q is for quandie

Good morning from the garden!

I think I’m beginning to realize that June is my favorite time in the garden.  Everything looks lush and green.  As long as we’ve avoided getting any hail damage that is.  It was touch and go this year, but so far all of the hail storms have missed my garden (knock on wood, summer isn’t over yet).

But then July arrives, and so do the garden pests.

After a big rain storm the other day, I decided to take a stroll around the garden to see how everything came through the storm.  I was relieved to see that there wasn’t any damage at all … from the storm that is.

But then I started looking closer.  I wondered, ‘why does it look like I did such an uneven job pruning my Quick Fire Fab hydrangeas?’  I didn’t remember them looking quite so chopped off after I did that back in April.

That was when I realized it wasn’t me, it’s the damn deer!  They’d been eating the buds off my Quick Fire Fab.  Argh!

Now I’ve had paniculata hydrangeas in my garden for probably around two decades.  As you know, I have several Limelights and a Strawberry Vanilla.  The deer have never once munched on those.  Why this one?  And why have they waited until I put in an entire hedge of them?  So frustrating.

Fortunately now that the flowers have opened up a bit, they seem to have lost interest.  I guess they only like the tasty new buds.

As I was walking away from the hedge, a flying insect caught my eye.  Sure enough it was a Japanese Beetle.  Yep, they’ve arrived as well.

Over the years I’ve tried to eliminate the plants that they like best.  I’ve pulled out roses, grape vine, Virginia Creeper, a weeping cherry tree and hollyhocks.  A couple of years ago I thought perhaps I was free of them.  But then I discovered them on my ferns.

What the heck?  Nothing online says that they like ferns.  In fact some sources specifically say they don’t like ferns.  I beg to differ.  Perhaps they are choosing them as a last resort since I removed everything that they like.

I have a very large bed of ferns.

Removing them would be a massive undertaking.  Plus, I really like them where they are.  So I definitely won’t be taking them out.  So I have to admit, I’ve resorted to spraying for the beetles.

In addition to the ferns, the Japanese beetles are also attacking my Princeton Gold maple.

I just planted that tree in June of last year.  When I was in the process of choosing what tree to plant, I purposely tried to avoid those that attract the beetles like Linden trees for example.  Back when I had the day job there was a row of Linden trees outside my office window that were absolutely loaded with the beetles every summer.  It was gross.

Having read that Japanese beetles don’t really go for maple trees, I thought I was safe with this one.  It’s only now that I have read that although beetles don’t bother red maples, they love this one.

I’ve also noticed that I’m starting to see some damage on my hostas now.  I used to always think it was slugs that ate my hostas, but now I believe it’s earwigs.

Apparently slugs leave a visible slimy trail (ewwwww!), and I don’t see much of that.  Plus, I’ve seen the earwigs, so I know they are present.

After a particularly bad year for hosta damage two summers ago …

I switched from using regular Sluggo to Sluggo Plus which has Spinosad added.  The Spinosad is for the earwigs.  As a result I had significantly less damage on my hostas last year.  I definitely need to keep that up this year.

Lastly, let’s talk about the worst of my garden pests, the jumping worms.

Jumping worms hatch in late spring, but they are too small to be noticeable at first.  They grow to full maturity by mid to late summer.  It has only been in the last week or two that I have started noticing them in the garden while weeding.

If you aren’t familiar with jumping worms, here is an excellent article giving detailed information about them.  But summarized, the worms are bad and you don’t want them in your garden.  And once you have them you are screwed.

OK, maybe that’s not quite exactly what the article says.  But so far the only way to minimize the impact of the worms on your garden is to handpick them, place them in a sealed container, set them in the sun to die and then dispose of them.  Gross.

However, contrary to popular belief, the worms do not eat your plants, or the roots of your plants.  They do rob your soil of nutrients though, and they also change the texture of the top 2″ or so.  This change causes your soil to dry out much more quickly.  It makes germinating plants from seed tricky.  It can also make it difficult for shallow rooted plants like Stonecrop to thrive.  I had a patch of stonecrop that went from this …

to this …

In other words, it all died.

That being said, most of the plants that I have in my shade garden are doing just fine despite the worms.  That area is filled with lots of well-established hostas that don’t seem to be suffering at all.

So this post isn’t all doom and gloom.

I’ll leave you with a couple of the things that are looking really good right now starting with this Sphaerocephalon Drumstick allium.

I planted that back in fall of 2022 as a bulb (ordered from Longfield Gardens), and this is the first year that it has actually looked good.  I will warn you that they do require some support or they just flop over.  But now that they are a little more established, I am loving them.  Also on the plus side, all alliums are fairly pest resistant.  Deer and rabbits won’t touch them, and it seems that neither will Japanese beetles or earwigs.

My Hummelo Betony is looking pretty darn good this year too.

I planted those in 2023.  Clearly it’s true what they say about most perennials, they don’t really fill out and look their best until year 3.

Also looking fantastic right now is the astilbe in my front garden.

I’ve had this particular astilbe for many years (and sorry, I did not keep track of its name), and it had been moved around quite a few times.  It wasn’t until I put it in this north facing, somewhat wet shade with a bit of evening sun that it really took off.  I’ve divided it a few times and now have a fairly good sized patch of it.

Lastly I’ll share what has become one of my favorite annuals this year.

That is called Sea Salt artemesia (Artemisia ludoviciana), and I just love it.  It supposedly thrives in hot, full sun but I have it in my front window box (just above those astilbe) which is mostly in the shade and it seems to be loving life there.

I also put it in the planters on my deck which are mixed sun and shade, and it seems to love that spot too.

I have noticed that they don’t like to be too wet, but I think pairing them with a water-hogging hosta in this pair of planters has worked out well.

