Recreating and Improving

My garden at my old house in Cary IL, in full June bloom. Purple clematis are climbing the arbors, which we couldn’t take out of the yard, darn. We have never found anything close to these sturdy supports since. Our Palmer house came with a bunch of clematis already established, much to my delight. A big Jackmanii and two more (variety?) which will no doubt bloom this year, since I am taking care to feed, water and weed them. And then I bought three more last summer and they are already budding. One has 7 future flowers, which for a teeny plant is pretty enthusiastic.

And yesterday I got a small Sweet Autumn Clematis to recreate this abundance. It doesn’t take long to achieve this mass of white blossoms. Only about three years. Once it blooms and goes to seed, upstarts appear in the strangest places and one has clematis enough to give away.

In the old garden I had boxes (raised beds) and put in things I knew nothing about, such as hardy geraniums. I liked the leaf and even when it bloomed I liked the leaf best, which seem to stay green or red all winter. In later years I discovered the Johnson’s Blue variety and I was hooked. We bought a flat of 32 last year and planted them on a hillside which got little rain or sun and most of them were overcome by neglect. Still five survived and I plan on moving them to a better place and nurturing them until they look like these beauties.

 

I loved the poppies in my old garden and had to have some for our new beds. Again I planted them in the wrong spot and I am pretty sure they are dead. However, I had one leftover which I put in the front and it is up and looking healthy, so as we know, if they are happy they will multiply.

Although I have tried to bring in familiar things to make the garden feel like ‘ours’, so many more things grow well here that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to have them. I will try and be smart about where they are planted, but in all things, we live and learn.