...another mailorder plant, Echinacea 'Green Envy' from Spring Hill Nursery . Although I've had some mixed results from these folks in the past, I had a credit to use and this plant is vigorous and decent-sized. Cool!
Showy ladyslipper always starts with this fuzzy, egg-shaped bud....
....opening to the pretty pink slipper...
....bigger flower (and plant) this year. This was only purchased fall of 2006, and it bloomed the very next year.
I bought it from a nursery called Raising Rarities , and being a blooming-size specimen, it was not cheap ($45).
But just look how pretty she is!!
Now this tiny plant to the left is also a ladyslipper, the all-white showy ladyslipper. It was purchased just this spring as a tiny baby called a "pip"....
...and this one is another pip, a Kentucky ladyslipper orchid. Both of these infants are from Shooting Star Nursery , and as babies they were much less expensive. (Less than $20 each.) You can certainly imagine that blooms will not be forthcoming on these two for at least 3 years, so I guess it just depends how patient and/or frugal you are. Personally, I was too cheap to spend for the mature specimens of these two, since I already have the showy...
....and the yellow, seen here making seeds. But for instant gratification, I'd go with Raising Rarities, because they deliver! (And frankly, plenty of other nurseries charge closer to $100 for mature specimens.) Heh, the only reason I was ever brave enough to try and grow any of these was because the yellow grew and bloomed for me so well, after I purchased it for only $6 from Mellinger's in 2003, a mailorder nursery no longer in business. It may have even been wild-collected for that price, but I didn't know about such things back then, I just wanted to try and grow one because they are native up here. And it did take 3 years to grow to bloom size, even not emerging at all one year.
Blooms on my 'Luscious' snowy woolrush, a very cute little grass with fuzzy hairs on the leaves, and only about 5" tall...
...pretty iris mom gave me...
....annual New Guinea impatiens...
....I like the foliage and flowers both!
Japanese painted fern, overwinters in this aluminum pot every year. That's one tough cookie!
Hosta 'Christmas Tree', and this year my hostas are happily safe from the deer because of my diligent spraying program with Liquid Fence . This product works great against deer and rabbits, but there's one pest who's undaunted...
...slugs! Ack!! Creep!! This one got a toss into the river for fish food!
The damage is definately noticeable...
....why the straight line? Buffet-style? Oh well, I won't get too riled up if it doesn't get any worse, but I may just have to break out the beer traps. (Seems like a waste of good beer, though...unless I pick up some "Red White and Blue" beer or something. It's like $2 a case! ;-)
The other day while visiting my son in Green Bay, he told me to pull into this church parking lot, and this is what we saw....
....this plant is enormous! I think it's a colocasia, but I've never seen one so huge! Very cool.
Here's my confused hellebore, blooming at the wrong time per the catalogs...
...but apparently the right time for him. Fine with me, buddy!
We've had plenty of rain lately, so I get to see lots of these....
...making the river current wicked fast!
My mom gave me this strawberry begonia , and I like how the offshoot looks nothing like the parent, at least at first.
Of course what would summer be without these babies? The stupid flash on my camera went off inside the car, so I got this glare...
....and my next attempt is her "parting shot"
And as the sun goes down, mine too!
Happy 4th everybody!
11 comments:
Your plants look great. Mine got crispy fried because I miss one, just one watering. Durn.
Those lady slippers are wonderful! I think I'm going to have to buy some in a couple of years, once I get my nightmare from the last two years paid off. I also plan on picking up some trilliums. I'll expand my shade garden then and rearrange. My astibles are coming up rather closely to each other. I suppose that's what happens when you buy the cheapest plants you can buy. It's good to be patient when you're a gardener, then we can remember when our plants were babies and we coddled them!
Have a great fourth!
There a lots of interesting happenings in your garden right now.
If you look at the pattern in the hosta leaf it seems to be spelling out a message, "your hostas are mine, all mine." How wrong it was.
Your painted fern is very obliging to survive in the pot for you. Do you put it into a protected corner for the winter or leave it exposed?
I like the pretty lady slipper. I bet that plant gets an in-ground spot to ensure survival.
Happy 4th Lisa!
Your post made me smile as I have bought a lot of plants from some nurseries too recently. Quite a lot of plants, actually. So much so that I haven't counted them. ;-) But contrary to you I went to visit these nurseries as I am not that keen to get my plants by mail order. But I understand that by living in the USA you sometimes have no choice but to buy them by mail order.
Love that Ladyslipper of yours. A hefty sum to pay but well worth it!
Your new Peony is very pretty too although I understand your frustration about it not being as promised by that pic in the catalog. Grrrrrrrrrrr!
Deb-You know, I came home from work the other day on a mission to get some things done in the house, but as I passed my plants, they looked so dry like "Help us!". So I dropped my plans and watered. But let's face it, with a family and all your fun monkeys, this isn't always an option! So hey, we do what we can, and the good Lord does the rest, y'know? Less to care for all season then, eh? :)
Cinj-Oh yea, work in progress for a long time! Especially a new place...it's like I figured, just plant lots of natives with some favorites, and sort it out as you go along!
Northern Shade-Heh, I thought the slugs looked like they were trying for a "Charlotte's Web" sort of communique'! :) The fern stays pretty much in the pot and in the open, though it DOES sit between the house and screen house, somewhat protected from wind. But I don't move it in winter. The ladyslippers are in a small "hell strip" between the house and screen house, very protected from wind.
Yolanda-Heh, you know how it is with an ordered plant, "I just want my own way, dammit!" :) Ah well, pretty is as pretty does!
Love the ladyslippers!
I think I would have been angry about a nursery putting a photo of an uncompletely opened bloom as a representative picture of a plant! That is a little dishonest if you ask me.
Yea, I was miffed. Since I always have good luck with the plants they send me, it's not enough to make me stop shopping there, but I would absolutely get more info or pics from another site before I order an unknown peony again. I mean, if they didn't think the flower was pretty enough opened completely, then don't advertise that cultivar...y'know? (I really DID want a bomb-type bloom! :(
I agree with you on the peony plant misrepresentation. And while I like the bloom... it's kind of like drinking orange juice when you expected milk, even if you LIKE orange juice!
That might be a colocasia. Or alocasia. I get them confused. But Plant Delights has a "Thailand Giant" or some other kind of "--- Giant" that is bigger than people in the picture. So it could possibly a huge ass elephant ear, that's for sure. *grin*
(The half-memory... I think that goes along with the ADD on the way to work that you and I have now both confessed to. lol. I keep wanting to find one of those shirts, like the ones that say: "Runs with Scissors," or "Does Not Share Well," but have it say: "Is Easily Distracted!")
Yes! That's how it felt-I got orange juice when I expected milk! Great analogy! I think you're right about the "Thailand Giant"...that thing sure WAS a giant! Kinda cool to see a church under the influence of a plant lover, I'd never seen anything like that before. (Aside from plants associated with holidays or ceremonies.) I like the shirt idea, and if there's a garden blogger meet-up in Chicago or the midwest somewhere, I think we need GADS shirts! (With permission from the originator, of course! :) I forget, was it Carol at May Dreams, or Annie in Austin who came up with that? Yes, we need shirts!
I blogged several weeks ago about how I lost several dozen showy pink lady slippers after some 30 years of success in growing them. Have been putting off spending $100 per plant to start over. This is why I really appreciate your successes and the sources you indicated for your native orchids.
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH for this information
Wow, after 30 YEARS?! I will check out that post! Glad to help with the info, I always enjoy reading about good resources in other blogs as well.
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