Garden Map, the Finale

Let's finish up the garden map so that next week, we can talk about plant sex.

Pot 15 -I've always loved this pot.  When I first started container gardening, I read about "The Thriller, the Spiller, and the Filler," meaning that each pot should have something tall and dramatic, something that spills over the sides, and something that fills in the rest of the space. I'm not sure how useful this rule is.  I tried it out only in a few pots, and they're all in the section I'm writing about today.

 

 The Thriller is the Jim Dandy winterberry holly (purchased in 2016 from ForestFarm at Pacifica), who is doing nicely after a bad year or two.  The Spiller is the ivy.  And the fillers are three hostas -Touch of Class, from 2016, which is looking better than it ever has;

Wheeee!, purchased in 2017;

and American Halo, purchased in 2018. 

The entire pot is thriving.  Also, please forgive that all the photos are sideways! 

Pot 16 is empty.

Pot 17 has a Berry Heavy winterberry holly.  Thriving, but not yet blooming.  Also sideways.

Pot 18 has the new Upright Japanese Yew as Thriller, more ivy as Spiller (ivy is excellent at spilling), and the Ghost Lady Fern (purchased from Wayside Gardens in 2016) as Filler.  All thriving. 

The Ghost Lady always looks dead in the wintertime, but then just explodes into fluffy ferny-ness every April.

Pot 19 has the Prince William Serviceberry as Thriller. 

I bought the Prince William Serviceberry in spring 2016, when I was still under the delusion that flowering trees would bloom in my garden.  Prince William has never bloomed, of course, because trees need sunlight to bloom.  Most years, he has some kind of rusty-looking spots on his leaves, but so far this year, he hasn't succumbed to whatever blight that is.  He's a sad little tree who doesn't grow much, and he's not much of a Thriller, but I'm fond of him.

The Spiller is the Creeping Jenny, which at the moment is just ground cover but which may droop over the sides of the pot as the season progresses.  (Creeping Jenny is invasive, so it's fine in containers but could be a terror in a regular garden.)  And for Filler, I have a Key West hosta (2017) and a Marmalade Lime heuchera (split off in 2018 from the plant in pot 26).  I don't know what possessed me to put all these lime-green plants in one pot, but they do look kind of nice together.

Pot 20 is a Dwarf Alberta Spruce that I got cheap at Whole Foods after Christmas 2017.  It's putting out a lot of new needles, which is nice.

Pot 21 is the Cathedral Windows hosta, purchased last summer at Van Wilgen's in Connecticut.  It's not growing as quickly as most of my other hostas, but it's surviving, at least.

Pot 22 is also a Van Wilgen's plant - the Christmas fern.  It's coming back in a small way, so surviving but not thriving.

Pot 23 has another of those self-seeded oak trees, but it's got lots of little leaves!  It's still tiny, but this is definitely my mightiest oak.  Also in the pot: more ivy (it's cheap and easy to grow) and a Redstone Falls heucherella, split off last year from the one in Pot 6.

Pot 24 is a windowbox with three hostas: Restless Sea (Agway, Connecticut, 2018); Electrocution (2017); and Pilgrim (not sure of the year).  Restless Sea is kind of taking over the universe here.

Pot 25 is the other windowbox, with Stained Glass hostas that I purchased bare-root from Home Depot in 2016.

And finally, Pot 26, with a Lime Marmalade heuchera that I bought in Connecticut in 2018.

And that's the garden!

Garden Map Part 3

Sorry for the slight delay - it was so rainy last weekend and I had a lot of errands and distractions.  But I want to continue with the Garden Map.

Here is Pot # 8.  It contains a Sky Pencil Holly, purchased from Forest Farm at Pacifica in 2018, and three Blue Mouse Ears Hostas.  The holly is looking a bit grim.  It should have glossy green leaves, but they're not very glossy and a bit brownish and some of them are falling off.  Surviving.  

 The hostas, on the other hand, are vigorously thriving.

 

Pot #9 is a problem pot.  I think there's a drainage issue; the soil appears to be compacted and tends to stay wet long after it rains.  I've removed the one hosta that actually came up this year, and transplanted it elsewhere.  The only other thing in this pot that's not a weed is a willow oak, which self-seeded in another pot last year and which I transplanted here.  It seems to be dead. 

