Deanna my house faces southwest-ish, and I love the placement of it! I feel I get the best of both worlds. I get the morning sun in my (back, north-eastish-facing) bedroom and even better, in my kitchen. IMO, there is NOTHING like morning sunshine in a kitchen, especially in the winter. And then in the evening the sunsets light up the living room.

Actually, we laugh that the original owner and builder (we are second owners) must have been a fan of Stonehenge. Every summer around the solstice, the setting sun goes from the living room (in the front of the house), through the westish facing window, down the hall and out the eastish window of the office in the back of the house. That's a zig-zag, so to do this it has to fit through doorways at several angles, so it all goes thought about an inch-width of actual space. The ancient Stonehengians couldn't have planned it better lol. We always feel like we should do some kind of dance, lol, or place some golden object in the east window of the office so it will light up with that single perfect ray of the setting sun on the solstice!

Unfortunately I don't have the views that you do. It must be amazing to sit out there at the end of the day, after a rewarding day of gardening!

:)
Dee

Sure you may use them, Marie! Would you like me to try sending higher resolution copies or are these sufficient?

Those views are amazing.

Not exactly a ‘landscape’ here, only a tiny city garden. The torrential rain has just stopped and you can see the evidence of today’s enforced indoor activities: painting the kitchen and cleaning the bird feeders.

Floral, your "view" is so lovely and perfect. What a gorgeous path to see in your own yard. The twisted trunks of the tree are beautiful. What variety is it? Your whole garden looks lush and mature. Do you have something growing on a trellis above the roof, or a green roof? That view of vegetation spilling over the roof seems so English in its charm. I would love to know how you got that effect.

Dee, that Stonehenge story is fantastic! How cool would it be to watch a sunset march through your house down a hallway, turning corners, it seems, to boot! Your builder/designer may have had some mystical heritage. Isn't facing south such a warm place to be in winter? We did not have a generator up here for our first six years, and we lose power, guaranteed, usually more than once each winter, and also some during fall and spring. In fact, in 2017 Maine was voted the worst state for power outages with regards to severity and duration. One reason we could make it that long is our southern exposure. Storms are generally followed by sunny days, so we could easily keep the house around 60 for days with the power out. Water was a different issue. It was miserable without the well pump. That's the part I can't believe we put up with for that long.

The tree is Betula pendula ‘Youngii’. The shed roof is simply a tiled roof which has been overrun by Clematis montana, ‘Goldfinch’ Rose, Jasminum officinale and wild ivy. Every few years the whole lot’s hacked off and starts again. I took the picture through the kitchen window.

Barb, thanks that would be helpful. I already copied and pasted the first version with the poem to get it ready to go on Thursday. I'll just replace it the next one. You could send it to my home email.

Marie

That’s a lovely kitchen window view! Mine currently needs some serious overhaul, which I’m hoping to do next year. Yours is quite inspiring.

Actaea is in bloom and smells wonderful. It should be more promoted for its scent. This patch is still maturing. Each year the number of blooms grows. I am pleased with what I got this year considering the drought.

This is river oats grass, Chasmanthium latifolium. I was going to say it is the one grass it was guaranteed to never spread because this is its fourth year and I had not gotten either rhizomes or seed heads. It was like the grass that never grows. Finally this year I got my first seed heads. I had imagined a big swath of these things. I think I will need to do more work to get my large swath. I do think the seed heads are very attractive.

Wow! Look at all these great photos! The colored leaves on the ground, the poem, the rainbow! Love that doorway, Floral with the Clematis montana covering it. Actea is blooming now? I think I have some of that and not sure it bloomed this year. I'll have to check. Deanna, those photos by the water with the rainbow are super! And your Alma that is pink, is really pink! Very pretty!

