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vera_eastern_wa

June 27-29th Pics...part 1

16 years ago

Lavender 'Mustead' and Sedum....the Sedum not wintersown of course

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This particular volunteer Columbine, a nice butter yellow and white, has quite a long blooming period...I Love it! This is another Lavender 'Munstead' also.

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Three of my very largest Lavender 'Vera' shrubs. The 2nd pic shows one which is a lighter lavender color. Sometimes they are pruned 3x a year...at least while harvesting the 1st round of wands and again in early spring (hard every other year). If I don't allow them to go to seed I harvest/prune light again after the 2nd flush of wands in late summer-early fall.

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Volunteer Hollyhock surrounded at the base by volunteer Yarrow

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My yarrow is changing colors on me! I just noticed this walking by he other day. Do you notice the soft lavender/pink among the white flowering ones? There are no other yarrow plants growing anywhere near me for as far around that I have ever seen:O

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I started with just 2 wintersown Yarrow plants at this end of the bed and a few in the mid section. As you can see it is now covering the entire end of a section of the bed now and out past the far east perimeter. I now have a path that sorta created itself going through the 4.5' yarrow at the other side of the Hollyhock that gets me in to the other side. I've also allowed self sown plants to come up in the crevices of the rock edging and it looks pretty soft and nice kept low as foliage only :)

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A few of several volunteer Lavender babies. I didn't quite get all of them in this picture, but in this location there are some from last year and some are new this year

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Partial view of the strip running from east to west. In the very front you see some volunteer Poppy that popped up in the gravel road just outside of the perimeter. They were blooming WAY to tall so last night before I took this picture I cut the ones I allowed to remain way back to much lower flower buds. Also standing out the most is Feverfew 'Flore Pleno', Maltese Cross, Yarrow, Gaillardia 'Burgundy' and Golden Marguerite

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Shasta Daisy

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Volunteer Papaver somniferum

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Very first Petunia bloom. The plants are always this small to begin with when they first flower for me as usual... doesn't seem too long before they take off though

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Comments (13)

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    WOW! everything is thriving and healthy! what is your secret besides WS??

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Beautiful, Vera. Those lavender are more spectacular every year.

    Karen

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Oh my so very pretty!!

    I am so jealous of the lavender. I need some of that in my garden.

    I have yellow yarrow. I just love yarrow. I need to add some more plants around mine but it is so bright yellow I cannot figure out what to add :)

    your gardens are so beautiful!

    Karen

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Thanks for the boost Vera! It's been raining for most of the day and most of yesterday too. Nice to see some pretties! On to look at part two!
    B

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Thanks :)))

    Karen,

    Some color combos for yellow:
    ...with shades of purples and blues, shades of red/orange white, and greens. Mixing the reds and oranges with yellow is going to be more "hot" while sticking with more blues and purples will give a more "cool" or tranquil effect and white ties everything together. A few years ago I wanted to add a punch of red here and there because I had SO much yellow with purple and blue and now this year with all the volunteer red poppies and maltese cross (and even their volunteers) I'm VERY thankful to have all the white LOL!
    Don't forget anything with big or dark green foliage works too for different texture against fine foliage like yarrow. That is something I'm always lacking here because everything I have is usually fine textured and in the silver or blue/green catagory...like lavender, hyssopus, golden marguerite, yarrow, ect. Usually these are the most tolerant of drought and heat so I tend to go for these the most ((sigh))

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Vera your gardens are very lovely I hope my baby lavenders grow up to be just like yours. hehe

    I love the pics you post. Thanks

    Paula

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Thanks so much for the suggestions! I do have some blues near the yellow (catmint)
    I will look for more like you said. i did not think of adding more green, good idea!

    Karen

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Love that light yellow columbine with the dark blue lavender. In fact they are all lovely. :)

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    The lavender is so pretty. I'm looking forward to wsing some this year. A mall nearby has some lavender plants that look like either Munstead or Vera interplanted with blue fescue. It makes a nice combination, so I thought I might try that. I thought I'd add some California poppies for a punch of yellow.

    Love your lavender plants and your pics, Vera. So pretty.

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Simply stunning!!! ;)

    I love your Lavender 'Munstead'.

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Gorgeous lavender! I had to leave my bushes behind :( (oh well, they weren't that big anyway) - so far, my lavender here isn't doing all that well. Do you dry yours? Cook with it? Make tea?

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Hi Drippy :)

    Heck no I ain't making no Lavender tea! Some people might like that turpentine-like taste but not me LOL!!
    This a.m. was the first day for me to start harvesting wands and lightly giving the plants a pruning. I cut and make small bundles as I go using twine and then bring them indoors to hang and dry. I also deliver bundles to the neighbors to hang and dry. If I was to hang them all up in the house this place would smell like a french whore-house LOL! It can get just a little over-powering with too much. After they are dry they are either left as is in bundles or stripped off for sachets, etc. What I wish I had was a distillery for making essential oil! Yeah don't I wish HA!

  • 16 years ago
    last modified: 11 years ago

    Yep, those Lavenders are to behold!! So how far do you trim them? I have some plants I've never trimmed, but your practice might be the solution. From what I understand you shouldn't trim them late in the season. Could I go into the 'hard' wood? There's one bunch that's really straggly.

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