Hallson Gardens

Amen...

You're far too nice; I thought somebody would comment on the "unusual" combination of magenta pink azalea and chartreuse arbor vitae. I put the final touch on this corner by draping a shocking pink rose over the chartreuse arbor vitae, and planting a nice bright blue hydrangea on the other side; goe...

You may have a point C.; now that you mention it "sensitive" is not a term I recall being used a whole lot around me. As to blowsy, is this what you mean:

Well, maybe it's just the Shaw Japanese Garden that I don't want, and that I don't want it here in the midwest when it's 90 degrees and sweltering. Public gardens tend, by nature to be more open, with wider paths, and expanses of grass, and maybe that just stretched all the intimacy out of what I wa...

I just got back from St. Louis, and while there toured the Missouri Botanical Garden, including the Japanese garden. Now, I love Japanese maples, and it was a sobering experience seeing how those cute little maples I've been sticking in the woods right in back of the rhodys are going to get as big a...

Chris, My experience with toadies in 5a pretty much mirrors yours:( I haven't tried planting deep, so only protection is modest mulch)... Samurai disappeared after a couple of years, as did Gilt Edge, (and also Gates of Heaven). Emperor came back this spring very late and small after its first winte...

Yah, that would make more sense. What a neat thing to find blooming on your property.
Don

It looks like Cyp. kentuckiense to me.
Don

Got one more slipper that just opened up in the garden; this is Ulla Silkens, a cross of reginae X flavum. It seems a lot easier to grow than straight reginae.
Don

O.K., I promise this is my last post on your plant. I just realized the celandine (wood poppy) in my garden is the CHINESE celandine, Stylophorum lasiocarpum (I thought that sounded a little esoteric for a native), while your plant IS, I think, the native celandine, the lesser celandine, S. diphyllu...

I think the main thing with these anemones is full sun and they go dormant in summer so probably like being baked a little and dry. I'd try them by the road; they cost a few cents each. Blog-wise, if you're just mucking about with it, like me, you get them absolutely free, and can have one running i...

Well, it's like looking at somebody's baby; I also thought your anemone was pretty ugly, but wasn't going to say anything... it's probably kind of soggy from rain. Actually these are great little flowers, but they need their own little sunny spot, or they get lost or disappear by being crowded out. ...

Anemone blanda, Grecian windflower.

Don

You know, I thought of celandine (wood poppy) when I first saw the picture, but I went out and looked at some in the garden (not hard to do, as they do seed all over), and the leaves didn't look right for your plant. Your plant's leaves are more rounded, multi-lobed, and probably thicker. Celandine ...

I'll have to admit, the leaf IS a little off for plume poppy... I wonder if it could be some type of actual poppy??
Don

Plume poppy would get my vote. They spread like crazy! Pull it up and see if the rhizome breaks off, oozes orange juice all over your fingers, and the plant grows back without missing a beat... that will cinch it.

Don

We had 25 degrees a week ago, with everything in the garden almost three weeks ahead of schedule due to a very warm March, so my peonies were two to three feet tall, and other than a little damage to flowers already opening, the peonies were fine. The things that got the worst damage: hostas, ferns ...

On a lighter note, this is Cyp. andrewsii, a natural hybrid of parviflorum X candidum:

Wow, those are healthy-looking reginae! As to the deer, I'm sure it depends on population density of the deer, and presence of garlic mustard. My take (non-scientific) is this: the deer population in Iowa 70 years ago was only 500-700 in the whole state of Iowa, and lady slippers and other wild orch...

This is a new slipper for me, Cyp. Gisela, a hybrid of parviflorum X macranthos. I haven't overwintered this one yet, but it's supposed to be hardy, and I have overwintered another member of this cross with no problem at all.