I've started to move indoors already. I have a tropical Hibiscus in a pot that I repotted in the spring into a larger pot and it struggled a little this summer. I tried a few different fertilizers and it basically didn't perform to what I thought it should and barely bloomed. I finally seem to have hit upon a fertilizer that worked, just before I brought it in and it set a half dozen buds. I bought it at Logee's and the directions are to bring it indoors when temperatures dip below 60 degrees. That means it was really late going outside and early coming in. Better luck next year with it I guess. I"ve had it three winters and it does fine over the winter. And wouldn't you know, finally bloomed yesterday. [g]

Outdoors, the only rose performing still is Pope John Paul. I had 15 blooms on it last week all getting ready to open and this week they opened and they look great. I am going to take a photo of it later.

Sue, must be thinking of pulling her pots inside? Or do you empty them and start over next spring?

White Pope John Paul looking better than it did mid summer...

Grasses are great this time of year....

PM2 I do both. I repot all my Acalphas and variegated geraniums, some of my Abutilons and an odd ball variegated Hibiscus to grow as houseplants. I also have a Euphorbia cotinifolia, a couple of Agaves, a couple of Fuchsias and a Fatsia Spider Web that come in. I used to let most of them get taken by frost and rebuy in the spring but some of the more unusual tropicals have become almost impossible to find in nurseries. This year I may split some succulent containers to pot individually and bring those in too. For someone who isn't great about keeping plants happy in the house, I seem to have amassed quite a colection...lol. All the bananas, colocasias, cannas and dahlias get stored dormant in the basement. They are my favorites :).

That sounds like a lot of work, Sue! [g]. But well worth it I'm sure. Your house must be very well oxygenated over the winter. lol. You must be doing something right to keep them all alive from season to season. It's really not all that easy to do.

I always joke that by the end of April they're all lined up at the door chanting, "Let us out!".

"well-oxygenated." Ha! So true!

That does sound like a lot of work Sue! Phew! Yours may be chanting "Let us out!" but my plants hang on to the door jamb for dear life (literally lol) as I bring them in, screaming, "Save us!" - they know that door is the threshhold to doom for them haha! I gave up trying to overwinter things - or even having houseplants - long ago!

So I finally decided to play and took a few pictures - only close-ups lol, no wide shots! Sorry, the pictures aren't the best quality.

Callicarpa (actually looking a bit droopy for some reason). LOVE these berries!

ilex Winter Gold (I think). Recovering from last year's grapple with an overzealous landscaper

Butterfly bush still going strong, although the blooms are a bit smaller than earlier in the season. Just behind it to the left he holly has some red berries. That's it for berries. My viburnums and other hollies have already been picked clean by the birds!

:)
Dee

Wow, Dee, you have a LOT of berries for the birds! And I used to grow Butterfly Bush, and I do miss it now that I don't. It's great for bringing in butterflies and other pollinators. I used to always have some of those hummingbird moths that I don't see since I stopped growing that.

Dee, I find it hard to manage houseplants and the garden. Sometimes I can keep them going over the winter and then as soon as I start working outside, all my focus is there and I start neglecting the houseplants. Plus I don't really have good enough sun exposure to do really well with a lot. No Southern windows. My orientation is the opposite of yours. Front of the house facing East and back facing West. I would rather yours. [g].

I like the added humidity and oxygen and the air cleaning ability of the. houseplants during the winter, so I persist. I've just dropped back to the easiest plants I can get. I'm very big right now on Pepperomias, that are carefree to me. They also root well in a glass of water, so you can increase them easily.

PM2 the only houseplant that ever survived for me was - geez, I don't even know the name! - was it pothos? (okay, just did a quick google search and yes, that was it!). I actually had one hanging plant of it that everyone thought was so lush, but the reality was that it was literally one VERY long stem of it, and as it grew down from it's hanging pot I would just keep looping it through, over the pot and down again, so it was like a big garden hose on a hose rack lol. But I just seem to forget to water, or there is some kind of insect damage, or the house is too dry, or too humid - but I think it was the neglect that did most of them in.

I love berries and berrying plants! I just wish the birds didn't love them so much! And honestly, I do plant them for the wildlife as much as myself, but I just wish they'd wait another month or two to eat everything so us humans can enjoy them too! It would be nice to actually see my deciduous hollies with berries on them after the leaves fall, lol.

