Package from Netherlands

      In the end of last season I was saying to myself that there will be no more hosta orders in 2012... But there are so many great varieties out there that I don't have in my garden yet. Of course, I couldn't resist and placed an order for 8 more hostas to my favorite hosta vendor Hostaworld. I decided to add some larger varieties to my collection such as golden medium to large 'Dawn's Early Light' bred by Olga Petryszyn, golden large with piecrusted edges 'Dancing queen', blue large 'Fleet Week' with rippled edges, golden margined medium to large upright 'Alex Summers', large arching 'Arc de Triomphe', 'Lakeside Prophecy Fulfilled' - a white edged sport of 'Lakeside Prophecy' with heavily corrugated leaves, 'Frisian Pride' - a recent introduction of Bate Aukema from Netherlands and 'Lakeside Paisley Print' - medium with wavy leaves with a "feather" pattern of the narrow creamy center. Plants arrived in a perfect condition and look stunning. Tomorrow they will be planted in their permanent or almost permanent locations.

Spring is speeding up!

     Just a week ago spring felt very slow, but during last days things started to change quicker and quicker. One of my hosta beds is bursting with intensively growing spring bulbs.

     In this mix of Hyacinths I planted several bulbs that I saved from last year together with some newly bought. All of them are blooming fine except for 'Odysseus', the beautifully peachy colored one in the back of the mix. Its flower spikes are very prone to falling, which makes it difficult to appreciate the beauty of the flowers.

Hyacinth mix with Hyacinth 'Pink Pearl' in the front

Hyacinth 'City of Haarlem'

     I can't stop admire the brightest color of Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show Winner'. Here comes a close-up of the open flower.

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show Winner'

     Fritillaria meleagris are growing in that spot for a 3^rd season and multiplying steadily.

Fritillaria meleagris

Chionodoxa forbesii 'Pink Giant'

     Wood anemones Anemone nemorosa are wildly growing in the garden and popping up everywhere.

     Maidenhair Fern Adiantum pedatum is amazingly beautiful perennial in all stages of its development. Now it looks like this.

     Leaves of the oldest Astilbe growing in my garden are deep red this early in the season. The name of this variety is probably 'Erika', it was bought without tag and is waiting to be identified for sure.

     It's very exciting to watch hostas coming up in the spring. How well did they overwinter? How well did they feel last season? How much did they mature? Here are two favorites that obviously increased since last year.

Rhino Hide

Cherry Berry

Slow spring 2012

    Spring is so slow this year. After a few weeks of unusually warm weather in the beginning of March spring took a break and getting pretty late. But today it was sunny and warm for the first time during last weeks. My young dahlia plants spent first night and day out in the greenhouse.

    One of my garden beds is filled with early flowering bulbs and today they were happy to meet sun. I used my chance to take some pictures.

Iris reticulata together with Crocus chrysanthus 'Romance'

Crocus vernus 'Jeanne d'Arc'

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show Winner'

Iris 'Katherine Hodgkin'

    Perennials look very pretty when just unfurling from the winter sleep. Leaves are fresh and strongly colored.

Aquilegia

Dicentra spectabilis

Aruncus aethusifolius

    One of my favorite minis 'Cat and Mouse' shows 6 buds ready to unfurl. That's a nice increase from 3 shoots last year.

Hosta 'Cat and Mouse'

Karl Foerster garden and nursery in Potsdam

   Yesterday we visited an amazing historical private garden founded by Karl Foerster in 1910-1912. He is famous for his work in breeding perennial plants and Garden Phlox in particular. The garden is situated in German town Potsdam right behind the world famous Sanssouci Park.
   It's end of October but the colors in this perennial garden are as bright as you would expect in a middle of summer. The weather was a bit dull and foggy, not the best conditions for taking photos. But colors are shining everywhere anyway.

Upper garden

   This Aconitum carmichaelii is in its blooming peak. Very deep color.

   In the shady part of the garden is growing an impressive mound of my favorite grass Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola'.

   Low garden is full of well thought and colorful plant combinations.

Low garden

   Among lush perennials I noted some dahlias. Bishop of Llandaff is known for its dark bronze foliage. It doesn't need staking since the bush is not growing very tall. These characteristics make Bishop series of dahlias attractive for landscape designers.

Bishop of Llandaff

   Next to the garden is situated the nursery and a plant shop - a dream of any perennial enthusiast. The choice of plants is huge and prices are mostly just 50% of those in Swedish plant shops. Of course, I found some additions for my small Garden Phlox collection - bushy low-growing Junior Dream and bright orange-red Pünktchen. Choice of hostas was very interesting, a lot of well grown multiple shoot plants. I picked a nice plant of miniature Shiny Penny.

Plant shop

Field with hostas

New garden project complete

   A few days ago I finished a new raised bed for small and mini hostas. It differs from the beds that I was making so far. There was no digging or removing grass. Anyway it was not really possible to dig at this spot. The bed is placed right next to the trunk of a maple tree that is growing on a rock. Even weeds were not growing there due to drying out by maple tree. There was very little soil full of fine maple roots. To protect the new hosta bed from maple root invasion I covered the ground with double cardboard sheets.

   To prevent the planting mix from falling between the rocks the bed was lined up with landscape fabric. It also should help to prevent tree root invasion together with the cardboard. Now the bed was ready for filling up.

   Filled with compost and ready for planting

   My latest acquisitions found their home. I'm looking forward to see this bed next spring.

Perennials are flowering as well...

   Not only dahlias but some other perennials are flowering in my garden right now. About 2 weeks ago my only lily - Regal Lily - was beautifully flowering spreading amazing scent in the dusk.

   I have only one kind of Garden Phlox in the garden which I brought from Germany last year. It was not labeled, so its name is a mystery. But I like this plant very much. The clump is very strong. Leaves are dark green with no signs of powdery mildew which I see so often on plants sold in garden centers. Flowers are very fragrant.

   There are not many daylilies in the garden. I'm still not sure if I like them. I guess they need several seasons to become huge multiple flowering clumps that I see on pictures in the Internet. My plants were bought on spring sales as half dried root pieces, so I have to be glad that they are alive and even flowering on their second season in the garden.

El Desperado

Strawberry Candy

   Hostas are flowering beautifully but one is a stand out. It's Diana Remembered with its large pure white scented flowers. This kind of flowers it inherited from one of its grandparents H. plantaginea.