Good morning from the garden!

I thought this might be a good time to report back on the performance of some of the new perennials that I put in last year.

First, for those who don’t know, I garden in a zone 4b, and we had a very snowy winter last year, although not an abnormally cold one.  In fact, according to bringmethenews.com it was 0.4° warmer than average.  So I can’t blame any of my plant losses on worse than normal cold temps for my zone.  Also, for those of you from warmer climates who might think snow is bad, lots of snow cover can actually a good thing for gardens.  It insulates the plants from extreme cold, and as it melts it provides lots of spring moisture.

Speaking of spring, let’s start with the spring bulbs.  I ordered a bunch of bulbs from Longfield Gardens last year (now is the time to order if you want to put some bulbs in this fall).  Despite the deer trying to eat them all, the Darwin Hybrid Pink Impression tulips did amazingly well.

So well in fact that I ordered 100 more to plant this fall.  I also purchased a roll of green wire mesh at a garage sale earlier this summer that I can put around them to deter the deer.

The daffodils that I put in last year did great as well.

Daffodils are deer resistant, so I ordered some more to put in the spot where the deer did the most damage last year.

I didn’t have quite as much luck with some of the allium bulbs.  I planted three different types; Sphaerocephalon Drumstick, Atropurpureum and Nigrum.

The Nigrum and the Atropurpureum performed well enough, but I didn’t really love either one. That’s probably why I neglected to get any photos of them while they were blooming.

The Sphaerocephalon Drumstick was blooming a couple of weeks ago.  I ordered it based on this photo …

Isn’t that pretty?

But here’s what mine looked like …

LOL, seriously, is that pathetic or what?

It could be that they don’t get enough sun, but a little online research brings up a number of people who have commented on how these tend to flop.  I plan to move them to the cutting garden where they will get more sun, and where it won’t matter quite so much if they flop.  I’ll just cut them and use them in floral arrangements.

I admit that last year I was a little obsessed with alliums.  Not only did I plant the bulb type alliums, I also planted a couple of the herbaceous forms.  I planted one called Windy City and three of the Serendipity alliums from Proven Winners.  All are performing really well.   This one is the Windy City …

And here are the Serendipity with some Unplugged Pink salvia planted next to them (on the left).  By the way, the hummingbirds love that salvia.

In May 2022 I planted two types of clematis.  The Jackmanii is what I think of as the quintessential clematis, the basic dark purple clematis that so many people have had in their gardens for ages.  Mine bloomed quite nicely, but is still looking quite spindly.

The Roguchi on the other hand is amazing.  It has completely filled out, and is constantly loaded with flowers.

I also planted those Fire Alarm heuchera in May 2022.

And as I reported earlier this year, they barely came back in spring … and ultimately I dug them up and tossed them.

I also planted a Northern Exposure Black heuchera last year.  It’s the deep purple plant on the right below.

After a slow start in spring, it’s looking amazing right now!  The heucheras in the Northern Exposure line were specifically bred for hardiness, and are considered hardy down to zone 3 so maybe this is the type of heuchera I should stick to.  There is also a lime green version (along with a few more colors) in this series, so I may need to add that to my plant wish list.

I added some Alexander’s Great brunnera to my shade garden last year, and it was gorgeous when it bloomed in the spring.

The flowers are long gone now, but the plants are filling out nicely and I’m looking forward to even more blooms next year.

Proven Winners has a new brunnera out called ‘Queen of Hearts‘ that looks to be quite fab.  I’m thinking of searching that one out and underplanting my Limelight hydrangeas with it.

Now, I know I’ve mentioned this next plant more than once already this year, but I’m just so darn impressed with its performance.

That is a Raspberry Splash lungwort (or pulmonaria) from Monrovia.  Just look at the size of that thing!  OK, it might be hard to tell from the photo, but it’s 2′ across (I measured).  Comically, the tag says it grows to 18″ wide.  Um, mine has exceeded that by quite a bit in just one year.

However, I should also mention that I planted a 2nd one near my large fountain and it didn’t do nearly as well.  Apparently pulmonaria don’t like to be in damp soil, and that fountain does splash quite a bit.  I guess the ‘splash’ in the name isn’t literal.

Anyway, I moved that one away from the fountain and it is recovering nicely, but definitely is not as large yet.

Now for a quick lilac hedge update.  For those of you who might be new here, I have been attempting to create a lilac hedge on our back property line since 2011.  Good grief, that’s 12 years now!  Jeesh!  Do I wish I’d just gone with a Limelight hydrangea hedge?  You bet I do.  Hindsight is always 20/20.

Over the years I’ve eventually pulled out every single lilac I planted originally as they never flourished.  I really never figured out exactly what the problem was, they get plenty of sun.  I blamed it on various things; rabbit pressure in winter, overspray with lawn weed killer, delicate new hybrids, etc.  I replaced some of the plants with old fashioned common lilacs a few years back, and those are now about 10′ tall.

My plan was to do that all the way along the line, but last year I couldn’t find any common lilacs, so I planted three newer varieties on the west end of the hedge, a Yankee Doodle and two Ludwig Spaeths.

So far, so good.  They are about 4′ tall and have remained nice and full, however, they did not bloom this year.  Fingers crossed that they continue to do well because this year I planted an Albert E. Holden and a Charles Joly at the other end of the line.  I’m dreaming of the day when we have a solid 10′ hedge of lilacs back there!

Another plant that was new to me last year was Stachys moneiri ‘Hummelo‘, or you may know it as betony.

The flowers were already a little bit spent when I took that photo unfortunately.  I’d seen this plant on The Impatient Gardener’s Instagram and had to have it.  Fortuitously, my neighbor nnK had it growing in her garden and gave me a couple of chunks of it last year.  I liked it so much that I bought two more and added them this year.

Here’s a photo that I grabbed online that gives you a better idea of what the flowers look like.

I planted a few Proven Winners plants last August with mixed results.  The Pugster Amethyst butterfly bush did not come back at all.  The Magic Show Purple Illusion veronica is looking OK, but didn’t put on much of a show so far.  It may not get enough sun in my garden.

I am totally babying the Fire Light Tidbit hydrangea that I put in last year.  It struggled to get established last summer, and I’ve had to water the heck out of it this summer to keep it from wilting.  It’s starting to put on a little bit of growth, but is still really small.  Like, I’m lucky if it’s 8″ tall, small.

I seriously considered just pulling it out and getting a new one for that spot, but in the end I didn’t have the heart to do that.  So I planted some annuals around it to fill in and am hoping it will continue to perk up.

Lastly, I planted a Golden Shadows Pagoda Dogwood, also from Proven Winners, in the fern garden.

It might be a few years before it does the job I planted it for.  I want an understory tree to fill in the area under my huge maple tree, but above the ferns.  It should grow 10′ to 12′ tall and have strong horizontal branching.  It has put on a lot of new growth this year, but hasn’t gotten more than a foot or so taller.  I’m still waiting for it to pop its head out of the ferns.  Fingers crossed for next year.

So, overall I’ve had mixed results from new plants I added last year.  Some winners, some losers.  How about you?  Did you put in anything new that is really spectacular?  Leave a comment and let me know.