Actually, I have one viburnum that in 12 years I've never seen in full berry stage because the birds get to it. I swear they sit in the branches watching each individual berry forming and then boom! It's gone. I added a second viburnum and this was the first year it really berried and we were laughing that the birds didn't find it yet because it was full of ripening berries. Well, someone told them about it because a few days later, the berries were gone.

Funny, that butterfly bush was a half-hearted, if-it-works-it-works, kind of purchase. I've lost so many of them, usually without seeing any blooms (fall purchase) that this was an impulse buy last spring. I plopped it in, in a not-so-ideal spot, and it was gorgeous. This year I fully expected to not see hide nor hair of it, and it grew. Very awkwardly. The stem - or should I say trunk, it is so thick! - grew horizontally, and came out on each side of a dwarf alberta spruce. I was going to cut it back (because it was cutting into the spruce) and a week later it had taken over! So I left it, thinking I would cut it back after it bloomed. Well, all these months later and it's still blooming lol. I have to either move it (which is a mission in itself because of it's precarious placement at the top of a hill). or really watch it's growth pattern next year and cut back accordingly. It was such a tiny thing when I bought it and now the thought of it's roots there on the hilltop between some large established shrubs give me the shudders when I think of moving it! Plus it will probably die when I do lol.

:)
Dee

Dee - I have killed Pothos. [g]. And I know exactly what you mean by the long stem with little on it. I must have tried it 3 or 4 times thinking, everyone grows this easily. I stopped buying it. [g]

Watering is the most important aspect of houseplants to get right, but, we all forget here and there. That’s why I love Pepperomias. They're really a succulent and they can store water. Mine have survived neglect and still going strong. I grow Sansaveria - the Snake Plant that seems to be able to sit in a corner being ignored for a fair amount of time. A Rubber Tree, surprises me that it seems to be very forgiving as well. Always looks good and that is without enough sun and a very free draining potting soil with lots of perlite in it.

This season, I’ve tried to get better at fertilizing because last year I saw how well the houseplants respond to it. I just use fish emulsion and that seems to keep them looking good even if I only do it 4x over the summer and none in the winter.

I have an Arrowhead plant that does well in low light and it also roots in water and will grow pretty well in water, so I feel I can overwater that one without causing a problem. So far that is working too.

Those three are my easiest that don’t seem bothered by much.

I’ve seen the berries getting close to ripe and all of a sudden, the birds know they are ready and a flock of robins will swoop down and strip the shrub in an afternoon.

I had a BBush last for about 8 years in a row. I just decided that where it grew best was in the front in full sun, and it was just too messy and casual for what I wanted to do out there, so I let that go. I used to cut them down to about 8 inches from the ground and let them fill-in new in the spring.

I have a beautiful prayer plant. It likes moisture. My house is very dry in winter. Except...I do have a bathroom with moisture issues that is going to cost thousands of dollars to repair. It LOVES that bathroom.

Well every cloud has a silver lining Deanna. [g] I love prayer plants. My bathroom is probably moist enough, but it's on the north side of the house and there's nowhere to put a plant.

Deanna you're not putting off a bathroom reno to keep your plant going, are you? LOL!

I have a (relatively non-gardening) friend who grew an amazing number of things in her (windowless) bathroom. I gave her a rosemary plant one spring, and found out months later she was keeping it in her bathroom! When I told her I didn't think it would be happy there for long, she said it was thriving and beautiful. And that's when I found out she grew several things in her bathroom! And when mine died outside hers was going strong... and did so at least into the next year. I guess there's something to be said for humidity. Perhaps I'll start referring to my bathroom as the conservatory...

:)
Dee

Keep some magazines by the toilet and it can be both Conservatory and Lounge.

:-D

That is amazing. A windowless bathroom. Did she have fluorescent lights? I can't believe Rosemary thrived there. It's supposed to require both sun and can handle drought.

Claire, you need to contact Dee's friend and find out which chicken dance she uses. You can try that with your squirrel problem. Anybody who can keep rosemary in a windowless bathroom is doing the right dance under the right moon with just the right amount of clothing.

