Morning Glories

A Different Garden Every Day

Even though the weather's dreary and cold, and I'm in my second-floor office with no view of my gardens, I'm gazing upon a gorgeous array of desert flowers. But that's just today. Yesterday it was a bold swath of grape hyacinths and white daffodils. And the day before that? Well, it's easy to lose track, but I think it was a striking close-up of a purple crocus hybrid.

This ever-changing botanical display is beautiful, inspiring, and brings me great joy -- but the flowers can't be smelled or touched. Why? They're featured in photos that serve as the wallpaper on my computer. And though the images change daily, they're all from the same source: webshots.

Webshots is a photo- and video-sharing website. Yes, there are tons of amateur photos on the site, but there is also a professional section called pro shots. Each day four pro shots are featured; I check them out daily and download the ones I want to add to my collection. You can also browse the pro shots gallery, which includes a large assortment in the Flowers & Gardens category including: top downloads, highest rated, newest, bonsai trees, daisies, fields, flower arrangements, flower close-ups, flower mix, gardens, lilies, orchids, poppies, roses, sunflowers, tulips, and wildflowers.

The basic level of membership in webshots is free. You can download a maximum of five photos per day. For $2.49 a month, premium membership allows unlimited downloads, access to some photos that are available to premium members only, and a widescreen download option.

I joined several years ago. And when my computer died about a year ago, one of the greatest losses was the webshots photo collection I had built up. Because my new laptop is widescreen, I upgraded my membership to premium so the photos would fit my screen properly. To me, it's worth every penny.

In fact, I've found myself more than once out in nature, admiring a particular angle or view of the real thing -- whether it's a garden or a sunset or the ocean -- and exclaiming, "Ooh.... That's a webshot!"

More Longwood Annuals

This is the last batch of photos from my recent visit to Longwood Gardens, where I spent my time in the annual section of the Idea Garden. Here's a map of the Idea Garden so you can see what it contains. The annual section (in the upper lefthand corner) is rich with inspiration and ideas, yet it is just a small fraction of the Idea Garden. And the Idea Garden is just a small portion of Longwood.

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Cleome 'Senorita Rosalita'
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Madagascar Periwinkle
Catharanthus roseus
'Cascade White'
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Globe-Amaranth
Gomphrena
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Lisianthus
Eustoma grandiflorum
'Flamenco Lime'
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Zinnia & Friend
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Bishop's-Weed
Ammi visnaga
'Green Mist'

This picture of the Bishop's-Weed may be my favorite Longwood photo of the season. There's a sense of tranquility, beauty, freedom and simplicity that emanates from this view. To me, it reflects the essence of summer. It's been a good one, hasn't it?

Related Posts:
A Word of Encouragement
Small Flowers, Big Impact
Stunning Sights at Longwood Gardens
Colorful Coleus at Longwood Gardens
Color Theme Borders (and More) at Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens Wish List
Longwood Gardens - Pure Inspiration
   

Small Flowers, Big Impact

All season long I've been collecting ideas of plants that would look at home in a cottage garden, because that's what I'd like to create as I develop my current garden areas and create new ones. I printed out a post called What Plants Go in a Cottage Garden? from GardenWeb and was pleased to find some of the plants already in my garden included there. I've also added some new plants from the list this season.

In my most recent trip to Longwood Gardens, I noticed a number of plants in the annual section of the Idea Garden that looked quite "cottage-y" to me. I puzzled over it a bit, identified the common denominators, and decided it was because they all covered a lot of territory but had small flowers. They were all plants with some height, rather than the low groundcovers frequently associated with the feature of many tiny blooms. I think this combination of rambling, mulch-hiding foliage with diminutive blossoms fits the cottage garden look to a T. The plants have a big visual impact, but through charm rather than drama. Here are some examples:

Marguerite
Argyranthemum frutescens
'Butterfly'
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Cupflower
Nierembergia hippomanica
var. violacea
'Purple Robe'

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Blackfoot
Melampodium
'Lemon Delight'
(the upper layer in this photo)
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Twinspur
Diascia
'Diamonte Coral Rose'
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As a result, I seem to have established a cottage garden principle for myself: Big plant, small flowers. (Not that all plants in the garden should follow this rule, but that plants following this rule will fit the design concept.) Got it! Thus the wish list is shaped by vision and grows (big surprise) ever-longer.

Garden Journal Options

I put together a garden journal at the beginning of the season that's a three-ring binder with dividers, lined paper, and plastic sleeves:

Earlier in the season, I kept a diary of daily garden activities, including tasks, projects and planting dates. But once the project portion of the season was over and I was primarily watering, weeding and deadheading, I stopped making daily entries. Too time-consuming, repetitive, and not helpful for future years. The journal also has plant lists by garden area, a "To Get" list, a plant wish list for the future and a list of future projects.

