July 1, 2006 (Saturday)
Amy Morse, Bonnie Perry, Aziza Zaman

July 14, 2006 (Friday)
Special event!
Suzanne Mahler's Gardens

August 1, 2006 (Tuesday)
Katherine Taylor, Suzanne Balestino

September 1, 2006 (Friday)
Pot Luck Picnic at Gloria Freitas' house

June 16th Claudet, Beth, Suzanne, Marsha, and I began the first summer garden walk. We met at Claudet's house. The first feature I saw (and couldn't stop looking at) was the fabulous rock wall, which meandered around the front yard until it found it's way to the back. Claudet and her husband designed the house and gardens in 1985. The mountain laurel was opening its beautiful light and dark pink blossoms. Although the dogwoods and weeping cherries were not in bloom, imagination coated the trees with delicate pink blossoms. Claudet has quite the stand of oak leaf hydrangeas. She seems to have great luck just sticking the broken branches back into the soil, for new shrubs. We heard of a lilac festival in Maine, from which her lilacs came. This festival, should anyone be interested, is in South Paris, Maine, in May. He back yard is a bird feeder's paradise, overlooking the pond. A "volunteer" ladyslipper hidden behind one of the lilacs has just finished blooming.

From here, we drove to Newport for the Secret Garden Tour. This garden tour will be repeated in September for a different look at the same gardens. We had lunch in a little café on the way (I would recommend it, but forgot the name- but they had lovely flowers planted). Although I may have seen all I need to at the Newport tour, the sun was shining and we had a great time.

Join us July 1st at the next garden walk. I am pleased to note that all walks are at new member gardens.

Darya, Nancy, Aziza, Gloria, Cindy, Agnes, Monica, Suzanne, Billie, Joanne, Karen, and I started this walk at Amy's house. As we were gathering, Amy shared how she gets her plant labels to stay readable. She uses the metal labels and presses into them when writing, to form a groove. She then writes over the groove with deco-paint. The small bed nearest her drive has some gorgeous daisies, doubles, which I hope we will find at our next plant sale. I think she said it is shasta 'Aglaya' She has a very nice collection of spring and early summer pulmonaria and columbine, and a pink bee balm 'Marshall's Delight' which was very pretty. A sedum caught my eye- bluish- 'Metrona' is the cultivar name. I get a kick from Amy using cultivar names, since when we first met, she talked about flowers that were pink or blue (just kidding Amy). At Bonnie's house we were quite taken with her culvert, standing on her small bridge watching the water. Because of all the rain, it was flowing swiftly. We talked about the various plants that would do well in this kind of area. Mystery Plant we spotted there could possibly be a vibernum 'Korean Spice'. We finished at Aziza's. She has sassafras trees! I tried to dig one several different times. They do not transplant well because of a long tap root, but have wonderful color in the autumn. We saw the spring ephemerals I am so fond of- Mayapples, which are passing now. Quite the hot pink clematis, P.G. hydrangea and astilbe. We also got a lesson about the lily leaf beetle, which apparently lays it's eggs in the dung it leaves on the underside of leaves. Eeeuwww!

Friday, the 14th we will be going to Suzanne Mahler's house.

JULY 14, 2006 SUMMER GARDEN WALK

This morning Aziza, Vivian, Marsha, and I left at 8:45 AM to Suzanne Mahler's gardens in Hanover. On the way there, we talked about Viv's up and coming trip to Alaska, Marsha's trip to Israel, and Aziza's trip to Maine. We all know I only go to Onset in the summer.