(And I am not delaying the reno for the plant, but the plant might be doing the right chicken dance at night because it's so hard to find help up here. It obviously wants to keep the problem from being fixed!)

Prairiemoon, I must not have finished an earlier post (which I seem to have done often lately) about your hibiscus. BEAUTIFUL! And the lighting in your photo is fantastic. I would love to know the variety if you still have the tag. I wouldn't mind having one of those! Such a lovely bloom. I hope you post more photos when the other buds open.

Such a sense of humor the two of you have...lol. And I am astounded that anyone can grow a rosemary in a windowless bathroom. Are you sure she didn't have fluorescent lights going round the clock? [g].

I enjoy Hibiscus, too Deanna. I could do better with them, but I keep working at it. I thought I pruned it well in the spring and it had a nice framework, but I imagined it was going to fill in and branch out and look lush, which it never did. [g]. For a couple of reasons, I can think of, I repotted it and I was using the wrong fertilizer. I've had good luck keeping these in the house over the winter, I keep them on the dry side and they sit in a West window. They don't do much growing and definitely no blooms, but then I can get them in the yard for the summer.

I bought this one at Logee's in CT and they sent it to me. Directions say not to leave it out with temperatures under 60 degrees! I think that is pretty hard to accomplish in New England. When a lot of other things are going out, poor Hibiscus is still indoors dying to get out. And I had to bring it in early this fall too.

I think you would enjoy it Deanna....

'Kona' Hibiscus

And the lighting, Deanna, It wanted to pop the flash so I set it not to use the flash. I usually like the natural lighting if I can get away with it.

I haven't been in this thread for several years. Nice to see and hear what you all have been up to. Enjoyed all your photos and stories. Sadly, I don't have my large gardens of the past any more, but I manage what little I can at the condo. Here's whats in bloom today.

Good 'ole Jackmanii This is a late 2nd bloom. Not too floriferous, but for October I'll take it!

Here is a Peach dwarf rose... I can't think of the type... very common... it will come to me. Jackson & Perkins I think. The photography does not do the color justice. It's quite yummy in person.

I thought these were some sort of spring daisy. I bought three 4" pots in the spring. They bloomed okay throughout the season. But they exploded in size in September. Now I wish I had pinched them throughout the season. I'm going to try to find the tag. Maybe they are some kind of hardy mum although I've never seen mums that color. They are overtaking a baby hydrangea arboresence 'Mini Mauvette'. I hope it didn't suffer too badly.

And speaking of overwintering stuff, I dug these geraniums up from the ground last fall and potted them and overwintered them in the basement under fluorescent lights. They have been lovely all season and still going... They are keepers for sure...

I got hooked on caladiums this season. So much color for so little effort. I brought one in as a houseplant about a month ago. It seems happy. Another larger one is in the garage going dormant. I will save the bulbs in the basement.

This 2nd one had more pink in the leaves originally. As the leaves mature, they lose the pink.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a huge caladium display at Lowes. I was tempted to buy more, but I resisted. I'll see how I do overwintering these. I've tried Dahlia tubers in the past without success.

Hey WendyB! Nice to see you again! Nice photos. Love the rebloom on the Jackmanii - I have never had a rebloom on mine! Your geraniums are lovely too. I used to overwinter mine (hanging upside down from the rafters in the basement) but I don't bother now, unless I have one that is a particularly beautiful color. But the last few years I've had mostly your basic pink and white.

Lovely caladiums too - such wonderful colors in the foliage. Very eye-catching!

:)
Dee

Hello Wendy, it’s certainly been awhile. Glad to see you back!

That photo of your ‘spring daisy’ - not sure the photo is close enough to get a good look at the foliage, but from what I can see, it doesn’t look like Chrysanthemum foliage. Not sure what it is.

Your geraniums look very cheerful, especially after wintering them over and I really like the trio of stands that are graduated in height. A very interesting look.

I grew caladiums in pots one summer and I love them. They have so many variations of colorful leaves and were pretty carefree as well. I’m curious about growing them as a houseplant. Are they a tuber? Will they continue to thrive year round or do they need a seasonal rest?

