Wednesday Vignette

A datura, grown from seed that was a gift of Botanical Interests at the Portland fling, caught my eye with it's cute little star of a bud.

Which would open to look like this.  I'd no idea they were so fast and easy to grow from seed!  

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by blogging friend Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Click here to see links to others participating in WV!

Some Nice Surprises

Because of spider mites who love dry heat, this has not been the best summer for my brugmansias. This one was the hardest hit but the bugs seem to be gone now thanks to regular spraying with neem oil.  Though it has few leaves, the poor thing is finally blooming.

It's a little Dr. Seussian looking with mostly bare branches with blooms at the ends but they're still pretty.

Not to mention the wonderful fragrance!

The other day, I stopped by Windmill Nursery because I was in the area and was delighted to find that all plants are on sale for 40% off.  Later in the year the discounts go even lower but I couldn't resist this trio of Agave paryii var. truncata. Here they are potted up and ready to go out on the front steps once the scaffolding comes down.  (The garden assistant is painting the house - more on that in another post.)  They're hardy to zone 7 and I added a lot of perlite to the soil and they're in terra cotta pots so I'm thinking of leaving them outside this winter.  Do you think they'll make it in the rain or should I bring them back up to the covered porch for the winter?

In A Vase On Monday - Summer Souvenirs; A Seedy Post

As our recent windstorm seems to have blown summer away in a single day, (really! Daytime highs went from being in the sunny upper seventies and eighties to being in the wet sixties.)  it was time to bring the dried seed heads of Allium schubertii in from the garden before they started decomposing in the rain but where to put them?   As per usual in the outlaw household, they just got thrown into some random places.

Here they kind of dominate the dried hydrangeas.  Some of the allium were quite large this year!

Here they mingle with other allium seed heads, papyrus, and some Lunaria annua (Moon Plant, Silver Dollar Plant, etc.)

In trimming back some branches of the Paulownia tomentosa so heavy with seed that they were touching cars that parked in the street, I couldn't bear to simply throw these interesting seed pods away.  Since they were taking up space lying on the patio table, they got brought in and thrown into a vase  until I figure out what to do with them.

In A Vase on Monday is hosted by Cathy at Rambling In The Garden.  Be sure to click here to see her Monday offering and find links to the blogs of other participants.

The Garden of Pam and Karl Hillsenberg

Our last stop on the Federal Way Symphony Garden Tour was the Hillsenberg garden.  The Rhododendron Species Garden and the Pacific Bonsai Museum were also on the tour but having seen them before, we decided to skip them.

"Our garden is diverse and ever changing."

This grouping brought a smile!

There's some serious sense of play in this garden.  

There's always an Agave!  (parryi var. truncata?  Guessing.)

"It is structured by luck and what plants are willing to stay dspite the wetness of the lake, slugs, and an occasional hard freeze in late spring."

Beds full of cheerful blooms were everywhere in this garden. 

Someone seems to be sitting down on the job but look at the fire he built.

The back of the house. 

Fun stepping stones.

 View from the back of the house.  We all need a water feature like this in our back yards, right?

Interesting structure!  

"Each year  is a new combo of plant experiments and 'what's that?' is a common yard tour song.  The garden rooms offer different views and framing of beautiful Trout Lake." 

Thank you Pam and Karl for opening your garden!

I hope you all  have a tranquil weekend!

Rain, Glorious Rain!

On the heels of our big wind storm came rain, a few days of it.   We'd been lucky enough to have a couple rainstorms in August.  Add to that this latest rain and the soil is delightfully moist  for at least a couple of feet down.  (I was digging holes to get some of the plants  in the pot ghetto planted.)

Looking out from the back porch, the leaves were glistening with moisture. 

I felt compelled to wander around the garden to see the rain's artistry.  

Clerodendrum trichotomum continues to be a humming bird magnet (there are still some blooms.) Their diligent work has paid off in a bumper crop of berries.

Abutilon 'Red Tiger' 

Cotinus coggygria (Smoke Tree)

A tuberous begonia.

Papyrus

Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

The mirrors look quite different in the rain.

Summer rain is rare here so we love it!  Any unusual weather in your neck of the woods?

Wednesday Vignette

Last night, sitting on the back porch, I noticed this beauty who, back-light, seemed to be glowing gold from within, the simple magic of a porch light at night.

A flash revealed the beautiful pattern on her abdomen.  Charlotte (All spiders who spin webs on my porch are named Charlotte) is accustomed to a lot of attention and seemed to enjoy posing.   Charlotte, honey, if you're having your picture taken, either wear long pants or shave your legs.

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by my pal Anna at Flutter and Hum.  Click here to see her vignette and links to those of other bloggers.

The Unbearable Lightness (Oops, that's Whiteness) of Being

The other day, I was driving home from the grocery store, took a different route and came across this garden that is everything that mine is not.  Extremely manicured and with a very limited color palette of two colors, green and white.

On the right side of this picture in the middle, between the house and fence, those taller whit flowers belong to a canna.  Did you know that there where white cannas?

 These pictures really don't do justice to the garden.  It's quite striking from the street and the whiteness of the plantings with the white trim of the house really stands out.

Notice how the two trees in the background echo the shape of the house and chimney.  Happy accident as these were in neighboring gardens.

The fragrance of the sweet alyssum flanking the front steps was divine!  

Behind the box was a sedum with white flowers.

behind that, white geraniums (Pelargonum) and then yew.

Cascading over the retaining wall was a plant that I didn't recognize but it was charming.

Continuing around th side of the house.

A shade garden featuring the signature color.  

 All of the plants looked so healthy, happy, and well tended. It would be nice to have a bit of this control in my garden but alas, someone keeps buying plants in every hue and throws them in wherever there's a hint of space.  I could never pull this off but admire the gardener who does.  What do you think?