Outside

Flowers for My Garden

Another trip to the nursery, another batch of plants taken home with me.

We already have the green velvet boxwoods and francee hostas for the front.

out front, in the shade of our big tree

And now we’ll have (clockwise from top left) purple dome asters, pixie meadowbrite coneflowers, ruby star coneflowers, and sweet dreams coreopsis. They’re all at varying heights, from 15″ to 36″. I still have to (re)prepare the side garden before I can plant them.

flowers for my garden

I feel like I have a direction now, but I’m not so sure about the burning bush and the crimson pygmy barberry bushes that I’ve put out there. They don’t really go together. I also put a cistena plum out front because I thought it was going to be more tree-like and less bushy (because I thought I saw the same plants in neighboring lawns). I think I’m wrong.

Oops?

I wonder if I could move them? I think Brandon would be mad if I just got rid of them (money wasted). Eeesh.

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  • Amanda
    June 16, 2008 at 10:06 pm

    you could always freecycle the plants you don’t want :)

    Those are all really lovely bushes. I love ’em.

    Our neighbors lost a tree this weekend and I was 1)grateful it wasn’t us because it was $1500 to remove and 2)devastated because I lost all my shade. Hope my garden does ok with it.

  • autumn
    June 17, 2008 at 12:37 am

    love all the flowers. as for the green velvet boxwoods, i just pulled up 2 of these because i dont like them. in their place a crate and myrtle and rose bush. but to each their own!

  • alivicwil
    June 17, 2008 at 2:40 am

    if you’re going to try to dig up your plants and move them, dig a lot wider and deeper than you think you need to go. Dig a trench around the outside of your plant first, and fill it with water. Then carefully dig up the plant. Transfer it to wet hessian (if possible) to stop it from losing dirt, and transfer it in a wheelbarrow. You can bury it with the hessian, if you like, as it will bio-degrade.

    I’ve never done it myself, but I saw it on Gardening Australia – can’t find a factsheet for you though, sorry!

  • Jessica
    June 17, 2008 at 7:12 am

    The perennials all look really nice together! You’ll have lots of pink in the summer. Might want to add a few plants that flower earlier in the spring so you’ll have color then, too.

    I would definitely NOT keep the burning bush and barberry. Not sure about your area, but in many places they’re horribly invasive and just not cool, environmentally-speaking. (Some states have even prohibited nurseries from selling them.)

  • michelle
    June 17, 2008 at 8:12 am

    Yea to Jessica! Boo boo to Barberry!
    http://www.nps.gov/plants/ALIEN/fact/beth1.htm
    Scroll to the bottom of the page for some great alternatives.

  • RobinCO
    June 17, 2008 at 9:15 am

    Great choices! Give the cistena plum a chance. They start out bushy but over time may be pruned into a lovely little tree. I, too, am not a big fan of barberry but our burning bushes (zone 5, northern Colorado) are absolutely breathtaking in autumn (but definitely NOT pink – very, very RED). I also like the foliage during the rest of the year. Have you thought about vines on your porch posts? I love the foliage on hardy kiwi (Actinidia kolomikta ‘Arctic Beauty’ z5-9) – it’s green with pink and white variegation.

    Great place, great blog!

  • Jen
    June 17, 2008 at 11:10 am

    I am horrible in the garden, so I think what you are doing is amazing. I love all the stuff that you’ve picked out so far.

    I can’t wait to see photos when you are done!
    Jen

  • Amanda
    June 17, 2008 at 11:17 am

    Oh, I love all that pink!! I picked coreopsis and coneflower for my side gardens, too, because they are supposed to be so easy and tend to spread and fill in. Plus, I love the daisy form of the flowers. I want some fall-blooming mums to go in there, too, but holy crap I’ve already spent a lot of money on plants this year…. if you are still looking for stuff though, Bluestone Perennials has a lot of stuff on sale right now, the plants I got from them look great.

  • naturehills
    June 17, 2008 at 11:33 am

    Great choices and it looks like you are a real pro. I love the purple coneflowers.

  • Tracey
    June 17, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Did you incorporate your metal sphere in the garden? I have one sitting in a birdbath entwined with grapevine, and I love the simplicity of it.

  • Making it Lovely
    June 17, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    No sphere yet – shipping would cost just as much, or more, as the sphere itself.

    I don’t think that barberry is the same as the one I have. Mine are dying off anyway though, so maybe the decision to keep or get rid of them will be made for me by the plants! ;)

  • Dustin
    June 18, 2008 at 11:28 am

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlap

    (I had to look up the term “Hessian” and learned something new! I enjoy your blog, and thought this might be a welcome contribution to the comments thread.)

    You might also have fun with Cosmos… there are some pink cosmos that would go with the look of your other flowers, and they are an inexpensive, readily-available seed.

    Heck, I might have some in the cabinet from last season! I’ll dig around when I get home tonight. But they are a “sow-and-forget” plant… throw them out in the dirt and they’ll do a surprising job of coming up and blooming right through the season.

  • kate
    June 19, 2008 at 3:21 pm

    i dont think there is anything more beautiful in autumn than the sight of the burning bush. *sigh*

  • paola
    June 26, 2008 at 4:11 pm

    You could really go with the Pink Loves Brown thing and add some chocolate plants. Lots of info on the Chocolate Flower Farm site http://www.chocolateflowerfarm.com/

    I’ve mixed some chocolate cosmos (deep velvety brown and they really, truly smell like chocolate) in with my coneflowers and they look amazing in late summer.

  • alivicwil
    June 28, 2008 at 6:57 am

    thanks, Dustin :)
    I’ve heard the phrase “burlap sack” on US tv/movies, and figured that it was hessian-like, but didn’t realise they were one and the same – or that you guys in the US didn’t use “hessian”.

  • Laurie
    July 10, 2008 at 8:53 am

    These are beautiful! What software did you use to create the group of four photos with the bubble dialog box in the middle?

  • Making it Lovely
    July 10, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    I used Photoshop.