I was repotting houseplants yesterday and I saw some Malva sylvestnis ‘Brave Heart’ seedlings in the garden. I had bought 3 plants at a spring sale in 2019 and they did great that season. I really hoped they would winter over, but they didn’t come back this spring. I looked for seedlings near them, but nothing. Now, in October, I see seedlings. [g] I figured they weren’t going to survive the winter, so I decided to try to grow them in the house for the winter and maybe have plants for next spring. I dug those out and potted them up. I am going to see how they will do in a West window, but I do have fluorescent lights I could try too.

I guess we all really hate to see the gardening season end. [g]

Deanna - one more photo of another bloom on the Hibiscus...

Hi WendyB! It's great to see some of the "old timers" stopping by.

I haven't had much luck wintering over Caladium bulbs but I found a very unusual variety in a nursery this year so I think I'll give it another shot.

I've started the "ungardening" process here. Last week we had an excavator clear maybe another eighth of an acre of stumps, brush and rocks. He started arranging the larger rocks into an informal stone wall that runs across the back or the entire area. We'll improve on the height and design with some of the thousands of rocks left.

Now I have this large blank slate. What to do, what to do?

It's hard to photograph. Here is one of my cats checking out the boulder we had planted on end. Our own Stonehedge interpretation :). I think the fire pit will be reinstalled in front.

An action shot. Two 30 foot dumpsters full of stumps were removed from the area.

It's so cute how cats love to explore everything new!!

Re overwintering caladiums, I am curious how you attempted it and what went wrong? I asked a grower about best practices and they said to let the pot dry out for a few weeks then remove from soil and keep in an open crate (no peat, etc.) with good air flow at around 65 degrees. My basement stays in the 50's so I am hoping that works too. I am keeping one as a houseplant and it has not skipped a beat. He said it will eventually go dormant too.

Large blank slates stir up shrub envy!

I've been away from internet for a week and am now in prison, I mean quarantine. Those caladiums look great. I have never been interested in them, but I'm going to do some pots with them next year. I'm starting to REALLY shift my interest to things that I can either overwinter in the house or keep in the garage.

For your blank slate, if it were me I'd be thinking birds, birds, birds. Wish I had some crabapples that made good fruit for birds, as well as more serviceberry (Amelanchier) and spicebush (Lindera).

PM, thank you for the second hibiscus picture!

Wendy, your plants look very happy and beautiful. The colors of the caladium and geraniums certainly do compliment each other!

In my NH house there was no place for houseplants. In this house I've got many places. Then it all began to look like a houseplant yard sale. Too many plants, unattractive placement in the house because I clustered them all around windows, etc.. It's no fun when you look at your houseplants and think, "Ewww, but at least you're alive." Hoping to selectively increase my houseplants and include some summer things to overwinter. My reg begonias and oxalis thrived in the house last winter and outside this summer. Hoping to make the inside at least in partnership with the outside, and not such a mess. And, I think I'm done with my whole succulent craze. They are nice in the sunshine of California, but even on the sunniest winter day in Maine, the sun seems to be too low in the sky to provide enough light.

I believe it was the peat moss method that failed for me. One year I just brought the pot in and forgot about it in the basement. When the bulbs started sprouting the following spring I thought it was a Colocasia at first. My only success with Caladium and I didn't even try.

I'll try your grower's method and cross my fingers.

A few years ago I got sick of losing dahlias and cannas after going through the whole digging, drying and storing in peat moss. My friend told me all she was doing was digging up the tubers and putting them into nursery pots and garbage bags and tossing them into the basement soil and all. Since adopting that method, I have had 100% success.

Shrubs, small trees and conifers will be the first plants I site in this new area but likely not until next spring. I've got to think about the bed lines, fire pit placement...there is still some brush and some trees we need to remove behind the wall, and we're moving an existing shed from the front of the house to the back. Lots to do, but it keeps us off the streets...lol.

Wow, Sue. You are really getting a lot done in your gardens, and it already looks so nice! I look forward to next season’s photos of the addition to the current gardens.

