ABC Wednesday: Adventures in Gardening

This week we have reached the letter G which is for . . .

. . . A Garden Path !

I wish I could tell you this leads to my garden, but of course it doesn't. This path is located on the University of Illinois campus in an area devoted to various horticultural exhibits. If you would like to know more about this place, read on . . .

If you are a regular reader or have at least read my profile, you know that I retired about a year ago after many years of teaching. Retirement is wonderful and has given me the chance to pursue some interests that I never had time to fully enjoy before. One of my greatest joys this year has to been to take part in many Gardening Adventures with my best friend since childhood, Beckie. Since spring, we have attended two all-day workshops at a local gardening center, taken a Garden Walk sponsored by the local Master Gardeners, gone on many plant shopping expeditions (much better than clothes shopping!), admired each other's gardens, traded some passalong plants, and visited several garden spots. One of our favorites is the local Master Gardeners' Idea Garden located near the path pictured above.

Last week Beckie and I made our third visit to the Idea Garden this year. I've written about this plot before, as has she, so I won't go into all the details again. The Garden has been an educational journey for us as we visited in late March when only a few green shoots were popping through the soil and again in May when the spring bulbs were dying, but the perennials were just beginning to bloom. This time we were curious to see what was still blooming in the dry heat of late August.

It was a beautiful day, and we wisely chose to visit during the late morning before the bright sun made us uncomfortable. This time we parked a little way from the Idea Garden and started by looking at the plantings in an area maintained by the U of I's Horticulture Department.

The sidewalk in the first photo was bordered by coleus, fountain grass, and varieties of cannas, including these variegated ones.

A wide swath of Profusion zinnias provided a border next to the grass. I didn't realize until I wrote an earlier post about zinnias that they were such a butterfuly magnet. A host of different butterflies were swarming all about us as we walked down this path.

After admiring this pathway, we turned to our intended destination, the Idea Garden.

As we walked toward the Idea Garden, it was immediately obvious that there were plenty of flowers still blooming here. It was also apparent that this was the height of insect season as the garden was teeming with bees and butterflies.

Bees were enjoying the zinnias...

. . . and this flower--a phlox? This huge bee has been visiting my garden, too, and I think someone has identified it on one of their posts, but I don't remember its name.

And a buckeye butterfly was kind enough to let me take its photo. I was so focused on him that I didn't even pay attention to what flower he was enjoying.

Like all good display gardens, the Idea Garden has labels staked near each plant clearly identifying each one by its common name, Latin name, and specific variety. However, the plants had grown so much since spring that many of the labels were obscured. Probably most of you more experienced gardeners would easily recognize this plant, but Beckie and I weren't sure what it was.

A good friend not only shares your enthusiasm for common interests, but lends a helping hand when needed. Thanks to Beckie, we discovered this red-bloomed flower was a globe amaranth.

We didn't need to climb through the foliage to find these two tags, though. The smaller plant is a type of sedum, and the pink-tinged grass is called "Purple Love Grass." Since our main interest on this day was to find flowers that bloom in late summer and on into August, I tried to take photos of the tags of plants that interested us. I really like the airy look of this grass, but wish I gotten a close-up of the sedum tag as well.

I made sure, though, to get a photo of this plant's tag-- Verbena Boneriensis "Little One." Several of you have mentioned this plant before and said it really attracted butterflies. I'm curious, though; is this what your verbena looks like? Throughout the garden were some taller plants that I thought might be this variety of verbena, but we could never find a tag. The plants grew on slender single stalks about 3-4" tall with clusters of blooms that looked much like a verbena. They appeared to have been planted in one area, then spread throughout other plantings. Of course, I neglected to take a picture! If anyone can identify this plant by description without a photo, I would be very happy, not to mention impressed!

I didn't need a tag to identify this plant--a cleome. I took this photo purely for myself, to remind me what a cleome is supposed to look like! I was so happy when I found some cleome this spring and bought two potted plants. Apparently they weren't so happy with their new home, because they are both looking near death right now. I wonder if I can sneak some seed from this one later this fall . . .

All I could think of while shading myself under this giant sunflower was the song from "Oklahoma" . . . "Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day...the sunflower's as high as an elephant's eye..."

We had a great morning at the Idea Garden and, as always, left with lots of good ideas and even longer plant "wish lists." While Beckie's and my gardens are looking a little droopy right now as summer comes to an end without a raindrop in sight, this garden was a riot of color with not a brown stem to be seen. I must admit to a bit of garden envy every time I visit, but I have to remind myself that this garden is maintained by a group of people, not a single gardener. And there is someone assigned to regularly water the garden as well. So, while my garden will never come close to looking like this one, I can at least take advantage of their successes and create my own little showcase.

ABC Wednesdays are sponsored by Mrs. Nesbitt. You can visit her blog for links to more ABC posts or visit an anthology of many of the posts at ABC Wednesday Anthology.

A Passion for Purple

I have a fondness for alliteration, so originally I was going to title this post simply "Purple Passion" until I realized someone might reach this blog by googling and expect something quite different. Just in case there is still some confusion, this post is about purple flowers.