With that, I need to get out in the garden and battle some more pests before it gets too hot.  We’re expecting a high of 94° today.  That’s way too hot for my northern blood, how about you?

Good morning from the garden!

Do you remember back in spring 2025 after what I’m now calling ‘the bad winter’, I had a section of garden that just simply died out completely?

I’d had a gorgeous Sun King Aralia in that spot, here it is the summer before the ‘bad winter’ …

I also had several hostas and a white astilbe that didn’t make it through that year.

As I’ve mentioned, probably too many times, that winter was particularly hard on plants due to lack of snow cover.  Nonetheless, I’d never had a complete area die out like that before.  And why that spot?  It’s up close to the house, so that should have protected it.  Areas on either side of it were fine.  I guess I’ll never know.

Last summer I replanted the area with another Sun King Aralia (a.k.a. Japanese Spikenard).

I also added in a couple of Younique Ruby Red astilbe, some white fernleaf bleeding heart and a hosta that my neighbor nnK’s mom shared with me (thanks again for that Judy).  I also filled out the area with some Impatiens since the perennials take a couple of years to fill in.

Now here we are another year later …

Everything came back again just fine except for the bleeding heart.

The Sun King has absolutely flourished, as have those gorgeous astilbe.

They are the prettiest shade of pink.

I may have to move them a bit though because they are being taken over by the Sun King.

This year I decided to add in some white impatiens rather than the hot pink from last year.  White is more my style, although I realize that many of you may prefer the more vibrant colors.

This is also where I planted the Brunnera plugs that I purchased at Dragonfly Gardens this spring.

I absolutely love the way Brunnera looks when it’s in bloom in early spring …

Hint, it’s the blue flower in the lower right.

Plus, once the flowers are gone the foliage of the plant can be quite attractive for the rest of the summer too.

But I haven’t quite found the spot in my garden where it will really flourish.  According to the web it likes partial to full shade with protection from hot afternoon sun.  It also requires consistently moist, well-drained, and nutrient-rich soil.  The spot shown above is in full shade up until around 4 pm when the hot afternoon sun hits it hard.  In addition, this spot dries out really quickly … so not consistently moist.

That’s two strikes against it.  I have been able to keep the Brunnera alive there, but it’s not thriving.

This new spot is next to my fountain, which does splash quite a bit so the soil is definitely consistently moist (which is probably why the fernleaf bleeding heart died off).  It’s also on the east side of the house so it gets some early morning sun, but then is in full shade for the afternoon.

I’ve also planted some more Brunnera under the kitchen window.

This spot also faces east, getting morning sun but afternoon shade.  It’s not quite as moist though.

I’m looking forward to seeing whether or not either of these locations is more ideal for Brunnera.  Stay tuned on that.

In the meantime, I’m happy to say that the dead zone has come fully back to life.  It’s a good reminder that gardens are always changing and you just have to roll with the punches.

Good morning from the garden!

If you’ve followed me for long, you know I like to say ‘never say never’.  I definitely tend to change my mind over time about things that I like … or don’t like.

For example, I once thought I’d never use sparkly gold shoe laces, but I did.  I also thought I’d never wallpaper again, but I did that too.  Well, it was in miniature so maybe that doesn’t count?

I also thought I would never want begonias in my garden.  You know I have a lot of shade, and any list of ‘flowering annuals for shade’ will include begonias.  So it was a bit unfortunate that not only did I not really like the look of them, I also had trouble keeping them from getting root rot.

But that was when I thought the only begonias out there were the old ‘wax begonias’.

I’m sorry, but I don’t think those are even remotely pretty.

Then I discovered rex begonias.

That variety is Shadow King Cherry Mint.

They do flower, but clearly they are grown for their foliage rather than their flowers which are usually hidden beneath the foliage anyway.

I first planted them in my front window box and discovered that they absolutely love it in that north facing location.

This year I tried a couple of new varieties in the window box.  Here is Escargot …

along with a Sea Salt artemesia (on left) and purple heuchera (on right).

I added this fun spotted begonia (sorry, I didn’t keep track of that one’s name) to the front window box too.

I also planted up some pots on the deck with the Cherry Mint rex begonias along with Blueberry Muffin hostas,  and more of that Sea Salt artemesia.

The beauty of these sort of combos is that they don’t rely on blooms to look good.  Also, in the case of these pots on the deck, I have a matched pair on either side of the door and one gets much more sun than the other.  So the sunnier one would always have way more flowers than the shadier one when I planted flowering annuals in them.  This way they look more balanced.

Another huge bonus to rex begonias is that they are easy to over winter as houseplants.

  You also can easily propagate more of them from cuttings.

  So they can be an excellent way to save money by not having to buy new plants every year.

And actually, if you are budget minded, this is the 2nd year for those Blueberry Muffin hostas too.  I pulled them out of the pots last fall and put them in the ground, then when they came up in the spring I dug them up and put them back in the pots.

They are getting a bit too big for the pots now though, so I may not be able to use them there again next year.  However, I can find a spot for them in the garden so they won’t go to waste.

But not only am I now loving the Rex begonias, I’ve also discovered some hybrid begonias that are much prettier than those old varieties like this Elatior begonia …

It’s planted with a Diamond Snow euphorbia and a Summer Breeze caladium.  This pot is in fairly deep shade, but it does get some early morning sun from the east, and that begonia is absolutely covered in blooms.  Not only are the flowers larger and more vibrant than those old wax begonias, but the foliage is prettier too.

I put three more of this variety in the planter on the potting shed too.

I recently read that you can overwinter these begonias as house plants as well, so I may be giving that a try this year.

I could really cut down on the cost of filling all of my planters in the spring!

How about you?  Do you like begonias?  Maybe you even liked those old wax begonias?  Leave a comment and let me know.