Like Deanna was, I am away from home dealing with an unplanned family responsibility, and am sad to realize that I will likely miss my monkshood flowers this year. My mom lives in a neighborhood with lovely and varied gardens and architecture, and one house has a nice combo of monkshood and white anemones. There are also some beautiful and unusual trees, including several narrow cultivars of trees such as sweetgum, oaks, and European purple beech. I am getting the first half of fall color for a second time since the ash, maples, and sweet gums are turning color here now. When I arrived a week ago, having driven across the Peak and past peak color of southern NH and VT and parts of NY state, everything was still quite green here, and only in the last couple of days has color really started developing.

Ha ha ha, Deanna, I feel the same way about houseplants. I bring in a few things, mostly plants that have become hard to find in greenhouses in the spring like a Euphorbia cotinifolia, and some Acalphas but I do have some plants that stay in all year too. Some just look ratty. I should just toss them. If something can live dormant in my basement for the winter, though, I'm all over it. The past couple of years I've been tossing my Agaves in the basement near a door with a window and a motion sensor light triggered by the cats using their littler boxes. Water once a month and they were good.

Some Monkshood for Babs. I have one in another part of the garden that is struggling but this one seems happy.

Stump pot still going strong. Amsonia hubrichtii starting to show some fall color.

Callicarpa Pearl Glam. Love the dark foliage on this one.

I hope to winter this Musa basjoo over in the ground.

Ajania pacifica tends to be short lived but one plant has come back through two winters now.

Geranium Rozanne is a garden workhorse here.

Persicaria Golden Arrow still looks good too. No frost here yet!

Wide view of the new area including one of the resident "inspectors". Red chair is there to help me work through fire pit placement.

Beautiful, Sue! And thanks for the monkshood! It does look quite happy.

Great pics Sue. Nice to see some not run-of-the-mill plants.

Speaking of houseplants, I saw on HGTV (actually HTV!) a design show where they wanted to introduce houseplants to the space to take advantage of big window. Oh my...

what light??? Looks pretty dark up there! Not to mention horrible watering chore!! The dog-bed end table is interesting.

I used to have a 4-5" shelf across a kitchen window to build up the narrow window sill opportunity. This is that concept on steroids!

Sue, that Ajania is beautiful. What sort of spot do you have it in?

(Love the Persicaria too.)

Yikes, Wendy! We don't have cable so no HGTV here but it doesn't appear I'm missing anything. Now that it's time to drag some plants back in I need to try and think out of the box.

Nekobus, I have the Ajania planted in a slightly raised situation. I had to level the garden off the back of the driveway to slow down storm runoff so I crated a rock edging at the lawn/garden edge. As you probably know, Ajania is short lived in cold wet soil. In this spot I'm getting about two seasons out of a plant. One of the plants growing now was planted last summer and one the summer before. Once they fade away, I'll replant if I can find new plants. They aren't common in nurseries around here.

Even if there was a grow light up there, all you could enjoy is looking up and seeing the underside of the end of each leaf. So so so not ideal. HGTV does some absolutely weird things sometimes.

Sue, I've been thinking of adding callicarpa Pearl Glam to my yard. I put an Early Amethyst in a friend's garden and we love it. I can't decide whether the foliage of the Pearl Glam adds to or detracts from the berries (was considering a Profusion as well but have the same indecision on that one!). In general I LOVE foliage that turns colors in fall, but when the whole point of a shrub is to have fall berries, I just can't decide if the foliage should step back and let the berries shine...

Obviously you like the foliage, lol, as you said, and I have to say your photo caught my eye immediately, but what are your thoughts on the way the foliage sets off (or doesn't set off) the berries?

Those window boxes are odd...

:)
Dee

Sue, if you come home from the grocery store and find that your Persicaria Golden Arrow has disappeared, it was not me.

Moving on...

I envy your Callicarpa. I have two, probably Amethyst something-or-other, and I hope that this year, their fourth year, will bring fruitful berries. Last year fall was so warm that the first killing frost resulted in freeze dried leaves and baby green berries on the plants for the rest of winter. The green berries did, of course, turn brown. Such an icky sight. If I get beautiful magenta berries without foliage, it will be the first time in three years. Here's hoping. I have some berries now, but still lots of flowers. Everybody else's Callipcarpas are so far ahead of mine. The photo below shows both flowers and berries, flowers being in the lower right foreground. My Amsonia hurbirchtii isn't showing color yet.