Last week I did a post about the surprising number of yellow flowers in my garden this year, but as I said then, pink and purple make up the main color scheme here. When I started gardening in earnest, I thought purple would make a nice complement to the coneflowers (which, of course, aren't really purple, but pink) and other pink blooms. Looking through garden catalogs and nursery websites, I was amazed by the number of plants which do have purple blooms. I have just a few purple perennials, but their size makes up for their small numbers.


If you have a little time, let's take a stroll around my garden and yard to look for signs of purple. But we'll make it quick--it's been typical July weather in Illinois this week, which means hot and muggy, and it's threatening rain at the moment. Please ignore any weeds that might peek through; the weather has made me a bit lethargic this week.

I included a photo of this Russian Sage on my bloom day post, but here's a larger view of it. This is at the back of my main flowerbed, which is where it should be, as it's threatening to engulf the Knockout roses in front of it. The sage makes a nice backdrop for purple coneflowers; you can see a few peeking through here, which are actually at the front of the flowerbed.

I read somewhere that bees are attracted to purple; that's certainly the case in my garden. The Russian Sage has been attracting all kind of honeybees, or some type of bee that looks like a honeybee. The bumblebees, however, seem to prefer this Walker's Low Nepeta.




This plant is only a year old and has grown to gigantic proportions this year. I'm not sure what I did right. The May Night salvia below is not in full bloom right now, so I had to struggle to capture this lonely little purple bloom. Unfortunately, in the sun the true color doesn't show up--it's actually a much darker purple. I also have two East Friesland salvia; these three plants are by far the bumblebees' favorite haunts. I haven't deadheaded these plants all summer, which probably accounts for the lack of purple blooms right now.

Even in the shade garden, there a few touches of purple, even though I didn't plan this. The hostas have shot up blooms this past week, including these lavender beauties. Some people have said they don't care for hosta blooms, but I like them. To me, they're an added bonus, a surprise, during the long, hot days of July.

I know everyone plants heuchera for their foliage, but I like their blooms as well. I'm stretching the purple idea a bit with this photo, but the foliage is much darker than it appears here, and the stems of the blooms are definitely purple. Besides, it's called "Plum Pudding," so I think that qualifies as purple.

Purple is such a dramatic color that it is surprising how well it goes with other colors. Besides pink, it also looks good paired with yellow. The sun really washed out this photo below because the verbena next to the yellow coreopsis is actually a much darker hue. This is an annual, "Purple Homestead," but I wonder if it might survive as a perennial in a southern garden.

Purple also pairs well with blue and even red. However, I just realized that I don't have any red in my garden other than the Knockout roses, which prefer not to be photographed at the moment. That's too bad; that's a color combination that appeals to me . . ."I will wear purple with a red hat . . ." Hmm, there's an idea for another flowerbed.

Moving on to my containers, the pink and purple theme continues. I've shown you this accent plant before--the purple-leaved Persian Shield.

And another favorite, heliotrope...

Purple comes in so many shades--try matching an accessory to a new purple sweater--from the delicate pastels of lavender and lilac to bright violets to the richness of dark purple. You can really see this in the different petunias growing in pots around my garden. There is the double dark blue supertunia growing in the porch planter, which is actually a medium shade of purple.

For a true dark purple, though, check out this "Royal Velvet" supertunia. Again, the sun is making it appear lighter than it really is, but it contrasts beautifully against the frothy "Diamond Frost" euphorbia in this planter.

But here is one of my favorites--the supertunia "Priscilla," a variegated double petunia that shows the varying shades of purple.

The best purple accent in my garden, though, is one I've shown you before, but only as a baby. The "Victoria Blue" salvia has just started to bloom. This is truly my favorite annual, and I have it scattered in many places--behind Stella d'Oro daylilies, in front of the coneflowers in my roadside garden, and here tucked in behind the rocks fronted with the coreopsis and verbena pictured above. I even stuck a few leftover Victorias in planters this year. We'll check on these in a couple weeks again so I can show you just why I like them so much.

Oh dear, it's really starting to rain now, and we didn't even see the Roxanne geranium blooming. Well, that will have to wait for another day. But do you mind if we grab an umbrella? I'd really like to show you a few more things other than my purple plants before we leave.

I didn't get to show these pictures of a couple daylilies for Bloom Day because I was too focused on my coneflowers. These are both passalong plants from my aunt who also gave me my irises, so I don't know their names. Like the irises, these lilies did not bloom last year, and I really thought they were goners. But they have been a pleasant surprise this summer.

Now that I know how beautiful they are, I'd really like to move them to a more prominent place to show them off. I'm worried, though, a move might cause them to wait another two years to bloom. What's your advice?

Well, here's another surprise! Where did this caladium come from all of a sudden? Apparently the bulbs I planted in late May weren't all drowned out after all. This is the only one I see, though.

The sun is peeking out again, and here's a little butterfly hiding out in a sweet potato vine.

He won't unfurl his wings so we can identify him. Could it be a monarch? I saw my first Monarch butterfly arrive on my coneflowers yesterday, so maybe if you come back next week we'll be able to see a real butterfly show.

I know it's time for you to go. Thanks for spending some time with me viewing my purple "majesties." I hope you didn't get too wet!