My plan for Pot #9 is to prop it up on tiles to try to assist with drainage; rake the soil to make it less compacted and add new potting soil on top; and try again. 

Here's pot #10.  There's an Oregon Fern Japanese Maple, purchased from Forest Farm at Pacifica in 2018, thriving.  Three Glacier Ivy plants, purchased at the Union Square Greenmarket in 2018, thriving.  And three bare-root hostas, purchased this spring from Michigan Bulb, thriving.

Incidentally, of the eight random hostas I bought from Michigan Bulb this year, four look like they're Blue Mouse Ears, which I already had four of.  You might think I'd be disappointed, but you'd be wrong.  I'm delighted to have received random hostas I can actually identify, and Blue Mouse Ears is a star of my garden, so the more little blue mice, the merrier!

Pot #11 has a Marvelous Marble Heuchera from last year (thriving like mad), a random hosta from last year's batch of random hostas from WalMart (thriving), and a white swamp oak that self-seeded last year.  You can't see the oak (it's by the stake, but hiding behind the hosta), but it's beginning to leaf.  Not pictured: the Delta Dawn Heuchera, which should be back by the little white marker, but isn't because it's dead.

Pot #12 has a Columnar European Hornbeam, purchased from Forest Farm at Pacifica in 2018; a Curly Fries hosta, purchased in Connecticut last year during a visit to my friend Liz; and two random hostas from the WalMart batch. 

The hornbeam is really leafy this year.

Curly Fries has a very distinctive look for a hosta.

The other two?  A nice tri-color hosta that I can't identify.

Pot #13 is a Japanese Pieris, not quite as nice as the Japanese Pieris in Pot #1, but definitely
surviving.  Those reddish leaves up top are supposed to look that way; the brownish leaves lower down, not so much.

Pot #14:  a boxwood (purchased from Brighter Blooms in 2018) and three hostas.  Boxwood: thriving.

 

Mighty Mouse hosta (2018, Acer Farms, Connecticut): thriving.

Rainforest Sunrise hosta (2018, Van Wilgen's, Connecticut): thriving.  Possibly needs to be transplanted to a pot with more room.

 

Random bare-root hosta from Michigan Bulb: this one's a tiny little thing.  We'll call it "surviving" for now.

 

 Pot #14A: an Italian maple tree that arrived as a stowaway last year with a hosta I purchased.  It's beginning to leaf, so I'm going to call it "thriving."

Pot #14B: the Empress Wu hosta.  When fully grown, Empress Wu is one of the largest-leafed hostas around.  Like, leaves 25 to 28 inches across!  Mine is still a baby.  Might need a bigger pot next year.

More to come, later in the week or this weekend.  It's hard to believe I now have so many pots that I have to do this in multiple installments. 

More Garden Map

This weekend, I told you about what's Surviving, Thriving, and Dead in the six pots closest to my back door.  Time to move a few feet to the next six pots!

Pot # 5 - This is easy.  Fig tree.  Dead.  I am officially out of the Fig Business.

Pot #6 - the Taxus Helen Corbet (a Yew).  Thriving, and beginning to put our new needles at the end of the branches, which will be a much lighter green than the current foliage.  Also in the pot: Redstone Falls Heucherella and Apple Crisp Heuchera.  Both surviving and putting out new leaves.  Apparently the secrets to success with heucheras are 1) mulch and 2) a mild winter.

Pot #6A - the new Barberry, the new Champagne Heuchera, the new Lady in Red Fern, and the new Rhino Hide hosta.  All doing fine, but they haven't had much chance for anything to go wrong let, so let's call them Thriving - For Now.

Pot #6B - similarly, the new Poplar hasn't had time to be anything but Thriving - For Now.  It has no companion plants yet.

Pot #6C - a white swamp oak that self-seeded in another pot in the fall of 2017; I transplanted it to this pot in June 2018.  No leaves yet but there are little buds, so it's possible that there will be leaves soon.  I'll reserve judgment for a while.  Also in the pot: three nameless bare-root hostas that came from Walmart in 2018, and that are coming up nicely.  Let's say "Probably Surviving" for the oak, and "Thriving" for the hostas.  And then there's a small cast-iron statue of a winged cat, but that's not its best side.