NHBabs, two seasons of fall color--so nice! I hope your time with your mom was good. I found that a very sorrowful event resulted in some very special times with just me, my dad, and my brother. We have not been together without spouses since before marriages. For us three to be alone together was amazing. We walked around the neighborhood and talked about memories our spouses and children couldn't share. A special time, indeed, despite the sadness.

And, if Monkshood is always that beautiful, it should go on my list. Such an electric blue!

I hear it's turning cold tomorrow. We neatened up the front garden that really needed it. Pulled all the cosmos and that alone made a big difference. It looked pretty colorful out there.

This is Rose 'Savannah.' I pruned it back some in early September because after the heat and the drought, some of the foliage was not looking too great. Now this is all new clean foliage.

Rose 'Savannah'....new growth that's turned red.

Sedums next to Penstemon with tangerine Chrysanthemums behind that....

The last of the Pope John Paul roses....

Just a jumble....the chrysanthemum split open after the last rain...

One of my favorite Mums, because the center is open for the pollinators....'Amber Morning'

Dee, I highly recommend Callicarpa Pearl Glam. I don't think the foliage detracts from the berries at all. I also have Callicarpa Purple Pearls. It's sort of the same, but different(see below). The plant I have is much bigger, over six feet and it's not as heavily berried but I think that may have been cultural this year. I heard they need water when blooming and unlike Pearl Glam, I didn't water it. Next spring I'll cut Purple Pearls back to a foot and see if that controls the size somewhat.

Deanna, I have heard that Callicarpa can struggle in zone 5 because they bloom and produce berries relatively late and can be effected by a shortened season. If you have Early Amethyst that may be your best bet. I'm sorry for what sounds like the loss of a family member.

I have Persicaria Golden Arrow all over my garden. For some reason it doesn't seem widely available in nurseries. Maybe because it emerges and blooms a bit late.

PM2, that Pope John Paul rose would be calling my name if roses weren't banished from my garden...lol. Love the Amber Morning mum too. I've been adding more hardy mums here but the sun exposure drops significantly in the fall so they become flop fests. Fall garden cleanup has begun. I took Thursday and Friday off this week and spent a good portion of it cleaning up a neglected garden out by our mailbox. I need to get on that garden early in the season. Maybe next year...:).

Sue, this is just my 2nd year with PJP - and I've been impressed. It struggled some in mid summer when it was really hot and humid for about a month, but once the weather started to cool off, I trimmed some of the ugly foliage, which wasn't that much and it set a slew of new buds. I've had a couple of dozen blooms this fall. I garden organically so no spray. It's such a white white rose and fragrant. I put a minor effort into it this season and it's performed well. The best of all 5 of my roses. Just some compost and alfalfa meal in early spring, then more after the first flush of bloom and some liquid fish emulsion fertilizer when I remembered it. That's it. The foliage looks very clean right now too.

I bought 'Amber Morning' at Bluestone some years ago. It's very hardy. I always trim it back by half to keep the flopping to a minimum. I do have one in more shade that does flop more. My sun exposure drops in the fall too. Even in my full sun garden, the angle of the sun puts it behind a mature Maple that is south of my bed, when during the summer it manages to get above it. So actually that A.M. does get reduced sun in the fall. Oh, one thing - it is late to bloom. It just started opening and all the buds aren't open yet.

I'm not doing much fall clean up this year. Just my front bed that is along the street. My neighbors are always nice to complement the garden, and even nicer when they ignore the mess when I don't get to it in a timely way. [g] I've decided not to move anything or work on any projects. Not up for it this fall, but also, I felt the plants weren't up for it. They really struggled with the drought and the heat and I still don't think we've had enough rain to make up for it. So I didn't want to stress them further. We'll see in the spring, I may redo and move a few things. Nothing major like the project you're getting ready for. I was trying to catch up on the thread this morning and see you had two dumpsters of tree stumps?! That is a LOT...LOL. You must be happy to have that done. Now I imagine you're amending soil in the new area? Have you considered lasagna beds? I've done that in the fall a couple of times and loved the way it worked out. Lots of earth worms and pretty much ready to plant in the spring, if you have enough precipitation over the winter.

