Flowergardengirl™

Where to find Flowergardengirl

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 01:31:22 -0400

I've been blogging for a very long time and have acquired so many photos and stories that one blog will not hold it all. It can be hard to figure out where to find flowergardengirl. Looking in the garden is the best place but these days I'm mostly at www.flowergardengirl.com

I use this blog www.decorateagarden.com for storing some of my larger files. I'm glad you've come looking for me. You can also find some of my older articles at www.flowergardengirl.wordpress.com

Pretty soon--you'll find me in some magazines such as Cottage Style and Flower Gardens. I'll post those links soon as they are published. Look for my gardens in the January-May garden editions for the Spring 2011 publications.

Some of my stories about North Carolina will be published also. Check back and follow me at www.flowergardengirl.com to see the latest news at my gardens and those around NC.

My favorite coreopsis, 'Sweet Dreams'

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 01:43:24 -0500

I grew this in my garden this year---and it was fantastic.

Look how it appears in my garden, below. The picture at right is from the Bailey Nursery site. My variety below was not marked from Bailey Nursery --but I am growing the Bailey Nursery plant and will let you know how it compares to the one below I purchased at my local nursery.

It is good to read garden blogs so you can see how the plant performs per zone--which is 7 in my case. This little coreopsis bloomed till frost. One of my favorites by far.

“Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder” for all information below.
Coreopsis rosea 'Sweet Dreams'
Kemper Code: A817  Common Name: tickseed Zone: 4 to 9  Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial Family: Asteraceae Missouri Native: No Native Range: None Height: 1 to 1.5 feet Spread: 1 to 2 feet Bloom Time: June - August  Bloom Color: Raspberry and white (bicolor) with yellow anther Sun: Full sun Water: Medium Maintenance: Low 

Plant Culture and Characteristics

Sources for this plant

View our source(s)

High resolution image available.

General Culture:
Easily grown in medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun. Unlike other species of Coreopsis, C. rosea and its cultivars have very little drought tolerance and need consistently moist soils in order to thrive. Avoid poorly-drained, heavy clay soils, however. Prompt deadheading of spent flower stalks can be tedious for large plantings, but does tend to encourage additional bloom. Plants may be sheared in late summer to promote a fall rebloom and to tidy the planting (stems often become matted as summer progresses). In optimum growing conditions, plants will spread in the garden by rhizomes to form a dense ground cover, sometimes to the point of being considered aggressive. Plant Patent #12,720 issued June 25, 2002.
Noteworthy Characteristics:
Coreopsis rosea (sometime commonly called pink coreopsis or pink tickseed) is noted for being the only coreopsis with pink flowers. It closely resembles C. verticillata in appearance and habit, but lacks the latter’s heat and drought tolerance. ‘Sweet Dreams is a naturally occurring mutation of C. rosea ‘American Dream’ (see N860). It is a rhizomatous cultivar that typically grows in dense, bushy clumps to 18” tall and 24” wide. Raspberry-white, bi-color, daisy-like flowers (1-1.5” diameter) cover the foliage mound in a profuse and lengthy summer bloom. Flowers feature rays that are raspberry at the base lightening to white at the toothed tips and yellow center disks. Whorls of linear, grass-like, dark green leaves lend a fine-textured and airy appearance to the plant. Plants in the genus Coreopsis are sometimes commonly called tickseed in reference to the resemblance of the seeds to ticks, however it should be noted that this hybrid does not produce seed.
Problems:
No serious insect or disease problems. Root rot may occur in heavy, poorly-drained soils. Performs best in cool summer climates, and can apppear rather scraggly with poor flowering in the hot and humid summer conditions of the deep South. Weak plant stems tend to sprawl and mat, particularly in hot and humid climates with periodic heavy summer rainfall.
Uses:
Long summer bloom and airy foliage provide good accent in borders or rock gardens. Good small area ground cover. Also effective as an edger for borders, foundations and walks/paths. Naturalized areas, native plant gardens or cottage gardens.
© Missouri Botanical Garden, 2001-2010

The Botanical Interest Seed Catalog is Here

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:16:15 -0500

The Botanical Interest Seed Catalog is here! I've been waiting on this for ages. I love this company. They are so good to me. I have so many favorites that I don't even know where to start. The banner to the left is from their site. I have permission to use some of their photos so you may not use them unless you write and get permission too.

Look at how beautiful this catalog is
www.botanicalinterests.com

Everything I'm recommending I've grown from their collections. Maybe not every single thing in every collection--but at least one of each variety. They have a high germination rate. If you did not receive a catalog--you can go online and view it. Look at these cosmos. I've grown Bright Lights and Sensation.

Nasturtiums work well for me too and I grow them in the front beds where they receive afternoon shade. They like it a bit cool in the afternoon.

I put sunflowers everywhere--front back
here--there--yonder. Some I group and
others stand along. They look
good up against a fence
or free standing.

I cut them in the summer and bring inside
to dress my island and table.
Makes the fried chicken taste
better.

I like them paired with Rudbekias.

Poppies!

And Zinnias.

One of my favorite all time Zinnias is the green of Envy.

The Botanic Garden Series has my eye this year. So won't you go over and see these beauties! I am nuts about them.
www.botanicalinterests.com

July is the height of my garden

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:57:10 -0500

While doing some forward thinking, it's good to have pictures. Here are the ones I'm using while thinking about plants to order this year. These are my gardens Summer 2009. You can certainly tell I'm a cottage gardener. I will be using an ornamental vegetable mix this year.

