Very nice tour! All of mine are first year WSed (except the ones I broke down and bought)so it's nice to see what I have to look forward to. Thanks for sharing. Would love to see some more overall full garden shots.

Beautiful! Can you tell me what the plant is near the end that is a hollyhock-like stalk but with like a honeycomb yellow flower?

Thanks for your compliments!
This one gnomey?

{{gwi:422073}}A Yellow Honeycomb Buddlia, not wintersown (though I'd love to try it if I can collect some seeds)

Nancy

Hi Nancy,

I love gardens that are lush and not lined up in a row. Every spot there is a surprize. May I ask how old your garden is? It is beutiful and a lot of privacy I noticed. I also did not know you can ws balsam impatience. I had such problems in my gh with them getting sick. Can you list some seeds that us newbies can spring sow. I would love to learn a few if you would not mind. You have had such great sucess as I see from your shelves that you still need to plant out. LOL Wonderful garden thank you for sharing it with us. Barb

Thanks for the tour, Nancy. What a pretty garden you have! The Sea Holly and Lithrum combo is really nice, and that honeycomb Buddleia is a beaut.

Thanks again - now I'm off to google Lithrum ...

PV

OH! The lithrum (lythrum) is purple loosestrife? Is it invasive in your garden? It really is so pretty - wonder how it would do in a pot??

PV

What beautiful gardens you have! Thanks for the tour. You have a photo that includes some of your cleome on the right side of the photo, and there are a bunch of red flowers closer to the ground. What are the red flowers? And then the photo immediately following that one is my favorite of all your shots.

I love that yellow butterfly bush--I've never seen one like that before. And your cleome is gorgeous. I sowed 3 containers, and direct sowed some seeds, and got zero plants! I'll keep trying, though, because those are so beautiful.

I went off and googled Lythrum too, before I scrolled down and saw pvick's posts. I'd thought it looked like Red Fox Speedwell. It's so pretty, but it's one of the truly bad guys when it comes to invasives. It makes tons of seed, and animals carry it far away. Once it gets started in a wetland, it requires chemicals and repeated attempts to get it out (if there's anyone around to care about getting it out). I don't think anything eats it, they're maybe going to introduce some bugs from Europe to try to control this weed. So...cut off those flower stalks and don't let it set seed, or get rid of it altogether if you can make yourself do it. Why can't every bad guy be ugly or stinky, like Tree of Heaven, or Garlic Mustard?

Nancy, thats the one! Wonderful :) I just got one of those but it will be next year before I have blooms.

OK, here goes..

All the flower gardens have been planted since we moved in 10 years ago, but we were very very lucky to start with good "bones" - - no beds per say but lots of wonderful specimen shrubs and trees and a yard that was already "cut up into rooms and areas" sort of, like the magizines tell you to do. It's not that big (.60 acre) but EVERYONE thinks its bigger because of the way the lay out is done. The people we bought the house from had been here for 35 years and had raised five kids here. I always joke that they created the "areas" to have seperate adult and kid zones. but I really don't know.

Lythrum: Yup, I know (now). I bought my first plant at a garden center 5 years ago (they still sell it currently) and loved it. It has behaved very nicely in my yard, a few babies here and there, moved them to where I wanted them, no problems. HAve one in a pot too pvick and it looks great. It was not until last year when I start doing seed trading that I actually looked it up and nearly fell out of my chair about the invasive reports - I think it is actually illegal to sell in some states. I then pursued a converstion with a local aquaculture/wetlands specialist who said that we do not have a probelm here (and we have LOTS of wetlands) but other geographic areas do. So I have left mine in place but have not harvested or traded the seed. Particularliy with the round robin seed swaps I do - you never know where the seed will end up.

Cleome: Now THATs the invasive one in my gardens!So many volunteers each year. Easy to pull out though. Anyone who wants seed can send me a PM and I will be happy to send you some in the fall for SASE.

Red flowers: They are Dwarf Red Plains Coreopsis or also called Coreopsis tinctoria 'Mahogany Midget'. Love them. Save seed each year and start in new spots.

Lushness of gardens: My motto is...if you can see dirt than a weed can find it - so I plant things close together. I also learned to plant in bigger groups - at least 7-9 seedlings, sometimes many more and in circles, never lines. I just think things show better this way, and with WSing I've got so much free plant material I can do it!

Seed lists: I keep a list in word of all the seeds I sow and the date I've sown them. I'd be happy to send you the list rosepedal, if you'd like - just PM me. The annuals started in spring that are mainstays are argeratum (a tall cutting kind, zinnias of all kinds, marigolds of all kinds, nasturtiums of all kinds and, always, some sunflowers.

Nancy