Opening Words
I can assure you it is not because the garden has suffered - it is thriving and doing quite well. My immediate focus right now is finding work. This edition will attempt express where things are at in the garden at this point. It might be a long edition in the original format as that is much faster to publish with.
The Current Garden Sections ...
The plant numbering has gotten to be burdonsome between the garden sections so in the middle of the season I've initiated a new sequencing of plants. Each sequence now starts with a letter.
Primary Garden – Garden A
Previous Phase: When you last left this garden on 6/12/16 it looked like this with 28 varieties:
1a. Imp
2. Lemon Lime [not seen]
3. Empress Wu
4. Sum and Substance
5. Snake Eyes
7. Liberty
8. Dancing Queen
9. Gorgon
10. Gemstone
11. Hacksaw
12. Kinbotan
13. Stiletto
14. The Razor's Edge
15. Vulcan
16. Popcorn
17. Chartreuse Wiggles
18a. Holy Mouse Ears
19. Frosted Mouse Ears
20. Teaspoon
21. Dragon Tails
22. Little Devil
24. Church Mouse [not seen]
18b. Holy Mouse Ears
25. Rainbow's End
26. Dixie Chickadee
27. Masquerade
28. 'venusta'
34. White Feather
59. Itsy Bitsy Spider
60. Corkscrew
61. Shiny Penny
.01 Mighty Mouse (not seen)
.02 Mini Skirt (not seen)
Current Phase: As of 7/10/16 the garden has shifted to look like this with 25 varieties. (graphic below)
A.1 Imp
A.2 Lemon Lime Not seen
A.3 Empress Wu
A.4 Sum and Substance
A.5 Snake Eyes will become C.3
A.6 Liberty
A.7 White Feather
A.8 Gorgon
A.9 First Blush
A.10 Dancing Queen
A.11 Gemstone
A.12 Hacksaw
A.13 Kinbotan
A.14 Stiletto
A.15 The Razor's Edge
A.16 Vulcan
A.17 Popcorn
A.18 Teaspoon
A.19 Little Devil
A.20 Corkscrew
A.21 Rainbow's End
A.22 Dixie Chickadee
A.23 Itsy Bitsy Spider
A.24 Masquerade
A.25 'venusta'
Next Phase: The goal for the end of this year is reduce the garden further to look something like this:
Code Name Note Patented
A.1 Itsy Bitsy Spider added 2016
A.2 Gemstone
A.3 Empress Wu PP 20774
A.4 Imp
A.5 White Feather added 2016
A.6 First Blush added 2016 PPAF
A.7 Dancing Queen
A.8 Liberty PP 12531
A.9 Hacksaw
A.10 Kinbotan
A.11 Little Devil
A.12 Corkscrew
A.13 Vulcan
A.14 Popcorn
A.15 Teaspoon
A.16 Gorgon
A.17 Rainbow's End PP 17251
A.18 Dixie Chickadee
A.19 'venusta'
Future Phase: The last phase of this reduction calls for another three (3) to four (4) hosta to be removed by the end of 2017; thus bringing this collection down to approximately three groups of five. This garden area had at one time grown to 34 varieties of hosta; these will have been brought down to between 15 to 18 varieties. These varieties will have been carefully selected to reflect aesthetic qualities; maintain a theme of Chaos and Destruction, and be 'proven growers' within this garden space!
Will this mean I'll never have another hosta to buy for this garden? That's yet to be seen as I still want to explore other forms of hosta display arrangements down the read! Maybe this arrangement will be stable for maybe ... 5 years! Imagine an invasion of Itsy Bitsy Spider, or a troupe of Dancing Queen, or even a full bed of White Feather? What about some combination of two, or three, of my plants from the past or present? Gardens can be done minimally if one looks at the beauty of the plants themselves!
Retaining Wall – Garden B
From left to right - facing south:
B.1 Mystery White [proper name unknown]
B.2 Imp
B.3 Faithful Heart
B.4 Little Sunspot
B.5 Golden Tiara
B.6 June
- Mystery White properly belongs to the building I live in. It was placed where it was for the available sunlight. The plant seems to be finally finding success where it is.
- Faithful Heart: Continues to grow extremely compactly. It looks so compact that the center might burst!
- Llttle Sunspot: Its supposed to be green and yellow; but the yellow has never returned since the second year of having it. E-gad - yet another sport?
The Unfinished Garden – Garden C
This garden is controlled by the loft next to me. From left to right facing south:
C.1 Undulata Albomarginata
C.2 Elegans
C.3 Snake Eyes (to be moved in later this summer)
C.4 Dancing Queen
C.5 Blue Cadet ?
C.6 August Moon
? I first moved this thinking it was Striptease ... the more it grows the more it looks like a Blue Cadet ... ... This does not surprise me as plants around here have been moved by other residents without proper recordkeeping anywhere.
Mouse Ears Collection – Garden D
This garden was donated to the property I live at. From left to right facing south:
Code Name Patented
D.1 Blue Mice
D.2 Blue Mouse Ears
D.3 Church Mouse
D.4 Crazy Mouse Ears
D.5 Dancing Mouse
D.6 Desert Mouse
D.7 Frosted Mouse Ears
D.8 Giantland Mouse Cheese
D.9 Giantland Sunny Mouse Ears
D.10 Holy Mouse Ears
D.11 Itty Bitty
D.12 Mighty Mouse
D.13 Mini Skirt PPAF
D.14 Mouse Capades
D.15 Mouse Trap
D.16 Mystic Mouse
D.17 One Iota
D.18 Pure Heart
D.19 Ruffled Mouse Ears
D.20 Snow Mouse
Grouping of Planters – Garden E
Planters may shift but Codes are consistent to plant name:CODE Name Sport of ...
E.1 Chaos Golden Tiara, NR
E.2 Corkscrew ??
E.3 Unnamed Holy Mouse Ears, NR
E.4 Kifukurin Ko Mame
E.5 Masquerade ???
E.6 Shiny Penny
E.7 'venusta'
E.8 Teaspoon
E.9 Grand Tiara
?? Plant is in question. Might be correct. Need to watch this plant develop further before deciding. If it is it will be merged it with the other one in the Primary Garden before winter.
??? Plant labeled as such; but very much in question.
- Chaos: May be scaping. This will be the first year that this plant has scaped away from its parent.
- Kifukurin Ko Mame: I've tried to grow this twice in the past - with no success. This attempt seems to be doing better this time as the divisions of the shattered round are now just beginning to send up new leaves. Better than what I recall from last time.
- 'venusta': The plant in this container might be dying, Will keep watching this plant.
- Grand Tiara, and Teaspoon are being held for a friend.
Readers might wonder why I invested in three plants during 2016 when my goal is to down size my garden to about 15 plants?
White Feather and First Blush are transitional hosta that change over the course of each year. White Feather comes up chalk white, and then changes to green zebra striping over the summer in its mature form. First Blush comes up green and changes over to red until the plant is exposed to +90°F / +32.22°C at which point it reverts to its spring green again. Frosted Mouse Ears and Holy Mouse Ears were my previous transitional hosta in my garden, and they've been moved out. These newer hosta take the place of the mice that were moved out. Readers may want to note that White Feather is pumping leaves out vigorously. So its success is higher than what I anticipated it would be at this point.
Itsy Bitsy Spider on the other hand takes the place of Tortifrons which failed to come up from last winter. Itsy Bitsy Spider is smaller than Tortifrons and makes a second return to the garden. Between its five plants; it seems to be doing better than its last visit to the garden with a singular spike, that had a single flower that very recently faded.
That's it for now, folks. I'll try to return soon; hopefully next month.
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