That is some color on the Callicarpa!

Thanks Sue, for that report! I might actually look into the Purple Pearls as well, as I have a spot where I'm looking for shrubs that are a bit taller (a privacy hedge). I'm also looking at some white-berried callicarpas as well - I'm such a sucker for berries lol. And I've been so pleased with the Early Amethyst that I'm kind of smitten with callicarpas lol.

PM2, lovely, lovely pics! Your garden is still looking pretty good. I LOVE that Amber Morning mum. I may have to try it. I don't seem to have good luck with mums. Actually, the funny thing is, when I used to buy cheap potted mums in fall and stick them in the ground, they did great. Then I started reading more about them, bought spring-planted cultivars from reputable nurseries, starting pinching them back, and they just never throve for me. Almost like the more I thought about it the worse I did haha. And now it seems even the potted ones you buy in fall aren't as hardy (I think they are now started way too early - I see them for sale in July now) and they just peter out too much to be able to come back. But that Amber Morning is so lovely I might have to give it a try.

:)
Dee

Dee, I've done both, bought locally and stuck them in the ground, thinking they wouldn't come back and then they'd surprise me. Actually the tangerine color Mum in my photo was a local mum that got stuck in the ground. The only other place I've bought them is from Bluestone and I have a few of those and they've all done well for me. I have clay soil. They are in full sun for the most part. Most of mine are planted on a small slope near the street, so they get good drainage. But sometimes its too good. This year they baked and I couldn't keep them moist enough. They look good in the photos but it's top growth, there is a lot of dead foliage underneath the top.

You do have to pinch them back early enough. I do have to keep them watered enough and I do use fish emulsion fertilizer when I remember it.

The Amber Morning is not on a slope but just average clay/loam soil, about a 6 pH, in a level bed. Mostly it gets watered with the sprinkler when the whole bed needs it.

Out of curiosity, I checked Bluestone to see if they still have it....

Amber Morning Mum

I had a few more photos ...

More of the tangerine Mum with a lavender Mum that was also a local buy that I stuck in the ground one fall.

Not a lot of color here, but this is my Julia Child rose. It was a mess this year for various reasons and I couldn't stand to look at it any more so I cut it a foot off the ground the beginning of September, which is really late. Now it has filled in with very clean healthy foliage. I hope I haven't caused it a problem, pruning it too late.

And here's one that is not so colorful. The bright mums are on the slope to the left. The dark hulk in the upper right corner is that pretty Aster that was so beautiful a month ago. They do go by fast. You can see a tiny bit of that Little Lime Hydrangea that I was hoping by now would have filled in that space, but it's been a big disappointment.

After three or four inches of snow and overnight temps in the low 20s here on Friday night, my garden is done for the season. I'm sad to see it go, but we had a good run!

Prairiemoon, want you to know that every time I look at this thread I have to do a double-take and stare at your above photo of the tangerine and lavender mums with the grass seed head. It's just so beautiful!

Same here....we had about 5inches and once the snow melts, time to do a final clean up. It was a pretty good season for sure.

Deanna, this last photo is that exact same angle. All the pretty tangerine and lavender mums are under the snow. Thank you, you're always very generous with your comments, I appreciate it. You do know my garden is not as good as photos can make it seem? [g]. It's pretty small and ordinary for sure. And I edit out and avoid areas that aren't getting enough attention or looking the way I want them to.

I had two more of the lavender that really brightened up the Tangerine mums, but I lost them. And this last one is not as vigorous as the tangerine. I was going to try to find more lavender this fall if it weren't for Covid19, but, there's always next year. I really like that combination too, with the Hamelin grass.

I hope you are home from your trip and the family emergency has resolved for you.