October blooms around the yard

 

Plumeria Divine and Ginger

Check out the hedychium ginger!

I love african marigolds! 

This Purple Dahlia is giving it its all 

A mix of winter kale and pansies and the summer banana plants and majesty palm / sago palm cycad

I love pansies

Plumeria divine

Zinnias looking great here

Flowering maple Abutilon

 

Geraniums and everbearing strawberry "Buried Treasure"

Castor beans, zinnia, and windmill palm with some nice fall foliage in the backdrop!

Fatsia Japonica first year in the ground in this spot & going into the winter strong! It's about to bloom

A few Early August blooms

 

My Vanda orchid is blooming! This was a purchase from Spring 2023

Looking good next to the begonia vine (Cissus discolor)

Plumeria Inca Gold with Musa Sikkimensis and a HUGE Hedychium Fiesta that overwintered beautifully 

The Tibouchina also began blooming. lots more flowers here than shown (just too lazy to take a good pic!) 

At my parents house Hibiscus "Perfect Storm" is enjoying the summer sun!

And my largest plumeria makes a nice compliment to the sunset!

Dipladenia "Fired Up". A survivor from last year (I brought it inside!)

Canna Cleopatra

A view of the pool. The Cordyline Black Knight ti plant is as tall as me! Hedychium looks good too.

But the biggest treat is Plumeria Divine!

Zinnia in bloom! 

Growing Itoh Peonies from Home Depot - Will they bloom in their first year?

As much as I try to emulate southern gardens up here in New York, there's one northern plant that grows beautifully up here, much to the envy of southern gardeners - peonies. Peonies bloom for just a few weeks out of the year and come in 2 different growth habits, tree peonies & herbaceous. 

But I'm a rule breaker, so when I saw these Itoh Penoy roots at Home Depot I had to get them. You see, Itoh peonies - also known as intersectional peonies, are a hybrid of the tree and herbaceous species. Tree peonies don't die back in the winter and grow to a much larger size. Herbaceous peonies die to the ground and are a great choice for smaller gardens, but don't have the flower power that tree peonies have because they only bloom on the top of stalks. These hybrid peonies take the best of both parents - allegedly giving a month of plentiful flowers on a relatively tiny shrub. It should be fun! 

Mid March 

Here's what the roots look like right out of the packaging. I'm pretty excited to see multiple shoots already starting to grow out. I've been told not to expect these to bloom in the first few years, so I'm keeping my expectations low and hoping for a nice surprise in a few weeks! 

Under my Crape Myrtle, I planted a Bartzella Peony

Next to the Air Conditioner unit, I planted a Cora Louise Peony and a Hawaii Coral Peony (Hawaii Coral is  herbaceous, not intersectional)

Spring Update!

Here we are in the first week of June! The Bartzella Peony was the only one to bloom. It's just a single flower, but it was worth the wait!

June 3

June 5

 The other two peonies had very weak growth. We'll see if 2024 is their year! 

Camellia season is here!

​Winter is my least favorite season, but Camellias make it so bearable. When I lived in the south, these gorgeous subtropical shrubs would bloom through the whole winter, but up here the Japonicas usually wait until March. I have 7 cultivars of camellia in my garden, but the first to bloom might be my favorite. 

This is RL Wheeler. It has huge, 3-4” wide variegated blooms. It’s a relatively fast grower but can grow well in pots. 

I got mine deeply discounted in South Carolina 3 years ago and it’s been in a pot ever since. By the way, camellias are usually pretty expensive but you can find great deals at the end of Autumn when nurseries are clearing their inventory or in the spring after they are finished blooming. 

Eventually, I’ll put these camellias in the ground, but I love that planters give me the opportunity to move these around. Camellias are unbelievable when they’re in bloom but fade into the background the rest of the year. It’s nice to be able to move these plants into view during the spring and then push them aside during the summer so other plants can shine. 

These are a few others growing in my garden. 

Ashtion's High Rise is new this year for me & I'm really enjoying it! 

My least favorite so far has been Spring's Promise. The flowers are really small and it's not as strong of a performer as my other camellias. 

Unfortunately, the landscapers destroyed the blooms on my Arctic Rose and Kramers Supreme. They are usually great performers for me and hopefully, they will be more careful this season. Never prune a camellia in autumn. I wasn't home when the disaster struck!