I've kept all my plant tags inside a plastic sleeve in the journal. I gathered what remained from last year and also made a 2007 collection. This alone is a great improvement over prior years.

I also use the plastic sleeves to collect articles and photos to capture ideas, inspiration, and plant sample photos.

I had imagined myself sitting out in the yard to write in and review the journal, but I haven't done very much of that. I also thought I'd print out photos of the garden and include those, but I quickly realized that would be way too cumbersome and time-consuming with the high number of photos I've taken. And I can view them on my computer just as easily.

So I'm thinking about what to do for my garden records next year. The options include continuing with a low-tech binder again, using a printed journal book, creating my own computer documents, moving to an online journal, purchasing gardening software, or using this blog as my journal.

Lee Valley offers A Gardener's Journal that is a ten-year chronicle of your garden. For a shorter-term view, still handwritten, there's The New Three-Year Garden Journal. Crane & Co. offers a beautiful Garden Journal with refills available; you can insert your own photo for the cover.

HomesteadGarden.com offers Printable Garden Journal Pages. If I go the binder route again next year, I would definitely use some of these pages.

On their web page, HMK Consultants offers articles on keeping a garden journal and creating a homemade garden journal.

Garden journaling software is also a possibility -- like Garden Tracker, which offers worksheets, reports, database, and creation of markers and seed packets.

Dave's Garden offers online garden journals. There are currently 4,501 journals on the site, so it's obviously a helpful and worthwhile resource for many people.

Of course, I could always use this blog as my online journal, which I already do in a way. I'm sure it will be helpful to review this year's posts in the future. I just don't think I want to keep all my information on the site, and I know a lot of it wouldn't be of interest to anyone but me.

The bottom line: I'll probably go high-tech next year. The handwritten journals are lovely, but I would need something more rough-and-tumble where I can scribble and customize to suit. I'll create a folder on the computer with spreadsheet(s) for planting & bloom dates, and Word documents for diary entries and lists. I'll include some of the printable garden journal pages and selected photos. I don't know that I'll ever print anything out -- the computer access should be fine. But I'll still need to have a place to collect plant tags.... Anyway, I've got some time to decide. Over the winter I'm looking forward to focusing on planning & design, and that's when I'll take my garden journal to the next level.

Color Theme Borders (and More) at Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens is featuring stunning color theme borders along the Flower Garden Walk:

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And here are some more photos from my visit on Saturday:

I particularly like this combination of dusty miller and sage.

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The layered look.

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A charming meandering brick path.

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One heck of a dramatic planter.

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All the beds in the Idea Garden are full and lush.

(More photos of the Idea Garden to come after my visit tomorrow.)

Longwood Gardens Wish List

I was organizing my plant "wish list" as part of some indoor gardening activities yesterday and remembered the photos I had taken on a trip to Longwood Gardens in early June. It's great to have this visual wish list right on my computer, courtesy of the digital camera!

Amsonia (Amsonia hubrichtii)

This is a large plant, with unique foliage and blossoms that are delicate but make a strong impact.

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Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia)

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Canna

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Catmint 'Walker's Low' (Nepeta racemosa)

Got it! I found this on sale at the Esbenshade's parking lot sale in early July.

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Evolvulus 'Hawaiian Blue Eyes'

I'm on the lookout for groundcovers to fill the "in between" spaces in the garden, and I like this one.

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Garden Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile)

This bushy plant looks so cheerful and cottage-garden-ish that I'd like to give it a try.

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Laguna Sky Blue

Another good groundcover possibility.

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Oxalis 'Jroxburwi' (Charmed Wine)

The unusual foliage shape/color and delicate white flowers make this a must-have.

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Sedum 'Vera Jamison'

Got it! Well, a type of sedum ('Autumn Joy'), in the Plant Swap with my sister.

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Here are some overview photos of the idea garden beds at Longwood:

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And, finally, this is such an unusual idea I thought I'd share it -- hydrangea as a groundcover!

Big Leaf Hydrangea 'Regula' (Hydrangea macrophylla)

The Indoor Gardener (and I Don't Mean Houseplants)

It's a triple-H (hazy, hot & humid) day with a "Real Feel" temperature that makes it too hot to spend hours outside working in the garden. So I've done my morning watering, cut some mint for a fresh batch of iced tea, and come inside for the day. While I count the hours until a dinner of fresh green salad, corn on the cob and watermelon -- all harvested, alas, from the farm market and not my garden -- I'll spend time on some of these Indoor Gardening Activities in air-conditioned comfort:

1. Finish (or at least make some progress on) my latest garden book, The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer. This has been featured far too long as "What I'm Reading Now" on my web page. It's a five-star book, but I've been slow and sporadic in my reading. I have a lot of other garden books on my reading list that I'm anxious to get to; plus, I want/need to know what's in it to do some of the other items on my list.

