An editor is a great thing. That person is an expert at taking miscellaneous ramblings and making sense of them. They keep thoughts in line and get rid of crazy notions that have no bearing on the actual text.
In many ways the garden designer has the same job. That person corrals and sorts lots of plant purchases (some times impulse buys), and puts them in order. She can add more of the same, or relegate it to a —–neighbor, friend, or enemy. She can figure out contrasts or similarities in color, shape or growth conditions. She may move your lavender away from your hosta ( a good thing), and place all the different types of hosta together so you can appreciate their differences. That great bouganvillia that doesn’t really go with anything else in your garden can have a place of importance by a warm south wall or go in the greenhouse to come out into a container in the summer to say ‘Wow’!
I go into my garden at different times of the year and edit.
I tried a tasmanian tree fern (dicksonia antarctica) for the 4th time only to throw away the stump again. ( I should have a grave yard for the darling little things with the date of demise on a stake above their remains). I wonder why I took that Lamium galeobdolon variegata from a customer that loved it then found it quite out of control at another site. Many people were wondering how to control it, kill it, and even annihilate it from the planet. I immediately went back and dug out every piece of it just to find it coming up again and again. I like to try different combinations in my garden and try out new plants to see if they are ‘client worthy’. Only great things make it into my plant palette for my clients.
This week I went around my garden to look for ‘edits’. I was excited to see the progress of some of my more unusual plants. I thought it might be fun to see if my readers might know what they are. Since I’m a little bit of a plant nerd so they might not be easy to identify. Let’s see what you think and if my editor doesn’t edit it out we will give a Starbucks card to the first person to get all three of them right.
Ready, set… Go!
Photo one growing in the shade of a Cryptomeria elegans. ( I know, I couldn’t resist a hint.)
Photo Two Just emerging in a shady place.
Photo three. Green flowers, green leaves, yellow centers. What could be better?
Photo Four. A sweet small tree about 6 feet high right now.
Ok …. so there is four. Couldn’t help myself. Leave a comment below with your answers and I will announce the winner next week. Good luck!
No idea
I can’t give detailed names, but here are my guesses off the top of my head: 1) heuchera, 2) another variety of heuchera, and 3) geranium. I’m probably WAaaaaY off ( :
Whitney
Hi Whitney Thanks for submitting your guesses. You will find a little happy in the mail. Check my next blog for the names of the beauties and some more ‘little treasures’