Talk of the garden


It's always fascinating to see which plants are going to get the buzz during a garden tour. This year the winners were the usual: henryi lilium, strobilanthes (Persian Sheild), and-a new contender-the Alpenglow hydrangea.

Now, this was interesting. Because they weren't so much admiring the plant as much as pressing me for what I add to the soil to make it the deep pink it is. This image does not really do that justice, so take my word-it is a very deep, true pink.

This is the damage that the changeable Endless Summer and other hydrangeas have done. People are just assuming they have to add stuff to create color-and in my experience that never really works, by the way. Just according to what I have seen: your milage may vary.

What I do is buy a named cultivar that stays the color it's supposed to be no matter what. I add nothing. But boy were people giving me an argument about it. It seems the gardening world (at least that portion that attends Garden Walk) now assumes all mopheads morph according to additives.


Oh, this oriental lily hybrid ("Amazing") got a lot of compliments as well.

Comments

Rhonda said…
Hi Lady! I don't know what you do or don't do to your flowers. All I know is that they are absolutely stunning. Take care and happy gardening.
Anonymous said…
That one is a beauty. What is up with the neighbor? Did he know about garden walk? Pretty funny that he parked that thing in the front on that weekend. It is a nice machine though!
I'm with you on refusing to try to change the color of Hydrangeas. I just assume they'll be pink or white & leave it at that. There are older mopheads that stay pink also, so I don't get why gardeners wouldn't know not all of them change color. Now if there was a blue mophead that didn't turn pink, that would be news.
Margaret Cloud said…
Your roses are very pretty. My sister gave me two starts of roses and they are doing very nicely.
EAL said…
Well, having complained, I must add that the machine was gone by 1 pm Saturday, a chimney that would have fallen through our roof is fixed, and the chimney guy cut back our cherry tree for free.

So all's well that ends well.
walk2write said…
I sure have seen a lot of negative comments about neighbors in various blogs the last few months. Thankfully, your post casts a seldom-seen, positive light on the neighbor situation. I'm glad the potential "cloud" in your day evaporated before it could dampen your spirits, and you benefited from it to boot.
Good name for the lily. Most lilies are amazing though.

Funny how people always try to make gardening difficult by adding this and that. They need to just relax and let nature take its course.
CiNdEe's GaRdEn said…
Amazing is a nice name for a lilly. It truely is too(-: I love hydrangeas and I am guilty of adding the blue stuff to the soil. (-: I only add it to my heirloom ones though. I am not sure if it works or not. Some flowers are blue some are pink.
Unknown said…
I have a friend who is so totally into plants .... He says he wouldn't even be a vegetarian if he had an option !!

He'd love to get a glimpse of your blog !!
Mama Bear said…
Stumbled on your blog a few weeks ago and have been reading silently for a little while. Beautiful flowers, and a nice bit of "letting nature go" thrown in. The perfection that some try to achieve with gardening is maddening and can only be done by someone with a full time gardener on staff. In the real world... Thanks for sharing your gardening prowess.
Bill said…
I was hoping for a more comprehensive review of your weekend-- I have never seen throngs like this year's, and I'm sure you had a pretty amazing crowd.

The whole Garden Walk phenomenon has grown into something remarkable. It's a grassroots annual tourist attraction, as much fun to watch as it is to partake in. Congratulations!
Anonymous said…
I took a class in ornamental horticulture years ago and the teacher said that only certain varieties of hyrangias change color according to the soil acidity level. Nikko Blue is one variety
Margaret Cloud said…
My roses are not doing so good this summer and I have tried everything on them, oh well, my sister gave them to me to transplant, maybe the soil is not right, any advise, thanks.
EAL said…
Margaret,

You need a rose book, but try for one that advises organic growing. New transplants will take some time to settle in.
Margaret Cloud said…
Thank you for emailing me and giving me some advice, I tried to find an email address for you but failed, so thank you again, I will go to the nursery and see what they have.
Stratoz said…
have not been by your blog for quite a while. I am glad to see your city did the walk again. I was vacationing their last year and said hello.

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