soaphouse's Blog
soaphouse's posts about: clematis
May 4, 2008 | 6:53 PM PST
Tags: juncus , fatsia , clematis
To celebrate our wedding anniversary (and to keep our minds off of the fact that I am overdue to have our 2nd child), My wonderful hubby took me plant shopping and said that when we got home, he would plant what we bought :) So sweet!
The first thing we got was a Clematis "Liberation" Evifive. "A free- flowering variety with 9" deep - pink flowers, blooming in Spring and again in late summer." We planted a Clematis Jackmani when we had our first daughter...in her honor. So, we wanted to do the same for this daughter. It will grow up the new sculpture:
Ter
rible pict, I know...hard to get a good shot in all those shadows...but, you get the idea.
Then, we got a fatsia japonica. I just love these plants. I want to put them under the crepe myrtles to add more evergreen screen against the chain link fence. They tend to be a bit pricey for some reason, so we got one and hubby said "just get one each time you go to the nursery, that way it won't seem to cost so much" Ahhh...he is getting the idea now! :)
And, finally...we got a Juncus effusus Spiralis or "Corkscrew Rush". Fun, hardy water plant that we put in the creek. Said to take full sun and get to 2 feet tall. Plus, its very fun to say that for my wedding anniversary, my husband got me "Juncus" HAH!
Feb 14, 2008 | 4:31 PM PST
Tags: compost , tea , pruning , pole pruner , blueberry , daffodil , crocus , clematis
I am very excited that our little cold front was a small one and we were back into the 60's today. Yay! When the little one went down for her nap, I began work on my to-do list. It actually didn't take me much time at all :) I did some various small pruning tasks and then set out to try my new pole pruner. It was a bit tricky...but after a good lesson from my hubby, it seemed to do the trick. We just took off some lower branches from a large tree in the backyard...to keep things opened up. My husband was kind enough to pick up a load of compost on his way home from work, so I also got that spread. I spread it around the back porch where I plan grow a flower garden from seed this spring. It looks great and the small bit of leftover compost is sitting in water tonight for a good batch of compost tea that I will use to water the azaleas with. Tomorrow is my hubby's day off, so we will hopefully get the veggie beds finished up :)
Here are some fun shots I took around my front yard today in between chores:
The daffodils are emerging under the redbud tree:
p> Double Knockout Rose Bushes are forming their new leaves:
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Crocus bulbs emerging: ( I always forget that their foliage has that great variagation on it until I see it each spring)
>
Clematis Armandi forming its buds:
p>And finally, the blueberry bush that I transplanted in the fall seems to be happy...its forming its new buds :)
I am just loving the anticipation of spring!
Jan 10, 2008 | 3:43 PM PST
Tags: sculpture , garden art , gazing ball , christmas , clematis , sweet pea
Thank you for the advice and ideas on what to do in the blank spot by my window seat. I decided to do a sculpture (the final product came from chatting about it with my Mother In Law). I didn't want to do another vine on a trellis because I thought that would be too symmetrical and matchy matchy. I love the idea of doing something fragrant...but the window on the window seat doesn't open...so it wouldn't get appreciated. The other thing I was really leaning towards was a nice evergreen, but I was worried how well it would do right up against the house. And, to get the instant gratification that I wanted, I would have to spend a small fortune to get a good size plant. So, a sculpture it is!
I took advantage of the after Christmas sales. The tall pole has a large Christmas ornament on top and all 3 have little christmas balls wired around them. The other 2 balls are "gazing" balls that I got at Old TIme Pottery for super cheap. The pipes are from the plumbing section at Home Depot. I think they pull in the iron on our shutter hardware in nicely.
I really am very happy with how they turned out! It will be fun to see how they weather. I also think I will get a clematis to grow up them. Or, I may do an annual sweet pea vine. And, the best part about going with a sculpture....no pruning or weeding. And, its drought tolerant! LOL!