I want to can and freeze
fresh vegetables for my family.

I hope you'll follow along
with me as the gardens start to take shape and the potager goes in. We've had lots of snow wind and rain. It reminds me of the winters in the early 60's. So I'm about a month behind in the garden. That's ok. the ground waters needed the moisture. It will be a good growing season.

King Tut Meets Bubble Gum

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 20:21:21 -0500

I'm so excited to bring you Graceful Grasses®King Tut®
Egyptian Papyrus
Cyperuspapyrus Graceful Grasses® <Link

You see it growing here in these containers and I have grown it too or otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it. I love it. I wanted you to see pictures from the PW site. Graceful Grasses® . It grows fast and will grow quickly to 72". Follow the link for more info. Beautiful landscaping here with several more Proven Winners that I have grown.

Supertunia®Vista Bubblegum Spirit™Appleblossom
Petunia Supertunia® <Link Spider Flower Spirit™<Link

'King Tut' papyrus , 'Apple Blossom' cleome, and 'Bubblegum' Supertunia have performed superbly for me. I just thought you ought to know! And I don't know for sure but I think those hanging baskets are 'Snow Princess' lobularia alyssum and I've tried that too--awesome.

Proven Winners states truly what their plant requirements are on the tag. My zone 7 garden here in NC will grow a garden exactly as the one above shows. This is not an overstatement. Here's one of my 'Bubblegum' hanging baskets from my former home. I think I'll use this flower again this year.

I do feed them often.

My Former Home and Gardens

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:26:52 -0500

Many of you have seen my former Cape Code home and gardens but as I'm uploading photos to the new blog==I'm sharing those.

Wish I had remembered to take more !!

Still Working on the blog.

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:48:43 -0500

I'm still working hard on all aspects of this blog. How are ya'll liking the look? Do you like the Front Porch? I know I haven't posted much to the FGG site here but it takes a lot of work to settle on a design. If you noticed, It keeps changing daily. My son took the picture above. I'm going to show more of his pictures tomorrow.

Nuts About Bee Balm

Fri, 8 Jan 2010 21:44:36 -0500

Just grow bee balm, just do it. Any will do.....
I think this is called Raspberry Wine and there are some bigger pics of here at my old blog ( http://flowergardengirl.wordpress.com/?s=bee+balm )

It looks pretty cool with this Zebra Mallow doesn’t it?

Mixing purples and pinks is my thing. Agastache Color Spires (More at my old blog, http://flowergardengirl.wordpress.com/?s=color+spires )

or you can actually do red and blue with pink...see.... And I always do these color combos. It will be no different this year. Except.....there will be so much more!!!!!!!

Luscious Citrus Blend Lantana

Tue, 5 Jan 2010 02:17:15 -0500

This lantana will get quite large and will be drought and pest resistant. I would say 3 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Or maybe bigger if you have good soil like I do ;) The colors are so bright and truly just as my photos are showing.

Ok, maybe some of you would not grow it in your vegetable garden but I had a good reason. The bunnies don’t like it and the deer would not jump over my window fence in to it. So there. The deer saw it as a barrier cause the window fence was only about 3 feet high.

Woa, that is pineapple sage with some good old basil growing in front and some lettuce I let go to seed. Whoops.

I’d done a lot with these windows. I took them out last year and now they are part of my cottage.

And I can even grow stuff on the concrete.

My front beds that year. I went all formal. That’s only 3 petunias you know. They are Supertunias. Vista Silverberry. Only three I promise. Good dirt. They got to 6 feet around each.

And the lantana kept growing even when the garden came out.

And the petunias and Purple Fountain Grass grew and grew. CAuse I have a secret dirt formula.

It’s still only 3 petunias, I promise. Only 3 plants in that whole bed.

Last summer...

Wow, what the heck does she feed her plants?

Remember the 5 and dimes?

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 23:46:48 -0500

I remember shopping at the 5 and 10Cent stores when I was kid. You could buy a lot but then you didn’t make much back then either. You could buy a whole bag of candy for a dollar. In the same store where I was shopping were some stars for $2.99 each. Big jump huh? But look, they are candle holders and I really like stars. They would look cute grouped together don’t you think? It’s still a bargain.

Well of course these got a bit $$$.

And then there was this! I would like it to hang over a table in my family room. This in a little shop in the community of Old Salem, NC called the Moravian Book and Gift Shop. If you are a regular follower of my blog then you know I talk about this community all the time and especially at Christmastime.

I do apologize to those of you who are dealing with my feed updates and hanging in there with me through the new blog changes. It is a big task and I am so thankful for your faithfulness. I have the feeds currently set so that you can subscribe to this feed for the Flowergardengirl blog on Decorate A Garden and you will not have to go through the Front Porch if your prefer. Just click on this page’s RSS feed. Make sure the end of the RSS says Flowergardengirl Blog. I will have a widget made soon that distinguishes the difference between the feeds---it’s on my list.

I do have so much planned for us.....I promise. So much is going on in my life. I am planning huge gardens for this spring and summer. 1/4 the back yard will be tilled for vegetable gardens. I’m helping my son plan a restaurant in our town and hope to sell the vegetables from my garden at his restaurant---and cook with them! So you see---you will get to be a part of all this excitement too. I will document all of it.

Happy New Year to all of you!!!! I miss talking with you daily. I really do.