Daylilies. Hundreds, maybe thousands, are the first things you see at Suzanne's house. They line the driveway and hide the brook running by. There are 20-foot long beds dividing up the lawns, both front and back. At the very front, is a large area of what I thought was lamium. Apparently it is lamiastrum. The difference is that lamiastrum has runners, so it travels a bit and is more leggy. Interspersed among the daylilies are other perennials (coneflower, hosta, astilbe, heliopsis, poppies, too many perennials to name, and also annuals. Coleus 'Molten Lava', C. 'Dipped in Wine', C. 'Sedona', and others are sprinkled throughout, adding color. One plant we were all taken with is the tatting fern, otherwise known as Athyrium filix-femina 'Frizelliae'. If you know what tatting is, you can imagine this plant. There was a very handsome native ginger with white/silver veins called asarum shuttleworthii 'Callaway'. An adorable tiny hosta, blue mouse ears. An incredible spiderwort tradescantia 'Sweet Kate', with lime leaves and blue flowers. Hosta 'Tattoo' has what looks almost like a watermark of a maple leaf silhouette. There was a teeny dwarf Japanese Solomon's seal that I never knew existed. She has Echinacea 'Sundown', 'Sunset', and others.

We got a mini class on hybridization and she demonstrated the process. Easy to do by swiping the pollen of one onto the anther of another. Label the flower just below the blossom with the parents, and watch for the seedpod, which begins to form in 24 hours. Once the pod is mature, remove it, take the seeds out and dry for about 1 hour, then provide cold treatment via refrigerator. Plant after the first killing frost or plant indoors in sterile medium (January). The first year it just looks like grass. You may have flowers the second year. Eye zones (different color towards the base of the flower) tend to be dominant, as does nice foliage. Blending red and yellow often produces a muddy color. Stella Doro and Happy Returns are the most flavorful. Pastels tend to be sweetest and the purples and reds more spicy.

Suzanne also works at 3 area nurseries. Next weekend is the Tranquil Lakes open house, FYI. We finished up this sunny, 93-degree day with lunch at the Hitching Post and a short run through Wyman's Nursery. All in all a nice morning!

Join us August 1st for a return to members' gardens.

Since Kathy had to cancel, Janet, Vivian, Nancy, Linda, Leslie, Sandy, Cindy, and myself met at Suzanne's house. Even though the street was very tricky to find, we all made it. Suzanne's house is on a little pond next to her mother's and sister's house. The water lilies were blooming. Part of the movie Mermaid was filmed there. Yellow flag irises three feet tall edge the pond along with some joe pye, porcelain vine, clethra, and cardinal flower. Lots of ideas were generated when Suzanne asked for suggestions of what to plant around the big tree (lamium or lamiastrum, sedum, and corydalis were some). In with the veggies was quite the specimen baptisia (maybe 4 feet tall). We walked across to the cemetery to find the very large and ugly ginko biloba tree.

Diane had to cancel also and so Linda offered to tour her yard. The cannas are huge and red. Honesty is browning up nicely and ought to be ready for NRT. They have a new harry lauder, which has red new growth. As always, the hostas were perfection. We all imagine our gardens at maturity. Well, prepare yourselves, because Linda's gardens are mature. Beautiful! And they are talking of another ten year plan to reduce their hostas to eighty in number and add hollies. Some of this project is already begun. Here, I will direct you to the August garden walks of other years. Linda and Richard have been gracious enough to offer their yard each August. I suggest you go to the oldest walks and read their progression for more info on what plants and hardscapes they have.

Joanne, Judy, Sandy, Nancy, Rosemary. Ellen, Marcia, Billie Mae, Joanne, Darya, Leslie, Helen, Gail, Lisa, Aziza, Gloria, and myself gathered at Gloria's house for a picnic and garden walk this past Friday. We had a terrific variety of food to eat, including a strawberry margarita pie (made with tequila and brandy). It is always great to have time to chat with folks and we did quite a lot of that. After lunch, we toured the porch and gardens with Gloria.

The views from all the windows and the top porch are fabulous! Gloria was not happy with the looks of the gone by daylilies and so she mowed them down. Now they look great! All the foliage has grown back and some of the rebloomers are putting up new flowers. The pond with lobelia (cardinal flower) surrounding it is lovely. We walked down to the fern gardens and vernal pool. The petasites is incredible! In the vegetable gardens included (until Helen took it) a 2 foot zucchini. It was a lovely picnic. Next year, I hope to have my brain in gear and do a picnic pot luck and plant swap.