Praising Geraniums

 I was pleased to hear from some friends that they grow the vine Pigeonberry Duranta erecta down south, right in the ground. I just love this little flower, and I'm not the only one. Silver-spotted skippers are mad for it, as are hummingbird clearwing moths.

 

From there, the hummingbird clearwing went right to one of my favorite miniature gerania: Happy Thought Pink. A rather rare little thing, this is one of the "butterfly" geraniums, named for the butterfly-shaped splash of color on each leaf. Oh, I love this little plant. Its color reminds me of Rosepink, the pink gentian I love so dearly.

 

which brings me to one of my favorite subjects: geraniums. I adore geraniums. They're almost pest-free save for a few winter whiteflies. They're hardy and willing and we understand each other. They like warm days and cool nights, just like me. They're colorful and free-blooming and come in all kinds of tantalizing shapes, sizes and colors. And best of all I can make cuttings and make more of them.  

 

They're wonderful subjects for large pots (this one's got Contrast and Maverick Red)

and their leaf colors are just as delightful as are their flowers. Needless to say I gravitate toward the fancier ones. This is Contrast, again.

 

 Here are Occold Shield (top) and Vancouver Centennial (bottom). Both are ancient varieties, dating from pre-Victorian times. Vancouver hardly ever blooms, but when it does it's got a scarlet single flower. I don't think my plants have bloomed for five years, but the leaves are so pretty that's OK.

I dabbled in some true miniatures (stellar gerania, named for their star-shaped leaves) but a rabbit got up on the porch and mowed them down. Here they were before the mowdown:  Ragtime, Petals, Contrast and Bird Dancer. All history now. This is why I must grow all my gerania in hanging baskets and elevated planters. Durn rabbits. They chew them off at the root and leave the pieces lying there. I think they like the spicy crunch.

 

Oh well. I've got plenty more plants to propagate and love. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Very happy to see lots of volunteer gray birch seedlings in my shade pots underneath the adult trees. I'll need them...birches are so short-lived it seems I'm always planting more. But they're essential for attracting fall warblers. We saw our first migrant Blackburnian warbler the morning of August 26. It's in full swing, folks...hooded warblers, scarlet tanagers, red-eyed vireos, blue-gray gnatcatchers; they're all going through on their way south. Catch the show while you can!

 The pond, burbling away...reminds me, I gotta go clean the filter again...with these gardens, it's ALWAYS SOMETHING!

Late Summer Gardens

I know there are a lot of you who'd like to have a look at our place, after hanging out with me for so many years. Well, I'm going to give you a virtual garden tour. Mind you, these photos are a few weeks old; the daylilies are distant memories on blackened stalks right now. But those hollow-but-strong stalks are excellent to take along as spiderweb catchers when we walk the late summer trails. Super light, strong, and with a multi-pronged end to catch the webs. Much better than letting them ruin your glasses. I've lost two pairs of lenses to the abrasive silica in spiderwebs!

 

Margaret gave me this one for my birthday a few years ago. Mmm. I love it.

My gardens are riotous and somewhat messy. Some plants have gotten very large and crowded out others. They desperately need me to get in there and divide and thin and in some cases conquer. This has yet to happen. So what you're seeing is a Darwinian struggle in full color.

 

This coneflower has been fighting with a magenta aster for years. I think the aster's winning. Its strategy is to grow tall then flop heavily all over the coneflower.

I can have quite a bit more control in my containers. There, weeds aren't an issue, and I can pick who lives with whom.

 

Coleus, lemon verbena, bicolored lime and raspberry petunias, and Lophospermum "Grand Cascade." Love it. These are huuuuge containers, the biggest pots you can buy. Needless to say I buy three cubic yard bales of Pro-Mix each season for all the containers.

 

This one has some Million Bells petunias (Callibrachoa) in it, Tequila Sunrise flavor. Hummingbirds like them.

The purple beauty to the left is my Plant of the Year, Duranta erecta. It's a tropical, sometimes called Pigeonberry. South American, I believe, but an introduced pest in Australia. Well, it's an introduced joy in my garden. Small lightly fragrant purple flowers, picotee-edged in white. They smell just like heliotrope, only lighter. Silver-spotted skippers are mad for them. This plant is never without a SSSK.

 

Though pigeonberry is a vine in nature, I'm growing mine as a standard. Wish I could claim credit, but I bought it that way. It has grown like mad, and I've made multiple cuttings and already given some away. Love it! It remains to be seen how it will do over the winter in the greenhouse. This is why I've taken cuttings...

Another tropical I adore is this little Cuphea, or cigar plant. The hummingbirds work it over all day long, and with hundreds of flowers per plant, you can watch the birds work at leisure, because it seems they try to hit almost every one.  The plant's tough as nails, drought tolerant and just plain fun.

More gardens anon.