everything, I find myself planning them into the design. At the same time I find it ironic that I've been reduced to that, or come back to the fold, maybe.

Why? The indestructibility. The proven performance, the sheer drama, and graphic appeal of the big flowers. And, yeah, not having to have to worry about it factors in.

So - this article by Carol Klein in the Guardian was interesting, along those same lines.

◼ Hydrangeas are the butt of many a garden joke. Perhaps it is a question of familiarity breeding contempt. While nobody can deny their omnipresence, they are popular for good reason: easy to grow, floriferous and dependable.

She says: Those in the know grow the superb white mop-head H. macrophylla 'Soeur Therese', which does best in partial shade. H. paniculata does what it says, producing large terminal panicles, cone-shaped collections of tiny, fertile flowers and very visible sterile florets. White cultivars such as H. paniculata 'Unique', with weighty heads of pure white flower, are exquisite. Quirky but lovely, the flowers of H. paniculata 'Green Spire' always stay on the green side of white. On a similar scale, H. quercifolia has similar though less ostentatious flowers, with the bonus of rich autumn colour, and H. arborescens 'Annabelle' smothers itself with pompoms of pure white. Peerless.

Image source

◼ And now there's Incrediball, "the flowers really are more than a foot long... A new selection of a native species, this is without a doubt the largest-flowered mophead type in the world, its blooms approaching the size of beachballs!

Incrediball® arose, like so many great inventions, as an accident -- it was part of a breeding program designed to improve the stem strength of Hydrangea, so that the blooms would stand up rather than flopping. Well, it worked -- but who could have imagined the blooms would emerge so enormous and so packed with florets? It is descended from Hydrangea 'Annabelle', a beloved favorite for decades, but each of Incrediball's® flowerheads contains 4 TIMES THE NUMBER OF BLOOMS as 'Annabelle's. It's simply amazing."

I still like my Zebra Hydrangea better, the petals themselves are larger, and it's much more substantial looking, at least so far, than the Incrediballs at the nursery. But, I'm tempted.

And then, there's the wedding bouquets this past week - it's enough to win you over forever:

Australian Bluebell Creeper: Sollya heterophylla

Put in a couple years ago, LOVE it, beautiful color, and it turned out to climb up adjacent plants, peeking out here and there. Highly recommend it, planning to put in a couple more.

◼ Wildflowers of Western Australia - Australian Bluebell Creeper, spreading evergreen shrub, gets 2'-3' tall, and climbs vine-like to 8' tall w/support, blue, bell-shaped summer flowers, can grow under Eucalyptus trees, needs good drainage, drought tolerant.

That, and the white parahebe, which looks like a cute little alpine plant when you first bring it home - resist the temptation to plant it close to the edge of the path, tucked into the stones, move it back a few feet and you'll be rewarded with a spectacular shrub, tons of white flowers.

Spectacular Scilla Peruviana

Photo source One of the best things I've planted. Beautiful and they multiply like crazy. just about to break out in full bloom right now. The lilacs and rhodies are blooming, the other scillas are fading.

Planted the Styrax

Ever since I saw the Styrax Japonica in Lynne's garden, I've been planning to put one in. I shouldn't put in any more trees, but it is so spectacular! So, as of Saturday the 19th, it is planted about 5 feet out from the deck. It is starting to leaf out and I think I see some sign that it might even bloom this year. (Note, blooming, June 14th)