Pot #7 - an American Hazelnut that I got from ForestFarm at Pacifica in the spring of 2018.  Putting out lots of little leaves, so I'm going to be optimistic and call it Thriving, even if I don't know if it'll ever produce nuts again.  (I got a crop of three last year!).  Also in the pot: a Snow Queen Iris from 2017 (dead, dead, dead); and two nameless bare-root hostas from Walmart from 2018, thriving.

The Garden Map

Once upon a time, it was easy to keep track of what was in my garden.  I had five or six pots, and each pot had, at most, four plants.  Those days are gone.

Now I'm up to more than 30 pots, and the only way I can tell you what's supposed to be coming up this spring is by consulting a document I call my Garden Map.  It's more of an inventory than a map, but it helps me remember what I've got, what it's called, when I got it, and where it came from.  Each pot has a number, and the Garden Map is my cheat sheet for what's in the pot.

I thought we'd do "Who's Surviving, Who's Thriving, Who's Dead" in groups this year, and we'll begin with the group of pots nearest my back door.

Pot #1 is a galvanized metal planter I bought from Gardener's Supply in 2016.  It contains a Japanese Pieris and three different colors of Astilbe plants.  At least, if they ever bloom, they'll be three different colors.  Right now they're just green.

The Japanese Pieris is blooming, which is a bit of a victory for me - since so few things bloom in my dark garden. 

So I'll put that in the "Surviving" column.  Why not "Thriving"?  Well, here's a photo of some Japanese Pieris plants on the sidewalk in front of a local plant store - so you can see how they really are supposed to bloom. 

If mine looked like that, I'd call it "Thriving."

Of the three colors of astilbe (red, pink, and lavender), all are coming up, so let's call them "Surviving" too.  But only the pink ones have ever bloomed, and we'll have to wait until June for that.

Pot #1A has three bare-root hostas that I  bought this spring from a company called Michigan Bulb.  "Bare root" just means you get a plant with no soil on the roots.  You soak them when they arrive and then plant them.  They're quite cheap - I paid $2.58 per plant for these, including shipping - but you get no hint as to what variety they are.  They're all coming up, which is all one expects a hosta to do, so I'll put them in the "Thriving" column. (One is coming up much faster than its friends!)

Pot # 2 has two Blue Mouse Ears hostas, which have been thriving in my garden since 2016 and look like they're planning to do so again this year.  The third plant is a Cherry Berry hosta, split from the one in Pot #3, and it looked terrible last season so I'm surprised it's coming up at all.  So two "Thriving" and one "Surviving."

Pot #3 contains the Laceleaf Japanese Maple Orangeola, which I've had since 2017 and which is doing quite nicely.  The leaves come in with a red tone and then turn green as they open up, as I hope you can see in the photo.  Thriving.

Also in the pot, a Cherry Berry Hosta, which again, looked terrible last season but is coming up ("Surviving"), a Bergenia Pink Dragonfly which appears to be doing just fine ("Surviving," and if it blooms again, it'll get a "Thriving" score), and an Oxalis, which appears to be the only plant in this group of pots to receive a score of "Dead."

Pot #3A contains the brand-new maple tree that I showed you last week, plus a bare-root hosta from last year's batch of Walmart bare-root hostas, and a new hosta, the Lakeside Paisley Print.

I'm a little embarrassed about the Lakeside Paisley Print.  Bluestone Perennials sent it to me after I complained that the Rhino Hide hosta they sent me looked dead.  And then the Rhino Hide came to life.  I tried to cancel the Lakeside Paisley Print at that point, but they had already sent it.  So good customer service on their part, and I will continue to shop from them.

Pot #4 contains two heucheras, Happy Hour Lime and Obsidian, both from Bluestone Perennials in 2018.  Both surviving and putting out new leaves, which improves my lifetime heuchera score considerably!  And also another bare-root hosta from Michigan Bulb, which is just starting to come up.