Tag: Salvia ‘Blue Hill’
The Lurie Garden: After the River
The River of Salvia is an annual high point for Chicago’s Lurie Garden. This year, though, by the time I was able to visit the river had started to dry up, with most of the Salvias no longer in bloom. But even after the river peaked, there was plenty of excitement at the Lurie Garden …
Blooms of Mid-July, Part 1
By the middle of July it feels like we have reached the gateway to high summer in Chicago. Let’s see what’s blooming in the garden, starting with the main part of the front garden: the Driveway Border, Sidewalk Border, and the Island Bed. The remainder we’ll cover in a second post.
Along Came a Spiderwort
Now comes mid-June, and the garden is still in something of a blue period, tranquil and calm – at least in the sunny front area.
A Transitional Lull Between Spring and Summer
Tomorrow is Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, when bloggers around the world share pictures of the flowers in their gardens. In our garden things are a bit on the quiet side. The excitement of the spring blooms has passed, and the hot yellows and oranges of summer are yet to be. But there are still flowers to …
Blue Blooms Smiling At Me
We are now in that transitional stage between the spring and summer flowers. Lots and lots of foliage and buds, and lots of green. Beyond green, it seems that the dominant color right now is blue. This is not due to any planning on my part, it just worked out that way. The King of …
Delusions of Grandeur?
What’s your reaction when you see fake plantation-style columns in front of a fairly modest home, or a circular driveway in front of a house on a quarter acre lot? Do a bit of eye-rolling, perhaps? Then I must tell you that when I saw the grand sweep of Salvia (known as the River of …
Clip Clip Here, Clip Clip There …
This weekend I’ve been implementing a second round of cutting back my perennials. For some reason, whenever I do a lot of pruning or cutting back in my garden, I get a mental image of the Cowardly Lion getting a haircut during the scene from The Wizard of Oz when everybody is singing “Merry Old …
The Sidewalk Border: A Herbaceous Report Card
About seven years ago I dug up an L shaped length of turf, with the longer section along the front sidewalk and the shorter one along the property line with the neighbors. The result was a border in almost full sun, 4-5′ wide and about 25′ long. The soil was rich and moist, even before …
Sending for Reinforcements: New Plants for Spring and Favorite Catalogs
Yesterday the letter carrier brought tidings of great joy: two of my favorite gardening catalogs, Prairie Nursery and Forestfarm. Their arrival, along with several others of their kind, means that it is time to put in my orders for spring. And so here’s my intended line-up – it’s easy to tell I am focusing on butterfly …
