Friday, June 12, 2015

Everything But The Joe Pye

The Louisiana iris are the last iris to bloom. I have two patches of this Black Gamecock. The much bigger patch is only showing one bloom spike so far. I hope it does better than that.

I may have more Louisiana iris. There were some left overs from a pond cleaning then stream side planting that came home with me last year. They are all growing well except for the one I beheaded with the weed whacker. They may not bloom this year and it is possible that in the tangled mass of muck and iris, I really got some Japanese iris. I need to compare the foliage. There is a bit of difference between the two.





















This orange lily was evicted from a client's garden during her "I don't want no stinkin' perennial flowers that need dead heading" phase. I brought it home. Things have changed now that her garden has been brought under control, gets regular maintenance and someone else dead heads the flowers. Now I hear, "I think I need some more color." She is not getting her orange lily back. One very nice yellow one like this variety survived in her garden.





















I came home a little earlier today and started one of my only day off Sunday chores of weeding the evergreen ground cover Cotoneaster dammeri 'Streib's Findling'. I don't want it to get smothered and shaded out by the Lush. Everything goes but the Joe Pye. I'm not giving up my Joe Pye.

I was weeding across the top and ran into a buried nest of yellow jackets. I got stung twice before deciding to move down to the bottom of the slope to weed.

I've been watching to see where the entry hole is. They are going to get zapped. I need to get my cotoneaster weeded.





















Joe Pye has been self sowing all over the Tall Flower Meadow. I have been seeing new plants in a lot of places. The original patch it all started from has completely relocated lower down the slope. I think it went looking for more water. Why that is necessary when it rains almost everyday I have no clue. Maybe it was sitting on top of a big rock.

It doesn't really matter. There is ten times as much Joe Pye now as when it was first planted.





















A proper garden still eludes me. It always will. I can't wrangle the Lush into submission and I don't have the time or resources for mulched beds and fancy perennial borders.

I'm doing a mad dance with the wild things and things that turn wild when set free. I am trying to sculpt mass, texture and repetition into a living and ever changing organism. I want to convince the Tall Flower Meadow it can be the colors and canvas of art.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

Joe Pye is one of my late summer favorites. You would think your tall flower meadow would also house some turks cap lilies, courtesy of Mother Nature.

Sallysmom said...

I bought Little Joe last summer. This summer it is twice as big as last with not a bloom in sight.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Your painting is coming around. I hear your Gentle Plea for Chaos. It is working.

Lola said...

Love Joe Pye. It all look good.

beverly said...

I think you have done a marvelous job taming and shaping the Lush (the name makes me smile) and some day you should write a book about it. Others should heed this lesson of working with nature instead of against it.

Christopher C. NC said...

Dana the Turk's cap lilies are down in the forest and the garden next door. None for me until I go fetch them.

Sallysmom Joe Pye bloom at the end of summer. Mine start in August.

Slowly but surely it is working Lisa.

Lola Joe Pye is one of my favorites. It is such a unique color.

Bev the other option available to me on my budget would involve too much mowing and too much spraying and it would be ever so boring. A mad dance with nature is much more entertaining, filled with beauty and full of surprises.