2. Get my garden journal up-to-date. I have a bunch of plant tags to process, adding the plant names to my garden lists. I also want to evaluate the journal as a whole, which is new this year and in the form of a three-ring notebook. I have some new components to add (blooming date records, for example) and want to consider going high-tech next year with garden software, an online journal, or computer documents in Word and Excel.

3. Flesh out my wish list of plants. This means gathering all the notes I've scribbled here and there, both electronically and via old-school pen and paper, and capturing them all in one place.

4. Catch up on my garden blog reading. I learn so much from the all gardeners who are more experienced than me and are generous enough to share their knowledge. And I get great ideas from the projects, plant combinations and garden layouts that I see when visiting other garden blogs. I mean, who could read a post like this without being inspired?

5. Do the online research that's needed for making decisions and solving problems. For example, my salvia in the side border has become overgrown to the degree that I will be embarrased to show it in the upcoming evaluation & overview post. I have to figure out whether it's best to cut it back, divide it, or move it somewhere else.

6. Create layout sketches of my garden areas indicating what's currently growing in each. Although that's documented by photo, I want to use some of the design principles I'm learning to plan where my new items will go. I'm no artist, but I think it'll be helpful no matter how rough the drawings are.

7. Review my garden catalogs and magazines. Some are awaiting their first read and others have been saved for a second look. As I gather my wish list items and coalesce design ideas for next season, it will be fun to see what refining (or additional) ideas will surface.

8. Do some task planning for the coming days/weeks and the upcoming season. Re-do my morning walk-about in my head and note the immediate needs. Think longer-term for fall transplants and other cool-weather projects.

9. Organize my garden photos. I have over 600 photos from this season alone. They're all tagged in Photoshop Elements, but I'd like to create a collection for each garden area, so that as the seasons pass I can easily track progress and changes.

10. Daydream. A favorite quote says: "... inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness." (Brenda Ueland)

Of course, it's not possible to get all of these items done, or necessarily even begun, today. But I can focus on a few, using this indoor time to savor the past, review the present, and plan the future of my garden. Now all that's left is to get a glass of that fresh mint tea and begin!

Do you have a fun, necessary or helpful indoor garden activity to add to this list? If so, please leave a comment!

An Outing Featuring Shop Gardens (Rather than Garden Shops)

An outing on Saturday took me to two of my favorite shops: The Cinnamon Stick in Hereford (PA) and Aunt Daisy's in Emmaus (PA).

The Cinnamon Stick has an herb garden and a number of planters. My favorite was the coleus group in a rustic trough out front. I particularly like the lacy variety in the center. This idea goes on the "future plans" list, and I like the way it looks in a long container rather than a round one.

Aunt Daisy's has a stunning summer garden in the back yard.

The garden has a border around the perimeter and three beds in the middle.

There are large drifts with everything in bloom -- obviously the result of great planning and design.

The garden features three birdhouses:

...and a charming rustic entry/exit:

I spent as much time outside enjoying the garden as I did shopping inside the store!

Online Armchair Garden Tours

One of the occupational hazards for gardeners is the frustration of divided attention on the road. Attempting to analyze and enjoy the beautiful gardens you drive past can be downright dangerous. And slow, scenic drives just don't seem to fit into our busy American culture anymore. But observing the great gardens that are created by "real people" is both fascinating and inspiring.

HGTV.com has a fun feature that allows you to take garden tours from the safety and comfort of your desk chair -- or even your comfy chair, if you have a laptop. Rate My Space - Gardens gives you close-up views of 270 (as of 7/5/07) outdoor spaces. You can rate each space and also post photos of your own space for ranking. Categories for viewing include Most Recent, Most Viewed and Top Rated.

I've been checking out some of the photos and it is fascinating and inspiring. But since my own garden spaces all seem to be in the early, middle, or yet-to-begin stage, I don't think I'll be posting any photos just yet.

Plant Collage Idea

Here's a nifty idea that I noticed as kind of a "one-stop-shopping" item at Esbenshade's Garden Center this week:

Most container gardening focuses on varying heights for dimension and drama. But I love this arrangement of low-profile plants that looks like a plant collage. (I didn't take down the names of the plants, but the tags show Saxifraga positioned at 6:00 and Arabis positioned at 5:00.) Now I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a large, shallow container so I can create my own plant collage.