Clematis Josephine Blooming For Fertilizer Friday

It's Fertilizer Friday and everyone is flaunting their flowers so when ya get
done here be sure to link over to Tootsies place from the bottom of my page and
see what she and everyone else is up to.
Today the star of my show is Clematis Josephine. First, because she is so beautiful with her huge pom pom in the center and second, because last year we thought we lost her after her move
the year before. Now I'm thinking maybe she's going to be happy here after
all.
I showed one of the Peony blooms but now more have opened so I'm showing it
again. The pink ones haven't opened yet.
Red Valerian is getting ready for it's all summer show. It just keeps giving and
giving.

I think my new Lilac, the dwarf Miss Kim is opened completely up now. She looks
pretty with the lavendar Siberian Irises behind her.

Heuchera Snow Angel is getting ready to bloom. I discovered this one in Tina's garden.

The Bleeding Hearts are barely blooming and later than everyone elses as usual, even
my neighbors. It will be moved in the fall to a happier home.

Columbine Cardinal Song.

Not sure who this Columbine is but it's frilly and dainty.

Hardy Geranium

Snow In Summer with some Dianthus behind it.

One of the Verbascums.

A pink Lupine this week is on the way.

My Columbine that blooms 2 different colors.

The clumps of little wild Irises pop up all over my woodland garden and some along
the edges of the yard.

I've seen black Lithodora all over our county. That cold week we had tried to kill it
off for everyone but black or not it still bloomed and is turning green now.

Rosa 'Veilchenblau' and Surprise In Greenhouse

'Veilchenblau' is a hybrid floribunda Rose cultivar that was bred in Germany in 1909. Other names include 'Blue Rambler', 'Blue Rosalie' and 'Violet Blue'. It is one of the bluest of the old rambling roses. The cultivar is a near-thornless climber, growing approximately 12 feet tall by 12 feet wide and is hardy in zones 5-9. The flowers are small, semi-double mauve or a mauve blend and have a fragrance reminiscent of Lily-Of-The-Valley.


My Veilchenblau is growing - hopefully it will continue to grow and bloom well this year and the deer will leave it alone. Looks like we're going to have to lasso it to bring it back down to the lattice – at least the deer can’t reach it there. Last year just starting to bloom.
A friend of mine owned a nursery down the road for years until she retired. She had this rose climbing up over one of her greenhouses. It isn't the prettiest but it goes crazy with blooms and the color was right for me so I had to have one. When she finally did a few starts to sell I jumped at the chance to buy one. Here's a picture of her Veilchenblau. Click on this picture to really see those gorgeous blooms.
I was out puttering around in the greenhouse and watering some plants. I pulled out a tray to water the back ones and look what I found.
The day before I had seen one of the rose colored finches fly in there and then fly in again but completely forgot about it by the next day. I hated to take the nest out but I know they wouldn’t like it with me in there all the time so I put it in one of my Lilac trees for a decoration.
Speaking of which, the lilac tree is getting ready to bloom.

Take Cuttings 3rd Week In July For Best Results

I read an article by local garden expert Marianne Binetti 3 years ago about taking cuttings from your shrubs and perennials during the third week in July and I've been doing that ever since. In fact I've been prepping to get ready for that week to make things go a little faster for me. Cleaning out the greenhouse and making room for about 50 or so starts. Getting soil in the pots so I don't have to take my precious cutting and planting time to do that. Just little things to speed up the process.

She says the third week of July is a great time to save some money and make new plants from your favorite shrubs and perennials. Dirt cheap gardeners know most plants can be started from stem, root or leaf cuttings, and the secret to making new plants is to just keep cutting, poking the stems into soil and seeing if they "take" or form roots.

She said her lazy gardening method is to poke the pruning crumbs of freshly trimmed lavender, sage, ueonymous and other perennials with stiff stems directly into the moist soil near the mother plant. She pokes a half dozen stems into the ground and maybe one will survive if she remembers to water. You've got nothing to lose and new plants to gain.

Stem cuttings of shrubs are also easy to make and July is the month to take softwood cuttings of abelia, azaleas, camellia, choisya (Mexican Orange) heather, hydrangea, dogwoods, kerria, mock orange, potentilla, weigela, wisteria and any other shrubby plant that you would like to share or disperse around the garden.

Here are the three easy steps to free plants:
1. Choose a shoot of branch that is soft or pliable. It should be flexible enough to bend and not snap which is why these summer cuttings are called "softwood." Look for branches no thicker than a pencil. Snip off the soft and floppy tip growth from your cutting, leaving a stem about six inches long.
2. Next, strip off the lowest leaves and poke the stem into a pot of rooting medium. Easy-to-root shrubs like hydrangea, willow and forsythia will root if you poke them into the moist potting soil that holds your flowering annuals or perennials. As long as the soil is moist, drains freely and is not being blasted by the hot afternoon sun, the cuttings have a chance to form roots. If you're willing to put in a little more effort, fill a pot with equal parts peat moss, sand and Perlite. The peat moss keeps the mix moist while the Perlite and sand allow for free drainage so air can get to the developing new roots. Insert several cuttings into one pot so the lower half is underground and the top half of the cutting, with at least one pair of leaves, is above the soil level. Remove any leaves that will be covered with the soil, and pinch out any flower buds.
Tip: Most cuttings rot and fail due to fungal infections. Use a clean knife when you take the cuttings and make sure your pots are clean as well. Fresh potting soil or a sterile peat moss and Perlite mix helps banish the fungus.
3. Now you need to keep the rootless cuttings from wilting. Store the pot in a shaded place and keep the soil moist. Mist the foliage if it starts to wilt but do this in the morning so you don't have damp leaves overnight. Some gardeners cover the newly stuck cuttings with a plastic bag (poke a few air holes in the plastic for better air circulation). Shrub cuttings taken this summer should have roots and be ready for transplanting into the garden by next spring.
Dirt Cheap Tip: Professionals use a rooting hormone to increase the odds of their rooting success. Dirt cheap gardeners can use the natural power of willow water. Just cut up sections of willow stems (any type of willow from weeping willow to pussy willow) and soak in a small amount of water. Insert your just-cut stems into this water for 24 hours. Then pot them up and water with the remaining willow water. All willows contain salicylic acid, which is a natural rooting hormone - for free.

Some of the plants I've started are:

Lacecap Hydrangea
Lilac Trees
Weigela
Soapwort
Guara
Mallow
Butterfly Bush
Azalea
Red Valerian